In July 221 AD, Liu Bei took advantage of the illusion that Cao Pi used the illusion created by Zhang He and Cao Xiu to force Sun Quan to be transferred back to Lu Xun, and personally gathered about 50,000 troops. At the same time, he ordered Zhang Fei, who was stationed in Langzhong, to lead the army to Jiangzhou to meet himself, and swore to go to the battle under the banner of "retaking Jingzhou and avenging Guan Yu".

However, shortly after Zhang Fei was ordered, he was suddenly assassinated by his subordinates Zhang Da and Fan Qiang before the army set off. They fled to the Eastern Wu with Zhang Fei's head and handed over to Lu Xun, the main messenger behind the scenes.

Seeing Zhang Fei's head was placed in front of him, Lu Xun couldn't help but sneer:

"I really didn't expect that a generation of famous generals would die at the hands of two unknown people. It's such a great irony..."

As early as when Liu Bei became emperor, Sun Quan expected that a great war between him and Liu Bei was inevitable. At this time, he began to regret not following Lu Xun's advice to move the capital to Ezhou, so he immediately ordered the capital to be moved from Jianye to Ezhou and renamed it to Wuchang. While starting to prepare for the full war with Liu Bei, he also made preparations for peace talks and guarded against Cao Wei in the north.

Later, Lu Xun teleported Zhang Fei's head to Wuchang. Sun Quan was very happy after seeing it. Because Zhang Fei's death would undoubtedly be a heavy blow to Liu Bei, who was preparing to raise an army to attack in full swing, and it would have a large impact on morale. Zhang Zhao and others even believed that Liu Bei would most likely postpone or cancel the offensive plan.

Only Lu Xun didn't think so. He said to Sun Quan: "After all, Liu Bei has been on the battlefield for decades. Since he has made all preparations, he cannot give up because of his mistakes. Instead, he will be even more angry with us because of Zhang Fei's death. It is precisely because of this that I secretly lurking beside Zhang Fei and the other two to attack."

"so?"

Sun Quan was a little confused about Lu Xun: "What does Bo Yan mean?"

Lu Xun had long planned for his own layout, so he analyzed:

"At present, the world is in a third. Although Cao Cao in the north is dead, the Wei Kingdom has not been in chaos for such a long time. Instead, Cao Pi replaced the Han Dynasty. It can be seen that Cao Wei is the most powerful. In the long run, the lord can only balance the stability of the situation by only joining the Shu Han and resisting Cao Cao. But we seized Jingzhou, killed Guan Yu, and Liu Bei suffered such a big loss for no reason. In this case, it is difficult to be in the same heart with Liu Bei. He is probably planning to use the reason to seize the city and kill the generals to annex the entire Jiangdong. Instead of doing this, it is better to let him vent all his delusions and hatred, and then completely defeat him and wake up. In this way, he will consider continuing to alliance with us."

This argument made everyone present dumbfounded after hearing this, and Zhang Zhao even accused Lu Xun of using Jiangdong's foundation to burn himself: "I will never agree with this general's argument. I dare to ask the general, if we start a war with Liu Bei, will Cao Pi in the north sit and ignore it? By then, we are both enemies, and Jiangdong will inevitably fall into a doomed place!"

Zhang Zhao's words were approved by the vast majority of people. In the face of the accusations of the court and the people, Lu Xun was completely unmoved. Seeing that he was so confident, Sun Quan reached out to stop the hustle and bustle in the court:

"Are the general confident?"

Facing Sun Quan's question, Lu Xun had already gained confidence in accepting his proposal, and he bowed and replied:

"The lord needs to do two things: First, send Liu Bei the envoy of Zhuge Jin, the prefect of Nanjun, to seek peace. Of course, Liu Bei will definitely refuse. This is a preparation for the re-establishment of the alliance after the war; second, send the envoy to Luoyang to ask Cao Pi to become a vassal, and return the captive Yu Jin he had obtained before, and at the same time expressing his willingness to pay tribute every year."

These two suggestions are completely meaningless to ordinary people, and they lose power and humiliate the country. However, after calmly thinking, Sun Quan actually agreed to Lu Xun's proposal and appointed Lu Xun as the commander-in-chief, commanding Zhu Ran, Pan Zhang, Han Dang, Xu Sheng, Sun Huan and others, a total of 50,000 people advanced to the Yidao to fight against the fierce Liu Bei.

Liu Bei, who had been through the battlefield and had certain strategies, did not attack blindly. He first adopted Li Yan's suggestion to send Ma Liang to Wuling to fight for the Wuxi barbarian leaders to send troops. He soon achieved success. Liu Bei, who thought everything was ready, officially sounded the horn of the attack and led a 50,000 army to march towards Wu County.

At this time, Zhuge Jin wrote a letter in person at Sun Quan's order, advising Liu Bei to put the overall situation first and stated that the great enemy today is Cao Wei and should not be resentful of the loss of one person and one place. Liu Bei completely ignored this.

Liu Bei's reaction was expected by Lu Xun. The real intention of him to let Zhuge Jin write this letter was not to let Liu Bei understand it, but Zhuge Liang, who was far away in CD, could understand his meaning. If he wrote a letter directly to Zhuge Liang, it would make Liu Bei suspicious of him. His purpose was achieved. After Zhuge Liang learned about what Zhuge Jin wrote, he immediately understood Lu Xun's intention. He couldn't help but sigh and said:

"I didn't expect that Lu Boyan was so meticulous and had a far-reaching look that was no less than Sima Yi and I. It seemed that he did not have enough ability but was an enemy of such a person. He was destined not to win..."

The conversation was divided into two parts, and Sun Quan sent someone to send Yu Jin and his official surrender to Luoyang.

Being a prisoner twice is a great shame for the monarch. He also knows that no matter how much he explains it, he cannot cleanse up the word "traitor" imposed on him by the world.

All the ministers in the hall looked at Yu Jin who was kneeling on the ground and kowtowed to Cao Pi, and they couldn't help but show contempt in their hearts.

Cao Pi looked at Yu Jin's hair and beard and thin at this time, and no longer had the style of famous generals as famous as Zhang He, Zhang Liao, Le Jin and Xu Huang. After he had been following the former emperor Cao Cao's war in the south and north, he still gave Yu Jin a higher courtesy on the surface and comforted him personally and said:

"There is a certainty in victory or defeat, and the general does not need to blame himself for it..."

At the same time, Cao Pi also appointed Yu Jin as General Anyuan and gave him a mansion in Luoyang to enjoy his old age.

Soon after visiting Cao Cao's mausoleum, Yu Jin returned home and cried bitterly before committing suicide by drinking poison.

Compared to the insignificant news of the death of Jin, Cao Pi was more concerned about how to deal with Sun Quan's memorial. Many officials in the court expressed congratulations to Sun Quan for his reverence. Sima Yi and Chen Qun remained silent, but Liu Ye expressed his concerns. At the same time, he advised Cao Pi to take advantage of the fierce battle between Sun Quan and Liu Bei in Jingzhou to attack the territory of the Eastern Wu. Sun Quan would definitely perish under the attack on both sides. By then, only Liu Bei, the isolated enemy, was not worth worrying.

But Cao Pi was considering that Sun Quan had already bowed to him and that if he sent troops to attack him again, he would have made a decision to fight Wuming, which would not be conducive to his future regaining the hearts of the people in Jiangdong, so he did not adopt this opinion.

Sima Yi stood up and said to Cao Pi:

"Your Majesty, Sun Quan is a man with great ambitions. He is definitely not a minister for a long time. He should not be underestimated. At present, he intends to surrender to our Great Wei. Your Majesty should accept it for the sake of the people. However, in order to test Sun Quan's sincerity and prevent him from rebelling again in the future, he can order him to send his eldest son Sun Deng to Luoyang as a hostage. In this way, even though Sun Quan has a different intention in the future, he will inevitably throw himself into a harassment."

Cao Zhen also put forward his own opinions on the position of Cao Wei when the war between Sun and Liu was about to begin:

"The war between Sun Quan and Liu Bei has just begun, and neither side has any major damage. As long as the general sees His Majesty, he can sit in the mountains and watch the tiger fight. When both sides fight to the point of defeat, they will annihilate the weak ones one by one."

The words of Sima Yi and Cao Zhen can be said to have killed two birds with one stone to solve Cao Pi’s worries, and he is very happy:

"What Zhongda and Zidan said is very consistent with my wishes, so let's do it as it should."

On August 19, Cao Pi sent Taichang Xing Zhen as an envoy and took Charity to Jiangdong to take Sun Quan as the King of Wu and give him nine tins. At the same time, he deliberately appointed Sun Quan's favorite eldest son Sun Deng as the General of the Eastern Central Army, and was granted the title of Marquis of Wanhu. He urged Sun Deng to go to Luoyang, the capital to meet the saint as soon as possible, but in fact he was placed under house arrest.

Sun Quan naturally understood this. He first refused Cao Pi's title and official position on the pretext that Sun Deng was still young. However, in order not to annoy Cao Pi at this critical moment, Sun Quan agreed to Cao Pi's request on the surface, but on the grounds that Sun Deng's adoptive mother, Mrs. Xu, was seriously ill and as a son, he asked to wait until Mrs. Xu recovered before letting Sun Deng go to Luoyang.

This reason seems high-sounding, but Cao Pi cannot find a reason to attack, so he has to agree.

At that time, the generals at the border between Cao Wei and Sun Wu learned that Sun Quan had started a war with Liu Bei and were obeying Cao Wei, so many generals believed that they would not fight with Sun Quan again. At this time, Zhang Liao was ordered to go to Luoyang to worship, and Cao Xiu returned to his hometown to attend the funeral because of the death of his mother. The commanding generals on the front line began to feel slack.

However, Cao Zhen secretly ordered the General Xiahou Shang, the Conquering South, to make secret preparations for the attack and obey orders at any time.

During the initial offensive and defensive battle, Liu Bei made great progress. At the beginning, he used the method of water to advance together to launch a fierce attack on Wu County. After succeeding, he advanced rapidly, defeated the Wu army's guard Li Yi and occupied Zigui City, and then threatened Xinling. At the same time, in order to prevent Cao Wei from interfering with him, Liu Bei sent Huang Quan to guard the north bank of the Yangtze River.

At that time, the troops led by Lu Xun had already arrived in Ma'anshan, and were basically in a close contact with Liu Bei.

After the military newspaper was reported back to Luoyang, Cao Pi, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji and Cao Zhen discussed the prospects of the battle together.

Cao Pi, who was leaning on the table, handed the military report sent back by Cao Ren to the table:

"You guys take a look and tell me your own opinions."

General Jiang Ji reported to Sima Yi and Cao Zhen to read it separately, and said to Cao Pi:

"Your Majesty, Liu Bei's intention to fight quickly is very obvious. Judging from the terrain, he went deep into Xinling, which is very close to Nanjun in just two months. His purpose was to find Lu Xun's main force to fight."

After reading it, Cao Zhen also agreed with Jiang Ji's point of view and expressed his own opinion:

"One is a veteran in the battlefield who has experienced many battles, and the other is a scholar who has made a big splash shortly after joining the army. It is really hard to judge who can win. However, according to the following, if Lu Xun chooses to face Liu Bei in Ma'anshan, he will definitely be defeated."

"Oh?" Cao Pi raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Why is Zidan so sure?"

At this time, Sima Yi put down the military newspaper in his hand and replied on behalf of Cao Zhen:

"The reason is very simple, because Liu Bei was a victorious army at this time. He walked down the river and sang triumphantly, conquering Wu County, Zigui and Xinling one after another. The soldiers and civilians along the way basically surrendered. In addition, Liu Bei also greatly overshadowed Lu Xun, who was insulted by him as a 'pedantic scholar'. If Lu Xun directly confronted Liu Bei, how could he be invincible?"

After saying that, Sima Yi pointed to the map hanging on the wall and said:

"If I were Lu Xun, the only way to win was to be one word: drag..."
Chapter completed!