My father-in-law Guan Yu, I persuaded Liu Bei to launch a surprise attack on Xiangyang at the beginn

Chapter 153: If you lose the bet, surrender to my lord! Sun Quan, you are just a spare tire, get off the main seat!

Lu Su was shocked. He never expected Xiao He to make such a shocking judgment.

"Military Advisor Xiao, what are you doing..."

Lu Su instinctively wanted to object, but when the words were about to come out of his mouth, he stopped abruptly.

He remembered.

When he was in Moling, before Sun Quan came to ask Zhou Yu to come out of retirement, his close friend did say in person that he was disappointed with Sun Quan and intended to depose Sun Quan and replace him with Sun Shao.

However, at that time, the Chaisang Army suffered a disastrous defeat and the situation in Jiangdong was critical. Zhou Yu had to temporarily put aside the idea of ​​deposing and enthroning the emperor and came out of seclusion to take charge of the army again to resist Liu Bei.

But in the final analysis, what Zhou Yu was protecting was not Sun Quan, but the foundation left by Sun Ce, and what he was protecting was Sun Ce's legacy!
Now Sun Quan wants to surrender Jiangdong to Cao, hand over Sun Ce's inheritance to Cao Cao, and take the Sun family to Xu Du to serve as dogs.

In this situation, in order to protect Sun Ce's legacy, Zhou Yu launched a mutiny and returned to Moling, deposing Sun Quan and establishing Sun Shao as the leader, which seemed to be in line with Zhou Yu's style.

If Zhou Yu launched a mutiny, Zheqi City would be empty-handed and unmanned. If Liu Bei's army attacked, it would be easily conquered.

In such a situation, if the mutiny fails and Liu Bei stabs us in the back, wouldn't everything be over?

If Zhou Yu wanted to ensure that he would not be stabbed in the back, he had to protect Zheqi Pass.

The only way to achieve this goal is to delay Liu Bei's attack, at least until his mutiny is successful.

With this kind of calculation, doesn't feigning surrender make sense?
Lu Su's thoughts raced, and in an instant he understood the whole thing. He couldn't help but take a breath, his face filled with shock.

"Bowen is right, he is right."

Liu Bei frowned and nodded slightly.

"I've always felt that something was amiss with Zhou Yu's surrender. Now that you've mentioned it, Bowen, I've finally realized what's going on."

"The Zhou family has been nobles for generations, and Zhou Yu is such a proud man. How could he possibly put aside the shame of repeated defeats and the hatred of having his leg broken and willingly submit to me?"

"So he's pretending to be repairing the plank road while secretly marching through Chencang, using feigned surrender to delay our eastward advance to Zheqi, buying time for him to return to Moling and depose the emperor!"

The joy on Liu Bei's face disappeared, and his angry eyes suddenly shot towards Lu Su.

He mediated peace for Sun Quan twice, but Sun Quan broke the alliance twice.

Now he came to surrender on behalf of Zhou Yu, but Xiao He saw through his false surrender.

You, Lu Su, can be said to be a habitual criminal who has been sent to prison three times!
"Lu--"

Liu Bei was about to get angry, but when he saw Lu Su's shocked and dazed expression, and remembered what Xiao He had said before, he immediately realized that Lu Su was not aware of the situation and that he had been tricked by Zhou Yu.

"Zijing, you considered Zhou Yu your closest friend and trusted him so deeply, yet he treated you this way. It's truly unjust!"

Liu Bei's brows relaxed, and he shook his head and sighed, speaking up for Lu Su.

Lu Su felt a sharp pain in his heart as if he was cut by a knife.

Disappointed, shocked, angry...

All kinds of negative emotions, like countless sharp arrows, shot into his heart, making him feel as painful as if he were pierced by thousands of arrows.

Even so, Lu Su still had a glimmer of hope in his heart.

He took a deep breath, shook his head suddenly and denied:

"This is impossible. Gongjin is a gentleman and also my best friend. He would never deceive me or use me like this!"

"I don't believe it. I don't believe Gongjin would do such a treacherous act!"

Lu Su suddenly raised his head, excitedly and slightly hysterically yelled.

Xiao He disagreed and sneered:

"Zijing, you are a loyal and modest gentleman. You consider Zhou Yu your closest friend and have unconditional trust in him."

"But in Zhou Yu's heart, Sun Ce's dying entrustment and the Jiangdong foundation he left behind were everything to him."

"To protect the legacy left by Sun Ce, he will naturally disregard praise or criticism. He dared to depose and enthronize the emperor, bearing the accusation of disloyalty. Why would he hesitate to bear the accusation of injustice by using you, Lu Zijing, to feign surrender for him?"

Xiao He used just a few casual words to clearly analyze Zhou Yu's character from the inside out.

Lu Su's body trembled, and a look of enlightenment suddenly flashed across his painful eyes.

After a moment of distraction, he shook his head again:
"Xiao Bowen, I know you are very clever and have the ability to see through people's hearts, but what I want to say is that you must have misjudged the person this time!"

"Gongjin is definitely not the person you say he is. He would never treat me like this!"

Perhaps it was because he was deceiving himself that Lu Su still refused to give up and still had illusions about Zhou Yu.

Xiao He's eyes turned darkly, and he smiled:

"In that case, Zijing, would you like to make a bet with my lord? If we reach Zheqi City and it is truly deserted, you, Lu Zijing, will join my lord and assist him in upholding the Han Dynasty. How do you do that?"

When Liu Bei heard this, his eyes lit up and his face showed joy.

Putting aside his specific abilities such as military command and strategy, Lu Su's overall view and loyal character alone were deeply appreciated by Liu Bei.

Now that I have the opportunity to recruit Lu Su into my army, how can I not be happy?

Lu Su was stunned.

After hesitating for a moment, he asked:
"What if you, Military Advisor Xiao, are wrong, and Gongjin didn't deceive me, nor did he feign surrender to Liu Yuzhou?"

Without waiting for Xiao He's answer, Liu Bei said without hesitation:
"Bowen's calculations were impeccable; there's no way he could have made a mistake. If he was truly wrong, I bow three times to Zhou Yu and offer my apologies on Bowen's behalf!"

Lu Su was surprised again. He had not expected that Liu Bei would trust Xiao He to such an extent. He was even willing to condescend to kowtow to Zhou Yu three times to apologize for Xiao He's miscalculation.

Having said that, Lu Su naturally had nothing more to say and could only acquiesce to the bet proposed by Xiao He.

At that moment, Liu Bei gave an order and his 70,000-strong army advanced both by land and sea, heading east along the river.

Guan Yu commanded nearly 30,000 naval troops, took advantage of the downstream momentum and went straight to Zheqi Pass.

...

Moling City.

The whole city was in turmoil, and people were in a state of uncertainty. Sun Quan had returned to the city two days ago, and the news that he would surrender Jiangdong to Cao Cao had naturally spread everywhere.

In a city, the dignitaries, scholars and common people are all divided into two groups: some are happy while others are sad.

People like Zhang Zhao who advocated surrender naturally hoped that Sun Quan would surrender to Cao so that they could go to Xu Du to serve as an official, which would be legitimate.

The war advocates like Huang Gai were heartbroken, beating their chests and stamping their feet, crying out in shame.

For most scholars and officials, when they reach this point, it actually doesn't matter anymore.

Be it Cao Cao or Liu Bei, they will serve whoever becomes the ruler of Jiangdong.

However, a few of the leading Jiangdong nobles, such as Lu, Gu, Zhu and Zhang, opposed Sun Quan's decision to surrender to Cao.

It’s nothing but power.

They outlasted the ruthless Sun Ce, and finally waited until Sun Quan bowed to them and began to cede power to them, wanting to rule Jiangdong together with them. It seemed that good days were about to come, but who would have thought that Sun Quan would sell them out to Cao Cao in the blink of an eye.

Who is Cao Cao? Would he allow these local tyrants to take control of Jiangdong?
The dream of making Jiangdong the Jiangdong of the Jiangdong people is likely to die here.

So, except for Lu Xun who was sent to Wujun to persuade the Shanyue people to surrender, representatives of the four major surnames who remained in Moling, such as Gu Yong, went to the palace to meet Sun Quan and persuaded him to revoke his decision with earnest words.

Sun Quan, who had lost confidence, was naturally unmoved and flatly rejected the repeated persuasion of Gu Yong and others.

This joint admonition ended in a bad mood.

"What a pity, it's too late for you to support my Sun family now."

"If you had thought it through earlier and fully supported me a few years ago, I would have been able to defeat Liu Biao and swallow Jingzhou in advance. How could I have ended up in this situation today?"

Sun Quan shook his head and smiled bitterly, then raised his head and drank a few more cups of wine.

As the wine entered Sun Quan's heart, the bitterness on his face gradually turned into resentment.

"Brother, brother, everyone says you are most like our father. You are as brave and powerful as our father, but you also inherited his courage but lack of strategy!"

"If you had not slaughtered the nobles and gentry of Jiangdong when you first came to Jiangdong, but instead had won them over and made them your own, ruling Jiangdong with them, how could you have left me with a rotten paraplegic?"

"The demise of my Sun family's foundation is actually due to you..."

Sun Quan muttered to himself, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He threw the wine glass in his hand to the ground.

Zhang Zhao on the side sighed and opened his mouth to say a few words of comfort.

"My lord, my lord, something happened!"

Jia Hua rushed in with a panicked look on his face, shouting in a trembling voice:

"Commander Zhou has suddenly returned with his army. They are now disembarking and heading towards Moling City. I wonder what they are up to?"

Sun Quan's face changed, and he suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with surprise.

At this time, shouldn't Zhou Yu be leading 10,000 soldiers and horses to defend Zheqi City and stop Liu Bei from invading Moling?

How come he suddenly led his army back to Moling after only a few days?
No news reported in advance?
Sun Quan was full of suspicion, and suddenly his face changed drastically. He said in surprise:

"Could it be that the Big Eared Bandits arrived so quickly that Zheqi City has already fallen, and Gongjin led his army back in defeat?"

Sun Quan was suddenly confused and jumped up in a hurry and rushed to the top of the city wall.

Climbing up the north gate tower and looking up, I saw more than a hundred warships coming from upstream and approaching the shore one after another.

There were already four to five thousand soldiers who had landed and were heading towards the north gate.

"Gongjin, oh Gongjin, you actually lost Zheqi in just a few days. You are so incompetent, yet you still have the nerve to oppose my surrender to Cao Gong and keep clamoring for me to fight Liu Bei to the death?
"Fortunately I didn't listen to your advice..."

Sun Quan complained bitterly and was about to order the city gates to be opened to let the "defeated army" into the city.

"My lord, wait a minute. I think something is wrong here."

Zhang Zhao stopped Sun Quan and pointed at the soldiers outside the city.
"Looking at the warships and the impressive force, there must be over 10,000 men. And they don't look like they're fleeing in defeat."

"If Zhecheng had fallen, our army would have suffered a crushing defeat. How could we return in one piece?"

After hearing his reminder, Sun Quan calmed down a bit and carefully examined the troops outside the city again. It seemed that the entire army had returned.

Suspicion suddenly appeared in Sun Quan's eyes, and he immediately became alert, so he did not order the city gate to be opened.

Soon, the 10,000 troops who had landed assembled on the north side of the city and advanced to the front of the north gate.

Zhou Yu went out into the battle circle under the protection of Xu Sheng and other soldiers, and slowly advanced to the city gate.

"It's Master Shao, Master Shao is also with Commander Zhou!"

The sharp-eyed Zhou Tai pointed at the nobleman beside Zhou Yu and shouted.

Sun Quan was startled and looked carefully, and found that his nephew Sun Shao was right next to Zhou Yu.

"Shao'er was clearly in Moling City, so why did he suddenly run outside the city and follow Gongjin?"

"Could it be that…"

A horrifying guess popped up in Sun Quan's mind, and he couldn't help but shudder.

After suppressing his panic, Sun Quan pretended to be calm and asked loudly:
"Gongjin, I ordered you to defend Zheqi Pass and stop that big-eared thief for me. Why did you suddenly lead your army back to Moling?"

"Also, why is Shao'er with you?"

Everyone's eyes were focused on Zhou Yu at the foot of the city.

Zhou Yu's eyes were cold, he perfunctorily bowed and said loudly:
"Master Zhongmou, this Jiangdong empire was founded by Bofu, and it should be inherited by Bofu's son. It was only because Master Shao was young that we supported you as the temporary ruler of Jiangdong."

"Now that Master Shao has reached adulthood and is ready to shoulder greater responsibilities, it's time for you to step down and let others take over."

"I have returned today precisely to ask you to give up your position as the leader and to support Master Shao in taking over the reins of Jiangdong!"

On the city wall, Sun Quan's face turned pale with horror.

(End of this chapter)