My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 248 Come here if you dare!

The tasks assigned by Zhuge Jin were carried out resolutely.

Liu Bei's troops in Danyang, Guangling and Lujiang counties quickly got into action under Guan Yu's planning and made final adjustments before the war.

The morale boosting work went smoothly. Guan Yu personally supervised the work and told officers at all levels that "Cao Cao is a traitor to the country, and anyone who obeys Cao Cao's orders and becomes our enemy is also a traitor to the country." This view quickly took root in the hearts of the people in the shortest possible time and was known to everyone in Liu Bei's army.

As for Chen Deng in Guangling, after learning that he would become Sun Ce's main target, he continued to pretend to be weak to the enemy while making steady progress internally and making preparations for defense.

While Chen Deng ordered people to block the river and prevent information from being transmitted, he also announced the temporary closure of the Hang Canal and that shipping would not be allowed for some time to come.

Then in the evening of the same day, Chen Deng ordered to lower the water level in the Han Canal slightly, and then collected thousands of baskets of sand and gravel, and broken sacks filled with sand, and directly blocked the gates of the north-south bidirectional waterway of the Han Canal.

The weak structure with only one gate was turned into a temporary earth dam! This way, it would be impossible for it to be destroyed by fire during war!
The flames may be able to burn the wooden door, but you can't just burn the earth-rock dam that is several meters thick on the top and more than ten meters thick at the bottom!

Once the war is over and the canal is reopened in the future, just a little dredging work will be done to scoop up the large bamboo baskets and sacks filled with earth and rocks one by one. The scattered earth and rocks will be dredged away, and the obstacles blocking the gates will be cleared, and the canal will be able to return to normal.

This is much more economical than having the gate destroyed during the war and then spending several months rebuilding it after the war. The difference in the amount of work between the two is at least ten times the order of magnitude.

After Chen Deng's emergency improvement work, if the enemy wanted to destroy the gate during the attack, they would have to directly capture the newly renovated dam and then dig up the entire dam. The workload would be extremely large and would take several days to complete, which was enough time for Liu Bei's army to reinforce.

Moreover, Chen Deng did not even want to give the other side such an opportunity. He also divided his troops into two camps and set up defenses at the canal gates in the east and west of Guangling City respectively.

Deer horns are set up on the newly built dam body, and pits and trenches are set up on the river bank. Anyway, most of the soil and rocks used for the dam are dug from both sides of the dike, and the excavated parts just form trenches and pits.

In this way, the two canal embankments became additional defensive fortifications, and if Sun Ce wanted to occupy them, he could just pile up lives and storm them.

Although these terrains are easier to attack than cities, they are definitely more difficult to attack than ordinary fortifications.

Chen Deng would send out enough archers to occupy the levee and provide long-range support firepower, and then arrange heavy-armored spearmen to fill the line and sword and shield soldiers to block the entrance on the slope.

Over the past year, the steel-casting method that Liu Beijun has been developing in Wuhu has become increasingly mature, with output also increasing.

After September last year, the Daye Iron Mine was opened in E County, Jiangxia County. Zhuge Liang also further expanded steelmaking and the forging of high-quality weapons and armor, and introduced new quenching technology and the first generation of hydraulic forging hammers.

Before the battle, although Chen Deng's troops were not strengthened, he had received a batch of additional steel armor and horse-cutting swords, as well as other sophisticated equipment. He was not at all afraid of fighting the enemy in a battle of camp attack and defense.

……

While Chen Deng was doing his pre-war transformation and Guan Yu was mobilizing all his troops,

Yan Jun, the envoy sent by Zhuge Jin to Moling City to meet Sun Ce, finally arrived with a letter of persuasion written by "Liu Bei" to Sun Ce.

At this time, there were only one or two days left before Sun Ce's general attack. Sun Ce was also surprised to hear that Liu Bei had sent an envoy.

However, in order to spy on the enemy and understand their intentions, he still met with Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao, and even Hua Xin was arranged to listen behind the scenes.

After the two sides met, Yan Jun stated his purpose straight away.

"… Let the generals who are fighting against the rebellion know that Dong Cheng and Lu Bu are fighting against Cao Cao in accordance with the secret decree of the emperor! The traitor Cao Cao deceived the emperor and killed loyal ministers many times, murdered General Yang, retaliated against the loyal ministers who cleaned up the emperor's side and eliminated the cruel officials, and killed Zhao Yan, the councilor who advocated that Your Majesty rule the country personally.

After Dong Cheng's defeat, he concealed the truth and ordered all officials to keep their mouths shut and not to make irresponsible comments. When Junior Governor Kong spoke out for justice and broke his gag order, he was brutally killed by him! The General of Chariots and Cavalry had originally been told by the General of Guards that the secret decree would be passed on. Now we must carry on his will and continue to fulfill your majesty's wish to defeat Cao Cao! As governors of the counties under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou, you should stand together with the governor and send troops to fight against the rebellion! "

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce, Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao were suddenly dizzy - the so-called "secret decree to attack Cao" was completely unheard of before, and this was the first time Sun Ce heard of it.

But on second thought, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu knew that this might not be credible, maybe Liu Bei was fooling them. And how could they turn around when things had come to this point?

If they followed Liu Bei, they would definitely be swallowed up by Liu Bei in the end! Liu Bei transferred their main force across the river to attack Cao Cao, and the old nest would definitely be taken over by Liu Bei!

Something similar to this has happened in history. After Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, the Xudu court once persuaded Sun Ce to give him a high position and a higher title of general, and asked him to cross the Yangtze River to fight against Yuan. Then they secretly contacted Zu Lang of Danyang, hoping to steal Sun Ce's hometown in Jiangnan while Sun Ce's main force crossed the Yangtze River.

It was precisely for this reason that Sun Ce and Zu Lang had been fighting for so long in history. They started fighting after this conspiracy was exposed.

Sun Ce was not stupid, so even if the secret decree was true, he could not just follow it and lead his main force across the river to be cannon fodder!

His position meant that he could only make friends with people far away and attack those near. To attack Liu Bei, he could attack nearby, relying on his own territory.

The only way to defeat Cao Cao is to cross the border. Even if you conquer an enclave, you can't stand it. The old nest will be stolen. Only a fool would obey the imperial edict!

When deciding which edict to follow, we cannot just consider which one is more just, but also need to consider “geographical determinism.” The location of Sun Ce’s territory determined that he could not follow another edict.

"You bastard! You actually pretended to be a fake edict! You said the emperor had a secret edict for Dong Cheng, and Dong Cheng was in collusion with Liu Bei, then show me the edict! The edict given by Cao Cao is real, and the seal has been verified to be authentic! This is the real edict!"

After Sun Ce made up his mind, he finally decided to announce that the words about Liu Bei brought by Yan Jun were lies. In order to stabilize his side and prevent the people below from having wild thoughts, he asked someone to take out the actual imperial edict given to him by Hua Xin, and showed it off in public, also to Yan Jun, and then drew his sword to scare Yan Jun.

Fortunately, Zhou Yu was relatively calm and still held Sun Ce back. He then said to Yan Jun in a stern voice, "You are not guilty of ignorance, and we are not the kind of people who will kill an envoy. Go back and tell Liu Bei not to be fooled by the traitor Dong Cheng. It is not too late to turn back now.

The imperial court has already deprived him of his position as governor of Yangzhou because of his crimes, and replaced him with Bo Fu. As long as Liu Bei hands over the counties of Yangzhou, we will regard him as repentant, and we will not attack the counties of Xuzhou and Jingzhou.

Even if he is afraid that the territories of Xu and Jing will become enclaves, we can still make a break for him and leave the Yangzhou area in the north of the Yangtze River to Liu Bei, as long as he hands over the southern part of Yangzhou! If he still refuses to change, then he is truly a traitor, not just deceived by Dong Cheng! "

Zhou Yu's remarks were also made up casually, as he knew Liu Bei would definitely not listen. However, this was also done to avoid killing the envoy and at the same time maintain the morale of his own people.

Because if you conclude that the other party is "falsely conveying the imperial edict", you should kill that person. If you don't dare to kill him, wouldn't it make Sun Ce seem guilty?
But if we say that the other party did not "intentionally spread false information" but was "deceived and misled", then we can give him a way out, and our civil and military officials will not feel that not killing him is cowardly.

Three-tenths of these words are spoken to the enemy, and seven-tenths are spoken to our own people.

Yan Jun was not a talented person and did not dare to offend the other party too much. He did not want to exchange his life for diplomatic advantages such as "forcing Sun Ce into a more unjust situation".

So he just pretended to protest for a few sentences, saying nothing more than "The imperial edict that the General heard is the real one, and you are the blind ones who cannot distinguish between loyalty and treachery, and have harmed the soldiers and people of the three counties of Wu and Hui" and so on.

The corner of Sun Ce's mouth twitched, and he asked Zhou Yu coldly what to do.

Zhou Yu whispered, "Why not send Mr. Mancai to the Niuzhu army on a fast horse, and send him back to Wuhu tomorrow morning. Our army will attack later, which can be considered as courtesy before force. The attack plan can also be prepared one day in advance. Since Liu Bei has sent an envoy, we can no longer hide our plan."

Sun Ce nodded. Since the other side had sent an envoy, he didn't want to bear the bad reputation of a surprise attack without declaring war. It was okay to start the action a day in advance. Everything that needed to be prepared was ready.

Moreover, at that time, he would send the envoy back in front of the Niuzhu-Wuhu formation, and then pretend to launch a strong attack, but in fact he would cross the river in Dantu, downstream of Moling, and attack Guangling, which were hundreds of miles apart.

The war was declared in Wuhu an hour ago, and the actual fighting started in Guangling an hour later. This can't be considered a sneak attack, right?

As for whether Zhuge Jin in Wuhu could send the declaration of war to Guangling within an hour to remind Chen Deng to be on guard, that was Zhuge Jin's business and had nothing to do with Sun Ce. Anyway, Sun Ce did not launch a sneak attack.

……

That's it.
Yan Jun was sent to Moling in a hurry on March 11, and it took him only one day to get there. Wuhu to Moling is only 150 miles by water, and it is very fast to go downstream by boat.

On the way back, Sun Ce sent someone to escort him on express horses, so on the early morning of March 13, Yan Jun had been sent back to the Niuzhu-Wuhu border.

Seeing Sun Ce's army appear with false flags, the Wuhu defenders of course had to send people to the border for surveillance and guard. This time, Guan Yu came in person.

The two armies faced each other, and both sides maintained the courtesy between Han ministers. Sun Ce waved his hand and had people send Yan Junli away.

He had already written a reply to Liu Bei, clearly stating what he should say. But he still had to say a few words before the battle. He shouted out his decision to declare war in front of the soldiers of both armies, and emphasized to Guan Yu:
"General Annan, you have mistakenly believed the traitor Dong Cheng's instigation and betrayed the court. I will obey the order and suppress the rebellion!"

Guan Yu: "The thief Cao deceived the emperor and deceived the emperor. Your Majesty has issued a secret decree to punish the thief. I will follow the secret decree to punish the thief!"

The soldiers on both sides were extremely nervous, thinking that after the harsh words were uttered and the relationship was officially broken off, there would be a fierce decisive battle in the field.

Unfortunately, the Liu-Sun border between Niuzhu and Wuhu had already been in a standoff for about two years.

Both sides built multiple defense lines and camps outside the cities of Niuzhu and Wuhu, and the fortifications looked quite solid.

After both sides had made their threats, they both had an attitude of "Come and attack if you're capable", shouting and clamoring but not launching the main attack. After shouting for the whole morning, they withdrew their troops and went home.

Sun Ce thought he had a good plan: Humph, you still expect me to attack the Wuhu defense line? Gongjin must have successfully crossed the river in Guangling. When the urgent news from Guangling arrives, I'm not afraid that Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin will come out from behind the defense line!

(End of this chapter)