My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 576: Interlocking, Nowhere to Hide

It can be said that Liu Bei’s first reaction after meeting Fa Zheng made Fa Zheng very moved.

In just a few words, Liu Bei first thought about the problem from the perspective of "how to make Fa Zheng do his job better". After confirming that Fa Zheng could do his job, Liu Bei immediately began to consider the people's livelihood and production in Yizhou.

These reactions were instantaneous and spontaneous, not rational decisions made after hesitation and weighing the pros and cons. This also shows that Liu Bei's natural reaction, without thinking deeply, was to think about his subordinates and the people first.

To accomplish great things, people must be the foundation. This is a great leader who can accomplish great things.

After being moved, Fa Zheng returned to his professional attitude and carefully reviewed the current situation, then humbly asked for advice:

"Since the general wants to prioritize the petition to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne, and also take into account the people's livelihood, and does not want to cause trouble immediately, then we need to find another way to temporarily suppress and delay the conflict caused by military rations and troop withdrawal, and then provoke it later.

I only regret that I am not very smart and can't think of a proper way to achieve both ends. I hope Brother Kongming and Brother Shiyuan will help me with our ideas."

It was already the end of the twelfth lunar month, and the Chinese New Year was coming up. Fa Zheng listened to Liu Bei's idea and thought that it would take at least a month to discuss and convey the petition. Then, it would take another month or two to wait for a response and follow-up.

All in all, it may take until March next year for these things to have a result.

On the other hand, spring plowing begins in early February, and then early rice seedlings need to be raised. The busy farming season can almost last through February and March, and there is basically no slack season until April.

Next year will be the third year that Liu Bei’s army has been promoting Linyi double-season rice in Yizhou.

In the first year, they only planted a small area of Linyi rice in Jiangzhou. Last year, they expanded to most areas of Jiangzhou, Zitong, and Pixian. This year, if they expand the planting area five to ten times, they can cover at least one or two counties.

Liu Bei's army vigorously promoted double-season rice in Shu, which was a benevolent policy that would last for generations and was very helpful in rallying the people's hearts. Once most of the counties in Shu County planted double-season rice, the people in the Chengdu Plain would lean more towards Liu Bei.

By then, most farmers would be able to harvest more grain thanks to the good policies of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. It would be reasonable for Liu Bei to ask Liu Zhang for more military rations to support his troops.

At that time, Liu Zhang's continued attempt to use food to hold Liu Bei back and force him to withdraw part of his troops would be even more untenable. Even if Liu Bei used this as an excuse to turn against him, he would not lose much of his reputation.

Therefore, whether from the perspective of persuading the emperor to take office or from the perspective of winning the hearts and minds of the people, delaying the conflict for three to four months, at least until April next year before considering whether to erupt, is definitely beneficial and has no disadvantages.

Of course, this is just a hidden bomb left in advance, that is, to push the contradictions and muddy things out, but it does not mean that it will explode in three or four months.

If Liu Zhang reforms after three or four months and does not make any other hostile moves to strangle him, then Liu Bei can continue to live in peace with him. Or he can wait and see if there are any new changes or new opportunities in the world situation.

Now we are just trying to delay the "claim excuse" to ensure that we have the initiative in our hands. We will not have to think twice when the time comes. Having multiple paths and options is definitely beneficial and harmless.

After Fa Zheng had a frank conversation with Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, everyone understood the principle and reached a consensus.

Then, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong followed this line of thought and each came up with strategies for Liu Bei.

After all, they knew their actual situation better than Fa Zheng, so they quickly came up with a countermeasure.

Zhuge Liang just swung his fan a few times and came up with an idea: "My lord, I think our army can temporarily verbally agree to 'withdraw some of Yizhou's anti-Cao soldiers to reduce the burden on Yizhou's people'. Then, it can indeed be implemented in batches, for example, after the first month of the year, we can withdraw 20,000 to 30,000 people first, and then withdraw a batch every few months.

Once we have shown this attitude, we can do two things at the same time, fulfilling our promises while promoting them. We must do one or two things and then make seven or eight points of noise. It is best to take advantage of the opportunity of encouraging farmers to plough and promote Linyi rice to the people of Shu County, and publicize the lord's good deeds to all counties and towns. This will surely greatly speed up the lord's speed of winning the hearts of the people of Shu.

Finally, we all agreed to Liu Zhang's request to withdraw his troops, so Liu Zhang must fully cooperate with us in other aspects to show his sincerity. We can completely force Liu Zhang to submit a memorial to His Majesty after the first batch of symbolic withdrawals, urging His Majesty to make the lord a king and to make his trusted generals the generals of the four directions.

Then, the lord will submit a petition to decline the request for the title of king, but accept the rest. Then, he can promote the generals to higher positions and titles.”

From the perspective of price, this condition that Zhuge Liang casually proposed was indeed very reasonable.

If Liu Bei's army really withdrew half of its troops stationed in Shu, that would mean at least 60,000 to 80,000 people. This would save more than 500,000 shi of military rations in Shu within half a year, greatly reducing Liu Zhang's burden.

Liu Bei's army had made such a big concession, shouldn't Liu Zhang show some appreciation in other ways? Although Liu Zhang would be asked to submit a very offensive report and to ask the emperor to make Liu Bei a king, it seemed like he was asking for an exorbitant price.

But in the final analysis, Liu Zhang did not have to pay much in terms of actual benefits. All he actually paid was his face, and his reputation would be damaged if he flattered the emperor too much.

In addition, it would also cut off the possibility of Liu Zhang continuing to sit on the fence between Cao and Liu, because once this letter was submitted, Liu Zhang would have directly offended Cao Cao, which was a token of his allegiance.

Using these empty and positional conditions in exchange for the real benefits of withdrawing troops and reducing the amount of military rations, it can be said that this is a very reasonable calculation, and Liu Bei is definitely being merciful.

Liu Bei, Pang Tong and Fa Zheng quickly understood this logic and felt that Zhuge Liang's plan was quite reasonable.

However, Fa Zheng thought about it in more detail, and he was always thinking about how to help Liu Bei "retain the claim to attack Liu Zhang in the future", so after thinking deeply for a while, he felt that Zhuge Liang's statement still had some flaws.

Fa Zheng was not afraid of authority and expressed his doubts based on the facts: "What Kong Ming said is indeed a golden and jade theory. But after doing this, if my master Liu Jiyu completely obeys Master Xuande's words, won't there be no excuse for...beating him in the future?"

This statement is actually quite "selling out for fame". Fa Zheng and Zhang Song are now obsessed with Liu Bei completely making Liu Zhang a puppet. Only in such a closed-door occasion would Fa Zheng speak so bluntly.

Of course, it was not appropriate for Liu Bei to dig into this kind of topic. He also had to save face, so he just turned his head, talked about other things and pretended that he didn't care.

Zhuge Liang said calmly: "Based on my understanding of Liu Jiyu, although he is weak, he is also hesitant and stingy. He may not accept everything. Even if he accepts, he will often make some concessions. At that time, there will always be mistakes. As long as there is another dispute, the people of Shu will naturally see right from wrong."

Zhuge Liang's words clearly implied that Liu Zhang would not be able to fulfill his promise in full. Or to put it another way, even if Liu Zhang wanted to fulfill his promise in full, he would still make concessions and lay traps when it came to actually doing it. So there is no need to worry about not having an excuse to make a claim in the future.

It’s just that Zhuge Liang was more tactful in his words, so he didn’t go into detail about those details.

Fa Zheng listened thoughtfully, but Pang Tong on the side reacted faster. Just from Zhuge Liang's few general suggestions, he had already imagined the follow-up.

So Pang Tong quickly analyzed it in detail and said, "Indeed, these little things are not that difficult. Liu Jiyu is always cautious. Even if he agrees to submit a petition to persuade him to ascend the throne, how could he be willing to offend Cao Cao to death?

Maybe he would be evasive and leave some room for maneuver, such as letting Wu Yi and Fei Guan, the abandoned ones, write the memorial, while he himself would just co-sign it. There are many places where he can compromise.

In the end, if the situation really changed, he could also say that he "lost his watchfulness for a moment and was coerced and deceived by his subordinates", or at least secretly sent another secret envoy to contact Cao Cao and tell Cao Cao that he had to do it because of the situation.

As for asking our army to withdraw and giving less military rations, I think there will be room for wrangling in the future. For example, our army is now said to have nearly 150,000 people, staying in Yizhou. But among these 150,000 people, can we only have 100,000 of our own veterans left?

The remaining number was at least 50,000 to 60,000, either the old subordinates of Wu Yi and Fei Guan, or the newly captured and reorganized Cao Jun surrendered soldiers. Although Wu Yi and Fei Guan were now loyal to the lord, they were still Liu Jiyu's old subordinates in name, and only temporarily obeyed the lord's orders and were under the unified command of the lord during the war.

Now that Cao Cao has been defeated, how should Wu Yi and Fei Guan's future status be defined? At most, we can make a verbal promise to "withdraw half of our troops from Yizhou", but in actual implementation, we only need to withdraw half of our own troops, which is at most 40,000 people, and we will be considered to have fully fulfilled our promise.

We will not count the remaining Wu Yi and Fei Guan, and let them stay in Zitong on their own. They should be supported by Liu Jiyu for the rest of their lives. So what? Those Cao Jun prisoners who surrendered and were reorganized are actually under our control. They can obey our orders in wartime, but in normal times, we say that they were captured and reorganized by Wu Yi, Fei Guan and other former members of the Yizhou Army, and they also belong to the Yizhou Army. What can Liu Zhang do?

At that time, as long as Liu Zhang feels distressed and starts to argue and calculate again, we can blame him for the greater good, saying that he was deceived by the treacherous people around him and even destroyed the great cause of the anti-rebellion alliance."

Pang Tong's ability to take on this kind of bad things is no less than Zhang Yi's. And Zhang Yi is the kind of person who has no shame at all, while Pang Tong is a person who cares about his reputation and does it within the existing interpretation framework, which is much more clever.

In just a few simple sentences, Liu Zhang's future "liability for breach of contract" was clearly arranged.

Of course, it must be emphasized that Pang Tong was restrained. He had taken into account the legitimacy of Liu Bei's acquisition of the world, as well as social morality and long-term stability.

In other words, what Zhang Yi did back then was 100% pure fraud, which came at the cost of overdrawing the legitimacy and credibility of Qin's conquest of the world. It also gave people the psychological basis for "overthrowing Qin with a strong fist."

Pang Tong was just a cunning lawyer who was quite good at picking out the details of the clauses, but he still acted according to the law and the contract. It was the other party who was not as smart as him and could not pick out the details of the clauses as well as him.

Fa Zheng was also a man of extraordinary plans and ruthlessness, and his wisdom was not low, but he did not quite understand the internal discussions of Liu Bei's camp before. At this moment, after listening to Pang Tong's analysis, Fa Zheng of course understood it all at once and understood it completely.

"I see... Then I know what to do. Please rest assured, General Chariot and Cavalry, I will definitely fulfill my mission when I return this time. I will persuade Liu Jiyu to agree to submit a petition according to your army's request in exchange for your army's partial withdrawal and reduction of the amount of military rations requested."

Moreover, Fa Zheng had already made up his mind that the landmines hidden in these treaties must not be exposed within at least three or four months.

As to whether it will be exposed in the future or whether it should be exposed, we will have to wait and see how the situation in the world changes.

With the plan in place, Liu Bei kept Fa Zheng for a few more days while waiting for the internal discussion of Liu Bei's army to be completed and decide on the specific requirements for the allies to submit petitions and how to help them get official positions. After everything was settled, Fa Zheng was allowed to return to Chengdu to report.

Anyway, the New Year is coming soon, and many things take time to discuss, so there is no need to rush. It will not be too late to give Liu Zhang a reply after the Lantern Festival in the first month of the lunar year.

……

Liu Bei had to negotiate with Dong He, Fa Zheng and Liu Zhang, and the two rounds of exchanges of envoys, as well as the negotiations for banquets and New Year holidays, took a total of one or two months.

During this period, Liu Bei's contacts with Zhuge Jin, Guan Yu, Lu Su and others did receive a response.

Since November, Liu Bei defeated Cao Cao and the victory news reached Guandong.

Zhuge Jin, who was in Xuzhou, was also keenly aware that the situation in the world would change drastically, so he made proper arrangements for the defense of the Qing-Xu front and entrusted it to Chen Deng, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, Chen Gong and other civil and military officials.

Zhuge Jin himself took Lu Su and went south from Xuzhou, traveling day and night to Hefei to meet up with Guan Yu. This was also to facilitate the subsequent discussion of important matters. Zhuge Jin knew that Liu Bei and his second brother would definitely come to him and Guan Yu to discuss many important matters in the future, so he could seek the support of local powerful factions and unify internal opinions.

If I stay in Xuzhou, it will be too troublesome to communicate. The Cao army has been weakened now, and it is time to retreat to its old nest to recuperate and lick its wounds. If I leave for two or three months, with the current strength of the Cao army, it will not be possible to launch an offensive and cause any trouble.

With Chen Deng in charge of Xuzhou, plus Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, as well as sufficient manpower and money, it was enough.

Zhuge Jin arrived in Hefei in early December. Guan Yu was a little surprised to hear that Zhuge Jin had arrived, but he still went out of the city to greet him as soon as possible.

Guan Yu was quite confused at the time, because he knew that his elder brother's instructions before entering Sichuan were to let him and Ziyu divide the Guandong area, with Ziyu in the north and himself in the south, to ensure that Cao Cao would not dare to open up a second battlefield in Guandong.

Ziyu was in charge of Qing, You and Ji, while he was in charge of Jing and Yang. In Xuzhou, the Huai River was used as the boundary, with each person in charge of half of the defense zone.

In simple terms, Liu Bei's territory in Guandong was divided by the Huai River from north to south. Zhuge Jin helped him manage the area north of the Huai River, and Guan Yu helped him manage the area south of the Huai River all the way to the South China Sea.

Under such a power design, Guan Yu has been avoiding meeting with Zhuge Jin face to face in the past two years. Even though his elder brother trusts himself and Ziyu very much, Guan Yu still feels it is inappropriate.

However, he also knew that Tzuyu was not a rash person. If she broke the convention now, it must be something important that needed to be dealt with urgently.

After receiving Zhuge Jin's call, Guan Yu asked for advice in a friendly manner: "Zi Yu has come to Hefei 'crossing the border' for a reason. Cao Cao has been defeated. What other major event could require such a serious meeting and face-to-face consultation?"

Zhuge Jin rode on horseback, playing with his folding fan, and said with a relaxed look: "The thief Cao was defeated by the lord, this is a great event that shocked the world. I think the lord will definitely seek us to discuss the promotion and reward of the civil and military officials, and the further winning over and controlling of other allies in the rebellion.

Xuzhou is remote, and waiting for news from Sichuan would inevitably be delayed, so as soon as I heard that Cao Cao was defeated, I rushed to Hefei to meet you, Yunchang."

Of course, Zhuge Jin did not need to rely solely on his IQ to make this judgment. He could have been a little lazy and relied on the foresight of a time traveler. In today's world, Zhuge Jin is the only person who knows that in history, after the Battle of Hanzhong, Liu Bei was promoted to King of Hanzhong.

Although the situation has changed a lot in this life's Battle of Hanzhong, Liu Bei's promotion and the distribution of official titles and ranks are definitely necessary. After all, this battle changed the strength comparison between Cao and Liu, which is too important.

Zhuge Jin felt that he had an obligation to discuss with his second brother privately all the ideas that could copy historical answers. As for the work of weighing the pros and cons, taking appropriate measures, and making fine adjustments based on facts, he would let his second brother use his brain.

Zhuge Liang's analytical ability is definitely better than mine. One uses the prophet to give a template framework first, and the other modifies it according to the actual situation. This cooperation is perfect.

After listening to Zhuge Jin's simple and concise analysis, Guan Yu finally realized that the important day for the general promotion of all generals was approaching soon, and he was quite excited.

"This is indeed a big deal. In the past few years, our military has generally had power over power and low status. It's time to sort this out. For such a big deal, big brother must listen to your opinions again and again. Staying in Xuzhou is indeed too far away to discuss matters - in fact, if you ask me, even in Hefei, it's a bit far."

Seeing that Guan Yu also felt the same way, Zhuge Jin casually suggested, "Does Yunchang feel the same way? In fact, I think we should go to Wuchang together and stay there for a while. Of course, before we go, we must write back to the lord to explain the situation. The troops of each state will temporarily stay in place and bring some guards.

Wuchang is the thoroughfare of the five states, and it is adjacent to Liu Biao. I heard that Liu Biao has been getting weaker and weaker this year. Now Cao Cao has been defeated in Guanxi, burned all the plank roads, evacuated Hanzhong, and retreated back to Guandong. Qinling Mountains will be difficult to pass in the future, so the next battle between us and Cao Cao will definitely take place in Guandong.

Among all the places in Guandong, Jingzhou was the most vulnerable to sudden changes. Liu Biao was old and weak, and Liu Qi led the army in Shangyong and made some meritorious deeds. And those in Jingzhou who offended their lord and were close to Cao Cao would certainly not sit idly by and wait for death.

The five counties of Jingzhou are nominally entrusted to you, Yunchang, by the Lord. It is better to make preparations early and go to Wuchang to inspect the defense and make preparations in advance. If there are any changes in the future, our army can respond to the situation in Jingzhou in time. And when we arrive in Wuchang, it will be much more convenient to contact and discuss with the Lord later. "

Guan Yu also agreed with what he said. However, he always felt that if everyone went to Jiangxia, the eastern front would be a bit empty. Half of the eastern coastal area would be without a heavyweight figure who could rule several states.

Zhuge Jin comforted him, saying that it would only take a few months, and after this period of time, everyone would naturally return to their respective defense areas.

-

PS: Actually, this is a bit unreasonable, but for the sake of the character's appearance rate and the excitement of the subsequent plot, please don't worry too much about authenticity and rationality.

If it were to be reasonable, these governors who govern several states would have to appear alone and separately, without any interaction.

To ensure that both Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu, both civil and military, could appear and interact during the Battle of Jingzhou, Liu Bei's arrangement could only be temporarily disrupted.

(End of this chapter)