My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 548: Ma Chao comes to surrender, and he has wooden oxen and flowing horses to serve him

After Li Hui received Liu Bei's mission, he traveled day and night, first going downstream along the Jialing River from Jiameng Pass, then turning into the Baishui River and going upstream, all the way to the northwest.

After passing Baishui Pass and Yinping Bridge, he crossed the Min Mountains along the valley of the northern branch of the Baishui River and arrived at Dazhong where Ma Chao temporarily rested.

Li Hui was accompanied by hundreds of Bandunman soldiers, as well as the supplies and gifts they brought with them.

Ma Chao and the young Ma Dai were in desperate situation after their defeat. They stationed their troops in Da Zhong for ten days to rest and recuperate, feeling lost and helpless.

Ma Chao was quite surprised to see the envoy of the General of Chariots and Cavalry arriving so soon, but he was also a little nervous, not knowing what kind of future was waiting for him.

"If we could have taken Guanzhong and waited for the General of Chariots and Cavalry, we would have been a local lord and could have negotiated terms with him... Unfortunately, we are now defeated and only have 4,000 cavalry and a few counties left. If the General of Chariots and Cavalry wants me to be the vanguard and fight Cao Cao to the death, what should I do? Sigh..."

As Ma Chao thought so, his brief ambitions seemed to have vanished into thin air. All he had to face now was the mediocrity of survival.

There was no point in thinking about it, so Ma Chao simply gave up and met Li Hui with an untidy beard.

The place for the meeting was chosen to be the Dazhong County Government Office.

As a remote county with less than 5,000 households, Dazhong's local facilities are naturally extremely dilapidated. However, the population of Dazhong has suddenly doubled.

Because Ma Chao brought 4,000 cavalry with him when he retreated, and he was relatively orderly when he retreated from Tianshui, so he was able to withdraw all the local families among the 4,000 cavalry, which was about 2,000 to 3,000 households.

This is not a difficult thing to do. In history, after Zhuge Liang's first expedition to Qishan, Ma Su was defeated at Jieting, and Zhuge Liang had to retreat, and "withdrawn thousands of households from Longxi and returned south." Although Ma Chao's army was small, he had many horses, and the soldiers' families were being evacuated, so naturally there were more people willing to follow him.

The land of Dazhong is also fertile. Historically, Jiang Wei was able to cultivate land here and store food and grass for the Northern Expedition. Ma Chao brought 3,000 households with him and was able to quickly reclaim the land and put it into production. He would be self-sufficient next year, but he would need some additional subsidies this year to ensure he survived the spring famine next year.

Under such a miserable environment, the standard of Ma Chao's hospitality to Li Hui was naturally extremely shabby.

……

Li Hui was personally welcomed into the county government office by Ma Dai. With just a few casual glances along the way, he observed the predicament of Ma Chao's situation, and felt more confident about persuading him later.

Ma Chao was also a little nervous when he saw Li Hui. He was not as rebellious as he was in the parallel universe. He just said carefully: "Your Excellency, you have worked hard on the journey. Please take a seat. I wonder why the General of Chariots and Cavalry sent you here?"

As Ma Chao spoke, Ma Dai, who was standing beside him, led Li Hui to sit on a mat, while Ma Dai just stood beside him with his sword in hand and did not sit down.

Li Hui glanced at Ma Dai from the corner of his eye, then looked at Ma Chao and said, "My lord heard that General Ma had raised an army in Guanzhong to fight against the rebellion, but he was disappointed that the mountains and rivers blocked the way and the news was not flowing. By the time he realized it, it was too late to rescue him.

Fortunately, the general was able to keep his useful body and thousands of soldiers and retreat here safely. I came here today to ask my master if the general has any shortcomings and needs our army's help. I have no other intention. "

When Ma Chao heard that Li Hui only came to show goodwill and provide assistance, and had no demands, he was slightly relieved.

He had never expected that Liu Bei would not take advantage of the situation. However, out of caution, Ma Chao took the initiative to ask:
"The Cao thief has regained control of Guanzhong. His next step will certainly be to go to Hanzhong to rescue Xiahou Yuan. I believe that a war between Cao and Liu is imminent. Doesn't the General of Chariots and Cavalry need our army's help?"

Li Hui heard this and chuckled a few times: "General, why worry so much? Cao Cao wants to cross the Qinling Mountains, which is a dead end! Most of Cao Cao's soldiers are from the north. How many mountain terrain tactics can they learn?
In contrast, since our lord started his army, he has relied on the Danyang soldiers recruited by Xuzhou Tao Gong that year as his foundation. Since then, he has suppressed the Danyang bandits and the Shanyue tribes, and the Danyang soldiers have been inexhaustible. Moreover, when he entered Sichuan this time, Liu Jiyu respected his lord as the leader of the alliance, and the Bantun barbarians were willing to be the vanguard.

Even if Cao's army has hundreds of thousands of troops crossing the Qinling Mountains, there is no need to be afraid! My lord can defeat the enemy with the Bantun Man and Danyang soldiers, so why should the general take action? Most of the general's troops are cavalry, so you should think about how to win against Cao's bandits on the plains in the future. "

When saying this, Li Hui's tone was not artificial at all, and his contempt was purely natural. It seemed that he sincerely felt that Cao Cao was using his own weakness to attack the enemy's strength, which was a big taboo in military strategy.

Ma Chao was also touched by the other party's calmness and naturalness. He felt a little ashamed for a moment and couldn't help thinking: I didn't expect that I was judging others by my own meanness. Lord Xuande didn't need to bring our army to fight Cao Cao...

Since he didn't need to rush into battle, Ma Chao had other ideas and tried to probe further: "If this is the case, I will have nowhere to go and will respect the General of Chariots and Cavalry as my leader. But there is one more thing, please let the emperor tell me:
After all, Dazhong is separated from Baishui where your army is stationed by the Min Mountain, and the Qishan Road between it and Tianshui County in the north is not strategic enough. If Cao Cao attacks with a large force in the future, Dazhong will not be able to be defended for long.

Now Cao is not in a hurry to attack Dazhong, but because he was in a very bad situation, he used the trick of faking his death to escape. This army was announced to the outside world as being led by my brother. Moreover, Tianshui County is now garrisoned by my father, and Cao cannot directly control it, so he temporarily focuses on Chencang and Qinling.

If the news that I am not dead leaks out in the future, Cao will retaliate sooner or later. So please tell the general not to publicize Chao's surrender for the time being."

Li Hui immediately agreed: "How difficult is that? I can agree to this on behalf of my lord. General Ma, you can rest assured to stay here. If there is a shortage of food and military supplies due to the increase in the number of troops stationed in Dazhong, my lord will also do his best to provide them."

Ma Chao felt warm at heart after hearing this. He rubbed his hands in embarrassment and said ashamedly: "Although I have never been to Baishui Pass, I know that it is not easy to cross Minshan Mountain. Your army has to transport military supplies along the Baishui River Valley and across Minshan Mountain to my army. Won't the loss be too great?"

Li Hui assured Ma Chao and told him to relax: "Of course there will be losses, so we mainly supply weapons and armor to you. As for food, we can only provide a small part. The rest still needs to be raised locally by you.

This was also thanks to Zhuge's military strategist's magical skills. In preparation for the Battle of Hanzhong, he had made some weapons that were very convenient for transporting grain in the mountains. Our main force used these weapons a lot when transporting grain and grass from Jiameng Pass to Yang'an Pass along the Jinniu Road.

This time, we crossed the Minshan Mountain from Baishui Pass to Dazhong, and it just happened to be used. If the general sees it with his own eyes, he will know that what I said is true, and he will no longer worry about our support. At that time, the general only needs to wait for our army to stick to Cao Cao on the front battlefield and make Cao Cao trapped in the quagmire, and then the general will go north to harass Cao Cao and divide his forces, which will be a great achievement. "

When Ma Chao was stationed in Dazhong, his biggest worry was that this place belonged to Longdi after all, and the geographical barrier between it and Shu was too dangerous and difficult to travel, making supplies difficult.

Hearing Li Hui making such a huge hidden danger seem easy with just a few casual words, Ma Chao couldn't help but be fascinated.

He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Is there such a thing in the world? I wonder how much more convenient it can make transporting grain in the mountains? Sir, has it been useful during your visit? It's not that I don't believe it, I just want to broaden my horizons."

Li Hui stood up, brushed off his clothes, and made a gesture of invitation to the door: "It's not difficult, General, just follow me and take a look."

……

Afterwards, Li Hui led Ma Chao out and arrived at the delegation’s residence.

This time, Liu Bei sent several hundred Bandunman soldiers to protect Li Hui. These soldiers also brought some supplies and gifts to Ma Chao, which Li Hui could use to show off.

As soon as he arrived at the camp, Ma Chao immediately saw piles of salted fish and tea, as well as some cloth and weapons and armor.

There were also food items, but because the roads were difficult and transportation was inconvenient, the food transported was high in calorie density, just like the "compressed biscuits" dry food that the Bandunman soldiers had eaten in previous mountain battles.

It was the first time that Ma Chao had seen this kind of dry food, and he took it in his hand and looked at it curiously.

Li Hui also proudly introduced: "General, you may have never seen this before. This is also the creation of my military advisor Zhuge. It is made of fine grain powder, grease, pressed and glued together, and then baked and dried.

The salt added is quite heavy, so it can be stored for months in winter without spoiling, and can be eaten for one or two months in summer. But it is too salty, so it needs to be mixed with other tasteless coarse grains and wild vegetables. When fighting, there is no time to cook, so you just drink more water to dilute it. Eating two or three pieces can keep you from being hungry for half a day. "

"Can this thing be eaten directly?" Ma Chao couldn't help but be surprised. He took it in his hand and looked at it over and over again.

This thing is less than two inches square in size. If someone said that eating three pieces of this small food could keep him full for half a day, he naturally wouldn't believe it.

Fortunately, Ma Chao also knew that Liu Bei would not harm him. Both sides were on the same front. In order to show that he trusted the other party and had no suspicion, he threw a piece of dry biscuit directly into his mouth. "Be careful, this biscuit is very hard!" Li Hui saw Ma Chao stuffing it directly into his mouth and hurriedly warned him, but it was a little too late.

Ma Chao felt a sharp pain in his teeth, but luckily his teeth did not break. He quickly stopped eating, slowly held it in his mouth until it softened, and then chewed it bit by bit.

Hard, salty, dense.

Although he didn't know whether it was really that filling, the brick-like texture had already made Ma Chao believe that this cake was of some substance.

He paused for a moment before his expression returned to normal. He exclaimed, "I've heard of Mr. Kong Ming's name for a long time. He is indeed extraordinary. He knows everything. This salty cake is so good. The mountain grain transport equipment made by Mr. Kong Ming must be even more sophisticated."

"Of course, General, please take a look." Li Hui said as he waved his hand to signal several Bandunman soldiers beside him to unload two piles of tea and cloth, revealing the cart underneath.

Ma Chao walked over to take a closer look, and indeed, it was something he had never seen before.

One of these two types of vehicles is similar to the cart used to push cement slurry on construction sites in later generations. In addition to two wheels, there are two support rods under the handle of the cart.

If the vehicle is going too fast when pulling, just put down the handle and the support rod will support the ground to brake, which is very convenient for controlling downhill inertia during mountain transportation.

Similarly, if you are going uphill and you are exhausted after walking for a while and want to stop, you can let go at any time. But you must change from pulling to pushing, so that you can also brake.

In addition to this two-wheeled vehicle that was similar to the cement trucks used on construction sites in later generations, Ma Chao also saw another vehicle next to it. Most of its structure was the same as this one, the main difference being that it only had one wheel in the middle.

The body of a single-wheeled vehicle is narrower and has better trafficability. The cargo is placed on the vehicle bar like a load on a shoulder pole, rather than in the cargo box as on a two-wheeled vehicle. After the cargo box is removed, when encountering extremely narrow places, the cargo can be directly lifted off the vehicle and then separated.

There is no doubt that both of these vehicles were tinkered with by Zhuge Liang over the past few months.

However, the prototype was the one that Zhuge Liang and his elder brother Zhuge Jin discussed through correspondence after Liu Bei entered Sichuan in the second half of last year. Zhuge Jin first gave him some prototype sketch ideas, and then Zhuge Liang slowly optimized them.

After all, Zhuge Jin was a time traveler and did not want to do the stupid thing of "reinventing the wheel". He had the experience of later generations, so he could give the sketches of the construction site mortar cart and wheelbarrow to his second brother first, and let his second brother iterate on this basis. Why not? This at least saved Zhuge Liang a lot of useless work in the early stage.

What's more, this type of two-wheeled bulldozer was actually something that the Zhuge brothers had already dabbled in a few years ago, but at that time they used a smaller version of the Ge Gong bus to transport earth and fill the moat during sieges.

If it is to be used for mountain transportation now, it needs to be several times smaller to ensure that it can be pushed by a single person. And it needs to save more anti-arrow shields than the siege version, because mountain transportation does not need to consider battlefield defense, so a lot of structures can be saved.

Although there are many places to change, they are not difficult and it is easy to think of ideas and directions for improvement.

When Zhuge Jin exchanged letters, he deliberately did not say everything, only saying that this was a plan that he had come up with casually and was still very imperfect, and he should not be afraid of making drastic changes. He just wanted to give his second brother enough freedom to play his role and avoid Zhuge Liang's ideas being constrained.

Zhuge Jin knew very well that in history Zhuge Liang had created the "wooden ox and flowing horse", but no real object was left behind, and in the end the legend became more and more mysterious, and most of the restoration rumors in later generations were not credible.

In this case, he was the first to come up with the prototype ideas for the two types of vehicles. After Zhuge Liang weighed the pros and cons, the final design was the "wooden ox and flowing horse".

……

Therefore, what Ma Chao saw at this moment was not the classic construction carts and wheelbarrows of later generations, but the product that Zhuge Liang improved and refined based on the ones given by his elder brother.

At first glance, Ma Chao could not see all the benefits of it, so Li Hui suggested that he go to the south of Dazhong County, beside the Minshan Valley Road, and find a slope to give it a try. He would naturally gain confidence then.

Out of curiosity, Ma Chao took a few followers, pulled a few empty carts, and rode out of the city straight to the southern suburbs.

Only a few dozen miles south of the Dazhong Basin is the entrance to the Min Valley. The mountains gradually become steeper, and various complex terrains, ups and downs, gradually appear.

Ma Chao did not have to run further, so he conducted the experiment right here and asked the soldiers to take out empty sacks and fill them with bags of soil for direct testing.

For some things, you will only know the benefits after you actually use them.

The reason why carts could not be used for mountain transportation was not because the plank roads or river valleys were difficult to walk on, but because once there were ups and downs, the cart could not be stopped or would roll back.

This led to the fact that the soldiers could only carry bamboo baskets, backpacks, or shoulder poles when marching on the mountain. These modes of transportation could be started and stopped at any time. Historically, when Zhuge Liang first went to Qishan, Wei Yan suggested taking the Ziwu Valley and relying on 5,000 auxiliary soldiers to "carry food" because of this. Anything with wheels would fall off the cliff when encountering ups and downs in the Ziwu Valley.

It was not until Zhuge Liang's subsequent northern expeditions that he invented the wooden ox and flowing horse, and only then was the problem of braking when going uphill and downhill in mountainous areas solved.

Now Zhuge Liang was inspired by his elder brother and took out this thing 24 years in advance, and it was more efficient and refined than the wooden ox and flowing horse in history. What was so difficult about just a Yinping Bridge and Baishui River Valley?

Ma Chao was originally worried that he would be stationed in Dazhong and Liu Bei would not be able to support him. But now seeing this car, Ma Chao was completely convinced by Liu Bei's virtue.

"Lord Xuande treats the surrendered generals so generously! The princes of the world would like to deprive ordinary surrendered generals of their military power and make them serve until death. Only Lord Xuande not only treats the surrendered generals generously, but also tries every means to provide financial assistance and military equipment, so that I can gain a firm foothold in Longnan... Such a great favor, Ma Chao swears to repay it with his death!"

Li Hui quietly watched Ma Chao with emotion, and waited for him to finish speaking before slowly analyzing to him: "General Ma's loyalty and righteousness are also the help of heaven to the Han Dynasty. But there is no need to rush this matter, everyone has a battlefield that is most suitable for them to perform.

Mountain warfare in Hanzhong is not your forte, so just rest and recuperate. When Cao Cao's army, which has crossed the Qinling Mountains to the south, starts to decline, we will make sure General Ma performs well before we launch a counterattack.

I have also told you the truth, General Ma. You and your father have had such a quarrel. If you suddenly surrender, even if Lord Xuande does not suspect you, the generals under him will inevitably be worried. Let you stay alone for a while, and wait until you have made merit in the future, and then surrender to the Lord, and then reward you, so that you will have a reason to convince the Lord."

Ma Chao suddenly understood and bowed: "Thank you for your advice, sir! I will follow Lord Xuande for the rest of my life and will take it as my duty to defeat the rebels and destroy Cao. Lord Xuande does not need our army to go into battle immediately, but I am willing to take only a few hundred followers to Jiameng Pass to meet Lord Xuande in private to show my sincerity!"

Ma Chao had also learned his lesson by this time and was very eager to curry favor with Liu Bei. He felt that since Liu Bei did not use his army as cannon fodder, he should meet him in person to show that he had no ulterior motives and was not worried that Liu Bei would detain him or seize his army.

After all, his money, food and aid materials were still in Liu Bei's hands. If he didn't pay a visit to show his sincerity, he would not feel at ease holding these things, fearing that the supplies would be cut off one day.

Seeing that he was so persistent, Li Hui did not object. The next day, he led Ma Chao and some of his escort cavalry back south, still walking along the Baishui River Valley, crossing the Min Mountains, and returning to Baishui Pass and Jiameng Pass via Yinping Bridge.

However, considering that Ma Chao was currently in a state of "faking his death" and it was difficult to publicize it, Li Hui sent someone to notify Liu Bei in advance and arranged a private meeting.

As expected, Liu Bei attached great importance to this matter. He only brought Zhang Fei, Gan Ning, Wei Yan, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong with him, and met with Ma Chao in private. The other civil and military officials of lower status were unaware of this matter.

As soon as he saw Ma Chao, Liu Bei was very generous: "My dear nephew Mengqi, I heard that you are fighting against Cao Cao in Guanzhong. I am very happy. A small defeat is not worth mentioning. I will help you defeat Cao!"

When Ma Chao saw that Liu Bei's arms were actually longer than his, and he had two swords hanging from his waist, his warrior instinct told him: This man must be a master of swordsmanship, and even if his sword-drawing skills were not as good as his, they were definitely not far behind.

Both sides were experts in swordplay. Fearing that Liu Bei would be afraid, Ma Chao quickly untied his sword and handed it to Wei Yan, who was running errands nearby. Then he approached Liu Bei and bowed:
"General Chariot and Cavalry's benevolence and justice are known to all the world, and I have admired him for a long time. Cao Cao bullied the generals of Xiliang and wanted to exhaust our comrades. We had no choice but to raise an army, but we regret that we could not hold on until General Chariot and Cavalry came to support us. We are really ashamed!"

(End of this chapter)