My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 794: What Yuan Shao couldn't do when he fought against Dong Zhuo, the Lord can do today

Liu Bei had just prepared to mourn for the emperor and issue an edict to confess his sins, and he waged a war of public opinion with Cao Cao, trying to at least nail Cao Cao to the pillar of shame for "obstructing the emperor from escaping disaster and killing the emperor during chaos."

On the other hand, the Zhuge brothers had already helped him think of a new battle plan, advising him not to attack Hulao Pass again, but to go through Henei County instead, then cross the Yellow River to the south from Henei County, and attack Luoyang from Mengjin.

Liu Bei was also knowledgeable about military affairs, so he naturally thought this plan was a bit dangerous and unreliable at first. But considering that this plan was unanimously recommended by the Zhuge brothers, Liu Bei had to put aside his common sense and take a serious look at it.

To an outsider, if one wants to attack Luoyang but does not want to attack Hulao Pass, then it is easy to think of taking a detour from the north and bypassing the dangerous pass.

But since ancient times, the existence of Hulao Pass and the reason why it is so important are of course for a reason. If it is so easy to bypass, why didn't Yuan Shao, who led hundreds of thousands of allied forces to camp in Suanzao outside Hulao Pass for more than half a year when he was fighting against Dong Zhuo?

It was because before the Battle of Hulao Pass, Dong Zhuo had already counterattacked Henei and wiped out the forces of Wang Kuang, the governor of Henei. Yuan Shao was unable to gain a firm foothold in Henei, so he retreated to Suanzao to join forces with other princes.

So it was not that Yuan Shao did not want to go around, but that he could not, because Wang Kuang, who provided him with military rations and support, had already been defeated. The princes could only move to Zhang Miao's territory in Chenliu, relying on Zhang Miao to provide them with military rations, and eating the food of whoever they came to.

The problems that Yuan Shao faced back then are also what Liu Bei has to face today. After all, the objective geographical environment cannot be changed by human will.

Liu Bei knew very well what happened when Yuan Shao attacked Dong Zhuo, so he immediately asked several key questions:

"If we advance from Hanoi, how should we arrange our military food supply? Previously, Your Majesty wanted to escape from Luoyang, go east along the Yellow River, and bypass Hulao Pass, but that was only a few small boats sneaking across. If our army has Gongjin to support us, it is still possible to succeed.

But if an army of more than 100,000 people attacks, the food and fodder they need will have to be transported by water, and a lot of food ships will need to be dispatched. The river section north of Xingyang is probably not that easy to navigate, right? The current there is fast and there are many dangerous shoals. Long-term transportation will definitely damage many ships. "

Liu Bei first pointed out the most important and well-known issue.

The difficult places to navigate on the Yellow River are not limited to Hongnong Shan County (Sanmenxia) upstream of Luoyang. The area near Xingyang downstream is also relatively difficult to navigate, but not as exaggerated as Sanmenxia.

The Heluo area is the transitional part from the second geographical ladder of China to the first geographical ladder. In Sanmenxia, the elevation difference is very high and the altitude drops a lot. In Xingyang and Chenggao, downstream of Luoyang, there is another rapid drop in altitude, which also makes the Yellow River water turbulent.

Therefore, Xiaopingjin and Mengjin ferry to the north of Luoyang can protect Luoyang, because most of the ships coming to Luoyang via the Yellow River cross the river directly from the other side of Xiaopingjin and Mengjin, rather than sailing along the river hundreds of miles upstream and downstream.

The rapid river section with a high drop blocked long-distance water transportation, leaving only short-distance water transportation, which is why Luoyang is so dangerous.

Later in the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin had to keep the capital in Bianliang instead of Luoyang because Bianliang was east of Xingyang and Chenggao, and the Yellow River near Bianliang was very calm, with good navigation conditions, thus convenient water transport.

To reach Luoyang, the Yellow River has to climb a steep step. The reason why Luoyang's water transport conditions are poor is because of this step.

Fortunately, in the face of Liu Bei's worries, the Zhuge brothers came up with their own solutions.

As the prime minister, Zhuge Jin was in a higher position and had greater power. Plus, he was the elder brother, so Zhuge Liang would of course let him speak first.

So Zhuge Jin directly copied Liu Yu's later Northern Expedition homework without any psychological barriers. Historically, before Liu Yu established Liu Song, as a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he also launched several Northern Expeditions. When the going was best, he even reached Luoyang and Chang'an successively.

Liu Yu relied on water transport and the Queyue Formation to defeat the Northern Wei cavalry that had crossed the north bank of the Yellow River and successfully advance westward.

Historically, when Liu Yu passed through the relatively turbulent section of the Yellow River east of Luoyang, he used a large number of trackers to pull tugboats, and used a ship type that was more seaworthy and more convenient for sailing against the current.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin pointed out sharply that the newest inland vessels in his camp were more seaworthy than those used by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao before.

For example, Liu Bei's camp had already used flat-bottomed ships and pointed-bottomed ships in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea respectively. However, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and other vassal states had always been in the north and had never seen pointed-bottomed ships. The Yellow Sea was shallow and had many undercurrents, so pointed-bottomed ships were not safe.

However, pointed-bottom boats are more suitable for riding against the current in turbulent waters. When the boatmen near the shore pull against the current, the resistance is smaller and they are more easily dragged.

These boats may not be seaworthy in the gentle area of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, nor in the Yellow Sea. However, in the turbulent river section with a large drop north of Xingyang and Chenggao, they can sail against the current better than the old flat-bottomed boats.

In addition, Liu Bei's camp also has famous naval generals like Zhou Yu, and his ability to dispatch and command warships and sailors is far superior to that of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.

Therefore, what Cao Cao and Yuan Shao could never do was to let Zhou Yu make special arrangements, mobilize professional ships in advance, and make advance preparations, which was very likely to open up the waterway for food.

However, the cost would still be much higher than normal, and it would be more troublesome. Because when the downstream grain fleet came, it had to use ships with good still water navigability. When passing through the Xingyang and Chenggao river sections, it had to unload and load cargo, and change ships once, which required the conscription of a large number of corvée laborers to serve as temporary dock workers.

However, these problems are just cost issues, and it is enough as long as it is technically feasible.

After listening to Zhuge Jin's analysis, Liu Bei felt more at ease and realized that he could indeed do many things that Yuan and Cao had not been able to do before.

However, it will cause the people to have to work harder again.

Fortunately, just after Liu Bei expressed his feelings about the sufferings of the people, Zhuge Liang immediately made a second patch to the plan.

Zhuge Liang confidently analyzed: "My lord, you don't have to worry about over-employing the people. You can just recruit more corvée laborers to serve as dock workers and load and unload cargo more often. This will save a lot more money than transporting grain all the way by land.

Moreover, our army does not necessarily have to rely on such grain transportation as the main source of military supplies. Our army can also hope to quickly capture the counties of Hanoi, and then immediately rely on the enemy for food and rely on local grain reserves to support the war.

My Lord, please think about it. The emperor was killed by Cao thief. When the news spreads, the whole world will be shocked. If our army does not show that we have the ability to maintain the two routes by ourselves, and rashly bypasses Weijun and goes straight to Henei, then the defenders in various parts of Henei may still hesitate, worried that our army will not have enough successors and will be defeated by Cao thief if we advance rashly, and dare not immediately abandon the dark and join the light.

However, as long as our army demonstrates these ingenious arrangements and lets the civil and military officials in Hanoi see everything, and then uses appropriate psychological warfare, these people will have a scale in their hearts and will surely quickly judge that our army has the strength to continue, and that the Cao bandits will not be able to last long in Heluo.

By then, the counties in Hanoi will surrender one after another, and even those in our army that were originally short of food will no longer be short of food.”

What Zhuge Liang said is actually the Matthew effect.

Money flows to those who have more money, and food flows to those who have enough food.

To those who have more, give more; and to those who have less, take away what they have.

The way of the sky is more than damage but not enough to make up for.

The way of man is to take what is insufficient and give to what is in excess.

As long as Liu Bei's army builds up momentum for its entry into Henei, for every 100 dan of grain consumed subsequently, only 20 to 30 dan will need to be transported by themselves, and the remaining 70 to 80 dan will be given to you by others simply because they see your luck.

After sorting out all these pros and cons, Liu Bei naturally had no doubts and adjusted according to this plan. He did not forcefully attack Hulao Pass, but went directly from the southern part of Weijun to Henei. The relevant military order was quickly delivered to Guan Yu, who was ordered to lead the main infantry of the Central Army to cross the Yellow River to the north, pass Liyang, and advance to Henei along the north of the Yellow River.

The cavalry units needed for this battle were naturally under the command of Zhao Yun and Ma Chao. They were already in the Hebei war zone, suppressing Xiahou Dun in Yecheng. Moreover, Zhao Yun himself had already infiltrated into Hanoi with a small group of cavalry, but failed to capture any city.

Now with Guan Yu's main army as their backup, Zhao Yun and Ma Chao only need to play the role of cavalry vanguard and they will naturally be invincible.

……

Liu Bei's army spent more than ten days formulating strategies and making arrangements, and also spent some time preparing boats and crossing the river.

It was not until the end of June that the entire army finally gathered in Liyang and began to advance eastward.

When the fighting really started, everything went smoothly and there was no decent resistance at the beginning.

Perhaps this is the reason why sharpening the knife makes the work of chopping wood easier.

On June 24, Liu Bei's army had just entered Henei. Chaoge County, as the gateway to Henei, put up only a brief resistance before being directly captured by Guan Yu.

Zhao Yun and Ma Chao had already cut off Cao's army's retreat in Chaoge. Except for a few diehard Cao Cao's direct followers who tried to break through and were completely killed by Zhao Yun, most of the remaining defeated soldiers chose to surrender directly.

Guan Yu then took steady steps and arrived at Ji County (now Xinxiang City) within five days.

Perhaps because Ji County was not originally a frontline city, the local garrison was weaker and had worse fighting will, and they were not prepared for battle.

In the end, Jixian and the surrounding Gongxian (Weihui) and Huojia, a total of three counties, surrendered almost without a fight.

There was still some grain stored in Ji County and Gong County, which greatly alleviated the food problem of Guan Yu's army.

As the wheel of history rolls into July.

On the third day of July, Guan Yu defeated Xiuwu again, and on the eighth day he approached Shanyang.

Further south is Huai County, the capital of Hanoi County.

As an aside, in history, after Liu Xie was forced to abdicate by Cao Pi, he was granted the title of Duke of Shanyang. This Shanyang was Shanyang County in Henei County, not Shanyang County in Yanzhou.

Liu Bei and Guan Yu, this can be said to be the fiefdom that Liu Xie originally obtained after his abdication in history.

The area around Shanyang County today has no special historical significance, and it is not a military stronghold.

Thousands of Cao's troops did resist locally, but after Liu Bei's army prepared large-scale siege weapons, Shanyang County was captured in just three days.

All in all, the actual time spent on siege was not as long as the time spent on besieging the city and building siege weapons.

On July 15, Liu Bei's army went one step further and began to besiege Huai County directly, while the cavalry units of Zhao Yun and Ma Chao also bypassed Huai County and headed straight for the north bank of the Yellow River.

Zhao Yun advanced towards Wen County, and Ma Chao advanced towards Pinggao. The resistance of these two counties was far less than that of Huai County, the county seat, and they surrendered one after another before the end of July.

Wen County corresponds to the county where Lu Bu was originally granted the title of Marquis Wen. Zhao Yun's attack on Wen County was considered as helping the late Lu Bu to regain his fiefdom from his enemies.

On the other side of Wen County is Mengjin, an important ferry crossing in northern Luoyang. On the other side of Pinggao County is Chenggao, the place where the emperor tried to escape from Cao Cao's clutches but drowned while crossing the river.

In other words, even though Liu Bei's army had not yet captured Huai County, he had already successfully drunk water from the Yellow River, and across the river was Henan Yin.

The remaining court in Luoyang was also shaken by this. Cao Cao tried to plug the loopholes everywhere, but he only managed to temporarily stabilize the defenses along the south bank of the Yellow River and ensure that the garrisons were replaced by his trusted aides.

During the month that Liu Bei was advancing, various chaos occurred in Henan Yin, which Cao Cao could not put out. This led to Cao Cao having no control over Hanoi on the north bank and being unable to provide reinforcements.

Because the emperor's death caused such a huge shock, Liu Bei issued another decree to express his guilt for not being able to save the emperor.

This move directly forced Cao Cao into a corner in terms of public opinion warfare, and no matter how Cao Cao acted or argued, it was useless.

In the areas ruled by Liu Bei, the number of people who were willing to believe that "Cao Cao did not kill the emperor, but the emperor was killed by kidnappers" was less than one-tenth of ten, probably only three to five percent. And most of them either had their own interests in mind or were extremely shallow and did not understand politics.

Even in the areas controlled by Cao Cao, only a small number of people were willing to believe that Cao Cao did not want to kill the king. At least 60 to 70 percent did not believe Cao Cao.

With people in this state of mind, Cao Cao could only focus on putting out fires everywhere and had no time to send reinforcements to Hanoi.

In desperation, Cao Cao also made a painful decision on the spur of the moment, which was to ask Cao Ren and Cao Zhen of Xu County to completely abandon Yingchuan County, withdraw all the troops there along the Zhongmu line, back to the north of Funiu Mountain, and retreat to the Heluo Plain.

The young and strong men and militiamen in Yingchuan should withdraw if they can, but there is nothing they can do if they cannot.

Cao Cao knew very well that if Liu Bei was about to make a detour into the Heluo Basin and left an isolated island of Yingchuan on the Guandong Plain, then once Liu Bei made decisive progress in Heluo, Cao Ren would be completely divided and surrounded.

Given the current unrest among the people, it is impossible for Cao Ren to hold on to Xu County for long.

As a result, before Liu Bei made a decisive breakthrough in Luoyang, he unexpectedly and quickly captured Xu Du.

The retreat of Cao Ren and Cao Zhen did indeed slightly slow down Liu Bei's advance on the front battlefield, because Liu Bei had to allocate part of his troops to assist Zhang Fei's advance on the southeast line.

Zhang Fei had suffered for so long, fighting a war of attrition with Cao Ren in Yingchuan.

Now that Luoyang was in a situation of being trapped, Cao Cao simply gave up Xu County and retreated across the board.

Zhang Fei successfully got such a great credit for nothing.

(End of this chapter)