The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 476 Despair
Wu State, Jianye.

"His Majesty!!"

"This old minister deserves death!"

Shi Ji knelt in front of Emperor Sun Xiu with tears in his eyes.

Shi Ji came to Jianye by boat overnight to report the war in Jingzhou and also to pay a visit to the new emperor.

He did not bring any troops with him and came completely alone, which also shows his loyalty to the emperor.

The young emperor Sun Xiu was also frightened when he saw Shi Ji suddenly kneeling in front of him, and hurried down to support him.

"General, why is it so? Please stand up! Please stand up!"

Sun Xiu wanted to help him up, but Shi Ji didn't even dare to raise his head to look at Sun Xiu.

"I have lost Jiangbei. How can I face Your Majesty? Your Majesty has not investigated my crimes. I am already terrified. How can I dare to take on the position of Grand General?"

"Your Majesty, please punish this old minister!"

After hearing Shi Ji's words, Sun Xiu subconsciously wondered whether this man was sincere or was putting pressure on him in disguise.

But when he saw the old general in front of him with tears in his eyes, his doubts were immediately dispelled.

Sun Xiu helped him up in a serious tone. "General, the loss of Jiangbei was due to those two scoundrels, Gu Jun and Gu Chen. What has this got to do with you? If it weren't for you, not only Jiangbei, but the entire Wu Kingdom would have fallen into the hands of Cao Cao."

"In today's Wu Kingdom, you are the only one who can turn the tide and defend Jingzhou. Please don't say such things again."

Sun Xiu's attitude was also extremely sincere.

When Shi Ji heard this, he felt even more ashamed.

Sun Xiu supported him and let him sit next to him.

Zhang Bu and Puyang Xing sat opposite each other and were quite polite to the old general.

Since Sun Xiu got rid of Sun Chen, these two have soared to fame, especially Zhang Bu. Because there was no Ding Feng to share the credit, he took off directly. As the commander-in-chief of the central army, he was in charge of the army inside and outside Jianye, and he was also given the power to participate in court affairs. He can be said to be a weakened version of the general.

This was even more true of Puyang Xing. When Sun Xiu first settled in Kuaiji County, Puyang Xing was the prefect of Kuaiji and had a very good personal relationship with Sun Xiu.

After Sun Xiu ascended the throne, he was promoted from a prefect to the Minister of Rites in a very short period of time, and then he was promoted to General of the Guards, and then he was given the title of Marquis of Waihuang.

Sun Chen shook his head when he saw the speed of ascension.

Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu quickly became allies because Sun Xiu was still young. Although he had the idea of helping the world and governing the world, he was still inexperienced in many government affairs. Therefore, major tasks basically fell on these two people.

You said that power has returned to the hands of the monarch, which is true, but powerful ministers seem to exist at the same time. Although these two powerful ministers appeared because of the emperor's favor, this makes the situation within the Wu State look a bit complicated.

Sun Xiu comforted him for a long time before Shi Ji guiltily talked about the things in Jiangbei.

"Your Majesty, a counterattack is unlikely. Sun Guchen's brothers surrendered to Cao Cao with their armies. Now Xiakou has fallen into enemy hands, making it impossible for us to connect. Wang Ji is an extremely cautious person. He is in Jiangling..."

In just one year, Shi Ji looked much older.

His hair and beard were completely white, and he looked very old, thin, and his eyes were dim.

Sun Xiu comforted him again, "General, these matters can be discussed later. Don't worry."

Shi Ji talked about his own defense line again.

"I have deployed the army mainly in Lexiang, across the river from the enemy. It will be difficult for them to break out. Your Majesty, don't worry about Wang Ji heading south. I have already prepared a new line of defense. The new line of defense is as follows."

Shi Ji began to tell the story seriously. Although Sun Xiu didn't know much about military affairs, he still listened very carefully and showed great respect to the general.

"I think we can send General Ding Feng back to Jianye and have him garrison there. Guanqiu Jian is in Huainan, training his navy. This clearly indicates he's planning to march south. If Jianye isn't garrisoned, problems could easily arise."

Zhang Bu frowned immediately.

Shi Ji didn't look at him and continued:

"My thoughts are this: given the current situation, we alone are no longer able to deal with Cao Cao, and the same is true for Shu. Cao Cao's occupation of Jiangbei poses a greater threat to Shu. The current situation is not favorable to either of us."

"Your Majesty, you can send envoys to Shu to form an alliance with them. Both sides can jointly deploy a defense line to contain the Cao thieves' forces in the north of the Yangtze River, and prevent them from thinking of attacking Wu or Shu. No matter which side they attack, the other side can go all out."

"What Shu lacks is food. If both sides could join forces to fight the enemy, Cao Cao wouldn't dare to act so recklessly."

"I can stay in Lexiang and continue to keep an eye on Cao Cao, while General Ding can return to Jianye and let him garrison Jianye. That's it."

Shi Ji was expressing his thoughts when Zhang Bu couldn't help himself. He looked at Puyang Xing and gestured to him.

Puyang Xing immediately understood. He cleared his throat and looked at Sun Xiu, "Your Majesty, I have some ideas as well."

Sun Xiu looked at him and asked, "Do you think this is inappropriate?"

Puyang Xing hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, Shu cannot be easily trusted. This time, Shu promised us to send troops, but in the end, they only led their troops around Yong'an and left after finding no benefits to seize. If we form an alliance with them, they will certainly demand a large amount of supplies, but in the end, they will not come to our aid."

"The affairs of Jingzhou should be handed over to our own people, who are the most reliable. With the general and General Ding in Jingzhou, Jingzhou will definitely be safe."

"As for Jianye, I believe that if Cao Cao wants to take Jianye, he must first take Jingnan. General Ding can play his greatest role in Jingnan."

Puyang Xing said very sincerely.

Shi Ji became anxious at that time.

Shi Ji had always advocated for closer ties with Shu. Zhang Bu was secretly observing Sun Xiu's expression.

Of course he was going to oppose Shi Ji. If Ding Feng came to Jianye, what would his position as the Central Army Commander be?

Without military power to support them, how could he and Puyang Xing govern the world?

Just let them stay in Jingzhou and don't think about coming back.

Shi Ji immediately said, "Your Majesty, they were unable to send a large army originally because they were short of food. Losing Jiangbei would also cause them great harm. Now they are facing attacks from both sides and will definitely not allow Cao Cao to attack Jingnan without any worries."

Shi Ji tried hard to explain, but Puyang Xing had his own ideas about it.

The two sides were in a stalemate, and Sun Xiu had no choice but to let Shi Ji go and rest temporarily.

Only after he left did Sun Xiu look at the two of them.

"The reason you're opposing this is because you're afraid Ding Feng will take away your power after he returns?"

When Sun Xiu asked this, the two men were so frightened that they immediately said, "We dare not!"

"Your Majesty, we are all doing this for Your Majesty!"

Puyang Xing immediately said, "Your Majesty, you may not know that when Gu Chen was rebelling, General Shi had many private contacts with the Shu Kingdom and even wrote letters to the other generals, expressing his desire to join the Shu Kingdom in fighting against Cao Cao!"

"I'm not saying that General Shi is disloyal to you, but these things cannot be ignored. Moreover, General Ding trusts General Shi so much."

Puyang Xing couldn't help wiping away his tears as he spoke. "If Your Majesty feels that I have other ideas, I would like to resign and return home!"

Sun Xiu narrowed his eyes. He actually knew very well what these two people were thinking.

However, he was anxious to promote these two people simply because he had no trusted associates around him.

He did not dare to easily share the power of the temple with others, for fear that a powerful official whom he could not suppress would appear, or that a powerful family would sideline him.

After considering many issues, Sun Xiu promoted these two people and asked them to take charge of the work.

At this moment, Sun Xiu was also a little hesitant. After all, it was the first time he met Shi Ji, and their relationship was not very deep.

However, Sun Xiu felt that the alliance was still necessary.

Now, relying solely on the power of Wu, there is really no way to compete with Wei.
He said seriously, "The alliance is beneficial to the world. I believe you are speaking frankly for me, but from now on, you must not disrespect the general in this way."

Both of them said yes.

Sun Xiu then sent someone to inform Shi Ji and asked him to do it as soon as possible.

When Shi Ji, who was worried, saw the person sent by the emperor, he was extremely excited.

Holy King, my Great Wu has produced such a Holy King, what else is there to worry about?

He immediately began to contact his old subordinates in Jingzhou and asked them to go to Shu as soon as possible to meet with Shu's Shangshu Ling Chen Qi to discuss cooperation between the two sides.

After receiving the news, the messenger set out from Jingnan and took a detour to Bashu. This road was ten times more difficult to travel than usual!
When the envoys from Wu arrived in Shu breathlessly, the atmosphere in Shu seemed somewhat sad.

The envoys from Wu State arrived in Chengdu. Just as they were getting ready to meet the emperor of Shu State, they suddenly learned something.

Xiahou Ba, the General of Chariots and Cavalry of Shu, died of illness.

The Emperor of Shu was in great grief at this moment and could not spare the time to welcome the envoys from Wu.

The envoy of Wu decided to meet with the Minister of the Chancellery Chen Qi first.

However, he also learned that Shangshu Ling Chen Qi was also seriously ill and could no longer get up to handle government affairs.

They wanted to see the general again.

But then I learned that General Jiang Wei went to Hanzhong to garrison the area and was not in Chengdu at the moment.

This made the envoys of Wu extremely helpless. So who are we going to meet?

At this moment, Chen Qi also learned about this. He struggled to get up several times and wanted to meet these envoys, but his body did not recover.

On the eighth day after the envoy arrived in Chengdu, Chen Qi died of illness.

Faced with Chen Qi's death, the scholars in Chengdu were not too sad.

This villain colluded with eunuchs and made friends with villains like Huang Hao. All he did on a daily basis was flatter Your Majesty and he mindlessly supported the general's Northern Expedition. Isn't the current situation of Shu caused by him?

The scholars within Shu had a lot of opinions about Chen Qi.

But Liu Chan was even more sad, as he had lost two important and capable ministers one after another.

This made him very sad, and he repeatedly instructed his ministers not to look down on the Shangshu Ling.

The ministers gave him the posthumous title of "loyalty".

At the same time, Huang Hao also rolled up his sleeves and prepared to start his own era in Shu.

The first thing he did was to send these envoys from Wu back.

When Shi Ji returned to Jingnan and heard about this, he was stunned at first, then fell silent, and finally laughed out loud with his head raised until he was exhausted.

(End of this chapter)