My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 282: Raising the Sword and Beating the Drum, Sending Orders to Dongxia

(Note: There was a minor description error at the end of the previous chapter. Those who followed the update yesterday afternoon (November 11) can go back and take a look. Wei Yan was not the first to reach the top. He rushed up behind his teammates. This is how the war description was written. Therefore, his contribution was not enough to get him promoted directly.)
It was already the third day of September when Zhao Yun's troops finished the Jingnan Campaign. It would take more than ten days to return from Changsha, so it was impossible to rush back, so they arrived in Wuchang in the middle of September.

After resting for more than half a month, leaving the wounded and sick behind, reorganizing, and setting off again in mid-October, sailing down the Yangtze River to Wuhu. It was not difficult to sail down the Yangtze River, and they arrived in Wuhu safely in late October. After a short rest, they were basically able to return to the battle at the end of October and participate in the final attack on the Sun family in Jiangdong.

On the Jiangdong side, Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin began to deploy the siege of Moling in early June. The maneuvering, infiltration, and segmentation and encirclement operations took about twenty days, and the encirclement was completed in late June.

From late June to late October, Sun Ce's army was basically besieged and held in the Moling area for a full four months.

Sun Ce had no intention of breaking out or seeking battle at first. He knew that he had no hope on his own. He was betting that Cao Cao would defeat Yuan Shao and then be free to stab Liu Bei in the back. From late June to early September, he was basically content.

From mid-September to late October, during these last forty days, Sun Ce became a little restless.

On the one hand, he found that the battle between Cao and Yuan had not yet been decided. How could the two sides have been in a stalemate at Guandu for so long? Cao Cao and Yuan Shao had been in a stalemate at Guandu since mid-May and had never moved again.

Even Sun Ce was confused. He didn't know whether there was really no winner or Liu Bei was more tenacious. Cao Cao had clearly won the battle, but Liu Bei was able to withstand Cao Cao's pressure, fight on two fronts, and continue to block the news so that his side would not know that Cao Cao had won.

As for "Is it possible that Yuan Shao has already won?" Sun Ce was not worried about this, because if Yuan Shao really won, Liu Bei's army would definitely not block the news. This news is good for Liu Bei's army, and they will definitely publicize it vigorously at the first time to undermine the morale of Sun Ce's army.

Except for the Gu and Lu families who pretended to obey the Sun family but secretly disobeyed it, other aristocratic families and local powerful forces in Jiangdong still had some confidence in Sun Ce, and continued to watch and wait without helping either side.

Sun Ce did kill a lot of people in Jiangdong, and he was unpopular. If it were in the original history, even if Sun Ce was still alive, there would be all kinds of people who would not accept it. But the situation in this time and space is different, because Sun Ce became an ally of Cao Cao and was temporarily whitewashed by the imperial edict of the Xudu court. Everyone did not want to make the wrong bet, so they continued to wait and see, waiting for Liu Bei and Sun Ce to decide the winner before making a bet.

So for Sun Ce, no news was good news, at least it meant that Cao Cao did not lose.

But on the other hand, it was not enough for Sun Ce just to ensure that Cao Cao did not lose. He had another hidden worry. As time entered September, the autumn rice in the south of the Yangtze River had been harvested and could be dried and stored by October at the latest.

Because of the siege by Guan Yu's army, Sun Ce could only harvest a small amount of grain in a very small area around Moling, but it was impossible to transport the autumn grain from other counties. Moling had a large population, and Sun Ce had fortified his city and cleared the fields before the war, so the pressure of food consumption became even greater.

If there had been no replenishment of autumn grain, last year's grain reserves would have only been enough to last until early winter, even with the use of control measures.

Add to that the little that Moling County can receive, and it can only last until the cold winter, but definitely not until the spring famine. Who made Moling area now have a high population density and a large number of "non-agricultural" people in the city?

This forced Sun Ce to make a decision. Even if Guan Yu did not take the initiative to attack the city this winter, Sun Ce had to break through the encirclement to get food, or at least ensure that food from other places could be transported here.

The siege had lasted too long.

However, Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin, who were opposite Sun Ce, were not in a hurry at all. They were just waiting for Zhao Yun to come with the army after the Jingnan Campaign to reinforce them, and then they would fight a decisive battle with Sun Ce in the field.

Zhuge Jin and his second brother Aliang had always maintained communication through letters, so Zhuge Jin always knew exactly what stage the Jingnan Campaign was in at every moment and how long it would take to be completed. He was not panicked at all and at most found out about it seven or eight days later than Aliang.

Moreover, from June to October, during these four months, he did have a lot of personal matters to attend to. As the battle line entered a freeze, he was able to take some time out to handle household chores.

Didn't his wife Zhen Mi get pregnant last winter? That's why he had to get rid of Xiaoqiao and Bu Lianshi at the beginning of this year. After all, Daqiao couldn't handle the pressure alone, and he had no help when he was not feeling well.

If we count the days now, Zhen Mi will be full-term by the end of August or the beginning of September this year at the latest.

In the end, Zhen Mi gave birth to her son a little over ten days late, on the seventh day of September.

So throughout August, Zhuge Jin did not handle official business, leaving the siege to Guan Yu alone, while he stayed at home to look after his wife. After September, he had to accompany his weak postpartum wife until the end of the month, and continue to give her some spiritual comfort to prevent Zhen Mi from becoming depressed.

Sun Ce was hiding in Moling City, which gave Zhuge Jin just two months of paternity leave, a perfect schedule.

Zhuge Jin was quite nervous at first. He didn't care whether he had a son or not. He just thought of Zhuge Ke in history who later became arrogant and conceited, bringing disaster to the family.

So before the child was born, he was already thinking about how to encourage and suppress the child to keep a low profile in the future.

If it were someone else, they certainly wouldn’t educate like this, but who can blame us for the historical shadow of Zhuge Ke?

After the child was born and confirmed to be a son, Daqiao, Xiaoqiao and Bu Lianshi all congratulated their master/husband, but Zhuge Jin showed no sign of joy and looked very calm and indifferent.

Considering Zhuge Jin's current status in Liu Bei's camp, he has a legitimate eldest son. Among all the officials in Yangzhou, except Guan Yu who can treat him as an equal, which other official would not come to him and give him valuable gifts to curry favor with him?
As a result, everyone saw that Zhuge Jin had a mysterious expression on his face whether he was accepting congratulations or later when he was holding a full-month banquet for his son.

Everyone was amazed at how Zhuge Jin was so low-key and self-disciplined. He didn't even show the slightest bit of joy when he had a legitimate son. Fortunately, after the child was one month old, Zhuge Jin discovered some changes, which finally made him feel relieved.

Because he found that after the child was raised and cleaned up, he looked quite tall and thin. The wet nurse and other maids all said that the child would grow up to be as tall and thin as Zhuge Jin.

This clue suddenly aroused some forgotten memories in Zhuge Jin's heart - he clearly remembered that "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" described Zhuge Ke as a fat man, or at least he became a fat man after living a life of luxury, which showed that Zhuge Ke had a physique that was prone to obesity.

Zhuge Jin himself has a donkey-like face, so it is obvious that he is not prone to obesity, otherwise his face would be round, right?

So when Zhuge Jin was reading history books in his previous life, he realized that it was probably because Zhuge Jin's wife in history had bad genes and was prone to obesity, which was passed on to her son.

But in this life, his wife is already Zhen Mi, and the child he gave birth to is so thin, obviously he is no longer the Zhuge Ke in history. If he restrains himself well, he should be able to avoid those character flaws.

After pacifying Jiangdong, I will teach Zhuge Ke to be humble since he was young.

……

The flowers bloom at two ends, one on each side.

Zhuge Jin ended his "paternity leave" in early October and slowly refocused his energy on military and domestic affairs, but two months of rest would make people accustomed to a slow life after all, and he still needed to warm up again.

Fortunately, Zhao Yun would not arrive until late October and would not be able to join the battle until the end of October, so Zhuge Jin had just over half a month to get used to the situation.

According to the original history, the Battle of Guandu between Yuan and Cao ended at the end of October of that year.

Now, due to various butterfly effects, Yuan Shao is stronger than in the same period in history, and Cao Cao is slightly weaker, so the stalemate continues.

Cao Cao's troops could keep up with the consumption. Soldiers from the front line were sent in batches. If there were too many casualties, he would continue to draw new soldiers from the rear. If it was really impossible, Cao Cao would draw troops from Wancheng to defend against Liu Biao, and troops from Runan to prevent Liu Bei from crossing the Dabie Mountains.

Wancheng has become weaker than in the same period in history, and its military strength is estimated to be only one-third of that in the same period in history. After Liu Biao and Liu Bei reached an agreement on the division of spoils in Jingnan in August, they had actually freed up their hands to prepare to go north again. Cao Cao could no longer guarantee whether Wancheng would change hands in this life.

In the original history, Zhang Xian was destroyed more slowly, delaying Liu Biao for more than five months. Liu Biao did not start to free up his hands until February or March of the sixth year of Jian'an. But now, he was able to deal with it in August of the previous year and send troops north again in September.

But for Cao Cao, these were not serious concerns. Even if Wancheng was lost, he could still rely on the mountains around the Nanyang Basin to block Liu Biao at Fangcheng Pass, between Tongbai Mountain and Funiushan Mountain. But if Guandu was lost, it would be the end of Cao Cao's life. Cao Cao knew which was more important.

Now that the problem of manpower supply has been solved, the greater threat to Cao Cao is the shortage of military rations.

Cao's army was short of food, which was more serious than the same period in history. In the end, they had to commit more crimes that were unbearable to describe.

Cheng Yu, the prefect of Jiyin County, once again displayed the ruthlessness he had shown six years ago when he helped Cao Cao raise food during the life-and-death battle between Cao Cao and Lu Bu in Yanzhou. Relying on his special sneaky methods, he estimated that he could help Cao Cao hold out for more than a month.

But no matter what, Cao Cao must end this battle this winter. If he cannot repel Yuan Shao by the twelfth month, he will not be able to survive even with Cheng Yu's special means.

In addition to the lack of food, Cao Cao also faced some troubles that he had never encountered in history. That is, Yuan Shao's attacking techniques were more advanced than those of the same period in history.

In the original Battle of Guandu in history, there were only two noteworthy strategies of Yuan Shao's army:
One was to build a hill of earth and pile up towers and turrets, then shoot arrows from above to suppress the enemy, but it was finally smashed down by Cao Cao's thunder chariot.

Another plan was to make use of the Hebei army's underground burrowing capabilities and try to dig tunnels through the camp to launch a surprise attack. However, this plan was thwarted by Cao Cao who dug deep trenches in front of Guandu Pass and cut off the tunnel exits.

In this life, Yuan Shao also used these two offensive methods, but they were also defeated by Cao Cao. But Yuan Shao also used the third and fourth methods.

First of all, Yuan Shao discovered that the fixed earthen towers could be easily destroyed by slowly calibrated shooting. After the arrow tower tactics failed, he modified them into a flexibly deployed tower.

Although this thing is even less solid after being hit, it can still be moved by being pushed, and it is supported by only a few wooden pillars. As long as the stone does not hit the wooden pillars, it is relatively difficult to destroy it.

Another move was that Yuan Shao also learned from Ge Gongche, who was similar in form but not in spirit, and wanted to push the wall of the Guandu Pass to attack it, and let Yuan's siege melee soldiers rush up the wall for hand-to-hand combat.

It was not surprising that Yuan Shao knew about the existence of the Ge Gongche. Zhuge Jin did not leak it to Yuan Shao. After all, this thing had been on the market for three or four years, and tens of thousands of people had seen it on the battlefield. It was not difficult to find out the shape and specifications described by witnesses. However, the things that were made were probably the same as the first time Zhou Yu used them, top-heavy, and there were many details that could not be imitated.

These additional siege methods that appeared due to the butterfly effect were also constantly tearing and attacking Cao Cao's defense line, putting Cao Cao in danger. He had to break through them one by one before he could turn the tables.

(End of this chapter)