Man Chong estimated that even if his memorial arrived in Luoyang, it would have no effect.

At that moment, he quickly wrote a letter and asked it to be delivered to Cao Xiu quickly, telling Cao Xiu his worries.

After all, Cao Xiu had been fighting for many years, and to be able to become the Grand Sima, he had the basic qualities that a general should have, and he still had them.

After reading Man Chong's letter, he first sent people to guard Wu Qiang's mouth, and then sent people to Wu Qiang's mouth to inquire ahead and confirm that there was no ambush in the trailer or the rocks, and then he continued to move forward with confidence.

But soon, when he was about to arrive at Shiting, the sentinel finally conveyed the news that the Wu army had a large army waiting in Wancheng.

This was a big surprise for Cao Xiu.

The people on the left and right persuaded him, "Wu Lu is already prepared. It seems that the bream of Zhou must be pretending to surrender. The general must not advance lightly."

However, Cao Xiu still had a chance and asked Dong Cen and Shaonan, his confidants sent by Zhou Li, to come forward and said, "I personally led the army into Anhui this time to meet General Zhou, but now there are Wu prisoners in Wan City.

What’s the big army?”

The two looked at each other and saw Dong Cen saying respectfully, "Da Sima led an army of 100,000 tigers and wolves and marched in. Those who heard it were frightened. When the news spread to the south, how could they not take precautions?"

"Since Wu Lu is prepared, what should I do?"

"We should attack and defeat it! Moreover, General Zhou has made preparations for action in Poyang. Once Da Sima engages in battle in Wancheng, General Zhou will take the opportunity to attack behind, and then the success will be achieved."

Cao Xiu was overjoyed and said, "Okay, then I will let you go back and tell Zhou Li that I will fight the Wu Lu at Shiting in the near future, so he must not break the promise."

Immediately, he wrote a handwritten letter and stamped it with the seal of the general, telling Dong Cen to deliver it to Zhou Li personally.

As soon as Dong Cen left, Shao Nan smiled and said to Cao Xiu, "Congratulations to the Great Sima for his unparalleled achievements in the near future."

Cao Xiu had just laughed at Yan Yan, but suddenly he became cold. He looked at Shaonan, with uncontrollable anger in his eyes, "What do you have to do with your immortal achievements?"

Shao Nan was stunned for a moment, feeling something bad in his heart.

All I heard was Cao Xiu ordering, "Come here! Capture this Wu Lu spy!"

The cronies swarmed up and tied Shaonan tightly.

"What does this mean, Great Sima?"

Shaonan shouted loudly.

Cao Xiu, who was above me, was furious. He gritted his teeth and said, "Are you really deceiving me for being ignorant? At this time, how could I not know that Zhou Li is pretending to surrender?"

You must know that the year before last, he personally led troops to defeat Wancheng and killed the defender of Wancheng, Shen De.

There he led the army southward, advancing and retreating freely, and Wu Lu did not react at all.

How could it be like now, when a large army was ready in advance?

Therefore, there is a high probability that Zhou Li is faking his surrender. Even if he is not faking his surrender, things have already changed.

He drew his sword, pointed it at Shaonan, his eyes widened angrily, and he said in a hateful voice, "I treat people with sincerity, but I didn't expect Wu Lu to be so cunning!"

When Shao Nan heard Cao Xiu's appearance, he thought that the fake surrender had been revealed. He stood up straight with a sneer on his face and said, "Soldiers are deceitful. Cao Xiu is ignorant, but he blames others for deceiving you."

? Ridiculous, ridiculous!”

As soon as Cao Xiu heard that the other party admitted his suspicion, his anger rose to the sky, and he wanted to stab him with a sword.

Shaonan closed his eyes and waited for death.

The tip of the sword reached his chest, and Cao Xiu asked, "Aren't you afraid of death?"

Shao Nan opened his eyes and laughed, "Since I arrived at Cao Ying, I never thought I could get out alive."

"Okay! Okay!" Cao Xiu laughed angrily and nodded repeatedly, "Then don't blame me for being cruel!"

"Thief Cao, if you want to kill or behead him, it's up to you!"

Shaonan looked calm.

"I won't kill you, I won't chop you into pieces, I will steam you!"

Cao Xiu laughed ferociously and said, "Come here, set up a cauldron to boil water!"

After Shaonan was pulled down to be cooked, someone persuaded Cao Xiu, "Since Da Sima knew that Wu Lu was pretending to surrender, why didn't he retreat?"

"If we retreat now, Wei will become the biggest joke in the world!" Cao Xiu gritted his teeth and said, "We must not retreat immediately!"

His eyes flashed with hatred, "I have asked Dong Cen to deliver a message, saying that I will lead troops to fight Wu Lu in the near future, and asked him to come quickly to respond."

Having said this, a gloomy smile appeared on his face, "When Wu Lu saw my letter, he must have thought that I had fallen into the trap. Just wait for them to come and see how I can break it!"

The total number of troops mobilized by the Wei Dynasty this time from Yangzhou, Yuzhou, and Jingzhou totaled 150,000 to 60,000.

It cost a lot of money to mobilize troops, and the emperor placed high hopes on it. Even the land of Henan in the Wei Dynasty was disturbed by this.

I never thought that in the end, it would turn out to be just a conspiracy by Wu Lu.

This made Cao Xiu, who was determined to promote this action, not only feel humiliated, but also thought of the ridicule he would face in the future.

This is one reason why we cannot retreat easily.

Another reason is that the sentinels in front found out that there were only 30,000 troops in Wancheng.

Although there were ambushes on both sides, they only numbered in the thousands. Calculating this, Wu Lu's troops in Wancheng were only 40,000 at most.

Cao Xiu relied on the fact that he had more troops than Soochow, and they were all elite soldiers. In addition, he had defeated the Wu army many times in the past, so he felt that the Wu army was no match for the enemy.

So he knew that Soochow was prepared ahead, but he still tried to fight it.

He led the army to Shiting, and first set up camp to prepare to fight the Wu soldiers. At the same time, he sent his left and right armies to ambush on both wings. He only waited for a stalemate with Soochow or defeated the Wu soldiers, and then he could cover up and pursue them.

On the other hand, Dong Cen took Cao Xiu's letter and returned to Wancheng overnight to report to Zhou Li.

When the generals of Soochow heard that Cao Xiu had arrived at this time, he still didn't know that he had fallen into the trap and actually dared to continue leading the army. They all laughed and ridiculed him.

Only Lu Xun frowned after reading the letter. After a long time, he sighed, "Shaonan's life is at stake!"

When Zhou Li heard this, his heart skipped a beat, "Why did the Governor say this?"

Lu Xun slowly explained, "Cao Xiu followed Cao Cao for many years in his early years. He defeated Wu Lan, defeated Zhang Fei in Wudu, fought in Dongpu, and defeated the late great Sima Lu Ziheng."

"The year before last, when Cao Rui ascended the throne, Cao Xiu led his troops to break through Wancheng and kill Shende. So even though he was not a smart general, he was not an ordinary person. How could he trust General Zhou even though he knew that Wancheng had a large army?

Talk of surrender?"

After hearing Lu Xun's words, some of the generals immediately understood, "What do you mean, the Governor-General, is Cao Xiu a deceiver?"

"Of course he is cheating." Lu Xun smiled lightly, with a hint of relief on his face, "He has already led the army so far, and I have always been afraid that he would turn back immediately when he finds out that he has been deceived."

"I didn't expect that he would be so confident and dare to come even though he knew it was a trick. This shows that our strategy of showing weakness to the enemy was successful."

The Wu army in Wancheng was divided into three groups. Lu Xun personally led the army in the middle group, with Zhu Huan as the left governor and Quan Cong as the right governor. Each group had 30,000 troops, totaling 90,000.

But what was displayed in front of Cao Xiu was Lu Xun's 30,000-strong army and thousands of ambushes who were deliberately revealed. Therefore, Cao Xiu believed that he had a great advantage. Even though he knew he had a plan, he still thought of using countermeasures and tried to use them.

Just when Cao Xiu and Lu Xun were about to engage in a decisive battle at the foot of Wan City, Jia Kui, the governor of Yuzhou, ordered Man Chong to lead 10,000 troops to attack Xiakou, and then he personally led 6,000 troops directly south from Xiyang and took a shortcut to attack Dongguan.

Just last year, Jia Kui wrote to Wei Emperor Cao Rui, saying that Sun Quan had a large army stationed in Wuchang, Dongguan, and if the Wuzhi invaded the border, they would always go from Xiakou to the west and Lujiang to the east.

When the state conquered Soochow, it also came from the Huai River in the east and the Mian River in the west.

Yuzhou, which is between the two places, is obviously facing Wuchang, the important town of Soochow. However, because of the mountains blocking it, transportation is inconvenient, so Sun Quan never worries about the direction of Yuzhou.

On the contrary, he can easily concentrate his forces to rescue the east and west fronts from the east pass area.

Therefore, Jia Kui suggested building a road directly to the river, so that the army could march from Yuzhou to attack Dongguan of Soochow, directly threatening the heart and soul of Soochow.

At that time, if Sun Quan defends Dongguan, he can send other troops to attack from the east and west, and Sun Quan's east and west fronts will not be rescued.

If the east-west line can be captured, Dongguan will become an isolated stronghold for east-west flanking attack, and it will be easily accessible.

Once Dongguan is lost, Jiangdong will no longer be able to invade the Wei Dynasty and will have to wait for death.

Cao Rui appreciated this suggestion very much.

For more than a year, Jia Kui has been asking people to survey the terrain in the south of Yuzhou, and at the same time recruiting civilians to build roads.

Nowadays, although the road from Yuzhou to Dongguan cannot pass tens of thousands of troops, if there is no obstruction from Dongwu, five or six thousand people can still pass through.

This time Jia Kui attacked Dongguan Wuchang from Xiyang County, Yuzhou, and took the newly built road.

As he expected, Dongguan was not heavily defended, so he easily led the army into Wu Realm. However, he did not look happy at all, but instead frowned.

"General Jia unexpectedly led his troops to Dongguan City. Why is he not happy but worried?"

Hu, the governor of Dongguan, asked.

Jia Kui sighed, pointed to the south and said, "Dongguan is an important town of Sun Quan, and there used to be a large army stationed there. Now there are only soldiers guarding the city in Dongguan. Where are the rest of the army?"

"So when I think about it, there is only one possibility, that is, Sun Quan has transferred his army to Wancheng. If Da Sima goes deep into the army alone, he will definitely be defeated."

When Hu Zhi heard this, he was shocked and said anxiously, "If this is really the case, I'm afraid Da Sima is in danger."

Jia Kui looked to the south, where there was Wuchang City built by Sun Quan. There must not be many troops in the city at this time.

If it can be captured, even if it cannot be defended in the end, setting a fire to burn it all will definitely be a major blow to Sun Quan.

It's a pity that this city is so strong that with thousands of people, I'm afraid it will be difficult to capture it.

Moreover, Cao Xiu in the east was in danger and could not afford to delay for a moment.

Therefore, Jia Kui decisively gave up the extremely tempting idea of ​​capturing Wuchang, and ordered his soldiers to collect ships from all over, advance by waterway, prepare roads, and rush to Wancheng to rescue Cao Xiu.
To be continued...