In a private house outside Jianye East City, a tall man was watching everyone in the house.
Jiao Cheng was among them, and besides him, he also met several colleagues.
As expected, the colleague who gave him a solemn look before was also among them, and he knew him.
When making contact, Jiao Cheng had always been contacted by a single line, so Jiao Cheng knew that there were others besides him, but only now did he know who they were.
Maybe the colleague who glared at him before was the one responsible for monitoring them.
Jiao Cheng replied honestly: "My colleague happened to have something to do before, so the things have been hidden in my warehouse."
"I pushed my colleague away and hid him. My colleague said there was a fishy smell, so I was able to fool him."
"It's more troublesome for me. It wasn't until my colleague changed his clothes later that he poured fish paste in the inner room."
Everyone reported the situation one after another.
The tall man nodded with satisfaction and said: "I know you are scared, but don't forget, this is your family's only chance to regain the land and population."
"But."
A colleague worried: "If there is a fire, we will definitely be questioned and executed."
"What are you afraid of? After tonight, you all will flee to the south."
The man sneered and said, "Hide yourself in Kuaiji County. No one will be able to find you. After the incident, the Marquis of Wu will not forget you."
"Can't we do something tonight?"
Jiao Cheng said in surprise.
The man shook his head: "After the fire breaks out, the whole city will definitely be under military and horse security. It's not that easy to think about things. We can only start from the south first. You all can escape for your lives."
"yes."
Everyone agreed one after another.
Several people went out, and the remaining one turned around and asked the man: "Aren't you going to kill them?"
"Kill him for what? To avoid chilling the hearts of those noble families."
The man said solemnly: "If they want nothing to happen to their family, they know what to do."
"Um."
That person was the one who glared at Jiao Cheng before. He thought about it and said, "But I think some of them seem to be weak-willed."
"who?"
"Jiao Cheng."
"The Jiao family?"
The man thought for a while and said: "Forget it, Jiao Chu also helped contact the Jiao family about this matter. Maybe he is just afraid. Everything has been done, so there is no need to worry."
"Then why don't you keep them here? Let them go after dawn?"
The man didn't understand.
The man smiled and said: "After dawn? Can we still leave? Let's go, we have to leave too. With the fire, the whole city is under martial law. No one can escape."
"All right."
The man nodded.
There were actually hundreds of dead soldiers in Jianye.
But even one of these people can't fill the gap between your teeth, so it's extremely difficult to start something in Jianye.
The main reason is that the various aristocratic families still don't know who is involved, and the team is too scattered. If Gu Li directly concentrates his people to lead Jianye, it will be a dead end.
More than 20,000 people swaggered through the city, but they thought they couldn't die quickly enough?
Therefore, we could only concentrate our manpower in the south first, and let Guli launch a surprise attack in Kuaiji, Linhai and other counties to capture these counties first.
After Jianye Taicang was burned, the defenders of Yangzhou and Guan Yu's army in Huainan to the north were short of food. With the help of Cao Wei's army, it was not difficult to defeat the Han army in one fell swoop.
At present, hundreds of dead soldiers lurking in Jianye have evacuated.
Jiao Cheng was walking on the street at night, his face still very ugly and sweating profusely. He walked to the door of his house in a daze and saw his wife waiting for him to come back with a light on.
Under the candlelight, the wife was still working hard at weaving.
The creaking sound of the loom moved back and forth, hitting Jiao Cheng's restless heart.
He didn't know how to explain to his wife, nor how to tell her that he had to leave as soon as possible tonight.
In a daze, Jiao Cheng remembered why he accepted this order.
In addition to the instructions of the family elders, the most important thing is his hatred for the imperial court.
I hate why they dismissed me and refused to admit me just because I am a member of the Jiao family.
He is obviously just a branch of the Jiao family, why should he be implicated?
At that time, Jiao Cheng had this hatred and accepted the task without hesitation.
But now that I think about it, I'm already breaking out in a cold sweat.
If things come to light.
The family is ruined!
Jiao Cheng showed fear on his face and glanced at his wife who was still weaving. His face was pale and he was in a trance. He didn't even dare to step into the house.
After a long time, he finally gritted his teeth, turned around and left.
Life or death depends on this step.
The sky is getting dark.
The imperial court did not impose a curfew, and there was even a night market in Jianye City.
At this moment, in the Danyang Prefecture, the new Danyang Prefect Ruchao was talking to several people in the house.
"The market in Taicang should have been closed."
"In the past few days, I have been storing new grains to replace old ones. I haven't done anything in the past few days. It will be either tonight or tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow night is the last night. Almost all the food in the warehouse has been replaced."
"How much is left?"
"It seems that there are still more than 200,000 stones."
"More than two hundred thousand dan? What a pity. Although all the new grain was replaced with straw and stones on the way, and only a small part of it was used for testing, it is still more than two hundred thousand dan."
"According to the words of the hussar general, this is called not being able to let go of the child to trap the wolf."
"Uncle Fang, you really know how to play tricks."
"Is not it?"
"Speaking of which, Bo Yan came up with this plan, so there won't be anything wrong with it."
"What could go wrong? We know their actions very well. Now we are just waiting for them to be fooled."
Several people were chatting.
They are Lu Mao of the Lu family of Wujun, Zhang Dun of the Zhang family of Wujun, Gu Mu of the Gu family of Wujun, etc.
Cao Pi contacted Sun Quan, and Sun Quan helped contact the Jiangdong nobles.
Because they were afraid of being betrayed, the contact person used a single line of communication, and the families didn't even know who was involved.
Even if someone is willing to work as an undercover agent for Zhuge Liang and tip off the information, they don't know who the other party is and what they want to do. The entire operation is completely directed by Gu Li.
Zhuge Liang talked to Zhuge Jin, Lu Xun and Gu Yong about this matter.
Fortunately for Zhuge Jin, he has a brother who is the prime minister to protect him. Although Zhuge Liang has not promoted him, Liu Bei and Liu Chan have treated him well, and now he is the third in command of the Shangshu Province, occupying a high position.
Lu Xun and Gu Yong were in a worse situation. They joined later and their status was not very high. They had been serving as Liu Bei's army staff before, but they did not fight in the war and were not reused.
However, after Zhuge Liang found them, Lu Xun and Gu Yong immediately realized this was an opportunity, and went ashore to kill their old master with the first sword.
The two immediately gave their opinions.
Lu Xun believed that if Sun Quan wanted to launch a rebellion, his original family manpower would definitely not be enough, and he would definitely think of other ways.
What method is most effective?
No food!
Nowadays, during the three-pronged Northern Expedition, Yizhou, Jingzhou, and Yangzhou are responsible for providing food and grass.
Yizhou is responsible for Shen Chen's Guanzhong offensive, Jingzhou is responsible for the main force in Henan, and Yangzhou is naturally responsible for Guan Yu's army in Huainan.
It is not difficult to check the movement and mobilization of grain and grass. If the new grain can be burned while the grain is being replaced, it will be a huge blow to the Yangzhou Army.
Although Yangzhou Mu can immediately re-mobilize the old grain, the old grain will flow into the millet market immediately after being exchanged for grain. It will take at least a long time for the government to collect the old grain again.
Basically, Guan Yu's side should have run out of food by that time. If Cao's army attacks at this time and another uprising is launched in the south, Guan Yu's side will inevitably end in a disastrous defeat.
Therefore, Lu Xun believed that Sun Quan would not miss this opportunity.
Zhuge Liang felt that what Lu Xun said made sense, so he promoted Lu Xun to his subordinate Zuopushe, who was responsible for handling this matter.
Lu Xun thought about it and formulated a plan. After getting Zhuge Liang's approval, he passed the plan to Ru Chao and asked Ru Chao to complete the conspiracy with the secrets of several major families.
Now several people are waiting for any movement in the mansion.
The food exchange will basically be completed tomorrow. If Sun Quan wants to take action, this is the last chance.
Ru Chao sat cross-legged on the mat, frowned and said: "It's just that there seems to be no movement in Taicang these days. Everything is as usual. Could it be that Sun Quan has no intention of burning food?"
"My brother said that this is the only possibility for Sun Quan to win. If he doesn't do this, the rebellion will definitely be extinguished."
Lu Hao said: "Unless Sun Quan is so stupid that he can't even think of this."
"Um."
Ruchao caressed his beard and tapped his chin.
At this moment, the servant outside the door hurried in: "Report!"
"oh?"
Ru Chao said in surprise: "Did Taicang catch fire?"
The servant said: "No, a Taicang official came over and said that he had something important to report."
Taicang official?
Everyone looked at each other.
He immediately realized that someone within the enemy wanted to tip off the enemy.
Ru Chao immediately said: "Let him come in."
"yes."
The servant then went out to fetch the people.
After a while, Jiao Cheng came in and saw several people. He did not recognize these people, but Ru Chao had visited Taicang before and saw them from a distance. He bowed his hands to Ru Chao and said, "Taicang official Jiao Cheng pays homage to the envoy."
"What's the matter with you?"
Ruchao asked.
Jiao Cheng had calmed down at this time and took a deep breath and said: "Bei is a Taicang official. The elders of the family found Bei a few days ago and asked him to hide the fish paste and the thieves in Taicang."
He said this after careful consideration.
Although family interests are paramount in this era, the problem is that Jiao Cheng is not the head of the family, and family interests cannot be enjoyed by him. Instead, he cannot be an official because of his family.
So at first Jiao Cheng was bewitched by his family and hated the court for not being able to admit him, so he decided to agree to set the fire.
But looking at his newly married wife, Jiao Cheng knew that he was not setting fire, but playing with fire and burning himself. The family he had finally built would be destroyed in one day.
Therefore he must inform.
However, what he didn't expect was that Jiao Cheng thought that Ru Chao and the others would be very shocked, and immediately sent people to search Taicang.
As a result, Ru Chao and others looked at each other and suddenly laughed.
"Hahahahaha."
"It seems that what Zuo Pushe said is true."
"This puts us at ease."
Several people were smiling.
Jiao Cheng was confused and said: "Your Majesty, they haven't set fire yet. They should be waiting for the patrol soldiers to change guard in the middle of the night. If we send people to check the warehouse immediately at this time, it will still be too late."
"It doesn't matter."
Ru Chao waved his hand and said: "You don't know, we have known what Sun Quan did for a long time, and now we are waiting for him to set fire to it."
Jiao Cheng was shocked and said: "Do you know this? But there are millions of stones of grain in the granary."
"The sack is just filled with straw and stones."
Straw and stones?
Jiao Cheng was even more shocked.
Looking at several people with smiles on their faces, they looked confident.
In a daze, he suddenly felt that he had done the wisest thing in his life.
That night.
The Jianye Taicang fire destroyed millions of grain, grain and grass.
For a time, the whole city was under martial law.
The raging fire could be seen from more than ten miles away.
Cao Wei's spies quickly passed the news to Cao Xiu, the general who conquered the east. Two days later, Cao Xiu's army of more than 100,000 marched southward and took Hefei.
at the same time.
During the Jianye Taicang fire, Xiangyang, Jingzhou.
At midnight, Sun Quan, who had been hiding outside the city for a day, arrived at the dock on the east bank of Bian Mountain.
Liu Bei did not treat Sun Quan badly and did not ground him. He could still walk outside Xiangyang City, but he had to be monitored by soldiers.
During the day, Sun Quan reported to Liu Chan that he was going for an outing in the countryside, and then ordered his servants to disguise themselves as him, put on his clothes and ride back in a carriage, while he hid outside the city.
After dark, he and Fu Jun prepared to flee Xiangyang.
There was a speedboat waiting on the pier. The two people quickly boarded the ship. Looking at the Xian Mountain shrouded in the moonlight, which was getting farther and farther away, Sun Quan sneered: "I finally escaped from the prison."
Fu Jun said: "Marquis Wu, they said that Taicang will be burned tonight. If we leave now, will we encounter martial law there?"
"We will definitely encounter it."
Sun Quan said without hesitation: "That's why we can't go to Jianye. When we get to Penglize, we will go south directly to Kuaiji via Po River."
"Gu Li and the others are waiting for us in Kuaiji. They are afraid that Guan Yu will not be restrained by the north."
Fu Jun was a little worried.
Sun Quan smiled and said: "What are you afraid of? Gu Li has told Gu Li a long time ago that there must be no rebellion before Gu Li arrives. I was harmed by Cao Pi once before, and I must not be fooled again this time."
"But if Marquis Wu leaves, will they immediately realize that we are preparing for an uprising in Kuaiji?"
Fu Jun hesitated and said: "If Cao Pi harms the Marquis of Wu again, and asks us to plot to burn down the granary, force Guan Yu to go back, and occupy Huainan without any blood, wouldn't we do it again?"
Sun Quan's face suddenly darkened.
Cao Pi's guy is very cunning and cunning. Although what Fu Jun said is quite extreme and unlikely to happen, it is still possible.
But after a moment, Sun Quan shook his head and said: "Don't worry, if you don't believe Cao Pi is so short-sighted, let's go back first."
At the moment, he stood at the bow of the ship, with his hands behind his hands, quietly watching the ship leave Xiangyang.
A few days later.
The ship went down the river and arrived at Poyang County, Yuzhang.
When they landed, Gu Li was already waiting at the agreed-upon small dock in the south of Poyang County.
"Meet Wu Hou!"
Gu Li stepped forward and bowed on one knee.
They were the only ones at the small pier, and the surroundings were deserted.
Sun Quan was very high-spirited at this moment. He looked around and laughed loudly: "Jiangdong, Gu is back!"