"Shiyuan, between us, the king and his ministers, there is no harm in saying anything!"
Liu Zhang's thinking was completely different from that of this era, and failure to listen to advice would never happen to him.
From ancient times to the present, good medicine has always been bitter to the mouth, but good advice is offensive to the ears!
If Pang Tong is right, Liu Zhang can also learn from it.
"Lord, please forgive Pang Tong for being disrespectful!"
Liu Zhang smiled and made a gesture of invitation, which immediately made the nervous Pang Tong relax a lot.
"Lord, there is nothing wrong with Sun Wuzi's saying of 'Throw yourself into death and survive; be trapped in death and survive'. It's just that there is something wrong with my lord's idea."
Seeing such serious Pang Tong, Liu Zhang also put away his smile and became a serious student who 'listened to the lecture'!
"Sun Wuzi's original intention was to place the army in a situation where it is impossible to retreat and only die in battle, so that the soldiers will advance bravely and kill the enemy to win."
"But the lord's generous donation and the distribution of precious grains to the people without any scruples did not push the army into a desperate situation. Instead, it drove the lord himself to death!"
The gap in talent was immediately apparent. Liu Zhang did not understand what Pang Tong meant!
"Shi Yuan, is there... any difference?"
Liu Zhang believed that he represented the Yizhou Army.
Doesn't forcing him into a desperate situation mean forcing the army into a desperate situation?
"Of course there is a difference! The soldiers don't know about this at all, and even if they know, they are not in desperate danger. Because in the eyes of the soldiers, our food and grass are sufficient."
"My lord's approach was to force himself into a desperate situation, but Sun Wuzi's original intention was to force the entire battalion into a desperate situation!"
In Pang Tong's view, if he wanted to use food and grass to force the soldiers into a desperate situation, he could only create an atmosphere of food shortage.
However, the soldiers will definitely panic when they learn that there is insufficient food and grass, and their morale will be severely damaged.
Therefore, food itself is not suitable as a prerequisite for death.
"Shi Yuan, at least it strengthened my determination to fight against the Qiang and Xianbei people, didn't it?"
Liu Zhang knew very well that this sentence was somewhat unreasonable, but now he wanted to be tough.
"Haha, doesn't it mean that by not distributing food and grass to the people, we will completely lose the opportunity to send troops again in the next few years, and my lord will not have the determination to fight to the end?"
"My lord, this move has gained a good reputation among the people, but it has ruined our hope for the future!"
Liu Zhang was speechless. In fact, he didn't think that much at all.
In his opinion, after conquering a county, the people here became the people under his rule.
Naturally, Liu Zhang couldn't just watch the people starve to death!
"Have Shi Yuan ever heard a saying that the monarch is like a boat and the people are like water? The water can carry the boat and also capsize it!" "Since ancient times, the world has been dominated by those who have won the hearts of the people. If we don't get the love of the people of Yongliang, how can we maintain long-term peace and stability?"
Liu Zhang was well acquainted with thousands of years of history, and all dynasties praised governing the country with benevolence.
Why Confucius can always be respected by others is nothing more than the word benevolence embodied in his Confucianism.
Why Liu Bei was able to rise from a humble mat weaver and shoe seller to the position of establishing Shu Han in the 1950s is also a matter of benevolence.
Benevolence and righteousness achieved Liu Bei's great cause, and even the later Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty used the word benevolence to govern the country.
Pang Tong nodded in agreement, then shook his head in denial.
"What my lord said is absolutely true, and I also agree with it."
"only..."
I thought I had convinced Pang Tong, but this one just made Liu Zhang frown again.
"Just what?"
"It's just that my lord was too impatient. We were not sure of victory at that time, and the people in the counties of Liangzhou were not his subjects."
Pang Tong was a little helpless. Liu Zhang's thoughts were both right and wrong.
"My lord, just think about it, if we are defeated, would aiding the people of Liangzhou be a disguised form of aiding the enemy?"
Liu Zhang was very upset. He especially didn't understand what if, what if, and if in Pang Tong's words.
"Shi Yuan, there is no if in fact! If you win, you win, if you lose, you lose!"
Pang Tong was slightly startled. There was obvious anger in Liu Zhang's words.
The best choice is to keep silent at this moment and try not to anger Liu Zhang again.
But Pang Tong was not a coward, and would not back down just because of Liu Zhang's anger.
"Lord, is there any luck in our ability to defeat Han Sui?"
"exist."
Liu Zhang could not deny the element of luck at all, and even luck accounted for a large part of the credit.
Ma Chao promised to drive away the Qiang soldiers, and Zhou Ping was captured by Taishi Ci. A series of designs were all inseparable from the word luck.
"But luck is also a part of strength, Shi Yuan can't deny it, right?"
Pang Tong did not deny it and nodded heavily.
"My lord is right, luck is naturally a part of strength, but we cannot pin our victory on luck."
“Although we became the final winner this time, the process was not flawless!”
Just when Liu Zhang and Pang Tong were in a stalemate, Xun You also spoke.
"My lord, if Pound and Ma Yue hadn't exposed Ma Teng's conspiracy, they would have caused us a lot of trouble."
"Does Gongda also support Shiyuan's point of view?"
Xun You nodded and firmly confirmed Liu Zhang's question.
"Why..."
Liu Zhang felt very helpless, and he could not explain many things.
As a time traveler, he knows everyone's personality well.
Many things seemed to be coincidences in the eyes of Xun You and Pang Tong, but they were inevitable results in the eyes of Liu Zhang.
"Lord, you and Shiyuan both have your own reasons!"
"But my lord is considering the problem from the perspective of being able to defeat Han Sui, while Shi Yuan is considering it from the perspective of the overall situation."
Xun You's words were like an enlightenment, giving Liu Zhang a feeling of sudden enlightenment.
It seems that just as Xun You said, Liu Zhang never considered failure from beginning to end.
Liu Zhang warned himself and his subordinates not to underestimate Han Sui but to treat every enemy seriously.
But I never thought about defeat.
If everything is considered from the perspective of the winner, there will undoubtedly be many disadvantages.
The reason why Liu Zhang was willing to provide huge amounts of food and grass to the people of Liangzhou was entirely because he believed that he must be the ultimate winner.
But where is the basis for victory, and what is the reason?
Liu Zhang kept thinking in his mind, but unfortunately he couldn't find the answer at all.
Before the war began, Liu Zhang had not found a reason why he would definitely be able to defeat Han Sui.
In fact, if Han Sui hadn't been stabbed in the back by Ma Chao when he led an army of 300,000 to attack Yuzhong for the first time, I'm afraid the outcome would have been hard to say!
If Han Sui had fought steadily at that time and then attacked Yuzhong day and night, the Yizhou Army would have been unable to hold out in the end.
