My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 720: Achievements Too Quickly, So We Had to Adjust the Plan

To be honest, Fa Zheng himself did not expect that Yuexi County could be pacified so quickly.

He imagined that Gao Ding would either temporarily give in and pretend to be nice to the court, surrendering in name only, but in fact being unwilling to hand over power readily.

Then the two sides could only pull each other for a few more times, and Fa Zheng had to use more means to gradually weaken his actual power.

Otherwise, Gao Ding would give in because he could not win, retreat step by step, and hide in the mountains to avoid the imperial army. When the army could not afford to retreat, he would come back again.

Originally in history, when Zhuge Liang was on the southern expedition, Ma Su advised Zhuge Liang to win the hearts and minds of the people, and he also had this consideration.

Given the combat effectiveness of the Han court's army at the time, it would not be difficult to suppress the barbarians in the south when your army went there. The difficulty lies in the fact that the money and food for a long-term garrison are not affordable, and after the withdrawal of the army, the local barbarians are likely to surrender and rebel again.

If Gao Ding did the same this time and hid in the mountains in the west of Yuexi County to avoid the war, Fa Zheng would be unable to do anything to him for a while.

But he chose to fight back without knowing his own limitations, while his subordinate Li Qiucheng was frightened by Fa Zheng's thunderous power and was persuaded to rebel. Seeing that the Yi general was determined to go all the way, his subordinates sold him out first.

This move was so sudden that Gao Ding originally thought, "Even if the Han army's offensive is fierce and can break through Qiongdu, I can at least withdraw with the main force" - at that time, Fa Zheng and Zhang Ren had just marched to Qiongdu and only camped hastily for one night in the north of the city. They had no ability to completely surround Qiongdu.

In this situation, Gao Ding believes that there is always time to withdraw troops, and this is not a misjudgment.

But in the end, it was not the case at all. Fa Zheng and Zhang Ren broke into the city too quickly, leaving Gao Ding no window of time to withdraw his troops. All of his tens of thousands of barbarian tribesmen were killed here, and he only escaped with a few dozen cavalrymen.

Once the vast majority of soldiers and civilians are killed, a commander left alone will not pose much of a threat.

Fa Zheng knew too well the natural law of the survival of the fittest among these barbarian kings and barbarian generals. After Gao Ding's minions were removed, others who wanted to replace him would be more active in killing him than the Han army.

Later on, he could use methods such as splitting and disintegrating the enemy, using one faction to fight against another. Fa Zheng knew very well how to use these tactics.

……

According to the idea of dividing and disintegrating by using one faction to attack another, Fa Zheng readjusted his plan to pacify Yuexi County.

After taking over Qiongdu County, they only rested for three to five days to appease the local people and incorporate the surrendered troops.

Then he selected a group of surrendered barbarians, but not many, and handed them back to Li Qiucheng, who had turned against his allies in the battle, and asked him to help maintain local order. This was also a tacit approval for this surrendered general to control the defense of Qiongdu County.

As for the corresponding civil servants of finance and taxation, Fa Zheng would definitely send people from the rear. At least the counties along the Yak Road must be directly controlled by Han officials. Other mountainous counties that are not on the main trade routes can be handed over to the Yi commander slowly.

After restoring order in Jingdu, Fa Zheng continued to lead his troops southward, and after more than half a month, he arrived at Huiwu County (now the area from Huili to Panzhihua).

There was another Yi commander ruling the area, who was also a subordinate of Gao Ding. After hearing that Gao Ding had died, he began to have some ambitions. But it didn't matter. Fa Zheng only spent a few more days to defeat the opponent by taking advantage of the victory in Jingdu.

When attacking the city, Fa Zheng did not even let the Han soldiers take the lead, but let the barbarian soldiers who had been subdued to surrender go first.

Anyway, whoever performs better will be given greater power to their tribe in the future, allowing them to slightly suppress the tribes that come later.

Moreover, for the barbarian surrendered soldiers who were willing to volunteer to fight, Fa Zheng also temporarily distributed 200 sets of cloth armor and 500 long-bladed battle axes forged with the sandwich steel method to their tribes. If the final results of the battle were indeed fruitful and helped the imperial army to break through the city, these temporary equipment could also be given to the tribe.

As a result, when the surrendered generals heard that there were advanced equipment from the court that could be replaced, they were naturally enthusiastic and quickly helped Fa Zheng to do the work.

Fa Zheng strictly controlled the supply quantity, which was enough to ensure that after this little weapon aid was given out, the vassal army would not be completely out of control and become too powerful to be eliminated.

If you think about it carefully, this style of behavior is a bit like the indirect rule of the Yin people in India in later generations, and the style of the early Americans dealing with the Indians.

The Yin people in India often instigated internal strife among the princes of the local states, and rarely did the East India Company's troops take direct action. Even when Europeans were stirring up trouble and buying people on the West African coast, they mainly instigated local tribes to fight each other.

As for the early days of the Americans dealing with the Indians, they mostly sold muskets and war horses to local Indian tribes willing to ally with the whites in order to make seals.

It can be said that both East India and West India were dealt with by the Angolans using the same method.

Although Fa Zheng had no way of knowing the history of later generations, he now had the support of Zhuge Liang's advanced weapons, and the chips in his hand made the southern barbarians salivate. With the technical and productivity conditions met, such means naturally emerged.

……

Time flies and it is already the end of May.

Twenty days had passed since Fa Zheng captured Jingdu County, and Huiwu County also fell into the hands of the Han army.

Fa Zheng's army advanced smoothly all the way to the Jinsha River, which is the ferry where Panzhihua City is located in later generations - of course, in the geographical naming framework of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Jinsha River is still called "Lushui".

The "crossing the Lu River in May" written in "The Memorial to the Emperor on Leaving the Capital" refers to this river.

In the geographical knowledge of the ancients, only the main source of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River can be called "River", and all other tributaries can only be called "Water".

Until Xu Xiake in the Ming Dynasty, ancient people thought that the Minjiang River was worthy of the word "Jiang" and believed in the "Minjiang diversion theory". The real source of the Yangtze River, the Jinsha River, can only be called Lushui.

But in fact, even the Minjiang River itself is not the main source of the Minjiang River, but can only be regarded as a "tributary of a tributary". The main source of the Minjiang River should be the Dadu River, which was called Moshui at that time. However, the ancients had a lack of geographical knowledge and knew too little about the barbarian lands in the west, so they could only find a main source within the known world.

Fa Zheng's arrival at the Jinsha River ferry in Huiwu County meant that he could start sailing across the river to Lunan in the autumn and winter seasons.

He knew that Lord Zhuge had plans to use military force against Jianning County and other places this winter, so since he was already here, he would make preparations in advance to relieve Lord Zhuge's worries.

Fa Zheng wrote two letters, one to Yaoniu County, the county seat on the Dadu River in the rear. Jiang Qin had been left there to escort the Yuexi expeditionary force.

Now that the fighting in Yuexi is gradually dying down and the logistical pressure is also reduced, it is a good opportunity to transfer Jiang Qin to Huiwu County to prepare the warships needed for the future crossing of Lu and adapt to the hydrological environment.

Jiang Qin naturally did not dare to neglect the order after receiving it. He took thousands of sailors and traveled over the valley of Daliang Mountain by land, all the way south to Huiwu.

At the same time, another letter from Fa Zheng was sent directly back to Chengdu to report the victory to Zhuge Liang.

The mountain road was long and dangerous, and Zhuge Liang did not receive Fa Zheng's reply until mid-June.

……

"Xiaozhi was able to pacify Yuexi so cleanly and efficiently, and he was so organized in his work, drawing lessons from his experience and paving the way for the subsequent pacification of Jianning in winter.

With such merit, even if the lord promotes him to be the governor of a state in the future, he will surely be able to convince the people."

On the tenth day of June, Zhuge Liang was diligently working on his official duties in the Yizhou Governor's Mansion in Chengdu early in the morning. In the morning, a messenger brought Fa Zheng's victory report and a long letter of request attached to the victory report.

Zhuge Liang attached great importance to it and took a look at it immediately. After reading it, he was very happy and could not help but praise it. He also thought to himself that Fa Zheng's performance and ability were even better than he had expected.

The enemy in Yuexi was indeed not strong. But Fa Zheng had said that it might take a month and a half to initially conquer Yuexi County, and he did not expect that he could actually do it. This speed is enough to be recorded in history.

When Zhuge Liang thought of this, he immediately ordered his staff to prepare a celebration banquet at his own expense, which was held in Chengdu city and the governor's office. He summoned all the civil and military officials in Chengdu to attend the banquet to celebrate the military achievements of Fa Zheng and Zhang Ren from afar.

He was not greedy for this little feast and enjoyment. As early as ten years ago, the Zhuge family was the richest in the world, and Zhuge Liang could not get any material enjoyment he wanted. Zhuge Liang was completely trying to boost morale and further stabilize people's hearts, so that many of Liu Zhang's old officials in Yizhou would fully realize the policy significance of the southern expedition strategy.

Let everyone see that "it doesn't cost much money or grain to deal with South China, and it can indeed ensure that war can be supported by war."

By the way, it can also help to enhance Fa Zheng's personal prestige, so that when the full-scale Northern Expedition is launched in the future, if Zhuge Liang himself wants to leave Yizhou and lead his troops out of Sichuan to take charge of the battle line.

The Fa Zheng who stayed behind could at least help temporarily control the situation in Yizhou, or at least assist in certain aspects of the affairs.

Since he had the intention of helping to build momentum and was spending his own money to host the banquet, there was no need for Zhuge Liang to hold back.

After Zhuge Liang gave the order, Huang Quan, who was reporting to him at the time, couldn't help but feel a little worried.

Huang Quan had been assigned by Zhuge Liang to help with logistics, water conservancy and shipping, which was also considered as providing assistance to Fa Zheng. In the reports sent back by Fa Zheng, some matters, once approved by Zhuge Liang, had to be handed over to Huang Quan for specific handling.

Therefore, Huang Quan was always very discerning in such occasions. When he heard that Fa Zheng had something to report to the emperor, he took the initiative to come over to do the job. However, before he received any task, he heard that the emperor wanted to hold a grand ceremony, so he could not help but give a few more words of advice.

Zhuge Liang didn't mind and explained his deeper meaning to him with a smile.

Huang Quan expressed his admiration after hearing this: "Your Excellency is indeed a far-sighted thinker. For now, we should really focus on inspiring people. Even if you have only made three-tenths of achievements, you should publicize five or six-tenths. It's me who didn't see far enough."

Zhuge Liang didn't care about these courtesies. He just glanced at Fa Zheng's report again, took out a few pages, wrote a few simple instructions, and then gave it to Huang Quan to prepare first.

"The several suggestions Xiaozhi made are all about the governance of Yuexi County after it is pacified. Some of them require coordination and changes to the garrison plan. Please cooperate with the parts that are related to you.

Xiaozhi is progressing too fast, and the previous plan should indeed be adjusted to be more efficient and to promote benefits and eliminate disadvantages."

Huang Quan hurriedly bowed, took Zhuge Liang's instructions, read them, asked for a few more instructions, and then went to do it.

……

Three days later, June 13th.

The city of Chengdu was decorated with lights and lanterns. Zhuge Liang held a grand banquet at the governor's office and asked the government to distribute some small material benefits to the people of the city.

In a short time, the whole city knew that Lord Fa had won a great victory in Yuexi County, and it was very smooth and quick, and the cost of money and food was not high, otherwise Lord Zhuge would not have celebrated like this.

Moreover, it was the season when summer grain had just been harvested and stored in warehouses. This year, due to the thorough restoration of the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, the water conservancy project was complete and the farmland was adequately irrigated, making it a rare year of bumper harvest.

People in all parts of Shu County were already quite happy, and naturally they were even more grateful for the government's kindness.

The "welfare" distributed by Zhuge Liang was actually not worth much in later generations, but in Shu during the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was considered a novelty. Many people, including wealthy families, did not recognize it at first glance.

"What exactly did your Lord ask someone to distribute? It smells like a cool and pungent odor. Could it be an ointment?" Many respectable people from powerful families in Chengdu were quietly asking about the gift after receiving it.

At this time, there will naturally be people helping to spread the truth:

"You haven't seen this before? This is a magical medicine that Situ and Lingjun invented a few years ago, specifically for dealing with mosquitoes and miasma in South China. It's a pity that I heard that it must be made with local herbs in South China, so it's hard to find.

Back then, people thought that the Han and barbarian peoples of Nanzhong were clearly divided, and that it was difficult for the Han people to migrate south. In reality, it was simply because the Han people feared malaria. If we could use ointments to drive away the poisonous insects and miasma, the Han people there wouldn't necessarily be so afraid of the southern barbarians.

When the tyrants who didn't know the truth heard this, they were immediately in awe: "So useful? It must be very valuable, right?"

"It's not bad actually. The key is to control Nanzhong and exchange what we have with each other. Some medicinal herbs are not valuable locally, but the trade routes have been cut off for a long time. These things were rare in our Shu County in previous years.

It was only after Zhuge Lingjun pacified the two counties that he was able to bring down the prices of these fine goods. After completely pacifying the four southern counties and opening up the trade route to the Kingdom of Sindhu, those Sindhu ointments for relieving summer heat and dispelling malaria will surely be introduced to the Han area.”

It turned out that what Zhuge Liang had people distribute was just a kind of medicinal oil that was similar to a mixture of cooling oil and wind oil, but it was a little more cutting-edge than the cooling oil of later generations, and the oil was not as thick - but this was not because Zhuge Liang wanted to cut corners, it was simply because some of the raw materials were simply not available.

The formula of the cooling oil was mentioned by Zhuge Jin a few years ago. The original idea was to reduce the eucalyptus oil from the cooling oil of later generations, because the eucalyptus trees were still in Australia at that time and it was absolutely impossible to get them.

As for the other medicinal materials, except for camphor oil, which has to be obtained from the southern part of Minzhong County or even Yizhou, the rest can be obtained by relying on the products of Nanzhong and Jiaozhou.

But at that time Liu Bei had not yet completely controlled Yizhou, and Shi Xie of Jiaozhou had not been completely defeated, so it was just empty talk and was not implemented.

Later, Zhuge Liang gradually took control of Shu. Although he had not yet pacified Nanzhong, the commercial trade with Zangke, Yuexi and Jianning had been restored to some extent.

There were also barbarian merchants from South China who sold medicinal herbs that the Han people wanted to purchase - but at that time, those barbarian merchants from South China did not know why the Han people wanted to buy medicinal herbs that they had never bought before, and the barbarians from South China themselves did not know how to use them.

After receiving support from some southern Chinese herbal medicines, Zhuge Liang was finally able to upgrade his insect repellent formula from a "floral water"-level leaked version to a level close to that of a formal "cooling oil".

However, the trade routes were not very smooth before, and the barbarians in the south could not organize production according to the requirements of the Han government, so Zhuge Liang could not buy many medicinal materials, and the output of these cooling oils was not very high.

This time it happened to be the height of summer, and every year there were more or less poor people in Chengdu who died of heatstroke or were infected with summer diseases from mosquitoes sucking their blood.

Zhuge Liang ordered people to distribute a circle of cooling oil in the name of "the good medicine obtained by Fa Zheng in the southern expedition" to repel insects and prevent diseases. Naturally, this would allow the people of Chengdu to more deeply feel the benefits that Pingnan could bring.

After the people tried it a little, they saw the immediate effect. After all, whether the cooling oil can repel insects can be verified immediately in the summer. As long as the mosquitoes do not bite the places where the medicine is applied, the people will immediately discover the benefits of this product.

"Such a good medicine, which can cool down, detoxify and drive away parasites, is so great that Lord Zhuge can distribute it to the people so that they can share the benefits of the goods flowing through the south. It's really..."

After this wave of publicity among the people, the powerful families in Shu County became increasingly supportive of the court's decision to pacify the south.

Zhuge Liang also used the bait of long-term trade benefits of completely opening up the Shu-Shendu Road after pacifying Nanzhong in the future, and lured the wealthy families who operated caravans in Chengdu to raise funds, thus raising more money and support for the southern expedition.

……

In this way, the propaganda work among the people is advancing silently.

At the same time, in the Yizhou governor's mansion, Zhuge Liang held a banquet to celebrate Fa Zheng's success, and more detailed and specific achievements were also displayed one by one.

There was also Huang Quan, who had just learned about it a few days ago and had done some supporting work to help out.

This made Liu Zhang's old ministers completely convinced of Fa Zheng's abilities and contributions.

Zhuge Liang announced in public at the banquet:
"Xiaozhi pacified Yuexi ahead of schedule. Although there are still many barbarian tribes in the western mountainous areas that have not yet surrendered, at least the counties along the Yak Highway have been cleared, and the time consumed was much faster than previously planned.

I originally planned that after pacifying Yuexi, if the weather was too hot and many soldiers were sick, we would temporarily retreat to Shu County to rest in summer and autumn. When winter came, we would go south to cross the Lu River and settle Jianning County.

But now that the army had arrived at the north bank of the Lu River, Xiaozhi also submitted a memorial, suggesting that ships be built and shipping be established in advance along the Lu River and in Huiwu County.

In addition, while there was still time to plant the autumn crops, a small amount of densely planted rice seedlings with soil that had been in cultivation for two months were transported from the rice fields in Nan'an, Yaniu and other places to Qiongdu and Huiwu counties to promote their planting. This would also allow the Yuexi barbarians to experience the method of planting rice in two seasons a year in advance, laying a solid foundation for full promotion next year.

At the same time, part of the 20,000 troops who pacified Yuexi can be transferred to military settlements, and part can be used to cut bamboo and build boats. They will have something to do and no longer have to go back and forth. They can go south again in half a year. Let them stay in Yuexi County for five months, and make full use of their abilities. In October, they can cross the Lu River to the south. "

(End of this chapter)