Chapter 125 On Conquering Wu

Chapter 125 On Conquering Wu

"You Chang, sit down."

Ma Su followed Jiang Wan to the Prime Minister's Mansion, and the Prime Minister had already returned. Seeing Ma Su arriving, he nodded expressionlessly and said immediately.

After Ma Su sat down, Zhuge Liang put down the decree in his hand and looked at Ma Su calmly.

"I need an explanation."

It is not a good behavior to give advice in court. It is equivalent to forcing your majesty to follow your opinions. This kind of behavior is not appropriate in Zhuge Liang's opinion, not to mention that your proposal is risky.

Is Shu Han capable of conquering Wu now?

Maybe there is, especially now that Zhuge Liang has almost prepared the materials for the next Northern Expedition. Tens of thousands of Shu troops are ready to assemble and can be mobilized for the Northern Expedition at any time.

It is okay to use these troops to defeat Wu, but in Zhuge Liang's view, this is not a good choice.

Now the internal strife between the second and third oldest children may become an opportunity for the boss to push forward.

"Prime Minister, in fact, attacking Wu is the right solution at this moment." Ma Di nodded, his expression straightened, and he answered seriously.

"Elaborate." Zhuge Liang just continued without commenting.

"In the Battle of Shiting, once Soochow wins and becomes emperor, it will break up with the pseudo-Wei. With Sun Quan's character, he will definitely insult the Wei thieves from the north and win over us from the west."

Ma Di spread out a map on the chopping board in front of Zhuge Liang, pointed at the Soochow Shiting area and said.

"In this way, their feud has been forged, and the possibility of a Wu-Wei alliance has been greatly reduced."

"At this time, we are going east to attack Wu, and we are responsible for treason. The fake Wei will definitely go south to attack Soochow again. Wei attacks the outside, and I force the inside. Sun Quan is not a fool, and he naturally knows what choice to make."

"What's more, the purpose of attacking Wu is not to recapture much land, but to whether we can reach back to Jingzhou. As long as we can recapture a few passes of the Yangtze River and force Soochow to give in, we will win."

Ma Su is not a fool. He knows that it is impossible to defeat Soochow and recapture Jingzhou at this moment. Not only whether it can defeat Soochow, but also the main reason is that Shu Han currently has no talents who can take charge alone.

Without talents who can take charge of Jingzhou, even if the Shu Han recaptures Jingzhou, it will be hindered by it.

Therefore, Ma Su advocated defeating Wu, but his core appeal was to force Wu Laoer to give up proclaiming himself emperor. While safeguarding the legitimacy of Shu Han's destiny, he took advantage of the situation and captured the Yangtze River Pass and reached back to Jingzhou.

In this way, Jingzhou's talented nobles who were interested in Shu Han were brought back to make up for the shortcomings of Shu Han's talents.

Ma Di explained this idea to Zhuge Liang in its entirety and explained its feasibility.

To put it bluntly, the expedition to Wu was much simpler than the Northern Expedition.

When conquering Wu, a large amount of manpower and material resources in Shu could be transported down the river to the front line at minimal cost. The Shu army's advance and retreat were taken care of, and it was basically close to a home battle, very relaxed.

But the Northern Expedition was relatively difficult.

Longyou has been undergoing large-scale construction this year and is desperately trying to resume production. For a while, it can't squeeze out grain to supply the Northern Expeditionary Army. Therefore, if they want to maintain the progress of the Northern Expedition, the Shu army must transfer resources from Shu.

The resources in Shu must first be transported to Hanzhong, and then transported to Longyou via the Shu Road before they can be supplied to the front line. Both Zhuge Liang and Ma Di know how difficult and costly the logistics is.

The most important thing is that the two top generals of Cao Wei are sitting in the north at this time. With Sima Yi and Cao Zhen taking care of each other, the Northern Expedition is likely to fall into a quagmire of war.

At this time, the Northern Expedition was really not a wise choice.

Ma Su's explanation made Zhuge Liang nod slightly.

Only when he was having secret military discussions with himself would Ma Su return to his most familiar appearance. And what he said does make sense, and Zhuge Liang also knows all this.

Zhuge Liang also knew about Cao Zhen and Sima Yi, and he had heard about their deeds long ago. Therefore, Zhuge Liang's original plan this time was just to attack Liangzhou and push the front a certain distance north.

However, according to Ma Su, from a situation perspective, it is indeed not as cost-effective as defeating Wu.

"But if we raise troops to attack Wu, how can you be sure that the puppet Wei will not attack us?" Zhuge Liang shook his head gently, with a bit of relief in his eyes.

"Impossible. The fake Wei Caorui is not his good-looking father. There is no way he would beat us."

Ma Su dared to confirm this directly and answered very confidently.

"The center of gravity of the puppet Wei is in Guandong, which is too far away from Longyou. If the Wei army attacks us to help Wu, our Han army can quickly return aid along the river, even faster than them."

"But if they go south to attack Wu, they can not only mobilize quickly, but Soochow's ability is simply unable to defend on both sides."

"If there are only Liangzhou Army and Guanzhong Army, then the Longyou garrison alone will be enough to resist. If the Prime Minister is worried, a partial army can be stationed in Hanzhong as a surprise force, ready to support both sides at any time."

"As long as we can recapture the Yangtze River Pass, and force Soochow to give up proclaiming emperor, profess vassalship and ask for peace, as the late emperor once expected, it will be enough."

There is another sentence that is not said, that is, there is no need to worry about Sun Quan surrendering to Cao Wei in the north. Because if he proclaims himself emperor, Cao Wei and Shu Han will not be able to tolerate him.

Theoretically, this was a sure-profit deal, and there wasn't much of a problem except the need to suspend the Northern Expedition and move eastward. This is the right thing to do, both from a legal perspective and from a political correctness perspective.

Zhuge Liang nodded slightly, his expression remained calm.

"That's fine, but how can you be sure that Sun Quan will definitely follow your plan? How can you be sure that Cao Wei will not attack Longyou in a large scale?"

"Once something goes wrong again, there may be problems with the revival of the Han Dynasty."

Zhuge Liang was only cautious in his life and was not good at taking risks. It's not that he is unwilling, but that he has too few cards.

This has led the Prime Minister to be an absolute pragmatist throughout his life, believing that the advantages of reality are much more important than the so-called destiny.

"Prime Minister, the great Han Dynasty is not so weak that even the King of Wu can't suppress it." Ma Di cupped his hands and replied calmly.

"What's more, this King of Wu has a bitter feud with us and is good at backstabbing."

"They will not allow us to succeed in the Northern Expedition. When we reach a certain level, they will definitely find a way to sneak attack on Shu."

"Have you forgotten how General Yunchang was attacked by Soochow in Jingzhou?"

Ma Di's last words really touched Zhuge Liang's heart, and his always calm face was slightly moved.

Not thinking of Jiangdong's despicability, but thinking of the late emperor, Guan Yu and those old guys from the past.

Thinking of Guan Yu who used to be in the police station and wandered outside his door every night holding a book of Spring and Autumn, he waited for him to say please come in. Thinking of Zhang Fei who always bowed respectfully whenever he met him, I wished I could have a drink with him twice in three days.

And the late emperor, the lord who wanted to live in his house and squeeze Huang Yueying out.

But none of them got a good death because of Soochow's treachery!

Perhaps conquering Wu is indeed risky, but it is not impossible.

After a long silence, Zhuge Liang breathed a sigh of relief and said a word lightly.

"good!"