My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 724: Two expeditions to the south, crossing the Lu River in October

I witnessed with my own eyes how Fa Zheng had transformed Yuexi County into a new place in just half a year, and I also tasted the newly discovered local specialties with my own mouth.

Zhuge Liang no longer had any doubts about whether the Yuexi tribes could maintain long-term stability and truly assimilate.

With such abundant natural resources and new technologies to develop these resources, when the two are combined, there is no need to worry about big things happening.

After finishing his work, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but feel happy. He drank a few more glasses of wine and felt a little tipsy.

Then he changed the topic and talked about military affairs instead of government affairs.

Zhuge Liang first briefly asked about Fa Zheng's preparations for war, how the army's continuous training had been going in the past six months, and how military discipline had been maintained.

Fa Zheng also answered very detailed questions, saying that since the end of the war in late May until now in late October, the troops have maintained training every month, at least five days of training, and in some months when there is relatively little farming, they train for ten days.

However, most of the soldiers' labor time was spent on agricultural production, or on building water conservancy projects, regulating shipping, cutting down bamboo and wood, and building docks and shipyards.

There was no other way. The local Han population in Yuexi County was not large. There were many newly surrendered barbarians, but they could not become skilled workers for a while, and they were not used to the Han people's way of working. Even if they paid to hire people, they would need time to adjust and train, and they could only do pure manual labor at the beginning.

For jobs that require the slightest bit of technical skills, they still have to rely on Han soldiers to demonstrate first, and then slowly teach the locals how to do it among the mixed Han and barbarian people.

Therefore, the scale of military training will certainly decrease, but Fa Zheng guaranteed that military discipline will never be slackened in the past six months.

Anyway, whether it was military settlement or corvée, they could all be managed in a militarized manner, and Fa Zheng did exactly that. Soldiers who settled in the fields and cut wood and repaired the river had to report for duty every day, go to work on time, and their work discipline was also very strict, which was enough to further strengthen the soldiers' obedience to orders.

The troops that Zhuge Liang sent to him for the southern expedition were originally the old subordinates left by Liu Zhang.

The biggest problem with Liu Zhang's old subordinates was that they had poor military discipline, no fighting spirit, a sloppy style and did not know why they were fighting. There were a large number of old soldiers who would run away when faced with a tough battle.

As for personal martial arts and combat skills, the gap between them and the direct troops of Liu Bei and Cao Cao is actually not that big.

Therefore, we focus on improving discipline for a few months, and then explain to them why they are fighting, so that the soldiers can see hope and how great and meaningful the cause they are engaged in is. The effect on improving the troops will be obvious.

Zhuge Liang asked a lot of questions in detail, and Fa Zheng answered them one by one. Zhuge Liang was very satisfied with the final impression of this preparation for war.

"Xiaozhi is good at commanding troops, training soldiers, and winning people's hearts. He is truly a blessing to the lord and the Han Dynasty. In this case, I am completely relieved. Equipment, military supplies, and warships should be fully prepared. Start today and mobilize 15,000 troops and horses, ready to follow me across the Lu River to march south."

Zhuge Liang finally issued a formal dispatch order.

"I will obey your orders." Fa Zheng's expression became serious. He stood up from his seat and bowed, accepting the instructions.

Then he pretended to return the toast, approached Zhuge Liang, and whispered: "Your Excellency, you only have 15,000 people to deal with the Jianning barbarians and some of the Yongchang barbarians. Isn't it too much for you...

We can gather 20,000 soldiers in Yuexi, and your Excellency has brought several thousand guards to serve as food guards. The local barbarian leaders who have surrendered also have a lot of soldiers that can be used.

If you are worried that withdrawing too many troops may cause instability in the rear, then there is no need to worry. I dare to guarantee with my official position that Yuexi no longer needs so many soldiers to garrison and maintain order. "

Fa Zheng spoke these words so quietly that no one else could hear them. It was obvious that he did not want to question Zhuge Liang's decision in public, but only wanted to give a friendly reminder in private.

Zhuge Liang just nodded slightly, and then answered his doubts in a low voice: "Xiaozhi, don't worry about this. In the final battle of the southern expedition, there will definitely be insufficient troops.

In fact, I have already made preparations for two routes. One route is the 15,000 people you have, and the other route will be from Zangke and Zhuti County, the southernmost part of Qianwei County, which also has 15,000 people.

The two armies have a total of 30,000 troops, which is more than the 20,000 troops planned at the beginning. Your army is still led by Zhang Ren and Jiang Qin, and Xingba is still in charge of the Zangke army.

"When the summer came, Xingba lost control and got sick. Now that the weather is getting cooler, he has completely recovered and his lifestyle has become stricter. There should be no problem with him using the army in winter."

Upon hearing this, Fa Zheng immediately made a joke: "It turns out that when your Lordship was in charge of the overall situation in Chengdu, he had already made other preparations. I was worrying too much."

Fa Zheng did not ask whether 30,000 was too many. After all, he had just questioned whether 15,000 was not enough. If he questioned whether 30,000 was too many, he would be accused of nitpicking. Since Zhuge Liang had his own ideas, it must make sense for him to make the arrangements.

Zhuge Liang seemed to see the doubt in Fa Zheng's heart. Although Fa Zheng did not ask, he took the initiative to explain a few more words:
"With 30,000 men to pacify Jianning County, and with famous generals like Xingba, it is indeed a bit of an overkill to deal with a mere Yong Kai. However, my overall strategy this time has also been slightly adjusted -

When I first made the plan last year, I was thinking of conquering the four southern counties by this winter, and I didn't think of immediately destroying Shi Xie's last Jiaozhi County. I always felt that Jiaozhi was getting more and more dangerous and far away, and it would be difficult to reach it in time.

However, your speed in conquering Yuexi in early summer greatly exceeded my expectations. You were able to win the battle so quickly within a month and a half. The subsequent stages were also accelerated, so I recalculated that this winter and spring battles might be able to eradicate Shi Xie in one fell swoop!

However, when deploying troops, we must also coordinate some strategies and tactics, and it is best to attract the enemy's main force to take the initiative to fight a decisive battle with our army. If we can do this, even if we cannot destroy Shi Xie before the beginning of next spring, we can at least severely damage his confidants and lay the foundation for the subsequent elimination of the remnants. Let's take it as seeking the best and getting the middle."

The plan change mentioned by Zhuge Liang was also the one he had spent time thinking about and adjusting in recent months in Chengdu. Fa Zheng was at the Yuexi front at the time, so of course it was impossible for him to discuss it with him.

However, there was nothing wrong with Zhuge Liang making decisions on this kind of grand strategic plan without consulting anyone.

He has always been cautious and all his plans are carefully considered. He has also done intelligence reconnaissance and research analysis before, and finally makes decisions based on the situation. There is no such thing as making decisions on a whim.

Even if everyone else in the world has to worry about whether "one-man rule will lead to biased decision-making", there will be no problem for Zhuge Liang.

After listening to Zhuge Liang's ideas and arrangements, Fa Zheng quickly convinced himself and fully supported the plan.

However, he still had some questions that he hadn't figured out, mainly about the reasons for starting a war, and how to lure the enemy to ensure that they would fight back, so he also asked for advice directly and humbly:
"It would be great if we could attract Shi Xie and Yong Kai to join forces and destroy them together. But how can we get them to fight?

Shi Xie had been hiding in Jiaozhi for several years. He was forced to retreat to the depths of the Pu Shui (Red River) by Bu Zishan and Lu Boyan, and he dared not even stay on the coast of the South China Sea.

As for Yong Kai, although he had been arrogant and rude before, even more so than Zhu Bao and Gao Ding, Zhu Bao and Gao Ding are now dead, and at least half a year has passed. The barbarians in Jianning, Yongchang and other places, no matter how uninformed they are, must have known the fate of Zhu and Gao.

I am afraid that Yong Kai will not dare to openly oppose the court again. If he does not commit a new crime that is serious enough, when the army arrives, he will pretend to be submissive and delay time. If he delays for more than winter, it will be difficult to use troops again. "

As Fa Zheng asked, he carefully reviewed the excuses Zhuge Lingjun had made when he attacked Zhu Bao and Gao Ding.

Although there are many remote reasons for "rebellion and self-determination" in fighting these barbarian kings and generals, remote reasons alone are not enough to inspire morale. It will make the soldiers think that the people above are eager to make achievements and actively seek war, risking the lives of the soldiers.

Therefore, when fighting Zhu Bao, the immediate causes were fishing, Zhu Bao's interception of the government's caravan, and some other recent evil deeds, so he was dealt with.

The attack on Gao Ding took advantage of the fact that Gao Ding had occupied places such as Yaoniu County, which belonged to Shu County, several years before.

Now that these two excuses have been used, we must change our tactics to deal with Yong Kai, the barbarian king of Jianning. Otherwise, Yong Kai, who has learned his lesson, will definitely not fall into the same trap.

Fa Zheng thought quickly, but he couldn't find a reasonable answer.

Fortunately, Zhuge Liang did not intend to keep the secret, and when he saw that Fa Zheng did not understand, he directly gave the answer:
"The reason for starting a war is not a problem. First of all, after Yuexi County was pacified, most of the Shu-Shendu trade route was opened up. However, the last section was harassed by bandits in Jianning County, which prevented the southwest trade of our Han Dynasty from being completely unblocked.

Therefore, the imperial court required the local officials of Jianning and Yongchang counties to cooperate with the imperial court in stationing troops in the counties of Dong, Yunnan, and Yuyu to maintain order on the trade routes. If Yong Kai refused to submit, he could be completely defeated. Moreover, the clever thing about this requirement was that it required the cooperation of officials from both Jianning and Yongchang counties.

In Yongchang County, the officials of Yuyu County were from the imperial court. The local county magistrate was surnamed Li, a relative of Li Hui, who worked in this state. Li Hui had helped the lord negotiate with Cao Cao's general Feng Kai a few years ago, and later he was sent as an envoy to contact Wu Yi and Ma Chao. Now he is being used by me.

I have secretly arranged through Li Hui in advance to let Yuyu County and other places take the initiative to ask the court to send troops. If we want to reach Yongchang County and Yuyu County, we must pass through Yong Kai's Jianning County. If he dares to block us, he will be against the court. If he does not block us, we will gradually weaken him. "

Having said this, Zhuge Liang paused briefly to give Fa Zheng some time to ponder this most important reason.

When attacking Zangke and Yuexi counties previously, there was a disadvantage, which was that there was no way to "contact other counties farther away and actively request the imperial army to enter the country", because Yuexi and Zangke did not border Yongchang County, and there was Jianning County in between.

However, Liu Bei's camp had internal supporters in the Nanzhong region, and the biggest internal supporter was the family of Li Hui in Yongchang.

Now, the situation finally emerged that "there was only Yongkai between the imperial court and the territory of the Li Hui family." It was perfectly legitimate for the Li Hui family to invite the imperial court army to maintain order.

With Fa Zheng's intelligence, his reaction was naturally very quick. He immediately grasped the essence of it and took a deep breath.

At the same time, Fa Zheng also realized that there were some details that were wrong, so he sincerely raised them, hoping to help Zhuge Liang find out the omissions:

"If we use this tactic... we will definitely not have to worry about not having a reason to start a war, and the timing of starting a war can also be completely controlled by the court. We can gain the advantage of a surprise attack, and we can also justify it without having to bear the bad reputation of a surprise attack.

However, would this make everyone in Jianning feel insecure, thinking that "as long as any of their colleagues surrender to the court first, they will be valued by the court and be able to kill people with a borrowed knife to eliminate dissidents"?

We know that Li Hui's family are all loyal and righteous people, but from the perspective of third-party observers who do not know the truth, this matter may be an internal struggle between the Li Hui family and the Yong Kai family and other southern warlords, and then one of them surrendered to the court and used a knife to kill the other. "

If future viewers with a God's perspective were to understand Fa Zheng's thoughts, they would definitely not think in this way.

Because whether people in later generations read "Records of the Three Kingdoms" or "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", they will think that Li Hui's family are loyal and righteous people, while Yong Kai is a rebel, and Meng Huo is a barbarian king who followed the rebel Yong Kai and took advantage of the chaos to establish himself.

However, from the perspective of people at that time, it is not surprising that they had similar ideas to Fa Zheng, because they had not yet put on the loyalty and treachery filter of history.

In their view, this situation is somewhat similar to the cases of pirates in the late Ming Dynasty.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong was the first to accept Xiong Wencan's imperial edict and became Hu Jian's coastal defense guerrilla, gaining an official status. Instantly, he gained a reputation for righteousness, his strength soared, and then he "destroyed the rebellion with obedience" and destroyed Liu Xiang, who was also a pirate.

When Liu Xiang was beaten to a dead end and wanted to rebuke Zheng Zhilong for not following the code of conduct, Zheng Zhilong simply sneered: I am representing the imperial court to wipe out you, the Japanese pirates! Who told you to follow the rules of the underworld!

Before Li Hui surrendered to Liu Bei, he was also a "powerful general in Yongchang County in Nanzhong". He and the Yong Kai family were neighbors. Of course, Li Hui's family power was much smaller.

If you look at it without a filter, the original character comparison between the two sides is really similar to that between Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang.

That is why Fa Zheng was worried that if the court went with the flow this time, it might be interpreted by the local barbarian king Yi Shuai as "being deceived by Li Hui and killing someone with a borrowed knife."

However, Zhuge Liang pointed out the key point with just one sentence:
"So what if they are misunderstood? Living in a remote place, they took the initiative to approach the imperial court and led the barbarians to convert to Chinese culture. Isn't such an achievement worthy of publicity and reward? Isn't it worth the imperial court to help them kill a few enemies?"

Upon hearing this, Fa Zheng was stunned, and his previous worries instantly dissipated.

According to Lingjun's meaning, it is necessary to emphasize that "the opportunity to serve the Han Dynasty as a dog must be seized. If your enemy grabs it before you, don't blame the court for standing on your enemy's side."

When a dog is not motivated, there is something wrong with his mind.

Reality is so cruel that we need to use Yong Kai’s head to tell the southwestern barbarians this bloody truth and help them deepen their impression.

However, Zhuge Liang's planning of reasons for war and pre-war mobilization went far beyond this.

As Fa Zheng digested these remarks, Zhuge Liang added a few points to his remarks, saying:
"However, this trick is only useful at the beginning of the advance. If you want to further isolate the enemy and lure Shi Xie and Yong Kai into collusion and make them fall into a dead end, you can also use the strategy of using the enemy's territory as a pretext to attack Guo.

We can clearly tell Yong Kai that after the court stationed troops in the counties of Xidong, Yunnan, and Xiyu, the next step is to branch out from Xidong County and head south, sending another group of troops to station troops in Qinglong, Qinzang, Dianchi, Shuangbai, and go straight to Pu Shui.

Let Yong Kai and other local barbarian kings provide pack animals for the army, repair the roads, and collect bamboo rafts on the Pu River. Because the imperial army will go down along the Pu River and attack Longbian County, the capital of Jiaozhi County, to completely destroy Shi Xie!
If Yong Kai could really endure this, then all the counties in his heart would fall into my hands, and it would not be impossible for him to be a rich man. If he was worried and thought that the court wanted to use Guo as a pretext to attack Guo, he would certainly worry that he was alone and powerless and could not resist the heavenly army.

The imperial court had already made it clear that it wanted to destroy Shi Xie, so Yong Kai would certainly beg Shi Xie to join forces to resist, and let Shi Xie take the initiative to go north along the Pu River to reinforce him, so that the two sides would be stronger.

By then, my 30,000-man army will be able to annihilate the main forces of Yong Kai and Shi Xie in the area between Dianchi Lake and Pushui River, choosing a suitable place for a decisive battle. Then, we can chase Shi Xie's thief's nest, which will save a lot of energy and effort.

I let the Yuexi and Zangke armies attack in two directions, one after the other, to lure the enemy. The Yuexi and Zangke armies will not set out at the same time, and one of them will be ambushed as a backup.

If both armies go out together, Yong Kai will definitely despair, and Shi Xie will also feel that "even if he and Yong Kai work together, they can't resist", so he will shrink back and defend. But if only one group of people goes first, with only 15,000 people, Yong Kai and Shi Xie may see some hope, and then they can lure them out.

As for how to get another reinforcement to the battlefield quickly to participate in the decisive battle, I have my own clever plan. Xiaozhi, you just need to prepare enough boats and rafts for me on the Lu River. "

Zhuge Liang thoroughly communicated his main plan to Fa Zheng, and Fa Zheng suddenly realized and saw the overall situation clearly.

If this is the case, then all of Lingjun's arrangements can be said to be perfectly coordinated. Even if Yong Kai and Shi Xie were eventually killed, it would not be surprising.

"Your Excellency is truly far-sighted and has a brilliant mind!" Fa Zheng admired him sincerely and said that he still had a lot to learn from your Excellency.

Zhuge Liang was neither proud nor overly modest. He simply dropped the topic calmly and talked about some other details. The meeting ended that day.

……

A few days later, October 24th.

Zhuge Liang and his party had a good rest and recovered their condition. Fa Zheng also prepared enough boats for them to cross the river.

Zhuge Liang finally took Zhang Ren, Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, and led 15,000 troops, crossed the Lu River from Huiwu County, and went south to embark on a personal expedition to Jianning and Yongchang.

(End of this chapter)