Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2956: Zhang Liang's ingenious plan to conquer Qingnan, Su Lie's cavalry attacks Langya (Part )
Chapter 2952: Zhang Liang's ingenious plan to conquer Qingnan, Su Lie's cavalry attacks Langya (Part )
"Although Qingnan has temporarily returned to stability, there are still many hidden dangers beneath the calm, and a large number of spies are lurking here."

After hearing Zhang Liang's words, Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang instantly understood why the other side took the initiative to reduce the garrison.

If there were too many defenders left, these people would not dare to show up. Only when there were fewer defenders and these people saw hope of success, would they dare to show up on their own initiative.

Obviously, Zhang Liang wanted to lure the enemy out of its hole so that they could be caught in one fell swoop and the hidden danger in Qingnan would be solved once and for all. In this way, the rear of the Qin army would be completely stabilized.

"awesome."

Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang could not help but admire in their hearts. After all, although this plan was simple, it was a naked conspiracy.

Even though Zhu Di knew that this might be a trap set by Zhang Liang, the fact that Qingnan had stationed 10,000 defenders was true, so he would not miss the opportunity to disrupt the rear of the Qin army.

Since Zhang Liang wanted to set up a plan to completely eliminate the hidden dangers in southern Qing, Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang naturally had no reason to refuse.

After the three of them finalized the details and the division of labor, they formally issued the order to send out the troops.

The next morning, Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang joined forces, issued a public declaration of war, and led an army of 210,000 south together, leaving only 10,000 garrisons for Zhang Liang to guard the three counties of southern Qing.

As Zhang Liang expected, as soon as Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang left, the Ming army spies lurking in Qingnan began to stir, and then large-scale rumors broke out in Qingnan.

The content of the rumor was very simple. It said that Zhang Liang was only the nominal governor of Qingxu, and was isolated by the joint efforts of Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang. He had no real power at all, so only 10,000 defenders were left to him. Qingnan would also fall into chaos again due to the infighting of the Qin army.

As the rumors continued to spread, Zhang Liang "had to" come out to explain. Although this appeased most people, it also made some people think that he was indeed being ostracized, otherwise he would not have been so eager to explain. This also caused a bigger storm to begin brewing in the three counties of Qingnan.

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Xuzhou, Xia Pi County, Xia Pi City.

As the second capital of the Ming Dynasty, Xia Pi's geographical location was not good.

To be precise, Xuzhou, located in a flat plain, does not have any favorable geographical location.

But it is also because of this that Zhu Di was able to defend the piece of land left to him by Zhu Yuanzhang under the siege of Cao Cao and Zhao Kuangyin, and even developed it to become stronger, which is even more rare and precious.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang not only included the entire Xuzhou, but also occupied the entire Lu County in Yuzhou, most of Pei County, the eastern part of Liang County, and the southern part of Taishan County in Yanzhou. It was only half a step away from becoming the overlord of the Central Plains.

If Zhu Yuanzhang had not coveted the millions of people in Taihang and taken the risky move of going up Taihang Mountain to deal with Ying Hao in person, he might have wiped out all the princes in the Central Plains and become the master of the four states.

By the time of Zhu Di, although the three Central Plains wars caused the Ming Dynasty to lose all its territory except Xuzhou, and its southern gate Guangling County was also taken away by Zhao Song, and even the eastern gate and the former capital Pengcheng County were occupied by Cao Wei.

On the surface, Zhu Di seemed to be in a very miserable situation and his country might be destroyed at any time. However, as Zhu Tianpeng led his army and the entire Qi State surrendered, the overall strength of the Ming Dynasty increased instead of decreased, and its comprehensive national strength was still above that of the Wei and Song Dynasties.

After the fall of Pengcheng, there were actually not many cities suitable to be the capital of the Ming Dynasty. There were only three strong cities: Xia Pi, Guangling, and Kaiyang (the seat of Langya County). These three cities represented three different development directions.

If the capital was moved to Guangling or Kaiyang, two cities in the south and the north, it would mean that Zhu Di was frightened by the Wei and Song dynasties and had no confidence in defeating Cao Cao and Zhao Kuangyin, so he was ready to abandon the Central Plains and develop towards Yangzhou in the south or Qingzhou in the north.

But if the capital was moved to Xia Pi, it would show Zhu Di's determination to fight to the end with Wei and Song. After all, Xia Pi, like Pengcheng, was still on the front line of the Three Kingdoms war.

The emperor guards the national border and the king dies for the country, which shows Zhu Di's determination and courage to fight to the end.

Facts have proved that Zhu Di's decision to move the capital to Xia Pi was extremely correct.

If Zhu Di had moved the capital to Guangling at that time, no matter how much Zhu Tianpeng thought highly of him, he would not have been able to convince the high-ranking officials of Qi State to submit to a coward who had no courage to fight and only knew how to live in peace in a corner.

If Zhu Di moved the capital to Kaiyang, even if Zhu Tianpeng was unwilling, he would have to send troops to destroy him, because the Ming Dynasty, which changed its development direction, was destined to become an enemy of Qi.

But it was precisely Zhu Di's move to Xia Pi that not only stabilized the turbulent people's hearts, but also showed to the outside world that he had no intention of being an enemy of Qi, thus winning over the pro-Ming faction in Qi headed by Zhu Tianpeng.

Among the three major battles in the Central Plains that Zhu Di experienced, the first Battle of Xia Pi was the most thrilling, because the capital Pengcheng had just been lost, the morale of the Ming army was extremely weak, and Xu Shiji and Xu Da were both pinned down and unable to provide effective support, so Zhu Di had to defend Xia Pi City by himself.

If Zhu Di could not defend Xia Pi and the capital was captured for the second time, the Ming army would have no morale and the Ming Dynasty would be doomed to perish.

But Zhu Di managed to hold on and wait for the reinforcements from Zhu Tianpeng, thus reversing the embarrassing situation where the enemy was strong and he was weak and had been passively beaten.

It has to be said that every step for Zhu Di to get to where he is now was extremely difficult. In fact, the difficulty of starting a business was even higher than that of Cao Cao. However, he did better than Cao Cao. Whether in terms of economy, military, or the support of the people, the Ming Dynasty was much better than Cao Wei.

This is enough to show how capable Zhu Di was.

If Zhu Di is given another ten years, he may be able to grow to be comparable to Liu Xiugang and Li Shimin, two top talents, and then threaten Ying Hao, but unfortunately he does not have that much time. If he cannot repel the Qin army this time, Zhu Di's path to dominance will end here, and there will be no other room for him.

On the surface, the Qin army this time had only 210,000 troops, which was more than 100,000 less than the Ming army. The level of danger was far from the point during the Central Plains War when the Ming Dynasty could be destroyed at any time. But is this really the case?

Obviously not.

On the Qingxu battlefield, although the Qin army is smaller than the coalition forces, this Central Plains War is about the overall situation rather than the outcome of a single battle on a single battlefield.

If the coalition forces fail in any of the three major battlefields of Yanzhou, Qingxu and Runan, it will become the last straw that breaks the camel's back, thus forming a situation where the whole situation will be disrupted by a single point and then be overwhelmed.

It was also because of this that Zhu Di's purpose in this battle was not to defend at all, but to repel or even defeat the Qin army in Qingxu, because only in this way could he have enough energy to support Cao Cao in Yanzhou, and then maintain the balance of the entire Central Plains war situation.

But the actual development has far exceeded our expectations.

Facing the 33 Qin armies led by Zhuge Liang, Su Dingfang and Zhou Yu, Zhu Di could not win even with a coalition force of 500,000. He was even suppressed due to insufficient naval power.

After finally inflicting heavy damage on Zhou Yu's navy, the Qin army fell into a disadvantage due to continued consumption in the land battle. In order to minimize the losses, they had to give up Qingnan, but they still could not win due to low morale. It would take time to restore morale, but the Qin army would not give them time.

Therefore, even though Zhu Di still had hundreds of thousands of troops under his command and the entire Xuzhou behind him, he had actually fallen into a vicious circle. Not to mention defeating the Qin army in Qingxu and then supporting Yanzhou, it was even difficult to repel the Qin army in Qingxu.

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Therefore, after receiving the news from the Qingnan spies that the Qingnan garrison was small and Zhang Liang might be isolated, Zhu Di keenly realized that this might be his only chance to turn the tables, and immediately summoned Fan Zeng, Yao Guangxiao, Xian Zhen, Li Yan, Jing Xiang, Li Zhen and other advisers to discuss the matter.

But after learning the news, the counselors split into two factions.

The conservative faction of Qi, led by Xian Zhen, Jing Xiang and Li Zhen, believed that this was a trap set by Zhang Liang. After all, given Zhang Liang's status and position, as well as his way of dealing with people, he would never turn against Zhuge Liang and Su Lie at the same time. His purpose in doing so was to lure the snakes out of their holes and catch them all in one fell swoop, so they must not be fooled.

The radical Ming clique, led by Fan Zeng and Yao Guangxiao, believed that even if it was a trap, as long as they were careful enough and planned properly, they could still outwit Zhang Liang. Moreover, given the current situation of the Ming army, if they did not seize this opportunity, there would be no other chance.

Why were Qi's advisers conservative while Ming's advisers were radical?

The reason is very simple. Most of the Ming army's spies in Qingnan are from the Qi faction. If the operation fails, these people will surely die, and the loss will also be the power of the Qi faction, so naturally they are unwilling to let them die in vain.

But in the eyes of the Ming system, risks and opportunities coexist.

Where are the opportunities?
Qingnan might be a trap, but there were only 10,000 defenders. And with the backup plan Zhu Di left behind before his retreat, it was not impossible to overturn the table if handled properly. It just depended on whose method was more sophisticated.

Besides, it doesn’t matter even if we fail. The front battlefield will not be affected, and the only losses are some abandoned pawns that will never come back.

But if it succeeds, the rear of the Qin army will be disrupted, which will in turn affect the food supply and even morale, and the impact will be immeasurable.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di no longer had any hesitation and immediately gave orders to the spies lurking in Qingnan to create chaos in Qingnan at all costs, seize the city, and assassinate Zhang Liang.

For Zhu Di, Zhang Liang was too great a threat. He had not even been to the battlefield, and just by serving in Qingnan, he had caused a large number of his followers to defect. What would happen if he came to Xuzhou?
Therefore, if Zhang Liang can be eliminated, he should be eliminated as soon as possible. If the problem cannot be solved, then we have no choice but to burn our boats.

In the cellar of a tavern in southern Qinghai, the brothers Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian, the highest-ranking officers of the Ming army, turned pale after reading Zhu Di's message.

"This is a trap, it is a trap. How could my lord be so unwise?" Zhu Youxiao said in disbelief.

"hehe."

Zhu Youjian smiled bitterly and said with a sad face: "The lord is not unwise, he just wants to take a gamble when he has no other choice, and we and the brothers in Qingnan are all abandoned pawns."

Logically speaking, when the Ming army evacuated southern Qinghai, the brothers Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian, who were clan relatives, must have been among the retreating group.

However, in order to prevent those who stayed behind from feeling discouraged, Zhu Di deliberately left behind Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian to show that he had not given up on them, but was just having a strategic retreat and would lead his troops to fight back sooner or later.

The brothers Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian had thought so before, but they didn't expect that they would become abandoned pawns. Even though they knew there was a trap ahead, they still let the brothers give it a try with their lives.

To be honest, at this moment both Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian were heartbroken. They obviously didn't expect Zhu Di to be so cruel. After all, they were cousins ​​of Zhu Di, yet he would abandon them just like that.

The two brothers looked extremely unhappy, but after reading the next letter, their expressions looked a little better. After all, although what Zhu Di asked them to do was dangerous, he gave detailed and thorough arrangements, and as long as everything went smoothly, there was a possibility of success.

The brothers Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian were unable to disobey Zhu Di, and now that Zhu Di had given them a comprehensive plan, they could only obediently do what Zhu Di said.

(End of this chapter)