My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 133: Zhuge Liang Returns ( words)
It took a total of about twenty days from the time Xin Ping went south to the time Cao and Lu completed the peace talks and Han Yin was sent to Xudu for execution.

Zhuge Liang, who was in Hebei, was not idle during the past twenty days. He took advantage of Yuan Tan and accomplished quite a few small things.

Xin Ping: In the first five days after going south, Zhuge Liang was relatively quiet in Yecheng. He chatted with Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan every day to keep in touch with them. In fact, he was also using Yuan Tan to secretly find out some not-so-confidential information about Yuan Shao's army.

Zhuge Liang's inner thoughts, of course, were to take the opportunity to go to Zhuo County and complete the task assigned by Grandpa Xuande to win over Lu Zhi's son Lu Yu and some other disciples of Lu Zhi who stayed in Zhuo County. It also included Xu Miao from Youzhou, who was assigned by his elder brother, who seemed to be in Zhuo County.

In addition, before leaving, his elder brother Zhuge Jin also told him in a rather obscure way that if he had the chance to go to Zhuo County, he could pay attention to whether the Zhen family of Wuji County had served Yuan Shao when passing through Zhongshan County, which was adjacent to Zhuo County. If they had not, he could try to recruit them, but if they had, forget it.

Zhuge Liang did not understand what he meant at the time, because he had never heard of any talented people in the Wuji Zhen family, but his elder brother insisted that there might be "talented people in the wild", so Zhuge Liang had to reluctantly waste some energy and take a look as he passed by.

But Zhuge Liang's identity in Yecheng was an envoy, so it was impossible for him to go to Zhuojun casually. That place was close to the front line where Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan fought the last battle.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang had to wait for an opportunity, until Yuan Shao’s army had new reinforcements, or at least give the front-line troops besieging Yijing a chance to transport food.

His wait was not in vain, because Yuan Shao's army was indeed short of food and grass at the front line of Yijing, and often had to rely on the rear for aid. At this time, the main general of Yuan's front-line siege was still Qu Yi, who was also Gongsun Zan's old rival.

In history, Qu Yi had to temporarily withdraw due to lack of food, but was killed by Gongsun Zan, who "took away all his baggage carts". However, judging from his temporary withdrawal due to lack of food, even if Gongsun Zan took away baggage carts, they were just empty carts without goods, which had little impact on the subsequent battle. And all this has not happened yet, and Yuan Shao is still struggling to raise funds.

On the fifth day when Zhuge Liang was wandering around Yecheng, Yuan Shao finally decided to send people to transport a batch of supplies to the army in Yijing in preparation for a long battle.

Zhuge Liang himself should not have known this news, but it was easy for Yuan Tan to find out, and he did not hide anything from Zhuge Liang, so if Yuan Tan knew it, it was the same as if Zhuge Liang knew it.

Zhuge Liang immediately privately persuaded Yuan Tan to seize this opportunity, while he was in Yecheng, to show his willingness to share his father's worries and take the initiative to take on the task of transporting grain to Yijing.

Yuan Tan initially did not take it seriously, thinking that transporting grain did not bring him much merit and it would not be easy to stand out. It would be better for him to spend more time with his father and consolidate the father-son relationship.

Zhuge Liang said to him, "The relationship between family members needs to be maintained with some tension and some relaxation. It is natural to miss each other after not seeing each other for a long time, but it is easy to get tired of each other because of trivial matters after living together for a long time. The eldest son has been reunited with Yuan Gong for more than half a month now, and he has won Yuan Gong's favor because of his great changes.

But these changes are not solid enough after all, and they will easily reveal flaws over time. It is better to separate for half a month, consolidate privately, and then make plans. Moreover, it is difficult to encircle Yijing by siege alone, and it will also waste people's money and time. Liang has a little trick, which may allow the eldest son to gain more merits when Yijing is captured in the future. "

Before setting out, Zhuge Liang had repeatedly discussed with his eldest brother that they must not do anything that would "obviously strengthen the peak strength of Yuan Shao's camp", so those strategies that would obviously accelerate Yuan Shao's destruction of Gongsun Zan could not be offered.

But Zhuge Jin thought at the time that there was an exception among the many strategies, that is, to let Yuan Tan offer the strategy of attacking Yijing Tower by digging holes in the ground - the reason for the exception was that in history Yuan Shao finally relied on this trick to defeat Gongsun Zan, but this strategy was offered by Shen Pei.

Shen Pei was not well-liked by people in Liu Bei's camp because he was Yuan Shang's man. If Yuan Tan could intercept the advice of Yuan Shang's faction, it would definitely be beneficial to the reversal of the strength of both sides. It would not accelerate the defeat of Gongsun Zan, which could be said to be the best of both worlds.

It is now the end of 197, and Yuan Shao's army was about to start the underground siege, which would be delayed until the beginning of next spring at the latest. The interception now only gave them a slight time difference.

"Oh? Sir, do you have any strategies for attacking the city? In that case, how dare I seek comfort? I must go to Yijing." Upon hearing this, Yuan Tan was no longer sleepy. He immediately said that he could ask his father for permission to escort the military rations and take Zhuge Liang with him to the north for a trip.

Yuan Tan has been very popular recently. He met Yuan Shao that day and tried every means to persuade him.

Yuan Shao originally thought that his son was working too hard, but Yuan Tan said that he had thought of some technical means of siege and wanted to try them out. He could transport grain while giving instructions to the front-line troops. It just required some manpower to build equipment and carry out construction, but there would be no other risks.

Yuan Shao could not resist his pleading and quickly agreed.

And because Yuan Tan said that this was his own idea, Yuan Shao was no longer wary of Zhuge Liang and just thought that his son had grown up.

……

There is no need to elaborate on what happened in Hebei in the following half month.

Yuan Tan successfully transported the military supplies to the front line of Qu Yi's army in Yijing, and also launched a tunnel siege on the Yijing Tower one or two months earlier than the same period in history.

The tunnel construction plan proposed by Zhuge Liang was actually similar to the one that Shen Pei was originally about to propose.

But Zhuge Liang had stronger engineering capabilities after all. He had already had two experiences in water conservancy projects such as building canals, and was particularly good at this kind of digging.

So he went to the site to take a look, and found that the planned subway route and construction difficulty were more optimized than the plans reviewed and approved in history.

Historically, Shen Pei's surveying capabilities were poor, so tunnels had to be dug from the ground up for fear that groundwater would flood the tunnels and destroy them.

Zhuge Liang had a stronger surveying ability. He directly used the five deep trenches dug by Gongsun Zan outside the Yijing Tower and dug from the bottom of the trench to the inside, saving a considerable distance of excavation. The whole process was not affected by the water originally poured into the moat.

Finally, Zhuge Liang also suggested that when digging under the four secondary earth platforms outside Yijing Tower in the future, a wooden arch structure should be used to support the tunnel. Finally, after digging to a sufficient depth, the wooden column arches should be burned down at the same time, causing the outer earth platform above to collapse completely.

The entire project would definitely take several months to complete, but Zhuge Liang was not in a hurry. He would not stay until the day when the results came out, and would have left long ago.

In addition, in order to make Zhao Yun, who was protecting Zhuge Liang, feel better, Zhuge Liang avoided Zhao Yun when he talked to Yuan Tan about these things. He knew that Zhao Yun definitely did not want to participate in the final attack on Gongsun Zan, although even if they did not do this, Shen Pei would do it.

It would take no more than a few days for Zhuge Liang to point out these construction precautions.

In the remaining time, he went to Zhuo County and met with Lu Yu, Xu Miao and others. He gave Lu Yu Liu Bei's handwritten letter and persuaded him very sincerely.

Lu Yu took into consideration that Gongsun Zan might be defeated, and the Lu family might become increasingly insecure if they stayed in their hometown of Youzhou without the protection of their fellow disciple Gongsun Zan.

However, Liu Bei's position in this life was much more stable than that of his peers in history. He no longer had to go to Xu Du to join Cao Cao, but instead had his own large rear base.

Lu Yu was moved, and finally, with the mediation of Zhuge Liang, he chose to go south to live in seclusion, hoping that he could rely on his senior brother Liu Bei to have a good future.

As for other minor characters such as Xu Miao whom Zhuge Liang wanted to recruit, as well as the talented people from the opposition who were temporarily discovered in Zhuo County, there is no need to elaborate on them one by one.

……

Zhuge Liang found the person he wanted to find, Yuan Tan also successfully proposed the strategy of underground siege and implemented it, and the military rations were all delivered and handed over. It was supposed to be about time for Yuan Tan and his party to return south.

After returning to Yecheng, Zhuge Liang also bid farewell to Yuan Shao, ending his mission to Hebei.

However, at the same time that Yuan Tan was carrying out this mission to the north, coincidentally, some not-so-small chain power struggles occurred within Yuan Shao's camp.

As mentioned earlier, a month ago, when Yuan Tan and Zheng Xuan first arrived in Yecheng and Yuan Shao met them, Guo Tu, who was flattering them nearby, inconspicuously quoted the words of Emperor Wu of Han lamenting about Liu Dan, the King of Yan.

These words planted a tiny thorn in Yuan Shao's heart, reminding him of the drawback of "placing him in Yan and Zhao to find out that he really has the intention to compete", and thus he began to waver slightly on whether to let Yuan Xi take office after pacifying Youzhou in the future.

At that time, Guo Tu had not yet officially defected to Yuan Tan, but in his heart he had actually already made plans to get closer to the eldest son - historically, after Yuan Shao's death and the split of the Yuan family, Guo Tu also chose to defect to Yuan Tan. Finally, when Yuan Tan was destroyed in 205, he was killed by Cao Cao.

Guo Tu had not bet on Yuan Tan for a long time, but he was very at odds with Shen Pei's faction. Shen Pei and his people were all local nobles in Jizhou, while Guo Tu was from the Yingchuan faction like Xun Chen.

Because Yuan Shao always kept his youngest son Yuan Shang by his side, the local faction in Jizhou liked to bet on Yuan Shang. Guo Tu and other Yingchuan factions had a feud with the local faction, so they had to find another target to support.

Yuan Tan's early appearance this time made Guo Tu decide to bet in advance. After a few exchanges, the two sides reached an agreement in just over ten days, and Yuan Tan also made Guo Tu his most trusted confidant after Wang Xiu and Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang certainly did not participate in this process. Yuan Tan only temporarily notified Zhuge Liang and asked him to help with advice before accepting Guo Tu's secret loyalty.

Zhuge Liang really didn't like Guo Tu, who only liked to guess the master's intentions and say things that the master liked to hear. But he was going to leave soon, and Yuan Tan's future development had nothing to do with him. Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin sent him this time just to prevent the risk of Yuan's family splitting in the long run. Although Guo Tu's power would lead to chaos in the Yuan family's command, it would be beneficial to Yuan Tan's path to power.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang did not express any opposition and silently praised Yuan Tan's "drinking poison to quench thirst".

After Guo Tu successfully joined Yuan Tan, he saw that Zhuge Liang had actually helped the eldest son come up with a strategy to dig a hole underground to break into Yijing Tower, and it seemed that there was a good chance that Zhuge Liang would make new contributions for the eldest son.

Guo Tu, who was eager to make achievements, was unwilling to sit idle. He went to Yuan Shao's ear in the rear to praise the eldest son's recent good performance, and at the same time looked for opportunities to subtly hint to Yuan Shao to give up the future and "let the second son Yuan Xi govern Youzhou" - all this was Guo Tu's own decision, and had nothing to do with Zhuge Liang, but perhaps with Yuan Tan, and it should have been Yuan Tan's tacit approval.

As Yuan Tan's advice on the front line seemed to be very effective, Yuan Shao's ideas began to waver. As a result, Yuan Shang's party didn't care, but Yuan Xi's party jumped out first and tried to use their connections to make suggestions in order to reverse the situation.

Unfortunately, Yuan Xi's men were engaged in internal strife and were no match for Guo Tu.

What's more, Guo Tu has already taken the lead, Yuan Tan has been in the limelight recently and has made solid contributions, and Zhuge Liang is designing his image and behavior.

Finally, Han Heng, an important aide to Yuan Xi, was caught by Guo Tu while he was running around to mediate for Yuan Xi, and Guo Tu designed to incriminate Han Heng and report it to Yuan Shao.

Han Heng was from Dai County, Youzhou. He helped Yuan Xi to contact various confidants. In history, when Yuan Xi later became the governor of Youzhou, he appointed Han Heng as the deputy governor of Youzhou, in charge of the governor's foreign affairs. But now it is only the end of 197, and Han Heng's status is not high.

When Yuan Shao learned that Han Heng was working for Yuan Xi and wanted to "send Yuan Xi to govern the local area after conquering Youzhou", he became furious.

Yuan Shao's mentality was very simple: I love all my sons, but my things, I didn't say to give them to my sons, they can't take them by themselves! How can an outsider collude to obtain such a thing?
Han Heng was immediately imprisoned and questioned by Yuan Shao, and Yuan Xi was also temporarily confined to house arrest for reflection.

Because of this success, Guo Tu gained more trust from Yuan Tan - although the third brother, who was originally the most favored by his father, could not be overthrown for the time being, it seemed like a good idea to squeeze out the second brother, who was also an unknown brother.

When Zhuge Liang heard about this, he was also happy to see it happen. His goal was to minimize the possibility of Yuan's family splitting in the future. Even if Yuan Tan could not ensure his position, it would be an improvement if the maximum share was reduced from three points to two points.

This is how Yuan Xi's request to be transferred to another post came to an end.

Unfortunately, a speck of dust from the times, falling on the head of every ordinary person, may be a mountain that is simply impossible to withstand.

Big shots like Yuan Xi were at most put under house arrest, but other small figures from Yuan Xi and Han Heng's faction all fled in all directions, anxious to avoid suspicion.

With Guo Tu's help, Yuan Tan took the opportunity to quietly accept a group of scholars who wanted to change their ways and turn against the eldest son.

Among them, the Wuji Zhen family of Zhongshan County hurriedly terminated the marriage between their fourth daughter Zhen Rong and Han Heng's eldest son Han Chen because of Han Heng's imprisonment.

The Zhen family actually doesn't have much power nowadays. The older generation died early, and the father of the Zhen brothers and sisters only served as a county magistrate during his lifetime, so the so-called "several generations of county magistrates" of their ancestors have also declined.

To put it bluntly, the current Zhen family is far less powerful than the Zhuge family. Although Zhuge Gui, the last generation of the Zhuge family, did not live long, he at least became a county magistrate, which was much better than the Shangcai County Magistrate of Zhen Yi, the late father of the Zhen brothers and sisters. Zhuge Xuan, Zhuge Gui's brother, at least became the governor of Yuzhang after the official position was devalued during the turbulent times.

The Zhen family currently only had the eldest son, Zhen Yan, who was working as a low-ranking official in Yuan Shao's General's Office. There were a total of 25 Caos in Yuan Shao's General's Office, so the Cao officials in those unpopular Caos were really worthless and were used purely to solve the employment problems of the children of the noble families. They had no real power. The second son, Zhen Yao, was not even 20 years old yet and had not entered the government, so he was a commoner.

Of the five sisters, the first three have already married, because they were pretty and married the sons and nephews of officials from all over Jizhou. The fourth sister Zhen Rong was sixteen years old and had just started to get in touch with the Han family. Before she made a decision, something happened to the Han family. Because the fourth sister hadn't married yet, the fifth sister Zhen Mi was not even on the agenda.

Hearing that something had happened to the Han family and that the second young master's faction might fall, Zhen Yan could only ask for an audience with Yuan Tan through his connections and explain to the eldest young master that they actually didn't have much friendship with Han Heng, and that their previous contact with Han Heng to discuss marriage was completely blind. Now that they have drawn a clear line, they only hope that the eldest young master will not take it to heart.

Yuan Tan was secretly pleased to see Zhen Yan being so humble. In addition, he had never met the women of the Zhen family, so he did not harbor any evil intentions.

However, Zhuge Liang, who was about to bid farewell to Yuan Tan, became curious after hearing about this, because he remembered that before leaving, his eldest brother repeatedly hinted to him that "the Zhen family may have some talented people in the wild" and asked him to pay attention.

The eldest brother has taken care of so many things for him, and they are all correct. In this case, he should listen to the eldest brother and rather catch a wrong person than let him go - after all, it doesn't cost much to rescue a small and powerless person like this who has been involved in factional struggles.

So Zhuge Liang proposed to Yuan Tan that if Yuan Tan was annoyed with the second son of the Zhen family and did not want him to serve as an official in Hebei, he could do it for him and see if the other party wanted to live in seclusion in the south.

Yuan Tan was feeling guilty for not being able to thank Zhuge Liang for the past month. It was a rare opportunity for Zhuge Liang to speak, so of course he would not put up any obstacle. He said that as long as Zhuge Liang went to talk to the Zhen family himself, he would definitely provide convenience.

Zhuge Liang personally found Zhen Yan and asked him about the cause and effect of the case. He learned that he was afraid of being implicated by Han Heng and wanted to cut off his relationship with the second young master who might lose power.

Zhuge Liang was very smart, and he immediately thought of a series of excuses: "Brother Zhen, you have a tough life and you didn't get into trouble for doing this."

Zhen Yan knew that although Zhuge Liang was a guest envoy, he was trusted by the lord and the eldest son, so he quickly asked him for advice on how to save himself: "Please teach me, sir! Our Zhen family never wanted to get involved in the dispute between the eldest and second sons. It was all because of Han Heng that we got involved!"

Zhuge Liang: "Since ancient times, estrangement has never separated relatives. Even if the Second Young Master has temporarily lost his power, he is still Lord Yuan's own flesh and blood. He will be confined for several months or half a year. He will reflect enough and will be released sooner or later. You are eager to sever your relationship with the Second Young Master and Han Heng now. Won't they be jealous in the future?"

Zhen Yan: "Then... shouldn't we draw a clear line with them? Will the eldest master be jealous of us? Mr. Zhuge, as far as I know, shouldn't you have a good relationship with the eldest master? Why is it..."

Zhuge Liang: "I just can't bear to see innocent and weak people like you get hurt by the fire at the city gate. In your current situation, if either of you, the eldest son or the second son, takes action and shows even the slightest bit of hatred, you will never have peace."

Zhen Yan: "Then how can we break the impasse? Please speak frankly, sir! Everyone in the Zhen family admires your great virtue!"

Zhuge Liang: "I heard that your brother has some talent and virtue. For now, it is better to let your brother and his wife leave Jizhou and live in seclusion somewhere else without war, waiting for their luck. A man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure. Some people will always remind others as long as they live in Zhongshan. Only by leaving this vortex can we have a way out."

Zhen Yan thought about it and it seemed to make sense. And considering the influence Zhuge Liang had over Yuan Tan, his words had to make sense even if they didn't make sense. Otherwise, what if Zhuge Liang slandered Yuan Tan?
Although Zhuge Liang was an upright man, the problem was that Zhen Yan didn't know it.

Finally, Zhuge Liang bid farewell to Yuan Shao in late November, first went down the Yellow River, and then set out to sea again from Le'an Port at the end of November, riding the winter northwest wind and returning south.

In order to express his gratitude to Zhuge Liang, Yuan Tan sent some more ships to escort Zhuge Liang, and gave Zhuge Liang a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry. He also handed over the captured and reformed pirates of Guan Cheng's tribe to Zhuge Liang for disposal.

In order to prevent these people from getting out of control at sea, Yuan Tan also used his authority to select hundreds of prisoners of Gongsun Zan's army captured in the Battle of Yijing who were willing to follow Liu Bei and Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun recruited them and used them as escorts.

Therefore, when Zhuge Liang came, his team had less than a hundred people, but when he returned, he had several more boats and a total number of nearly a thousand people. Otherwise, he would not have been able to carry away even the gifts that Yuan Tan gave him.

In addition, out of gratitude to Zhuge Liang for helping him kill Guan Cheng, although the Qingzhou pirates had not been completely eliminated, Yuan Tan also expressed his willingness to provide passage and supply convenience for Liu Bei's ships to trade northward through the Shandong Peninsula in the future. (The pirates would nominate other leaders after their leaders were killed. Yuan Tan exaggerated the results of the battle when he presented Guan Cheng's head just to show off in front of Yuan Shao, and said that Guan Cheng's death was the demise of the Qingzhou pirates.)

In this way, Liu Bei's army could do business with Gongsun Du of Liaodong and buy Liaodong war horses.

Because Liu Bei's army lost the northern part of Xuzhou and its base was pushed south to Huainan, it became increasingly difficult to replenish its cavalry. They had to rely on some war horses captured when fighting Yuan Shu, so now, including Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin, the total number of cavalry was only more than 2,000.

By opening up Yuan Tan's connections, Liu Bei was allowed to use the ports on the Shandong Peninsula for supplies and avoid being intercepted by the local garrison. Suddenly, he had an additional way out.

Of course, in addition to gold, silver, treasures, captives and channels for buying horses, Zhuge Liang also had one last insignificant gain that he did not care about, which was to send Zhen Yao, the second son of the Zhen family, and his two sisters back to the south in a separate cabin.

Although Zhuge Liang still doesn't know the big brother's deeper meaning, because he has talked with Zhen Yao twice and found that the other party is almost a fool, the big brother didn't know where he heard the gossip.

This kind of small person who was squeezed out by the vortex of power struggle has lost his family network and does not seem to have any other valuable connections. If he arrives in Jiangdong, any of the four surnames of Wu County is more valuable than this outsider.

But the historical credit that the eldest brother had accumulated in Zhuge Liang's heart was so deep that even if he did not understand it for the time being, he had to firmly execute it first.

The journey south was very smooth. Around the middle of the twelfth lunar month, Zhuge Liang was able to return to Guangling County.

　The map transition chapter may have some daily records and surrounding trivial matters to explain, so the 6,000-word chapter was completed in one go.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)