In the spring of 210, 36 year old Zhou Yu hurriedly went to school and advised Sun Quan to put Liu Bei under house arrest. After receiving the news, Sun Quan was surprised. As Liu Bei's "brother-in-law", the leader of Soochow, Sun Quan flatly refused Zhou Yu's request.
Soon after, Zhou Yu wrote again. This time, he no longer embarrasses Liu Bei, but asks Sun Quan for soldiers, and wants to travel thousands of miles west to crusade Liu Zhang, who is in charge of Yizhou.
In his opinion, Cao Cao's defeat in Red Cliff will be difficult to recover in a short time. Liu Bei is ambitious. If he doesn't capture Sichuan as soon as possible, he will be in his pocket sooner or later.
However, when Sun Quan reluctantly agreed to Zhou Yu's request, he suddenly contracted a disease and died young. After Zhou Yu's death, Sun Quan was very sad. When talking about Zhou Yu, he cried bitterly:
"Gongjin, Wang Zuozhichai, died suddenly today. Who should I rely on in the future of Jiangdong?"
Interestingly, with the death of Zhou Yu, Sun Quan's plan to seize Yizhou and force Cao Cao came to an end. Sun Quan, who is about to enter his thirties, "shrinks" in the east of the Yangtze River. He will neither levy nor cut down. He will sit and watch Liu Bei grow up and Cao Cao recuperate. Until Cao Pi and Liu Bei became emperors one after another, Sun Quan became the first emperor of the Great Wu Dynasty with a tripod of power.
Why did the young Zhou Yu suddenly die young?
Sun Ce's Friend
Zhou Yu, also known as Gongjin, was born in Shuxian County, Lujiang.
His father is Lingzhou Yi of Luoyang, his cousin Zhou Jing, his uncle Zhou Zhong, and his senior officer. Therefore, Zhou Yu, who was born in a noble family, was graceful, brilliant and proficient in music. In the east of the Yangtze River, it was once widely rumored that "there was a mistake in the tune, Zhou Langgu".
When Zhou Yu was young, the Yellow Scarf Uprising broke out and the whole world was in chaos. Zhou Yu, who was not willing to go step by step to "promote filial piety and honesty to official positions", began to learn the art of war and determined to clean up the world in troubled times.
At that time, Sun Jian responded to Cao Cao's call to launch a crusade against Dong Zhuo, the rebellious minister who usurped the Han Dynasty. Before leaving, he purposely moved his family to Shuxian, where Zhou Yu lived. His son, Sun Ce, was the same age as Zhou Yu. They both liked military affairs at first sight, and soon became good friends who talked about everything.
At the same time, Zhou Yu also moved out of his big house for Sun Ce's family to live in, which is very sincere. During their stay in Shuxian County, Zhou Yu and Sun Ce made extensive contacts with famous people in the south of the Yangtze River. They had already gained great reputation at a young age.
In 192, Sun Jian was shot by Huang Zu when he was fighting against Liu Biao. At the age of 18, Sun Ce had to yield to Yuan Shu, follow his father's will and command his troops.
At that time, Zhou Shang, Zhou Yu's uncle, was the governor of Danyang. Zhou Yu went to see him. Just as Sun Ce entered Liyang and was about to cross eastward, he wrote to Zhou Yu and invited him to join him to make contributions.
After learning the news, Zhou Yu immediately led his troops to respond to Sun Ce and provided a large amount of food, fodder and weapons. Hearing of Zhou Yu's return, Sun Ce was overjoyed and said excitedly, "With Gong Jin's help, great things will succeed."
For many years thereafter, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu fought side by side and were invincible. They first conquered Hengjiang and Dangli, then crossed the river to attack Moling, defeated Zuo Rong and Xue Li, and turned to capture Hushu and Jiangcheng, entered Qu'a, and forced Liu You, a powerful man in Shandong.
In a very short period of time, the two joined hands to conquer half the world in Jiangdong.
At that time, the number of Sun Ce's followers had grown to tens of thousands, and their strength was far beyond that of the separatist forces in Jiangdong. Therefore, he asked Zhou Yu to lead his troops back to the town of Danyang to ensure the safety of the rear.
Sun Quan's important minister
As the saying goes, "People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong." Zhou Yu, who returned to Danyang, soon attracted Yuan Shu's attention. He sent Yuan Yin, his cousin, to replace Zhou Shang as the chief guardian of Danyang, and persuaded Zhou Yu to be his subordinate.
However, Zhou Yu did not approve of Yuan Shu. In his opinion, Yuan Shu was narrow-minded and short of ambition, and would not achieve anything. Therefore, he asked to be the head of Juchao County and wanted to take advantage of the change of terrain to return to Jiangdong.
In 198, Zhou Yu seized the opportunity of Yuan Shu's lack of time to visit the east, returned to Wujun via his nest, and again worked under Sun Ce.
Sun Ce was even more delighted. Sun Ce, who has always been arrogant, not only went out to meet Zhou Yu himself, but also gave him the position of Jianwei Zhonglang General, and allocated two thousand soldiers and fifty chariots for him to drive.
In addition, Sun Ce gave Zhou Yu a drumbeat band to build a residence for Zhou Yu. It can be said that after Sun Ce occupied Jiangdong, Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai received far less rewards than Zhou Yu.
Interestingly, after the capture of Wancheng, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu also married the two daughters of Duke Qiao in Jiangdong. It is obvious that in addition to their brotherhood, the two have added the right of brotherhood, and their relationship has become closer and closer.
However, while Sun Ce's career was booming, Xu Gong's disciples assassinated him secretly. Before Sun Ce died, he entrusted the power of Jiangdong to his brother Sun Quan.
Although Sun Quan was 18 years old when he inherited his father's and brother's will. But after all, he is not as brave as Sun Ce, and he is more hopeless. Therefore, the Sun family needs loyal officials who can respond to all calls.
At that time, although Sun Ce had been fighting for many years, he had only a few counties in his hands, including Kuaiji, Wujun, Danyang, Yuzhang and Luling. Even in these counties, the dangerous areas and heroes in remote areas have not yet fully attached themselves.
Therefore, Sun Quan's position as "successor" can be said to be in jeopardy.
However, at this critical moment, Zhou Yu stood up for Sun Quan. At that time, Zhou Yu hurried back from other places to Wujun for the funeral, and stayed with Sun Quan as the central guard to protect Sun Quan's safety.
He had a heavy army in his hand, and did not despise Sun Quan as others did. Instead, he treated each other as monarchs and ministers. In the imperial court, Zhou Yu and Chang Shi Zhang Zhao jointly took charge of the military affairs, which not only deterred some sinister "rebels", but also greatly stabilized Sun Quan's regime.
In 202, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao in the battle of Guandu, annexed the whole Jizhou, and became powerful. At that time, Cao Cao was full of ambition and thought that the world was in control. So he ordered Sun Quan to force Wu to send his son into Xuchang as a hostage.
At that time, Sun Quan had already lost his childishness when he first ascended the throne. When he received the "imperial edict" from Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, Sun Quan thought for a long time before he made up his mind not to send his son as a pledge.
However, Jiangdong officials were very dissatisfied with this. Important officials in the court, led by Zhang Zhao and Qin Song, urged Sun Quan to bear the humiliation and never lead Cao Cao to be a soldier.
Soon after, Zhou Yu received an order from Sun Quan and returned to Wujun. When visiting Madam Tai, Zhou Yu analyzed in detail the advantages of "not sending children". In his opinion, Cao Cao is just "beyond his name" and far from invincible.
More importantly, Zhou Yu has already seen Cao Cao's ambition. He did not believe that Cao Cao was a loyal minister loyal to the Han Dynasty. On the contrary, Zhou Yu compared Cao Cao to a "traitor minister of the Han Dynasty".
Therefore, just wait for all the heroes in the world to fight against Cao Cao, why give Cao Cao his "soft rib".
After the incident, Sun Quan relied more on Zhou Yu. He discussed everything in Jiangdong with Zhou Yu. However, just like Yuan Shu forced Zhou Yu to stay in his nest when he heard about Zhou Yu's talent. Cao Cao also sent his confidant Jiang Gan across the river to the south to persuade Zhou Yu to join Xuchang and serve under Cao Cao in the name of visiting Zhou Yu.
In fact, Jiang Gan is wise, talented and good at debating. He is a top talent in the Yangtze Huaihe River region. However, he came to the Sanbao Hall for "nothing", which was too obvious and dazzling. Therefore, when Jiang Gangang just stepped into the land of Jiangdong, Zhou Yu exposed his purpose.
After all, although Sun Quan was a hero, he was also too suspicious. As an important official in Jiangdong, if Zhou Yu deliberately conceals something, it is bound to bring him unnecessary trouble.
It is worth mentioning that although Jiang Gan did not persuade Zhou Yu, he also saw the military strength of Jiangdong. After several days in Zhou Yu's army, Jiang Gan followed him around, which can be said to be a "panoramic view" of Jiangdong's armaments.
Therefore, Jiang Gan, who returned to Xuchang with a failed mission, "unexpectedly" became a lobbyist for Zhou Yu's "great military power".
die young
In the autumn of 208, Cao Cao thoroughly swept away the remaining forces of Yuan Shao and completely unified the north. So he targeted Liu Biao in Jingzhou and Sun Quan in Jiangdong.
Just before Cao Cao went to war, Sun Quan wanted to seize Jingzhou while Liu Biao was seriously ill. At that time, Sun Quan sent Gan Ning to raid Jiangxia and kill Huang Zu, the murderer of Sun Jian. Jingzhou was in danger of encountering enemies from north to south.
However, with the death of Liu Biao and Cao Cao's southward march, Liu Cong, who inherited the Jingzhou animal husbandry, immediately led his troops to surrender, and the great Jingzhou became Cao Cao's belly. Only Liu Bei, who lives in Xinye, resisted.
Soon after, Cao Cao repeated his old trick by writing a letter threatening Sun Quan and forcing him to surrender like Liu Cong.
At that time, Jiangdong Wenwu was divided into two factions. The ministers headed by Zhang Zhao advocated surrender to Cao Cao in exchange for a chance of survival. However, the soldiers led by Lu Su and Huang Gai strongly advocated fighting against Cao Cao. However, Lu Su is just a counselor, and Huang Gai has low prestige in the army. Therefore, the main fighting factions were soon overwhelmed by the forces of the capitulators.
At this critical moment, Zhou Yu came back. Just as Sun Ce stabilized the situation in Jiangdong when he died of illness, Zhou Yu once again gave Sun Quan a "reassurance". He analyzed in detail the theory that Cao Cao would lose and Jiangdong would win. Not only that, Zhou Yu also volunteered to lead 30000 troops to Xiakou to fight against Cao's army.
During this period, Sun Quan also adopted the suggestions of Zhou Yu and Lu Su and reached an alliance with Liu Bei to jointly fight against Cao Cao. In order to defeat Cao Cao, Sun Quan gave Zhou Yu a high degree of military decision-making power. He also enlisted Zhang Zhao, who had "surrendered", to serve as Zhou Yu's backup.
It can be said that Zhou Yu became Sun Quan's only "lifeline" when Cao Cao's troops were sent to Jiangdong.
Of course, Sun Quan's trust in Zhou Yu has yielded considerable "benefits". On the Red Cliff battlefield, Zhou Yu joined hands with Huang Gai to burn Cao Cao's ambition of unifying the world in a big fire, which also pushed Jiangdong to the historical stage.
After Cao Cao's defeat, Zhou Yu followed the trend and defeated Cao Ren under Nanjun City, seizing this important town of Jingzhou for Jiangdong. Unfortunately, Zhou Yu was shot by an arrow during the battle. Although the wound was healed in a short time, it damaged his "vitality" after all, which foreshadowed his early death in the future.
After the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Yu longed to annex the whole Jingzhou, preparing for Sun Quan's plan for the world. Liu Bei, who retired to Jiangxia, also wanted to make a great achievement. As a result, the once impregnable alliance has gradually become suspicious as their respective interests intersect.
At that time, Liu Bei "borrowed" Nanjun from Sun Quan as a foothold. As a bridgehead against Cao Cao, Sun Quan had little interest in Nanjun. In his opinion, Nanjun is located to the north of the Yangtze River, which is easy to attack but not easy to defend. Once Cao Cao's cavalry suddenly attacks, it is bound to cause loss of soldiers in Jiangdong.
Therefore, despite Zhou Yu's strong opposition, Sun Quan lent Nanjun to Liu Bei.
When he failed in one plan, Zhou Yu found another. He aimed at Yizhou. As a traditional land of abundance, under the governance of Liu Zhang, the land of Shu has withered. To the north of Yizhou, Zhang Lu, who occupied Hanzhong, was even more eager, and Liu Zhang, who was oppressed, could not breathe.
However, shortly after Zhou Yu made preparations for the expedition, he suddenly fell ill and died in Bachu at the age of 36. Zhou Yu's death brought the plan of Jiangdong to seize Yizhou to an abrupt end. Sun Quan, however, stuck in a small circle in the east of the Yangtze River and struggled to see Liu Bei defeat Liu Zhang and become emperor.
