My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 169 Cao Cao has the advantage of location, Liu Bei has the advantage of people

Pei Mao, the Minister of Rites, would not leave Wuhu immediately after conveying the imperial edict.

It is not easy for the imperial envoys to make a round trip. It takes more than half a month for one way. If they just eat a few meals and sleep for a night and then leave, it would be too tiring.

However, in the following few days, Liu Bei didn't need to be with him all the time.

After he had roughly understood what Pei Mao meant by Cao Cao, he could let Sun Qian and Jian Yong take turns to accompany the guest and take Pei Mao around Wuhu for a tour.

Liu Bei himself took time out to hold a closed-door meeting, summoning Zhuge brothers and Lu Su to discuss how to deal with the many requests made by Cao Cao. Which ones should be implemented and which ones should not be implemented, and those that cannot be implemented have to find other excuses.

After chatting with his three confidants behind closed doors, Liu Bei had nothing to hide and spoke directly to the point:
"General of Chariots and Cavalry, Imperial Clan Leader, neither of these two positions is worthy of the mere achievement of conquering Shouchun. Cao Cao is not only rewarding us with honors this time, he also wants our army to obey his orders in many other areas.

We have to be enemies with Brother Jingsheng, not to cause trouble for Sun Ce, and not to attack Lu Bu from both sides. We have to obey him in almost every aspect. Do you think we can obey Cao Cao in all three of these? Or should we find an excuse to keep one or two of them? If we keep some, will Cao Cao find an excuse to promote us in public and demote us in private, depriving our army of some conveniences? "

In this situation, Zhuge Jin knew that if he did not speak, his second brother would be embarrassed to speak first, so he said a few words to ease the situation: "My lord, I think that if we do not abide by these three rules, Cao Cao will find another excuse to promote us in public and demote us in private as a punishment in the future.

Of course, this kind of secret punishment cannot come immediately. It will be delayed for at least a few months or half a year in order to find another excuse and conceal the truth from the world, so that ordinary people can't see the relationship between the two things. Moreover, it takes time for the message to be transmitted back and forth, and for negotiations and probing. "

Liu Bei listened quietly until Zhuge Jin finished speaking, and he continued to look at him expectantly, as if hoping that he would add more and answer all the questions. But Zhuge Jin kept silent and had nothing to add.

Liu Bei then turned to Zhuge Liang and gave him an encouraging look. Zhuge Liang no longer worried about the etiquette and said proudly, "I think that temporarily not allowing our army to attack Sun Ce can be implemented.

Our army has been fighting Yuan Shu for half a year, and the military rations have been exhausted. We are already unable to organize another war of 30,000 to 50,000 people. We have to wait until the summer grain harvest next year to ease the situation a little. Only after the autumn grain harvest can we completely solve the problem of the influx of refugees starving to death.

If we don't touch Sun Ce, Sun Ce won't dare to touch us either. The superficial peace between the two sides can be maintained. Sun Ce will no longer border other princes and it is impossible for him to be swallowed up by other princes.

The only unknown in delaying the attack on Sun Ce is when Yuan Shao and Cao Cao will clash in the future. When I went north on a diplomatic mission to Yuan Shao last year, Gongsun Zan still had one or two counties left. Although there is no news of Gongsun Zan's demise, I'm afraid it won't be long.

Although Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are currently on good terms, next year Yuan Shao will be in a state where there is nothing left to attack. The most likely disadvantage of delaying our attack on Sun Ce is that we will not be able to intervene in the dispute between Yuan and Cao in the future. Apart from that, there is no harm in delaying our attack on Sun Ce.

After all, the current situation has not yet reached a drastic turning point in history. Even with Zhuge Liang's intelligence, he could not have predicted the Yidaizhao or the Battle of Guandu, so his deduction was still relatively conservative.

Although Zhuge Jin knew about the Yidaizhao and the Battle of Guandu, he knew very well that these two events could not be deduced. If he forced a prediction, it would be a bit unclear logically. So he kept silent just now, wanting his second brother to explain first.

If my second brother could prove the process, he wouldn't have to be a prophet.

At this moment, after listening to his second brother's argument, even Zhuge Jin was slightly convinced: Indeed, if we do not consider whether to seize the opportunity of the Battle of Guandu to intervene in the future, and simply look at the southern half of the country, then there is really no obvious disadvantage in attacking Sun Ce later.

Liu Bei can still expand outward, but Sun Ce has been blocked. In the next one or two years, Liu Bei's territory will become larger and larger, the farming effect will become better and better, and the damage and disaster victims of the previous wars can also be cultivated.

However, Sun Ce's territory would no longer develop, and time was definitely on Liu Bei's side - unless Sun Ce learned what Sun Quan did twenty years earlier and crossed the sea to Yizhou to replenish the population, or after the ships were built, he continued to move south along the coastline to deal with Shi Xie of Jiaozhou.

So considering only the issues between Liu and Sun, time is definitely on Liu Bei's side.

Not to mention that in history, Sun Ce was assassinated two years later. If this low-probability event could happen again, Liu Bei could even directly reduce the enemy's resistance by more than half and take down the Sun family at a small cost. With the combat power of Sun Quan, who just took over at the age of 19, he would definitely not be able to withstand Liu Bei.

Of course, Zhuge Jin nowadays doesn't dare to bet on Sun Ce's assassination. After all, this is a low-probability event. Any slight disturbance may lead to the failure of the assassination. Moreover, in history, Sun Ce was not killed directly. He went back to recuperate. If the injury changes slightly and is not fatal, it will not be of much help.

The key is that Liu Bei must be strong and make full preparations so that the enemy can be eliminated without causing any trouble.

After understanding these principles, Zhuge Jin and Lu Su didn't say anything more. Lu Su had nothing to add, and Zhuge Jin didn't want to create any unnecessary trouble.

In this case, Liu Bei made up his mind completely: the matter of Sun Ce could be put on hold for the medium to long term, and he could take action only when his side was fully prepared and invincible, or when there were major changes or flaws within the enemy.

Then, Liu Bei switched the topic to his attitude towards Lu Bu and asked Zhuge Liang to continue to elaborate on his attitude towards Lu Bu.

Zhuge Liang then said, "Cao Cao hopes that we will not attack Lü Bu from both sides. I think we cannot completely listen to Cao Cao. Lü Bu is different from Sun Ce. After all, he is surrounded by enemies. If we don't take something, the enemy will take it.

Since he could not disobey the order openly, he had to at least find some excuses, such as letting Chen Yuanlong create some tension in the future, falsely claiming that he was preparing to start an uprising in advance and wanted to respond to Cao Gong behind the scenes and submit to the court.

However, before the uprising began, Chen Gong discovered the clues and the truth was exposed, so Brother Yuanlong had to hastily start the uprising in advance. At this time, Cao's army might not have been able to attack Xiapi, as there were still Pengcheng County and several counties in the western part of Donghai in between.

This will result in Brother Yuanlong's desire to surrender directly to the court being blocked. In order to protect himself and avoid being killed by Chen Gong, he had to seek medical help and surrender to the lord in a hurry, because the lord's troops were nearby in Ling County, which was only separated from Xiapi by a period of time. "

When Liu Bei heard this, his eyes finally lit up, and even Lu Su looked at him with admiration.

The foreshadowing of "having to do so in order to protect oneself" is very good!

As expected, he is Zhuge Kongming!
Liu Bei actually thought about it yesterday. He had Chen Deng as a card. Even if Cao Cao didn't allow him to attack Lu Bu from both sides and reap the benefits, he would still get some benefits.

How can a living person be suffocated to death by urine? If Cao Cao said that he was not allowed to get a prefecture, then he would not get a prefecture? If there is no excuse, then make one up!

As for how to create specific excuses to make more money without offending anyone or damaging the reputation of the loyal ministers of the Han Dynasty, this is the difficulty. With Liu Bei's own brain, he thought about it all night last night but couldn't figure it out.

Now Zhuge Liang has finally helped him complete the script, which is indeed a quick reaction.

Liu Bei was eager to try and ask, "If we use this method, are there any other things we need to pay attention to? Will it be hidden from Cao Cao?" Zhuge Liang was also stunned. He originally thought that the general principle was enough and did not think about more details. Unexpectedly, Liu Bei was so eager to keep improving, so Zhuge Liang had to improve it on the spot.

He shook his feather fan a few times faster, and suddenly realized that it was a bit cold, so he put the fan down and said, "If you really want to be more perfect, there are ways. For example, before letting Brother Yuanlong start the rebellion, the main force of our army can pretend to make some moves in other directions, and it would be best to combine it with Cao Cao's instructions on our attack on Huang Zu.

If we really want to attack Huang Zu next spring, our military food will still be tight and we will not be able to mobilize too many troops. It is estimated that we can only use 10,000 or 20,000 people at most. We can only mobilize the army after the summer grain is harvested in May.

But even if there are only 10,000 or 20,000 people, we can put up the banners of Yunchang, Xingba, and Ziyi and pretend that they have all gone to the Jiangxia battlefield. Then only Zilong will be on guard in Shouchun, Hefei, etc., while the banners of the Lord and Yide will be in Wuhu to keep an eye on Sun Ce.

Thus, before Yuanlong launched the rebellion, there was no sign of any special reinforcement of our garrison forces in Huaiyin and Haixi. Just like this year, it was still Shuzhi and Guorang who were on guard.

These two generals have been on guard against enemies in the rear this year, monitoring the movements of Lu Bu and Sun Ce. They have never participated in the campaign against Yuan Shikai and have made no achievements. They were never mentioned in the lord's request for titles, and naturally, Cao Cao's decree of reward did not mention them either.

If we accept Yuanlong's return with only these two generals, then everyone in the world will know that we acted on impulse and out of necessity, rather than having planned this carefully and for a long time."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei and Lu Su could not help but nod their heads again and praised Zhuge Liang for his meticulous thinking.

Even Zhuge Jin nodded slightly, feeling deeply moved: He actually thought of even such details of the script. Isn't this just like the criminal law routine of Americans in later generations? Many murder lawyers have to try their best to make the suspects distinguish between "impulsive and passionate" or "deliberate and long-planned" when describing their motives.

After all, the American criminal law is divided into "first-degree murder" and "second-degree murder", but there is no distinction in China (but passion killing is also considered a discretionary mitigating factor), so it is not so particular in business.

And Aliang is only eighteen years old, it is not easy for him to think of this direction within a few seconds.

After Liu Bei understood Zhuge Liang's words, he continued to ask, "Since this is the case, our army should remain in the Huaiyin area and only send Shuzhi to guard against it.

If Yuanlong made any move, he would only let Shuzhi and his men lead the troops to the north to support him. At worst, they could be given low-ranking positions but great power, and each of them could lead a large force as a captain.

But if we do this, our army will only be able to take over some of the places that Yuanlong can completely control, and we won’t be able to expand our victory. Otherwise, we will still anger Cao Cao and damage the relationship between the two sides in advance. It’s not that I’m greedy, I just want to see if it’s possible to go further. ”

Liu Bei mentioned that Chen Dao and Tian Yu's current official positions are still relatively low. Chen Dao later followed Zhuge Jin to Chaisang for a while, and made some contributions when he destroyed Zuo Rong, but he is still only a captain.

Theoretically, a captain could lead at least 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers, and it was unlikely that there would be more than 5,000. When Chen Deng started the rebellion, for the sake of safety, it was definitely not enough to bring only 5,000 soldiers to the north to reinforce and replace the guard.

This requires high-level talents and small officials leading a large army. All of these have to be secretly raised in advance. Otherwise, when the time comes, Chen Dao's prestige may not be able to control an army of tens of thousands of people.

Tian Yu's achievements were even less than Chen Dao's. He didn't even get the military merit of "Yuzhang Dungeon". He had been guarding his home in the past two years, so he was still only a Sima of a certain department and could only serve as Chen Dao's deputy general. Theoretically, the number of troops he could command did not even exceed 3,000.

However, Liu Bei only needs to worry about these problems himself, and there is no need to let the Zhuge brothers deal with them.

The meaning of Liu Bei's last sentence is even clearer - if it was under normal circumstances, Liu Bei should be thankful that Chen Deng could finally start the uprising and be successfully taken over. But who can blame him for having Zhuge brothers by his side now? He has already done so well, but he is still fantasizing about whether he can get a little more.

No one will complain about making progress too fast.

Regarding his lord's endless "greed", Zhuge Jin glanced at his second brother. Seeing his two brothers looking at each other in bewilderment, he knew it was time for him to step in and put the brakes on.

Zhuge Jin coughed lightly and advised Liu Bei to calm down: "My lord, Cao Cao won't let us attack Lu Bu. We only rely on Yuanlong to volunteer. It is very rare to get a county.

Pei State originally belonged to Yuzhou. Although the lord had stationed troops there, there is no possibility of dispute now according to national law. Taishan County originally belonged to Yanzhou. The Taishan bandits, including Zang Ba from Langya, have always been able to get along with everyone. The lord was unable to control them back then, let alone now.

As long as Cao Cao is stronger than the lord and defeats Lu Bu, Zang Ba and the Taishan bandits are destined to surrender to Cao. In the end, what can be fought for is actually the remaining part of Pengcheng County, Xiapi County, and the remaining part of Donghai County.

If our army can finally capture most of Xiapi and take a few more counties in Donghai County, and ensure that the defense line is pushed to Yishui, we should be satisfied. The remaining Pengcheng, Langya, and the part of Donghai County west of Yishui can only belong to Cao Cao. If we want to change this, we must go to war with Cao Cao."

Liu Bei was poured cold water by Zhuge Jin's blunt words, and he calmed down a little. His unreasonable expectations of the surname "Zhuge" also subsided a little.

Tzuyu has said it's impossible, so it's absolutely impossible. There's nothing to worry about! It's better to spend your energy elsewhere!
After making this decision, Liu Bei actually felt unprecedented relief.

Zhuge Jin also took this opportunity to comfort him: "My lord, although the land our army can obtain may be limited, it may not be without great gains for the military and civilians, as well as the civil and military talents of Xuzhou.

Cao Cao came with treachery and started a war without authorization. Although he had the imperial court to cover up his shame, he could only deceive the ignorant. Who among the civil and military officials in Xuzhou did not hate Cao Cao? Moreover, the people of Xuzhou had already been massacred by Cao the thief several times, and the survivors were still in fear.

This time, Cao Cao took Xuzhou by force with military disaster, but the lord accepted it peacefully with a truce to appease the people. What will the people of Pengcheng, Donghai, and Langya choose? The two jurisdictions will be separated by only a river called Yishui. The lord should be prepared for the remaining people of Xuzhou to flee across Yishui and surrender to the lord before the enemy army reaches Yishui.

Therefore, this winter, our army should take advantage of the slack season to further reclaim the polder in Guangling County, control the salinization, and send ships to the islands along the East China Sea coast to dig more guano and phosphate fertilizer to improve the salinization. In this way, Guangling County and the eastern half of the East China Sea will have more farmland to resume cultivation next year, ensuring that they can receive the refugees from Pengcheng, Langya, and the western half of the East China Sea.

Although the lord has not obtained the land, he has obtained the people and talents. Isn't this a good thing? The area between the Yangtze River and the Huai River is vast and sparsely populated. As long as there is a population, there will be no worries about new land to be reclaimed in the long run. "

Zhuge Jin's last words finally made Liu Bei suddenly enlightened.

Yes, in the end, what matters in troubled times is manpower. If a large number of people move south, what does it matter if more vacant land in the north is left for Cao Cao? It is enough to have the support of the people.

Given Liu Bei's reputation and Cao Cao's reputation in Xuzhou, it goes without saying that the people will defect to them when the time comes.

(End of this chapter)