My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 87 Zhuge Liang's Persuasion Begins to Show Its Power

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang successfully controlled Liu Yao by appealing to his emotions and reasoning with him respectively.

This forced him to agree to go to Poyang and Chungu later, under the banner of Yangzhou Mu, to first deal with the newly emerged enemy Zu Lang, and then slowly plan for Sun Ce.

However, Liu Yao was seriously ill after all. Even though he agreed to Liu Bei's request, he still said that he was in a very bad condition and could not withstand the bumpy and tiring journey by water, so it was not suitable for him to travel far, hoping to delay for some time until he recovered.

Seeing that he was so sick, Liu Bei originally didn't want to make things difficult for him, mainly because he was embarrassed to ask for help and force him to leave, and Taishi Ci was also watching on the side.

Fortunately, Zhuge Liang had a clear view of the situation. He realized that Liu Yao's illness could not be cured. If they waited any longer, they would end up burying Liu Yao in the ground.

So that night, Zhuge Liang took advantage of Taishi Ci's absence to privately offer advice to Liu Bei: "General, do you still remember the agreement with my brother? I heard that before my brother went to Yuzhang last year, Mi Zhu Mi Zi Zhong asked him for advice on how to make the ship stable at sea, right?"

Liu Bei also remembered this and nodded quickly, "That's true. I remember that three days before Ziyu left, he suddenly became very concerned about this matter. He even picked a boat to do an experiment. He added two sharpened planks to the underwater parts of both sides of the boat, and then took that boat southward. By the way, is it the boat you took when you came back this time?"

As Liu Bei was talking, he suddenly remembered that the fighting ship that Zhuge Liang was riding on the day before looked very familiar.

After all, there were only a few large warships in the Guangling Army, and at the beginning only one warship that could accommodate 500 people was given to the Zhuge family. The one that Zhuge Liang was riding on when he came back today was also that big, so it must be the same one without a doubt.

Zhuge Liang immediately admitted it and explained: "During the three months my brother was in Yuzhang, he told me all the unfinished business he had done in Guangling. I happened to know a little about craftsmanship, so I further improved the design of this 'bill keel', repeatedly experimented, and adjusted its size and shape. General, didn't you find that the degree of bumps on the boat was particularly small during the past two days?"

Zhuge Jin had also let slip the word "bilge keel" in the past few months, because this stabilizing fin that reduces the roll of the hull is originally called this. When Zhuge Jin talked to his brother, he did not hide it.

Because he knew that in this life, a ship with a keel would definitely be invented in the future, so that navigation technology and wave resistance could be thoroughly improved. Putting forward this concept first might inspire Zhuge Liang to think in advance about "what kind of improvement effect can be achieved by adding a few strong woods running through the bow and stern of the ship when building a ship."

After Zhuge Liang was inspired by the concept of "dragon bone", although he had no time to think about shipbuilding recently, he was able to draw inferences from other cases and come up with many ideas.

At this moment, Liu Bei was reminded of this and suddenly said, "It is true. I thought the wind and waves on the river suddenly became smaller in the past two days. I have been talking with you day and night for the past two days and have benefited a lot. I didn't even notice the turbulence. I am really ashamed.

So, since this boat can withstand the wind and waves, tomorrow we will persuade Liu Yangzhou to leave as soon as possible without worrying about the wind and waves. "

Zhuge Liang pressed his finger lightly: "Don't be impatient, wait a day or two. First of all, Liu Yangzhou was really angry and vomited blood today, so wait a day or two until his emergency symptoms pass.

Secondly, if you tell him right away tomorrow, it will seem like we are well prepared, which will easily make people wary. It is better for you to tell Taishi Ziyi tomorrow.

He only said, "We have learned that Liu Yangzhou is so seriously ill that his movements have been affected. We have been thinking hard all night and have come up with a solution. It will take another day or two to repair the warship. If it works in the end, we will invite Liu Yangzhou to set off."

This way, it would seem that we had taken care of him after we knew about his illness. With such sincere intentions, how could he refuse? Even if he wanted to refuse, the captain of the Imperial History Department would definitely be willing to follow us to kill the bandits and make achievements.

Moreover, we have one last way out, that is, we say that this place is in chaos and it is not suitable for recuperation. If you think it is too far to go to Chungu, you can ask him to cross the Yangtze River to the north. The general is willing to move out of Hailing County to provide Liu Yangzhou with his daily life during his serious illness and to manage the affairs of Yangzhou remotely. "

Zhuge Liang spoke eloquently and gave three meanings. The Hailing County he mentioned was Taizhou in later times, east of Guangling (Yangzhou) and across the river from Zhenjiang.

With each layer Liu Bei listened to, a hint of surprise appeared on his face.

Unexpectedly, Kong Ming arranged the subsequent matters so perfectly, which not only earned him enough reputation, but also completely won the loyalty of Liu Yao's subordinates. In the end, he retreated to advance and further forced Liu Yao into an embarrassing position.

The day before yesterday, he clearly said that he was not as good as his elder brother in identifying, employing and persuading people!
Of course, Tzuyu is also very good at this...

"Everything will be done as you say, sir!" Liu Bei felt like he had found a treasure again.

Well, to be exact, it is a treasure that has already been picked up, and a hidden attribute has been identified.

……

Since Zhuge Liang had thought of everything for him in such detail, there was nothing much to say about the subsequent process. Liu Bei strictly followed the plan and first looked for Taishi Ci.

When Taishi Ci heard that Liu Bei was so concerned about Liu Yao's retreat and recuperation, he was quite moved, and said that as long as he could ensure that Liu Yao's health could hold on, he would definitely persuade him to withdraw to Hailing.

Moreover, Taishi Ci also said that after Liu Yao arrived in Hailing, he could rest and recuperate alone, and he was willing to immediately follow Liu Bei to Chungu and other places to defeat Zu Lang and do his part.

When the governor of Yangzhou was unable to perform his duties due to a serious illness, he followed the governor of Yangzhou to quell the rebellion in the Yangzhou area, which was what he should have done. Liu Bei and his entourage acted for another day or two, and then pretended that "after learning of Liu Yao's illness, they urgently modified the warship to improve its stability", and then invited Taishi Ci to board the ship first to experience it.

Taishi Ci also knew something about naval forces, and he immediately determined that what Liu Bei said was true, and his face was filled with shock.

"How did Lord Xuande manage to transform the warship and improve its wave and turbulence resistance to such an extent in just two or three days? It's simply unbelievable."

Liu Bei smiled proudly: "Of course I don't have this ability, but Mr. Kong Ming knows everything about astronomy, geography, medicine, divination, astrology, craftsmanship and mathematics. Three days will be enough."

Taishi Ci was stunned. After a while, he went to find Liu Yao to establish Chen.

Liu Yao was no longer able to resist, as he knew that Taishi Ci had been influenced by Liu Bei and had become determined.

His own procrastination resulted in him being moved to Hailing County to recuperate and die. However, everyone around him thought that Liu Bei was right, even his own son Liu Ji did not see that Liu Bei had any bad intentions.

Having brought this upon himself, Liu Yao had no choice but to follow Liu Bei across the river. A day later, he was settled in Hailing County. He then obediently took out the seal of the governor of Yangzhou, saying, "I entrust everything to my dear brother Xuande during my serious illness."

During the three days when Liu Bei was waiting for Liu Yao to leave, he did not waste any time. He had already started to "carry the people across the river" and safely transported all the people, soldiers, and officials in Dantu who were willing to follow Liu Yao or Liu Bei.

Because there were enough ships, they also tried their best to help people transport property and surplus grain in the treasury, and tried not to leave any official property to Sun Ce.

Sun Ce had recently started a war with Wang Lang, so he didn't pay much attention to the blockade of this side. Perhaps he didn't want to commit the crime of "killing the governor of Yangzhou" in his heart. If Liu Yao was willing to leave, he would be eager to have one less annoying trouble, so all of Liu Bei's actions went smoothly.

For Sun Ce, it would be best if Liu Yao died of illness, so that he would not have to take action and get himself stained with blood and get a bad reputation.

In history, Sun Ce later showed nominal respect to Liu Ji, Taishi Ci and Zu Lang. It was because the process of the Sun family's rule over Jiangdong was not glorious and the local resistance was too fierce, so he had to bring out those rulers who were missed by the people of Jiangdong to whitewash his legitimacy.

It is said that in history, after Taishi Ci and Zu Lang surrendered to Sun Ce, Sun Ce let them lead the way and return to Moling City in a grand manner, which shocked the people of Moling. They could hardly believe that Taishi Ci and Zu Lang, who were originally quite prestigious in Danyang, would surrender.

After these two mascots were used, Sun Ce put Zu Lang on the shelf, only giving him treatment but no real power. Taishi Ci's situation was slightly better.

But the problem was that Sun Ce died shortly after Taishi Ci surrendered. When the young and powerless Sun Quan came to power, he completely put Taishi Ci on the shelf and did not dare to use him at all, fearing that Taishi Ci, as "one of the former princes of Jiangdong", would have too much prestige and appeal and threaten his rule.

These are all things that happened later. In short, these layers of comprehensive considerations meant that even if Sun Ce’s army was aware of some clues, they were unwilling to directly confront and intercept.

Moreover, being able to recover a county town for free and forcing the enemy to abandon the city on their own was also a wish fulfilled. If we stop them in vain and force the enemy to defend the city and fight again, wouldn't that be counterproductive?
……

Liu Bei's army eventually obtained three to four thousand regular troops from Liu Yao, as well as more than 20,000 civilians who were willing to follow him across the river, thousands of militiamen evacuated from other counties, and hundreds of scholars and officials.

In addition, the remaining weapons in the Yangzhou Mu armory were withdrawn, along with more than 60,000 shi of grain and millions of coins of military supplies.

Originally, these grains were enough for Liu Yao's army to eat until the autumn harvest. But no one knew what Liu Yao was planning. He was in an isolated city and couldn't even grow crops outside the city. Even the autumn harvest would have nothing to do with him. If he didn't break out, he would starve to death sooner or later.

After settling Liu Yao in Hailing County, Liu Bei had a deep talk with Taishi Ci, advising him to take his own troops and some Danyang troops who were sent to supplement him, and station in Poyang County, and try to capture Chungu County as a foothold as soon as possible.

After the main force makes some further preparations, it may be possible to launch a full-scale attack on Zu Lang.

Taishi Ci had been surrounded for more than half a year, feeling very aggrieved. Upon hearing this, he immediately accepted the order:

"I will serve you! Even if I only have my own troops, I will force Zu Lang to surrender based on the righteousness! Although Zu Lang has many troops, he does not dare to openly resist the court.

As far as I know, he just wants to be independent and not be bound by any rules. As long as our army uses the title of Yangzhou governor and the imperial court to inflict heavy damage on some of his troops, we may be able to force him to serve the imperial court."

Liu Bei patted Taishi Ci on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I won't let you rely on only my own troops to deal with Zu Lang. Yunchang has trained elite troops in Yuzhang, which can provide you with backup.

I will keep Kongming by my side and make plans day and night. After you move to Poyang and Chungu, you can consult Kongming's brother Zhuge Ziyu on everything, and he will surely help you make up for the shortcomings. The war in the south will depend on you guys for the time being."

(End of this chapter)