The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 434: Farming General
Jingzhou, Xiangyang.

In the Zhennan General's Mansion, Wang Ji sat in the upper seat with a solemn expression, examining the generals in front of him.

Several generals appointed by the court have now arrived in Xiangyang.

Ma Long, Wen Yang and Jiang Ban stood in front of Wang Ji respectively.

On the table in front of Wang Ji was the emperor's letter.

Cao Mao did not issue an imperial edict to Wang Ji, but only sent him a letter, telling him about the situation in Wu and mentioning several people who needed special attention.

Wang Ben originally wanted to take action without waiting for orders from the court, and then submit a report to inform the emperor.

If there is a good opportunity, he is unwilling to waste time. If he can make contributions, the government will not hold him accountable too much.

But now it seems that it doesn't need to be that troublesome.

The court had no intention of restricting him at all. The emperor's letter told him to do whatever he wanted and not to worry about the pressure from the court. He should fight whenever he could.

Wang Ji felt indescribably touched.

Compared to Sima Shi, who was extremely vigilant and always liked to use deputies and military supervisors to restrict the main general, His Majesty is now more tolerant and can fully trust the generals under his command. He will not send someone with the same surname to watch over them.

In recent years, the commanders and military supervisors in wars across the country were always surnamed Sima.

Even if it is only in name, it is necessary. This is understandable. After all, Sima Jia is just a powerful official. He cannot represent the court and is very wary of his colleagues.

After gaining the emperor's trust, Wang Ji became more confident in himself.

The emperor sent three powerful generals to help him.

Ma Long's many military training methods have been widely circulated, and his battle record in Yongliang is even more substantial. Not to mention Wen Yang, who became famous in the battle of Hanoi. Jiang Ban also has a record of repelling Sun Jun and killing Liu Zan.

It can be said that these three are very strong.

However, Wang Ji never thought that he could win the battle by just gathering a few powerful generals together. If they were all unruly, disobeyed orders, and had conflicts with each other, then their arrival would not be a good thing.

He looked at the warriors in front of him.

Well, Ma Long looked very humble, with his head lowered, and was very respectful to himself. Jiang Ban seemed a little smooth, and there was a smile in his eyes when he looked at himself. This was actually not a bad thing. An obedient general is a good general.

Wang Ji finally looked at the only guy who might have a problem.

The guy was staring at him with his eyes wide open, as if he was going to chop off his head at any moment.

Wang Ji also had a bad temper and stared at Wen Yang for a long time.

"Why, do you have a grudge against me?!"

Wang Ji asked.

Wen Yang immediately replied, "There's no grudge, but how can you lead an army into battle without armor?"

It turned out that Wang Ji was wearing a deep-collared robe and no armor, and looked a little weak.

Wang Ji said, "Come here! Bring me my armor!"

Armor was immediately delivered. Wang Ji put it on right in front of them. Touching the notch on the armor, he said, "This is the armor of the Wu thief, General Anbei, Tan Zheng. I captured him alive and stripped it from him. Now, does he look like someone who can lead troops into battle?!"

Wen Yang then nodded, "It looks like it."

Ma Long quickly spoke up: "General, the Tiger Cavalry General is young and his words are straightforward, but he does not mean to be disrespectful to you."

"General, you have commanded Jingzhou, and have repeatedly defeated larger forces with fewer troops, forcing the Wu rebels to flee in panic. You have also formulated a strategy to attack Wu, cultivating farmland to accumulate food, and building warships. We all admire your reputation and are willing to follow you into battle."

Jiang Ban also said quickly: "General, when I came here, General Zhendong asked me to bring a message. He said that General Huqi is young, and if he behaved rudely, please forgive him."

Wang Ji said seriously, "When I lead my troops into battle, I require my generals to follow my orders completely. They are not allowed to have their own ideas. The commander can formulate strategies according to his own ideas, but the generals cannot. What the generals see is completely different from what the commander sees."

"If a general disobeys orders, it will undermine the commander's entire strategy."

"You are all His Majesty's favored generals, but if you fail in battle due to disobeying orders, I will punish you according to military law and show no mercy!"

All three of them hurriedly agreed.

Wang Ji then sat down again and spoke again, "When Duke Xuanwen was still alive, he wanted to attack the State of Wu and asked for my opinion."

"I told Duke Xuanwen that if we were to fight, we must gain sufficient gains. Small-scale fighting would actually benefit the State of Wu, preventing them from focusing on internal strife and allowing the ruler and his subjects to remain united."

"At that time, Jingzhou had a small population, insufficient food, and dilapidated warships. We could only engage in small-scale operations and could not achieve sufficient gains." "I have been in Jingzhou for many years, settling the local people, collecting refugees, cultivating land, clarifying etiquette and systems, rectifying military order, restoring schooling, repairing warships, and training the navy. I have been waiting for the opportunity to make great achievements!"

"Now that Wu is in civil war, all the generals are dead, their king has been deposed, and morale is low. This is the best opportunity."

Wang Ji had the map displayed and then said to the crowd, "Now that Jingzhou has opened its canals, gathered grain, and built warships, it can already accomplish great things."

"My strategy is this: lead the army to attack Jiangling and Xiling. After taking these two places, we can then occupy Xiakou and transport grain along the Ju and Zhang rivers. We will defend these cities and resist the enemy's counterattack."

"We have powerful equipment and strong logistics. As long as we can continuously transport food and troops here, the enemy's stubborn belief in relying on natural barriers will be destroyed, and more and more people will abandon the dark and join the light. At this time, we can unite with the barbarians in various parts of Jingzhou and let them act from the inside. We will divide our forces to attack. From Xiakou and above, we will definitely be able to capture the strongholds, and the prefectures and counties beyond the Yangtze River will be untenable."

"This will cut off communication between Wu and Shu, making it impossible for the two countries to unite, and Eastern Wu will become a turtle in a jar."

Wang Ji was very excited at the moment.

Wang Ji was actually a military general. As early as seven years ago, when he first arrived in Jingzhou, he defeated the State of Wu and made military achievements.

When the government wanted to take action against the State of Wu, Wang Ji refused. He believed that they should make preparations and then take over the entire Jingzhou to cut off the communication between the State of Shu and the State of Wu.

From then on, Wang Ji began to farm diligently in Jingzhou.

He had been farming for so long that over time he became a farming general.

His reputation as a ruler surpassed his reputation as a warrior.

However, Wang Ji's most fundamental purpose in governing Jingzhou was to attack the State of Wu.

Unfortunately, after Wang Ji made preparations in history, he encountered a period of major internal turmoil in Cao Wei. Huainan rose up in rebellion twice in a row, and later the emperor was killed. The Wei Dynasty had no intention of taking Jingzhou again.

Wang Ji passed away with regret.

Many years after his death, when Du Yu was fighting in Jingzhou, the strategic ideas he used came from Wang Ji.

But now, Wei is well prepared, its soldiers are in high spirits, and Wu has suffered so many things. Wang Ji feels that he would be sorry for himself if he did not take action.

The three generals looked at Wang Ji's idea and looked at each other in confusion.

The idea is good, but how do we take Jiangling and Xiling?

Wang Ji didn't give them a chance to ask questions. "I'll give you three days to regroup. After three days, the army will march out!"

"only!!"

Xiangyang suddenly became lively. Wang Ji had been preparing for so many years, and at this moment he finally had the opportunity to put his preparations into practice.

The civil war in Wu State had also begun at this moment.

As expected, Shi Ji adopted the strategy of holding his ground, while Sun Chen sent several of his brothers to attack from Xiakou, targeting Baqiu, Gong'an, Jiangling and other areas.

In Jianye, after deposing Emperor Sun Liang, Sun Chen named him King of Kuaiji and had General Sun Dan escort him to Kuaiji to live.

He exiled Quan Shang to Lingling County, but when he was halfway there, Sun Chen felt that he could not let him go easily, so he sent people to chase him and kill him.

He exiled Princess Sun Luban to Yuzhang County and killed all her close associates.

At the same time, after selecting from among the royal family, he chose Sun Quan's sixth son, Sun Xiu, to serve as emperor.

He sent Sun Kai and Zhongshulang Dong Chao to welcome Sun Xiu back to Jianye to ascend the throne.

At this point, Sun Chen became even more arrogant. He thought that he had no rivals in the entire Wu Kingdom. As for Shi Ji, he didn't even take him seriously. His army was several times larger than Shi Ji's, so why should he be afraid of him?
After thinking that he had stabilized the situation in Jianye, Sun Chen left Jianye with many generals and led the army towards Xunyang.

At the same time, a large number of defections occurred in Wu.

Quan Yi, Quan Duan, Quan Yi, Quan Yi, Quan Xi and other members of the Quan family fled the Wu Kingdom and surrendered to Cao Wei.

This was because they were worried about being liquidated by Sun Chen.

Lu Ju's good friend, General Tang Zi, was particularly frightened because he had participated in the dismissal of Sun Chen with Lu Ju. After Zhu Yi was killed by Sun Chen, Tang Zi became even more frightened. He was originally a member of Cao Wei, but his rebellion failed and he defected to the State of Wu. In panic, he sent people to Cao Wei again, expressing that he realized his mistake and didn't know whether he could survive.

His letter first fell into Wenqin's hands, and Wenqin hurriedly wrote back: I welcome you to turn from evil to good, and I will never pursue your past crimes!
A few days later, Tang Zi fled to Cao Wei with his private troops and surrendered directly.

Under Sun Chen's rule, almost all of Wu's experienced and qualified generals were killed, and defections became more and more frequent.

Sun Chen was extremely dissatisfied with this and sent military supervisors to monitor the generals in various places, and said that if they showed any signs of escaping, they would be killed.

This further increased the generals' worries.

(End of this chapter)