The night when Guangling City was captured ended in complete chaos and firefighting.
One of Liu Bei and Zhang Fei was in ragged clothes, the other was covered in smoke. When they finally met in the fire place, they almost did not dare to recognize each other.
Zhang Fei fought bloody battles for one day and two nights. Although he was brave and had the belief to avenge his shame, he inevitably suffered a few minor injuries in the end, and his physical and mental exhaustion was too serious.
The moment he saw Liu Bei appear, he could hardly hold on.
"Brother! I lost Xiapi, but I helped you capture Guangling! I just killed the arson bandits and rescued a few warehouses of food here."
Liu Bei looked at Zhang Fei for a long time. Fortunately, the other party was originally dark, and no matter how violently he was smoked, the change was not too big.
Liu Bei stretched out his hand and wiped the cigarette ashes several times. He didn't know whether he wiped it off or not in the darkness. Finally, he choked and patted Zhang Fei's back gently: "These are small things. Go back and recuperate quickly... If you can win Guangling, you Be the first and second best, and I will never blame you for anything that happened to Xiapi in the future."
Zhang Fei was forgiven, and the stagnation in his heart was finally resolved. As soon as he relaxed his tone, he felt a little dizzy, and finally murmured modestly: "But I still lost my sister-in-law... Even though I captured Guangling, I can't get my sister-in-law back..."
As he spoke, he fell headlong,
Liu Bei was shocked and quickly tried his hand. He found that he was still alive, but he just fainted.
"Hurry and take Yide back to rest, and look for a doctor to take care of him!" Liu Bei hurriedly asked his soldiers to find a stretcher and carry Zhang Fei away——
Of course, there were no stretchers in the Han Dynasty, so this is what Zhuge Jin casually ordered people to make these days. It was nothing more than two bamboo poles and a piece of thick linen. All that is missing is an idea, there is no technical difficulty.
Zhuge Jin brought these stretchers because he considered that the number of troops Zhang Fei could use for a surprise attack in this battle was very small and he needed to cherish every combat force.
He briefly thought about some battlefield rescue equipment that was easy to obtain, and wanted to improve Zhang Fei's ability to continue fighting without any effort.
Secondly, Zhuge Jin also had an idea at that time. He was afraid that if he crossed the river in white and was intercepted and inspected, some people would question why he was transporting so many equipment suspected to be siege ladders when he was obviously a fleet of merchant ships.
That's why Zhuge Jin invented the stretcher. Anyway, it was the same two bamboo poles as the siege ladder, but the stretcher shortened the bamboo and covered it with cloth in the middle. As long as the rungs are not assembled and the siege ladder is disassembled and shipped, it can be interpreted as a "semi-finished stretcher that has not been cut and assembled."
In this way, they disguised themselves as "merchants selling medical equipment" and sold some boiled cloth bandages.
Not to mention, Zhuge Jin was so cunning. When he passed by Piling County at the mouth of the Yangtze River three days ago, he actually encountered a patrol ship belonging to Sun Cejun, and he was confused by this explanation.
The only thing worth pity is that Sun Ce, the navy commander in charge of the inspection, seems to be quite knowledgeable and interested in stretchers. He feels that it is really convenient to treat injuries and illnesses. He also said that he would give advice to his lord when he returned and suggested that he also make this kind of stretcher in the army. thing.
At that time, Zhuge Jin slandered: Your Han Dynasty has no patent rights. If anyone just sees a good idea and copies it, it will be useless... But there is nothing he can do.
Unexpectedly, the first prominent person rescued after the advent of the stretcher was Zhang Fei, who was injured and unconscious from exhaustion.
…
Zhang Fei was injured and fell into a coma. Liu Bei's condition was actually not much better. Although he was not injured, he marched crazily for two days and two nights and only rested on the ship for a while.
After completely clearing out the remaining enemies in the city and controlling the situation, it was already dawn the next day.
Liu Bei didn't have time to enjoy the joy of victory. He couldn't hold on anymore. He returned to the government office he had just occupied and took a deep sleep. When he woke up, it was already afternoon.
Liu Bei was sleeping deeply, but he did not dare to relax. Finally, when he heard a little noise, he woke up immediately.
Liu Bei rubbed his eyes and saw that there was no one waiting on either side. He returned to the front hall of the government office and saw Zhuge Jin, with his legs crossed, sitting on the seat of the governor, shaking a cattail leaf fan. There were a few pieces of paper and wooden slips scattered in front of him. Not organized either.
Seeing that Liu Bei had woken up, Zhuge Jin stretched helplessly and said, "While the general is still awake, they come to me to report these urgent but unimportant details, and they can't push them away.
At nine o'clock in the morning, Liu Xun finally led his defeated army to Guangling. To ensure safety, the defenders at the north gate shouted and shot him away with random arrows. Is that okay? "
Liu Bei quickly said: "We handled this emergency military situation very well. Neither Yi De nor I have woken up, so running away is the safest option. A waste like Liu Xun can leave whenever he wants. We won't force him to stay. We can capture Guangling." It's been a huge blessing.
I was rude last night. The gentleman was an outsider and was involved. He has been so kind to our army, but I failed to celebrate and thank him in time..."
Zhuge Jin didn't care about these details, and pushed the random pieces of paper and wooden slips toward Liu Bei:
"This is the inventory of Guangling Mansion that the military grain officer had just counted before noon. Since it is not urgent, they did not dare to disturb the general without asking me to take a look first..."
Liu Bei immediately expressed his position: "What's wrong with this? Sir, you are so kind to our army. You can do whatever you want to see. On the contrary, Bei has troubled Sir again and again..."
After all, Zhuge Jin is still a "guest" so far, and he was involved in this series of events.
All this happened in a total of only twelve days - today happened to be the twelfth day of Zhuge Jin's time travel.
Liu Bei had not forced him to retain him before and give him an official position. At that time, Liu Bei felt that his life was precarious and he did not dare to drag Zhuge Jin into the water. He just expressed his feelings to the Sichuan capital.
Therefore, Liu Bei felt from the bottom of his heart that he should be polite to the other party. This was not his subordinate, but a guest and benefactor.
After sighing inwardly, Liu Bei was not slow at all, so he took the account pushed over by Zhuge Jin and glanced at it a few times.
He was impatient to look at the details and just took a rough look at the results. But when the total number came into view, Liu Bei's mood, which had just improved, couldn't help but sink again.
"Why is there only this little food left in Guangling's treasury? We originally planned to capture Guangling, which might be able to feed our army for three to five months!
What's left now can only be eaten for a month or two at most, right? Well, if you are not fighting, you can save some food, for about two months. This was more than half less than expected! "
Zhuge Jin expressionlessly pushed forward another piece of paper that Liu Bei had ignored. That piece of paper contained some confessions obtained from the torture of Yuan Jun's prisoners, but Liu Bei was eager to see the conclusion just now, so he ignored it.
Zhuge Jin could only outline and help Liu Bei sort out and explain: "While the general was sleeping, I asked a few prisoners - it was a fluke that these prisoners were not captured in the city, but I took some risks yesterday evening. At the mouth of the Yangtze River in Hangou, the Zizhong family's merchant ships raided and robbed the enemy's ships, and then captured them.
At least hundreds of ships left Guangling County through the canal yesterday afternoon. I only regretted that I only had the 300 sailors and personal guards given by Zizhong at hand. I was disguised as a white-clothed business traveler and was unable to intercept them. I had no choice but to escape at first.
Finally, when the enemy fleet was almost gone and the sky was completely dark, I suddenly made a comeback and took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to capture the last two or three ships that had fallen behind. As expected, the ship was carrying military rations.
The officers on the enemy ship confessed that they were originally subordinates of Zhang Duo, the Feishui thief. Two months ago, Liu Xun, a famous Lujiang scholar, Liu Ye had just been connected. Liu Xun joined Liu Xun and helped Liu Xun in charge of water transportation and escort.
These little minions don't know the other details, and they can't figure them out through torture. After all, the highest-ranking prisoner is only a village commander - but I can surmise that this allowed Zhang Duo to retreat in advance to preserve his strength and return. The move to provide military rations must have been done by Liu Ye. "
The prisoners captured by Zhuge Jin confessed that "Liu Ye was in Guangling City at the time". They just had no way of knowing whether Liu Ye came up with the specific idea or the decision-making process.
But for a prophet like Zhuge Jin, this bit of information was enough for him to complete his speculations. He was sure that the enemy's sudden change of tactics yesterday afternoon, from resistance to conservative stop loss, must have been Liu Ye's idea.
Liu Bei was stunned again after hearing Zhuge Jin's introduction.
Since there was actually a wise man in the enemy army, I was upset that he had caused a stumbling block.
It was also because of Zhuge Jin's ingenious calculation that he was able to think of so many things as soon as he saw the enemy's transport fleet, and he boldly asked for evidence and captured several ships for questioning. In the end, he was able to deduce the truth from such little clues. Feeling deeply shocked.
Not only is Tzuyu's strategy extraordinary, but her insight is also astonishingly sharp, and her ability to reason and figure out details is second to none.
"It's so... Oh, I didn't expect that although Guangling was captured, the problem was still not completely solved in the end." Liu Bei couldn't help but feel depressed, and some of the initial ecstasy from last night also dissipated.
Zhuge Jin patted him on the shoulder: "General, there is no need to be decadent. Everything has advantages and disadvantages. Liu Ye's move can be regarded as a mixed blessing for our army."
Liu Bei was also depressed for a moment and didn't have time to think deeply. After hearing Zhuge Jin's words, he immediately raised his hands and asked for advice: "Bei was depressed for a moment and was in a daze. He couldn't understand the truth. Please explain it clearly and help me clear up my confusion!"
Zhuge Jin pointed at the pieces of paper and calmly said: "Liu Ye was very cautious about protecting himself and knew how to stop losses in time. The biggest disadvantage to our army was that a considerable part of Liu Xun's army's food reserves were robbed and shipped away. In the end, Chen Lan's fire was restored." About 20% of the inventory was burned.
The inventory currently held by our army is only about 40% of the original inventory, which lasts at least two months less than the original plan. This is the biggest disadvantage.
However, Liu Ye asked Zhang Duo to avoid the battle and not use all his strength. This was beneficial to our army on the frontal battlefield. I have estimated that if the four or five thousand Yuan Army's men fought with all their strength at that time, plus the two thousand who arrived later, The enemy troops were routed, totaling 7,000 people.
If they had chosen to fight hard at that time, Yide might have survived due to his strong martial arts skills, but the thousand cavalry he brought would definitely be exhausted. The general's reinforcements also had to pay at least a thousand more casualties before they could defeat Guangling.
Now both sides have retained more troops. The general took the city with less than two to three thousand casualties. This is "saving people and losing food", and Liu Ye's bet is that the general will not be able to get enough supplies immediately to tide over the difficulties. I just want to use food shortages and morale collapse to win the final comeback in the future.
If the general can solve the problem of military rations and solve the problem of soldiers in Xiapi County being homesick and their families being held in Lu Bu's hands, then the general can turn the crisis around and achieve better development than Liu Ye's desperate resistance to the end.
Everything depends on the general's ability to respond. "
