My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 529 Jia Xu: One pit and one silence (there will be three updates today)
Jia Xu helped Xiahou Yuan devise a strategy, hoping to force Wu Yi to collapse and surrender as soon as possible by cutting off food supplies and scaring people with false news.

Of course, Xiahou Yuan would not hesitate and began to implement this strategy that day.

At the same time, he continued to reinforce the newly captured old camp of Wu Yi, ensuring that even if Liu Bei chased him in the future, he would be able to hold out for a few more days.

At the same time, it was also to ensure that Wu Yi's food supply and retreat routes were completely blocked, and to cut off Wu Yi's communications with Jiameng Pass and Langzhong.

As long as this is done, even if Liu Bei comes, as long as Liu Bei does not break through the camp that Xiahou Yuan is blocking, Wu Yi will not know that Liu Bei is coming. This information gap will make it easier for Jia Xu to perform his deception.

On the other hand, Xiahou Yuan also sent spies on the same day to spread false information to Wu Yi's new camp in the northwest.

He even drove some people who were forced to flee because of the war to migrate to Hechi County behind Wu Yi. Jia Xu concluded that these people would definitely be intercepted by Wu Yi, and then they would get the news he wanted Wu Yi to know.

……

Wu Yi is not a person of high intelligence and strategy, and his subordinates Yang Huai and Gao Pei are even more incompetent.

Therefore, Jia Xu's psychological strategy was quickly accepted by Yang Huai and Gao Pei - although Jia Xu had used strategies before, he was defeated in five battles and was countered by Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong. But that was only because the opponent was too strong.

It would be more than enough for Jia Xu to trick Yang Huai into Gaopei.

Just one day later, Yang Huai and Gao Pei caught a lot of fleeing civilians while patrolling the camp. They didn't even investigate where those civilians came from or where they were going, but just listened to the panic rumors of some of the "civilians" and believed them directly.

Then Yang Huai came to see Wu Yi in a hurry: "General, it's bad! Many people in Hechi County and other places have fled to our place. They said that Cao Cao's army has crossed the Qinling Mountains at the Chencang Pass and is going to enter Shu to reinforce Xiahou Yuan!
In a few days, when Cao Cao's army passes Hechi, we will be attacked from both sides by Cao Cao and Xiahou Yuan! Alas, we have lost every step. Why did we choose such a retreat route in the first place? No wonder he still blocked the intersection after we asked Xiahou Yuan to return to Yangping Pass. It turned out that Xiahou Yuan's reinforcements had arrived! "

Wu Yi was also shocked when he heard this, but he was relatively smart and quickly noticed some problems: "People who fled from Hechi County? Where did they come from? Southeast or northwest?"

When Yang Huai was asked this question, he realized something was amiss, because most of the people he met last night came from the southeast, that is, from the direction of Yangping Pass. Only a very small number came from the direction of Hechi County in the northwest.

If he had thought about it a little more, he might have seen through it: those so-called people from Hechi County in the northwest might have quietly bypassed the valley where Wu Yi camped, walked along the hillside to the northwest, and then turned back to the southeast to deliberately be encountered by Wu Yi's army. They were sent by Jia Xu to deliberately spread false news to disturb people's hearts.

Unfortunately, Yang Huaigaopei didn't have this brains. Even after being reminded by Wu Yi, he still muddled through the matter. He just said that there were too many fleeing civilians and it was too chaotic, so he didn't have time to pay attention to them one by one. He didn't detain them and just let them go after questioning them.

Even though Wu Yi had some doubts in his heart, he could not find any evidence. But he knew that once such news got out, the morale of the army would definitely be hit.

He thought to himself that he was in trouble, and immediately led his personal guards to patrol the camp and investigate secretly, trying to dispel the rumors. But it was too late.

Even though Wu Yi tried his best to tell everyone that the news that "Cao Cao is about to lead a large army into Chencang Road to reinforce Xiahou Yuan" was fake, ordinary soldiers and even officers of the Yizhou Army did not believe it!

The news that Cao Cao was coming had already been circulated. No matter how hard you tried to refute it, it would be useless. Instead, everyone would think that you were deliberately lying to reassure the army.

Wu Yi was so angry that he jumped up and down, grabbing Yang Huai and Gao Pei and yelling, "How can you lead the troops? You have been in charge of the army for many years, but you don't even know that the army must strictly investigate and eradicate rumors! You just caught a few spies and let them spread whatever they said. This is simply disrupting the morale of the army!"

Yang Huai was insulted in Gaopei and subconsciously felt a little ashamed, but he soon stopped caring and instead felt resentment - they were not very convinced by Wu Yi in the first place and felt that Wu Yi was parachuted in to seize Pang Xi's military power. In addition, now that they felt they were in a desperate situation, it was inevitable that they would become more and more self-destructive.

Yang Huai suddenly said in a cold voice: "General Wu! I respect your uncle because he was a direct descendant of General He, and I think you are also a descendant of a general. But don't go too far!
Things are different now. You listened to slander and persuaded the Lord to send out troops, but we have been defeated again and again! At this point, what is the point of us staying here? Can we still serve the Lord? We are attacked from both sides by powerful enemies. Even if we fight again, we will die in vain, and we have lost more than 20,000 brothers!"

Wu Yi was startled when he heard this, and subconsciously wanted to press the hilt of his sword, but seeing that the other two people looked unfriendly, he did not dare to act rashly. He just observed the surrounding guards with his eyes, and then said in a deep voice: "What are you going to do?"

Yang Huai was also somewhat afraid of Wu Yi, and since the relationship had not yet reached a complete breakdown, he restrained himself a little.

Gao Pei, who was standing by, had obviously discussed this with Yang Huai in advance, and he started talking at this time:
"General Wu, a man who knows the current situation is a hero. We have also thought about this. If Liu Bei had come earlier and joined us in attacking Xiahou Yuan and driving him back to the pass, would Liu Bei have let us go back to Jiameng Pass? At that time, he would definitely use the excuse that the lord had sent troops without the coordination of the alliance to force us to submit to him.

If Cao Cao had arrived earlier, and Cao Cao and Xiahou Yuan had attacked us together, we would have had no chance of survival. The only way to save our lives was to surrender to Cao Cao.

So, no matter what choice we make, we are in such a desperate situation today, it is impossible for us to go back to serve our lord. Either we join Liu Bei or Cao Cao, we can't go back anyway - what do you think? "Wu Yi took a deep breath. He also thought about drawing his sword immediately and calling on the guards in the central army to take Yang Huai Gaopei down. But now the enemy is at hand. If there is another internal conflict, these 20,000 people will definitely collapse instantly.

Moreover, Yang Huai came to see him with his guards, but he did not enter the central military tent. If he delayed for a few seconds after taking action, the guards outside would also start fighting, and the situation would be unpredictable.

After all, Wu Yi did not ambush enough trusted swordsmen in advance, so he did not at all guard against the possibility that Yang Huai and Gao Pei would have any rebellious thoughts today.

Fortunately, Yang Huai and Gao Pei did not insist on rebelling. They just said that in the future they would have to choose between Liu and Cao. In this way, the two sides had not completely torn their faces apart, which gave Wu Yi a chance to turn things around.

Wu Yi's mind was working rapidly. It seemed that he had thought so much, but in fact he only hesitated for three or four seconds. In the end, he decisively decided to calm down first, and then he smiled and said:
"What you two said is not without reason. I was confused before, but now I can see the light. I also know that it is impossible to return to Zitong, but I wonder what you two think, whether to serve Liu or Cao?"

Yang Huai Gaopei was relieved to see that Wu Yi was also willing to be a traitor with them, and said immediately: "Now that things have come to this, of course we will depend on who comes first, Cao Cao or Liu Bei. But judging from the current situation, it must be Cao Cao who came first!
Moreover, Cao Cao has already occupied half of the country, including the population and land, while Liu Bei only occupies 30%. In general, Cao is still strong and Liu is weak. Since we have betrayed our former master, we should of course surrender to a stronger one. Otherwise, if Cao Cao destroys Liu Bei in the future, will we have to surrender again and suffer humiliation twice?"

For a person who is loyal to his former master, it is better not to vote if he can. If he is forced into a position where he can no longer be loyal to his former master and must vote, half of the people will choose Mu Qiang.

Of course, the specific implementation level also depends on the historical grievances between one's side and the other two parties.

In history, when Liu Chan was secretly taken to Yinping by Deng Ai, the whole court advised him to surrender to Wei (mainly Qiao Zhou), because Wei was strong. If you escape to Eastern Wu, you will only be humiliated twice.

Historically, during the Battle of Yiling, Huang Quan was separated in the north of the Yangtze River and had to choose between joining Wei and Wu. In the end, he joined Wei - of course, this choice also took into account his hatred for Dongwu's betrayal of the alliance.

Therefore, it is normal for people like Yang Huai and Gao Pei, who have no aspirations, to decide their future direction based on the data on paper about the number of people.

But to Wu Yi, these words sounded very problematic.

He secretly guarded but calmly retorted: "Why are the two generals so unreasonable? We are loyal to our lord, and now we are in a desperate situation, so we have no choice but to surrender. In this case, Liu Bei is a friendly army and Cao is an enemy army, why can't you distinguish between friend and foe? Besides, Cao Cao may not arrive earlier than Liu Bei."

Seeing that Wu Yi still denied him, Yang Huai felt a little nervous and wanted to make trouble, but they were not fully prepared, and at this moment they were in a situation where they were afraid of both ends.

The two looked at each other, and finally Gao Pei came out to smooth things over: "What General Wu said is not without reason. In this case, let's wait and see whether Cao Cao or Liu Bei comes first. What do you think? Anyway, we don't want these 20,000 brothers to die in vain!
We are not doing this for our own glory and wealth. We will vote for whoever can save our brothers from death!"

Wu Yi was afraid of pushing them too far, so he agreed first: "Okay, let's wait and see. But during this period of time, you must guard the camp carefully, and you must not listen to any nonsense. If you dare to shake the morale of the army, don't blame the military law for being ruthless!"

Yang Huai Gaopei could only agree on the surface, but he had already made up his mind: he would never come to the central army commander's tent alone to ask to see Wu Yi again. Next time he must meet outside the tent, or at least allow his personal guards to wait at the door of the tent.

……

The conflict that day ended abruptly as Wu Yi and Yang Huai and Gao Pei were each afraid.

The two sides apparently reached a fragile tacit understanding, but it is hard to say how the situation will actually develop.

If Wu Yi's advice could be strictly implemented, the Yizhou army would be able to stabilize the situation.

But unfortunately, Xiahou Yuan also had Jia Xu by his side. How could Jia Xu give Wu Yi time to think slowly? Of course, he would put extreme pressure on him.

So, just two days after Wu Yi stabilized Yang Huai in Gaopei, Xiahou Yuan actually sent an envoy to Wu Yi to persuade him to surrender.

The messenger's threats and inducements quickly shattered the fragile tacit understanding within Wu Yi.

-

PS: I'm sorry for the mistake. I found this plot to be more complicated than I expected. But I'm willing to make up for it by updating three times today. I'll slow down the update speed after this multi-line narrative is over.

(End of this chapter)