Author: Playing with Basilisk

"A sneeze."

In May, Jiangdong Jianye.

In the residence of Marquis Wu, Sun Quan sneezed.

He was quite puzzled, why was he still sneezing in the scorching heat of summer in the middle of May?

However, he noticed that his nose was itchy. He thought it was because of discomfort in his nose, so he didn't pay attention and continued to read the official document.

Sun Quan has not been in a good mood recently.

In other words, since last year, and now half a year has passed, his mood has not gotten much better.

A few days ago, he also visited the cemeteries of his father and brother in Danyang County and Wu County to pay homage.

Originally, I went there thinking that my father and brother would be able to protect Jiangdong in heaven, but when I arrived at Sun Ce Cemetery in Wu County, I discovered that his brother Sun Ce's tomb had been stolen.

Sun Ce killed many people in Jiangdong. Jiangdong, which was suppressed by force with a murderous nature, was not popular among the counties in Jiangdong.

In the past, when the Sun family was powerful, the cemetery was guarded by soldiers and horses. No one dared to steal it, and no one had such an idea.

But now Sun Quan has lost his troops, and most of Jiangdong's troops have been lost in Jingzhou, so that the rear area is extremely empty, bandits are everywhere, and rebellions continue. The limited troops and horses have to defend Liu Bei and quell the bandits, and there is no one to guard the tomb.

So some people who deeply hated Sun Ce robbed his tomb, dug up his skeletal body, and threw it away somewhere, making Sun Quan furious.

After anger comes fear and uneasiness.

He originally thought of going to pay homage to his father and brother and pray for their blessings, but he didn't expect that his brother would have his enemies shattered into ashes. His mood, which had been filled with a glimmer of hope, suddenly felt extremely gloomy and depressing.

Therefore, in just six months, Sun Quan, who was only thirty-nine years old, seemed to have aged ten years. His face was extremely haggard, and his whole face had lost all vitality.

But it's not entirely without good news.

He Qi was still quite capable. After the Battle of Jingzhou, mountains and rivers broke out all over the place. Sun Quan's forces completely withdrew from the south of Huangshan Mountain and no longer dared to invade the mountains.

But he didn't expect that the Shanyue people intensified their efforts and actually regained their lost territory. They went north to attack him instead.

So Sun Quan sent He Qi to send troops, and defeated the many with less, and defeated Shanyue.

The Shanyue people are not a whole, but live in the mountains of the southeastern hills in a tribe-like situation.

Most of them are actually Han people rather than barbarians. Many of them were dissatisfied with being exploited by the imperial court and aristocratic families, so they moved their families to the mountains to live a life like a peach blossom garden.

Unexpectedly, after the Sun family took control of Jiangdong, they continued to plunder the population of the Shanyue people, robbed their property, and forced them to work as farm slaves for the Sun family. They worked for the Sun family, farmed the fields, and paid taxes.

This made the Shanyue people who were accustomed to freedom very dissatisfied, so they slowly organized to resist, and gradually formed some larger tribes.

It is a pity that due to the lack of leaders and the dispersion of forces, they did not form a whole and were defeated one by one by the Sun family. As a result, a large number of Shanyue tribes were defeated and their people and property were taken away.

Now that the Sun family is close to ruin, the Shanyue people see hope of counterattack.

But it's still an old problem.

They did not belong to each other and fought independently. The result was that He Qi, with only 8,000 men, defeated the Shanyue coalition army of 50,000 to 60,000, leaving Shanyue defeated and retreated to the south of Huangshan Mountain.

After temporarily quelling the Shanyue Rebellion, Sun Quan breathed a sigh of relief. Although there were still some rebellions in Wu County, Kuaiji County, Yuzhang County and other places in the rear, Danyang County and most of Wu County's basic base was barely settled and would not let the

He collapsed.

The biggest problem he faces now is the attack from Liu Bei's group that may come at any time.

Sun Quan is currently extremely short of troops.

Jiangdong Qingzhuang lost more than 100,000 troops in the battle of Jingzhou. In addition to the previous defeats in the battle of Yixian and the battle of Hongkou, the number of troops lost in these years was nearly 150,000.

The name of Shen Chen stops the children from crying in Jiangdong.

Although they have been vigorously recruiting troops and continue to use the Liu Bei Group's suppression of the nobles as an excuse to draw the blood of noble families, no matter how much they draw blood, they can't draw blood anymore.

So now the entire Sun Group can muster less than 80,000 troops.

Only more than 30,000 of them are veterans, and the rest are forcibly recruited recruits. Not only are there many old and weak soldiers, but they also have a serious lack of training time and their combat effectiveness is pitifully low.

This made Sun Quan extremely worried.

Looking at the official document in his hand, there was no other good news, which made Sun Quan very upset. He threw the bamboo slips in his hand to the ground and said: "Call Zhang Zhao, Zhuge Jin, Gu Yong, Kan Ze, Sun Shao, Yan Jin, Lu Xun , it’s Yi, Lu Ji and the others are coming over.”

"only."

The attendant outside the door went to work.

At noon, everyone entered the hall one after another, paid homage to Marquis Wu one by one, and then sat in rows.

Sun Quan sat on the main seat and looked around at everyone, with a worried look on his face and said: "I have written letters to Liu Bei several times asking for peace, but they have all fallen into the sea. He has not even given me a reply. You think he is really planning to attack Jiangdong this year." Is it done?"

Zhang Zhao sighed: "I recently heard that Jingzhou has been mobilizing troops and horses, and that large quantities of grain and grass are also being transported to Xiakou, Xiling, Xunyang and other places. This is obviously a plan to send troops to Jiangdong."

"Ruogu."

Sun Quan hesitated and said: "Rugu wrote a letter to Liu Bei to declare his vassalship. Do you think he can stop the army and make peace?"

In the Battle of Jingzhou, Sun Quan stabbed him in the back and completely lost his morality.

Logically speaking, Sun Quan should be too embarrassed to sue for peace.

But politics should not be shameful. Sun Quan may not be a hero, but he is a qualified politician.

If Liu Bei can be exchanged for not sending troops to attack Jiangdong, what if he is made to grovel?

So even after the war, he was beaten back to Jiangdong and was in constant panic, but he still wanted to swing back and forth.

At the same time, he wrote to Cao Cao that he was willing to surrender and prayed for Cao Cao's protection. At the same time, he wrote to Liu Bei asking for peace and asking him to be given another chance.

It's a pity that Cao Cao's reply was in response to his request to surrender, while all Liu Bei's letters fell into the dust without a single reply.

Originally this was nothing.

No one would be able to forgive someone who was stabbed in the back, not to mention that Jiangdong is just a piece of meat now, how could Liu Bei let him go?

Therefore, Sun Quan did not have much hope for Liu Bei from the beginning, and only asked Cao Cao to send troops to help him.

So after getting Cao Cao's promise, Sun Quan was quite happy at first.

As a result, Cao Cao died within two months.

Although he later wrote a letter to Cao Pi, Zhang Liao still had 7,000 troops in Huainan. So far, the Wei State has not sent more troops, which made Sun Quan more and more frightened.

What's more important is that I recently heard that Jingzhou has begun to take action. Shen Chen has mobilized his troops and may attack Jiangdong at any time.

Under this situation, Sun Quan had no choice but to become anxious, and he sought medical treatment in a hurry. He simply thought about submitting a letter to Liu Bei and at least finding a way to survive.

However, Zhang Zhao immediately said: "No, we can all submit. The worst we can do is go to Yizhou and still be an official. However, if Wu Hou submits, Liu Bei will forcefully move Wu Hou away, and Wu Hou will not be allowed to have troops anymore. The foundation of Jiangdong for three generations will be , isn’t it all over?”

Sun Quan glanced at Zhang Zhao in surprise. When Cao Cao came, he was unswervingly determined to surrender to Cao Cao. Now that Liu Bei came, he began to become a staunch fighter. This attitude change was really real.

However, Sun Quan also knew that Zhang Zhao was not doing it for himself, but for him and the Jiangdong family interest group he represented behind him.

By surrendering to Cao Cao, the Jiangdong family interest group could preserve their land, population, and property, continue to be their local emperor, and might even be appreciated by Cao Cao and enter the central government as a court official.

But it would be miserable if he surrendered to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei is trying hard to conquer the local tycoons and divide their land. If the Jiangdong family follows Liu Bei, they will have to starve for nine meals in three days. The hidden population will have to be handed over, and the fields will have to be handed over. The family has worked hard for tens or hundreds of years, and they can return in one night.

Before the founding of the Han Dynasty, who could bear this?

Therefore, Zhang Zhao was definitely not happy to let Sun Quan submit his submission to Liu Bei, because he was afraid that Liu Bei would force Sun Quan to submit to the end, occupy Jiangdong, and seize their people, property, and fields.

Thinking of this, Sun Quan sighed: "But if we don't submit, how can we resist with the troops and horses in Jiangdong now?"

"Forehead"

Zhang Zhao hesitated for a moment.

Lu Xun, Gu Yong, and Lu Ji also didn't speak.

Like Zhang Zhao, they are also representatives of the interests of the Jiangdong family.

Kan Ze also remained silent.

Although he was not from a wealthy Jiangdong family, he was from Kuaiji and did not dare to offend the local families.

After a while, Sun Shao sighed and said, "Can the Jiangdong nobles send more troops?"

Sun Quan immediately looked at Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong and the others with expectant eyes.

Zhang Zhao looked around without saying anything. Gu Yong and Lu Xun looked at each other and sighed: "I am willing to give you two hundred songs."

"I am humble enough to give you two hundred."

Lu Xun winked at Lu Ji, so Lu Ji said the same thing.

Only two hundred?

Sun Quan frowned slightly and said to Zhang Zhao: "Do the other aristocratic families also give two hundred?"

Zhang Zhao hesitated and said: "I have to ask them about this matter."

"well."

Sun Quan sighed.

Now he can only use this method to ask for people in a roundabout way.
To be continued...