My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 541 Why is Cao Gong late?
Liu Zhang surrendered and directly acknowledged Liu Bei's temporary military control over Zitong, Jiameng Pass and other territories north of the Fu River.

Although this result was within the expectations of envoy Dong He, he came here just to fight for this matter.

But the fact that the process was so smooth was still beyond Dong He's expectations. He could not help but flatter Liu Zhang for his "righteousness" and "focusing on the great cause of suppressing the rebellion". He had a friendly banquet for several days, sang various praises, and then rushed back to Zitong to report to Liu Bei.

Zitong was more than 300 li away from Chengdu. Dong He rode his horse over 100 li a day and arrived in two and a half days. It was already the middle of late May when he arrived in Zitong.

To put it another way, at this point, Liu Bei's occupied area was only 300 miles away from Chengdu, the nearest place.

When Liu Bei learned that Dong He had returned to report, he took it very seriously. As soon as he saw Dong He, he asked about his health and comforted him.

This time, Dong He helped persuade Fei Guan to surrender and went on a diplomatic mission to Liu Zhang. With such merits, no one would say anything if he became a governor of a large county in the future. The current governor of Baxi was only appointed a few days ago, so there was no need to move for the time being.

If there is new progress in the war in Yizhou in the future and more land can be obtained, it would be logical to find another fertile county to hand over to Dong for management.

Dong He also reported the details of the mission to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei also called Pang Tong to listen.

Liu Bei was somewhat surprised to learn that Liu Zhang did not resist at all and just said whatever he wanted, so he consulted Pang Tong:

"Shi Yuan, what do you think this incident portends? Will Ji Yu be completely on the same page with us in the future and never go back on his word again?"

It was already quite hot and humid in Shu at the end of May. Pang Tong waved his small fan for a few times and said hesitantly:
"How honorable is the position of a local lord? Unless you have suffered a lot and have been beaten to the point where you have no power to fight back, who would be willing to give it up so easily and become a powerless rich man?
At present, the only people in the world who can be expected to completely submit to the lord are Yuan Qingzhou and Master Liu Qi. After all, they have never truly claimed to be the king and held all the power in their hands.

Liu Zhang was different. After all, he had been the sovereign for more than ten years. He should be compared with Yuan Shao and Liu Biao. Even if Wu Yi was defeated this time and lost 30,000 soldiers, it was not as desperate as Yuan Qingzhou and Master Liu Qi were in those days.

Therefore, I think it is better to be lenient with the enemy. We also hope that Liu Jiyu will be willing to be a subordinate from now on, but we cannot completely ignore his relapses. "

Liu Bei frowned when he heard this, thinking that Pang Tong was too suspicious and always wanted to "treat the disease before it happens". So he asked openly:

"If he still has this intention, why did he give in so completely this time? If he wants to fight, he should fight now.

Otherwise, if you admit it so readily now, you will have a hard time finding excuses to bring it up again in the future, and you will be branded as someone who goes back on his word."

In response to this question, Pang Tong shook his head very straightforwardly and pointed out quickly and sharply: "That's not necessarily true. Perhaps Liu Jiyu is surrendering so immediately and so straightforwardly because he wants to be patient in order to eliminate the lord's vigilance?

As for why he chose to endure now and attack in the future, it is not difficult to explain. I put myself in his shoes and thought that it was probably because Cao Cao had been making a lot of noise recently but had done little. He had previously been very powerful and said that he would compete with the lord for supremacy, but Xiahou Yuan went first and was defeated by our army. Xiahou Yuan was able to defeat Wu Yi, Yang Huai, and Gao Pei in succession.

In this case, if Cao Cao's army could really connect smoothly and directly enter Sichuan to confront the main force of our army, then Liu Zhang might dare to have a different mind and fight for his own power and land. But now Cao Cao is late, and he has released momentum but has not followed up with actual actions. How can Liu Zhang dare to act recklessly at this critical juncture?
Even if Liu Zhang had resentment in his heart, he should have waited until Cao Cao really came and our army had fought with Cao Cao with all their might and had no energy left to care about him, only then would he have the courage to negotiate terms.

In other words, our army was able to capture Zitong, Jiameng and other places, and even the entire north of the Fu River, without bloodshed or quarreling, thanks to Cao Cao’s quick words and slow hands. "

Can you still look at the problem this way?
Liu Bei had originally had this idea in his mind, but after Pang Tong put it into words, he suddenly felt enlightened.

Indeed, in this matter, Cao Cao seemed to have really assisted himself.

Cao Cao used his intimidation to force Liu Zhang to huddle together for warmth. But Cao Cao's actual actions did not keep up, so Liu Zhang wanted to sit back and watch the fight, but he could not do so.

From this point of view, Cao Cao really failed in this matter.

After understanding this, Liu Bei could not help but sigh: "Cao is always cunning and scheming. He never does such a stupid thing as driving fish into the deep. It seems that this time, he was really caught off guard by Ma Teng.

I don’t know how big of a mess Ma Teng had caused. Cao Cao originally planned to send troops to Qinling in mid-April, but now it’s the end of May and they haven’t come yet. This has been delayed for a month and a half, and it is estimated that it will be delayed for two months in total.”

(Note: "To drive fish for the abyss" has a similar meaning to "to do the work for others" and "to pull chestnuts from the fire". However, "to drive fish for the abyss" is from Mencius, so Liu Bei could only say this. The other two idioms with similar meanings did not appear during the Han Dynasty.)
Because the Shu Road was difficult and the Qinling Mountains were steep, even if Liu Bei sent Bantunman soldiers to cross the mountains to scout, they could only investigate south of the Chencang Road. It was still difficult to understand what was happening in the Guanzhong Plain or even Longxi.

In Guandong, Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu might be more informed than Liu Bei, but they would have to go through a long detour to inform Liu Bei. If it wasn't a particularly urgent new incident, Guan Yu wouldn't just send a letter at an express speed of 600 miles.

No more detailed news has been received yet, and we can only say that the progress of the Cao-Ma dispute is still as expected.

……

Four flowers bloom, each showing its own beauty.

In the open and secret struggles among Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Liu Zhang and Ma Teng, the one who finally fell was undoubtedly Ma Teng.

Because of the changes in the northwest, Cao Cao made a lot of noise but did little, and instead helped Liu Bei with the Bashu issue. With such a significant impact, it is natural to have a look at what happened in the northwest during the spring and summer of the 11th year of Jian'an.

The timeline goes back to March of the eleventh year of Jian'an, which was one month before the original time when Cao Cao's army was scheduled to cross the Qinling Mountains.

Cao Cao now controls half of the country and has 500,000 soldiers. But in order to prevent too many loopholes in Guandong, he thought about it and decided to leave at least 300,000 troops in the east to defend against Zhuge Jin, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and others.

In the case of relatively insufficient troops on the western front, if Cao Cao wanted to have a decisive battle with Liu Bei, he would definitely try his best to mobilize forces from all sides. Ma Teng, who was nearby in Longxi and Liangzhou, naturally became the first choice.

When Xiahou Yuan first went to Hanzhong last year, Ma Teng was busy killing Han Sui and was unable to follow him south. But by last winter, Han Sui had been killed, and the Ma family's army was free to rest for a winter.

Ma Teng himself was also named General of Cavalry by Cao Cao because of his contribution in killing Han Sui. Logically speaking, since he had received such a heavy reward and important position from the court of Xudu, it was only right for him to make further contributions to the court of Xudu.

Therefore, in the more than a month after Ma Teng took office as General of Cavalry, Cao Cao had been laying the groundwork for this matter.

He could not provide too much food and grass for Ma Teng, and Longxi was too far away and difficult to transport. Therefore, Cao Cao did not plan to provide food and grass for Ma Teng, but hoped that Ma Teng could raise his own food by grazing in Xiliang. In the case of less food, the only thing Cao Cao could offer was gold, silver, jewelry, and silk.

From early February to mid-March, Cao Cao spent money like water, giving Ma Teng a wad of gold every three days and a wad of silk every five days, including the generals and staff that Ma Teng brought to Xu Du, in order to win his heart.

Although Ma Teng was also a local lord, the land of Xiliang was bitterly cold and had been extremely poor since the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling. In the past fifty years, the people of Xiliang had never seen so much money except for the few years when they followed Dong Zhuo to rob.

Faced with Cao Cao's frequent rewards, Ma Teng naturally lost himself a little, and was not so resistant to Cao Cao's request for him to join forces to send troops.

What's more, Ma Teng was still living in Xudu at that time. He had just been appointed General of Cavalry for about a month and had not found an excuse to return to Liangzhou.

If he didn't agree, Cao Cao might not let him go. Only if he agreed to send troops, he would have an excuse to return to Liangzhou to mobilize troops, which would also be beneficial to his personal safety. How could Ma Teng not know this?
Therefore, throughout the entire March, Cao Cao and Ma Teng were also pulling each other, and rewarding each other crazily. At the same time, Cao Cao further bribed and won over Ma Teng's subordinates, hoping to cultivate their loyalty to the court instead of Ma Teng.

But at this critical juncture when Cao and Ma were joining forces, how could Zhuge Jin in Guandong miss this opportunity?
In the whole world, only Zhuge Jin, a time traveler, knows that there are traitors behind the Xiliang Ma family.

Only Zhuge Jin knew that the Ma family had the potential to "cause trouble even when Ma Teng himself was detained in Xu Du by Cao Cao."

Ma Chao, Ma Teng's eldest son, historically did not care about his father's life or death.

Therefore, when Cao Cao tried to win over and reward Ma Teng, Zhuge Jin followed the strategy he had agreed with Liu Bei and used spies to spread rumors in the areas occupied by Cao Cao.

It says, "Cao Cao always liked to use the newly joined troops as cannon fodder. Back then, Yuan Shao's surrendered troops were used by Cao Cao to fight Yuan Shang to the death, and they were consumed badly.

Last year, Zhang Lu's surrendered troops were also sent by Cao Cao to attack Diaoyu City, but they were all killed in a fight with Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, and Yang Ang and Yang Ren all died tragically.

Even Zhang Xiu, who surrendered to Cao before the Battle of Guandu, was recently betrayed by Xiahou Yuan and died on the battlefield in Baxi.

If the Xiliang Ma family served as Cao Cao's vanguard, they would definitely be sold out next. Cao Cao gave Ma Teng the title of General of the Cavalry in order to defraud the Ma family of all their wealth."

When such rumors reached Xudu, Cao Cao of course took them very seriously and ordered all kinds of severe suppression. Whoever spread them would be severely punished.

The fighting between the two sides was extremely fierce. In order to build momentum, Zhuge Jin also sacrificed some spies. There was no other way around it; it was a price he had to pay.

In the end, Cao Cao was able to control the situation in Xudu and around Yingchuan. However, he was never able to completely suppress the spread of rumors in the outer areas. After more than a month of spreading, by the time Cao Cao was about to raise his army, these rumors had spread to Liangzhou.

Eventually, the news reached Ma Chao, who was stationed in Liang Province. He was indeed very afraid of being used as cannon fodder by Cao Cao and being killed in a fight with Liu Bei, so he began to think about self-preservation.

Everything happened so naturally.

However, times have changed and situations have changed.

Ma Chao's reaction was similar to that of the same period in history.

However, Cao Cao's response has changed greatly compared with the same period in history because of the relative weakening of Cao Cao's power.

Zhuge Jin's strategy was eventually pushed into deep waters that no one could predict by the butterfly effect.

(End of this chapter)