My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 588: Free Opportunity to Copy Answers

Liu Bei was a mature ruler after all.

Although Pang Tong found an opportunity to stay alone at the end of the lunch to offer advice, the content of his advice was not directly accepted by Liu Bei.

But Liu Bei also fully realized that when dealing with the issues of Liu Zhang and Liu Biao, he could not only look at the relationship between the two upper levels.

We also need to consider the ambition of local civil and military talents and whether they are willing to contribute to the cause of suppressing rebellion.

My original thinking was too concerned with my own reputation and too focused on the upper echelons.

If the non-government scholars and warriors in Yizhou or Jingbei wanted to serve Liu Bei, it would be very easy. They just had to pack up and join Liu Bei. Xu Shu, Xiang Lang, Wei Yan, Wang Ping and others were all such representatives.

However, what should those civil and military officials who had worked hard for Liu Zhang and Liu Biao for many years and had no intention of really causing trouble and simply resigned from their posts and fled to Liu Bei do?

For those who already have a certain status, it is more valuable to join the great cause of defeating Cao with the lord than to come alone, and it is also more conducive to integrating and dispatching resources.

Representatives among them include Yi Ji, Huang Zhong and Huo Jun, who were under Liu Biao. In their past cooperation, they had already been very convinced and respectful of Liu Bei, or had made contributions and tasted the sweetness of Liu Bei as friendly forces, but it was impossible for them to betray Liu Biao.

As long as Liu Bei did not integrate Liu Biao, or Liu Qi did not take office, these people would have no channels to serve Liu Bei and make meritorious contributions, and they would not be able to get promotion opportunities. The previous Shangyong Battle might be their last chance to "make meritorious contributions as Liu Biao's subordinates".

Similarly, under Liu Zhang, representatives of this type of people include Zhang Song, Fa Zheng, and Yan Yan. They are either loyal to Liu Bei or have made contributions with Liu Bei and received benefits and rewards.

How similar are Zhang Song and Fa Zheng's character positioning to Yi Ji? How similar is Yan Yan's delicate situation to Huang Zhong and Huo Jun?
When Liu Bei thought about how so many people were looking forward to working with him to make contributions, his attitude naturally softened.

Although he still doesn't want to take the initiative to offend others, if others offend him first and then he defends himself legitimately, or even over-defenses, this psychological barrier will slowly loosen.

Let's see how the situation develops.

……

Liu Bei also knew that if you plan ahead, you will succeed; if you don't, you will fail.

Since he had this idea in mind, he had an urgent need to plan what actions to take if he had a conflict with Liu Zhang in the future.

This kind of "deduce a set of combat plans for possible imaginary enemies" is very common in later generations. It is not necessary for the two sides to become enemies before making such plans. It can be completely preventive.

Just like the "Big Thunderstorm Plan" that was talked about during World War II, many German fans believed when they were young that "if there was no Barbarossa, the other side would have launched the Big Thunderstorm first."

A later online writer also believed it when he was young. But after reading more content, he found that there was not only the "Big Thunderstorm Plan" in Stalling's drawer, but also that his staff had deduced a hypothetical war plan for all major countries in the world, not targeting anyone in particular. In the building on the Potomac River on the other side of the ocean, there were also a bunch of things of the same nature.

Similarly, in "Drawing Sword", General Ding knew in the 50s that he had to make a national defense plan. Even though the people he was defending against were relatively friendly at the time, it was always a good idea to prepare in advance.

However, in the late Han Dynasty, this kind of thing was still very rare. Liu Bei made a great determination to make this plan.

So, in the next few days, Liu Bei asked Pang Tong to slightly improve and organize the battle ideas he mentioned when he offered advice that day, and put them into a paper plan.

After reading it, Liu Bei privately found another time to invite Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang to discuss it together.

Before the discussion, Liu Bei also specifically reminded that this matter was of great importance. If it was not kept secret and leaked out, it would damage his reputation and easily cause Liu Zhang to be wary. That was why he called two people alone for a secret talk, and even Lu Su was not invited.

The Zhuge brothers read the plan Pang Tong had written for Liu Bei.
After seeing this, Zhuge Liang felt that Pang Tong was a little bit aggressive and risky, but there was no obvious loophole in the military, so he decided to think it over carefully before making a decision and let his elder brother perform first.

This is not to say that Zhuge Liang wanted to give credit to his elder brother, but in history, when Liu Bei entered Sichuan, Zhuge Liang did not think there was anything wrong with Pang Tong's military plan at first. It was later that Pang Tong failed to capture the city after a long siege, and was even shot to death while supervising the siege of Luocheng. Zhuge Liang was forced to take Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun with him to Sichuan, and then he began to make drastic adjustments.

Therefore, it is not surprising that in this life, Zhuge Liang did not see the big problem at the beginning.

In comparison, Zhuge Jin had a rare opportunity to "copy historical answers" this time.

How long had it been since he had been able to copy answers directly without any hesitation? So many things in the past had been changed beyond recognition by the butterfly effect, forcing him to be cautious.

However, this time Pang Tong's imaginary battle plan against Liu Zhang made Zhuge Jin feel dangerous. He commented almost immediately after reading it: "My Lord! I think Shi Yuan's plan is too risky! If he really wants to go to war with Liu Zhang in the future, how can he ignore the Jiangzhou City guarded by Yan Yan and ignore the opportunity to attack from Jiangzhou along the water?
If he only focused on taking Chengdu directly from the northern Zitong side by land, he might still win if the enemy cities did not hold on. But as long as there was resolute resistance in any of Fucheng, Mianzhu, and Luocheng along the way, resulting in a setback in the offensive, he would fall into a long-lasting quagmire.

Yizhou should have been in our army's pocket. I have always opposed rash military attacks and destruction. Now I also consider that we have fought bloody battles with Cao Cao in the past two years and the local area has not recovered yet. If there is a chance to take it in one go, it will be a blessing in disguise. Let us endure the hardship all at once and then do a good job of rectification and construction in the future.

But if it turns into a protracted war, it will definitely damage the reputation of the lord, and will also cause the pain of relatives and the joy of enemies. Since we have to fight, we must be prepared to fight with all our strength, and we must fight quickly and decisively. "

Zhuge Jin originally did not want to resolve the Yizhou issue by force. But since Liu Bei realized the need to make a backup military plan and simulate Liu Zhang as an imaginary enemy, Zhuge Jin certainly would not object given his insight.

As a time traveler, he was already accustomed to the fact that the general staffs of various countries in later generations would come up with a lot of plans for imaginary enemies in peacetime.

But in Zhuge Jin's view, if military action must be taken and there is a suitable opportunity, then Liu Zhang can be "cleaned up before inviting guests", taking advantage of the fact that he has been exhausted in the past two years to defeat him thoroughly, so as to avoid further reconstruction in the future and then being destroyed again.

After the battle, we can treat the entire territory of Yizhou as a stable rear base and build it in peace.

Among these, "quick victory" is the most important.

After listening to Zhuge Jin's analysis, Liu Bei agreed with it, but he still explained to Pang Tong: "Shi Yuan's plan is also to prevent too much damage to the fertile land in the hinterland of Yizhou.

If we only use land routes and advance along the line of Zitong, Fucheng, Mianzhu, and Chengdu, only these 400 miles along the way will be destroyed by war. Once Chengdu is captured, the rest of the counties will naturally surrender.

If we advance in parallel from Jiangzhou in the east and Zitong in the north, I'm afraid that the Jiangzhou route will destroy a lot of places, right? If the northern route goes smoothly, the destruction of the eastern route is completely unnecessary, and it will also lead to the dispersion of the morale of the people in Shu, making it difficult for them to be quickly and willingly used by our army in the future. "

After listening to Pang Tong's analysis as relayed by Liu Bei, Zhuge Jin knew where Pang Tong was wrong.

Indeed, Pang Tong's problem was that he underestimated the will and fighting power of the enemy troops defending the city along the 400-li northern line, especially Zhang Ren's determination to defend the city.

At the same time, Pang Tong overestimated the intensity of resistance, or the cost, of the offensive on the Eastern Front, as well as the damage it would cause along the way.

In the original history, Zhang Ren fought to the death on the northern front and vowed to hold on to the end. Luo City delayed Liu Bei's army for a year, and Pang Tong himself was shot to death.

What about the eastern front? After Pang Tong's death, Zhuge Liang finally changed his strategy to advance by land and sea. When he reached Ba County, Zhang Fei was the first to capture Yan Yan, and then Yan Yan came forward to persuade all places along the way to Ba County to surrender.

Since Zhuge Jin knew all this history and had no ready-made answers to copy, how could he let Liu Bei and Pang Tong take the "risky route that seemed to have low costs and high returns"?
Zhuge Jin would rather choose a high-cost but definitely overwhelming solution right from the start.

After understanding Liu Bei and Pang Tong's concerns, he spoke freely and pointed out the issues in a targeted manner:
"I finally understand what the Lord and Shi Yuan were worried about when they made the decision. It turns out that Shi Yuan thought that he could easily win along the northern route, while he might have to destroy the eastern route all the way. But I think this idea is far from the truth.

Liu Zhang entrusted Zhang Ren and other generals to defend the northern Fucheng and Luocheng areas. Zhang Ren may not have had any outstanding military achievements before, so the lord and Shi Yuan did not know him well.

But since we are going to fight, you can ask Ziqiao, Xiaozhi and others about Zhang Ren's ability to confirm whether he is loyal and good at defense. Make plans before taking action.

As for the Jiangzhou area on the east line, Shi Yuan has always felt that it would be difficult to capture Jiangzhou City, and General Yan Yan is good at fighting. But General Yan Yan has trusted us quite a bit in the past two years. If the time comes, we will take the initiative to show goodwill to him and win him over.

For example, we can say that our army just doesn't want to see Liu Zhang being instigated by treacherous officials and destroy the alliance, so we want to take over the entire Yizhou and make other arrangements for Liu Zhang. Maybe General Yan will be moved.

Even if General Yan refuses to surrender directly and chooses to defend the city without fighting, we can still use the water route to advance upstream along the Yangtze River, ignoring the food route, and fight all the way to Baidao and the intersection of the Yangtze River and Minjiang River, and then divide our troops to go north along the Minjiang River and attack Chengdu directly by water.

In this case, General Yan will either recognize the situation and join us, or, because our water route has turned to the Minjiang River and threatens Chengdu, he will be forced by Liu Zhang to go to war and cut off our military food supply route.

As long as we make preparations in advance, or have enough spies in Jiangzhou City, and get the news in advance when General Yan goes out to fight, and set up an ambush, then surround him outside the city and make him unable to return, wouldn't it be easy? With General Yan's respect for his lord, when the time comes, there is no need to worry about killing people with real swords and guns. As long as he is ambushed and surrounded and cannot retreat, he will naturally surrender without a fight.

As long as he surrenders, with General Yan's prestige in Ba County, it won't be difficult to persuade all the counties along the river to surrender."

Zhuge Jin finished it in one go and copied the answers very quickly.

Anyway, in history, Zhang Fei made an emergency landing on Yan Yan, and then used Yan Yan to make emergency landings in various counties along the way.
This matter is still very certain. Besides, Zhuge Jin only needs to be responsible for giving advice and setting the direction.

The specific implementation will naturally be taken care of by Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Zhang Fei, and Wei Yan. They will certainly be able to adapt to circumstances and make minor adjustments at the last minute.

(End of this chapter)