My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 453: Head-on Attack on Gongsun Du

On the fifth day of the eleventh month of the ninth year of Jian'an, morning.

In the Liaodong Prefecture's Xiangping County, in the shogunate of General Wuwei and the governor of Pingzhou, an old man in his early sixties with gray hair asked his staff with a slightly hoarse voice:
"Ahem... Zhao Yun's sudden attack and encirclement of Changli caught our army off guard. But such a despicable man, seeking to surprise others and disregarding the great taboos of military strategy, will not last long. Genju and Yanfang, do you have any good strategies to repel the enemy?"

This old man was Gongsun Du, who had proclaimed himself the governor of Pingzhou. He was 61 years old this year. Actually, he was two or three years younger than Liu Biao, but living in the bitter cold north for many years had put a great strain on his health.

As a result, his face looked full of ravines and deep lines on his face. If he had met Liu Biao in person, bystanders would have mistaken him for being older than Liu Biao.

However, compared to Liu Biao's "talker" attribute, Gongsun Du can undoubtedly be regarded as a heroic leader. Even now that he is old and seriously ill, he still speaks with a sense of confidence that is intimidating without anger.

So he encouraged his subordinates and staff right from the start, pointing out that Zhao Yun's attack was not to be feared and that the Liaodong army would surely win in the end.

After giving his words of encouragement, Gongsun Du looked at his kneeling staff members below. On his left sat his eldest son Gongsun Kang, and on his right sat two civil servants, Wang Lie and Bing Yuan.

Wang Lie was his most trusted confidant, and also the Chief of Pingzhou and the Chief of Wuwei General's Office. Wang Lie was older than Gongsun Du, at the age of 64, and was Gongsun Du's right-hand man in governing Liaodong.

Bing Yuanze was a famous scholar who fled from the Central Plains to Liaodong to avoid disaster. In his early years, he was known as Guan Ning and Hua Xin.

Later, Hua Xin returned to the Central Plains early to seek an official position, while Guan Ning continued to study in Liaodong, only accepting disciples and teaching, but refusing to be an official. Gongsun Du could not force him. Bing Yuan was not as steadfast as Guan Ning, and after being forced by Gongsun Du several times, he had to come out to be an official and help Gongsun Du with some ideas.

At this moment, when asked by Gongsun Du, Wang Lie took the lead in offering advice, saying in a serious tone: "My lord, although Zhao Yun's coming here violated a major military taboo by advancing alone and focusing on the front power rather than the rear. But Liu Bei sent Zhuge Jin to Qing and You. With Zhuge Jin's strategy, how could he let Zhao Yun take an uncertain risk?
In my opinion, Zhuge Jin may have another brilliant plan, so we must be on guard. Fortunately, the weather is getting colder, and it is not easy to attack. Our army should hold on and wait and see what happens in the next few months.

If Zhao Yun can hold out until the first month of next year without running out of food and collapsing, he must be exhausted. It is not too late for us to raise a large force to rescue Changli, and we can still wait for the enemy to tire themselves out. "

After listening to Wang Lie's opinion, Gongsun Du frowned and remained silent for a long time.

Winter is not suitable for attacking, and it will not be easy for Zhao Yun to break through Changli City. Gongsun Du certainly knows this.

However, Wang Lie's suggestion missed one point - and only Gongsun Du himself knew this clearly.

Before hearing about Zhao Yun's attack, Gongsun Du had actually not taken care of government affairs for several months. He pretended to be peaceful in Liaodong and that state affairs were complicated but not difficult, so he let his son Gongsun Kang exercise and consult Wang Lie and Bing Yuan when he encountered difficulties.

After handing over power in August, Gongsun Du would at most ask his son about it every eight or ten days to see if Gongsun Kang had any difficulty in making a decision. But since October, his energy has been running out, and he has not asked a single question about government affairs for more than half a month.

Only Gongsun Du himself knew clearly that there must be something seriously wrong with his health. If he delayed any further and tried to repel the enemy until the beginning of next spring... would he be able to live until the beginning of next spring?

Even Wang Lie didn't know this.

As a powerful leader, Gongsun Du kept his health condition very secret. Before meeting with his staff to discuss military affairs today, Gongsun Du applied a hot towel to his head, face and arms to make his skin look rosy and not too pale.

Gongsun Du could not help thinking in his heart: "For now, delaying for too long is not a solution. If we don't decisively repel Zhao Yun now, if something bad happens, Gong'er, who is so cowardly, will not be able to hold on to Changli? Once Zhao Yun spreads the bad news, all parts of Liaodong will probably collapse one after another.

How cruel the heavens are to me! Why did Zhao Yun choose to attack Liaodong at this critical moment? It's already winter, doesn't he know that this is a taboo in military strategy? Can't he wait until next year?"

For a moment, Gongsun Du truly felt despair at the ruthless will of heaven.

The enemy chose a very tricky time to attack.

How could he know that there was a person opposite him who had opened his third eye and had the ability to see through things, and who had specifically spotted that according to history, Gongsun Du would have died of illness this year, so he chose this critical moment to stab him in the back.

Gongsun Du felt sad for a long time, but finally decided to give it a try. He refused to believe in fate and said through gritted teeth, "Yan Fang's plan is so cowardly! Zhao Yun has just arrived, so he must not have a firm foothold. If we just cut off his food supply, why should we delay for several months until his division is old and his soldiers are tired?
At most half a month, he will run out of food! Now you should think about how to gather our troops from all over Liaodong as soon as possible, go to Changli to rescue immediately, and resolutely repel Zhao Yun before his reinforcements arrive! "

Wang Lie's proposal was rejected by Gongsun Du in person, and he didn't know what to say for a while.

Bing Yuan, who was in a relatively superior position, felt a little reluctant at this moment, and insisted on persuading him: "Please understand! Zhao Yun came here to defeat Su Puyan and cross the grassland, so his military force must be strong.

Zhuge Jin was in charge of the overall situation, and Liu Bei's power had grown in recent years. Cao Cao was so strong that he lost two battles against Liu Bei. Although the envoy had previously respected Cao Cao and had a bad relationship with Liu Bei, he was innocent of the Han Dynasty.

"Your Excellency had traded with Liu Bei's ships and merchants in the past, so you have some friendship with them. If you feel that you are no match for them now, you can just send an envoy to defend yourself. After all, it is just a mistake of 'the foreigners are confused and do not know the right way'. Liu Bei will not deprive you of your official title. Please think twice!"

After hearing what Bing Yuan said, Gongsun Du's nasolabial lines twitched, his expression became ferocious, and his chest heaved violently several times before he did not give the order to arrest Bing Yuan.

This guy openly wants him to surrender to Liu Bei! To keep the family rich! This is too much of an underestimation of Gongsun Du! Their Gongsun family, after all, controls a state, and has defeated Goguryeo in the north, married Buyeo in the east, and defeated Han Ye in the south.

There were more than one million Han people under his rule, plus the surrendered Hu people and the Dongyi of the Three Han, the total population under his rule was over two million.

With such a huge family business and such a remote and dangerous location, how could they surrender without a fight?

Yuan Tan's Qingzhou currently has a population of only about 2 million people! Gongsun Du's family business is as large as the population of Yuan Tan's state!
However, Bing Yuan was a famous scholar after all, and Gongsun Du knew that he had no intention of betraying him, so he did not punish him, but only gave a stern order:

"I can pretend you never said this today, but if you dare to say it again next time, I will punish you severely! I respect the imperial court, so what's wrong with that? And you still say 'people from afar are confused and don't know the right path'?
Your Majesty in Xudu is the rightful ruler! Bing Genju, you are also a famous scholar in the world, but you actually said such unruly words! Why don’t you leave immediately! "

Gongsun Du's rebuke seemed righteous and Bing Yuan had no way to refute it, so he could only sigh and retreat.

After Gongsun Du's scolding, he was exhausted and a little shaky. After a long while, he turned to his son Gongsun Kang with a sad look and ordered:

"Kang'er, quickly mobilize all the troops that previously attacked Goguryeo, and send them to Changli together with the local garrison troops in Xiangping to rescue your second brother!
Well, we can't rush directly to Changli. We can first wait and set up camp in the Liaosui area at the mouth of the Liao River, keep a distance from Zhao Yun, and then further investigate the enemy situation."

Gongsun Du spoke hesitantly, changing his words and adding more in the middle of his speech. It was obvious that he was so ill that his decision-making ability had declined, and his lack of energy was bound to lead to omissions.

Gongsun Kang knew about his father's illness, and he couldn't help but ask worriedly: "Will this leave Xiangping empty? How can we raise troops to garrison in the rear?"

Gongsun Du took a breath and continued, "We can call back the troops that defeated Han Ye last year and wiped out the remaining bandits of the Three Han in Daifang County to supplement the defense forces in the Liaodong hinterland."

It turns out that in history, the Gongsun family only conquered the Goguryeo capital Goguryeo County around 207, and then re-established Xuantu County along with the surrounding areas such as Seogema County.

Around 209, Hanye was conquered, which was the area around Seoul in later Korea and the basin between the Han River and the Taedong River, and Daifang County was established.

In this life, Zhuge Jin persuaded Liu Bei to trade with Gongsun Du in the early years, and asked Gongsun Du to buy war horses with advanced productivity tools and steel raw materials from the Central Plains. He also sold Gongsun Du a coastal ship that imitated the later Korean navy's plank-house ship.

This greatly enhanced Gongsun Du's army's ability to advance along the coast of the Korean Peninsula, and they were also more at ease when crossing the Changbai Mountain area on the border of later Korea, as they could rely on coastal sea routes to supply logistics and military rations.

Therefore, in this time and space, the Gongsun family's attacks on Goguryeo and Han Ye were also advanced by three to five years respectively.

When Zhao Yun attacked this time, Goguryeo's old capital had already been conquered by Gongsun Du, but Goguryeo was not destroyed. Instead, they chose to continue fleeing to the northeast and choose another place to establish their country.

The ancient capital of Goguryeo, which was occupied by Gongsun Du, roughly corresponds to the Fushun and Tieling areas of Liaoning in later generations. Goguryeo, which was defeated and confiscated by Gongsun Du once, withdrew from the entire Liaoning area in later generations and fled to Jilin.

From this perspective, the Gongsun family did make contributions to the Han people's foreign wars, at least they protected the Han people in Liao from being invaded by the Hu and Yi peoples.

Therefore, when Chen Shou wrote "Records of the Three Kingdoms", his evaluation of Gongsun's family was also "Although they were guilty, the fact that Liao was not destroyed was really thanks to Du. If Du had not been there, the people would have been held captive by the enemy."

But no matter what, at the moment, Gongsun Du responded to Cao Cao in order to establish his own regime, and gathered various troops to fight against Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu who has not yet appeared. There is nothing much to say.

The only thing Zhuge Jin and Zhao Yun could do was to end the battle as soon as possible, eliminate the Gongsun family, and avoid too much negative impact on the overall strength of the Han people in Liaodong.

The manpower of the Han people in Liaodong should not be wasted on civil war, but should be used to deal with Goguryeo and Han Ye.

……

Under Gongsun Du's insistence and strict orders, Gongsun Kang resolutely carried out his father's military orders and assembled the first batch of reinforcements within just a few days.

Afterwards, Gongsun Du insisted on leading the troops himself, setting up defenses at the Liao Tunnel that led to the mouth of the Liao River, and holding out against Zhao Yun.

Gongsun Kang urged: "Father, you are already so seriously ill, how can you move so easily?"

Gongsun Du rebuked him sternly: "If I don't go, the army will be even more unstable! You are still young, how can you keep the generals at bay? Besides, if I go and win this battle, I can guarantee you peace for several years. If I die, you will feel that you cannot defeat Liu Bei, and you will have more ways to retreat in the future."

After that, Gongsun Du ignored the dissuasion and insisted on going forward despite his illness. He took a boat down the Liao River and led his troops to the mouth of the Liao River, where he confronted Zhao Yun.

(End of this chapter)