My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 391: Which is more important, a city or a piece of land or the credibility of the imperial court?

The words are divided into two parts.

Chen Dao reported the successful ambush on Zhu Ling to Zhuge Jin, who then planned the next series of deceptions to sow discord.

The injured and unconscious Zhu Ling himself was also protected by his trusted cavalry guards and retreated all the way from Quli County to Pengcheng.

Because they wanted to be careful not to tear the wounds caused by the bumps, the soldiers on horseback did not dare to gallop, but just walked slowly. It took a day and a half to get back to Pengcheng from Quli. They returned in the afternoon of the previous day and arrived early the next morning.

However, within a day and a half, the bleeding from Zhu Ling's crossbow wounds had stopped, and his body, which had been unconscious due to excessive blood loss, regained consciousness when he arrived in Pengcheng.

As soon as Zhu Ling entered the city, he was picked up by Guo Jia and Zhang He. Guo Jia originally wanted him to recover from his injuries first, but Zhu Ling had been in a coma for a long time and was still energetic after waking up, so he insisted on making a statement in person.

Guo Jia chatted with Zhu Ling in person about the battle situation, and Zhang He was listening nearby.

"Were we defeated in this battle because of an ambush? Liu Bei's troops had been prepared in advance and hid so many elite soldiers in the grain ships? This was indeed a mistake in decision-making, not a fault of war." Guo Jia clenched his teeth, his face gloomy, and after listening, he had to come to such a conclusion.

Although they were all defeats, the specific ways in which they were lost had a great impact on post-war accountability.

If the decision was correct and both sides were strong enough to fight, but they failed to perform well on the battlefield and lost, then it would be Zhu Ling's personal fault because of his poor command.

However, the intelligence analysis before the battle showed that the enemy force did not exceed 2,000 people and was just a grain transport team. After the battle, it was discovered that the enemy suddenly had 6,000 to 7,000 people, and then they were defeated. It was obviously not Zhu Ling's fault.

After Guo Jia had figured out all these things, he felt a little sad, realizing that he had to take the blame. On the other hand, he was quick-witted, and he quickly thought of looking forward, and found some areas that needed to be fixed.

"Not good! If the grain transport to Chendao was a scam from the beginning, then doesn't that mean that Guan Yu's troops on the Fuli front were actually decreasing? Did Zhuge Jin use the strategy of reducing troops and increasing stoves?
While our army was reinforcing the front line of Fuli, Guan Yu had already secretly withdrawn his troops, which showed that he had no intention of attacking Fuli at all! My previous guess was indeed verified!
Jun Yi! For now, let's put aside the issue of accountability for the defeat. Hurry up and order the recall of Lu Zhao and Feng Kai's troops who were sent to reinforce General Zixiao. I'm afraid that Pengcheng will soon be attacked by Guan Yu!"

Guo Jia talked to himself while unraveling Zhuge Jin's plan, and finally pieced it together like a puzzle. It was a pity that it was a little late.

After hearing this, Zhang He immediately expressed his intention to write a military order to recall Lu Zhao and Feng Kai, and also asked Guo Jia to write a letter to Cao Ren to explain the situation.

However, just as Guo Jia and Zhang He were discussing the matter among themselves, Zhu Ling, who was lying on a stretcher and had been explaining the situation with a listless look on his face, suddenly regained some spirit and said out of the blue:
"Feng Xiao is a man of wisdom and strategy appreciated by Sikong Du. He was able to guess from the speed, draft, and behavior of the grain-carrying fleet that Guan Yu had few soldiers and horses to protect the grain. How rare is this?

If all this is a trick or deception of the enemy, doesn't it mean that the enemy has calculated that there will be such wise men in our army who can see through all these subtle details?
What if no one in our army can see through the enemy so clearly? Wouldn't all the enemy's efforts be in vain? I don't believe Chen Dao's move, it was a scam from the beginning!"

Upon hearing this, Guo Jia's face brightened with joy, but then turned slightly sad, as if he had thought of some more terrifying possibilities. He quickly hinted to Zhu Ling with an almost pleading look to stop talking.

Unfortunately, Guo Jia's hint was too subtle, and Zhu Ling could not catch it immediately. More importantly, Zhang He, who was not familiar with the matter, had already asked Zhu Ling:
"Then General Zhu, if this matter wasn't a scam from the beginning, what else could it be?"

Zhu Ling said coldly: "It is also possible that Feng Xiao's plan was fine at the beginning, but before I sent troops to rob grain, we had a traitor who leaked the news to Guan Yu! Therefore, Chen Dao's previous grain transportation was real, but this time the enemy got a warning and temporarily changed their plan to an ambush!"

The reason why Zhu Ling said this was, on the one hand, because he had a good relationship with Guo Jia, and after working together for many years, he believed in Guo Jia's talents and had also witnessed Cao Cao's trust in Guo Jia.

Zhu Ling was sent by Yuan Shao to reinforce Cao Cao when Cao Cao attacked Tao Qian and was robbed by Lu Bu (in 194). At that time, Zhu Ling led a group of Yuan Shao's cavalry and helped Cao Cao defeat Lu Bu in Puyang. Seeing Cao Cao's ability, Zhu Ling did not go back to serve Yuan Shao and chose to join Cao for a long time.

Among Cao Cao's advisers, Xun Yu and Guo Jia's resumes were both "first went to Yuan Shao, saw that Yuan Shao could not accomplish anything, and then came to Cao Cao." Therefore, as a general who changed his master, Zhu Ling had a natural affinity for Xun Yu and Guo Jia.

He felt that only Xun Yu and Guo Jia could understand his choice, and could understand his choice that "I feel that Yuan Shao is not capable of accomplishing anything, and we should take the initiative like a good bird choosing a tree to roost in."

After all, the Han people considered betraying their former masters to be morally flawed. Therefore, those who did this especially needed the approval of their colleagues and were more likely to form a group with people of similar backgrounds.

As for Zhang He and Gao Lan, although they also came from Yuan Shao, Zhu Ling did not think that they were "like-minded".

Because in Zhu Ling's view, Zhang He and Gao Lan were just defectors to Yuan Shao because of their lack of ability and internal strife when they were with Yuan Shao.

It's like two people who both switched from Company A to Company B, but the first person did so because he thought Company A had no future and looked down on it, while the second person did so because he couldn't defeat his colleagues in the office fight at Company A. How can they be the same? The former would definitely look down on the latter.

Because of this kind of thinking inertia and tendency, Zhu Ling subconsciously felt that it was not Guo Jia's fault but Zhang He's fault when something happened this time, so he naturally expressed his judgment.

After hearing this, Zhang He immediately realized that something was wrong. His expression changed instantly. After forcibly suppressing his emotions, he said coldly:

"Mr. Zhu, I have always respected you as my senior, but what do you mean by this? You insist that Chen Dao had been transporting grain normally before, and only set up an ambush this time because the secret was leaked - that is, you think I leaked the secret?"

Zhu Ling: "I didn't say you leaked the secret! I just said that we can't rule out the possibility that someone else leaked the secret. Before the matter is clear, we can't just put all the blame on Feng Xiao!"

Zhang He was so angry that he laughed: "How could I put the blame on Guo Jijiu! From beginning to end, I didn't say a word to shirk responsibility! It was all Guo Jijiu who took the initiative to bear it!"

Guo Jia hurried out to try to make peace: "Is this the time to talk about this? Brother Wenbo (Zhu Ling), you shouldn't have said that. Let's stop here. We should be lenient with the enemy and think that Zhuge Jin was far-sighted and had laid a long-term ambush, and I fell into his trap. I will write to the Minister of Works today and take the blame for this - you two must not lose your composure!"

After Guo Jia said this, Zhu Ling stopped talking, and Zhang He also turned pale and said that he would not take it to heart.

However, once the seed of "maybe someone within our group leaked the information" was planted, it was impossible to completely return to the previous flawless state.

On the same day, Guo Jia and Zhang He each urgently revised their letters and discussed strategies, and then sent them to Cao Ren and Cao Cao respectively to report. The deployment of the troops was also fine-tuned accordingly.

However, just after I finished all this and sent out all the documents, another incident happened the next day.

Early that morning, a group of defeated soldiers under Zhu Ling's command returned to Pengcheng from the front line of Quliu.

In recent days, such situations have occurred frequently. After all, Zhu Ling had just suffered a defeat, and some scattered soldiers took detours and were delayed on their way back, so it was normal for them to come back late.

Because they were all their own people and had acquaintances to testify, these soldiers were released back into the city and after screening, they were reorganized according to their original organization.

But that night, a grassroots officer who had returned to the team secretly found Zhang He and handed him a letter from Guan Yu - this prisoner, who was released after his father was detained and given gold, silver and women, was arranged by Chen Gong.

It has to be said that Chen Gong was a man of some vicious strategies. He actually made further improvements based on Zhuge Jin's ideas.

The prisoner thought that Zhang He had already colluded with Guan Yu's army and was not worried about his own safety.

After Zhang He asked for a meeting with the letter through his confidant, Zhang He was shocked when he saw it. He immediately killed the prisoner who delivered the letter with a knife, burned the letter and the body, for fear of any complications.

Unexpectedly, Chen Gong arranged more than one prisoner to deliver the message. After the messenger No. 2 learned that the messenger No. 1 had mysteriously disappeared and had not responded for a long time, he thought that Zhang He might want to change his mind to protect himself, so he killed him.

The captive messenger No. 2 quickly tried to escape - because his father and the woman he had just captured were with Guan Yu, he had no choice but to run.

But in the end, he was caught by Zhu Ling's men when he tried to escape from the city at night. After being tortured, he confessed everything. Zhu Ling was recovering from his injuries at the time, but he was awakened by his men and secretly told him that Guan Yu had sent someone to contact Zhang He.

Zhu Ling did not dare to delay. He reported to Guo Jia while questioning Zhang He.

In the middle of the night, there was commotion in Pengcheng City.

The atmosphere in the prefect's mansion was tense for a while. Although Guo Jia was keeping the pressure on, it didn't get to the point of a showdown, but both sides seemed to want the other to explain clearly.

"Zhang Junyi, this man has confessed. Guan Yu has sent another secret messenger to contact you! Where is the secret messenger? Where is the letter?" Zhu Ling asked as soon as he saw Zhang He.

Zhang He's heart tightened, but he still resisted stubbornly: "How can you take the nonsense of a deserter seriously? Guo Jijiu, can't you see that this is Zhuge Jin's plan to sow discord!"

Zhang He knew that it was pointless to talk nonsense with Zhu Ling, so he turned to Guo Jia for help in the second half of his sentence.

Zhu Ling just kept asking, "Whether it is a plot to sow discord is not up to you or me. Fengxiao is resourceful and will make his own judgment. What you and I have to do is just to explain what happened and let Fengxiao make the judgment! Just tell me where the messenger and the letter are!"

Zhang He: "There is no envoy at all!"

Zhu Ling sneered: "Where is the commander of Zuoqu Santun in my army who just returned today? They are all defeated soldiers who returned to my army, I must know! I am afraid you have already silenced them and destroyed their bodies!
I have already asked, and the comrades who returned with him all said that he went to look for your people in the afternoon, and then disappeared! This is consistent with the confession of another captured spy. What else do you want?"

Zhang He's face changed, and he regretted killing someone just now, but he still insisted: "That person was willing to be Guan Yu's spy and spoke nonsense. I killed him to stabilize the morale of the army!"

Zhu Ling: "I think what Guan Yu said in the letter is quite attractive to you - don't you think that people who came earlier than you and have less ability than you are above you? People who came later than you but came at a more critical time than you are also above you.

You really wasted your talent. You chose to surrender at the time of the Battle of Guandu, which was like sending timely help. Unfortunately, right after you delivered the charcoal, Yuan Shao was devastated. You had no chance to make achievements, and no chance to get promoted and make money because the situation was still critical after you surrendered! You are worried that the bow will be put away after the bird is killed and the dog will be cooked after the rabbit is dead!"

Zhang He: "Nonsense! Zhu Ling, you are jealous of someone with talent! Besides, you are not normally so eloquent. Who taught you to say such vicious and tricky words?"

Zhu Ling: "Someone did teach me. Isn't this what Zhuge Jin wrote in the letter he sent to you through his spy?"

Zhang He was confused. "Doesn't that prove that this is a divisive plot by the enemy? If I was really colluding with Guan Yu, why would Zhuge Jin be on guard against me and arrange two messengers and two letters? He is just trying to provoke internal strife in our army in case you don't know!"

Guo Jia, who was standing next to them, couldn't get a word in at first because Zhu Ling and Zhang He spoke too fast, and Guo Jia didn't fully understand the situation and didn't know how to persuade them.

By this time, Guo Jia had almost understood what was going on. He knew that the situation must not be allowed to deteriorate any further, so he quickly tried to mediate:

"Let's stop here! I'm sure it must be Zhuge Jin's trick! He wants to alienate us! Just think, how can a mere reason like 'Cao Gong employs people like piling up firewood, and the latecomers are on top' make Jun Yi have a different mind?
Isn't this too much of an underestimation? Even if Chang Xi's official title is higher than Jun Yi's, so what? The strong wind reveals the strong grass, and Jun Yi is loyal, righteous and good at fighting. Sooner or later, he will be higher than him, so why be jealous for a moment?"

(Note: "The strong wind knows the strong grass" comes from Dongguan Hanji, which is earlier than the time in the book. However, "The turbulent times tell the loyal ministers" comes from the Tang Dynasty, and "The long journey tells the horse's strength, and the long time tells the heart's heart" comes from the Song Dynasty. I have no problem using those five words separately, but I will explain them to prevent criticism.)
Zhang He heard Guo Jia's sensible words and helped him to sort things out, so he bowed to Guo Jia in gratitude and said, "Guo Jijiu is very righteous! If I have the chance in the future, I will definitely repay him generously!"

Guo Jia didn't take it seriously and hurriedly asked for the secret letter from the enemy in Zhu Ling's hand, saying that he would burn it in public to stop people from gossiping about it. Even if Sikong asked about it in the future, he would take full responsibility and help explain the vicious intentions of the letter.

Of course Zhu Ling would not go against Guo Jia, so he handed the letter to him.

However, in his heart, he still had some distrust towards Zhang He. It was impossible to return to the sincere cooperation in the past. After such an incident, there would be more or less cracks and suspicions.

Even Guo Jia still had a crack in his heart, thinking that Zhang He must be dissatisfied with his treatment. But he was better at controlling his thoughts and emotions than Zhu Ling, and knew that the overall situation was more important.

After Guo Jia took the secret letter handed over by Zhu Ling, to be on the safe side, he still had to read it carefully before burning it, so as to avoid being unable to respond if Cao Cao asked about it in the future.

However, this one glance was not a big deal, as Guo Jia soon saw some vicious intentions in it and felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave.

"How vicious! Zhuge Jin actually thanked Junyi at the end of the letter for deliberately leaking our military intelligence, including the movements of Chang Xi in Mount Tai! He also thanked Junyi for not saving Chang Xi when he was besieged by Guan Yu, under the pretext of 'the important location of Pengcheng cannot be lost'!"

Zhang He and Zhu Ling did not react as quickly as Guo Jia, and they did not figure out the viciousness of this sentence. Zhang He said as a matter of course: "Zhuge Jin wants to trick us into cooperating like this, can't we just ignore him?

He must have said this to provoke me to rescue Chang Xi, which also means that Guan Yu will soon go to Fuyang to attack Chang Xi. We just want to defend Pengcheng and wait for help, so that he can't provoke us, isn't it just right?"

Guo Jia closed his eyes in pain: "It would be great if Jun Yi is willing to think so, but this matter is not that simple - even if I can see that this is a provocation, you can see that this is a provocation, Cao Gong can also see that this is a provocation, but can the world see that this is a provocation?

Chang Xi is already caught between two ends. If he is attacked by Guan Yu and our army does not come to his rescue, or Zhuge Jin uses a counter-espionage tactic on Chang Xi, making him think that we have betrayed him and hoping that he will fight to the death with Guan Yu, resulting in both sides suffering losses, and then we will take action. In that case, is it possible that Chang Xi will really surrender to Guan Yu?

Moreover, as long as we don't save Chang Xi, and Chang Xi surrenders to Guan Yu, Chang Xi will have an excuse to blame our army and Cao Gong for his betrayal. Zhuge Jin will definitely seize this opportunity and say, "Cao Gong gives people promotions and wealth, but others want his position, and he wants others' lives," and he will kill people.

In the future, when Cao Gong is in danger again, he will reward those semi-independent foreign vassal states in the name of the court to work for the court. Who will listen to him? What will Ma Teng think? What will Liu Zhang think? Will they all imagine themselves as Zang Ba and Chang Xi? Who can be won over by the court's promotion order?
Therefore, if we do not save Chang Xi, and Chang Xi is defeated and surrenders to the enemy, Chang Xi can then shirk responsibility and say that the fault lies with us.

We rescued him, but Chang Xi still lost and surrendered to the enemy. At least we can shut up Chang Xi, and it is Chang Xi who failed the court, not the court. In this way, the imperial edict will be attractive to Ma Teng and Liu Zhang in the future.

Zhuge Jin's viciousness was that he saw through this point: what he wanted was that Cao Gong knew that this was alienation, I also knew that this was alienation, and you also knew that this was alienation, but Chang Xi and other wavering princes in the world did not know that this was alienation, so we still have to step on it.

In order to maintain the reputation of "the court will not abandon any general who surrenders in times of crisis", we can only put the safety of Pengcheng as the second consideration and make it our top priority to establish the reputation of the court not abandoning any newly surrendered general."

The safety of Pengcheng County is very important.

However, compared with the court's reputation of whether the newly-joined generals would be abandoned after their use has served their purpose, or whether "you are after his interest and he is after your principal", the former is obviously not that important.

Zhang He was confused and hadn't reacted yet: "What should we do now?"

Guo Jia: "Write a letter immediately, telling Chang Xi not to linger in Fuyang any longer, and to gather all his forces and march south to join us in Pengcheng. I guarantee that as long as he joins forces with us, the court will still guarantee his independent command of his direct troops, and will not use his troops to fight in the front line and consume them!

You should also organize your troops as soon as possible and be ready to support Chang Xi at any time. If you can support him, that would be the best. If you really can’t… you can only prepare for the worst.”

Zhang He immediately went to prepare according to the plan.

Unfortunately, all this was of no use in the end.

Because Guo Jia's envoy had not yet reached Fuyang Changxi, Guan Yu had already marched his troops in a hurry, captured the small county of Yinping, and then surrounded Fuyang.

Chang Xi has been surrounded by Guan Yu.

If Zhang He wanted to rescue Chang Xi, he had to fight in the field to break through Guan Yu's encirclement.

(End of this chapter)