Chapter 2528: Chu Wu Song three points Lujiang, Sima Yi secretly helps Sun Quan
Chapter 2528: Chu, Wu and Song divided Lujiang, Sima Yi secretly helped Sun Quan
The fierce competition between Wu and Chu for Lujiang County was comparable to the battle between Qin and Chu for Jiangling County and the battle for Guangling County between Song and Ming Dynasties.
Jiangling County changed hands repeatedly between Qin and Chu, Guangling Army changed hands repeatedly between Song and Ming Dynasties, and Lujiang County also changed hands repeatedly between Chu and Wu.
Lujiang County originally belonged to Lu Kang, the prefect of Lujiang, but because Lu Kang's brother Lu Yu and his eldest son Lu Jun were both killed in the battle at the hands of the Sun family, the Lu family headed by Lu Kang hated Sun Jian to the core.
Therefore, during Sun Jian's attack on Jiangdong, Lujiang was also the county that resisted the most.
No matter how much Sun Jian tried to persuade him, Lu Kang refused to surrender.
Later, Sun Jian successively captured the four counties of Wu, Danyang, Kuaiji, and Yuzhang, as well as part of the southern part of Jiujiang County. He also captured more than half of the county towns in Lujiang, and the trend of unifying Jiangdong was completed.
Lu Kang knew that he was defeated by Sun Jian, so he simply diverted the trouble eastward, bringing with him Lu Ji, Lu You, Lu Xun and other relatives, as well as the five counties in the south of the Lujiang River that had not been captured by Sun Wu: Wanxian, Shuxian, Juchao, Xunyang, and Tongxiang, directly He surrendered to Liu Xiu, the then Marquis of Chu.
Liu Xiu was naturally overjoyed when he learned about it. After all, Bye had surrendered five counties, and they were also five wealthy cities. For Liu Xiu, who only had four counties in Jingnan at the time, this was a good thing that he had never encountered before. So there is no reason to refuse.
Liu Xiu did not hesitate and chose to accept Lu Kang's submission and the land of the five counties of Lujiang. Naturally, he had to bear the grievances between the Lu family and the Sun family.
Lujiang is the western gateway to Jiangdong, and it is absolutely impossible for Sun Jian to abandon Lujiang.
Therefore, around the battle for Lujiang County, Wu and Chu had many wars, and each time they fought extremely fiercely, with each side winning or losing.
The most difficult and dangerous time, even though King Liu Xiu of Chu personally led the army, he was still defeated by Sun Wu. He lost four cities in Anhui County, Shu County, Juchao and Tongxiang one after another, leaving only the last city of Xunyang City. support.
However, this crisis was finally resolved by Liu Xiu's strategy.
At that time, Japanese pirates invaded the eastern coast, and Wu and Kuaiji counties were robbed.
Sun Jian sent Sun Quan to suppress the Japanese pirates in the rear. However, Sun Quan was defeated by the Japanese pirates. He had to withdraw part of his troops from the front and transferred Sun Ce from the front to suppress the Japanese pirates.
After Liu Xiu learned of this, he instigated Shanyue from all over the east of the Yangtze River to jointly launch a rebellion, which almost overthrew the entire Wu Kingdom in one fell swoop. This also forced Sun Jian to withdraw his troops from Lujiang and go to quell the Shanyue rebellion.
After Sun Jian's main army left, Liu Xiucai effortlessly regained the three fallen cities of Lujiang, leaving only one city in Shu County that could not be recovered.
Lu Su was in charge of Shucheng, and Liu Xiu attacked several times. Not only did he fail to break through, but he also lost troops and generals. In desperation, he had no choice but to give up the attack temporarily and besiege the city first, and then the attack frightened Qian County, Lu'an and other eight counties in the north. It will not be too late to attack Shu County after the land.
Sun Jian was busy suppressing the Shanyue rebellion and did not care about Lujiang County. In order to prevent the northern part of Lujiang River from being captured by the Chu State, he sent an envoy to Shouchun to lobby Song King Zhao Kuangyin to send troops to Lujiang from the Jianghuai area. Song and Wu would join forces to fight against the Chu army.
The Jianghuai area is located to the north of the Yangtze River and south of the Huaihe River. It actually refers to Guangling County in Xuzhou, as well as Jiujiang County and Lujiang County in Yangzhou.
It's just that these three counties are all large counties, and the three counties combined are larger than any other state in the Central Plains.
In addition, the Jianghuai region connects the north and the south and is a battleground for military strategists. Its geographical location is extremely important.
In addition, the Jianghuai region was a rich and fertile land with fertile water, soil, and dense population, so it was divided separately and was repeatedly fought over by the Song and Ming Dynasties.
At this time, the Song Dynasty had occupied most of the Jianghuai area.
Among the fourteen counties in Jiujiang County, the Song State occupied eleven counties in the north, and the three counties in the south were owned by the Wu State.
Among the twelve counties of Guangling County, the Song and Ming Dynasties occupied six counties in the west, while the Ming Dynasty occupied six counties in the east.
The Song Dynasty had already obtained half of the three counties of Jianghuai and was the well-deserved overlord of Jianghuai. Naturally, it also wanted to completely occupy the Jianghuai area.
But the Ming Dynasty was too difficult to deal with. Even though the Song and Wei Dynasties joined forces and launched thirteen wars in the Central Plains, although they forcibly captured several counties in the Ming Dynasty, they also paid a very heavy price and failed to occupy the territory.
Too cheap.
On the other hand, the Ming Kingdom, after being weakened by three wars in the Central Plains, directly merged with the Qi Kingdom. Not only did its overall strength not shrink at all, but it became stronger than before.
Facing such a Ming Dynasty, even if the Song Dynasty launched an overwhelming army, it would not gain much benefit.
In addition to the Ming Kingdom, the Song Kingdom also borders the three kingdoms of Wei, Qin and Wu.
The Qin State was the overlord of the princes, so it would have been good if they did not take the initiative to attack it. The Song State did not dare to provoke the Qin State at all.
As for the State of Wei, it was an ally with the State of Song, and their lips were as weak as theirs.
If either Song or Wei dies, the other cannot survive alone, so neither Wei nor Song will covet the other.
The Song State had a total of four bordering countries, and the Qin, Wei and Ming Dynasties could not touch it. The only direction of expansion was Lujiang County, which was also located in the Yangtze River and Huaihe River and belonged to the Wu State.
For the Song Dynasty, taking Lujiang County had too many benefits. Not only could it dominate the entire Jianghuai River Basin, but it could also improve the defense of the capital Shouchun.
Anfeng County in Lujiang County is only a few hundred miles away from Shouchun, the capital of the Song Dynasty.
Although it is unlikely that Wu will take action against Chu, who is also an ally, before Wu completely stabilizes Jiangdong and drives Chu's forces out of Lujiang, it is indeed too close to its doorstep, and even an ally will make everyone in the Song Kingdom feel confused.
Can't sleep.
Although the Song State decided to attack Lujiang, the Wu State was an ally after all. It would be too ugly to directly tear up the alliance, so it was necessary to find a good excuse to stop people from gossiping.
For this reason, Zhao Kuangyin thought hard and never found a suitable reason, but he did not expect Wu Guo to take the initiative to send it to them.
Zhao Kuangyin naturally refused without hesitation the Wu envoy's request to send troops, for no other reason than that the benefits offered by Wu were too few.
The state of Wu wanted to ask the state of Song to send troops to help the state of Wu protect Lujiang, but they were only willing to pay for food, grass and money.
What Zhao Kuangyin wanted was the base and population, and Wu Guo's stingy approach obviously could not satisfy him.
Song's refusal to send troops naturally made Wu very anxious. After all, Wu was unable to support Lujiang at this time, and the defenders of Lujiang alone could not stop the Chu army. If this delay continued, all the eight counties in the north of Lujiang would be destroyed.
All owned by Chu State.
The State of Wu also knew that the State of Song coveted Lujiang County, but compared to their dissatisfaction with the State of Song, everyone in the State of Wu deeply hated the State of Chu, so they would rather take advantage of the State of Song than the State of Wu.
In the end, Wu State agreed to cede the three counties of Anfeng, Hulou and Yangquan in the northernmost part of Lujiang River in exchange for Song State sending troops to Lujiang County.
At this time, four of the eight counties in the north of Lujiang had been captured by the Chu State, and the other three counties were ceded to the Song State by the Wu State. The Wu State only had one county left in the north of the Lujiang River.
After Zhao Kuangyin took over the three counties, he refused to send troops on the grounds of raising food and grass. He did not send troops until the last county was captured by the Chu State.
The reason why Zhao Kuangyin did this was naturally to gain more territory. After all, after the Wu State's territory was occupied by the Chu State, if he took it back, it would not be from the Wu State, but from the Chu State.
Naturally, there is no need to return what was robbed to the State of Wu.
By doing this, you don't have to tear up the alliance with Wu State, but you can also expand your power. It can be said to be the best of both worlds.
Zhao Kuangyin sent troops to Lujiang this time, with a total of 100,000 troops. They sent troops from Jiujiang and Runan in two directions to jointly conquer the Chu army in Lujiang.
Zhao Kuangyin personally commanded the 60,000 Song troops along the Jiujiang route.
The 40,000 Song troops in Runan were led by Zhao Guangyi.
Liu Xiu was naturally shocked when he learned that the Song army was invading and that it was an army of 100,000 people.
Chu State's attack on Lujiang was just a partial army. How could it stop Song State's 100,000-strong army?
But Liu Xiu was naturally not willing to give up the base in the north of Lujiang River, so he sent envoys to negotiate with Zhao Kuangyin and increased troops to the north of Lujiang River.
Zhao Kuangyin was determined to win Lujiang County, so how could he be easily told to retreat by the Chu envoy?
No matter what conditions Liu Xiu put forward, Zhao Kuangyin ignored them all. His only target was Lujiang County.
Although Liu Xiu sent additional troops to the north of Lujiang River and personally went to command the army, there was a huge disparity in the strength of the two sides.
After three consecutive cities were captured and nearly 10,000 troops were lost, Liu Xiu realized that there was a disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, and it was unwise to confront them head-on, so he decided to voluntarily abandon Lu'an and Qianxian, and lifted the siege of Shucheng
, the entire army withdrew to the south of Lujiang River and concentrated its forces to defend Juchao.
What Liu Xiu did was equivalent to handing over the eight counties in the northern part of Lujiang to the Song Dynasty. However, if the Song Dynasty wanted to continue to conquer Lujiang, it would have to remove Shu County before it could continue to conquer the southern part of Lujiang.
If the Song State really attacked Shucheng, it would be equivalent to actively breaking its alliance with the Wu State.
If we don't attack, we won't be able to launch a full-scale attack and occupy the entire Lujiang County.
It has to be said that Liu Xiu's move made Zhao Kuangyin feel very uncomfortable. He really wanted Lujiang County, but he didn't want to completely turn against Wu unless he had to.
In addition, the total troops of Chu and Wu in Lujiang totaled fifty to sixty thousand.
If the Song Dynasty desperately occupied Lujiang River, even if it won in the end, it would probably only be a miserable victory.
Under the persuasion of Zhao Pu, Yan Xiang, Zhao Yong and others, Zhao Kuangyin decided to stop as soon as possible and only occupied eight counties in the northern part of Lujiang River.
As for the land of seven cities in the south of Lujiang River, let Chu and Wu fight for it. Anyway, the biggest benefit has been taken away by Song.
After Sun Jian learned about it, although he was extremely dissatisfied with Zhao Kuangyin, he had nothing to do. After all, except for the three counties that were ceded on his own initiative, the remaining five counties were wrested from Chu by the Song State.
Wu State cannot defend the northern part of Lujiang River, so should Song State be allowed to attack it?
Since then, Lujiang County has been divided into three parts: the eight counties in the north belong to the Song State, the four southwest counties belong to the Chu State, and the three southeast counties belong to the Wu State.
This time Sun Ce sent troops to attack Chu. He sent troops from Shu County and Yuzhang, divided the water route and marched together to attack the four southwest cities of Lujiang River.
The last governor of Lujiang in Chu State was Song Que. In the face of several attacks by the Wu army, he contained Lujiang. In one of them, Sun Wu led the army, and because of this he was promoted to several levels.
It was precisely because of this record that Song Que was qualified to become Deng Yu's left-wing army commander in this Northern Expedition.
After Song Que was transferred, the person who took his place was Guo Ziyi.
Guo Ziyi had just been promoted to the prefect of Lujiang, and he had not yet been able to completely control the four counties in the southwest of Lujiang. Sun Ce's 80,000 Wu army came over, and he was definitely the most unlucky prefect of Lujiang in Chu State.
For Guo Ziyi, the invasion of the Wu army this time was undoubtedly a huge challenge, but the soldiers were coming to block the water and the earth, so he could only do his best within his capabilities.
Guo Ziyi only had a total of 20,000 troops at hand. Facing Sun Ce's menacing 80,000-strong army, he was unable to attack. He could only stick to this road and ask for help from Liu Xiu of Jiangxia.
As a result, only three days after the war began, the important town of Tongxiang was lost, and the defender Guo Tao was beheaded by Sun Ce.
On the sixth day, the nest was lost.
Although Juchao guard Wu Zhiqi blocked the combined efforts of Lihu, Lilu and Liyang, he was still no match for Sun Ce.
After the fall of Juchao, Wu Zhiqi had to lead the remnant army to break through and retreat to Wan County, but Guo Ziyi asked him to abandon Wan County and concentrate his troops to defend Xunyang.
After Guo Ziyi and Wu Zhiqi reunited, they concentrated their forces to defend Xunyang City, while Sun Ce led two armies by water to attack Xunyang.
The Wu army fought successively and successfully. Within ten days of the war, they broke through three fortified cities and were about to completely capture the southern part of the Lujiang River. Naturally, their morale increased.
Sun Ce won the battle, and everyone in the Wu Kingdom was very happy, but there was only one exception, and that was Sun Quan, who was escorting the grain and grass.
Sun Quan has always been dissatisfied with his eldest brother Sun Ce and wanted to replace him. But if Sun Ce succeeds in defeating Wu, his ambition will never be realized.
At this time, in Sun Quan's tent, a man in black was talking to Sun Quan calmly: "Second Young Master, how are you thinking? If you continue to hesitate, you will be completely eliminated from the position of King of Wu.
"
And he is none other than Sima Yi, who has been missing for a long time.