Volume 1 Jiangdong Fengyun Chapter 57: Peace Negotiations between Jing and Huai
Lujiang Commandery, Xunyang County, where Sun Ce and Zhou Yu trained their navy, and were in a stalemate with Huang Zu of Jiangxia who was across the river.
"How ridiculous! That bastard Huang Zu is so patient that he won't even come out!" Sun Ce said angrily in the big tent.
"Yeah, I really didn't expect that." Zhou Yu rolled his eyes and said in his heart: This is such a simple provocation, Huang Zu's appearance must be a trick!
With only 8,000 old and weak soldiers, even if Sun Ce was brave and Zhou Yu was well-planned, they were still good at defense but not good at offense.
This is exactly the effect Yuan Shu wanted to achieve. Yuan Shu wanted to use Sun Ce's independent troops, but he was also very wary of them.
"Report! Military situation in Jiangdong..." The voice of the messenger was heard in the military camp.
And on this day, the "variable" that Zhou Yu had been waiting for arrived much earlier than he expected, and this "variable" was completely different from what he expected!
This messenger was not from Yuan Shu's side, but from Sun Ce's old subordinate. Zhou Yu specially sent out a team to gather information on the military situation in Jianghuai.
Hearing the urgency of the messenger's tone, Zhou Yu quickly let him in.
Originally, Zhou Yu took a gamble, hoping that Zhang Xun would fail to capture Qu'a City for a long time, resulting in Yuan Shu's army being short of food and grass. According to Yuan Shu's plan, Zhang Xun needed to quickly capture Wujun and Kuaiji, so that he could become self-sufficient as soon as possible and even give back to Huainan.
However, now it is not yet the time when Yuan Shu is running low on food and grass as Zhou Yu expected, but important news has already arrived from Jiangdong?
This made Zhou Yu a little nervous...
The messenger came in covered in dust, and it was obvious that he had traveled day and night, and even looked a little exhausted.
Sun Ce quickly ordered someone to roast a wild boar leg - this was how he restored his strength when he caught a cold.
Of course, Zhou Yu stopped the man and instead cooked porridge and light food. Eating wild boar legs when suffering from a cold is not something that ordinary people can learn.
"Tell me slowly, what happened in Jiangdong?" Zhou Yu asked.
"The army was defeated..." the messenger said breathlessly.
"Defeat? So soon... Could it be that Lu Bu from Qu'a City went out of the city to meet the enemy?" Zhou Yu asked in surprise.
"Yes...it was a battle, and Zhang Xun was defeated!" The messenger breathed a sigh of relief.
"Zhang Xun was defeated? He was so honest? With an army several times larger than the enemy's, he actually fought against Chen Gong?" Zhou Yu was becoming more and more confused about the situation.
"It's four thousand to ten thousand..." the messenger added.
"He lost even with only 10,000 soldiers? Is this a trick... and he actually admitted defeat and retreated?" In Zhou Yu's impression, Zhang Xun was not so upright.
"It's not admitting defeat! There was indeed a trick. Zhang Xun ambushed thousands of soldiers during the battle, but he still lost... and his entire army was routed and fled all the way back to Danyang. When he tried to cross the river, he was robbed by pirates recruited by Bai Tu and died on the river!" The messenger finally finished speaking in one breath.
Zhou Yu: ...
What was going on? Ten thousand versus four thousand, and he had the nerve to set up an ambush, and not only did he set up an ambush, but he also lost?
Zhang Xun...is the only thing on his mind other than shit and Yuan Shu?
It is no wonder that the messenger did not know the specific situation, because the news originally came from the defeated army that fled back to Huainan - in their impression, it was Zhang Xun who took the initiative to ambush Chen Gong.
Sun Ce, who was standing by, was also stunned. This Zhang Xun... was simply amazing!
"Gongjin, has our chance come?" Sun Ce said happily after being surprised.
According to Zhou Yu's previous deduction, as long as Zhang Xun could not win quickly, they would have the opportunity to ask for permission to go to Jiangdong, but now... Zhang Xun was defeated quickly.
Zhou Yu said in a serious tone, "The battle with Jingzhou should end here, but I'm afraid there is no chance to go to Jiangdong for the time being."
"What? Then we..." Sun Ce scratched his head.
"Wait." Zhou Yu said directly.
As Zhou Yu expected, news soon came that Yuan Shu sent Han Yin to Xiangyang to meet Liu Biao, nominally to celebrate his birthday, but everyone knew... there was a subtle intention to negotiate peace.
Liu Biao and Yuan Shu were also old rivals. Liu Biao was a member of the royal family who was appointed as the governor of Jingzhou during the chaotic rule of Dong Zhuo. He went to Jingzhou on horseback and gained the support of the nobles in Jingzhou, mainly in Nanjun, by relying on his personal charm and social skills as well as the righteous reputation of the court.
Jingzhou straddles the Yangtze River, bordering Nanzhong to the west and Yangzhou to the east. Originally it consisted of seven counties, which could be divided into three counties in the north and four counties in the south. Moreover... it was a state that was very difficult to "read on a map".
Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the entire Jingzhou had a population of over six million, and its area looked huge on the map. But in fact, more than one-third of the population was concentrated in the seemingly small Nanyang County north of the Yangtze River, which was the Yuan family's hometown.
As for the four southern counties, Lingling, Guiyang, and Changsha, which seem to be very large, have a population similar to that of Nanyang. As for Wuling County, which seems to be "super large" and is also in the southwest of Jingzhou, its registered population is only over 200,000, which is only one-tenth of Nanyang...
In fact, since the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wuling County has been a "province on the map". The seat of government and the Han ethnic settlements were all concentrated in the northeast corner of Wuling County. The southwestern part was adjacent to Nanzhong, and the situation was similar to that in Nanzhong - there were Nanzhong barbarians in Nanzhong, who were the group of Meng Huo in later generations, and there were also Wuling barbarians in Wuling.
During the heyday of the Eastern Han Dynasty, this place was not much cared about. The purpose of establishing Wuling County was not so much for governance as for preventing these Wuling barbarians from uniting to cause trouble.
When Liu Biao first arrived, Kuai Yue of the Kuai family set the general tone for him to govern Jingzhou - control Jiangling in the south, guard Xiangyang in the north, and the eight counties of Jingzhou could be controlled by a single order.
Jiangling and Xiangyang are two important places in Nanjun.
It sounds very arrogant, with a spirit of defeating the enemy without fighting, but translated into actual meaning, it actually means: secure control of Nanjun, and the other counties will just obey in name only...
This is indeed what Liu Biao did in his early strategy for conquering Jingzhou. He cooperated with the aristocratic families of Nanjun, accumulated strength, and gathered troops and people. Although he hated Yuan Shu, who occupied Nanyang, he still appointed him as the prefect of Nanyang to ease the relationship. Huang Zu of Jiangxia was nominally under his command.
As for the four counties in northern Jing...or the three counties outside Wuling, in history, they were still separating and uniting with Liu Biao until several years later.
The advantage he had in Jingzhou was that his enemies were not very strong, but compared with Cao Cao and Yuan Shu, he had no advantage.
The most important Nanyang County in Jingzhou was where Liu Biao plotted against Yuan Shu when the princes were fighting against Dong Zhuo, cutting off his retreat and preventing him from returning. At that time, Sun Jian also wanted to force his way across Jiangxia and return to his old nest in Changsha, but he was shot and killed.
Yuan Shu therefore hated Liu Biao deeply, and Sun Ce and Huang Zu also had a paternal grudge against each other.
In fact, Liu Biao was also a very miserable man. When later generations drew maps of this period, they would always paint Jingzhou in Liu Biao's color. Those who didn't know would really think that he was more ferocious than Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, and Liu Bei at that time combined. He simply stayed idle all the way until Cao Cao integrated the north.
At this time, Guanzhong was suffering from famine due to the scourge of Dong Zhuo's former subordinates. In order to grab food, Zhang Ji caused trouble in the Nanyang area. Therefore, after sending Han Yin to Jingzhou to wish Liu Biao a happy birthday, Liu Biao also took the opportunity to restrain Huang Zu, and the river surface calmed down for a while.
And Sun Ce also received a new transfer order...
