My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 641 Cao Ren: If you don’t even dare to do this, are you still a human being?

After listening to Zhuge Jin's plan to lure the enemy, Liu Bei naturally accepted it unconditionally.

Although this strategy is still relatively crude, it was only thought up based on the current enemy and our own deployment and by looking at the map.

If we want to implement it in the future, we will definitely need to refine and fine-tune many key points.

But Zhuge Jin's accumulated credibility over the past twelve years was enough for Liu Bei to accept his advice without hesitation.

Sometimes, if you can save a few brain cells for decision-making, try to save them. After Zhuge Jin's invincible body is broken, it is still not too late to carefully consider it.

Liu Bei now has enough capital to allow him to be a little willful in harmless matters.

Therefore, in the next three to five days, Liu Bei's army's strategic deployment was carried out completely according to Zhuge Jin's instructions.

An army of fifty to sixty thousand galloped back and forth on the hills and plains of northern Jing, optimizing deployment, pulling and assembling, and transporting supplies.

Originally, Liu Bei's army was mainly assembled in Yicheng, because Zhuge Jin's reinforcements were heading north from Wuchang via the Han River and could only land in Yicheng first.

During these few days, Liu Bei followed Zhuge Jin's plan and moved part of his troops to Bian County and Linju in the west, reducing the number of defenders in Yicheng to about 30,000 to 40,000. Ten thousand troops were allocated to each of the two counties in the west.

The three counties were either sixty or seventy miles apart, or more than eighty miles apart, forming a pincer attack on each other. At the same time, they could pretend to "protect the land grain route from Jiangling to Yicheng" and pretend to contact Huo Jun in Fangling for support.

While making these adjustments to the troop deployment, Liu Bei also wrote a letter to Liu Qi who was in Jiangling, asking Liu Qi to prepare military rations in the Jiangling treasury and to arrange small grain ships that could sail in the Ju River.

A large amount of grain can be transferred by water to Dangyang County, and some of it that needs to be transported urgently can be temporarily stored at the Zhangxiang Town wharf north of Dangyang County.

Then Liu Bei's army transported the grain from Zhangxiang Wharf to Yicheng and Bian County by land. To this end, Liu Qi had to help prepare some cattle, donkeys and baggage carts from the rear.

After Liu Bei had deployed his troops, Liu Qi's first batch of military rations was also transported to Zhangxiang Wharf in Dangyang County, and then successfully escorted to Yicheng by Liu Bei's army.

Because it was the first time to transport grain, this action was quite sudden.

Yu Jin, a general of Cao's army stationed in the stronghold of Xianshan, south of Xiangyang City, had also sent out scouts to the south and conducted surveillance from afar in the past few days.

But when Yu Jin finally discovered Liu Bei transporting grain, Liu Bei's grain team had already gone two-thirds of the way.

Yu Jin was not able to react to Liu Bei's intention and hesitated for a moment. When he organized a small-scale cavalry to move south cautiously and test the enemy, Liu Bei's first batch of 50,000 dan of military rations had been safely transported to Yicheng, leaving Yu Jin no chance to intercept.

Yu Jin missed a chance to fight, but he was not discouraged. He thought Zhuge Jin was always resourceful, and maybe this was a trick to lure the enemy. If he really went to rob food, he might be ambushed.

So he just recorded the incident and sent someone back to Xiangyang City that night to present it to Cao Ren for the decision.

When Cao Ren saw the actions of Liu Bei's army, he was unable to react for a while.

Fortunately, seven or eight days had passed since he arrived in Xiangyang. Subsequent reinforcements had arrived one after another, and some military advisers had also come to Xiangyang, so he had enough advisers to help him deal with military affairs.

After all, when he first came to Xiangyang, he marched at a very fast speed, and the troops were exhausted. Those civilian officials or older soldiers could not stand such a torment, and they would definitely arrive later.

At present, the top strategist in Xiangyang City is Jia Xu, who was just sent by Cao Cao. In addition, there is Man Chong, who is of much lower status and is arranged in Fancheng on the north bank. Guo Jia and Sima Yi are currently staying in Wancheng.

Cao Cao's camp attached great importance to the battle of Jingbei. All the elite counselors were dispatched, with only Xun Yu left in the rear, Cheng Yu left in the east, and Xun You left in the north.

Therefore, when Cao Ren got the latest military information, he invited Jia Xu to help him discuss it:
"Mr. Wenhe, Wen Ze just sent back a message from the front line of Yicheng, saying that Liu Bei's army has divided its troops to garrison various counties, spreading westward as a corner, and also going to the front line of Yicheng by land to store grain.

I looked at the map. This land route for transporting grain is more than 80 miles long, and there are no strategic points along the way. In your opinion, is there a trick here? Or is Liu Bei really short of grain?"

Cao Ren respected Jia Xu's age and asked questions politely.

Unfortunately, Jia Xu's attitude now is more low-key than a few years ago, and he is less willing to speak his mind.

After all, three years ago, when he was in Hanzhong, he was responsible for advising Xiahou Yuan on military affairs. However, he was repeatedly outwitted by Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, and none of his strategies came to fruition. In the end, Xiahou Yuan was defeated and killed, and the country was almost destroyed. Only Cao Xiu, Jia Xu and Guo Huai escaped.

Such a disastrous history of defeat has dimmed much of Jia Xu's original aura of viciousness and resourcefulness, which is why he was sent to the front line to do dirty and tiring work.

So at this moment, he carefully considered for a long time before saying ambiguously:
"If Liu Bei wants to fight our army quickly, he won't be short of food. When Zhuge Jin set out from Wuchang, the food and grass that accompanied the fleet were enough to last at least one or two months.

Yicheng was not completely without food before. But now Liu Bei was going to store food on a large scale from Jiangling to the front line of Yicheng, which meant that Liu Bei was planning to fight a long battle with our army.

This should be attributed to the fact that the prime minister seized the right time to start the war. A considerable part of Liu Bei's main force was still tied up in Yizhou, and it would take a long time to rush back. Therefore, Liu Bei wanted to delay until his entire army was assembled and his strength was no longer at a disadvantage before turning to counterattack. "

Jia Xu's basic skills were still very solid. At this moment, he decided to protect himself by saying some irrelevant things. It was easy for him to analyze the reasons why Liu Bei's army wanted to concentrate food and grass at the front line.

On this point, Jia Xu was indeed absolutely correct, because this was exactly what Zhuge Jin thought, and there was no room for any deception on this point.

However, the subsequent details are where the real effort is shown.

Cao Ren thought his analysis was reasonable and urged him: "Wenhe is right. Why don't you continue?"

Jia Xu thought for a while and added cautiously: "Although I can conclude that Liu Bei is gathering food and grass in order to fight a protracted war, I still feel that there is a trick.

Because there had been no war in Jingzhou for several years, not only did Liu Biao store a lot of military supplies in Jiangling, but Liu Bei himself also had a lot of food in Wuchang.

If Liu Bei transports grain by water, our navy is inferior to Liu Bei. He only needs to patrol the Han River north of Yicheng with warships to ensure that the grain route is safe.

If we transport grain by land, we have to travel more than 80 miles from Zhangxiang to Yicheng, and there is a possibility that our cavalry will intercept us. With Zhuge Jin's wisdom, how could he make such a crude mistake? "

Cao Ren frowned when he heard this: "So, according to Wenhe, this is Zhuge Jin's strategy to lure the enemy? However, considering Zhuge Jin's intelligence, isn't this a bit too simplistic? Is there another trick?"

If this move was thought of by someone else, Cao Ren would immediately believe it was a strategy to lure the enemy.

But the opponent is from the Zhuge family. Just hearing that surname makes the opponent have to think more and have to fight a battle of wits and courage with the air.

Jia Xu also thought so, and he couldn't help but think a lot. He only heard him discuss it with uncertainty:

"So, I think there may be several possibilities. Either it is a trick to lure the enemy in while pretending to be real, or pretending to be real while pretending to be fake.

Or he would take advantage of our army's unpreparedness and deliberately rob the grain from Jiangling a few times. If our army tried to rob the grain, he would stop immediately. The bet is that we dare not act rashly.

Or... maybe there is something wrong in Wuchang, and Liu Bei cannot transport the food and grass in Wuchang to Yicheng in time. But for this, our army needs to strengthen scouting to confirm whether there is such a change, and we can't just rely on imagination. "

Jia Xu did not dare to make a conclusion at all. He almost used the exhaustive method to list all the possibilities and then let Cao Ren choose for himself.

Cao Ren stroked his beard and thought for a long time, but had no idea how to choose. So he had to ask Jia Xu for the answer directly, telling him what to do.

Jia Xu was forced to say, "To be safe, we should temporarily ignore the grain transport from Jiangling to Yicheng and wait and see. Anyway, as long as our army does not attack, we will not fall into the trap. At most, it will allow Zhuge Jin to transport the grain smoothly. Our army can still afford this loss."

As for the Hanshui waterway from Wuchang to Yicheng, why did Zhuge Jin abandon it? We can try to strengthen our scouts. If we can find a reason to prove that Zhuge Jin had no choice but to use the Wuchang route to transport grain, then we can try to rob the grain and grass along the Jiangling route at that time."

This initial decision was really too cowardly.

However, after much deliberation, Cao Ren did not have the courage to overturn this decision.

The shadow cast by Zhuge Jin's reputation as a fortune teller was too great, so Cao's army could only seek stability first.

Fortunately, Jia Xu saw Cao Ren was in a low mood and changed the subject in time, comforting him: "General, don't worry too much about the enemy's smooth grain transportation. Our army is on the upper reaches of the Han River, and at least we have General Xu Huang's army. We will definitely be able to achieve some results in June. Since Yicheng is in a stalemate, we can also take the opportunity to send more troops to the western front to seek a faster breakthrough."

Cao Ren thought about it and realized that this was indeed the truth, so he was no longer discouraged.

……

On the Yicheng battlefield, Zhuge Jin used the strategy of luring the enemy and successfully transported two loads of food within eight days. However, the Cao army on the opposite side did not respond at all.

They neither come to rob food nor seek war.

This really made Zhuge Jin's initial idea a little disappointed - although it was only partially disappointed, because Huo Jun and Wang Ping's ideas were not disappointed.

But even if part of the goal failed, it would still be very painful for a wise man like Zhuge Jin.

Profiting less means losing money! The Zhuge family has used all their brain cells, how embarrassing it would be if they didn't make any profit?

Liu Bei didn't say anything, and his mentality was very good. In Liu Bei's view, it would be best if he could lure out the enemy and weaken them in advance. Even if he couldn't lure them out, he could wait for Yun Chang to come and fight a positional war. So Liu Bei didn't urge Zhuge Jin from beginning to end.

A few days passed quickly and it was the fifth day of June.

On this day, Liu Bei's navy patrolling on the Han River suddenly captured some spies and sent them back to Yicheng.

Since Zhuge Jin's plan had not yet been completed and he had nothing to do, he took the time to personally interrogate those spies.

After some torture and interrogation, it was not difficult to find out the other party's intentions.

The spies confessed in isolation: they were all sent by Jia Xu to investigate whether Liu Bei's army's grain route along the Han River was unobstructed and whether they had encountered any accidents, and why Zhuge Jin did not transport grain from Wuchang to Yicheng by water, but took the land route to Jiangling.

According to their confessions, Jia Xu had sent out more than one or two groups of spies. Some were caught, but there were definitely some that slipped through the net. These people must have also sent back the latest intelligence on the Han River grain route.

Zhuge Jin was feeling helpless, but when he heard that Jia Xu had sent someone to spy on him, he immediately perked up.

He was afraid that Cao Ren and Jia Xu would pretend to be deaf and dumb, and turn a blind eye. As long as they dared to open their eyes and not cover their ears, he would have a way!
Zhuge Jin thought about it for a while and came up with another plan. He quickly went to find Liu Bei and offered his advice:

"My lord, Cao Ren has not fallen into the trap yet. It turns out that Jia Xu has come to Xiangyang to assist him in military affairs. The old villain Jia Xu is indeed more difficult to deceive than the ordinary counselors in Cao's camp."

After hearing this news, Liu Bei was not worried at all: "Zi Yu's sudden visit, is it just to pass on this news? Since he knows it's Jia Xu, he must have a way to deal with him?"

Zhuge Jin confessed, "I just thought of a way - fortunately, in order to put on a good show, I had people patrol the river defense upstream of Yicheng on the Han River to prevent Cai Mao's navy from going south.

Moreover, in the past few days, we have been transporting grain from Wuchang to Yicheng without stopping, and we have been transporting grain by land and water at the same time. Now that Jia Xu has learned these two pieces of information, he will definitely be more convinced that "our army is trying to save time, so we are transporting grain in two ways at the same time."

Liu Bei: "So what? Will this strengthen Jia Xu's determination to persuade Cao Ren to rob grain and advance? They are already so cautious, this little information may not be enough."

Zhuge Jin: "Of course it's not that simple, so I came up with a back-up plan - the reason why Jia Xu's spies were able to infiltrate the counties on the north bank of the Han River and the southeastern part of Zhangling County.

This was because Jia Xu found Cao's elite troops who were good at climbing mountains and crossed the valleys of Tongbai Mountain. Whether from Xiangyang to Zhangling County or from Zhangling County to Sui County, they all came over the mountains. Our army only had the advantage of the navy and could only block the Han River waterway, so we had to miss some of the enemy's spies.

However, we can pretend that we have discovered that Cao's army is trying to contact Zhangling County and Sui County to spy on our army's rear, so as to change our strategy and send heavy troops to besiege Zhangling County and Sui County. We pretend to do all this in order to cut off Jia Xu's spying. "

Liu Bei frowned when he heard this: "Jia Xu won't believe that we are attacking the city just to prevent the enemy from spying on us, right?"

Zhuge Jin: "If it is just for the benefit of intelligence, it is of course unreasonable, and Jia Xu will not believe it. However, as long as our army surrounds Zhangling County and Sui County, and then releases the news:
He said, "The garrisons of Zhangling and Suixian were originally followers of Cai Mao. When Cai Mao joined the bandits, they also followed him. Now our army is transporting grain from Wuchang to Yicheng via the Hanshui waterway, but because the rear was negligent in patrolling the river, we were intercepted by Cai Mao's army in Suixian and Zhangling and lost some grain ships."

In this way, in order to ensure the smooth flow of food and water, and betting that Cao Ren is cowardly and will not engage in actual war with our army in the short term, we will take advantage of this time difference to besiege Sui County and Zhangling County, in order to weaken Cai Mao's wings and ensure the absolute safety of our army's food and water routes on the Han River. "

This idea really made Liu Bei feel incredible: "Will Jia Xu believe this reason? Cai Mao himself may not dare to fight against our navy, let alone the unknown generals under Cai Mao? It is too much to say that the garrisons in those two counties threaten our food supply..."

Zhuge Jin didn't think so. He knew that Liu Bei didn't have a deep understanding of the logic of naval warfare, so he immediately pointed to the map and said:
"This is actually not incredible at all - my lord, please see, the patrol navy I deployed before was mainly to the north of Yicheng, cutting off the passage of Cai Mao's warships upstream in the north. But on the more than 600 miles of Han River between Yicheng and Wuchang, I did not actually arrange warships to patrol the entire route.

If Jia Xu had sent someone to spy on this, he would definitely know that it was true. This could be explained as our army's negligence, or it could be explained as our army felt that it was unnecessary to spend so much money and patrol the entire 600-mile river for such a small risk.

Although Cai Mao's navy in Zhangling County and Sui County was extremely weak, they took advantage of our lack of preparedness and suddenly rushed out from the mouth of a tributary on the north bank of the Han River when the grain fleet passed by, entered the Han River, and burned and looted some of our grain ships. This is understandable.

As long as our army retaliates immediately, such as killing all the navy of these two counties, or even directly besieging the cities, Jia Xu will believe it to about 70% - even better, as long as we besiege these two counties, Jia Xu will have no way to verify whether the navy of these two counties had burned or robbed our grain ships before.

Because Jia Xu's spies may be good at climbing mountains and can cross the remnants of Tongbai Mountain to reach Zhangling. But as long as we surround the city, his spies can't climb over the siege camp, right? If the inside and outside are isolated, all the past events will be gone forever. "

After Zhuge Jin's detailed explanation, Liu Bei suddenly understood. After thinking about it carefully, it seemed to be true.

Regardless of whether the remnants of Cai Mao in the two counties had previously threatened the Han River waterway of Liu Bei's army, as long as Liu Bei's army actually surrounded the city, people would inevitably feel that the situation was serious.

Moreover, as long as Liu Bei divided his troops to besiege the city on the eastern front, his forces on the western and central fronts would inevitably become weakened.

If Cao Ren still fails to make up for the opportunity, is he still a human being? How can he win the support of others?
Liu Bei finally made the decision: "This is a great plan! Just as you said, we will divide 10,000 troops today and go to the north of Han River to surround Zhangling and Suixian respectively. At the same time, we will strengthen the patrol of warships on the Han River north of Yicheng to prevent Cai Mao from rescuing these two counties! If so, I don't believe it, and Jia Xu doesn't believe it either!"

……

After Liu Bei made the decision, this supplementary tactic was finally used.

Liu Bei's army dispatched nearly 10,000 troops from Yicheng and other places in the central line, crossed the Han River to the north, and suddenly launched a siege on Zhangling County and Sui County deep in the Tongbai Mountain area.

The defenders of those two counties were basically unknown generals.

The only one with a name and surname is Cai Zhong, a cousin of Cai Mao, who is completely a passerby.

The two counties had only about a thousand and two to three thousand soldiers guarding them, respectively, and that included the militia. Because it was a small county in the mountains, the city walls were very low.

For a city like this, Liu Bei actually asked Chen Dao to attack it by force and even brought siege weapons with him, which was enough to give face to Cai Zhong.

Of course, if the morale of the defenders is high, it is difficult to defend with 2,000 to 3,000 men and attack with 5,000 men. The Art of War also says "surround with ten and attack with five". Even if Liu Bei's army has an advantage in weapons and equipment, it would take at least three times as long to attack without attacking with five.

But the problem is that the armies of these two counties never expected that Liu Bei would send troops deep into the corners of the Tongbai Mountain area to fight with them when the situation on the front battlefield was tense.

Among the soldiers here, the proportion of those who are loyal to the Cai family is not high, and a considerable number of them are loyal to Liu Biao.

Liu Bei had been gaining popularity in Jingzhou in recent years and was quite popular. Now he attacked under the pretext of helping Liu Qi to avenge Liu Biao, and many Jingzhou soldiers did not want to resist at all.

Therefore, even though they only saw twice as many soldiers as the attacking side, Sui County only hesitated for two or three days and basically surrendered without fighting.

In Zhangling County, the situation was delayed for a while, after all, Cai Zhong was still loyal to his family.

However, in the end, they could not hold out for ten days. Under the intimidation of Chen Dao's attack, some soldiers in the defending army turned against their allies, killed Cai Zhong and opened the gate to welcome Liu Bei's army.

Although the news of the change of hands of the two counties spread a little slowly because Liu Bei's army blocked the Han River waterway.

However, because Jia Xu had been sending scouts over the mountains to spy, Cao's army at least knew in time that the two cities were under siege, but they did not know how long they could hold out or when they would fall.

Cao Ren knew that the two friendly counties were under siege, so he couldn't just sit there and do nothing. So when he learned about it, he immediately studied how to rescue them.

The final conclusion was: small-scale scouts could infiltrate by crossing the remnants of the southern foothills of Tongbai Mountain, but large-scale troops must advance along the tributary valleys on the north bank of the Han River. Climbing mountains is simply not realistic.

Even if they can climb, if Chen Dao sets an ambush at a dangerous place over the mountain, all Cao's troops who have passed through will be destroyed. This risk cannot be taken.

Since the only way to rescue them is by taking the Han River, it is not Cao Ren's problem, but Cai Mao's problem, because he is in charge of the navy.

Cao Ren passed the blame to Cai Mao, saying: If you can transport the people over, I can rescue them. If you can't break through the enemy's naval blockade, then it's none of my business.

Cai Mao actually knew that he could not save the enemy, but he had just surrendered to Cao, so he could not be too cowardly and had to show his loyalty a little.

In the end, he had no choice but to use his navy and launch a tentative attack in an attempt to break through the enemy's Han River blockade north of Yicheng.

The result was naturally that he was defeated at the first touch and immediately fled back. Fortunately, Cai Mao did not invest much, so the loss was not great.

However, the first direct confrontation between the two navies ended with Cai Mao's complete defeat, which was also a big blow to the overall morale of Cao's army.

After this setback, the reason why Zhuge Jin insisted on using the land route from Jiangling to Dangyang to Yicheng to transport grain is obvious: Zhuge Jin used both routes to save time. And because the water route was threatened by Cai Zhong in Zhangling County, he had to temporarily rely more on the land route of Jiangling.

There is no conspiracy here! It's just stealing the machine!
Because of Jia Xu's suspicion, he didn't dare to move, and it was finally stolen by Zhuge Jin!

Moreover, Liu Bei's army has taken the initiative to reduce its strength in Hannan by more than 10,000 troops. Chen Dao went to Hanbei and would not be able to get back for a while.

This is such a good opportunity, and it only comes once. If you don’t seize it, it will be gone in a flash.

It’s up to you whether you want to go up as Cao Ren or not!

If you don't go, are you still a human being, Cao Ren?!

Finally, Cao Ren decided to go ahead.

"Let Yu Jin gather his troops. If Zhuge Jin takes the route from Dangyang to Yicheng to transport grain again, our army will fight him! Also, be prepared to bypass Yicheng, capture Bian County, and then besiege Dangyang!
In order to squeeze Liu Qi, Zhuge Jin had already transported most of Jiangling's grain to Dangyang by water, and then transported it to Yicheng by land from the wharf north of Dangyang. As long as they surrounded the small county of Dangyang, they would definitely be able to seize a lot of Liu Bei's military rations!
Whether it's a field battle to rob food or a violent attack on Dangyang, we can adapt to the situation accordingly! Anyway, all the troops should prepare for battle!"

(End of this chapter)