Chapter 124 Turning the Attack on Yongqiu 36
Leading troops also requires a balance, and our Liu Bang, the master of balancing, has already begun his work.
Regardless of whether he has actually established orphanages in other counties, he has at least made grand promises.
"For those counties that are close to Pei County, we'll let Pei County take over for now. For the others, I'll pick another county in the central government, and then we'll send some people there to check on them."
He hadn't decided on a specific person yet. After all, building another orphanage was just a temporary idea. If it really didn't work out, he would just write to Empress Lü and ask her to choose someone. He was busy fighting the war and really didn't have time to think about this.
After a brief chat, Liu Bang brought up the really important matter.
He first sighed: "We suffered a setback in attacking Dingtao a few days ago. After a period of rest, we will turn our attention to attacking Yongqiu."
"Although we suffered a defeat, in my opinion it wasn't our fault, but rather..."
"Ahem." Zhang Liang coughed, looking at Liu Bang, wondering if the man was about to say something he shouldn't.
Liu Bang coughed and quickly changed his tune: "In short, it's not the brothers' fault. This time, I have a plan for attacking Yongqiu, and I will definitely be able to take it!"
After all, he had spent most of the night studying the luminous map yesterday. Of the nearby cities, Yongqiu was the easiest to conquer. If he couldn't take it, he might as well just kill himself. Why even think about rebelling?
How could the people below not notice such an obvious pause? They followed Liu Bang because they were attracted by his personal charisma. They immediately thought of Xiang Yu's massacre of the city and frowned.
Those who are knowledgeable and worldly-wise dislike Xiang Yu precisely because they are knowledgeable and worldly-wise, because they know that the most outrageous thing in history is killing surrendered soldiers and massacring entire cities. Such a new concept is simply shocking to their worldview.
Those who lack knowledge dislike Xiang Yu precisely because of their ignorance. Because they don't know history, they don't even know about killing surrendered soldiers, let alone such a novel and outrageous act as massacring entire cities.
The only small group of people who thought Xiang Yu was alright also shut up because their boss was leading the charge against him. If the boss said he was problematic, then he must be!
Zhang Liang was one of those people who were well-informed and knowledgeable, but he understood the purpose of such warfare tactics. He could only say that he couldn't give a proper evaluation of Xiang Yu.
But if he had to choose, he would definitely choose to follow Liu Bang.
"Although the Salesian Church is there to help us brothers, so we have no worries about the future, I still hope that everyone can return home safely. Therefore, we must win this battle!"
"We can only win, we cannot afford to lose!"
"We can only win, we cannot afford to lose!"
"We can only win, we cannot afford to lose!"
Hearing the shouts around him, Zhang Liang rubbed his forehead slightly. Actually, his boss wasn't a good person either.
They really don't mention victory, defeat, casualties, or even the loss of lives at all, but it's all part of a chaotic world of power struggles...
Zhang Liang said that this was not a shortcoming at all; what really mattered was boosting morale. Going to war with heads down would only result in more deaths.
Zhang Liang secretly slipped out of the encirclement. He figured he might as well take a look at this month's accounts. He had to admit that the paper was really useful; at least he didn't have to practice weightlifting when he was in charge of logistics.
The journey was simple and convenient; all I needed was the densely filled account book. Carrying a large box of bamboo slips was too arduous. I am grateful to Wei Sheng Jiu Jiu.
----
Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were camped in the same place, their camps clearly separated yet not far from each other, so the laughter and chatter from Liu Bang's camp naturally reached them.
Xiang Yu was still annoyed by his recent failure to capture Puyang and his subsequent defeat at Dingtao after bypassing Puyang. He couldn't bear to see others laughing at him, especially Liu Bang, whose values were incompatible with his own.
So he asked the people around him in a muffled voice, "What are they arguing about, making such a fuss?"
"Reporting to the general, the news we've received over there seems to be that the orphans found in Chengyang have been sent to Pei County to be raised."
It wasn't a secret to begin with; everyone on Liu Bang's side knew, so it wouldn't be long before Xiang Yu found out too.
Xiang Yu scoffed upon hearing this and commented again: "She's just a woman's soft-heartedness; she's nothing to fear."
"As the general said, he was nothing but a weak and benevolent man."
"Alright, go and give the order to rest for another day tomorrow, then turn west and attack Yongqiu!"
"only."
Xiang Yu didn't really care about Liu Bang's actions; he just felt a bit annoyed by him. Liu Bang had slaughtered the entire city, yet Liu Bang had saved those who hated him.
I really dislike Liu Bang.
----
Liu Bang didn't know, or perhaps he did know, but he didn't care anymore. Before they had a major conflict, he wasn't afraid that Xiang Yu would suddenly kill his colleagues. However, after hearing that Zhang Liang seemed to be able to divine, he went to find Zhang Liang regardless of whether the person actually could or not.
Liu Bang insisted that Zhang Liang perform a divination for him: "Whether we can conquer Yongqiu this time or not."
Zhang Liang: ...
If he knew how to calculate this, would he still be here?
Liu Bang looked at Zhang Liang expectantly, seemingly understanding his unspoken message, and immediately said, "Whether it's accurate or not doesn't matter; I only want peace of mind."
Hands clasped together (jpg)
Zhang Liang: ?
Zhang Liang reminds you to download the national anti-fraud app; feudal superstition is unacceptable (crossed out).
What could Zhang Liang do but cooperate by pinching his fingers? It wasn't really divination; he didn't have any props at hand. It was just a random gesture, and the person being fooled had to fill in the blanks with their own imagination.
As he struck a pose, he wondered, "Is this the kind of personality Liu Bang has?"
Having one's fortune told before going to war... could it be that some wandering ghost has possessed them?
“Actually, there’s no need to do anything complicated,” Liu Bang rubbed his hands together, and under Zhang Liang’s watchful gaze, he openly stated his purpose, “Qin was very angry last time, so please calculate whether Xiang Yu will cause any trouble this time. I don’t ask for anything, I just ask that he doesn’t massacre the city.”
Liu Bang looked completely sincere; that's exactly what he thought.
Zhang Liang lowered his hands, concealing them within his long sleeves, his lowered eyes obscuring his expression.
"This isn't Qin territory, and the dead weren't from old Qin. Why is she so angry..."
Although I had thought before that 'Qin' might be a combination of the seven kingdoms, I still didn't want to... didn't want to admit this reality.
He thought about it carefully later. If Ling could survive by changing her name, what about Shang and Zhou?
If they were to unify later, would the spirit of the seven-in-one entity, which possessed a part of his country, have died, and after the fall of his homeland, would he have personally destroyed the last remaining part of it in the world?
Just thinking about it is heartbreaking, that kind of pain that's been dredged up and hidden deep inside.
But reason clamors that this is wrong. A nation is built by people, so how can we go against the tide because of this? In fact, the restoration of the nation is already very slim. It would be better to establish a new nation so that people of the world can have a new place of protection.
Liu Bang thought about His past words and actions and said with absolute certainty: "That's because she regards all people in the world as her children. Wouldn't she be heartbroken if her children died?"
Liu Bang spoke casually and nonchalantly, but he didn't seem to care about his brothers and sisters. He was just being clever and calculating, hehe.
Zhang Liang was moved by the national spirit, but speechless at Liu Bang's attitude. He solemnly changed the subject: "I have foreseen that this expedition will surely conquer Yongqiu smoothly." After a pause, he added what Liu Bang cared about most: "Xiang Yu will not massacre the city."
"Zifang is truly learned; he even knows divination!"
Liu Bang felt comforted and glanced at Qin's list of grudges. Just before the massacre in Chengyang, Xiang Yu briefly surpassed Zhao Gao and Hu Hai to become the most hated person. Later, after a long time, he returned to third place. Currently, Hu Hai and Zhao Gao are still in the top two.
Sima Yi's ranking dropped several places, but unfortunately, he didn't want to look at this constantly changing list of grudges. He wanted to see the ranking of the people Qin liked.
Wouldn't he be at the top of the list?
Liu Bang was exceptionally confident, and asked, "Who else in Qin is getting a cheat code now? It's just him."
Liu Bang is overthinking things. How could Bamboo Sea King Qing'ai only raise one fish? In this world, she has indirectly or directly given people cheat codes... one, two, three, four, five, six, right?
Zhang Liang was unaware of Liu Bang's narcissism. He could only sigh, "Isn't this the skill you assigned him? Even if he can't figure it out, he has to figure out a suitable one."
But he still insisted, "Although the divination results are as they are, any changes would be reasonable, after all..."
"I understand, it's all about human effort!"
Zhang Liang: ?
You're already so sensible, yet you still let him do fortune-telling. You're just looking for some psychological comfort, aren't you?
The world has ultimately become something he can't understand. Why are you, a rebel, so worried about Qin's opinion? You're rebelling against her!
Zhang Liang wanted to shake Liu Bang and bring him to his senses. He thought, "This is an uprising, not a quelling of a rebellion. What are you so confident about?"
Zhang Liang stroked his short beard with one hand. He had started growing a beard ever since he stopped dressing as a woman and hiding, but it was still not very long.
After the world is divided, can the spirits that have been united still separate?
He pondered many possibilities and thought about them for a long time, long enough that Liu Bang himself had left.
----
After resting for another day, the next morning many people packed their things and prepared to set off westward.
Because they couldn't capture Dingtao after a prolonged siege, they decided to attack another city, focusing on avoiding a direct confrontation.
Before attacking Yongqiu, Xiang Yu, as was his custom, wrote a letter on silk and shot it into the city with an arrow, which made Liu Bang's heart pound.
Of course he knew what was written inside. He had written the same thing before attacking the city, which was nothing more than advising the people inside not to resist stubbornly, not to collude with the court, and to surrender as soon as possible. If they did not surrender, they would be killed after the city was captured.
It's a classic threatening tactic, but there's a big difference. Liu Bang's threats were purely threats, while Xiang Yu would actually put them into practice.
Fighting a battle is a nerve-wracking experience. One moment he's worried about the losses he'll suffer if the siege drags on, and the next he's worried about his teammates going crazy. It's so tough for him.
This time when I go back, I absolutely refuse to go with Xiang Yu. Let him do whatever he wants, as long as he doesn't get in my way.
Despite having a jumble of thoughts on his mind, Liu Bang's command was flawless. Having already surveyed the situation and defenses of the opposing city, he targeted its weakest points, minimizing his own losses while accelerating the capture of Yongqiu.
The final defeat of the Qin army was entirely expected. Cao Shen, who was with them, also killed the governor of Sanchuan Commandery and captured the Qin Marquis.
It was a great victory after all. Liu Bang glanced at Xiang Yu's side and thought that now that the siege was over, he could finally stop worrying.
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