My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 264: War on the Western Front

In the fifth year of Jian’an, it was March in late spring.

While the armies of Sun and Liu were fighting fiercely on the eastern front, the two counties of Jiangxia and Changsha in Jingzhou, thousands of miles away on the western front, were also in turmoil and filled with war clouds.

Zhang Xian, the prefect of Changsha, and Sun Ce, the former prefect of Kuaiji, were both powerful local princes who were persuaded by Cao Cao's secret edict.

The benefits that Cao Cao promised to Zhang Xian were as generous as those he promised to Sun Ce - as long as Zhang Xian could contain Liu Biao and raise the flag to fight against the "rebel Liu Biao", all the lands conquered would be recognized by the court, and Zhang Xian would be appointed as the governor of Jingzhou in advance.

Even the time when the secret decree was delivered to Zhang Xian was almost the same as the time when it was delivered to Sun Ce, both were delivered in late February of that year.

Unfortunately, Zhang Xian is even more cowardly than Sun Ce.

However, Liu Biao's blockade of information and vigilance against Zhang Xian were far less severe than what Liu Bei did against Sun Ce - Liu Biao did not have enough wise men around him to help him deduce predictions and set up scams.

He also vaguely felt that Zhang Xian was pretending to obey but actually disobeying, but he did not expect Zhang Xian to openly rebel, so he failed to completely block Zhang Xian's information channels to communicate with the outside world.

In contrast, on the battlefield in Yangzhou, Sun Ce had fallen into Zhuge Jin's trap until the moment he rashly launched his army. At that time, Sun Ce thought that Cao's army had already started fighting with Liu Bei, and that tens of thousands of Cao's troops were attacking Shouchun and Xiapi, threatening Liu Bei's northern Huaisi defense line, so Sun Ce suddenly became bolder and dared to jump out.

On the battlefield in Jingzhou, Liu Biao never made any scams such as "I haven't started fighting with Cao Cao yet, but I lied to my subordinates that I have started fighting with Cao Cao" to lure the ambitious people to jump out.

The more transparent the information those ambitious people receive, the more likely they are to not act without seeing the rabbit.

……

That day was already March 22nd.

Jiangxia County, the General of Chariots and Cavalry’s Mansion in Wuchang City.

After Liu Bei received the secret report from Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin about the outbreak of war on the eastern front early in the morning, he could not help but feel anxious.

He paced back and forth in the lobby all morning, and asked someone to call Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and Xu Shu to discuss something.

Liu Bei had been preparing for war for a long time, and had assembled Zhang Fei, Gan Ning, and more than 30,000 main combat troops under his command who were ready to go to war at any time - this number did not include the defensive troops that had to be left behind to guard Jiangxia County, but only counted the attacking troops that could be deployed at any time, so the scale was already very considerable.

In addition, there is Zhao Yun, who is still stationed in Lujiang County. According to the original plan, after confirming that all the main forces of Cao's army on the other side of the Huai River have been withdrawn to fight Yuan Shao to the death, Zhao Yun will also rush to Jiangxia County and bring about thousands of reinforcements to help Liu Bei to pacify Zhang Xian at lightning speed.

Now if we count the days, Zhao Yun will arrive in about ten days. According to the original plan, Zhao Yun should be the second wave to fight in the Jingnan Campaign, and he will not be able to catch up with the first wave.

Liu Bei had made such thorough preparations, but Zhang Xian was still hesitant to take action to find fault with him. How could Liu Bei not be anxious?
After a while, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and Xu Shu all arrived.

Liu Bei did not bother to be polite with them. He got straight to the point and pointed to Zhuge Jin's secret report on the desk, motioning them to take a look, while explaining briefly:

"This is Ziyu's secret report, written six days ago, and delivered by land and water from Wuhu to Wuchang. The formal negotiations between Yunchang and Sun Ce broke down, and Sun Ce chose to obey Cao Cao's forged edict in Xudu to fight against the rebellious king's army. The crime of starting the war will naturally be attributed to Sun Ce. This happened nine days ago, on March 13. The next day, March 14, Zhou Yu crossed the Yangtze River from Dantu to the north and attacked Guangling.

Yuanlong feigned illness to lure Zhou Yu to attack, and successfully repelled Zhou Yu's first wave of attacks, winning a small victory in the first battle. Ziyu's report was written after Yuanlong's small victory in the first battle. What I am worried about now is why Zhang Xian has not taken action yet? Sun Ce took action nine days ago!"

While Liu Bei was explaining, Zhuge Liang and the other two had finished reading the letter and had a clear understanding of the basic situation. Zhuge Liang thought about it for a moment and guessed:
"Zhang Xian's slow reaction is beyond our expectation. Perhaps he just didn't see the rabbit and didn't dare to act rashly until he saw that Liu Biao or our army was weak. My lord, don't worry too much about this matter. As long as you use a little trick and give it a push, there may be a change within ten days."

Liu Bei was too lazy to think about it. Since Zhuge Liang suggested a trick, he asked directly, "What trick?"

Zhuge Liang shook his feather fan three times and gently pointed at his elder brother's secret letter: "Let's take advantage of the situation and leak out a part of my brother's letter. Let's say that Sun Ce suddenly rebelled in Yangzhou and did not obey the imperial edict, but the forged edict of Cao Cao.

Yunchang and his brother had few soldiers and generals and were unable to resist. The lord hastily transferred troops from Jiangxia downstream to support Wuhu and Guangling.

In addition, we can spread rumors - we heard the day before yesterday that Cao Cao had lost Yanjin and Baima successively and was retreating southwards and resisting step by step. Then we spread the news that Cao Cao had retreated to Guandu, his troops were exhausted, and he had transferred another batch of troops from Wancheng to Guandu.

In this way, if Liu Biao could be deceived, he would certainly covet the emptiness of Wancheng and want to take back this key buffer place that should belong to him. After all, Nanyang County theoretically belongs to Jingzhou. As the governor of Jingzhou, how could Liu Biao not want to take back Wancheng?

When Zhang Xiu was supported by Liu Biao as a puppet, Wancheng was indirectly controlled by Liu Biao. It was because Zhang Xiu was instigated by Jia Xu to defect that Liu Biao completely lost Wancheng. People are always particularly impulsive about things that should belong to them but have just been lost.

By then, when Zhang Xian hears that our army is heading east along the Yangtze River and busy dealing with Sun Ce, and Liu Biao is heading north to retake Wancheng, he will surely be unable to hold back, and our army will have a legitimate reason to march.”

"Great idea! Let's do as you suggest! Our army should further show weakness in Jiangxia to impress the enemy!" Liu Bei clapped his hands and admired Zhuge Liang's idea. He then adopted it completely.

Because Zhuge Liang's strategy actually didn't lie at all, he said all the truth. Zhuge Liang just played a time difference, saying things he wanted the other party to know earlier, and delaying things he didn't want the other party to know.

The content that is completely true and just has a time difference is the least likely to be discovered.

Liu Bei's camp also used the same style to block information from the southern independent princes. This is also why Zhuge Jin later tried to block Sun Ce and Zhou Yu from exchanging technical experience and lessons with Cao Cao, but it was difficult to block it - Zhuge Jin's previous manipulation of Sun Ce's cognition and making him aggressive was time-sensitive.

Sun Ce would have known about what happened in March in April. But Zhuge Jin didn't want him to know, so he delayed it until May or June. Eventually, Sun Ce would still know the truth, but it was too late. He had been fooled.

In contrast, the exchange of technical experience and lessons learned is not time-sensitive. Even if a technical experience is communicated a month or even two months later, it is still valuable.

Given Zhuge Jin's information blockade of Sun Ce, if Zhou Yu collected the data in July and sent secret envoys to infiltrate and report to Cao Cao, then the first few waves might indeed have been discovered and killed by Zhuge Jin.

But that would only prevent Cao Cao from getting the intelligence in August and September, and it would not delay it forever. By October, Cao Cao would still know what he should know.

Moreover, the spread of technical information has another convenience compared to the spread of political and military intelligence, that is, technical intelligence is highly verifiable and reproducible.

When Cao Cao sent a secret envoy to deliver a letter to Sun Ce, it was easy to be exposed. That was because the information Cao Cao sent was political and military information. If this information was not conveyed by a heavyweight figure like Hua Xin, Sun Ce would not believe it if he received it.

If any random person went to Sun Ce and said, "Cao Gong appoints you as the governor of Yangzhou," Sun Ce would just treat him as a lunatic and drive him out.

But the subsequent information that Zhou Yu wanted to send to Cao Cao could be delivered by people whose lives were worthless like mercury pouring out of the ground, and it didn't matter even if part of it was caught by Zhuge Jin.

Anyway, as long as one person delivers it, Cao Cao will arrange someone to verify it to see whether Zhou Yu's statement can be reproduced, and then we will know whether it is true or not. This does not require identity endorsement.

Even if Newton's three laws of motion are recited by a parrot, they are still valid Newton's three laws of motion.

……

This is a bit off topic, but Liu Bei has now fully understood the essence of the Zhuge brothers' "fighting by taking advantage of the cognitive time difference".

It was also easy for Zhuge Liang to use the same trick that Zhuge Jin used to deceive Sun Ce to deceive Zhang Xian.

Especially since Zhang Xian lacked highly intelligent advisers around him, this made it easier for Zhuge Liang to succeed.

On March 23, Liu Bei's camp's false information dissemination system, in accordance with Zhuge Liang's deployment, spread the news he wanted to spread step by step.

With one hand he deceived Liu Biao, with the other hand he deceived Zhang Xian, he had to use both methods simultaneously.

Liu Bei did not ask about any process or progress, nor did he urge the progress. He had full confidence in Zhuge Liang's work and believed that Zhuge Liang would get it done as soon as possible.

However, Zhang Fei, who was summoned to Wuchang by Liu Bei in a low-key manner in advance, was a little impatient.

In order not to alert Zhang Xian, the fact that Zhang Fei was transferred here was kept strictly confidential. When Zhang Fei's troops arrived, they were not allowed to raise any flags and they had to enter the city at night.

After arriving in Wuchang, Zhang Fei's movements were restricted and he could only live in Liu Bei's Wuchang Mansion. He was not allowed to go out of the main door or the secondary door, for fear that any trouble he might cause would be exposed.

Hearing that his second brother and Ziyu had already started fighting Sun Ce and were fighting vigorously, and that he himself had no battle to fight in Jiangxia, Zhang Fei went to Liu Bei and asked for instructions:

"Brother, if Kong Ming procrastinates and Zhang Xian doesn't give us an excuse to attack, then let's go downstream to support Second Brother first and help beat Sun Ce down before coming back!"

Fortunately, Liu Bei still had absolute control over Zhang Fei: "I'm not anxious, why are you anxious? How can mobilizing a large army be a joke? The 1,200-li Yangtze River waterway from Wuchang to Wuhu is a round trip, and it would take more than half a month without any battles.

If we delay the rest for a little longer, it will take more than a month! Kong Ming said that the effect will be seen in more than ten days at most, so you just hold it in! At worst, after Zhang Xian shows up, I will let you take the lead!"

After hearing this, Zhang Fei suppressed his urgent desire to fight.

Zhuge Liang's calculations were really accurate. On the eighth day after the two-pronged deception, on the first day of April, Liu Biao really couldn't hold back any longer. Hearing that Cao's army was constantly withdrawing troops from Wancheng to defend Guandu, and that all the old troops left by Zhang Xiu were withdrawn, Liu Biao finally decided to march north to take back what was rightfully his.

However, Liu Biao was not stupid. He also knew that there would definitely be ambitious people behind him, so while he mobilized Liu Pan, Huang Zhong, Wen Pin and other troops to go north to Wancheng, he issued a gag order internally, asking everyone to keep a low profile.

He hoped to strike with lightning speed, so that by the time others discovered that he had sent troops, he would have already created a fait accompli and the matter was settled.

Unfortunately, Liu Biao wanted to keep it secret, but Zhuge Liang would help him leak it.

So four or five days after Liu Biao sent out his troops, Zhang Xian in Changsha knew that Liu Biao had sent out his troops.

"God is really helping me! Liu Biao transferred Liu Pan and Huang Zhong from Nanjun to the north, hoping to take back Wancheng. Liu Bei also transferred Jiangxia's main force to Wuhu, hoping to destroy Sun Ce first. Nanjun and Jiangxia are both short of troops, so if we don't take action now, when will we take action?"

After confirming the two pieces of intelligence, Zhang Xian could no longer hold back, and on the sixth day of April, he summoned all his subordinates and generals at the Changsha Prefecture Governor's Mansion and announced that he would respond to the imperial edict issued by the Xudu court and Prime Minister Cao in the name of the emperor, and lead the governor of Jingzhou to cross the river to attack Nanjun in the north!
"I am following the emperor's order to lead Jingzhou as governor and fight against the rebel Liu Biao! You must work hard to eliminate the traitor for the country! Wuling Jin Taishou and Guiyang Zhao Taishou have also decided to listen to my orders and will follow my orders! Don't worry!"

(End of this chapter)