"Your Majesty never truly wished to resort to war, did you?" Hu Ke asked cautiously.
Sun Quan stroked his purple beard and narrowed his eyes. "Cao Pi the brat is far inferior to his father. I took in the Sima Brothers for the State of Wei and covered up the earth-shattering case of the Sima Clan's extermination, yet that bastard refuses to send Han Zong back. Left with no choice, I dispatched troops to shift everyone's attention. Otherwise, all the Huaisi commanders would be fleeing."
"Your Majesty is only nominally the King of Wu under Great Wei. If he sent Han Zong back for the sake of 'friendship,' who would dare flee to Wei with their entire family in the future? Doing so would be like erecting a post and offering gold to win trust. Perhaps Cao Pi deliberately chose not to come," Hu Ke warned, shaking his head.
Sun Quan muttered to himself, "Alas, how could I not know? But Han Zong is too detestable. That bastard has ruined me thoroughly. If I don't kill him, the people's fury cannot be appeased."
Hu Ke added, "If Your Majesty truly wishes to reclaim Han Zong, perhaps the only way is to defeat the Wei Army in Huainan. Even if Cao Pi personally leads an expedition, he may not necessarily hand him over."
"We will not demand Han Zong back for nothing. We can exchange the Sima Brothers for him." The words had barely left Sun Quan's mouth when he realized how naive the idea was. He quickly added, "Chen Qun and the others went through untold hardships to send those two victims to Jiangdong. If they return to Wei, they will likely meet a violent death. Cao Pi probably does not care to have them back either."
"Your Majesty, should