My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 404: First ask the military advisor, then ask the military advisor
Cai Yang thought he was mature and tolerant, so he temporarily put aside his hatred for Gan Ning and without caring about anything else, he immediately took a crazy detour to withdraw his troops back to Huainan.

A gentleman's revenge is never too late. Wait until I return to Huainan, take a strategic position, and wait for Liu Bei's army to come and fight them head-on. Isn't that better than fighting a field battle with Gan Ning now?

The more the enemy wants to do something, the more you should avoid it, so as not to make your own friends sad and your enemies happy.

Unfortunately, Cai Yang's maturity and prudence ultimately left him with no room to display his talents.

If Liu Bei chose to stop and rest on the Huainan battlefield when Wei Yan was injured and his troops suffered many wounded soldiers, then Cai Yang's intention to take a detour to return for support might be of some use.

But Liu Bei knew very well when to fight at all costs and when to relax.

He chose to lead the army in person in the absence of many of his generals, and decisively deployed the strategic reserve in Shouchun to replace some of the tired troops, ensuring that the offensive was continuous and continued to advance at the speed of conquering a small county every few days.

Cai Yang's efforts were in vain and became a joke.

……

About ten days later, on September 20th, Yiyang City, Runan County.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, without any generals to serve as vanguards, still advanced to the last fortress of Cao's army in Huainan.

The strength of Liu Bei's army on the Yiyang front line initially consisted of just over 10,000 troops, but as troops from the rear were resting and rotating, the number quickly increased to nearly 20,000.

It was still a bit difficult to gain an absolute advantage in attacking with such a small number of troops, after all, the Art of War also said "attack at five points". However, it was more than enough to besiege the city and build a camp first.

Therefore, Liu Bei ordered all the troops to first stabilize the camps, strengthen the fortifications, and slowly fill and destroy the moat outside Yiyang. Then wait for Gan Ning's troops to arrive at the battlefield before considering a full-scale general attack. Anyway, this is the last stronghold in Huainan, so there is no need to rush.

As one of the only two county-level cities of Cao Wei in the western part of Huainan in history (the other one was Anfeng, which was conquered by Wei Yan at the beginning), Yiyang's defense was still relatively solid.

Compared with Anfeng City, the defensive facilities here are comparable, but the number of soldiers and the size of the city in Yiyang are even larger than Anfeng.

More importantly, at this moment, there was still an important official of Cao’s army defending Yiyang City. He was Li Tong, the prefect of Runan appointed by Cao Cao.

Compared to the beginning of the war, when Anfeng City was attacked by surprise, there were only some unknown generals in charge in the city. The stability of people's hearts and the morale of the army on Yiyang's side are far ahead.

Speaking of the general Li Tong, many readers who only read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms may underestimate him - mainly because Luo Guanzhong treated Li Tong as a rhythm pad to pave the way for Ma Chao's martial arts value, and he was stabbed to death in the Battle of Tongguan.

But in fact, Li Tong never fought against Ma Chao in his life. He just happened to die of illness one or two years before Ma Chao attacked Cao. Luo Guanzhong felt that it was a pity to write that such a person died of illness, so he made use of the waste. It is similar to the use of Yu She, Pan Feng, Fang Yue and Mu Shun.

Li Tong has been deeply rooted in Runan for more than ten years. He has gradually developed from a county to a county. During the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao promised him the title of General of the Southern Expedition and asked him to rebel in Runan and attack Cao Cao. Li Tong also killed Yuan Shao's envoy and sent his head to Xudu to seek credit. Cao Cao then appointed him as the governor of Runan and Marquis of Duting, and his military rank was promoted from a general to a general of miscellaneous titles.

It can be seen that he, like Zhu Ling, is a die-hard fan of Cao Cao and will never be won over by Liu Bei.

When Liu Bei attacked this time, Li Tong originally had the opportunity to escape and leave Yiyang in advance.

But he did not run away, but chose to hold on and wait for help. He was obviously worried that Yiyang would fall too quickly, and after Liu Bei completely occupied Huainan, he would continue to move north along the Ru River and infiltrate the "Huaibei and Runan" part of Runan County, which would pose a great threat to the hinterland of the Xudu court.

His mentality was similar to Zhu Ling's. They were both willing to risk dying in battle and drag the battle out. They firmly believed that they could hold out until Cao Cao ended the battle in Hebei and the main force of Cao's army moved south again to repel Liu Bei.

……

Three days after the arrival of Liu Bei's vanguard, the siege camp was basically completed, and all four gates of Yiyang were surrounded, without any consideration of surrounding three and leaving one gate open.

The moat hasn't been filled in much yet. After all, things have their priorities, and this is not the most urgent.

Instead of spending this much time, it would be better to invest the limited manpower in raising the height of the village walls, digging more pits, and making deer antlers from bamboo and wood.

After the construction was completed, Liu Bei personally inspected the camp and was very satisfied, but he was a little confused, so he asked Zhuge Liang:

"As the Art of War says, surround three sides and leave one empty. Why did the military advisor surround the city completely on all sides this time? Isn't he afraid that Li Tong will fight back and the defenders will hold on to the city to their death, and the morale of the city will rise instead of fall?"

Zhuge Liang gently waved his feather fan, pointed to the top of the city wall, and analyzed with a firm tone: "The application of military tactics must also be combined with reality. I have always known Li Tong. He is loyal to Cao Cao and his temperament is very similar to Cao Cao.

At that time, there were bandits in various counties of Runan who fought for their own territory and refused to submit to each other. Li Tong, Zhou Zhi and Chen Gong were the three major leaders of Runan. When Li Tong annexed people's tribes, he did not hesitate to do anything. He invited Zhou Zhi to the Hongmen Banquet, smashed cups during the banquet as a signal to kill him, and annexed his tribes. Later, he induced Chen Gong's troops to rebel and kill Chen Gong. He then came forward to quell the rebellion and avenge Chen Gong, and also annexed his tribes. A person who has been killing like this all his life, in his bones, does not get along with those who are decent and high-handed. So later, Yuan Shao tempted him with a high position, and he did not hesitate to kill Yuan Shao's envoy and send his head to Xudu. He admired people like Cao Cao who were as unscrupulous as him.

Although the lord is very different from Yuan Shao, he has always been righteous and has done what he should and should not do. In Li Tong's view, this style is hypocrisy. Such people hate people who choose the means to do things the most, so when he meets our army, he will never surrender or run away.

Before Yiyang was surrounded, we deliberately slowed down our advance and gave him a chance to run away, but he didn't. He would definitely go all the way to the end. So we must kill him, rather than force him to leave or make him land."

Liu Bei sighed. He had never doubted Zhuge Liang's judgment, but he still felt a little unwilling:

"Li Tong is fine, but the way he annexed friendly forces was truly despicable. He even swore an oath and carried out assassination.

But the soldiers in Yiyang City may not all be former subordinates of the Runan bandits, so we must try to persuade those who can surrender..."

Zhuge Liang smiled confidently and said, "Don't worry about this, my lord. When we attack, we will definitely kill only the main culprits and ignore the accomplices. At the final stage, I will find an excuse to let them go so as to shake the enemy's morale.

But we can’t do that now, because we have to be on guard against Cai Yang coming back to help and sneaking into the city to join Li Tong. We have to surround him tightly now.”

Zhuge Liang analyzed it clearly: the situation he was facing now was slightly different from the situation his elder brother encountered in Pengcheng when he met Zhu Ling.

(Note: In Runan, the timeline is still late September, so Zhu Ling is not dead yet in Pengcheng, and Zhuge Jin and Gao Shun are still attacking the city. The two timelines are parallel.)
When Zhuge Jin besieged Pengcheng, he was certain that Zhang He and Guo Jia had become frightened birds, and would never dare to return to rescue Zhu Ling after retreating to Pei County and Xiao County. Even if Zhang He and Guo Jia were willing to come for the first time, Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu would have wanted to kill Guo Jia and Zhang He together to better weaken Cao's bandits.

But on the Runan side, Cai Yang was obviously much more reckless than Guo Jia and Zhang He, and he had never suffered a serious loss at the hands of Liu Bei's army before. He really dared to come to rescue Li Tong.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang had to strictly divide a battle into two stages: besieging a point and attacking reinforcements, and attacking strongholds. Each stage had to correspond to different siege strategies and troop deployments. It was very detailed and could not be wrong.

After listening to Zhuge Liang's analysis, Liu Bei was completely relieved: "Since the military advisor has thought so carefully and comprehensively, I will follow his advice in everything."

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang had finalized the plan, and they checked some details to fill in the gaps. As it was getting dark, Liu Bei ordered his meal to be prepared and ate with Zhuge Liang.

The soldiers didn't care much about food, they just ate charcoal-grilled game, freshly killed meat, lightly sprinkled with salt, without any other seasonings, not even spices to remove the wild animal's stench.

As the two were eating, a servant came to report that a vanguard messenger sent by Gan Ning had arrived at the Yiyang camp.

Liu Bei was very pleased and immediately summoned them. After a few simple questions, he learned that Gan Ning's troops would arrive before dawn tomorrow after another night's march. These scouts came first on fast horses to report the news, so there was a night's delay.

Liu Bei subconsciously ordered: "Tell the army's kitchen to prepare well. Tomorrow we will give a big reward to the soldiers to reward the reinforcements coming from afar."

Zhuge Liang quickly dropped the rabbit leg bone in his hand, wiped his hands on the linen towel, and advised: "My lord, you should do it secretly and not let the enemy notice that our reinforcements have arrived first!

Xingba's arrival means that Cai Yang is no longer guarded. Cai Yang has not arrived yet, but he will definitely arrive soon. If Cai Yang knew that Xingba would arrive first, he would definitely be on guard and would act cautiously, not daring to take the initiative to attack our army's siege camp.

But if Cai Yang didn't know that Xing Ba had arrived, he would definitely worry, "I'm already here. If Gan Ning finds out that I took a detour to escape, he will definitely not linger in Woyang for long and will come soon. It won't be long before Gan Ning will be here too."

In this way, Cai Yang would feel that the opportunity was not to be missed, and would want to seize this time difference and join forces with Li Tong to defeat our army first. Because he knew very well that when Xingba arrived and joined forces with our army, his chances of winning would be even lower.

Therefore, not only can our army not announce the arrival of reinforcements, but we must also increase the number of soldiers and reduce the number of cooking stoves, and ensure that the smoke from cooking in the camp does not increase, and the cooking time does not increase. If necessary, we can even use some military cooked and cold food stored in jars to feed the soldiers and help them get through the next few days. "

Liu Bei's army was engaged in fishery construction a few years ago. After catching too much sea fish, they began to think about salted dried fish. Later, Zhuge Brothers conducted so much microbial research in Guangling that they now have a lot of experience in how to make canned food to prevent cooked food from spoiling.

Although Liu Bei's army did not have high-end goods such as metal cans or glass cans in later generations, there were a lot of "canned foods" sealed in porcelain jars, which also ensured the military supplies and logistics for Liu Bei's army to advance quickly. Now it is not a problem to hold on for a few days.

Zhuge Liang was very thoughtful. When he mentioned the existence of hidden reinforcements, he immediately thought of a series of supporting operations such as increasing troops and reducing cooking fires, without missing any details in his acting.

For ordinary generals, this might require careful thinking, but for Zhuge Liang, it was not as common as eating and drinking.

Who made him Zhuge Liang?

Liu Bei nodded repeatedly and said, "That's right. Then we will do exactly what the military advisor said. When Xingba comes, you can tell him the details in person, and I won't ask any more questions."

(End of this chapter)