My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 66: First Achievement of a Newcomer (First Update)

Zhuge Liang's words were very bold and had the spirit of "destroying this breakfast".

But he was actually very cautious and even a little nervous.

As someone who was well-versed in Zuo Zhuan, how could he not know the origin of the allusion "灭此朝食", which was originally a defeat.

After marching for more than half an hour, the Zhuge brothers and more than 3,000 troops of Chen Dao and Gan Ning arrived at the west of Pengze County.

The troops advanced by land and sea, and the escort cavalry patrolled and provided protection on the shore.
This was to prevent the main force on boats from being attacked by the enemy rushing out of the city when they arrived outside the west gate of Pengze and landed on the shore.

As expected, the enemies in the city did not react at all. It was unknown whether they were timid due to their small number of soldiers and generals, or they were intimidated by Chen Dao's strict guard.

In short, Zhuge's army of nearly 3,000 troops all landed safely and lined up in battle formation, leaving only a few hundred sailors to guard the ships and protect their families.

Zhuge Jin himself also stayed behind to guard the fleet.

Seeing the situation develop to this point and the enemy still hadn't made any move, Zhuge Liang, who had already landed and approached the city wall, felt more confident.

Then, according to the plan, he ordered Gan Ning to take some young warriors with bows to go into battle with him.

Chen Dao led the shieldmen in front to protect and block the arrows.

There were 300 cavalry guards on both wings, who formed a battle formation a hundred steps back to ensure they were out of the range of the powerful crossbows on the city wall.

It was not easy for cavalry to carry large shields to protect their whole bodies, and it was too dangerous to get close to the city walls. Moreover, even if people could use shields to protect themselves, horses could not be completely protected.

Even if they retreated a hundred steps more, this distance would not affect the performance of the cavalry. If someone in the city really dared to open the door and fight back, Chen Dao could also rush over to engage in battle in an instant.

Although Zhuge Jun had made plans to win over the enemy's hearts and persuade them to surrender, it was absolutely necessary to demonstrate military might, as this was the basis of winning over the enemy's hearts and minds.

If the enemy did not feel that they were doomed to fail, how could they surrender so easily?

"I should have the spirit of Duke Qing, but I should not underestimate the enemy like Duke Qing."

Zhuge Liang gave himself a final hint and walked to the front of the formation to persuade them to surrender.

He had just been called by his eldest brother to do some work and did not yet have a feather fan, so he could only pace with his hands behind his back without making any gestures.

He was wearing only a white robe made of hemp cloth, but Zhuge Jin forced him to wear a soft leather armor underneath so that it could not be seen from the outside.

Being cool is important, but safety is also important.

Anyway, it was his elder brother who was a coward and forced him to do this.

This not only does not detract from Zhuge Liang's "confidence", but also highlights his filial piety and obedience to his elder brother.

……

After walking behind the shield wall, Zhuge Liang opened his voice and urged the enemy to surrender. The people beside him also amplified his words and spread them.

"Listen up, soldiers on the city wall! The imperial court has officially appointed Zhuge Fujun as the governor of Yuzhang! Zuo Rong has also been designated as a rebel by the emperor's decree!
Such a wicked person, who deceives people with lies, is cruel to people, has no faith, and killed his master three times. I have never seen such a shameless person in the world! Even Lu Bu has only killed two of his former masters!
There must be some of you who once followed Lord Zhao of Guangling, Lord Xue of Danyang, and Lord Zhu of Yuzhang, right? You were once the imperial teachers of the Han Dynasty, eating the salary of the emperor and protecting the peace of the region. How could you have helped the rebels and brought disaster to the region?
Of course, the ice is not formed in a day. The fact that the thief was able to deceive you for two years is also due to the fact that Lord Xue and Lord Zhu did not know how to judge people. They knew that this thief was worse than pigs and dogs, but they still tried to quench their thirst for their own desires and gave him the opportunity to pretend to surrender and serve. But they eventually suffered retribution and were killed by this thief. Today, I will no longer comment on the deceased.

You were caught in a den of thieves by mistake because you didn't investigate. You may still have some loyalty in your heart, but you have no way to turn from darkness to light. But today, General Zhengnan has sent the Pinglu Captain as the vanguard, leading 8,000 elite soldiers from Danyang to take Pengze. General Zhengnan's main force of 30,000 will arrive soon!
Since ancient times, those who are the first to rise up have been rewarded, and those who are the last to surrender have been killed! If you abandon the dark and join the light now, you can still be credited as the first to rise up, and bygones will be forgiven. When the General of the Southern Expedition has conquered other places, even if you want to open the city without bloodshed, I'm afraid it won't be possible!

General Zhengnan is kind and may not blame the soldiers who were coerced, but those thieves in Zuo Rong's army who deceived and deceived the Buddha will all be punished!"

Zhuge Liang's words really made the defenders on the city wall slightly shaken, and it was obvious that they were divided.

After all, although Zuo Rong had a large number of soldiers and many followers, the sources of his soldiers were too complicated.

In recent years, Zuo Rong used the cover of "taking part of the robbed money to build pagodas, hold Buddhist affairs, and win over the poor and sick", so those fanatical believers in Buddhism were the largest source of soldiers, but their military quality was not good.

Those with the best military qualities were, instead, the former governors of Guangling, Danyang and Yuzhang whose masters he had murdered, and the former county soldiers left behind.

Many military commanders, marquises, and even ordinary soldiers in the county troops may not believe in Zuo Rong’s propaganda.

But when the war swept across the county, they had no choice but to follow suit in order to protect themselves.

Because once the believers become fanatical, you will be killed if you don't follow suit. You are either a friend or an enemy, there is no in between.

After they surrendered to Zuo Rong, Zuo Rong quickly found the next imperial governor who was willing to accept him, so his military identity was cleared again.

Even though the original county soldiers were still confused, they had missed the window of opportunity to oppose Zuo Rong, and found themselves following new court officials, so they continued to muddle along in a daze.

Before Zhuge Liang came to persuade the Han Dynasty to surrender, he had done his homework in this regard, and then focused his persuasion on those "county soldiers who had served the Han Dynasty".
This would both arouse their resonance and emphasize that Zuo Rong would never have a chance to clear his name, as he had already been designated as a rebel by the emperor's edict.

Even if it is not possible to persuade them to surrender directly, it will be possible to cause mutual suspicion and rifts between the Buddhist fanatics in the defenders and the professional county soldiers.

Zhuge Liang said little, and his words were easy to understand. He just asked the scolds to repeatedly emphasize the points and call on the defenders to open the city gates. Soon the defenders on the city walls became unstable.

However, not everyone among the defenders was willing to give up their evil ways and join the light.

After a while, a guard with a sharp voice came out from the crowd and led his personal guards to suppress the rebellion on the top of the city wall, and shouted sternly that no one was allowed to listen to the nonsense outside the city.

Zhuge Liang was far away and couldn't hear the specific content of the words of suppression at first.

But later, as more and more people on the city walls followed suit and shouted, Zhuge Liang could vaguely hear threatening words such as "Those who believe in Bodhisattva, even if they die in battle, can be reborn in paradise; those who betray Bodhisattva, even if they survive for a while, will fall into hell after death and suffer endless pain."

In addition, there are various emphasis on "the enemy is bluffing, Zhuge Xuan was not canonized without the emperor's edict, we were fighting Zhuge Xuan to a standstill last year, how could we surrender to the enemy".

Chen Dao and Gan Ning, who were protecting Zhuge Liang, also heard these words, but they had no reaction.

The teachings of Buddhism and Taoism were not widely spread in the Han Dynasty. Chen Dao had not read much and Gan Ning had little interest, so they did not know the concepts of Bodhisattva and Paradise.

In the Han Dynasty people's cognition, at most they believed that when people died they would go to the Lord of Mount Tai and return to the underground, but there was no such thing as hell.

Thanks to Zhuge Liang's extensive knowledge of various schools of thought, he had taken a rough look at all the beliefs and doctrines that could be found in the world, regardless of whether they were believed or not. This allowed him to instantly grasp the key point of the other party's suppression.

Zhuge Liang suddenly had an idea and pulled Gan Ning over to whisper, "Xingba, I see chaos on the city wall. It must be that there is a conflict between the Buddhist bandits under Zuo Rong and the old county soldiers. The county soldiers are wavering, and the Buddhist bandits want to suppress them.

If the county soldiers cannot gain the upper hand, persuading them to surrender may not be successful, and we may need to take advantage of the chaos to attack the city - are you sure you can shoot and kill the Buddhist thief who led the rebellion?"

Gan Ning took a look and said, "It's a bit difficult. The thief is running around, so it's hard to aim at him. Besides, he's blocked by the parapets. I can only shoot him 10% to 20% of the time. Unless he dares to stand still or even lean out from the parapet, I can at least shoot him 80% of the time."

Zhuge Liang nodded, and then ordered the scolds to shout out new lines. If that still didn't work, they would have to take advantage of the chaos to launch a violent attack.

This time, Zhuge Jin's army came by boat, and they also brought with them some simple siege equipment such as flying ladders and battering rams, so they could indeed launch a siege as soon as they landed.

It’s a pity that heavy siege equipment cannot be carried with you, and once you get into a difficult battle, you have to build it on the spot.

All I heard was the scolding: "Here is the emperor's edict! He has designated Zuo Rong as a traitor and will never pardon him! He has appointed Zhuge Xuan as the governor of Yuzhang! You bastard on the city wall, you deceived your subordinates and framed them for treason, you must not die well! Otherwise, do you dare to put down the hanging basket? We will send someone to put the edict in the basket and let you see it for yourselves! Then we will be able to tell the truth from the false!"

As everyone was cursing, Zhuge Liang raised one hand from behind the shield wall and held a scroll high in the air.

He did not dare to forge the imperial edict. This scroll was actually for his elder brother, and it was used to confer Zhuge Jin the title of Pinglu Xiaowei. It had nothing to do with Zuo Rong's characterization and Zhuge Xuan's appointment as a governor. Zhuge Jin's visit to Yuzhang was like moving house, so of course he had to bring the imperial edict with him. Zhuge Liang took it out and shook it in a hurry, which was not considered excessive.

Although the defenders on the city wall could not respond, after seeing the performance of Zhuge Jun and hearing the latest calls, they couldn't help but become more shaken.

The Buddhist general on the top of the city wall saw that the people on both sides were increasingly wavering, so he quickly leaned out, held the battlement with one hand, pointed his halberd at the people below the city wall with the other hand and cursed: "You unfaithful thieves! Don't even think of fooling us! This is a forged imperial edict! They are the rebels!"

"Traitor! If you are not guilty, why don't you release the hanging basket!" Zhuge Liang shouted righteously.
While the insulters were repeating the story, Gan Ning had already spotted his chance and shot an arrow with his three-stone bow. The arrow flew like a meteor across the sky in the autumn moon, drawing a graceful parabola and hitting the chest of the enemy general who was suppressing him.

Even though the guy was wearing leather armor, the iron arrow still pierced his skin and flesh and went straight to his right lung.

"What a pity! I missed the heart! He won't survive though, so why not charge! This is a rare opportunity!" Gan Ning pounded his thigh in regret, but he knew he couldn't hesitate at this moment, so he quickly asked for a fight.

Zhuge Liang quickly turned his head to look at the flying ladder prepared behind him, and nodded solemnly to Gan Ning.

Gan Ning snatched the round shield from a shield wall soldier next to him, then put his sword in his mouth, and changed his hand that was holding the sword to hold his original shield. Then he waved his hand, held the shield with both hands and rushed forward first.

Seeing that the government troops were about to launch a strong attack, and that the Buddhist bandit generals who had been suppressing them were shot dead or at least seriously injured and their lives were unknown, several former county soldiers on the city wall finally made up their minds and chose to turn against their own side in the battle.

"Open the city gates! Welcome the royal master! Kill the Buddhist thieves!"

On the top of the city wall, a general named Qu brandished a sword and led his subordinates to kill the group of monks who were trying to save their leader. In a moment, they killed all the monks who usually acted arrogantly.
Then he chopped off the head of the monk who had an arrow in his chest and was still spitting blood from his lungs with his breathing.

Several other county soldiers who decided to turn against their own side in the battle also fought hard to kill the monks guarding the city gate and opened it.

Gan Ning originally planned to climb up the ladder first, but when he rushed to the city gate, he saw that it was slightly opened.
He didn't care whether it was a trick or a powerful barrier. He simply held the shield on his head with one hand and protected the front with the other hand, and rushed through the crack in the door.

Gan Ning was followed by more than a hundred trusted comrades, all of whom were former Jinfan bandits, and they also rushed in together.

In order to go faster, the soldiers who were originally carrying the ladders simply threw them away.

Gan Ning rushed through the doorway and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that he would not be hurt by the rolling logs and rocks.
Then he saw several bandits with cut hair rushing up to him and trying to block his way. Gan Ning simply threw the round shield in his right hand and hit the leading bandit officer, causing him to have a bloody head.

Then, taking advantage of the opponent's dizziness, Gan Ning made a "pah" sound, dropped the scimitar that was originally in his mouth, and caught it with his right hand that had thrown out the shield. He grabbed the knife in the air, leaped forward, and stabbed it into the shoulder and neck to kill him.

Throwing the shield, spitting out the knife, catching the knife, and stabbing, the four actions were completed in one go. Before the opponent could recover from the dizziness, he was already dead.

Seeing Gan Ning's bravery, a few bandit soldiers with broken hair nearby were frightened and didn't know what to do. They were soon hacked to death by the brocade sail soldiers who rushed in later.

"The county soldiers have been shaken by Aliang's persuasion to surrender! We specifically target those with short hair to kill!" Gan Ning was a man of rough but meticulous mind. He shouted loudly to set the rules, and then let his troops scatter and control various places.

There were very few monks in the Han Dynasty, and they were not required to shave their heads, but a few fanatical believers would choose to cut their hair short.

Zuo Rong rose to power as a devotee of Buddhism, and most of the most fanatical bandits in his army had shaved their heads. Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang had just conveyed this situation to the generals.

In a hurry, Gan Ning couldn't tell friend from foe, so the simplest way was to look at the hair.

This is similar to the case of the Ten Eunuchs killing He Jin and Yuan Shao attacking the palace and killing the eunuchs for revenge.

The only difference is that back then Yuan Shao would kill anyone who shaved his beard, but today Gan Ning and Chen Dao would kill anyone who shaved his head.

After a short but intense fight, as the noise gradually subsided, Pengze County was finally successfully captured by Zhuge's army.

……

"Why did they start fighting again? It seems that the enemy is really hard to persuade to surrender. However, the city gates are open. I guess Aliang's persuasion worked. The credit for this battle should go to him."

Zhuge Jin, who had been commanding the navy on the boat, was quite surprised when he found that the surrender in Pengze County turned into a violent attack.

Fortunately, he was relieved to see that the situation soon became clear.

This is Aliang’s first plan since his debut, so he can’t mess it up.

"Brother! Is Aliang in danger? The enemy troops won't rush out of the city to attack us, right? Hurry up and bring the remaining soldiers ashore to rescue Aliang!"

The family members who stayed on the boat witnessed the war for the first time and were all terrified.

Zhuge Zhi and Zhuge Lan each hugged their eldest brother's arm tightly, trembling all over, and their voices were soft but sharp.

The good news that "the city gate was opened" turned into a terrifying omen that "the enemy was about to rush out of the city and counterattack" in the eyes of these women who knew nothing about military affairs.

Bu Lianshi didn't know Zhuge Liang and wouldn't worry about him, but seeing the two older sisters she had just met so worried, she had no choice but to hug Zhuge Liang's thigh and rock him gently.

"Alright, Aliang will be fine. I used Pengze County as a training ground for him. How could he not have scouted the enemy situation in advance? If they dare to come out and fight back with such a small number of people, they will be courting death."

Zhuge Jin didn't want to say this originally, but he knew that his sisters regarded him as their backbone, so he had to appear calmer than normal.

Overcorrection must be overcorrection.

Zhuge Jin watched calmly for a while, and when he saw the noise gradually subsided, he called on dozens of cavalrymen on the shore to come over for cover, and then he pulled his brother and sister-in-law ashore and prepared to ride into the city.

Although Zhuge Zhi and Zhuge Lan were women, they could ride horses. The Zhuge family was good at both civil and military affairs, and had good athletic talent. Zhuge Jun could also ride a pony and walk slowly.

Bu Lianshi had no choice but to be protected by Zhuge Jin in front and ride on the same horse.

When Zhuge Jin arrived at the city gate, everything on the city wall had already been controlled.

Zhuge Liang also sat on the upper floor, ordering the soldiers to control the key points and secretly monitor the county soldiers who had defected to the light to prevent any further accidents.

After Zhuge Jin confirmed that there was no danger, he went in and went upstairs to wish his second brother victory.

"What happened just now? We were supposed to persuade them to surrender, but why did they suddenly start fighting again? Fortunately, Xingba looked very brave and courageous - you tell me, should he be credited with the first or second merit in this battle?"

Zhuge Liang smiled calmly, "Xingba braved the arrows and stones, so he should be credited with the first achievement. My attempt to persuade him to surrender was successful from the beginning, but some monks and Buddhist bandits in the city were so fearless that they only wanted to sacrifice themselves to achieve... benevolence? Buddhism?

He even dared to use lies to deceive the people and intimidate the county soldiers to surrender. I couldn't stand it, so I pretended to show his face and answer him. Then Dang Xingba shot the villain to death with an arrow, and then the county soldiers turned against us. "

It was not until this moment that Zhuge Jin understood in detail how his second brother had won the favor of surrender.

He was dumbfounded: Where was the promised verbal battle? Why didn't they let the enemy speak, and instead used the opportunity to entice the enemy to speak and then shot him to death with an arrow?
This seems to be quite different from the script that Zhuge Jin had originally imagined: "Although I can easily beat you in a rant, I still respect your right to speak."

"Is it possible that I have raised my second brother to such an extent that his technology tree has gone astray? How come he has suddenly become so full of martial virtue?"

Zhuge Jin looked Zhuge Liang up and down with a strange look, which made the other party feel uneasy.

Zhuge Liang felt uncomfortable and had to defend himself: "Brother, what are you thinking? It's just to kill a thief. Confucius did not even give Shao Zhengmao a chance to finish his speech, let alone deal with these evil thieves who spread lies to confuse the people."

"Yeah, right, right... There's nothing wrong with that. But Liang, you're still young, you still need to develop in all aspects. You can't just use force, you can't neglect the magic and the tricks."

Zhuge Jin gave his advice with a guilty conscience, hoping that his brother would not develop path dependence and thus not be biased in his studies.

It is really not easy to train Aliang perfectly.

(End of this chapter)