"We still occupy half of Lujiang County now, if Cao Cao is willing to shake hands with us and make peace, we can give him half of Lujiang County at the right time. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info" Zhou Yu said, "If Cao Cao wants to fight Jiangdong, he must take all the two counties in Jiangbei, otherwise his rear will be directly threatened by us." Although he joined forces with Yuan Yao this time, he was menacing, but he was worried that Yuan Yao would turn against him, and he was limited by the fact that there were too few warships in Jiangbei, so he didn't dare to attack Jiangdong at all. He could only deploy troops on the north bank of the Yangtze River, contain our troops, let Liu Biao in Jingzhou and the rebels from all over Jiangdong inflict heavy losses on the Jiangdong army, and then take advantage of the Jiangdong chaos to cross the river. ”

"Now that Hebei has intervened, Cao Cao has almost lost the possibility of attacking Jiangdong. The only thing he can do is to quickly control the two counties in Jiangbei and make a future strategy. If he can take Lujiang without spending a single soldier, he will definitely be very willing to give us a favor. ”

Sun Quan, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, Sun Jing and others spoke in unison and unanimously opposed.

At the beginning, Zhou Yu defended the Lujiang River, just to protect Jiangdong, if the Lujiang River was given to Cao Cao, let Cao Cao stabilize the two counties of Jiangbei, and rapidly develop the Jiangbei Naval Division, the threat to Jiangdong would be greater and greater.

Liu Biao attacked Jiangdong just to solve Jiangdong's threat to Jingzhou, while Cao Cao attacked Jiangdong to occupy Jiangdong and dominate Xu and Yang. Compared to the two of them, Cao Cao was a greater threat to Jiangdong.

Sun Quan thought Zhou Yu's strategy was too risky. In the case of civil strife, it is very unlikely that the main force will be concentrated to fight Jiangxia. Last year, the opportunity was so good, but Sun Ce and Zhou Yu still returned home with nothing. This year has been terrible, and certainly hopeless. For the sake of this attack, which has no chance of winning, it is especially undesirable to abandon Lujiang County, which is purely a self-defeating strategy.

Zhou Yu insisted on his own opinion and tried his best to persuade Sun Quan and others. He said: "Hebei intervened and took the initiative to contain Cao Cao's attack on Jiangdong, which is the best opportunity for Jiangdong to get rid of the current crisis. ”

"If Jiangdong wants to get out of the current crisis, the top priority is not to quell the civil strife, but to eradicate the external threat. Fighting Liu Biao and occupying Jiangxia is the only way for Jiangdong to get out of the crisis now, and there is no other way to do anything else. ”

"Once Hebei attacks Luoyang, the Jingzhou army will inevitably go north to help. The Jingzhou army was already damaged on the battlefield in the Central Plains last year, and if we go north again this year to help, the forces left in Jingzhou will definitely be limited, and this is an important reason why we can capture Jiangxia. ”

"We promised to give Cao Cao half of Lujiang County, not immediately, but to withdraw from Lujiang County at the right time."

"What is appropriate? If we can quickly seize Jiangxia and the main force of the army can rush back to help, then we will regret it and wave our army north to attack Hefei and occupy the key place where Cao Cao attacked Jiangdong. If we can't take Jiangxia for a long time, then we will delay until winter arrives and withdraw from Lujiang County, and continue to attack Jiangxia when Cao Cao is unable to use troops in winter. In the spring of the next year, we will take advantage of the naval division and concentrate the main army to counterattack Jiujiang and kill Hefei. ”

"For us, as long as we take Hefei, it is equivalent to recapturing Lujiang County and holding Jiangdong, so at the right time, we can give up Lujiang County."

Zhou Yu finally persuaded Sun Quan and others.

Zhang Hong hurriedly went on the road with Jiangdong's peace conditions.

………………

After Cao Cao received letters from Cao Ren and Mao Jue, and carefully discussed the conditions of Hebei's tripartite peace agreement with Cheng Yu and others, he knew that the situation had been controlled by Hebei, and that the strategy of attacking Jiangdong had failed, and now he could only strive for the greatest interests in the peace talks.

He hurriedly told Cao Ren and Mao Jue with an 800-mile fast horse, and immediately made an appointment with the general Li Yi to tell the truth about Xuzhou's peace conditions.

The first condition that Cao Cao put forward was that Tian Yu's wedding ceremony must be held separately, otherwise, he withdrew from the tripartite peace talks.

Cao Cao's second condition was to ask for Langya. Langya Kingdom is now occupied by Zang Ba, but I have returned to the imperial court, and I am the Xuzhou Mu of the imperial court, you must hand over a complete Xuzhou to me, and you can no longer let Zang Ba continue to garrison Langya Kingdom.

Cao Cao's third condition was to demand control of the two Jiangbei counties in Yangzhou. Sun Quan and Zhou Yu in Jiangdong are currently forced by the situation and have to bow their heads, and when they lift the crisis and stabilize the four counties of Jiangdong, they will be ready to move again. They not only wanted to conquer Jingzhou, but also wanted to occupy the two counties of Jiangbei, so as to gain a favorable situation for attacking the Central Plains. In order to trap these two capricious villains in Jiangdong, the best way is to completely dispel their idea of occupying the two counties in Jiangbei.

Yuan Yao obeyed the general's orders, which everyone knows. At the beginning, Cao Cao was eager to occupy the two counties of Jiangbei, so he could only join forces with Yuan Yao, but Yuan Yao was always Cao Cao's enemy and a big trouble. How can you allow others to sleep soundly next to the couch? So Cao Cao said in his letter that if the general was willing to recall Yuan Yao, he could let Yuan Yao return to the Central Plains from Xuzhou with his army. Yuan Yao left the Lujiang River, and Cao Cao's army could occupy half of the Lujiang County without much effort, and then threaten the Jiangdong Army holding on to the line of Wancheng and Shucheng with superior forces, forcing them to withdraw from the Jiangbei counties, thus taking full control of the Jianghuai counties.

Li Yi smiled dumbly.

Cao Cao, the black boy, is really a lion with a big mouth, and he wants everything he wants.

Li Yi asked his men to initially discuss a countermeasure on Cao Cao's terms, while patiently waiting for Jiangdong's reply.

Because the letter was sent back and forth directly through the flying pigeon, Koto's reply soon arrived.

In the letter, Sun Quan first thanked the imperial court for honoring him as a rebellious general, Yangzhou Mu, and Marquis of Wucheng, and then straightforwardly made a reasonable request for Cao Cao and Yuan Yao to give up Jiujiang and Lujiang.

Sun Quan said: "I am the pastor of Yangzhou, the six counties of Yangzhou should be controlled by me, if Cao Cao and Yuan Yao continue to occupy the two counties of Jiangbei, it will be a rebellious move, and the general should send troops to fight." ”

Li Yi shook his head and laughed. This Sun Quan is really a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers, Jiangdong has reached such a dangerous situation, he even opened his teeth and claws, and forced Cao Cao to give up the two counties in Jiangbei.

Li Yi convened the two sides for talks again. However, Cao Cao and Sun were-for-tat, and the two sides did not give an inch. Li Yi didn't want to waste time, so he asked Xu Shu and Zhuge Liang to continue to negotiate with them under the pretext that he was still in a hurry.

Before leaving, Li Yi dropped a sentence, I can let Langya Guo out, Yuan Yao and I can recall, but you must discuss the affairs of the two counties in Jiangbei as soon as possible, and do not delay the time indefinitely.

At this time, Jiangdong envoy Zhang Hong rushed to Xingyuan. He has Sun Quan's authorization, as long as he keeps the final bottom line, he can handle other things flexibly.

In this way, things can be considered smooth.

By the time these things are done, it is already July, and it is not far from the time to launch the final assault on Luoyang.

………………

In late July of the fifth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 200), Luoyang.

In the past two months or so, under the command of Yue Fei, Xu Da, Li Jing, and others, the Northern Xinjiang Army has basically completed all preparations for the storming of Luoyang.

The moat on the battlefield of Xicheng has been cut off, and there is no water in the ten-mile-long river. The three-mile stretch of river between Shangximen, Yongmen and Guangyangmen has been filled in.

After Li Yi returned to Xingyuan, the first thing he did was to inspect the battlefield. More than 100,000 soldiers and strong men in northern Xinjiang are busy on the battlefield. The rebels on the city walls were on standby and did not fire at the dense indignation and repair of the oars on the river.

Yue Fei introduced to Li Yi: "After the army cut off the moat and drained the water in the river, it began to fill in the moat from the river in front of Yongmen. At first, the rebels in the city shot wildly, but due to our large number of covering equipment, hundreds of thousands of people took turns to bury them from dozens of directions at the same time, and the rebels were overwhelmed, so the weapons in the city were consumed too much, and they gradually stopped shooting for several days, and could only watch us fill the moat. The rate of landfilling has accelerated, and the channels that have been filled in are getting longer and longer, so far exceeding the prescribed length. If the time is extended for another month or two, we can even fill in the moats in front of the Upper West Gate and Guangyang Gate on the north and south sides of Yongmen. ”

"The direction of our main attack is very clear, that is, Yongmen and this three-mile-long city wall, so the rebels have not been idle during this time, and have concentrated their efforts to strengthen the city defense of Yongmen and this section of the city wall."

"How many catapults are you going to deploy on this three-mile-long battlefield?" Li Yi asked.

"According to the most dense arrangement, place one every fifty feet, one hundred and eighty units in a row." Yue Fei said, "There are five rows in total, 500 heavy catapults, and 400 medium-sized catapults. Then he pointed to the north and south ends of the battlefield, "On each side of the main battlefield, put 600 catapults." On the entire battlefield of Xicheng, we will deploy 2,000 catapults and 8,000 ballistas of various types. ”

Li Yi asked again: "What about other battlefields?" ”

"Eight hundred catapults were deployed on the battlefields of the north and south cities. 1,300 catapults were deployed on the battlefield in Dongcheng. Yue Fei said with a smile, "The four walls of Luoyang City are about forty miles together, and if five thousand catapults are arranged in sequence, there will be about two catapults within fifty feet. Under such a dense attack, what else could be left on the walls of Luoyang? ”

Li Yi asked, "Have you gathered 5,000 catapults?" ”

"There are still more than 500 units left, and they are on their way to Luoyang City." Xu Da explained, "There are still more than 2,000 ballistas missing. Half a month later, all the ordnance will be ready. ”

"Where's Minfu?" Li Yi asked, "Half a month later, will two million people be able to gather on the battlefield?" With so many heavy equipment being used at the same time, the number of people cannot be less in any case. ”

Li Jing added: "If nothing else, in mid-August, people from all over the country will be able to rush to the battlefield. ”

Li Yi was very satisfied, and then went to inspect the baggage camp.