The Duke of Shu Han began guarding Jingzhou in place of Guan Yu.

Chapter 188 Fighter Jets Revealed
Seeing Mi Wei remain silent, Lu Xun was not surprised and chuckled:
"You are indeed honest."

Deerway confessed:
"As we all know, Xiakou is an important town in the Jianghan Plain, and the Lushan City side is particularly important to our army."

"If I said I had no thoughts, I would only be deceiving myself."

Upon hearing this, the officers on either side exchanged wary glances, secretly gripping their knives.

Even Zhuge Ke subconsciously distanced himself slightly from his "cousin".

Lu Xun, however, still smiled.
"Yes, your army's desire for Lushan City is simply too obvious."

“To insist on saying no would seem suspicious.”

Miwei nodded slightly in agreement.

Lu Xun then said:
"So, what are your thoughts on this city?"

Who stays? Who leaves?

Mi Wei pointed to the Zhuge brothers beside him and said:

"I think they're doing a good job guarding the position, so there's no need to replace them."

"If we really want to talk about who's leaving, we can wait until the situation becomes clearer before discussing it."

This is clearly a compromise solution.

Apart from Lu Xun, the others looked at each other in bewilderment.

They all relaxed a bit.

Lu Xun clearly hadn't expected Mi Wei to come up with such a solution.

In fact, he was already prepared to cede Lushan City in exchange for Mi Wei's full cooperation in defeating Wen Ping and Jin Zong.

That previous explanation was nothing more than a ploy to sell at a higher price.

But to his utter surprise, Mi Wei did not play by the rules.

With a thought forming in his mind, Lu Xun said:

"Could it be that General Guan's northern expedition in Nanyang has failed?"

“There are indeed some obstacles,” Miwei readily admitted.

"However, taking Wancheng is only a matter of time. It's just a matter of how much we have to pay and whether we can plug the gap in Fangcheng afterward to prevent the situation from fluctuating in the future."

Such a calm and understated tone, yet he spoke with such confidence.

Thinking of the battle situation in Huainan on the other side of the mountains, Lu Xun's expression darkened.

Miwei naturally noticed his change and said in response:
"Excuse my frankness, but in the current situation, although our army has suffered minor setbacks, we still have the overall situation under control."

"Although your army has achieved a minor victory, the outlook is likely not good."

"Otherwise, why would you have taken the initiative to ask me to meet?"

"Why did you volunteer to be stationed in Chaisang in the first place, in order to control the vital route for support between the east and west?"

Lu Xun took a deep breath.

He is indeed a formidable young man.

sidewalk:

"If we need your army to sail eastward with the river to provide support, how many soldiers do you have?"

Mi Wei had already prepared a plan:

"At most eight thousand regular soldiers, and your army will need to provide them with provisions."

Lu Xun frowned and said:

"Food and provisions are not a problem, but eight thousand soldiers... is far too few!"

Mi Wei saw Lu Xun's statement.

The last trace of doubt in my heart.

It's finally starting to dissipate.

This is precisely the fundamental reason why he agreed to meet Lu Xun.

Battle reports can lie.

But the front lines will not.

The person in Jiangdong who knew best where the Jiangdong "front line" was was right in front of them.

Mi Wei: "Then how many reinforcements do you think would be appropriate?"

Lu Xun hesitated for a moment before saying, "Fifteen thousand."

Upon hearing this, Mi Wei chuckled and said:

"General Lu, now it is your side that needs our help."

Even so, you still refuse to be honest with me?

Lu Xun exhaled and said:
"Twenty thousand."

Mi Wei stood up and made a move to leave.

"Thirty to forty thousand!" Lu Xun said urgently.

"Too little won't solve our predicament, but too much will be difficult for our supplies to maintain!" Mi Wei asked, hands behind his back, without sitting down.
"So, you've already calculated the approximate size of the Wei army in Huainan?"

This time, Lu Xun did not hesitate and said directly:
“Zhang Liao has four or five thousand soldiers guarding Hefei, Zhu Ling has more than ten thousand garrisoning Shouchun, and Zang Ba also has more than ten thousand soldiers in Xuzhou.”

"In addition, Jia Kui, the governor of Yuzhou, and Wang Ling, the governor of Yanzhou, each occupy a large prefecture in Henan, and can conscript soldiers locally."

"If they come to our aid with all their might, the Wei army in Huainan can easily surpass 100,000!"

"Unless our army completely abandons Jingzhou, our forces in the Yangzhou direction are insufficient to withstand 100,000 Wei troops!"

Upon hearing this, Mi Wei sat down leisurely.

He stared directly at Lu Xun, his eyes gleaming.

"So you've concluded that the provinces of Yu and Yan will definitely go all out to support Huainan?"

When Lu Xun heard him say "also," he suddenly realized something:
"If you prepare on the left, you will be weak on the right; if you prepare on the right, you will be weak on the left?"

Mi Wei nodded and said:
"If you have everything, you will lack everything."

Lu Xun fell silent.

Miwei did not urge him.

He knew the other person had picked up on his hint.

Seeing this, the people around them relaxed even more, but they felt that the two were exchanging cryptic remarks.

They all looked completely bewildered.

Zhuge Ke couldn't help but step forward and ask:

"General Lu, didn't you and my father previously calculate on the sand table that Yuzhou is located in a strategic location in Huaixi, and that Jia Kui's troops might not all come to Huainan to provide relief?"

"Besides, if we only consider rescuing Huainan, the troops from Yanzhou and Xuzhou are sufficient. Is it alright for Jia Kui to come or not?"

Lu Xun remained silent upon hearing this, only looking up at Mi Wei.

Mi Wei, however, pointed to Jiang Wei behind him and introduced him to everyone:

"Jiang Boyue, a valiant soldier under my command."

"Previously, he went north to the three passes of Yiyang to investigate the enemy situation and learned that Wen Ping's eldest son was heavily guarding Wuyang Pass. It can be seen that although Wen Ping went south, he did not underestimate the defense of the three passes."

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Qiao's eyes suddenly lit up, as if a breakthrough had been made in his thinking.

He subconsciously rubbed his hands together, unable to hide his excitement.

This puzzled Zhuge Ke even more, but he could only watch helplessly as Lu Xun passed by.

However, Lu Xun had no time to answer his questions, and stared intently at Jiang Wei, asking:

"Is it really heavily guarded? Or is it just a bluff?"

Previously, Jiang Wei would have argued his case forcefully, stating that he had not been able to find a loophole even with his best efforts, so how could the other party be bluffing?

But by this moment he had already figured out the crux of the matter, and answered loudly:

"So what if it's just bluffing?"

"At this juncture, Wen Ping has already divided his troops, making it the best time to seize the three passes of Yiyang."

"If the Wei troops left in Jiangxia are mostly prepared north of the pass, then we should take advantage of the situation to seize the pass, cut off Wen Pin's return route, and demoralize his soldiers."

"If the Wei army marches straight into the Three Passes and sets up camp, it means that the land north of the Three Passes is already undefended, and they have no choice but to defend the passes... No, not only the land north of the passes, but probably even the counties and prefectures north of the Huai River in Yuzhou are already undefended!"

At this point, Jiang Wei's eyes widened like copper bells:
"If our army can successfully break through the three passes and go straight into the heart of the Central Plains, and threaten Luoyang and Yingzhou from Runan... not to mention Wen Ping, even Jia Kui would have to abandon his support and return home, right?"

"At that time, we wouldn't need 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers; just 10,000 would be enough to relieve the difficulties in Jiangxia, Huainan, and Nanyang at the same time, right?"

boom!
Lu Xun suddenly stepped forward and paced back and forth in front of everyone.

Such rudeness clearly shows how agitated he was.

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Ke immediately understood the hidden meaning in everyone's words.

If Wen Ping's southward march from the Three Passes to Qichun and Xiakou was a fatal blow to the weaknesses of both the Sun and Liu families.

Mi Wei, however, planned to do the opposite and strike deep into the heart of Cao Wei!
It's a classic case of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao"!
With minimal cost, shortest distance, and fastest time, strike the enemy's most vulnerable position to achieve the goal of maneuvering the enemy and seizing the initiative on the battlefield... Isn't this the military logic since ancient times?
The Battle of Baiju, planned by Sun Tzu of Wu.

The Battle of Guiling, orchestrated by Qi Sunzi.

Although the specific content is different.

But the essence is the same.

Didn't Wenping provide a near-perfect example before?

Of course, although Zhuge Ke was well-versed in military strategy and could understand this military logic...
There's still one thing I don't understand.

Even though Wen Ping heavily guarded the three passes, it somewhat shows that the territory of Yuzhou to the north was already empty.

But as mentioned before, Jia Kui had no reason to absolutely go and support Huainan, did he?

Seeing that no one had time to talk to him, Zhuge Ke could only turn to the equally excited Zhuge Qiao for help.

Then Zhuge Qiao said:

"If the goal is simply to defeat General Sun, then Jia Kui's troops from Yuzhou might not need to be deployed."

"But what if the Wei army's goal is to surround and kill General Sun, or even to destroy the Wu Kingdom?"

(End of this chapter)