My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 473: You can take any roll
Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong sailed south.

On the way to Wuchang, Liu Bei had nothing to do anyway, so he certainly hoped that Zhuge Liang could help him find out the gaps and think about what else he could do recently to help him stop Cao Cao.

Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong were very busy in the past few days, and their minds have just become free now.

After hearing the lord's question, they were not gods, so naturally they could not give an immediate answer. They just said that they would sort it out and think about it carefully during the journey.

This thought took two days. The fleet sailed from Chaohu Lake into Rushu River, and then from Rushu River into the Yangtze River.

It was not until the morning of the third day that the fleet entered the Yangtze River and began to go upstream. Zhuge Liang, who had been in seclusion for two days, suddenly had an idea and went to find Liu Bei early in the morning.

Liu Bei was still sleeping. It was July and the weather was quite hot. He didn't need to wear too many clothes when he got up. Liu Bei was too lazy to clean up and asked Zhuge Liang to come in and discuss matters in his pajamas:

"Did you gain anything, sir?"

Zhuge Liang also ignored Liu Bei's pajamas and went straight to the point, offering advice: "My lord, the news we received last time only said that Cao's army broke through Yangping Pass, but it has been at least half a month since the military information was passed to Jingzhou and then to us. It is estimated that Nanzheng and even the counties in Baxi County located in the Daba Mountain area have been captured by Xiahou Yuan.

However, Hanzhong, along the Han River, is connected to Shangyong County. Previously, the native Shen family of Shangyong nominally submitted to Zhang Lu, but in fact they were independent in Shangyong and Fangling. Now that Zhang Lu was about to be destroyed, it was very likely that Cao's army, led by Xiahou Yuan, would go down the Han River to threaten Shangyong.

If Xiahou Yuan really took Shangyong, Cao Cao's next strategic focus would be very likely to be deviated. If Xiahou Yuan thought that he could continue to threaten Xiangyang and Fancheng from Shangyong along the Han River, he would probably persuade Cao Cao to attack Liu Biao instead of Liu Zhang.

Our army must naturally prevent this from happening, because if Cao Cao were to become completely hostile to Liu Biao, Liu Zhang would not be as afraid of Cao Cao as he is now. Those aides in Shu who wish to keep the door closed and not help either side would also persuade Liu Zhang to continue to play dumb and divert the trouble to Cao Cao, so that Cao Cao would attack Liu Biao first. "

When Liu Bei heard this, his eyebrows suddenly raised and his eyes became cold. He stood up suddenly, paced back and forth in the cabin for a few times, and patted the back of the bed: "That's right! Then sir, do you have a good plan to stop Cao thief?"

Zhuge Liang said: "The solution is not difficult. We should immediately send an envoy to Hanyang overnight to explain the situation to Liu Qi and let him know that if Shangyong falls into the hands of Cao Cao, Cao Cao may change his subsequent strategy and attack them instead of Liu Zhang first.
Then, Liu Qi took the initiative to ask Liu Biao for permission, saying that he was willing to take Huang Zhong and Liu Pan as the vanguard to take away the counties led by Shen Dan and Shen Yi, who were left without a master after the fall of Zhang Lu. This would block Xiahou Yuan's way down the Han River in advance, so that Xiahou Yuan would not have the idea that "Jingzhou can be bullied" from the beginning.

This will block Cao Jun's ambition to expand further, and force Cao Jun to think that Shuzhong is the softer target! "

Liu Bei was a little worried by the scene described by Zhuge Liang, but now he understood everything: "Great plan! In this way, Cao's army's ambitions will be directed back... But, will letting Qi'er take Shangyong really be enough to intimidate Xiahou Yuan?"

Zhuge Liang was about to answer, but at this moment, Pang Tong, who had just got up, hurried over to discuss the matter after hearing that his brother Kong Ming wanted to see the lord.

As soon as Pang Tong entered the room, he heard Zhuge Liang's high opinion and his lord's doubts, so he also joined in the fun and helped to analyze: "Don't worry, lord. In my opinion, Kong Ming's idea can be realized. In fact, whether Cao's army will threaten Liu Biao or Liu Zhang next depends not only on who is stronger and who has a more resolute will to resist.

None of these factors influenced Cao Cao's decision. I think the most important factor Cao Cao considered when making decisions was "who is more difficult to get support from the lord, Liu Biao or Liu Zhang".

In other words, as long as Cao Cao can make a breakthrough in geography and attack the other side directly, then neither Liu Biao nor Liu Zhang can stop Cao Cao by their own strength! Without the help of the lord, they will be destroyed by Cao Cao one by one!
If they want to survive for a long time, the only hope is that the lord will support them from behind and give them reinforcements. For example, during this expansion, Cao Cao chose to attack Zhang Lu first instead of attacking Wancheng, Xinye, and Fancheng directly because Cao Cao knew that Liu Biao was closely adjacent to us. As long as Cao Cao attacked Liu Biao, we could immediately reinforce Liu Biao.

In this way, even if Liu Biao is unable to resist, his authority collapses, and he is too old to control the local area, the counties in northern Jing will choose their own masters, either Cao or me. At that time, Cao Cao will bear the infamy of leading Jingzhou into the war, and the land of northern Jing may be divided equally with us. Even those prefects and county magistrates who hate Cao Cao's invasion will be more inclined to surrender to our army. This is the main reason why Cao Cao is unwilling to be a scapegoat.

Similarly, Cao Cao originally wanted to attack Liu Zhang first because the border between Liu Zhang and our army was far less close than that between our army and Liu Biao. Although our army occupied the Yidao Pass into Sichuan, there was still a 1,200-li Yangtze River Gorge in between. After passing Kuimen, there were still hundreds of miles of Yangtze River waterway to reach Jiangzhou.

So Cao Cao thought that if he attacked Liu Zhang first, we might not be able to reinforce Liu Zhang immediately, and Liu Zhang might not be able to make up his mind to accept our reinforcement immediately. Liu Zhang might be worried about "keeping out the tiger at the front door and letting in the wolf at the back door", and this hesitation made it possible for Cao's army to win quickly. "

Because Cao Cao's attack on Zhang Lu was quite sudden, Liu Bei did not have enough time to stand in Cao Cao's shoes and think about Cao Cao's decision-making process from his perspective.

It was not until this moment, when Pang Tong helped him review the situation in vivid detail, that Liu Bei realized: it seemed that the decision-making of the old villain Meng De was really based on this kind of mental journey.

Fortunately, he had Kong Ming and Shi Yuan, who were thousands of miles away and were able to deduce what Cao Cao was thinking.

After fully understanding it, Liu Bei was also very excited and couldn't help but rub his hands:
"So, in fact, the current situation in the southwest is nothing more than 'Cao the thief looks at Liu Zhang and Liu Biao, and he will attack whichever one is not easy to be reinforced by our army'.
As for Liu Zhang and Liu Biao, they will try their best to pretend that "as long as we are attacked, we can immediately call for reinforcements from Brother Xuande". Whoever pretends more convincingly will be more likely to get strong reinforcements and have a better chance of survival! Great! In this way, Brother Jingsheng and Brother Ji Yu will compete to ask me to support them!"

Roll! You can roll it up!

Cao Cao picked those with few external aids to attack, and those who were beaten had to pretend that they had many external aids and were a tough nut to crack in order to avoid being beaten. And Liu Bei was this external aid, and other Han royal family members vied to ask him for help, so how could this thing not be done!

Brother Jingsheng’s conditions are not sincere enough, so I will give priority to supporting Brother Ji Yuxian!

Brother Ji Yu’s conditions are not sincere enough, so I will give priority to supporting Brother Jing Sheng!

After thinking everything through, Liu Bei was of course not vague. After discussing the specific details with Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, he sent a fast messenger that day to issue an order to Zhang Fei in Wuchang as soon as possible, instructing Zhang Fei to execute the order as soon as possible.

……

Liu Bei's army sailed up the Yangtze River from Ruxukou through Chaisang to Wuchang, a journey that would take at least ten days.

However, the express messenger he sent out rode in a straight line and reached Wuchang in just two days.

So two days later, on the morning of July 5th, Zhang Fei, who was stationed in Wuchang, received orders from his eldest brother.

In the past few years, apart from the battle against Shi Xie in Jingnan and his military exploits against Jin Xuan in the previous battle in Jingnan, Zhang Fei had no other opportunities to make meritorious deeds.

Being in charge of the four counties in southern Jing and Jiangxia was a heavy responsibility, but the warlike Zhang Fei had long since forgotten about it.

His elder brother gave him a defense envoy position, but he still felt that it was not enough. Now that he finally received his elder brother's military order and learned that he was about to prepare to enter Sichuan, Zhang Fei was of course overjoyed.

However, there were some other instructions in his eldest brother's letter. After reading it, Zhang Fei didn't know how to implement them specifically, so he quickly found Xu Shu who was stationed in Wuchang with him.

"Yuanzhi, help me figure out why my elder brother asked me to go to Hanyang to give Liu Qi a big gift, and also asked me to give Liu Qi thousands of additional weapons, and also said that if Liu Qi needs it, I can lend him soldiers.

Isn't this too good of a deal for Liu Qi? Although he was very polite to my brother at the meeting last year, calling him uncle, it is he who needs our help, not us who need his help. "

Xu Shu was a little confused by Zhang Fei's questions. Hearing that his lord had sent a secret order, he could only borrow Liu Bei's letter and read it carefully.

Of course, Liu Bei did not explain too many reasons in his letter to Zhang Fei. After all, many deep considerations were not convenient to write down. Zhang Fei just needed to know what to do.

Fortunately, Xu Shu was very good at figuring out the cause and effect. After a little calculation, he was able to deduce the real considerations of Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong behind the letter.

Xu Shu quickly advised Zhang Fei: "My lord, this plan must have been carefully considered by Kong Ming and Shi Yuan. The three generals just need to execute it. Our army will not suffer any loss and will even gain a great advantage.

It seems that we are giving Liu Qi more weapons and troops, and he is the one who gets the benefit. But as long as Liu Qi is willing to instigate Liu Biao to seize Shangyong, Liu Biao's army will inevitably become more hostile to Cao Cao, and it will also hit the influence of Cai Mao, Zhang Yun, Kuai Liang, and Kuai Yue in Jingzhou. Sooner or later, we will get back what we put in with interest."

Zhang Fei hadn't figured it out yet, but since Xu Shu had said so, and his elder brother's secret order was written in black and white with clear instructions, Zhang Fei had no choice but to execute it even though he didn't understand.

On the same day, Zhang Fei hastily allocated a batch of relatively sophisticated weapons and equipment from the armory, as well as a part of the former soldiers of the Jingzhou Army. These soldiers were all former soldiers of Su Fei who were captured by Guan Yu in the battle when Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin broke through Jiangxia County and eliminated Huang Zu a few years ago.

After Su Fei was released by Guan Yu, most of the captured soldiers under Su Fei's command were unwilling to go back with him, so they were incorporated into Liu Bei's camp on the spot and then trained. They also followed Zhang Fei in the southern expedition for several years and experienced a lot.

Now, Zhang Fei wanted to lend troops to Liu Qi and instigate Liu Qi to attack Shangyong. Of course, he would give priority to lending out these local soldiers from Jingzhou, so that Liu Qi would save face and avoid embarrassing Liu Biao.

At the same time, the soldiers' similar native places also make it easier for local generals to command them, so that the soldiers don't know their generals and the generals don't know the soldiers.

After making all preparations, Zhang Fei's invitation was sent across the river that afternoon, delivered to Hanyang City, and to the desk of Liu Qi, the "Prefect of Jiangxia".

Since Gu Yong was transferred to Runan last year, Liu Bei's camp has not set up the post of Jiangxia Prefect. Now in the land of China, there is only Liu Qi, the Jiangxia Prefect, and Uncle Xuande treats him well enough.

(End of this chapter)