Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 574 Everyone has their own plans
During the Double Ninth Festival banquet, the battle in Xiangyang became more intense.

After Sun Ben turned against the enemy at Hanjin, crossed the Han River to the north and attacked Suicheng, the news that the army in the south of the Yangtze River was infected with the disease leaked.

"The great epidemic in the army is also the time to withdraw the troops."

Lu Yi met with Lu Su and Huan Jie and expressed his views: "It will take time to fight against Guanzhong. I think Sun's betrayal of the court is not an isolated case. If we continue to fight, there may be unpredictable dangers."

Southeast of Xianshan, in a wooden pavilion halfway up the mountain near the battlefield where Sun Jian was shot dead, Lu Yi calmly pointed to the north and said, "We have confirmed news that Guanzhong has won a great victory over Hebei, capturing and killing more than 100,000 people. Once this news spreads among the army, the morale of the army will be disturbed. How can we fight?"

Huan Jie did not question the source of the information. Seeing Lu Su looking at him, Huan Jie remained silent.

In terms of friendship, Huan Jie has deeper roots with Guanzhong.

If Liu Ba had not committed suicide, making it difficult for him and the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River to step down, they would not have continued to be tied to the southeastern court.

Seeing Huan Jie standing by and watching, Lu Su said, "General, I am not worried about the reinforcements from Guanzhong, nor am I afraid of their large numbers."

Hearing this, Lu Yi slowly turned his head and stared at Lu Su. After a moment, he said, "Zijing, you are playing with fire."

He had already determined what Lu Su and the southeastern court were thinking, so he immediately said, "The army has been infected with the epidemic, and the weather has been cold and gloomy lately. I have also caught a cold and am feeling unwell. I will submit my resignation to the court and ask it to send another wise man."

Anyone who wants to come can come, it’s not like he really doesn’t want to do it anymore.

If we really follow the plan of Lu Su and the southeastern court, failure does not matter, victory is not important either. The key is that we will be hated by Guanzhong.

Lu Yi is not just one person. He has so many people behind him, including the Wujun Lu family, relatives, students and former officials. He cannot only consider the cause of the court.

Lu Yi stood up with his hands on the table, turned around and glanced at Lu Su who was sitting still: "Take care of yourself."

"Why is this happening, Grand Commander?"

Huan Jie stood up and hurried after him. Lu Yi said nothing. He walked twenty or thirty steps before stopping and asking Huan Jie, "In recent times, the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River have suffered from severe epidemics. Except for Guiyang, the remaining three counties are all large counties. Including the Jingman, each county has a population of no less than one million. Now the registered population is less than 200,000 each. Including the hidden households and the Jingman, the four counties can have a population of two million?"

Huan Jie was stunned. Basically, since he could remember, the total population of Jingzhou had been declining. Although the villages were not completely destroyed, there were abandoned houses in every community.

In many villages and communities, most of the people were replaced, as the original residents died of the disease and were inherited by relatives or supplemented by the dispersed population.

Not to mention the gathering places for ordinary people, even among the powerful people, only a few people may survive an epidemic storm.

Huan Jie didn't know how to answer for a moment, but he also knew that after the battle, the army would definitely withdraw.

The spread of the epidemic is almost inevitable.

Unless the army does not move now and continues to confront, waiting for the weather to turn cold, the cold air will be able to kill the epidemic.

But the unspoken plan of Lu Su and the court was really useful. As long as they fought with the army on the north bank of the Han River and waited for the arrival of reinforcements from Guanzhong, they could spread the epidemic and cause immeasurable damage.

Seeing that Huan Jie still had some conscience and bottom line, Lu Yi said, "You have lived in Changsha for generations, and you are a Jiangnan family name. Your relatives and students are spread across the counties. If you join them now, will you still have a way to survive in the future? Haven't you seen what happened to the Wang family of Taiyuan?"

After saying that, Lu Yi bowed and gave a look to the general of the personal guards. The general of the personal guards stood in place and stretched out his arms to stop Huan Jie. Lu Yi went down the mountain surrounded by other personal guards.

Lu Yi is a member of the Lu clan. The main clan of the Lu clan was severely damaged by Sun Ce. The current leader of the main clan is his uncle Lu Ji, who is just younger than Lu Yi.

Before Lu Jicheng's death, Lu Yi could stand up and take on the main responsibility; now the situation is not good, and Lu Yi's resignation due to illness will not have any impact.

Anyway, he can definitely get back what he lost from Lu Ji.

Because of the structure of the Southeastern Court, the Court had to win over the Lu family. The Lu family alone seemed to have only a dozen direct male descendants, but in fact it was a large group of people.

Rather than being a commander-in-chief in name only, Lu Yi wanted to take the opportunity to resign and get something tangible.

Seeing that Lu Yi did not seem to be angry, Huan Jie returned to the wooden pavilion and said to Lu Su, who was drinking by himself, "Zi Jing, do you really have to do this?"

"Is there a better strategy to deal with the enemy?"

Lu Su had a blank expression on his face: "As Lu Boyan said, there is a small epidemic in the army at the moment, so we have a pretext for retreating, and the Northern Army dares not pursue us. But after this retreat, the loyalists in Jiangbei will surely be ruined, and it will be extremely difficult to attack Xiangyang in the future."

"If you can attack with fire and water, how is the attack with poison different from that with disease?"

Seeing Huan Jie was silent, Lu Su still tried to persuade him, otherwise the Changsha soldiers and the Jingnan army might withdraw on their own: "Guanzhong has cleared the northern barbarians, and now we can concentrate on managing the southern affairs. If we can't inflict a heavy blow to them and break their edge, the people in the court will be in turmoil, how can we accomplish great things?"

Huan Jie was silent, took a sip from his wine glass, and whispered: "Water and fire are merciless. Zijing, aren't you afraid that the counties in the south of the Yangtze River will be destroyed? Aren't you afraid of being infected by the epidemic?"

"The epidemic in Jiangnan has been spreading, so we are not afraid of this one."

Lu Su forced a smile and said, "I would rather be infected with the plague and die of bleeding from my orifices than be humiliated by having my head shaved by the Northern Army."

Seeing that he was so stubborn, Huan Jie said, "The war has come to this point, and the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River have no way to retreat. All I can do is return to Changsha and ensure that the army has sufficient food and fodder. As for other things, I'm sorry I can't agree to it." Hearing this, Lu Su bowed and said, "That's fine."

On the other side, Lu Yi returned to the Xianshan camp. The camp was located on the Jingyu Chidao Road at the foot of Xianshou Mountain, leading to Xiangyang City in the north and Jiangling City in the south.

After returning to the camp, Lu Yi summoned several generals with whom he had become friends during this period.

Huang Gai, who was stationed nearby, arrived first and was led by his guards directly to see Lu Yi.

Lu Yi's main camp was set up in a nearby village community. When Huang Gai arrived, Lu Yi was applying powder on her face, which surprised Huang Gai. "Why is this happening, Grand Commander?"

"I am ill and can only hide my illness with makeup."

Lu Yi spoke with full energy and bright eyes. Huang Gai was stunned again: "But what about Sun Ben's defection?"

“It’s somewhat related.”

Lu Yi continued to look in the mirror, and when he had almost finished applying the ointment, he wiped his hands with a handkerchief, and led Huang Gai to the table to drink tea, saying, "The court has made a ruling. Except for Sun Ben's only son, all the rest of the Sun family, from Sun Jing onwards, will be executed."

Huang Gai was silent, and couldn't help feeling fortunate. His clan had been wiped out by the epidemic since they moved from Jiangxia to Lingling. Fortunately, he had no son.

Even if he wanted to have an heir, he could only find one from Huang Zu.

As for Huang Zhong, he has only one son, so how could he be adopted?

Sun Ben's only son was young and could not be killed, because Sun Ben's only daughter was married to Cao Zhang. Anyone who dared to propose killing Sun Ben's only son might suffer revenge from Cao Zhang in the future.

Offending Guanzhong has already cut off many people's escape routes. If Cao Zhang is offended again, if Cao's army goes south to purge the court, dying in the line of duty will only mean the death of one person, but if Cao Zhang is seeking personal revenge, then the entire clan will be wiped out.

What Cao's army did in Qingzhou was actually no different from what they did in Guanzhong.

However, given the special circumstances in Jiangdong, it would be difficult for Cao's army to repeat what happened in Qingzhou.

Seeing Huang Gai drinking tea and listening quietly, Lu Yi said, "I have guessed the bottom line of the Grand Marshal's actions. He retired today on the pretext of illness because he wanted to stay away from trouble. I hope the general can lead his troops back to Jiangdong with me and start a business. In the future, perhaps there will be an opportunity."

"But what about the court?"

"It's easy to talk to the imperial court. My Lu family wants to conquer the Shanyue and recruit their best soldiers. Isn't it for the purpose of competing with the northern troops? The imperial court can't stop me, and the emperor will also support me."

Lu Yi already had some confidence in his mind. During the past six months, he had been confronting the Northern troops across the Han River, and the two sides had been exchanging letters. Many of his previous speculations were also confirmed in a series of interactions.

He looked at Huang Gai and really wanted to take Huang Gai away.

Huang Gai thought for a moment and asked, "What did He Qi say?"

"I have sent an envoy to invite him. Ever since the epidemic broke out in the army, He Qi has wanted to withdraw his troops. I invited him to come with me, which is exactly what he wants."

"If General He is willing to go with us, the expedition against Shanyue will be a sure success. I am willing to follow the governor."

Huang Gai agreed immediately. It was not just Lu Yi who was communicating with the Northern Army during this period.

It cannot be said that it is for sale at a price, it is just normal correspondence between friends and relatives.

Except for people from Lianghuai like Lu Su, most people in Jingzhou have relatives and friends on the enemy side, so it is normal for them to send gifts and greetings every now and then.

At this time, the personal soldiers led He Qi in, and He Qi immediately agreed.

He Qi had wanted to leave a long time ago. He didn't want to perish with Sun's former subordinates.

In his eyes, the purpose of this war promoted by the imperial court and the Jiangdong big families was to weaken the old Jiangdong army.

Sun Ben defected only because he realized this purpose; Sun Ben ran away, and the other old soldiers of Jiangdong simply had no chance.

Sun Quan, Zhou Yu and Taishi Ci were all on the opposite side, and He Qi did not believe in the reliability of people like Xu Kun and Cheng Pu.

Even now, He Qi suspected that there was no epidemic at all, and it was just a trick played by the old army of Jiangdong to fool Lu Su.

After all, after Sun Ben burned his ships and fled to Suicheng, he couldn't be said to have recovered his health, but at least he was still alive and well, which didn't look like any symptoms of being infected.

Even Huang Zu smuggled military rations to Sun Ben.

Could Lu Su and other military supervisors know about this smuggling of military rations?

Definitely not.

(End of this chapter)