Chapter 666 Sending Jiangdong a wave of military merit
Looking at the stack of letters nearly half a meter high on the table, Ma Di fell into deep thought.
He once thought that Cao Cao in the Battle of Chibi and Cao Xiu in the Battle of Shiting were both weak. Facing the capricious Jiangdong rats, he was deceived by a false surrender. What a waste.
However, this scene now made Ma Di instantly empathize with Cao Cao.
I really can’t blame Boss Cao for being so simple and believing in the false surrender. The main reason is... there are too many people sitting on the fence in Soochow, right?
It has always been difficult for Jiangdong's self-defeating wealthy families to nudge them over whether to accept the northern factions.
When Jiangbei's tribe was far away, they always had the idea of sitting on the fence and hedging their bets. But once the troops from Jiangbei approached the north bank of the Yangtze River, they suddenly became afraid, and then worked together to resist the invaders.
This situation is a regional characteristic of the entire Jiangdong and lasted for four hundred years in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
But at present, their attitude also makes Ma Su a little speechless. After all, these things are being delivered so frequently now, but once his army marches south to Ruxuwu, these bastards will immediately turn their backs and deny their credit.
Unless Ma Su could promise them enough interests and privileges to impress all the wealthy families before the war, it would be difficult to get them to surrender with just a piece of letter.
But obviously, this promise is what Ma Su least wants to give.
He planned to rely on this time to go south to conquer Wu and crush the conservative forces in Jiangdong with strong methods. Only in this way can the forces of the Han Dynasty successfully enter Jiangdong and complete actual control of the south.
Seeing Ma Su's hesitation, Deng Ai, who was good at understanding people's hearts, naturally knew what Ma Su was thinking. He quickly cupped his hands and spoke seriously to Ma Di,
"You don't have to be so entangled, it's just a promise. For Jiang Donghaoyou, we only need to give him a false promise, and there is no need to keep it afterwards."
"And we can even make the promise a little more vague in the secret letter to them. When the time comes..."
Deng Ai showed a "you know" look, which made Ma Di raise his eyebrows slightly.
Deng Ai is worthy of being Ma Su's confidant, and even his style of handling affairs is similar to Ma Su's. His suggestion immediately made Ma Su nod.
"What Shi Zai said makes sense. You should be responsible for this matter." Ma Di nodded and quickly agreed to Deng Ai's proposal.
However, after pondering for a while, Ma Su shook his head again, and then spoke.
"But, there's no rush on this matter... We now have every advantage in the situation. Moreover, Jiang Donghaoyou has gotten to know me quite well over the years.
"If I suddenly agree to their needs at this time, it will inevitably make Jiang Donghao suspicious. If I don't handle it well, it might be self-defeating!"
"What do you mean by that?" Deng Ai scratched his head and asked with some confusion.
In response, Ma Su smiled mysteriously and whispered to Deng Ai.
"I plan to... give Jiangdong Qu a chance to gain military exploits!"
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At the same time that Ma Di began to secretly deploy his plan against Soochow, the situation in Hebei also underwent earth-shaking changes.
Sima Shi's sudden attack on Cao Shuang instantly pulled Cao Shuang from his position as Minister Tuogu and took control of Yecheng and the young emperor Cao Fang. However, due to his lack of strength, he failed to make proper arrangements. As a result, Cao Shuang conveniently kidnapped the Queen Mother in the south of the city and was unable to escape from the White Horse Crossing.
The 40,000 Wei troops at Baimadu were Cao Shuang's men, and their leader was Xia Houxuan. Cao Shuang ran here, and then in the name of the Queen Mother, he called on the soldiers and horses of the world to work hard.
In the story Ma Su told, Cao Shuang died because he was not decisive enough in his resistance. Therefore, Cao Shuang was uncharacteristically determined to confront Sima Shi to the end.
This will most likely lead to the demise of the Wei Dynasty, but if he doesn't do this, Cao Shuang will die faster!
As a result, under Cao Shuang's determined resistance, Hebei inevitably split. Sima Division, supported by the Liaodong Army, and Cao Shuang, supported by the Jizhou Army and Yanzhou Army, officially started training in Hebei.
At the same time, Zhang Yi, who was stationed at Baimajin under Ma Su's instructions, sat back and did nothing. In order to reassure Cao Shuang to resist, Zhang Ni even led his troops to withdraw from the north bank of the Yellow River.
Under this fire, the civil war in Hebei rapidly expanded in scale. Cao Shuang, who had no worries, pressed all his troops forward and vowed to kill Sima Division.
But...Cao Shuang really overestimated his military command level.
When Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu passed away one after another, the Cao family no longer had any generals who could take charge alone. The so-called Xia Houxuan and Cao Yu were both fake and had negative effects on the battlefield.
Guanqiu Jian, the last loyal general of the Cao family, stood on the opposite side of Cao Shuang under Sima Shi's promise to "only kill Cao Shuang and help the Wei Dynasty".
After all, in the final analysis, if the emperor is in the hands of Sima Shi, that is the orthodoxy. You, Cao Shuang, are holding on to a queen mother, and your appeal is really not enough.
So no matter which way you look at it, Cao Shuang's failure is doomed.
After half a year of fierce fighting, Cao Shuang was defeated by Sima Division and driven to the Qinghe County area. However, even at this step, Sima Division was still very nervous, always paying attention to the movements of the Han army in the Yellow River area.
"Have you found out the movements of the Shu army? Is there any idea of moving a large number of troops northward?" Sima Division was dressed in military uniform, looking tired but still insisting on command and deployment. While handling military affairs, Sima Division also did not forget to ask about Guanqiu Jian's situation.
"General, there is no need to be so nervous. The main force of the Shu army is still stationed in Luoyang." Guanqiu Jian shook his head and said with a serious face.
"And Ma Su himself has been stationed in Shouchun all the time. It is obvious that he wants to go south first and then north. Judging from the current situation, we still have at least three to four years of preparation time."
"Three to four years... General Guanqiu may be a little too objective." Sima Shi smiled bitterly. After years of fighting, he knew the current situation too well.
Dongwu is indeed a hard bone to chew, but it is not a problem for Ma Su. If Ma Su wants to fight hard regardless of casualties, Jiangdong will probably not last until June.
So let alone three to four years, the best news is that the Shu army can not go north before next year.
"We don't have much time. We have to fight quickly and prepare for war as soon as possible. The kingdom of Wei cannot be usurped by Western Shu like this!" Sima Shi shook his head, and the beautiful words were so nice. After being fooled by his beautiful words, Guanqiu Jian nodded seriously.
"Don't worry, I will personally lead the troops to fight and strive to defeat the rebel Cao Shuang this month..."
Just then, a school official from the school suddenly ran in hurriedly.
"General! Something happened!"