In the ninth year of Chu Li, not only did Xichuan Shuhou Mansion surrender, but Yizhou seemingly completely changed its ownership, Qingxu Prefecture also changed its royal flag one after another.
Taking advantage of "Liu Bei's death", the Wei State went directly south to Qingzhou, and the Chu State also relied on saving Liu Bei's life and surrendered Xuzhou...
At the same time, the troops originally stationed on the eastern coast of Qingzhou, led by Lu Meng, assisted the Qi army in Guanping to resist the invasion of Wei.
It can be said that at the beginning, due to the lack of information, Guan Ping naturally could not trust Lu Meng and did not cooperate with him from the beginning. Instead, there were many misunderstandings, which allowed Wei to take the lead and really invaded Qingzhou. Guan Ping had no choice but to
Donglai, with its back under the control of Chu State, barely blocked Wei's offensive.
And it was not only the military support from Qingzhou and the two ports that made the contribution.
The soldiers and horses of the "Marquis of An Wei" stationed in Nanpi also attacked Leling under the leadership of Lu Bu - not asking for victory, but asking Wei to be unable to comfortably mobilize troops to Qingzhou!
After a series of delays, the Wei State was unable to regain half of Qingzhou when the Chu State had already settled in Xuzhou.
Although the main force of the Chu army was basically in Guandu, and the number of people on other battlefields was smaller, it was easy to delay Wei's recovery of Qingzhou.
Not to mention, Lu Bu was so fierce that he caused Jizhou internal and external troubles...
On the other hand, Sun Ce led his army into Longyou in the spring, hoping that Ma Chao would continue to fulfill the agreement with Zhuge Liang, but the target of surrender was changed to Chu State, and... the conditions were even more harsh!
Originally, if the conditions remained unchanged, Ma Chao wouldn't mind too much. After all, Zhuge Liang had already said what needed to be said, and Ma Chao had already agreed once.
However, the problem is that the Chu State does not want to agree to the conditions promised by Zhuge Liang - to be the king of the Chu State and sit in Longyou, Hetao? Just think about it!
The conditions given by the Chu State to Ma Chao were the same as those of other surrendered princes: he would be granted a title of marquis and would be hereditary, but only the income from the "agricultural tax" from the enfeoffed city would belong to the title.
Of course, this means that Ma Chao surrenders as a prince, and additionally Ma Chao serves as a general. After surrendering to Chu, he will still be in charge of the Longyou army, and can be directly awarded the rank of sub-general...
But even so, Ma Chao would not be willing.
I even felt that Sun Ce was here to cause trouble!
Fortunately, Sun Ce did not leave Zhou Yu behind. With Zhou Yu's pros and cons analysis, Ma Chao did not directly confront Sun Ce.
The logic Zhou Yu wanted to figure out was actually very simple - now is no longer the time for princes to compete for hegemony. Within a year, the world will be completely divided into the only two remaining parties, Chu and Wei.
As for Xichuan, it is estimated that it will not be able to survive for two or three months without the intervention of the hypocrites. As for the hypocrites... it will definitely be quickly divided between the two.
Xiliang Longyou?
Even if Ma Chao really had divine help and quickly recovered the Hetao area, it would still be completely incomparable to Wei and Chu.
Moreover, neither Hetao nor Longyou have the capital to stand alone with Wei and Chu in terms of geographical advantages or people!
First, the proportion of Han people in the two places is very small. Compared with the population in other areas, the Xiongnu and Qiang are not large. From the productivity, we can know that with the same geographical resources, agricultural civilization can feed far more people than nomadic civilization.
, there are more fishing and hunting civilizations.
It's just that in the Cold Weapon Age, the nomadic civilization had great advantages in warfare and could easily occupy large areas of plains. Agricultural civilization with the same population was "vulnerable".
However, even if Ma Chao unified Xiliang and Hetao, and continued to be the "divine and mighty general" of the Huns and Qiang, what would happen next? Go to the north to compete with Xianbei for the desert grasslands?
This is indeed an idea, but everyone knows that no matter Wei or Chu, as long as they unify China, the next thing to do is to take back Xiliang and Hetao...
And Ma Chao's choice is nothing more than to help the Chu State suppress the Hetao Xiongnu and the Qiang who were instigated by the Wei State, or to join forces with the Wei State... and be liquidated by the Chu State!
In Zhou Yu's words, even if Ma Chao chooses the latter, it will not be a headache for Chu State...
Where can Longyou attack?
Either Guanzhong, Hanzhong, or Hetao - what if Ma Chao defected to Wei? Attack Hanzhong?
When Zhang Lu was in Hanzhong before, Ma Chao couldn't be defeated, and now it's even more difficult!
Entering Guanzhong? Sun Ce was confident of blocking him in Chencang, not to mention that Guanzhong was no longer the main battlefield of the Chu-Wei conflict. The Chu State in Guanzhong only held the intention of "preventing the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan from becoming a backup base for the Wei State."
I think it doesn't matter if I can't occupy it, as long as the war continues, these 800 miles of Qinchuan will not be of any help to Wei.
Sima Yi's strategy of removing fuel from the cauldron also made Chu's strategic rhythm tense.
They would rather expand the war than "quickly push" Wei!
After all, without the buffer of the Han Dynasty, Chu and Wei could only fight head-on, and the chaos among the Wei nobles also made the Chulu people not want to delay it any longer!
Ma Chao's entry into Guanzhong only made this "pot of porridge" more like the taste of Wei, but no one could drink it.
For Ma Chao, the only meaningful thing is to enter the Tu Loop...
However, now the Xiongnu and Zhu Qiang in Hetao are allies of Wei!
In Zhou Yu's words, Ma Chao can only choose Chu State now, which means accepting the Chu State officials to station in Liangzhou. Later, when Ma Chao conquers Hetao, not only Sun Ce's troops will also support him, but also there will be a steady stream of supplies from Hanzhong.
Ma Chao accepted Zhou Yu's statement and...rejected him!
If we only consider the pros and cons, Ma Chao can only "temporarily surrender to Chu". Unless the Chu State is upset in the future, loses to the Wei State in the North-South dispute, and completely turns to the defensive, Ma Chao will have the possibility to stand on his own feet again.
However, Ma Chao did not judge based solely on pros and cons...
As a warrior, Ma Chao has a strong desire for power, otherwise Ma Teng would not be idle for retirement, but as a prince, Ma Chao is also very emotional!
This is a bit like Sun Ce back then...
Even if the pros and cons are clearly explained, Ma Chao still has the attitude of "I can't control my fate".
However, he did accept Zhou Yu's analysis, and his target was the Hetao - his target could only be the Hetao, could he still attack the Western Regions? The Hexi Corridor in the middle was too long, and there were no supplies on the way. The poorer Central Dynasty
He couldn't even support the Western Region Protectorate, let alone Ma Chao?
On the other hand, as long as the Chu State is with them, whether it is the Western Region or Hexi, they can be taken into their arms by the Chu State in a few years or more than ten years.
Without Sun Ce's help, Ma Chao made a different agreement, not to surrender to Chu, but to accept the "supervision" of the Chu State. During this period, he would go north to fight. At the same time... the Chu State also had to pay military salaries and military supplies!
Sun Ce originally didn't want to agree, but under Ma Chao's provocation, he made another agreement...
The Chu army left, but Sun Ce could stay. Ma Chao and Sun Ce fought against each other once a month. If Ma Chao won, Chu would have to pay for one month's military supplies. If there was a tie, both sides would not owe each other. If Ma Chao lost... Zhou Yu would immediately agree.
conditions!
Zhou Yu, who truly grasped the decision-making power given by Bai Tu, finally agreed to Ma Chao's conditions. After all, the premise of these was that Ma Chao was indeed fighting the Hetao or Hexi.
Sun Ce was very moved, but he didn't know... Zhou Yu's calculation was that before the winner was determined in Guandu, even if Sun Ce kept losing, it wouldn't be considered a loss!
Moreover, Ma Chao's character and the current situation in Longyou make Zhou Yu not worried that Ma Chao will directly break the contract and take Sun Ce as a hostage...