My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 293: Wu County in January
Guan Yu and Zhao Yun pushed all the way from Jurong to Wuxian, encountering almost no resistance in between.

The Jiangdong troops that stayed in the counties along the way to guard the cities were either peasant soldiers or newly recruited men, and there were no elite troops at all.

The Sun family did not expect to defend these undefended cities one by one on the Taihu Plain, as that would only disperse their forces and allow them to be defeated one by one by the enemy.

Therefore, with the fall of Moling, the northern part of the Taihu Plain was conquered almost instantly, and the land was enclosed at a very fast pace.

But after arriving in Wu County, some resistance did appear.

As the most senior official of the Sun family and the prefect of Wujun, Zhu Zhi helped Sun Ce do a lot of dirty work in suppressing the local forces in Wujun during the years he ruled Wujun.

He knew that even if he surrendered, he might still be liquidated - mainly because the major families in Wu County would definitely welcome Liu Bei at that time. Everyone had surrendered to Liu. What if someone instigated Liu Bei to liquidate? Would Liu Bei use him to appease the public anger?
Zhu Zhi was not at all sure about this problem, but he did think of the second best option - abandoning the city and fleeing, then hiding at sea.

But at this critical moment, it was rather ambiguous. It was said that Cao Cao in the north had withstood Yuan Shao's attack, but there was no definite news to confirm whether it was Cao or Yuan who won. Zhu Zhi did not know whether he should go out to sea to join Cao Cao or go somewhere else to be a wild man.

In addition, Zhu Zhi was not like Zhou Yu, so Sun Ce did not allocate the new sea warships captured in the previous Jiangyin naval battle to him. As a result, Zhu Zhi's decision was delayed, and Guan Yu and Zhao Yun had successfully arrived in the west of Wu County and began to prepare the siege camp.

Guan Yu and Zhao Yun did not surround Wu County on all sides, which obviously left Zhu Zhi a chance to escape, in order to undermine the morale of the defenders and prevent them from becoming desperate.

In other words, Guan Yu was certain that Wu County was not directly adjacent to the sea, and that after leaving the city, he had to go east to Huating Town to find a seaport. So even if Zhu Zhi broke through, Guan Yu was confident that he could kill him before he went out to sea.

Wu County is still relatively strong. After all, it was the former capital of the Wu State during the Spring and Autumn Period, and it is also guarded by thousands of elite soldiers. Guan Yu needs to rebuild siege equipment and destroy the outer moat, so about half a month of preparation time is still necessary.

Otherwise, if there is no way to destroy the moat, it would be unreliable even if someone offers a gate to help you - if the suspension bridge is destroyed, you won't be able to get in even if they offer the gate.

So Guan Yu can afford to wait for this period of time, as sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood.

While preparing for the siege of Wu County, Guan Yu ordered Zhao Yun to divide his troops and head south to take over other counties along the shores of Taihu Lake, while also gathering information on the military situation of all parties.

And at this critical juncture, an important military intelligence came from Zhuge Jin who was guarding Moling in the rear.

……

Since Moling was captured, Zhang Zhao surrendered, and most of Sun Ce's main force was annihilated, Zhuge Jin no longer participated in Guan Yu and Zhao Yun's subsequent pursuit battles. Instead, he entered Moling as soon as possible, pacified the people and restored order, and devoted his energy to internal political management work in the rear.

Zhuge Jin knew very well that the Sun family was finished, and the rest would be a waste of time for land grabbing. He was more of a civil servant, and it was more important to govern the place well than to personally participate in land grabbing. He did not need these military achievements to add icing on the cake.

It has been more than twenty days since Zhuge Jin entered Moling City. The people of Danyang County who were previously exiled by Sun Ce have been resettled, and the basic properties and fields for livelihood that can be clearly confirmed have also been registered and returned to the people.

However, Zhuge Jin would naturally have to examine the real estate of some wealthy families, mainly the huge amount of excess land, to ensure that there were no problems with the property rights and that there was no crime of colluding with the Sun family to oppose the court before re-confirming the ownership.

This was considered a prudent move, and the local wealthy families had nothing to say. At the same time, it also sorted out the problem of land annexation by local tyrants, and the means were relatively mild. Moreover, Zhuge Jin did not take all the "unowned land" that could not be confirmed due to war and displacement, but returned some of it to the landless refugees, which was a combination of pulling and beating, and stabilized people's hearts.

There is no need to elaborate on these daily administrative matters that ease the conflicts over land annexation.

Let's get back to the urgent military information Zhuge Jin reported to Guan Yu:
"Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao at Guandu on the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month. The Jizhou generals Zhang He and Gao Lan defected to Cao in front of the enemy."

When Guan Yu received the news, he was also greatly shocked. At the same time, he ordered the blockade to continue tightly so that the generals of Sun Ce's side would not be informed of the situation.

Afterwards, Guan Yu carefully looked at the details that Zhuge Jin had reported to him.

The result of the Battle of Guandu in this life is slightly different from that of the same period in history. On the one hand, the timing of Xu You's surrender to Cao Cao had changed, so Cao Cao was ultimately unable to burn grain in Wuchao.

Historically, Wuchao was not a long-term grain storage point for Yuan's army. It was just a temporary overnight campsite where Chunyu Qiong stayed while transporting grain. That's why the camp was poorly defended and had almost no fortifications. Xu You's rebellion was equivalent to directly leaking Yuan Shao's grain transportation itinerary to Cao Cao, allowing Cao Cao to seize a weak point along the way.

But no matter what, Cao Cao would always make good use of the intelligence brought by Xu You, but his specific means would be more flexible.

In the end, Xu You's leaking of secrets before the battle was at least 30% of the reason for Cao Cao's comeback. And the panic caused by Xu You's betrayal to Yuan's army, including the blow to morale and the chain reaction of suspicion, also accounted for 30%.

The final 40% of the responsibility should be blamed on the betrayal of Zhang He and Gao Lan.

In the final analysis, Yuan Shao did not lose this life because of the burning of military rations, nor because of his indecisiveness or "choosing the wrong option every time". The main reason was that his internal strife was too serious, and the Hebei faction and the outside faction were at odds with each other.

Cao Cao could indeed "listen to both sides and then be wise", but the premise was that the talents under his command did not have internal strife! Xun You and Xun Yu were originally from the same family, and most of the other top civil servants who had a say were from the Yingchuan Group brought in by Xun Yu, or simply from humble families with no foundation and were promoted on the basis of merit. Only a newcomer, Jia Xu, was not one of them. However, Jia Xu also knew that he was of low status and did not dare to disobey his colleagues with more seniority, so Cao Cao could certainly listen to both sides.

If the two Xuns, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and others also attacked and undermined each other like Yuan Shao's group of advisers, Cao Cao would not be able to listen to both sides even if he wanted to.

This also gave a lesson to other princes of the same period: if they want to use aristocratic families, they can only pick aristocratic families in one circle and make use of them, and then they must supplement them with a large number of scholars from humble backgrounds and select them based on their talents.

If all the officials are from aristocratic families, and they are from aristocratic families with various backgrounds, there will definitely be internal strife in the end, and then it will be just like the court of Luoyang or Chang'an in the past, which was "full of righteous people" and achieved nothing, and everyone was busy dividing the spoils.

In these turbulent times, it is not a good thing to have many aristocratic families join you. They will bring resources, as well as various small groups and local interest groups. Yuan Shao was too favored by the aristocratic families, and everyone came to join him, but in the end the benefits that Yuan Shao could promise were not enough to be shared.

If a poor scholar is as talented as a child of an aristocratic family, the poor scholar can do the same job as the child of an aristocratic family, but at least the poor scholar does not have to share so many benefits, and he does not have to represent a certain interest group. The princes who use poor scholars will naturally have a higher degree of centralization, and the mobilization and dispatch potential of war resources will be stronger.

In fact, in this respect, Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang who later appeared in history are quite similar.

When Zhuge Liang ruled Shu, he did not use outside talents because he "liked to use people from Jingzhou and hated people from Yizhou". Instead, Zhuge Liang knew that the war resources he had to mobilize came from the Yizhou aristocratic families. If he continued to favor the Yizhou faction, he would not be able to mobilize these resources. Who among the Yizhou people would voluntarily want to pay for the Northern Expedition for the country?

The best Zhuge Liang could do was to promise, "I will use people from Jingzhou, and I will also guarantee that they will not embezzle, will be fair, and will rule the country according to the law. In particular, I will set an example of absolute integrity." This at least made the people of Yizhou willing to contribute money and manpower. But after Zhuge Liang, other successors could not do what Zhuge Liang did, "being fair-minded and giving clear advice."

……

Guan Yu and Zhao Yun naturally had no idea how the Battle of Guandu would have gone in history, and they didn't care about the reasons for Yuan Shao's failure.

Therefore, with regard to the intelligence provided by Zhuge Jin, they were more concerned about the specific losses suffered by Yuan Shao after his defeat and how the situation in Hebei had developed.

Zhuge Jin tried his best to collect detailed information in this regard.

In a nutshell, Yuan Shao's losses in this life were basically the same as those in the same period in history. Chunyu Qiong died in battle, and Zhang He and Gao Lan surrendered.

Jiang Qi did not die. Perhaps it was because of a change in the grain-robbing operation that caused a butterfly effect, which resulted in Jiang Qi not being able to rush to rescue when Cao Cao was fighting Chunyu Qiong. He saved his life and also saved an extra troop for Yuan Shao. In the end, he successfully covered Yuan Shao and his son's retreat to Hebei.

Ju Shou was captured along with the army in the chaos. However, due to a slight butterfly effect, such as not finding an opportunity to "steal a horse and flee back to Yuan", he was not executed on the spot by Cao Cao, but was kept under house arrest.

But there is not much difference between being imprisoned and being dead. Ju Shou will not surrender to Cao Cao anyway. Even if he pretends to be submissive to save his life, he will at most "stay in Cao's camp without saying a word", just like Xu Shu in history. There is only hope that Ju Shou will completely rebel unless Yuan Shao dies, but it is only a possibility.

Tian Feng was not dealt with after Yuan Shao's defeat, because in this life, Tian Feng was only treated coldly before the war, but was not imprisoned and was innocent, so it was even more impossible for him to "mock Yuan Shao because of his defeat."

So, in summary, Yuan Shao was still defeated, and retreated from Guandu all the way back to Liyang, north of the Yellow River, and lost the two counties in Henan that he had occupied in the past six months. However, in terms of losses, he lost one less Jiang Qi and one less Tian Feng than in the same period in history, and he also saved Jiang Qi's army.

Perhaps this is also related to the fact that Cao's army was slightly weaker than the same period in history. Even with Zhou Yu's technology diffusion and Jia Xu's active advice, it was still a little short of the mark.

……

"I didn't expect Yuan Shao to still be defeated by Cao Cao. How serious is his internal strife? Why are all the civil and military officials attacking their own people? Alas, what a pity!"

"Fortunately, Yuan Shao's defeat occurred after our army captured Moling, and it took more than 20 days for the news to arrive. If Yuan Shao had been defeated before Moling fell, I don't know how he would have encouraged Sun Ce to hold on!"

After reading Zhuge Jin's information, Guan Yu was also deeply moved.

Zhao Yun, who had just been called back by him, felt the same way, but out of encouragement, he still thought positively and advised:
“Yun Chang, there is no need to worry so much. Even if Yuan Shao was defeated before the fall of Moling City, we controlled the area between Jiang and Huai and could have kept the news secret for a month or two longer.

Now it is because Ziyu knows that Sun Ce cannot turn the tables that he passed this military report to us. If Sun Ce still has some strength left, Ziyu might even hide it from us, and we won’t know until we return to Jiangbei.”

When Guan Yu heard this, it seemed to make sense and he couldn't help but nod his head repeatedly.

The confidentiality level of intelligence is always related to the urgency of the situation. The more urgent the situation, the higher the confidentiality level. Now it is a relatively relaxed state, and Liu Bei's army has the capital to do so.

"Zilong is right. Although the situation has been determined, we must be careful. At least we cannot let Zhu Zhi in Wu County know about this, otherwise it will be difficult to capture Wu County. I don't know how the Gu and Lu clans in the city are preparing. Why haven't they been able to assassinate Zhu Zhi or surrender yet? Should we try to contact them..."

Guan Yu was reflecting on himself and thinking about this and that.

After hearing this, Zhao Yun, out of caution, hurriedly advised him to be more cautious: "Let's wait a little longer. Contacting them now may harm them. Although Lu Yi has already surrendered to us, his clansmen who stayed in Wu County have kept their mouths shut. When he led the navy, he never flew his own flag. They are all safe for now."

Guan Yu nodded and decided to wait a little longer.

……

Fortunately, Guan Yu and Zhao Yun’s wait was not in vain. Although Zhu Zhi survived the New Year’s Day in Wu County, he did not make it to the Lantern Festival and did not see the full moon of the first month.

On the ninth day of the first lunar month, Gu Yong, an insider of Liu Bei's army in Wu County, finally found an opportunity to gain Zhu Zhi's trust and allowed him to participate in the city's defense, help with inspections to boost morale, and dispatch large families from the folk to provide supplies for defending the city.

Then, three days later, on the twelfth day of the first lunar month, Gu Yong mobilized the servants of the Gu and Lu families and surrendered the South Gate, which was the area where Zhu Zhi was least guarded.

Zhu Zhi's adopted son Zhu Ran was the first to discover that something was wrong and quickly led his troops to plug the leak. Gu Yong led the Gu and Lu family servants to hold out for a while, and Zhao Yun's cavalry rushed into the city and seized the city gate. Zhu Ran was also killed by Wei Yan.

When Zhu Zhi heard that the South Gate had been lost and his son had been killed, he lost his temper for a moment and wanted to take revenge. He organized his personal guards to engage in a street fight with Zhao Yun. When he found that he was defeated, it was too late to break out and he was stabbed to death by Zhao Yun.

Gu Yong and the Lu family immediately came forward to welcome Guan Yu into the city with food and drink.

With the intervention of the Gu family, Wu County restored order that day, and the market was not in chaos. Other surrounding counties such as Haiyan, Lou County, Jiaxing, etc. also surrendered without a fight.

(End of this chapter)