My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 780: North and South Blossom

Zhuge Jin, along with generals such as Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu, conquered the entire area east of Taihang Mountain except Handan and Yecheng in the Hebei battlefield.
In the months between the end of the 17th year of Jian'an and the beginning of the 18th year of Jian'an, they had no other goals to pursue. If they really wanted to attack Yecheng and Handan, they would have to wait until the busy spring farming season of the 18th year of Jian'an to take their time and make steady progress.

Anyway, siege warfare leaves the least room for planning. You can only fight head-on and cannot launch a sneak attack, so there is no need to rush.

Most of the land in Jizhou had already fallen into Liu Bei's hands. There was no need to cause the people in Jizhou to suffer and agricultural production to be delayed and disrupted just to capture Yecheng a few months earlier or later.

However, each flower has its own merits. While the battlefield in Hebei Province gradually returned to peace, Liu Bei's camp could obviously make great achievements in other directions.

Now the battle line between Cao and Liu has stretched for thousands of miles, with war everywhere from south to north.

On the southern battlefield, starting from September of the 17th year of Jian'an, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Lu Su and Xu Shu had already begun planning a new strategic offensive.

If we compare this timeline, it is not difficult to find that in September of the 17th year of Jian'an, Zhuge Jin had not yet defeated Cao Cao's main force in Hebei. That incident happened in October.

However, the new offensive organized by Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei should have taken place about half a month before Cao Cao was defeated, because before Cao Cao was defeated, the senior officials of Liu Bei's side knew that the main force of Cao's army was heading north.

Regardless of whether Zhuge Jin could defeat Cao Cao, Liu Bei would immediately launch a new and more fierce offensive, even if it was just to "besiege Wei to save Zhao" and relieve the pressure on Zhuge Jin and Zhao Yun.

……

It was a day in mid-September, on the battlefield of Xu County in Yingchuan County, after Liu Bei and Zhang Fei joined forces, the civil servants who followed the army included Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu. At that time, the situation on the southern front was also very good.

It was in this situation that Liu Bei suddenly heard an urgent report from Zhuge Jin on the northern front, confirming that the main force of Cao's army had been transferred to Hebei by Cao Cao, and that Cao's army on the southern front was now bluffing and preparing to trade space for time.

Zhuge Jin also vowed in his urgent report that the lord should not worry about the situation in Hebei, as he could hold Cao Cao back, and even if he could not win a complete victory, he would definitely not lose. The lord did not need to draw troops from thousands of miles away for reinforcements, and at most he only needed to let the troops in the battlefields of Yanzhou and Qingzhou be under Zhuge Jin's command, which would be enough to deal with Cao Cao's main force.

The lord can dispatch his own troops in other southern states, adapt to circumstances and take advantage of opportunities, attack Cao's weak points and expand the results of the battle.

After reading Zhuge Jin's urgent report, Liu Bei immediately called Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu to hold a simple meeting in person to discuss how to make deployment adjustments on the southern battlefield in response to this new situation.

"No wonder Cao's armies have been showing signs of weakness and shrinking recently. I was originally worried about a trick, but now it seems certain that Cao is going to make a desperate attempt to turn around and defeat our army's detachment in Hebei first.

Ziyu also said in his letter that if this happens, Cao's troops in Yan and Yu will inevitably become more and more empty. Sir, where do you think our army should start to tear open Cao's defense line?"

Naturally, Liu Bei's emotions and questions were directed to Zhuge Liang.

Even if Zhang Fei sat closer to him, Zhang Fei would not feel that his elder brother was asking him. He would just wait for his elder brother and Mr. Kong Ming to come up with a result and then execute it directly. That would save him a lot of brainpower.

Zhuge Liang did not act arrogantly, because Xu Shu was also there. Out of politeness and caution, Zhuge Liang still discussed the matter with Xu Shu.

"Yuanzhi, why don't you answer the question of the lord? In my opinion, it is still difficult to take advantage of the main force of Cao's army heading north to capture Xu County. After all, Cao Ren, Cao Zhen, Sun Quan and others will not come out. Cao Ren's determination is also the best among all the generals of the Cao family.

Perhaps, our army can choose one or two places such as Chenxian, Suiyang, and Changyi as the focus of our advance, and strive to achieve a breakthrough before winter. We still need to discuss in detail which one to choose and confirm the enemy's true situation. "

Zhuge Liang was very cautious in what he said and would never make rash judgments on issues without investigation.

Because Cao Cao transferred part of the troops from the Henan battlefield to Hebei, although this matter has been exposed, Zhuge Liang does not know which part of the Henan battlefield Cao Cao transferred the troops from and where more people were transferred.

Zhuge Liang was just more farsighted than normal people, but he was not a god. He could not use the perspective of a reconnaissance satellite to see all the details of Cao's army's deployment. In many cases, he could only slowly explore the truth in a tentative attack.

After hearing this, Liu Bei just nodded slightly and looked at Xu Shu.

Xu Shu thought for a while and said: "Xu County is unlikely to be left empty. Even if Cao Cao empties the entire Henan Province, Xu County will still have to be defended. What's more, Cao Ren himself is here.

Fortunately, our army does not have to attack the enemy's place, but can focus on the enemy's weak points and squeeze the weak persimmon.

Suiyang had also been attacked fiercely by General Guan for a long time before, but failed to break through. General Gao Shun was also on the Suiyang battlefield at that time, but had not made any achievements. Now that General Gao has gone to the Yanzhou battlefield, it may be even more difficult to quickly break through Suiyang.

With this in mind, Chen County might be an easy point to break through. In addition, in the direction of Yanzhou, perhaps our army does not need to focus on Changyi, the capital of Shanyang County. If the assembled forces are large enough, we can completely outflank and detour deeper, and directly cut off several counties from the west of Shanyang County in one go!

When Taishi Ci, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were attacking Yanzhou, they only managed to capture Lu County and Jibei temporarily. One important reason was that there was a large swamp in Shanyang County to the west of Lu County, making the terrain difficult to pass.

However, if we bypass the Great Marsh and dig directly from the west of the Great Marsh to the north and south, we can cut off the three counties of Shanyang, Dongping, and Rencheng, and even part of Jiyin County, from the other rear counties controlled by Cao Cao. Given the low morale, empty manpower, and unstable people of the Cao army, these three counties are likely to surrender without a fight.

However, to achieve this goal, more troops will be needed. Perhaps the offensive in Chen County will have to be put on hold. Our army needs to dispatch the main force to attack the bulge in Yanzhou.

Because the original Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao troops in Yanzhou will definitely be transferred to Hebei by Situ to participate in the decisive battle with Cao Cao. At present, our army's troops in Yanzhou are the most empty. Cao Cao is also the least likely to guard against our army launching an attack in this direction. Once successful, it will definitely be enough to catch him by surprise. "

Xu Shu made a rough analysis and generally suggested that Liu Bei take advantage of this opportunity to expand his victory in the direction of Yanzhou, rather than Yuzhou.

Of course, Yuzhou will also be taken in the future, but we won’t fight for it in the next few months.

After Liu Bei thought about it for a while, he came to his senses and felt that what Xu Shu said made sense.

If the decision is to focus on attacking Yanzhou, there is an obvious disadvantage that cannot be avoided, that is, "the three counties in the east of central Yanzhou have little political significance, only some military and economic significance", so even if those three counties are attacked, for Cao Cao they are not "necessarily rescued by the enemy".

The degree of "must" in "must save" is too low.

In contrast, if efforts were made in Yuzhou, Xu County was the former capital after all, and Cao Cao would definitely want to lose it later, and Cao Ren was also here, so it was a "must be saved". Even Suiyang, as a key point for north-south water transportation and a waterway hub between the Yellow River and the Huai River, was more "must be saved" than the three counties in the middle of Yanzhou.

But the problem is, under the current circumstances, Zhuge Jin has already promised Liu Bei that he can deal with Cao Cao on his own, with the help of Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao at most.

Liu Bei's march northward at this stage was not meant to "force Cao Cao to return to rescue Zhuge Jin." Zhuge Jin could survive on his own without his rescue and might even be able to counterattack.

Then Liu Bei would not need to care about the target of the attack or whether it had great political significance to Cao Cao. Liu Bei would just pick the big and fat meat that was easy to eat and eat him for a few months first.

After celebrating the New Year and turning the page next year, we can consider the political significance and the issue of whether to attack the enemy and rescue him.

After realizing this, Liu Bei suddenly understood and nodded in praise of Xu Shu.

Yuanzhi is often able to get to the essence of a problem and grasp the main contradiction.

Of course, Liu Bei also saw this, and Zhuge Liang might have thought of this, but he hoped to work together to come up with a more complete plan, and secondly, Xu Shu's plan might be risky, so Zhuge Liang did not say it immediately.

Liu Bei turned to Zhuge Liang with great experience and asked him to add something with a smile: "Yuanzhi's plan is very good, but I don't know if there are any risks or things that need attention. Please check and fill in the gaps."

Zhuge Liang also secretly admired his lord's ability to judge people.

Xu Shu's strategies were more radical, while his own strategies were more cautious. The lord understood these characteristics clearly.

Zhuge Liang analyzed without reservation: "Yuan Zhi's strategy is indeed in line with my own, but to implement this strategy, we need to overcome two difficulties. Therefore, the final decision on how to choose is up to you, my lord.

Yuan Zhi also said just now that our army's original troops in Yanzhou will inevitably be transferred as my brother asks for help in Hebei. Therefore, if we want to launch a new offensive in Yanzhou, we must transfer troops from the Huaibei Chencai direction and march quickly to Shanyang.

The consumption of food and supplies along the way must be huge. If this plan is to be implemented, we must rely on Yunchang. Yunchang is now attacking Suiyang. If he abandons Suiyang from Liangdi and goes directly north without caring about the retreat, it may be possible to achieve it.

However, Yunchang's food route on this trip would also be very dangerous, because if he went directly north without taking Suiyang, he could only rely on the enemy for food, raise it on his own wherever he went, or rely solely on the food that came with the army when he set out.

Moreover, this strategy requires betting on the morale of the enemy army. There is a large swamp in Shanyang County, and it is impossible for Yunchang to go deep into the swamp and capture counties with inconvenient roads one by one. He can only hope that the enemy will panic and surrender as soon as their return route is cut off.

If the Cao army in Shanyang and other places still refuses to surrender for a long time after their retreat is cut off by Yunchang, Yunchang may be in danger of having his retreat cut off. Therefore, the lord needs to arrange more reserve troops so that they can be deployed at any time to provide support.

In addition, this strategy has one last risk, that is, even if Yunchang can finally successfully go north from Suiyang and reach the Yellow River, if he wants to completely cut off the retreat of Cao's army in the three central counties of Yanzhou, he still has to rely on the cooperation of another external factor, that is, my brother must defeat Cao Cao's main force on the battlefield in Hebei, or at least be able to remain undefeated under the heavy pressure of Cao Cao's main force, and cannot retreat and lose land.

Because once our army retreats in Hebei and gives up the Guantao, Yangping and Cangting lines that we control now, then even if Yunchang attacks in place, he will not be able to completely cut off the enemy's retreat in the three counties of Yanzhou. At that time, the enemy can reconnect through the land of Hebei and have a retreat route, so they will not be so easily panicked and surrender at the slightest inconvenience. "

As Zhuge Liang spoke, he pointed to the map and gave detailed instructions.

Shanyang County is roughly located at the junction of Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu provinces in later generations. In later generations, there were lakes such as Weishan Lake, as well as swamps such as Dongpingze and Heze. Therefore, since ancient times, it has been a place with swamp basins everywhere and very poor transportation infrastructure. There are many powerful strongholds between the large swamps.

This includes Li Dian, a general under Cao Cao. His family was actually the largest local tyrant force in Shanyang County. Cao Cao was attracted by the thousands or tens of thousands of servants of the Li family, so he made people from Li Dian's family high-ranking officials and generals.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, Weishan Lake had not yet been formed, but there was another large lake on the border of Shanyang County and Jiyin County, called Juye Lake. This lake later evolved into Liangshan Marsh during the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Anyone who has read "Water Margin" can basically have an intuitive understanding of the local poor mountains and bad water.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang pointed out that if Guan Yu was to penetrate deep into the enemy's rear, he would have to bypass a large swamp area represented by Juye Lake and go directly north from the westernmost part of Jiyin County, cutting off three counties in one go. If he expected to eat a little bit from these three counties, it would be unrealistic and would only make him sink deeper into the quagmire.

For this kind of bad land, you either don’t take it, or you have to take it all at once. There is no such thing as taking half.

The bigger the gamble, the greater the risk. Unless you are a famous general like Guan Yu, it would be impossible to complete such a task quickly.

After listening to this, Liu Bei's eyes lit up and he quickly made a decision.

"I know what you two mean. If someone else were to carry out such an important task, I would not be at ease. But if Yun Chang could go, he would surely be able to accomplish his mission immediately!

I know Yunchang's prestige among the enemy, especially the powerful bandits in the world, who are quite frightened by his name. I will try to arrange for his successors to ensure everything is safe.

Moreover, the "Yun Chang's victory requires our army to remain undefeated in Hebei, or at least not retreat" mentioned just now, this point only seems risky, but in fact it is as safe as Mount Tai. I believe that Zi Yu and Zi Long in Hebei can definitely resist Cao Cao! As long as Yun Chang fights to the bank of the Yellow River, the land on the other side will definitely still be in the hands of our army! So let's settle this matter."

After listening to Liu Bei's analysis, Zhuge Liang reacted calmly, as if he had expected it. Xu Shu was slightly surprised, and then secretly felt lucky that his suggestion just now seemed to have hit the mark.

As mentioned earlier, Xu Shu's suggestion was indeed risky. The key to this risk was that "our troops that go deep behind enemy lines to cut off the enemy's retreat may themselves be cut off by the enemy."

This is a bit similar to the robbery in Go. The piece that attacks the robbery eye will be killed in one breath. At this time, it depends on who has more breath. If the breath is not interrupted, the robbery will be won.

When Xu Shu made the suggestion, he just thought that there was hope in taking such a gamble, but he had not really calculated the issue of "who will have more courage between the two robberies". If he really wanted to implement it, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang would have to make a careful assessment.

And because Liu Bei knew his second brother too well, he immediately judged that if he and Cao Cao "robbed" the three central counties of Yanzhou, Guan Yu's "qi" would definitely last longer than the "qi" of Cao's army in the three counties of Yanzhou that had been cut off.

Liu Bei made this judgment based on the fact that Guan Yu's appeal to the "bandits" was too strong in history. In history, Guan Yu flooded the Seven Armies, captured Yu Jin, beheaded Pang De, and shocked China. Then the bandits in Wanluo responded one after another, and even the powerful bandits as far as Hebei took the initiative to respond to Guan Yu, supported him, and remotely received his seal and was under his control.

In this life, although the development of the battle situation in the Jingbei battlefield in the previous years was very different from the original history, the people in the Wanluo area were not forced to survive because of the transportation labor in the Battle of Hanzhong and responded one after another.

But Liu Bei's understanding of Guan Yu was still very clear. He knew the appeal of his second brother among the "bandits" in the world.

The Cao army in Shanyang and Jiyin counties, to put it bluntly, has a large number of local tyrants, such as Li Dian, the most typical one, although Li Dian is not there now, having been taken to Hebei by Cao Cao. But the local fortresses around the Juye Lake and Heze Lakes are simply "bandits" who obey Cao Cao's orders but not his orders.

All Guan Yu had to do was cut off their way back, sever their connection with the territory directly under Cao Cao's jurisdiction, and then use psychological warfare to intimidate them. Wouldn't these "bandits" be frightened into surrendering?

Even if they did not surrender instantly, the breath they could hold before surrendering was definitely not as long as the breath Guan Yu held before initiating the "robbery".

Of course, when Liu Bei calculated the "qi" of this game of Go, he also needed to calculate the "qi" of the northern side of the besieged Cao army. Theoretically, the northern side of the besieged Cao army was cut off by the Hebei army of Liu Bei's camp led by Zhuge Jin and Zhao Yun. Liu Bei assumed that Zhuge Jin and Zhao Yun were reliable enough to block that side all the time, without worrying about leaking qi and being taken back by the enemy.

After understanding these points, Liu Bei knew that the matter was complete.

Just do it.

Of course, Liu Bei also had to cooperate. He had to quickly mobilize some reinforcements to fill the defense line in Suiyang area of Liangjun. Only in this way could Guan Yu's troops abandon Suiyang without any worries and go directly north, marching lightly and quickly, and completely flatten the protruding part of Yanzhou under Cao Cao's rule while the enemy was unprepared.

Liu Bei was a man of action, and he immediately asked his third brother to separate Wei Yan's troops and send them to the Suiyang battlefield, while letting Zhang Fei take charge of the offensive tasks in Xu County and Chen County.

And he told Zhang Fei not to stop the feint attack recently and to stick to Cao Ren, Cao Zhen and Sun Quan. This way, Cao's army could be pulled out of more gaps in the direction of Yanzhou, creating opportunities for the second brother to break through.

After all the preparations for cooperation were made, it took only two days for Liu Bei's new order to be delivered to Guan Yu at the Suiyang front line.

Guan Yu read his elder brother's military order and the attached private letter from Zhuge Lingjun, which explained the details of how to advance the battle and how to win over the enemy's hearts.

With Guan Yu's military talent, he naturally understood the intention and essence of the battle immediately and knew what to do.

(End of this chapter)