Cao Pi decided on the spot to accept Sun Quan's surrender and asked the envoy to return to the inn to wait for the reward. Zhao Zi thanked him for his kindness.

After Zhao Zi went out, Cao Pi did not resign, but asked the ministers what kind of titles they would be appropriate to award Sun Quan.

Originally, rewards were the emperor's grace, and they were generally rewarded according to merit. For major forces like Sun Quan who surrendered, the title could be decided by the emperor's words.

Cao Pi has already gathered great power, and can be said to be a word of nothing. Of course, he is not afraid of disagreement and is happy to play a wise king. Of course, he can also examine the abilities and loyalty of such ministers under his command.

But all the ministers are old-fashioned, and they know the truth that disaster comes from their mouths. They dare not express their opinions casually if they cannot guess the emperor's mind.

Therefore, for a moment, the court was silent and Cao Pi showed a look of hesitation.

Because of the wolf's appearance, Sima Yi was not favored by Cao Cao.

But since he followed Cao Pi, Sima Yi and Cao Pi were originally the same type of people and soon got along. After Cao Pi became emperor, he was also valued. He was currently the Minister of Shang and had the right to advise on rewards.

Sima Yi was good at guessing Cao Pi's intentions. He expected that Cao Pi wanted to reward Sun Quan heavily, so he went out to ask:

"Sun Quan has been in power in Jiangnan for a long time and has a great power. When he came to surrender, it means that Your Majesty has already gained power in all directions. It is a great joy. He should be promoted! His previous title was Marquis of Nanchang, and he was the top of Marquis. I think that only by being a king can Sun Quan lead his subordinates to fight to the death with Liu Bei, and Your Majesty will reap the benefits of the fisherman."

Sima Yi's words were exactly what Cao Pi wanted and was about to accept them. The minister Liu Ye stood up and said:

"Your Majesty, Sun Quan is afraid of the power of Liu Bei's army, so he came to surrender. Sun Quan was originally a capricious person, obviously not sincerely surrendering to Your Majesty. In my foolish opinion, Sun Quan was about to fight with Liu Bei, and this was the destruction of Sun Quan. If Your Majesty sends a general to raise tens of thousands of troops and crosses the river from Hefei to attack him, Liu Bei's attack on Jingzhou was not yet out, but Your Majesty had conquered Yangzhou. Sun Quan's destruction would be within tens of days. And Your Majesty could occupy all the rich lands in Jiangdong, and his power would inevitably be greatly boosted! Even if Liu Bei occupied Jingzhou again, he was already alone and was far from his enemy. He was not far from defeat. Why didn't Your Majesty try it early?"

Liu Ye was originally a relative of the Han Dynasty, and he defected to Cao Cao and had the intention of supporting the Han Dynasty.

Later, I saw that Cao Cao's general situation had come true, and it was only a matter of time before he replaced the Han Dynasty. He also secretly helped Liu Bei many times.

The uncle and nephew of the Xun family made great contributions to Cao Cao. Because he was in the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao did not hesitate to start, which made Liu Ye very alert.

Because of his sensitive identity as a relative in the Han Dynasty, he could only protect himself carefully and never dared to act rashly again.

Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty and became emperor, but did not treat Liu Ye badly. He was promoted to Shizhong and was awarded the title of Marquis of Guannei.

At that time, Cao Pi took the opportunity to replace the Han Dynasty because Liu Bei and Sun Quan had a feud. He once asked the court officials whether Liu Bei would avenge Guan Yu, who was killed by Sun Quan attacking Jingzhou.

Most people believe that Liu Bei had weak power at the beginning of Xichuan, and his subordinates were only Guan Yu, and Guan Yu was still dead in battle and had no ability to start another war.

But Liu Ye believed that Liu Bei would definitely regain his reputation by attacking Sun Quan, and believed that Liu Bei and Guan Yu had a deep relationship and would definitely avenge him.

Now that Liu Bei has indeed sent troops, Sun Quan was forced to surrender, which fulfilled Liu Ye's prediction.

Now Liu Ye has raised different opinions. Cao Pi suspected that Liu Ye was suspected of helping Liu Bei, and his face became a little ugly. He wanted to have an attack, but there was no reason, so he had to refute:

"Since Sun Quan gave me a favor, if I attacked him, it would be a pity for those who wanted to surrender in the world; it would be better to accept it."

Of course, Liu Ye hopes that Liu Bei will defeat Sun Quan, but he does not have the courage to be swayed. Now it is indeed a good opportunity for Cao Pi to attack Jiangdong.

When Liu Bei and Cao Cao were in the duel, Liu Ye avoided suspicion everywhere and rarely offered advice.

As for the future showdown between Liu Bei and Cao Pi, Liu Ye was not prepared to participate, and was not afraid of others gossiping.

He raised his opinion on attacking Sun Quan, but he expected Cao Pi would not agree, but his real purpose was to ask Cao Pi not to grant Sun Quan the title of King of Kings first. After the battle between Sun Quan and Liu Bei ended, he would then give rewards on the merits and continue to suggest:

"Although Sun Quan was a talented man, he was the general of the cavalry of the Han Dynasty and the Marquis of Nanchang. If the official was light, his power was weak, and Sun Quan was still afraid of the Central Plains. Even if he defeated Liu Bei, he could only separatist one side and become the king. If he could defeat Liu Bei, he would be the first rank of His Majesty. If he could defeat Liu Bei, he would be able to follow Liu Bei and become the emperor himself. Then the power of the world would be achieved and it would be difficult to change. Now Your Majesty believes in his deceitful surrender and respects his position to seal it up, which is a great addition to the tiger."

Cao Pi became more and more displeased, but since he took the initiative to solicit opinions, he could not punish him for his words, so he continued to refute:

"Otherwise, I will not help Sun Quan or Liu Bei. When the two sides fight, if one country is destroyed and one country is left, what's the difficulty of eliminating it? I have decided, so please don't say anything again."

Then he ordered the Taichang Qing Xing Zhen to hold the enthronement with Zhao Zi and went straight to Dongwu.

...

...

Although Ma Su left Jingnan, he soon entered Yuedi.

Yueli belongs to a barbarian land, with local people being tough and disobeying the laws of the king. Their ownership of the land does not require the official land deed to be recognized.

Because they all make a living by hunting and are not good at planting, they just plant some vegetables, fruits, sorghum, and other dry land grains next to the mountain village. The yield is very low, and they are not very eager for land.

Their battle for land is actually a definite decisiveness of hunting territory.

The decision to determine the ownership of the land is mainly negotiated and decided by the leaders of major tribes, and the principle that the strong are kings.

Therefore, when Ma Su led thousands of troops to the Yueli Army, the major tribes seemed to be facing a great enemy.

The chiefs of several local tribes discussed together and compared the strength of both sides. They felt that it would be difficult for a single tribe to compete with these thousands of elite soldiers. When several tribes united, they would have to pay an unbearable price.

After weighing the pros and cons, they decided to compromise and took the initiative to give up a large piece of territory for Ma Su.

These territories are all areas close to water sources. There are many local residents and not many prey. In the eyes of local barbarians, they are naturally bad areas.

But for Ma Su who was willing to come to farm, it was undoubtedly a rare good land. Therefore, the two sides quickly reached an agreement and Ma Su settled down in Yueli.

Ma Su was in Yueli, but he was still very concerned about the situation in Jingnan.

He left many spies to collect information in Jingnan and report every three days.

Therefore, Jingnan's movements could not be hidden from his eyes.

When he learned that Xi Zhen and Fan Zhou had divided their troops and adopted completely different strategies and tactics, he expected that the two would lose.

When Ma Su made the plan, he had the strategic goal of recapturing the entire Jingzhou. He did not attack the cities and villages in Jingnan, but led a large army to directly attack Jiangling.

What Sun Quan feared most was that Jiangling was attacked on both sides. At that time, Sun Quan's defending the city and the tactics of dragging down Liu Bei turned into jokes.

Because Liu Bei had the support of the Jingnan army, he was not afraid of Sun Quan's retreat being cut off, and could bypass the city and advance for a long time.

Liu Bei led elite troops this time with very strong combat power. If the two armies faced each other on land, it would be difficult for Sun Quan to stop Liu Bei's army.

When Liu Bei entered the hinterland of Jingzhou, he could easily get the support of local people and aristocratic families. At that time, Sun Quan cut off Liu Bei's retreat, but it was a lonely city that was difficult to defend.

Therefore, Sun Quan mobilized the governor of Jiaozhou Bu Zhi to lead 10,000 elite troops in Jiaozhou to station in Changsha, and could not only intercept the Jingnan rebels attacking Jiangling, but also support Jiangling at any time.

Xi Zhen did not force the attack on the city, and adopted the tactic of peripheral harassment to preserve his strength to the greatest extent possible and attract Sun Quan's troops, which would be beneficial to Liu Bei's attack on Jingzhou.

Fan Zhou's attack on the county city cannot be said to be a defeat, but because of the low combat power of the army itself and the lack of food and grass, it must have caused his own destruction.

The Jingnan uprising failed, and Ma Su could not care about it, but he could not ignore the safety of the fourth brother Ma Liang and his brother-in-law Shamoke.

Under the urging of Sha Qiu and Sha Dong, Ma Su took Xing Daorong and more than 100 elite guards to Zigui to meet Ma Liang.
Chapter completed!