Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

Jingzhou, Nanjun.

Except for the waterway in the southeast, which was still held by the main force of the Wu army, Jiangling City was completely surrounded on the other three sides. In the central command tent of General Man Chong, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Expedition, a military advisor led the newly appointed General Zhuge Ke of the Southern Expedition in small steps.

Man Chong was already eight feet tall and broad-shouldered, but he had become much thinner in the years he had spent in Jingzhou due to his dedication to military affairs. His years of experience and command of 60,000 troops had given him an imposing presence, and with just a slight glance, Zhuge Ke, who had just arrived in Jiangling, bowed down in respect.

The feeling of meeting Man Chong was completely different from when he met the Wei court officials in Jiangning. Zhuge Ke felt an awkward sense of being out of place when observing Cao Zhi. Observing the Emperor of Wei, he only felt that the emperor possessed a divine air, yet seemed indifferent to many things, utterly different from ordinary people. Observing Pei Qian and others, Zhuge Ke only felt that they had excellent manners but lacked talent, and did not possess the demeanor of a prime minister.

Upon first meeting Man Chong, Zhuge Ke felt that this man seemed capable of sending him to the front lines at any moment to fill in the trenches, and was an extremely ruthless person.

"This humble general, Zhuge Ke, pays his respects to General Man! This humble general has come from Jiangning on the Emperor's orders to serve under your command."

"So you are Zhuge Yuanxun?" Man Chong slammed the book he was reading onto the table. "Did you come here on your own initiative, or was His Majesty sending you?"

Zhuge Ke replied cautiously, "This humble general has come on imperial orders."

"Very well." Man Chong's tone remained indifferent: "I was about to send a military advisor to Jiangling to deliver your letter, but your father beheaded him and only sent his attendants to bring back the corpse. What do you have to say about that?"

"General...this..." Cold sweat broke out on Zhuge Ke's forehead. He was not good at riding horses, and after receiving the emperor's order, he set off from Jiangning the next day, passing through Shouchun, Yuzhou, and Xiangyang, traveling for seventeen days to reach Jiangling. The skin on his thighs was almost completely rotten, and his body was extremely weak. The emperor's decree was such, there was nothing he could do, and it was already a great favor to Zhuge Ke.

"General, His Majesty sent me here precisely to persuade my father to surrender," Zhuge Ke said cautiously. "If you do not mind, I will write another letter today, and you can send someone to deliver it into the city."

Man Chong glanced at Zhuge Ke for a few moments, his tone cold: "That military advisor who died was quite capable in my army. Your father cut off one of my brothers, and the son should pay for the father's debt. It is time to take your brother. I will keep you on my person for a few days. If your faith is ineffective, I will take you."

Zhuge Ke repeatedly agreed and assured Man Chong that he could rest assured. He even asked Man Chong what instructions he had and what he wanted to write in the letter, displaying a humble and cautious demeanor.

Zhuge Ke was quick-witted. Because he had the emperor's decree and had become the General of Annan of the Great Wei, a position of considerable rank, when he met Lu Yu in Xiangyang, who had replaced Xin Pi in charge of logistics, he learned the whole situation of the Jiangling battle from Lu Yu and also paid his respects to the memorial tablet of the late Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, Xin Pi.

In short, the 60,000-strong army under General Man Chong was locked in a stalemate with Zhuge Jin in Jiangling. Although Man Chong's forces held the advantage, they were unable to break through for the time being.

The same applies to Zhuge Jin.

Jiangling was a familiar place to the three kingdoms of Wei, Wu, and Shu.

In the third year of Huangchu, Zhu Ran had no more than five thousand troops garrisoning the city.

Zhu Ran had already died in the Battle of Wuhu in Yangzhou, south of the Yangtze River, and was executed by the army under General Cao Zhen. The city's defenders, Zhuge Jin, numbered ten thousand, while Zhuge Jin himself was stationed at Hanjin Ferry southwest of Jiangling, leading to the Yangtze River, with a force of twenty-five thousand. Wu's Crown Prince Sun Deng also led thirteen thousand troops to Gong'an, using Wu's ships to continuously transport supplies along the river to Zhuge Jin's forces and Jiangling. Sun Quan, ultimately feeling some remorse and considering the overall situation, did not recall Sun Deng's troops; otherwise, Jiangling would have fallen before the battle for Wuchang even began.

As a result, the total number of Wu troops near Jiangling reached more than 40,000, while the Wei army had only 60,000. They also had to conquer surrounding cities and occupy places like Bailizhou in the middle of the river and Lexiang in the south of the Yangtze River. This made Man Chong's initial offensive fierce, but more than two months later, the battle line has become unusually stable, and Man Chong is no longer able to launch a new large-scale offensive.

Both Wei and Wu built many field camps and fortifications, making field battles much easier than they were at the beginning of the war.

In the third year of Huangchu, Cao Zhen, then serving as the Grand General of the Upper Army, led generals such as Xiahou Shang, Zhang He, and Xu Huang to attack Nanjun, which was centered on Jiangling. Although they besieged the city for half a year and almost recovered it, they returned north without success due to summer floods and the outbreak of epidemics.

This moment and that moment are not entirely the same.

Zhuge Jin was defeated by Xiahou Shang and other generals back then, and then he could not achieve anything. He could only rely on Zhu Ran's bravery in Jiangling City and Sun Quan's submission to force the Wei army to retreat.

Now, the army under Man Chong's command, apart from the 20,000 Guanzhong soldiers under General Fei Yao and the 5,000 elite cavalry under General Wen Qin, is the most valiant. The rest are just the outer troops and county troops of Jingzhou, as well as light cavalry of the Xiongnu... It cannot compare with the top lineup of Cao Zhen, Xiahou Shang, Zhang He, Xu Huang and others back then.

Fei Yao's troops were mostly engaged in the southwest, fighting with the Wu army for Bailizhou and Lexiang, making it difficult for him to participate in the main offensive in southeast Jiangling. This made it even more difficult for Man Chong to launch his offensive. If Fei Yao were to move his troops from Bailizhou, it would likely be recaptured by the Wu army in less than a day, and Jiangnan would be lost as a result.

However, Zhuge Jin did not make much progress, and the Wu army lacked good generals, resulting in poor flexibility and initiative in combat. The direct result on the battlefield was that they could only fight with a larger number of troops, which further increased the difficulty of Man Chong's attack.

We can't just repeat what happened in Liaodong back then when the situation is still unclear, and have Wen Qin's troops dismount and charge into battle again, can we?

Man Chong still can't issue this kind of command.

Zhuge Ke was an excellent writer, and he noted down all the points Man Chong had mentioned in his letter. His son's handwritten letter of surrender, the imperial edict from the central government of Wei granting him the title of king, and the gold seal with a tortoise-shaped knob bearing the seal script of "Prince of Langya of the Great Wei" were all sent to the Wu army camp at the southeastern mouth of the river in Jiangling by the military advisor.

When Zhuge Jin heard that his son was with Man Chong, he finally refrained from his performance art of killing the envoy. Instead, he kindly invited the envoy into the camp and had someone accept the letter and items brought by the envoy.

When the messenger was executed last time, Sun Deng had just arrived in Jiangling from Wuchang. As the Grand General, Zhuge Jin naturally had to do something to show his loyalty. Now that Sun Deng has been here for twenty days, he understands the situation and doesn't need the Grand General to put on a show anymore.

"I cannot keep this item. It should be entrusted to Your Highness for safekeeping, and then someone will be sent to Wuchang to present it to His Majesty," Zhuge Jin said calmly.

"Yuan Xun...this...alas." Upon seeing Zhuge Ke's familiar handwriting, Sun Deng sighed, a few tears welling up in his eyes before he quickly wiped them away. (End of Chapter)