My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 778: This person is the first to achieve success in Hebei

The joys and sorrows of each person are not the same.

Cao Cao retreated to Wei County in a panic and fell ill due to worry and anger.

Inside Guantao County, Zhuge Jin and the four generals from the Hebei battlefield were immersed in a joyous atmosphere of celebration.

Before this decisive battle, Guantao County was still in the hands of Cao Cao's camp, and Zhuge Jin did not order his troops to storm the city.

But after Cao Cao's entire army collapsed and was defeated yesterday, the old and weak Cao soldiers who remained in the city basically did not dare to resist. When Zhuge Jin led the generals and the army to besiege the city and shout, the county magistrate and a captain in charge of defense in the city directly opened the city and surrendered.

Are you kidding? They watched from the top of the city wall with their own eyes as Prime Minister Cao's main army was defeated at the end of the horizon. Why should they, a small fish and shrimp, still defend the city? Is it possible for Guantao County to be defended? Impossible! It's better to surrender directly to avoid killing.

So this morning, Zhuge Jin was able to wake up in the county government office in the city, meet with the generals in a refreshed state, and take stock of the battle results and evaluate the gains and losses in high spirits.

Because Zhuge Jin was the one who won and controlled the battlefield, his statistics and evaluation of the battle results were much faster and more accurate than Cao Cao's.

While Cao Cao was still trying to figure out "how many civil and military talents and soldiers had been lost under his command", Zhuge Jin had basically figured out the outcome of this battle.

Zhuge Jin already knew the number of people who had been killed, captured, or forced to surrender, which totaled 70,000 to 80,000. He also knew the number of people who had been routed and fled, which was also several tens of thousands.

The heads of Cao Hong and Xu Chu had been pickled in lime and were now in the side hall of the county government. Once Zhuge Jin had thoroughly understood the situation in Hebei and finished writing a memorial to request merit, he would send someone to deliver the heads to Xu County with the letter to Liu Bei's army, which was besieging Xu County.

Zhuge Jin also knew that Xun You had been captured in the chaos, but Xun You was already injured and unconscious when he was captured, and it was still unknown whether he could survive. When Zhuge Jin's army found Xun You, he had been trampled by a galloping horse in the chaos, breaking some bones. He fell unconscious due to the pain and was captured.

This was considered lucky, as the horse's hooves didn't trample on vital parts, only the limbs. If the horse's hooves had directly stepped on the chest, abdomen, and torso, I'm afraid even the internal organs would have been stepped out.

Cao Hong, Xu Chu, and Xun You, both civil and military, commanders, brave generals, and military advisors, the top talents in Cao Cao's camp are dying out on a large scale.

Such a result is already very impressive. After all, only about one-third of Cao's troops were directly annihilated in this battle. In order to kill these three big fish, the loss of high-end talents of Cao's army was definitely more than one-third, which is an over-fulfillment of the task.

As for the scattered enemy troops, their leaders would normally be able to escape, because the escape rate of military commanders on the battlefield is definitely higher than that of ordinary soldiers. Zhuge Jin could not expect to capture all the enemy generals, as Cao Xiu, Li Dian, and Le Jin all retreated in this way.

I believe that when Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and my second brother on the southern front see this battle report, they will also be pleased and delighted with these brilliant gains.

"Then write it like this. You all have no objection to your contributions, right? After the results of the battle are summarized, send someone to deliver them to the Xu County army by a detour. There is no need to rush. Just send them slowly at 300 miles a day."

Zhuge Jin finally evaluated the distribution of credit and asked someone to write a rough outline for the generals to look at.

Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci, Zhou Yu, Ma Chao and Zhang Liao naturally did not dare to raise any objection. Moreover, the prime minister's commendation of merit was indeed fair, and everyone was convinced.

According to Zhuge Jin's records, Taishi Ci had the credit for executing the strategy and taking the lead in breaking through Cao's defense line. Because he was the one who commanded the cattle and sheep to break through the chariot formation, Taishi Ci also had people continue to use gunpowder arrows to create chaos in the enemy army, drive the herds of animals to further disrupt the enemy formation, and destroy the chariots and chevaux de frise.

But the first person to rush into the enemy camp and fight was Zhang Liao, who cooperated with Taishi Ci. Later, the two of them also broke through Cao Hong's camp on the northern front. Although Cao Hong himself died in the chaos and it is difficult to attribute it to a certain individual, it can be regarded as a joint achievement.

Zhao Yun and Ma Chao were deployed in the second stage of backstabbing. Xu Chu's death was counted as Ma Chao's beheading, and Xun You was counted as a joint capture by the two of them, which was difficult to allocate in the chaos of the battle. Moreover, they drove Cao Cao away, accelerating the total collapse of Cao's army and the expansion of the results of the battle.

Finally, Zhou Yu's contribution in the second half of the battle was obviously smaller. He and Xu Sheng followed up only after the enemy camp was in complete chaos, and then expanded the results of the battle, outflanked the enemy, captured prisoners and destroyed the defeated soldiers.

However, Zhou Yu's performance was still very good in the first half of the battle when he was defending the camp and sticking to Cao Cao, and it can be said that they each had their own division of labor.

The main force of infantry should have played a greater role in the stalemate phase, and naturally could not match the cavalry in the final pursuit and harvest. Liu Bei must have known this and would not treat his subordinates who fought in stalemate and blocking battles unfairly.

When all the generals were convinced, Zhao Yun took the lead and said earnestly: "The credit for this battle lies primarily with the brilliant plan of the Minister of War. We are just executing the plan. The Minister of War gave the Lord a battle report, but did not mention the plan at all. He is really too modest."

Zhuge Jin couldn't help but laugh when he heard that. Does he still need to show off his achievements?

However, on such a happy day, everyone was there to show their support, so he could only say a few polite words: "What have I done? I just used a small trick. It was you who braved the arrows and stones and fought bloody battles to defeat Cao. The strategy of luring the enemy into a decisive battle was also widely agreed upon, and it was not just my work."

Zhao Yun did not think so and insisted, "Even so, the fact that we were able to break Cao's camp this time was due to the stratagem that Situ came up with on the spur of the moment to use the herd to charge into the enemy camp, which was quite a quick-witted move. Without this move, the Battle of Guantao would have been very likely to turn out like the Battle of Guandu."

Both sides will have no way to deal with the other side's camps, and whoever strikes first will bear the disadvantages of attacking the camp, and in the end they can only hold on. Although our army is elite, there are too many cavalry, and the additional disadvantages we have to bear when attacking the camp are too serious. "

Zhao Yun's words were true. To be honest, the army of Liu Bei's camp was far more elite than Cao Cao's in this battle. So even if their strength was less than half of the enemy's for the time being, if it really came to a decisive battle in the field, Liu Bei's camp would have a fair chance of winning.

But the problem is that this battle was not a complete field battle. Cao Cao had already used a strategy and deliberately led the situation so that the battle turned into him defending the camp and the enemy attacking the camp.

No matter how strong the side with more cavalry is in field combat, the additional weakening they will suffer when attacking the camp will be more obvious. Therefore, if they don't use force to attack seriously, the army of Liu Bei's camp will not be able to capture Cao's camp in this battle.

Zhuge Jin should be credited with the primary credit for being able to take it down so quickly.

Excessive modesty is hypocrisy. Since Zhao Yun had made this clear, Zhuge Jin did not hide it and spoke the truth:
"That makes sense, but, in the final analysis, Cao Cao was also hoping for the best. He knew that even if the stalemate continued, after a month, or at most two months, because he had transferred all his troops to Hebei, our army would definitely have a major breakthrough on other fronts, so he couldn't afford to waste time.

If Cao Cao had focused on besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements from the beginning, and not changed his mind from one day to the next, and let his soldiers concentrate on building antlers, chevaux de frise, digging deep trenches, and ramming earth walls, by the time Ziyi and Wenyuan arrived, would our army still be able to break his camp? Absolutely not.

Even if we gathered several times more cattle and sheep, and frightened them enough to drive them to charge and kill, we could not break through the strong camp with multiple layers of deer horns, deep trenches and high ramparts. Cao Cao had to use this flaw, using the cart sticks and a small amount of remaining deer horns to set up camp, tempting our cavalry to attack, which gave me the opportunity to use his trick to restrain him.

So in the end, it was Cao Cao himself who gave us the chance this time. He had to resort to strategy and risk, which led to this quick defeat. The credit for this decision should go to Cao Cao himself, so I won’t take credit for it.”

When Zhuge Jin said this, his tone was relaxed and he was just joking. The generals couldn't help but smile at each other, and the county government was filled with a happy atmosphere.

Of course, everyone knows that if Cao Cao does not take risks and expose flaws, he will eventually die a slow death.

He took a risk and exposed his flaw. The enemy would not be able to figure out how to exploit it, so he could turn the tables. However, he happened to meet Zhuge Jin, who was naturally countered by this flaw, so there was nothing he could do.

Sometimes, fake flaws and real flaws can be transformed into each other. It all depends on the strategies and levels of the two players.

After happily discussing the merits, Zhuge Jin followed Zhao Yun's topic and suddenly remembered something, so he couldn't help asking, "By the way, Zilong just mentioned that the victory in this battle was entirely due to our army's use of cattle and sheep to break through the enemy's outer camp. I forgot to ask yesterday, how many cattle and sheep did our army lose?"

The generals in charge of charging into the battlefield were unable to answer this question for a while. Zhou Yu, who was in charge of chasing and annihilating the remaining enemies and expanding the results of the battle, was more careful. He made a rough count while his men were cleaning up the battlefield, and now he was able to answer fluently:

"Mi Shijun collected more than 100,000 cattle and sheep in total. The total number of cattle killed, wounded, and scattered is about 10,000, and the loss of sheep exceeds 100,000. Not only did some of them die in battle and leave their bodies, but at least 30% of them fled. Our army will have to divide its troops to search the surrounding areas in the next few days, first to capture the enemy's defeated soldiers, and second to collect the cattle and sheep that escaped. I'm afraid that many of the cattle and sheep will never be found, or they will become wild, or they may be caught by the people around Guantao in the future and taken back to farm and eat meat. Situ, are you going to try to recover them?"

Zhuge Jin waved his hand and said, "The people of Hebei have suffered enough from the series of wars this year. Let's announce the situation to the surrounding counties and let the people catch the cattle and sheep in the wild if they can. They don't have to hand them in. Just think of it as the lord's benevolent policy to benefit the people.

Those who had been killed and whose bodies could be collected on the battlefield were also cooked and served to the soldiers as soon as possible. Fortunately, it was early winter in October and the weather was not hot anymore. If they were left for ten days or half a month, they might still be able to keep. However, cattle and sheep killed in battle would definitely not be bled out as thoroughly as slaughtered animals, so the bloody and sour smell of the meat would probably be stronger. "

Zhuge Jin said this casually, and the generals around him all said that Situ was too kind.

For ordinary soldiers, being able to eat meat as much as they want for ten days or half a month, eating meat for every meal without even having to pair it with rice or wheat as staple food, is already an extremely luxurious life, just like heaven.

At this time, who cares whether the blood of cattle, sheep and pigs is drained cleanly or has a fishy and sour smell?

In later generations, foreigners in meat processing plants used electric shock to kill pigs, and did not drain the blood before death. Even though the pork was so smelly, foreigners could still eat it. Although the Han people were more particular about food and drink than the barbarians, it was only the Han Dynasty after all, and the living standard was so low that their tolerance was similar to that of the barbarians in later generations, which was reasonable.

However, the material losses on Mi Zhu's side forced Zhuge Jin to make a careful assessment.

At first, he just wrote a letter asking Mi Zhu to cooperate fully. In the end, Zhuge Jin didn't know the exact number of livestock Mi Zhu raised for Taishi Ci until the battle was over yesterday.

It was at this moment that he heard the detailed numbers for the first time.

Just by making a rough estimate of the prices of cattle and sheep, Zhuge Jin realized that Mi Zhu had definitely suffered a huge loss this time.

"It wasn't easy for Zi Zhong... I didn't expect that he would be able to raise so many cattle and sheep in the end. Zi Long, in the past two years, has the business of Yuyang Border Market been much better than before? Could it be that the scale of the business has suddenly expanded several times?"

Zhuge Jin did not live in Youzhou all year round before, and he just came here before the war. He had too many things to take care of, so it was inevitable that he missed some things.

It would be more appropriate to ask Zhao Yun, who has been in Youzhou for a long time, about these little details.

Zhao Yun also immediately helped him answer, saying that the development of Yuyang Border City has been very stable in the past two years, but there has not been any obvious explosive leapfrog growth.

Zhuge Jin stroked his beard and thought for a while, then sighed, "Zi Zhong must have spent all his money. The surplus money he had accumulated over the years, plus the surplus from business, was probably spent on this battle. He probably had to borrow some money and cattle from other wealthy people in the border market.

In the next few years, Youzhou will have to recover and accumulate money and food. Fortunately, the results of this battle are great enough for us to occupy Jizhou, so we will not need to rely on Youzhou's money and food to support the rebellion in the future. "

Zhuge Jin quickly estimated the approximate cost in his mind, knowing that although his camp won the battle, the cost was definitely not low.

Although Mi Zhu was able to buy and sell hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep every year in previous years, that was all trade, and the costs accounted for the bulk of the cost, and the things purchased still had to be sold again after processing.

This time, more than 100,000 or 200,000 animals were raised directly. They were all outflowing and not inflowing. In the end, they would be eaten after being killed. They were purely for rewarding the troops. There were no finished products to sell back to make up for the losses.

If such a large amount of assets were withdrawn all at once, the officials, merchants and treasury of Youzhou would be bankrupt, and they might even have to borrow money and issue bonds.

Of course, if Mi Zhu really issued bonds, he would not directly lend silver or copper coins. He probably wrote IOUs to the chieftains of the Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes who came to sell cattle and sheep, telling them that the cattle and sheep had been requisitioned by the imperial court and that they could not pay for the time being, but would pay them back with interest after two years when they could make ends meet.

In short, after this war, we must not add any more burdens to the officials and people of Youzhou. Youzhou's savings over the years were all spent in one day, and it must recuperate again.

Wars are fought for money. Looking at the scenery on the front battlefield, who knows the huge material resources required for Zhuge Jin's strategy?
Therefore, Mi Zhu’s contribution to the destruction of Cao’s camp in this battle cannot be underestimated.

When Zhuge Jin thought of this, he quickly added some content to the originally drafted report of merit, emphasizing Mi Zhu's contribution to the overall planning.

After all, they spent a lot of money to sponsor the war against rebellion, which is considered a great achievement and can also be used to promote their titles.

Finally, Zhuge Jin also reminded Zhou Yu, who had also been doing well in recent years: "Gongjin, you have done a lot with Zi Zhong in the upstream and downstream trade of Yuyang Border City in recent years. The Changlu Salt Field in Bohai County must have a lot of surplus.

When you return to Bohai, you can count the money and allocate a batch of silver to pay off the foreign debt that Zi Zhong owed for raising cattle and sheep. I will naturally know the specific accounts and help with the allocation and will not let Jizhou suffer any loss. "

Zhou Yu and Zhuge Jin were in the encirclement before, so Mi Zhu naturally couldn't ask Zhou Yu for help when he was collecting livestock. Now that the matter is settled, it is reasonable to let Zhou Yu also share a part when the bill is settled.

Moreover, in this way, Zhou Yu can also share more of the credit for the victory in Hebei, and Zhuge Jin will also help him write it in the report of merit, and Liu Bei will naturally make the decision.

In such an occasion, since Situ had spoken publicly, it was impossible for Zhou Yu to be stingy with money. He immediately said that he would send money to Mi Zhu to settle the account as soon as he returned to Tianjin.

Seeing that the main business had been settled, Zhuge Jin didn't want to spoil everyone's interest, so he quickly changed the subject and brought the pace back to normal:

"That's good. Let's not talk about these things that will spoil the fun. Since we lost so many animals to win this victory, let the soldiers eat and drink well and indulge themselves these days, making full use of the resources.

Zilong, Mengqi, you should also assign some soldiers who are not injured to work hard in the next few days and quickly seize the surrounding counties where they can be forced to land. This is also to prevent more Cao Jun’s defeated soldiers from escaping back to Cao Cao’s rule.”

Of course, those cavalrymen who were asked to carry out the enclosure mission would not be treated unfairly by Zhuge Jin. They would be given all the food, drink and rest they deserved, and would also be given extra bonuses as "overtime pay". They would also be able to take extra "compensatory leave" after the battle in the future.

Zhao Yun and Ma Chao immediately accepted the order and asked someone to make the arrangements.

As everything was arranged, tens of thousands of troops in Guantao County finally relaxed and began to celebrate their victory.

The cooks in the army are the busiest. They have to deal with so many cattle, sheep and pigs with incomplete limbs. Even if they temporarily call on ten times the number of ordinary soldiers to help, they still cannot handle it.

Thousands of steel knives were used to cut meat, and many soldiers became more and more skilled in the process. Some soldiers admitted that even after serving for many years, they did not have many opportunities to chop corpses with knives. After some generals learned about this, they specially asked new recruits who had seen less blood to practice more and improve their psychological quality.

After all, this kind of busyness is something you can't ask for in normal times.

No other army could have such a good life of eating meat every meal for half a month.

Even the opportunity to chop down animals and cut their meat is rarely encountered outside of a battlefield.

Following Situ into battle, you can win battles, eat meat, and practice your skills. It's the best of all worlds.

(End of this chapter)