My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 460: Attack Xiangping
If we were to say who was the weakest and most incompetent among the three generations of rulers of the Gongsun family in Liaodong in history, it would basically be Gongsun Gong.

Historically, after his father Gongsun Du died, his elder brother Gongsun Kang took over the throne, but Gongsun Kang only held the throne for about ten years before he died of illness. Gongsun Kang's two sons, Gongsun Huang and Gongsun Yuan, were still young at the time, so his younger brother Gongsun Gong took over the throne.

However, Gongsun Gong later developed some kind of male physiological organ disease and had to undergo surgery to become a eunuch to save his life. His subordinates also thought that his branch had no hope, and he was re-recruited by his nephew Gongsun Yuan, who took away his power and put him under house arrest, which shows his incompetence.

(Note: "Records of the Three Kingdoms. Book of Wei, Volume 8": "Gong was ill and was demoted to a eunuch. He was too weak to govern the country.")
Therefore, facing the current situation where the Gongsun family was in disarray, it was not surprising that Gongsun Gong became the first defector and knelt down in order to save his life.

Since he has surrendered, Zhao Yun will not make things difficult for him. At least he can ensure that he has good food and drink and can be a powerless rich man.

Zhao Yun estimated that in the current situation, Gongsun Du's eldest son Gongsun Kang was still guarding Xiangping. After Gongsun Du's death, Gongsun Kang could still smoothly take over the power. Gongsun Gong was a chess piece that could not be used for the time being. Since ancient times, how could a younger brother persuade his elder brother to surrender?

But for the outer cities controlled by the Gongsun family, it should be easier to capture them after the precedent of Gongsun Gong's defection. Many people would think, "The young master's second brother has already surrendered, why should we fight so hard?"
In history, when Zhang Fei entered Sichuan, he forced Yan Yan to surrender, and with the help of Yan Yan, he was able to persuade so many territories to surrender.

No matter how bad Gongsun Gong is, he should be better than Yan Yan. Yan Yan just couldn't persuade Shu County to surrender, but he could persuade the small places like Ba County.

……

Neither Zhao Yun nor Zhou Yu were hesitant people. Since they knew how to use Gongsun Gong as a chess piece, they would not waste time.

In the early part of the twelfth lunar month, they advanced both by land and sea. Zhao Yun led the cavalry to advance on the Liaohe Plain and encircle the land, while Zhou Yu led the navy upstream along the main stream of the Liaohe River.

If the enemy resisted, they would pull out the surrendered Gongsun Gong to undermine the enemy's morale. Generally speaking, the defenders of those small counties would collapse directly.

Even if they didn't collapse and wanted to defend to the death, it would be impossible for them to be united. The ordinary soldiers below would definitely be disunited and unwilling to fight. Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu only needed some simple flying ladders, battering rams, and a few charges to capture the city.

Within just ten days, the five surrounding counties of Fangxian, Xiandu, Anshi, Wenxian and Xinchang changed hands one after another.

The territory of the Gongsun family retreated to the Xiangping and Liaoyang lines, which were equivalent to Shenyang and Liaoyang in later generations.

In other words, in later generations, the lands west and south of Shenyang and Liaoyang in Liaoning fell into the hands of Liu Bei's camp. The coastal areas of Bohai Sea were also completely cleared.

……

On the other hand, Gongsun Du, who was frightened to death by Zhao Yun in the Liaosui camp that day, only survived for about ten more days.

After going through untold hardships, my subordinates finally managed to drag him back to Xiangping alive, so that he could see his eldest son Gongsun Kang for the last time and tell his last words in person before being executed. I can say that I have done the best I could.

The bumpy journey caused Gongsun Du's health to deteriorate further, and it was completely impossible to reverse it.

When Gongsun Kang saw his father, he knelt in front of the sickbed and cried bitterly, and shouted angrily that he wanted revenge.

Gongsun Du seemed to have let it go: "It is fate that has doomed me, not the fault of the war. If my illness had not worsened and I had not been unable to lead the troops to fight Zhao Yun in person, Zhao Yun might not have been able to defeat the enemy so easily with a small force and five times the number of troops!

"Liu Yi and Yang Yi, these two incompetent men have led me astray! They made this young man famous! It's a pity that I couldn't fight Zhao Yun to the death on the battlefield!"

Gongsun Du had a moment of clarity before his death, and his voice became stronger and more powerful, which really helped to vent the depression in his heart.

His trusted aides Wang Lie, Bing Yuan, and even his son Gongsun Kang, actually knew that their lord was just consoling himself.

They thought to themselves: If the lord had led the army to the decisive battle that day, he would have fought better than Liu Yi and Yang Yi. But if they wanted to defeat Zhao Yun, they were afraid that their hope was still slim... Maybe he would have died in battle just like Liu Yi.

But when a man is about to die, the dead are the greatest, and everyone did not want to expose his final fantasy, but just went along with what he said so that he could go peacefully.

After Gongsun Du had expressed his deepest resentment, he calmed down, grabbed Gongsun Kang's hand, and taught him earnestly: "Since God is not blessing our Gongsun family, if you can't win in the future, you should think about how to negotiate a condition with Liu Bei.

In today's chaotic world, there are many states and counties that are unable to keep up with the main forces and eventually lose the battle for the world. Before the two Yuans, very few people died or their clans were destroyed."

However, Gongsun Kang was more courageous than his father had imagined. With a gleam of determination in his eyes, he advised his father not to worry and let him be on his own.

Gongsun Kang said, "Father, this is a different time. If we had not yet fought with Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu, they might have been willing to give us generous terms of surrender.

Now that the battle has come to this, their army is at its peak. If we go to beg for mercy, will they treat us well? We will be prisoners by then! Zhou Yu will think that we are doomed, and even if they don't treat us well, we can't make any more waves!

Therefore, if we want peace, we must fight for it. We must defend Xiangping to the death, frustrate their offensive, and let them see that if our army does not stop fighting, they will not be able to easily seize the entire Liaodong area. Then we can negotiate a condition with them, even if we give up Xiangping and go far away, in exchange for them not pursuing us relentlessly, and then they may agree. "

Gongsun Du could certainly understand Gongsun Kang's thinking. As the lord of Haidong, they were very different from the princes in the Central Plains. They felt that even if they were defeated, they had no way out and did not have to surrender.

Because they are already the most marginal princes in the world, the princes who rise in these geographical environments will have a rebellious spirit that cannot be under the rule of others for long.

When Qin Shi Huang unified the world, those rebellious rebels who were unwilling to surrender to Qin said, "Now the country is unified. If you don't want to surrender to Qin, you can either flee to the Hu in the north or to the Yue in the south."

For the princes bordering the "Hu" or "Yue" tribes, if they were forced into a corner by the Central Plains dynasty, they could continue to flee to more remote and Hu-ized places. Even if the land where they rebuilt their base in the future was very wild, it was better than becoming slaves to others.

The territory can be bad, but you must be the boss.

This kind of mentality is impossible for the princes in the heartland of the Central Plains. Because the princes in the heartland of the Central Plains are surrounded by the king's land, they have nowhere to run. The thinking patterns of these two types of princes are fundamentally different on this issue.

Gongsun Du could understand his son's thoughts, but he couldn't help but remind him: "It's good that you don't want to be depressed and under someone else's rule for a long time. But our Gongsun family can't risk the extinction of our descendants and throw everything at the stake... Alas, I don't know how Gong'er is doing. The main force of our army was annihilated by Zhao Yun, and Changli should not be able to hold on for long..."

Gongsun Du sighed for a while, still muttering there, his breath becoming weaker and weaker.

Gongsun Kang saw that his father was about to die, but he was still struggling with these things. He also made up his mind and suddenly said something shocking: "Father thinks too highly of my second brother. He has already surrendered to Zhao Yun. The day before yesterday, Zhao Yun took him to Xiandu County and persuaded the county's guard to surrender!
I was worried about my father's health, so I didn't tell him the news of my second brother's surrender. But since my father was so afraid that our Gongsun family would be extinct, I didn't hide it anymore - even a coward like my second brother surrendered, if I surrendered too, I'm afraid my status and fate would be lower than my second brother's, so why would Liu Bei keep me?

I cannot take this risk. I would rather not be able to defend Xiangping and have to flee to Fuyu to seek refuge with my brother-in-law than be under Liu Bei!"

As mentioned earlier, when Gongsun Du was at his most powerful, he was able to subdue small marginal states such as Goguryeo and Buyeo.

The current King of Buyeo, Wei Choutai, is the son-in-law of Gongsun Du, and the brother-in-law of Gongsun Kang.

This was also an important reason why Gongsun Kang was unwilling to surrender. Who would want to live a life of luxury when there was still a way out?

Wang Lie, Bing Yuan and others nearby were also shocked to hear that the young master had concealed the bad news for five or six days and suddenly told his lord. They were afraid that Gongsun Du would be angered to death by the bad news.

But Gongsun Du's expression only changed several times, and then he calmed down, and even showed a trace of relief. His mind seemed to have never been so clear. He glanced at Wang Lie and Bing Yuan, and smiled:
"What are you worried about? Kang'er is doing great! You shouldn't have kept this kind of news from me! I didn't expect to hear such good news before I die. I can die with peace of mind.

Everyone has their own way out. Gong'er is a coward, but he can save his life. Kang'er, your father will not interfere with your choice in the future. If you think it is good to live in the land of the Hu people all your life, to be a hero outside the territory, and not be hunted by Liu Bei, that would be great too. "

After Gongsun Du finished speaking, he sighed more than a dozen times, but his voice became weaker and weaker until it was no longer audible.

Gongsun Kang, Wang Lie and Bing Yuan did not disturb him. After a while, seeing that his father was too quiet, Gongsun Kang went forward and felt his breath, only then did he confirm that his father had died.

Everyone in the Pingzhou governor's mansion then mourned together. Gongsun Kang took the lead by wearing a hemp scarf and crying for a while. Then he asked the servants to collect the body and quickly set up a mourning hall on the spot.

Then, in the mourning hall, he drew his sword and summoned all the generals, hoping that they would help him defend the city for the sake of his late father.

You know what, after Gongsun Kang made such a fuss, he actually won a lot of sympathy.

The generals looked at their old lord's body, which was still warm, and the new lord's courtesy and humility, and they all expressed their solidarity with the enemy.

……

In the following days, Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu's battle entered a deeper stage.

The two cities of Liaoyang and Xiangping were more solid than the small counties encountered along the way, and had more defenders. After all, there were still tens of thousands of people defending each city.

Gongsun Kang calmed the people's hearts for a while, and the whole army fought to the death. The tentative attacks of Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu were all repelled.

On the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, there was a snowstorm around Liaoyang. Three days later, there was another snowstorm.

The rapidly decreasing temperature and severe weather forced Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu to completely abandon their winter offensive, and they would probably have to wait until spring to fight again.

After all, the timing of their advance was a violation of a major military taboo, mainly because it was intended to hit the critical juncture where Gongsun Du would die.

After the “bad news is cleared”, there must be some room for rebound for the bulls.

(End of this chapter)