My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 762: Serial Collapse, Persuading Plains to Surrender

"Zhang He and Gao Lan were defeated in Nanpi! Gao Lan was killed by Ma Chao, and Zhang He escaped with only the remaining cavalry!"

"The Cao army's infantry was almost completely wiped out! The remaining cavalry fled to Dongguang County, but have been caught up by Ma Chao and besieged! The Minister of War has sent out orders to all the troops to join forces at Xiu County upstream of Dongguang!"

Just two days after Zhang He's defeat, news of Cao's disastrous defeat and the loss of nearly 40,000 soldiers and horses was reported to Pingyuan and Zhongshan.

In other words, when even Xiahou Dun in Yecheng didn't know that Zhang He's main force was gone, Taishi Ci and Zhao Yun already knew it before him.

This is not surprising, after all, Yecheng is far away, while Taishi Ci and Zhao Yun are closer.

After Zhao Yun received the news, he was naturally extremely anxious. He immediately abandoned the counties that had not been conquered along the way and rode straight to Xiu County at full speed to meet up with his brother-in-law Situ, his brother-in-law Zhou Yu, and Ma Chao.

Taishi Ci was more anxious than him because he was closer to the Nanpi battlefield. Moreover, when the news reached Pingyuan County, Taishi Ci had already divided his troops to besiege Pingyuan County, the capital of Pingyuan County.

Since entering the country, Taishi Ci has not captured even a large city at the county level. He only conquered some small counties in the surrounding areas and bypassed the rest.

As a result, it was originally agreed that Zhang He would be destroyed by a joint attack from all four directions, but now the friendly forces only used two of the troops and exceeded the task and defeated Zhang He. Where can he put his face?
Taishi Ci thought that even if he rushed to Xiu County, there would be no tough battle right away. Zhang He had already become a coward. It would be better to clean up Pingyuan County first. That way, when he met Situ, he would at least have a contribution to show for himself.

After realizing this, Taishi Ci immediately ordered the detachment that had been sent out to surround Pingyuan County to stop besieging it and to use the existing siege weapons to directly attack the city. At the same time, he also used psychological deterrence to intimidate the Pingyuan defenders by using the news that Zhang He and Gao Lan had been destroyed.

The troops under Taishi Ci's command had already built some simple siege ladders, as well as an unlimited number of flying ladders and battering rams, but they did not have time to build siege vehicles, nor did they have guardrails or watchtowers.

But since the general wanted to race against time, they did not dare to delay and directly attacked with the existing weapons.

After one or two waves of attacks, the defenders in Pingyuan felt extremely pressured and the situation was precarious.

Taishi Ci also had people shouting continuously, saying that Zhang He was finished, which made people in the city a little panicked.

It was only because the governor of Pingyuan was Cao Cao's most trusted confidant that he used high pressure to control those who spread rumors in the city. Anyone who dared to openly believe the enemy's propaganda and help spread it would be immediately brought to justice by military law once discovered. This was only then that people's hearts were somewhat calmed down.

However, this high-pressure effect could not last for two or three days, because Taishi Ci's psychological warfare tactics were quickly upgraded.

While Taishi Ci was attacking Pingyuan County, he sent his friendly forces to ask Situ for permission to borrow Gao Lan's head.

After receiving the report, Zhuge Jin knew what Taishi Ci was going to do. In the spirit of saving money and making the best use of resources, Zhuge Jin generously lent Gao Lan's head since there would be no interest if he kept it with him.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin not only lent Taishi Ci the head directly, but also helped Taishi Ci to draw inferences from his experience, find out the omissions and make up for the shortcomings, and also gave him some instructions for a few supporting follow-up moves.

So, when Gao Lan's head was sent to Pingyuan County, several civil servants and staff from Qingzhou also arrived in front of Taishi Ci's army.

It was not until the moment when Taishi Ci went out to greet them that he realized that the people coming were Wang Xiu, the deputy governor of Qingzhou, and Cui Yan, a famous scholar. These two were the most famous former officials under Yuan Tan, and many soldiers who had served under Yuan Shao knew them. These two were sent to help persuade Pingyuan County to surrender under Yuan Tan's banner.

In fact, among the civil servants under Yuan Tan in this life, the one with the highest official position should obviously be Guo Tu. But Guo Tu was an old official of the previous generation. Although he lived to the 10th year of Jian'an and was killed when the city was broken, in theory he should have lived longer.

But now it is the end of the 16th year of Jian'an, and it will soon be the 17th year of Jian'an. Even if the old ministers of Guo Tu's generation died of natural causes, their life spans should be about the same.

Now Guo Tu is too ill to get up from his sickbed, so Wang Xiu and Cui Yan have to take the lead.

As for Yuan Tan himself, Zhuge Jin would not let him persuade the general to surrender. Otherwise, if the general of Pingyuan surrendered only after Yuan Tan's persuasion, who would get the credit? After all, Yuan Tan was a vassal. In order to protect him, he must be allowed to make fewer military achievements.

Yuan Tan knew this clearly, so when the messenger sent by Zhuge Jin came to Linzi City to urgently call for civil officials to persuade him to surrender, Yuan Tan pretended to be sick for a while. Zhuge Jin's messenger did not ask him, and both sides understood each other tacitly.

After Wang Xiu and Cui Yan arrived at Pingyuan County, Taishi Ci had Gao Lan's head displayed to let the defenders know that their reinforcements were gone. Wang Xiu and others tried to persuade them earnestly, and the scolding players raised their voices to help shout and relay the message.

There was also a group of people who were scolding the enemy, reading from a script provided by Zhuge Jin, calling on the people of Pingyuan to recall the good governance of Liu Bei when he was the prime minister of Pingyuan, and asking the people to go home and ask their elders and old people to see how popular "Lord Liu" was. Even the local assassins in Pingyuan were too embarrassed to do it after receiving money to assassinate people.

In fact, these arguments are no longer very effective, because Liu Bei's governance of Pingyuan was twenty years ago. Those who could remember Liu Bei's benevolent and righteous policies back then are now at least old.

Hebei was repeatedly fought between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and so many princes fought so many wars. The old, weak, sick and disabled population was basically wiped out, with only one in a hundred left. The vast majority of those who survived were young and strong.

Therefore, these remarks can only serve as auxiliary measures that are better than nothing, and let them ferment slowly.

Fortunately, the first two attacks on the heart were ruthless enough. Everyone thought that Young Master Yuan would fight back with the support of General Liu, and the enemy was powerful, so Zhang He and Gao Lan were annihilated again.

Under the attack of multiple factors, the mentality of Pingyuan defenders quickly collapsed, even if the prefect was Cao Cao's confidant.

Finally, when Taishi Ci organized another strong attack, the Pingyuan defenders mutinied. A group of soldiers who wanted to surrender and save their lives turned against their own side and killed the governor appointed by Cao Cao, and then opened the city gates to welcome Liu Bei's army into the city.

Taishi Ci acted decisively and led his troops straight in, completely clearing out Pingyuan City. Within a few days, he issued an edict to pacify the entire Pingyuan County.

After barely getting this credit, Taishi Ci personally hurried to Xiu County to meet Zhuge Jin and offer him this credit as a gift to show his respect.

His slight delay was also approved by Zhuge Jin, so it was not considered as disobeying orders or delaying the process, so there was no need to worry about that.

When all the armies gathered in Xiuxian and Dongguang areas, it was already the last two days of the twelfth lunar month.

Considering that the end of the year was approaching, Zhuge Jin had no plan to launch a swift attack during the New Year's Day, so he let the armies that had been advancing rapidly in the previous stage take a break.

After the New Year, they planned to capture Dongguang County and Xiu County and kill Zhang He first, then adjust their status, continue to expand the Jizhou campaign, and attack the remaining territories directly under Xiahou Dun's jurisdiction. When Zhuge Jin met Taishi Ci in person, his expression was also very relaxed, and he naturally comforted and rewarded the generals.

"Ziyi is a little late this time! Fortunately, we have conquered the entire Pingyuan County, which is considered a small achievement. However, we still have to work hard after the New Year! We must learn from Zilong and Mengqi!"

Zhuge Jin smiled and patted Taishi Ci on the shoulder.

Taishi Ci also bowed his hands, very humbly: "I will work hard in the future and will not let you down. You can leave Leling County, Qinghe County and other places to me! Our army suffered little loss in the battle of Pingyuan, and my troops can fight again immediately!"

Zhuge Jin waved his hand, indicating that there was no hurry, and then he chatted and laughed while reviewing the results of the past few days and sharing the news with everyone:
"Our army entered Jizhou and fought for only one month. We have already taken over Hejian, Pingyuan and Zhongshan counties. We have also seized half of Changshan County. With the Hutuo River as the boundary, all Changshan County to the north of the Hutuo River has been taken over by our army.

In addition, a small half of Bohai County was originally occupied by Cao's bandits. Now, except for Dongguan and Xiu County which were surrounded by our army, the rest of Bohai County has been recovered.

Finally, there is Leling County. Although our army did not attack it, it has been cut off by our army and separated from the prefectures and counties directly under the jurisdiction of Cao thieves. In the next step, our army will divide its troops to intimidate and force the local officials to surrender, hoping that they can recognize the situation.

This mission will be handed over to Shuzhi (Wang Xiu) and Jigui (Cui Yan), please take care of it. Ziyi, don't worry, just focus on advancing to Qinghe County, and there is no need to bother to mobilize troops to deal with the dead vines and dead fruits in the rear."

As soon as Zhuge Jin finished speaking, Wang Xiu and Cui Yan immediately left their seats, bowed their heads and accepted the order, saying that they would be responsible for persuading Leling County to surrender.

Taishi Ci also put away his inner resentment and adjusted his mindset slightly, saying that after he had rested, he would concentrate on dealing with Qinghe County in the west.

It turned out that Leling County was located south of Bohai County and northwest of Beihai County in Qingzhou. It was also a county on the coast of Bohai Sea, roughly equivalent to the area of Dongying in Shandong at the mouth of the Yellow River in later generations. However, there was no deep-water port there (it was all silt sandbars formed by alluvial sediments from the mouth of the Yellow River, and the water was very shallow), so the local coastline was always blocked by Liu Bei's navy.

During the years when Zhou Yu was in charge of the neighboring Bohai County, he was basically able to prevent Cao's army from leaving Leling from going to sea. Even if Cao's army occupied the county seat and the county town, they could not control the coastline, as the entire coastal area was controlled by Zhou Yu.

In the encirclement and annihilation plan arranged by Zhuge Jin before the war, there was no arrangement for how to deal with Leling County. Taishi Ci, who came from Qingzhou in the south, crossed the Yellow River directly to the north on the opposite bank of Pingyuan County and surrounded Pingyuan.

Leling County was like being cut off by a pincer attack, but no one attacked it. In this situation, once Pingyuan County was cut off, Leling was surrounded by Liu Bei's territory on three sides, with only the east side being the sea, but they had never had a seaport or seagoing ships.

The officials and soldiers under Cao Cao had no choice but to run to the beach in the dark and jump into the sea naked if they wanted to escape.

So, they had no choice but to surrender.

In addition, Leling is the county closest to Qingzhou, and Yuan Tan had governed there for several years and had a certain amount of residual prestige. Asking his men to surrender through literary means was already the best option.

After taking Leling, the next goal of Liu Bei's army was to completely swallow up the large bulge between Zhongshan County and Changshan County that had already been captured and Pingyuan County in the south that was still occupied by Cao's army.

There are three counties in this protruding part: Qinghe County, Anping County and Julu County.

If even the goal of this stage was achieved, then in the end, all Cao Cao would have in his hands was Wei County directly under Xiahou Dun's jurisdiction (Yecheng was in Wei County), as well as the area immediately surrounding Wei County, including Zhao County to the north of Wei County, Guangping County to the northeast, and Yangping County to the east.

The administrative centers of these three counties were Handan, Quliang and Guantao respectively.

Jizhou was originally the most populous province in the world, with a total of twelve counties.

Cao Cao now still had seven and a half counties, and Liu Bei's army occupied four and a half. One of them, Bohai, belonged to Liu Bei before the war, and the other three and a half were just conquered. In addition, Leling had been divided and surrounded, so it would be easy to persuade him to surrender.

In the next stage, we will capture the three protruding counties, persuade Leling to surrender, and sweep up those scattered corners of Changshan County on the south bank of the Hutuo River. By then, it will be Liu Bei's army's turn to occupy all eight counties, and Cao Cao will only have four.

The final battle of Yecheng and its surrounding areas may be a little more difficult, requiring a protracted war and a tough battle. However, the three counties in the middle of the salient will definitely be fought quickly. Cao's army currently has no mobile forces in Hebei. The day Zhang He was killed was the day when the three counties were quickly conquered.

This is also a major feature of the Hebei battlefield. It is all vast plains. As long as one side's main corps is annihilated and the enemy finds a breakthrough point to advance all the way, there is almost no defense in the plains, and it is easy to be advanced hundreds of miles in one go.

This was always the case when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were fighting, and even when Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan were fighting. After one side's main force was annihilated, they would retreat hundreds of miles.

Even without citing examples from that time, similar examples of wars in later generations were not uncommon. During the Tang and Song dynasties, whether it was An Lushan's rebels or the Liao and Jin cavalry, as long as they broke through the Youzhou border and entered the Hebei Plain, they would go straight to the bank of the Yellow River, with no defenses at all.

However, Cao Cao has now become the party with an absolute disadvantage in terms of military strength in the local war zone, and has become a victim of this geographical feature, so he has to bear this disadvantage obediently.

After Zhuge Jin roughly assigned tasks to generals such as Taishi Ci and Zhao Yun and talked about future prospects, the generals quickly accepted their tasks.

Zhao Yun said that after the New Year, he would take over the part of Changshan County south of the Hutuo River and clean up Julu County.

Ma Chao and Zhou Yu were in charge of Anping County, while Taishi Ci was in charge of Qinghe County in the southernmost part, which was intertwined with Pingyuan County.

But there is no rush now, as the New Year is just two days away. It is better to let the troops rest first, then kill Zhang He, capture Dongguan County and Xiu County, and then take over the land that has been recorded in the account book.

Anyway, Cao's army couldn't escape or defeat them, and the Henan battlefield couldn't send troops over so quickly. Even if they wanted to send troops over, Zhuge Jin had plenty of ways to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out and annihilate the enemy in mobile warfare, and wouldn't give the enemy a chance to get into the front line and defend the city.

The only place where Cao's army could possibly send reinforcements successfully was Ye City in the rear, because that place was indeed far away from the front line and Zhuge Jin had no way to intercept it.

However, the Cao army had no chance to rescue counties like Qinghe, Julu and Anping, which were close to the front line. The reinforcements would be destroyed instantly as soon as they approached.

Moreover, Zhang He had already lost 40,000 men. Cao's army had lost so many troops. Could the total size of the reinforcements be much larger than Zhang He's? If they were not, then they would just be sent again, just like the gourd baby saving his grandfather, and the strategy of adding fuel to the fire would be adopted.

(End of this chapter)