My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 170 Cao Cao thought it was a trial code, Liu Bei activated it and unplugged the network cable
After Liu Bei, Zhuge brothers and Lu Su had a clear discussion about the strategic approach towards Lu Bu, they also knew how to deal with Pei Mao, the Minister of Justice.

A few days later, Liu Bei expressed several ideas to Pei Mao through Jian Yong, who was in charge of reception:
First of all, Cao Sikong hopes that the Yangzhou army will not interfere in Lu Bu’s affairs. The Yangzhou army will resolutely do so and will definitely support the court’s decision!

However, if the imperial court later finds that Lu Bu is a difficult problem and changes its mind, and needs the help of the Yangzhou Army again, then the Yangzhou Army will never refuse!
It's just that when changing one's mind, one should give a little advance notice so that the Yangzhou army can have time to dispatch troops and prepare for war. After all, if the timing is not right and the main force of the Yangzhou army is busy dealing with the traitor Huang Zu, then it will be a mistake.

Pei Mao was of course very satisfied with this statement. With this statement, he could go back to report to Cao Cao without any worries.

As for the second half of Liu Bei's polite remarks, such as "If the court finds the situation difficult and changes its mind and needs the help of the Yangzhou army", Pei Mao firmly believed that with Cao Sikong's ability, he would never allow such a situation to happen, so this paragraph is pure nonsense.

Of course, considering that Cao Cao's request to Liu Bei "not to interfere in Lu Bu's affairs" was not reflected in the imperial edict, both parties knew that this request was an additional one.

In other words, this was an extra promise made by Liu Bei out of friendship, and Cao Cao should also show a little more goodwill.

After Jian Yong hinted at this, Pei Mao was worried that Liu Bei's side would ask for too much.

Fortunately, this did not happen. Jian Yong only made a subtle and evasive request that was easy to achieve:
"Liu Bei hoped that his position as Zongzheng would be long-term and would not be removed just because Huang Zu's affairs were over," so he asked Cao Cao to give an informal guarantee of his term of office.

Because both sides knew very well that as long as Liu Bei did not make any mistakes and always obeyed the court, Cao Cao could only promote Liu Bei and could not dismiss him.

The higher your rank as a general, the more honorable you will be. There is no problem of being deprived of your real power, so there is nothing to worry about.

But it was different for Zongzheng, who had real power but was only one of the Nine Ministers. If Cao Cao said in the future, "Liu Bei has made another contribution, give him a higher position among the Nine Ministers than Zongzheng, such as Taichangqing," Liu Bei would have no way of objecting.

Since ancient times, people have been given high-ranking official positions with no real power in order to deprive others of their power. This has happened too many times.

After Pei Mao understood this, he thought to himself: "Liu Bei is so attached to the post of Zongzheng because he is worried that after Huang Zu's death, if the court takes it back, he will not be able to suppress Liu Biao for a long time. It seems that he has ambitions for Liu Biao, which Sikong must be happy to see.

Originally, for Huang Zu's sake, the position of Zongzheng had to be maintained for at least one year. Now, in exchange for Liu Bei not launching an armed attack on Lu Bu to seize territory, the Minister of Works must be more generous. I guess if the three-year agreement is extended, Liu Bei will be satisfied."

After thinking it over, Pei Mao hinted to Jian Yong that he could try to persuade Cao Cao to be more generous after he returned. However, he could not guarantee whether Cao Cao would agree.

Jian Yong also said that respect is mutual and he fully understands it.

This exchange of interests has been achieved.

……

After a few more days, Pei Mao had a great time eating, drinking and traveling in Yangzhou, and also enjoyed some beautiful tour guides, and finally returned home with a great harvest.

Liu Bei was very polite and personally went to the Yangtze River wharf east of Wuhu City to see Pei Mao off on board the ship. He only rode back to the city after watching Pei Mao's ship disappear into the horizon.

On the way back to the city, Liu Bei was also somewhat puzzled, and privately asked Zhuge Jin, who was riding with him, "Why is Ziyu so obsessed with the 'three-year agreement' of the post of Zongzheng? There is not much difference between being Zongzheng for more than a year and being Zongzheng for two or three years."

It turned out that it was Zhuge Jin who asked Jian Yong to make this request while he was eating, drinking and having fun with his guests.

At this moment, the matter was already accomplished. Facing Liu Bei's confusion, Zhuge Jin just said in a mature and prudent manner:

"During this troubled time, we can't get more practical benefits from Cao Cao anyway, so we can only try our best to ensure the extension of the only practical official position.

What if Liu Biao has a change of heart later? Or if we have a chance to attack Sun Ce in the future, if you are still the Zongzheng, you will surely ensure that Liu Biao dare not take advantage of the situation and attack us together with Sun Ce, or at least condemn and delay him. As long as we stagger the time, it will be of great benefit to us. "

In fact, Zhuge Jin certainly had a few words in his heart that he hadn't said.

His real thought was: I know that Cao Cao appointed Liu Bei as the chief minister only as a temporary measure, and he might replace him in the future. Cao Cao could not be so kind as to let Liu Bei continue to be the chief minister.

According to the original trajectory of history, Dong Cheng might have received the imperial edict a little over a year later. A year and a half later, the imperial edict was exposed.

Even if there may be a butterfly effect now and the Yidaizhao may be delayed, but having Liu Bei and Cao Cao make a "three-year agreement" will definitely be enough to delay it until that moment.

As long as the Secret Edict was released, any future edicts from Cao Cao to remove Liu Bei from office would be invalid. Liu Bei could say, "This is not the emperor's original intention, but a statement made against his will by the emperor under duress of the Han thieves."

The position of "Zong Zheng", which was originally leased for just over a year, has now become a permanent position that can never be removed.

This is what it means to become a landlord by renting a house! How cool is that! It's almost as cool as those people who bought official positions before the death of Emperor Ling of Han!
When Emperor Lingdi of the Han Dynasty sold official positions, county magistrates received 4 million yuan per year and prefects received 20 million yuan per year. The money paid was essentially rent, not a permanent buyout. However, those who bought the last term before Emperor Lingdi's death, because Emperor Lingdi died and Dong Zhuo entered the capital, the system of reselling official positions every year collapsed. As a result, those who rented the last year of their term were directly bought out.

Cao Cao may have thought that he was just "renewing the trial card", but Liu Bei unplugged the network cable directly after activating it, and would never receive the data packet verifying the validity period again.

This is such a great bargain.

……

After seeing off the imperial envoy, Liu Bei finally relaxed.

Then I started to think about what else needed to be prepared in the next three months, from the cold winter to the busy spring farming season next year.

But he was not in a hurry. He had just been busy for so long and had accomplished so many important things. He needed to relax and combine work and rest.

So he gave the Zhuge brothers and Lu Su a holiday so that they could indulge themselves.

Brother Zhuge was indeed very busy before, and he still had a lot of housework to deal with, so he naturally took a vacation.

Lu Su was not that busy before, and he only rested for three or four days before he remembered something and came to ask to see Liu Bei again.

On the day Lu Su came, Liu Bei was playing music and dancing in his house. Seeing Lu Su's hard work, he was very pleased, so he pulled Lu Su to enjoy the singing and dancing together, and assigned two maids to pour wine and feed fruit to Lu Su.

Liu Bei also patted Lu Su on the back and advised him to relax when it was time to do so: "Zi Jing, it's almost the twelfth lunar month. Our army is now recuperating, so you don't have to worry too much."

Lu Su did not dare to neglect it, and took the initiative to report: "My Lord, after I went back these few days, I have been thinking about it day and night. I always feel that the strategy against Lu Fang that Zi Yu and Kong Ming came up with a few days ago still has some details that can be improved. I just figured it out today."

As he said this, he felt uncomfortable all over and made an excuse to push the maid who was feeding him fruit away a little to avoid leaking military secrets.

When Liu Bei saw this, he immediately drove away the maids, then took Lu Su's hand and said, "Zijing, if you have any secrets to report in the future, just say the prelude openly, and I will drive away the servants."

Lu Su was slightly stunned, thinking that Liu Bei thought he was being rude, so he quickly apologized: "It was Su who was rude."

Liu Bei smiled slightly and said, "It's not a question of being rude. Think about it, you, Ziyu, and Kongming always come to me privately to report things, and these maids must be familiar with you.

They may not hear what you said later today, but when Kong Ming comes in a few days, when they inform the attendants, if they casually mention, "After the sir left that day, Mr. Lu came again to offer advice on what the sir said, and even drove us away," what would Kong Ming think?
Of course, you are all open-minded people, and you can talk about anything. This time, you must have thought of an important trick at the last minute, and you didn't deliberately avoid Ziyu and Kongming to offer advice alone. But in the future, I have to speak up about driving away the attendants myself."

Liu Bei was very frank and made everything clear: he did not think that Lu Su was overstepping his authority by driving away his maids who "kept playing music and dancing", but he did not want Lu Su to be suspected of "avoiding other counselors when offering advice".

Whether to listen to the counselor's private secret report can only be decided by the lord himself, in order to protect the counselor's interpersonal relationships.

After all, Lu Su had only been in the officialdom for a year. Although he was already very intelligent and knowledgeable, his officialdom experience and taboos were still immature. Only after Liu Bei reminded him of this did he sincerely accept it.

Then Liu Bei reminded him at the right time: "Now that the maid has been sent away, after you finish your performance, go to Ziyu's residence and report your proposal today and my final decision to Ziyu in person."

Lu Su quickly accepted the order, and learned another little trick of how to behave in officialdom.

Similar to the topics discussed in meetings in later generations, if there are new developments or new suggestions, the person who puts forward the new suggestions should copy a copy of the meeting minutes to the previous participants to show that they are not excluded and to facilitate the synchronization of information.

Among all the princes in the world, Yuan Shao was the worst in this regard, followed by Lu Bu.

They are typical of "multiple small closed-door discussions on the same issue, with the last participant not copying the previous participant",
So much so that in the end, Yuan Shao and Lu Bu's advisers began to compete with each other, "Let others speak first, I want to seize the final opportunity to offer advice to the lord in private, and make the final decision without telling my colleagues."

With such a decision-making process, how can the world not be in chaos!

It can be said that the reason why Yuan Shao was so inefficient in using his advisers was either because of the advisers’ IQ problems or because there were problems with the top-level institutional design of Yuan Shao’s decision-making process, which even failed to guarantee the final statement opportunities for both the prosecution and the defense.

Such princes who have no idea of "procedural justice" will eventually die out. Humans gradually become procedurally just in this kind of natural selection.

Liu Bei's emotional intelligence in this regard is obviously the highest, tied with Cao Cao. Both Cao and Liu Bei attach great importance to avoiding making decisions on impulse. Even if there are multiple subsequent private group discussions on the same topic, all members must be copied.

Even though Liu Bei was not perfect in this aspect two years ago, it was perfected more than two years after Zhuge Jin came.

As Liu Bei had more and more advisers, he no longer relied on Zhuge Jin alone for advice. Zhuge Jin borrowed the mature meeting minutes copying system in later corporate management and asked Liu Bei to do so. Liu Bei also thought it made sense and carried out it very resolutely.

At this moment, after plugging the hidden dangers in the decision-making process, Liu Bei began to listen carefully to Lu Su's specific suggestions.

Lu Su did not complain at all, and said in high spirits: "My lord, after I went back these few days, I always felt that the plan I had previously drafted to use Chen Fujun to start an uprising and divide Xuzhou with Cao Cao still had some hidden dangers.

According to the plan of that day, our army could take advantage of Chen Fujun's uprising to seize most of the remaining areas of Xia Pi County, with only a corner west of Yishui remaining out of control.

As for Donghai County, our army currently controls only three coastal counties, including Qu County. After the plan is implemented, if we advance along the Yishui River, we can gain three more counties, and occupy six of the fourteen counties in Donghai. In terms of area, we can share Donghai equally with Cao Cao, who occupies eight counties in Yixi.

But there is a major hidden danger here: according to this plan, we can only use Yi as the boundary with Cao Cao in Xia Pi and Donghai. After extending it northward to Langya County, the entire Langya will belong to Cao Cao.

Langya has two counties, Zhuxian and Juxian, which are located to the east of Yishui and Yimeng Mountain. After Cao Cao occupied Zhuxian and Juxian, our Yishui and Mengshan defense lines became useless.

If they were to fall out with Cao Cao again in the future, Cao's army could first bypass Yishui and Mengshan from their own jurisdiction in the north, and then charge southward along the plains near the coast.

Our army lacks cavalry. Once Cao's cavalry rushes into the heart of the East China Sea Plain, the one and a half counties in Huaibei that we have captured will be meaningless and there will be no strategic location to defend, and we will be stuck in the quagmire of a decisive battle with Cao's army in the field.

At that time, they would either be held back by Cao's army and continue to be consumed, or they would have to give up again and return to defend the Huai River. Once the newly acquired land in Xuzhou was lost again, it would inevitably deal a heavy blow to the lord's prestige in Xuzhou.

Although the people of Xuzhou hate Cao Cao, if they are made to think that "as long as Cao Cao comes to Xuzhou, the lord will have to retreat", in the long run, the people of Xuzhou will not dare to follow the lord anymore."

After listening to Lu Su's additional opinions, Liu Bei's expression finally became serious. He hurriedly took out the map to check and confirm that what he said was true.

It was not enough to only stay in Xiapi and Donghai County and use Yishui and Mengshan as the boundary with Cao Cao. After entering Langya to the north, this line of defense was broken, and it was impossible to rely on the dangerous terrain of the southwestern mountainous area of Shandong throughout the whole process.

If Cao's army can go around the defense line from the north before the battle, what is the point of the defense line?
Liu Bei was caught in a dilemma: "However, we promised Cao Cao not to interfere with his crusade against Lu Bu by force, and Langya County is Zang Ba's lair. No matter how trusted Yuan Long is under Lu Bu's command, he cannot control Zang Ba before the rebellion.

As long as our army does not attack Zang Ba by force, it will be impossible to take the two counties of Yidong in Langya County. And with Zang Ba's fence-sitting nature of "only joining the strongest forces around", when Cao Cao destroyed Lu, he would definitely join Cao Cao. "

It would be unwise to go into war with Cao Cao just to grab two counties.

Fortunately, Lu Su talked about this matter three days later, so he must have thought it through.

When Liu Bei was hesitating, he threw out his own ideas: "My lord, we really can't fall out with Cao Cao, and we don't have to risk offending the court for just two counties - these two counties are of little value to us. How many arable lands and population can a small county in the Mengshan mountain area have?

For us, the key is not whether these two counties are in our hands, but not letting them fall into Cao Cao's hands. In this case, why don't you think about it from another angle and let them fall into Yuan Tan's hands?

Cao Cao's secret agreement with us can only constrain us, but not Yuan Shao! If Yuan Tan suddenly becomes "ambitious" and wants to gain some benefits during the destruction of Lu Bu, Cao Cao should just watch in vain, right? Langya is the northernmost part of Xuzhou, directly bordering Qingzhou controlled by Yuan Tan, and all the counties are directly on the border between Qingzhou and Xuzhou.

The Lord and Yuan Tan have a very good relationship. Last year, Kong Ming went north as an envoy to befriend Yuan Shao and helped Yuan Tan gain face in front of Yuan Shao. When Yuan's army entered Langya, they did not have to fight Cao's army or Lu Bu's direct troops, but only had to fight Zang Ba, the local snake.

This is just a small matter. As long as the lord sends an envoy to the north along the coast to meet Yuan Tan, Yuan Tan should be able to make this decision easily, right? Moreover, Yuan Tan will benefit from it. If he does well enough, he can directly get Langya County; even if he does poorly, he can also get several counties in Yidong of Langya for free, and he will definitely not be blamed by Yuan Shao. Yuan Tan will definitely be willing to send troops privately. "

In one go, Lu Su laid out his solution of introducing Yuan Tan as a third party force.

Liu Bei's originally frowned brows finally relaxed after hearing the entire plan.

"This is a great plan! I will prepare a letter and send it to Yuan Tan at an appropriate time. But we must not let Kong Ming go this year. Kong Ming's reputation for wisdom has spread far and wide, and he is not suitable to be an envoy to the princes again. Let Xian He go." Liu Bei said with excitement, rubbing his hands.

Fortunately, Lu Su immediately reminded him: "My lord, don't be rash! My lord, have you forgotten that you promised Cao Gong that you would never take the initiative to attack Lu Bu? If you inform Yuan Tan now, Yuan Tan will definitely know that my lord has ambitions for Xia Pi and the Yidong part of Donghai County.

Even if the lord acted in secret, if Yuan Tan's actions were not kept secret and Cao Cao's spies or insiders found out, wouldn't it ruin the lord's plan? It would also harm Chen Fujun. This matter can only be considered in the long run, and first think about how to persuade Yuan Tan and how to prepare gifts, but don't take action.

It is necessary to wait for Chen Fujun to act first, and then the lord pretends to be caught off guard and on impulse to contact Yuan Tan. Moreover, the lord just taught me that any progress in planning a strategy must be notified to other participants.

My plan today may not be perfect. If you think it has some merits, please ask Ziyu and Kongming to discuss it and make adjustments or second it before it can be implemented."

Lu Su was learning on the spot and making good use of the procedural justice of the meeting process. For any issue that Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang had participated in, no decision could be changed without going through them.

Liu Bei also rubbed his forehead and realized that he almost made a mistake. He was just teaching Lu Su a lesson, but when he heard a good plan, he got carried away.

"Zi Jing is right! In the future, we should supervise each other and speak up if we see anyone not following the decision-making process!"

Liu Bei quickly admitted his mistake and was secretly happy at the same time.

It seemed that in the decision-making meeting that day, only the Zhuge brothers performed amazingly, and Lu Su seconded the proposal throughout the whole process, which made him feel a sense of crisis. So during the few days of vacation, he racked his brains to find some opportunities to fill in the gaps.

A group of strategists with high IQs clash with each other and learn from each other, and it really works out!

(End of this chapter)