My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 95 Zu Lang: How did I become a traitor?

Zhuge Liang finally returned to Yuzhang.

The dual-line operations of Guangling and Yuzhang finally reconciled their timelines.

Some of the surprises that the second brother brought back were what Zhuge Jin had expected, but some were obviously "real surprises" that exceeded expectations.

For example, he was actually appointed as the governor of Danyang and the general of Pingyue, which was obviously beyond Zhuge Jin's plan.

With a greater status, Zhuge Jin will be able to move more freely in his subsequent arrangements.

After motivating Gan Ning, Zhuge Jin closed the door and discussed more details with his second brother in private in order to adjust the next stage of the action plan against Zu Lang.

Zhuge Jin personally poured a cup of fresh tea for his second brother, and Zhuge Liang respectfully took it and took a sip.

Yuzhang did not originally produce tea, but as the Zhuge family successfully took over, Zhuge Jin paid great attention to various farming plans to improve people's livelihood.

At the beginning of this spring, the merchant fleet he sent to Jingzhou to gather information obtained some tea seeds at a high price from Yizhou merchants who also went to Jingzhou for business. He planned to promote tea planting on mountain slopes that were not suitable for growing grain in the future, and also to facilitate the transformation of the production methods of the Shanyue people who had annexed the area in the future.

Of course, what he and Zhuge Liang were drinking now were still bought directly - it would take at least several years to grow tea trees by yourself before they could produce tea, it wouldn't be that fast.

Zhuge Jin just let his family members figure out the method of frying and killing the green tea. At present, it was not fried well and still had a bitter taste. Then he drank it according to the brewing method of later generations, omitting the onion, ginger and salt.

Zhuge Liang had been away from home for several months and this was the first time he drank this kind of tea. Although it tasted bad, he believed that what his elder brother promoted must make sense and might even be good for health.

At worst, we can let the young lady from the Huang family learn how to fry tea from Miss Bu. Maybe she will be good at summarizing the rules.

Zhuge Jin and his younger brothers got used to the bitterness, and then asked, "I didn't expect that this time we could take over Liu Yangzhou's power so thoroughly, and even let Sun Shao go to Xudu in the name of Liu Yao to submit a petition for an official position.

Ah Liang, your performance has really exceeded my expectations. Since Sun Shao is willing to serve, then Taishi Ci should be even more so, right? I remember that he and Lord Xuande are old friends. "

Zhuge Liang: "He also came with me, but the army's dispatch is not as light as mine, so he stayed in Chaisang for one more day. Chen Heng who stayed in Chaisang also needs to be handed over for inspection, and he will not let foreign troops enter the country casually."

Zhuge Jin: "In that case, let Taishi Ci lead his own army to attack Zu Lang. He doesn't have to join us in attacking Yi and She counties. He can expand his territory along the Yangtze River, from Chungu County to the surrounding areas, and he can also directly fight under Liu Yao's banner."

Chungu County is roughly equivalent to the two prefecture-level cities of Chizhou and Tongling in the southernmost part of Anhui Province in later generations. Tongling, as its name suggests, is also a copper mine, the largest copper mine in Anhui Province. As early as the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, large-scale mining had been carried out there, and copper officials were set up.

Once Taishi Ci followed Zhuge Jin's plan, Chungu would be west of Jingxian and Xuancheng, and Yixian and Shexian would be south of Jingxian and Xuancheng. The government troops would attack Zulang's core territory from the southwest.

However, plans are plans, and Zhuge Jin is not in a hurry to execute them. Since Taishi Ci came from afar, he should also meet him in person, welcome him, and then assign tasks.

We cannot let Taishi Ci counterattack directly in Chungu just to save time and distance.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin ordered Gan Ning to rest for a day or two and not to rush into another battle, and to catch the wind for Taishi Ci before leaving.

……

The next day, the Zhuge brothers and Gan Ning came to Chaisang from Poyang to meet Taishi Ci.

Later, Zhuge Jin also planned to stay in Chaisang personally and control the overall situation remotely, instead of rushing forward to station in Poyang County - originally when there was only the army led by Guan Yu and Gan Ning, Poyang was closer to the front line and could communicate with the front-line troops along the Po River.

Now we have to take into account both the Poshui River and the Yangtze River advance, so it is better to set up the base camp in Chaisang, which will be more convenient for taking both into account.

When the two sides met, although Taishi Ci was a guest general, he also respectfully took the initiative to salute: "I am Taishi Ci, the humble general, and I pay my respects to the Lord."

Zhuge Jin hurried forward to support him: "Ziyi is a great man in the world, why should you be so polite? When Lord Xuande was in danger in Guangling, he always mentioned that Ziyi was a man of his word, would repay a favor, and was known for his integrity. I was fascinated by what he heard and have wanted to make friends with him for a long time."

Taishi Ci still insisted on performing the ceremony, saying, "The distinction between high and low cannot be abolished. I am only a general of a minor rank. Since the Lord has been appointed as the governor of Danyang by the imperial edict, according to the law of the country, I shall obey your orders."

Zhuge Jin was stunned, and then he remembered that although Taishi Ci was so famous, his official position was not high when he was under Liu Yao. In the end, Liu Yao's other generals died and there was no one to use, so he promoted Taishi Ci to a miscellaneous commander in order to defend Dantu and survive.

According to the Han system, every county and checkpoint could have a commandery, in addition to miscellaneous commanderies. Taishi Ci, a miscellaneous commandery, had no specific defense area responsibilities, but he originally defended Danyang County, so he could also be considered the commandery of Danyang.

Zhuge Jin is now the governor of Danyang, so it is normal for him to be temporarily under Zhuge Jin's command. Of course, when Liu Bei becomes the governor of Yangzhou, Taishi Ci will definitely be promoted, and he will still be directly under Liu Bei at that time. At present, it is just a temporary transfer.

In the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", there is a record of Liu Yao's personal comment: "If I use Zi Yi, won't General Xu (Xu Shao) laugh at me?" This is enough to show that Taishi Ci held a low official position when he was under Liu Yao's command.

It was because Xu Shao also went south to join Liu Yao to escape the war, and then came to Yuzhang with Zhu Hao. Finally, he died of poverty and illness at the hands of Zuo Rong.

Thinking of this, Zhuge Jin couldn't help but sigh: No wonder Liu Yao didn't make it big. He hired people based too much on their backgrounds and resumes. How is this different from Yuan Shao and Liu Biao? It can even be said that he is worse than Yuan Shao.

However, since Taishi Ci had already surrendered, Zhuge Jin spoke openly to his face and deliberately tested him:
"After I defeated Zuo Rong, I met Xu Zijiang's family in Nanchang. I heard his son tell me that Liu Zhengli once said, 'If I use Ziyi, Xu Zijiang will laugh at me, right?' Is it true? Is Mr. Zhengli in good health now?"

Taishi Ci would have been upset to hear these words that led to his failure in officialdom, and would have felt that someone was instigating the relationship between him and Liu Yao. But Zhuge Jin's tone was frank, and he naturally recalled the words of Xu Shao's family, and the feeling was completely different.

Taishi Ci only thought that Zhuge Jin was concerned about him, and had no other intentions. So he also frankly admitted:
"Mr. Zhengli employs people based on their moral integrity and the imperial edict. Ci was once a fugitive, and Mr. Zhengli also has his difficulties. He is now seriously ill and weak, and I am afraid that something unexpected may happen at any time... Alas."

This was the first time Zhuge Jin heard about Liu Yao's condition, Zhuge Liang had not told him before. He could not help but feel a chill in his heart, thinking that his previous plan seemed a bit unnecessary.

In this case, Zhuge Jin was happy to do a favor and show his openness:

"In this case, some things are better kept between you and me, so as not to spread out and make Lord Zhengli's condition worse. I saved Xu Zijiang's orphan a month ago, and I heard that Xu Zijiang left a last will.

If it weren't for the fact that Duke Zhengli was unable to judge people and was too obsessed with status, and if he had not ignored the military power of a famous general like Ziyi and trusted a villain like Zuo Rong, how could he have been implicated and died?

From this point of view, the concerns of Lord Zhengli were totally unnecessary. If Xu Zi spread this will, it would certainly be good for Ziyi's reputation, but it would embarrass Lord Zhengli, so I suppressed it. "

Taishi Ci bowed his hands with a serious expression and said, "Your Excellency is so kind. I thank you on behalf of Lord Zhengli. I don't want to rely on the comments of these celebrities to become famous. Anyway, I will follow Lord Xuande and Your Excellency for the rest of my life. As long as heroes like Lord Xuande and sages like Your Excellency know me, it doesn't matter whether the rest of the world knows me or not."

Once both parties have talked it out thoroughly, there will be a foundation for full cooperation and trust.

At the welcoming banquet, Zhuge Jin introduced Gan Ning and Taishi Ci to each other, and mentioned that "Gan Ning was finally officially appointed as the Yuzhang Commandery Commandant by the court after following the Zhuge family." Even if it was a temporary secondment this time, Taishi Ci would definitely be rewarded for his merits and would not be used in vain.

When Taishi Ci saw Gan Ning's fate, he was very excited and thought to himself that there was indeed a future in following Lord Xuande's faction.

……

Two days later, Gan Ning and Taishi Ci returned to their respective armies and rejoined the battle.

Taishi Ci led his 4,000 men and quickly went down the Yangtze River again, captured the Tongguan Town of Tongling in later generations, occupied the Han copper mine that had been stolen by the Shanyue people, and cut off one of Zu Lang's main sources of income.

Afterwards, they occupied two towns which were equivalent to Chizhou in later generations. They were unstoppable all the way and those small Shanyue tribes were no match for them.

Moreover, Taishi Ci also brought the order from the governor of the state and the imperial court's decree of the crusade. This made those weak tribes who were originally just trying to be independent and avoid paying taxes and serving in the army, but never really thought of fighting against the Han Dynasty, surrender directly. Zu Lang's wings in the direction of Chungu County were cut off by more than half.

After several days of marching, Gan Ning successfully joined forces with Guan Yu and once again cleared out the scattered remaining enemies in the Po River Basin - mainly because some of the defeated soldiers who fled when Chen Pu fled before were trapped in the Po River Valley. Gan Ning came again this time and captured these guys again to prevent them from threatening Guan Yu's Po River grain route.

However, after the two armies joined forces, the attack on Lin Lishan was not smooth.

After Chen Pu returned to Linli Mountain, he occupied a strategic location. The Han army was unfamiliar with the steepness of Huangshan Mountain and suffered a slight setback while exploring the route.

Guan Yu responded improvisationally and discussed with Gan Ning, planning to lay siege and wait and see, making preparations to defend the outer periphery and weaken the inner periphery, to see whether Zu Lang would bring the main force of Shanyue to reinforce.

If they come, we will first surround the point and attack the reinforcements. After defeating the reinforcements, we can then attack the mountain with the momentum of the great victory. By then, we can also spread the news that "the reinforcements have been defeated" to undermine the morale of the enemy guarding the mountain, which will achieve twice the result with half the effort.

……

On the other hand, since Guan Yu captured Yi County and began to besiege Lin Lishan, he released Zushan early and asked him to negotiate terms with Zulang.

Anyway, Lin Lishan was surrounded and Zushan couldn't find the way back to the tribe, so he could only go to find his brothers.

On April 26, after a long journey, Zushan finally arrived at Jing County, the lair of his cousin. He then reported to Zulang the experiences of the Shanyue tribes in Yi County and She County, and told him all of Guan Yu's words of persuasion to surrender.

Zu Lang was so angry that he kicked his brother to the ground and said, "You are the one who caused all this trouble! The tribes in Jing County could have lived in peace for a long time as long as they did not offend the Han people. Now we are forced to submit to one side!"

Zu Shan did not dare to dodge, but kowtowed and said: "Brother, it was Chen Pu who first started the greed, I was just jealous! And those Han people are really despicable, they deliberately let the traitors of Le'an tribe seduce first.

In fact, Guan Yu and Gan Ning have already ambushed their troops and are ready to attack us at any time. Even if we don't provoke them, the Zhuge family will attack us sooner or later."

Zu Lang continued to slap Zu Shan hard, grabbed his collar and asked, "So you want me to send troops to rescue Lin Lishan and relieve the Yi and She tribes?"

Zu Shan's eyes dodged: "I dare not! This matter is entirely up to you, big brother. But after this battle, I also know that Guan Yu and Gan Ning are not to be trifled with. Zhuge Jin is even known to have magical powers that can turn iron into gold. That's why so many of our tribesmen are willing to become traitors and serve the Han people..."

Zu Lang also looked a little dejected after hearing this: "It's really not easy to deal with... But if you trick us into taking the bait, where will my prestige as the leader of all tribes be if I don't fight back at all!"

Zu Shan still didn't understand: "Brother, what do you mean..."

Zu Lang gritted his teeth and said, "Gather the chieftains of each tribe and make the Han people's trick known to the public. See what they think. If the tribes do not want to fight, I will follow their will and negotiate with the Han people to see if I can give up some benefits and settle this matter. That way, my prestige will not be damaged.

If the troops are unwilling to pay the price, I will have no choice but to lead everyone to give it a try. It will not be too late to make a decision after the troops have seen clearly the strength of the enemy. "

After Zu Lang finished speaking, he felt very helpless.

The barbarians have always respected the strong. Zu Lang's current status is due to his tough stance since the end of the Zhongping period. He has won more profitable territories for the Shanyue as a whole and forced the Han government to be unable to come to the Shanyue-controlled areas to recruit soldiers and collect taxes. As a result, he is respected and supported by all tribes.

If he admitted defeat today, his ruling position would be in jeopardy. If he had to admit defeat, all the Shanyue tribes had to admit defeat unanimously. Otherwise, he would be blamed for being weak, and if some traitor attacked him from behind and said something like "If I were the leader of all the tribes, I would never let you live such a cowardly life", then the situation would be troublesome.

After some tug-of-war, Zu Lang summoned the leaders of the surrounding tribes in just three days and told them the situation. He also told them that the Han people had cheated and created excuses to provoke him.

Many of the Shanyue tribes were ignorant and geographically isolated. Many tribes were far away from Yixian and Shexian and had never heard of Zhuge Jin's magic. When they learned that the Han people were coming to provoke them, they were furious and asked to fight one after another, and also asked for more spoils after winning.

Especially when they heard that the Han people were actually besieging the steep Linli Mountain, the reckless men in the various tribes felt that they had a good chance of winning.

"What? Are the Han people so ignorant of their own lives? The terrain around Linli Mountain is extremely rugged. How can the Han people be a match for our Shanyue warriors in such a battlefield? My king, let's fight! Who cares if he is Guan Yu or not?

Even if he defeated Chen Pu once, it was just a calculated move! If we really reach a dangerous place like Huangshan, we can set up our battle formations and fight hard, and we can defeat the Han army in one day!"

Zu Lang was pushed by the crowd, his eyes wandering, thinking again and again, he felt that he could indeed take a gamble, otherwise he would be known as a weakling, and those people might not think well of him. If he could win, then his prestige would be completely worry-free for the rest of his life.

……

After Zu Lang made up his mind, he selected Shanyue warriors from Jingxian, Wanling (Xuancheng), Guzhang (Guangde), and Anji counties, totaling more than 40,000 young and strong men, brought their own food, and headed south to Yixian.

When the Shanyue people fought to defend their homeland, the scale of their troops was still very large, simply because the barbarians were good at mobilizing the entire population to fight as a soldier. Even the military rations did not need to be provided by Zu Lang, but had to be provided by each tribe on their own.

For a while, the momentum was great. In addition, there were more than 10,000 young and strong people on Linli Mountain, and Jinqi and Maogan in neighboring She County had a total of 20,000 young and strong people.

In the entire Yi County battlefield, 70,000 Shanyue men gathered in a short period of time, which was eight times the number of the allied forces of Guan Yu and Gan Ning.

However, the weapons of the Shanyue soldiers were generally simple. Unlike the professional Danyang soldiers, these people did not wear armor at all, or at most only wore soft armor made of animal skins.

As for weapons, even the ring-handled swords are not enough because the ring-handled swords require too much steel.

More than half of the Shanyue soldiers used short spears or one-handed maces, with hardwood round shields. The short spear only had a little metal at the tip, while the mace was made of wood with only a few iron nails stuck in the tip, which was very economical in the use of iron.

Zu Lang's deployment of troops certainly did not escape Guan Yu's eyes and ears. Guan Yu already knew their movements before the enemy arrived.

Guan Yu immediately discussed with Gan Ning: "Although the Shanyue are numerous, they are divided into three groups. Chen Pu on Mount Linli is in the middle. Zu Lang comes from the north and is on the west of Mount Linli. Jin Qi and Mao Gan are in the east. We have to cross Mount Linli to reach the main battlefield.

It would be better for our army to withdraw the encirclement and take the initiative to attack Zu Lang in the northwest. Chen Pu on Linli Mountain has become a frightened bird, and he must suspect a trick and dare not go down the mountain rashly. Jin Qi and Mao Gan were unable to cross the mountain in time, nor did they have time to reinforce.

In this way, although the enemy army has nearly 100,000 people, in the decisive battle we only need to deal with Zu Lang first, and we can also choose the battlefield to meet the enemy. As long as we defeat one part, the other two will naturally not dare to come to fight again.

Moreover, our army has the latest imperial decree, which has conferred the title of governor of Danyang on Ziyu, and ordered him to fight against the enemy. Zu Lang does not know this. When the time comes, we can use this to boost morale, and perhaps gain more advantages in the decisive battle."

Guan Yu did not know how many soldiers Zu Lang brought with him, so he estimated the enemy force to be lenient based on the total number of "nearly 100,000".

Gan Ning thought about it for a moment and felt that it made sense. He pointed to the map and added:

"Yi County is surrounded by mountains. If we insist on staying at the source of the Po River, I'm afraid we will have nowhere to move. If we want to take the initiative to fight, we must bring enough dry food for at least a few days, then cross the watershed around Yi County, head north into the Jing River Valley, and then go downstream to fight Zu Lang.

Zu Lang came from Jing County, so he must have gone upstream along the Jing River. Only if we set up our battle array and fight the Shanyue people along the river valley can we play to our strengths and avoid their weaknesses, so as not to let the Shanyue people take advantage of crossing mountains and ridges. "

The Jing River mentioned by Gan Ning is the Qingyi River in southern Anhui in later generations. It originates in the northwest of Yi County, passes through Jing County and finally flows into the Yangtze River in Wuhu.

Yi County is the source of the Poshui River, Zhejiang River and Qingyi River. The largest rivers in eastern Jiangxi, western Zhejiang and southern Anhui were born in the east, west and north directions of Huangshan Mountain. It can be seen that this place is high and steep.

Guan Yu frowned slightly after hearing this supplementary plan, but felt that he could still control the situation, so he made the decision:

"Then let's do it this way. This method is indeed helpful in choosing a battlefield for the decisive battle. But I'm afraid Zu Lang is a strategist. If he finds out that we have crossed the mountains and arrived at the Jingshui River Valley to meet the enemy, but we build high fortifications and deep trenches without fighting, he may even divide his troops and use the mountain Yue people's skill in climbing to cut off our food supply.

Then our army will probably have no choice but to abandon Yi County and temporarily retreat back to Po River - so we must bring more food for this battle, and each soldier must bring at least ten days of food. If we cannot fight within three or four days, we must immediately cross the mountains and retreat, not giving the enemy a chance to bypass us."

The plan was set, and Guan Yu immediately began to dispatch troops to Jingshui to meet Zu Lang.

　I feel a little unwell today, so I'm sorry for the slow and late writing. But the number of words is definitely not less.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)