My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 97: Before the Shanyue were completely annihilated, Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor

In the battle of Qingyi River Valley on the second day of May, the actual casualties and prisoners of war of Zu Lang's troops were only about 20%.

However, Zu Lang, who retained 80% of his combat power, chose to stay at home after the war and no longer provided assistance to friendly neighboring tribes.

Anyway, no one from the Shanyue tribes could accomplish the task of defeating Guan Yu. It was not just his problem, so what else is there to say?

As long as his relative prestige among the Shanyue people did not change, he would not be willing to risk his life for Chen Pu.

As for the initial right and wrong of the matter, whether it was Chen Pu who was greedy and took the initiative to provoke the government, or the government set a trap for Chen Pu, it is no longer important.

In the face of absolute strength, the barbarians have a flexible bottom line and can selectively ignore some clues.

In the end, the crux of everything converged on one point: if the government could capture Linlishan Stronghold by force, it would demonstrate its ability to capture the most dangerous mountaintops.

That was undeniable. Chen Pu would just regard himself as a sacrifice for the government to establish its authority. After seeing the fate of the sacrifice, the other tribes would also submit obediently.

If the government cannot do it, the other tribes will naturally want to continue to be free citizens.

……

"Why does this situation feel like we've returned to the old tune of 'You can choose not to use nuclear weapons, but you can't live without them.' The only difference is that the specific term has been changed to 'offensive capability.'"

Zhuge Jin, who was in Chaisang County, couldn't help but make a self-deprecating remark in a low voice that no one else could hear after fully listening to the report and understanding the latest situation.

He may not want to attack, but he cannot be without the ability.

Zhuge Liang also stayed in Chaisang these days. He had no other business, but occasionally came to hang out with his elder brother. Seeing that his elder brother was hesitant, he took the initiative to suggest:

"Brother, why don't we think about whether we can work on craftsmanship. Since ancient times, it has been difficult to overcome difficulties with strategies. Even Gongshu Ban and Mozi worked hard on craftsmanship. You, Yueying and I are all good at thinking cleverly. If we spend some time, we may be able to achieve miraculous results."

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Jin glanced at his brother with a playful look.

He knew very well why Zhuge Liang had been passive and inactive in the past ten days since he returned to Yuzhang County. Seeing that his elder brother had to deal with internal affairs while coordinating the military logistics of Guan Yu and Taishi Ci, he did not help.

It’s because Huang Chengyan, Huang Yueying and their family also came to visit Yuzhang!

Zhuge Liang went to the Huang family for ten consecutive days. He either went to ask Huang Chengyan for advice on traditional knowledge, or tinkered with some small gadgets with Huang Yueying. He observed the fishing gear, farm tools and other ingenious and innovative things that Huang Yueying had improved on her own in the past few months, and exchanged ideas with each other.

Zhuge Jin also took into consideration that his younger brother was only seventeen years old and had been very busy in the past six months, so he gave him a "new year leave" to relax and change his mind.

Just be tired for the time being. After Aliang's novelty wears off and the engagement is finalized, you should not meet the young lady from the Huang family again. You should wait at least half a year before you can officially get married.

During that half year, Zhuge Liang should come back to help him.

Zhuge Jin had a very good plan: Aliang could get engaged at least in the second half of this year, and could get married after the New Year next year. By then, Aliang would be eighteen years old, and Huang Yueying would be fifteen years old, which was not too beastly, and was considered normal in ancient times.

If he were younger, he would not be able to accept the modern thinking of Zhuge Jin.

However, the war is urgent now, so let’s put Zhuge Liang’s family affairs aside for the time being.

Zhuge Jin stopped thinking and said to his brother, "Your idea is good, but it's not that easy. This is to attack a mountain, not a city. What kind of attacking equipment do you want to improve? Battering rams or catapults? It seems that none of them can be used.

Linli Mountain is steep, mainly because there is only one way up the mountain in many places. After the enemy army seized the pass, there was nowhere to climb. We need to start with craftsmanship, and we also need to find a way to study those individual weapons that help climb the cliffs. We have no accumulation of these things, so we must start from scratch. After making the sample, we have to ask the blacksmith to forge it, which will take a long time. "

Zhuge Jin vaguely remembered that in the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", He Qi conquered Linli Mountain and killed Chen Puzu Mountain. It seemed that he used the method of climbing and flanking to surround and destroy the enemy troops blocking the key mountain roads. Although the book does not record the specific climbing tools He Qi used, Zhuge Jin can completely learn from the design ideas of rock climbing equipment in later generations.

Zhuge Liang was also a smart man. He heard his elder brother's words and was always worried about time. He couldn't help but recall their original plan: once the time was right, the Zhuge family could show goodwill to Yuan Shu to make him proud, and they could also spread rumors to make Liu Yao lose his reputation, thus...

Could it be that Big Brother is worried that Yuan Shu might declare himself emperor at any time and that he cannot be stopped?

Zhuge Liang did not have clairvoyance, so he could only infer based on his elder brother's performance and past arrangements. After much thought, this was the only possibility.

So he tried to make it clear: "Brother, are you worried that Yuan Shu or other princes will not give us so much time to slowly annex and resolve the Danyang Shanyue?"

Zhuge Jin nodded, "Yes, it's already May, and Yuan Shu hasn't launched a new offensive since last year's defeat. This is surprising. With his aggressive nature, what is he waiting for? He must be accumulating strength for a big war all at once.

Moreover, Sun Ce has been attacking Wang Lang for two months, and Wang Lang is losing ground. We are too slow to deal with Zu Lang, and Sun Ce might be able to swallow Wang Lang. The princes of the world are all annexing each other, so who will wait for us? "

Zhuge Jin couldn't remember the exact date, but in his impression, Yuan Shu seemed to have proclaimed himself emperor in February or March of this year, but now it was obviously delayed for a long time. Yuan Shu hadn't deployed troops yet, probably because he was afraid of another accident and didn't want to cause trouble before he proclaimed himself emperor.

But the more he holds back on his big moves, the more likely he will be to go all out after he becomes emperor. You have to be careful and guard against the most dangerous wave.

Zhuge Liang understood his elder brother's concerns, thought for a while, and suggested:

"In this case, we might as well gradually withdraw Xingba's troops back to Chaisang to prepare for any unexpected events. Zu Lang is already lying in wait and see and dares not fight again. To surround and kill a mere Chen Pu, Yunchang's own troops are enough.

Xingba Ziyi is good at naval battles, but Yunchang is not, so it is just right to let Yunchang be in charge of land, while Xingba Ziyi is in charge of the Yangtze River.

As for the ingenious equipment needed for attacking the mountain, you also said that they are nothing more than climbing tools. Yueying and I have been thinking about it recently and will try to get it out as soon as possible. The coordination of other internal and external affairs will be up to you, brother."

Zhuge Liang took the initiative to take over the task of researching and developing mountain-attack equipment and made a clear division of labor with Zhuge Jin.

Zhuge Jin had no better choice, so he allowed everything to proceed as planned. Of course, he did not let A Liang take any detours, and he would fully explain any ideas and inspirations he could think of.

For example, Zhuge Jin remembered that later mountaineers and rock climbers seemed to like to use expansion bolts and nails to make steps on the mountain walls, or to use sharp pickaxes similar to ice picks to chisel footholds on the rocks.

There are also various methods of knotting and tying mountaineering safety ropes. Zhuge Jin can't remember the details, but he knows that this method exists. It can easily change the tying point after descending a certain height and descend safely and quickly.

He raised all these demands to Zhuge Liang, and asked Zhuge Liang to think about them carefully with Huang Yueying.

In particular, the method of tying the safety knot does not require any innovation in tools. As long as the existing hemp rope is tied in a different way, the safety factor of soldiers climbing cliffs can be greatly improved.

When Zhuge Liang heard about the existence of such a thing, he was indeed aroused by the desire to study and win. He went home and began to figure out the wonderful uses of various rope knotting methods.

As a result, the mountain climbing safety knot has not been developed yet, but a bunch of educational toys like the nine-ring linkage have been figured out. Who can I complain to?

Random trial and error innovation is sometimes like this.

……

Zhuge Jin operated on two fronts. On the one hand, he asked his second brother and future brother-in-law to strengthen the technology of various mountaineering tools, while on the other hand, he improved internal governance and reorganized the military, and deployed Gan Ning and Taishi Ci's troops in place to prepare for any eventuality.

At the same time, he also frantically accelerated the transformation of the Shanyue prisoners captured in the past month, striving to expand the available military resources as soon as possible. In this regard, he asked Gan Ning and Taishi Ci to directly select the prisoners to be transformed, and then entrusted the military supply and logistics support to Pang Tong to coordinate, which also saved some of his own energy.

In addition, considering that the enemy in the next stage may be Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu and the Zhuge family’s territory are separated by the Yangtze River, even if a war is to start, it is estimated that the main form of battle will be naval warfare.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin would occasionally take advantage of his free time to use his brain to see if he could come up with some cost-effective water warfare tactics and equipment. Whenever he found something, he would immediately discuss it with Gan Ning and Taishi Ci.

More than half a month of siege and equipment preparation passed in a flash, and it was already late May.

The situation in the world was turbulent, and the various princes did not wait for Liu Bei and the Zhuge family to develop quietly.

In mid-May, a new piece of bad news came from the east:
When Sun Ce conquered Xu Gong last year, he was not able to completely occupy the entire Wujun because Wang Lang of Kuaiji crossed the Qiantang River and headed north before Xu Gong was defeated, and controlled a few counties, mainly Qiantang and Wucheng in the southernmost part of Wujun.

This year, these places were all captured during Sun Ce's summer offensive. Sun Ce also went upstream and captured Fuchun, the hometown of the Sun family, and occupied the middle reaches of the Qiantang River. He further penetrated into the Lanxi River Plain and occupied several counties in Kuaiji County. For the time being, Wang Lang could only rely on the Qiantang River and the Lanxi River to defend Shanyin County, the seat of Kuaiji County, and was completely unable to fight back against Sun Ce's encroachment.

The territory of Kuaiji County mainly has two plains that are valuable. One is the coastal Ningshao Plain, which corresponds to the two prefecture-level cities of Ningbo and Shaoxing in later times. The other is the inland Lanxi River Valley, which corresponds to Jinhua and Quzhou in later times.

When Sun Ce's forces entered the Lanxi River Valley, they cut off half of the fertile land in Kuaiji County. Wang Lang was left with only the Ningshao Plain, plus the fragmented coastal areas of Linhai (Taizhou) and Dong'ou (Wenzhou).

Sun Ce accomplished all this in mid-May, which was the same time when Zhuge Liang was tinkering with and making mountain-climbing equipment.

Fortunately, God blesses the Han Dynasty. Sun Ce had just made a breakthrough in the Lanxi River Plain and occupied several counties. Behind him, Wucheng, Qiantang, and Yuhang, which he had just taken, suddenly emerged a resistance force. It was "Yan Baihu" who had successfully left his name in the previous Three Kingdoms games.

Yan Baihu was also a leader of the Shanyue tribe in western Zhejiang. He was similar to Zu Lang, Jin Qi, and Mao Gan, and had 10,000 to 20,000 followers. When Sun Ce first attacked Wujun, Yan Baihu lay dormant for a while and pretended to surrender to Sun Ce, but he maintained the autonomy of his own armed forces and was not actually controlled by Sun Ce.

Sun Ce did not suspect anything at the time and went to attack Wang Lang first. But the main force had crossed Qiantang River and captured several counties of Wang Lang. Yan Baihu, who was behind him, saw that Sun Ce had been entangled and had an opportunity to take advantage of it, so he rebelled again.

Sun Ce had to give up chasing Wang Lang and hurried back to deal with Yan Baihu.

……

However, the incident of Sun Ce being entangled by Yan Baihu only happened in the last few days.

If Yan Baihu's territory had not been in the mountainous area of western Zhejiang, bordering the Jinqi and Maogan tribes in She County, Guan Yu would not have been able to get the news so quickly and send a fast horse back to inform Zhuge Jin.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin was the first outsider in the world to obtain this information, except for Sun Ce, Wang Lang and other parties involved.

In contrast, Yuan Shu, who was in Shouchun, was not so well-informed. He had just received the news of Sun Ce's victory over Wang Lang, and thought that Sun Ce was about to completely take over Jiangdong.

In his heart, Yuan Shu has always regarded Sun Ce as one of his own subordinates. He feels that the territory conquered by Sun Ce is his territory.

With Jiangdong "almost" pacified, he finally had the confidence to become emperor.

Zhuge Xuan in Yuzhang in the south was also his old official. Although he had not expressed his position for a long time, he still took the initiative to send an envoy to question Zhuge Xuan's attitude.

At this point, Zhuge Jin knew that it was impossible not to express his position. The Zhuge family had been ambiguous for too long. He had originally planned to use the news of Liu Yao's death to strengthen Yuan Shu's belief, but he didn't expect that it would be stuck at such an awkward time.

If he let his uncle reject Yuan Shu sternly, perhaps he could delay the matter, but it was estimated that Yuan Shu would directly use force against the Zhuge family or Liu Bei.

In this case, Zhuge Jin thought it would be better to set up an ambush. If Yuan Shu really went to war against Liu Bei in the future, Zhuge Jin could catch Yuan Shu off guard and make a fortune.

So he advised his uncle not to leave any written evidence, but to just verbally show goodwill to Yuan Shu's envoy and reminisce about old friendships.

Moreover, this kind of reminiscing should never involve any topic about "rebellion and becoming emperor".

In other words, the Zhuge family pretended to be deaf and dumb, pretending not to know what Yuan Shu was thinking. Reminiscing about the past with Yuan Shu was based on the premise that "Yuan Shu was still a Han minister." If Yuan Shu really proclaimed himself emperor in the future, the Zhuge family would be unable to "have both loyalty and friendship," and there would be nothing they could do.

There is nothing shameless about this move, because Sun Ce did the same to Yuan Shu.

The relationship between the Zhuge family and Yuan Shu is definitely less close than that between Sun Ce and Yuan Shu, so doing this is already very fair to Yuan Shu.

Zhuge Jin only made a secret move after confirming that Yuan Shu was irreversible:
The descendants of Xu Shao and Xu Zijiang leaked Xu Shao's last words to Liu Yao because they were not careful enough. It would not be long before the news spread beyond Yuzhang and to Guangling, and famous people in the counties along the way might also hear it.

But this was definitely not leaked by Zhuge Jin. Even Taishi Ci would not believe that it was leaked by Zhuge Jin.

……

After a lot of manipulation, as time came to the first day of June in the second year of Jian'an, Yuan Shu, who had been holding back for three months longer than the same period in history, finally couldn't bear it anymore.

On this day, he officially usurped the title of emperor, changed the country's name to Zhongshi, set up the Altar of Heaven and the southern and northern suburbs, conferred titles on his empresses and princes, and established officials. Even the hundreds of women he had played with in his harem were given the title of concubine.

The news spread to all the princes in Guandong within ten days, and the whole world was shocked.

As for Yuan Shu himself, he was poured a bucket of cold water just a few days after he proclaimed himself emperor, which made him very unhappy. The last good news he received before he proclaimed himself emperor was that Sun Ce was about to defeat Wang Lang. He accelerated his proclaiming himself emperor just for this good news.

As a result, just a few days after the victory, he heard that Sun Ce's progress was short-lived, and just as Wang Lang retreated back to Shanyin, another Yan Baihu appeared. Yuan Shu was so angry that he smashed several jade articles and cursed that it was unlucky.

Fortunately, a few days later, there was another piece of good news, which made Yuan Shu feel a little relieved: Liu Yao, the governor of Yangzhou who had been against him, died of vomiting blood and illness in Yuzhang after hearing the news that Yuan Shu had declared himself emperor (actually, he died of vomiting blood and illness in Hailing, and Liu Bei transported his body to Yuzhang).

Liu Yao is dead! This is also a stumbling block for the Yuan family to conquer the world, and a small piece has been removed!

On the other side of the river, Zhuge Jin always kept an eye on Yuan Shu's movements, and also paid attention to the reactions of other princes to the news.

Zhuge Jin did not rush to draw a line with Yuan Shu immediately after learning the news of his enthronement, because he observed that Sun Ce was not in a hurry to draw a line either.

Obviously, Sun Ce was waiting for a price. He wanted to wait for the court in Xudu to give him a price, and then he would draw a clear line with Yuan Shu. Otherwise, if he took the initiative to draw a line without the court making an offer, wouldn't that be a waste of a chance to be promoted?

Since Sun Ce did this, why can't the Zhuge family do the same.

As for Liu Bei in Guangling County in the east, there was nothing much to say, and Liu Bei did not need to express his opinion.

He had fought several battles with Yuan Shu last year, and he still had the imperial decree to fight Yuan Shu. Yuan and Liu did not attack each other for the time being, and legally it was just a "truce", and they could start fighting again at any time if they wanted to.

After Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, Liu Bei immediately strengthened the defense of Guangling County and the west side of Huaiyin County.

In the end, the people who reacted most eagerly and intensely to Yuan Shu's declaration of emperorship were Cao Cao and Lu Bu in the north.

The first thing Cao Cao thought of was to contact the princes in the south and attack Yuan Shu in the name of justice.

As for Lu Bu, he had an alliance with Yuan Shu to "deal with Cao Cao together". Now that Yuan Shu had suddenly proclaimed himself emperor, he knew that Yuan Shu would definitely turn against Cao Cao, so he wanted to see when Yuan Shu would take substantive action and whether he would take the initiative to attack Cao Cao.

If Yuan Shu attacked Cao Cao first and was responsible for carrying Cao Cao's main force, then Lu Bu would not mind taking a share of the spoils.

Lu Bu, who had already taken over the three counties of Xuzhou for half a year, had recently subdued Zang Ba and the bandits of Mount Tai. He felt that he had rested enough, so he prepared his troops again and was ready to find an enemy to expand.

At this critical juncture, Cao Cao, in the name of the emperor, asked Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin to speed up the campaign against Yuan Shu and take the lead in attacking Yuan Shu, and the order was also sent to Guangling and Yuzhang respectively.

Because Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin had not made any new contributions, there was no such thing as direct promotion. Cao Cao only raised their titles slightly and also raised the title of Guan Yu, a subordinate of Liu Bei, slightly. He wanted to use this small profit to make Zhuge Jin and Liu Bei work for him immediately.

Zhuge Jin certainly would not fall for this trick, but it was not easy to refuse openly, so he said to the court angel:

"I, your Majesty, have ordered us to defeat the Danyang thief Zu Lang. We can accomplish this mission overnight. Recently, we have also found that Zu Lang is also planning to join Liu Xun, which is tantamount to treason. I beg the court to understand our situation and allow me to take my time, first cut off Yuan Shu's wings, and then go straight to his heart."

Liu Bei's reply had a similar meaning, and it was also discussed between Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei before Zhuge Liang left Guangling.

The implicit meaning of his words was that he hoped the court would grant him an official position so that he could start the war with a legitimate reason. At the same time, he hoped the court would confirm that Sun Ce, an old general of Yuan Shu, should also be classified as a traitor.

Because the situation was urgent, these messengers traveled three to five hundred miles a day at high speed to deliver the imperial edict. In less than ten days, Cao Cao had figured out the attitudes of Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin.

Cao Cao was not worried that Liu Bei would not work hard or respect the court, but he thought that Liu Bei was taking the opportunity to ask for a high price. But Cao Cao obviously did not want to give up the opportunity to let Liu Bei and Sun Ce fight each other, so he hesitated to let go.

In this case, Zhuge Jin would be happy to completely destroy the Danyang thief Zu Lang first, and then discuss the rest.

As for Liu Bei, he was not in a hurry to attack Yuan Shu - but Yuan Shu was very likely to take the initiative to attack Guangling first.

(End of this chapter)