In the battle of the Qingyi River Valley on the second day of the fifth month, the actual battle losses and captures of the various units under Zu Lang were actually only about 20%.

But Zu Lang, who retained eighty percent of his combat strength, still chose to lie dormant and guard his home after the war, and no longer supported his neighbors.

Anyway, no one in the Shanyue Sect can complete the errand of defeating Guan Yu, it's not his problem alone, so what else is there to say?

As long as his relative prestige in Shanyue does not change, he is unwilling to fight for Chen Fu.

As for the original merits of the matter, whether it was the government that Chen Fu took the initiative to provoke because of his greed, or whether the government was fishing and caused Chen Fu to fall into the scheme, it doesn't matter anymore.

In the face of absolute strength, barbarians have a flexible bottom line of righteousness, and can selectively ignore some clues.

In the end, the crux of everything converges on one point: if the government can storm Lin Lishan Dazhai and show that it has the strength to attack the most dangerous mountain.

There is no need to say that, Chen Servant is unfortunate to be a sacrifice for the official government, who made him a bird. When the other tribes saw the fate of the sacrifice, they would also obediently surrender.

If the government can't do it, the other ministries naturally want to continue to be freemen.

……

"How does this situation feel like a return to the tune of 'you can do without nuclear weapons, but you can't do without'? It's just that the specific noun has been replaced with 'ability to tackle tough problems'. ”

Zhuge Jin, who was in Chaisang County, couldn't help but laugh at himself in a low voice that others couldn't hear after fully listening to the report and figuring out the latest situation.

He can be reluctant to attack, but he can't do without this ability.

Zhuge Liang has also stayed in Chaisang these days, and he has no other business trips, but he occasionally comes to the eldest brother here every day to mess around, and when he saw the eldest brother hesitating at this moment, he took the initiative to propose:

"Big brother, let's think about it, can we put some effort into craftsmanship. Since ancient times, it has been difficult to use tactics, such as the public loss class and Mo Zhai, they are also working ingenuity, you and I and Yueying are good at ingenuity, take a little time, maybe it can have a miraculous effect. ”

When Zhuge Jin heard this, he glanced at his younger brother playfully.

He knows too well why Zhuge Liang has been passive and neglected government affairs in the past ten days since Zhuge Liang returned to Yuzhang County. Seeing that the eldest brother had to deal with internal affairs on the one hand, and on the other hand, he had to coordinate the military logistics of Guan Yu and Tai Shici, and he didn't help.

It's not because Huang Chengyan and Huang Yueying's family also came to Yuzhang as guests!

Zhuge Liang ran to Huang's house for ten days in a row, either to ask Huang Chengyan for traditional knowledge, or to tinker with Huang Yueying for some gadgets, observe Huang Yueying's self-improved fishing gear, farm tools, and other strange innovations in the past few months, and discuss with each other and give advice.

Zhuge Jin also considered that his younger brother was only seventeen years old, and he was very busy in the first half of the year, so he gave him an "annual leave" to change his brain.

If you are tired for the time being, you can be a little tired, and after Ah Liang's freshness has passed and the marriage has been decided, you should not meet the little lady of the Huang family again, at least half a year before you can officially get married.

In that half a year, Zhuge Liang should come back to help him.

Zhuge Jin has a good plan: at least in the second half of this year, Ah Liang will be able to get married, and he will not be able to marry until next year's New Year. At that time, Ah Liang will be eighteen years old, and Huang Yueying will be fifteen years old, so she will not be too beastly, which is normal at this age in ancient times.

No matter how young he is, the thoughts of modern people like Zhuge Jin really can't accept it.

However, at present, the war is urgent, and Zhuge Liang's family affairs will not be pressed for the time being.

Zhuge Jin retracted his thoughts and said to his younger brother: "Your idea is good, but it's not that easy. This is a siege of a mountain, not a siege of a city, what kind of siege equipment do you want to improve? Punch or stone? I don't think I need it.

Lin Lishan is steep, mainly because there is only one road up the mountain in many places, and there is nowhere to climb after being held by the thief army. If you want to start with ingenuity, you also have to find a way to study those individual weapons that can help you climb the cliffs, and these things, we have never accumulated, and we must start from scratch. After the prototype is made, it will take a lot of time for the blacksmith to build it. ”

Zhuge Jin vaguely remembered that in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", He Qi captured Lin Lishan and killed Chen Fuzu Mountain, which seemed to be the method of climbing around the rear to encircle the enemy army blocking the key mountain road. Although the book will not record the specific mountaineering tools used by He Qi, Zhuge Jin can learn from the design ideas of rock climbing equipment in later generations, and there is no big problem.

And Zhuge Liang is also a smart person, he listened to his eldest brother's words, always worried about time, and he couldn't help but recall their original plan: once the time is ripe, the Zhuge family can show favor to Yuan Shu to be arrogant, and they can also release the wind to discredit Liu Xuan, so as to ......

Could it be that the eldest brother is worried that Yuan Shu will be the emperor at any time and will not be able to hold on?

Zhuge Liang didn't open his eyes, he could only extrapolate backwards from the performance of his eldest brother and the layout in the past, and there was only this possibility when he thought about it.

So he tentatively made it clear: "Is the eldest brother worried that Yuan Shu or other princes will not give us such a long time to slowly annex and resolve Danyang Shanyue?" ”

Zhuge Jin nodded: "Yes, it's already May, and Yuan Shu hasn't launched a new offensive this year since his defeat last year, which can't help but surprise people, with his reckless temperament for many years, what are you waiting for?" It must be to accumulate strength and have a big battle at once.

Moreover, Sun Ce's side has also been attacking Wang Lang for two months, and Wang Lang is also retreating. We are too slow to deal with Zu Lang, maybe Sun Ce will be able to swallow Wang Lang. The princes of the world have annexed each other, and who will wait for us. ”

Zhuge Jin couldn't remember the specific date, but he had the impression that Yuan Shu seemed to be the emperor in February or March this year, and now it was obviously delayed for a long time. Yuan Shu is currently not using soldiers, and it is estimated that he is afraid of another accident, and he does not want to make trouble before becoming the emperor.

But the more he holds back his big move like this, the easier it will be to make a desperate bet after becoming the emperor, but he has to be careful to withstand the most dangerous wave.

Zhuge Liang understood the eldest brother's concerns, thought for a while, and suggested:

"That being the case, it is better to gradually transfer Xingba's men and horses back to Chaisang in case of danger. Anyway, now Zu Lang has been dormant and waited, and he doesn't dare to fight again. If you want to encircle a Chen servant in the dead area, it is enough to have Yun Chang's headquarters.

Xingba Ziyi is good at water warfare, while Yun Chang is not good at water warfare, so Yun Chang is in charge of land, and Xingba Ziyi is in charge of the Yangtze River.

As for the ingenious equipment needed to attack the mountain, big brother, you also said that it is nothing more than climbing and mountaineering, and Yueying and I have recently tried to find a way to get it out quickly. The overall planning of other internal and external government affairs depends on the eldest brother, you can handle it yourself. ”

Zhuge Liang took the initiative to carry the research and development task of mountain-attacking equipment and drew a clear division of labor with Zhuge Jin.

Zhuge Jin didn't have a better choice, so he allowed everything to go according to plan. Of course, he didn't let Ah Liang take many detours, and he would still fully explain the ideas and inspirations he could think of.

For example, Zhuge Jin remembered that later generations of mountaineers and rock climbers seemed to like to use expansion bolts and expansion nails to make steps on mountain walls, or use sharp spikes similar to ice axes to chisel footing points on stones.

There is also the rope knot tying method of various mountaineering safety ropes, Zhuge Jin can't remember the specifics, but he knows that there is this method, which can easily descend to a height and then change to a rope point and descend safely.

He put forward all these needs to Zhuge Liang and asked Zhuge Liang to take Huang Yueying to think about it.

In particular, the kind of safety knot tying method does not need to create any tools, as long as the existing hemp rope is changed to a knotting method, it can greatly improve the safety factor of soldiers climbing cliffs.

After Zhuge Liang heard about the existence of such a thing, he was really aroused by the desire to study and win, and when he went home, he began to ponder the magic of various rope knotting methods.

As a result, the mountaineering safety knot has not been studied, but I have first figured out a bunch of small educational toys such as nine links, and I am looking for someone to reason.

Random trial-and-error innovation, that's sometimes the case.

……

Zhuge Jin's side operated on two lines, on the one hand, let the second brother and prospective younger brother and sister strengthen various mountaineering tools and technologies, and on the other hand, repair political affairs, rectify soldiers and horses, and dispatch Gan Ning and Tai Shi Ci to deploy in place in case of accidents.

At the same time, he also frantically accelerated the transformation of the Shanyue captives captured in the past month, and tried to expand the available military resources as soon as possible. In this regard, he asked Gan Ning Tai Shici to directly select prisoners of war to be reformed, and then entrusted the military logistics support to Pang Tong for overall planning, which also saved a little of his own energy.

In addition, considering that the enemy in the next stage may be Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu is separated from the territory of the Zhuge family across the Yangtze River, so even if it is to start, it is estimated that the main battle form will be dominated by water battles.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin also occasionally saw the stitches, and used his own brains when he was free to see if he could figure out a little water combat skills, tactics and equipment that would benefit without cost. If you have any occasional gains, you will immediately discuss and learn from Gan Ning Tai Shi Ci.

More than half a month of siege and equipment preparation passed in a flash, and the time came to late May in a blink of an eye.

The situation in the world is vast, and the princes from all walks of life really did not wait for Liu Bei and the Zhuge family to develop quietly.

In mid-May, a new piece of bad news came from the east:

Originally, when he attacked Xu Gong last year, Sun Ce failed to completely occupy the entire territory of Wu County. Because Wang Lang of Huiji crossed the Qiantang River to the north before the fall of Xu Gong, and slightly controlled several counties, mainly Qiantang and Wucheng in the southernmost part of Wu County.

And this year, in Sun Ce's summer offensive, all these places were taken, and Sun Ce further went upstream, seizing the Sun family's hometown of Fuchun, all of which were in the middle reaches of the Qiantang River, and further infiltrated the Lanxi River Plain, occupying several counties of Huiji County.

For the time being, Wang Lang could only rely on the Qiantang River and the Lanxi River, and stubbornly defended Huiji County to govern Shanyin County, and was completely powerless to fight back against Sun Ce's encroachment.

The territory of Huiji County is mainly worth more than two plains. One is the coastal Ningshao Plain, corresponding to the two prefecture-level cities of Ningbo and Shaoxing in later generations. One is the inland Lanxi River Valley, corresponding to Jinhua and Quzhou in later generations.

When Sun Ce's forces entered the valley of the Lanxi River, it was equivalent to cutting off a small part of the plastered land of Huiji County. Wang Lang was left with only one piece of the Ningshao Plain, plus the coastal terrain fragmented Linhai (Taizhou) and Dongou (Wenzhou).

Sun Ce achieved all this in mid-May, when Zhuge Liang was tinkering and building mountain-attacking and rock-climbing equipment there.

Fortunately, God bless the Yanhan. Sun Ce had just made a breakthrough in the Lanxi River Plain and occupied a few counties, and after he had just taken Wucheng, Qiantang, and Yuhang behind him, a resistance force suddenly emerged, and it was the "Yan Baihu" who had successfully left his name in the Three Kingdoms games in the past dynasties.

This Yan Baihu is also from the handsome mountain of western Zhejiang, and his nature is similar to Zu Lang, Jin Qi and Mao Gan, with 10,000 or 20,000 people. Originally, when Sun Ce first arrived in Wu County, Yan Baihu hibernated for a period of time, nominally defrauding Sun Ce, but maintaining the autonomy of his own armed forces and not being actually controlled by Sun Ce.

Sun Ce didn't suspect him at that time, so he went to beat Wang Lang first. Who knew that the main force had crossed the Qiantang family and defeated Wang Lang in several counties, and Yan Baihu behind him saw that Sun Ce had been entangled, and there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, so he reversed again.

Sun Ce had to give up continuing to pursue Wang Lang, and hurriedly went back to clean up Yan Baihu first.

……

However, the change that Sun Ce was entangled by Yan Baihu has just happened in the last few days.

If it weren't for Yan Baihu's territory in the mountainous area of western Zhejiang, bordering Jinqi and Maogan in She County, Guan Yu would not have gotten the news so quickly, and quickly passed it back to Zhuge Jin to know.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin is the first outsider in the world to get this information, except for Sun Ce and Wang Lang and other parties.

In contrast, Yuan Shu, who is in Shouchun, is not so well-informed. He had just received the good news that Sun Ce had broken Wang Lang before, and he thought that Sun Ce was about to completely finish Jiangdong.

And Yuan Shu's heart, so far, he has always regarded Sun Ce as his own part, and he feels that the territory laid by Sun Ce is his territory.

With Jiangdong "almost" pacified, he finally had the confidence to claim the title of emperor.

Zhuge Xuan of Yuzhang in the south, who was also his former official, although he did not express his position for a long time, he still took the initiative to send a messenger to ask Zhuge Xuan's attitude.

At this point, Zhuge Jin knew that it was impossible not to express his position, and the Zhuge family had been ambiguous for too long. Originally, I planned to use the news of Liu Miao's death to strengthen Yuan Shu's belief, but I didn't expect to end up stuck at such an embarrassing and embarrassing point in time.

If the uncle sternly refuses Yuan Shu, he may be able to delay it a little longer, but it is estimated that Yuan Shu will directly use force against the Zhuge family or Liu Bei.

Since this is the case, Zhuge Jin feels that it is better to ambush him, if Yuan Shu really uses force against Liu Bei in the future, it will be better to steal Yuan Shu by surprise and get a big vote.

So he advised his uncle not to leave any documentary evidence, but only verbally show favor to Yuan Shu's envoy and recount the old friends.

Moreover, this kind of reminiscence should never involve any topic about "rebellion and emperor".

In other words, Zhuge pretended to be deaf and dumb, pretending not to know what Yuan Shu was thinking. Reminiscing with Yuan Shu is only based on the premise of "Yuan Shu is still Hanchen". In the future, if Yuan Shu is really the emperor, the Zhuge family "can't have both loyal friends", then there is no way.

There is nothing shameless or shameless about this move, because Sun Ce also treated Yuan Shu like this.

The friendship between the Zhuge family and Yuan Shu is shallower than that between Sun Ce and Yuan Shu, and this is already very worthy of Yuan Shu.

Zhuge Jin just confirmed that Yuan Shu's side was irretrievable, and secretly made up another trick:

Xu Shao's descendants of Xu Zijiang, because of their lax mouth, leaked Xu Shao's last words to spray Liu Xuan. It won't be long before it will spread out of the boundary of Yuzhang and spread to Guangling, and celebrities from all counties along the way may also hear it.

But this is by no means leaked by Zhuge Jin, even if it is Tai Shici, he will not believe that it was leaked by Zhuge Jin.

……

After some operation and pulling, as the time came to the first day of June in the second year of Jian'an, Yuan Shu, who had been holding back for three months longer than the same period in history, finally couldn't help it.

On this day, he officially claimed the title of emperor, changed the name of the country to Zhongshi, set up the altar of heaven, worshiped the northern and southern suburbs, canonized the concubine and the prince, and set up a hundred officials. Even the hundreds of women who have played in his harem have been given concubine numbers each.

Within ten days, the news spread throughout the Kwantung princes, and the whole world was shocked.

And Yuan Shu himself, in fact, was poured a basin of cold water just a few days after he became emperor, which made him very unhappy - the last piece of good news he got before he became emperor was that Sun Ce was about to beat Wang Lang, and he was called the emperor for this good news.

As a result, just a few days after the weighing, I heard that Sun Ce's progress was just a flash in the pan, Wang Lang had just returned to Shanyin after defeat, and a Yan Baihu appeared. was so angry that Yuan Shu smashed a few pieces of jade and scolded him for being unlucky.

Fortunately, a few days later, there was a new piece of good news, which made Yuan Shu feel a little more comfortable: Liu Xuan, the Yangzhou Mu who had been fighting against him, actually died of vomiting blood in Yuzhang after hearing the news that Yuan Shu was called emperor (in fact, he died of hematemesis in Hailing, and then Liu Bei transported the body to Yuzhang)

Liu Miao is dead! This is also a stumbling block for the Yuan family to conquer the world, and a small piece has been removed!

On the other side of the river, Zhuge Jin has always kept an eye on Yuan Shu's movements, and also paid attention to the reactions of other princes to these news.

Zhuge Jin did not immediately rush to draw a line with Yuan Shu after learning the news of being called emperor, because he observed that Sun Ce was not in a hurry to draw a line either-

Obviously, Sun Ce is waiting for the price to sell. wanted to wait for the Xudu Imperial Court to offer him a price, and then he would draw a line with Yuan Shu. Otherwise, the court will take the initiative without bidding, wouldn't it be a waste of a chance to be promoted?

Since Sun Ce is like this, why can't the Zhuge family.

And Liu Bei in Guangling County in the east, there is nothing to say, and Liu Bei does not need to express his position.

He had fought a few battles with Yuan Shu last year, and he still carried the will of the imperial court to let him fight Yuan Shu. Yuan and Liu did not attack each other again for the time being, and de jure it was only a "truce", and they could resume fighting at any time if they wanted to.

After Yuan Shu became emperor, Liu Bei also immediately strengthened the defense of Guangling County and Huaiyin County on the west side.

In the end, the most eager and fierce reaction to Yuan Shu's proclamation as emperor was Cao Cao and Lü Bu in the north.

Cao Cao immediately thought that he should contact the southern princes and attack Yuan Shu in the name of righteousness.

And Lu Bu was because he had an alliance with Yuan Shu to "deal with Cao Cao together", and now that Yuan Shu suddenly became emperor, he knew that Yuan Shu would definitely turn against Cao Cao, so he wanted to see when Yuan Shu would make a substantive move and whether he would take the initiative to attack Cao Cao.

If Yuan Shu beat Cao Cao first and was responsible for carrying Cao Cao's main force, then Lu Bu wouldn't mind taking a piece of the pie from the side.

Lu Bu, who has been eating the three counties of Xuzhou for half a year, has recently subdued Zang Ba and the thieves of Mount Tai, and feels that he has relieved enough, and he is ready to find an enemy to expand.

At this juncture, Cao Cao, in the name of the Son of Heaven, asked Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin to speed up the crusade against Yuan Shu and take the lead in attacking Yuan Shu, which was also sent to Guangling and Yuzhang respectively.

Because Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin have no new merits, there is no direct promotion, Cao Cao just raised the titles of the two of them slightly, and also raised the rank of Guan Yu under Liu Bei a little, and wanted to rely on this little profit, so let Zhuge Jin and Liu Bei immediately work for him.

Of course, Zhuge Jin would not fall for this, but it was not easy to refuse clearly, so he said to the court angel:

"The ministers obeyed His Majesty's edict to crusade against the Danyang thief Zu Lang, and he could do his best every day, and recently found out that Zu Lang also had the intention of serving Liu Xun, which was like rebellion. I implore the imperial court to observe the situation, let me slowly figure it out, first cut off Yuan Shu's wings, and then go straight to the heart. ”

Liu Bei's reply had a similar meaning, and it was also discussed with Liu Bei before Zhuge Liang left Guangling.

The meaning of the words is that I hope that the imperial court can actually grant official positions, and only when the name is correct can the army be mobilized. At the same time, I hope that the imperial court will additionally confirm that Sun Ce, the old general of Yuan Shu, should also be characterized as a thief.

Because of the urgency of the situation, these envoys were all traveling three to five hundred miles a day at a high-speed gallop to deliver the message, and in less than ten days of round trip, Cao Cao figured out the attitude of Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin.

Cao Cao was not worried that Liu Bei would not contribute and did not respect the imperial court, but he just felt that Liu Bei wanted to take the opportunity to ask for a high price. But Cao Cao obviously didn't want to give up the opportunity to let Liu Bei and Sun Ce eat dogs, so he didn't let go of his mouth.

Since this is the case, Zhuge Jin is happy to completely destroy the Danyang thief Zulang first, and then talk about the rest.

And Liu Bei, on his side, was not in a hurry to attack Yuan Shu - but Yuan Shu was very likely to take the initiative to attack Guangling first.