My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 76 The tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop. If you don’t hit Zuo Rong, Zuo Rong will hit you.
In just one month, Zhuge Liang learned the experience of motivation and military management that Guan Yu took seven or eight years to figure out.

This may seem incredible and the progress is too fast, but it is actually reasonable.

Guan Yu relied entirely on his talent and practical experience to succeed, and he had no famous teacher to guide him. At most, after losing a battle, he would come back to read some military books to summarize his experience. Every bit of progress he made was hard-earned.

However, Zhuge Liang had already read many military books before he actually led troops.

In addition, the composition of the troops this time is very suitable for training to gain control of the military's morale. Under his command, there are Danyang soldiers, Jinfan soldiers, soldiers from other counties, and soldiers from local counties.

It can be said that at this moment, even if we look across the entire Han Dynasty, there is no other place with such a complex training environment.

An outstanding teacher, a student of outstanding intelligence, and a subject that is most suitable for the teaching content. Only these three factors made Zhuge Liang's rapid progress possible.

In addition to this, there is actually another hidden condition - that is, during this month, Zhuge Jin quietly helped his second brother to take care of all the internal affairs originally assigned to him.

Zhuge Jin also knew that he did not have the talent to command troops directly. Even if he studied hard, he might not be able to break into the top class of the time.

In this case, there are still many things that need to be done by him, and he cannot finish them in his lifetime, so why not specialize in a certain field?

In just one month, Zhuge Jin had sorted out the people's livelihood and financial affairs in Chaisang, Pengze and other places in an orderly manner.

Those farming matters that require some technical tricks are also arranged in an orderly manner.

The pits that had been dug were also filled one by one as planned.

Finally, he even persuaded four remote surrounding counties to surrender one after another - mainly mountainous counties in the eastern part of Yuzhang County and close to Danyang County.

Including Poyang County, Guangchang County, Le'an County, and Shangrao County.

However, these efforts to persuade the enemy to surrender did not yield much substantial results, because except for Poyang County, the other three counties were more or less occupied by Shanyue forces.

Before the Han Dynasty fell into war, it was basically impossible to collect taxes from the local area, and it was impossible to recruit any soldiers.

Since Zuo Rong occupied Yuzhang, the county towns in the mountainous areas on the Zhejiang-Jiangxi border have been nominally subject to Zuo Rong.

This time Zhuge Jin was able to persuade the above-mentioned regions to surrender, which might not be entirely a good thing.

This means that Zuo Rong's forces in several counties in the east of the county have begun to shrink and concentrate their forces. It was precisely because Zuo Rong's direct backbones withdrew that Zhuge Jin was able to persuade him to surrender successfully.

As for what Zuo Rong intended to do after withdrawing his troops, Zhuge Jin also had a vague guess.

……

Time has quietly come to the end of January. In a few days, the Dragon will raise its head, and the spring plowing of the second year of Jian'an will soon begin.

At nightfall that day, Zhuge Liang, who had turned a deaf ear to the world outside and focused on learning military tactics, dragged his exhausted body back to the government office.

As soon as I entered the main hall, I saw my eldest brother still working late into the night, handling official business.

Zhuge Liang greeted him casually, but this time Zhuge Jin did not let him go back.

"Aliang, take a look at this military intelligence and these two letters." Zhuge Jin said as he pushed the documents in front of his brother.

Zhuge Liang was slightly taken aback, but he still picked it up. Big Brother hadn't given him any tasks this month, so it looked like something big was going to happen this time.

"Zao Rong actually completely withdrew the garrison troops in Poyang County? He secretly gathered all his troops in Haihun County? Our army took this opportunity and relied on the imperial court's order to successfully persuade the Poyang County Magistrate to surrender?"

As mentioned earlier, Zhuge Jin and his uncle Zhuge Xuan quietly controlled four more counties within a month, and Poyang was the last and most important one.

Compared with the other three counties that turned to the light, Poyang County has relatively fertile land. It is also the transportation hub where the Poyang River flows into the Pengli Lake, controlling the waterways in and out of the Pengli Lake for the other three counties.

Zhuge Liang was surprised that Zuo Rong even gave up such a place.

Fortunately, he was only briefly surprised before quickly reacting, "Brother, Zuo Rong knows his navy is weak, and he's afraid our navy will use it to cut off the route to Pengli Lake, divide their territory on the west bank, and defeat them piecemeal?"

"I have indeed considered this," Zhuge Jin nodded, "Think about it again, what else?"

Zhuge Liang, reminded by this, asked, "Could it be that Zuo Rong dares to act even more recklessly? Could it be that after concentrating his forces, he dares to launch a counterattack against us?"

Zhuge Jin said with a stern expression: "The naval scouts sent by Xingba have explored the southern part of Pengli Lake and found signs that enemy ships are approaching Haihun from Nanchang, but it is still impossible to confirm whether this is a false attack.

If the enemy had withdrawn only the Poyang garrison back to Haihun, it could be argued that they were afraid of being split up by the navy and attacked separately. But if the enemy troops in Nanchang also moved north, it would surely be a massing of forces for an attack.

I think that after this period of holding his troops still, Zuo Rong finally came to his senses and realized that time is on our side. If we drag it on, you and Yun Chang can gradually transform the seven or eight thousand newly surrendered soldiers into the core combat force of our army, but Zuo Rong's troops will not become stronger.

Therefore, he must have changed his mind and wanted to take the initiative to fight and fight a decisive battle, taking advantage of the fact that we have not yet completed the training and transformation, and making a desperate move. "

The enemy has realized that if they wait any longer, they will be waiting for death. As the Han army digests the fruits of victory, the chances of the Zuo family army's victory will only get lower and lower.

"Why not just sit and wait for death?" Zhuge Liang was stunned, and then he was quite surprised: "This is a good thing! Originally, we planned to spend two or three months to completely reorganize and train the surrendered troops into a disciplined army, and then go south to attack Haihun and Nanchang one by one.

Although we haven't trained yet, our army has made rapid progress in the past month. The fighting spirit and military discipline of the soldiers have greatly improved. If Zuo Rong dares to go north, it means that we will attack the city while he defends it, and he will attack the city while we defend it.

How dare he do that? Doesn't he know how much extra difficulty it brings when attacking and defending a city? Why don't we take this opportunity to annihilate him and then counterattack Haihun and Nanchang. By then, Zuo Rong's main force will have been destroyed, and maybe the counties can be conquered by sending an edict."

Zhuge Jin was speechless for a moment. He stared at his brother's eyes seriously to make sure he was not joking:

"You and Yunchang have only trained for a month. If you face a major battle right away, relying on less than 5,000 core elite veterans and more than 7,000 surrendered soldiers who have just joined for a month, can you defeat the enemy's 13,000 county soldiers, monk soldiers, and 30,000 rabble?"

Zhuge Liang was full of confidence:

"Brother, you really should listen carefully to General Guan's experience in commanding the army. Then you will understand to what extent he can improve the military discipline and compliance of the soldiers in just one month."

As he spoke, he went on and on explaining a bunch of things he had seen, heard, and experienced.

Although Zhuge Jin didn't have time to study systematically, he was still willing to chat since his brother was willing to summarize the essence in this way.

Zhuge Liang couldn't help but add at the end: "Although I am young, I have studied hard with General Guan for a month. I think my ability to command the army has far surpassed Zhang Yide and can be on par with General Zhengnan.

General Guan occasionally mentioned Lord Xuande's ability to command the army. However, Lord Xuande was good at employing people and winning their hearts with kindness, but he was not good at rewarding and punishing, luring and motivating soldiers. It can be seen that he was good at Li Guang's method, but did not know Huo Qubing's method. "

Zhuge Jin couldn't help but smile when he heard this, "Don't underestimate the heroes of the world. I think Lord Xuande may not understand, he just doesn't want to do it. A gentleman talks about righteousness, not profit. A benevolent person will inevitably have many concerns when doing things. I have known Lord Xuande for several months, and I know that he has read a lot of books. In fact, he knows a lot."

Zhuge Liang, who had never met Liu Bei, couldn't help but wonder, "Is that really the case? Does he think he knows Duan Xing's tactics of 'burning the soldiers' treasures to make them lose all regard for their lives and fight to the death'?"

Zhuge Jin sneered and said, "How could you not know? I once talked to Lord Xuande and heard him sigh about the words in The Book of Lord Shang: 'When the people are humiliated, they are given noble titles. When they are weak, they are given high positions. When they are poor, they are given generous rewards.'

Isn't Duan Xing's method to 'make the people poor, then give them a big reward'? If you have money, who would be willing to risk their life for a little money? Lord Xuande understands the truth, he just doesn't want to learn. If we follow the principle of 'the way to strengthen a country is to weaken the people', even if it works, what is there to pursue? It's just missing the point. "

Zhuge Liang fell silent then. When he heard his elder brother casually quote that Liu Bei had read "The Book of Lord Shang", he finally believed that it was not that Liu Bei failed to learn Guan Yu's two-pronged military management method, but that he was just unwilling to use one of them.

"In this world, there are still people who are so restrained. I would like to meet them if I have the chance." Zhuge Liang sighed from the bottom of his heart, out of pure curiosity.

Zhuge Jin reached out his hand and knocked on the two letters in front of him. "It's not easy for you to see them. Take a good look. They were just delivered in the past two days. At the beginning of the month, after I handed over the training task of Yuzhang to Yunchang, Yunchang sent a letter to Guangling, saying that he might stay for a while longer and asked for the instructions of Lord Xuande.

Twenty days later, I received a reply from Lord Xuande. The messenger also brought a letter from my stepmother, saying that the Song family now also lived in Guangling.

Zhuge Liang then noticed the letters that his eldest brother had just pushed over to him, and hurriedly opened them one by one.

The first letter mentioned that Liu Bei allowed Guan Yu that "if after Yuzhang is pacified, there are indeed a large number of Zuo Rong's surrendered troops that need to be reorganized, and the Zhuge family does not have enough talent in training troops, then Yunchang can continue to stay in Yuzhang and help the Zhuge family to manage the army."

But after this condition, Liu Bei changed the subject and mentioned that "when the war is over, I hope to send a capable person to Guangling to report the results immediately."
Then he mentioned a few more things, including Chen Qun's task of flood control in Guangling during the winter. He said that the easy preparations had been completed, and there were only a few difficult details left, which needed to be consulted by Ziyu. It would be best if Ziyu could come, but if he couldn't, at least he would send someone who understood his plan to do it for him.

Zhuge Liang pondered for a moment, "Could it be that Lord Xuande wants to borrow General Guan for a few more months in exchange for my visit to Guangling? He said that if you can't go in person, at least send someone who knows about water conservancy... Who else could it be except me?"

Zhuge Jin did not answer and gestured to Zhuge Liang to look at another letter.

Zhuge Liang opened the letter again, this time it was a letter from his stepmother, Song. The letter said cryptically that she hoped that she could meet her other stepchildren again as Song's wife and learn how they were doing in the past few years.

Zhuge Liang's eyes rolled, "It seems that after the battle with Zuo Rong, I will have to take my sister and brother back to Guangling to pay my last respects to the Song family."

Zhuge Jin: "During the month you and Yun Chang were training, I made some arrangements for my civil officials to deal with some water conservancy matters related to dredging the Pengli Lake in the east of Chaisang County, and also tried out some water conservancy ideas I had in mind.

When you don't have to worry about training, spend a few days getting familiar with it. On the way back, take a good look at the "Optical Geometry Applications in Water Conservancy" I gave you, so that you can help Chen Changwen solve the problem after returning to Guangling. Mi Zizhong may also have some questions that he doesn't understand, so you should be prepared in advance.

After all, Lord Xuande is not yet the governor of Yangzhou. Our Zhuge family is still an ally of Lord Xuande, not his subordinates. So you are only a guest official this time, and you can come back after you have dealt with the matter. "

Zhuge Liang accepted the order respectfully and said that he would deal with the upcoming war with Guan Yu in the next few days. After the battle, if there was nothing else to do, he would help to go to Guangling.

　When I was preparing for my new book, I wanted to learn from the market conditions at the time and read a book called "Cao Cao Travels Through Wu Dalang".

　　My first reaction was that the writing style of this book was very similar to that of ancient people. For someone like me who likes to read classical Chinese, this book must be good.

　　Later I saw that the book actually had a set poem similar to the one in Luo Guanzhong and Shi Naian, and each chapter had "later generations have poems praising it".
　　At that time, I thought that the abridged version of "Water Margin" by Jin Shengtan that I read when I was a child had some poems omitted, and this must have been copied from Shi Nai'an.

　　Well, it's probably like when Cao Cao heard Kong Rong say "King Wu defeated King Zhou and gave Daji to Duke Zhou", if Baidu had existed at that time, Cao Cao would definitely want to search it on Baidu.

　　I searched on Baidu but couldn't find it. The only source was "Cao Cao Travels Through Time into Wu Dalang".

　　Then I was like, WTF! I was actually fooled. I thought it was copied from Shi Naian, but it turned out to be written by myself.

　　Those who like to read traditional classical Chinese can take a look.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)