Soldiers come to the world

Since Liu Jing and Sun Quan reached an agreement to withdraw troops at the beginning of the year, Sun Quan acquiesced in the occupation of the north bank of the Yangtze River by the Han army, and the Han army withdrew from Xishan Island in Taihu Lake. , firmly control Lishui, the golden waterway from the Yangtze River to Taihu Lake.

At the same time, the Han army completely abandoned Wu County, retreated to the south of the Zhejiang River, and took control of Kuaiji County. In fact, it still formed a situation of encircling Jiangdong on three sides.

Sun Quan also knew that the Han army only let Jiangdong go temporarily, and that the Han army would attack Jiangdong in a year at the latest. The huge pressure on time made Sun Quan extremely urgent. If he did not take countermeasures, he would have no time.

For this reason, Sun Quan adopted a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, he recruited 6 troops to bring Jiangdong's troops to [-]. On the other hand, he tried every means to restore the Jiangdong navy. , chose the east bank of Taihu Lake, and secretly built a thousand-stone warship in the name of a merchant ship.

But even if the warships were built, they could not sail the warships to the Yangtze River. The outer seas were blocked by Han army warships in Kuaiji County, and Lishui, the only way to the Yangtze River, was firmly controlled by the Han army.

In order to open up the Yangtze River waterway, Sun Quan accepted the suggestion of Changshi Zhonglang General Xue Zong, and forced [-] civilians to dig the Jiangnan Canal and open up the Baili Duantou River between Piling County and Wu County. The unfinished project has now become Jiangdong's life-saving waterway.

Once the canal is dredged, the newly built warships in Taihu Lake can sail directly from Taihu Lake to Jianye and the Yangtze River, and restore the Jiangdong water army. In addition to the thousands of barrels of fire oil left to Jiangdong when Yu Jin left, they can fight with the Han army. war.

In the afternoon, a carriage, escorted by more than a dozen horse-riding entourages, passed by at high speed in Moling County. Inside the carriage, Zhang Zhao looked at the street outside the window with serious thoughts.

This is the busiest street in Jianye and even in Jiangdong. It is called Danyang Street, and it is eight miles long. At its peak, there were many shops on both sides of the street, shouting and yelling, and the taverns and hotels were booming. They all secretly invested in the store,

But now, Danyang Street is extremely depressed. The street is deserted. Nearly [-]% of the shops are closed, and none of the dozens of taverns is open. This depression makes every Jiangdong official feel sad.

But they all knew that this was not due to the impact of the war. Even during the most difficult stage of the Hefei War, Danyang Street was not so depressed. This was entirely caused by Jiangdong himself.

The first is a total ban on alcohol. No one is allowed to use grain to make wine. Anyone who violates the law will be punished. The second is to implement grain control. Each person can only buy a bucket of rice per month. In addition, a large number of men under the age of 50 are forced to dig. The canal was also an important reason. In Moling County alone, 2 people were forcibly expropriated. Without staff in shops and taverns, business would be difficult to continue.

Zhang Zhao was very sad. Sun Ce handed over a powerful Jiangdong to Sun Quan. After nearly 20 years, Jiangdong has not become stronger, but has been declining. It has something to do with Wu Hou's inability to see the situation clearly and repeatedly launching wars.

War is a double-edged sword. It consumes a lot of materials, money and food. If you win, you will get huge benefits from the war, but if you lose, you will suffer heavy losses. It is the repeated failure of wars that makes Jiangdong decline year by year. down.

Zhang Zhao also wished in his heart that even if they only defeated Jingzhou once, they would be able to capture a large number of people and supplies from Jingzhou, which would not only compensate for the war costs, but also greatly promote the prosperity of Jiangdong.

It is a pity that from the eighth year of Jian'an to the present, they have not defeated Jingzhou once. They have been defeated repeatedly and suffered heavy losses. However, the Han army has received a large amount of war compensation and weapons and materials. Advance westward and capture Yizhou, which is more affluent.

Ever since the Hefei War ended and the Han army occupied the entire Jianghuai River, Zhang Zhao knew that Jiangdong's time would not be long. Even if Sun Quan was desperately expanding his army to prepare for war in spite of the people's grievances, it would be too late.

Just last night, he received a letter from his family, learning that his nephew Zhang Zhi had passed No. 3 in the Chang'an imperial examination. Extraordinary, beautiful in mind, and talented as a prime minister, he passed the Chang'an imperial examination and was also in the process of being cleaned up.

But Zhang Zhao believed that Liu Jing must know the identity of his nephew. Many people in Jiangdong knew about him. Jiang Wan knew him even if others didn't tell him. When Jiang Wan was studying in Wu County, he praised Zhang Zhi as a child prodigy.

Liu Jing knew that Zhang Zhi was his nephew, but still allowed him to be the No. If such a person is out of the world, heaven will not allow it!

Zhang Zhao was full of emotions. At this moment, the carriage drove into Jianye Palace and stopped slowly in front of the steps. At this time, the carriage of Zhuge Jin, the left guard, also stopped in front of the steps.

Zhang Zhao got out of the carriage and saw Zhuge Jin standing beside the carriage with a gloomy face looking at him with displeasure, so he stepped forward and asked strangely, "Ziyu, what happened?"

Zhuge Jin snorted coldly, "I, Zhuge Jin, will be watched even when I sleep. The military advisor is very conscientious!"

Zhang Zhao was stunned for a moment, then suddenly understood, and quickly said: "Ziyu must have misunderstood! There are only ten people left in the Overwatch Council, and they are not in Jianye at present, so it cannot be their fault."

Zhang Zhao supervised the Overwatch Council and was responsible for supervising all officials, offending many people. In the past, Zhang Zhao would not have paid attention to the complaints of the ministers, but now he wanted to leave a way out for himself and did not want to offend others.

He hurriedly pulled Zhuge Jin aside, and said in a low voice, "Even the Overwatch Council would never sneak into an official's house to spy. This should be done by the eagle's beak."

Zhuge Jin frowned, "Isn't Eagle Beak disbanded?"

After Sun Ben failed to seize power for the first time, Sun Quan set up a secret investigation agency - Eagle Beak, headed by Wang Ning, a lieutenant of the Internal Affairs Army and Sun Quan's confidant. Make all the officials feel in danger.

However, after the incident of Wang Ning's attempt to capture Da Qiao broke out two years ago, in order to cover up the truth, Sun Quan shifted the responsibility to Wang Ning, accused him of coveting Da Qiao's beauty, and ordered Wang Ning to be executed. , publicly announced the disbandment of Eagle Beak.

Zhang Zhao sneered, "How could Marquis Wu give up such a sharp knife so easily?"

Zhuge Jin suddenly said angrily: "Jiangdong has reached the point where it is today, how can we rely on surveillance to restore people's hearts?"

At this time, Zhang Zhao saw a guard walking quickly, he winked at Zhuge Jin, and said with a smile, "Don't keep Marquis Wu waiting, Brother Ziyu, let's go in!"

Zhuge Jin responded with a muffled sound, and walked into Jianye Palace with Zhang Zhao one after another.

In the study room of Jianye Palace, Sun Quan stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, looking gloomyly at a forest outside the window, whether it was the minister or the guards around him, few people saw his smile, especially in the past six months, he His temper was astonishingly violent, and he ordered to kill people at every turn. Even his wives and concubines in the inner palace were trembling, serving him carefully and meeting all Sun Quan's requirements, lest they offend him.

Sun Quan's mood really couldn't get better. For half a year, he did not hesitate to exploit the people's wealth and seize merchants' money and food by means of exhausting the river, just to expand the army and restore the navy in the shortest time. But in order to keep Jiang Dong and his own seat, he couldn't care less about these things.

According to the analysis at the beginning of the year, Liu Jing is likely to attack Jiangdong in the spring of next year, so they still have a year to prepare. Although one year is also very short, at least they still have a glimmer of hope.

But unfavorable intelligence followed one after another. The Han army quickly quelled the Hexi rebellion, and Liu Jing successfully married Cao Cao to stabilize the north. All this shows that Liu Jing is actively preparing to launch a campaign against Jiangdong.

What made Sun Quan even more terrified was that in June, Chaisang suddenly began to prepare for battle. A large number of troops assembled in Chaisang, and countless grain ships and fleets carrying weapons and supplies from Jingzhou sailed to Chaisang. According to the rules of the Han army they had mastered, If it is preparing for war in autumn, then the battle will be launched in the spring of the next year, but if it is preparing for war in summer, it will definitely not wait until next spring. In autumn or winter, the war will inevitably break out.

Sun Quan realized that the Han army was likely to attack Jiangdong in advance, which made him extremely depressed.

At this time, the guard reported at the door: "Zhang Changshi and Zhuge Duhu are here!"

"Please come in!"

Sun Quan returned to his seat and sat down. This is the biggest difference between Sun Quan and his elder brother Sun Ben. When danger is imminent and the situation is very critical, Sun Ben will bury his head in the sand like an ostrich, spend his days drinking and drinking, and live a life of extravagance. , Enjoy every day counts.

On the other hand, Sun Quan will do everything possible to deal with the crisis, even expand the army and prepare for war by all means. He will never give up resistance until the last moment, but Sun Quan is not broad-minded enough. Baiguan surrendered to the Han army in private, and then used a secret agency to supervise the Baiguan.

After a while, Zhang Zhao and Zhuge Jin walked in together, and the two stepped forward to salute, "See Wuhou!"

Sun Quan glanced at Zhuge Jin, then said to Zhang Zhao indifferently: "I got a piece of news that Liu Jing has left Chang'an and started to patrol Jingzhou. Does the military master know?"

Zhang Zhao frowned, "Is he in a hurry to leave Chang'an after the imperial examination was held just now?"

"That's the problem. He set off the day after the imperial examination results were released. In such a hurry, what did the military adviser think he meant?"

"Perhaps he is going to Jingnan. At the beginning of the year he inspected Xiangyang and Jiangxia, in April he inspected Hanzhong and Yizhou, and later he inspected Longxi and Hehuang, but he did not inspect Jingnan. It must be going to Chaisang, or it may be going to Jingnan."

Zhang Zhao tried his best to avoid irritating Sun Quan. Before Liu Jing's itinerary was confirmed, he would not move closer to the war. Sun Quan stared at him for a moment, then turned his eyes and landed on Zhuge Jin again.

"I would like to ask Chief Protector Zhuge, is there any news from Jiaozhou?"

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