My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 587: The lord doesn’t want to let anyone down, so how can Zhang Songfa make progress?

After listening to Pang Tong's deduction, Liu Bei was also stunned.

He didn't expect that those potential enemies could actually do such vicious things, and he couldn't help but say angrily:

"How dare Cai Mao? If Brother Jingsheng were to pass away unexpectedly on Qi'er's way back to Xiangyang, I, as the chief minister, would certainly not sit idly by! Even if Brother Jingsheng died of illness, I would want Cai Mao to be buried with him!"

Seeing his lord getting angry, Lu Su also hurried to try to make peace: "What Shi Yuan is thinking is just the worst case scenario, lord, don't mind it. Shi Yuan, don't worry too much. If that happens, the enemy will give you a legitimate reason to start a war for nothing!

I believe that with the many years of management in Jingzhou by the lord, the people's support will come. When that day comes, our army will raise its arms and call for help. Even if Cai Mao temporarily controls a few cities, most of Jingzhou will hear the news and join our army and Master Liu Qi. A few minor problems are not worth mentioning! "

Pang Tong could not help but remind him: "Although Cai Mao is unpopular, even if he becomes desperate in the future, the harm will not be too great. But if you can defeat the enemy without fighting and take away the enemy's land with your whole army, then you are the best of the best."

Lu Su did not directly respond to Pang Tong's question, but subconsciously glanced at Liu Bei's expression first.

Seeing that his lord still had an expression of righteousness and indignation, Lu Su knew that in this matter, in his lord's heart, righteousness and reputation were more important than practical benefits.

If the good name would seriously damage the real benefits, then perhaps Liu Bei would still hesitate. But if the price of the good name was just some minor problems, Liu Bei would probably not be willing to give it up.

Lu Su knew Liu Bei's style too well. He liked to let others wrong him first, and then he would "have a legitimate reason and act in self-defense."

Lu Su then persuaded Pang Tong with a persuasive speech: "Shi Yuan, this is not the way to calculate. If our army takes the initiative, or even kills without warning, it will more or less damage the reputation of Liu Qi as a benevolent and filial son, and the righteousness of the lord.

But if that day really comes in the future, it would be more beneficial to the long-term stability of the people in Jingzhou if Cai Mao's crimes were exposed and then quickly eradicated.

Moreover, there is another point that we may not have taken into account before: if Master Liu Qi took the power of Jingbei by taking the initiative and being ruthless, and someone secretly pointed fingers at him, causing Jingbei to become unstable, would our army still have to help him stabilize the situation? At that time, Master Liu Qi might not be grateful to us, but we would have to do the same or even more.

But if Master Liu Qi didn't have the Lord's help, and couldn't even receive Lord Jingsheng's authority, then if the Lord helped him get to that position, wouldn't he be more obedient, just like Yuan Qingzhou is now, or even more loyal to the Lord than Yuan Qingzhou."

Lu Su's words can be regarded as the ultimate study of human nature.

What he was considering was, if the allies were not in danger enough and it was easy for him to take power, would the allies still be loyal to you and serve as your puppets?

If he continues to act like Liu Zhang now, always wanting to keep some things in reserve and unwilling to hand over power completely and without suspicion to Liu Bei's army, then Jingbei will be even more difficult to control in the long run. Perhaps he should wait until the whole country is unified, or even until Liu Qi's generation dies of old age, before gradually reducing his power.

Sometimes, if you grab territory quickly, you may not be able to hold on to it firmly.

In the process of gaining control of the territory, if you can lure out the factions that oppose you, let them act like clowns, and then quickly annihilate them, it may be more effective for long-term stability.

Of course, the premise is that you are really sure to quickly extinguish the opponent, just like Zheng Bo defeated Duan Yuyan. If you don't have this diamond drill and can't "quickly extinguish", then don't take the risk.

After Lu Su said this, Pang Tong certainly would not object anymore, so the matter was settled.

Pang Tong knew very well that even if his lord really thought so, this idea of "fishing for the enemy to show up" was not a good idea after all.

Lu Su also played the role of a substitute for his lord.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Liu Bei cleared his throat and said in a deep voice: "In this case, Jingbei should not act rashly for the time being. Try to collect information about Brother Jingsheng's condition in a timely manner. It will not be too late to take action when there are some changes.

Besides, we are outsiders in this matter after all, the key is what Qi'er thinks. If he is brave and willing to do it, I will lend him a helping hand. If he is cowardly, I will not be the bad guy, after all, a distant family cannot alienate a relative. "

Liu Bei still had a very strong moral bottom line, and he absolutely did not want to do anything that would alienate his relatives.

Liu Qi was the first person to make the decision on when to take over power from Liu Biao and how to deal with Cai Mao. Liu Bei would never persuade outsiders to take action against his relatives.

Once the attitude was made clear in this sentence, the matter was settled.

……

The news about Liu Biao's illness that Guan Yu provided to Liu Bei did not prompt Liu Bei's army to immediately take a radical attitude on the issue of Jingbei, but just continue to wait and see.

But the chain reaction brought about by this news will obviously not subside so quickly, but instead will cause more ripples.

About an hour later, as the banquet ended, everyone was a little tipsy. Guan Yu and Lu Su were carefree and drank heartily, and were no longer able to make any plans.

Liu Bei sent his attendants to send everyone away, except Pang Tong, who was still very sober—or rather, he was pretending to be very drunk. But when he saw everyone else leaving, Pang Tong immediately sobered up and gave Liu Bei some advice. It seemed that he had just tried to persuade his lord to take over someone else's business, but failed, so he was thinking of doing something else.

Pang Tong lowered his voice and said, "My lord! I just happened to think of a plan on how to take advantage of Liu Biao's illness. Please give me some more time."

Liu Bei certainly would not stop Pang Tong from offering advice. He had heard enough today anyway, and he didn't mind hearing one more. So he ignored etiquette and sat down next to Pang Tong, raised his hand and signaled Pang Tong to speak.

Pang Tong considered his words and said, "It suddenly occurred to me that the news of Liu Jingsheng's serious illness might help our army set up a trap to attract other ambitious princes and allies to emerge, which could be regarded as a test of their sincerity in supporting our army."

Liu Bei raised his eyebrows, but his tone remained unchanged: "What do you want to do specifically?"

Pang Tong had been in Shuzhong for the past two years. Of course, he was still obsessed with how to take over Shuzhong as soon as possible, so he told them everything: "Now Shuzhong is cut off from news, and Liu Zhang is completely isolated from the outside world. Both Jiangzhou and Hanzhong are under the control of our army.

As long as our army strictly blocks the news, Liu Zhang may not be able to immediately know what is happening in the outside world - this is even more serious than when our army annihilated Sun Ce seven years ago.

Although Sun Ce was also cut off from information, he was able to communicate with Yuan and Cao by sea. Liu Zhang now only has three counties around Chengdu, which are deep in the mountains. The roads into Sichuan are all in my hands.

If we let Liu Zhang know that "Liu Biao is seriously ill and Cao Cao invades the south to compete with our army for Jingbei", will Liu Zhang have any disloyalty? Even if he dare not resist us, will he take the opportunity to put forward more conditions to us, such as requiring our army to withdraw more troops from Yizhou and reduce our long-term military rations supply?

Even if Liu Zhang does not take action, the lord can take the initiative to borrow soldiers and food from them, for example, under the pretext that the situation in Jingzhou is critical, let him make more efforts at one time, and then in exchange for our army to withdraw more troops and reduce long-term annual tribute. As long as Liu Zhang bargains and threatens our army, there will naturally be plenty of ways to make everything wrong to Liu Zhang and make him fall into injustice!
As long as our army is not actually involved in the struggle for Jingbei, we can free up our hands to deal with Shuzhong with all our strength. Wouldn't it be easy to destroy Liu Zhang? In the direction of Hanzhong and Jiameng Pass, Zitong is already in our hands, and Jiange Road has been bypassed. The only three strong cities left for our army from Chengdu are Fucheng, Mianzhu, and Luocheng.

As long as our army launches a move and suddenly captures one or two important towns on the front line of the confrontation, the rest can definitely be conquered in a few months!

As for the southeast direction, Jiangzhou City is still in the hands of Yan Yan and is still far away from Chengdu, but it is not a cause for concern. As long as the enemy can be quickly eliminated by land in the north, there is no need to take the offensive on the east waterway.

Yan Yan has had a good relationship with the Lord in the past two years. As long as we do not attack Yan Yan, he will definitely defend the city to the death. There is no need to send the navy to the mouth of the Jialing River to cut off our food supply. As long as Yan Yan does not disrupt the shipping of the Jialing River, it is fine for us to leave him alone. When Chengdu falls, everything will be settled, and Yan Yan will surrender directly. "

Pang Tong didn't care whether Liu Bei intended to plot against Liu Zhang or not, he just told him all at once how he was going to plot against him and how he would reap the rewards after the plot.

Obviously, Pang Tong also knew that this kind of thing was suspected of being a "fishing trap". In order to get his lord to accept it, he had to make the benefits sound big enough and the difficulty of getting it done low enough from the start.

This is tempting enough.

After hearing this, Liu Bei frowned deeply.

He knew Pang Tong too well. In fact, when Pang Tong insisted on staying and looking for an opportunity to offer advice alone, Liu Bei had already guessed that it must be another dishonorable trap.

After listening to it, Liu Bei had to admit that according to Pang Tong's statement, the success rate was indeed high enough and the difficulty was indeed low enough. However, it was easy to be labeled as a sneak attack.

Liu Bei finally sighed: "Shiyuan, why do you always let me do this kind of thing of sneak attacking and seizing the frontier key points at the beginning of the war? Even if Liu Jiyu was at fault for starting the war, how will people in the future see it? Will people in the world really understand the right and wrong of this matter in detail?

Even if I really want to do something to Liu Jiyu in the future, he must really let me down first. I will never do such a thing! Moreover, how can you be sure that Liu Jiyu will not be able to resist the temptation and let me down first? These plans are too vague, so let's not mention them again, unless there is a way that can be implemented and is more upright. "

Pang Tong was not discouraged after hearing this. He keenly noticed that the way his lord referred to Liu Zhang had changed from "Ji Yu's good brother" to "Liu Ji Yu". This subtle change in address was enough to prove that his lord was wavering.

He hurriedly continued to improve it unwillingly: "My lord, rest assured, my subordinates' discussion today is just a rough proposal, and it is indeed not fully thought out. I will definitely improve it in detail later. As for seducing Liu Jiyu to let you down first and leaving a mountain of iron evidence, this is not difficult.

My lord, think about it, among all the counselors and generals in the world, who doesn't want to make achievements in the process of returning peace to the world? If Liu Jiyu hides in a corner, doesn't fight Cao Cao, and doesn't help our army, what will those who want to make progress in Shu think? There will always be people around Liu Jiyu who will mislead him. These things, even if my lord doesn't want to, will be suppressed sooner or later. "

Liu Bei was startled and the first people he thought of were Zhang Song and Fa Zheng.

Indeed, as long as Liu Zhang did not submit directly to him, Zhang Song and Fa Zheng would not be able to work for him directly. Including Yan Yan, there would be no chance to make more contributions in the future, and he could only stay in Jiangzhou until he was too old.

Seeing that other counselors and generals are making great contributions, there are always people who, for the sake of their own advancement, hope that Liu Zhang's forces can be thoroughly integrated into Liu Bei as soon as possible.

This is not something that Liu Bei's personal morality can stop. With so many people's ambitions, there will always be some outlets.

In this case, it is better to take advantage of the situation and let things unfold naturally.

The current problem is how to take advantage of the situation and how to prioritize.

(End of this chapter)