Fire is strong, but Liu Bei really can't do anything to Liu Zhang.
First, he was a guest army invited by Liu Zhang to deal with Zhang Lu. If he counterattacked Liu Zhang because of this, it would be morally unjustifiable.
Second, he is leading troops outside now, and half of his troops are Yang Huai Gaopei's soldiers. These people may not necessarily listen to him.
Therefore, the only thing Liu Bei could do was to show his subordinates the rice grains sent by Liu Zhang, as stated in the letter sent by Zhang Song, so as to drive a wedge between Liu Zhang and the soldiers, so that he could use it for his own purposes.
There have always been letters between Zhang Song and Liu Bei. Chen Liang's plan came from Zhang Song, so naturally he had to explain his intentions to Liu Bei, otherwise Liu Bei would misunderstand that Zhang Song was trying to trick him, which would be bad.
And Zhang Song's move is indeed very good. Seeing such a supply of food and grass, not to mention the soldiers of Baishui Pass, even Yang Huai and Gao Pei felt that his lord had been kicked in the head by a donkey? !
Liu Bei, however, was still acting according to his plan at this moment, pretending to be compassionate and "defending" for Liu Zhang, placating the soldiers, saying that it might be Liu Zhang's temporary negligence, and the next time the food supply might be normal.
But the next time they came, there was still such a batch of food and grass. Yang Huai and Gao Pei were so anxious that they quickly wrote to Liu Zhang, saying that he could not do this again.
If we continue to do this, let alone Liu Bei, even the soldiers at Baishui Pass and Jiameng Pass will turn against Liu Zhang.
At this time, in addition to sighing, Liu Bei no longer passively sabotaged his work, but began to prepare to attack the city. Yang Huai Gaopei quickly persuaded Liu Bei.
Good guy, with this supply of food and grass and the morale of the army, do you still want soldiers to attack the city? !
If we can capture it, we will tear off your head on the spot, believe it or not.
This is not to let the soldiers attack the city, but to let the soldiers die. In the end, all the grievances of the soldiers will be attributed to Liu Zhang.
Therefore, now it is not Liu Bei who is holding him back from attacking the city, but Yang Huai and Gao Pei who are holding him back from attacking the city.
"Please also ask your Majesty to take pity on the soldiers and postpone the attack on the city."
Yang Huai, Gao Pei and others quickly ran to Liu Bei's military tent and persuaded Liu Bei.
After Yang Huai finished persuading, Gao Pei also followed suit, and continued to persuade, "Now that we are short of food and grass, if we attack the city by force, we might be afraid that the soldiers will be resentful. It is better to retreat to Baishui Pass temporarily. There is food and grass in the pass that can be used for half a year. We will retreat temporarily." Rest and recuperate later, and then come back to capture Hanzhong in the autumn."
Liu Bei was puzzled by what he said.
"Since there is grain at Baishui Pass, why don't the two generals order Baishui Pass to transport grain here to meet the urgent need?!" Liu Bei asked.
In response, Yang Huai and Gao Pei looked at each other and said nothing.
In the end, there was nothing he could do, so Yang Huai gave an unreasonable reason: this batch of grain and grass was to prepare for the disaster and provide relief to the people.
Baishui Pass is a military town, a pass, a pure military facility. Although there are some people nearby, it does not even have the population of a county. It is just a larger village.
Enough food and fodder for 20,000 people for half a year. You told me that it is used to prepare for famine? !
What it actually looks like, in fact, both Liu Bei and Yang Huai knew in their hearts that this money and food were just to prevent Liu Bei and Zhang Lu from attacking Baishui Pass from front to back, and to keep the Baishui Pass guard in check.
It's just that I can't say these words, I can only blurt it out by laughing.
But Liu Bei still refused to retreat just like that.
"I was invited by brother Ji Yuxian to help him fight against Cao Cao and defeat Zhang Lu. We have been stationing troops for more than half a year and have not made any progress. How can we stop here?" Liu Bei sighed and said to Yang Huai Gaopei.
Not to mention, what Liu Bei said was quite "sincere", which made both Yang Huai and Gao Pei a little doubtful whether Liu Bei was really so kind.
But then he gave up this unrealistic idea.
Liu Bei has been in Jiameng Pass for more than half a year. In addition to recruiting ordinary people as soldiers, he also made friends with wealthy families in Sichuan and Shu. Do you think that such a person is really here to help Liu Zhang resist Cao Cao? !
Anyway, Yang Huai and Gao Pei refused to believe it.
But Liu Bei did not agree to withdraw his troops, so this was not an option. What if they were allowed to lead the troops at Baishui Pass to attack the city? !
Therefore, Yang Huai asked tentatively, "Now that Zhang Wei is holding on to the city and cannot leave the fortress, it is inconvenient for us to attack by force. I wonder if you have any clever plan to defeat the enemy?!"
Liu Bei looked at Yang Huai and said with a smile, "Zhang Wei defends the city very well, so it cannot be attacked by force. Now Jiangdong has sent two thousand general Lu Dai to the east of our army. Why not order Lu Dai to lead the army to fight and lure the enemy out of the city? For a field battle?!"
After hearing this, Yang Huai glanced at Gao Pei.
Gao Pei, after thinking for a while, nodded slightly.
In the two people's opinion, this matter is feasible.
First of all, the appearance of Lu Dai represented the participation of Jiangdong forces in the Hanzhong attack.
Although Liu Bei's side knew that Lu Dai brought 2,000 people here just to deal with it and just go through the motions, Hanzhong didn't know.
If they make a wrong judgment and think that the Jiangdong army is pressing down on the border and shrink their troops to defend Nanzheng in order to protect themselves, then Liu Bei's side may not be able to capture several counties. In this way, even if they retreat, it will not be considered a return without success.
Furthermore, Lu Dai was asked to lead the Jiangdong soldiers to lure the enemy. It succeeded, and Yang Huai Gaopei was indispensable for the credit, but it failed, and the loss was also caused by the Jiangdong army and had nothing to do with the Yizhou soldiers.
"In this case, we will act according to the envoy's plan!" Yang Huai cupped his hands to Liu Bei and agreed.
Yang Huai and Gao Pei had no objections to this matter, but Lu Dai had very strong objections.
Why should we, the people of Jiangdong, do such a useless and risky thing? !
Lu Dai greeted Liu Bei and Zhang Xi who came to deliver the order in his heart. He didn't need to think about it to know who came up with this evil idea.
As a bait, there is no loss if it fails, but once you actually catch a fish, how many baits have you seen that are complete? !
But he had asked Zhang Xi to fight before, and now that the battle order had been issued, he, Lu Dai, could not embarrass Jiang Dong no matter what.
Therefore, Lu Dai bit the bullet and led his two thousand men to Hanxing City to lure the enemy in accordance with Liu Beijun's military orders.
However, Lu Dai finally breathed a sigh of relief. Zhang Wei was not fooled and still stood firm on the barrier and showed no signs of retreating. And most importantly, the Jiangdong Army he led did not suffer any losses.
After failing to lure the enemy, Lu Dai reported back to Liu Bei and pretended to plead guilty.
And Liu Bei didn't show any pretense with Lu Dai, and he didn't expect Lu Dai to really help anyway.
Afterwards, Liu Bei found Yang Huai and Gao Pei again and discussed with them the plan to continue the attack on Hanzhong.
At this time, Yang Huai and Gao Pei quickly continued to dissuade Liu Bei, saying that since the army was short of food and Zhang Wei could not hold out, it was difficult to attack Hanzhong, so they might as well withdraw their troops.
Liu Bei returned to Jiameng Pass to stock up on grain and grass, while Yang Huai and Gao Pei continued to hold Baishui Pass to block Zhang Lu's possible pursuit. After the autumn harvest, when grain and grass were sufficient, it would not be too late to march into Hanzhong.
Liu Bei was still hesitant and said, "It's just that in this way, money and food will be wasted. There will be no savings in the past year. I may not be able to explain to Brother Ji Yuxian."
Yang Huai hurriedly comforted him, "Your Majesty, you must know that victory or defeat is a matter of military strategism. Attacking a city is not an easy task. How can we waste money and food? Furthermore, now that we are short of food and grass, the blame does not lie with us. We ourselves I will testify to the lord on behalf of the envoy, and I hope the lord will not blame the envoy."
Liu Beixin said that what I am waiting for is your words.
At the moment Liu Bei hesitated, but after Yang Huai and Gao Pei continued to persuade, Liu Bei half-heartedly made the decision to withdraw.
He sent troops in mid-May and attacked Hanzhong for more than two months. Finally, Liu Bei returned to Jiameng Pass in early August to train his soldiers again and prepare to march again after the autumn harvest.
Naturally, Yang Huai and Gao Pei continued to guard Baishui Pass and reported the news to Liu Zhang.
Of course, it's not to explain anything for Liu Bei, but mainly to tell Liu Zhang that he really shouldn't send those half-meter-half-half-huan military rations anymore. Sending them will only chill the hearts of the generals.
As for Liu Bei, the two generals still believed that Liu Bei's motives for entering Sichuan were absolutely impure. If possible, it would be better to ask the lord Liu Zhang to send him out of the country as a gift.
It was obviously impossible for Liu Zhang to just listen to Yang Huai and Gao Pei.
Although these two are indeed his confidants, Liu Zhang spent so much money and wasted so much money and food to invite Liu Bei to attack Zhang Lu. Now he has nothing in return. How could he let them leave like this?
Besides, without Liu Bei, will you be able to capture Hanzhong with just the two of you, or will you be able to stop Cao Cao when Cao Cao advances westward? !
So, Liu Zhang didn't listen to Yang Huai and Gao Pei at all.
However, Liu Zhang still paid attention to the military rations.
But he didn't have any good solution. Nowadays, the aristocratic families in Shu County were used to running rampant. Liu Zhang had no way to deal with these aristocratic families for a while. The matter of subcontracting old rice from the granary was eventually settled, and Liu Zhang had to mobilize people from Jiangzhou. Rice grain to supply Liu Bei's army on the front line.
On Liu Bei's side, Lu Dai also applied to Liu Bei to withdraw his troops on the pretext that the road was far away and food and grass were insufficient, so it was not suitable to live elsewhere for a long time.
Although this reason is ridiculous, there are only two thousand soldiers. Is it possible that Liu Bei cannot afford to supply them, and he still needs you to transport supplies from Jiangdong along the Han River? !
But Liu Bei didn't expect Lu Dai at all. He understood that Jiangdong only meant to send troops and had no intention of actually helping. He couldn't fall out, but he didn't want to see Jiangdong's people hanging around in front of him every day, so Liu Bei naturally agreed with Lu Dai. Request to withdraw troops.
As soon as Zhang Xi heard that Lu Dai was going to withdraw his troops, he quickly persuaded her to send Sun Shangxiang to Lu Dai's ship and told her to go home to raise her baby and prepare for the birth.
Sun Shangxiang was reluctant to separate from Zhang Xi, but Sun Shangxiang couldn't be careless about the important matter of giving birth to a child. He also knew that staying in Jiamengguan was not a good idea, so he reluctantly said goodbye to Zhang Xi and was escorted back by Lu Dai. Go to Jiangling.
After seeing off Sun Shangxiang, Zhang Xi finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then it was time to start planning to enter Yizhou.
(End of chapter)
