Chapter 123 On pins and needles
In fact, starting from the morning of the 12th, Wu soldiers came out of the mountains in groups and took the initiative to surrender to the Wei army.
It’s nothing, it’s just too cold in the mountains.
If the various units of the Wu army had been able to enter the mountains slowly according to their formation yesterday, they would probably have been able to keep some supplies. Those who wanted to surrender would have gone and surrendered, and those who did not surrender could have used the supplies to delay for some time in the mountains.
But the Wu army retreated too quickly.
Forty thousand Wei cavalrymen pressed in a fan shape to the north of the Wu army's formation, shouting "personally lead the army" in unison, which directly frightened the Wu army, which had been fighting hard for several days.
As the Wu army generals who had already planned to flee led their elite troops to flee south, the Wu army could no longer maintain its formation. Most of the Wu soldiers who fled to the hills at that time actually did not know why they were fleeing, they were just afraid of death.
The soldiers could no longer endure the lack of food and clothing in the mountains, and the cold winter. From morning to noon, about 5,000 people came out of the mountains, including many Wu army officers. And according to this trend, it is clear that many more people will come out to surrender in the afternoon.
These were all things that were destined to happen in the plan. At that time, the purpose of forcing the Wu army into the hills was to take advantage of the isolation of the retreat route, the cold weather, the lack of supplies, and the low morale, so that the Wu army would take the initiative to come out and reduce casualties.
However, to the surprise of the Wei army generals and Cao Rui, Lu Xun actually "came out" from the mountain.
At noon, in the hills south of the trailer, Hu Zhi's troops, who were responsible for blocking the enemy's westward advance, actually encountered Lu Xun's troops who came to contact them actively.
Lu Xun was the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Wu in this battle. Hu Zhi did not dare to neglect it and hurriedly led his army to escort Lu Xun and his troops to the trailer camp.
When the generals of the Wei army heard that Lu Xun had come out of the mountains, they were all curious and wanted to meet the commander of the Wu army. However, Lu Xun was escorted directly to the emperor's tent.
Inside the big tent in the trailer camp, only Lu Xun and his subordinate general Xie Jing were allowed to enter under the escort of the Tiger Guards.
When Cao Rui heard that Lu Xun was going to be sent here, he wanted to have a conversation with Lu Xun. However, when Cao Rui saw Lu Xun in person, he found that Lu Xun was carried here on a stretcher.
Cao Rui looked at the man dressed as a military officer beside Lu Xun and asked, "Who are you? What happened to Lu Xun?"
The general had his hands tied behind his back. He knelt on the ground, crying and saying in a thick Yangzhou accent: "Your Majesty, please save my Grand Commander."
The great general Cao Zhen stood up and stood in front of the general, looking down at the man: "Answer whatever His Majesty asks you! Answer His Majesty's question first."
The general cried and said, "I am the commander-in-chief's Sima, my name is Xie Jing. The commander-in-chief vomited blood in the battle yesterday. After entering the mountain in the evening, he began to have a high fever at night, and even his mind gradually became unclear. We don't have any medicine with us, and we can't walk fast with the commander-in-chief... We really have no choice."
While Xie Jing was still crying, Cao Rui hurriedly said to the guards: "Pull Lu Xun out first and ventilate the tent. Do it quickly!"
The two guards dragged Lu Xun out without any hesitation. When Xie Jing saw that the emperor dragged Lu Xun out as soon as he saw him, he was already nervous and thought that the emperor was going to kill Lu Xun. At this moment, he knelt down and tried to move forward.
Cao Zhen, who was standing next to Xie Jing, kicked Xie Jing down.
Cao Zhen had been in the army for more than 20 years and had seen many people surrender. Cao Zhen could tell at a glance that Xie Jing had misunderstood him. However, misunderstandings were misunderstandings, and it was absolutely impossible for him to get close to His Majesty.
Cao Zhen pointed at Xie Jing and cursed, "This is in front of the emperor. How can this be allowed? Do you think His Majesty wants to kill Lu Xun?"
Xie Jing came to his senses, looked at the emperor, then looked up at Cao Zhen.
Cao Zhen had no choice but to continue explaining, "Lu Xun has caught a cold, so in order to prevent the disease from spreading to others, he was taken out."
"Since he is in our camp, there must be a doctor who will take care of him. But you came here when Lu Xun was unconscious? Didn't you go to find other generals of the Wu army?"
Xie Jing said angrily, "General, we went to look for him! But the Grand Commander was ill, and we couldn't move fast enough on the stretcher we made to carry him. These generals said nice things yesterday evening, saying they would advance and retreat together, but in order to escape at night, no one was willing to wait for us!"
Cao Zhen asked again: "What did you say in the battle line yesterday?"
Xie Jing explained, "Yesterday I heard clearly from the side of the Grand Commander that the generals, seeing that the army was losing momentum, were planning to slowly enter the mountains and then lead their troops to escape. Who would have thought that as soon as you shouted, they all ran away."
Cao Zhen had understood everything by now.
It was obvious that the generals of the Eastern Wu had completely forgotten to take care of each other in order to escape. Lu Xun fell ill again, and his subordinates were helpless. In order to find medicine for Lu Xun, they had to go out to look for the Wei army to prevent Lu Xun from dying of illness in the mountains in winter.
Cao Rui said, "Your name is Xie Jing, right? You are a loyal warrior who protects your master. Are you willing to surrender?"
Xie Jing did not hesitate and said directly: "If His Majesty the Emperor is willing to save the Grand Commander, I will naturally be willing to surrender."
Cao Rui laughed and said, "Although Lu Xun led his army to fight against me, I can still spare his life."
Xie Jing's tears were flowing even more: "I thank your majesty for your grace." It was really unbelievable for a grown man to cry so much. Cao Rui waved at the guards, and then two guards pulled Xie Jing up from the ground and dragged him out.
Cao Zhen then looked at the emperor and said, "Lu Xun has obviously caught a cold, and he vomited blood last night. It is still unknown whether he can survive. If he survives by chance, will Your Majesty persuade him to surrender?"
At this time, there were only Cao Rui and Cao Zhen in the tent.
Cao Rui was right when he said Xie Jing was loyal to his master. However, Xie Jing's loyalty was not to Sun Quan, the King of Wu, but to his own Grand Commander Lu Xun.
During the two hundred years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a subtle system that can be called the "dual monarchy concept" was prevalent.
In simple terms, the Han Dynasty used counties as states, and both were of the same level, with the county governor being like the king. Being loyal to the county governor and serving him till death is loyalty. Being loyal to the emperor and serving him till death is also loyalty.
This is also the reason why so many loyal and righteous people were willing to die for the warlords they called "lord" during the struggle for hegemony among the princes in the late Han Dynasty. Society praises such behavior!
But if you say something like being loyal to the Han Dynasty and being a good minister and serving his master, everyone will understand.
Lu Xun's official rank in the Eastern Wu had already reached the stage of opening a government. To be precise, Xie Jing was Lu Xun's own private official. It seemed reasonable to bring Lu Xun to the Wei army camp for the sake of his life or death.
However, colds are not easy to treat these days. When Cao Rui learned that Lu Xun had a high fever, he quickly had Lu Xun taken out to avoid the risk of possible infection.
When Cao Zhen asked himself whether he should persuade Lu Xun to surrender, Cao Rui didn't know how to respond for a moment.
After a while, Cao Rui looked at Cao Zhen's face and said softly, "If I say that I don't want to persuade Lu Xun to surrender, will you believe me, General?"
A trace of surprise appeared on Cao Zhen's face.
When it comes to Lu Xun, the first thing that Cao Zhen would think of is that although Lu Xun lost the battle, he is still good at using troops. No one would say that a general who just lost is a fool. If Lu Xun is good at using troops, then Wei would be even more powerful.
But after seeing Lu Xun, the first thing Cao Rui thought of was that Lu Xun was the representative of the Eastern Wu Lu family.
Others may not know, but Cao Rui knows it very well! In the original history, the four surnames of Jiangdong, Gu, Lu, Zhu and Zhang, lasted for hundreds of years. After the Jin Dynasty moved south, the Lu family was extremely powerful in the court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
At present, Cao Wei was already in a stage where the imperial court and the aristocratic families were competing for profits. Cao Rui was unwilling to personally cultivate such a group of Jiangdong aristocratic families.
Lu Xun has already become a governor in Dongwu. If we want to persuade Lu Xun to surrender, what conditions should we offer him? Should we let Sima Yi go and let Lu Xun become the prime minister? Or should we choose a state in Ji, Qing, You and Bing and let Lu Xun become the governor?
However, Cao Rui didn't want to explain so much to Cao Zhen.
Cao Rui said: "Since Sun Quan changed the era name and rebelled, although the court often said that Dongwu was a traitor, in fact, Wei and Wu had become enemies."
"He is a general of the enemy country, and he himself was defeated and fell into this situation. If Lu Xun surrenders voluntarily, I will not hesitate to give him a nominal position. But I really don't want to persuade him to surrender. If Lu Xun is not used, will the Wei Dynasty have no famous generals?"
Cao Zhen was speechless for a moment. He thought the emperor would cherish his talent and persuade him to surrender, and Cao Zhen just asked casually, but he didn't expect that the emperor had no such intention.
Cao Zhen could only cup his hands and say, "Your Majesty, please let the doctor treat him. It will depend on his own luck."
Cao Rui nodded slightly.
……
It was already night, and Zhuge Jin was feeling very uneasy in the Wu army's camp in Wancheng.
After receiving the news from the scouts last night, Zhuge Jin sent people to scout eastwards one after another. The news that came in one after another showed that the Wei army was heading west today. Several of the scouts sent by Zhuge Jin were also killed by the scouts of the Wei army.
Although Zhuge Jin was unwilling to guess the worst outcome, all the evidence pointed to the option that Lu Xun's entire army had been wiped out.
Should we go or stay? Will Wancheng still be surrounded?
Zhuge Jin's character is full of plans but not good at making decisions. Such an important decision has to be made by him today, so Zhuge Jin is naturally uneasy.
Suddenly, a voice was heard outside the tent, and a guard came in quickly to report that General He Qi was leading his army to arrive.
Zhuge Jin quickly stood up and walked out of the tent. Zhuge Jin did see He Qi, but the person standing in front of He Qi was none other than Sun Quan, the King of Wu.
Zhuge Jin sighed, and before he could salute, Sun Quan grabbed his arm with his right hand: "Zi Yu, let's talk after we get into the tent!"
Zhuge Jin nodded heavily.
(End of this chapter)
