Jianming Chaos

When Sun Quan went to the early court, he found that the courtiers were discussing a lot, as if they were discussing some important matter, so he asked strangely: "What are you discussing? Why don't you come and share with Gu."

Zhang Zhao took the lead in saying: "Congratulations, my lord, you have chosen a good son-in-law for Soochow!"

Sun Quan's expression darkened, and he asked, "What does Zibu mean?"

Zhang Zhao was taken aback, and said, "My lord...isn't he planning to marry Liu Bei?"

Xue Zong took over the words and said: "My lord wants to betroth Princess Shangxiang to Uncle Liu, we all know about it. Apart from other things, as far as Uncle Liu's way of life is concerned, this minister absolutely supports him unconditionally!"

Sun Quan was bewildered and thought, "Why do they all know? Even my mother hasn't seen Liu Bei yet."

Lu Su said: "My lord, please listen to my words. In the battle of Chibi, Lu saw with his own eyes the strength of Liu Bei's army. Although it was only an auxiliary battle, if Kongming hadn't borrowed the east wind and Liu Bei's assistance in attacking the dry village, our army would have been difficult to win. Today Liu Bei's army occupies half of Jingzhou, if the two parties marry, they can be regarded as long-term allies, even if Cao Jun makes a comeback, it will be difficult to break through the number one alliance in the south of the Yangtze River!"

Yu Fan said: "Now that Wu and Yue are reconciled, future troubles are over; if we marry Liu Bei, Jingzhou can be brought under the banner of Soochow, and the lord will become the strongest Marquis of Wu in the history of Han! This is a great event in Soochow, the establishment of a state Just around the corner!"

Sun Quan thought depressingly: "They don't know the situation at all! Liu Bei is easy to deal with, but how could Zhuge Liang next to him not see through our schemes! It's hard to say who will win in Jingzhou!"

Of course, it was inconvenient for him to reveal his thoughts, so he said: "About this matter, I just put forward an idea. As for whether it can be implemented smoothly, it depends on the wishes of Guotai. Guotai asked Uncle Liu to meet at Ganlu Temple tomorrow. It's time to know. But, I don't understand, how did you find out about this?"

The ministers looked at each other in blank dismay.Gu Yong saw that no one dared to speak up, so he said: "I just received some rumors, and I don't know who spread them. But, isn't this a good thing? Why worry about people knowing?"

"It seems that some people are not strict. However, it should not be reported by Gong Jin." Sun Quan thought to himself, and said, "Well, since we all know, Gu will not hide it. That's right, there is such a thing, yes Gu put forward the idea, but we can only know the result after the meeting at Ganlu Temple tomorrow."

The ministers were mixed in joy and sorrow, but most of them acted according to the wind. After all, some people had bad intentions towards Liu Bei before.

After the court meeting, Sun Quan went to Zhou Yu's Xingyuan.Zhou Yu was unable to attend the meeting due to physical reasons.

"Gongjin, at the court meeting just now, almost everyone knew about the marriage, do you know why?" Sun Quan greeted briefly, and then went straight to the point.

"My lord, Yu didn't know. Could it be that Sun Qian, who had just left, leaked the news, or the princess... accidentally told the maidservant, and spread it to ten, ten to one hundred?" Zhou Yu tried hard to show that his condition was getting better. , but it is so obvious that it is difficult to hide.

"It's all possible. From this point of view, our plan is risky." Sun Quan frowned.

"This is the end of the matter, and there is no turning back. My lord, let's go ahead with the original plan. I have asked Lu Fan to order Jia Hua to take a few knives and axes to the Ganlu Temple to ambush; Let's do it now, it's over! Cough...cough..." Zhou Yu coughed several times when he got excited.

"What if the country is too good-looking?" Sun Quan worried.

"Then take advantage of the situation to facilitate this marriage. After the marriage between the two families, Jingzhou is not easy to capture? No matter whether the Guotai is in love or not, Yu has a plan to deal with it." Zhou Yu has a plan in mind.

"Currently Jingzhou is not all in Liu Bei's hands. Cao Jun is still stationed in Jingbei area, with a strong force, and there is a possibility of counterattack at any time." Sun Quan reminded him.

"Don't worry, my lord. Cao Cao's current strength should be concentrated in the area from Jiangling to Hefei. We can take advantage of the victory and advance northward, forcing them back to the north of Shouchun. Cao's army has lost its spirit, so it will not dare to act rashly."

"Do you want to fight Hefei again?" Sun Quan looked distressed, "This city is located in the junction of Wu and Wei, surrounded by mountains on three sides, easy to defend but difficult to attack. Our army has suffered more than one defeat."

"Even if you suffer a few more defeats, you can still fight." Zhou Yu said firmly, "If you want to completely drive Cao Jun back to the Central Plains, you must capture Hefei!"

"There is another crucial point that Gu has ignored before, and that is Jiang Xia."

"Jiang Xia's guard will be Liu Qi, there is nothing to be afraid of. Don't worry, my lord, Yu has sent surprise troops to attack Jiang Xia."

"Fantasy soldiers?" Sun Quan's eyes flashed, "Could it be..."

"That's right, if things go well, Jiang Xia will already belong to Soochow." Even though Zhou Yu was plagued by illness, his aura of strategizing remained undiminished.

"With Gongjin here, Guzhen can rest assured!" Sun Quan sighed, and there was something in his words.

"My lord, Mo Chou, even if Yu is gone, there are still people with lofty ideals like Lu Su, Zhang Zhao, and Lu Xun to assist the lord, and everything will be fine." Zhou Yu's health is deteriorating, and it is difficult to estimate how much time he has left.

"Gu Ke is ashamed of Gong Jin!" Sun Quan blamed himself when he thought of Xiao Qiao's disappearance again.

Last time, due to busy military affairs, Zhou Yu specifically asked Sun Quan to keep Xiao Qiao in check and not leave the palace without her permission, but Sun Quan still agreed, which led to her being taken away by Yue people; this time she disappeared in the palace again, although it was not Sun Quan. It was his fault, but Sun Quan felt that he could hardly escape the blame.

"My lord is serious. This matter is not my fault. Yu dare not complain at all!" Zhou Yu immediately knelt down and said, "Yu is willing to go through fire and water to realize the dream of founding a country for Soochow!"

Sun Quan quickly helped him up and said, "Gong Jin is really Gu's good teacher and helpful friend! Without Gong Jin, Gu is like a blind boat in the dark, unable to find the north!"

After hearing this, Zhou Yu secretly made up his mind that he must take Jingzhou down, no matter how much it cost.

Sun Quan was afraid of affecting his rest, so he comforted him a few words and left.

Not long after, Sun Quan met Zhiming in a dark place and said in surprise, "General Lei! Why are you here?"

"How is General Sun recently? I'm here to see you." Zhiming calmly replied.

"It seems that the general knows Gu's movements very clearly! ...By the way, when you took Cai Wenji away last time, when are you going to send her back to Gu?" Sun Quan never forgot Cai Yan.

"I'll talk about this matter later. Duke Ming, when I come here next time, I want to ask for something: Please let Uncle Liu go." Zhiming went straight to the point.

Sun Quan was startled and thought, "Could it be that he already knew about the assassination?"

Zhiming knew what he was thinking, and said: "Duke Ming, don't worry too much, I will definitely send Cai Wenji back safely; it's just...tomorrow's Ganlu Temple will choose a son-in-law, I hope Duke Ming will take Guotai's opinion as the main consideration."

"Strange, how does he know so much? Besides, he belongs to Liu Bei. If he knows about the assassination plan, Liu Bei will know about it too. Liu Bei should be able to arrive at Nanxu in the afternoon. What will happen when he finds out? Not to mention anything else, just for the sake of face. It's hard!" Sun Quan was full of worries.

"General Sun, don't worry too much. I don't intend to tell the emperor about this matter. I just hope that peace is the most important thing between the two sides, and there will be no more bloody conflicts." Zhiming dispelled his worries with one word.

Sun Quan breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "General Lei, when you first came to Soochow, you showed amazing strength and almost made Gan Ning lose face. If Gu hadn't come forward to stop him in time, I'm afraid Gan Ning would have been crippled already. ?In fact, Gu knew in his heart that Gan Ning was not your opponent. Later, you came to borrow the crystal ball privately, and Gu agreed, right? You still haven’t told Gu the purpose of borrowing the ball; But... Tomorrow's matter, Gu is really hard to get off. Think about it differently, if it were you, how would you deal with it?"

Zhiming admitted in his heart that from the standpoint of the other party, this matter really needs to be handled in this way.To put it bluntly, Kong Ming's act of taking advantage of the chaos to seize the county was indeed a bit of "taking advantage of the fire", but he was in a troubled world, and he was just doing it according to the situation.

"General Lei, you have your position, and you have your own position. As for how history will develop, and how far Gu and Liu Bei can drift in this long river of history, let the heavens decide." Sun Quan pointed to the sky, his eyes Concentrating on the thread, staring closely at Zhiming's eyebrows.

"As expected of Marquis Wu, his eloquence is extraordinary." Zhiming secretly admired, and said, "Minggong's words are very true, I have learned from you. Don't worry, neither Minggong nor Uncle Liu will be abandoned by history. I will leave."

Looking at the back of the other party's departure, Sun Quan fell into deep thought: the news of the marriage is likely to spread throughout the south of the Yangtze River and even the whole Han land sooner or later. If Liu Bei is killed, it will only make Soochow a laughing stock forever; To kill him, we can only make plans afterwards.

…………

Liu Bei and his party arrived in Nanxu that afternoon.According to Kong Ming's instructions, he opened the first kit before the ship was still some distance away from the shore.

After landing, Liu Bei came to visit Qiao Guolao immediately.Qiao Guolao was flattered when the distinguished guests came.Although his heart was clouded by the disappearance of his daughter, he still entertained Liu Bei in the most enthusiastic way.

The two sides replaced wine with tea and had a pleasant conversation.Qiao Guolao said that he personally supports the marriage very much. He will not only send people to publicize it in the city, but also go to congratulate Wu Guotai himself.

Due to time constraints, Liu Bei thanked Qiao Guolao and came to live in the inn arranged by Lu Fan.Early tomorrow morning, he will go to Beigu Mountain to meet with Wu Guotai.

As one of the founding fathers of Soochow, Lu Fan is also a person who is highly valued and relied on by Sun Quan.On Zhou Yu's recommendation, he went to the riverside to meet Liu Bei and his party.Unexpectedly, Liu Bei ordered the military ship to detour and land at another place, avoiding Lu Fan, and went directly to Qiao Guolao, in order to let him spread the news of the marriage.

When Lu Fan realized something was wrong, Liu Bei and his party had already left Qiao's mansion and went to the post house.The two happened to bump into each other at the posthouse. Although Lu Fan had resentment in his heart, he was inconvenient to express it, and he still treated each other with courtesy. After all, the other party was likely to become Sun Quan's brother-in-law, and his status was comparable to that of Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao.

In desperation, Lu Fan reported the truth truthfully.After Zhou Yu learned about it, he instantly understood that this was Zhuge Liang's scheme, and he was so angry that he fell to the ground and almost failed to survive.

It was already night when Qiao Guolao saw Wu Guotai.Wu Guotai never expected that Liu Bei would go to Qiao Guolao first, so that the news would spread throughout the city.Of course, Qiao Guolao was also kept in the dark and didn't know about it.

After Qiao Guolao left, Wu Guotai called Sun Quan and said, "Zhongmou, whether or not my mother likes Liu Bei tomorrow, this marriage must be concluded. You and Zhou Yu shouldn't play tricks behind the scenes. I don't want my daughter to be a widow. "

Sun Quan said reassuringly: "Mother, please rest assured. Uncle Liu Huang and the boy were allies who fought side by side and defeated the enemy in Chibi. How could the boy harm him? That's right, someone did suggest an assassination before, but in one day After much deliberation, the boy rejected it."

"That's good. I hope you will do what you say." After Wu Guotai finished speaking, she walked away on crutches.

Not long ago, Sun Quan ordered Zhou Yu to give up the assassination plan.Now he was worried, and came to the Zhou Mansion again, asking: "Gong Jin, have you withdrawn your sword and ax hand?"

"I have sent someone to inform Jia Hua, but he hasn't returned yet. After Jia Hua received the order, he should have withdrawn his troops immediately." Zhou Yu said this on the surface, but in fact he had ordered someone to inform Jia Hua to stand by. act recklessly.

Sun Quan believed it was true and said, "That's good. Don't make any mistakes tomorrow, otherwise the country will blame you and everyone will have a hard time!"

Zhou Yu coughed a few times and said, "Master, Yu is not in good health, so I won't accompany you up the mountain tomorrow. Ziheng (Lv Fan's word) will arrange everything."

Only then did Sun Quan remember that Zhou Yu was sick, and said, "I'm sorry, Gong Jin, but I'm impatient for a while, and my tone is heavy, so don't worry about it."

"My lord's kindness to Yu is as great as a mountain, how dare Yu care about such trivial matters!" Zhou Yu said enduring the pain.

After Sun Quan left, Zhou Yu thought: "Of course the marriage is important, but we have to keep a hand! What if the other party takes the opportunity to plot something wrong? I hope Lu Fan and Jia Hua don't let me down. Jingzhou and Xiao Qiao, to me They are all extremely important, but unfortunately... none of them are in my hands. I... Zhou Yu is alive, what's the point!"

After all, he raised his sword and wanted to kill himself; then he thought about it, he couldn't take advantage of Kong Ming for nothing, after all Kong Ming had humiliated him several times, so he had to give him some color.

The next day, the weather is clear and crisp, suitable for travel.Before Liu Bei set off, he opened the second kit. After reading the contents, he knew what was in his mind, and ordered to prepare a car and a horse, so that he could go up the mountain safely without the protection of the general.

Wu Guotai almost didn't sleep a night, thinking about it all the time, ordered people to get on the carriage before dawn, and arrived at Ganlu Temple an hour earlier.Originally, Sun Shangxiang also asked to come together, but she didn't allow it, fearing that the presence of the person involved would affect her decision.

The scenery here is pleasant, and the auspicious clouds and auspicious atmosphere surround the temple, like a place for cultivating immortals; the endless stream of people who go up the mountain to seek blessings adds a bit of ordinary atmosphere to the temple.

Liu Bei entered the abbot under the guidance of Lu Fan and met Wu Guotai.He immediately bowed and saluted, offering a gift that he had already prepared with both hands, and said: "I, Liu Xuande, come from Nanjun, and prepare a small gift. The gift is light and affectionate, and I hope the country will accept it."

His way of etiquette won the first favor of the other party.Wu Guotai smiled and said: "Uncle Liu Huang is a distinguished guest of our country. Not long ago, he helped our army repel Cao Jun. He made great contributions, but he is unpretentious and sincere. He is indeed qualified to be my son-in-law of Soochow!"