My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 70: Relaxation and Tension, the Way of Civil and Martial Arts (Fifth update on the first day, thanks for the first subscription support)
"Xingba is truly a brave man. He has captured two cities in a row and has always been the first to reach the top of the battlefield. With such military achievements, he is more than qualified to be promoted directly to the rank of captain. Come, I will toast you."

As the battle of Chaisang ended, time had quietly passed to the dawn of the next day. After the Zhuge brothers entered the city, they immediately took control of the government office and the treasury, and then ordered people to set up wine to reward the soldiers.

At the banquet, the most popular person was naturally Gan Ning, who once again led his soldiers to capture the city gates.

If we talk about the siege of Pengze County seven days ago, the main reason for the city's capture was Zhuge Liang's persuasion and psychological appeal.

Gan Ning was more of a finishing touch, taking advantage of the enemy opening the door and then rushing in to grab a few more heads.

So in tonight's Battle of Chaisang, Gan Ning will be the main force in the attack.

The Zhuge brothers used all sorts of tactics to undermine the enemy's morale and stir up internal strife. Although this greatly weakened the resistance, the Zuo family still held on to the city gates and towers.

"Zi Yu, you are too polite. I have been in the army for many years, but I am most refreshed these days. Come on, let's drink together." Gan Ning was toasted by the Zhuge brothers and Chen Heng who had just surrendered. Naturally, he was in high spirits and drank the wine to the bottom of the glass.

After three rounds of drinking, Zhuge Jin called some military clerks and recorders to learn the latest statistics of the battle results.

Although the battle ended not long ago, the rough figures are already available.

The Gong Cao reported everything in detail: "Sima Chen abandoned the dark and joined the light, bringing with him more than 2,000 Danyang County soldiers, but there are only more than 1,700 left, and the rest are mostly injured or fled.

More than 900 local militiamen were forced to land, and more than 500 people were captured or wounded.

The army beheaded more than 1,100 people, and seriously injured and abandoned more than 400 people. Most of the remaining monks fled, and took advantage of the night to escape from the west and north gates or break through the city walls, and there were about 1,000 to 2,000 of them. "

Zhuge Jin was concerned about the number of prisoners, and was also worried that he did not have enough bargaining chips at hand.

Giving Gan Ning only the title of a captain seemed insufficient to reward him for his achievement in capturing two cities in a row, not to mention that one of them was a military stronghold like Chaisang.

Therefore, he had to find something else to reward him - and now everything was in its infancy, he was short of talent and his team was weak. The newly acquired prisoners of war needed someone to command them, so it would be better to allow Gan Ning to expand his own troops.

This kind of thing should not be done often in the future, as it will lead to warlordism.

In history, many generals of the Sun Wu in Jiangdong formed their own private armies. Cao Wei also had private armies like the Li Dian family and the Zang Ba family. The troops only obeyed the clan leader and never listened to the direct dispatch of the court.

Zhuge Jin knew the dangers of doing so, but he was too weak now. If he did not distribute the prisoners, he promised, "As long as you train the troops well, these people will be your direct troops in the future and will not be transferred away at will."
How could the generals then possibly unleash their full potential and work like crazy to reform the captives as quickly as possible?
Although Zhuge Jin captured two county towns, in terms of annihilating the enemy's active forces, he had only achieved 20% of his small goal.

Eighty percent of the enemy's forces were still concentrated in Haihun and Nanchang.

Zhuge Jin needed to digest these captives as quickly as possible and form new combat power so that he could join forces with his uncle and Guan Yu to win the final victory.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin decided to open this door equally within the limited time window, not only to Gan Ning, but also to Chen Dao and even Guan Yu.

He counted the reported situations and found that Chen Heng had more than 1,700 generals who had surrendered voluntarily. They could not be moved around, otherwise no one would be willing to surrender voluntarily next time.

The remaining prisoners, excluding those who were injured and unsuitable for military service, could only be used for about 1,200 to 1,300 people at most.

From a global perspective, when Zhuge Jin first came to Yuzhang, he only had Chen Dao's two thousand Danyang soldiers and three hundred cavalry, and Gan Ning's one thousand.

After this battle, the total strength of Zhuge Jin's troops increased by more than 3,000 people. Counting the 1,200 people in the previous Pengze County battle, minus the casualties and the sick, the total strength reached 7,000 to 8,000.

So within ten days, his troops had more than doubled in size. He needed to digest the results of the battle, recruit and reorganize them, and form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, so as not to let these prisoners hold him back.

Zhuge Jin said, "Xingba, I don't have the authority to give you more rewards for the time being. How about this? In addition to the position of captain I promised you, I will assign 1,200 people from the prisoners of war to you and let you lead them from now on. Together with the troops you brought with you, minus the casualties, you can gather 2,000 soldiers.

In the next few days, until the New Year, I don't think we will take the initiative to attack again. We have taken Chaisang and blocked the waterway connecting Pengli Lake to the Yangtze River. We have already caught the turtle in the jar. Zuo Rong has no chance to escape from Yuzhang by water. We can take our time in the future.

You should also use this time to recover your combat power and train your soldiers. I will also go to meet with Captain Guan as soon as possible and ask him to help manage the overall situation and make long-term plans for the subsequent decisive battle. "

Gan Ning was drinking happily, but when he heard that Zhuge Jin agreed to provide him with 1,200 men and that they would be his soldiers from then on, he was immediately delighted.

In tonight's battle, not all the prisoners were captured by his troops. A considerable number of them were captured by Chen Dao's troops who followed him into the city.

Zhuge Jin gave him 1,200 men, so Chen Dao didn't get much.

Gan Ning felt a little embarrassed. He looked around and noticed that Chen Dao was not there. Then he smiled awkwardly and asked:
"Will Shuzhi be unhappy with this distribution?"

Zhuge Jin: "Everyone has his own specialty. You are good at attacking, and you are swift and resolute. Shuzhi is good at defending, and he is as still as a mountain. When he came with me, he was responsible for guarding me. He dared not leave without permission, so he naturally missed some opportunities to make merit.

But I expect the aftermath of this incident is not over yet - before we defeated Chaisang, we only defeated the enemy reinforcements that came from Haihun by water once. But with Zuo Rong's vision, how could he not see the importance of Chaisang? Would he give up on his rescue? So Zuo Rong must not have refused to rescue, but he dared not rescue by water again, because he was afraid of being killed by you!

Aliang estimated that the enemy's journey by land, no matter how slow they are, will arrive within two days. If they spare no effort in crossing the mountains and ridges, they will arrive in more than a day. So after breaking the city last night, I just let Shuzhi's troops rest for a while, have a good meal, and then immediately march south to set up an ambush at the dangerous place on the Lushan Valley Road. Shuzhi's troops are larger than yours, and they were mostly used as reserves in the two sieges. They didn't work as hard as you, so there is no problem for them to immediately move to the next battle.

If he can defeat the enemy in this Lushan ambush, I will be able to distribute as many prisoners as he can capture, and Xingba, you just need to stop trying to capture them."

When Zhuge Jin said this, his tone was relaxed, as if he was joking.

But everyone knew that the conditions he offered were no joke, and once you agreed to them, there would be no room for bargaining.

Gan Ning was also a proud person. He always hoped that his superiors would be clear about rewards and punishments and that he would get the credit he deserved, and he didn't want to get any less.

He would not be jealous of the spoils of war taken by his comrades and friendly neighboring troops.

Gan Ning immediately gulped down the remaining wine in the jar and said proudly:

"Don't even bother asking me questions like this in the future. If you ask me again, I'm just not aware of myself. It's still unclear whether this 'Battle of Mount Lu' will happen. Even if it does happen, I didn't participate in the battle, so how could I be so shameless as to want to share the spoils?
Ziyu, Aliang, although you are good at predicting, you are too confident to say it. Fortunately, it is winter now, so we are not going to be eaten by mosquitoes. I just don't know if they have brought enough warm clothes, otherwise they will not kill the enemy but get frostbitten by hundreds of people. "

Gan Ning had obviously drunk too much and was feeling a little dizzy.

He felt that this kind of thing was unlikely to be predicted accurately, but the other party made a firm prediction, so he had to argue.

If I were sober and thought carefully about the Zhuge brothers' fortune-telling experiences that I had seen these days, I would probably not dare to say so.

Zhuge Jin smiled slightly and didn't mind Gan Ning's argument.

Meanwhile, Chen Heng, the military commander who had just surrendered, had not seen much of the Zhuge brothers' extraordinary deeds.

After listening to Gan Ning's doubts, he felt that they made sense, and he casually echoed a few words, suggesting that Chen Dao should not make a wasted trip and not let his soldiers get frozen.

Zhuge Jin was quite happy to see this and decided to make a bet to establish his authority.

He patted Chen Heng on the shoulder and said, "Sir Chen, we brothers have always kept our promises. When we were in Pengze before, we made a promise that 'all those who turned against us and helped kill the rebels will be pardoned, and the leader will be promoted one level.'

Pengze Qujun Hou Li Yi seized the gate to welcome the king's army. I promoted him to military commander after the battle. Although you failed to surrender today, it is not your fault. You have tried your best. Why don't we make another bet?

If Shuzhi can wait for the enemy's land reinforcements at Mount Lu today and defeat them, I will naturally promote him to captain. And at that time, you, the captain, will temporarily be under his unified command to avoid inconsistent military orders. "

Zhuge Jin himself was only a colonel, and Guan Yu was also only a colonel. Having a few captains was already the limit of management.

However, Zhuge Jin currently has almost no ability to lead troops directly. He has to rely entirely on Chen Dao to enforce orders and supervise battles.

The wish he made had to be fulfilled, and after it was fulfilled, the other party had to temporarily obey Chen Dao, who was at the same level. So he could only rely on some fortune-telling and gambling to establish his authority.

Outsiders who have just joined Zhuge’s army really need to find an opportunity to polish their eyes.

Chen Heng did not doubt him and readily agreed to the bet. It didn't matter if he lost, at most he would be commanded by Chen Dao on the battlefield and just follow the instructions.

……

After Zhuge Jin dealt with Gan Ning and Chen Heng, he signaled them to eat and drink well. Then he gave a look to his second brother Zhuge Liang next to him, and glanced at the Gongcao who was reporting.

Zhuge Liang had been working with his elder brother for the past few days and they had developed a very good understanding of each other. He could tell what his elder brother was questioning just by looking at him.

He pondered for a moment, then pulled the officer to the corridor outside the hall and asked in a low voice, "Why is the number of heads cut off not proportional to the casualties and prisoners? We only captured over 3,300 people alive, but we beheaded 1,100?"

The Gong Cao lowered his head and said nothing, not daring to jump to conclusions. Zhuge Liang rolled his eyes and asked, "Were the soldiers under Chen Heng's command who died in the battle with the monks also beheaded by their own comrades to count as merit?"

The Gong Cao then showed an awkward look in his eyes and said helplessly: "Among the heads, there are indeed some county soldiers with long hair, and almost all the county soldiers' bodies found when cleaning the battlefield did not have heads. But it's still not a good thing to make a big deal about this, there is no hard evidence. After all, if you ask them, they will say that those county soldiers did not all abandon the dark and join the light, some of them are just stubborn and insist on following the Zuo family."

Zhuge Liang's eyes darkened, and he guessed that Chen Heng was indeed a greedy person who would do anything to achieve his own success. His own people died in the battle, but he still wanted to use the waste to take credit for the deaths.

But the captain that my elder brother promised him must be fulfilled, and the rest can be discussed later. Even if an incompetent person is given a unit, he will not be able to keep it in the long run, and will eventually flow to a famous general who is good at leading troops.

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PS: That’s all for today. From midnight yesterday till now, I have written a total of 2.6 words.

thanks for your support.

(End of this chapter)