My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 79 The next step after mocking Zhuge is death

It was the sixth day of February, and it was evening again.

Zhuge Jin rubbed his shoulders, which were slightly sore from the work, and finished writing another page of "Precautions for the Reconstruction Planning of the Han Canal". He briefly checked it and then threw it into a wooden box beside him.

After Zuo Rong's death, the second brother can take this box with him when he goes to Guangling to report the victory and meet his stepmother.

If you help Liu Bei and Chen Qun deal with water control issues and nothing goes well, you can take it out and use it as a reference book.

Zhuge Jin didn't know much about flood control. He just relied on his knowledge of mathematics and physics, as well as what he saw from popular science videos on later websites.

I'll add whatever I think of, and try to make it as easy as possible to get started with Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Jin had just finished all this when Zhuge Liang ended another day of apprentice training and hurried to the main hall.

Zhuge Jin called him and asked casually, "How many days has Xingba been surrounded? Is there no movement yet?"

Zhuge Liang: "Four days, today is the fourth day. Zuo Rong tried to attack the day before yesterday, but he retreated without making any progress. Xingba has always raised a black flag on the top of the mountain. This is the signal agreed upon before departure - if the situation is critical, a red flag will be raised instead."

Zhuge Jin touched his nose and said, "Is Zuo Rong just going to waste time like this? If Xingba doesn't cause trouble for him, won't he get impatient? For example, has he divided his troops to plunder the villages?"

Zhuge Liang: "That's not the case, but the scouts reported that Zuo Rong's army has become increasingly restless, the soldiers are coming and going without order, and military discipline is a little difficult to enforce."

Zhuge Jin put down the cup of water he had just been drinking from. "So, Zuo Rong's impatience is about to explode. Xingba is so close, he should be able to see it clearly. I guess he will definitely make a move tonight... I'm not worried about anything else, I'm just worried that after being surrounded for four days, his morale will be too low to launch a counterattack."

Facing his elder brother's worries, Zhuge Liang quickly comforted him:
"No! Don't worry, big brother. Xingba's subordinates are mostly people obsessed with fame and fortune. We have given them such a generous reward and painted such a bright future for them. They will not stop working hard."

Zhuge Jin stroked his stubble and said, "Are the rewards we gave very high? It's not 500 coins per person. I also gave according to the number suggested by General Guan. He said that in the desperate situation, the soldiers needed to fight to the death in a different place, so this is the amount to give."

Zhuge Liang smiled when he heard this: "Brother, this is a different time. You forgot the method you came up with to help the soldiers save money. Since that method came up, the soldiers have become more thrifty and are not so extravagant when spending money. The same amount of rewards has a much better effect than usual.

General Guan has been lamenting this point these days, saying that although you have always been modest about not knowing how to run an army, your clever use of rewards is unmatched by the ancients. Just based on your perfect method of saving money, you have surpassed Huo Qubing. "

Zhuge Jin was stunned for a moment, and after asking for some more details, he suddenly understood.

Before the system for helping soldiers save and remit money was designed, Han Dynasty soldiers who were single and whose parents were far away had the habit of spending money lavishly.

They are afraid that they don’t know which will come first, an accident or tomorrow. If they have the life to earn money but not the life to spend it, then all the money they earned will be in vain.

As a result, the consumption of alcohol and women near the military camps is always very high and the prices are inflated.

As Clausewitz, the adjutant to Napoleon's old rival General Scharnhorst, wrote in his memoirs:

“As soon as the Battle of Austerlitz ended, those despicable profit-seeking Polish merchants dared to sell brandy to the French army camp.

Even though they sold it for 6 francs a glass, French soldiers who were paid only half a franc a day were still flocking to it - it was clear that people who had just escaped death were willing to spend twelve days' wages to buy a glass of strong liquor to numb themselves. "

After Zhuge Jin invented the above-mentioned system, the effect was immediate the next day: the merchants selling wine near the Chaisang camp directly reduced the price of each bottle of wine by more than 20%.

The value of the women who peddled the soldiers' business plummeted by one-third.

In a nutshell, the soldiers' savings rate suddenly skyrocketed, causing luxury consumption to suddenly decline.

This means that even if soldiers want to spend money, their money becomes more valuable, resulting in deflation.

On the other hand, the soldiers also valued money more and treated it more seriously.

These two economic phenomena will further lead to the idea that "giving soldiers the same amount of money can buy them more favors and loyalty."

Guan Yu asked himself how Shang Yang, Huo Qubing and Duan Jiong distributed rewards to maximize the incentive effect after studying for more than ten years.

Unexpectedly, in the end, it was not as good as Zhuge Jin's invention of a system to help soldiers with safes, which instantly increased the morale-boosting effect of money by several percent.

This is like if it could be digitized like in the game, after Guan Yu "rewards 100 taels", you can see "Loyalty +10" popping up above the troops' heads. The same 15 taels, when Zhuge Jin refines the reward, the effect obtained is "Loyalty +".

With such an incredible improvement, how could Guan Yu not say that Ziyu has surpassed Huo Qubing in the efficiency of awarding rewards?

After Zhuge Jin figured out these complicated economic principles, he couldn't help but laugh at himself:

"So my efficiency in distributing rewards has become so amazing? That's really an unexpected success. I didn't know that I could make Xingba's soldiers so enthusiastic and dedicated. In that case, let's see how Xingba performs tonight."

……

Zhuge Jin's wait was not in vain.
Both he and Zhuge Liang were able to discover through scouts that Zuo Rong's army was camped around the northern peak of Mount Lushan, and that they were already becoming restless and their military discipline was lax.

Gan Ning was on the top of the mountain, looking down at the enemy's movements. How could he not see?
So, that night, at four o'clock in the morning, Gan Ning suddenly organized more than a hundred people, and quietly and slowly went down the mountain, taking the most secure mountain road to ensure that the soldiers would not step on air and fall off the cliff.

Because it is very dangerous to walk down the mountain in the dark, the number of people must not be too large, otherwise they will trample on each other and roll down the mountain.

It took a whole shift to reach the foot of the mountain quietly.

After a short rest and reorganization, Gan Ning personally threw out his hook and tore off a deer horn at the gate of the enemy camp. His trusted soldiers also followed suit, removing several deer horns, rushing in through the gap, and then starting to set fire. Since they were not cavalry, the effect of chaos was not that good, and they relied on setting fire to expand the results. Gan Ning did not dare to stay for long, and burned hundreds of tents, and took advantage of the chaos to kill and injure hundreds of enemies. When the enemies on the left and right camps reacted and rushed here to reinforce, Gan Ning immediately withdrew his troops back to the mountain.

It took the Zuo family army a long time to restore order, and at dawn, they finally counted the losses. Furious, Zuo Da ignored his elder brother's advice and launched another attack on the mountain, which resulted in the loss of some soldiers.

Finally, it was Zuo Rong who came over and forcefully suppressed the enemy again: "Don't be reckless! We won last night by not letting that bastard Gan Ning break through! Have you forgotten that we have to rely on siege and cut off food and water to defeat the enemy! Gan Ning's breakout just shows that he was anxious! It means he had no water! It means we did the right thing!"

The Zuo family army was overwhelmed by this logic and remained quiet for three or four days. In the meantime, they were provoked once again. In short, they were always beaten in vain and could not launch a counterattack. The morale was extremely low.

From ancient times to the present, the most demoralizing situation is to be beaten unilaterally without being able to fight back.

Even if the damage caused by being beaten is not great, the person being beaten will feel so angry that it cannot be appeased at all.

……

This dragged on until the tenth day of February, and Gan Ning had been besieged for eight full days and eight nights.

No matter how low Zuo Rong's IQ was, he should have realized at this moment that he was being fooled - if Gan Ning was really short of water, how could he have continued to hold on for so long after retreating after the failure of the first breakout?
And realizing that he was being played like this, the pent-up anger almost drove Zuo Rong crazy.

"Zhuge, you bastard! How dare you deliberately expose your weakness to me! Let's go back to the original plan. Tomorrow we will continue to besiege the North Peak of Mount Lushan while dividing our forces into two groups to plunder the surrounding areas.

Kill all the civilians you can find outside the city! Force Guan Yu to fight me immediately! A decisive battle! We can no longer let the Zhuge family's thieves lead us by the nose! Well, the plundering and slaughtering troops should not run too far, lest they give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage. They must return before nightfall and join the main force. "

The other generals of the Zuo family army finally had something to do. They had been extremely depressed these days, so they immediately accepted the order and set out to plunder and massacre.

After the Zuo family army made new movements, the scouts in Chaisang City, 20 miles away, of course received the report first.

"General Guan, this is bad! Zuo Rong finally lost his patience. He must have realized that he was tricked by Commandant Gan. Today, he suddenly sent out several thousand men from both sides to burn, kill, and plunder everywhere. How can we deal with this?"

After Guan Yu received the news, he also took it very seriously. While he ordered his troops to prepare for the attack, he also greeted Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang.

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Jin simply asked, "Can the troops attack at any time? Are you sure?"

Guan Yu: "Yes! These days, although I am still training and motivating the troops every day, I always make sure that the soldiers are well-armored and ready to attack at any time!"

Zhuge Jin: "Then these two days are not a problem. We can change the plan a little and attack earlier. We are a benevolent and righteous army. We cannot just watch Zuo Rong slaughter the people and avoid the battle."

Guan Yu did not say anything else, but just bowed solemnly, flicked his cloak, turned around, went out and mounted his horse.

……

On the morning of the tenth day of February, the two detachments of the Zuo family army that had gone out to burn, kill and loot had just left for more than an hour.

Zuo Rong himself was still sitting firmly in the central army camp on the plain just north of Mount Lushan, unaware of the danger at all.

The encircled camp surrounding the northern peak of Mount Lu could originally accommodate 40,000 troops.

But on the day the army arrived, they were ambushed and suffered hundreds of casualties. In the subsequent three tentative attacks on the mountain and two raids by Gan Ning, the total casualties amounted to thousands more.

So until this morning, Zuo Rong actually only had an army of 35,000 to 36,000 men.

Just now, we divided our troops into two groups to go out and burn, kill, and loot, each group had two to three thousand men. Now there are only 30,000 men in the camp, still stationed in four directions, surrounding the northern peak of Mount Lushan.

The camps in the four directions of the mountain, east, west, south, and north, are at most a dozen miles apart. Even if an accident happens in a hurry, they can't rush to support in the first time.

Even for modern armies in the 21st century, a 5-kilometer march with light equipment still takes about 20 minutes.

The journey was longer, the equipment was heavier, and the soldiers' physical fitness was worse. Taking all the above factors into consideration, it would take the army of the Han Dynasty at least half an hour to rush to reinforce when a friendly camp was attacked.

When Zuo Rong was doing nothing, he suddenly heard a rumbling sound coming from the north. It was vague at first, but then it became more and more obvious. When he really wanted to ask, his third brother rushed in with scouts.

"Brother, the scouts reported that Guan Yu personally led the main force of Chaisang out of the city and headed straight for our camp!"

"Is it finally here?!" Zuo Rong narrowed his eyes, "Guan Yu actually dared to seize this opportunity? Isn't he afraid of taking the risk of attacking the camp?
Now the detachment I sent out to burn, kill and plunder is indeed unable to return to defend, and our army is indeed at a disadvantage. But how can this small number of troops make up for the disadvantage of attacking the camp? The whole army will fight! Beat the drums to cheer! Order the left and right camps to come to reinforce quickly! "

Guan Yu's attack was a fair and open attack, so there was no possibility of a sneak attack.

Guan Yu rushed for more than ten miles and when he arrived outside Zuo Rong's camp, Zuo Rong's main camp had already made all defensive preparations and was ready for battle.

The left and right battalions have also been notified and may set out to provide reinforcements at any time. At most, both battalions will arrive in a quarter of an hour.

Zuo Rong knew this, and Guan Yu actually knew it too.

The Guan Yu army on the opposite side had a total of 8,000 people - Guan Yu's total force in Chaisang was 12,000. Two thousand were taken away by Gan Ning and taken to the mountain as bait. He still needed to leave two thousand to defend the city, so he only sent these eight thousand to attack the camp.

After arriving at the position, Guan Yu let the soldiers rest for a while and reorganize the team for a few minutes, and then he decisively ordered:
"We must seize this opportunity. In a quarter of an hour at most, Zuo Rong's left and right camps will rush to reinforce us. We must break through the wall of the central camp and cause Zuo Rong's collapse within a quarter of an hour. Archers, move forward to suppress him! Use hooks to break the antler barricades. All the troops, follow me and charge!"

(End of this chapter)