Pang Tong was led into Jianye Palace by Jiangdong soldiers and came to the meeting hall. Sun Quan led Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong to wait here for a long time. Pang Tong quickly stepped forward and bowed and said, "Pang Tong met the Marquis of Wu."

Sun Quan laughed loudly, stepped forward to hold Pang Tong's arm, stared at him and said, "I sincerely welcome Military Advisor Pang."

There are some things that needless to be said. Both sides understand that Pang Tong came this time to revise the relationship between the Sun and Liu families. Liu Jing has destroyed the foundation of the alliance between Sun Quan and Cao Cao and turned the alliance between Sun and Cao Cao into a piece of waste paper. So there must be a clear statement on how to solve the current dilemma of Jiangdong and how to go about the future political situation in Jiangdong.

This time, the attitude must be clear, and he must show his bottom line to the other party and reach a compromise on this basis. Therefore, Pang Tong's trip is particularly important. Sun Quan also knows this very well, so he must meet Pang Tong himself.

Pang Tong greeted Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong again. Everyone walked into the meeting hall to separate the guests and hosts. Sun Quan smiled and said, "I heard that the Han army sneaked into Cao's water camp at night, burned down all warships and wiped out more than 10,000 enemies. This news is encouraging, but it will also damage the reputation of His Highness the King of Han. As far as I know, the King of Han and Cao Cao signed a five-year armistice agreement."

Pang Tong smiled slightly and said calmly: "Cao's army stationed troops at Ruxukou, and there were hundreds of warships. This is first of all, threatening the security of Jiangdong. Once Cao Cao seized Jiangdong, it would form a double-faced attack on Jingzhou. For the survival of Jiangdong and the safety of Jingzhou, His Highness the King of Han decided that he would rather take the risk of losing his reputation than annihilate Cao Cao's navy and prevent future troubles."

Sun Quan, Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong looked at each other, and the three of them smiled bitterly at the same time. Pang Tong said this, undoubtedly, that Jiang Dong would take on this favor. Although he could say it casually, things could not be done casually. Sun Quan did not continue to argue with Pang Tong about this issue. After a change of topic, he said openly and honestly: "His Royal Highness of the King of Han mentioned in a letter to me that he was willing to trade grain with me, but I don't know."

Food is the most concerned issue of Sun Quan. The little grain stored in the warehouse is military ration, which is related to the stability of the army. He cannot move a grain of food. However, the price of grain in the Jiangdong market soared, and it has reached a point where ordinary people cannot bear it. People have begun to flee to Wujun. Once a large-scale escape incident occurs, the foundation of his rule will collapse.

For Sun Quan, the food problem has already concern his survival. It is precisely because he would give Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao to Cao Cao for the 30,000 s of grain aid. Now there is little hope for this matter, but Liu Jing proposed to exchange grain for Jiangdong copper ingots, which gave Sun Quan hope.

However, Sun Quan was unwilling to exchange copper ingots for food, so he was more willing to exchange pig iron billets for food. Speaking of this, he looked at Pang Tong with anticipation.

Pang Tong also came mainly for this matter, resolved Sun Quan's food crisis, stabilized the situation in Jiangdong, and completely broke the alliance between Sun Quan and Cao Cao. Pang Tong smiled and said, "His Royal Highness of the King of Han is indeed interested in conducting grain transactions with Jiangdong, but before discussing the transaction, I must first confirm with the Marquis of Wu, and the matter of Poyang for Lujiang County. Lu Zijing has agreed on behalf of the Marquis of Wu, but His Royal Highness of the Marquis of Han hopes that the Marquis of Wu can agree to the replacement in writing."

Sun Quan pondered for a moment. Although he did not agree with this matter, the situation was here. Yuzhang and Poyang counties were still in the hands of the Han army. If he did not agree, the two counties would never come back. Helplessly, Sun Quan had to nod and agreed, "I can guarantee it in writing."

"Good" Pang Tongren praised: "Wu Hou is worthy of being a hero in the world who can be taken and given up. Since that's the case, let's talk about food. His Highness, the King of Han, promised to allocate 100,000 shi of grain in Jiangdong and allocate 10,000 shi per month. There are two ways. Wu Hou can choose one, the other is to exchange copper ingots. We will hand over the grain to Wu Hou for disposal, but there is a small additional condition to adopt this method."

"What are the conditions left?" Sun Quan frowned and showed an unhappy look on his face.

At this time, Zhang Zhao said on the side: "Sir Pang should not say any additional conditions first, just talk about the second method first."

Zhang Zhao was more sober than Sun Quan. He knew that this additional condition would not be simple. He was afraid that Sun Quan would fall into it, so he simply avoided this additional condition first. Sun Quan suddenly woke up and hurriedly said, "Okay, Military Advisor Pang will talk about the second method first."

Pang Tongyi smiled and said slowly: "We will come to calm down the grain prices in Jiangdong in the second way."

"What's the meaning"

"That is, we will not hand over 100,000 s of grain to the Jiangdong government. We will set up warehouses and grain shops in Danyang County and Qua County. We are responsible for calming the price of grain in Jiangdong."

"Absolutely not possible"

Sun Quan and the other two opposed in unison. How could it be possible to let Liu Jing dominate the grain prices? Isn’t this giving up the people’s hearts? Is it a pity that Liu Jing can think of it?

Pang Tong was not angry, and smiled and said, "Wu Hou must think clearly that there are no additional conditions for this method."

"No," Sun Quan flatly refused.

"Okay, let's go back to the first method. We have an additional condition, that is, within one year, the Marquis of Wu will not attack Wujun. Once the Marquis of Wujun attacks Wujun, we will immediately stop the grain trade."

Sure enough, it was a harsh condition. Sun Quan's face turned pale and could not say a word for a long time. At this time, Zhang Hong, who had been silent, said: "I'm afraid there are not so many copper ingots in Jiangdong, and there are only 100,000 kilograms of copper ingots in the official warehouse. What if the rest is not enough to exchange for pig iron?"

"This is OK, then pay 100,000 kilograms of copper ingots first. The insufficient part is supplemented with pig iron. The specific price will be converted according to the market price of both parties."

Pang Tong agreed to Zhang Hong's suggestion. At this time, he saw that Sun Quan looked gloomy and knew that he was angry about the conditions attached, so he smiled and said, "Let's think about it first, and I will listen to Wu Hou's decision tomorrow morning."

Sun Quan nodded and said to Zhang Zhao: "Send Military Commander Pang to Honglu Post to rest and ask the postmaster to serve him well."

Zhang Zhao smiled and waved his hand, "Pang Junshi"

Pang Tong bowed to Sun Quan and left. Soon Zhang Zhao returned to the meeting hall. Then Sun Quan said to the two of them hatefully: "I knew that Liu Jing wanted to stop me from unifying Jiangdong. He wanted to support Sun Shao to unify Jiangdong. Sun Shao has always been cowardly and incompetent. In the end, he would only hand Jiangdong over to Liu Jing."

Zhang Zhao sighed, "Wu Hou is right. Liu Jing defeated Cao Cao's naval army to prevent us and Sun Ben from attacking Sun Shao from the north and south. From the Lu family in Wujun, it can be seen that he was indeed supporting Sun Shao and giving us food. In the final analysis, it was also to buy the hearts of the people in Jiangdong."

"Hmph" Sun Quan snorted heavily, "I can't wait for a year. After a year, I don't know what changes will happen in the situation. I am worried that there will be no chance to unify Jiangdong again."

At this time, Zhang Hong smiled and said, "In fact, both can benefit from it, but there is a compromise."

"Sir, please tell me what kind of compromise is the best way," Sun Quan asked hurriedly.

Zhang Hong smiled and said, "Liu Jing used food to restrain us. Once we sent troops to Wujun, he stopped supplying food. This restraint seems very powerful, but in fact there is a big loophole."

"Continue talking" Sun Quan's eyes flashed, obviously attracted.

Zhang Hong continued: "It's early December, and another month will be the New Year. After the New Year, spring plowing is about to be carried out, and the army will have to farm and have no time to fight. After this busy schedule, at least April, and then a month of preparations will be made. After half a year, we also got 60,000 stones of grain. When I settled the accounts for Wuhou, we actually only lacked 50,000 stones of grain. After getting 60,000 stones of grain, we don't have to worry about Liu Jing's interruption of grain supply. At that time, we were almost prepared and could advance troops to Wujun and reunify Jiangdong."

Sun Quan understood Zhang Hong's meaning. Anyway, spring plowing and preparation for war will take time anyway, so he simply agreed to Liu Jing's additional conditions. After half of the time, they also survived the food crisis and could attack Wujun in a large scale. This is indeed a compromise solution with the best of both worlds.

Sun Quan nodded, "The Chief Secretary's suggestion can be adopted."

At this time, Zhang Zhao smiled from the side and said, "In fact, we can make full use of it in the past six months, use strategies in Wu County to weaken the internal strength of Wu County and create conditions for us to purge Wu County."

"This plan is great." Zhang Hong suddenly understood what Zhang Zhao meant and praised loudly.

Sun Quan also realized something and said with a smile: "The military advisor refers to Sun Shao."

Zhang Zhao nodded, "Sun Shao is just a puppet of Sun Shao. The real person in power in Wujun is Sun Shao, while Lu Xun, Gu Yong and others support Sun Shao. The conflict between them is difficult to resolve. As long as we provoke the relationship between the two, Wujun will inevitably fall into internal strife. If we launch a large number of troops, we can easily recover Wujun and take Wujun, which is not far from seizing Kuaiji."

Sun Quan gave a thumbs up and sighed with great emotion: "It is my blessing to have two great talents to assist me."

.....

Sun Quan then fully appointed Zhang Hong and Pang Tong for negotiations. The two sides were frank and finally reached a consensus that Jiangdong would abolish the alliance reached with Cao Cao not long ago and promised not to attack Wujun within one year. As compensation, the Han army would allocate 100,000 grain to Jiangdong for grain, iron and copper trade.

In addition, Sun Quan admitted in writing that Lujiang County was a county under Jingzhou, and the Han army agreed to return the two counties of Poyang and Yuzhang that were seized from Jiaozhou to Jiangdong.

The two sides officially signed an agreement, and Sun Quan immediately ordered the allocation of 20,000 shi of grain to calm down the price of Jianye. With the intervention of the government, the rising grain prices in the counties in Danyang County immediately fell, falling back to the price of 80 cents of rice, eased the boiling public grievances.
Chapter completed!