My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 462: Shocking the Northern Frontier
Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu strictly followed Zhuge Jin's reply, so just over ten days later, Zhao Yun sent troops to send Gongsun Gong back to Ji County, Guangyang County, the seat of Youzhou.

Two months ago, when Zhao Yun killed Su Puyan, the leader of the Wuhuan in Liaoxi, Zhuge Jin was very low-key in his praise of his achievement.

So much so that long after Su Puyan's death, only a few high-ranking officials in Ji County knew about this military achievement.

The reason for being so low-key at that time was naturally to conceal the fact that Liu Bei's army had already sent troops to Liaoxi and Jixian was relatively empty of troops. This was to prevent Cao's spies from getting wind of the news and losing their composure.

This time, Zhuge Jin needed to be high-profile. He needed to make the enemy mistakenly believe that the battles in Liaoxi and Liaodong had been settled at once, and that they had missed the window of opportunity and could not recover.

Therefore, the ceremony of entering the city to present the captives must be as grand as possible.

The contrast between stillness and movement is extremely strong.

……

The wheel of history quietly entered the tenth year of Jian'an (205).

It’s the twelfth day of the first lunar month, and the New Year is almost over. It’s only three days until the Lantern Festival.

Outside the city of Jixian, a team of well-organized cavalrymen in shining iron armor and with flags flying returned in a dignified manner. There seemed to be several thousand of them.

The cavalry unit was under the banner of Zhao Yun, and the leading general was also wearing gorgeous new armor. He was tall and burly, similar to Zhao Yun.

It was just that the new armor had a whole-piece forged breastplate and back armor, a new forged steel helmet, and even a curved iron mask to block arrows. So after putting on this shiny and majestic new armor, the crowd watching from afar could not see clearly whether it was Zhao Yun himself behind the armor.

The figure and face are mostly covered, and one can only judge them by their height, which makes them much easier to forge.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin personally arranged a ceremonial guard to welcome him outside the city, so the surrounding soldiers and civilians had no doubts about what was going on.

"Congratulations to Zilong for this remarkable achievement. In just two months, he first killed Su Puyan and then destroyed Gongsun Du, although Wei and Dou were not as good as him."

Zhuge Jin praised and encouraged loudly in front of everyone, which was considered a full performance.

The "Zhao Yun" also dismounted and lifted his mask to return the greeting, then remounted and rode back to the city with Zhuge Jin. The horses were shaking, and soon the iron mask fell down naturally. "Zhao Yun" was too lazy to reach out to help it up. Anyway, he was half a body behind Zhuge Jin, and when the two were chatting, Zhuge Jin couldn't see his face, so it was not considered rude.

Everything is done so naturally that outsiders will certainly not be suspicious.

Soon, the news of Zhao Yun's great victory spread throughout Ji County.

For a moment, the whole city's soldiers and civilians were talking about it:

"Look! I heard that General Zhao killed Su Puyan in one battle! The wooden box wrapped in brocade presented to the princes just now is Su Puyan's head!"

Some of them did not believe it and could not help questioning: "Is it true? Su Puyan was a tyrant in western Liaoning, but he was killed in one battle? He was not taking credit for it, was he?"

But this conspiracy theory was quickly drowned out by the rebuttals of normal people: "How could someone take credit for such a big thing? In a few days, Su Puyan's head will definitely be hung on the city gate for public display. There are many people in Youzhou who have seen Su Puyan. If it's fake, how can you not tell?"

Those who doubted were silenced and dared not say anything more.

Soon, the topic of the onlookers shifted to Gongsun Gong.

"Gongsun Du is also a powerful ruler of Liaodong, and his power is far greater than that of Su Puyan. He was actually frightened to death by General Zhao's attack on his camp. How swift and fierce was General Zhao's attack? Even someone like Gongsun Du, who has seen many storms in his life, couldn't withstand it? This is more humiliating than being killed in battle, isn't it?"

"Yes, this is too bizarre, even harder to believe than Su Puyan's murder."

"But Gongsun Du's own son was so desperate that he surrendered. This can't be false, right? How can a son lie about his father's life and death? If Gongsun Gong dared to spread this rumor, even after his death, the Lord of Mount Tai would not accept him!

How desperate must he be to be beaten so that he would surrender directly after his own father was frightened to death!"

Of course, the vast majority of people talking in the crowd were just spontaneous spectators.

But Zhuge Jin certainly would not miss this opportunity, so he arranged a few people to guide the trend of public opinion.

Help ordinary people whose imagination is not rich enough and whose thinking is not divergent enough to open up their minds.

Soon, the success of the Liaodong war and the misery of the Gongsun family were exaggerated by the people.

In Ji County, no one cares anymore about "after Gongsun Du's death, what happened to his other son Gongsun Kang, how many pieces of territory he has left, and how long he can last."

Most people who don't care about the general situation in the world even regard Gongsun Kang as "almost dead."

……

Zhuge Jin celebrated the victory of Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu with great fanfare in Ji County. Naturally, this action could not be concealed from Zhang He in Hejian County and Zhongshan County on the other side of the Yishui River.

Just three days later, on the Lantern Festival, Gaoyang County, Hejian County.

Zhang He, the Cao army general in charge of the defense of Hejian and Zhongshan counties, was patrolling near Gaoyang County that day.

Zhang He has been having an uncomfortable time recently because since the beginning of December last year, various signs reported from other channels in Youzhou have shown that Liu Bei's army seemed to be deploying troops on a small scale in the northeastern grassland area.

After Cao Cao, who was far away in Xuchang, learned about it, he would of course order the generals on the front lines of You and Ji to find out the truth as soon as possible.

Confirm the scale of Liu Bei's military deployment and see if there are any loopholes or opportunities in Youzhou's defense, or whether Zhuge Jin is plotting some trick to lure the enemy again.

Since Zhang He joined Cao, he has been defeated by Guan Yu twice, once when he followed Xiahou Yuan and once when he followed Cao Ren. As a man with a lot of experience, he is naturally very cautious about this kind of thing, fearing that he will be defeated again.

More than forty days had passed since Cao Gong issued the order, and he still had not been able to find out the specific situation. He only knew that Liu Bei's army had indeed sent cavalry out of the pass, probably to sweep the grassland and punish the Su Puyan tribe for not supporting the Yuyang border market.

As for the specific subsequent battle situation and whether there were any further actions, Zhang He did not find out anything, nor did he dare to report it casually, for fear that the intelligence was wrong and Cao Gong would force him to attack Zhao Yun again.

The distance between Xudu and the front line of Hejian County is long. Unless the situation is particularly urgent, it takes more than half a month to transmit messages back and forth.

After all, in peacetime, it is impossible to always use the 600-mile express route to transmit information, as that would be a waste of communication resources.

After two rounds of this, Cao Cao still felt uneasy, so he recently sent a trusted official to inspect the front line in Hejian County to understand the situation firsthand.

The confidant sent by Cao Cao was named Xue Ti, who had served as the Prime Minister of Pengcheng a few years ago and had contacted Sun Quan to surrender to Cao Cao. However, those territories have now been occupied by Liu Bei's army, and Xue Ti has been transferred back to Xudu to be in charge of school affairs.

Zhang He still felt uncomfortable with Cao Gong sending people to supervise the work. In order to appear less lazy, he was too embarrassed to stay in Lecheng County, the capital of Hejian Prefecture, and instead came to Gaoyang County, which was more on the front line, to inspect the defense, pretending to be conducting in-depth investigations on the front line. In this way, no matter what the final result was, at least his work attitude was fine.

Unexpectedly, Xue Ti was really serious. When he heard that Zhang He had gone out to inspect the defense, he followed him to Gaoyang County and did not give Zhang He any chance to play Tai Chi.

That morning, Xue Ti had just become an uninvited guest. Without prior notice, he went straight into Zhang He's camp to inquire about border affairs.

Zhang He was surprised and had to receive him hastily, trying to tell him everything he knew in detail. But Xue Ti was very dissatisfied with his old-fashioned and ambiguous remarks, and could not help but say two harsh words:
"General Zhang, Lord Cao really wants to know how many troops Zhao Yun has used to harass the various Hu people on the grasslands. Is Ji County now empty and is there an opportunity for us to take advantage of it?
"It's been a whole month and a half, and we can't even get this little bit of accurate information? Just tell me, have our people seen Zhao Yun publicly appear in Ji County in the past month and a half?"

Zhang He was in a dilemma: "Zhuge Jin is personally stationed in Ji County, how cautious is the defense? We have already lost a lot of spies in order to get information.

However, Zhao Yun himself has not shown his face for at least a month and a half. But this doesn't prove anything. Zhuge Jin is cunning and can't be tempted by such signs!"

The two men were arguing when suddenly there was a noise of horse hooves outside the camp. A small group of messengers rode into the camp, and after verifying their identities, they went straight to Zhang He's central military tent.

Zhang He knew that this was new intelligence coming from the front, and he was eager to use this opportunity to give an explanation to Cao Gong's special envoy, so he quickly apologized and went out to inquire about the situation.

Xue Ti said stiffly: "No need to trouble General Zhang, just let me listen together."

Judging from his subtext, he seemed to be still worried that Zhang He would withhold the information privately, or "filter out" some of the content and only report good news but not bad news.

Zhang He's face looked a little ugly, so he didn't try to stop him.

The messenger was quickly brought before Zhang He, who knelt down and handed over a secret report.

"Urgent news from Ji County! We learned the other day that Zhao Yun had returned to Ji County in triumph!"

Zhang He and Xue Ti were both shocked when they heard this. Zhang He, who knew more about military affairs, asked:

"What? Zhao Yun defeated Su Puyan so quickly? Was he repelled or routed? How badly did Su Puyan's army lose?"

As Zhang He asked, he made some estimates in his mind: We estimated that Zhao Yun was going to fight Subuyan forty days ago. Even if Zhao Yun kept it secret well, the actual time of action may be a month earlier than we know, which means it was only two months.

To be able to repel or even defeat the Wuhuan tribe of an entire county in two months was already very fast. If the generals did not know how to fight, they might be counterattacked by the Wuhuan cavalry.

At least Zhang He estimated that if he was allowed to lead the battle against Wuhuan, he could guarantee victory over Su Puyan. But he could not guarantee how and how long he would win.

Unfortunately, the next second, the messenger's answer made Zhang He drop his jaw in shock:

"Su Puyan? Oh yes, Su Puyan was indeed defeated and annihilated. His entire tribe was annexed, and Su Puyan himself was killed in battle by Zhao Yun."

Zhang He and Xue Ti couldn't help but gasp.

It was indeed clean and efficient. In just two months, not only did they defeat Su Puyan, but they also completely wiped out and annexed his tribe!
Although this "annexation" may not necessarily mean that the country was directly governed by the Han government, but was instead controlled by other "Wuhuan puppets", it was still very remarkable.

"I guess Zhao Yun was just very lucky, and Su Puyan was a reckless man. He was too brave and rushed forward in the battle, so he was killed by Zhao Yun, which led to the destruction of all the enemies. Alas, he was more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything!" Zhang He thought to himself, and subconsciously found an excuse for Su Puyan's quick death.

Xue Ti on the side didn't know as much about military affairs as Zhang He, but he was better at paying attention to more details from verbal conversations.

Xue Ti keenly noticed a point in the messenger's words that Zhang He had not noticed, so he seized on that point and asked in detail: "You said that Su Puyan 'also' was defeated. Why did you add the word 'also'?"

The messenger was stunned: "Because in addition to Su Puyan, Gongsun Du was also defeated - General Zhang asked in a hurry just now, so I didn't have time to finish."

Xue Ti: “……!”

Zhang He: “…………!!!”

This time, no one gasped, perhaps because the weather was too cold and they couldn't breathe.

There was a long silence in the tent, and everyone forgot to even breathe. Only the cold wind outside the tent kept blowing past, occasionally coming in through the gaps in the felt, making bursts of piercing whistles.

The chirping of cicadas makes the forest even quieter; the whistling of the wind makes the tent even darker.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang He finally moved his dry lips and confirmed, "You said... Gongsun Du is also dead? How did he die? Didn't Zhao Yun go to fight Su Puyan? How did he defeat Gongsun Du in such a short time?"

Xue Ti also realized that this matter was too unbelievable, and warned with a stern face: "This matter is of great importance, you must find out the truth before reporting it. If you mislead Cao Gong, the crime will be serious! Zhuge Jin is insidious and cunning, this may be his trick! Tell me the details!"

The messenger gave a brief summary: "...it is said that Zhao Yun defeated Su Puyan and advanced eastward along the Wu Liao River and Yu River, and fought a decisive battle with Gongsun Du's army in Changli, Tuhe and Liaosui.

Zhao Yun used a strategy to surround and attack the reinforcements, deliberately bringing fewer troops and showing weakness to lure Gongsun Du into underestimating the enemy and engaging in a field battle. In the end, he defeated Gongsun Du's 60,000 Liaodong troops with thousands of cavalry, won three battles and three victories, annihilated the enemy, killed Liu Yi in battle, and shot Yang Yi to death.

When the final clash came at Gongsun Du's main camp, Gongsun Du, who was already leading his troops despite being ill, was frightened by Zhao Yun's might and died on the spot. Gongsun Du's army was thus leaderless and the entire army was routed and annihilated."

Xue Ti: “…”

Zhang He: "..."

Gongsun Du was actually frightened to death? How outrageous would it be if this were told to others? It would definitely spread all over the world.

Xue Ti couldn't believe it, and asked in a panic, "Have you found any evidence for these claims? Could it be that Zhuge Jin deliberately released false information?"

Messenger: "The fact that Su Puyan was defeated is proved by his head. The head was pickled with lime and hung at the south gate of Ji County, so that the people coming in and out could see it. Many Wuhuan people who had seen Su Puyan pointed out that it was Su Puyan. And I heard that Louban and Tadun have recently recruited some of Su Puyan's followers.

Gongsun Du's defeat was witnessed by his son Gongsun Gong. After his father died of fright, Gongsun Gong was trapped in the isolated city of Changli, and was frightened by Zhao Yun, so he surrendered directly. Gongsun Gong publicly pleaded guilty to Zhuge Jin and admitted his father's death. This is also well known, and countless officials and people in Ji County witnessed it with their own eyes.

After hearing this, Xue Ti and Zhang He looked at each other, and saw endless horror in each other's eyes.

There is such a powerful general in the world. Within two months, he defeated Su Puyan and Gongsun Du with a combination of fighting and slashing.

This was too fast. The Xudu court had no time to react! They wanted to attack and rescue Gongsun Du but they were too late to react!
After this battle, although we cannot say that he was the most powerful ruler in China, he was definitely the most powerful ruler in the northern border.

But how could they know that all of this was a propaganda trick by Zhuge Jin, who mixed seven truths with three lies, and deliberately created it to intimidate Cao's army and prevent them from taking any rash actions.

In fact, it would certainly take Zhao Yun more than two months, but Zhuge Jin did a good job of keeping it secret in the early stages, Cao's army reacted slowly, and underestimated the actual length of time Liu Bei's army spent on the operation.

On the other hand, Zhuge Jin also specially embellished many details about the downfall of Su Puyan and Gongsun Du, adding some credible artistic treatments to facilitate the singing of the story.

Zhuge Jin had read the novel carefully, so he certainly knew what kind of plots in such war stories were most talked about by the people, and how to make slight adaptations to make them more likely to be used as gossip after dinner.

Anyway, plots like Zhang Fei scaring Xiahou Jie to death at Changban Bridge or Wen Yang scaring Sima Shi to death at Lejia City would not happen in real history. It is just the right time to extract some highlights and details and use them on Zhao Yun, which will help the propaganda work.

-

PS: The Chinese New Year was over, but I was still forced to drink some weird homemade food during the Lantern Festival, which resulted in gastroenteritis (I just needed an IV drip to get better).

There will be one major update every day on weekends, and two updates per day on Mondays.

(End of this chapter)