My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 793: Retreat to advance, self-evident

After all, Liu Bei was not Zhang Fei, and he would not be as impatient as Zhang Fei, who would not insist that the military tailors make tens of thousands of mourning clothes in three days.

Liu Bei knew the sufferings of the people since he was a child, and he was also very kind and tolerant.

In addition, he had to temporarily change the attack plan, dispatch troops, transport logistics supplies, and adjust military generals and talents, all of which took time. There was no point in just worrying about clothes.

So he gave the military craftsmen a full ten days to prepare the task. The task was very simple. It was not necessary to prepare a full set of mourning clothes for the entire army. It was just necessary to ensure that each soldier had a piece of randomly cut plain linen cloth wrapped around his head.

There is no need to curl or sew the edges of the linen strips; just let the raw edges left after cutting spread out naturally.

Anyway, in ancient times, there was a special type of mourning clothes called "zhansui", which had deliberately left raw edges. The lower-level "qisui" had rolled edges and sewn edges.

With this amount of work, the craftsmen can certainly complete it on time and smoothly.

While preparing for mourning, Liu Bei also did two other urgent things.

The first thing was to immediately summon Zhuge Jin from Hebei to Puyang so that everyone could discuss the matter of righteousness together.

In this campaign against Cao Cao, how should the political cards be played, what should be denounced specifically, and how should the slogans in the manifesto be adjusted.

The second thing is a purely military consideration. He needs to discuss with Guan Yu and others about the route of attacking Luoyang and whether to attack Hulao Pass by force.

None of these matters should be taken lightly, because ever since the news of the emperor's death, people in all parts of Guandong under Liu Bei's rule have been in a state of turmoil.

It’s not that anyone opposed Liu Bei’s rule because of this - Liu Bei had governed various places for so many years, and many local people actually didn’t care about the emperor anymore.

The reason why people were so uneasy was that many people wanted to gain credit for following the emperor, and had already begun to build momentum in private to persuade Liu Bei to ascend the throne immediately and become the emperor, and then avenge the late emperor.

Liu Bei himself was more cautious and felt that it was too hasty and there was no need to waste time.

Especially since he had already fought his way out of Hulao Pass and experienced the dramatic change of the emperor's death, Liu Bei felt that Cao Cao would not be able to hold on to Luoyang for too long.

In this case, it would be better to capture Luoyang and then consider this issue openly. It will only take a few months anyway.

As for how to do it specifically and how to calm down the surging public opinion, Brother Zhuge will have to help him plan it out.

……

It was the fifth day after Liu Bei received the news of the emperor's death, which was the ninth day of the sixth month of the eighteenth year of Jian'an.

Zhuge Jin hurried from the front line of Yecheng to Puyang via Liyang.

Liu Bei went out of the city in person to welcome him, and brought Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu with him.

Both parties had white cloth wrapped around their heads and were very solemn when they first met. They didn't say a word in front of others and didn't seem to be chatting or laughing at all.

Liu Bei quietly led Zhuge Jin back to the former Dongjun prefect's mansion, which was temporarily used as the Taiwei's headquarters. Only then did he relax his emotional control a little and have a heart-to-heart talk with Zhuge Jin.

"We all know that the death of His Majesty must have been caused by Cao Cao's murder of the emperor. Wei Huang and others who just escaped can also prove this. But Cao Cao is still claiming that His Majesty was held hostage by them, and that when Sun Quan tried to take His Majesty back, the hostages killed the hostages.

There are still many people in the prefectures and counties ruled by Cao thief who believe in this nonsense. Ziyu, how do we correct the world's view? In addition, Cao thief called Wei Huang a hostage to the emperor, so should we let Wei Huang show his face in public and refute Cao thief, or refute him through other means? "

Zhuge Jin stroked his beard and waved his folding fan a few times. He did not hesitate for too long and organized his speech.

The main reason was that he had come all the way here, and he had plenty of time to think. These questions were very important, and Zhuge Jin had been thinking about them for several days before Liu Bei asked them.

So he quickly replied: "I think Wei Huang is not in a hurry to let him show his face for the time being, so we have to find a way to refute it ourselves. Cao Cao insists on saying that Your Majesty was held hostage, so we analyze the details and form a statement similar to a manifesto to point out the doubts.

For example, if His Majesty was being held hostage, why did he help Geng Ji, Wei Huang and others to deceive the generals guarding the palace when he left Ping County, where Xiaopingjin was located, and went to Chenggao?

Obviously, it was because these generals were Cao Cao's men, and your majesty wanted to escape from Cao Cao's clutches. It can be seen that when fleeing Pingxian to Chenggao, your majesty and Geng Ji and Wei Huang were of the same mind, and there was no hostage-taking at all! By extension, with some additional evidence, it is enough to prove that escaping from Cao Cao was your majesty's original intention throughout the whole process!
What's more, going out of the city to pay tribute to Empress Fu Shou who had just passed away a few months ago, and promising to appoint Cao Cao's daughter as the new empress after returning to the palace after paying tribute, all of this was an order issued by Your Majesty himself. If Geng Ji and Wei Huang wanted to hold Your Majesty hostage, would Your Majesty issue such an order to cooperate with the hostage-takers?

As long as this is exposed, Cao Cao's current fig leaf will be torn off by at least 70% to 80%. Even if Cao Cao tries to make excuses, the most he can say is "Geng Ji and Wei Huang took advantage of your majesty's desire to commemorate his deceased wife." But no matter what, there is absolutely no dispute that Cao the thief deceived the emperor and forced your majesty to lose his autonomy. As for the rest of the arguments, we still have other ways to slowly refute them."

Liu Bei listened very carefully, and while listening he compared it with what Zhuge Liang had said to him in the past two days. He found that the two brothers' observation angles were indeed similar, and if they verified each other's statements and filled in the gaps, they could basically use them directly.

However, Liu Bei had not figured out how to refute Cao Cao. He felt that if he had a verbal battle with Cao Cao and wrote a rebuttal article with all the points listed, it would explain the situation but weaken the momentum.

Wouldn't that make it seem that "Liu Bei attached great importance to Cao Cao's propaganda, which is why he had to make a special defense for it."

If Cao Cao is regarded as a traitor who murdered the king and the country without a doubt, then we can completely ignore his words and why would we specifically refute them?
Ignoring is the greatest contempt.

The reason why Liu Bei did not refute in the past few days was because Zhuge Liang reminded him of this and advised him not to refute directly in the form of a manifesto, but to think it over again.

After listening to his second brother's concerns for the lord, Zhuge Jin also felt that it made sense.

This is not like a debate with Cao Cao. Cao Cao has fallen to such a low level now, is he still qualified to debate?
What Liu Bei wanted to say was to the people of the world, not to Cao Cao.

After thinking for a while, Zhuge Jin actually came up with a plan and a very suitable carrier.

Of course, it’s not because Zhuge Jin is so smart, but because Zhuge Jin just happens to have ready-made historical answers to copy.

He suddenly remembered that Cao Cao had written an "Order of Statement of Ambition", or "Order of Relinquishing Counties to Clarify My Ambition", in which Cao Cao resigned from the three counties granted to him by Liu Xie, and stated to the people of the world that he had not "intended to abolish the Han Dynasty and establish his own regime for a long time".

Of course, it was impossible for Liu Bei to borrow any content from Cao Cao's "Statement of Ambition", but he could borrow its form.

In his capacity as Grand Marshal, General of Chariots and Cavalry, and Marquis of Wuchang, Liu Bei could issue an edict to his subjects to express his humility, sorrow, and self-blame.

There is no need to mention other things. The main thing is to express "self-blame for not being able to rescue His Majesty", and then make some decisions to clarify his intentions.

The refutation of Cao Cao's lies can be subtly hidden in this decree, which also shows that he is open-minded and that the clear will be clear and the turbid will be turbid.

After listening to this, Liu Bei found it very reasonable.

"That is indeed the way it should be. No matter what, the reason why your Majesty was killed was that we, the ministers, failed to fulfill our duty to protect you. I have recovered the prefectures and counties of the Han Dynasty and control two-thirds of the country, but I cannot protect your Majesty. When your Majesty sent someone to contact me, I was unable to respond in time. I should degrade myself!"

After Liu Bei understood this truth, he decided to retreat temporarily in order to advance.

This approach of temporary humility and retreat is indeed the most suitable for third-party publicity and rallying people's hearts.

Zhuge Liang, who was standing by, also quickly understood the effect of this "the innocent will be cleared" strategy of retreating to advance. However, he also immediately realized that this move was a double-edged sword, because it had to be used together with a "self-deprecating" statement to appear sincere.

In history, Zhuge Liang himself executed Ma Su after his first expedition to Qishan failed, and asked to be demoted by three ranks for employing the wrong people. This is similar to the situation today. However, after Zhuge Liang was demoted by three ranks, he could "serve as the right general and act as prime minister, with the same responsibilities as before", but his actual power was not affected at all. Liu Bei's power today will not be affected at all.

Zhuge Liang quickly gave his warning: "My lord, to win people's hearts and reveal the truth in this way, not only do you need to temporarily humble yourself, but the humiliation cannot be cancelled immediately. You must make great contributions to the world in the future before you can wash it off. My lord, please be prepared for this."

Historically, after Zhuge Liang demoted himself to the third rank, he waited for a year. The following year, he went out to Qishan for the second time and commanded Wei Yan to kill Wang Shuang and retake the two counties of Wudu and Yinping. Only then was he able to accumulate enough merit, wash away his old humiliation, and resume his position as prime minister.

If this template is applied, Liu Bei will obviously also face this problem.

Fortunately, this problem was easy to solve. After a brief discussion, they realized that they could deal with it together with the matter that the civil and military officials in various places under their rule wanted to persuade him to ascend the throne.

After discussing and refining the plan together, the Zhuge brothers finally gave Liu Bei a comprehensive solution:

"If you really want to issue a self-blaming decree, you can hint at the end of the decree that you must enter Luoyang City to avenge Your Majesty, and only then can you wash away today's mistakes. In this way, those who want to persuade you to go lightly before you enter Luoyang will also retreat."

Brother Zhuge had something to hide, which was that once this edict was issued, not only would those who wanted to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne now put the brakes on, but those who did not want to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne now would also get a hint: the time would be when Luoyang is captured.

Liu Bei was quite satisfied with this rhythm.

Originally in history, after he conquered Hanzhong, someone soon persuaded him to be the King of Hanzhong, but he still took two months to prepare, which was considered fast. Later, Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty, and the news reached Chengdu, and Liu Bei spent half a year to prepare.

Now they just wanted to capture Luoyang, and he could afford to wait for this amount of time. Moreover, they could consider the rest of the matter after they captured Luoyang, and it would save them from rebuilding so many palaces and official residences. Everything in the court could be used as much as possible to reduce the need for large-scale construction.

Unless there are parts that were destroyed by Cao Cao in the war and have to be rebuilt, there is no other way.

With this general strategy in place, all that remains is the specific measure of self-abasement contained in the decree.

Liu Bei did not want to discuss this issue with his subordinates, not even the Zhuge brothers.

As a lord, how does he punish himself? Does anyone have the right to interrupt in such matters?
So Liu Bei thought about it, and finally made a dictatorial decision, taking the highest leadership responsibility for his "slow response to rescue the emperor" and reducing his fiefdom of Wuchang Marquis by 5,000 households.

The positions of Grand Marshal and General of Chariots and Cavalry were retained unchanged, as was the title of Marquis of Wuchang, but the number of households granted was reduced.

By the way, Liu Bei also tried to sound out Zhuge Jin's intentions. Zhuge Jin quickly realized that those who had "commanded/dispatched/handled" the matter of rescuing the emperor must follow suit.

Of course Zhuge Jin didn't care. He knew that Liu Bei was protecting him in this kind of thing.

In history, after the battle of Jieting, my second brother demoted himself to the third rank. This kind of thing will come back after a while.

Moreover, Liu Bei had already set an example. As the person with the highest leadership responsibility, he only reduced the fiefdoms of 5,000 households. The reduction in fiefdoms of others would definitely be reduced accordingly.

It’s like when making donations, the prefect donated five thousand taels. Could the county magistrate and county governor donate more than five thousand taels?

In the end, Liu Bei made the final decision himself, and Prime Minister Zhuge Jin was held responsible for improper dispatch, but because he was not the direct commander of the actual rescue operation, three thousand households in various counties were reduced.

Further down, the Left General Zhao Yun, as the chief officer of the land reinforcements to rescue the emperor, directly commanded the executors.

Although Zhao Yun had done his best, his cavalry traveled day and night to bypass the county and reached the bank of the Yellow River in Henei County. But the emperor died in front of him after all, which was bad luck and trouble.

Zhao Yun's demotion was one level lower than Zhuge Jin's. His fiefdom was reduced by one thousand households, and his title was demoted from Left General to General of the Northern Expedition. Maybe he could be promoted again after the wars in Hebei and Heluo were completely over and Zhao Yun's contributions were calculated.

In the entire case of failing to rescue the emperor, the last person to be punished was Zhou Yu - but in fact this was also to protect Zhou Yu, because after this punishment, no one would punish him again in the future and no one would mention it again.

Zhou Yu was also unlucky this time. His navy had the possibility of rescuing the emperor on the surface of the Yellow River. He was different from Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun's cavalry could not go down the river. Everyone in the world knew it and would not blame him.

Although Zhou Yu acted according to the planned time, the emperor took action ahead of schedule, causing Zhou Yu to arrive late. No one wants to be involved in such a thing. More importantly, the person who took action on the other side of Cao Cao's camp was Sun Quan, and Sun Quan and Zhou Yu were old friends.

Only if Liu Bei punished Zhou Yu and handled the matter impartially would outsiders know that "Zhou Yu and Sun Quan had no contact for a long time". Otherwise, some people would inevitably gossip and think that "Zhou Yu arrived late on purpose to avoid a direct battle with Sun Quan and make life difficult for him".

After comprehensive consideration, Zhou Yu's official punishment was heavier than Zhao Yun's, but his title punishment was not severe.

This was also because Zhou Yu had no title to be stripped of at all. He was originally just a Marquis of Duxiang, with only 300 households in his fiefdom, but this time his title was completely stripped away.

In terms of official position, Zhou Yu's title of general was also stripped, but his civil service position as the governor of Bohai was retained. From then on, he was content to be a local official and continued to manage finances, sail and explore.

After the punishment decision was made, Zhuge Jin was still afraid that Zhou Yu would not understand, so he found an opportunity to communicate with him privately.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yu was very understanding and said it was nothing:
"My lord, you are protecting me. After all, someone has to take the blame for the navy's late arrival and failure to save His Majesty. After this statement, no one in the world will believe Cao Cao's lies. Everyone in the world will know that my lord really came to save the emperor, not Geng Ji who hijacked him.

After I was confiscated, everything was set in stone. No one would criticize me for the past with the Sun family. I was relieved.

What's more, after taking Luoyang, going west from Mengjin Ferry and Xiaopingjin is the Shaanxi Gorge of Hongnong County. The Yellow River splits in the middle here, and it is impossible for the navy downstream to cross this place.

I am only good at commanding naval forces, not at land warfare. After taking Luoyang, there will be no more naval battles in the world. Perhaps I should switch to civilian work and think about how to build the world's salt-drying and navigation undertakings."

Zhou Yu knew that after he was temporarily deprived of his military position due to being at the center of this storm, his lord would certainly compensate him in other ways when the storm passed. He had nothing to worry about.

Seeing that he was so open-minded, Zhuge Jin stopped trying to persuade him and patted him on the shoulder:

"That's fine. I have no choice but to fine 3,000 households of fiefdom this time. It was because when Geng Ji and Wei Huang sent someone to contact us, they were first intercepted by Zilong and then sent to me.

I was in charge of the rescue mission from the beginning to the end. Unfortunately, both the land and sea forces were commanded by my brother-in-law. If I don't take responsibility, who will? Three thousand households are three thousand households. Anyway, our Zhuge family doesn't rely on that little rent to make a living."

Zhao Yun is Zhuge Jin's eldest brother-in-law, and Zhou Yu is Zhuge Jin's second brother-in-law. The three of them were fined 4,300 households of fiefdom, which was still a little less than Liu Bei's 5,000 households alone, so it was not considered an act of usurpation.

Anyway, the limelight will return sooner or later. As for Zhou Yu, he should take this opportunity to transform himself, since all the naval battles that could be fought in the Han mainland had been fought.

……

After dealing with the edict expressing his remorse to the people of the world and clarifying the rewards and punishments, Liu Bei continued to devote himself to the all-out attack on the areas occupied by Cao Cao.

However, after ten days of scheduling and preparation, the Zhuge brothers also helped him think of another attack route, which seemed to be more convenient than directly storming Hulao Pass. At least there were no natural barriers to be attacked along the way.

"My lord, we have already discussed this. Since Zilong tried to rescue you before, we should have led a small number of cavalry into Henei County of Sili and reached the Yellow River on the other side of Chenggao.

This time, Cao Cao has committed the crime of regicide again, and officials everywhere must be in a panic. Our army can just bypass Yecheng from the southern part of Weijun in Jizhou and head straight to Henei, then cross the Yellow River from Henei to the south, and land anywhere between Mengjin and Chenggao.

In this way, we can avoid attacking Hulao Pass and directly enter the heart of the Heluo Plain. Including the time spent on attacking Henei, we will be able to capture Luoyang in less than two months!"

(End of this chapter)