My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 136: Four Ways to Fight Yuan
(This chapter has been completely rewritten. What you see now is the rewritten version. A lot of unreasonable plots have been deleted, resulting in the deletion of the last few hundred words of Chapter 134. Please be informed. If you feel that the connection is not connected, you can go back and re-read the previous chapter to confirm the plot breakpoints. I deeply apologize for the trouble caused to everyone. I will add a few more days to make up for it later.)
Lu Bu and Yuan Shu fought to the death in Qiao, while Cao Cao marched straight into Runan and besieged Shangcai.

Naturally, Yuan Shu's army became increasingly stretched thin, and had to mobilize repeatedly from the eastern area of Huainan County and Lujiang County in the rear, drawing large numbers of troops to the north and west to block the gap.

Therefore, throughout the first month of the third year of Jian'an, the military forces on the border between Yuan Shu and Liu Bei gradually became increasingly empty. Yuan Shu was not without his guard against Liu Bei, but he was powerless and could only rob Peter to repair Paul.

Liu Bei was not in a hurry either. His original plan was to wait until the spring farming season to attack. As long as Cao Cao did not capture Shangcai, Liu Bei's plan would not change, and he could allow Yuan Shu's manpower to be further consumed.

In Guangling County, nothing major happened during the first month of the year, and in the blink of an eye it was time for the Zhuge family's grand celebration.

However, the first wedding was not between Zhuge Liang and Huang Yueying, but between Zhao Yun and Zhuge Zhi.

Zhuge Jin was still very concerned about his younger brother's reputation. He knew that since he was the eldest brother and had not yet married, it would be a bit stressful for his younger brother to marry first. But he himself could not marry immediately. He could not find a suitable candidate and had to wait a few more months.

As a temporary measure, the idea was to let the younger sister get married first. This way, people would think that "it was the eldest brother of the Zhuge family who had special reasons and could not get married immediately, while the younger brothers and sisters of the Zhuge family were married normally", and with the elder sister in front, no one would stare at Zhuge Liang.

Anyway, Zhuge Zhi really liked Zhao Yun, although the two had not yet engaged before Zhao Yun went north to escort Zhuge Liang to Yuan Shao. It was just because of Zhuge Jin's personal quirk that he didn't like people to set up a "return home and marry after completing this mission" flag.

But as long as my sister likes it, there is absolutely no problem in speeding up the process.

Finally, three days before Zhuge Liang got married, his elder sister finally got married. This helped Zhuge Liang to offset a lot of criticism, and for a while, not many people paid attention to why his elder brother had not yet married.

There is not much to say about the wedding process of Zhao Yun and Zhuge Zhi.

Zhuge Jin did not make any requests, but he mentioned to Zhao Yun privately that he hoped that his sister would not be forced to have more children in the future. If it was really not possible, he would rather rely on taking a concubine to share some of the pressure of having children.

Zhao Yun had no obsession with the ratio of legitimate to illegitimate children, so everyone happily reached a consensus.

After all, Zhuge Zhi is an educated and intellectual woman, and she might want to pursue something else.

Zhuge Jin will not interfere directly. He will only provide his younger siblings with more life options, and they have to make the specific choices themselves.

After Zhuge Zhi got married, Zhuge Liang's marriage was also quickly and smoothly completed.

The Huang family was also deeply impressed by Zhuge Liang's "unwavering loyalty despite wealth and status" and they lived in harmony after the marriage.

After getting married, Zhuge Liang took another half month off to relax with Huang Yueying. He was finally ready to cheer up and get back to work.

……

Time quickly came to mid-February of the third year of Jian'an.

Zhao Yun is still on his honeymoon leave, as the war against Yuan Shu has not yet begun and there is nothing for him to do for the time being.

Zhuge Liang has been given a new task - this year is the first time that the two counties of Guangling County have tried the agricultural production method of "winter wheat and rice rotation", and the people of Sheyang and Haixi originally did not know how to raise, transplant and plant seedlings.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin had tested the water and conducted experiments in Chaisang last spring, and taught a small group of farmers how to raise and plant rice seedlings. This year, these people were specially moved to Guangling to serve as front-line "agricultural technicians" to help various townships and villages implement the work.

Zhuge Liang had also studied the supporting knowledge for quite a long time and had conducted experiments before. This time, of course, he had to personally take charge of this important task, be responsible for managing and commanding the "agricultural technicians", and coordinate the overall work.

Even though the total output of the pilot farmland in only one and a half counties would not be that great, in history, it was not until the Tang and Song dynasties that Chinese farmers gradually learned and promoted the rice transplanting method. Now Zhuge Jin has brought this forward by six or seven hundred years.

If done well, the Huai River and Huaibei regions will be able to produce one season of rice and one season of winter wheat every year. Even if the yield is a little lower, it can only yield 100 to 200 kilograms more than a single season (Han jin is about 400 kilograms), which is also a great achievement of Shennong.

Zhuge Liang was well aware of the significance of this matter, and was determined to leave his name in history, so he took his elder brother's assignment very seriously. He actually inspected the fields every day and went to the fields himself, which was more labor-intensive than when he was in Jingzhou.

Fortunately, this kind of work only takes more than a month, and the 18-year-old Zhuge Liang is full of vigor and vitality, so he can just take it as more exercise. Moreover, Zhuge Liang doesn't need to bend down and plant rice himself often, at most he can just demonstrate, so it won't be too hard on his waist, just more running around.

……

Zhuge Jin left the work of Shennong to his younger brother because he himself had more important things to deal with.

At the age of eighteen, Zhuge Liang had not yet fully grown to the level he would reach when he came out of seclusion in later generations.

Over the past year and a half, Zhuge Jin's help to Zhuge Liang's growth was mainly in the areas of internal affairs management, technological improvement, and engineering planning. In other words, it was biased towards science, engineering, and management.

In comparison, Zhuge Liang's military strategy is still relatively weak. Apart from helping Guan Yu attack the Shanyue people in the six counties south of Danyang and attacking Huangshan and killing Chen Pu, he has no other military achievements.

The victory in the attack on Huangshan was more due to the application and coordination of technical means rather than to strategies.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin estimated that Zhuge Liang's internal affairs management level was close to that of his later generations. His technological improvement and mathematical physics had even surpassed the peak level of Zhuge Liang in later generations. However, his military strategy level was estimated to be at the level of his early twenties in history, and he had only developed two or three years ahead of schedule.

The specific details of how to coordinate Liu Bei's fight against Yuan Shu and take Lujiang still had to be personally handled by Zhuge Jin.

One day in mid-February, Liu Bei's army gathered most of the senior officials and held a meeting in Guangling County, which lasted for several days in order to plan the upcoming resumption of the war against Yuan.

Of course, not all senior executives will attend the entire meeting. For example, pure military generals such as Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun will not participate in the initial closed-door discussion stage. They only need to receive orders in the end and raise questions if they don't understand something, and the advisers will answer their questions and resolve their doubts.

The initial top-level closed-door discussion was attended by only a few people including Zhuge Jin, Guan Yu and Lu Su, who were summoned by Liu Bei. Zhuge Liang was too busy, Chen Deng was still undercover, and the others were not good at military strategy.

Because everyone was eager to fight, the pre-war mobilization could be omitted. After Liu Bei gathered everyone, he went straight to the point and asked for advice:
“As the war with Yuan Shu is imminent, the counties controlled by our army are too scattered, stretching from Guangling to Danyang to Yuzhang, from the northeast to the southwest, a distance of two thousand miles.

Moreover, there are counties such as Wujiang in the middle, which separate the northern and southern territories into enclaves. In peacetime, communication has to be circuitous. In wartime, I am afraid that they can only fight on their own. Therefore, it is particularly important to coordinate the overall strategy in advance and act together when the time comes. I wonder if everyone has a good plan. "

When Liu Bei mentioned that "our territory now stretches for two thousand miles from the northeast to the southwest", Guan Yu and Lu Su were slightly stunned. It can be seen that their geographical concept of their own camp's territory is indeed not very solid, which also shows the urgency of Liu Bei's demand for overall planning.

From Lianyungang in northern Jiangsu to Ganzhou in southern Jiangxi, even if you draw the straight-line distance, it is more than 1,100 kilometers, or 2,300 miles.

In fact, the journey had to go around the Yangtze River and Gan River. It is not an exaggeration to say that the farthest point in Liu Bei's territory was three thousand miles away.

Guan Yu had been to Yuzhang, but he had never personally swept through the vast small counties in the mountainous area of southern Jiangxi, so he did not fully understand the size of Yuzhang, and it is even more difficult to imagine the situation of others.

It was extremely difficult to unify the command in such a large territory. This made it even more necessary to agree on the attack dates in various directions in advance in order to maximize Yuan Shu's surprise.

Zhuge Jin knew that he had to speak first in such situations, otherwise Lu Su would be embarrassed to speak.

So he took the map and gave some instructions:
"My lord, I have been thinking about this for many days. I think that our army cannot concentrate too much strength. After all, we must prevent Yuan Shu from being enraged and launching a desperate counterattack against us. Lu Bu was defeated by Yuan Shu's desperate counterattack before, which is a lesson not far away. Our territories have been carefully managed. Even if they are temporarily invaded and looted by Yuan Shu, we will suffer great losses. Unlike Yuan Shu, whose territories have been exhausted, it doesn't matter if we abandon Yuan Shu temporarily.

Therefore, although the route from Xuyi to Chuxian will not be the focus of our attack, we must also leave troops to defend it closely. These areas bordering on land are the easiest to fight back after Yuan Shu is completely enraged.

As for Wuhu, Chungu, Yuzhang and other places, because of the danger of the Yangtze River, Yuan Shu's navy is now extremely weak and cannot launch a counterattack against us. This line can be used as the main attack of our army. We can give full play to our naval advantages, find Yuan Shu's weak points, and then cross the river to expand the results of the battle.

We don’t even have to focus on Wankou and Ruxukou, two places that are destined to be heavily defended, to open a breakthrough first. Instead, we can attack the weakest places first and fully mobilize the enemy.”

After listening to this, Liu Bei and Guan Yu looked at each other and agreed with it deeply.

"So, the general idea is to defend from Xuyi to Chu County, and attack from Wuhu to Chaisang? In this way, the tasks of the generals in Yuzhang will be heavy. They can only dispatch Xingba to Chaisang, and Ziyi to Wuhu. Does Ziyu need to dispatch Yunchang and thousands of soldiers to launch a breakthrough from the south?"

The total strength of Liu Bei's camp is now around 45,000 people, and the scale of mobilization has not been expanded much in the past year.

On the one hand, the actual total population of the two and a half counties under Liu Bei's rule was only 1.2 to 1.3 million at the beginning.

Even though they absorbed a large number of refugees from Yuan Shu's rule in the following six months, naturalized Zu Lang and other Shanyue people, and cleared out a large number of Han people who had fled to the mountains in Yuzhang, the total population is only 1.7 to 8 million. Among them, 300,000 refugees from Yuan Shu were absorbed, 100,000 hidden households in the Yuzhang mountain area were cleared, and more than 100,000 Shanyue people were naturalized.

With a population of 1.8 million, including men, women, young and old, the pressure of supporting 40,000 to 50,000 regular troops is already considerable. On average, about thirty people support one, or ten regular soldiers support one.

Liu Bei felt that simply recruiting and reforming prisoners of war was enough, and further expanding the army would damage the people's strength and would be detrimental to sustainable development.

Of these 45,000 men, at least 25,000 were stationed in Guangling, and half of Danyang plus the entire Yuzhang, there were only 20,000 men. When it came time to launch an attack on Yuan Shu, this ratio was obviously inappropriate, as there were too many people on the defensive end.

Guan Yu himself also felt that it was easier to achieve results on the southern front, so after consulting Liu Bei, he took the initiative to ask for orders:
"Brother! Please let me go to Jiangnan again! At worst, I can only go to Wuhu and not Chaisang. Chaisang relies on Xingba and Ziyi to work together, and Ziyu will personally coordinate and command. I will personally lead the army in Wuhu. I will leave Yide and Zilong in Jiangbei to share the possible counterattack of Yuan Shu, and if there is a chance, we can also expand the results of the battle."

After hearing this, Liu Bei did not object, but still frowned slightly: "Yide and Zilong are also brave generals, and letting them defend the area will make it difficult for them to achieve merit. Isn't this not good? Although they really don't know anything about naval warfare, Zilong seems to have gone to sea twice. I wonder if he has improved?"

Facing Liu Bei's hesitation, the other three looked at each other and felt that Liu Bei was caring for his brothers and wanted to give Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun more opportunities to make merit. However, everyone has their own expertise, and the battle against Lujiang mainly depends on crossing the river, and Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun are indeed not suitable for this, at least not at the moment.

We should try to allocate resources based on talents and endowments rather than emotions.

Zhuge Jin advised, "My lord, I know a lot about Zilong's recent situation. He went to the north to sea last year and experienced the baptism of storms. But his personal ability to swim has improved a lot, and his water battle skills have improved a lot. I heard that he can even shoot arrows on a bumpy ship against the wind, and he is quite accurate. But these are just personal martial arts after all, not the ability to lead troops in water battles, so please be careful!"

Seeing Zhuge Jin's persuasion, Lu Su on the side also thought of an angle to persuade him, and quickly agreed, "My lord, you are worried that too many brave generals will be wasted in Jiangbei, so why not move your garrison to Wuhu yourself? In this way, only General Zhao and General Zhang will be left to guard Jiangbei, and the burden will not be light.

Moreover, the lord has been appointed as the Left General and the Governor of Yangzhou for two months. It is only because the shogunate was previously located in Guangling that he has been used to it. Now it is a new year, and the Governor of Yangzhou should also set up a shogunate in Yangzhou. Even if Moling is still in the hands of Sun Ce, it is reasonable to temporarily use Wuhu as the seat of Danyang County and the seat of Governor of Bingzhou, and temporarily set up the Left General's Office there.

Moreover, after the lord personally lives in Wuhu, he can communicate with the left and right sides. Whether there are reports of military changes from Huaiyin in the north or from Chaisang in the south, they can be delivered as soon as possible. It is not like staying in Guangling. If Chaisang does not progress smoothly, it may take many days to know. "

Liu Bei was quite touched when he heard this, and realized that he had been too hasty before. In fact, he should have moved the seat of government there when he first became the governor of Yangzhou. It was unreasonable for the governor of Yangzhou to be the governor of Xuzhou.

But now that Lu Su has proposed it, it is not too late. Moreover, the later we move there, the less likely it is that Yuan Shu will be alert to the southern line, which is good for the military.

Yuan Shu would definitely think: Liu Bei himself always lives in the north of the Yangtze River, so the north of the Yangtze River is probably Liu Bei’s main attack direction.

After understanding this, Liu Bei immediately accepted the advice: "Okay, Zijing, this is a good idea. Let's do it this way. Before the battle, I will personally move to Wuhu to provide support for Yunchang's troops, guarantee their food and wages, and coordinate the overall situation. If there is any change in the left and right wings, you can inform me immediately."

Zhuge Jin, who was standing by, also realized that he had paid too little attention to those matters of "official status".

After all, he is the soul of a modern man, and his awareness of these etiquette and laws is relatively low. Fortunately, Lu Su helped him to find out the gaps and fill them.

However, Zhuge Jin was quick to react. Inspired by Lu Su's suggestion, a specific plan for the deployment of generals quickly emerged in his mind.

Zhuge Jin then struck while the iron was hot and said, "My lord, in this case, why not adjust the arrangements of the generals? In my opinion, our army can be divided into four groups and advance.

Zilong is the first one, attacking Huailing from Xuyi. It would be best if he could take Huailing, but it doesn't matter if he can't. And as long as the attack is sudden enough, it should be possible to take it. Later, Yuan Shu will definitely send heavy troops to guard against Zilong, because Zilong can go straight to Shouchun, Yuan Shu's pseudo-capital, by going up the Huai River. It is estimated that there is no way to take the county town above Huailing for the time being.

However, once Zilong took the lead in sending out his troops and attracted Yuan Shu's last remaining mobile forces, it would be easy for our army to deploy the other three routes.

Yide can be the second route, going upstream from Chuxian and Tangyi to attack Wujiang County. Although Wujiang County is not a strategic location, it is located on the opposite bank of Niuzhu controlled by Sun Ce, which is also the last node where Sun Ce and Yuan Shu border. Once we go to war, we must beware of Yuan Shu's weakness, which may lead to Sun Ce taking advantage of the situation to rob and divide the territory, so it is necessary to quickly block this last hole.

If Yide has enough strength to spare, it can expand from Wujiang County to the surrounding areas and look for opportunities to fight on its own, but overall it should be cautious.

The third group of troops was led by the lord himself, stationed in Wuhu, with Yunchang as the commander. They would attack Ruxukou and its surrounding areas from Wuhu and Chungu, and try to quickly break into the Ruxu River basin. If this route succeeds, they can go upstream to break through Juchao, pass Chaohu Lake, and threaten Hefei. It is also an important waterway between the Yangtze River and the Huai River, more important than the Han Canal. Moreover, the northernmost end of this route happened to be the fork of the Huai River and the Fei River, and they could also directly penetrate into Yuan Shu's pseudo-capital Shouchun.

With Yuan Shu's current strength, it is still unlikely for us to attack Shouchun in one go. But as long as we take Ruxukou and Juchao, even if we cut off Yuan Shu's possibility of counterattack to the south, it would be a pleasant surprise if we can also take Hefei.

As for the final fourth route, I can lead the troops myself, with Ziyi and Xingba under my command, and attack Wankou (Anqing) from Chaisang. Our goal is to seize the fertile areas in the hinterland of Lujiang County, strive to completely annihilate Liu Xun's troops, and cut off Yuan Shu's arm.

Of these four groups, the first and second groups must move in sequence according to the plan, so that Zilong can lure out the enemy's main force and Yide can block the entrance. As for the third and fourth groups, it doesn't matter which group they move in sequence, they can also move at the same time."

Inspired by Lu Su, Zhuge Jin fine-tuned his original plan for deploying troops. Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Lu Su discussed the plan with the map and did not have any major objections.

Liu Bei just suddenly felt that according to this plan, the Zhuge brothers were not around him, which made him feel a little uncomfortable and insecure.

Zhuge Liang would have to guard Huaiyin County and guard his home to prevent any changes from Lu Bu. At the same time, he would have to take into account the spring farming pilot projects in Sheyang and Haixi counties. Because rice transplanting method can only be planted in the fields after winter wheat is harvested in April and May of the lunar calendar. In April and May, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu must still be fighting fiercely.

If Zhuge Jin were to go to Chaisang, Liu Bei would no longer have a counselor named Zhuge by his side.

So he raised this point tactfully.

Zhuge Jin thought about it and immediately recommended: "My lord, you have many talented people. Why should you stick to me and Aliang? With Zijing nearby, are you still worried that I can't make plans for you? If my lord wants to make more friends with talented people, I have a subordinate in Yuzhang who can be introduced to you and you can choose another position to gain experience.

This man is called Pang Tong Pang Shiyuan, a native of Jingzhou. When Aliang was farming in Xiangyang, he became friends with him. Many scholars in Xiangyang refer to them together. Before that, when I left Yuzhang and sought other opportunities, I also relied on Shiyuan to guard Chaisang on my behalf. Neither Liu Xun nor Huang Zu in the surrounding area could take advantage of the situation to cause trouble, which shows how reliable he is.

Liu Bei finally felt relieved when he heard Zhuge Jin recommend such a talented person. However, he was not in a hurry to let Pang Tong come, so he quickly said:
"Since you are relying on Pang Shiyuan to guard Chaisang, you should not act rashly this time. After all, you are on the front line after entering Lujiang, and Chaisang in the rear also needs reliable people. After the battle of Lujiang is settled, I will definitely invite Shiyuan to have a chat and train him.

As for the allocation of troops and officers for the four offensive routes, I will follow your plan, sir!"

-

(PS: There will be an Easter egg chapter map attached later in this chapter, explaining the attack route planned by Zhuge Jin for Liu Bei. Please wait patiently, I don’t have time to draw it now, but I will definitely upload it today)
(End of this chapter)