My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 411: Tricking Cao Cao Before Leaving

Liu Bei listened to Zhuge Liang's second plan roughly and figured it out.

The core of this strategy should be to use the fear of the people in the three southeastern counties of Qiao to create an uninhabited area about Cao Cao's relocation, so as to induce the people to accept our relocation arrangements in advance and actively.

However, Liu Bei felt that there was something wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it, so he just continued to listen to Zhuge Liang's detailed explanation:

"After this rumor spread, the local people who were reluctant to move would inevitably think: Even if they escaped our army's relocation and stayed in their hometown, they would still have to leave their hometown in the future. Either by our army or by Cao Cao. In this way, since they can't avoid being relocated anyway, they might as well go to a place with lighter burdens and benevolent governance."

The final actual effect of Zhuge Liang's second strategy is similar to the result of the struggle between Cao and Sun in Huainan when Lu Su was in power in history. The only difference is that Zhuge Liang took the initiative to use it, while Lu Su passively waited for this result and was hit by the pie in the sky.

Liu Bei thought it was a good idea, but he was worried that it might be a scam. "Will this still harm the people? I can't bear to cheat the people."

Zhuge Liang: "No, because I didn't intend to slander Cao Cao. I just predicted what Cao Cao would do in the future. I predicted that even if we didn't move, as long as Cao Cao saw that if we kept people along the north bank of the Huai River, we would continue to harass him and make him difficult to guard against, he would definitely think of moving people and creating an uninhabited area.

I just predicted what Cao Cao would do in the future and pointed it out in advance. How could it be a trick? This is the first point.

As mentioned above, even if I use these two strategies together, I still cannot move all the people away. There will still be a small number of people who refuse to believe in evil and are determined not to leave. These people who stay will be able to verify my statement in the future, because they will also be moved away by Cao Cao.

In the future, when this happens, the people who have been relocated to Huainan by our gentle means will see this example, and then our army will guide and publicize it, so that this example will be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the people will know that our army has no ill intentions from beginning to end. Anyway, they can no longer live in this place.

The only difference is that we use the invisible force of differentiation and guidance to do things, while Cao Cao uses force and does not give people the opportunity to choose. In such a time of great contention, we give the people a choice, which is the most benevolent approach in comparison.

As long as we guarantee that the people have half a year's worth of food during the relocation process, give them land after arriving in Huainan, exempt them from corvée, and let them have time to rebuild new houses, and the government provides wood, stone, brick kilns, fuel, and even some new farm tools for free, the people will naturally appreciate our kindness when they see the comparison. "

Liu Bei carefully sorted out his thoughts and had to admit that Zhuge Liang was right.

Based on his understanding of Cao Cao, Cao Cao would really use any means to relocate people and create a new no-man's land isolation zone. In this case, it would be better to benefit himself than to benefit Cao Cao. After all, he would treat the people better.

Liu Bei finally made the decision: "In that case, I'll leave this matter to you, sir. You can ask Zilong to take charge of the details. Zilong is also a cautious person and never disturbs the people. With you and Zilong watching over him, I'm sure there will be no chance for him to cheat and harm the people."

……

After Liu Bei made up his mind, the retreat of Zhao Yun's troops in Huaibei was carried out in an orderly manner within just two days.

Shansang County is closest to the enemy, so it is naturally the most urgent time to retreat.

Because this was previously a support point for Zhao Yun's troops to bypass Cao Ren, and they had already encircled Qi County and Fuli County from the flank.

There were nearly 20,000 Cao troops in Qi County, more than 20,000 in Fuli, and 40,000 Cao troops on the south bank of Suishui. It was the Shansang County stronghold that blocked the return route to Suinan. It was only because Cao Ren had a Zhuyi on the north bank of Suishui that he could ensure absolute control of the western waterway of Suishui that Zhao Yun was unable to completely surround Cao Ren.

Now that Zhao Yun was going to retreat, he would of course be the first to retreat here. Also because this place was relatively close to Qiao County and Feiting, there were many powerful people in the county who were close to Cao.

As soon as Zhao Yun announced the order of "voluntary evacuation of the people", there were indeed very few people who responded actively.

Many powerful families chose to hide in their manors, stay indoors and resist in silence.

However, Zhao Yun's methods were gentle and he did not harm the people. Many people who bullied the weak and feared the strong watched for a while, and after realizing the clues, they became less afraid.

Good people should be pointed at guns. This is an eternal "truth". If you don't dare to kill anyone, why should others be afraid of you?

Zhao Yun saw that this was not going to work, as the location of Shansang County was too dangerous and if it was delayed for too long something unexpected might happen, so he went to Zhuge Liang to ask whether he should abandon the plan.

Zhuge Liang had traveled so far in two days to help his brother-in-law clean up the stall, which was of course very tiring. When Zhao Yun found him, he was still taking a nap in the county government office of Shansang County.

After listening to his brother-in-law's difficulties, he still picked his ears sleepily, stretched and yawned deeply, completely disregarding his manners:

"It's as expected, it's no big deal. More haste, less speed. Showing weakness at the beginning is also to make them arrogant. Now the situation is almost right, let's test it and let our spies spread rumors about Cao Cao.

Let me emphasize again, "If we cooperate with the General of Chariots and Cavalry now and move our clansmen away, the distant relatives and branches of their family who remain in Qiaodi may be implicated by Cao Cao in the future." After all, these large clans are intertwined and not all of them are in one county. What if there are branches in Qiao County or Feiting? Won't they be worried?" Zhao Yun was anxious when he heard this: "Wouldn't that be speaking for Cao Cao? These words are helping Cao Cao threaten the neutral people who are already wavering and hesitant."

Zhuge Liang yawned again: "Brother-in-law, why don't you understand? When the time comes, we will naturally dispel the rumors and let the people know that these are all "rumors". What we want to see is who will jump out and accept the rumor first and help spread it -

In particular, when some people see that the people who first spread the rumors were not killed or punished, those who hate our army and want to spread rumors will become bolder and bolder, mistakenly believing that our army is about to retreat and that there are too many things to do and no time to pay attention to these things.

This kind of thing will be clear in two or three days at most. Once they take over, we can find evidence of their crimes and wipe out the companies that spread the rumors the most, to give them a warning.”

Zhao Yun suddenly realized that Aliang's brain was really useful no matter how he planned.

He did everything according to the plan and pretended to be weak that day to lure people. Sure enough, two days later, several local wealthy families who were related to the Cao and Xiahou families took the bait and helped to spread the message very hard. Then, in the process, they were caught in a trap set by Zhao Yun's troops, and there were witnesses.

Among them, the most notable crime was committed by the Shansang Guo family, which was a branch of the Feiting Guo family, and the Feiting Guo family had a marriage relationship with a distant branch of the Cao family.

There was nothing more to say. Zhao Yun led his troops and arrested several local aristocratic families represented by the Shansang Guo family. They were taken to a busy place in the county town, put on a public trial, showed evidence, and executed them directly.

When they were about to die, several leading figures of the Shansang Guo family tried to deny everything but to no avail, so they wanted to find someone to take the blame for their crimes, shouting that they were not the initiators and that the rumors had other sources, and that they just helped spread them because they thought they were useful. They were not satisfied that only they were executed and not the main culprit.

Zhao Yun just sneered at this and said that the main culprit must be beheaded, but he has not been arrested yet, and he will definitely die a more miserable death than them if he is caught.

In reality, this "main culprit" will certainly never be caught.

With a savage blow, many people were beheaded. All the money and grain left in the Shansang Guo family and other manors were confiscated. Zhao Yun did not keep any of it for himself, but announced it publicly in the county government:
These grains and cloths will be equally distributed to the people in the county who are willing to move south as subsidies. The fewer people who go, the more each household will get. Those who are willing to move can sign a pledge in public, and the deadline is tomorrow. No one will be allowed after the deadline.

Those who decided to escape later would not receive this extra subsidy, but after arriving in Huainan, they would still receive the basic resettlement subsidy that was equally provided to everyone.

This confiscated money is considered extra income.

As a result, the people of Shansang naturally relaxed instantly. Even though this place was less than 200 miles away from Cao Cao's hometown (from today's Bozhou City to Mengcheng County), not many people cared about the Cao family anymore.

Cao Cao doesn't care about the poor people. They only care about who has a good life under their rule. The biggest loss of migration is the need to rebuild the house and some heavy and bulky things are difficult to carry. Other losses are not big. The government is willing to promise subsidies and extra money, so let's go.

Then, Zhuge Liang's other backup plan was launched smoothly according to plan.

Zhao Yun spread the word that "Cao Cao will definitely take revenge in the future. If you don't leave, you may be forcibly relocated to Qiao County, and Cao Cao will definitely not provide any financial subsidies for the relocation.

At that time, even if they lent you oxen and farm tools, you would have to become a farmer with extremely heavy rent and taxes, which was tantamount to selling yourself. It was said that Cao Cao's farmers only borrowed seeds from the government, and at the end of the year they had to hand in 50% of their harvest as rent and taxes. If they rented cattle from the government, they would have to pay another 10%, and if they used iron farm tools from the government, they would have to pay another 10%, and finally 70% would go to Cao Cao.

These words were absolutely not slanderous. The people under Cao Cao's rule had heard about the extent of Cao Cao's exploitation of the land. Now that someone reminded them of this, the people naturally believed that if Cao Cao really wanted to relocate them, he would definitely be happy to see the people "lose their farm tools, livestock, and cannot afford seeds, and have to rely entirely on the government, and then hand over 70% of their income to the government."

The local people finally began to migrate voluntarily in an avalanche-like manner.

Zhao Yun successfully completed the task within a few days. The other side also followed suit, doing the same thing in Longkang and Xiaoxian. The progress of the two places was only one or two days later than that of Longkang. With the successful experience of Longkang, they could directly copy it, and everything went very smoothly.

In the end, Liu Bei did not use any violent means, nor did he exploit the people. He killed a total of seven or eight troublemakers from large families, robbed the rich to help the poor, and let the people take the subsidies and go to Huainan.

The number of people who relocated from each county ranged from over 2,000 households to 3,000 to 4,000 households, totaling about 7,000 to 8,000 households, accounting for more than two-thirds of the local population.

By the time Cao Cao reacted, he had already suffered a loss by advancing further from Suiyang and hastening the expulsion of Zhao Yun.

Afterwards, when Cao Cao heard that this was Zhuge Liang's plan, he was very angry again.

"Zhuge is a worthless man! Big Zhuge and Little Zhuge are both worthless! I swear to kill them!"

(End of this chapter)