Cheng Yu smiled and said, "Mr. Wu must ask me for the basis. I really can't come up with it, but I might as well tell you, if Liu Jing just wanted to capture the Central Plains, the Han army can now at least send troops from Tongguan, Nanyang and Runan to attack the Central Plains, and there is no need to seize Hefei any more. This shows that Liu Jing's real purpose in attacking Hefei is not the Central Plains, but another goal. So, where will it be?"

Cheng Yu's speculation was reasonable and completely reasonable. The lobby was silent. After a while, Sun Quan slowly said: "Mr. Cheng, please go and rest first, and let me consider it."

Cheng Yu knew that Sun Quan wanted to discuss with everyone. Although he had not stated the purpose of the trip, he believed that Sun Quan knew very well and did not need him to add anything. Cheng Yu stood up and bowed, accompanied by the minister Xue Zong, and quickly left the meeting hall.

After Cheng Yu left, Sun Quan sighed and said to everyone: "Tell me all!"

Bu Zhi stood up and bowed and said, "The purpose of Cheng Yu came from Wuhou is to hope that we will join forces with Cao's army to fight against the Han army, especially to hope that we will also participate in the battle in Hefei. The opinion of the minister is to sit in the mountains and watch the tiger fight in Jiangdong, so that Liu Jing and Cao Cao will be injured by two hundred."

"What if the Han army defeated Cao's army?"

Sun Quan said worriedly: "I am very worried now that Cheng Yu said, was the Han army seizing Hefei for the purpose of Jiangdong? Is this Cao Cao exaggerating or is it true?"

"The Marquis of Wu don't have to worry too much. Now the Han army has established its capital in Chang'an. The next step for the Han army is either to attack Bingzhou or capture Luoyang and establish a relief zone for Chang'an. The possibility of attacking Jiangdong is not high. Cao Cao wanted to drag us into the war in Hefei. Wu must not be deceived by Cheng Yu's charming words."

Bu Zhi's words made many people nodded in favor. Zhuge Jin stroked his beard and said, "Zishan is right. If he forms an alliance with Cao Cao and is dragged into the Hefei battle, Liu Jing will find an excuse to attack Jiangdong. In this matter, we must act cautiously."

Everyone expressed their opinions, and those who agreed and those who opposed them. At this time, Sun Quan saw that Zhang Zhao was silent all the time, so he asked Zhang Zhao: "Where is Zibu's opinion?"

As soon as he finished speaking, before Zhang Zhao could come back, a guard reported in the hall: "Report to the Marquis of Wu, Jiangbei has an emergency report!"

“Support it!”

A guard hurriedly walked in and submitted a volume of information. Sun Quan opened the information and read it. He was surprised to say to everyone: "Cao's army raided Liyang Wharf and seized more than 400 mining ships from Jingzhou. Zhang Liao led a large army to attack Ruxukou. The Han army stationed at Ruxukou was defeated and retreated in a hurry. Now Cao's army has occupied Ruxukou."

This news made everyone whisper, and Sun Quan felt confused. At this time, he suddenly saw Zhang Zhao wink at him. Sun Quan understood and stood up and said to everyone: "I will discuss it for the time being in the morning and continue discussing it in the afternoon."

Sun Quan left the meeting hall and returned to his official room. As soon as he entered the room, Zhang Zhao followed him in. Sun Quan sat down and smiled and said, "Why didn't Zibu express his opinion today?"

"I'm afraid my statement will disappoint Mr. Wu."

"I'm not afraid of disappointment, I'm afraid that Zibu won't express his opinion."

Zhang Zhao pondered for a moment and said, "The old minister actually agreed with what Cheng Yu said. After Liu Jing seized Hefei, he would definitely point to Jiangdong."

Sun Quan knew that Zhang Zhao had always been hostile to Liu Jing. Whether it was the main war or opposing peace talks, Zhang Zhao had always been the vanguard of anti-Jingzhou. So today he agreed with Cheng Yu's statement. How many of this was caused by his prejudice? Sun Quan couldn't help but remain silent.

Zhang Zhao seemed to understand Sun Quan's concerns, and he smiled and said, "Mr. Wu, today the old minister has no prejudice against Liu Jing, and he is completely stating the matter. Cheng Yu is right. If Liu Jing did not take Guanzhong, then Hefei is indeed very important to him. But if Liu Jing took Guanzhong, he could completely enter Bingzhou and Luoyang from Guanzhong. It is not that Hefei is not important, but Hefei is much inferior to Bingzhou and Luoyang. The Han army launched the Hefei battle on such a large scale, consuming a lot of food and supplies. If it is just to deal with the Wei State, it would be completely unreasonable."

Sun Quan walked to the window with his hands behind his back and stared at the sky outside the window. After a long time, he said lightly: "The military advisor said, is Hefei not as important as Bingzhou?"

"At least I think this is the case. If I seize Bingzhou and Taiyuan, Yedu was shocked, and Cao Cao would have to be forced to move the capital back to Xuchang. At that time, he would attack Hefei and form a siege. If I were Liu Jing, I would definitely take Bingzhou first."

Sun Quan was in a heavy mood. He had to admit that Zhang Zhao saw it thoroughly. For Wei State, Hefei was far less important than Bingzhou. Liu Jing spent such a large amount of resources to attack Hefei instead of Bingzhou, which only means that Liu Jing's intention to attack Hefei was not in Wei State, but in Jiangdong. As Cheng Yu said, Hefei was a knife on the head of Jiangdong. Once the Han army deployed heavy troops and warships in Hefei, he could attack Jiangdong in large quantities at any time.

Although this has been figured out, Sun Quan was still a little afraid of the strength of the Han army. Zhang Zhao and Sun Quan have been together for more than ten years, so how could they not understand Sun Quan’s thoughts? He smiled and said, “Cao’s army seized Ruxukou and more than 400 mining ships, which is telling the Marquis of Wu that the Cao army will do its best in this battle. With the strength of the Cao army alone, the Han army is in the same position as the Han army. If the Jiangdong army is added, then the Sun and Cao coalition will have at least 70% chance of victory. As long as we win this battle, the Han army retreats westward, we can take advantage of the opportunity to regain Wu County and unify Jiangdong again. At that time, three points in the world will be a foregone conclusion.”

Sun Quan was finally shaken by Zhang Zhao's statement, but this matter was of great importance, so he still wanted to deal with it carefully. He said: "Although Liu Jing's purpose of seizing Hefei is probably aimed at Jiangdong, it is just a guess after all, and there is no tangible evidence. Let me consider it again!"

Zhang Zhao took action step by step and had already shaken Sun Quan's statement. How could he give up halfway? Moreover, his most important killer move had not been used yet. At this time, Zhang Zhao saw that Sun Quan had forgotten the most critical thing, so he smiled and said, "Wu Hou, the old minister said that he had no prejudice against Liu Jing this time because there was factual basis. Did Wu Hou forget that Liu Jing supported Sun Shao?"

A sentence reminded Sun Quan immediately, and it made Sun Quan wake up as if he was dreaming. This is indeed the biggest evidence. If Liu Jing did not want to destroy Jiangdong, why would he support Wujun?

Thinking of Liu Jing's support for Sun Shao, Sun Quan gritted his teeth. Yes, Liu Jing completely ignored the marriage between the Sun and Liu families and was determined to split Jiangdong and thus destroy Jiangdong. His intention was to be punished. In this way, Cheng Yu's words were completely credible.

At this moment, Sun Quan finally made up his mind. He pondered for a moment: "I want to have a good talk with Cheng Yu. If possible, I hope to meet Cao Cao as soon as possible and sign an alliance in person."

Cheng Yu only stayed in Jianye for one night and hurried back to Hefei. Although Cao Cao was in Hefei at this time, he did not interfere with Zhang Liao's use of troops. Compared with Zhang Liao's capture of Ruxukou, Cao Cao was more concerned about the result of Cheng Yu's mission, which was the key to the entire battle situation.

Once Jiangdong promises to send troops, it will pose a huge threat to the Han army behind it, especially cutting off the Han army's logistical support, and the possibility of Cao's victory in the Battle of Hefei will be greatly increased.

Moreover, Cao Cao also believed that Sun Quan would be convinced by Cheng Yu. The matter was clearly here. Liu Jing was determined to unify the world. When he could not take over the Wei Kingdom for a while, he would destroy Jiangdong and Jiaozhou first and unify the south, which would become the prerequisite for unifying the north. As long as Sun Quan had a little brain, he would understand that Liu Jing would never let Jiangdong go because of the marriage between Sun and Liu.

Besides, even if Sun Quan was confused, his civil and military ministers would not be confused. They would definitely persuade Sun Quan to participate in the battle in Hefei. After all, letting Cao's army, which had no warship naval army, control Hefei was much safer than the Han army.

Just as Cao Cao was pacing back and forth in the lobby, a guard rushed to report, "Report to Duke Wei, Military Advisor Cheng is back!"

Cao Cao was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Let him come to see me quickly."

Soon, Cheng Yu hurried to the lobby, bowed and said, "I am here to see Duke Wei."

"How is it?" Cao Cao asked anxiously.

Cheng Yu smiled slightly, "It's already 80% of the negotiations. Sun Quan still wants to have a while with Mr. Wei to officially finalize the strategy of the two sides to join forces to fight against the Han army. Then, the remaining details will be discussed with Jiangdong in detail, but Sun Quan still has two additional conditions."

“What additional conditions?”

"One additional condition is to hope that we can provide food aid. Sun Quan made a request of 100,000 stones. In addition, if the Han army is defeated, all the seized food and prisoners of war belong to the Eastern Wu, and then Sun Quan hopes that Cao army will provide him with 10,000 barrels of turmeric oil."

Cao Cao couldn't help but sneer. He understood Sun Quan's intention and got the Han army's prisoners of war and then went to repair and ease the relationship. He did not express his opinion and asked again: "Are these two additional conditions?"

"No, it's just an additional condition."

"What else?" Cao Cao asked a little unhappy. Although there were three conditions, Sun Quan said them into two. This kind of small thought was disgusting.

"There is also that Sun Quan hopes that Duke Wei can show his sincerity in the decisive battle with the Han army."

'Sincerity?' Cao Cao asked in confusion: "What does he mean?"

"He hopes that Duke Wei can cancel his marriage with Liu Jing. If possible, he is willing to marry Duke Wei's daughter as his second wife."

Cao Cao's face suddenly changed, and he snorted coldly for a while, "He is too arrogant to him."

Cheng Yu quickly advised: "I have considered it on the road and temporarily silenced Sun Quan and pretended to agree to his conditions. After the war was over, we would reconsider it. In fact, if we can really establish a three-part world pattern, marriage with Sun Quan is a good choice."

"I can agree to him anything else, but my marriage with Liu Jing is related to the overall situation of the world. I have been planning for this for many years and finally reached this marriage. I don't want to cancel this marriage just by just one sentence of Sun Quan."

Cao Cao's attitude was very clear. Whether from his personal feelings or from the fate of the Cao family, he hoped that his daughter could marry Liu Jing, and he never wanted to cancel this hard-won marriage just because of Sun Quan's words, let alone marry Cao Xian to Sun Quan.

Cheng Yu was very anxious and finally convinced Sun Quan to reach an alliance. He did not want to destroy this important alliance because of the marriage.

Cheng Yu tried hard to persuade: "I understand the mood of Duke Wei, and the marriage with Sun Quan is also the basis for consolidating the Wei-Wu alliance. Its importance is no less than that of the marriage between Cao and Liu. Please think twice."

Although Cao Cao was unwilling to marry his daughter to Sun Quan, he knew in his heart that marriage with Sun Quan could indeed consolidate the Wei-Wu alliance, thereby breaking the Han army's encirclement pattern of Wei. In this strategic sense, the importance of marriage with Sun Quan even exceeded that of marriage with Liu Jing. It was related to the overall situation and should not be determined by his personal feelings. Thinking of this, Cao Cao's cold face became softer.

Cheng Yu also saw that Cao Cao was shaken, and he continued to persuade: "In fact, there is no need to marry Miss Xian to Sun Quan. Sun Quan did not designate Miss Xian. We can change one person, such as Miss Ning. As for the marriage with Liu Jing, Wei Gong can prepare a dowry for a month or two. As long as the battle of Hefei broke out, the marriage can only be temporarily stopped. After the war is over, the marriage will be considered according to the situation. In this way, the initiative is in the hands of Mr. Wei, and it will not affect the alliance with Jiangdong."

Cao Cao nodded, and had to do this. He thought for a while and said, "Didn't Sun Quan say that I want me to cancel the marriage between Cao and Liu first?"

"I report to Duke Wei, this cancellation is just a guarantee for Sun Quan, not an explanation for Liu Jing. I believe that Sun Quan just hopes to see Duke Wei's sincerity. As for whether the marriage is really cancelled, let's talk about it later!"

Cao Cao pondered for a long time. Although Sun Quan's conditions made him feel very unhappy, for the sake of the Hefei Battle and the overall situation of the Wei-Wu Alliance, he had to make a temporary compromise. "Okay! I can agree to his additional conditions. Where do he want to meet me?"
Chapter completed!