My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 597 The finishing touch

Fa Zheng combined the intelligence sent by Pang Tong, repeatedly sorted out the strategies, weighed the pros and cons, and finally formed a rough plan in his mind on how to seduce Liu Zhang to take a tough stance.

Of course, Fa Zheng couldn't just act on his own on this matter. He still had to reply to Pang Tong first, or at least get Pang Tong's full support. Only when the other party agreed to the final plan could he take action.

As for getting Liu Bei's direct approval... Fa Zheng no longer dared to count on it. Firstly, with Liu Bei's temper, he probably wouldn't agree. Secondly, some things had to be kept secret from Liu Bei, and that was considered a good subordinate who took the blame.

Sometimes it is impossible to control the subordinates who act on their own. Besides, Fa Zheng is not strictly speaking a subordinate of Liu Bei. It is even more impossible for Liu Bei to control Fa Zheng without Liu Zhang's permission.

After figuring out the rhythm of the work, Fa Zheng wrote another secret letter and found an excuse to give it to Meng Da a few days later. Then he used his power to send Meng Da out of Fucheng, pretending that he was sending Meng Da to Jiangyou on official business to inspect the defense.

In fact, after leaving the city, Meng Da would take a detour and first go to Zitong controlled by Pang Tong. After the connection, he would rush to Jiangyou to show his face, do the business that he used as an excuse, and finally return to Fucheng.

Because of Fa Zheng's superior position in Fucheng, other generals could not control him, so everything was naturally seamless. It was absolutely impossible for the bloody plot in history that Zhang Song colluded with Liu Bei and was discovered and retaliated.

After all, in history, Zhang Song was exposed because he did not keep the secret letters well, and because he was in Chengdu. There were many officials in Chengdu who were higher than him, so the risk of being sanctioned was of course greater.

After being sent to the front line, people like Zhang Song and Fa Zheng were already "undercover agents who became the bosses of a city", so what risks could there be?
……

After two days of twists and turns, Meng Da finally delivered Fa Zheng's reply to Pang Tong.

Of course Pang Tong was the first to meet him and immediately opened the letter.

The letter described the provocative methods Fa Zheng was going to use and how to intensify the conflict. After reading it, Pang Tong naturally knew how to cooperate with Fa Zheng when the day came, and what military preparations Liu Bei's army should make.

"It's settled. The Grand Commandant will be able to take over Chengdu smoothly in the future. Xiaozhi, Ziqiao and you will naturally be the main contributors. As for the Grand Commandant, you don't have to wait for a reply. I will take care of it myself.

After you go back this time, you don't need to come again. If you don't act carefully, you may lose your life. At this juncture, the less follow-up contact, the better. Just remember one thing, it will take at least half a month for me to get in touch with Kong Ming and reply to the lord.

It would take at least a month for the lord to make decisions and deploy generals to deal with the situation. Therefore, the fastest way is to wait for a month and a half. If there is no suitable opportunity, two months later will also work. Anyway, it can only be done later, not earlier.

In a month and a half, our army will be fully prepared, luring Liu Zhang to attack without firing a shot, showing him that he is weak on the outside but tight on the inside, and then we can take action at any time with an excuse."

Hearing this, Meng Da silently calculated the time in his mind, and finally confirmed: "In this case, it can be provoked at least at the end of September, or at the beginning of October at the latest?"

Pang Tong nodded: "Yes, it is only the middle of August now, and it is still the time for autumn harvest. The people of Shu, Guanghan and other three counties will also be directly under the jurisdiction of the Taiwei in the future. How can we let them miss the farming season and affect the harvest for the whole year?
After they have finished their autumn harvest, when the millet is almost dried and ready to be stored in the warehouse, you can start a commotion and use the food to defeat the enemy. This will also minimize the harm to the people, so that Xiaozhi and the other civil and military officials who responded to the Taiwei will not be hated by the people of Shu in the future."

In just a few words, Pang Tong clearly sorted out the key nodes of the timeline.

Judging from his plan, he would wait until the autumn harvest and the grains were dried before mobilizing the army. By then, the grain of the people in Guanghan County would have arrived, but it had not yet been paid to the government, and it was basically still hidden among the people, which was considered "hiding wealth among the people." Therefore, even if Liu Zhang found that something was wrong, he could not clear the land by clearing the city.

The food was still in the hands of the people. How could Liu Zhang clear it out if it was so scattered? He couldn't just go door to door to rob food, right? Not to mention that Liu Zhang didn't have the execution power, even if he did, Liu Zhang would lose the support of the people in Shu.

From this perspective, the time Pang Tong chose to take action was really the best. If it was in the north, it might be necessary to consider that it was not suitable to use troops in the cold weather, but in southern Sichuan, the climate was mild, and fighting in winter was acceptable, so as not to make the soldiers and civilians suffer too much.

The only thing to worry about is whether the battle can be resolved as soon as possible. If the battle can be ended before the spring plowing in mid-February next year, or at least the vast rural areas outside can be captured, leaving only a few isolated cities such as Chengdu, then Liu Bei's army's strategic goal will be perfectly achieved. In that way, the impact on the people's livelihood in Shu can be completely minimized.

However, from the end of September to the beginning of October, there was only a little more than four months to act. Facing Liu Zhang who still controlled the four counties, it was still very difficult to completely deal with him in such a short time.

(Note: The four counties controlled by Liu Zhang here only include Shu County, Guanghan, the entire territory of Qianwei, and most of Ba County. It does not include the Nanzhong area. In other words, it only counts Sichuan in later generations, not Yunnan and Guizhou.

Nanzhong is also considered Yizhou in theory, but during Liu Zhang's time, it was only nominally surrendered, and in reality, it was impossible to mobilize Nanzhong's resources. If Liu Zhang was attacked, Nanzhong would not come to help.)
If you can't make it to this time point, it's better not to do it in the first place. If you delay it for too long, it will easily affect the situation on other fronts of Liu Bei's army.

Moreover, there is no wall that is impenetrable. If it can be done within four months, with the closed roads of Shu and Liu Bei's army completely surrounding Liu Zhang's territory from the outside and cutting off his external communications, it is possible to make a fortune in silence.

No matter how long it takes, Cao Cao and Liu Biao will definitely notice it. How long it will take to notice it depends on the degree of mobilization and the scale of the troop transfer by Liu Bei's army. For example, if Liu Bei's battle is not going well and he needs to transfer a large number of troops from Jingnan to Sichuan again, then the truth will definitely be revealed in the end. Who can hide the entry of tens of thousands of troops into Sichuan from their eyes?

Even if Cao Cao and Liu Biao could not place spies in Yizhou, they could certainly infiltrate Jiangxia and Changsha. As long as the spies saw a large number of local garrisons heading west and a large number of troop transports and baggage fleets on the Yangtze River, the truth would be revealed. Cao Cao and Liu Biao would respond within a month after the exposure.

But if Liu Bei could do it alone without using the troops in southern Jing, relying on the troops that were still in central Sichuan, then the news blockade period could be much longer. So in the end, it all depends on whether Liu Bei's army can perform well.

If you use more troops, you will have a stronger attack capability, but poorer confidentiality. If you use fewer troops, you will have a weaker attack capability, but better confidentiality. There needs to be a balance between the two.

Pang Tong had to consider these issues for Liu Bei first and form a specific strategy for action before he could act first and report later or do things independently at the middle and lower levels.

Otherwise, if the plan is not yet complete and things are brought up rashly, Liu Bei will definitely be furious and will put the brakes on.

The more stable and thorough the plan is, the more the people above will sigh and say, "Shiyuan, Xiaozhi! You have caused me so much trouble!" when they see that this is an inevitable trend and that the people below cannot stop it.

Then after being scolded, I just had to accept it with a pinch of my nose.

Pang Tong knew his lord too well.

……

Pang Tong and Fa Zheng formed the final action plan, even calculating the time nodes and the completion stage of each stage.

Then, Fa Zheng naturally began to lay the groundwork and advance step by step. In the middle, he even returned to Chengdu and encouraged Liu Zhang in person to take this opportunity to show his toughness and lower Liu Bei's asking price for military rations and other military supplies.

Pang Tong also sorted out his plan, and then sent his most trusted men to follow the Zitong River and the Fu River, all the way downstream, through Dianjiang County, into the Jialing River, and to Jiangzhou to deliver it to Zhuge Liang.

The total straight-line distance was more than 700 miles, and the waterway was winding, at least a thousand miles. It took about seven or eight days to deliver it to Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang spent another three or four days to carefully consider the proposal and put forward some additional suggestions, which he also followed. Then he found Deng Zhi and asked Deng Zhi to return to Wuchang to give them to Zhuge Jin.

Thus, this pile of things, which contained the Shu people's eagerness for civil and military progress, finally fell into Liu Bei's hands.

That day was the seventh day of September.

Zhuge Jin, who was in Wuchang City, was also shocked after reading his second brother's reply and Pang Tong's secret report, and immediately went to find Liu Bei.

When Liu Bei saw Zhuge Jin, he was still smiling, unaware of the big event that had taken place:

"What is the matter with Ziyu? Is there any progress on the coinage? Or is there any good news from Kongming about the law of replacing labor service with money? Could it be that the people of Shu have responded in unison and are willing to work for our army?"

Zhuge Jin could only smile bitterly and respond with a few words: "There is indeed some progress in the coinage. The trial production of silver-plated coins has become more sophisticated recently. The latest trial production batch has more than 80% of good products with intact coating.

There may be some minor adjustments to the process that need to be made. I think the next step is to teach the craftsmen how to determine the concentration of the ore solution and how long the silver plating should last for different concentrations of ore solution. These numbers should be organized into a table so that the craftsmen can learn and practice them properly. By then, the completeness rate can be estimated to be 90% or even 95%. If we want to improve it further, it will be a bit difficult.

Kong Ming's method of paying for labor service was indeed very effective. Kong Ming built several new brocade workshops in Jiangzhou. The looms were newly developed by his brothers and sisters, far superior to the looms used by the wealthy merchants under Liu Zhang's rule.

Now the idle poor people in Jiangzhou are all rushing to work in the government-run weaving and spinning, earning money instead of serving in the army. The people under Liu Zhang's rule on the other side of the river are running to serve our army and earn hard labor money. The corvée construction site set up by Kong Ming was specially set up on the south bank, and this year the focus will be on expanding the commercial port of Ciqikou. In this way, the people under Yan Yan's rule can serve our army without crossing the river, which is more effective in recruiting the people on the south bank of Jiangzhou.

However... I am not here today to report these two good news. There is another important matter, which may be more important than the corvée money and coinage... My lord, please come and see it with your own eyes."

(End of this chapter)