My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 81: Taking Yuzhang
"Yun Chang is truly a man of extraordinary bravery. He led 8,000 soldiers to attack the camp from 9:00 to 5:00 in less than two hours. He defeated 30,000 enemy troops and completely wiped out the enemy's central army."

"Such a swift and decisive attack is rarely seen in the modern world. Only the ancient overlords can surpass it."

As the Lushan camp was completely destroyed by the Han army, the more than 10,000 people in the central camp of Zuo Rong were completely wiped out, and the left and right camps also completely collapsed and fled.
The battle was now completely decided, and all that remained was to hunt down the scattered escapees.

Zhuge Jin could not help but go out of the city in person to comfort the troops - of course, he did so under the escort of hundreds of elite soldiers to avoid being hit by the scattered stragglers on the way.

When he arrived at the Lushan camp and personally observed the terrain of the battlefield and saw Guan Yu and Gan Ning attacking from the front and back, Zhuge Jin could not help but express the above sentiment, which was very sincere.

When Guan Yu met him, he looked calm, but in fact his beard couldn't help twitching slightly, and it jumped along with the muscles on his nasolabial folds. It was obvious that he was trying hard to control his emotions.

But he still stroked his beard while trembling, and said proudly: "Zao Rong is just a common man, even though there are many of them, they are not to be feared. Although there are 30,000 of them, they are not as dangerous as the battle last year when I broke through Liu Xun's camp and then turned back to fight Ji Ling!
The number of people who actually fought me was less than 20,000. There were at least 10,000 enemies in the left and right camps, but they were defeated before the battle because Zuo Rong was killed. "

Zhuge Jin didn't care about how Guan Yu killed his enemies, he just commented:

“No matter how we won, such a big victory, and such a clean one, must be a record that only a famous general of the time can achieve.

After this battle, the entire Yuzhang County will be pacified soon. My uncle was able to take up his post smoothly and take charge of the entire territory, thanks to Yunchang’s efforts. "

Guan Yu proudly bowed and returned the greeting: "Tzuyu helped you survive in Guangling last year and gain a foothold. Today I am just returning the favor. Don't worry about it!"

The two of them boasted about their business, and Zhuge Jin was about to celebrate Guan Yu's success, but Guan Yu said he was not in a hurry and had to chase the remaining enemies as soon as possible:

"Although most of the left and right camps surrendered, there were still some die-hard monks who were afraid of being liquidated and fled when the army was defeated. I'm afraid there were no less than a thousand of them each. Before today's decisive battle, Zuo Rong sent out two separate divisions to kill, plunder and harass the surrounding villages and towns. Each division had two to three thousand people.

So, of the 35,000 troops, only 26,700 were directly annihilated, captured, or surrendered by me. If these remaining leaderless soldiers were to cause harm to the local area, it would cause great trouble. We should take this opportunity to search and capture them as soon as possible.

In addition, I just tortured the captives and learned that Zuo Rong has left 3,000 soldiers in Haihun County and Nanchang County to guard each. In order to prevent the most heinous criminals from fleeing for fear of punishment, it would be best to immediately send someone to Yongxiu County to pass on the message and have Shu Zhi lead the troops to Haihun and other places to force them to surrender. "

Zhuge Jin nodded his head in thanks, "Yun Chang is right. I was too complacent too early. In this case, I will have to work hard for another day or two. You must bravely pursue the enemy and eradicate all the evil. When Nanchang is taken, we will celebrate with you. I will record your achievements today first. I will definitely not let you down."

Zhuge Jin immediately ordered the wine and meat brought in as rewards to be distributed to the troops. After all, they had to eat no matter how urgent the situation was.

At today's celebration banquet, of course everyone had fish to eat and wine to drink, and all the staple food was available to everyone.

Then, while the soldiers were eating and resting, Zhuge Jin announced the reward standards after winning the battle. Although many troops were still chasing the enemy in scattered groups and could not hear it outside the camp, their comrades-in-arms told them that the Zhuge family would not be short of hungry soldiers and would reward those who made contributions.

Every soldier who participated in the war received a general reward of one hundred five-zhu coins. Those who had additional military achievements or were injured or killed and needed compensation were treated separately.

If a person captures a first-class beast, he will be given an additional piece of linen and ten feet of silk - this reward is not high, mainly because most of the enemies encountered in this battle are militia, who are known for their large numbers, so it is impossible to give too high a reward.

If it was a head with a shaved head, Zhuge Jin would ask the Gongcao to secretly note it down when counting the results of the battle, and then pay double the amount of the money when the time came.

However, this condition was not publicized at the beginning. The fear was that the soldiers would hear that shaved heads were more valuable and would quickly cut more hair from the dead to cheat more money.

Faced with the Zhuge family's rewards and gifts of wine and meat, the soldiers all shouted in support and their morale soared.

……

Because they were busy expanding their victory, all the generals were sent out in the next two or three days.
For the time being, Zhuge Jin no longer had the opportunity to personally visit the troops every day and could only listen to the battle reports sent back by the scouts.

The work on civil affairs and the task of receiving and settling prisoners and surrendered soldiers were also rather complicated, and the Zhuge brothers were soon entangled in these mundane affairs.

In their original plan, Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang's training and transformation mission would last at least two or three months. Only after their combat effectiveness was fully formed would they move south to attack Zuo Rong's old nest.

There was actually another purpose for making this decision at the time, which was to avoid the busy farming season of spring ploughing and sowing, so as to prevent the people of Yuzhang from fleeing and production from being seriously damaged due to the war.

Therefore, Zuo Rong's early and proactive attack actually disrupted Zhuge Jin's rhythm.

Zuo Rong didn't regard Yuzhang as his base, but just as an object for plunder.

Whether the people's farming season is delayed is none of his business.

He began to besiege the Lushan camp on the second day of the second lunar month, when the dragon raises its head. The final decisive battle would be on the tenth day of the second lunar month. The pursuit and suppression would have to last no longer than the middle of the second lunar month.

The spring sowing time for the people of Chaisang County has been delayed by at least ten days. Although it can be remedied, a slight reduction in production is inevitable.

Fortunately, only Chaisang and its surrounding small counties were affected to this extent. Other counties in the hinterland of Yuzhang, far away from Pengli Lake, were not affected.

Zhuge Jin, however, was quite compassionate and could not bear to see the people suffering under his nose. After all, Chaisang was the first important stronghold he had captured in Yuzhang. In the days after the war, he began to think about whether he could find a way to speed up the efficiency of spring sowing and regain the farming time. He did come up with something.

……

In the following days, while the Zhuge brothers were busy recruiting people and handling internal affairs, they also received a number of good news in succession, and the situation of land grabbing was very clear.

On February 11, Guan Yu intercepted the two armies that Zuo Rong had sent out to burn, kill, loot, and destroy surrounding villages and towns.

The enemy didn't dare to take any action. Only a few die-hard monks and villains who had robbed too much property and were afraid of being liquidated wanted to protect their property and break out. The vast majority of other soldiers chose to surrender directly.

The total number of county soldiers and militiamen who were incorporated was about 3,000, of which county soldiers were 500 to 600. As for those who wanted to break out and refused to surrender, they were of course pursued and severely injured by Guan Yu, and hundreds of them were killed. In the end, there were only less than 1,000 diehard enemy soldiers who fled and went northwest.

I believe that these die-hard bandits will not dare to continue to stay in the heart of Yuzhang and do evil. After suffering so much from the Zhuge family, they will most likely choose to flee to the mountainous area on the border between Yuzhang and Jiangxia and become bandits.

It will take a long time to completely eliminate these people.

But fortunately, this is not a problem that the Zhuge family has to face alone. Huang Zu on the opposite side will also have this headache.

After destroying the enemy's detachment, one day later, on the twelfth day, Chen Dao in the south won another great victory.

On the day that Zuo Rong was killed, Guan Yu sent the heads of the Zuo brothers south by express messenger and delivered them to Chen Dao.

After Chen Dao got it, his confidence naturally soared. He only mobilized more than a thousand county soldiers and dared to make an emergency landing in Haihun County.

The number of defenders in Haihun County was actually twice that of Chen Dao’s siege force.

But Chen Dao had the imperial edict appointing the Zhuge family, the heads of the Zuo brothers, and a large number of other physical evidence that could prove that Zuo Rong's main force had collapsed.

The defenders of Haihun County did not dare to act rashly. After seeing the heads, they opened the city gate and surrendered.

Some wealthy monks and soldiers were afraid of being liquidated and wanted to run away with their property, but they were all killed by the militia who turned against them and could not escape from the city at all.

In the end, only four or five hundred people were killed, and the evil villains who had caused great public outrage and whose crimes were obvious were eliminated, and the entire Haihun County was completely pacified.

Chen Dao, with his confidence greatly increased, turned back to Chaisang to report the victory while continuing to move south. He also recruited another 1,000 surrendered soldiers from Haihun and headed for Nanchang.

After all, Nanchang County was the home of the Zuo family for the past two years. Although all the brothers of the Zuo family had died, there were still some collateral relatives and female families. Moreover, Nanchang County was also the place where Zuo Rong had built the most pagodas and cast the most bronze statues in the past two years.

Among the three thousand soldiers defending the city, quite a few were die-hards who refused to surrender for the sake of their own interests.

Chen Dao was unable to capture the city temporarily, so he had to surround the city from all sides to prevent the thieves from escaping with the property, while asking Guan Yu for help.

The military intelligence was delivered to Guan Yu on February 14. He did not hesitate and immediately led thousands of reinforcements south. He arrived in Nanchang County four days later, and after a brief rest, he launched a general attack the next day.

The Nanchang defenders were no more than 3,000 men, and they were disorganized. Faced with a Han army three times their number launching the first assault, the militia and county soldiers finally seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack, helping Guan Yu to completely capture the city.

The relatives and some monks of the Zuo family fled to several monasteries in the city for a final resistance, but naturally the gates were broken into by fire and they were all killed afterwards.

Guan Yu did not set fire to the rest of the temples that did not resist. Instead, he had all the bronze statues confiscated. Those that were too heavy to transport were broken into pieces and then returned to be used to cast new coins and other artifacts.

The bronze statue had to be transported away because the raw materials were valuable and were looted from the people.

Houses are innocent, and their value does not lie in the building materials such as earth, wood, and stone, but in the hard work of the people. Wouldn't it be a waste of people's money to burn them rashly? At worst, they can be used for other purposes and still be lived in.

After pacifying Nanchang County, there was no more fighting in the counties south of Ganjiang River, and the whole area was pacified within half a month.

Until this moment, Zhuge Xuan's title of Yuzhang governor was completely worthy of the name. The money and grain data of each county were also counted and sent to Nanchang.

After some discussion, the Zhuge family decided that it would be better to wait until the situation in Nanchang was stabilized before Zhuge Xuan returned to Nanchang, the original county seat, to handle daily government affairs.

The area of Yuzhang was so vast that it was equivalent to the entire province of Jiangxi in later generations. Although Chaisang was an important transportation route and commercial center, it was the northernmost part of the county after all, making it inconvenient to grasp the situation in the hinterland of the county.

Therefore, the result of the discussion of the Zhuge family was that Zhuge Xuan went to Nanchang to handle daily work, while Zhuge Jin stayed in Chaisang and took charge of Hukou, which would also facilitate his defense of the county from invasion by foreign enemies.

To enter Yuzhang, you can basically only go through the Yangtze River and Pengli Lake, and it is unlikely to go by land. Therefore, there is no need to defend the mountainous areas on the east, west and south sides, and only the waterway on the north can be guarded.

Unless the people of Jiaozhou in Lingnan wanted to attack Yuzhang, they would not be able to take the water route and could only cross Shaoguan on the Five Ridges to enter southern Jiangxi. This situation did happen briefly two years ago, but it will not happen again in the future.

Two years ago, Zhu Hao had just defeated Zhuge Xuan and was subsequently murdered by Zuo Rong.

Zhu Fu, Zhu Hao's elder brother and another son of Zhu Jun, was the governor of Jiaozhou appointed by the imperial court at that time. Upon hearing that his brother had been killed, Zhu Fu sent troops from Shaoguan to southern Jiangxi to fight with Zuo Rong.

But before Zhu Fu's troops could engage in battle with Zuo Rong, a rebellion broke out in Nanhai County. It was said that "barbarian soldiers" of unknown origin took advantage of the opportunity when Zhu Fu's direct guard troops were transferred away and the defense was empty, and broke into the city and killed Zhu Fu's entire family.

Later, Jiaozhi prefect Shi Xie came out to "enforce justice on behalf of heaven" and destroyed the "barbarian soldiers" who killed Zhu Fu, avenging Zhu. He also used this achievement as a bargaining chip and asked the court to appoint Shi Xie's other three brothers as prefects of various counties in Jiaozhou.

Therefore, there is absolutely no external enemy in Yuzhang's southern Wuling defense line. Zhuge Jin's presence in Chaisang is enough to ensure the safety of the entire county.

　The transition chapter is a bit rambling, sorry. But before changing the map, it is necessary to make a connection and take stock. This is the end of the Yuzhang dungeon. The new map will start tomorrow.
　　In addition, I would like to thank the book friend 2023XXXX6509 for his reward! (A long string of numbers cannot be typed in full, and the system will judge it as advertising. Sorry)
　　Thanks to the helmsman of Yam. I haven't checked the background messages these days, and I didn't notice the rewards. I'm ashamed.

　　Regarding the extra chapters, I am still in the Sanjiang period. I have always believed that Sanjiang and Qiangpu are supposed to be 10,000 words, so they are not considered extra chapters.

　　After the recommended position for these two weeks ends, I will continue to write for a while and increase my content to repay everyone's rewards. Thank you.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)