The Three Kingdoms: Zhaolie, the strategist, and the rise of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 91: To have Li Yi is like Gaozu having Liang Ping (Please subscribe!)
After Li Yi and Liu Bei put down the war against Yuan Tan in Qingzhou, everything went very smoothly.

Not only did he successfully save Langya, but he also brought in many refugees from Qingzhou.

It also eased relations with Qingzhou, and the two sides traded with each other and bartered.

at the same time.

After receiving Liu Bei's order, Xu Qiu, the prime minister of Donghai, also rushed to Pei State in Yuzhou overnight.

At this time, Chen Gui had returned to the position of Prime Minister of Pei.

Although he has not been in office for long, he relies on Chen's previous influence in the local area.

Chen Gui quickly gained a foothold in Pei State.

Chen Qun, who was originally left in Xiaopei by Liu Bei, was also transferred to Chen Gui as a Gongcao.

Chen Gui was a shrewd man and he knew Liu Bei's intention of turning around and heading to Pei State.

Or know why Li Yi suggested Liu Bei to do this.

Since Liu Bei got Li Yi, every step he took could be described as ingenious.

For example, letting Chen Gui return to Pei State.

Although it only controlled the area north of Pei State, it successfully connected Pengcheng State and Pei State.

In the area where Pengcheng and Pei State are connected, there are large amounts of iron ore resources.

In addition, there are dense water networks here, including the Sishui, Yishui, Huaihe and other rivers, so transportation is also extremely convenient.

Li Yi also suggested that Zhang Fei lead his troops into Lu State in order to control Lu Pei.

Completely control the pig iron resources in this area.

If Chen Gui's guess is correct, Li Yi's next step will be to gather manpower here and open more mines.

This reminds me of Li Yi’s recent behavior of sending people to purchase a large number of warships in Jiangnan.

At that time, the iron ore produced will flow south through the Huai River and be sent to Xuzhou in a continuous stream.

Directly build Xuzhou into Lao Liu's foundation for his foothold in the world.

“…High, really high!”

The old man stroked his white beard, his eyes bright, and he was very impressed by Li Yi's plan.

"What's high, Lord Chen?"

Chen Dao walked over with his sword in hand.

"...Haha, I mean Mr. Li's plan is brilliant."

Chen Gui smiled with curved lips.

Chen Dao always liked Li Yi, and upon hearing this, he couldn't help but smile:

"The military advisor gave me two thousand men to defend Pei State, and he said that Guo Gong would not dare to attack."

"I expect Guo Gong will retreat without a fight when he sees the appearance of our army."

Haha.

Chen Gui also laughed. He didn't expect that Chen Dao trusted Li Yi so much.

"You have seen that Li Ziyu has a perfect plan. He only needs to talk and he can drive back thousands of soldiers."

"Little did they know how much planning was required behind the scenes to do this."

"Oh? What do you mean, my lord?" Chen Dao asked with his eyes wide open.

"Mr. Li sent you to lead troops to help defend Pei State, which was just one of his moves."

"He also recommended Xu Qiu, the prime minister of Donghai, as the governor of Runan, and ordered him to return to Yuzhou."

"This person has a history with Guo Gong. If we want to withdraw our troops, this person is the key."

Chen Dao exclaimed:
"It turns out that the old gentleman who came before was sent by the military advisor to persuade Guo Gong to retreat."

"I just thought he was..."

He couldn't get the second half of the sentence out, as Chen Dao mistakenly thought that this guy had come to the front line to gain experience based on his seniority.

After all, it is best to make some money during a war. I didn’t expect that this person is a hidden boss.

"But it is said that when Guo Gong was in Liang State, he gathered at least tens of thousands of people."

"This time when we invaded Pei State, we brought at least 10,000 people with us."

"Xu Qiu alone may not be able to persuade Guo Gong to retreat."

"So Mr. Li kept a third hand."

Is there any backup plan?

Chen Dao was so shocked that his mouth was wide open. He initially thought that Li Yi had played all the cards in his hand by asking him to lead troops to defend Pei State.

I didn’t expect this was just an appetizer.

"Shuzhi, do you still remember that the day before yesterday, Zhang Fei led his troops into the State of Lu?" Chen Gui said leisurely.

"Of course I remember. According to what Mr. Li said, it was to cooperate with Pei State and use Lu and Pei to threaten Yanzhou's flank."

"Could it be..."

Chen Dao had already guessed something in his mind.

"good."

Chen Gui nodded and waved his hand:
"Just two days ago, General Zhang led his troops south and stationed outside the city."

"They will form a pincer attack with our Pei State, and Lord Xu has already gone to Zhang Fei's camp."

Chen Dao suddenly realized!

It turned out that Zhang Fei went south to cooperate with Xu Qiao in persuading Guo Gong to withdraw his troops.

Either by inducement or by threat of force.

He uses both soft and hard tactics, and plays the good cop role.

Well……

Chen Dao fell into deep thought for a moment.

Chen Gui looked at Chen Dao leisurely and asked:
"General Shuzhi, what are you thinking about?"

Chen Dao said with emotion:
"I was just thinking that everything seemed to be going according to the military advisor's plan."

"As the ancients said: Planning in the tent can lead to victory thousands of miles away."

"When Liu Hou followed Emperor Gaozu, he was able to win without being seen."

"After meeting Mr. Li today, I finally understood what it means to be as talented as the heavens."

Chen Gui was over fifty years old and had met countless people. He thought Yuan Long was a rare talent in the world.

It was not until I met Li Yi that I realized that I was just a small fry compared to a big one.

"Li Ziyu is a man of great stature, truly incomparable to mediocre people."

"Now that you have learned about it, it is just like how Emperor Gaozu learned about Liang and Ping."

Just as the two were chatting happily on the top of the city wall, they suddenly saw smoke and dust billowing in the distance and flags blocking the sun.

The shouts were thunderous and the drums were beating continuously.

Chen Dao put his hand between his eyebrows and saw from afar a word "Guo" written high on the flag.

"These must be Guo Gong's troops!"

"Master, how should we deal with this now?"

Chen Dao took the initiative to ask Chen Gui for his opinion. He was the prime minister here, so Chen Dao had to obey him.

"No need to rush."

Chen Gui's face was as calm as water, without the slightest fear.

"Since Mr. Li has left you to guard Pei State, and has transferred Zhang Fei to the front line."

"You and I only need to defend the city, and General Zhang and Lord Xu will drive back Guo Gong's troops."

"We just need to stay in Pei State and do our job well."

This……

Chen Dao hesitated for a moment, then his expression became extremely resolute.

"Leader!"

"I will go and inspect the city defenses right away, and I will make sure Guo Gong doesn't have any chance to take advantage of the situation!"

Chen Dao firmly believed in Li Yi's plan.

Since Chen Gui has said so much, why should he hesitate?

Chen Dao took the order and left.

And it is not far from the city.

A scout had already informed Zhang Fei that Guo Gong was leading his troops to attack.

At this time, Zhang Fei was holding Xu Qiu in the camp and listening to his lecture.

Because Zhang Fei highly admired scholars, as soon as he met Xu Qiu, he immediately treated him as a guest of honor and asked for his teachings.

Xu Qiu was an elder, and he also remembered that Zhang Fei was diligent and studious.

No one looked down on him just because he was a warrior.

As they were talking, a scout came in and informed Zhang Fei that Guo Gong had arrived with his troops.

"Oh? Just in time!"

Zhang Fei was overjoyed. He took the snake spear from the side of the tent and was ready to go into battle.

Xu Qiu hurriedly stood up to stop him:
"General Zhang, please calm down."

"Guo Gong has arrived with a large army. The envoy sent me here, so you must not want to start a war."

"Let me go to Guo Gong's camp first and persuade them with kind words."

"If you can't convince me, General Zhang, it won't be too late to start fighting again."

Zhang Fei laughed when he heard this:

"Don't be alarmed, sir."

"Does Fei not know my brother's intention?"

"But you are an elder, and you cannot afford to make mistakes."

"Feidang will personally lead 800 infantry and cavalry to escort you to Guo Gong's camp." Xu Qinai breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that General Zhang was not a completely rough man.

After a while, Zhang Fei gathered 800 soldiers and personally escorted Xu Qiu out of the camp.

When Zhang Fei was occupying a distance of ten miles from Guo Gong's army, he saw that the army looked lazy and had no desire to fight.

Suddenly I had an idea.

He reined in his horse and stepped forward, stopping Xu Qiu and saying:

"Sir, please wait until I lead twenty men to challenge you."

"If Guo Gong dares to fight, I will lead my army into the enemy camp, take his head and present it to my brother."

"If Guo Gong doesn't dare to fight, then Guo Gong is definitely not someone who can accomplish anything, and the soldiers he leads are just a mob."

Xu Qiu was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly said:

"Although General Zhang is a fierce general, he is the bravest among the three armies."

"But it would be too risky to go there with only 20 people."

"I have heard that a general in command of an army should not personally take risks."

Zhang Fei laughed out loud:

"Just now I saw the appearance of Guo Gong's army, which was said to have tens of thousands of people."

"But there are no more than a thousand soldiers who can fight, and only a hundred who can be considered as warriors."

"With only a hundred or so strong men, what is there to be afraid of?"

With just one word, Zhang Fei selected twenty brave cavalrymen and charged towards Guo Gong's army.

Guo Gong led the army in the front, and could hear the sound of footsteps and kicks like thunder in the wind.

He hurriedly sent people to investigate.

A moment later,

The spies reported that a team of brave cavalry were charging straight at our army.

Guo Gong asked again how many people came?
The spy replied that there were no more than twenty people.

Guo Gongnai didn't care and said:
"I guess they are soldiers from other counties. What does it have to do with me?"

He concluded that a team of twenty people would never dare to attack his army of ten thousand.

So he continued to urge the soldiers forward.

After taking a few steps, they ran into Zhang Fei's troops head-on.

Seeing that Zhang Fei had few soldiers, Guo Gong urged his horse forward and asked loudly:

"Who are you?"

"Why are you blocking my way?"

Zhang Fei leaped forward, holding his spear in his hand, and shouted with angry eyes:

"I am Zhang Yide, let's fight to the death together!"

Zhang Fei's eyes were wide open, his roar was like thunder, and he looked very majestic.

The soldiers in front of Guo Gong were so frightened that they dared not move forward.

One of the generals was so frightened that he fell off his horse and rolled over in pain.

Some friends may ask, is this too exaggerated?
in fact,

Many people who read history books will question whether Zhang Fei's blocking of the bridge by the water and Zhang Liao's defeat of Sun Shiwan at Xiaoyaojin were exaggerated by the editors?

Take Zhang Fei’s example of blocking the bridge by the water and scaring off Cao’s army.

Even though Zhang Fei can defeat ten thousand enemies, Cao's army also has the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, which is known as the general of a hundred men.

Even if these people can't beat Zhang Fei, can't they just go up and fight him in a group?
In fact, this is a taken-for-granted way of thinking.

I am used to playing games and think that I can be done with just one command and charge forward.

Little did they know that these soldiers were real people.

They are also afraid of death and they also have concerns.

Take the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry that were scared away by Zhang Fei. At that time, quite a few of them were actually looting civilians.

And he met such a brave Zhang Fei.

You said that these Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were not busy looting and seeking credit, so why would they bother to fight Zhang Fei to death?
Soldiers are soldiers after all, and not everyone has the ideal of becoming a general or a noble.

The same goes for Zhang Liao.

When he broke into Sun Quan's army, he even dared to provoke them in a show of force at the foot of the mountain.

Let Sun Quan come down the mountain to fight him in duel.

You said Zhang Liao is so arrogant, but he has so few people.

Why didn't the 100,000-strong Wu army dare to rush forward to attack him?

In fact, the history books have already made it very clear, that is -

"Both the men and the horses were invincible, and no one dared to confront them."

I was just scared and didn't dare to go up, it's that simple.

Those who are not afraid of death will leave their names in history.

And those who are afraid of death are often the majority.

All of them were lost in the long river of history.

"Zhang, Zhang Yide?"

Guo Gong didn't know Zhang Fei, but seeing that he looked so majestic, like a god from heaven, he felt fearful of him.

He turned around and said to the generals:

"Since I was born, I have never heard of a Zhang Yide in the world."

"Does anyone among you know this person?"

A deputy general rode out and said to Guo Gong:

"My Lord, I have a good friend in Yanzhou who once followed Cao Cao in the campaign against Xuzhou."

"He told me that Liu Bei had two powerful generals under his command."

"One is Guan Yu, the other is Zhang Fei. Both of them are Liu Bei's henchmen and confidants."

"A mighty tiger is the enemy of ten thousand men."

"Among all the generals in Xuzhou, Zhang Fei is the most outstanding."

hiss……

Guo Gong took a deep breath and thought to himself that his troops had not yet reached Xuzhou, but he had already met this man in Pei State.

"With Liu Bei's minions as his assistant, it may not be easy to defeat him."

Guo Gong immediately began to back down.

It is said that Yuan Shao was careful about his life when doing great things, but in fact Guo Gong was even more so.

He is a typical person who has ambition but lacks the courage to accomplish great things.

Yuan Shao at least dared to shout in front of Dong Zhuo:
"Is Mr. Dong the only strong man in the world?"

However, Guo Gong completely lacked the heroic spirit and could not accept failure, or rather, a crushing defeat.

Adhering to the principle of losing half if you surrender, at least there is a bottom line.

If one makes a wrong decision, there will be nothing.

Zhang Fei saw Guo Gong's army shrinking back and glared at him, holding his spear in his hand and saying:
"You are so shameless that you invade my prefectures and counties."

"Today they dare to gather a group of ants to attack us. Why don't you dare to fight them?"

A roar frightened Guo Gong and the horses of the surrounding deputy generals, so they retreated one after another.

A deputy general suggested:
"Zhang Fei has only 20 men by his side. It would be better to order the army to charge and kill him."

"Then you can march forward."

Guo Gong was a little hesitant, thinking that Zhang Fei was so brave and powerful that we cavalry generals should be afraid of him.

Do these soldiers really dare to charge?
Moreover, Zhang Fei was Liu Bei's confidant. If he was killed, he would completely become enemies with Liu Bei.

This was not the result Guo Gong wanted.

He brought his troops here, in fact, at most just wanted to cooperate with the three armies to put pressure on Liu Bei.

Then he went to Xuzhou to extort some money and property.

After all, the State of Liang maintained tens of thousands of soldiers, and consumed too much money and food every day.

He really couldn't bear it.

"Zhang Fei has only 20 men, yet he is so confident and fearless."

"I'm afraid there is another large army behind them to support them."

then,

Guo Gong sent a scout first, who quickly went around to investigate behind Zhang Fei.

After a while, the scout reported back.

Sure enough, there was a group of soldiers following Zhang Fei.

Guo Gong was surprised and relieved, and said repeatedly:
"What did I say just now?"

"Zhang Fei is confident and fearless, he must have been prepared in advance."

"If I had led the army to attack them just now, the troops and horses behind them would have rushed forward."

"With Zhang Fei's bravery, taking my head is as easy as taking something out of a bag."

"You are all my trusted men, why are you plotting to harm me?"

Guo Gong started to curse loudly, making everyone feel ashamed and embarrassed.

Indeed, if Zhang Fei really rushed over.

How many people would really risk their lives to protect Guo Gong's safety?
Even if there are a few people who have received favors from Guo Gong, they are willing to protect him with their lives.

How long can they stop Zhang Fei?
Just when the two sides were at a stalemate, another rider appeared in front of the two armies.

……

(End of this chapter)