My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 651 It's not that Ziyu is late, it's just that Yunchang is early

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

While Cao Cao was operating in Xudu and Wancheng, he was taking advantage of the victory to confer the title of nobility and secure the city.

In the southern Jiangxia County area, in early July, Liu Bei's army was busy celebrating the victory and joining forces, as well as planning and preparing for the next stage of the strategic counterattack.

After defeating Yu Jin and Xu Huang in succession, Cao's army was forced to stop fighting and go on the defensive. Liu Bei's army was also happy with this, so the confrontation between the two sides was quiet for more than ten days.

Cao's army needed to gather the remaining soldiers, treat the wounded, and redistribute military supplies.

Liu Bei's army also needed time to digest the results of the battle, reform the prisoners, and rectify military discipline.

In the last few days of June, the 50,000 reinforcements brought by Guan Yu from Yangzhou finally went upstream and arrived at Wuchang County, Jiangxia County.

Because Liu Bei himself was stationed at the front line in Yicheng, there were not enough high-ranking civil and military officials in Wuchang to contact him.

In the end, the person who was specifically responsible for welcoming Guan Yu was the newly appointed governor of Jiangxia, Gu Yong.

Gu Yong took a boat out of the city and sailed downstream for dozens of miles to meet Guan Yu in E County. He also brought a large amount of sheep and wine to reward the soldiers.

On the way here, Guan Yu was not aware of the recent personnel changes in Jiangxia, so he was a little surprised when he saw Gu Yong.

He asked about the latest situation in Jiangxia, especially about the war on the front line, and Gu Yong answered his questions one by one.

In the past three years, Gu Yong has only served as a deputy in Jiangxia County. Considering Gu Yong's qualifications, this is obviously a low position.

Gu Yong also played a significant role in supporting Liu Bei in his pacification of Wu. As Lu Yi's uncle, he provided a lot of support to Lu Yi when the Lu family was weak, which allowed Lu Yi to follow Zhuge Jin and lead troops to attack the Sun family.

When Jiangdong was pacified, Gu Yong was directly appointed as the governor of a large county. Later, he was transferred to Jiangxia, where he could only serve as a deputy, which was inappropriate.

However, Liu Bei's title was Marquis of Wuchang, and his fief was in Wuchang County. Liu Bei also regarded this place as the core of his rule. The status of Jiangxia County was relatively transcendent among the southern counties, so the prefect here naturally had to be highly qualified.

Three years ago, Liu Qi half-defected to Liu Bei, and Liu Qi has been occupying the position of Jiangxia governor, which cannot be moved. Gu Yong can only hold the title of deputy and actually handle the government affairs in the area controlled by Liu Bei in Jiangxia County.

Until recently, when Liu Biao died and Liu Qi was promoted to another position, the post of Jiangxia governor was officially vacant, and Gu Yong was finally promoted.

At this point, Gu Yong was considered the "first governor" under Liu Bei.

There is not much to say about these personnel twists and turns.

After Gu Yong spoke briefly, he quickly switched the topic back to military affairs.

I explained to Guan Yu how, over the past half month, Cao Ren and Yu Jin had fallen into Zhuge Situ's trap of luring the enemy and had been caught by Situ's strategy of luring the enemy and having their psychological weakness of "path dependence" discovered.

They replicated the tactics of the Battle of Wuchao in reverse, and eventually suffered a disastrous defeat in Dangyang, with at least 30,000 casualties.

In addition, Xu Huang also failed in his attack on Shangyong, losing seven to eight thousand soldiers.

Guan Yu listened and nodded frequently.

Guan Yu was never surprised by Zhuge Jin's strategies, as he had been working with Zhuge Jin for many years.

Zhuge Jin was able to easily come up with these strategies based on circumstances.

However, it was the performance of Huang Zhong and Huo Jun that really shocked Guan Yu.

The main reason was that Guan Yu had been in charge of the overall situation in Guandong for many years and had never been to Sichuan, so he had no idea about the abilities of the generals under Liu Qi.

"How could Huang Zhong and Huo Jun be such talented generals? Why were they unknown when they were under the command of Liu Biao and Liu Qi? Yes, it must be because my elder brother knew how to appoint the right people, and Ziyu had great foresight, that they were able to turn decay into something extraordinary, and turn a stubborn stone into a jade..."

After a quick thought, Guan Yu attributed the credit to his elder brother's use of people and Ziyu's planning. He believed that Huang Zhong and Huo Jun must have executed the strategy well, which gave them the opportunity to make great contributions.

Guan Yu was a man of high arrogance and low emotional intelligence. He would not hide his prejudices against others.

So he thought so in his heart, and while drinking with Gu Yong, he casually expressed his views.

Gu Yong could not refute and could only say solemnly that he knew nothing about military affairs and would wait for General Guan to meet the lord in person and ask for advice in person, and then everything would become clear.

However, Gu Yong's statement was interpreted by Guan Yu and the generals he brought with him as "Gu Yong has moral integrity and is unwilling to talk about others behind their backs."

This is also normal. After all, in history, Gu Yong was a man of few words but always made sense.

Gao Shun, Guan Ping, and Tian Yu, who came with Guan Yu, all thought to themselves: Huang Zhong and Huo Jun really got a great advantage. If the lord really had no one to use at the time, why would he let them carry out Situ's brilliant plan?

It must be because Situ's brilliant plan was so ingenious that anyone could win as long as they strictly followed Situ's orders and deployments.

That's for sure!

Unconsciously, the trust of Guan Yu's soldiers in Zhuge Jin's wisdom and strategy generally rose to a higher level.

The subsequent decisive battle has not yet begun, but the morale of the support troops has been boosted several times.

If it could be digitized like playing games, the morale that was originally in the 90s would probably be around 110 now.

……

Guan Yu and his 50,000 troops rested in Wuchang for two or three days, and soon turned from the Yangtze River to the Han River and continued their march north.

The two days of staying in Wuchang were not only for rest, but also for changing ships - when Guan Yu came, he brought several old-fashioned large-scale tower ships, but it was not very appropriate to send large-scale tower ships to fight in the Han River.

The Han River is not as wide and deep as the Yangtze River, but its current speed is faster. Large tower ships are not flexible enough, so the soldiers on these ships have to change ships in Wuchang to facilitate subsequent naval battles.

After five days of sailing, Guan Yu's vanguard finally arrived in Yicheng.

Because the fleet spread out over a long distance, the rear army might have to sail for another two or three days before arriving one after another.

Guan Yu was already feeling nervous when they were still dozens of miles away from Yicheng. He even woke up early in the morning. Unable to sleep, he wandered around the deck alone.

As soon as the sky was getting light, he began to practice sword skills to vent his emotions, and he danced the Qinglong sword with a whirring wind.

Guan Yu is now 47 years old. Strictly speaking, during the three or four years since Liu Bei entered Sichuan and Guan Yu was in charge of the defense of Guandong, he had already passed the peak of his personal martial arts.

After the age of 45, even if one's battlefield experience continues to grow, and the muscle memory of martial arts becomes more and more sophisticated, and eventually reaches perfection, the decline of physical fitness is inevitable after all, and this is the law of nature.

Of course, before the age of fifty, this decline in physical fitness is mainly reflected in the endurance level, and has little effect on explosive power. After the age of fifty, even the explosive power will gradually weaken, especially for people like Guan Yu who have a red face and high blood pressure. Once they explode too violently, they are likely to suffer sequelae.

In history, when he was over 60, he fought with Pang De and failed to kill Pang De on the battlefield. Many viewers thought Pang De's martial arts skills were excellent. But in fact, there was also the factor that Pang De was taking advantage of the elderly Guan Yu. People with high blood pressure are more likely to have fluctuations in their condition when they get older.

"Alas, I haven't personally taken up arms and led the troops for four years. Yide and Xingba have made great achievements in Shu, but I have wasted my time. I wonder how many opportunities my elder brother can arrange for me to fight this time..."

Guan Yu leaned on his sword, stroked his beard in the wind, and could not help but talk aloud to himself about what he was thinking.

Guan Yu was deep in thought when a young voice in his twenties behind him sincerely comforted him, "Father, why worry so much? Uncle's trust in you is unparalleled in ancient and modern times. Now that you are here, uncle will definitely save the greatest credit for you and wait for you to make achievements."

Guan Yu didn't need to look back to know that it was Guan Ping who was speaking words of comfort, and he couldn't help but smile and said:

"What do you know, kid? Your uncle is now the Grand Commandant, and has annexed all the clans and prefects, leading the righteous men of the world to fight against the rebellion. He also has to give opportunities to the newly surrendered and the young generation. Your father's martial arts are not as good as they were four years ago.

But you, since the battle of the East China Sea, you followed me to fight Xiahou Yuan, and you have not made any merit since then. At least our army killed Zang Ba and Sun Guan, but it was not you who killed them. You must seize the opportunity this time and perform well. "Guan Ping quickly expressed his determination: "My son will work hard for the country and make achievements. But father, don't worry too much - uncle can even entrust Huang Zhong with important tasks, and finally annihilate tens of thousands of enemies and defeat Yu Jin, so why should father say that he is old?"

The last sentence touched Guan Yu's heart. He couldn't help but smile proudly: "Of course, when I say I'm not as good as I was four years ago, that's only when I compare myself to others in the world. If I compare myself to others in the world...ha."

The father and son comforted each other, and the fleet headed north.

Soon, looking upstream along the Han River, a small dock town appeared on the skyline. As the fleet got closer, they could gradually see the magnificent military presence and flags flying at the dock. It was obvious that Liu Bei had come to the dock in person to greet them.

Guan Yu was quite excited, but also somewhat inexplicably uneasy. He stood at the bow of the boat for a while, not knowing what to say.

Of course he knew that his elder brother had shown the greatest respect allowed by etiquette and law by coming to the dock to greet him.

After all, this was not Wuchang. In Wuchang, Gu Yong sailed dozens of miles to meet him, which was reasonable because Gu Yong's official position was lower than Guan Yu's. And Liu Bei already controlled half of the world.

However, from a personal perspective, Guan Yu also subconsciously sensed that his elder brother did not seem to be very eager to see him. Otherwise, everything would not be done according to the rules of respect and inferiority.

They had not seen each other for three or four years since the eldest brother had been concentrating on entering Sichuan and the battle of Hanzhong with Cao Cao. The eldest brother was relieved and let Ziyu and I, one military and one civil, discuss and handle all matters in Guandong.

Guan Yu himself couldn't figure out whether this was pure trust or mixed with a little bit of alienation.

Fortunately, Liu Bei did not give him time to think more, and the boat soon docked.

Guan Yu was tall and mighty, and his center of gravity was not very stable in the water. He could only get off the boat after others had stabilized the gangplank.

Liu Bei also came forward to the plank, lent a hand and supported Guan Yu's arm.

"Brother... I haven't seen you for three or four years." Guan Yu originally wanted to say something else, but when the time came, his instinctive reaction overwhelmed the words he had prepared in his brain.

Liu Bei patted his arm with his other hand and said, "Second brother, how are you? I have been in Sichuan for more than three years. Thanks to the support of my second brother and Ziyu, all the states in Guandong are safe.

Although you have not made any outstanding achievements in the past three years, you have fulfilled the "Sun Tzu": "Thus, the victory of those who are good at fighting is not due to their wisdom or courage. As long as the Han Dynasty remains strong, you will always be the first to contribute."

Guan Yu had never been worried about the growing distance between him and Liu Bei, but after all, they hadn't seen each other for three or four years, so he was somewhat nervous.

Until this moment, when Liu Bei said this, Guan Yu could not help but shed tears. Fortunately, the river wind at this moment was really strong, which gave him a sufficient excuse to just say that he was blinded by the wind.

Liu Bei knew what Guan Yu was thinking, so he continued to explain in a low voice: "The reason why I didn't go out to meet you by boat today is not because of the court etiquette. You and I are brothers, what court etiquette do we still need to talk about?
But originally we had an appointment for today, and Tzuyu was also going to come from Dangyang to welcome you. I didn't expect you to arrive early, and I couldn't leave, so I had to wait for you at the pier. Come, I'll have a meal to welcome you, and we can drink while we wait."

With just a few words, Liu Bei not only resolved the problem of "not being able to greet the humble with the noble", but also expressed that "I really want to go and greet you from afar". Guan Yu was deeply impressed and no longer had any grudges against him.

It turned out that I was so proud of myself that my elder brother and Tzuyu had agreed to come and greet me before I even arrived. It was because I was too eager and drove the boat too fast that I arrived earlier than Tzuyu, so my elder brother had to wait a little longer at the dock.

Guan Yu was very proud. After being invited to the table by Liu Bei, he couldn't help but drink a few more cups. Soon his face became redder and hot steam came out of his head.

They drank for more than half an hour, recounting their daily experiences and sharing trivial matters over the past three or four years. Outside the town, the sound of horses' hooves was heard again, as if a group of cavalry had arrived.

Guan Yu drank a little too much and was unable to go out to greet him, so he just forced himself to stand up.

Liu Bei, on the other hand, drank in moderation, and he was good at supporting himself with his long arms, so he could stand up on the spot by pressing the ground. He immediately ran to the door, and saw a scholar in his early thirties with a folding fan and a gorgeous robe walking in in a dashing manner.

When Zhuge Jin saw Liu Bei from a distance, he snapped his folding fan shut, cupped his hands and said with a smile: "It is I who came late. I hope Yunchang will not blame me."

Guan Yu also followed and stood behind Liu Bei. He bowed to Zhuge Jin and said, "Zi Yu is very punctual. I came early because I missed my brother. If I had known yesterday, I should not have forced the sailors to work so hard."

Zhuge Jin smiled and nodded: "Yunchang is eager to make achievements and is eager to fight."

Guan Yu was disturbed by Zhuge Jin's words, but he did not deny it. He just smiled and glossed over it.

Everyone sat down again, and Liu Bei also gave a special order to allow other senior generals who followed Guan Yu to join the banquet. So Gao Shun, Guan Ping, Tian Yu, and Chen Dao from Liu Bei's side all sat down.

Guan Ping was of lower seniority, so he could only sit at the back. Occasionally he had to stand up and pour a few rounds of wine for Liu Bei and Guan Yu, and Guan Yu did not stop him.

Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu, one sitting at the first seat on Liu Bei's left and the other sitting at the first seat on Liu Bei's right, drank opposite each other. Chen Dao sat second to Zhuge Jin, and Tian Yu sat third again.

Guan Yu drank two cups, then asked Chen Dao, who was standing opposite him, "I heard that a few days ago, Shu Zhi defeated Zhangling and Suixian with only a few thousand soldiers. Come, drink this cup to the full."

Chen Dao hurriedly declined, drank a cup of wine, and explained casually: "My little achievements are nothing. Zhangling is a small county with a remote area and few people. It is not a place that military strategists must fight for.

At that time, it was just to implement Situ's strategy, making Cao's army mistakenly believe that our army's main force was focused on the east line. In this way, Cao Ren and Yu Jin would let down their guard and advance rashly in the west to Bianxian and Dangyang, imitating the strategy of burning grain in Wuchao. In the end, they were ambushed by General Huang in Dangyang and defeated. "

Guan Yu was waiting for this sentence, so he pretended to be angry about Chen Dao and turned to Liu Bei to ask, "Brother, I remember that Shu Zhi has been following you for more than ten years, since we first arrived in Xuzhou, and now he has not been promoted to General Si'an.

The victory in Dangyang was also integrated with the battles of Zhangling and Suixian. It was all due to Ziyu's brilliant strategy that this great victory was achieved. It was not the human power of the generals. Why not..."

Guan Yu wanted to say, "Why not take this opportunity to promote Shu Zhi as well?", but this would make him seem like he was overstepping his authority, so he stopped in the end.

Guan Yu was just arrogant, not greedy for power. He said this just now because he drank a little too much when the brothers met again and started to defend the injustice. If he was completely sober, he would never say it.

Liu Bei could tell that his second brother was somewhat indignant about Huang Zhong and Huo Jun's sudden great achievements and rapid promotions.

Fortunately, Liu Bei had a solid foundation in employing people, and he always treated them equally. He immediately showed a look of surprise: "Yun Chang, don't you know? I have promoted Shu Zhi, but not as grandly as General Huang."

"That was my fault for not noticing it at the moment..." Guan Yu was stunned and quickly apologized.

Liu Bei immediately changed the subject: "It's okay, Yunchang's words are reasonable, I will just encourage him. Ziyu's strategy is indeed brilliant, whoever implements it will win the battle.

Before you were away, we could only rely on General Huang to do more work. Now that you are all here, everyone has a share. Whenever Ziyu has a plan, you will be asked to execute it in turn. Whoever can achieve success will depend on their ability. "

As soon as Liu Bei finished speaking, even Guan Yu stood up solemnly and left the table to express his gratitude.

Gao Shun, Chen Dao, Tian Yu, and Guan Ping were no exception. Everyone regarded the "opportunity to implement Zhuge Situ's plan" as a golden key to achieving success and gaining titles for their wives and children.

This situation made Zhuge Jin himself nervous.

He couldn't help but think to himself: "When did my plan become so popular? Alas, there is nothing I can do. Times have changed. When the lord was insignificant, he had to split his army into two halves.

Everyone has an important task, and every general must be used to the fullest to ensure victory. Now there are so many talented people. As long as the reinforcements from Yang and Yi states are gathered, anyone can potentially defeat Cao. No wonder there is such a fierce competition. "

As Zhuge Jin reflected, he could feel everyone's burning eyes on him, and he actually felt a little awkward.

After Guan Yu thanked Liu Bei, he immediately came to Zhuge Jin with a wine cup in his hand and said, "Zi Yu! Big brother said that it was because we didn't arrive before that we asked Huang Hansheng and other old generals from northern Jing to support us temporarily.

Now that we are here, why worry about not having generals and soldiers to use? Ziyu, if you have any strategy, just tell me, my people will be the first to defeat the enemy!"

Zhuge Jin was a little embarrassed: "In fact, it is not urgent now... We have already gained a great advantage by luring the enemy to burn their food supplies and ambushing them. Now Cao is afraid of fighting and will not attack again. No matter how I try to lure them, it will be ineffective.

Since we will attack and the enemy will defend in the future, and time is on our side, why should we rush? Wait for another half a month, until Yide arrives, and our army will be stronger, then it won’t be too late to launch a general attack…”

Guan Yu became anxious upon hearing this, and said under the influence of alcohol: "Why were you so anxious before I came, but not anxious now that I am here? No, our army must make some moves before Yide arrives.

If it really doesn't work, and Cao's army doesn't dare to fight, our army will just rush to attack! Anyway, Ziyu, you owe me a chance to fight. Huang Zhong can make a contribution before I arrive, and I have to make a contribution before Yide arrives, otherwise this matter will not be over!"

Guan Yu's face flushed red, he had drunk too much to reason with him. Zhuge Jin was pestered for a while, and seeing that Liu Bei was also smiling and silent, he could only casually dismiss him:
"Well, there is a plan. It is not impossible to consider it. Let's make some moves before Yi De arrives..."

Hearing that Zhuge Jin finally had a plan, Guan Yu sobered up, went back quickly to prepare his work, and sat down to listen with his hands hanging down.

Zhuge Jin was stunned: What the hell? Are you drunk? Are you trying to trick me into taking out my manuscript?
(End of this chapter)