My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 247: If you bite the hook, you have to bite harder

Two days later, it was March 9th.

Danyang County, Wuhu County, Yangzhou Mufu Yamen.

In the late spring afternoon sunshine of March, Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu were playing chess in the courtyard while basking in the sun.

Zhuge Jin actually didn't like playing Go very much. After all, he was just a modern person who inherited the memories of the original owner. Those intellectual games in the late Han Dynasty could not arouse his interest at all. He might as well ride a horse and shoot arrows to exercise his body.

If you want to exercise your brain power, why rely on playing chess? Why not do something else?
But in the past half month, especially after he came back from Guangling, he stayed in Wuhu to plan the final preparations before the war. Every day he needed to align intelligence with Guan Yu and exchange what he had. By chance, Guan Yu played chess with him, and then Guan Yu became addicted.

Because Guan Yu was shocked to discover that Zhuge Ziyu, who was known for his immortal appearance, was not much better at chess than him!

Although Zhuge Jin was able to ensure victory over Guan Yu by simply using some idiotic tricks that later generations had accidentally seen, combined with the long-term vision of a math teacher, Guan Yu still felt very honored.

When asked about this, Guan Yu would stroke his beautiful beard and sigh: "Alas, my chess skills are still not good enough. I always lose to Ziyu by seven or eight points, and I may not win even one out of ten games..."

Then the others immediately bowed their hands in amazement: To be able to achieve this level of results under Mr. Tzuyu's divine calculations is already a great achievement...

And from that day on, the other friends around Guan Yu who used to play chess with him occasionally, all tactfully stopped playing with him.

Guan Yu was in particularly good form in this round. After an unknown amount of time, Zhuge Jin estimated his chances and felt that he had little hope, so he resigned in the middle of the game.

Guan Yu took a deep breath, his face flushed even more. He carefully confirmed that Zhuge Jin was not letting him down. He was indeed in an advantageous position at the moment. He finally let out a long sigh and stroked his beard proudly:

"Tzuyu, are you upset today? I saw you looking around while playing chess."

Zhuge Jin took the celadon teacup and sighed, "I'm wondering if we should seal off the river in the next two days. It's been a while since Hua Xin let us cross the river, why hasn't Sun Ce attacked yet? If we delay any further, I'm afraid the news of 'Yuan-Cao war' will leak to Jiangdong, which will scare Sun Ce, and that would be bad."

Yuan and Cao officially clashed, and Wen Chou attacked Liu Yan in Yanjin, seven or eight days ago. The first person in Liu Bei's camp to get the news was Zhao Yun in Shouchun. Zhao Yun immediately sent his confidant to deliver the news to Zhuge Jin over 600 miles in an emergency. It only took a day and a half, and Zhuge Jin just received it this morning.

Therefore, at this point, only a few high-ranking officials in Danyang, Guangling, and Lujiang counties knew this information. But if it is delayed for a few more days, it will be hard to say.

Guan Yu raised his eyebrows when he heard this: "Then let's seal the river, no one can cross it! No matter what happens in Henan, Sun Ce will never know!"

Zhuge Jin: "What if Zhou Yu has been sending people across the river to the north to collect intelligence from the counties of Guangling these days to confirm whether the news Hua Xin brought back is true? What if they are slow to act and are still confirming whether Yuanlong is too ill to manage affairs and whether Guangling's defenses are weak?

There are some intelligences that I want Sun Ce and Zhou Yu to know, and some intelligences that I don’t want Sun Ce and Zhou Yu to know. It’s hard to grasp the balance. I can’t accurately know everything I want to know, and not know anything I don’t want to know. If I act too early, the information I want to pass on will not be passed on. If I act too late, the information I don’t want to pass on will also be passed on - so it’s difficult.”

After hearing this, Guan Yu realized that Zhuge Jin's pursuit was too meticulous, and he couldn't help scratching his head: "Actually, it doesn't matter if it's a little bit worse. Anyway, Sun Ce shouldn't know it, and we must not let him know it. It's better to let him know less than what we want him to know."

"When faced with two evils, choose the lesser one. That's indeed the case." Zhuge Jin nodded.

While the two were chatting, a colleague suddenly rushed into the inner courtyard without waiting for the maid to pass on the message. Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu looked and saw that it was Lu Su.

Lu Su waved a piece of paper and put it on the chessboard without any hesitation, and explained proudly: "Zi Yu, the great thing is accomplished! The scout boat that returned this afternoon reported that it has discovered that Sun Ce's army is gathering and stationing troops at Niuzhu.

In addition, our spies who infiltrated from the Jiangnan land route also detected signs that Sun Ce's army was gathering heavy warships - Sun Ce also hid a batch of warships in the small lake between Zhongdushui and Zhenze, so that they could directly enter the Yangtze River through the canal and Zhongdushui in wartime. These signs should prove that he is determined to fight this battle, right?"

"Oh? Let me take a closer look!" Upon hearing the news, Zhuge Jin immediately read the first-hand information and subsequent summaries carefully, and soon came to a similar conclusion as Lu Su.

Otherwise, Sun Ce was at a disadvantage in the intelligence war. He wanted to attack Guangling, and the battlefield where Cao Jun might cooperate with him was also in Jiangbei, so if Sun Ce wanted to get any intelligence, he had to break through the blocked river. With the big river blocking it, any intelligence would be easily discovered by the enemy.

Although Sun Ce could also get information about Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu's garrison in Wuhu, which could be solved by land. But Wuhu had no flaws and was not suitable for a strong attack, so it would be useless for Sun Ce to get information. Zhuge Jin's situation was completely different. If he wanted to get information about Sun Ce, he could search along the river, or he could directly infiltrate Niuzhu from Wuhu by land, or even infiltrate Moling.

The spies disguised themselves as merchants or other wandering scholars and refugees, and sneaked across the land border in the dark of night. Sun Ce was unable to guard against them.

Therefore, before the war even started, Sun Ce was already in a one-way transparent intelligence situation. Zhuge Jin controlled the lands in both Jiangnan and Jiangbei, while Sun Ce only had the lands in Jiangnan.

After confirming that everything was correct, Zhuge Jin heaved a long sigh of relief and said two things to Guan Yu and Lu Su in a negotiating tone:
"Now we can finally send someone to inform Yuanlong and seal off the river. Also, when I inspected Guangling before, I also told Yuanlong some defensive strategies, and he will naturally carry them out in an orderly manner.

Sun Ce has already decided to take action, which means he has already found out everything he wants to know. If we block the river now, he will only think that our army is under pressure on the Huaihe River defense line and is showing weakness.

Finally, we should send another envoy to Sun Ce to make a feint and pretend to tell him that "our army, Dong Cheng, and Lu Bu are fighting against Cao Cao because of the secret decree of the Son of Heaven", and ask Sun Ce to join forces with us to jointly launch a northern expedition - Sun Ce will certainly not agree and will not believe it, but doing so can undermine the morale of Sun Ce's army in the future, so that they will not firmly believe that they are fighting against the rebellion under the imperial decree.

Moreover, the mobilization of our army to follow the secret decree to fight Cao should also be carried out. After sealing the river, immediately inform the officers at all levels that the lord has followed the secret decree given by His Majesty to Dong Cheng to fight Cao, and whoever helps Cao is helping the enemy! Otherwise, once the war breaks out, our army will not feel that they are on the righteous side, which will be somewhat hindered. "

Guan Yu nodded silently, and Lu Su also agreed with him and helped to explain: "That's right. Previously, our army wanted to lure Sun Ce into the trap, and many things had to be kept secret, so we couldn't say too much during the internal mobilization.

Previously, when we pretended to transfer the Guangling troops to the north to guard against Cao Cao, we only said that Cao Cao was suspicious of the lord, but did not say the deeper reasons. Now that we are about to start the battle, we must speak these words out loud and clearly so that the morale of the soldiers can be as high as possible. "

Zhuge Jin: “Since everyone agrees, I will distribute it.

It was Yunchang's job to mobilize the army and tell the soldiers the whole truth. Time was short and the war could start at any time. The news must be publicized within two or three days to ensure that the whole army knew about it and would not feel abrupt. Yunchang was good at commanding the army, and it would be too late to leave it to others.

Zijing will be responsible for contacting Yuanlong and making arrangements after the closure of the river. As for sending envoys to Sun Ce, pretending to win over Sun Ce to fight Cao and force Sun Ce into an unjust situation, I will arrange it myself. "

Guan Yu and Lu Su had no objection to the tasks assigned to them, but they were a little worried about Zhuge Jin's own task.

Guan Yu said with some worry: "Who should I send? If I send an envoy now, will he be harmed by Sun Ce? After all, he has already put the arrow on the string and has to shoot it."

Lu Su also raised his concerns: "If we want to send an envoy, it cannot be an envoy representing you, Brother Ziyu, but an envoy representing the lord. How should the necessary documents be prepared?"

Faced with these two questions, Zhuge Jin pulled out a wax-sealed bamboo tube from his sleeve like a magic trick, obviously he had prepared in advance:
"Inside this is the document in which the Lord persuades Sun Ce to join forces with him to fight against the traitors. It was issued to the governors of the counties under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou in the capacity of General of Chariots and Cavalry and Governor of Yangzhou. The format is absolutely correct, and the three governors of the counties, Sun Ce, Zhu Zhi, and Xu Kun, are also requested to obey the order.

I secretly asked the lord to prepare the letter in advance. When the lord heard about the secret decree a while ago, he wrote it and sent it to Wuhu by a secret envoy. As for the worry that the envoy might be killed, then send a famous scholar who has no practical talent and no meritorious service as the envoy. It would be useless for Sun Ce to kill such a person, and it would only put himself in a more unjust situation. "

Lu Su: "Who should be the envoy?"

Zhuge Jin said righteously: "Let my senior brother Mancai be the envoy. He has always been aloof and has no achievements. Sun Ce knows it."

Before Zhuge Jin traveled through time, during the more than a year he spent studying in Guangling, his original body made friends with two fellow apprentices, Yan Jun and Bu Zhi.

Bu Zhi at least had some real skills and could be appointed to other positions, but Yan Jun was just a pure scholar with no real talent. Liu Bei promoted Yan Jun for Zhuge Jin's sake, but he never achieved any results.

It is also a good way to get credit for such a person to take on tasks that seem a little dangerous but are actually safe, so that he can feel at ease when he gets promoted in the future. It is just like when Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong needed an envoy to take the risk to persuade Su Fei to surrender, and finally sent his classmate Meng Jian.

Meng Jian is the representative of the weakest among Zhuge's four friends, so he should carry out some dangerous missions to gain merit.

The job of "messenger who seems to be in danger of being killed" is the best job for the incompetent classmates around the protagonist group.

Lu Su thought about it and did not raise any objection to this candidate. A classmate of Mr. Ziyu was indeed serious and important enough, and Sun Ce would not doubt it.

(End of this chapter)