My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 740: The capable show the enemy that he is incapable
It would take at least until the end of October of the 16th year of Jian'an for Zhao Yun's men to completely pacify the counties of Buyeo County.

Given the cold climate in the Northeast, it is basically impossible to do anything in the tenth month of the lunar calendar, and it is impossible to carry out any construction. Everyone should keep warm and stay in place during the winter.

Therefore, whether it is sending Xinpi immigrants to settle and reclaim land or to engage in land reclamation and construction, it is actually only in the preparation stage now. The actual action will not take place until at least the spring when the snow melts next year. There is no need to send immigrants to the northern areas to suffer the cold now.

The negotiations with the Goguryeo people and the actual occupation and control of Buyeo County were carried out in parallel. Also at the end of August, Zhao Yun received a reply from the Goguryeo people and quickly sent a fast horse messenger to Xiangyang.

Finally, in early September, it was successfully delivered to Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin in Xiangyang.

It only took about ten days to get from Liaodong to Xiangyang. This speed is not as fast as the full 600-mile express journey, but it is definitely very fast.

The reason why Zhao Yun was so anxious was because he knew that his lord's full-scale northern expedition against Cao Cao could be launched at any time. He must cooperate with his lord's overall strategy and not fall behind.

……

The sixteenth year of Jian'an, the seventh day of the ninth month.

In Xiangyang, in the former Jingzhou governor's mansion, a high-level meeting of Liu Bei's camp, which lasted for several days, was being held.

Liu Bei, Zhuge Jin and others gathered together. Zhang Fei and Huang Zhong also rushed back from Wancheng a few days ago to attend the meeting and discuss the Northern Expedition plan together.

In addition, Zhuge Liang, with generals such as Ma Chao, Zhou Tai, Zhang Ren, etc. who set out from Shu, as well as 120,000 combat troops drawn from Shu, are now sailing down the Yangtze River towards Wuchang, and then will turn north from Wuchang to the Han River, reinforce Wancheng via Xiangyang, and participate in the future frontal offensive.

Among the civil servants and counselors in Shu, Pang Tong had already left Sichuan and arrived in Xiangyang to join the expedition. When the Northern Expedition was properly arranged, Liu Bei would naturally let Pang Tong follow another army and be responsible for military planning.

After Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong leave, Fa Zheng will be given full power to take charge of Yizhou's internal affairs and be stationed in the southwest rear area.

Zhang Song was transferred from Ba County to Hanzhong, where he was responsible for the government affairs of the Hanzhong Basin and helped generals such as Wang Ping to defend the northern line.

Li Yan was in charge of the waterway of Ba County, which was the key point of the waterway in and out of Yizhou. At the same time, Li Yan also managed the areas of Zangke County and Qianzhong Road in the south of Ba County. His own residence was naturally located in Jiangzhou, which was the future Chongqing.

As for military generals, Gan Ning and Li Yan stayed in Jiangzhou together, with Gan Ning taking charge of the military defense of Yizhou, especially the further deterrence and integration of the newly occupied Nanzhong region.

As a result, Gan Ning became the only one of the Five Tiger Generals who missed this round of Northern Expedition, but this is very normal.

The real battle for world domination is not like writing novels, still less playing games. It is impossible to deploy all the best soldiers and generals to the front line and crush the enemies with overwhelming force.

In the real world, a seemingly huge and powerful regime may have problems to solve everywhere in the rear. It is absolutely impossible to be like in the game: "As long as there are no enemy cities in the rear that can directly hit me, I can garrison with almost no troops."

The more than 100,000 troops from Yizhou marched slowly, so it would take about ten days to maneuver into place.

However, Zhuge Liang himself and some individual generals and soldiers could travel by land and ride horses north to Xiangyang immediately after the fleet arrived in Yiling, which would be at least seven or eight days faster than the army traveling by water.

After all, the water route is limited by the flow of the Yangtze River, and it has to go around Baqiu in the south to the mouth of Dongting Lake, which is a very long journey.

Of course, it is impossible for Guan Yu, Taishi Ci and Zhao Yun, two of the "Five Tiger Generals", to come to Xiangyang in person, but they will all participate in the subsequent Northern Expedition.

One of them is responsible for the Huaihe River defense line, one is responsible for Qingxu, and one is responsible for Youji. They can only be notified to take action after a formal conclusion is reached here.

However, compared to Guan Yu and Taishi Ci, Zhao Yun at least sent someone to deliver a letter to report the recent situation in the northern border, and by the way asked his lord to let Liu Bei make formal arrangements for the personnel arrangements and post-war status of Buyeo County and Goguryeo County.

……

Early that morning, the meeting in Xiangyang City was just about to begin, and Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin had not yet discussed anything substantive when Zhao Yun's letter arrived.

Liu Bei followed suit and said, "Since there is a problem with Zilong, why don't we deal with Zilong first and then discuss the specific strategy for the Northern Expedition? What do you think, Ziyu?"

Zhuge Jin did not mind this, and added a few concise suggestions:

"That's right. Let's first see how Zilong's battles against the Buyeo and Goguryeo people turned out, and whether the latest progress is going smoothly enough. Maybe it will be helpful for our northern expedition against Cao Cao.

Our army has been at an armistice with Cao Cao for nearly two and a half years. Although the righteous cause of rebellion has always been there, people are inevitably lazy after a long period of rest. When we start a war again, we should find a good opportunity as the immediate cause, and we can't just start fighting.

Sun Tzu said, "If you are capable, pretend you are incapable; if you are going to use something, pretend you are not going to use it." If our army can find some opportunities, we can make Cao Cao mistakenly believe that our army is currently trapped in the quagmire of the Southwestern and Northeastern Barbarians, but there is hope that we can get out of it next year.

Then the thief Cao might seize this time difference and take the initiative to provoke and test us - according to the latest intelligence obtained by our army, Cao Cao has completely stopped fighting and allowed the people to live in peace throughout his territory since the beginning of summer this year.

Even the deployment of troops in Beidi, Hetao and Jiuyuan County has completely stopped. Xianbei barbarian kings such as Kebi Neng have completely surrendered to Cao Cao, and the Hetao Qiang people have also been conquered. As for the rest of the regions, no troops have been deployed at all since last year, so Cao's army has had more time to recuperate than ours. I think it is impossible for Cao Cao not to take advantage of this advantage. "

In just a few paragraphs, Zhuge Jin clearly outlined the contrast in timing and situation between the armies of Cao and Liu.

Zhuge Jin did not stick to the bookkeeping data such as the comparison of military strength, money, food and territory, war potential and mobilization between the two sides, but only focused on emphasizing the impact of the time difference on both sides.

Liu Bei had not paid enough attention to this observation angle before, and had not realized it. It was only when he was reminded of it that he suddenly understood.

Indeed, after two and a half years of truce, both sides cultivated their own fields and upgraded their technology to consolidate their internal strength. Compared with Cao's bandits, our camp had more results to digest and more recently pacified territories to build.

So from the perspective of absolute strength, over the past two and a half years, Liu Bei's camp has been getting stronger than Cao Cao's camp.

The book strength of the two sides has increased from 10% for Liu Bei's army at the beginning to 30% for Liu Bei's army now. If the peace continues to drag on in the future, the gap may widen further.

In this situation, according to common sense, Cao Cao was unable to defeat Liu Bei two and a half years ago, and he should be even more unable to defeat him now, so it is even more impossible for him to launch an active attack again.

However, when the macro trend is obvious and set in stone, the specific strength comparison in a small stage may show a different trend from the macro situation.

Although Liu Bei will become stronger and stronger in the long run, his military forces may be tied down by the four barbarians at the moment, so this is a relatively weak node.

After a while, the four barbarians were completely subdued and this window of opportunity was missed again.

This is like when the stock market is in a bull market, there may be a technical correction in the middle of a few days, and the daily K-line chart may temporarily break through the five-day and ten-day moving averages.

The illusion of this technical pullback can often entice those who missed out on the opportunity before to re-enter the market out of greed.

In Zhuge Jin's view, "a small technical correction in the long-term general upward trend of Liu Bei's camp" is a good opportunity to lure Cao Cao into the trap.

I know it's hard for you to start fighting now, but it's even harder to wait any longer.

It took Liu Bei a while to fully understand Zhuge Jin's insights.

Pang Tong, who was also present at the meeting, reacted even faster. He only thought about it for a moment, took Zhao Yun's letter and quickly scanned it, then helped his lord interpret Situ's meaning in detail: "Situ thinks that although the latest military report from General Zuo shows that our army has conquered Buyeo and made the Goguryeo people nominally surrender, we can take advantage of Cao Cao's ignorance of this and pretend that General Zuo's troops will be tied up for a longer time, so as to lure Cao Cao into thinking that this is a good opportunity to use troops, and then kick the iron plate?

Even in the Southwest Yi, your lord has completely pacified Nanzhong, but we can also try to deceive in the same way. Although we cannot be sure how effective the deception is, it will have some effect to some extent.

Speaking of which, our army used this tactic eleven years ago. In the fifth year of Jian'an, during the Battle of Guandu between Cao and Yuan, Cao Cao had just won the victory, and our army also eliminated Sun Ce. At that time, Si Tu advised the lord that although Sun Ce had been eliminated, we should not let Cao know that our army had eliminated Sun Ce for the time being.

He took advantage of Cao Cao's underestimation of the enemy and suddenly stabbed him in the back. While Cao Cao's main attention was focused on Yuan Shao, he got some benefits from Cao Cao.

Such a strategy is definitely beneficial and harmless, but I am afraid that Cao will suffer the same loss many times. Even if he suffers again this time, it will not be as big as it was last time. "

Pang Tong's detailed analysis gave Liu Bei a deeper understanding of this strategic design. He also fully realized that "Cao Cao might have become more immune to this kind of strategy because he had fallen into the same trap several times."

This is really a case of him developing resistance even after being beaten.

"It is indeed possible, but what Ziyu said does make sense. Even if the effect of this strategy is not very obvious, it is better to use it than not to use it. Even if Cao Cao is not seriously affected, it will still be beneficial to us."

Liu Bei finally nodded and agreed to Zhuge Jin's idea.

Then, he discussed Zhao Yun's letter briefly in public. Zhuge Jin and Pang Tong also agreed. Liu Bei asked someone to bring pen, ink and seal, and approved the reply to Zhao Yun in public.

In the reply letter, all of Zhao Yun's promises to Wei Choutai and the King of Goguryeo were ratified, and the two former local emperors were also conferred the title of county marquis.

Moreover, the number of households granted to these two county marquises was not small, both of them had 5,000 households. If you have no idea what 5,000 households meant, you can make a horizontal comparison. Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao at the most dangerous moment of the Battle of Guandu, and was actually granted a county marquisate of 2,000 households. Later, before his death, he made many meritorious services and received more households, but the number still did not reach 4,000 households.

Therefore, the title of 5,000 households given to Wei Choutai and the King of Goguryeo was definitely very high, but their 5,000 households were all divided on the lands they originally held as kings.

That is to say, a county with 5,000 households was carved out from the original land of Buyeo and Goguryeo as the fiefdom of these people. From beginning to end, not a single real benefit was gained from the areas inhabited by the Han people. It can be said that the wool comes from the sheep.

Liu Bei also formally agreed to Zhao Yun's conditions of "recognizing the family of the King of Goguryeo, and serving as the governor of Goguryeo County in the future to control the hereditary officials."

In any case, this condition would never be broken during Liu Bei's lifetime.

Liu Bei's eldest son Liu Feng is now almost ten years old. He has been influenced by his father and several uncles, and he should keep his word all his life. So the issue of hereditary officials in the vassal counties will be left to future generations to solve.

(Note: This Liu Feng was born to Mi Zhen, after the Battle of Guandu. Historically, Liu Bei had children in his early years, but they were later separated. In this life, Liu Bei did not run away again, so he kept them all. Liu Chan has also been born now, also to Gan, and is now five years old, but he is no longer the eldest son.)
After approving the conditions for appeasing the northeastern barbarians, Liu Bei quickly shifted the focus of the discussion back to the "pre-war deception" against Cao Cao.

He took the opportunity to ask Zhuge Jin and Pang Tong: "Although the general strategy of luring the enemy before the war has been decided, how to implement it in order to better deceive Cao thieves, and how to make full use of our army after deceiving them, still needs Ziyu and Shiyuan to consider carefully."

As Liu Bei asked, he subconsciously looked at Zhuge Jin first.

However, there is no ready-made answer to this question. Zhuge Jin had been thinking about the general direction of the problem and had not focused on the details, so he could not explain it clearly for the time being and needed to think about it slowly.

Quick wit was not Zhuge Jin's strong point. He spent more time thinking about upright strategies and grand tactics.

Fortunately, Pang Tong, who was standing nearby, was good at making clever plans and had quick reactions.

Seeing that Si Tu was silent, he thought for a while and then offered a suggestion: "Cao has suffered the same loss before. Imagine the same thing happened after Guandu when our army first defeated Sun Ce. It is not easy to deceive so suddenly.

However, after carefully reviewing the situation in Cao's camp, I discovered that the top brass in Cao's camp now have another disadvantage in decision-making that they did not have back then.

During the Battle of Guandu, although Cao Cao was weaker than Yuan Shao, he was united internally, and almost all of his high-level advisers were from Yingchuan. For example, Guo Jia and others were selected and recommended by Xun Yu.

Therefore, even if many counselors have different views on the war situation, they can all sit down and discuss the matter at hand, not against people, and explain the reasons behind their own reasoning.

But in the past two years, based on our military's observation of the so-called court in Luoyang, Cao Cao's distrust of Xun Yu has gradually accumulated. Cao Cao has increasingly relied on Sima Lang and Sima Yi, who rose to prominence later. Many other civil officials in the court have also secretly become disloyal.

Therefore, if our army wants to strengthen the effect of deceiving Cao, perhaps we can start from the discord among the factions of Cao's advisers. For example, when spreading rumors, we can deliberately spread a certain content to the people of Sima brothers, and then spread another content to the people of Xun Yu's faction.

At that time, the information Cao Cao received would be contradictory. In this way, no matter whether Cao Cao believed it or not, it would at least further tear apart the trust between Cao Cao and one of the factions of advisers.

Eventually, in order to divert internal disunity, Cao Cao might lose his patience again and impulsively seek a decisive battle with our army.

As long as our army is sure that Cao's army is impatient and wants to fight, we should immediately attack with troops from Nanyang and Runan, and just like two and a half years ago, we should first attack Xu County with our main force.

Of course, they could also split a part of their troops and march north from Wancheng to attack Luoyang, attacking Liangxian, Yangren and Luonan. However, the three passes of Luonan were strong, and Cao's army was strong around Luoyang, so they would not be able to attack them in a short time.

But as long as we send troops, we can attract Cao Cao's main force and greatly reduce the pressure on other battlefields.

As long as the main force of Cao's army was delayed in Yingchuan and Henan Yin, and Cao Cao was constantly reinforced with the following impression:
"Our army will need at least several months or even half a year to catch its breath in other directions to retract and mobilize troops. So our army had to attack instead of defend, and through the active offensive in Yingchuan and Luonan battlefields, stick to Cao's army to buy time for other battlefields."

In this way, even if Cao Cao knows that our army is trying to lure him here to fight a war of attrition, he will have to fight with his main force. And when Cao Cao relaxes his vigilance in other directions, it will be a good opportunity for our army to launch a multi-pronged and comprehensive attack! "

Liu Bei pondered over Pang Tong's words for a while and felt that there were still many details that could be refined in this plan, but the direction was indeed correct.

Liu Bei was in a good mood and couldn't help but smile with relief: "I thought that this matter would have to wait until Kong Ming arrived and we could discuss it together before we could reach a conclusion. Fortunately, Shi Yuan has not been idle in the past two years and has made considerable progress.

When Kong Ming arrives, we will check and fill in the gaps, and then we will execute this plan."

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Jin and Pang Tong declined the order and did not mention it again.

Liu Bei had figured it out. Pang Tong suggested that he fight the first wave with Cao Cao in the battlefields of Yuzhou and Sili, and turn these areas into the main force to attract and stick to the enemy.

If Liu Bei knew the war history of later generations, the same word that would come to his mind as Zhuge Jin's would definitely be: Verdun meat grinder.

"Verdun"-type battlefields are never places where real strategic results are achieved.

But after absorbing the enemy's main force, it is like two masters fighting each other, both of them are pulling each other and their hands are disabled.
And Liu Bei's "leg skills" are more advanced than Cao Cao's. After his four hands are controlled, Liu Bei can kick Cao Cao in the crotch from another direction and make him suffer terribly.

Now it seems that Zhao Yun's route is the easiest to show weakness and play the pig to eat the tiger. He can pretend to be held back by the Liaoxi Xianbei or some other Xianbei, as well as the Buyeo Kingdom and Goguryeo Kingdom. Anyway, Cao Cao can't verify the truth for a while.

The more a general seems to be "overwhelmed with his own affairs", the more he can free up his hands and launch an unexpected attack to maximize the damage.

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Huang Zhong all made great contributions in the Battle of Jingbei two and a half years ago. At that time, Zhao Yun was in the northern border, guarding You and Ji and had no achievements to show for himself.

This time when fighting against Cao Cao again, could it be that it is finally Zhao Yun's turn to pick the easy target first?

(End of this chapter)