My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 161: Give me back what I have given you

Although Liu Bei received two urgent reports within one day while on his way back south, everything has a first come first served order.
Moreover, although these two incidents caused a sensation, they had no direct relationship with Liu Bei's camp. Liu Bei could only deal with them in order with the calm attitude of a bystander.

That morning, just after breakfast, he first received an urgent report from Lu Su. When it was delivered, Zhuge Jin had already read it before handing it over to him.

Zhuge Liang stayed in Hefei and needed to coordinate the work of encouraging farmers and pacifying the people in Jiujiang and Lujiang counties this winter, organizing the people to plant winter wheat and to raise rice seedlings in the spring of next year. Because only Zhuge Liang fully understood this matter, and the others only understood part of it and helped out, Zhuge Liang was naturally unable to get away.

Therefore, after Liu Bei returned to Wuhu this time, he had to be mentally prepared to be without Zhuge Liang to assist him with confidential matters for at least half a year. During this period, he could only rely on Zhuge Jin and Lu Su.

Zhuge Jin entered the room with an urgent report and said straight to the point: "Zijing has an urgent report that Shanyin County, the capital of Kuaiji Prefecture, and Juzhang and other places were recently captured by Sun Ce. Wang Lang has already sailed out from Linhai and should be fleeing to Dongye."

When Liu Bei heard this, he was slightly shocked, but he didn't think too much about it. He just felt quite regretful.

Liu Bei himself was not a time traveler, and he did not know what Wang Lang would do in history. From what he knew so far, he definitely thought that Wang Lang was a Han minister with integrity.

Moreover, in the autumn of the previous year, when Liu Bei's home was robbed and the army's food supply was cut off, Mi Zhu asked Wang Lang to buy 20,000 shi of military food by sea for emergency. After becoming the governor of Yangzhou, Liu Bei once sent an envoy to win over Wang Lang, and Wang Lang also hinted that he would obey Liu Bei's orders to prevent Sun Ce's invasion.

However, Liu Bei's direct military forces had been invested in Yuan Shu for the previous six months. They had really put in all their efforts and were able to take two counties from Yuan Shu with a small investment. They had no spare energy to provide substantial support to Wang Lang.

Given Sun Ce's ambition, he certainly would not have been idle during this half-year window. However, no one expected Sun Ce to act so decisively and progress so smoothly. Within half a year, he had basically dealt with Wang Lang.

Liu Bei sighed for a while, finally digesting the news, and then he asked carefully and reviewed the situation: "I remember that Sun Ce started to attack Kuaiji County last summer, and then Yan Baihu suddenly appeared, disrupting Sun Ce's plan and delaying Sun Ce for another half a year.

During the cold winter of last year, Sun Ce finally succeeded in killing Yan Baihu, but I was also appointed as the governor of Yangzhou by the court, and Wang Lang's official position was also reconfirmed by the court.

Sun Ce has returned to the court, how could he act so recklessly against Wang Lang, who is also a Han minister? Isn't he afraid of being accused of disrespecting the court? I remember that at the beginning of the year, until March and April, when the spring plowing season was busy, Sun Ce was dormant and recuperating, and did not move. It should be after we sent troops to attack Yuan Shu that he saw that our army was empty, so he began to deploy, right? "

Zhuge Jin placed Lu Su's urgent report on the table and let Liu Bei read it while he gave his own analysis: "Sun Ce did give the people a break during the spring ploughing season this year. It was only after the busy farming season and our army had reached Jiangbei that he started to attack Wang Lang again.

He found a very clever excuse for war, saying that after a thorough investigation, he found some remnants of the Shanyue bandit Yan Baihu, who, after being wiped out by the imperial army, defected to Wang Lang and was taken in by Wang Lang.

I guess Zhou Yu was the one who came up with this excuse for starting a war for Sun Ce. Zhou Yu joined Sun Ce last winter. Before Zhou Yu left, Sun Ce had no way to deal with the righteousness of the court and was tied up. After Zhou Yu joined, and with the cooperation of Zhang Hong, Sun Ce's ability to stabilize the situation externally increased by more than one level.

Sun Ce also said that those former generals of Yan Baihu had blood debts against the Han people, and that Wang Lang was colluding with the Shanyue and was against the Han people. This rumor first came out in May and reached Wuhu in June.

However, at that time, Sun Ce only sent troops to besiege Shanyin, saying that he wanted to seek an explanation from Wang Lang, and he did not launch a desperate attack. After Zi Jing found out, he did not report it urgently, but just made a routine report, and we did not take it seriously.

But between July and August, the situation changed greatly - Sun Ce somehow managed to formally submit a petition to the court, asking the court to grant him the power to hunt down the remnants of the Shanyue rebels and punish the local county governors who sheltered the remnants of the Shanyue rebels.

However, with the help of Guanglu Xun Hua Xin, the imperial court actually approved Sun Ce's request, giving Sun Ce a legitimate excuse to end the battle of Kuaiji.

When Sun Ce's memorial was sent to the court, it should have been when our army took Hefei. Cao Cao must have seen that Yuan Shu's defeat was inevitable, and then he became fickle, and was afraid that our army would annex Wang Lang and become stronger, so he deliberately allowed Sun Ce to annex Wang Lang! He wanted to use Sun Ce to check and balance us! "

When Liu Bei heard this, he couldn't help but slam his hand on the table. "Cao thief! I have been so tolerant of him and always acknowledged that he was serving the emperor. But when he saw that Yuan Shu was in decline, he used Sun Ce to try to contain us!"

Zhuge Jin knew that Liu Bei was angry, but he had to remind Liu Bei: "My Lord, it is impossible to take advantage of everything without taking advantage of it. Now that I think about it, three months ago when we just took over Wancheng and had a conflict with Huang Zu of Jiangxia over the ownership of the counties south of Huoshan in Yuzhou, we planted some bad seeds.

At that time, I advised the lord to submit a petition to the court to impeach Huang Zu for his crimes, and the court later sent Ni Heng to mediate. From then on, perhaps it inspired Sun Ce.

If we allow ourselves to criticize Huang Zu for taking in a rebel general, how can we stop Sun Ce from criticizing Wang Lang for taking in a rebel general? Yan Baihu was not an official of the court, but a rebel and a barbarian.

This is all my fault for not thinking comprehensively enough. I didn't expect that my words would be copied by Zhou Yu and used in his own way. However, Zhou Yu's ability to copy is a testament to his intelligence. If it were someone with mediocre intelligence, I'm afraid that even if my words were left there for him to copy, he wouldn't know what to do with them. "

What Zhuge Jin said could be considered as a self-examination.

He really didn't expect that the excuse he used to plot against Huang Zu would be used against him by Zhou Yu.

If I refute it, then I am double-standard and untenable. The key is that Liu Bei is also a person who cherishes his reputation and is unwilling to rely solely on brute force and raise an unknown army.

It seems that there is still a gap between my wisdom and that of the truly omniscient and omnipotent God.

Without foresight about history, problems are bound to arise when we rely entirely on the brain's computing power to carry out subsequent deductions of fictional processes.

I have to continue to train my second brother well in the future.

Fortunately, Liu Bei would definitely not blame Zhuge Jin for such a trivial matter. After he sorted out his thoughts, he comforted him generously:
"Don't worry, Ziyu. Why should you blame yourself for this? Although you were the first to use this argument to criticize your political enemies, Zhou Yu might have come up with it on his own. It can only be said that great minds think alike.

Moreover, Zhou Yu only provided some excuses to cover up Sun Ce's expansion. The key to this success is that Cao Cao wants to see Sun Ce contain us. If Cao Cao doesn't want to, Zhou Yu will find more excuses to cover up, and Cao Cao will just ignore it!
Now that things have come to this, and Sun Ce has obtained authorization from the court, it is not easy for us to openly help Wang Lang fight against Sun Ce with force. The best we can do is to mediate, hoping that Sun Ce and Wang Lang can peacefully resolve the misunderstanding of "sheltering the remnants of the Shanyue rebels."

"Ziyu, do you think it would be possible to have Zizhong send some ships to give Wang Lang some military equipment and supplies, as well as a few Shanyue-born Danyang soldiers to help delay Wang Lang and prevent Sun Ce from destroying him too quickly?"

Liu Bei's attitude is a relatively optimal solution under the current circumstances.

Perhaps many people who are just trying to rush through like Lu Bu would think this is too slow. It should be like playing the Three Kingdoms game, without diplomatic excuses or the righteousness of the court, just fight whoever you want.

But the real world is not a game after all. As long as the Yidaizhao incident did not happen, the civil war among Han officials would still have to follow rules and they could not openly disobey the imperial edict. This was the real political environment in the four years before Jian'an.

Lu Bu and Yuan Shu are typical examples of people who do not play by the rules, so they soon became infamous.

The stereotypes formed by many people in later generations are actually because chapter-based literary works often abandon the character arc and the character's growth, and determine a person's personality, good or bad, when they first appear, but the real world is not like this.

People who have read Romance of the Three Kingdoms will feel that Cao Cao became a traitor to the Han Dynasty as soon as he held the emperor hostage, and from that point on, those who wanted to support the Han Dynasty no longer had to worry about the imperial edict authorizing the conquest.

But in fact, it was not until Chen Lin wrote "Exhortation to Yuan Shao on Yuzhou" that many of Cao Cao's crimes were sorted out and connected for the first time, which made Yuan Shao suddenly realize that "Cao Cao has so many crimes of disloyalty. Why didn't I think of evaluating all these things comprehensively?" That's why Chen Lin became so famous.

Unlike the world described by Luo Guanzhong, his views had already become a consensus among the world four years before Chen Lin wrote them, and it seemed that there was no need for Chen Lin to come up with this hindsight at all.

Zhuge Jin quickly understood Liu Bei's statements and knew how to implement them.

To put it bluntly, due to concerns about reputation, the Han army in Yangzhou could not be allowed to fight directly.

If he sought reinforcements and delays from Danyang soldiers in a private capacity, because Danyang soldiers were originally Shanyue people, and Wang Lang was charged with "colluding with and sheltering Shanyue rebels", even if Sun Ce found out, he would not be able to hold Liu Bei responsible. It also did not violate Cao Cao's imperial edict allowing Sun Ce to attack Wang Lang.

Of course, there are two prerequisites for doing so. First, the famous generals under Liu Bei who have been granted official positions by the court must not participate. Once they participate and are caught by Sun Ce, it will be exposed.

However, those middle and low-level officials under Liu Bei who were not mentioned in the imperial decree and were only appointed by Liu Bei privately did not have so many concerns. These people came and went freely, and if they were discovered, they could be said to have "left Liu Bei on their own and joined Wang Lang."

It was like the many proxy wars and private armed interventions in the 20th century. Zhuge Jin had much more experience in this kind of thing than Liu Bei, and of course he knew how to organize it best.

Zhuge Jin only thought about it for a moment and helped Liu Bei come up with several candidates: "My Lord, I think we can't invest too many resources in this matter. It would be best if it can be done, but if it can't be done, the loss won't be big. As long as we can help Wang Lang delay Sun Ce for half a year or three months, it won't be a waste of energy.

After Wang Lang retreated to Dongye, he was separated from the fertile land in the north of Kuaiji by mountains. Sun Ce had to go by sea to land on the Minjiang River to pursue Wang Lang. However, Sun Ce's navy was only good at fighting on the river, not at sea. To go out to sea, he had to build and prepare warships.

Therefore, as long as we recruit some naval commanders of humble status but capable of practical work, as well as civil officials who are good at pacifying the Shanyue affairs, and provide some naval weapons and warships to support Wang Lang, he will be able to hold off for a long time.

As for the civil servant who will contact and reinforce Wang Lang, I recommend Bu Zhi Bu Zishan. He has served the lord for two years. He first served as a county official for half a year, then as a county magistrate for another year, and as a Gongcao of Guangling for half a year. I think he is good at winning over the people and may be suitable for this job. "

Zhuge Jin's recommendation was actually half true and half false.

On the one hand, although Bu Zhi has not appeared on screen much in the past two years, he has also learned how to be a pragmatic official and has made considerable progress.

After all, he, Zhuge Jin and Yan Jun were old classmates.

During these two years, he occasionally had the opportunity to visit Zhuge Jin (only during the time when Zhuge Jin lived in Guangling, and no more after Zhuge Jin went to Yuzhang and Danyang) to exchange knowledge and governing practices. Zhuge Jin would also give him advice for the sake of his classmate's face.

Besides, Bu Zhi had one more reason to go to Zhuge's house than others - he might be here to visit his cousin Bu Lianshi. Zhuge Jin couldn't help but reveal some useful information when someone came to visit his sister with gifts.

So after two years, even if what Bu Zhi learned from Zhuge Jin was less than one-tenth of what Zhuge Liang learned from Zhuge Jin, it was still remarkable and far beyond ordinary people.

Zhuge Jin knew that in history Bu Zhi was good at handling barbarian affairs and was very good at integrating rebellious people in remote areas as well as local warlords and bandits.

Historically, Shi Xie of Jiaozhou nominally surrendered to Sun Quan under the mediation of Bu Zhi. Those who refused to submit were also eliminated by Bu Zhi. He could be regarded as an expert in Jiaozhou and Shanyue affairs within the Sun Quan regime.

With these prophetic insights, and a bit of a definite prediction, it was completely reasonable to recommend Bu Zhi to contact Wang Lang and serve as his advisor to buy time and integrate the Shanyue.

After listening to Zhuge Jin's suggestion, Liu Bei was a little skeptical, mainly because he had not yet realized whether Bu Zhi, who was only 21 years old, was so strong. But considering that Bu Zhi was Zhuge Jin's classmate and was known as Zhuge Jin, maybe he really had some outstanding qualities?

"Well, perhaps it's because I didn't give Zishan a chance to show his abilities in the past two years and only let him handle civil affairs. If he had been placed in a complex and important position earlier, perhaps his talents would have been revealed." Liu Bei pondered and tried to convince himself.

Seeing that Liu Bei had already found a psychological excuse, Zhuge Jin quietly helped to add another sentence:
"My lord, your words are indeed in line with the spirit of the ancients. In the past, Lord Pingyuan blamed Mao Sui for not showing his edge, and Mao Sui replied, 'It is only when a needle is in a bag that it can stand out, not just show its edge.' My lord, entrusting Zishan with an important task today is like Lord Pingyuan putting Mao Sui in a bag."

Liu Bei had little education, so he would not think too much when he talked to himself. He blushed when Zhuge Jin quoted from the classics.

I didn't expect that a casual remark I made would actually coincide with the ideas of the four princes of the Warring States Period who were respectful to the wise and humble and who knew how to appoint people to the right positions, as well as the story of Lord Pingyuan and Mao Sui getting along well with each other.

In that case, then just trust the people you employ!

No matter how talented Bu Zhi is, for Tzuyu's sake, give him a chance! At most, it will delay Sun Ce for a few months.

"In this case, this matter will be handed over to Zishan. I will ask Zizhong to allocate him a fleet of sea vessels and corresponding naval weapons, and ask Yunchang to allocate him one or two thousand Danyang soldiers and some money and food, and let him contact Wang Lang."

(End of this chapter)