My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 20: Taking Guangling
At the end of the Han Dynasty, there were many powerful chieftain tribes distributed in the Huoshan, Ma'anshan and Huangshan mountainous areas of Lujiang and Danyang counties.

They survived in the rugged terrain that the Han people looked down upon, relying entirely on the water network of the Yangtze River tributaries on the edge of the mountainous area for transportation, and their living customs were half Han and half Shanyue.

The young and strong men of these tribes were often brave when they were brought to the battlefield, but their military discipline was very lax and they were extremely difficult to command. These troops had a unified name, called "Danyang Soldiers."

In those days, General He Jin recruited soldiers from Danyang, so Xuzhou Governor Tao Qian also liked to recruit them. There are still 3,000 Danyang soldiers in Liu Bei’s army now.

At this moment, Zhang Duo, who was forced by Chen Lan to fight to the death with Zhang Fei, could strictly speaking be regarded as a "Danyang thief commander."

Just a few months ago, the mountainous areas around Chaohu Lake in Lujiang County were populated by three major Danyang bandit forces: Zheng Bao, Zhang Duo, and Xu Qian.

Later, Zheng Bao, who had the most power, actually wanted to do something evil and tried to coerce some relatives of the Han Dynasty to serve as his front. He chose Liu Ye who lived in Lujiang.

Liu Ye did not want to be the first to stand out, so he launched a surprise attack and killed Zheng Bao at a banquet. He also verbally bullied his subordinates, saying that rebellion would only lead to suppression by the imperial court and it would be better to grant amnesty.

That group of uneducated guys were actually frightened by Liu Ye, and then they split up. Those who were unwilling to submit to the imperial edict defected to Xu Qian and continued to be the Ruxu bandits.

Those who were willing to submit to the emperor's order surrendered to Zhang Duo, and then Liu Ye helped Zhang Duo to surrender to the prefect Liu Xun, and he was given a regular position.

Zhang Duo was not a man with great ambitions. He was originally a bandit. After following Liu Xun, he would hide whenever possible and tried not to take part in fighting.

It's just a way to eat the emperor's food, why bother with your life?

This time when Liu Xun was attacking Huaiyin, he needed to gather supplies from Guangling, so he called Zhang Duo to be responsible for water transportation and escort on the Yangtze River.

Zhang Duo did not participate in Yuan army's first counterattack against Zhang Fei last night. His troops were naval forces, and of course professionals should be allowed to fight in a life-and-death battle on land.

Among the civil officials in the city, Liu Ye, the newly appointed Gongcao, originally had the most say.

Liu Ye was a man who knew how to protect himself, so he secretly protected those who were related to him and prevented too many of Zhang Duo's troops from dying.

Unfortunately, this consideration of the interests of this small group was finally broken when Chen Lan returned to Guangling City.

After all, Chen Lan was a captain. When Liu Xun was away, he had the final say in military matters. Liu Ye, a Gongcao, could not take over and could only make suggestions.

Zhang Duo was ordered to lead the sailors to storm the city wall. He came to complain and beg for mercy. Liu Ye did not dare to ask him to disobey directly, but only ordered:

"I will go to Captain Chen to negotiate, but you can't disobey the military order openly. Let's build up momentum first and give Captain Chen some face."

Zhang Duo believed Liu Ye's promise and went to attack Zhang Fei with a bitter face.

Unfortunately, with such a mentality of working without putting in any effort, how could they possibly defeat the determined Zhang Fei? Even if Zhang Duo's troops were three times the enemy's, it would still be useless.

Both sides started clamoring for an attack at noon in the morning, but after fighting for more than an hour, there was actually no progress at all.

At first, Zhang Fei felt like he was facing a formidable enemy, but later he found that the enemy was so weak that all was loud but no action was taken. They were even worse than the first half of the night before. There was absolutely no pressure at all, and Zhang Fei was very puzzled.

……

After Zhang Duo was forced to work, Liu Ye thought that his side had made enough of a show. So he took advantage of Chen Lan's rest, breakfast, and when she seemed to be in a good mood, he asked for a meeting with her and explained his strategy.

In her heart, Chen Lan did not think highly of Liu Ye, mainly because she felt that Liu Ye was too young and had risen to power by selling out his teammates - Liu Ye was only eighteen years old, and his only achievement before that was killing Zheng Bao and introducing his followers to accept Liu Xun's imperial edict of amnesty.

This kind of thing is nothing in the eyes of scholars, but for the martial artists who came from mountain bandits and pirates, it is a very disloyal taboo.

Chen Lan is a bandit from Huoshan, and he feels a little sympathetic and involved with Zheng Bao's situation.

So when the two of them were discussing, Chen Lan didn't give Liu Ye a good look. She started by making a sarcastic remark: "Sir, you are really good at strategy. Your Majesty's plan to attack Huaiyin was also reviewed by you. Our army followed it completely, and in the end it ended up like this!"

Liu Ye was speechless for a while. He had reviewed Liu Xun's general plan before he sent out his troops, and he also expressed his approval. But at that time, he really felt that Liu Xun and Ji Ling were stable and had no flaws.

Later, the front sent back military intelligence that Liu Bei's Xiapi had been stolen, and Liu Ye felt more secure. He also flattered Liu Xun in his reply, wishing him military success, which is also human nature.

Liu Ye in history was just such a person. Several decades later, Cao Rui asked him whether he could attack Shu, and he said yes. When other important officials told him that Chen should not be attacked, he also agreed with them.

Finally, when Emperor Cao Rui and his ministers reconciled their accounts, Liu Ye's "Ah, yes, yes, yes" was exposed and he was ruined.

However, Liu Ye felt that the current defeat on the front had nothing to do with him.

Liu Xun's original plan was indeed fine, but who knows what happened at the execution level later that caused Liu Bei's fighting power to suddenly burst out several times in a desperate situation?
Liu Ye had no choice but to smile and apologize, and then he offered his own suggestions: "General, now is not the time to pursue responsibility! As for now, I think Zhang Fei's sneak attack is difficult to repel. If you let Zhang Duo attack desperately, it might play into Zhang Fei's hands and let him consume more of our troops!"

Chen Lan listened and replied with a fake smile: "Then what do you think we should do? Should we just run away and give up Guangling?"

Liu Ye suppressed his emotions and continued calmly: "It is hard to say whether Guangling will be lost or not. With the battle going on like this, we cannot take it back with our limited military strength.

We can only hope that the defeated army of the Lord can rush back as soon as possible and destroy Zhang Fei with an absolute advantage in force, but if Liu Bei arrives before the Lord, then everything will be over. "

Chen Lan said angrily: "You are really unfaithful and only want to protect yourself!"

Liu Ye retorted, "I am not disloyal! I am just prepared! When planning a strategy, we must consider the worst-case scenario! Moreover, even if we lose Guangling for a while, I still have a plan to help you turn the tide and defeat Liu Bei in the end! As long as we are fully prepared and lose it more cleverly, we can pave the way for the future!"

Chen Lan laughed when she heard this: "You don't think about making progress! You still have the nerve to talk about long-term plans? Then tell me, how can we lose Guangling and turn defeat into victory!"

Liu Ye's true intentions were exposed: "It's very simple. The crisis Liu Bei is facing cannot be stabilized by victory on the front battlefield. His biggest problem is that Xia Pi was lost, the families of the soldiers were trapped in the hands of the enemy, and the several cities he controlled did not have any surplus food stored!

He is so anxious to let Zhang Fei counterattack Guangling, even risking a sneak attack, which shows that he is running out of food and has set his eyes on Guangling's grain reserves! As long as we hurry up and transport as much of the remaining grain in the treasury back to Lujiang while Zhang Fei is unable to control the city.

Even if they lost in the end, they could burn the food that they couldn't transport in time and leave nothing for Liu Bei. In this way, Liu Bei would only get an empty city without food. In less than a month or two, his army would still be hungry and collapsed!
I suspect that Liu Bei was able to maintain the morale of his army for so long and finally launch a counterattack because someone must have instructed him to block the news. But after this battle, if Xia Pi is lost, it will no longer be blocked. It is entirely possible that Liu Bei's army will be dispersed even though they have won! We must not be blinded by the failure in front of us, let alone by Liu Bei's temporary victory!"

Chen Lan was stunned when he heard this. He just felt that the hearts of those who played tactics were too dirty.

What kind of despicable and shameless tactics is this? Guangling City was still in the hands of Yuan Jun for the time being, but they actually thought of burning their own granaries and not leaving them to Liu Bei?
Chen Lan is greedy for money and property. How could he bear to let him burn the military rations under his control in advance to cause losses to both sides?

Of course, he cursed Liu Ye, and Liu Ye argued with him, saying:
"Even if we don't burn the food, it's impossible for the Lord to attack Huaiyin later, so there's no need to store so much food in the front. We should at least seize the time and transport some of it back immediately."

Chen Lan still did not agree with this statement. In the end, Liu Ye still persuaded Chen Lan repeatedly, even hinting or even explicitly telling Chen Lan that he could make false accounts and report more grain as war losses and keep some of it for himself. Chen Lan reluctantly agreed to let him, a civil servant, do it on his own.

And Liu Ye finally got his wish and rescued his relative Zhang Duo from the difficult task of attacking Zhang Fei.

Zhang Duo is the only naval commander in Guangling City now. In order to transport part of the stored grain back to Lujiang in a hurry, we can only rely on Zhang Duo's men to take action.

……

Another hour later, outside Guangling City, at the mouth of the Hangou River.

Zhuge Jin was still sitting on the speedboat sent by the Mi family, watching the progress and ready to deal with any emergency at any time.

Suddenly, the lookout on the ship shouted loudly: "Sir, a large fleet of ships is leaving the city from the southeast water gate and heading towards us!"

Zhuge Jin was greatly surprised, thinking that the enemy had realized that someone here had crossed the river in white clothes and provided Zhang Fei with siege equipment and military supplies, so they came to search for him.

"Hurry up and start the boat! Escape downstream at full speed! Leave a few patrol boats to continue watching and report at any time!"

Zhuge Jin quickly gave orders, and the fleet directly cut the ropes that tied the anchor and fled more than ten miles away.

Fortunately, after a long time, they did not find the Yuan army fleet chasing downstream, but instead sailed upstream. After the patrol boats left behind learned the situation, they immediately reported it to Zhuge Jin in the safe zone.

Zhuge Jin was stunned again, totally unable to understand what was going on.

Later, I heard reports that there were a large number of ships coming out of Guangling.
Zhuge Jin finally realized what was happening. He quickly chased after the patrol boat sergeant and asked a few details: "What is the draft of the enemy ship? If it is fully loaded, how many people can it carry?"

The patrol boat sergeant answered truthfully, saying that all the ships had a deep draft and could transport at least thousands or tens of thousands of people.

Zhuge Jin twisted his palm-leaf fan for a while before he suddenly realized:
"This must be because Liu Xun's army's morale has almost collapsed and they feel they can't hold on, so some people want to retreat first? But Yide hasn't taken the city yet, which means there are still many defenders left in the city. The few people who escaped don't need so much transportation capacity, and the extra transportation capacity must be used to transport things..."

Zhuge Jin finally guessed that they might be transporting the valuable materials away first in preparation for the orderly surrender of the city.

This kind of thing is very common. More than half a month ago, when Liu Bei and Ji Ling fought in the Battle of Xuyi, Liu Bei did the same thing. He retreated in an orderly manner and did not leave any food for Ji Ling in the end.

Unfortunately, Zhuge Jin was only accompanied by two or three hundred sailors and guards, and a dozen large and small ships. He was completely powerless to stop it.

This is the helplessness of the weak. Sometimes, even if they see through some clues, they don’t have the capital to intervene and take advantage of the situation.

All Zhuge Jin could do was to send another messenger to contact Zhang Fei and tell him this speculation, in order to further consolidate Zhang Fei's confidence and make him believe that "the enemy has become afraid of fighting and has begun to transfer supplies and some second-line troops and sailors, and Guangling will definitely be captured smoothly."

As long as Zhang Fei is told this news, Zhang Fei's morale will be more stable and his soldiers will have more confidence.

Of course, in addition to encouraging Zhang Fei's confidence, Zhuge Jin also reminded him: Since the enemy plans to retreat in an orderly manner, we must not fail to guard against the enemy's desperate moves and setting fire to the remaining supplies in the city.

The supplies in Guangling are the key to Liu Bei’s army’s survival!

……

All the developments of the battle situation finally went according to the operations of the two cowardly military advisors Zhuge Jin and Liu Ye, raised high and then put down gently.

Seeing that no one can do anything to anyone else, everyone is leaving a way out for themselves.

After fighting with Zhang Fei for a whole morning, Zhang Duo gradually retreated without putting in any effort, and by the evening they were all gone.

In the front, some fast-running soldiers of Liu Xun's army escaped and were gathered by Chen Lan, but this was not enough to form a decisive combat force.

At this time, Chen Lan probably thought that Guangling was difficult to defend, and the only hope was to see which of Liu Xun and Liu Bei would arrive first.

Until late at night at 11 p.m., everything was finally revealed.

Liu Bei led 6,000 infantrymen and marched 260 miles in two days and one night at a crazy speed, and arrived at the north of Guangling County with light equipment.

Liu Xun has not appeared until now, and no one knows where he went when the camp collapsed that day.

Chen Lan was annoyed and furious for a while, but in the end he could only put up a brief resistance, then he abandoned the city and fled with his cavalry and some of his own troops who could keep up.

However, at the last moment, he remembered Liu Ye's advice and set fire to the treasury before leaving.

Fortunately, Zhang Fei reacted quickly. Zhuge Jin reminded him in the afternoon, so he did his homework in advance and tortured the prisoners to find out the locations and roads of several key places in the city.

Seeing the fire in the direction of the treasury, Zhang Fei did not bother to wait for his elder brother to join him, but personally led his troops down the wall, killed fiercely along the long street, and rushed straight to the treasury.

About a cup of tea's time after Chen Lan set the fire and retreated, Zhang Fei rushed in like a mad tiger, killing all the remaining enemies in the surrounding area and organizing people to put out the fire. If they couldn't put out the fire, they at least removed some isolation belts or rescued some supplies.

……

As soon as Liu Bei rushed into the city covered in dust, he rushed straight to the northeast city tower to see if his third brother was okay.

But he came to nothing, Zhang Fei was no longer there. He only saw Zhuge Jin standing on the city wall and supervising the battle from afar.

Zhuge Jin also allowed the fleet to dock only after confirming that the main force of the reinforcements had arrived. He asked the 300 sailors to escort him to the city so that he could carry out micro-management nearby.

"Zi Yu? How dare you go into such a dangerous place? Why don't you quickly hide in the city wall to avoid the arrows! This is not the time for you to come!" When Liu Bei saw Zhuge Jin, he thought that the other party had suddenly changed his nature and become brave. He was totally unprepared.

Zhuge Jin was not seeking fame, and explained calmly: "I am not a reckless person. I saw the general's reinforcements coming from afar, so I came into the city to see Yi De because I was afraid that he didn't know the priorities when pursuing -

Looking at the flames in the treasury in the distance, there must be some wise men in Yuan’s army who thought of our army’s weakness and wanted to burn the granary before retreating! If you want to find Yi De, go to the place where the fire is the most intense, and you will definitely find him. "

As Zhuge Jin spoke, he pointed at the fire in the distance with his palm-leaf fan. Liu Bei was stunned for a moment, then he looked in the direction where he was pointing. Then he suddenly realized something and jumped up and said, "Sir, please sit down for a moment! I'll be right back!"

As he said this, Liu Bei mounted his horse again and galloped towards the direction where Zhang Fei was putting out the fire with his personal guards.

(End of this chapter)