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Chapter 2723 Cao Cao is dead!

Wang Yue didn't expect Zhao Yun to be so straightforward, revealing his true intentions directly. So he stopped pretending and said directly, "My lady's bandit-suppressing unit has recently recruited a large number of mountain bandits."

I was originally struggling with how to train them, but now that I have so many veterans, it's really solved a huge problem for me!

Zhao Yun was surprised that Wang Yue understood Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei's meaning so quickly, and he became even more convinced of Wang Yue's ability to turn the tide in Jingzhou.

He entrusted the training of cavalry to Zhao Yun, and assigned 2000 elite infantrymen to Guan Yinping, instructing her to train these 2 infantrymen.

Wang Yue, of course, led nearly 100,000 elderly, weak, women, and children to cultivate the land. Although thanks to Lü Meng, Wang Yue was no longer short of food, he couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

The Jiangxia Plain is not yet fully formed; it is full of swamps and mudflats. Water resources are very abundant, and it floods every summer, but it is not suitable for planting.

Fortunately, the bandit-suppressing officers were already experienced, and since they were all bandits and had no dealings with the local powerful families, they naturally united and became very motivated.

Therefore, the local people who had previously served under the bandit-suppressing command enthusiastically helped the newcomers, teaching them how to cultivate crops and fish, which led to the flourishing of Jiangxia.

While Wang Yue was busy with land reclamation and Guan Yinping was training troops, Liu Bei's envoys also arrived in Jiangdong.

When there were no enemies, the people of Jiangdong were always bickering, but when there were enemies, especially when it was Liu Bei, they were united against them.

Fortunately, after Liu Bei's envoy arrived in Jingzhou, he was led by Ma Liang to Jiangdong. The Ma family, as a famous family in Jingzhou, actually had connections with some families in Jiangdong.

Furthermore, Jiangdong also had designs on Jingzhou, so there was nothing they could do about Ma Liang. After all, he had offended the local families of Jingzhou, making it even more difficult for them to take back Jingzhou.

Moreover, now that Liu Bei's power is strong, Jiangdong has become the weakest place, and the surrender faction in Jiangdong does not want to completely offend Liu Bei.

So when Zhang Zhao saw that the others were still arguing, he solemnly said to Ma Liang, "Ji Chang, although Lü Meng launched the sneak attack first, not only did he die, but Jiangdong also lost three counties. In this matter, you have actually benefited."

"I suppose the King of Hanzhong didn't send you here to criticize me. Tell me Liu Bei's specific demands."

Upon hearing Zhang Zhao address Liu Huangshu (the Imperial Uncle), Ma Liang immediately knew that the surrender faction probably had something to say. He immediately smiled and said, "General Guan originally wanted revenge, but my king felt that the two families were relatives, so he wanted me to come and take Lady Sun away. We can use the existing control line as the boundary and then cease hostilities."

Jiang Qin, a veteran general, was furious upon hearing this and said, "The three counties you have occupied must be returned to us!"

Ma Liang smiled and shook his head, saying, "Originally, we developed peacefully with the Xiang River as the boundary, but you Jiangdong insisted on launching a sneak attack. We will no longer trust you."

However, my king is benevolent and righteous. He believes that since we cannot give you the three commanderies of Jiangdong, we can support you in heading north to contend for the Central Plains and jointly eliminate Cao Cao.

The phrase "contending for the Central Plains" was so alluring that it greatly tempted Sun Quan and others.

Jiang Qin was speechless in the face of the rebuttal, after all, they had launched a sneak attack first, and the attack had failed, leaving behind a fact that others were unwilling to believe.

In this era, moral character is of utmost importance; otherwise, there would be the saying of recommending people for official positions based on filial piety and integrity.

Therefore, they were the first to betray the alliance and had no face to ask others for anything.

Ma Liang saw an opportunity and immediately rallied the surrender faction, persuading both sides to cease hostilities. Moreover, since Shu Han was now basically dominating Cao Wei, these surrender faction members felt they needed to place their bets on Shu Han, and naturally, they spared no effort in persuading Sun Quan.

Sun Quan's side was also willing but unable to do so, after all, Lü Meng had lost more than 3 elite troops, which had almost wiped out the elite forces of Jiangdong.

In addition, the loss of the three counties that followed resulted in the loss of more than 20,000 troops, including five or six thousand elite soldiers!
The entire Jiangdong army numbered only a few hundred thousand, of which no more than seventy thousand were elite troops and the rest were auxiliary soldiers. This time, in order to launch a surprise attack, they lost nearly fifty thousand elite troops and more than twenty thousand auxiliary soldiers, which can be considered a major blow. What remained were just regular troops, which were simply not enough to fight against Liu Bei.

Moreover, Jiangnan needs to defend against the Shanyue tribes to the east and Cao Cao to the north. Some troops also need to be left to protect Chaisang, and those troops simply cannot be mobilized in a short period of time.

This is why Jiangdong has not launched a counterattack since losing Jingzhou; they have essentially gone all in on this war.

Now, after listening to Ma Liang's persuasion, more and more people are in favor of making peace between the two places.

In the end, Ma Liang not only completed his mission, but also made some deals with the major families of Jiangdong, exchanging rare Shu brocade for money and grain from Jiangdong.

Shu brocade has always been a hot commodity, and it can even be used as currency. So everyone was very happy after Ma Liang's negotiations, as if they had returned to the state of the Sun-Liu alliance back then.

However, Liu Bei is now the one who benefits, and Sun Quan has no choice but to compromise.

In fact, the main reason for reaching this peace talks was that Lu Su, who advocated prioritizing the west over the north, had died, and others wanted the prosperous land of Xuzhou in the north.

Of course, Sun Quan's Jiangdong region had no credibility whatsoever. If they were given the opportunity, they could launch a surprise attack on Jingzhou at any time. This was nothing more than a temporary ceasefire agreement.

However, news soon broke the balance once again.

After Ma Liang returned to Jingzhou and the other envoys relayed the news back to Chengdu, a message suddenly came from the north.

Cao Cao is dead!

Cao Cao wouldn't have died so quickly originally, but Guan Yu fought too fiercely this time.

Although they only managed to occupy Xiangfan in the end, once Jiangxia fell into Guan Yu's hands, Nanyang was already in a state of constant threat.

The banditry in Nanyang has just been quelled, and the situation is still unstable, which has led Cao Cao to consider moving the capital again.

Meanwhile, those who had connections to Emperor Xian of Han within the court began to make some subtle moves, causing Cao Cao to exhaust himself and ultimately fall seriously ill.

At this time, Hua Tuo arrived in Nanyang a while later because of Wang Yue's illness, so he was not invited to treat Cao Cao and thus survived.

After Cao Cao died, Cao Pi became the King of Wei, which led to instability in the territory of Wei.

After all, compared to Cao Pi, Cao Zhi originally had many more supporters, which was one of the reasons why the Wei Kingdom was unstable.

(End of this chapter)