My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 741 Our new plan is to have Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Taishi Ci attack Zhang He from three sides
The top leaders of Liu Bei's camp finalized their opinions on how to deal with the original rulers of Buyeo and Goguryeo counties.

He also decided to take advantage of the situation to create the illusion that "the barbarians in the southwest and northeast are still restless and have tied up a large number of our troops" in order to mislead Cao's army and thus kick off another decisive battle between Cao and Liu.

In the following days, the group of civil officials and counselors in Liu Bei's army naturally continued to work hard to perfect the details of the strategy in accordance with this general direction. They then sent messengers when necessary and sent spies when necessary to spread rumors. Everything proceeded in an orderly manner.

Just two days after Zhuge Jin and Pang Tong made their decision, Zhuge Liang also arrived in Xiangyang, exhausted, with Zhou Tai and two thousand cavalry guards.

Of course, Liu Bei also had to present the major strategy agreed upon the day before to Zhuge Liang for discussion, and asked Zhuge Liang to check for omissions and fill in the gaps.

Zhuge Liang did not even have time to reminisce with his elder brother, so he plunged into business. He spent half a day sorting out the previous plans of his elder brother and colleagues, and then added a few points as appropriate.

For example, Pang Tong had said before that he could take advantage of the split in the Cao army's adviser group and the conflicts among interest factions to mislead Cao Cao.

Zhuge Liang also agreed with this idea, but he thought more carefully and pointed out:

According to observations during the period of peace and truce from the 14th year of Jian'an to the 16th year of Jian'an, the degree of trust that Cao Cao enjoyed in Xun Yu's group was constantly declining.

Because there are various signs that Xun Yu was opposed to Cao Cao's move of the capital from the beginning.

Moreover, he had always hoped that Cao Cao would be impartial in rewarding and punishing people, and would not promote him without merit. This also made Cao Cao unhappy - this brought up a small incident that occurred in the Luoyang court in the past two years.

That was in the autumn and winter of last year, when Kebi Neng surrendered and Hetao was completely recovered, Hua Xin and Xi Lu tentatively advised the emperor to confer the title of Duke of Wei as King of Wei for his merits in recovering Hetao and expelling Rongdi.

However, Cao Cao in this life was obviously lacking in achievements and strength, and was far from being comparable to his historical counterparts.

He only had half of the world left, and the other half had already been integrated into one powerful ruler - don't underestimate this latter point, because it also had a great impact on Cao Cao's authority.

Even if Cao Cao also only controlled half of the world, if the remaining half could be broken into several pieces, no one piece would be enough to threaten Cao Cao alone, then Cao Cao could still be arrogant.

But in this situation, Cao Cao did not have the capital to be unconditionally tyrannical. Of course, the voices in the Luoyang court opposing Cao Cao's title of King of Wei were very high, and even Xun Yu himself was the first to bear the brunt of the opposition.

Fortunately, this attempt in this life was just a minor test to test the will of the people in the Luoyang court. Cao Cao did not intend to force his way forward from the beginning.

So after encountering serious obstacles, Cao Cao just went with the flow, reprimanded and punished Hua Xin, the instigator, and completely stripped Hua Xin of his official position, thus putting an end to the farce of the discussion on enthroning the King of Wei.

On the surface, the treatment of Hua Xin was similar to that of the former prime minister Zhao Wen who was framed by Cao Cao.

Wasn't it that before Cao Cao became prime minister, Zhao Wen was hinted by Sima Yi to recommend Cao Cao's son-in-law Sun Quan as a talented person? Then Cao Cao jumped out and pretended to be selfless and noble, and rebuked Zhao Wen for trying to curry favor with him, causing Zhao Wen to lose his reputation and eventually die of anger.

On the surface, Hua Xin now simply upgraded his means of currying favor from "recommending Cao Cao's son-in-law for promotion" to "suggesting that Cao Cao himself be further conferred a title", and his fate was the same as Zhao Wen's, in which he was dismissed.

But in fact, everyone inside knew that although Hua Xin was punished, he secretly maintained his relationship with Cao Cao through the Sima brothers. Cao Cao knew that Hua Xin was his man and could be reused after the storm. As for the status in the court, what did it matter?

All in all, the experiences of minor characters like Hua Xin are not important.

What’s important is that during the entire process of trying to gain the title of King of Wei, the constraints encountered from all sides gradually deepened the conflict between Cao Cao and Xun Yu.

Now that Liu Bei's camp is planning a Northern Expedition and wants to throw some smoke bombs before the expedition, the information that is "closer to the truth" should be released specifically to Xun Yu's intelligence gathering channels.

Because Zhuge Liang concluded that when Cao Cao received both positive and negative intelligence at the same time, he would definitely prioritize and distrust the one sent by Xun Yu.

This was determined by Cao Cao's suspicious character in his later years, and also by his inner feelings, and had nothing to do with intelligence.

No matter how smart a person is, his or her inner feelings will affect his or her decision-making.

As for how to spread false information, how to control the rhythm, and how to handle the content details, Zhuge Liang also made some fine-tuning.

After doing all this, the intelligence deception part is complete.

Then comes the specific war preparations and troop deployments before the expedition.

Over the past two years, Liu Bei's camp has been constantly improving the Northern Expedition plan. Usually, after discussing and forming a plan, they would put it in a cabinet and lock it up.

This habit was also brought by Zhuge Jin, because Zhuge Jin knew some common sense about the operation of the later general staff system.

All the great civilized countries in later generations usually kept a large number of combat plans for any possible enemy locked in the filing cabinets of their general staff.

It's like the opposite of Barbarossa, which can definitely correspond to a big thunderstorm. But the big thunderstorm may not be deployed immediately, some are just locked in the filing cabinet for emergency use, and then they are released after the expiration of the years, which triggers speculation.

Liu Bei now only has Cao Cao as his biggest enemy. When he is free, he will of course polish his attack plan over and over again, try to think through all possible scenarios, and form a response plan.

So now we just need to make some fine adjustments based on the latest actual situation.

The key is to see what changes have taken place between the current situation and the war situation envisioned in the original plan, and then make targeted changes based on these changes.

After the Zhuge brothers and Pang Tong reviewed the situation, they found that there were not many changes. The main reason was that the original plan for starting the war did not consider that "our army could pretend to be pinned down by the four barbarians to make Cao Cao relax his vigilance on certain fronts."

Now, let's focus on strengthening this point and see how to make specific use of it.

With top-notch intellectuals like the Zhuge brothers participating in the discussion, the results came out quickly.

Everyone finally reached a unanimous opinion: as long as Cao Cao could be fooled this time and feel that "the north is not to be feared and Zhao Yun is being held back", then our army should take Zhao Yun's route as the core main direction of attack.

In the original plan Liu Bei made two years ago, the future Northern Expedition would focus on the states on the eastern front to a similar degree. At that time, Liu Bei's army even felt that the Huaibei Plain was a more suitable point for a quick breakthrough.

Because the entire southern part of the Huaibei Plain was occupied by Liu Bei's camp, and there was a large bulge in the north from Xuzhou to Xiaopei, if Liu Bei's army wanted to attack Huaibei and gain a foothold, they could simply attack from three directions as soon as the war started.

In terms of the logistical difficulty and depth of the attack, it is easier to attack Huaibei first than to attack Jizhou from Youzhou.

Because Youzhou is too weak and its economic foundation is too poor, the scale of the attack force it can provide is too small.

If Cao Cao deployed a large army on the Hebei Plain and expected Zhao Yun to make a breakthrough alone, it would be much more difficult than on the Huaibei battlefield.

But the situation is different now. Cao Cao might have been deceived by the strategy. Once the fighting in the south becomes fierce and falls into a meat grinder, Cao Cao might exhaust all resources and desperately mobilize troops to block the way. In this way, once Jizhou in the north is empty, it will be much easier for Zhao Yun to attack there again.

In this way, we can also imitate the strategy of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang against Xiang Yu during the Chu-Han Contention. Liu Bang used his own main force to confront Xiang Yu's main force in Xingyang, Chenggao and other places east of Luoyang, as well as at the entrance of the Yanyu Plain.

It seemed that he wanted to advance steadily at the border of Yanzhou and Henan, and occupy the core fertile plain area of Henan. But in the end, he let Han Xin lead an army alone, bypassing from the north, successively occupying the former territories of Zhao, Yan, and Qi, and finally bypassing from the north to attack Chu, and Chu was completely doomed.

In the Central Plains battlefield, stick to the enemy's main force, and after the northern front is empty, focus on expanding the results of the battle.

The center line plays the role of the anvil, and the north line plays the role of the hammer. The combination of the anvil and the hammer will naturally maximize the results of the battle.

……

After officially deciding that Zhao Yun would play the main role of "occupying land and gaining benefits" in this year's offensive, Liu Bei felt relieved. His confidence in the Northern Expedition also increased.

However, the problems that can be planned and deduced before the war are always endless, and when one is solved, new ones will arise.

Those who make more plans will win, and those who make fewer plans will not win. How to ensure that Zhao Yun's attack is more sudden and can deceive the enemy is also a very grand topic, and there are many studies to be explored.

Deception at the level of rumors is only one aspect of our efforts. There are many other directions besides intelligence work where we can also make some efforts to complement each other.

The next day after finalizing the plan, Liu Bei thought of this problem and brought it up casually, hoping that the Zhuge brothers and Pang Tong would continue to help him think about more details.

After some discussion and sorting out, the Zhuge brothers actually found an additional point that might have caused Cao Cao to become paralyzed and slack.

To be exact, this point was discovered by Zhuge Liang, but the thinking framework for discussion was provided by Zhuge Jin. It was just that Zhuge Liang's brain reacted faster, and he carefully checked within the direction preset by his elder brother and found the harvest first.

Zhuge Liang certainly would not keep anything to himself, and he directly revealed his thoughts to his lord and elder brother:
"Our army wants to make Zilong's future surprise attacks more sudden and achieve results more quickly. In addition to spreading rumors and deceiving, we can also work from another angle, which is to delay the time when Zilong launches his attack and find a time when the enemy is most relaxed to start the attack.

According to common sense, the time when Cao Cao was most vigilant should be the autumn harvest. Although September in the north was not the time to harvest wheat, it was the time to harvest corn.

The area of corn cultivation in the north is not small, so Cao Cao will naturally be wary of our army taking advantage of the fact that the autumn grain has not yet been stored in the warehouse and directly entering the country to attack and take advantage of the enemy for grain. Therefore, he absolutely dared not expose the flaws of empty defense this month, and he must do his best to heavily guard everywhere and protect the fruits of the autumn harvest.

However, if our army only advances on the southern front during the autumn harvest, while there is no movement on the northern front, and we wait until winter before suddenly taking action, Cao Cao will certainly be unprepared.

After all, it is a taboo to deploy troops in the cold winter in the north. There is no wild grass for horses, and it is difficult for soldiers to collect food locally. These are all very serious difficulties. If Cao Cao fights us in the south, from late autumn to midwinter, he will be stretched thin and unable to continue his fighting.

Then, after winter comes, looking at the idle troops on the Hebei Plain and the precarious state of the Huaibei defense line, he will definitely not be able to help but move part of Hebei's troops to the south. That will be the good opportunity for Zilong to show his prowess.

What our army needs to do is to make Zilong pretend to be busy until winter comes. Before winter comes, he must not show any threat to Zhang He in Hejian, so as to strengthen Cao Cao's judgment. "

Zhuge Liang completed the plan in one go and sorted out the details of his plan very clearly so that his lord could understand it at once.

The key to this plan is not only to spread the word that Zhao Yun is very busy, but also to let Zhao Yun actually act well and ensure that he does not move at all in the early stage.

We would rather give up some opportunities to fight and the advantage of food over the enemy, and would rather deliberately "miss the opportunity to fight" in exchange for the enemy being fully paralyzed and careless.

Liu Bei and other senior civil servants thought about it and found that it was indeed the case, so they asked if there were any specific operations to be carried out.

Zhuge Liang then added a few points, which were not complicated in fact, just to let Zhao Yun occasionally show some of his achievements and pioneering deeds in the tug-of-war and guerrilla warfare with the Fuyu people and the remnants of the Goguryeo people in the northeast. Bring out real and practical stuff to make Cao thieves believe that Zhao Yun was really busy with those things and couldn't extricate himself.

After all, who would lie about real things?

As for what these real things and real goods are specifically, there is no need to elaborate on them for the time being. Anyway, Liu Bei has never seen the real things, has never been to the Northeast, and it is difficult for him to imagine the application scenarios of those things.

He firmly believed that the Zhuge brothers' deception strategy would definitely work, and that was all he needed to do.

……

In the following half month, Liu Bei's army began to implement strategic deception on Cao Cao, and at the same time, they formally issued the adjusted action plan to generals in various places and agreed on a preliminary date for the Northern Expedition.

Nanyang County is expected to start in late September. Runan County will start three days later. Shouchun and Hefei will start about three days later, at the end of September. Then Xiaopei and Pengcheng will start in early October.

As for Zhao Yun's Youzhou Army in the far north, as well as Zhou Yu and Taishi Ci's troops, they were ordered to delay their advance by at least two months compared to the southern front, and preferably launch their attacks in stages in early December. This would allow the northern front to be sufficiently empty.
Of course, all these time points will be adjusted temporarily in the end, and all parties will communicate with each other by express horses at a speed of 600 miles to maintain the rhythm.

The civil and military leaders of Liu Bei's army also redistributed their personnel. During the pre-war military meeting, the Zhuge brothers and Pang Tong gathered together to discuss the matter.

When the battle is about to start, of course we can no longer waste talents like this, they must be assigned.

Zhuge Liang stayed in Nanyang with Liu Bei, and was under the command of generals such as Huang Zhong, Zhang Ren, and Zhou Tai.

Pang Tong was sent to Hefei and Shouchun to help Guan Yu find out the gaps and fill them up.

Xu Shu went to Runan and followed Zhang Fei and Wei Yan to attack Xu County in Yingchuan from Xiacai.

As for Xuzhou, it already had Zhang Liao and Gao Shun in military affairs, and Lu Su, Chen Deng and Chen Gong in civil affairs, so it was already strong enough and did not need any additional counselors.

Zhuge Jin, the most powerful person, had to make a big detour and head north to Youzhou after the meeting. In the future, he would lead Zhao Yun, Zhou Yu and Taishi Ci and the troops of You, Ji and Qing states to seize Hebei.

Fortunately, the attack on Hebei would have to be delayed for two months, so Zhuge Jin had plenty of time to travel.

However, the war was imminent, and he wanted to save as much time as possible. Therefore, Zhuge Jin would not take a ship to the north by water. He decided to ride north along his own coastal territory, and bring more cavalry guards with him.

Zhuge Jin brought Ma Chao who was brought from Yizhou, as well as Ma Chao's 8,000 Xiliang cavalrymen, and 2,000 Yizhou cavalrymen who were later added to him, a total of 10,000 people, to Bohai County to support Zhou Yu.

Because Zhou Yu's previous fighting power was too weak, he nominally controlled the part of Jizhou under the rule of Liu Bei's camp, but in reality his territory was only half of Bohai County.

Zhou Yu's original troops were mainly naval forces, especially sea-going naval forces. They were good at coastal defense battles, but if they wanted to advance from the coast to the inland hinterland of the Hebei Plain, Zhou Yu's combat power was not enough, and it was difficult for him to provide effective support to Zhao Yun.

After all, the heart of the Hebei Plain is a battlefield suitable for cavalry to perform.

Therefore, it can be said that Ma Chao, who had been recuperating and training troops in the Dazhong Basin for the past two years, was also brought to Jizhou to cooperate with Zhao Yun in Youzhou.

As mentioned above, the cost of crossing the Qinling Mountains to attack Guanzhong under Cao Cao's control on the western front was too high and uneconomical. Since there was a more convenient way to go, why not pick the weaker persimmon?

Send Ma Chao in a big circle to Jizhou to compensate. Then Zhao Yun will attack from the north bank of Yishui River, and Ma Chao will be on the south bank, and they will attack Zhang He from both sides of Yishui River. Are you still afraid that you won't be able to defeat Zhang He as soon as possible?

Good steel should be used on the blade, and elite troops should be used on the battlefield where the results of the battle need to be expanded most urgently.

Moreover, secretly deploying Ma Chao to reinforce the northeastern front at this time has several additional benefits.

Firstly, Ma Chao did not stay in Youzhou for a long time before the war, so he would not consume too much of Youzhou's materials and military supplies on a daily basis. This would ensure that more troops could be maintained and fed in Youzhou during the war.

The less you eat in normal times, the more you save, and the greater your explosive power will be during war.

Secondly, Ma Chao's banner had been in Da Zhong, Longnan, and the Cao army's garrison commander in Guanzhong had always known this information.

He was secretly transferred only three months before the battle, and even after he was transferred, Dazhong continued to use Ma Chao's name to paralyze the enemy. In this way, Cao's generals in other battle zones would not be on guard against "Ma Chao actually appeared in my defense zone", and the suddenness of the surprise attack would be even greater.

When Liu Bei's army attacked the Jidong salient controlled by Cao Cao, Zhao Yun attacked from north to south, Zhou Yu and Ma Chao attacked from east to west, and Taishi Ci led his men across the Yellow River to attack towards the northwest.

Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Taishi Ci worked together to serve Zhang He, while Zhuge Jin and Zhou Yu were responsible for giving advice. If Zhang He didn't die, he would be seriously disabled.

(End of this chapter)