I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 353 The art of restraint
"No."

Sun Quan's face dropped again, as if he was in pain because someone owed him money and he hadn't paid it back.

Sun Quan asked Gu Yong in disbelief: "Isn't Wang Ling a minister of Cao Wei?"

Gu Yong said: Your Majesty, how do you want me to answer this question?
"Wang Ling is naturally a minister of Cao Wei."

"Then how could he see Li Jian running around in the Central Plains without moving like a mountain? Did Luoyang not give him an order?"

The ministers were silent.

Sun Jun said: "It stands to reason that Luoyang did not give him an order."

"How to determine?" Sun Quan asked.

This is a political question and it is very important.

Assuming that Luoyang gave Wang Ling an order to mobilize his troops and Wang Ling remained motionless, that would be disobeying Luoyang's order.

If Wang Ling and Sima Yi confront each other and Huainan raises troops, there is only one way, which is to go to Luoyang for King Qin.

"Our war situation in Jingzhou is unfavorable. How can we ease the relationship with Shu next?"

It's even possible that Wang Ling changed his identity and supported the Sima clan. Who can say for sure?
After all, people in this era have not opened their eyes to God, and they do not know Wang Ling's attitude.

The ministers were silent for a while, and then Zhang Xiu said: "We can send envoys to Huainan to inquire secretly in the name of trade between the two parties. This has two advantages. One is to inquire about Wang Ling's attitude, and the other is that we deliberately show favor to Wang Ling. Sima Yizhi has just taken power, so he must be wary of people like Wang Ling. If he sees Wang Ling showing favor to us, the gap between the two parties will increase, which will be beneficial to us. "

"What do you mean, Prime Minister?"

After all, you, Wang Ling, don’t pretend anymore, and I, Sima Yi, definitely don’t pretend either.

After hearing this, Sun Quan was overjoyed and said with a smile: "Okay! Well said!"

Since he was going to Luoyang to be King Qin, Emperor Sun must have changed his attitude immediately.

"This is simple. Send envoys to negotiate peace. Shu dare not refuse to agree." Dahong Pei Xuan said.

Sima Yi is now in power in Luoyang, which is equivalent to publicly slapping Sima Yi in the face.

At least the letters we exchanged were bragging to each other about how loyal the other party was to the court, how benevolent and moral they were, and how much they valued the common people of the world.

Everything is just speculation.

If this is the case, the conflict between Sima Yi and Wang Ling will break out next.

Showdown!
But if Luoyang had not given orders to Wang Ling, then both parties would still be decent people.

We can't fight for independence and imitate Yuan Shu and become emperor in Huainan, right?

So what does this have to do with Emperor Sun?

"Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. I'm afraid it's not that simple." Gu Yong said.

The other ministers nodded in agreement.

From his former enemy, he suddenly became Wang Ling's closest comrade-in-arms.

This is a big deal.

This puts political contradictions on the table.

This idea is a common idea among Sun Wu in the past twenty years.

In the eyes of the kings and ministers of Wu State, Yizhou will definitely seize every opportunity to form an alliance with our great Wu.

After all, the political correctness of Yizhou is the Northern Expedition to fight against Cao Wei.

Everyone knows that it is difficult for Yizhou to fight against Cao Wei, so it is necessary to make friends with Jianye.

Of course this time is no exception.

I hit you, what can you do?

After the fight, you can't just come to Jianye to sit down and negotiate a peace based on the situation!

But this time Gu Yong didn't think so. He said, "If we participate in Huainan and instigate Wang Ling and Sima Yi, will we send out troops by then?"

"out!"

Gu Yong said: "If we send troops to Huainan and Li Jian takes the opportunity to send troops to attack Wuchang, wouldn't we be attacked on two fronts?"

This silenced everyone. Sun Quan also fell silent.

This involves the issue of Sun Wu's national defense focus.

Since the Battle of Yiling, Sun Quan's defense layout against the State of Wu was developed along the Yangtze River.

Wu State has two capitals, one is Jianye and the other is Wuchang.

Sun Quan was the emperor in Wuchang.

The essence of these two countries is closely related to Wu's military defense: one is the western front and the other is the eastern front.

The Western Front had the dual task of defending Ji Han and Cao Wei.

It would be almost impossible for Ji Han to go down the river and recapture Jingzhou without Li Heng's powerful weapon of returning artillery.

Therefore, the defense on the western front is relatively weak, mainly to defend Cao Wei's troops in northern Jingzhou.

The command center of this place is Wuchang.

For this reason, Sun Quan also stayed in Wuchang to guard the prince.

The eastern front is centered on Jianye, and Jianye is actually the main attack.

For so many years, Sun Quan has been obsessed with Hefei.

Then the problem is back, Hefei was defeated, Jingzhou was defeated, Wu suffered many defeats, and now there are problems on both the western and eastern fronts.

You plan to make a radical move, continue the offensive on the eastern front, and push the situation to a two-front battle.

Or should we be more conservative and stabilize the two fronts?

This has risen to a national security issue.

There is no doubt that the confidence of the Eastern Front offensive comes from the stability of the Western Front.

After a moment of silence, Sun Quan refused to give up and muttered: "Instigating Wang Ling and Sima Yi to weaken Cao Wei will be of great benefit to us in taking Huainan in the future."

"Now that Li Jian is getting bigger in Jingzhou, the Wei army cannot stop him. Cao Wei is weak. It is good for us to take Huainan, but the benefit to Li Jian is greater." Gu Yong explained patiently, "The benefit to the enemy is greater than that of us. Please tell me. Your Majesty, will this still benefit us?"

Sun Quan was completely silent.

Gu Yong has sorted out his thoughts very clearly. If you instigate Wang Ling now, there may indeed be problems within Cao Wei.

The state of Wu wanted to take advantage of the situation.

But have you ever thought that the one who finally got off the hook may be the murderer, executioner and the family’s biggest enemy in Jingzhou!

This was actually Lu Xun's idea. When Lu Xun withdrew from Jiangling, he mentioned to Zhu Ran and others that he would unite with Cao Wei to fight against Jingzhou.

From the highest level, Wu State no longer has the strategic opportunity to instigate Cao Wei.

Because Sima Yi must unify his voice internally and adjust his main attack direction externally to deal with Jingzhou.

The so-called joint vertical and horizontal situation has already changed from resisting Wei to resisting Han.

It's just that Ji Han has always been weak before, and Sun Wu looked down on Yizhou. Now even if the situation is reversed, Wu ministers are still unwilling to admit it.

But Lu Xun, who was always calm, quickly understood and pointed out this point, and then raised it in the court through the words of Prime Minister Gu Yong.

Zhang Xiu also fell silent.

Naturally, the Huaisi faction like Zhang Xiu wanted to take back northern Yangzhou, but what Gu Yong said was almost impossible to refute.

"Then what does the Prime Minister think we should do next?"

"I believe that joining forces with Wei and fighting against Shu is the next path we must and can only choose."

As soon as he said this, the officials were shocked.

Has the situation already developed to this point?
In the past, Yizhou was defeated by us in Yiling, but we still had to bow our heads and come to negotiate peace.

As a result, now, we actually have to unite with Cao Wei to compete with Yizhou?

"What we should do now is to consolidate the Wuchang defense line and send people to Jingzhou for peace talks with Li Jian. This can increase the bargaining chip of our alliance with Cao Wei."

(End of this chapter)