My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 390: If you save him, you will lose. If you don't save him, you will be selling out you

Chapter 390: If you save him, you will lose. If you don't save him, you will be selling out your teammates.
"How many times has this happened? If we keep pretending to transport food but actually running for nothing, I'm afraid the morale of the soldiers will be weakened. Every three to five days, we have to walk more than a hundred miles back and forth. How can human beings live like this?

If there are no enemies coming to rob the grain, do you have any other strategies to remedy the situation? I will definitely ask when I go back this time."

That evening, on the Suishui River north of Quli County, another fleet consisting of more than a hundred large and small grain ships sailed upstream and slowly headed westward.

Chen Dao on the boat was also feeling anxious and hesitant, with random thoughts and the feeling that he was doing useless work. If it weren't for his trust in Zhuge Jin's wisdom and foresight, he doubted whether he could hold on until now.

It feels so unfulfilling.

Just when Chen Dao was drowsy, the two ships at the front of the fleet suddenly made some noise, and then the ships behind them all chose to stop and avoid them.

Several ships that were close had to drop anchors in an attempt to slow down as quickly as possible to avoid collision, and the pilots on the ships also shouted loudly to notify the ships behind to stop immediately.

With such a big commotion, Chen Dao was naturally startled at first, and he became alert again:
"what happened?"

The officer in charge of the lookout came over immediately and reported: "Captain, the ship ahead has hit a reef again. Could it be that Guo Jia secretly had people pile up new reefs under the water in the past few days? Should we send the brothers ashore and shovel these reefs again using the method we used last time?"

Chen Dao waved his hand and said, "Don't move lightly! Guo Jiaming has been busy once, and now he is using the same trick again. He must have other preparations. There must be an enemy ambush on the shore. We can't go ashore! The rear team of the fleet will become the front team. Don't transport the food this time. Withdraw to Suiling immediately!"

None of the officers under his command questioned or disobeyed the order. They all chose to follow the order obediently and the fleet immediately began to turn around.

Thanks also to Chen Dao's fleet, as they were sailing against the current this time, they were able to stop the ship very quickly and there was no collision between the ships behind them.

After a brief period of confusion, Chen Dao's fleet seemed to be about to complete the U-turn and switch between the front and rear teams, and was about to go east again downstream and return by the original route.

……

"This thief general under Liu Bei is indeed a coward. When he found that the riverbed was blocked by a hidden sandbar, he didn't even dare to think of getting off the boat to investigate and dredge the river! We can't miss this opportunity. We can't wait for his entire army to turn around. Everyone, follow me and charge, burn the boats and rob the food!"

In a dense forest on the north bank of Suishui River, Zhu Ling, who was sent by Guo Jia, was concentrating on observing the developments in front of him.

Seeing that Chen Dao was so cowardly and directly ordered the fleet to turn around, Zhu Ling could no longer hold his temper and quickly led the intercepting troops to burn the ships and attack together.

It’s too late if you’re late!
When the fleet turns around, it is always the most chaotic and weakest. If we rush over now, wouldn't it be easy to capture them with a volley of rockets and torches? I heard that each enemy ship has less than 20 escort soldiers. This fleet is estimated to have only more than a thousand people. It is more than enough for us to wipe them out.

"Kill! Those who surrender will be spared!"

The surging Cao army soldiers swarmed towards the Suishui River. The Suishui River was not wide to begin with, and the section of the river chosen by Guo Jia and Zhu Ling was only a few dozen feet wide. Chen Dao's fleet was forced into a long snake formation, which looked like a piece of fat fish belly, making people unable to stop.

"Shoot!" Chen Dao shouted as he saw Zhu Ling was close to him. The portholes on the grain ship were opened, and powerful crossbows were stretched out, shooting wildly at the north bank.

The infantry on the shore and the crossbowmen hiding in the cabin were already at a great disadvantage.

Zhu Ling dared to charge like this based on the premise of his absolute superiority in military strength. He also thought that Chen Dao was just a grain transport team without much combat power.

Now they suddenly saw that the enemy's firepower was so intensive and the number of powerful crossbows on each ship was far more than twenty. Anyone who was not a fool would know that they had fallen into a trap.

The soldiers led by Chen Dao also followed the pre-war instructions perfectly and shouted in unison:
"The thief has fallen into the trap set by the princes!"

"Thank you, Guo Jia, for giving the princes another military achievement!"

Listening to the shouts coming from the river, the Cao army soldiers who came to rob the grain were completely panicked. The density of the rockets they launched was less than 30% of the expected level. Countless archers simply fled away with their heads in their hands, not daring to stand and shoot.

The soldiers holding torches and swallowtail torches, seeing their comrades being shot to the ground, also fled in fear. The swallowtail torch was something that Cao's army learned from the surrendered generals of the Sun family who fled back to Cao after Sun Ce was defeated. It was not difficult to use.

Previously, when Liu Bei and Yuan Shang were fighting, Yuan Shang's side was extremely isolated from the news. During the Battle of Bohai, he didn't even know how to use the swallowtail torch, and his efficiency in burning ships was extremely low. He suffered a great loss at the hands of Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu.

Cao Cao's camp at least made up for this shortcoming, but unfortunately, although the military equipment was handy, the timing of the battle was too unlucky.

The grain robbery was a failure, as the grain transport team had the upper hand. How could they fight? Even the most effective arson tools were useless.

After a fierce battle, Chen Dao saw the strength of Zhu Ling's army and decisively divided his troops to pursue and kill them on the shore. He surrounded Zhu Ling for five or six miles and killed hundreds of people, and captured more than a thousand prisoners and wounded soldiers.

Unfortunately, Chen Dao's soldiers were all on foot, and landing would take time, while Cao's army on the shore at least had some war horses. After all, Chen Dao could not chase too far, so he could only give up while he was ahead.

Zhu Ling was not a brave general who led the troops in person, so Chen Dao had no chance to kill him. However, during the chaos, one of Chen Dao's troops shot Zhu Ling with a crossbow. Zhu Ling was injured and unconscious, and was carried back by other Cao cavalrymen.

Chen Dao won a great victory and immediately rode back to report the victory to Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin. At the same time, he ordered the fleet to rest nearby and wait for further orders.

……

"General Guan! Lords! We finally waited for Guo Jia to send people to rob the grain! Our army won a great victory! We killed, wounded and captured about two thousand enemies!"

Chen Dao is usually not good at speaking, but he was quite excited today. He rode his horse very fast and headed straight for the Suiling camp in the rear. As soon as he entered the gate, he reported the good news to Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin.

Guan Yu was not happy about the number of enemies killed. After all, killing 2,000 enemies was no big deal in his opinion.

But he knew that Zhuge Jin's plan was not just for this little bit of killing. Guan Yu just smiled and twirled his beard to show encouragement, but did not comment.

Zhuge Jin on the side was generous in praising Chen Dao. He first praised Chen Dao a few words, then asked, waving his folding fan: "Have you found out who the general of Cao's army is who came to rob grain? It can't be Zhang He who came here in person?" When Chen Dao was fighting with Zhu Ling just now, he didn't know that the other party was Zhu Ling. After all, for a job like robbing grain, no one would come with fanfare and under a banner.

But Chen Dao knew the importance of this issue, as Zhuge Jin had taken care of him before the battle. So when cleaning up the battlefield, Chen Dao quickly tortured several prisoners and pried out information about the enemy generals from their mouths.

Only then did Chen Dao respond: "The one who came to rob the grain was Zhu Ling. I heard that although Zhu Ling is incompetent, his status is not inferior to Zhang He. It was Guo Jia who coordinated to let him go. I didn't expect him to be so vulnerable."

Zhuge Jin was very satisfied: "It's good that it's Zhu Ling, it's good that it's Zhu Ling. If it's someone who is much lower in status than Zhang He, we can't say that Zhang He is jealous of talented people. Although Lu Zhao and Feng Kai are leading the troops, this plan can be used, but the effect is not as good as Zhu Ling's."

Zhuge Jin was not a god, and he did not know that Guo Jia and Zhang He had sent Lu Zhao and Feng Kai to reinforce Cao Ren. His intelligence work was not that detailed, and he only knew that Zhang He had sent troops to reinforce Cao Ren, but he had not found out how many people there were and who led the troops.

Zhuge Jin made a few casual comments, then suddenly became serious and immediately turned to the other staff and officials around him and ordered: "Come here, write a secret letter immediately to thank Zhang He for reminding us to beware of grain robbery.

Then he analyzed in depth with Zhang He the principle that "Cao's use of personnel is like piling up firewood, and the latecomers are superior to the latecomers", and reminded him that a person like Lian Changxi could be ranked above him, lead troops into Pengcheng County to fight, but did not obey his orders. How could he tolerate this?
If you come to surrender to my Lord, my Lord will certainly treat you sincerely, appoint people based on their merits, and reward and punish impartially. There will be no worry of "hiring people at a high price in times of crisis, and then quibbling after the crisis is over." What my Lord believes in is "the best medicine is to cure the disease before it occurs."

Zhuge Jin roughly dictated the main content of the letter of alienation.

The staff member who followed him and Guan Yu to the Pengcheng army this time was Chen Gong - Chen Gong had just reappeared during the East China Sea Campaign against Xiahou Yuan last year, and at that time he also did something to Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He.

This time Liu Bei's army is going to counterattack Pengcheng. Of course, Zhang Liao, Chen Gong and other veteran generals and civil servants who have been stationed in Xuzhou for many years must be utilized to give full play to their advantages of being familiar with local conditions.

After listening to Zhuge Jin's instructions, Chen Gong first roughly wrote down the main points of the letter, and then asked: "The letter is easy to write, but after writing it, how should it be delivered to Zhang He? If we send someone to contact him directly, I'm afraid it will be too easy to be seen through. Even if it falls into Guo Jia's hands, he will not believe it."

Zhuge Jin thought for a moment and said, "Find one of Zhu Ling's captives who is willing to surrender to our army. He should be the one who has no family in Pengcheng but has other relatives captured by us. Give him some gold, silver and jewelry and ask him to take this letter back to Zhang He. Tell him clearly that if he dares to play tricks, his relatives left in our army will be executed."

Guan Yu and Chen Dao didn't understand what he said at first, and their eyes were blank. Chen Gong, however, was quick to react and immediately grasped the key point. He drew inferences from one example and said, "This is not difficult. When Cao Cao recruited soldiers, he often exhausted all resources, and did not let go of soldiers from teenagers to those in their fifties and sixties. If we want to find fathers and sons who served in Cao's army among the thousands of prisoners, we can find many pairs.

I will pick those who have no wife or daughter alive, only father and son who depend on each other and are in the army together. Then I will detain the father, give him a sum of gold, silver and jewelry, and give them two women to enjoy for one night. Then I will let the son go back alone to report the news, saying that Zhu Ling's troops were dispersed when they were robbing food, and returned to the team with great difficulty. The Pengcheng defenders will not doubt when they gather Zhu Ling's remaining troops. "

Zhuge Jin frowned slightly. It seemed that Chen Gong was still not careful in doing things. He was indeed a ruthless person.

If Zhuge Jin was asked to worry about these details personally, he would be able to detain the father and release the son. But specifically detaining the bachelor father and son and giving them women to give them more ideas of bondage was something that Zhuge Jin, who came from a civilized society, could not have imagined at first glance.

Zhuge Jin subconsciously waved his hand in annoyance, telling Chen Gong not to go too far and to polish it a little more, and that he would leave the matter to him.

After Chen Gong left to do his work, Guan Yu came up to him and asked, "Zi Yu's plan should not be able to persuade Zhang He to rebel, right? Saying that Zhang He framed Zhu Ling is not enough to shake him, and Guo Jia will not believe it."

Zhuge Jin: "I don't expect to persuade Zhang He to rebel, but I will add 'Thank you, General Zhang, for providing the intelligence on Chang Xi and finding an excuse to stay put when our army attacks Chang Xi' at the end of the letter. Moreover, I will help Zhang He come up with an excuse to stay put.

At that time, we will give up attacking Pengcheng County and first attack Fuyang and Yinping counties in the north of Pengcheng County, and attack Chang Xi first. If Zhang He wants to prove his innocence, he will have to send troops from Pengcheng County to Fuyang to rescue Chang Xi.

Otherwise, Chang Xi surrendered to our army because he had no friendly forces to support him, and Zhang He would not be able to clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River. As long as Zhang He got out of the tortoise shell of Pengcheng, with his current force of less than 10,000, wouldn't it be easy for us to capture him in a field battle?

By then, our navy cut off the waterways of Suishui and Sishui, making it impossible for Cao Ren's troops to return to defend Pengcheng. After Zhang He's defeat in the field battle, Pengcheng was like an empty city, saving the trouble of attacking. "

Having said this, Guan Yu finally understood and connected all the previous preparations.

Zhuge Jin wanted to achieve this effect: thank Zhang He for betraying Zhu Ling and Chang Xi in the letter. Regardless of whether Zhu Ling was betrayed by Zhang He or not, Zhu Ling was ambushed and defeated, so someone on Cao's side must take responsibility, right?
Did someone leak the information about Zhu Ling's grain robbery, or was there some other reason?

At this time, Guan Yu thanked Zhang He for betraying Chang Xi, and then attacked Chang Xi.

If Zhang He didn't save Chang Xi, he would have been killed by the mud in his crotch. There was no solution.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin has another trick up his sleeve.

He took advantage of the moment when Guan Yu just understood the spirit of the strategy and continued to analyze: "Moreover, this strategy can be used in two ways. We can falsely accuse Zhang He of betraying Zhu Ling to Guo Jia, and we can also falsely accuse Zhang He of betraying Zhu Ling to Chang Xi, and then further falsely accuse Zhang He of betraying him.

We can send a letter to Chang Xi, saying that Zhang He is dissatisfied with Cao Cao's use of people like piling up firewood, and the latecomers are superior, so he wants to frame him. After he reinforced Zhang He and arrived in Fuyang, Zhang He induced our army to cross Pengcheng County to attack Fuyang, which led to Chang Xi's siege.

And we can tell him that Zhang He will never come to rescue him, and he wants to use Chang Xi's life to delay Cao's army for a few months. Let him think about the fate of Zang Ba and Sun Guan last year, and let him think that the high positions and noble titles of Cao thieves are not so easy to get, and they have to be exchanged for their lives.

In this way, I have always known that Chang Xi was not submissive to Cao Cao and had many rebellious intentions. We gave him this way out, and proved that "he wanted Cao Cao's official position and Cao Cao wanted him to work for him", and also proved that his colleagues were resentful of his coming to power and wanted to frame him. How could Chang Xi not surrender?

As long as Chang Xi had the possibility of surrendering, Zhang He would have to send troops to rescue him. Otherwise, after the battle, they could throw dirty water on Zhang He and tell Cao's army clearly that Chang Xi had no intention of surrendering to our army, but surrendered because Zhang He was jealous of his success and framed him - how could Zhang He survive in that case? "

Guan Yu had already been mentally prepared to some extent, so when he heard Zhuge Jin complete the final piece of the puzzle, he was not too shocked.

Chen Dao, who was standing by, had been completely in the dark until this moment when he understood the whole situation. He could not help but be stunned.

Zhang He obviously had Pengcheng fortress to defend, but the princes manipulated it so casually that he seemed to have to send troops to fight in the field and rescue friendly forces. Otherwise, the number of charges against him would be unimaginable.

-

PS: This is the only chapter for today...there are still some details of the follow-up strategy that I haven’t figured out.

This kind of plot is too brain-intensive and can't be productive. I'll try to figure it out myself...

(End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like