My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 441: Chatting and Laughing to Guide Zhou Gongjin

"Gongjin, how are you? I couldn't refuse Yuan Qingzhou's hospitality, so I stayed in Linzi for one more day. The weather is hot, so I hope the navy soldiers don't get sick."

After Zhuge Jin got on board, he went directly to the command cabin at the rear of the flagship and chatted with Zhou Yu as he walked.

Zhou Yu followed behind and expressed his sincere gratitude: "Brother, you are considerate of the soldiers. The soldiers will definitely be grateful if they know this. Most of the naval soldiers are from the south. They can adapt to the hot and humid land of Jiangdong. When they come to the north, the summer heat is nothing.

However, when the troops are mobilized this year, the weather may turn cold, and the southern soldiers will find it difficult to exert their combat effectiveness. In my opinion, it is better to fight against Gongsun Du sooner rather than later. Why do we have to wait until the summer grain is stored? We can't rely on the newly harvested grain in Youzhou to maintain military rations.

If you really consider that the people are exhausted and must rest more, then you can simply postpone the battle until after the spring plowing next year, and don't use troops in the autumn. It's already cold not long after the battle started."

Zhuge Jin was about the same age as Zhou Yu, and Zhuge Jin was only a few months older at most. However, he was Zhou Yu's brother-in-law, so Zhou Yu had to address him as "brother", even without his given name.

Zhou Yu lost his family in the war and had to remarry nearly three years ago. At first, he was forced to surrender because of his status as a general. Considering the power of the Zhuge family and his second sister Zhuge Lan's love for him, he had no choice but to obey.

Zhuge Lan was not particularly beautiful, at least not as beautiful as her sisters-in-law.

Zhou Yu was so handsome, and he felt a little frustrated at first. But later he found that the woman of Zhuge's family was talented, smart, and had a lot in common with him. She was also proficient in music, so Zhou Yu realized that he had found a treasure.

After that, he had no grudges against his wife's family. Especially after more contact, he had to admit wholeheartedly that the intelligence of his elder and younger brothers-in-law was far superior to his. He could not help but admit it. After talking and discussing with his family more often, he could gain a lot of new and clever insights, and broaden his horizons and ideas.

This time he came to Qingzhou Leping County at the mouth of the Yellow River to meet his brother-in-law in person. Of course he would not miss this opportunity, so he began to ask questions about strategic thinking as soon as he got on the boat.

Anyway, it's boring to be on a ship at sea. Every day, I either stay in the cabin chatting or go to the deck to get some fresh air.

From the mouth of the Yellow River in Leping County to Tianjin, which was built just over a year ago, there is a total of 400 miles of sea route, which takes at least three days and two nights to sail. After arriving in Tianjin, along the Yishui River and the Shui River to Yuyang, there is another 300 miles of inland waterway, which is slower, so it takes at least seven or eight days to reach Yuyang.

Considering that Zhuge Jin might need to rest for a while and inspect when passing through the newly built Tianjin City, it would be good if he could reach Yuyang after ten days.

Facing his brother-in-law's question, Zhuge Jin couldn't say anything, so he could only make some indirect excuses:

"You are right. My lord and I considered that the continuous fighting last year only ended this spring, and the people and soldiers were too tired and needed to rest. Therefore, this year's farming work must not be delayed.

As for why we didn't wait until next year, I also wanted to take them by surprise. Since Gongjin, with his wisdom, saw that the window of opportunity for fighting in autumn was too short, how could Cao Cao not have thought of it? So as long as we didn't move our troops in midsummer, Cao Cao would probably relax and think that we couldn't send troops this year.

Moreover, in the western part of Liao, the water level rises particularly severely during the heavy rains in autumn. The coastal area at the mouth of the Liao River forms a Liao Marsh, which is too shallow for carriages and horses to pass through, and too deep for boats to pass through. In this way, the enemy in the eastern part of Liao will not be on guard.

But I know that after Zilong conquered Tian Chou of Youbeiping Xuwu, he found out from Tian Chou the road from Lulong Pass to Yanshan and the grassland to Liaodong. In this way, our army will not take food and grass by land, but ride lightly out of Yanshan to the north, while the main force and military food will go by sea. Wouldn't it catch Gongsun Du off guard?
Even if we cannot take Xiangping for the time being, at least we can occupy a large area of land outside Liaodong and gain a firm foothold. Then we can fight to support the enemy and get food from the enemy. In addition, I have another intelligence rumor that Gongsun Du is getting sicker, so this opportunity should not be missed.

I always feel that he can't hold on for long. I don't want to bear the bad reputation of taking advantage of the mourning period to attack the enemy and cause the Liaodong soldiers to unite against the enemy. I also don't want to wait for him to hand over smoothly and restore peace within the country. "

Zhuge Jin used a casual tone to give a lot of reasons. Zhou Yu listened carefully, adopting 90% of his arguments and thinking critically about the other 10%, and he thought they made sense.

Although the brother-in-law's method was risky, it also fully utilized his own advantages. Zhuge Jin never missed any opportunity to use our army's unique technical means and create information asymmetry, and he took full advantage of it.

"So that's how it is...it's my understanding of the art of war that is too orthodox, and I don't know how to use surprise tactics." Zhou Yu pondered over it again and again, and seemed to have gained something, and sighed with conviction.

He sincerely felt that his understanding of military tactics had improved slightly.

Zhou Yu is only thirty years old now, and his military talent has not yet developed to its "full form" compared to the Battle of Red Cliffs four years later in history. However, if he follows the Zhuge family and fights the battle of Gongsun Du, he can basically surpass himself in Red Cliffs.

When Zhuge Jin saw that he had convinced his brother-in-law, he secretly felt lucky.

Only he knew why he had to seize this opportunity to attack Gongsun Du this year? Why couldn't he wait until after the spring ploughing next year?

It’s because it is clearly recorded in history books that Gongsun Du died this year.

In ancient times, attacking the enemy during a mourning period was not only a little lacking in morality, but more importantly, it was easy to arouse the indignation of the enemy, and everyone would be united in hatred of the enemy, so it was best to avoid it if possible.

Zhuge Jin did not do this entirely for Liu Bei's reputation for benevolence and righteousness, but more for tangible benefits, wanting to better undermine the morale of the enemy troops.

However, if you did not wait until you knew the enemy leader was dead and then "take advantage of the loss to attack", but instead started the attack first and the enemy commander died of illness halfway through the battle, then there would be no moral flaw.

Moreover, the enemy's generals and soldiers will also be in a state of panic, thinking that it is God's will that our army is not blessed and that God wants to destroy the Gongsun family, so Gongsun Du was killed at this critical juncture. The morale of the army will collapse greatly.

This is actually very similar to what happened four years later in history when Cao Cao went south to attack Liu Biao. Cao Cao did not take advantage of the mourning period to attack Liu Biao, but instead marched out with his army for a month. When they were almost at Xinye and Fancheng, Liu Biao's fear worsened his illness and he suddenly died.

Under such circumstances, the Jingzhou army in history was completely unable to unite and gather fighting power, but collapsed directly. Liu Cong was led to surrender by Cai Mao, and the land of Jingxiang changed hands without bloodshed.

With the historical example of Liu Biao as a reference, how could Zhuge Jin miss such a good opportunity?
It’s a pity that “predicting the time of death of enemy princes” is too outrageous, so Zhuge Jin couldn’t say it directly, so he found a bunch of other minor reasons to cover it up so that he could finally stick to his strategy.

If Gongsun Du really died of illness as expected, people in the world would think that destiny was on Liu Bei's side, which would lead the weak princes to get closer to Liu Bei, which could be regarded as an extra layer of gain in people's hearts.

……

Zhuge Jin and his brother-in-law discussed the art of war and the subsequent deployment strategies for war preparations. Several days passed in a flash. Zhou Yu also became more and more meticulous about how to fight and what precautions to take when the battle really started.

Sailing in the shallow waters of the Bohai Sea, which is only two or three feet deep, is very safe with little wind or waves.

Every morning and evening when it was cool, Zhuge Jin could go to the deck to watch the sunrise and sunset over the sea, stretch his muscles, and shoot arrows at the whales and flying fish leaping out of the sea, just as a form of physical exercise.

Sometimes you can watch the stars at night, using a primitive telescope made of crystal. Although there was no air pollution in ancient times, it is more comfortable to watch the stars on the sea than on land, mainly because there are far fewer rain clouds at sea and the view is absolutely good.

Zhuge Jin's understanding of astronomy was more theoretical, and his specific observations were not as good as his second brother Zhuge Liang. Later, when the brothers were learning from each other and Zhuge Jin was teaching Zhuge Liang theory, Zhuge Liang inadvertently gave him some skills, and Zhuge Jin learned from his brother and gradually became proficient.

After years of brothers' learning, Zhuge Jin now combines theory and practice in astronomy. Zhou Yu's attainments in this area are obviously much worse than those of Zhuge brothers.

Although he knew a little bit, and compared with other generals of the same period, he was already very "knowledgeable about astronomy and geography". But compared with the Zhuge brothers, there was a cliff-like gap.

Previously, Zhuge Jin wanted to teach people the "latitude navigation method" to improve the navigation and positioning capabilities of the naval commander of Liu Bei's army. Zhou Yu had only learned a little bit of it and was not as good as Bu Zhi and Lu Yi - it was not that Zhou Yu's IQ was not as good as Bu and Lu, but that he entered the industry late and had a poor foundation.

The key to this is who has been with the Zhuge family earlier. Even if Bu Zhi's IQ is lower than Zhou Yu's, he has been exposed to the Zhuge family for three or four years more, so he has learned more than Zhou Yu. That's why Bu Zhi was able to lead the fleet across the South China Sea to Linyi without following the Jiaozhi coast and retrieve the double-season rice seeds.

Zhou Yu was once ashamed of this, so how could he not take the opportunity this time to please his brother-in-law like crazy? He asked Zhuge Jin to teach him more skills in stargazing and related astronomical calculations during the sailing in the past few days.

Zhou Yu was able to practice on the spot, observe, and then go back to the cabin to calculate by lamplight, and give the calculation results to Zhuge Jin for correction. The speed of his progress was naturally rapid. In just a few days, he had made up for most of the gap with Bu Zhi.

On the evening of the third day after setting sail, the fleet arrived at the mouth of the Yishui River and anchored at the newly built city of Tianjin, south of the Yishui River estuary and north of the Zhangshui River estuary.

Zhou Yu cordially invited Zhuge Jin to stay the night ashore and rest for a few days before continuing. Zhuge Jin was not in a hurry and accepted the invitation calmly.

Tianjin City was founded two years ago. In theory, it is now just an ordinary county town under the jurisdiction of Bohai County in Jizhou, and its status is lower than that of Nanpi, the county seat.

There was only one civil servant in the city, a county magistrate and a warehouse magistrate, so the highest-end official residence was Zhou Yu's colonel's mansion.

Zhuge Jin was taken to the Captain's Mansion and stayed there. When he arrived at the backyard, he saw a group of female relatives coming out to pay their respects. Zhuge Jin did not need to avoid them, because the one leading them was Zhou Yu's wife Zhuge Lan, who was his own sister. There was no reason for him to hide.

Zhuge Lan hadn't seen his elder brother for several years, so he personally poured wine and served food to his elder brother, and was very attentive.

Zhuge Jin was very generous at first, but later he felt embarrassed by the service and waved his hand, saying, "Although we are blood relatives, I don't need to do this kind of service myself. I will let the maid do it."

Zhuge Lan's eyes sparkled with tears, and she bowed down gracefully: "At the beginning, everyone advised me to choose a husband based on future prospects, but you, my elder brother, stood up against the crowd and let me make my own decision. How can ordinary brothers and sisters have such a loving relationship? I am where I am today because of you, my elder brother."

Zhuge Jin didn't want to be seen in such a coy manner, so he quickly supported his younger sister and said, "These old things are not worth mentioning. Besides, Gongjin also has a bright future, but you just don't know how to judge people's future."

After that, Zhuge Jin took the opportunity to change the subject and chatted with Zhou Yu next to him about official business. "By the way, Gongjin, in my letter the day before yesterday, I asked you to work hard to build a salt field in Tianjin, and try to imitate the Guangling and Donghai County salt fields in the south, and strive to use sun drying as the main method and boiling salt as the auxiliary method.

How have you handled this matter? I will go to Yuyang later to win over the Hu people, but I will have to rely heavily on your Tianjin Salt Works to provide salt nearby for a long time. You can't be lazy about this."

What Zhuge Jin mentioned was what he had told Zhou Yu a few months ago, right after he had discussed the follow-up strategy against Hu Fang with Mi Zhu and Zhao Yun.

Zhuge Jin's subsequent plan required a large amount of salt to lure the Hu people to sell live cattle and sheep to the Han people's border markets in large quantities, and then the Han people would give discounts and pickle large amounts of bacon to sell back to the Hu people, so as to better activate the livestock meat resource allocation on the grassland.

However, in order to implement this strategy in the Han Dynasty, the cost of salt had to be drastically reduced first.

If the original salt boiling method was used to make sea salt, the cost would be too high, and it would definitely be impossible to make bacon and ham on a large scale. After the salt boiling method was changed to the salt drying method, the cost was greatly reduced, and all of this became somewhat feasible.

In the first year of trade, Zhuge Jin had Mi Zhu transport a large amount of cheap sea salt from Donghai County in the south, and store it in the official warehouses of Yuyang and Tianjin, waiting to trade with the Hu people. However, if there is a long-term trade in the future, the transportation cost will be a waste.

Sea salt can be produced everywhere along the coast. It doesn't make sense for the sea salt to be dried in the south and then transported thousands of miles to the north.

Therefore, the best solution is to open a salt field in Tianjin, located along the coast of the Zhangshui and Yishui River estuaries, and use new technologies for mass production.

The water along the coast of Bohai Bay is shallow, so it is relatively easy to find mudflats that are just submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide, and then transform them into salt fields by adding a little cofferdam.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Tianjin also had the Changlu Salt Field, which could supply the sea salt demand in the important northern Beijing-Hebei area, and could also radiate to the demand in the Manchurian and Mongolian grasslands outside the Great Wall such as Zhangjiakou and Juyongguan.

It can be seen that if the tidal flats between the Yishui River estuary and the Zhangshui River estuary in Tianjin are utilized and constructed well, the output will be very huge.

Being asked by his brother-in-law, Zhou Yu did not dare to neglect it and quickly said that he had dispatched corvée laborers and naval soldiers to work as fast as possible since he received the letter more than two months ago. He did not dare to delay the farming during the busy spring farming season, so he mainly relied on the naval soldiers to work.

Nowadays, it can be considered a small achievement. Many salt pans and mudflats have been cofferdamed. When the tide is high, a hole is left in the cofferdam, so that seawater can rush in and accumulate several feet thick. Before the tide goes out, the cofferdam is blocked, and then exposed to the scorching sun for several days. The several-foot-deep seawater can be condensed several times and only a few inches deep.

However, the weather in the north is not so hot that the seawater flowing in can be dried up. So after drying out most of the water, the brine must be collected and concentrated by boiling salt, otherwise all the efforts will be wasted if it rains.

All these production processes have now begun to be piloted, and with time, the production scale can be expanded.

After hearing this, Zhuge Jin did not demand too much. He knew that the conditions for drying sea salt in Yancheng, Jiangsu in the future were unique in China, and it would be difficult to find a second coastal salt field with such superior conditions.

Otherwise, Yancheng would not be named Yancheng.

The natural environment of Tianjin Changlu Salt Field is definitely inferior to that of the south, but it is already very good to be able to achieve this.

As long as Zhou Yu doesn't make any mistakes, he will try his best to transplant the technology that has been honed over the years in Guangling County in the south, and he will proceed as far as he can.

Zhuge Jin made a pertinent comment: "It's not easy for you to do this. At least you put your heart into it and didn't make mistakes. In the next few days, I will go to the salt field to rest. After confirming that there is no problem, I will go to Yuyang."

Zhou Yu quickly agreed and said he would arrange it right away.

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PS: Today is New Year's Eve. I saved the draft in advance, so I'll post it early. I may not have time to do it during the day.

That’s all. The updates on the first and second days of the Chinese New Year may be adjusted to the morning, and then it may return to normal.

(End of this chapter)