My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 367: Fight to gain authority and keep your word

Of course, the content of Yuan Tan’s statements to Guo Tu and Xin Pi were just private conversations, and he had no intention of leaking it to the outside world.

However, it was obvious that Guo Tu and Xin Pi were both planning to jump ship and join Liu, so even if Yuan Tan wanted to keep his negotiation bottom line secret, his statement was still delivered to Zhuge Jin in Zhu County through the secret channels of Guo Tu and Xin Pi within just a few days.

After seeing Yuan Tan's inner limits, Zhuge Jin also followed the procedures and made corresponding arrangements within his authority in order to meet some of Yuan Tan's needs as soon as possible so as not to delay important matters and military affairs.

Then, Zhuge Jin attached his own impromptu temporary measures and the original text of Guo Tu and Xin Pi, and sent a messenger to Hefei to report the situation to Liu Bei himself.

After all this back and forth, it was already the beginning of May in the eighth year of Jian'an when the final "definitive version" was delivered to Liu Bei.

It took more than a month from the initial contact with Yuan Tan in this round, agreeing to Yuan Tan's request for help, to finally testing Yuan Tan's inner bottom line of surrender.

But considering that it involved three round trips and a thousand-mile relay negotiation, more than a month was already very, very fast.

If there were no more reliable and efficient new carrier pigeons as a means of communication, and if there were no full authorization from Liu Bei, many minor details could be decided directly by Zhuge Jin at the front line.

Then it is impossible to figure out all of this so quickly. Every missing point will delay it by at least one more month.

……

May 5th, Hefei.

Liu Bei had just moved to Hefei and was still sorting out everything. The affairs of the shogunate were complicated and it would probably take a month or so to get everything in order.

Liu Bei's move to Hefei was very low-key and secretive to the outside world and was not publicized.

Because Zhuge Liang knew that if he publicized the arrival of his lord in Hefei, it would certainly boost the morale of the garrisons in Hefei and Shouchun, and would also make it easier to mobilize before the war.

But it would be more likely to alert Cao's army on the other side of the Huai River, making them realize that once they went to war with Yuan Shang again, Liu Bei might stab them in the back from the Huaixi direction.

Therefore, in order to paralyze Cao's army, it is better to be patient for the time being. As for mobilizing and encouraging his own side, it would be in time for Liu Bei to show up in person on the eve of the war.

All the previous preparations can be left to Zhao Yun, and even Zhuge Liang doesn't need to show up.

Liu Bei has been handling affairs behind closed doors in Hefei for some time. Even when he wants to go on a tour, he always goes incognito.

That afternoon, Liu Bei was also feeling uncomfortable. He had just gone on an incognito tour in the morning and went out of the city for horseback riding, archery and hunting. When he came back and was having lunch, Zhuge Jin's letter arrived.

Liu Bei quickly sent someone to call Zhuge Liang to have lunch together. He read the letter himself first. After Zhuge Liang arrived, he threw his elder brother's letter to him and asked him to help study it.

"Sir, do you think that George's revelation of Yuan Tan's inner limits is similar to your brother's analysis? If so, it seems that it is not impossible to agree to it?"

Zhuge Liang took a closer look, first at the first-hand information revealed by Guo Tu and Xin Pi, then at his elder brother's analysis, and finally summarized it for Liu Bei in his own words:
"That should be the meaning. In summary, Yuan Tan ultimately hopes for three things:

First of all, regardless of whether he surrenders to our army or not, we hope that our army will show sincerity first and let Ziyi and Gongjin lift the siege of Nanpi first - my brother has already arranged this, and maybe Ziyi is already fighting with Yuan Shang's army now.

Secondly, Yuan Tan will wait and see whether we have the strength to fulfill our promise. In other words, he no longer doubts our sincerity and credit, but only our strength. If we cannot show our strength to defeat Cao Cao in a fair fight, then our sincerity will be useless.

To put it bluntly, he was afraid of being "humiliated again", which is human nature. We can only blame him for being ignorant and not knowing how united our army is and how the people of the world are in favor of the Han Dynasty."

When Liu Bei heard this, his expression became a little unhappy, but he nodded in understanding.

He knew that the princes of the world nowadays still felt that the north was strong and the south was weak. They believed that even if a prince could fight among the remote princes in the south and become the boss and absolutely crush other southern princes, it did not mean that he had the strength to compete with the Central Plains.

We must fight an open and honest battle to proactively attack the princes in the northern Central Plains, and ensure victory. This will give these fence-sitters a real shot in the arm.

In this light, the plan arranged by Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang brothers for him, "taking advantage of Cao Cao's second attack on Yuan Shang to launch an offensive against Cao Cao's Huaixi and Xuzhou Pengcheng", has become more significant.

This is not only to seize the territory of two or three counties, but also to show muscles, strengthen military prestige, and make the wavering people in the world more fearful.

Let them think more about other possibilities when deciding their diplomatic attitude in the future, in order to strive for a better external situation and win over and unite more people in the future.

In other words, this not only has an attractive and deterrent effect on Yuan Tan, but also has a subtle effect on Liu Biao and Liu Zhang.

It is just that it is difficult to quantify the change and contribution in diplomatic attitude. But no matter what, this is definitely valuable and meaningful, and it is not in vain.

As for Zhuge Liang's comment that Yuan Tan was worried about "another humiliation", these few words are a very brilliant summary and were not included in Zhuge Jin's letter. They were indeed original works of Zhuge Liang.

It is ironic that the term "second humiliation" was originally coined by Qiao Zhou and others in the late Shu Han Dynasty, who were famous for their surrender. When they persuaded Liu Chan to surrender to Deng Ai, they said, "Who is more important than surrendering to Deng Ai? How can the shame of surrendering again compare to the shame of surrendering once?"

The translation is "Wu will be destroyed by Wei sooner or later. If we surrender to Wu now, we will be humiliated. If Wu is destroyed by Wei in the future, we will surrender again, which will be a second humiliation. It is better to go to Wei directly." Now, by chance, Yuan Tan's inner worries are similar to Liu Chan's last worries in history. He is worried that Liu Bei will not be able to defeat Cao Cao, and he will have to suffer twice and be humiliated twice.

Therefore, the crux of everything is that Uncle Liu himself must be strong enough so that his nephews will come to him for help.

Seeing that his lord had fully understood the contradiction here, Zhuge Liang continued to explain Yuan Tan's third condition.

"Yuan Tan's third point is also in line with filial piety, and it is also for the sake of pride. In my opinion, it is mainly for his dignity that he has to stick to two time points:

First of all, he wanted to see Yuan Shang being destroyed by Cao Cao, and see Yuan Shang walking in front, so he wanted to represent the "last banner of the Yuan family."

Secondly, we have to wait until the three-year mourning period for Yuan Shao is over. Yuan Shao died in late February or early March last year. According to the three-year period, there are actually twenty-seven months, which means that the period will not be over until May or June next year.

In my opinion, if Cao Cao attacks Yuan Shang with all his strength, Yuan Shang's destruction should be completed before this time. We can definitely wait for this. Therefore, the two time points that Yuan Tan insisted on should be later than the three-year mourning period of Yuan Shao. The second time point depends on the decision of the lord. "

Liu Bei did not care about this. He waved his hand and said, "Just agree to it. As an elder, how can I be so picky with my nephew? Naturally, I have to act like an elder.

Yuan Benchu was a hero of his time, and it was okay for me to treat him as an elder brother. It was also right for him to let his son guard the Yuan family until the end of his mourning period.

Well, let's do it in two steps: First, we help him out and defeat Cao Cao first to let him see our strength. Then, when Cao Cao destroys Yuan Shang and has time to attack Yuan Tan, Yuan Tan should immediately hand over the military power to us.

As for the governance of Qingzhou and the eastern part of Youzhou, we can temporarily give it up and let all the civil servants under his command remain in their original positions and still obey Yuan Tan. When Yuan Shao's three-year term is up and he has done his best to be filial and stick to his family, he can officially surrender to our army."

Liu Bei felt that in such a war-torn world, as long as he took over the military power, everything else could be put on hold, and it was not impossible to wait for a transition period of one or two years.

Cao Cao had to spend a lot of manpower and rely on hard battles and various acts of destruction to gain the land of one or two states. If he could rely on peaceful means and take advantage of his friendly forces' fear of Cao Cao and actively surrender peacefully, it would be a great advantage in comparison.

Since we have gained a great advantage, it is completely reasonable for us to be a little slower than Cao Cao and have a longer transition period.

It’s like when a person is sick, surgery directly will certainly cure the disease faster, but it will also hurt the body.

If you choose conservative treatment and take warming and nourishing medicines, it will definitely not be as effective as surgical treatment of "cutting off the affected area".

Seeing that his lord was so magnanimous, Zhuge Liang no longer hesitated and wrote a reply letter to his elder brother according to Liu Bei's wishes, saying, "Let's be magnanimous and not bargain."

……

The reply letter written by Zhuge Liang would be delivered to Zhuge Jin in two days.

However, before Zhuge Jin received the reply, Liu Bei's troops in Qingxu had already mobilized and prepared for war according to Zhuge Jin's orders.

Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu had already assembled and set sail from Donglai in late April, advancing both by land and sea towards Jizhou.

Taishi Ci crossed the Yellow River on Zhou Yu's warship, and then headed to Nanpi by land, mainly with cavalry. Because the troops were highly mobile, they could easily escape from the battle without worrying about being caught up and surrounded by the enemy.

Zhou Yu led the main force, including the navy and infantry, to the mouth of the Zhang River on the Bohai Sea, turned into the Zhang River, went upstream, and traveled by inland waterway for two days, approaching Nanpi.

Before setting off, Zhuge Jin had already explained the mission of this battle: at least to break the encirclement of Nanpi by Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang sent by Yuan Shang, and transport military supplies to Guan Tong who was guarding the city.

This requirement is similar to the one when fighting Cao Hong, Zhang He and Gao Lan last year. Taishi Ci has just done it once and is already familiar with it.

But times had changed. A year later, the enemy changed from Cao's army to Yuan Shang's army.

The total strength of the enemy army is not less than last year, but the enemy generals have become weaker, from Cao Hong and Zhang He to Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang.

As for Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu, their total military strength has decreased compared to last year, because this time Yuan Tan can no longer send reinforcements to support the attack and can only rely on Liu Bei's army itself.

Liu Bei's army had become smaller and Yuan Shang's army was getting weaker, but Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu were still very confident.

With this battle, he could establish a little prestige and let Yuan Tan see that if Uncle Liu could save him once, he could save him a second time. It was just a matter of changing the enemy.

"All the generals must work hard. Although this battle is only to relieve Nanpi, General Fubo has already said that this will affect whether Yuan Tan trusts our army, so we must fight well!

General Fu Bo also said that Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang were flatterers and sycophants. If they were beaten back, they might not fight to the death for Yuan Shang. They might even surrender to Cao if Yuan Shang became weak in the future!
Therefore, if we kill more enemy generals and capture more prisoners here, we can also reduce the number of people who will surrender to Cao Cao in the future! That’s all I have to say. Let’s see how you perform in the future.”

After completing a simple pre-war mobilization, Taishi Ci prepared to lead his troops to approach the Nanpi battlefield, ready to meet any possible interception forces of Yuan Shang's army at any time.

(End of this chapter)