At the beginning of April, spring came to an end, which seemed to be the end of an era in the Wei Kingdom. Even though the emperor was still Cao Fang, the reign title was still Zhengshi.
Time passes evenly, but things will slow down as the distance increases. This is inevitable.
The civil war in Wei lasted for more than a month. Shu and Wu were thousands of miles apart, so it was impossible to make corresponding arrangements in time, so everything had to be postponed.
It was not until this time that the Han envoy Chen Ji and others followed the general and arrived at Xiakou, Jiangxia County. This place was formerly called Echeng, and when the Wu State established its capital, it was also called Wuchang. Later, a new city was built and was called Xiakou.
All in the same place.
Chen Ji took the water route, but landed in Wuchang, and made a special trip to visit Zhuge Ke, the general of Wu State.
After the death of General Lu Xun, Zhuge Ke quickly took over Lu Xun's position and recruited many of Lu Xun's subordinates, including Ding Feng and others.
In recent years, the domestic problems in the Kingdom of Wu, apart from the plague in Jianye and other places at the beginning of the year, have been the internal fighting between the prince and King Lu. Zhuge Ke and Lu Xun originally supported the prince, but Lu Xun did not like Zhuge Ke.
Zhuge Ke wrote a letter to Lu Xun to explain why he was dissatisfied with his bad moral character, self-willedness, and great achievements. The letter was circulated and was called "The Book of Zhuge Ke and Lu Xun". Zhuge Ke's show of kindness won the favor of Lu Xun's subordinates.
, when Lu Xun died, Ding Feng and others defected to Zhuge Ke.
In addition, Zhuge Ke had previously targeted the Shanyue people in Danyang and collected tens of thousands of Danyang soldiers, making him very powerful. The Soochow gentry decentralized power and paid great attention to strength. Zhuge Ke has gradually become the most powerful among the four major surnames in Soochow.
people, and assumed the post of general.
Therefore, Chen Ji was sent as an envoy to Soochow, and his destination was Jianye to meet the Emperor of Wu, Sun Quan. However, he passed by Wuchang and was still preparing to disembark to meet Zhuge Ke first.
In addition to Zhuge Ke's high position and power, Shi Bao, the governor of Xuzhou in Wei State, fled to Soochow and defected to Zhuge Ke.
Among Chen Ji's entourage, there happened to be a man named Cai Hong, who was a confidant of Master Sima; and Shi Bao was a close confidant of Master Sima. The relationship was established immediately.
But Chen Ji actually didn’t have much need to find connections. He came to Wu State all the way and was treated very well because his father was Chen Zhen. When Sun Quan became emperor, Zhuge Kongming allied to fight against Wei in order to restore old friendship with Soochow.
An envoy was sent to recognize Sun Quan's throne, and the envoy was Chen Zhen.
In the name of Han, Chen Zhen once made a bloody alliance with Sun Quan. Now his son Chen Ji is on an envoy. The people of Wu just look at who this envoy is and they know that Han is not here to provoke, but to make an alliance. They can't reach out.
If you hit someone with a smiley face, Wu people will naturally treat you politely.
In the current context of the two emperors of Wu and Han, Han is the legal successor of the Han Dynasty, and Wu is the choice of the people (gentry and nobles). They are both legitimate emperors, and the territory of Wei has been divided up in advance.
, a treaty was signed. Only the Emperor of Wei was illegal and usurped the throne. It would be better to wait and divide the territory between the two countries after defeat.
When Zhuge Ke saw Chen Ji, he smiled as if this person he had never met before was a close friend and acted very friendly and enthusiastic. Zhuge Ke obviously knew what it meant for the Han State to send Chen Ji.
Chen Ji also met Zhuge Ke for the first time. He saw that this man was seven or eight feet long, very tall and majestic, with little beard, a wide forehead, and the crease under his eyebrows gave people a very serious and fierce feeling. Even when he smiled, he was very...
Not feeling very relaxed.
The crowd bowed to each other and greeted each other, and it was very lively. When Cai Hong, the follower, saw Shi Bao, his voice was choked with sobs, but this did not disturb the mood, but made the scene more sincere.
Zhuge Ke invited Chen Ji and others to the general's mansion. When everyone arrived at the mansion, they saw that the mansion was very old.
The early summer in the south of the Yangtze River is sunny and the scenery is brightly colored. However, there is a lot of rain in this place, and buildings that have been around for a long time tend to show their stale appearance, which is more obvious in the sunlight.
Zhuge Ke said in public: "Your Majesty advocates simplicity. The Jianye Palace in Jianye City has been in disrepair for a long time, and your Majesty still cannot bear to waste the people's power. We should follow your Majesty's example and use the people's power for state affairs."
Zhuge Ke was originally from Langya, so his accent had changed, but if he spoke a little slower, Chen Ji, a Nanyang native, could still understand him.
Chen Ji praised: "The kings and ministers of the Wu Kingdom are ambitious and admired by others."
So Zhuge Ke invited Chen Ji in and led him into a cool open hall. At this time, most of the officials and followers did not come in, and only a few important people remained.
Chen Ji was polite at first, saying that the customs and laws of the two places were different. He came down the river very quickly and had no time to learn more about it. If there was any offense, please ask General Zhuge to remind him and tolerate it.
In fact, everyone is a person who migrated from the northern and central plains. Even if they belong to the two countries, the customs and habits will not be much different. But Chen Ji said this and established a friendly atmosphere.
Zhuge Ke claimed that he had interacted with the leaders of different tribes in the south, and the differences were even greater, so the rulers did not need to restrain themselves.
Sure enough, the two of them quickly talked about the scenery of their ancestral hometown. Afterwards, they both felt deeply about leaving their hometown and having their hometown occupied by the Wei State.
Shi Bao, who was a native of the Wei state not long ago, turned his head to look at the north and sighed, with sadness on his face.
Zhuge Ke said solemnly: "Nowadays, many people in Wu have regarded building a career as Luoyang, which has sapped their ambition for progress. Among the ministers of Wu, I am dedicated to assisting Your Majesty. I am only waiting to make achievements in the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains!"
According to the previous partition treaty, Sizhou was bounded by Hangu Pass, the Han State should have Chang'an as its capital, and Luoyang belonged to the Wu State. Therefore, Zhuge Ke's concern for Luoyang did not conflict with the position of the Han State.
Chen Ji took the opportunity to say: "Cao Wei was experiencing civil strife. First, Sima Yi killed Cao Shuang; then Wang Ling and Qin Liang led their troops to the north, fought against Sima Yi, and entered Luoyang. Although the civil war was short, it had come to an end for the time being, but the ministers of Cao Wei must
People's hearts are in turmoil, and it will take more than a year and a half to heal the hatred and grievances among them.
The Han court sent me as an envoy to invite Wu to send troops to the Northern Expedition. If the two countries attack at the same time, and attack Cao Wei from east to west, from north to south, so that the two sides cannot care about each other, great things can be accomplished."
Zhuge Ke was the main fighting faction of the Wu Kingdom. He immediately hit it off with Chen Ji and echoed: "I also have the same intention. This is a God-given opportunity. Don't miss it. Now that the Jianye plague has subsided, Zhu Shiran (Zhu Ran) of Jiangling wrote to the Prime Minister of the Northern Expedition.
.The time has come, and I am also preparing to write to Your Majesty, intending to lead troops out of Dongguan, station troops in Ruxushui and build cities, and take advantage of Huainan."
He looked smug and ambitious, and continued: "As long as Wu and Han make some progress, Wang Ling's unstable status will definitely stimulate Cao Wei's internal strife, and it may become an opportunity to change the general trend of the world!"
Chen Ji also nodded frequently when he heard this. He remembered Zhuge Kongming's "Longzhong Dui", which described that after dividing the world into three parts, he had to wait for the world to change before he could advance into the Central Plains.
Can we now create an opportunity for "change in the world" as Zhuge Ke said?
At this time, Chen Ji's follower Cai Hong suddenly said: "General Zhuge must guard against Qin Liang's trebuchet when building the city. He should choose the terrain carefully and build a sub-city to consolidate the city defense."
When he said this, he took out a roll of cloth from his sleeve pocket, "After the Battle of Xuchang, my general drew the appearance of a trebuchet, but he still doesn't know how to build it. The trebuchet may have been built by Ma Jun, as tall as
A tower with a hundred kilograms of stone and three feet into the ground is very powerful. For ordinary city towers and towers, once they are hit by stone bullets, it will be difficult to stand up, so we must pay attention to them."
Zhuge Ke took the cloth and looked at it, and said: "I heard about that incident. Xuchang only stayed for three days. Not long ago, all the ministers of Wu were discussing the matter, and Qin Liang's reputation spread throughout Jiangdong. Because of this
trebuchet?”
Cai Hong was a little embarrassed and said: "Most of the stone bullets cannot hit the towers. It would not have taken a few days to conquer the city. But at that time, Sima Taifu had just taken over Luoyang, and people's hearts were unstable. Both sides were fighting internally between the Chinese and foreign armies of Wei State. If it were
General Sima Ziyuan was unable to move out, which greatly affected morale.
Allowing the enemy's trebuchets to continuously hit the city, General Sima's soldiers and horses had not yet fought, and they probably had no intention of fighting, so General Sima led his troops out of the city to fight. There was a flat field outside Xuchang City, and the two armies started fighting. One day
The winner can be determined.
Therefore, General Sima's defeat was not due to defending the city, but because he had too few troops and was unable to defeat the enemy in the battle. However, with the power of Qin Liang's catapult, attacking the city was still a powerful weapon, so General Sima specially sent his servants to follow Chen Shijun eastward to warn the Wu army.
"
Zhuge Ke nodded and said: "Very good, can I accept this picture?"
Cai Hongdao: "My general drew a picture and intended to present it to the Emperor of Wu. General Zhuge can make a copy."
Zhuge Ke nodded again and said, "Sima Ziyuan really surrendered to the Han Dynasty?"
Chen Ji glanced at Shi Bao and said, "That's right. Zi Yuan also guessed that General Shi would come to Wu. After all, there is only one Zhongdu River from Xuzhou to Dajiang."
Zhuge Ke said: "This Qin Liang can invade Luoyang from Huainan in one month. It seems that he will become a serious problem for our country."
Shi Bao said: "What the general said is absolutely true. The victory of the civil war between the Wang family in Yangzhou was all due to Qin Liang. When I led the army into Qiao County and reached the Yingshui River, Wang Ling was not even half a step out of Shouchun. Two battles took place.
It was all Qin Liang who led the troops."
Ding Feng, who was standing next to him, said: "Qin Liang started his family in Lujiang, so I am considered a Lujiang native. I hope I can meet this person if I have the opportunity."
Chen Ji heard this and praised: "General Ding is ambitious. I hope the general can defeat this man in battle and become famous all over the world."
Ding Feng smiled and said: "If you want to become famous, defeat famous generals. The king has pointed out a good way."
However, Cai Hong, his follower, frowned and said, "My general said that Qin Liang is a dull man in military tactics. He is not very powerful. He is just a sinister person and good at disguise."
Ding Feng disagreed and said: "But he is famous! There are already people in Jianye who compare Qin Liang with Zhou Gongjin back then. He is good at poetry, writing, and has a good understanding of music and rhythm. He has the style of a Confucian general."
Zhuge Ke also chimed in: "Chengyuan (Ding Feng)'s goal is to become famous all over the world before he is thirty years old."
Chen Ji glanced at Cai Hong and signaled him that there was no need to argue. Then he cupped his hands and said, "I wish General Ding that he will get what he wants as soon as possible."
There are many young generals in Soochow, and this Ding Feng looks very young and vigorous, including the general Zhuge Ke, who is only in his forties. Chen Ji remembered that many generals in the Han Dynasty had gray hair, and had to secretly sigh.
Wu's national power is indeed stronger and his talents seem to be more abundant.
Several people talked for a while. Because of Zhuge Ke's position, Chen Ji had a good conversation with him. But just getting Zhuge Ke's support would not make it happen. He also needed the promise of Sun Quan, the Emperor of Soochow. So Chen Ji stood up and left.
After a night's rest, we will continue down the river to Jianye tomorrow morning.
Zhuge Ke settled everyone in the guest house of the general's mansion.
When Chen Ji was resting in the guest house, his entourage Cai Hong went out to meet Shi Bao privately. The two were old acquaintances, and it was normal for them to meet alone to reminisce.
However, after Cai Hong came back, he told Chen Ji that Shi Bao wanted to contact the Sima family's master craftsmen who stayed in Wei and wanted to steal the production drawings of the trebuchet. It seemed that Zhuge Ke was serious about it and paid attention to that kind of thing.
Chen Ji kept an eye on it and told Cai Hong that Sima Ziyuan and Shi Bao are now their own masters, so they should not help Shi Bao do things. Although Wu is an ally, Wu is not very reliable as an ally. If Zhuge Ke and others
People got the blueprints first, and most of them were unwilling to share them with the Han Dynasty.
Cai Hong thought so. He was close to Shi Bao just because they were both close followers of Master Sima. The person Cai Hong was loyal to was still Master Sima.