The people who were most worried about the Wu army's defeat were Cao Rui and Sima Yi of Wei.
Although they had expected that Jiangdong would not be able to break through the Han army's blockade to rescue Shangyong City, they could not have expected that the Wu army would be defeated so miserably!
It was so miserable that even Wei Guo could not bear to look directly at it.
After all, more than 20,000 soldiers were killed or wounded on the battlefield, and 5,000 soldiers were trapped in Jiangdong, Shangyong. It was no longer possible for Wei to implement the previously planned strategy!
Regarding this, both Cao Rui and Sima Yi were very anxious.
Also responded quickly.
One is to urgently order Xiahou Ba's tribe at the southern exit of Ziwu Valley to quickly contact Tang Zi in Shangyong City and let him make a decision immediately whether to return to Wei.
If he is willing to return, Sima Yi will send some more troops into Ziwu Valley and join Xiahou Ba to take him into Guanzhong.
If you don't want to, then forget it.
With the defeat of Jiangdong, the Tang Counseling Department was no longer the focus of the war.
The other was to ask Wang Chang, the general who conquered the south, and Hu Zhi, the governor of Jingzhou, to immediately lead troops to garrison in Wudang County on the south side of the Qinling Mountains, with the intention of the Wei general to attack the three eastern counties.
At the same time, he sent envoys to Xiangyang City and invited Jiangdong to attack Bashu together.
And the conditions for the two companies to join forces are extremely generous.
If the three eastern counties are recaptured, they will continue to belong to the Wu State. The baggage or prisoners captured before the battle, as well as the gains from cleaning the battlefield, etc., will all belong to Jiangdong. In terms of the battle arrangement, the Wei army in the south of the Qinling Mountains is the main attacker, while the Wu State Just send 10,000 to 20,000 troops to contain Bashu's troops on Bashan North Road.
In this way, it can almost be regarded as the Wei State sending troops to defeat Shu for the Wu State!
But Jiangdong’s monarchs and ministers are not foolhardy people.
Especially in the intrigues of this three-party game, the monarchs and ministers of the Wu Kingdom are the best at making decisions according to the changing circumstances.
Sun Quan directly rejected Wei's invitation.
In the reply letter, he angrily denounced the Wei State as an untrustworthy person on the grounds that Xiahou Babu refused Zhu Ran's request for assistance, and claimed that the Wu State would no longer defend the Wei State against the Bashu troops.
If the Wei State dared to press or threaten, the Wu State, which had suffered heavy losses, would have no choice but to dedicate Xiangyang City to the Han Army. He himself would not hesitate to go to the Emperor to surrender to the Han Army, so that Jiangdong's foundation could continue to "survive". Go down.
Such a reply left both Cao Rui and Sima Yi speechless.
Although they all knew that Sun Quan would not be able to surrender to the Han army, and the Han army would not take Xiangyang City into his hands at this time.
But they really had no reason to persuade Jiangdong to send troops.
Or it could be said that Sun Quan, Lu Xun and others understood the nature of the battle before the war, and the initiative they won with the loss of 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers and the severed arms of the strong men left no room for coercion and inducement for Wei.
But no matter what, it was impossible for the Wei State to let the war in the three eastern counties go away.
If the Han army's tens of thousands of troops cannot be contained here, what is the point of Wei's previous transfer of the Jingxiang front to Jiangdong? How can the strategic purpose of continuing to consume Bashu's war heritage and giving Wei a chance to recapture Guanzhong be achieved? ?
Therefore, even though Jiangdong's attitude was extremely resolute, Wei's envoys to and from Wuchang still looked at each other; and Cao Rui's promise to send troops to Jiangdong became more and more generous each time.
During the repeated negotiations between Wei and Wu, the time came to the end of spring and February.
The Tang Dynasty's counselors who were trapped in Shangyong surrendered.
This was something that all three parties expected.
The Wu army who was rescuing also stopped, and the supporting Wei army Xiahou Ba's troops also retreated into the middle of the valley. Moreover, the food in Shangyong City was exhausted, and Tang Zi didn't even have a chance to fight to the death.
Perhaps it was just to appease the soldiers.
After Sun Quan learned about this incident, he followed Emperor Zhaolie Liu Bei's example and said with emotion, "I am responsible for the advice, but the advice cannot be taken down by me." He did not hold his family members who stayed in Wu accountable for this incident.
After Cao Rui and Sima Yi learned about it, they immediately felt that it was more difficult to persuade Jiangdong to send troops again.
Nothing else.
Without any reason to rescue the Tang Dynasty, Jiangdong soldiers sent troops for no apparent reason!
The three eastern counties that had gone through many battles between the Han and Wei dynasties now had no common people and the soil was not fertile. For the strategic significance of the Wu State, it would be a compliment to say that it was tasteless and was a pity to throw away.
Therefore, after much thought, Cao Rui planned to send Sima Shi, who had previously been envoyed to Jiangdong, to Wuchang again.
He returned Lujiang County in the north of the Yangtze River to Sun Quan, with Shu County and Chaohu as the boundary.
Because the counties in the Dabie Mountains west of Chao Lake, such as Shu County, Juchao, Wancheng and Xunyang, are densely covered with water and swamps. In the previous wars between Wei and Wu, it was proved that even if the Wei State occupied it, it would be difficult to hold it.
It is better to take this as sincerity and allow Jiangdong to send troops to harass Shu again.
Quan should be the price to pay for expelling Ni Shu from Guanzhong.
But not long after Sima Shicai set out, before he crossed Jiangling City, Cao Rui sent someone to call him back.
The situation has changed again!
If Wei did not need to show any sincerity, Sun Quan would send troops as scheduled.
Yes, Jiangdong had to fight.
Gein captured the three western counties of Jiaozhou, but the Han troops in the three eastern counties had no intention of stopping.
But he said that after Jiangdong dismissed his troops and returned, the Han army began to deal with post-war matters.
For example, the Guanxing tribe dismantled the camp and returned to garrison in Fangling City, and in accordance with the previous agreement, they protected the Jingman tribes from migrating to the three eastern counties; while the Zheng Pu tribe continued to guard the water-blocking valley, busy repairing the camp and Fortifications, etc. were built to prepare for Wei's move to send Jing and Henan troops to garrison Wudang County.
But he himself returned outside Shangyong City.
The prime minister summoned him.
The person who conveyed the message was Zhuge Pan, who was taken by the Prime Minister and served as a clerk in the recording office.
When Zheng Pufu saw him, he was immediately shocked.
He was particularly good at deducing the essence of the matter from clues. Of course, he would also smell something unusual from Zhuge Pan's personal arrival.
According to common sense, the Prime Minister should send the officer on duty to deliver the message!
And let Zhuge Pan come~
If nothing else happens, the little official on duty will be unable to escape.
Coupled with the fact that we are now in the alternation of winter and spring, it is possible that the prime minister is suffering from illness and it is difficult to leave the on-duty staff to help.
Zheng Pu did not dare to neglect this.
After briefly explaining the affairs of the general, he and Zhuge Pan hurried to Shangyong County.
Along the way, he pretended to be someone else's business and tried it with words, but Zhuge Pan burst into tears.
The prime minister's condition was more serious than he imagined.
Before spring came, when the Prime Minister turned on the lamp to take charge of military and court affairs as before, he fainted once.
Fortunately, the officer on duty followed Huang's instructions and often gave the Prime Minister extra meals after nightfall, so he found out very early and hurriedly called for the imperial doctor who was with the army to treat him.
The cause of the fainting was the illness caused by the prime minister's previous long-lasting lamentation, and the lack of energy due to old age.
After the prime minister woke up, the imperial doctor also advised that the current prime minister should transfer all affairs to others. The implication is that the prime minister's physical condition is close to the point where the oil is exhausted.
However, the Prime Minister did not comment on this suggestion and only asked them to keep silent on the matter.
It’s understandable if you think about it.
At the critical moment when the Wei State was tempted to launch the decisive battle in Guanzhong, the Prime Minister would not let his physical condition induce turmoil in the morale of the army and fall short of the success.
As for Zhuge Pan, he learned about this only after spring came and before the outcome of the Han-Wu war was decided, the prime minister fainted again, and he happened to be serving at his side.
"I hope the Protector will keep quiet about this matter."
After Zhuge Pan explained the matter in detail, he said this, "My eldest father is summoning the Protector to return now because he is planning to persuade Shangyong City to surrender. He is not asking the Protector to come back and take charge."
Of course Zheng Pu knew the importance of it.
If Zhuge Pan had not been sent by his father Zhuge Qiao to travel to Longyou and lived for a period of time in the Julu Family Courtyard of Luomen to teach him, he probably would not have informed him of this matter.
Along the way, he didn't say much.
This was to prevent Zhuge Pan from inadvertently revealing his sadness that "the son wanted to support him but his relatives refused to do so" and others noticed.
It seems that the Prime Minister also deliberately concealed his physical condition from Zheng Pu.
The meeting with Zheng Pu lasted only half a quarter of an hour.
He told Zheng Pulai to take charge of persuading the Tang Counseling Department to surrender in Shangyong City, and asked him to think about how to promote the war between Wei and Wu, so that the Han army could continue to stay in the three eastern counties and not be alerted by the Wei State that Guanzhong was luring the enemy.
After that, we never met again.
He also claimed that if Zheng Pu wanted to gain something, he could just send it in the form of a written form, citing his recent physical discomfort.
No need to come in for a meeting again.
Zheng Pu, who knew this well, obeyed his orders.
Sometimes, it is more considerate to be confused than to be aware of everything.
And compared with persuading and admonishing "everything is for your own good", working hard to fulfill other people's expectations and long-cherished wishes is truly "for your own good".
Therefore, Zheng Pu also began to seize the day.
His actions towards the Tang Counselor who had surrendered to Shangyong City were full of hostility.
Different from the prime minister's siege of three towers, he directly asked his soldiers to besiege the city on all sides, and only after forming a strong crossbow array did he eject the letter of surrender into the city.
The letter is very short, only a few words.
"You have rescued Lu Xun, and Zhu Ran's troops have all been defeated. Do you want to surrender? Do you want to die?"
Without any promise of surrender or any promise not to treat the prisoners harshly, Tang Zi was left to choose between death and life.
Inevitably, after Tang Zi finished reading the letter, he felt angry for a moment.
But the anger didn't last long.
In a situation where "people are killed by swords and I am fished as flesh and blood", why bother to anger others when you already have the chance to win?
After thinking about it alone, he wrote a reply with the words "It doesn't matter if I surrender, or if I die." He sent it out of the city, which could be regarded as bargaining for the treatment after surrender.
If someone is determined to die, he will not reply.
But Zheng Pu still didn't give him a satisfactory answer.
He just claimed that the Han Dynasty has always been benevolent and righteous, and took Jiang Wei as an official to be the General of the Western Expedition, and Zhou Tai once garrisoned inside and outside Chengdu as examples, so that he did not need to bother himself.
But at the end of the letter, he added, "Spring plowing is coming!"
But just this unrelated remark made Tang Zi no longer hesitate, and directly asked the soldiers to abandon their weapons and leave the city to surrender.
Because he knew that the Han army's biggest problem was the lack of food and fodder.
And Zheng Pu's "spring plowing is coming" is actually claiming that if Tang Zi fails to surrender and delays the Han army's spring plowing, then the Han army will have no food left to house the prisoners!
