Chapter 122 Between gains and losses The spring water has just emerged, so you should leave quickly. In the first month of the eighteenth year of Jian'an, after Sun Quan gave these eight words to Cao Cao, fourteen years later, Cao Rui, the second emperor of Wei, finally returned these eight words to Sun Quan. When the ministers in the military tent heard the emperor's words, they clapped their hands and laughed, and the gloom that had accumulated in their hearts for many years was also swept away. It's been years indeed. After Cao Cao withdrew his troops from Ruxu, he felt that his time was running out after he returned to the Central Plains, so he accelerated his pace of seizing power as soon as he returned to the court. Cao Cao followed Dong Zhao's strategy and was promoted to Duke of Wei, granted the Nine Gifts, established the Dukedom of Wei and made Yecheng the capital. Three years later, in the 21st year of Jian'an, Cao Cao was promoted to King of Wei, with 30,000 households, ranking above the princes. He did not call himself a vassal when reporting to the emperor, did not bow when receiving an imperial edict, and offered sacrifices to heaven and earth with the emperor's tassels, chariots, clothes, banners, rituals and music. Almost like the Son of Heaven. However, as Cao Cao's title became higher and his age grew, the internal and external situation of Wei State took a sharp turn for the worse, and the disputes among the various factions in the court became more and more intense. With internal and external troubles, the country no longer had the vigorous feeling of previous years. In the 23rd year of Jian'an, Liu Bei attacked Yangping Pass, Wuhuan and Xianbei invaded the northern border, and Hou Yin, the defender of Wancheng, rebelled. In the 24th year of Jian'an, Huang Zhong, a general under Liu Bei, killed Xiahou Yuan in the battle of Dingjun Mountain. Cao Cao had to lead his army from Chang'an to Hanzhong, and had to give up Hanzhong himself. Guan Yu attacked Xiangfan in the north, flooded seven armies, and shocked China. At the same time, the crisis in Xiangfan was resolved because of Sun Quan's betrayal.
In the first month of the 25th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao died of illness in Luoyang. In the same year, the court was shaken and the four directions were in turmoil. Cao Pi replaced the Han Dynasty with the Wei Dynasty and rewarded many nobles. Next came Cao Pi's three expeditions against Wu. The first time, he marched in three directions but returned without success. The second and third times, he visited Guangling to inspect the troops, but he hardly even encountered the Wu army. This great victory was undoubtedly a complete shot in the arm for everyone from the emperor to his ministers and generals. Since then, Cao Wei has resumed its offensive and has finally been able to expand its external warfare capabilities. Cao Rui looked at the ministers in the tent with high spirits, and the smile on his face gradually faded. "Early this morning, the Grand Marshal has led 40,000 infantry and cavalry to Wancheng. Before noon tomorrow, they will surely reach the camp of the Wu army in Wancheng." "According to the captured Wu soldiers, the Wu army brought all its strength to this battle, and nearly all of its 80,000 soldiers were annihilated. Sun Quan only had about 20,000 soldiers in Wancheng and Wankou." "Now that the army is here, where should we sweep next? Please discuss this with me." Now Cao Xiu has led his army westward to Wancheng, and the army here is naturally under the command of General Cao Zhen. But when Cao Zhen received the order, he seemed quite embarrassed. From Cao Zhen's perspective, he had only brought 45,000 central troops from Luoyang to Shouchun. In the Battle of Guache, he led 20,000 central troops to Wuqiangkou at the latest, and arrived at the battlefield just when the battle was about to end, without even fighting a decent battle. However, Cao Rui did not think so. Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen, the two clan generals, are indeed the two pillars of Cao family's military power at this stage. Although the Wei army had many infantry, the real elite troops were the cavalry. In addition to letting the right general Zhu Gai, who was familiar with the terrain, lead 10,000 cavalry and keeping 5,000 cavalry around him as guards, the remaining 30,000 cavalry were always in Cao Xiu's hands. In the Battle of Guache, it was Cao Xiu's cavalry that divided the battlefield and encircled the enemy, playing a decisive role in forcing the Wu army not to advance westward. Cao Zhen led 20,000 central army infantry at the end of the battlefield, firmly blocking the retreat route for Cao Rui. Although the specific command of this battle was mostly discussed by Cao Rui, Sima Yi, Cao Xiu and several attendants, it was the fact that Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen were in charge of the most elite troops that gave Cao Rui the confidence to use his troops in this battle. Seeing that the emperor wanted to discuss the next offensive with his ministers, the Sikong and Shizhong who were always by the emperor's side were silent for a while. The generals who were originally in charge of the battle did not know how to start, for fear that they would say something wrong after a great victory and affect their original military achievements. Cao Rui looked around and saw that no one spoke, so he looked at Cao Zhen: "What do you think, General? Tell me." After hearing the emperor's question, Cao Zhen was silent for a moment, and then he slowly said: "Your Majesty, now that we have won a great victory in the battle of Guache, and the Wu army in Wancheng to the west is nearby, we must also capture it." "But after retaking the area around Wancheng, we have two options for deploying troops." "One is to continue to march southwest and capture Songzi, Xunyang, Qichun and other places in the north of the Yangtze River, and finally connect with Jiangxia where Wen Pin of Jingzhou is located in the north of the Yangtze River."
"It is also an option to continue fighting on land." "The second is to go south along the Wanshui River, capture Qiankou, and then seize Wankou where the Wanshui River flows into the Yangtze River." "In this way, our Wei will seize a base in the north of the Yangtze River, and thus compete with Sun Quan for the Yangtze River, thus solving the problem of the navy being unable to cross the river for many years." Cao Rui nodded. From the map, after taking Wancheng, there were only these two routes that could be used to continue the advance. If they did not take advantage of this great victory to continue the advance, it would be obvious that God had not given them the opportunity to take it. "But...but which route to take to advance has more than just military implications," Cao Zhen continued. Cao Rui frowned slightly and stared into Cao Zhen's eyes. Cao Zhen stroked his short beard and said, "Your Majesty, I want to say that now that we have won a great victory, whether it is Wankou, Qichun, or Xunyang, we can definitely take it if we want to." "But what to do with it after it's captured is a difficult matter." Cao Rui thought for a moment and sighed softly: "Is it because there is no one here and it is not enough to support the army?" Cao Zhen responded: "That's right." Cao Rui looked at the ministers and said, "Who remembers this clearly? Please explain it to me and you all." Jiang Ji stood up from his seat, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I am originally from Huainan and am more familiar with Huainan's affairs. Let me explain it to Your Majesty." Cao Rui raised his hand to show his agreement. Jiang Ji also shook his robe and started to talk about the root cause of the matter. Jiang Ji said to the emperor and the people in the tent: "In the 14th year of Jian'an, when I was serving as the deputy governor of Yangzhou, I was ordered to go to Qiao County to pay homage to Emperor Wu." "Just one year before the 14th year of Jian'an, the country had just lost the Battle of Chibi. With the loss of troops and generals, it was unable to deal with the invasion of Sun Quan in Huainan." "I remember very clearly that Emperor Wu told me that day that he wanted to relocate the people of Huainan to Henan, just like the people of Yanjin and Baima were relocated during Guandu. I tried to persuade him, but Emperor Wu would not listen." "Therefore, in the 14th year of Jian'an, after the imperial court ordered the people of Huainan to move north, more than 100,000 households in Huainan fled to Jiangdong." "In the 18th year of Jian'an, Emperor Wu once again wanted to relocate all the people in the north of the Yangtze River, so the people between the Yangtze River and the Huai River fled again. The counties of Lujiang, Jiujiang, Qichun, and Guangling were almost empty, and everyone fled to the State of Wu." Cao Cao had done it himself, so Cao Rui, a third-generation man, couldn't say anything. But we still need to find out why the people here fled. Cao Rui shook his head gently: "There must be an explanation for the people's escape, right? Jiang Qing, just tell the truth and don't hesitate." Jiang Ji had been with the emperor for many days and knew that the emperor would not punish people for their words, so he said carefully: "There are naturally many reasons why the people fled." "For example, they were afraid of losing their freedom as farmers in Henan, or they were afraid of being captured and sent to the army. There were also people sent by Sun Quan to incite them, saying that they wanted to massacre all the people in Huainan..." Jiang Ji did not hide anything. The true words did not sound harsh, but too harsh. As Jiang Ji said, once the refugees at the end of the Han Dynasty were fixed on the land as farmers, they basically said goodbye to the word freedom. If there is a shortage of soldiers, they will naturally recruit from the refugees without showing any mercy. Although the claim that all the people in Huainan were massacred is ridiculous, Cao Cao did massacre people. Since the two issues of military farming and military system are difficult to solve at this point in time, we can only solve some superficial problems. That is, after the victory, whether to send troops to defend Wancheng, Wankou, Qichun and Xunyang. War itself is important, but war ultimately serves politics. Just like this war, the cause was that Sun Quan asked Zhou Cang to pretend to surrender to Cao Xiu. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Battle of Shiting in history, Cao Rui mobilized the military forces of the six states and led all the central army to Huainan, which led to yesterday's victory.
Cao Rui wanted to fight this war for many reasons, including to enhance his prestige, to eliminate the bad situation, to punish Wu, to strengthen military power, etc. All these factors made him think that this war was worth fighting. If we continue fighting after taking Wancheng, we will face an extremely difficult decision, that is, whether to leave troops here to garrison. Cao Rui tapped the table with his knuckles and said to everyone, "Actually, during the battle yesterday, I received a military report from the direction of Jingzhou. Because it was wartime, I was not in a hurry to tell you." "I have agreed with Chen Qun that we will march together after January 1. However, when Chen Qun's 500 ships of various sizes were sailing down the Han River and reached the Miankou near Jiangxia, the two banks were narrow and the Wu army's tower ships were blocking the middle of the river, so they could not pass." "Chen Qun was defeated because of this. Not only did he lose 200 ships, but he was also unable to join Wen Pin. Wen Pin had no ships in Jiangbei, so Chen Qun and Wen Pin could only retreat to Jiangxia and Xiangyang." Cao Zhen thought for a moment, then said, "Your Majesty, since the General of the Cavalry has done nothing in Jingzhou, it is meaningless for us to occupy Qichun in order to connect with Jingzhou. Qichun is isolated in the north of the Yangtze River, and there are no civilians there. It is useless to attack it." "I remember that in the third year of Huangchu, after the Wu rebel general Jin Zong surrendered to the Wei, the late emperor appointed him as the governor of Qichun. Less than half a year later, He Qi of the Eastern Wu led his army to raid Qichun and took it back." Cao Rui nodded and said, "In that case, let's put Qichun aside for now. After the Grand Marshal defeats the Wu army in Wancheng, we can discuss Wankou later." All the ministers in the tent also agreed. (End of this chapter)
