My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 115: The Fuse of the War between Yuan and Cao

When Liu Bei asked for advice, he first asked about the principles and then the tactics.

This is probably one of his characteristics as a person.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, quite a number of princes only asked about tactics rather than morality when they were asked for advice. As long as the benefits were big enough and the risks were small enough, they would just go for it without any moral concerns.

Fortunately, Zhuge Liang and Lu Su were both talented people who were proficient in both Taoism and magic, and they could answer questions fluently no matter what they were asked about Taoism or magic.

Zhuge Liang immediately took out the strategy he had discussed with his elder brother before he came here, and explained it step by step:
"It is indeed not easy to trick Yuan Shu and force Cao Cao to fight, but it is solvable. It just requires a multi-pronged approach.

First, as mentioned before, we should further strengthen our blockade of the Jianghuai waterway, so that Yuan's army will run out of food and retreat. However, Ji Ling must have stored food at the frontier of Xuyi, so it may take a month or so to fully see the effect, not overnight.

Secondly, he would use Chen Yuanlong, the general's hidden man at Lu Bu's place, to take the risk of instigating Lu Bu to hint to Yuan Shu again: as long as Yuan Shu continued to fight with our army, he would sit back and watch the outcome, but if Yuan Shu changed his mind and attacked Cao Cao, he would definitely send troops to help immediately. This would have at least a 30% to 40% impact on Yuan Shu's decision.

Finally, we must try to win the trust of Yuan Shu by not negotiating, and make Yuan Shu believe that we will not pursue him, and will not stab him in the back when he is fighting with Cao Cao. In fact, Yuan Shu dare not offend more princes at the moment. A considerable part of his consideration is that he is in a difficult situation. He feels that he has already offended us. If he gets into a fierce battle with Cao Cao again, he is afraid that we will attack again. "

Zhuge Liang spoke slowly and Liu Bei listened carefully, thinking things over in his mind as he listened.

Of the three strategies mentioned by Zhuge Liang, he has already implemented the first one, but it is a slow and meticulous process and cannot be accomplished quickly.

The second point requires Chen Deng’s cooperation. Fortunately, Chen Deng is very cooperative and there is hope of achieving it.

As for the third point, Liu Bei really couldn't think of how to gain the other party's trust without negotiating with them.

So after careful consideration, he raised the question again, hoping that Zhuge Liang would elaborate on it.

Zhuge Liang's wording this time was very cautious and modest: "There are many ways to implement the third point, and it still requires the joint efforts of all the gentlemen. Liang and my brother have only thought of one of them, so we put it forward first to throw out some ideas - but it does not mean that there are no other options."

"Sir, why be so modest? Just say it." Liu Bei encouraged, and at the same time he had already determined in his heart: what Brother Zhuge threw out must be jade that can be used directly! How could it be a brick?
Zhuge Liang: "For example, the general could build a shipyard in Guangling in the near future to build large warships, and spread the word that you have few soldiers and generals, and have been able to resist Yuan Shu's fierce attack for more than a month and are now exhausted.

In order to continue to struggle, the general's advisers suggested that the general use the limited money and food, as well as wood and iron materials, to build warships and other naval warfare equipment. They tried to maximize the water advantage of the Jianghuai Army and ensure that if Yuan Shu dared to attack again, his water supply would be cut off.

Once this method is implemented, the general can even loosen up his control over the shipyard on the outside and tighten it on the inside, and deliberately let Yuan Shu spy on the situation roughly, so that he knows that our army has really invested so much manpower and material resources in building the navy and shipbuilding.

However, Guangling and Yuzhang have limited manpower, and the expansion of the army in a short period of time has been spent on the water, so the land is naturally weak. Moreover, the shipbuilding cycle is very long, and the effect cannot be seen within a year or two, unlike the manufacture of weapons, which has daily income. When Yuan Shu knew about this, he would naturally realize that our army's defensive strength has been steadily increasing, but its aggressive strength is insufficient. "

When Liu Bei heard this, he finally understood.

Is this how strategic deception can be used? It's really a wild and unconventional idea.

Liu Bei didn't know that Zhuge Jin's contribution to the formation of this strategy was actually greater than Zhuge Liang's - Zhuge Liang was still young after all, only seventeen or eighteen years old, and he had only been officially working for eight months.

Even if Zhuge Jin carefully cultivated Zhuge Liang and made him grow rapidly, his hard study in the past few months was at most equivalent to the level of Zhuge Liang's growth in a parallel universe for one or two years.

The experience I gained in the past eight months this year is equivalent to three or four years of hard work and study.

In other words, Zhuge Jin helped Zhuge Liang complete five years' journey in more than a year. The current Zhuge Liang's strength is roughly equivalent to that of a 22 or 23-year-old in the original time and space, which is still a little young.

It was precisely because of this that Zhuge Jin often asked his second brother to run back and forth. He was afraid that his second brother would keep outputting and have no time to learn and summarize, and finally be exposed, and Liu Bei would find out that he was not as strong as the legend said.

He would come back to his elder brother's place to recharge himself every few months. His elder brother would help him hold meetings to summarize and give him new teaching materials. Only by studying with questions in mind could he fully grow.

After all, Zhuge Jin was well-informed. Later, he read "The Three-Body Problem" and was inspired by the idea of "Cosmic Security Declaration". He slightly changed his approach and came up with the idea of "building a navy and temporarily declaring that he would abolish the army construction."

Of course, there is still a big gap here. The safety statement that Zhuge Jin thought of was only temporary and not permanent, but the underlying sociological principle is the same, which is to find ways to prove that you are temporarily harmless to humans and animals.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin did not expect this move to be useful. It was just an auxiliary move and had to be used in conjunction with the first two moves.

……

Because his ideas were rather unique, it took Liu Bei a long time to fully figure them out, and he thought of two small problems, or uncertainties.

Liu Bei asked humbly, "This method is indeed ingenious, but I still have two questions: If we use our money and food to build warships, will they be useless in the future? If we just want Yuan Shu to think that our army has no intention of advancing, then we will build a bunch of things that will be difficult to use in the future. Isn't this a waste of manpower?

Secondly, this method is too convoluted after all. Even with the teacher's explanation, it took me so long to figure out the mystery. Yuan Shu must be much stupider than me. What if we have performed so many tricks, but Yuan Shu turned a blind eye to it? "

When Zhuge Liang heard this, he was stunned.

He thought of the answer to the first question immediately, but he hadn't thought about the second question either - this is also a kind of curse of the wise, sometimes you will occasionally ignore how stupid your enemy is.

It's like the Empty City Strategy can only be used against Sima Yi, but not against ordinary bandits. People simply can't understand it.

At the age of seventeen, Zhuge Liang still lacked empathy and had too little experience in dealing with people.

However, he did not care about these things and quickly answered the first question: "General, rest assured, building a large number of warships will definitely be used in the future, and it will be within two or three years at most. First of all, we will need naval forces more or less when we fight Yuan Shu again in the future, so it will not be in vain.

Secondly, our army may have to deal with Sun Ce in the future, or even... Liu Biao. Our current naval strength is still too weak compared to other southern princes."

Liu Bei was shocked: "Liu Biao... Brother Jingsheng is also a relative of the Han Dynasty and a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty. We are here to support the Han Dynasty, how can we imagine that they will become enemies in the future?"

Zhuge Liang: "It is hard to predict what will happen in the world. It is right to be prepared for some things. Besides, I have lived in Jingzhou for two years. I know that Liu Biao is just a guest of Liu Biao. Even if I have nine counties in Jingzhou, I cannot control them all. What if someone betrays Liu Biao and succumbs to Cao Cao? Everything is prepared, otherwise it will fail."

This excuse made Liu Bei's sense of morality feel a little better, so he didn't ask any more questions. In his heart, he accepted the assumption that "if we start to vigorously build up the navy now, it will definitely be useful in the future."

He wanted to wait for Zhuge Liang to continue to answer the second point, but Zhuge Liang fell into deep thought and he did not dare to urge him.

After waiting for a long time, it was Lu Su, who was already 25 years old and knowledgeable, and the key was that Lu Su had lived in Huainan for several years and was more familiar with the situation under Yuan Shu.

Seeing that Zhuge Liang did not answer for a long time, Lu Su did not care whether he would steal the limelight and quickly seized the opportunity to show himself:

"My Lord, I have a little idea that I want to discuss with Kong Ming: Why should we worry that Yuan Shu is too stupid to understand our good intentions? If he doesn't understand, he can naturally ask someone around him to remind him.

As far as Su knows, among Yuan Shu's trusted civil servants, there is Yang Hong who is corrupt and good at flattering his superiors. It would be best if Yuan Shu can understand our good intentions by himself. If he can't understand, we can send someone to secretly bribe Yang Hong with gold and treasures to secretly express our good intentions. In this way, Yang Hong will not have to worry about being guilty of betraying his master, and he can also show his meritorious service in front of Yuan Shu, and get gold and treasures from our army. It's the best of all worlds, and he doesn't have to sell anything. How can Yang Hong not take the opportunity to show off? "

Zhuge Liang was shocked when he heard this. This was the first time he felt so inspired when chatting with someone other than his elder brother.

Yes! I didn’t think in this direction at first, mainly because I thought it would be very difficult for the civil servants under Yuan Shu to betray their master for fame and fortune.

But in this matter, even if Yang Hong contributed, he did not sell out his master, it was just a "win-win" situation. If it's a win-win situation and you get extra money, why not do it?
He couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart: "Brother Zijing, this is a wonderful and correct combination. This is a very good theory. I am very happy to hear your teachings."

Lu Su also stopped at the point and said modestly: "A fool may think a thousand times, but occasionally he may make a good decision. What's the point? It's not that you are not smart enough to think of this. I just took advantage of the fact that I have lived in Huainan for a long time and know the people under Yuan Shu's command."

Liu Bei was also very happy when he heard this, and he immediately praised Lu Su, and at the same time said: "You two have your own strengths, so why be so modest. With such a perfect plan, why worry that Yuan Shu will not move his troops northward.

I will send someone to meet Yuanlong in secret today and ask him to act as soon as possible. The rest of the matters will be discussed and implemented by the two of you."

……

As all the details were finalized, Liu Bei quickly divided the above tasks into three parts, assigning them to Zhuge Liang, Lu Su, and Chen Deng who was still lurking in the enemy camp.

Starting from the next day, Zhuge Liang was tasked with planning and building the Guangling Shipyard and formulating plans for the subsequent warship construction - this was not an act, but actual investment of resources to develop the shipbuilding industry.

By the way, Liu Bei also asked Zhuge Liang to sort out all the farming development projects that are suitable for rectification and investment in Guangling County in the future. It would be best to combine it with the shipyard's warship construction to reduce costs, have dual military and civilian uses, and improve productivity while developing armaments.

Anyway, Zhuge Liang was already very familiar with Guangling County's internal affairs and farming affairs. He was in charge of the overall management of saline-alkali land, the expansion of the canal, and the repair of the sluice gates. Now the shift from river repair and water control to shipbuilding and shipping is not a big step, and many of the original experiences can continue to be used.

Moreover, Chen Qun, who was specifically responsible for the construction organization and the dispatch of manpower and material resources for the river repair, could continue to cooperate with Zhuge Liang.

Although Chen Qun had no knowledge of technology, he had very strong organizational skills. When he organized corvee labor and allocated money and grain, he was always able to reduce waste and losses to a low level. He was also able to identify various wasteful links and improve farming efficiency.

In this way, Zhuge Liang took charge of overall planning and Chen Qun took charge of operational management, which just achieved the effect of one plus one being greater than two.

As for Lu Su, he will be temporarily responsible for intelligence deception. After all, Lu Su has just arrived and does not know the situation very well. He cannot be burdened with too heavy a burden all at once. The safest thing is to do less and get familiar with the situation while doing it.

In addition, Liu Bei also appointed Shi Yi, an aide from Liu Yao, to work with Lu Su and help him familiarize himself with the situation.

Many viewers who are not enthusiastic about the Three Kingdoms game may not know what a less popular character like Shi Yi does. In history, Shi Yi, after serving under Sun Quan, worked as an intelligence analyst and was good at seeing through diplomatic deception. When he was under Liu Yao, he often carried out various secret missions.

If Sun Shao was in charge of open and formal foreign negotiations when he was under Liu Yao, then Yi was responsible for the secret bribery. For example, if Liu Bei wanted to send someone to meet Yuan Shu directly and negotiate a formal ceasefire agreement, then Sun Shao had to be sent. But if he wanted to send someone to secretly give gifts to Yang Hong, Yi would be more appropriate.

After all, Lu Su was a defector from Yuan Shu's camp, and his return might irritate the enemy camp and put him in danger if he was discovered. Shi Yi did not have this concern.

……

Zhuge Liang and Lu Su advanced in an orderly manner. Guan Yu also won two small victories in the front battlefield by robbing grain from the navy.

During the remaining few days in mid-July, everything was developing in a direction that was more favorable to Liu Bei's camp, and every link in the plan was properly implemented.

As time passed quickly into late July, Chen Deng, Liu Bei's last trump card, was about to complete the preparations for slandering Lu Bu, and he was only one step away from the final step - don't underestimate Chen Deng's preparations, after all, Lu Bu still had Chen Gong under his command.

If Chen Deng was not careful in his actions and tried to persuade others forcefully, he would easily be obstructed by Chen Gong.

However, perhaps it was God who helped Chen Deng and also God who helped Liu Bei.

Just as Chen Deng was laying the groundwork, Yuan Shu, 800 miles to the west, did something that caused the relationship between him and Cao Cao to deteriorate sharply.

When Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, Lu Su and others in Guangling learned the news, they immediately felt relieved, knowing that this time the plan to induce Yuan and Cao to fight each other would definitely be a success.

Chen Deng, who was in Xia Pi, was also surprised and couldn't believe it after hearing the news.

It turned out that Yuan Shu had been emperor for a whole month and a half but had made no military achievements, which finally drove him into a certain degree of madness and he wanted to regain his position in other ways.

Yuan Shu failed to defeat Liu Bei, and he did not dare to attack Cao Cao for the time being, nor could he defeat Liu Biao. Finally, he set his target on another soft persimmon closest to him - Liu Chong, the King of Chen State, and Luo Jun, the Prime Minister of Chen State.

As an aside, before the establishment of the feudal lords, the State of Chen was also called Chen County, located in Yuzhou. In the pre-Qin period, it was the capital of the State of Chu for a while. Later, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started their rebellion and established the "Zhang Chu" regime in Chen County.

Today's Chen County is located at the forefront of the confrontation between Cao Cao and Yuan Shu. To the south of Chen is Runan County, the old nest of the Yuan family, and to the north of Chen is Chenliu County, where Cao Cao started his career, so the geographical location is very important.

Chen was guarded by the vassal king Liu Chong, so nominally it was in the same camp as Cao Cao's court, but in fact Cao Cao did not interfere in the affairs of Chen, and had allowed Liu Chong and Luo Jun to govern it on their own.

Because Yuan Shu was at a disadvantage in military terms this time, he wanted to make up for it elsewhere, so he sent people to Chen to borrow military rations from Liu Chong and extort weapons to help him in the battle.

Of course Liu Chong and Luo Jun would not give evidence to the rebels, so Yuan Shu sent the assassin Zhang Kai to lead a small team to sneak into Chen and assassinate Liu Chong and Luo Jun.

(Note: According to "Book of Wu", this Zhang Kai was the Zhang Kai who killed Cao Cao's father Cao Song under Tao Qian. After Tao Qian's death, Zhang Kai actually fled to Yuan Shu and was not hunted down by Cao Cao. Now he has killed Chen Wang Liu Chong, and he can be regarded as a professional assassin.)
After the assassination was successful, Yuan Shu, who had already made all preparations, of course immediately led his troops into Chen County and seized a county from the Han court almost without bloodshed.

For Cao Cao, although he did not have direct control over Chendi, it was so easy for Yuan Shu to take it away, and the front line of the confrontation between the two sides was pushed to the border between Chenjun and Chenliu. How could he tolerate this? Chenliu County was the foundation of Cao Cao's initial uprising.

After Yuan Shu took over Chen, he was not actually prepared for a full-scale war with Cao Cao. He was still thinking, "What does my assassination of Liu Chong have to do with you, Cao Cao? You'd better accept my expansion and I won't fight you anymore. It's best for us to continue to live in peace."

But there is no doubt that Yuan Shu's idea was too naive. Even if Cao Cao was not fully prepared for war, as long as Yuan Shu annexed Chendi, Cao Cao would definitely fight Yuan Shu. The only difference was whether to fight now or in a few months.

After Chen Deng learned of this favorable news, he was of course relieved. He decided to instigate Lu Bu to fish in troubled waters that day, and told Yuan Shu about his determination to encourage him and prompt him to make up his mind to give up the battle with Liu Bei.

-

(Note: In history, not long after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, he used despicable means to assassinate the King of Chen and seize the land of Chen in order to break the deadlock because the progress was not good. However, this incident was relatively small and was not mentioned in the show. Readers who only read the show may not know about it.

So stop criticizing me for cheating Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, and for saying how could Yuan Shu abandon Liu Bei and fight Cao Cao. Yuan Shu in history was just that stupid.

When he stole Chendi, he didn't think about going to war with Cao Cao, and his preparations were not sufficient. He also thought that as long as he acted quickly enough, others would admit defeat after stealing the land. It can only be said that Yuan Shu was arrogant to a certain extent. He thought Cao Cao was Chang Kaishen, who would admit defeat after successfully stealing the three northeastern provinces.)
(End of this chapter)