When Wu Yi walked out of the tent, the sun had already set.
The twinkling lights in the night sky complement the torches lit on the walls of the camps and on the riverside docks.
Between the slightly bright camps was a river flowing quietly at night. Floating bridges on the river were connected like invisible ropes, binding the Shu Han army near Chiting into a whole.
Wu Yi received Zhuge Liang's order, but did not go directly north back to his camp. Instead, he crossed the river to the west and came to his cousin Wu Ban.
When the two armies were facing each other, it was a rare moment of relaxation for the generals. They did not have to make any military divisions or lead the troops into battle. It was enough for the military assistants and clerks to take care of the trivial matters in the camp.
"Brother, why are you here?" Wu Ban looked at Wu Yi in surprise: "Didn't the Prime Minister forbid the commander to leave the camp without permission?"
Wu Yi waved his hand and said, "I was just returning from a meeting with the Prime Minister. I just took a detour to get to your place. It's nothing serious."
"There is still a deputy general in the camp, so nothing will be delayed."
Wu Ban knew that nothing that happened in the camp could be hidden from the prime minister's eyes and ears.
After saying these words in public, he immediately reached out and pulled Wu Yi into the tent: "Brother, please come in."
Wu Yi nodded and walked in with his hands behind his back.
After the two men entered the tent, Wu Ban waved his hand, and the guards who had followed Wu Ban for a long time quietly retreated, leaving the space in the tent to the two men.
"Brother, what's the matter?" Wu Ban stared at Wu Yi.
If there was no urgent matter, this brother of his family, who was known for his calmness and steadiness, would definitely not come to find him in person.
Wu Yi said calmly: "My troops are in the north, and the Prime Minister ordered me to start attacking the Wei army in the Baishui River Valley tomorrow."
"According to the Prime Minister, the Wei army in the Qingnishui River Valley in the west is more aggressive. The Wei army in the north is weaker, so I was asked to test it for a while and attack for three consecutive days."
"If you want to fight, just fight. It's just a common thing. Don't you dare to fight, brother?" Wu Ban asked.
Wu Yi sighed: "Why would you not dare to fight? You and I are both used to using soldiers, how could we back down from such a thing?"
"What's the matter?" Wu Ban stood up from the table and stared at Wu Yi for a few moments: "Brother, why do you have to hide it? Is there anything you can't just say directly?"
Wu Yi hesitated for a long time before he said, "Yuanxiong, don't you think the current situation between Han and Wei is the same as that of the battle at Yiling?"
"If I didn't have this feeling, why would I come here to find you?" Wu Yi sighed: "When we conquered Wu, I was in Chengdu and not in the army. You were in the army at that time, so I came to you to ask for details."
Wu Ban was startled and immediately knelt down beside Wu Yi: "Brother, how did you know that?"
"Chiting is completely different from Yiling. Our army is defending a dangerous place, and there is also the strategic location of Wuxing behind us. How can it be the same as Yiling back then?"
"What is Yuan Xiong thinking?" Wu Yi rolled his eyes at Wu Ban. "It's not that we are the same as we were back then, but that the Wei army is the same as the Han army back then."
Wu Ban said nothing and just stared at Wu Yi.
Wu Yi moved closer and lowered his voice, saying, "Look, the reason why the Han army was defeated in Yiling was because most of them were attacking Yidao in the south of the Yangtze River, and the rest were defending against Lu Xun's army in the north of the Yangtze River?"
"After you were defeated by Xu Sheng, was the Han army split into two by the Wu army?"
Wu Ban was silent for a moment, then nodded: "The Wei army has indeed been divided into two parts, but it was not because of the attack by the Han army, but because they came from two different places and were divided into two parts on their own initiative!"
"Brother, what you mean is that we can do what the Wu army did at that time, blocking the Wei army in one place and attacking the Wei army in another place."
"That is to say, we should block the smaller Wei army at Baishui, and send out the main force to defeat the Wei army at Qingnishui?"
"That's right." Wu Yi nodded. "But since it concerns the Han Dynasty's previous defeat, I dare not say it in the prime minister's tent in front of everyone."
"What's more, if we really take a step back and say that the Prime Minister listened to my advice and wanted to stop the Wei army in Baishui without fighting." Wu Yi swallowed his saliva and said, "According to the Prime Minister's temperament, I am an important general and I am in charge of the army there, so he must want me to hold the position!"
"The Queen Mother is not close to Your Majesty, and the Han Dynasty has a history of punishing foreign relatives..."
"You and I are brothers. You lost the battle in Lueyang, and I didn't make much contribution in the siege of Xiabian. We are no better than the brothers Mi Zhu and Mi Fang in the past!"
Wu Ban was horrified: "How could this happen? Brother, you are overthinking it!"
Wu Yi sneered: "Is it really me who thinks too much? You don't know that when the Prime Minister looked at me coldly in Shanggui that day, I felt that he had already suspected me!"
"Yuanxiong, you and I have been in Shu for so many years, let's not talk about the fact that the late emperor replaced Liu Zhang. After the late emperor died, the prime minister monopolized power in the country, and Your Majesty has been on the throne for five years and has not yet personally ruled the country!"
"For things like this, it's better to believe it exists than not to believe it!"
Wu Ban's chest heaved, he breathed heavily, and he paced back and forth in the tent.
"Brother is right! We can't gamble!" Wu Ban fidgeted for a long time before he stood still and looked straight at Wu Yi.
What prompted Wu Ban to make up his mind was not what Wu Yi said about the current situation being like Yiling, but the word "relatives by marriage".
The brothers Wu Yi and Wu Ban are real in-laws, and this fact cannot be concealed no matter what.
Since the Later Han Dynasty, except for Cao Cao, who married his daughter to the emperor, almost no relatives of the emperor had a good ending! Especially the Wu brothers were not effective in this war! Wu Ban continued: "I was in Yiling that day and knew how the Han army was defeated. This moment is somewhat similar to Yiling. If we arrange it as you said, we may even have a chance of winning."
"But even if we win, we will lose our troops and won't be able to fight for Longyou. It won't benefit the Han Dynasty in any way, and it will bring disaster to you and me."
Wu Yi nodded: "That's exactly what I mean!"
"Then don't say anything!" Wu Ban calmed down and looked at Wu Yi: "Brother, don't be nosy. The Prime Minister asked you to fight, so just fight like this. Anyway, Chiting is dangerous and there is no danger of retreat."
"If the war situation changes, there is always a way out."
Wu Yi sighed: "What I said today is enough for you and me, don't spread it out!"
Wu Ban nodded: "I know that! Brother, you must be extra careful when facing the Wei army."
"I witnessed the fierceness of the Wei army's offensive in Lueyang, which is unprecedented in my life. The Wei army is not like an ordinary army, so don't underestimate the enemy!"
Wu Yi said: "I will be cautious in deploying troops, and seek stability first."
Wu Ban walked up to Wu Yi and said, "It's getting late, brother, you should go back to the camp. We know each other well, so I won't say much."
Wu Yi stood up, patted Wu Ban on the shoulder, and then walked out without looking back.
……
Early the next morning, Wu Yi personally led two thousand soldiers to march towards the Wei army in the Baishui River Valley.
The offensive was only slightly unfavorable, so Wu Yi ordered the army to retreat on the grounds of avoiding casualties.
Three days passed like this. Wu Yi launched a tentative attack every morning and then retreated to his camp.
On the evening of the third day, Wu Yi went to Zhuge Liang's tent in person and reported to the prime minister on the battle situation in recent days.
Zhuge Liang listened carefully to Wu Yi's story and sighed slowly: "Is the Wei army in the Baishui direction also so difficult to attack? It seems that the combat power of the Han soldiers is quite different from that of the Wei army."
"General Wu, go back and guard the camp carefully. Do not attack without my order. Build high fortifications, set up many sentries, dig many trenches, and place many deer horns to prevent the Wei army from engaging in battle."
"Yes, sir." Wu Yi bowed in response.
Throughout history, those who are good at planning for the country are often poor at planning for themselves.
But when we really have to make such a choice, conflicts between personal interests and national interests are inevitable.
This is the situation that the brothers Wu Yi and Wu Ban faced.
At a time when Zhuge Liang's personal moral prestige had not convinced everyone, and they had just experienced a defeat, it was inevitable that the generals would act conservatively.
But for the uncles of the emperor, Wu Yi and Wu Ziyuan, they had not done anything disloyal to the Han Dynasty. They just did not report their plans to the prime minister and were passive in the war.
Wu Yi knew that he had only been cautious in attacking during the past three days. If the Wei army really attacked in large numbers, he would definitely not hold back at all and would fight with all his might!
But from the perspective of Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, the number of Wei troops at Baishui was unknown. Although they did not attack, their defense was quite effective and they did not have any advantage.
During these three days, the Wei army in the direction of Qingnishui did not try its best to attack. The two armies fought two more tentative battles, which were a serious stalemate.
It seemed that the plan of holding Chiting and waiting for the Wei army to retreat could be carried out smoothly.
……
At this moment, thousands of miles away in Yangzhou, located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Grand Marshal Cao Xiu heard an incredible news.
"Bolian, what did you say?" Cao Xiu stood up in surprise: "Lü Ziheng is dead? He Gongmiao is also dead?"
Could it be that the person opposite him was his own relative? Cao Xiu really thought he was a spy from the Wu army.
Cao Qi was a distant relative of the Cao clan, and had a very distant relationship with Cao Xiu. But after all, his surname was Cao, so he could still serve as a military officer under Cao Xiu.
In mid-February, Lü Fan, Lü Ziheng, who was in charge of the war in the lower reaches of Wu and was named General, Governor of Yangzhou, and Marquis of Nanchang by Sun Quan, received an order from Sun Quan and sent an envoy north to deliver gifts and congratulate Cao Xiu on his birthday.
After receiving the gift, Cao Xiu reported the matter to the court in Luoyang, and at the same time sent Cao Qi as an envoy to write a reply to Lu Fan.
Cao Qi did not dare to be careless, and said, "Reporting to the Grand Marshal, that is exactly what happened."
"That day I set out from Shouchun City and headed south, passing through Hefei and Ruxu, and boarded a Wu army ship to cross the river. But I discovered that many Wu soldiers on the ship were wearing mourning clothes."
"After careful investigation, I found out that the chief general of the Wu army, He Qi He Gong Miao, died two days ago."
Cao Xiu sighed, "Last year at Wankou, it was He Qi who led the navy to stop me on the river. In the two previous expeditions against Wu, He Qi often led the navy on the river."
"I really didn't expect him to die like this." Cao Xiu looked at Cao Qi: "What disease did He Qi die of?"
Cao Qi shook his head: "I don't know the details. But I just heard that it seems to be caused by abdominal pain." (End of this chapter)
