My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 533: Breaking Langzhong with Coaxing and Deception - Part

Based on the latest intelligence and suggestions provided by his elder brother, Zhuge Liang re-optimized the strategy he had offered to his lord, and then sent a messenger to deliver the letter from Jiangzhou to the front line in Langzhong.

Just two or three days later, Liu Bei received a letter from the Zhuge brothers.

At that time, Liu Bei was organizing the attack on Langzhong City and had been preparing for several days. When he heard that Zhuge Liang had sent a letter, he announced that he would temporarily suspend the attack today and then called Pang Tong to discuss Zhuge Liang's proposal.

Liu Bei first took a quick look at it, fully understanding the current situation of the confrontation between the enemy and us in Guandong, so as not to panic. Then he carefully read the judgment of Zhuge brothers on Ma Teng's forces, put himself in their shoes and thought about it, and found that it was really the case.

Pang Tong was the first to realize the beauty of it and exclaimed, "Congratulations, lord! According to what Fa Xiaozhi said, Liu Zhang forced Wu Yi to seize Yangping Pass, but he would definitely fail. Liu Zhang just saw that we won the battle and was arrogant and ignorant and thought he could do it too."

Kong Ming predicted that Wu Yi might retreat to Chencang Road to temporarily protect himself after his defeat, which was a 70-80% possibility. If that happened, we would use mountain soldiers to cross mountains and ridges to contact Wu Yi and inform him that Ma Teng was in turmoil and Cao Cao could not come. This would certainly give Wu Yi great confidence and make him determined to hold on to his position and wait for help and get closer to our army.

And in my opinion, Xiahou Yuan ordered Feng Kai to delay time in Langzhong County, probably to ensure that he would not be chased too closely by our army on the way back to Yangping Pass, so that he would not be attacked from both sides. Therefore, Feng Kai's mission of holding on was probably with a time limit, for example, Xiahou Yuan asked him to hold on for ten days, or twenty days. After the expiration, he should be allowed to break out and retreat.

In this way, our army can make two preparations: on the one hand, we can contact Wu Yi to find out how long he can hold out and keep his spirits up. On the other hand, we can send people to attack Feng Kai's mind and tell him that we already know Xiahou Yuan's plot and are willing to let him break out after the deadline, so that he can think it over.

If he is unwilling to hand over the city by the deadline, we will surround him from all sides and make him unable to escape. He must die here. As long as Feng Kai can't hold on and retreats before Wu Yi collapses, we will not delay either side, and can also put extra pressure on Wu Yi, and finally appear as a savior. "

After hearing Pang Tong's words, Liu Bei frowned slightly, feeling that they were a little vicious - to be precise, he felt that Pang Tong's calculations towards his "potential allies" were a little too thorough.

Liu Bei felt that although Wu Yi was sent by Liu Zhang to steal the credit, he lost more than he gained. But now the enemy was probably surrounded and cut off. If he rescued him now, how could the enemy not be grateful to him and bow down to him?
Why should we continue to wear down the opponent's spirit? Just to make Wu Yi's army and Xiahou Yuan fight more bitterly? What if Wu Yi can't hold on?

But Pang Tong naturally had his considerations. He was always willing to assume the greatest malice towards his friendly forces, always feeling that "if we don't force our friendly forces into a desperate situation, they may not surrender when we rescue them."

Some things must take a certain amount of time for Wu Yi to realize that "Liu Zhang did not try to save him after hearing that he was surrounded. Now Fei Guan, who is defending Jiameng Pass, is also unable to decide on his own to send troops to rescue him." In this way, Liu Bei's rescue of him becomes extremely precious.

Pang Tong analyzed this logic with Liu Bei, and Liu Bei had to admit that it did make some sense.

The key point is that Pang Tong also pointed out that if we rely on strong attack to break through Langzhong, it will also take some time. That kind of heavy siege equipment will take at least ten days or half a month to complete. If we don't use heavy siege equipment such as Ge Gongche, even if Feng Kai and his team defend Langzhong, we may not be able to quickly attack and succeed.

This was a siege war, and Langzhong was an important town in Baxi, the seat of Baxi County. If Zhang Fei and Wei Yan's troops lost too many lives in order to save Wu Yi, it would not be worth the loss, and it might also make their own troops feel bad.

It is not a good thing to say that "the lord ordered his troops to attack quickly and forcefully at all costs in order to rescue friendly forces, resulting in the loss of many lives."

After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Bei finally agreed to make two preparations: on the one hand, he continued to build heavy siege equipment and prepared to attack Langzhong when the time came. On the other hand, he sent people to negotiate with Feng Kai, spy on him, and let him know that his patience was limited.

After that, after finding out Feng Kai's territory, Wang Ping's Bantun Man troops can be dispatched to carry out the task of searching and advancing in a roundabout way to contact Wu Yi. As long as Wu Yi can hold out longer than Feng Kai, there will be no problem. If Wu Yi can't hold out that long, Feng Kai will have to attack in advance at all costs.

There is still a straight-line distance of 160 to 170 li from Langzhong to Jiameng Pass. If you go along the Jialing River, it is more than 200 li. From Jiameng Pass to the place where Wu Yi was surrounded, there is still nearly 200 li.

The total distance was three or four hundred miles. If a normal army ignored the food supply and went around the mountain, it would definitely be very dangerous. But for Wang Ping's Bandun Man mountain soldiers, this level of infiltration was nothing.

……

It only takes a day to sharpen the knife and send someone to contact Wu Yi, so Liu Bei sent an envoy to Langzhong County first to find out Feng Kai's background.

Feng Kai has been defending the county town these days, feeling very anxious and having no confidence in his own fighting ability.

Although Zhang Fei's previous exploratory attacks had been repelled, Feng Kai was still very clear about his own strength. He knew that once Liu Bei's army's heavy equipment such as the Ge Gongche catapult was ready, he would be finished.

Therefore, when he heard that Liu Bei had sent an envoy to negotiate, he did not dare to refuse directly, fearing to further anger Liu Bei, so he had someone use a hanging basket to go up to the city and send him to the government office for an interview. The envoy sent by Liu Bei was not of high status, and he looked like a small character who was not afraid of being killed, so he was asked to run errands.

This man was originally a county official under Liu Zhang, named Li Hui, working in the counties around Jianning in Nanzhong. Last year, after Liu Bei entered Sichuan, he showed kindness and goodwill in Ba County to win the hearts of the people. Many minor officials and scholars from various counties in Nanzhong came to join him. Li Hui was one of them. After seeing what Liu Bei had done, he voluntarily gave up his official position and joined him.

Because when Li Hui served under Liu Zhang, his position was not high, he was just the governor of a county in the southern barbarian region, and the place was remote. Therefore, the resignation of such a small official did not cause any waves, nor did it damage the relationship between Liu Bei and Liu Zhang.

Liu Bei always recruited people according to their abilities. However, the territory he controlled in Yizhou was not large enough, so he did not need so many local officials. For the time being, he only let Li Hui accompany the army as a financial secretary. This time, he needed to send someone to negotiate with Feng Kai, and Li Hui volunteered to come.

He knew that he had no reputation and Feng Kai would not be wary of him, so he was not in danger.

When Feng Kai met Li Hui, he did not bother to be polite with him. He just asked coldly why Liu Bei sent him here: "The two armies are fighting fiercely, what else do you want to discuss with me, Liu Bei?"

Li Hui was not afraid of the enemy either. He said calmly, "My lord can easily defeat Xiahou Yuan. The mere Langzhong County is just a delay. My military advisor Pang has also done the math. You must know in your hearts that Langzhong cannot be defended for long.

Therefore, when Xiahou Yuan abandoned Captain Feng, he must have set a time limit. He wanted you to hold out for a certain period of time and ensure that Xiahou Yuan could escape back to Yangping Pass first and avoid being attacked from both sides. Then your mission should be accomplished, right?"

Feng Kai was shocked and angry when the other party pointed out the inside story so directly. He slammed the table and shouted: "General Xiahou's plan is beyond the imagination of you rats! You are so arrogant, are you looking for death?"

After Feng Kai finished speaking, the generals and attendants around him also drew their swords and pointed them at each other.

But Li Hui showed no fear and continued, "My Lord has no other intentions. He is just curious about how long Xiahou Yuan ordered you to hold out. If it is not much different from our expectations, we will not bother to kill more people and attack more.

If the difference is too big, then our army can only advance steadily, surround all the gates in Langzhong, and set up camps on the front and back valleys.

At that time, you can certainly kill more of our soldiers in the battle to defend the city, but you can't expect any of you to escape from this encirclement. As long as our army suffers heavy casualties in the attack, in order to give an explanation to the soldiers, we must pay the blood debt with blood when the city is broken."

Feng Kai became angrier as he listened. He drew his knife and pointed it directly in front of Li Hui: "You dare to threaten me?"

Li Hui: "Why would I threaten the captain? I am just telling you the truth. In fact, letting you run back may not be good for my lord. When you reach Yangping Pass, Yangping Pass is more solid than here. If we want to break through the pass, we will have to suffer more casualties. It is better to kill you all here and weaken Xiahou Yuan's total force to defend Hanzhong in advance.

But my lord doesn't want Liu Zhang to be too relaxed all of a sudden, so he keeps Xiahou Yuan stationed in Hanzhong so that our army can keep the enemy at bay and continue to stay in Bashu - otherwise, General Pang would have asked my lord to kill you all in Langzhong long ago."

Li Hui's last few words would definitely not appear in Liu Bei's letter to Feng Kai persuading him to surrender. It can even be said that Liu Bei never told him so.

At most, Pang Tong was a man who would do anything to achieve his goal, and before Li Hui left, he hinted at something in private. The rest were all Li Hui's own assumptions.

Only in this kind of private chat behind closed doors could Li Hui counsel Feng Kai in this way; outside of this room, such words would never be acknowledged.

However, even if Feng Kai had heard about it, it was impossible for him to go to Liu Zhang and accuse Liu Bei of having the intention of "nurturing the enemy for his own benefit and refusing to leave". Even if Feng Kai said it, no one in the world would believe it.

But as a way of winning people's hearts, Li Hui's words were very effective and immediately shook Feng Kai's idea of holding on for a long time and eventually being completely destroyed.

What's more, Xiahou Yuan originally asked him to guard here just to delay time and to prevent Xiahou Yuan from being attacked from both sides during his retreat to Yangping Pass.

Counting the days now, General Xiahou should be back at Yangping Pass soon. If I just pretend to guard it, and I can retreat safely, wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?
Feng Kai had this idea, so he was reluctant to let the thousands of people under his command die here. He was just a little worried about how Liu Bei's army would fulfill its promise and how Liu Bei would guarantee to let him go if he abandoned the city.

His attitude finally softened, and he turned to ask Li Hui: "General Xiahou did ask our army to hold out here for at least... one month, and now there are only twenty days left. But how can your army guarantee that you will let us retreat safely when the time comes?"

(End of this chapter)