My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 604: Land and Sea Attack, Unstoppable

Liu Bei held a grand swearing-in ceremony in Zigui County, and also encouraged generals such as Lu Yi, Han Dang, Zhou Tai, and Jiang Qin.

The generals then led more than 10,000 naval forces and continued westward, heading straight for Jiangzhou.

The ship sailed upstream in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and even in the dry season after winter, the speed could not be fast.

Zigui County is already in the upper reaches of the Xiling Gorge in the Three Gorges. But before reaching Jiangzhou, you still have to pass through the Wu Gorge in Wu County and the Qutang Gorge in Yufu County, which accounts for about 60% of the entire Three Gorges section, a total of more than 400 miles.

This journey would take at least six days, especially the section where we had to pull the tow boats through the canyon, where we could only move forward a maximum of thirty miles a day.

After passing Yufu County, there is still another 700 miles to Jiangzhou, but these 700 miles are relatively flat and the water flow is slow, so the boat can go faster upstream. These 700 miles can be completed in just six days.

Counting the days, it was already the end of October when the entire army arrived in Jiangzhou.

When facing a war, they still had to travel so hard, which inevitably made some generals who did not understand the overall situation complain.

For example, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin had little education. They were both born as pirates and gained official positions by being brave and ruthless.

They were in a hurry to travel on the river that day. The fleet finally passed through Qutang Gorge and arrived at Yufu County. They all went to Han Dang to complain.

"My lord, why didn't you deploy our troops to Jiangzhou before the battle? Why did you have to mobilize them from Zigui before the battle? Some of our old soldiers are really tired."

Han Dang did not understand the deep meaning, but he was a general of good family and knew that it was his duty to obey orders, so he encouraged the generals:

"My lord and the Minister of Justice must have some deep intentions. All we have to do is to execute them! Although it is hard, the morale of our army is still high. Liu Zhang is not a great leader. We will surely achieve great success in this battle, get promoted and become rich, and leave our names in history books. What else can we be dissatisfied with!"

Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin were tempted by the promise of promotion and reward for their achievements, so they became more obedient.

Finally, it was Lu Yi, who was a member of the entire army, who listened to their discussion and came over to explain to everyone: "How can it be the same? If the lord stationed 10,000 or 20,000 elite naval troops in Jiangbei New City in Jiangzhou in advance, what would Yan Yan on the other side think?
Previously, Liu Zhang allowed our army to enter Sichuan, but only let us occupy the area below Yufu County and on both sides of the Yangtze River Three Gorges channel. After leaving the Three Gorges, the north and south of the river were divided into two parts, and the counties in the south of the river were still directly under Liu Zhang's jurisdiction, so our army could only control the north of the river.

If we increase our troops in advance, Yan Yan will certainly find out and become alert. When the war starts, Yan Yan will think that our army has been planning to provoke a dispute for a long time, rather than "temporarily" taking revenge after the negotiations broke down and the lord was humiliated. In this way, Yan Yan's loyalty may be aroused, which is very disadvantageous to us.

In the art of warfare, attacking the heart is better than attacking the city. Yan Yan has been repeatedly won over by the lord and Zhuge Lingjun, and has witnessed the benevolence and love of the people of our lord for two years. He must be a righteous man who can be won over.

Only if we appear to be upright and make it appear that Liu Zhang is the one who started the war, will we be able to force Yan Yan to surrender without fighting, or at least force him to surrender after a slight setback in the battle."

In just a few words, Lu Yi explained clearly why Liu Bei's army had to lay the groundwork for the attack so thoroughly, so solidly, and so carefully justify its cause.

Because the relationship between Liu Zhang's army and Liu Bei's army was not that bad before. Liu Bei had infiltrated Yizhou for the third year. He provided labor service fees to the poor people on the other side so that they could work and earn money, and the government would provide a guarantee. He also expanded the scale of double-season rice planting year by year and treated the civil and military talents on the other side with courtesy.

All of this requires a good reputation and righteousness to complete the final harvest. If the drama is well laid out, more enemy soldiers and civilians will surrender without a fight, and the psychological burden before surrender will not be so heavy, so they will feel that they are "abandoning darkness and joining the light."

Han Dang, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin were convinced after hearing this.

Zhou Jiang was not well educated and couldn't say anything to agree with the actor, so he just nodded vigorously to show that he was learning.

Han Dang could speak a little, and couldn't help but sigh: "Bo Yan has a long-term vision, I really admire him. Could it be that this time the schedule of the troops was also planned by Boyan with the help of the lord and Situ?"

Lu Yi quickly clarified: "I just arrived, how could I know about such a big event? I was just speculating on Situ's intentions afterwards."

Han Dang: "That's even more difficult. Boyan, you are only twenty-four or twenty-five now, right? Given time, you will definitely have unlimited potential."

Lu Yi wanted to keep a low profile and didn't want to listen to this kind of commercial bragging, so he immediately changed the subject without leaving any traces: "Besides, the lord asked our army to advance slowly, which actually won't cause any trouble - after passing Yufu County, our army will certainly need six or seven days to continue marching.

But the messenger who was delivering the letter was able to ride his horse along the north bank of the Yangtze River, more than twice as fast as us. I calculated that if the messenger went ashore to change horses tomorrow, he would be able to reach Zitong directly in four or five days.

At that time, we can agree to attack from both Zitong and Jiangzhou, which will catch Liu Zhang's army off guard and further increase their panic before the battle, which will definitely be beneficial to the war situation. Anyway, our army no longer has the advantage of a surprise attack, so we must make good use of the advantage of advancing from both directions and attacking at the same time."

Han Dang listened to Lu Yi's explanation, took out the map and looked at it, estimated the distance, and found that everything was as he said. "It turns out that Situ had taken this into consideration when he made the pre-war deployment for the Lord. We were so stupid that we didn't even see it." Han Dang put down the map and sighed with complete conviction.

The most brilliant leaders are those who can enable their subordinates to carry out their tasks and cooperate well naturally without having to know too much. This is the highest level of management.

For a moment, Han Dang seemed to feel like a puppet in Zhuge Jin's hands.

But this feeling does not make people feel frustrated. Instead, it makes people full of confidence and feel that they will definitely win the subsequent battles.

Being able to be a puppet of the Zhuge family is definitely a favorable factor that increases your chances of winning!
……

Three days later, the water reinforcements continued their march, and the messengers they sent had already landed on the north bank in advance, changed horses and took over, delivering the declaration of war and the order to Zhuge Liang and Gan Ning in Jiangzhou Jiangbei New City.

When Gan Ning received the order, he naturally rubbed his hands and prepared for the war with all his strength. He also rewarded the three armies generously, giving all the soldiers meat for three days (including fish), and three bowls of wine every day.

Zhuge Liang did not have to worry about the rewards and mobilization before the war. He just concentrated on reading the manifesto over and over again.

The idea of the manifesto was provided by his elder brother, and the wording was written by Wang Can. After reading it, Zhuge Liang did not have any opinion on its wording, but he was quite impressed by the reasons for starting the war mentioned in the article.

"Brother, your strategic vision and ability to grasp the greater good have improved. Alas, when it comes to having lofty ideals and raising ordinary matters to a high level, I am still not as good as you..."

After reading it, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but sigh.

After ten years in office, he had already caught up with and even surpassed his elder brother in terms of domestic political management and military deployment.

But in terms of the great principles of right and wrong, as well as the orthodox political theory framework, how to ensure the legitimacy of a country and a court, and how to make the process of obtaining power more glorious and convincing, Zhuge Liang himself was not as good as his elder brother.

My eldest brother's vision is like being able to penetrate the clouds and overlook all living beings. He can construct many fantastic theoretical systems, and finally make them consistent. This is the achievement of hundreds of generations.

But this is not surprising. After all, Zhuge Jin was proficient in both literature and science before he traveled through time, and he had two thousand years of political theory and philosophy. These condensed arts of rule could not be reconciled by Zhuge Liang's efforts in one generation, and Zhuge Liang could only keep learning.

This time, Zhuge Liang also learned something new.

After reading the manifesto, he quickly wrote a summary of his experience, combining his own insights and some propaganda strategies that he had thought of temporarily. Then he asked the messenger to continue to deliver it to the Zitong front and give it to Zhang Fei and Pang Tong.

Three days later, the messenger arrived in Zitong. After reading the order to start war and the manifesto, Zhang Fei and Pang Tong were naturally ready to start fighting immediately.

Pang Tong was very well prepared. Even before the battle started, he had already made a lot of detachable heavy siege equipment parts. Once the battle started, they could be transported directly to the front line and assembled.

As early as two months before the war, he had secretly transferred troops to the south to increase the strength of the troops in Zitong and Jiameng Pass. Taking advantage of the heavy snow that was about to close the mountains, he pulled all the guards of Hanzhong County to Zitong in advance to rest and wait for orders.

Originally, in peacetime, Hanzhong County had 30,000 to 40,000 combat forces. Now, after being drained by Pang Tong, only about 10,000 are left, and the other 20,000 or so have been pulled back to Zitong.

Zhang Fei also arrived at the Zitong frontline just last month, and Wei Yan arrived earlier than Zhang Fei. Because Wei Yan was more familiar with the troops stationed in Hanzhong County, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan had already agreed on the distribution of troops before the battle:
Zhang Fei directly commanded the 20,000 soldiers in Zitong, while Wei Yan commanded the 20,000 soldiers heading south from Hanzhong. As the deputy general, Wei Yan obeyed Zhang Fei's orders and carried out Zhang Fei's tasks strategically, but Zhang Fei did not interfere with the specific details of Wei Yan's command of his troops.

In addition, there are more than 10,000 people, who are Wu Yi's direct troops, and are now under Wu Yi's command.

In the end, the main force of Liu Bei's army in Zitong had a total of 50,000 troops, and about 10,000 troops were needed to defend the home. Zhang Fei was the commander-in-chief, Wei Yan and Wu Yi each led an army under him, and Pang Tong was responsible for advising the overall military affairs and making plans.

Liu Bei's main force in Jiangzhou was about 50,000 soldiers, and 10,000 soldiers were needed to defend the city. Gan Ning was the commander-in-chief, Han Dang, Zhou Tai, and Jiang Qin were deputy generals, and Lu Yi was the staff officer.

Zhuge Liang was stationed in Jiangbei, in charge of the overall situation of the Yizhou battlefield.

The two sides agreed on a date to launch a general offensive simultaneously on the first day of November.

At that time, they will launch attacks on Fucheng where Fa Zheng and Deng Xian are stationed, and Jiangzhou where Zhang Song and Yan Yan are stationed.

(End of this chapter)