My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 540 Liu Zhang admits defeat
When Fei Guan recognized Dong He, he naturally exchanged pleasantries with him as an old friend and also asked Dong He whether he had been doing well with Liu Bei in recent years.

On such occasions, Dong He would certainly try his best to flatter his lord, saying that Liu Bei was respectful to the wise and humble, appointed people based on their merits, was benevolent and loved the people, and was deeply loved by the people.

Fei Guan stayed in Zitong for two months, because the people of Zitong benefited from the Linyi double-season rice promoted by Zhuge Liang. Now that the early rice was harvested, the people were also singing praises. Wherever Fei Guan went, he saw a scene of praising Huaide.

In this case, when he heard what Dong He said, he would not think it was bragging, but believed it sincerely.

Fei Guan pondered for a long time and could not help but sigh: "I have heard that Lord Xuande's benevolence and righteousness spread throughout the world, but I did not expect that he could achieve such a degree. I have lived in Shu for a long time, and I am a little bit like a frog in a well.

Since Brother Ziyuan and Brother Youzai have already made their choices, how dare I go against the will of heaven? However, I have to save face for my lord in this matter and not just take it by force.

Otherwise, it would ruin our alliance. With Cao Cao at our doorstep, if we were to quarrel among ourselves over these things, wouldn't that be counterproductive?"

After a brief hesitation, Fei Guan chose to side with Liu Bei. He no longer kept his words to himself and began to think about how to avoid "causing Liu Bei and Liu Zhang to fall out because of his side with Liu Bei".

It can only be said that Wu Yi's defection and Dong He's solicitation had a huge impact on Fei Guan. Liu Zhang was weak and incompetent, and when the wall fell, everyone pushed it down. As long as the first few loyal and righteous ministers defected, there would be an avalanche chain reaction in the future.

It is just like in history when Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei divided their troops and marched into Shu, Zhang Fei forced Yan Yan to surrender, and then all the counties along the way in Ba County surrendered to Zhang Fei.

As long as Yan Yan showed his personal experience and used the argument that "even men like me who are loyal to our lord have surrendered, let alone you", how could the defenders and county magistrates of those small counties not surrender?
Now Wu Yi's defection is also a key card, and the chain avalanche it has formed is too obvious.

Facing Fei Guan's concerns, Dong He quickly promised: "Don't worry about this matter, my dear brother. As long as you and Ziyuan are of one mind and use Zitong to supply the army against Cao, it will be enough.

As for the rear affairs, my master has ordered me to go to Chengdu in person to explain to Liu Yizhou that the generals on the front line did not obey his orders. In order to unify the military orders, I had no choice but to do so. "

When Fei Guan heard that Dong He dared to take the risk, he was worried for him: "What if Lord Ji Yu gets angry? Or Huang Quan, Wang Lei, and Fa Zheng spread rumors and broke off the alliance? Isn't it a risk for Brother Youzai to go there?"

Dong He still looked calm: "Don't worry, Mr. Kong Ming has already said that Liu Jiyu is not a man who would kill an envoy. He doesn't have the courage to do so. He would only dare to use a knife on his own people. Besides, this matter was originally the Yizhou Army's rash advance to seize credit and disrupt the overall strategic deployment of the alliance. They are in the wrong first."

It's not that Dong He was willing to sacrifice his life for justice and was not really afraid of death, but he really believed in the judgments that Zhuge Liang told him to make.

If Liu Zhang dared to kill the envoy directly for such a small matter, then he would have no chance of getting Yizhou. If he did such a treacherous thing, Liu Bei could just raise his arm and turn around to destroy him first.

Now Liu Bei has already taken control of the two key nodes of Zitong and Jiangzhou. (Liu Bei only took the northern part of Jiangzhou, and the southern part of Jiangzhou is still in the hands of Yan Yan)

Liu Bei had left behind all the mountains and rivers outside Shu. As long as the two sides turned against each other, he could march directly onto the Chengdu Plain.

In this kind of war situation, even if Liu Zhang had ten times the courage, he would not be able to fight Liu Bei.

Fei Guan saw that Dong He had said so much and it was impossible to be more open, so he could only let Dong He do what he wanted. He just said a few more words in private, hoping that when Dong He went on the mission, he could find a way to rescue some of the Fei and Wu families.

Although the Fei family and the Wu family were both relatives of Liu Zhang and did not have to worry too much about Liu Zhang's harm, these people had also pledged their allegiance to Liu Bei in history, and now that Liu Bei had pushed the situation to this point, they could only go with the flow.

……

Therefore, within the next few days, Liu Bei's army entered Jiameng Pass and Zitong County, taking control of these two key nodes.

The garrisons in the two places also changed from being composed entirely of local soldiers from Yizhou at the beginning to having a small number of soldiers from Jingzhou participating in the garrison.

Some Yizhou soldiers were also transferred to the front line of Yang'an Pass to participate in labor and repair the wall, but Liu Bei rewarded them generously with money to win people's hearts and ensure that the labor intensity of each batch of soldiers was not too high.

Zitong was originally the granary left by Liu Zhang at the front line, which was to supply the military supplies of the Jiameng Pass garrison for a long time. The local grain reserves were enough to feed the 50,000-strong army for nearly a year. Even if Liu Bei increased the number of troops in the future and expanded the front-line army to more than 100,000, it would still be enough to feed the army for four or five months.

If the war dragged on, Liu Bei would have to count on Liu Zhang to transport the autumn harvest from the Chengdu Plain. However, it was already mid-to-late May. If it was delayed for another four or five months, winter would be approaching and the Qinling Mountains would be closed again by heavy snow.

Cao Cao probably wouldn't be able to hold on until that time, and would have to decide whether to attack or retreat.

You wouldn't dare to expect Cao Cao to station hundreds of thousands of troops in Hanzhong to confront Liu Bei, especially when all the valleys in the Qinling Mountains were blocked by heavy snow in winter.

Therefore, if Liu Bei could take Zitong safely, his food and fodder logistics would be basically secure during the Battle of Hanzhong. The huge amount of food and fodder that Liu Zhang had previously stored in Zitong in order to defend the pass for many years was now a bargain for Liu Bei.

On the fourth day after entering the Pass, Liu Bei, a noble man, could not help but come to Zitong County to inspect it in person, and he brought Pang Tong with him.

Liu Bei personally came to check the accounts, and even went to the granary to take a quick look at the estimate and inspection. In the end, he was shocked.

"According to the money and grain accounts, the military grain storage in Zitong is as much as 780,000 dan? Shiyuan, after a rough calculation, is it really that much?" Liu Bei couldn't help but ask in shock when he saw the statistics clearly.

Pang Tong went back and forth for a while, and finally told the truth: "I haven't had time to take a detailed inventory, but a rough look shows that there should be between 600,000 and 700,000, and perhaps some deficits and losses."

Liu Bei couldn't help but sigh: "Yizhou hasn't had a major war for many years, and the people are extravagant. Although the taxes are heavy, the people can still afford it. I didn't expect Ji Yu to hoard so much military supplies, but he couldn't advance. He couldn't even beat Zhang Lu by himself, and he couldn't control Pang Xi and other generals. It's a waste to keep Yizhou in his hands." Pang Tong's eyes lit up when he heard it, and he quickly found an opportunity to test: "My lord, you are suddenly so emotional, have you finally made up your mind? If you really want to turn against Liu Zhang and seize it in one fell swoop, it's not that you can't find an excuse.

However, we need to retrieve Dong Youzai as soon as possible, send another envoy, and send another document to Liu Jiyu. I have my own way to anger Liu Zhang, make him lose his temper and kill the envoy, or commit other crimes out of anger, so that our army can legitimately get an excuse to annex Liu Zhang..."

"No! I am not the kind of unjust person who would sacrifice the lives of my subordinates in exchange for an excuse to start a war!" Liu Bei rejected the idea immediately, pointed at Pang Tong with a look of regret, and sighed.
"Shi Yuan, Shi Yuan, you are always so impatient. If you do this kind of thing too much, sooner or later people will know about it! Even if no one knows, God knows, the earth knows, you know, and I know.

Now we have seized Zitong and have established a firm foothold in Jiangzhou. Kong Ming is still slowly promoting Linyi rice. In one or two years, when more than half of the people in Shu are planting Linyi rice and feel my kindness, wouldn’t it be good to resolve Liu Jiyu peacefully at that time?”

Liu Bei gave Pang Tong a heartfelt speech, and he also knew that Pang Tong wanted to do more to prove himself.

During this visit to Sichuan, Pang Tong's contribution to military strategy was no less than that of Zhuge Liang. However, Zhuge Liang also made contributions to civil administration and winning the hearts of the people.

All in all, in the entire process of taking over Sichuan, Zhuge Liang's contribution was far greater than Pang Tong's.

Pang Tong may not want to catch up with Zhuge Liang, but when he saw his former classmates become so awesome, he always wanted to keep up and not fall too far behind.

Only Liu Bei could control and temporarily suppress this mentality. If he let it go, Liu Bei was worried that Pang Tong would make mistakes because of his greed for merit.

……

After Liu Bei suppressed Pang Tong's impulse to act rashly and make mistakes, he still followed the original plan and sent Dong He to Chengdu to negotiate with Liu Zhang.

I hope Liu Zhang can accept the fait accompli that "Zitong, Jiameng Pass and other places have been taken over and controlled by Liu Bei's army."

In fact, Liu Zhang had heard the bad news five or six days before Dong He arrived.

It was like a bolt from the blue to him, and it took him a long time to recover from the grief.

In the end, he sighed and drank and smashed things all night, and vented his anger a little. The next day, he gathered his staff in a dejected manner and asked them for countermeasures in private one by one.

Liu Zhang didn't even dare to directly summon his ministers to work together.

Because this kind of thing is too embarrassing, it is better to ask everyone one by one behind closed doors, so that no one knows how many people the lord has asked. Liu Zhang can say to everyone he meets, "I only asked for the opinions of a few of you on this matter."

Unfortunately, no matter how Liu Zhang tried to cover it up, this matter was absolutely unsolvable.

Liu Bei's strength is there, and Liu Bei is right. Liu Zhang's army was the first to advance rashly, and Liu Bei's army had to clean up the mess for him. If Liu Zhang really took the initiative to break up, Liu Bei would have attacked directly, and the people would not have remembered Liu Zhang's kindness.

To the extent that, in the end, even the most hawkish Wang Lei and Zheng Du felt that Liu Zhang should swallow this loss in silence. They just wanted to make the sense of boundaries clearer and ensure that Liu Bei would not be punished again for the same offense. This excuse would end here and no additional punishment would be imposed in the future.

Fa Zheng, who was already a dovish person, and Huang Quan, who was more neutral, would not persuade Liu Zhang to take risks.

Liu Zhang thoroughly felt the loneliness brought about by being weak and incompetent.

Soon, Dong He arrived in Chengdu. He originally thought that he would need to have a heated argument with Liu Zhang's advisers, but Liu Zhang received him politely and he actually gave in.

He also said, "Yang Huai led his troops to advance recklessly in Gaopei, which was purely due to their deviation from the order. Those generals had ill intentions and acted on their own in executing military orders. It is completely reasonable for Brother Xuande to clean up the mess for me. Pang Xi has always been difficult to discipline, and Brother Xuande is willing to teach him a lesson on his behalf, and there is nothing else to say."

Having surrendered to this extent, it would be difficult for Dong He to find an excuse to keep him.

The two sides could only clarify the boundaries of the actual controlled areas. Finally, both sides clarified the occupied areas of Liu Bei and Liu Zhang's army in the direction of Zitong, with the Fu River and Tongshui as the boundaries.

In other words, from Dianjiang County where the three rivers meet and going upstream along the Fu River, Deyang County, Zitong County and other places located north of the main stream of the Fu River were all under the control of Liu Bei.

However, Guanghan County and Fu County, located on the south bank of the main stream of the Fu River, were still under the control of Liu Zhang.

As a result, the main passes of Ma Ming Ge Road and Jiange Road fell into Liu Bei's hands.

Between the area controlled by Liu Bei's army and Chengdu, the only barriers on the northern road are the three cities of Fuxian, Mianzhu and Luocheng, which can lead to Chengdu.

The southern route passes through Guanghan, Pi County and Luocheng, and is only three cities away, before reaching Chengdu.

As long as Liu Zhang stopped resisting and stopped sabotaging the alliance's cause, Liu Bei would not trouble him. But if he had a paranoid mentality and insisted on seeking a way out, the situation would be uncertain.

(End of this chapter)