Chapter 28 Chapter 28 Cao Pi Conquers Wu

Breaking through Shu is like the wind and thunder, and retreating is like the wind and lightning.After winning the battle, all the generals of the Wu army were proud and arrogant. Someone asked Lu Xun teasingly, "We are already approaching Baidi City. Why did we retreat in a hurry when we saw the ecstasy formation made of rubble? It's not true that Kong Ming is there." Lu Xun replied seriously: "Yes, I am indeed afraid of Kong Ming. But there are other reasons for withdrawing troops, and you will know within two days." Everyone thought it was his prevarication, but they didn't expect that two days later, all over Soochow sent urgent reports one after another: "Wei's army is divided into three groups, Cao Xiu's army has reached the entrance of the cave, Cao Zhen is approaching the border of Nanjun, Cao Ren is about to Heading towards Ruxu, the momentum is surging."

"Exactly what I expected!" Lu Xun clapped his hands to rejoice that his judgment was correct. He had already made preparations for Soochow, and immediately ordered the whole army to prepare for the battle. But it is said that Liu Xuande, the emperor of Shu, was beaten by Lu Xun so that he could not make a comeback. After hiding in Baidi City, he could no longer see the spirit of previous years. "I have no face to face the ministers in Chengdu." The deep palace in Chengdu will only arouse Liu Xuande's sadness. Not long after, Ma Liang returned from Hanzhong and conveyed Kong Ming's words one by one. The Emperor of Shu sighed regretfully: "What else can I say now? If I had followed the prime minister's words back then, how could I have reached this point today?" Although Kong Ming asked him to return the capital, but he changed the name of Baidi City to Yong'an Palace and stayed there, never going back.

At this time, news came that Huang Quan, the general of the navy, fled to Wei State and surrendered to Cao Pi. The side minister said to Liu Xuande: "Huang Quan's wife and children should be executed." Unexpectedly, Liu Xuande said: "No. Huang Quan's surrender to Wei was because the Wu army cut off his retreat, and it was difficult to advance and retreat. It is my fault that I abandoned Huang Quan. It is not Huang Quan who abandoned me." Not only did he not kill Huang Quan's wife and children, but ordered protect it. When Huang Quan descended to Wei and saw Cao Pi, although he was appointed General Zhennan, he only shed tears and was not at all happy.Cao Pi asked him: "You don't want to be the general of Zhennan?"

Huang Quan replied: "The general of the defeated army is lucky to avoid death, and dare not accept this kindness." He politely declined Cao Pi's appointment. A Wei official came up to the court and reported loudly on purpose: "There is news from the Kingdom of Shu. After Huang Quan returned to the Kingdom of Wei, Liu Xuande was furious and beheaded his wife and children." After hearing this, Huang Quan said confidently: "The news must be wrong. I'm afraid it's a rumor made by a villain. The Emperor of Shu is definitely not that kind of ruthless person."

After Cao Pi heard this, he didn't say another word, but just ordered him to retreat.He quietly summoned Jia Xu, unfolded the map of the Three Kingdoms, and asked, "If I want to unify the world, should I take Shu first, or attack Wu first?" Jia Xu thought for a long time before answering: "It is difficult to take Shu, and it is also difficult to attack Dongwu... In short, we can only attack when the interior of the two countries is empty. With His Majesty's heavenly power, the day will surely come true." "Now our army is taking advantage of the internal weakness of Soochow and marching towards it in three ways. What do you think the odds are?"

"I'm afraid it's not profitable." "At first you said you could attack Wu by false pretenses, but now you say you can't. Isn't that contradictory?" Cao Pi's thinking is very sharp, and counselor Jia Xu is often left speechless by his questions. But when Jia Xu heard Cao Pi's questioning this time, he said without hesitation: "What I said is not self-contradictory. If not long ago, when Eastern Wu was defeated by the Shu army, Wei would attack Wu. Good timing. Now the situation has completely reversed, Lu Xun has won a complete victory in attacking Shu, and Dong Wu's momentum is unstoppable, so I thought it would be very difficult to attack Wu, and attacking now would be very detrimental to Wei."

"You don't need to say any more. The army has already marched towards the border of Soochow. My intention is fixed and will never change." Cao Pi ignored Jia Xu's advice, and sent additional troops to the three-way army, and went to supervise the battle in person. Just after fighting the Shu army, Lu Xun was about to face the Wei army again. Lu Xun cleverly and quickly mobilized his troops, calmly resisted the three-way Wei army, and defended tenaciously. Among the three fronts, for Soochow, the most important strategic hub was Ruxu City, which was close to Jianye, the capital of Wu.

The state of Wei sent Cao Ren to attack Ruxu, accompanied by two generals Wang Shuang and Zhugewen, and led more than 50,000 cavalry to surround Ruxu. Wei Emperor Cao Pi also came here to supervise the battle in person, and told all the soldiers in the army: "As long as you capture Ruxu, it will be like inserting a dagger into the enemy's capital Jianye City. Now is the time to make great achievements!" As a result, the morale of the Wei army rose unprecedentedly, the fighting spirit covered the red sun, the sound of killing shook the world, and the sky in Jiangdong was also darkened.

The general who defended Ruxu was Zhu Huan, who was only 27 years old.Although he is young, he is not small in courage, he has sent 5,000 soldiers to assist Xianxi, there are not many defenders left in the city.The crowd persuaded him: "With such a small force, it is really difficult to defend against the army of Wei. Now we can either retreat and join the rear formation, or invite the rear formation to enter the city to defend together. Only after Jianye sends more reserve troops can we fight the enemy." Seeing that everyone was trembling, Zhu Huan summoned the main generals and told them: "It is true that the Wei army has a large number of soldiers, but after a long journey, the fatigue of the journey, and the hot weather, it will soon be exhausted by the large number of people. Suffering will come one after another. On the other hand, our army is short of soldiers, but it is stationed in a cool place on the mountain, and there are natural dangers as a barrier. The main soldier can always win the guest soldiers.'Since ancient times, in plain field battles, there are many cases of winning more battles with less. However, an army without morale will undoubtedly be defeated. I hope you believe in my command, Zhu Huan, and establish a certain battle. Victory belief. I want to go out of the city tomorrow to let the enemy experience the strength of Wu Jun."

The next day, after he left the city, he deliberately exposed his flaws to lure the enemy troops closer. Wei general Chang Diao led his army to attack the city gate in a hurry. ——I only heard the silence inside the city gate, as if there was not a single soldier. "The enemy does not dare to fight, and may have escaped through the back door." Wei Bing relaxed his vigilance and began to climb the city wall, and Chang Diao also rode to the side of the moat. Suddenly there was a bang, and hundreds of banners stretched out from the archery towers, watchtowers, city walls, and city gates, fluttering in the wind like thousands of flowers blooming.

Stones and arrows rained down from the sky, and the city gate suddenly opened wide. Zhu Huan rushed into the enemy's formation alone, and chopped Wei general Chang Diao under his horse with one blow. Hearing that the vanguard was in a hurry, Cao Ren of the Chinese army immediately led a large army to reinforce him. Unexpectedly, when he looked back, countless Wu troops suddenly swarmed in the valley of Xianxi, and the sound of golden drums cut off his retreat. This battle was actually just the beginning of the failure of the Wei army. From then on, the Wei army lost consecutive battles, and could not defeat Zhu Huan's Wu army. The offensives at Dongkou and Nanjun also failed miserably. If the fight continues like this, Wei Emperor Cao Pi himself may not be able to withdraw to Wei.Cao Pi had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​​​attacking Wu, packed up the remnants of the defeated generals, and returned to Wei State bitterly.