My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 640 It’s finally Zhuge Jin’s turn to take action

Although Liu Bei had been working hard and exhausted recently.

However, since the front line of land grabbing had stabilized a little, he rested in Yicheng for a few days and basically recovered his energy.

Today, Zhuge Jin finally arrived with 50,000 reinforcements. Liu Bei is already full of energy and is rubbing his hands in preparation. He really wants to make use of his brother Ziyu's clever strategies to quickly make a big splash.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin had known each other for twelve years and knew each other so well that there was no false courtesy or politeness.

When returning to the city, Liu Bei walked slowly, holding hands with his partner, and casually talked about the hardships he had experienced in recent days.

It is very difficult to take a photo of the shoulder of the rider of another horse while riding on horseback. If you are a little further away, you can't take the photo, and if you are too close, the two horses may collide.

Only a strong man like Liu Bei, with arms that reach beyond his knees, could perform such movements naturally and freely.

After returning to the county government office, Liu Bei dismounted from his horse in a dashing manner. He also lifted Zhuge Jin's armpits to help him dismount, and pulled him straight to the meeting room.

The tables around the hall were piled with wine and meat, and in the middle of the hall there was a large table with detailed maps of Nanjun and Zhanglingjun.

Liu Bei scooped a spoonful of wine for each of them to moisten their throats, then held the cup, and without sitting down, he just wandered around the table where Zhuge Jin was sitting, without any airs of a lord, and asked casually:
"Once Ziyu arrives, I will be completely relieved. With these 50,000 troops, Cao Ren and Yu Jin will definitely not be able to run rampant. In your opinion, when can our army counterattack?"

It was the end of May and the weather was already a bit hot. Zhuge Jin shook his folding fan vigorously. He did not dare to answer randomly for a moment, but just tried to cool down Liu Bei:
"My lord, why are you so anxious? Although our army's strength on the front line has increased to 60,000, there are probably more than 100,000 people on the other side. How can we plan a counterattack now?

Cao Ren has already established a firm foothold in Xiangyang, so there is no point in rushing. For now, we should gradually weaken his military strength.

As for the counterattack, it won’t be too late to discuss it next month when the troops that Yunchang brought from Hefei and Yangzhou arrive.”

Liu Bei rubbed his hands, not embarrassed, just chatting and laughing: "I haven't seen you take action for years. In the past few years, I have troubled Kong Ming and Zi Long to suppress rebellions and open up prefectures. Now I finally have a chance to see you again, how can I not be anxious?"

Liu Bei was very clear about Zhuge Jin's ability. But the world was too big, and since Liu Bei's camp's territory was getting bigger and bigger, it was inevitable to divide the territory into pieces.

Zhuge Jin held a high position and held an important position. For many years, he and Guan Yu worked together as a team, responsible for half of the country in the east of the Guandong region, especially the south. Therefore, they had not made any direct achievements on the battlefield for four years.

Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Zhang Fei, Gan Ning, Wei Yan and others made great military achievements in Yizhou, including Hanzhong, for three years and became famous.

So much so that now within Liu Bei's camp, when it comes to strategic planning, everyone feels that Zhuge Liang is no longer inferior to Zhuge Jin, and has even surpassed him.

After all, Zhuge Liang was in charge of the great cause of resisting Cao Cao in the north and swallowing Liu Zhang in the west. Under such a difficult situation, he managed the entire territory of Yizhou alone, which was also the largest state in the Han Dynasty.

Four years ago, when Yuan Tan completely surrendered to Liu Bei, he needed to take over Youzhou in the north, fight against Zhang He in the west, and destroy Gongsun Du in the east, but that was also directly commanded by Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu.

Zhuge Jin only stayed in Jixian and Yuyang for a few months and made some strategic plans, which can be regarded as his contribution to policy-making.

Guan Yu could not even get a share of the credit, as he had not made any direct military achievements for five years. In this life, Guan Yu's main achievements were in the early battlefields of Xuhuai, where he defeated Yuan Shu, Huang Zu, and Sun Ce, and later withstood Cao Cao's counterattack and recaptured the entire territory of Xuzhou.

The three years of war in Yizhou area allowed Zhang Fei to catch up with Guan Yu and Zhao Yun in terms of military merit. Now he has surpassed Zhao Yun or is at least on par with Zhao Yun, second only to Guan Yu.

Liu Bei was always attentive in employing people and knew how to unite and rally people's hearts. He knew that Ziyu and Yunchang were not incompetent in the past four years, but that there were no wars to fight in the prefectures and counties they governed.

Now he is trying different ways to give Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu more opportunities to perform and make up for the grievances they suffered in the previous four years of behind-the-scenes work.

Unexpectedly, Zhuge Jin himself was so calm. He did not seek credit at all, nor did he want to show off.

Liu Bei thought he knew Zhuge Jin well enough, but he miscalculated here - you know, Guan Yu, who had not had any military achievements in four years like Zhuge Jin, had been eager for it.

This has nothing to do with closeness. Some people just love to make achievements. Even if Liu Bei treats him as a brother, it cannot quell his eagerness to make achievements.

……

"There are many people with extraordinary talents in this world. But there is probably no one else who has such extraordinary talents but can refrain from using them and is not greedy for credit - at most, there is Kong Ming. If all the great sages in the world help me to fight against the rebellion, why should I worry about the revival of the Han Dynasty!"

After drinking a few cups, Liu Bei couldn't help but sigh a few words. He gave up the idea of helping Zhuge Jin to achieve merit as soon as possible and instead sincerely and humbly asked for advice.

He asked Zhuge Jin to help him plan a more stable timetable for counterattack, plan the battle of Jingbei, and how to fight at the subsequent overall level.

Zhuge Jin did not dare to make any rash suggestions. He had just arrived in Yicheng and got off the boat. He was not familiar with the changes on the battle line and the division of counties in the past five or six days. He hoped to understand the situation first before making a decision.

Of course, Liu Bei didn't need to answer this small question personally. He waved his hand and asked Chen Dao, who was in charge of specific military affairs today, to come over and report. He also invited Chen Dao to a banquet together.

Chen Dao was not a talkative person, but he had made some military achievements following Zhuge Jin. During the Battle of Pengcheng, he followed Zhuge Jin throughout the whole process, so he was very familiar with his old leader's style.

He briefly outlined the issues that Zhuge Jin was really concerned about.

Zhuge Jin soon learned that Liu Bei's army controlled the areas of Yicheng, Bianxian, and Linju in the main battlefield on the central line, and could go west along the Jingshan Valley Road to contact Fangling in Shangyong.

Further north, several counties along both sides of the Han River, such as Dengxian, Zhuyang, Yunxian, etc., were just captured by Xu Huang in recent days.

After taking Zhuyang, Xu Huang's army obviously planned to continue advancing westward and completely take down Shangyong.

As for the east side of the main battlefield, that is, the area north of the Han River, there are only a few small counties such as Zhangling County and Sui County. Because they were previously under the jurisdiction of Zhangling County, they have now nominally chosen to follow Cai Mao.

However, due to the dangerous terrain of these places and their location on the southern foot of the Tongbai Mountain area, there is no land route connecting them.

The transportation between these counties depends on taking a boat along the small river to merge into the Han River, then sailing from the Han River to the mouth of another small river nearby, and then going upstream. Therefore, in fact, Cao's army did not dare to rashly send troops to these counties to garrison and control and monitor Cai Mao's old subordinates.

This is because as long as Cao's army cannot control the Han River and ensure its naval advantage, then rashly sending troops to occupy those places will be a complete failure.

At that time, Zhuge Jin only needs to send a fleet to cruise, block all the waterways of the Han River, and block the estuaries of all the tributaries on the north side of the Han River. Those Cao troops isolated in the small river valleys and counties will be caught in the trap.

Cao Ren couldn't be so stupid, so he wouldn't do anything special. He would just let those places submit in name only and then let them do whatever they wanted.

As long as the main battlefield decides the outcome, the front line can be pushed forward in great strides. The county towns in the small river valleys in the mountainous areas on the north bank of the Han River will directly join the victorious side, so there is no need to go out of their way to deal with them.

Zhuge Jin quickly sorted out the deductions through Chen Dao's statement and combined it with his own analysis.

While thinking, Zhuge Jin fanned his brain to cool it down, and also looked for points that could be learned from the ancient battles in Jingbei area that he had read about in his previous life.

A battle plan for the following month gradually took shape in his mind.

After shaking the fan for a full quarter of an hour, Zhuge Jin folded the fan with a snap, walked to the map, and helped Liu Bei plan:
"Don't worry, my lord. I have a plan. In my opinion, our army can take advantage of Cao Ren's desire for war and take a two-pronged approach. We should fight a series of small-scale battles to weaken his forces and lay a favorable foundation for the subsequent counterattack on Xiangyang."

Seeing that Zhuge Jin had finally come up with a trick, Liu Bei was also invigorated, and hurriedly asked in detail: "Zi Yu just said that Cao Ren has gained a firm foothold, and it is useless for our army to rush. But our army does not need to rush, why does it mean that Cao Ren must rush? Can't Cao Ren continue to fight with us and consume our strength?"

Zhuge Jin: "Generally speaking, Cao Ren can indeed fight with us, but Cao's army has an advantage over our army, that is, our army was previously dragged down by the battle of Yizhou, and it is difficult to concentrate its forces.

So in the first month after the war, our troops were obviously at a disadvantage. After Yun Chang arrived the next month, our troops on the front line would exceed 100,000. When the troops from Yizhou were transferred in the future, the total number would not be at a disadvantage compared to Cao's army.

Cao Cao finally seized the opportunity when our army was divided and they assembled ahead of time, so how could he not take advantage of this time difference to expand the victory as soon as possible? Now Cao Ren had just arrived in Xiangyang not long ago, and he was not in a hurry, because he wanted to ensure that he could gain a firm foothold in Xiangyang and eliminate those who disobeyed.

After a few days, if our army can successfully leak to Cao Ren the time when Yunchang and even the Yizhou reinforcements may arrive at the battlefield, Cao Ren will definitely become anxious again.

At that time, whether it is the west side of the Jingbei battlefield or the center line, Cao Ren is likely to strengthen and speed up his actions. And our army is just on the west side and center line of the Jingbei battlefield, designing to weaken Cao Ren.

As for the eastern side, that is, the counties in Zhangling County located in the Tongbai Mountain area north of the Han River, Cao Ren probably wouldn't dare to move. We don't need to rush to move, but we can use it as a hidden weapon. I can't think of how to use it specifically yet, and we need to adapt to the situation later."

Zhuge Jin's words were insightful and took the lead in changing Liu Bei's mind from a strategic perspective:

In the previous ten days, one thing Liu Bei's camp had been doing was "showing strength."

At that time, Liu Biao was murdered by Cai Mao, and the incident happened suddenly. Liu Bei wanted to receive more of Liu Biao's inheritance as soon as possible, so of course he had to show his strength.

Even if there were only 10,000 cavalrymen who could reach Zhangling County as quickly as possible, Liu Bei would still pretend that there were 30,000 to 50,000 divine soldiers descending from the sky. This would scare the fence-sitters and make those wavering people decisively join Liu rather than Cao.

If he had not bluffed and flexed his muscles thoroughly enough, perhaps the timid former officials of Liu Biao would have simply run away.

But now, things are different.

The division of territory was almost complete. The five counties in northern Jing were divided into two parts, some for Cao Cao and some for Liu Bei. They had already been completely encircled. There was no more bargaining chips to be picked up for free by intimidation.

At this time, "showing strength" is of little use.

In other words, although it is still a little useful, this little use is too insignificant compared to the effect of "showing weakness" in luring the enemy into advancing.

At this time, we must "weigh the two benefits and choose the more important one" and change from showing strength to showing weakness.

Before Zhuge Jin arrived, Liu Bei was afraid that Cao Ren would lead his troops to seek a decisive battle in the field.

Now that Zhuge Jin has arrived, he is afraid that Cao Ren will not attack.

It is not difficult to explain this truth, but Liu Bei was confused by his own situation. He had been showing off his strength for a long time recently, and he had a bit of path dependence in his mind, and he couldn't get over it for a while.

Zhuge Jin had just arrived and had not experienced the previous land-enclosure stage. As an outsider, he saw things clearly and spoke the truth in one sentence.

After clarifying this fundamental idea, Liu Bei quickly learned to draw inferences from one example and immediately sorted out and considered the following ideas:
"In that case, according to Ziyu's opinion, in the next twenty days or so, our army must strive to show weakness in two directions to lure Cao Ren into making a rash advance.

The western line is the direction of Shangyong and the four counties along the Han River upstream of Xiangyang controlled by Xu Huang. The front line is the line of Yicheng, Bianxian, and Linju? Let's talk about it in detail. How to lure the enemy to fight on these two lines? "

As Liu Bei spoke, he compared the map and had already broken down the subsequent tasks into three small parts in his mind, with the eastern front part put on hold for the time being.

Zhuge Jin also pointed at the map and explained one by one: "On the western front, when Master Liu Qi left Huo Jun to guard the city, it is said that there were not many soldiers left. Huo Jun has always been unknown, so Xu Huang would definitely look down on him. He would also think of swallowing up the counties of Shangyong before Yunchang arrived, eliminating the flank restraint of Cao's main force, and then focusing on dealing with the enemy in the front.

Our army did just the opposite. On the one hand, we had Wang Ping of Hanzhong gradually reinforce Huo Jun with a small number of troops, and rely on the Shangyong Mountain area to resist step by step in order to delay Xu Huang and drag him into the quagmire.

On the other hand, we can pretend to go north from the east foot of Jingshan Mountain from Linju, and try to contact Fangling by land. The marching posture can be more urgent. If Cao Ren saw this scene, he would definitely interpret it as "We are worried that Huo Jun will not receive any contact from Linju and Dangyang, and will be desperate to surrender to Cao."

In this way, Cao Ren will certainly make Yu Jin pay a price in order to cut off the land connection between Linju and Fangling. As long as Yu Jin is forced to send troops, we can intercept them in the hilly area from Xianshan to Jingshan and seek opportunities for a small-scale field battle. "

In just a few words, Zhuge Jin helped Liu Bei point out two tricks to lure the enemy on the eastern front:
Huo Jun is not weak, but he can pretend to be weak, tempting Xu Huang to always think "if I work harder, I might win", so that he will invest more and more. In fact, the Hanzhong Army can provide blood transfusion to Huo Jun from behind. No matter how shaky Huo Jun is, he will not really fall.

On the other hand, Huo Jun was actually very determined, and Liu Bei's camp had previously rewarded him a lot to win him over. Like Huang Zhong, he had assisted Liu Bei's army in the Battle of Hanzhong three years ago, and Liu Bei had already rewarded him with courtesy to win his heart.

But the problem is that Xu Huang and Cao Ren don’t know this, and the information gap here can be used to seduce them.

Seduce Cao Ren to do something that obviously won't hurt if you don't do it, but will bring no benefit if you do it.

After Liu Bei understood this philosophy, he became more confident.

Zi Yu is indeed a master of calculations! With these two plans, it is absolutely possible to make Xu Huang bleed more on the western front!

Seeing his lord's frown relax and his expression relieved, Zhuge Jin knew that he fully understood. Zhuge Jin then struck while the iron was hot and continued to introduce the midline luring enemy plan he had just thought of:
"As for the central battlefield in the Yicheng and Bianxian areas. Although the enemy and our armies will mainly fight each other in the next twenty days, it is unlikely that a siege will occur, and the cities and defense lines controlled by both sides are unlikely to change.

However, even if it is a stalemate, we have a way to lure out Cao Ren or Yu Jin - my lord, please see, our army has stationed a large number of troops on the Yicheng front line, and we are also preparing to use it as a stronghold to counterattack Xiangyang in the future. Cao Ren knows this.

Cao Ren also knew that both sides had huge numbers of troops and horses, and this kind of battle would not be concluded in a few months. It was possible that it would last for more than a year like the Battle of Hanzhong.

And how huge would the consumption and demand for military rations be in such a long-term war? Cao's army had just occupied Xiangyang. Although Xiangyang was not the city with the most food stored by Liu Biao in Jingzhou, it was Liu Biao's seat after all.

The food and grass in the city could feed the 100,000 garrison troops for more than a year. If some of the people were driven out of the city or sent to the north to garrison Nanyang, and the civilian food was saved for the soldiers, it would probably be enough to feed the 100,000 people for two years.

Therefore, Cao's army is not worried about the food storage problem in Xiangyang City for the time being. They don't have to worry about the food supply within half a year.

In contrast, although our army was not short of food, the five counties in southern Jing had been recuperating for several years and had a lot of food stored. However, most of our army's food and grass were in Wuchang, while the food and grass of the newly surrendered Liu Qi were in Jiangling, Nanjun.

At the Yicheng front, Liu Biao did not store any grain at the beginning, so if we wanted to ensure that we had 50,000 to 60,000 or even more than 100,000 troops stationed around Yicheng for a long time, we needed to transport the stored grain in Wuchang or Jiangling north for 600 or more than 400 miles to Yicheng.

The grain transported from Wuchang traveled the entire route via the Han River. If Cao's navy is not strong enough and dares not intercept our grain fleet on the Han River, then we don't have to worry about this grain route.

Although the grain from Jiangling could be transported by water, first along the Yangtze River from Jiangling, through the mouth of Dongting Lake to Wuchang, and then on the Han River to Yicheng, this route would add more than a thousand miles, which was not worth it.

If the grain from Jiangling was not transported north to Yicheng by pure water route, it would first have to go along the Ju River, a tributary of the Yangtze River on the north bank, to Dangyang County, and then go north from Dangyang County to Zhangxiang. Finally, the section from Zhangxiang to Yicheng would have to be transported by land.

My Lord, please think about this. If we rush to move food and fodder to the Yicheng front line along this route, once Cao Ren finds out, will he miss this opportunity? Will he be able to resist robbing the food? "

The second grain transport route proposed by Zhuge Jin has the advantage of being fast, saving time and distance, but the last 80-plus miles of land route requires crossing the hilly plain area on the east side of Jingshan.

This section of the country is not steep, but a little rugged. If Cao's cavalry and infantry are strong, they can take this opportunity to rob food and cut off Liu Bei's food supply to the front line of Yicheng.

The temptation is definitely big enough.

(End of this chapter)