Chapter 46 6. Soochow returned to Jin

In the battle of Dongxing, Sima Shi's army's expedition suffered a complete defeat, and the Wei court naturally wanted to hold them accountable.The coach Sima Shi showed a generous side. He took all the responsibilities by himself, dispelled the worries of his subordinates, and won the hearts of the soldiers.In stark contrast, after the victory of the first battle, Zhuge Ke of the state of Wu raised his tail and underestimated the state of Wei from then on.The officials believed that sending troops year after year would lead to exhaustion of troops and horses, with little chance of winning, and it would also waste money and detract from the national treasury.However, the high-spirited Zhuge Ke couldn't listen to other people's words. He insisted on going his own way and insisted on sending troops, and everyone had nothing to do with him.

In the spring of the second year, Zhuge Ke led an army of 200,000 men to the city of Hefei.At that time, there were only more than 3,000 defenders in Hefei City. Zhuge Ke ordered people to build earth hills to climb the city wall. The city wall was about to collapse under the intensive attack.Zhang Te, the guard general in the city, was quick and wise, and sent someone to send his seal and ribbon to Zhuge Ke, and he also brought a message saying: Wei State's law stipulates that the city will not be rescued for a hundred days, and the people in the city will not surrender even if they surrender. Zhulian family, now you have attacked Hefei for more than 90 days, please allow us to surrender tomorrow, so that the family will not be affected, and now we use the seal and ribbon as a token.Zhuge Ke thought to himself, what's the point of waiting a few more days, anyway, the city of Hefei will be captured by our army sooner or later, so he agreed to Zhang Te's request and ordered his subordinates to stop attacking the city.

Just as Wu Jun was dreaming happily of accepting Wei Jun's surrender, three thousand Wei Jun shoveled soil in the city, fighting day and night.A few days later, Wu Jun was dumbfounded when he saw it. Under the sunshine, a brand new city wall rose from the ground, standing inside the old city wall.It turned out that Special Envoy Zhang had used a tactic to delay the attack, and within a few days of deception, a new wall was erected. At this time, he changed his pitiful appearance a few days ago, stood on the top of the city and shouted to Wu Jun: How could I surrender!I will only fight till the last moment!Zhuge Ke was furious, and quickly ordered the soldiers to attack the city again. However, after months of hard work, Wu Jun was already exhausted. How could he have the strength to gnaw down a new city wall, and the cooked duck just flew away.

Opportunities are fleeting, and time has passed negligently. Wu Jun spent time under the city of Hefei from the early spring season to the scorching midsummer.The weather was getting hotter and hotter. The hungry and thirsty Wu Jun was looking for water everywhere, and he could no longer care about the sanitation of drinking water. For a while, more than half of the soldiers in Soochow began to have diarrhea.When Zhuge Ke heard the report, he suspected that the soldiers were pretending to be sick and lazy. Later, when they saw that the soldiers were really stumbling around, vomiting and diarrhea, he realized that there was no chance of victory in this war.

He didn't take the responsibility himself like Sima Shi, but vented his anger on his subordinates. If someone held different views on the war, he dismissed them, and a captain surrendered to Wei State in a fit of anger.In July, seeing that Zhuge Ke could no longer conquer Hefei, he had no choice but to order the withdrawal of troops. In Zhuge Ke's battle, when he came, he was an elite soldier with high morale, but when he left, he was a dejected and defeated soldier. Some soldiers fell ill and were trampled to death by their own troops on the road, and some soldiers were captured by the chasing and harassing Wei army.Zhuge Ke turned a blind eye, still talking and laughing freely, and took the opportunity to play along the river for more than a month before returning to Jianye.Zhuge Ke obviously didn't realize that this battle was a turning point in his military and political career, and he has completely lost people's support since then.

At the beginning of August, Zhuge Ke returned to Jianye. Instead of reflecting on his mistakes, he reprimanded others in a rage, and vigorously suppressed those who opposed him.With such perverse actions, Zhuge Ke has already dug his own grave. In October of this winter, Sun Liang and Sun Jun set up a Hongmen banquet for Zhuge Ke.Zhuge Ke seemed to have a premonition the night before going to the banquet and was restless, but he still went to the banquet on time the next day.His disciples felt that the atmosphere was not right, and secretly persuaded him to go back, but Zhuge Ke, who was about to die, still maintained his usual indifferent style, saying, what is so great about this group of waste, at most they put some perspiration medicine in the wine.

He went to the hall with a sword, and did not drink easily after sitting down.Seeing this, Sun Liang said: There must be good wine in the Taifu's mansion, so you might as well send someone to fetch it.Zhuge Ke just drank a few glasses of wine.During the banquet, Sun Liang found an excuse to leave the banquet, and Sun Jun also hypothesized that it would be convenient for him to go out. Sun Jun who came back changed into a smart attire, held a sharp knife and shouted: "I am ordered to arrest Zhuge Ke!" Zhuge Ke quickly drew his sword, but it was too late. He took a step, and immediately decapitated.

After the Hongmen Banquet, everyone embraced Sun Jun as Taiwei, replacing Zhuge Ke.After Sun Jun took power, he blindly fooled around with court ladies, and the state of Wu slipped further and further on the road to decline. In 264 AD, Sun Xiu, the third emperor of Soochow, died of a serious illness.At this time, the Wu people should have made his son emperor according to Sun Xiu's wishes.However, everyone can see that now that the Shu Han is dead and the Eastern Wu Dynasty is in danger, it is better to have a capable person in charge of state affairs than to establish an incompetent little emperor.

Important ministers Zhang Bu and Pu Yangxing heard that Sun Quan's grandson, 23-year-old Sun Hao, was brave, diligent and studious, so they went to welcome him as emperor.The last emperor of Soochow Wu was diligent and caring for the people in the beginning, but after a long time, he exposed his bad habits of arrogance, rudeness, lust and greed.Zhang Bu and Pu Yangxing, who welcomed him as emperor, regretted it, and complained from time to time in private.After Sun Hao heard about it, he sent the two to prison for questioning. After the tragic death of the two ministers, no one in the court dared to persuade Sun Hao again. Sun Hao's nature was completely exposed. In order to let the beauties of Soochow be enjoyed by himself, he even banned civil marriages.He was also bloodthirsty, and ministers were often innocently gouged out by him, skinned their faces, and chopped off their feet.

In addition, Sun Hao has another hobby, which is to look for auspiciousness everywhere.If you find a silver ruler with scales here today, you will change it to Yuantian Book, and if you find a stone with characters there tomorrow, you will change it to Yuantian Seal.He never expected that his year name would soon collapse. In 279 AD, Sima Yan saw that Sun Hao was so outrageous, so he decided to send troops to Soochow.In November of that year, the Jin Dynasty mobilized 200,000 troops and marched towards the State of Wu from several directions in a devastating manner.At the beginning of 280 A.D., Du Yu of the Jin Dynasty attacked Jiangling from Jingzhou, Wang Hun attacked Jianye from Yangzhou, and Wang Jun went straight to Jianye from Yizhou.

On the way Wang Jun led the navy to Jianye, he encountered iron cones inserted in the Yangtze River by Wu Bing.Wang Jun sent warriors who were good at swimming to pull up all the iron cones and burn off the iron chains connecting them.Riding the wind and waves, the army first broke through Jianping and then drove towards Jianye.On the road, I met my colleague Wang Hun, and Wang Hun summoned him. Wang Jun, who was determined to win, smiled at him and said, "The wind is strong and the boat is fast, and I can't stop it." The speed at which Wang Jun was galloping was also the speed at which Soochow fell apart.When the Jin army came to attack, Jianye had only 30,000 troops left.Sun Hao ordered Prime Minister Zhang Ti to lead 30,000 soldiers across the river to fight. Compared with the army of the Jin Dynasty, such a small number of troops was no different from an egg hitting a stone. Most of the Soochow soldiers fled.In March, Sun Hao was desperate and surrendered under the persuasion of his subordinates.In this way, Soochow followed the trend of history and belonged to the Jin Dynasty. Throughout history, all kinds of failures have first collapsed from within, and then were crushed by external forces.Sun Hao was a notorious tyrant in history. Under his rule, the people of Wu State had no food and clothing, the hearts of the people were dispersed, and the generals fled north. Even without the attack of the Jin Dynasty, the collapse of Soochow would be a matter of time.This is true for the country, and it is also true for people. Instead of seeking a better external situation, it is better to cultivate your own heart and win qualitative changes from the inside out.