My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 288: Mr. Zhang, Sun Ce has kept this a secret from you. Why are you still willing to sacrifice your life for him?
Sun Ce and Lu Fan devised a strategy to use the common people as human shields and sneak through the siege, but the implementation of this strategy still required a lot of time.

There are nearly 200,000 people in Moling City. Except for more than 20,000 combat soldiers, the rest are civilians, including the civilians who were just forcibly captured to guard the city.

It was impossible to release all these people out of the city at once. Firstly, Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu would not accept them, and secondly, Sun Ce also wanted to test the waters and gauge the other party's reaction. It was normal for the whole process to take ten days or eight days.

Sun Ce's first attempt took place on November 25, just two days after he had discussed with Lü Fan. And it was not a direct attempt by "Sun Ce letting the people out of the city", but he just sent Zhang Zhao alone, with a few guards and followers, to negotiate with Liu Bei's Niuzhu camp.

When Guan Yu heard that Zhang Zhao had come, he was quite surprised, so he asked someone to entertain him first, and then he immediately went to find Zhuge Jin to see if Zhuge Jin could see through the other party's conspiracy.

In the past two years, as long as Guan Yu could act with Zhuge Jin, he was accustomed to doing so. Why not ask more questions if there was free computing power?

"Zi Yu, could it be that Zhang Zhao has another conspiracy behind this visit? They don't want to negotiate, do they? It can't be a false surrender?" As soon as they met, Guan Yu told them many possibilities that he had imagined.

Zhuge Jin couldn't help laughing when he heard this: "You'll know after seeing them first. How can you guess what they say? I'm not a god."

Zhuge Jin soon came to the central army tent with Guan Yu, and Zhang Zhao was brought in shortly afterwards. He bowed to the two of them and said, "Greetings to General Annan and General Fubo."

It was the first time that Zhuge Jin met Zhang Zhao, and he was a little curious about this person.

Zhang Zhao is now about 45 years old. Although he cannot be called an old man, he is also an elder and has a big beard.

Compared with the image of a detached and refined old man in film and television works, Zhang Zhao in reality does not look so gentle. Instead, his complexion is ruddy and plump, his face is a bit fat, and he is a fat man with a big beard.

But it's normal to think about it. Zhang Zhao has a fiery temper. When he doesn't listen to advice, he often loses his temper. It's not surprising that such a hot-tempered person is fat. He looks like the fat Zhang Sanfeng in Jet Li's version of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber".

Zhuge Jin carefully observed Zhang Zhao's expression and did not see any pretense or guilt, so he asked him directly about his purpose.

Zhang Zhao then told Sun Ce's purpose respectfully: "I dare not deceive General Fubo. There is a shortage of food in Moling City. If we have to share the food to feed the people, I am afraid we cannot last long.

"My lord, the general who is fighting against rebellion, has thought that the people of Danyang have followed him for six years and he cannot bear to see them starve. He has also heard that Lord Xuande is a kind and loving gentleman who always puts people first and will not harm the people in order to win. Therefore, I beg General Annan and General Fubo to give us a chance and allow the people to leave the city and surrender first."

Zhuge Jin frowned sharply: "Sun Ce wants to drive the people out, slow down his food consumption, and hold out for a few more months? Since it has come to this, why not surrender! Although if he is willing to surrender, the final treatment is not up to me, and it is up to my Lord Cavalry General to decide.

But judging by common sense, whether it is the conditions that Gou Jian gave to Fu Chai in the past, letting them govern their clans in the Yongdong Islands, or following the retreat given to the domineering general Liang Ji during the reign of Emperor Huan, all are possible. If you still resist to the end, you will die in the end!"

After hearing Zhuge Jin's statement, Guan Yu, regardless of overstepping his authority, laid it bare with Zhang Zhao and said, "My lord, the General of Chariots and Cavalry, listens to Ziyu's advice the most. As long as it is his suggestion on how to deal with Sun Ce, the General of Chariots and Cavalry will adopt it. So if you still want to survive, you must listen carefully to Ziyu's advice."

Zhang Zhao was also well-read in history books, so he was certainly aware of the two precedents proposed by Zhuge Jin.

Historically, after Gou Jian defeated Fu Chai, Fu Chai sent Taizai Pi to seek peace. Taizai Pi said that "Fuchai had spared the King of Yue before" and asked Gou Jian to leave a way out. It was still the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the princes still had to keep their word and could not kill them all, so-called "not to cut off the heirs of the family".

So Gou Jian also left Fu Chai a way to survive, but the conditions were ten times less than what Fu Chai gave him back then.

Twenty years ago, Fuchai left Goujian "five thousand households" of self-governing subjects, but Goujian only gave Fuchai "one hundred households of scholars and four hundred households of slaves", that is, only five hundred households of subjects were left for him, and he was exiled to the Ningbo East Islands (Zhoushan Islands) to govern himself and was not allowed to return to the mainland.

Fuchai himself felt that the condition was too low and did not want to take 500 households to Zhoushan, so he chose to commit suicide.

The most recent example is the Han Emperor Huan, who used the eunuchs "Five Marquises" to eliminate the domineering foreign relative General Liang Ji. In fact, after Emperor Huan succeeded, he did not say that the Liang family would be annihilated, but instead made a condition for Liang Ji: "Move to the title of Marquis of Bijing."

In other words, Liang Ji was still given the status of a marquis, but he was exiled to Bijing County, Rinan County (now Da Nang, Vietnam).

Liang Ji felt that living in the countryside was worse than death, so he committed suicide by taking poison.

Even people like Zhang Zhao, who were in their forties or fifties, knew about this without looking at historical records, because these were national events that happened when they were children and caused a great sensation at the time.

Zhuge Jin's two examples seem to be casually mentioned, but they actually have deeper meanings. One is the separatist princes in the previous dynasties of Wu in history, and the other is the fate of the losers in the power struggle in this dynasty. The winners still have a glimmer of hope.

Of course there are more recent examples, but they are even bloodier, and Zhuge Jin does not want to cite them as it would not be conducive to persuasion.

After hearing this, Zhang Zhao was indeed somewhat moved, and said that he would persuade Sun Ce after returning. However, his main mission today was to hope that Zhuge Jin would agree: "My master once said that no matter what suggestions General Fubo has, please accept the surrender of some people first to show your sincerity and trustworthiness, so that we can discuss other things. If you don't have credibility, what's the use of empty talk?
If General Fubo is worried that too many civilians will leave the city at once and your army will be short of food, and it will be inconvenient to resettle them, you can first send out 10,000 or 20,000 people, and then release them every few days. After doing this several times, mutual trust can be established between the two sides, and then the rest can be discussed, so as not to cause mutual suspicion. "

Having said that, Zhuge Jin would not argue with Zhang Zhao. He repeatedly tested him and observed Zhang Zhao's expression. He was basically sure that Zhang Zhao himself probably didn't know more about the inside story.

So he agreed to Zhang Zhao's request and allowed Sun Ce to release 20,000 people from Moling tomorrow as a trial. After that, he would release a batch every two or three days and then discuss the follow-up.

Zhang Zhao thanked him profusely and left.

As soon as Zhang Zhao left, Zhuge Jin immediately ordered his followers: "Go to Guangling quickly to invite Chen Changwen here, prepare to resettle the people who were driven out of the city, allocate food and grass, prepare for winter work-for-relief, and prevent chaos."

The attendant immediately took the order and went to Guangling to ask Chen Qun to handle the resettlement work.

Chen Qun has been following the Zhuge brothers in repairing canals, developing polder fields, and implementing work-for-relief during the winter farming off-season for more than three years. He is considered the most experienced person in Liu Bei's camp in handling these kinds of internal affairs and farming affairs.

Now that all the renovation and water conservancy work in Guangling is on the right track and Jiangnan is about to be pacified, it would be appropriate to transfer Chen Qun to Wuhui to develop the farming infrastructure for the next few years.

Guan Yu did not interrupt Zhuge Jin's deployment, but waited until Zhuge Jin finished distributing the orders before asking humbly: "Can you see the flaw in what Zhang Zhao said just now? Does Sun Ce have any other conspiracy?"

Zhuge Jin stroked his beard and said carefully, "To be honest, I can't see any flaws from Zhang Zhao, but there is also a possibility that Sun Ce no longer trusts Zhang Zhao, and when he was planning to break the situation, he even deceived Zhang Zhao.

Perhaps... Zhang Zhao and the others are facing a desperate situation now, and have begun to waver in their thoughts of surrendering, so Sun Ce doesn't trust them. If we cooperate with them in this matter, it will not be of much help in destroying Sun.

But it does help to recruit talents left by the Sun family after the destruction of Sun, stabilize the Danyang area, and win the support of scholars and the people. So in the long run, it is not a bad thing. Let's play it if we can cooperate. If Sun Ce really has other plots, we also have ways to deal with them. "

After listening to this, Guan Yu thought about it for a while and finally understood the truth.

Some things, even if they are not helpful in the military action to destroy Sun, but as long as they are helpful for post-war rule and winning over the hearts of the people, we should spend some energy and resources on them.

Letting those "abandoned" people under Sun Ce see clearly that Sun Ce does not trust them and abandons them will also be beneficial for these people to work wholeheartedly for Liu Bei in the future.

In that case, let's just take it one step at a time.

……

The next day, Zhang Zhao returned to Moling City and led more than 10,000 elderly, weak, sick, disabled, women and children who had been organized by Sun Ce, and drove them out of the city with white flags.

Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu were already on full alert, ready to take over.

In order to avoid accidental shootings and to demonstrate their benevolence and magnanimity in not using the common people as human shields, Liu Bei's army deliberately chose to retreat ten miles outside the city and set up a battle array. This would give the common people enough time to leave the city gates and line up again without having to worry about being ambushed.

If Cao Cao encountered such a situation, he would definitely choose to secretly ambush troops closer to the city gate, and then rush in among the people after the city gate opened, using the people as human shields to protect himself in the chaos, just like what he did to Yecheng in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

But Liu Bei certainly could not do this. Zhuge Jin had to be responsible for the future ruling order and people's hearts in the Jiangnan region. He would rather give up this opportunity to use innocent people as the vanguard and drive the people to help you act as free pioneers to seize the city in the chaos.

Finally, after everyone had left and the city gates were closed, Liu Bei's army slowly moved up with the search net, dividing the people and resettling them in batches.

Seeing the proportion of the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, women and children in the crowd, Guan Yu also looked down on Sun Ce:

"Humph, the first time they let people out of the city, it turned out to be just to test our reaction and see if we are willing to accept it. That's why they didn't release any strong men. It's obvious that they are just trying to get rid of them and waste our food!"

Zhuge Jin did not take it seriously and comforted Guan Yu: "It's okay, it's the first time. Sun Ce is just testing the waters. We can't let our guard down. Just because nothing happened today, we don't think Sun Ce will do anything shady."

We are always afraid that one of the nine lies will be mixed with the truth. We must remain vigilant every time we receive people. We must not give Sun Ce's army the opportunity to blend in with the people and take advantage of the situation to kill and cause chaos. We must also strictly screen the people we receive, and search everyone to ensure that they are not carrying weapons. "

Guan Yu nodded to show that he understood.

(End of this chapter)