My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 601 Negotiations break down, Fa Zheng hands over the knife
After Fa Zheng and Dong He returned to the Fucheng-Zitong front, they continued negotiations between the two Liu camps.

Dong He also pretended to be serious. When Fa Zheng bargained hard, he would always say, "This matter is of great importance. I really cannot make the decision. I need to ask Pang Changshi of the Taiwei Mansion for instructions. Only Pang Changshi can fully represent the Taiwei's opinion and make such a major concession decision."

Fa Zheng, of course, responded to such a request and allowed Dong He to go back and ask for instructions twice. Fortunately, Fucheng was only a hundred miles away from Zitong, not very far, and each round trip only delayed the negotiation time by three days.

Fa Zheng was also extra cautious. During this trip north to negotiate, he specifically requested Liu Zhang's permission to bring along some other advisers who were deeply trusted by Liu Zhang as deputy envoys for the negotiations. In fact, he was allowing the other party to supervise the negotiation process and confirm that Fa Zheng did not sell out Liu Zhang's interests at the negotiating table.

Fa Zheng certainly knew that this deputy he had invited would definitely write secret letters to his lord in the rear from time to time, and Fa Zheng was happy to see this happen.

What he wanted was "to be able to prove that Liu Bei was not at fault when subsequent negotiations broke down or conflicts and frictions accidentally occurred."

With Fa Zheng, Dong He and Pang Tong colluding and acting out a plot, Liu Zhang had in fact completely lost control of the negotiations. Even if he copied some superficial "meeting minutes", he could not change anything.

It was already the seventh day of October. It was also the third round of negotiations between Dong He and Fa Zheng after two rounds of consultation.

Both sides have acted enough and have almost laid the groundwork for the atmosphere of conflict.

As a result, Fa Zheng finally triggered the first key conflict point in this round of negotiations.

He brought the question, which had been kept under the table, "How many troops did Liu Bei's army have stationed in Yizhou and how to determine it?" to the surface, and used it to publicly criticize Liu Bei's camp for being unethical.

"Mr. Youzai! Even if we can't reach an agreement on the supply of military rations, that's understandable. But your army has not yet fulfilled its promise at the beginning of the year to 'withdraw half of the troops stationed in Yizhou within six months'!

Your army withdrew 20,000 people in February and another 20,000 people in May and June, a total of 40,000 people! It's October now, and it's unreasonable to delay the third batch! Logically, you should withdraw another 20,000 people now! And this group of people is counted in the previous promise, you shouldn't ask me about the military rations or discounts for the next five years!
You should withdraw without any conditions! Could it be that the commander wants to break his promise? "

During the formal negotiations, Fa Zheng "could no longer tolerate" this "personal attack" on Liu Bei. Dong He, on the other side, certainly could not let it go, and the negotiation between the two sides immediately became tense.

Dong He also slammed the table and stood up, arguing: "How dare you! Fa Xiaozhi, the Grand Commandant's actions are not yours to criticize! We only have more than 80,000 troops in Shuzhong, and we have already withdrawn 40,000. How can this not be considered as fulfilling our promise?"

Fa Zheng: "You clearly have more than 130,000 or 140,000 people, yet you claim that there are only more than 80,000. This is simply nonsense! Wu Yi and Fei Guan have 30,000 men under their command, and there are more than 20,000 Cao surrendered soldiers newly recruited into their ranks this year. Don't you count these more than 50,000 people?"

Dong He: "Of course these are not included. Aren't Wu Yi and Fei Guan's troops Ji Yugong's own soldiers? They were just ordered to assist in the battle and were under the command of the Grand Commandant to cooperate with them."

Fa Zheng immediately retorted, "Dong Youzai! At this point, you still say such things. Do you believe it yourself? Wu Yi and Fei Guan have long been subdued by the Grand Commandant. Otherwise, Cao Cao would have retreated now. Why didn't the Grand Commandant return the command of these two troops to my lord?
As long as the general is willing to return the military power, what's wrong with my lord supporting them? But even so, these tens of thousands of people should not be used as bargaining chips to talk about "the subsequent five years of military expenses". Your army is simply blackmailing!"

At this point, the conversation had already collapsed. The deputy envoy sent by Liu Zhang to monitor Fa Zheng was so scared that he hurried out to act as a peacemaker and said soft words to calm both sides down. He also said to Dong He: "Mr. Youzai, please don't be angry. General Fa was also angry for a moment and didn't really mean anything..."

However, this attempt was only effective temporarily, not permanently. As Fa Zheng and Dong He exposed each other's dirty laundry and accused each other, the situation quickly got out of control, and Liu Zhang had no time to stop it.

……

The day after the quarrel with Dong He, while Liu Zhang in the rear had not yet reacted, Fa Zheng, as the military supervisor of the Fucheng front line, summoned the three generals Zhang Ren, Ling Bao and Deng Xian to discuss the defense adjustments of Fucheng and Mianzhu.

Although the generals were loyal to Liu Zhang and not to Fa Zheng, they still had to listen carefully to Fa Zheng's suggestions and deployments because of his status as the military inspector.

Fa Zheng took the opportunity of the military meeting to raise a point: "Everyone, the conditions proposed by Liu Bei's army are too much. We have argued for more than ten days and have not persuaded Pang Tong to lower his offer. If we really follow their calculation of the number of soldiers and horses, we will have to pay five years of money and food as withdrawal expenses.

Then, the lord's food reserves will be swept away, and the garrisons from Fucheng all the way to Chengdu will have no food to use! Once Liu Bei succeeds and turns against us and attacks us, the cities may not last even three months before running out of food and collapsing! We can't even survive this winter!
Therefore, I think that we must use both kindness and force, and use both hardness and softness, negotiate while preparing for war, to show that our army cannot be bullied! "

Among the generals, Deng Xian was relatively weak, while Ling Bao was relatively hawkish but not very smart. So the two of them were not very cunning, and after Fa Zheng finished speaking, they argued loudly, one expressing opposition and the other expressing support.

Fa Zheng was not worried about the opinions of these two people, so he just responded verbally while secretly observing what Zhang Ren said.

Zhang Ren was a tough and smart man. He had heard in recent days that Liu Bei's army was aggressively demanding money and food, and had even put forward some other more excessive conditions, such as hoping that the Yizhou army would send additional troops out of Sichuan to help defeat Cao.

Zhang Ren also felt that these conditions could not be agreed to. If they were agreed to, Liu Bei would turn against him in the future and his lord Liu Zhang would not even have enough strength to hold on.

However, Zhang Ren also knew that if he showed toughness directly and offended the other side, and was caught as an excuse to provoke a war, it would lead to even greater disaster.

So Zhang Ren hesitated for a while before persuading Fa Zhengdao: "General Fa, if we follow your advice, what if we offend Liu Bei's army too much and get caught with evidence?"

Fa Zheng did not do anything too conspicuous, and pretended to be very cautious and obedient, saying: "You haven't even listened to how I plan to prepare for war, so why do you think I will openly offend the other side?
What I mean is that Fucheng is too close to the front line, with no buffer. If the enemy suddenly breaks out, we will be surrounded here. If the large amount of food and grass stored in the city is blocked by Liu Bei's army, and the troops are difficult to withdraw, then Mianzhu and Luocheng in the rear will be in danger.

Therefore, we should defend the interior and weaken the exterior. We cannot concentrate all the troops at the front, but disperse them to support each other. I want to withdraw some troops and retreat to Mianzhu, and transport a batch of grain in the city to Mianzhu.

This will have an additional effect. If the negotiations get really intense, I can take Dong He to visit the Fucheng Treasury and let them see that we really don't have much food in stock. I can appeal to their emotions and ask for a reduction. If it works, it can also save the lord some money and he won't be pushed too hard."

Zhang Ren couldn't help but secretly shook his head, thinking that these useless efforts were of little value. However, he couldn't say much about topics other than military affairs, so he only made a few targeted analyses from a military perspective:

"What General Fa said is not a good strategy from a military point of view. Fucheng is close to the Fu River. If a war breaks out, it will prevent Liu Bei's army from crossing the river.

If only a small number of troops were left in Fucheng and the main force was withdrawn to Mianzhu, the city of Mianzhu would not be as easy to defend as Fucheng. It has a large area, the city walls are not too high, and there are no wide and deep moats formed by rivers.

Such deployment is really not a good strategy...General Fa, the lord asked you to come here only to supervise the army, but did not ask you to command the battle strategy on our behalf."

Zhang Ren's words were gentle but firm. He was the chief military commander here, and even though Fa Zheng had more civilian power and could supervise the army, he should not interfere in the command of the troops.

However, Fa Zheng also knew about military affairs.

It was just that he had not had the opportunity to show his talent in this area when he served under Liu Zhang. In history, after he came under Liu Bei, Fa Zheng's military advisory ability was soon put to good use.

At this moment, Fa Zheng seemed to be quite confident in his analysis and argument: "Captain Zhang's vision is too narrow! It is true that Fucheng is easier to defend than Mianzhu, but Fucheng's strategic location is not as important as Mianzhu.

If Liu Bei's army has not yet taken control of Zitong and has been operating for more than a year, then we can count on Fucheng to repel the enemy north of the Fu River.

But now Pang Tong has been operating here for a long time and has won people's hearts. I heard that this year he even used the substitute service method to recruit poor people from the surrounding counties to serve for them, and also gave them very high wages. In addition to Fucheng and Mianzhu, how many people in other counties in the eastern part of Guanghan County dare to say that they are absolutely loyal to the lord?

Although Fucheng is dangerous, it has a major weakness, that is, it can be bypassed by a long-distance detour - as long as the enemy troops in Zitong go west along the mountainous edge of the Chengdu Plain to Jiangyou by land, and then go south from Jiangyou to Mianzhu, our Fucheng will be bypassed.

At that time, Pang Tong only needs to surround the point and attack the reinforcements, divide a part of the troops to surround Fucheng, and the main force will attack Mianzhu. Should we rescue it or not? If we don't rescue it, Mianzhu will be left empty. If Mianzhu, the gateway to Longquan Mountain, is captured, the hinterland of Chengdu Plain will be completely in trouble.

If we rescue them, then our army in Fucheng will have to break out first, and then we will have to attack the enemy's strong camp blocking the gate. It would be better to withdraw some troops, money and food back to Mianzhu now.

Although Mianzhu is not very strategic, it can at least block the gap between Longquan Mountain and Qingcheng Mountain, and is the gateway to Chengdu that cannot be bypassed. Our army would rather deploy heavy troops to defend an ordinary city that cannot be bypassed than gamble on a strong city that can be bypassed. "

Fa Zheng's words sounded completely reasonable. Even Zhang Ren, who was knowledgeable about military affairs, felt that Fa Zheng was truly thinking about his lord wholeheartedly after taking a few glances at the map.

It turns out that to the west of Chengdu, after passing Dujiangyan, is the edge of the Sichuan Basin, with a series of north-south mountain ranges such as Mount Emei and Mount Qingcheng. To the east of Chengdu, there is also a mountain range called Longquan Mountain.

The Qingcheng Mountains and the Longquan Mountains formed a narrow gap near Mianzhu, which was a must-block place for the northern route to Chengdu. So in history, after Deng Ai succeeded in sneaking across Yinping, Liu Chan ordered Zhuge Zhan to lead 30,000 troops to defend Mianzhu, and Deng Ai had to capture Mianzhu and kill Zhuge Zhan before he could threaten Chengdu.

However, Fucheng, further north of Mianzhu, is a strategic location on the Fu River, but it has a shortcoming: if you go further upstream, you can bypass Fucheng from Jiangyou. In history, when Deng Ai sneaked across Yinping, he finally rushed out of the valley from Jiangyou and entered the Chengdu Plain. It was the surrender of Ma Miao, the defender of Jiangyou, that allowed Deng Ai to succeed.

The geographical environment of Shuzhong has been like that since ancient times. Fa Zheng's analysis is naturally in line with geography.

However, Zhang Ren was very familiar with the surrounding situation. After repeated consideration, he still found a problem and could not help but ask Fa Zheng: "General Fa, there is still one thing I don't understand! If the enemy goes around from Jiangyou upstream, they can indeed bypass Fucheng and attack Mianzhu directly. But what about their food supply?
If we don't break through Fucheng and go straight around Jiangyou, we will have to rely on land transportation for food, and the waterway of the Fu River will be completely blocked by our army. Is Pang Tong so confident that he can quickly break through Mianzhu, and even break through Luocheng and other places behind Mianzhu? If the battle drags on for a long time, can he survive by relying on land transportation for food? " "How can this guy be so difficult... He even thought of this, but fortunately I was prepared." Fa Zheng couldn't help but curse in his heart, but fortunately he quickly calmed down and prepared to refute.

Fa Zheng cleared his throat and analyzed slowly, "General Zhang is indeed knowledgeable about military affairs, and is worthy of being a capable general under the lord's command. It's a pity that you only know one side of the story and not the other - as a military general, do you know how ruthless Liu Bei's army has been in buying the hearts of the people in Guanghan since last year? Do you know how many poor people have been supported by Pang Tong's money-for-service system?

Moreover, it is only the beginning of October now. The autumn grain was just harvested in the middle of last month and just dried in the second half of the month. Now it has only been stored in the warehouses of the people and has not yet been collected by the government. If Liu Bei's army intends to attack after the autumn harvest, they can completely rely on the people for grain. At that time, what is the point of us cutting off the grain route of Fu River?

If the people are all on Liu Bei's side, and their soldiers are more focused on quality than quantity, and can eat wherever they go, then it will be a joke for us to defend Fucheng!
Defending Fucheng is useful only if the enemy is unpopular, our army can successfully clear the countryside, and the people are willing to follow us in clearing the countryside! General Zhang, you only know military affairs, but you don't know the difficulties of civil affairs and the disunity of the people. I have been entrusted by the lord and must consider the overall situation! "

Fa Zheng's words sounded flawless and finally left Zhang Ren speechless.

Because Zhang Ren really had no grasp of domestic affairs and public opinion, and did not understand the situation. Fa Zheng brought up all the considerations in these areas, completely blocking Zhang Ren's possibility of rebuttal.

Zhang Ren thought about it again and again, and felt that General Fa must be loyal to his lord. He stood at a higher position than himself and could see farther than himself, so he should just follow his orders obediently.

Zhang Ren sighed, "If that's the case, what else can I say? General France wants me to send troops back to defend Mianzhu, and I will obey your orders."

Fa Zheng: "Not only do you need to send troops back to defend, you are also responsible for transporting a batch of surplus grain from the front line in Fucheng. We can't store most of our grain here."

Zhang Ren nodded and accepted the order again without saying anything more.

Fa Zheng watched Zhang Ren leave, and secretly felt lucky: this created favorable conditions for Lord Xuande to seize Fucheng as soon as the war started. As long as Zhang Ren was not there, Fa Zheng was still confident that he could easily surrender a big city after pretending to resist.

Of course, some people may wonder: Since Fa Zheng was sure to offer a city, why did he have to offer Fucheng instead of Mianzhu?
This was naturally because his previous remarks were obviously meant to deceive his own people. Fa Zheng took advantage of the fact that those generals did not understand domestic affairs, did not understand the people's will, and could not get a word in on these topics, so he made such a blunt statement.

In fact, if it is said that Zhuge Liang implemented a system of labor service money in Jiangzhou, hired a large number of people under the rule of Zhang Song and Yan Yan to work and earn money, and won the hearts of many people in Ba County, then this statement does have some gold content.

But in comparison, Pang Tong's talent for domestic affairs was actually much weaker than Zhuge Liang's. The system of labor service payment he implemented in Zitong started a little later than Zhuge Liang's, and Pang Tong did not find a large project that would benefit the people and optimize the use of labor and help them generate income.

Therefore, when Fa Zheng said that "the new law of paying for labor service led to the people's support for Liu Bei", this was just Fa Zheng's way of flattering Pang Tong and generalizing from a few examples. He was just bullying Zhang Ren, Ling Bao, Deng Xian and other people who were not well-educated in domestic affairs.

In fact, Liu Bei's support for the people in the Zitong area was not that overwhelming. Liu Bei's army was not very good at providing food to the people, and was unwilling to do so for the sake of reputation. Therefore, in Liu Bei's original plan, he had to ensure the food route when attacking Chengdu from the north by land.

Only with food supply can we be a civilized and just army, not harm the people, and be supported by the people. In the subsequent battles of Liu Bei's army, we must consider long-term stability. We cannot just use any means to get what we want and destroy what is about to belong to us.

Therefore, Fa Zheng's tricking Zhang Ren into leaving Fucheng and creating an empty Fucheng was definitely the best solution.

Moreover, he has to do more than that.

He asked Zhang Ren to transport some military supplies while the troops were withdrawing. This step seemed unreasonable, but it actually created an opportunity for friction and conflict.

……

Three days later, Zhang Ren, who had made preparations for the withdrawal, led several thousand soldiers of Liu Zhang's army from Fucheng, as well as a number of baggage carts and some military rations, and prepared to retreat back to Mianzhu.

Zhang Ren also knew that during the ongoing negotiations, a considerable portion of the grain left in the Fucheng treasury should be delivered to Liu Bei's army in the near future after the negotiations were concluded, to be used as money and food to support Liu Bei's withdrawal. Liu Zhang had also agreed to this, and now they were just haggling over the amount.

Zhang Ren also knew that in the previous negotiations, Dong He had forced Fa Zheng to accept a condition: during the negotiations, the treasury in Fucheng would be sealed to ensure that after the negotiations were concluded, Liu Zhang's army would have enough supplies to deliver immediately to prevent Liu Zhang's army from pretending to be poor and cheating.

Fa Zheng was forced to accept this condition.

Therefore, in order to avoid disputes, Zhang Ren secretly opened the south gate of Fucheng early in the morning of the tenth day of October, or even in the early morning shortly after midnight, and withdrew his troops to the south.

In this way, if they calculated the travel speed, it would take about two hours to reach daybreak, and they would have walked about thirty or forty miles. By then, they would be far away from the front line, and also far away from the eyes and ears of Liu Bei's negotiation delegation.

That would be a way to prepare for a fallback in case the negotiations break down, without offending anyone immediately.

However, what Zhang Ren did not expect was that shortly after dawn, that is, when he had been marching south out of the city for three hours, a small group of cavalry patrols appeared on the northern horizon chasing him.

There was a shortage of war horses in Shu, and the proportion of cavalry was very low, so Zhang Ren naturally could not outrun those cavalry patrols. However, seeing that the enemy was not friendly, Zhang Ren could only let the outer soldiers form a formation and be on guard, and string their bows and crossbows.

The cavalry officer who was charging at him was not afraid at all. He had his men shout in unison from a distance of a hundred steps: "Zhang Ren, don't run! Your French officer is negotiating with our Lord Dong! Both parties have already agreed that the money and grain in the Fucheng treasury must be sealed up in preparation for fulfilling the contract after the price is agreed upon!
How dare you smuggle military rations back? Are you trying to pretend to be poor and cheat after the deal is done? Come back to Fucheng with us immediately, or don’t blame us for forcing you to fulfill your promise! "

Although Zhang Ren felt that the situation was difficult, he could not be frightened by such a few words. Seeing that the enemy had few people, did not look like a righteous army, and their uniforms were tattered, Zhang Ren became very alert:

"Do you have a seal? You are so poor, how can we know that you are not bandits from Longquan Mountain?"

The other party refused to give in and kept insisting, "You violated the covenant and tried to cheat. Anyone can stop you if they find out. Why do you need a seal? Seize the grain carts and don't hurt anyone!"

Zhang Ren frowned, still thinking about how to deal with it properly, but the enemy had already rushed over. Some of the officers under Zhang Ren's command had never fought in a war before, so they had never seen the world.

In addition, the military law was very lax under Liu Zhang's rule, and the military discipline of the Shu army had been poor over the years, so they soon lost their patience.

The most fatal point is that this time Zhang Ren brought a part of the troops back to defend Mianzhu. It was not even Zhang Ren himself who decided which troops were taken away, but Fa Zheng who arranged them for him.

In other words, the troops under Zhang Ren's command were not the kind he was used to leading, where the soldiers and generals knew each other well. Instead, Fa Zheng specifically picked out a weak brigade with poor military discipline and impulsiveness for him.

Zhang Ren wanted to refute at that time, but Fa Zheng evaded the question by saying, "The battlefield of Fucheng is also very important, and we need to leave enough tough backbones behind," so Zhang Ren had no choice but to accept it.

And all of this finally broke out at this moment.

Those impatient officers singled out by Fa Zheng, seeing that the hundreds of cavalrymen on the opposite side dared to rush over and rob the grain convoy escorted by thousands of people, and were already very close, chose to shoot arrows to resist.

At once, bows and crossbows were fired, and arrows flew through the air. The cavalry patrol on the opposite side was immediately defeated and quickly turned their horses to escape and keep some distance.

"Who told you to shoot arrows! You stupid pigs and dogs! What if the people on the other side are really Liu Bei's men!" When Zhang Renyi saw that his men were in trouble, he felt blood rushing to his head.

He just said that the other party was dressed in rags and might be the bandits from Longquan Mountain. That was just a polite remark, hoping that the other party would pay attention to procedures, stop and not embarrass them.

How could my stupid subordinates really think that the other party was a bandit from Longquan Mountain who was easy to bully and dare to shoot arrows at them!
As the enemy fled, Zhang Ren nervously rode forward and looked at the seven or eight cavalry bodies on the ground that were shot dead or wounded. Among them were one or two officers who were wearing inner armor under their torn robes. He suddenly felt his scalp tingling.

This is causing trouble!

Moreover, he did not know that on the same day, Fa Zheng also formally responded to Dong He with a very strongly worded statement, emphasizing that Liu Bei's army had problems such as betrayal and duplicity in calculating the number of garrison troops, and stated that as long as these problems were not clarified, Liu Zhang's army would not be able to pay the withdrawal money and food!
Fa Zheng had said such things before, but never as harshly as today. Today's words had already reached the level of Liu Bei's "dishonesty".

Just one day later, Pang Tong, who was in Zitong, received news of the friction and conflict between the two factions, one civil and one military, from Dong He who had escaped back.

Pang Tong also performed very well in publicly receiving Dong He, and allowed the civil and military officials in Zi Tong City to sit in on the meeting in front of everyone.

"What? Liu Zhang's army not only killed the inspection team we sent to supervise the fulfillment of the agreement, but also said in the letter that the general was not trustworthy? How can this be tolerated! Send an urgent report to the general immediately over 600 miles! Liu Zhang has betrayed the anti-rebellion alliance and refused to contribute to the alliance! In order to avoid contributing, he even used such a dirty trick!"

To be honest, this excuse for starting a war is definitely not very effective. But no matter what, it is much better than the reasons Liu Bei used to go to war with Liu Zhang in history.

(End of this chapter)