Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1251 Barbarians
The result of the Battle of Yecheng had spread throughout the world. Just when all parties thought that the situation had been settled and were preparing to move closer to the State of Jin, news arrived that hundreds of thousands of Xianbei had invaded, causing many people to become hesitant again.

In addition to the internal turmoil in Cao Wei due to the impending death of Cao Cao, there were also many disagreements within the Wu Kingdom about the direction of the attack.

As one of the few remaining forces and the one with the weakest strength, Wu State still has an advantage, that is, its system of generals has not completely collapsed. At least in the area south of the Yangtze River system, it still has quite impressive naval warfare capabilities.

The official system composed of Jiangdong and Jianghuai gentry had a much stronger talent pool than Liu Bei. Although there was no Lu Su and Lu Xun from the previous life, a new generation of strategists began to grow, and people such as Lu Ji and Zhuge Jin came to the fore.

This is also the source of Sun Quan's confidence. To him, although the Wu Kingdom had experienced many setbacks, it still retained a lot of strength. At least it could still defend itself south of the Yangtze River if it wanted to. Moreover, it still had the strength to take the initiative to attack. Whether it was now against Liu Bei or Yuan Xi, it seemed that the chances were good.

On Yuan Xi's side, the main force was transferred from Yecheng to Jicheng, and there were not many troops in the Jianghuai direction; while Liu Bei took advantage of the situation to defeat Cai Mao and occupied southern Jing. After that, he did not turn back, but continued to fight northward and went straight to Xiangyang.

Liu Bei's move actually somewhat destroyed the previous agreement with Yuan Xi, but for some reason the Jin army did not show any resistance, but instead made way for them.

This made Sun Quan a little confused, so he summoned his officials to discuss Liu Bei's intentions.

Gu Yong said, "Liu Bei didn't come back because he thought that relying on Xu Shu and Zhang Fei was enough to defend Changsha. This was too confident, to the point of being arrogant."

"Although Zhang Fei used a trick to kill Ling Tong in the previous battle, it was also because Ling Tong underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly that the Wu navy was not seriously injured."

"But this has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it makes Liu Bei's army blindly confident, so they dare to continue to attack Xiangyang of Wei. Do they think we won't counterattack?"

"He doesn't even think about it. Now the main force of the Wei army has retreated to Xudu, which is not far from Xiangyang. Isn't this courting death?"

Sun Quan asked, "Why did he ignore Changsha and attack Xiangyang?"

Prime Minister Sun Shao said, "I guess Liu Bei wants to seize the opportunity to occupy Jingzhou and cut off Cao Wei's access to Yizhou, thereby gaining control of the two rich and prosperous places of Jingzhou and Yizhou."

"If they can get the two states to help them, they can turn around and fight against the king. By then, Wu will only have half of Jiangdong, and I'm afraid it will not be able to compete with Liu Bei's army in terms of consumption."

Everyone thought to themselves, where is the remaining half of Jiangdong? Half of Jiangdong is in the hands of the evil tiger!
Sun Quan said sullenly, "Since he is so arrogant, I will mobilize all the troops in the country and attack Changsha. I don't believe that Zhang Fei alone can stop more than a dozen of my generals!"

Zhuge Jin said, "I think Liu Bei went to attack Xiangyang not only to go to Jingzhou, otherwise it would be hard to explain why he gave way to Jin."

"You know, according to intelligence, Xiong Hu and Liu Bei had an agreement to divide Jingzhou equally."

Yu Fan asked, "What does he want to do?"

Zhuge Jin hesitated for a moment and said, "Jin guesses that Liu Bei is likely to occupy Xiangyang and then take advantage of the situation to attack Xudu."

Everyone was startled. Sun Shao asked, "Attack Xudu?"

"Liu Bei is too clueless. Does he think he can capture Cao Wei's heavily guarded base camp by himself?"

"He had already ordered Guan Yu to attack Xu Du once before, but wasn't he defeated by the Wei army in the end and fled back in disgrace?"

"And is Xudu really that important?"

Zhuge Jin said in a deep voice: "To other people in the world, Xudu may be just a city, but to Liu Bei, it is the place where he is carrying out the imperial edict to fight against the enemy."

"Besides, if he wants to support the Han Dynasty, he must capture Xudu and take back the emperor."

Everyone was extremely surprised. Zhuge Jin's statement seemed ridiculous, but if you think about it carefully, it does make some sense!
Lu Ji, who had been silent, also spoke up at this time: "I agree."

"Liu Bei does not consider the gains and losses when he acts. He is not a qualified king. This is also his biggest weakness."

“If we can make good use of it, we might be able to make them suffer a great loss.

"Especially Zhang Fei in Changsha, he is also a blindly confident person. He killed Ling Tong and is very arrogant. If we can lure him into the trap, Changsha will be within our grasp."

"I am willing to lead 5,000 naval forces and two vanguards to defeat and kill Zhang Fei, capture Changsha for the king, and destroy Hannan!"

All the officials understood Lu Ji's thoughts. Now the State of Wu had to either attack the State of Jin or Liu Bei. The governor of the Jianghuai region of the Jin army was Lu Xun, who was of the same clan as Lu Ji. So even if Lu Xun wanted to lead the troops to fight, it would be difficult for him to do so and he would be more or less suspected. But it was different on Liu Bei's side.

Moreover, if Lu Ji went to attack Liu Bei, Zhuge Jin would most likely go to stop the Jin army. However, Zhuge Liang, the military advisor of the Jin army, was Zhuge Jin's cousin. This relationship would undoubtedly make Zhuge Jin quite embarrassed.

Now, the two factions of Lu Ji and Zhuge Jin represent the Jiangdong gentry and Jiangbei gentry respectively, and there are naturally a lot of open and secret struggles. Although Lu Ji's move was relatively immature and explicit, he had sufficient reasons, so no one could say anything.

However, the most crucial question is, is it too arrogant for Lu Ji to want to defeat Zhang Fei with only 5,000 soldiers?
You have to know that in the previous battle, Cheng Pu led the army and mobilized tens of thousands of people, but was still defeated by Zhang Fei and lost a great general. How can Lu Ji, who is so young, be compared with Cheng Pu?
Yu Fan's eyes flickered. "Gong Ji looks so confident. Does he have something in mind?"

Lu Ji said proudly: "Although I may not be able to achieve a complete victory, if there is only Zhang Fei on the opposite side, I still have some confidence!"

Seeing Lu Ji's confidence, everyone started to wonder, is this because he is a newborn calf that is not afraid of a tiger, or is he unaware of how powerful Zhang Fei is?
You have to know that Zhang Fei on the other side is not a reckless man, but a man of courage and strategy. If he didn't know the art of war, he would never lead troops alone. But now he has defended Changsha alone, and even Cheng Pu and others are helpless. Lu Ji is so young, is he really bragging? Sun Quan also hesitated. If it were before, he would have no problem giving tens of thousands of people at will, but since Jin State reached Jiangdong and occupied Wujun and Kuaiji, it cut off most of the sources of Shanyue soldiers for Wu State.

Although the backbone of Wu State is the Danyang soldiers, they are unable to replenish their troops due to years of war. If Lu Ji sends away another 10,000 people, it is hard to say whether Wu State can stop either Yuan Xi or Liu Bei.

Sun Quan turned to the crowd and said, "Let's not talk about Liu Bei. Xiong Hu is now being attacked by the Xianbei outside the pass. Isn't this a good opportunity for us?"

"The best case scenario is that Jicheng is destroyed and Xionghu is killed by the Xianbei people. The situation in the world will be reshuffled. At that time, we can take back Jiangdong and even Jianghuai without bloodshed!"

Sun Shao also echoed, "That's right. If Xiong Hu dies in Youzhou, the State of Jin will fall apart, and his subordinates will either establish themselves or surrender to Wu and Wei."

"The two most valued military advisors under his command, Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun, are both related to us. If we can send someone to contact them, maybe they will come and surrender with their soldiers and territory!"

"Especially Zhuge Liang, who occupies Yecheng and has military power in Qingxu and other places, and has a grudge against Cao Cao. If we can persuade him, perhaps these states can all be under the king's command!"

Sun Quan couldn't help swallowing his saliva after hearing this, but he heard Zhuge Jin say: "Kong Ming is not that kind of person. The Prime Minister's plan is likely to fail."

Sun Shao felt ashamed after hearing this and said, "Isn't what Zi Yu said too arbitrary?"

"I know Tzuyu is loyal to the king, but is Zhuge Liang also this kind of person?"

"Besides, the fierce tiger is dead. He has no one to be loyal to. He has no choice but to live in a new place. Is he going to be independent?"

Zhuge Jin said, "I know a little bit about my cousin's character."

"I am sure that even if Xionghu dies, he will do his best to support Prince Xionghu."

Sun Shao still didn't give up, "What if Xionghu's family is all dead?"

Zhuge Jin said: "Then he should go to Liu Bei."

Everyone fell silent for a moment. Doesn't this clearly mean that Sun Quan is not as good as Liu Bei?
Sun Quan suddenly burst into laughter, "I believe in Ziyu."

"Besides, if Wu wants to turn the tables, it should do it step by step. It is unrealistic to achieve success in one go."

"Although the Wu Kingdom has suffered a temporary setback, I believe that with your help, we will be able to turn the tide sooner or later."

"My current idea is to unite with Wei to deal with the fierce tiger Liu Bei."

"Liu Bei will definitely send troops to attack and destroy us. There is nothing to discuss with him. His occupation of Jingxiang is the place I want to obtain."

"The strategy of dividing the world into two parts proposed by Gongjin before his death was to take Jing and Yi and plot against Jiang and Huai."

"Now that Yizhou has been taken by Wei, only Jingzhou is easy to attack, so Liu Bei must die!"

When everyone heard this, they all said, "We are willing to serve the king!"

Sun Quan said, "Although Xionghu is powerful, he has been punished by heaven and his homeland was raided by the Xianbei. This is a golden opportunity for us."

"Now I have sent Zhang Changshi to negotiate peace with the State of Jin to temporarily paralyze him and wait and see what happens."

"If the fierce tigers stop the Xianbei army, then we will first attack Changsha with all our strength."

"But if Xiong Hu is defeated by Xianbei, our chance will come. We can prepare our forces first, and when the Jin army is in chaos, we can unexpectedly march north, retake the Yangtze River coast in one fell swoop, and then take Hefei and Shouchun!"

He said these treacherous words as if it was a matter of course, but no one present felt that there was anything wrong with it. The State of Wu had now lost the strength to fight the State of Jin fairly. If they did not use these tricks, they could not just sit and wait to die, right?
Zhuge Jin said: "But if you take advantage of the Xianbei invasion to attack Jin, I'm afraid people all over the world will criticize you. I'm afraid Your Majesty will have to find a legitimate reason to do so."

Sun Quan sneered: "The Xianbei attacking the north has nothing to do with Jiangdong."

"Besides, I am a barbarian, why should I care about other things!"

Sun Shao said, "That being said, if someone seizes on this as an excuse, it will also cause a backlash from the forces supporting the Han Dynasty. After all, the foreign barbarians are the common enemy of the entire world."

"If that doesn't work, then we can say that Xionghu is colluding with Xianbei. That will at least give us an excuse to send troops."

After hearing this, Sun Quan said angrily, "Okay, let's wait until Zhang Changshi stabilizes the State of Jin, and then we can make plans."

"I heard that the person negotiating over there is Lu Su. I wasted my time using him. He is such a ruthless, disloyal and unfilial person!"

(End of this chapter)