My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 205 I was hurt by alcohol and sex

The Battle of Xiakou finally ended on June 18, the fourth year of Jian'an.

Huang Zu was beheaded and surrendered by the guards around him. In the end, there were more than 3,000 diehard elite soldiers in the city who chose to surrender to Guan Yu.

After fighting for such a long time, the city was still an isolated one and there was no possibility of external aid. These last elite troops around Huang Zu really won Guan Yu's respect, especially the 2,000 archers among them. Guan Yu valued them very much and thought it necessary to train and transform them so that they could be incorporated into his own crossbow unit in the future, which might be very effective.

Regardless of Huang Zu himself, the crossbow troops he led were indeed impressive.

If the Yangzhou army had not had Zhuge Jin's advice to Pu Yuan to mass-produce lamellar armor using the steel-injecting method, it would have suffered countless casualties when facing Huang Zu's powerful crossbow army.

After the Battle of Xiakou, Guan Yu listened to Zhuge Jin's advice and immediately transferred all the captured troops back to Yuzhang and Danyang to slowly train, reorganize and transform them.

After all, food is a bit tight in the counties north of the Yangtze River where Liu Bei's army is stationed this year. It would be better to place the newly added soldiers in the relatively abundant south of the Yangtze River for food, which would save more food losses during transportation.

As for the civil servants, Zhuge Jin temporarily kept Pang Tong and transferred him from Yuzhang County to serve as Jiangxia County Magistrate part-time, taking charge of the post-war work of pacifying the people and restoring production order in the six counties of Jiangxia.

As for the future, when everything in Xuzhou is settled, the autumn harvest of the double-season staple food is completed, and the work of persuading farmers is completed, Zhuge Liang will naturally have time to spare. Zhuge Liang was appointed as the governor of Jiangxia by Liu Xie's imperial decree, and he must personally go to Wuchang to take up his post. Pang Tong only needs to take charge of Jiangxia until Zhuge Liang comes.

In terms of military, at present, only 10,000 combat soldiers are needed to guard the western border in Jiangxia County, and Gan Ning is left to directly command the garrison.

Anyway, Liu Biao's relationship and attitude towards Liu Bei's camp are still quite harmonious, so there is no need to keep too many troops to guard against Liu Biao. A slight withdrawal can also make Liu Biao feel more at ease and ease the tension in the region.

Ever since Yi Ji brought back favorable news to Liu Bei during his last diplomatic mission and confirmed that Cao Ren's general Niu Jin had led troops into the country, Liu Biao felt relieved about losing the southern part of Jiangxia County and a small half of the northern part of the Yangtze River and the northern part of the Han River.

Cao Cao's threat was real. After the death of Huang Zu, the traitor, Liu Biao really needed someone to help him resist Cao's army from Ru'nan crossing the Tongbai Mountain Valley Road to the south. Liu Bei just happened to block this gap, so giving Liu Bei six counties as labor fees for blocking the gap was not too bad.

However, it was impossible for Liu Bian to not make additional military preparations for the new situation - because the original main core cities of Jiangxia County were all built in the lower reaches of the Jianghan River estuary, on both sides of the Yangtze River.

For example, the twin cities of Shaxian and Xiakou plus Xiling are one group, while Exian and Zhuxian are another group.

In contrast, Jiangxia County did not have a solid military fortress in the triangle between Jiangbei and Hannan. Even if there was a county town, it was mostly for economic and livelihood purposes.

Now all the old military fortresses in the county had fallen into Liu Bei's hands. For his own safety, Liu Biao had to temporarily mobilize the people to build a new "Hanyang County" at the apex of the angle between Jiangbei and Hannan, and set it as the new county seat of Jiangxia County. He let his eldest son Liu Qi guard and supervise the construction of the city.

The construction standards of Hanyang County must be as solid as the city on the opposite bank which has been renamed Wuchang County.

The "Three Towns of Wuhan" in later generations had only become complete at this point. The two towns in Jiangbei and Hanbei and Jiangnan were in the hands of Liu Bei, and the town in Jiangbei and Hannan was in the hands of Liu Biao.

If the two Lius had not divided Jiangxia and created two Jiangxia counties, one in the east and one in the west, facing each other across the river, and stationed 10,000 heavy troops on each side of the Yangtze River to monitor the other, the Wuhan area in later generations would not have developed so quickly in the confrontation.

……

Zhuge Jin arranged all matters in Jiangxia and returned east with Guan Yu. The news spread throughout Jiangnan within seven or eight days.

However, Zhuge Jin did not deliberately publicize this victory and kept a low profile throughout the entire journey, so the news of victory spread much more slowly to Jiangbei.

It was almost until the army passed Chaisang, Chungu, and Ruxu that people in Lujiang County in the north of the Yangtze River learned of the good news, and then it was discovered by Cao's spies and passed on to the north overnight.

It was almost the end of June when Cao Cao, who was besieging Pengcheng, learned the news of Huang Zu's death and Liu Bei's acquisition of half a county's land.

During this period, Liu Bei also went to Xiapi and Donghai in person, and quickly inspected the counties of the two prefectures, using his prestige in Xuzhou to completely unite the people's morale in the two places. Then he returned to Xiapi County in person to meet with Zhuge Liang and ask for advice on the next stage of strategic planning.

Zhuge Jin will also rush to Xia Pi soon to participate in the meeting, join in the event, and help Liu Bei control the overall situation.

Cao Cao, who was in Pengcheng, was shocked and anxious when he learned of Liu Bei's series of developments. He quickly summoned all his advisers to discuss how to kill Lu Bu as soon as possible.

Cao Cao was no longer polite to his subordinates. As soon as Cheng Yu and Guo Jia arrived, he got straight to the point:
"I was shocked to hear that Liu Bei sent Guan Yu to the west and had already captured Xiakou and killed Huang Zu! That was twelve days ago! Now Liu Bei has finished his campaigns in both the east and west and has withdrawn his troops. He can sit back and watch the outcome of our battle with Lu Bu.

The imperial army has been unable to capture Pengcheng, and has been delayed by Lu Bu's stubborn defense. It's all because of your carelessness! Now, do you have a good plan to ensure that Pengcheng is captured within ten days! No more delays! By the way, let the military craftsmen imitate the "Ge Gongche" described by the Yuan traitors. How is the imitation going? Why hasn't it been put into actual combat yet? "

There is no aide like Liu Ye who is relatively knowledgeable about engineering technology in Cao Cao's army, so the task of imitating Ge Gongche that he mentioned at the end is now in charge of Cheng Yu, but the progress is not ideal.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Yu immediately stood up and replied, "Please give me some more time. The only thing we know about the Ge Gongche comes from the descriptions of Yuan Ni's defeated soldiers who saw this kind of equipment on the battlefield.

Our army defeated Yuan Shu only one and a half months ago, and it was less than a month ago that we interrogated the prisoners and found out the existence of Ge Gongche. At the beginning, the subordinates also knew that the military situation was urgent, so they hurriedly tried to make some samples according to the description of the prisoners and tried them out.

But later on, it was discovered that what was made was indeed different from what the captives described, and it was unstable and easily collapsed when pushed. If Ge Gongche was to be used in actual combat, there must be another secret. So the subordinates thought that it might be difficult to use this car in the Pengcheng siege.

It is better to take it step by step, let the painter draw a variety of drawings based on the prisoners' oral descriptions, and then let the prisoners identify the drawings to confirm which one is most similar to the real Ge Gongche they have seen. If none of them are similar, let the painter make changes based on the relatively similar drawings. After confirming that there is no difference between the oral descriptions and the drawings, let the craftsmen start, and perhaps they can get twice the result with half the effort. "

After all, siege equipment like the Ge Gongche would be closely observed by the enemy. Liu Bei's army began to use it on a large scale in the early autumn of last year when they attacked Hefei. Now a whole year has passed. There are countless victims of Yuan Shu's army who have seen this thing in action up close.

Therefore, it is impossible to completely prevent the enemy from copying it. In contrast, the counterweight trebuchet is easier to keep secret, because as long as Liu Bei's army does not lose the battle and the enemy does not seize the trebuchet, the enemy can only watch from a distance of several hundred steps and cannot see the details of the mechanical structure.

However, as the defeated enemy of Yuan Shu, they could only watch the excitement and the appearance, and it was impossible for them to understand the inner workings and mechanical structure of Ge Gongche. Because of this, Cheng Yu's first attempt to imitate it ended in failure due to unstable center of gravity.

Cao Cao was not unreasonable. After hearing Cheng Yu's difficulties, he reluctantly gave up the idea of using Ge Gongche in the Battle of Pengcheng, but he did not forget to take care of him:

"Although this matter cannot be done urgently, we cannot be lazy. I will give you a year or so to find a way to copy it. Even if it cannot be used to defeat Lu Bu in time, it will be useful in the future when we go to war with Yuan Shao."

Cheng Yu immediately accepted the order, and Cao Cao waved his hand to stop the topic. Then he changed the subject and continued to let everyone discuss how to break Pengcheng now.

Guo Jia, who had not been criticized just now, suddenly felt that he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. After careful consideration, he offered a suggestion: "In the past half month, although our army has intensified its offensive against Pengcheng, its methods have also been too single.

Firstly, they did not expect that Lü Bu's army would be so tenacious and have not lost their will to fight. Secondly, they were too excited about the imitation of the Ge Gongche, thinking that the day the Ge Gongche was completed would be the day when Pengcheng would be captured.

Now that both of these expectations have been dashed, I think we can postpone the assault for a few days and focus on psychological warfare. Let the various troops shout out more bad news to Lu Bu's army during the siege. For example, Yuan Shu's death, although it had nothing to do with Lu Bu, was not publicized by our army before.

As long as the message is spread and Lu Bu's army knows that "the main force of the court has no worries now, and all the troops can be used to besiege the isolated city of Pengcheng", their morale will be more or less hit, and it will be difficult for them to hold on.

In addition, Liu Bei used Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun to launch a surprise attack and conquered the entire Xia Pi and half of Donghai County. This was a miscalculation and humiliation for our army, so you did not publicize it to the entire army before, and the soldiers were even less likely to publicize it to the defenders of Pengcheng.

For now, since you are not going to pursue Liu Bei's capture of Xia Pi, it is better to openly inform our army that Liu Bei is our ally and will help us to capture all of Lu Bu's remaining territory. Lu Bu only has one isolated city left. When our soldiers attack, we can shout this to the defenders, and then have someone carry Chen Gong's seal on a spear outside the city to show off, which will hurt the enemy's morale and may speed up the capture of the city!"

Cao Cao stroked his beard and felt that there was some truth in it.

Cao Cao had been keeping the news of "Liu Bei's successful stealing of Lu Bu's house" secret for the past 20 days, mainly because he himself felt ashamed. Moreover, if he did not condemn and express his position once the news was made public, it would be tantamount to acknowledging Liu Bei's vested interests, and it would be very troublesome to settle old scores in the future.

At first, Cao Cao thought that since he had come in person to supervise the siege, Pengcheng could be taken at any time even if Lu Bu was very stubborn, so there was no need to publicize Liu Bei's affairs.

Unexpectedly, the result went against one's will and Ge Gongche's imitation was ineffective, so he had to settle for the second best and sacrifice the accountability of Liu Bei in exchange for a better attack on the morale of Lu Bu's army.

Cao Cao sighed and said, "Well, from tomorrow on, we will follow Feng Xiao's advice and adjust our strategy. We will combine tension and relaxation, and attack the heart and attack the enemy. We must let Lu Bu know that 'no one in the world will help him anymore, and the imperial army can focus on killing him alone'!"

Guo Jia immediately accepted the order and arranged for the generals to carry it out.

In the last few days of June, Cao's army followed Guo Jia's advice and adjusted their strategy for the final attack on Lu Bu.

The fierce attacks that had lasted for several days had temporarily slowed down, but all kinds of rumors and small actions such as using Chen Gong's seal to undermine Lu Bu's military morale outside the city were happening every day.

After two or three days of this, the morale of Lü Bu's army began to weaken. After all, it was hopeless to hold on to an isolated city, and the only belief that could inspire people to hold on was "we still have reinforcements" or "we can hold on and wait for changes, and the enemy may be pinned down by other forces and give up."

For example, more than half a year ago, Gongsun Zan finally held on to Yijing Tower because he hoped that Zhang Yan would have reinforcements and that Yuan Shao would provoke other powerful enemies and had to give up the long-term siege. The same is true for Lu Bu.

Lu Bu was simply expecting reinforcements from the counties in his rear, and hoping that Cao Cao would provoke other powerful enemies.

After learning that all the outer cities had been attacked, Lu Bu's army was indeed very panicked. Hou Cheng, Wei Xu and Song Xian all ran to Lu Bu to ask about the real situation. They wanted to find out whether Xia Pi and Donghai were really lost, and Zang Ba had also surrendered to the enemy.

Lu Bu was also a man without a strong opinion. After hearing so much bad news, he was shocked and confused for a while, and even failed to refute the rumors immediately.

Gao Shun was more prudent and stepped over to help Lu Bu dispel the rumors, saying that these were all tricks of Cao Cao and how could they be believed!

Hou Cheng, Wei Xu and Song Xian looked at each other in bewilderment. They were frightened by Gao Shun and did not say anything for the time being.

Who would have thought that although Hou Cheng and others had calmed down temporarily, Lu Bu himself became more and more decadent, as if he felt that the end was near. He sighed every day and hid in the back house, hanging out with his wife Yan and concubine Diao Chan, indulging in wine and sex and always being drunk.

After another five or six days, Cao Cao saw that the morale of Lü Bu's army had been low for a while, so he tried to attack again, but Gao Shun still organized a resistance. After a day of fierce fighting, Cao Cao had tested the enemy's strength.

"The morale of Lu Bu's army is indeed much lower than it was ten days ago! But it's not low enough! We still have Gao Shun to support them! This man is quite popular among the soldiers! It seems that we have to continue to increase the intensity of the attack on Lu Bu's morale! We have to think of other ways and attack him in different ways!" Cao Cao made his own accurate judgment.

Guo Jia also evaluated the morale-damaging effects and tortured some of the prisoners captured by Lu Bu's army during the fierce battle, so he also offered advice to Cao Cao:

"Mingsir, I heard from several prisoners of Lü Bu's army who fell into the city during the fighting that Gao Shun has been spreading our army's calls these days, denouncing them as rumors, saying that this is our trick, and Chen Gong's seal is not enough evidence.

In my opinion, it would be better to add some more hard evidence: Didn't Gao Shun tell his subordinates not to believe that Zang Ba had surrendered? Then we can force Zang Ba to go to the front line in person and participate in the siege of Pengcheng! Many of the generals of Lu Bu's army must have recognized Zang Ba. Wouldn't their morale collapse when they saw Zang Ba in person?

In addition, they felt that Chen Gong's seal and head were not credible. Then we asked Liu Bei to cooperate, in exchange for officially recognizing that Liu Bei occupied the entire Xiapi County and half of Donghai County, and announced that Liu Bei was a friendly army that was ordered to fight against the enemy and that all actions were authorized by the court.

Then, Liu Bei can ask Zhao Yun to attack the east gate of Pengcheng as a friendly force and reinforcement for the imperial army. At that time, General Miaocai can withdraw the siege of the east side of Pengcheng and let Liu Bei and Zhao Yun's men besiege it. In this way, each of us will fight on our own and be responsible for an independent position, and Liu Bei will not worry that we will take the opportunity to annex Zhao Yun's troops.

Then, you can ask Zhao Yun to bring Zhang Liao, whom he captured alive in Xia Pi, and tie him up in front of the battle line to show to the Pengcheng defenders. If Gao Shun and the other generals see Zhang Liao captured with their own eyes, their morale will not collapse completely, right? "

(End of this chapter)