My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 171 How can we not guard against Huang Zu's sniping technique?

After Lu Su offered his advice to Liu Bei, he went to Zhuge Jin the next day to report in person as Liu Bei had instructed, synchronizing all the latest information to see if Zhuge Jin had any objections or additions.

After obtaining Zhuge Jin's approval, the strategy of "introducing Yuan Tan to occupy the Yidong area of Langya County in the future" was officially approved.

During this process, Lu Su also gradually realized that Liu Bei asked him to report to Zhuge Jin alone for another deep meaning - there were only two counties in the Yidong area, Ju County and Zhu County. Zhuge Jin was now named a vassal by the imperial edict of the court, and Zhu County was his nominal fiefdom!

Although Liu Bei could not get the counties originally, he just wanted to take their future ownership from Cao Cao to Yuan Tan. He still had to ask the nominal owner for instructions to show respect.

After dealing with these matters, Liu Bei's camp finally had some free time this winter.

Because of the need to recuperate and farm, Liu Bei would basically not make any major moves until the busy spring farming season in February next year.

Perhaps some people still cannot understand why "Cao Cao was also fighting wars year after year, but he always had military rations to support the war, and could continue to fight Lu Bu right after defeating Yuan Shu. But Liu Bei fought Yuan Shu for only half a year and his people were impoverished and his finances were exhausted." They think this is unreasonable, or simply attribute it to the fact that Cao's army ate the jerky of special corpses.

In fact, a mathematical model makes it very clear: the new occupied area that Cao Cao took from Yuan Shu was a place where the population was flowing out, while what Liu Bei got was a place where the population was flowing in.

After the spring farming season ended in late March and early April, both sides launched a general offensive and by September, when the autumn harvest came, they had finally seized all of Yuan Shu's plain land.

Crops had already been planted on these lands before the spring offensive, and even though the yield had decreased due to lack of care during the war, the fields could generally still produce 50% to 70% of the normal output.

Cao Cao occupied Qiao, Runan and other places, and because of Cao Cao's brutality and the fierce tug-of-war, the population left 300,000. When they left, it was not yet the autumn harvest, so they could not take the crops with them. Therefore, "the people left but the food did not."
Even if only 50% to 70% of the harvest was left, it could not feed 300,000 people, but at least it could feed 100,000 or 200,000 people. Cao's army could directly harvest all the "unowned grain" and put it into the official warehouse, without even having to set a 50-50 ratio of rent for the land, and could just thank nature for the gift.

With this amount of food, Cao Cao could certainly attack Lu Bu in the winter, using war to support war, but the price was the loss of long-term potential. But if he could use this time difference to deal with Lu Bu, Cao Cao would definitely earn far more than 300,000 people, or even several times more, which is the essence of using war to support war.

Liu Bei's situation was just the opposite. Before the autumn harvest season, 300,000 refugees flowed in, and "the people came but the food did not." Liu Bei had to lend these refugees food to help them get through the first cold winter and spring famine after their migration south.

This inflow and outflow naturally made Liu Bei's military rations even more stretched. He had to calculate every bite he ate, and he also had to continue to expand the fishing industry frantically to make up for the food gap.

Therefore, Liu Bei could not take any major actions on the military level afterwards. It was not because Zhuge Jin lacked wisdom or was slow, but because he really could not do it.

There is only one Bu Zhi at most. After completing the preparations a while ago, he is now on his way to Wujun with two thousand Danyang soldiers, dozens of improved ships and several sailors to deliver a letter to Sun Ce.

Anyway, this number of people can't eat much food. Along the way downstream, they can cast a few nets to catch some fish to supplement their logistics.

According to the plan, after delivering the letter to Sun Ce, Bu Zhi would continue to move south, under the banner of persuading Wang Lang, to secretly support Wang Lang in Fujian and help Wang Lang hold on to this indisputable piece of Fujian for another six months.

In Liu Bei's view, the ultimate purpose of finding things for Sun Ce to do was mainly to contain him, so that Sun Ce would not suddenly lose his composure when he and Huang Zu fought next year.

And only Zhuge Jin knew in his heart that there was another benefit to doing so, but because it was not appropriate to explain it to a benevolent man like Liu Bei, he chose to protect himself and pretend to be confused.

This potential benefit is that "if Wang Lang relies on the power of the Shanyue people and fights back and forth with Sun Ce, it will be beneficial for the Han Dynasty to accelerate the sinicization and naturalization of the Shanyue indigenous forces in Fujian and southern Zhejiang."

Because if there is only one government force, all the Shanyue people will unite to fight against the government, and the naturalization speed will actually be very slow at this time.

The Han Dynasty had ruled Fujian for more than three hundred years, but the proportion of Shanyue people was still so high, and the Han people only lived in a few coastal river mouth counties such as Dongye.

Once there are two governments fighting for power, they may promise benefits to the Shanyue people, but it will also be beneficial for the Shanyue people to integrate into the Han culture.

It's like Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji spent a lot of money to win over each other, and in the end, Heqizheng's market share was destroyed.

Players who have played Uncharted Waters 4 should be familiar with this. If only one faction wants to invest in increasing port occupancy, the effect is often not fast enough, but if two factions invest in each other, the third party will soon be completely squeezed to 0%. Although this is just an algorithm in the game, the mathematical model behind it has natural meaning.

In the future, when Wang Lang and Sun Ce have almost done enough cleansing, and more than half of the Shanyue people in Fujian have been forcibly assimilated through the iron-blooded mutual cleansing, Liu Bei will finally come forward to be the good guy and clean up the mess. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Although in this process, tens of thousands of Shanyue people may be dragged into civil war between the two sides and suffer casualties in "proxy wars", the efficiency of integration is definitely much faster than appeasement in peacetime.

……

Bu Zhi is still drifting halfway, so let's leave it aside for now.

In Wuhu, ten days after Pei Mao's delegation left, it was almost the twelfth lunar month.

Brother Zhuge's short vacation was finally almost over, and Zhuge Jin's wedding arrangements for next February were basically ready, so he didn't have to worry about it anymore.

That day, the first snow of this winter happened to fall. Liu Bei was in a good mood and called all his advisers and generals in Wuhu to go to the manor outside the city to drink wine and enjoy the snow and plum blossoms.

Snow falls relatively late in the south of the Yangtze River in winter, and it doesn’t start until the middle of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar.

The Zhuge brothers also rode on their BMWs, walking through the snow in search of plum blossoms. They followed a tributary stream on the east bank of the Qingyi River south of the city, winding up along the valley and col, and came to a plum farm with thousands of plum trees.

The wind and snow came in slow and fast bursts, bringing with them the colorful fallen plum blossoms that scatter in the clear mountain stream covered with snow on both sides.

Liu Bei even had a ditch dug beside the mountain stream to divert the water out and then flow back in. He also built stone walls and laid mats along the banks, and placed charcoal pots at every location to keep warm, so that it would not feel cold outdoors in winter.

Because the drop in the ditch is much smaller than the main stream, the water flowing out is very slow. Pour half a bowl of wine into a large, shallow wooden bowl with ears and throw it into the water. It will float down and whoever catches it can drink it.

There were two maids holding nets at the downstream exit. If the water flowed too far and no one was there to pick it up, the maids would use the nets to pick up the wine cups. Zhuge Jin had some impression of this scene and knew it was "Qushui Liushang". But he hadn't participated in such an activity in the past two years since he came here, so he was a little curious.

Zhuge Liang, who was standing by, was also surprised and asked with a smile, "Everyone chooses the third month of the lunar calendar, when the weather is warm, to celebrate the wine drinking ceremony. Why did you choose a day in the cold winter when it is snowing?"

Liu Bei sat cross-legged on a large stone covered with a mat, pointed a fire poker at the charcoal stove in front of Zhuge Liang and said, "There is a charcoal stove at every table. How can a real man be afraid of the cold? Even if there is no charcoal fire and hot wine, we should still walk in the snow to look for plum blossoms. What's more, we have wine and meat now. It's a pity that my third brother is not here."

Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun stayed in Jiangbei to guard the border, while Taishi Ci returned to Yuzhang to guard against Huang Zu. So the main generals in Wuhu City at the moment were Guan Yu and Gan Ning.

Fortunately, Gan Ning was also a generous and free-spirited person who liked to wear fancy clothes, which was very similar to Liu Bei. They both liked to dress gorgeously and show off, and enjoy a sense of ritual. When he was invited to walk in the snow to find plum blossoms and drink wine by the winding stream, he was not afraid of the cold, but was in high spirits and found it quite novel.

The generals were not afraid of the cold, so the Zhuge brothers and Lu Su could only get closer to the charcoal basin, drink more hot wine to ward off the cold, and not show weakness.

Zhuge Jin's only request was to have a large paper umbrella placed on the seat, just like the parasols on the beach in later times, to prevent snow from drifting directly into the pot. After seeing this, Liu Bei thought it was quite elegant, so he followed suit and each of them had one.

After three rounds of drinking, Liu Bei asked casually: "I have seen Ziyu's ingenuity for a long time. I still remember that two years ago, our army was short of food during the cold winter. Ziyu came up with the idea of using a gillnet to catch fish, which increased the harvest by more than ten times, solving the problem of food shortage in one fell swoop.

Now it is winter and there is a shortage of food. The army has nothing to do. Have you thought of any other clever ideas to supplement farming and warfare? Time flies. In just two years, Ziyu has become a county marquis. It is not necessary for you to manage it yourself. It would be good if you can have some creative ideas to inspire the skilled craftsmen below. "

Zhuge Jin was on vacation these few days, freeing his mind, and some inspiration did come to him.

So he picked up a wooden cup from the stream and drank a cup of hot wine that Liu Bei had just boiled upstream and floated down, while organizing his words.

Because of the snow, the wooden bowl was soaked in the cold stream water for only a dozen seconds. The boiling hot wine was still warm when it reached Zhuge Jin's hands, just right for drinking.

"Our army will attack Huang Zu in the spring of next year. I think there is one thing we should do as soon as possible during these few months. When we attacked Wancheng and Hefei last time, our army used the catapults improved by Liu Ye and Liu Ziyang to destroy the towers and battlements.

However, time was short, so we only slightly improved the trebuchet, added a shield to block arrows, and installed a net bag to throw a handful of gravel. This trebuchet is still not smart and accurate enough. I have thought of some ideas, which I can sort out today and let Ziyang study them carefully, and strive to use them when attacking Huang Zu next year.

Xiakou had been managed by Huang Zu for more than ten years, and had never changed hands. The city was much stronger than Wancheng. Although Wancheng was also strong, it had been breached many times. When Sun Ce defeated Lu Kang, many facilities were destroyed, and Liu Xun was unable to restore it to its full glory.

Huang Zu was good at using powerful crossbows to kill enemy generals. Sun Jian was shot dead by Huang Zu. Our army has to be on guard. We must create something that can destroy the facilities and equipment on the city walls from a long distance. The new catapults must also be further strengthened to defend against crossbows."

Zhuge Jin didn't want to personally participate in the battle to attack Xiakou, mainly because there was no room for a strategist like him to play a role in such a battle. If the pre-war preparations were done well, the city could be successfully captured. If the pre-war preparations were insufficient, no matter how many strategies there were, they would be useless.

Although Huang Zu's troops were definitely not enough for Liu Bei, it would be difficult for him to defend the city. How many times did Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan attack Huang Zu in history? Even though the navy of Jiangdong Army was extremely powerful, it was able to defeat Huang Zu's navy four times.

However, it took fifteen years and three generations of princes of the Sun family to capture the city of Xiakou. Every time before that, they failed to capture the city after destroying the navy and had to retreat.

Huang Zu was a very experienced man who relied on his experience in defending cities with powerful crossbows. In the fifteen years, the Sun family attacked him three times. The first time, he shot and killed Sun Jian; the second time, he shot and killed Xu Kun (Sun Jian's nephew and Sun Ce's cousin); the third time, he shot and killed Ling Cao.

According to the plan, Liu Bei's army did not need a top strategist to supervise the battle against Huang Zu. The only strategist who accompanied the army was Pang Tong, who was in Yuzhang County and had been responsible for guarding against Huang Zu.

This was also an opportunity for Pang Tong, who had been helping the Zhuge family to guard the home, to make meritorious contributions so that he could be transferred from the position of "Yu Zhang County Magistrate" to Liu Bei's General of Chariots and Cavalry's staff to serve as a direct staff member.

But Zhuge Jin was always worried that with Pang Tong's "arrow-absorbing physique" and Huang Zu's "shooting physique", it would be unlucky if he didn't make some preparations.

Therefore, siege weapons must be improved, and the crossbows and towers on the city walls must be smashed before a violent attack.

They also had to take precautions before the battle, prohibiting Pang Tong from getting close to supervise the battle, and they had to make Pang Tong wear an extra set of iron-ring chain mail soft armor at all times.

As a listener, Liu Bei certainly didn't know that "Huang Zu could have shot and killed Xu Kun and Ling Cao in the future", but just hearing the lesson of "Sun Jian" was enough to attract his attention.

That was Sun Jian! It is no exaggeration to say that Huang Zu's crossbow directly changed the situation in the southern states of Jing and Yang.

"Is the reputation of Huang Zu's powerful crossbow really so sharp? We must be on guard. Ziyu, any countermeasures you can think of, as long as they can help fight against Huang's powerful crossbow, no matter what resources are needed, just let me know. Don't worry about the money and food, I will definitely support you with all my strength!"

Liu Bei expressed his opinion with a serious expression, and at the same time he scooped up a few cups of boiling hot wine and threw it into the stream to drift.

Zhuge Jin continued to talk about the topic: "I will find a way to improve the trebuchet. It doesn't require too many resources. I just need to allocate more skilled craftsmen.

Another direction I thought of was to strive to improve the armor of our army. If we could have better steel, even if it was expensive and difficult to popularize, if we could equip the generals with it, it would more or less prevent Huang Zu from being killed by a sniper with a powerful crossbow.

But this may not be accomplished in a few months, we need to start from the source. Although I have made many innovations in craftsmanship, I have only worked on the refinement of the mechanism, but I am not good at forging and iron smelting, and I do not have skilled craftsmen who are good at forging and smelting. "

Liu Bei stroked his beard upon hearing this. "Speaking of this, I do have someone that Ziyu can recruit. When I started my army, there was a skilled craftsman who made a crescent-shaped sword for Yun Chang. Later, when I was in Zhuo County and Zhongshan for several years, I also recruited their clansmen and nephews to join the army. Many of them had extraordinary skills. If Ziyu can communicate and learn from them, perhaps he can gain something."

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PS: There are not many foreign wars and battles of wits to write about in the winter timeline, but there may be a small amount of technology climbing and farming plots. If you don't like it, I can speed it up. I promise not to repeat the technical details mentioned in "Fooling Liu Bei", nor will I waste science and engineering knowledge and materials. I will try my best to write in combination with the plot.

If you still feel that the timeline is not fast enough and want it to be accelerated, I can move the timeline to the beginning of spring in the fourth year of Jian'an within three or four chapters.

(End of this chapter)