On May 22, in Hefei City, the mansion of Wuhou.

For Sun Quan, today should have been just an ordinary day. He spent his daily life in apartment with his wife, then read some books, and then he passed.

Sun Jian's title was only Marquis of Wucheng. Sun Ce had a period of his life as Marquis of Wu, but later, as a supporter and recognition of Liu He as the emperor and empress, his title was promoted again.

Unfortunately, Sun Ce died in defeat and lost territory. Sun Ce's final title was not recognized and passed to Sun Quan. Therefore, after Sun Quan joined Cao, his nominal title was still Marquis of Wu.

This Wu Hou is just the meaning of Wu County Marquis, and it has nothing to do with Wu County.

The territory of Jiangdong was lost, and Sun Quan was actually only retained by Cao Cao, Hefei County, Huainan County, as his actual fief.

The officials of the Sun Quan Hou’s Mansion could collect taxes in Hefei for the expenses of the Hou’s Mansion, but they could not control other local civil affairs, and theoretically, they could not control the defense of Hefei City.

The other civil servants and generals of the Sun family who followed the surrender were only appointed separately by Cao Cao, retaining some positions to prevent them from reuniting the party.

It is considered a superficial etiquette, but it is still valued, but it is also divided and treated.

Zhu Zhi was the prefect of Lujiang, and his son Zhu Ran was the commander of Lujiang. Lu Fan was the commander of Yangzhou, Wu Jing was the commander of Guangling. Zhu Huan was the commander of Ruxukou. (The official system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the commander of the county and pass can be set up).

The old ministers from Jiangdong followed Cao and were the only ones who could reach the level of deputy county or above. After all, when they were invested, they only had two counties and were willing to leave five deputy county-level officials for these people. Cao Cao was not considered as unfair to them.

The rest of Yan Yan, Kan Ze, Hu Zong, and Wu Fan were just scholars and lobbyists. Yan Yan was a little older and had a reputation for classics and literature. He was transferred to Juancheng as an academic bureaucrat, and the others remained in Lujiang, Guangling, and Huainan as county-level civil servants.

Xie Jing, Zhou Shan, Tan Xiong, and Ding Feng were either Hu Ben’s guard or Sima of other departments, which was not worth mentioning.

The Huai Si talents who surrendered with Sun Quan, but the above few have no other names left behind in history.

They have always been quite at peace before. Many of them seem to be used to doing things for Cao Cao directly and never get too close to Sun Quan. Of course, it may also be to protect Sun Quan.

Especially those prefects and military officers have been working well with Cao Ren, who is guarding Huainan.

So much so that Cao Ren has had some illusions in recent years, thinking that the Huai Si generals have truly changed their minds, at least they are directly under their jurisdiction.

...

The homeland has been lost for more than two and a half years. In the past two and a half years, Sun Quan has lived a life of love with his wife Cao Ju.

Cao Zhu was born to Cao Cao's concubine Liu, and he was the same mother as Cao Ang. However, Cao Ang was the eldest son, so he was adopted by Cao Cao's wife, Mrs. Ding, and was regarded as the legitimate descendant. Cao Zhu was just a daughter, so there was no need to be adopted by his wife. In history, she was later awarded the title of Princess Qinghe and should have married Xiahou Yan.

In addition to the daily life between husband and wife, Sun Quan's remaining life content was mainly to read with his brother-in-law Cao Pi and Cao Zhi. Occasionally, his fourth brother Sun Kuang would come to see him and read a book together.

Father-in-law Cao Cao did not treat Sun Quan's family harshly. Except for the fact that Sun Quan himself wanted to leave the fiefdom, his third and fourth brothers and younger sister were basically free to move. As long as Sun Quan did not leave Hefei City, no one cared about him. He could basically go anywhere in the city.

It should be Cao Cao that he also realized that Sun Yi and Sun Kuang were not threatening at all, nor cunning, and were young and could not hold back. Why bother to make things difficult for a few young people who had not yet reached the crown or had not married?

Sun Quan was nineteen years old this year, and was only sixteen when he joined Cao.

Sun Yi is seventeen this year, Sun Kuang is only fourteen, and Sun Shangxiang, who is a female player, is only twelve years old. These people are not worthy of being guarded at all.

However, just three or four days ago, Sun Quan's actions were slightly restricted, and Sun Quan himself also smelled a trace of strangeness.

First, Liu Xun, the Hefei garrison under Cao Ren (a former subordinate of Yuan Shu), politely told Sun Quan:

Recently, Li Su's troops have been mobilized frequently on the Yangtze River. I don't know if he will attack in full. Although Hefei is still far from the front line, with Ruxushui and Chaohu Lake in the middle, it is not safe after all, so it is better not to leave the city if you can.

Originally, Sun Quan wanted to go out of the city to have fun, just ask for it and apply. Now it is changed to not accepting the application.

When the man was under the short eaves, Sun Quan did not show any dissatisfaction. On the surface, he smiled with Liu Xun and thanked General Cao Ren and Liu for their attention to his safety.

Sun Quan didn't even know that since he was controlled in the city and the gates of Hefei were closed, his fourth brother Sun Kuang tried to visit him from another place and told him some important news, but he was also blocked and could not get away with it.

Fortunately, Sun Kuang was quite brainy. When he arrived outside the Hefei city gate, he saw that the city was closed. He did not dare to tell his identity and call the door. He just tried to use other methods to bribe the city as a follower, but still failed. But at least he did not alert the generals of Cao's army.

After Sun Kuang ran into a wall, he obviously informed the situation with other relatives and old friends when he went back. A small group of people were plotting together, and only then did he explain to another relative of the Sun family to visit him today.

The reason for this visit was that because the matter was so serious, the Hefei defenders could not refuse and could not stop them from seeing Sun Quan. After all, the two sides had not broken up. Sun Quan has been doing so well in the past two years, so he could not directly force a rift in the relationship between Sun Ce and Cao Cao.

Early that morning, Sun Quan's cousin Wu Fen suddenly came to Hefei with a small group of followers, covered in mourning clothes, and openly asked to open the city gate to see Sun Quan.

The goalkeeper did not dare to be self-disciplined, so he delayed and asked Liu Xun for instructions. After a full quarter of an hour, Liu Xun himself rushed to the east gate of Hefei and asked Wu Fen in person.

"Mr. Wu County! As an official of Guangling County, you are not in office. Why do you have to come to Hefei to meet Wu Hou?"

Wu Fen looked full of grief and anger: "My father has been ill for a long time and finally passed away a few days ago. His father is Wu Hou's mother's uncle. I will come here to inform my cousin."

Liu Xun was very embarrassed when he heard this. This reason was really hard to stop.

Wu Fen is the eldest son of Wu Jing, the chief of Guangling. Wu Jing is the younger brother of Mrs. Wu, the wife of Sun Jian, and Sun Ce and Sun Quan's uncle.

In history, Wu Jing lived until early 203 to die of illness, and now it is May 201. It can be seen that Wu Jing died more than a year and a half earlier than the same period in history.

However, considering that Wu Jing was under much greater pressure in this life and his affairs were heavy, during the fall of Jiangdong, Wu Jing endured tremendous pressure to negotiate with Gu Yong's envoy, preserved the Sun and Wu families, and then crossed the river and retreated to Guangling with caution.

This is a person in his fifties who are worried and afraid, and his health is deteriorating rapidly. It is normal to die of illness a year and a half earlier.

Of course, it was definitely abnormal that it happened to die of illness at the critical moment when Sun Quan was under house arrest.

Unfortunately, Liu Xun could not immediately verify the authenticity and see if Wu Jing was really dead.

But the Han Dynasty valued filial piety the most. No matter how rich Liu Xun's imagination was, he never expected that Wu Fen would dare to make a time difference in advance before his father died.

In history, Sun Ce left Yuan Shu alone, using the excuse of crying that "the father's revenge cannot be avenged, and his mother's uncle Wu Jing was forced by Liu Yao of Danyang" and asked Yuan Shu about the troops borrowed.

In this life, because the original foundation of Jiangdong was built by Sun Jian himself when he was still alive, the Sun family has never used such excuses. But now that Wu Jing is dead, he cannot stop Sun Quan from knowing it.

After Liu Xun thought about it over and over again, he had no time to go to Shouchun to ask Cao Ren for instructions, so he had to follow the power in a hurry and make personal favors, so he put Wu Fen in.

...

When Wu Fen appeared in front of Sun Quan with a strong body, Sun Quan, who had just been under house arrest for a few days, was also shocked.

"Why are my cousin here? Why do you look like this? Could it be my uncle..."

Wu Fen's acting skills are not bad. On the other hand, he really knew in his heart that his father was seriously ill and bedridden this time. He had invited many famous doctors to see him. They all said that the medicine stone was useless, so Wu Fen's tears came as soon as he said that he hugged Sun Quan and cried bitterly:

"Brother, my father ordered my uncle to come and inform you two days ago."

At this time, Sun Quan's wife Cao Zhu was also beside him. Seeing this, he quickly expressed his condolences, asking Wu Fenjie to be mourned and follow the changes. He also said that his uncle's mourning was the reason why he was all going to attend the funeral as his nephew, but he didn't know what the Wu family was going to do.

Wu Fen was afraid that Cao Zhu would be suspicious, and that the news would be transmitted to other Cao family members through Cao Zhu, so he had already thought of an excuse before coming:

"My family originally planned to do the first seventh. However, the war is now in chaos and may not be suitable for rushing, and the guests are also in a hurry. So they had to hurry up and take the power to get together until the seventh is cut off."

Duanqi means that the deceased has been forty-nine days after death, to be precise, the last seven days, which is to start from forty-two days.

Before Wu Fen came, he discussed the lines like this, because on the one hand, he was afraid that the Cao family would be alert and think that they would take Sun Quan away and get out of control.

On the other hand, it is because Wu Jing has not died yet at this time. Maybe it is possible to be in good condition for more than half a month. But according to the last time an outside medical officer saw him, it is almost impossible to delay for a long time. So he will definitely die in another forty days, and there will be no trouble at that time. They just made a little time difference to notify the funeral in advance.

Cao Zhu is not old and hasn't studied much yet. After hearing Wu Fen's words make sense, he has no doubts.

Sun Quan and the other party asked for a while, cleverly gave up their wife by making excuses, saying that he and his uncle were very kind since childhood, and were too sad at this moment, so he and his cousin stayed privately for a while.

Cao Zhu also knew that this was a private matter of Sun Quan’s family, and she didn’t insist on being sad.

As soon as Cao Zhu left, there were no servants and maids in the room. Then Sun Quan changed his expression and solemnly asked about the truth of Wu Fen.

Wu Fen then told him conclusively, saying that his father had actually breathed a sigh of relief, but the situation was critical recently and he was in a hurry to take power. He had to do such a rebellious thing and release the news in advance, just to see Sun Quan, so as to unify the civil and military officials of the Sun family and see what to do in the future.

Wu Fen knew the situation outside. He came to represent the Wu family, Lu Fan family, and Zhu Zhi family, so he provided Sun Quan with very sufficient information:

"I heard that Li Su is recently in Ruxukou, under Zhu Fujun, and the Guazhou Ferry under the jurisdiction of Uncle Lu and his father, were all ships placing warships on patrol, showing off their power and making a move to attack and enter the country, but there was no other movement. Perhaps it was to intimidate Cao Cao, so that he could use another trick.

However, Cao Cao's battle in Yingchuan was very unfavorable, but for some reason, he was suspicious and did not dare to draw troops from Jizhou to support Yuzhou, rather than let Cao Ren draw the Huainan army westward to support Runan.

In the past two days, I heard a lot of news from the outside world that Cao Cao was unfavorable in the battle and suspected that the Sun family and Huai Si generals had added new military orders to Cao Ren and took care of Cao Ren to try his best to remove our Huai Si old troops when he was drawing reinforcements.

Maybe after arriving in Yuzhou, Cao Cao would let our not-confident soldiers fight the front line. Now there are thousands of casualties in the front line of Yancheng every day. If our former Huai Si really went there, it would have been consumed in less than a month?"

Because the amount of information is too large, Sun Quan, who has been blocked from the news, was shocked for a long time after hearing it before digesting the content.

He carefully pondered it and thoroughly understood that Wu Fen's purpose was Wu Jing, Lu Fan, Zhu Zhi and others. He all needed to unify his thinking and make an idea. Otherwise, even if anyone among these people wanted to resist and could not use his strength in one direction, it would be useless.

Considering that the direct lineage of the Cao army in Huainan is still far stronger than the surrendered generals of the Sun family, direct rebellion is definitely not defeated. If everyone is unwilling to be transferred to Runan, Yingchuan to be cannon fodder, the best choice is to attack suddenly and then seize the city and defend it.

If Li Su found out that Cao Ren was in a civil turmoil, he would definitely fight him immediately and even in the current situation, Sun Quan probably might have been caused by Li Su's counter-espionage plan. Otherwise, how could Cao Cao suddenly think of transferring the Huai Si army and leaving his hometown defense zone?

The defense of the rivers, Chaohu, Hefei, Shouchun and other rivers are all stationed by Cao Ren's own direct troops, and the Sun family cannot get involved at all. Therefore, the Sun family must rely on the city they have fully mastered, and most of them are not on the main traffic roads.

And the last and most critical issue is that Sun Quan himself has to find a way to get out.

Otherwise, he was trapped by Liu Xun in Hefei, and the Shucheng, Wancheng, and Lu'an in Lujiang outside had to resign. Hailing, Gaoyou, Xuyi and even Huaiyin in Guangling were in trouble, so Cao Ren would definitely arrest him and kill him immediately.

How to get out?

Sun Quan thought about it and had a plan.

He discussed with Wu Fen and said, "When should it be the first seventh day of my uncle?"

Wu Fen: "Four days later."

Sun Quan gritted his teeth: "I discussed with Zhuo Jing tonight, and then said that the road is not stable now, so General Liu will not let us go out of the city to attend the funeral immediately. It is understandable that he will be fine.

But my uncle is my closest elder after all. Before the seventh day after forty days, I must have gone to Guangling. In the first seventh day after four days, I should at least leave Hefei and go to the eastern suburbs to pay sacrifices to the east. Ask Zhujing to send his father-in-law to protect her personal guards.

If I could escape from Hefei four days later, I would have to make such a decision. The Lujiang and Guangling counties, all the troops and counties under the control of our old Huai and Si, will stand up and no longer work hard for Cao Cao.

The situation in the world is like this. Cao Cao has never won a big victory against Liu Bei. He has always been eroding allies and taking advantage of the situation. In the past ten years, his territory has expanded from one or two states to five states. But which of them have been obtained from the enemy?

The person who was not an ally died suddenly and died of illness. He bullied the orphan, widowed, and young brother and stole the foundation of his allies! This is true for the elder brother and Yuan Shao!

If I had known today, how could I feel ashamed of being humiliated again? If Gu had joined the Han Dynasty, he would have been able to have the title of Marquis of Wu. If he was humiliated again now, he would probably have no Marquis of Wu. Alas.”
Chapter completed!