Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1216 Intelligence
When Zhuge Liang was studying military books in the mountains, he spent a lot of time studying the records about Han Xin, trying to find out the reason why he was victorious in every battle.

Throughout the ages, for those who are determined to help the world and aim to be a counselor, Han Xin is an absolute target that cannot be avoided, especially for someone like Zhuge Liang who compares himself to Guan Zhong and Yue Yi.

However, there are many mysteries surrounding Han Xin. Although both the Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han have records of him, as historians, they could only record Han Xin's words and deeds. However, these could only tell later generations what Han Xin wanted to do, but could not explain why he could do so and why he was able to succeed.

After reading historical materials countless times, Zhuge Liang finally concluded that Han Xin's success mainly depended on two aspects: one was his leadership ability, and the other was his ability to predict the battlefield situation.

Needless to say, no matter what order or decision is made, the ideal situation is that the order can be fully conveyed to the grassroots soldiers and they can execute it completely according to the order.

This does not seem to be particularly difficult for a team of hundreds or even thousands of people. When the commander shouts on the battlefield, hundreds of people will hear it clearly and follow the commander to charge forward.

However, once it turns into a war involving thousands, tens of thousands, or even more than 100,000 people, these people are distributed over an area of ​​at least dozens or even hundreds of miles, and there is a delay in the transmission of orders. The difficulty of integrating them into a whole will increase exponentially.

Zhuge Liang discovered that Han Xin was the best among them. He was able to lead an army of more than 100,000 and act in a unified manner. This ability alone put him far ahead of others.

But Zhuge Liang also discovered that although the generals of the same period were not as good as Han Xin, there were many people who could lead tens of thousands of people to victory. This situation was not special in that period. Compared with the chaotic times at the end of the Han Dynasty, the generals' ability to lead troops was generally higher.

Zhuge Liang felt that later generations might not be inferior to their predecessors. After all, later generations had the experience of their predecessors. The reason for this situation was probably that the generals of the late Qin Dynasty had a set of experience and means of large-scale legion combat, but in the history of the Han Dynasty, this set of methods was gradually lost.

Zhuge Liang's wish was to replicate this method as much as possible, so in addition to domestic affairs, he spent a lot of energy studying military tactics over the years, and wrote his insights into his own military book Twenty-Four Strategies.

Before meeting Yuan Xi, Zhuge Liang had been using the Han Dynasty's information transmission method to replicate his own guesses. He had figured out some of the key points, but after meeting Yuan Xi, the direction of his work changed dramatically.

The reason is very simple. The method of information transmission provided by Yuan Xi has long been beyond this era. Zhuge Liang can be sure that Han Xin would definitely not have the method of intelligence transmission such as rockets and balloons at that time.

This also caused Zhuge Liang's theoretical system to shift to a certain extent. Although Zhuge Liang felt a little regretful, he was more willing to accept it. After all, the methods of later generations were more advanced than those of their predecessors, so there was no reason to go back.

With the help of advanced methods of information transmission, Zhuge Liang's leadership ability was greatly improved. Otherwise, as he had just come out of retirement and his combat experience was still immature, it would have been difficult for him to defeat Cao Cao under the same conditions.

But now with the assistance of these means, Zhuge Liang's growth rate has further accelerated. He can fight back and forth with Cao Cao, and even forced Sima Yi, the military advisor of the Wei army, to grow faster.

Now that Jin and Wei are fighting, the talents of both sides are becoming stronger, but there is no overwhelming advantage yet, so the Battle of Jizhou has become a protracted war of attrition.

Zhuge Liang wanted to resolve this dilemma. Since he could not improve his military leadership in a short period of time, he turned his attention to the second decisive factor.

Han Xin's ability to predict the situation on the battlefield.

Zhuge Liang discovered that one thing that made Han Xin different from other commanders was that he had an exceptional understanding of the enemy.

Before the battle, Han Xin discussed battlefield strategies with others. During this process, he not only knew who the opposing coach was, but also knew the opponent's level, and was able to predict what decisions the opponent would make.

Once, when he learned that the opposing team had changed its coach, he immediately said that his side had won because the enemy coach was not as good as the one who was replaced.

This ability to make predictions before a battle has actually reached the highest level of what is known in military books as knowing both the enemy and yourself. If one can understand the head coach to this extent, one can naturally predict his decisions on the spot and formulate a response strategy.

But this is easier said than done. Many commanders gradually get to know each other through constant fighting. For example, Cao Cao and Liu Bei fought for so many years before Liu Bei finally predicted the movements of Cao's army in the Battle of Hanzhong and won back a city. But the price he paid for this was that Liu Bei was suppressed by Cao Cao for more than ten years.

However, Han Xin's situation was different. He had many opponents, and they all fell before him in the end. It was obviously difficult for him to understand so many opponents so well relying solely on combat experience.

Zhuge Liang finally came to a conclusion, which is also the most likely one, that Han Xin should have established his own intelligence network specifically for collecting information on enemy movements.

Zhuge Liang had these ideas before he met Yuan Xi. But after he joined Yuan Xi's army, he was surprised to find that many of Yuan Xi's intelligence practices coincided with Zhuge Liang's!

For example, the Procuratorate, which Yuan Xi invested huge amounts of manpower and financial resources to build, had its main business being to collect all kinds of intelligence. This was very much in line with Zhuge Liang's ideas, and it could even be said that it paved the way for Zhuge Liang in advance.

Another responsibility of the Procuratorate was to confront Cao Cao's School Office and suppress the opponent in the intelligence war. After Zhuge Liang learned that Cao Cao's purpose was very similar to Yuan Xi's, he became more convinced that his idea was correct.

But the final piece of the puzzle that completed Zhuge Liang's vision was Yuan Xi's so-called stargazing technique.

When Zhuge Liang was looking through the intelligence from the Procuratorate, he discovered that there were a large number of assessments of the comprehensive abilities of the officials and generals of Wei, Wu, and other forces. From martial arts to command, from intelligence to areas of expertise, they were even given scores. Zhuge Liang had never heard of this method before, and after asking, he learned that it was Yuan Xi's idea.

Zhuge Liang still hasn't figured out why each person's ability can be evaluated using numbers like 80 or 90, and what the basis is. When he asked Yuan Xi, the other party just said with a little embarrassment that it was from star observation.

Zhuge Liang didn't believe it. How could one see numbers by observing the stars?
But it is undeniable that through this set of archives, Zhuge Liang roughly understood the ability level of almost all the counselors and generals of this era. Then, when fighting, he could make targeted responses after learning the leader of the enemy through spies. For example, during the attack on Yecheng, Zhuge Liang could judge that the leader was most likely his old rival Sima Yi in the past six months, a young military advisor of the Wei State whose growth speed surprised Zhuge Liang, just by looking at the casualties caused by the siege equipment to the defenders on the city and the enemy's counterattack.

Based on this judgment, Zhuge Liang could carry out the next action, including the previous surprise attack to break the encirclement. After he learned that the general of Cao's army was Yu Jin who wanted to play it safe, he used two feint attacks to create a gap in the defense line of more than ten miles, so that he could break in at one fell swoop.

Zhuge Liang knew that time was precious and he had to make full use of it to force Ye City into a desperate situation before Cao Hong and others could break free from the entanglement of the Jin army and encircle him. Standing in front of Zhuge Liang was not only Sima Yi, but also Cao Cao, who might be the supervisor of the battle.

After a brief thought, Zhuge Liang said to Zhao Yun, "Although hiding the general and waiting for a critical moment to strike the enemy might be more effective, given the current situation, we may not be able to wait for that opportunity."

"So now we can only ask the general to take action."

"Please bypass the north gate and attack the west gate, pretending to cut off Cao's army's retreat route to Guanzhong, so as to create as much chaos as possible in the city."

"If possible, we should first find a way to contact the arsonist in the city and break down the gates. It would be best if we can break down a gate. Although it is difficult to rush into the city, if we can bring the arsonist out, we will have accomplished our goal."

After hearing this, Zhao Yun immediately took the order and led the cavalry towards the west gate.

While Zhuge Liang continued to command the siege equipment to suppress the city walls, he looked to the south and wondered why his lord chose this time to attack the city. The effect of surprise was achieved, but what if Cao's army turned around and surrounded the city?
Although Yuan Xi's order this time was for all the Jin troops in Jizhou to break in one after another, get as close to Yecheng as possible, and then surround and attack the reinforcements to completely eliminate the Cao army on the periphery, could this really be done when the Jin army did not have the advantage in terms of manpower?

Fires were blazing everywhere in Ye City. Cao Zhi hurried to find Cao Qing and asked anxiously, "Sister, have you heard about what happened outside the city?"

"We just want to help Yang Xiu and his men escape, not to let Yecheng fall and the Cao family be destroyed, right?"

Cao Qing leaned against the window frame leisurely, looking at the sky dyed inky black by the black smoke that blocked out the sun, and said softly, "Why not?"

"Ah?" Cao Zhi was stunned and stammered, "Ah, sister, that's not what you said at the beginning, right?"

Cao Qing sneered: "Fourth brother, you are thinking too well. You want to seek revenge on my second brother, how can you only deal with my second brother without hurting others?"

Cao Zhi broke out in a cold sweat, "Sister lied to me?"

"In order to avenge your second brother, are you going to implicate other members of the Cao family?"

Cao Qing said calmly: "No, in fact, I didn't know that there was a large army outside the city. It was all just a coincidence."

"But this is fine. Do you really think that Yang Xiu and the others can escape under Father's control?"

"Now is actually the best time. If the Jin army enters the city, the second brother will most likely be the one to suffer the most. Why is the fourth brother panicking?"

Cao Zhi asked anxiously, "But father and mother, are they in danger too?"

"If the Jin army uses the same method as my father used to treat the Yuan family, I'm afraid that more than half of our Cao family will die!"

Cao Qing shook her head, "Xionghu is not that kind of person."

"Father's health is failing. If he loses the battle, he might be able to live a few more years."

"Besides, Father chose my second brother, so you should be happy, third brother."

Cao Zhi trembled, "I just want to avenge Cui family, I don't want to drag Cao family into this!"

"Sister, I."

Cao Qing stood up and said, "Fourth brother, you want revenge, but you don't have the awareness to do so. In this respect, you are not as good as my second brother."

"late."

"Just watch the show and accept the reality."

(End of this chapter)