My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 350 General Baidi is in our grasp
If you were asked at this moment on the battlefield in Xuzhou which general in Cao's camp was the most diligent in leading his troops, who would consult the commander-in-chief whenever encountering any trivial matter and would not dare to act on his own.

It must be Zhang He and Gao Lan.

Who made them come to Cao’s camp the latest and have the least experience?

At this sensitive juncture of the seventh year of Jian'an, the label of "Hebei surrendered general" was not a good one. Even the Taishan bandits such as Zang Ba and Sun Guan arrived earlier than them.

Therefore, after Zhang He intercepted the secret letter between the defenders of Tancheng and Guan Yu in the rear, he sent it to Xiahou Yuan on horseback within just half a day.

And sending it to Xiahou Yuan meant sending it to Guo Jia almost at the same time.

As the military strategist and the main staff officer of this battle, Xiahou Yuan would discuss matters with Guo Jia whenever he encountered an emergency.

This time, Xiahou Yuan went even further. As soon as he heard that Zhang He had sent the intercepted enemy messenger, he immediately ordered someone to call Guo Jia over.

When Guo Jia hurried to the central army's tent, Xiahou Yuan himself hadn't had time to read the letter, so Xiahou Yuan was too lazy to read it and just threw it to Guo Jia: "Fengxiao, please read it once and analyze the truth of the enemy's situation."

It's so easy to be a head coach.

Guo Jia hurriedly took the letter and unfolded it. Before he read the content carefully, he subconsciously glanced at the signature and found that it was written by Chen Gong to Guan Yu. He was immediately shocked.

"Is this the letter from Chen Gong to Guan Yu asking for help? Chen Gong, this villain, is really being used by Liu Bei! Humph, more than two years ago, Zhao Yun supported Chen Deng, attacked Xia Pi, captured Zhang Liao, and even said that he captured Chen Gong's charred corpse. This matter was really a fraud from the beginning!

It can be seen that Liu Bei had already intended to betray the court long before Cao Gong defeated Lu Bu! It was not an intention that came to his mind after the forged imperial edict! He deliberately took in the traitor who betrayed the court, and announced to the public that he had faked his death. After the forged imperial edict was exposed, he slowly pretended to recapture the person who had faked his death, pardoned his previous crime and employed him. It was really an attempt to cover up the truth! "

Before analyzing the contents of the letter, Guo Jia angrily criticized Liu Bei for harboring a traitor.

The use of Chen Gong is relatively low-key in Liu Bei's camp.

Although Chen Gong's identity had been cleared for more than a year, it was more than half a year after the Yidaizhao incident. Tian Yu, who was in charge of the defense of Xia Pi County at the time, caught Chen Gong, who had "faked his death", by "chance" during a "routine search and suppression of local bandits" and reported it to Liu Bei.

Chen Gong certainly had "historical crimes". After all, he instigated Lu Bu to attack Cao Cao before Cao Cao supported Liu Xie. Later, Lu Bu's attack on Liu Bei was also due to Chen Gong's planning and instigation. So if such a person was used directly, it would also affect Liu Bei's reputation.

However, since the Secret Decree had already taken place, Liu Bei could have considered pardoning Chen Gong for his previous crime of opposing Cao Gong, and other issues should have been slowly clarified and finally explained, and he should have been employed as low-key as possible and not have been openly given a high position.

Because Liu Bei's camp cannot act as if "they had anticipated the outbreak of the Yidaizhao incident long before it broke out, and had a premonition that the emperor would deal with Cao Cao, and thus took in advisers who opposed Cao Cao in advance." This time point must not be ambiguous.

Therefore, in the past year and a half, Chen Gong was just an idle official of the advisory type, never publicizing himself to the outside world, and offering advice behind closed doors. After Guan Yu defeated Sun Ce, he transferred Zhang Liao to the north, and only then did he let Chen Gong serve as Zhang Liao's advisor, responsible for checking and filling in the gaps in the defense deployment of Donghai County.

This is the first time that Chen Gong has reappeared in the vision of Cao Ying’s top leaders, officially confirming that Liu Bei has appointed Chen Gong as a military advisor.

Xiahou Yuan listened to Guo Jia's indignant sigh and started to curse and criticize him. He had fought with Lu Bu many times in the past and he also hated Chen Gong. Now, new hatred and old grudges were piled up together:

"Liu Bei, you traitor, seems to have been planning to betray the court for a long time, and now is the perfect time to settle the score with him!"

After the two of them finished their sighs, they continued to read the main text of the letter. Guo Jia quickly skimmed through it and said:

"...General Guan, please understand: Tancheng controls the Yishui River, but the west of Yishui was originally controlled by Cao Cao's bandits... Cao's army controlled it. After the war started, Xiahou Yuan made a sudden and fierce advance, cutting off the retreat route east of Yishui. He must have been arrogant and thought that opening up the Yishui waterway was just around the corner.

In this way, as long as our army holds Tancheng firmly, and the navy goes out of the city to the west and risk their lives to harass Cao's grain ships on the Yishui River, we will surely provoke Xiahou Yuan to be overwhelmed with harassment and decide to break Tancheng and open up the Yishui grain route. General Zhang and I are good at holding the city firmly. When Xiahou Yuan's troops are tired, you can send the troops from Xiapi to the north along the Yishui River to reinforce him, which will be enough to defeat Xiahou Yuan..."

"…But now, I think it is not advisable to suddenly order our army to take the initiative to attack, to contain Cao's army, and to share the pressure on the defenders of Qu County. The terrain of Qu County is not strategic enough. It is better to rely on the Yishui River in Tancheng, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Moreover, the city of Qu County is too far from the sea, and Lord Mi is greedy for more things. He has set up camps and trenches everywhere to defend them, not knowing how to choose and not giving up the ports, shipyards, workshops and other places outside the city. This is the way to defeat! If our army really wants to defend Qu County, and let the other garrisons in other places to support Qu County, they will inevitably be consumed by Cao's army.

Yesterday, our army was ordered to force General Zhang to leave the city to rob Zhang He. However, Zhang He defended cautiously, and the results were not optimistic. Our army also suffered losses of nearly 200 cavalry. Cao's army has many soldiers, and our army has few. Consumption is not good for our army. General, please think twice! " "... In addition, the concerns conveyed by the general to Lord Mi have also been received. However, I think that Lord Mi's reliance is not enough:
Mi Fujun thought that as long as we set up camps and trenches and defended the seaport of Qu County, even if Qu County was besieged by Cao's army on three sides, our army could send reinforcements to Qu County by sea. We could also hope that Gongjin would take advantage of the slackening of the enemy's long-term siege and land behind the enemy, and defeat the enemy in the same way as in the battles of Langya, Rizhao and Jiaoshan.

However, the coast of Langya is mountainous, and the enemy troops had to march along the narrow coastal plain to penetrate into Rizhao and Jiaoshan. Once the roads were cut off, they would run out of food and aid, and the morale of Li Dian and Sun Guan's troops would naturally collapse.

Now the coastal area of Donghai County has vast plains. Even if Gongjin lands behind enemy lines, the enemy only needs to retreat slightly inland to reorganize. What Lord Mi relies on is just a theory, which will lead to the loss of the army and the country! General, you must not take into account the relationship between the Mi family and the uncle just because the lord has a new eldest son.

As for the current plan, it is better to ask Gongjin to persuade Lord Mi to abandon Qu County and retreat by sea. As for the shipyards, workshops, and equipment in Qu County that are ingenious and confidential, those that cannot be transported can be burned down so that they will not be seized by Cao's army, so as not to increase Cao's army's shipbuilding skills..."

After Guo Jia carefully read the request letter from Chen Gong to Guan Yu, he showed an approval look in his eyes and nodded slightly while stroking his goatee.

Xiahou Yuan also felt that what Chen Gong said made sense, and after listening, he asked Guo Jia to comment on it from his own perspective: "Feng Xiao, do you think this book is a fraud?"

Guo Jia's expression turned solemn, and he said cautiously: "Such an important letter was actually intercepted and seized by our army. It's really a coincidence. If Chen Gong wanted to persuade Guan Yu, why didn't he persuade him before the battle? If he was so anxious, why did he persuade him now? And he risked the risk of leaking the secret in vain. This is not what a wise man would do...

However, this point can be explained: Didn't Jun Yi fight a bloody battle with Zhang Liao's cavalry the day before he killed the messenger? Judging from what was written in the letter, Zhang Liao's losses were not much less than Jun Yi's. The southern cavalry was small, and our army had more cavalry. If we could use a similar ratio to consume Liu Bei's cavalry, it would definitely be beneficial to us.

Therefore, it is possible that Chen Gong was forced by Mi Zhu's official authority or Guan Yu's order to play a self-torture trick with Zhang Liao to show that they had the energy to provoke and restrain Jun Yi. However, it did not work, so he suggested to Guan Yu that the defenders of Tancheng continue to hold on, without actively seeking battle to restrain Jun Yi and share the pressure on Qu County.

But overall, it's all a bit too coincidental, and I still don't believe it completely."

Xiahou Yuan scratched his head and listened for a while. Seeing that Guo Jia was unwilling to speak out and take responsibility, he changed the subject and asked directly:

"Let's not talk about why Chen Gong rashly wrote the letter at this time and why it was intercepted. Just talk about whether the military strategy inferences that Chen Gong was concerned about in the letter are reasonable? Are the military taboos he mentioned really taboo enough?"

Regarding this question, Guo Jia's attitude suddenly became more relaxed, and he praised it again and again very readily:

"These concerns are completely reasonable. If Mi Zhu really relied on his own wild imagination and thought that Qu County could be defended for a long time, it would definitely affect the three armies! Chen Gong said that Mi Zhu's ideas were not reliable, which is indeed in line with the essence of military strategy. Some of the truths can be understood by me, but I have to deal with them as they happen. I can only understand them when the time comes."

Xiahou Yuan was also knowledgeable about military affairs, so he had a preset answer in mind before asking the question. After hearing that Guo Jia thought the same, he felt relieved and slapped his thigh:
"In that case, I think this story is 90% likely to be true! After all, although Liu Bei knew how to employ people, he didn't think about the problem of the talents of local officials not matching their positions, and the conflicts between the upper and lower levels!

He put Chen Gong in charge of the defense planning of Donghai County, which was considered a good use of his talents. Unfortunately, Chen Gong had a low status and could not suppress Mi Zhu, which led to the problem of inconsistent orders.

Haha, in the end, we have to thank Mi Zhu for not knowing how to choose. I have heard that Liu Bei's army has produced many ingenious things in recent years. As for their ability to build new sea vessels, I have also seen it on the battlefield. It is indeed sharp. Now it seems that Qu County must have many workshops and shipyards with ingenious skills, which made Mi Zhu so reluctant to give them up! "

After hearing Xiahou Yuan's decision, Guo Jia had no other evidence to directly object to it, and all the doubtful points had been pointed out, so he had no choice but to give up.

After all, the military reasoning in Chen Gong's letter is completely true, and the analysis of his own weaknesses is also extremely real. There are even some weaknesses of Liu Bei's army that Cao's army had not originally detected or thought of. They were all exposed voluntarily. If you say it is fake, the cost is too high.

To put it bluntly, Guo Jia did not find any evidence to prove that Chen Gong was cheating. His only suspicion was that "the timing of this incident was a bit coincidental."

Guo Jia thought to himself:

"Perhaps I am overthinking. Chen Gong is a man of great strategy but of low rank, and cannot suppress Mi Zhu. I heard that Liu Bei had previously asked Lu Su to go north to take charge of Xuzhou's defense and fill in the gaps. Unfortunately, Guan Yu placed Lu Su in the Langya counties during the first phase of the campaign.

Now, after two months of siege on Langya, our army suddenly changed its strategy and adopted a blocking strategy to block the Langya Mountain area, blocking the valleys where the Yishui and Shushui rivers flow out of the Mengshan Mountain area, so that Gao Shun and Lu Su could not participate in the battle of Donghai. Liu Bei's advisers who stayed in Donghai could only rely on Chen Gong, which led to the current situation.

If Guan Yu had not sent Lu Su to Zhucheng, and had left a civil servant in Donghai who had both status and strategy to suppress the mediocre Mi Zhu, the situation would have been different. This is also God's help to our army! If you want to blame someone, blame the people Liu Bei left behind. Those with high positions are not wise, and those with wisdom are in low positions. It is difficult to have both! "

Seeing that Guo Jia did not object, Xiahou Yuan pondered over the details for a while and made the final decision:

The main force moved eastward, changed the plan and besieged Qu County! Use Mi Zhu, a high-ranking but incompetent waste, as bait to consume Liu Bei's army! Force Liu Bei's army to bleed to death in the process of rescuing Mi Zhu!

(End of this chapter)