Three Kingdoms: I switched to Liu Bei, why are you crying, Cao Cao?

Chapter 96: Psychological hint: being too clever may lead to mistakes
Seeing the strategy that Yuan Huan came up with, Ji Ling and others seemed to have seen an opportunity to defeat the enemy.

It was a desperate situation, and they all came forward and said to Ji Ling:
"General, sir, this plan should be feasible!"

"The enemy has few soldiers and horses to build a dam on the river. It will be much easier for us to attack the enemy than to break into their camp!"

"Why not just follow your advice, sir?"

Ji Ling listened to everyone's words and remained silent.

Originally, he was already disappointed with Yuan Huan, but he didn't expect that Yuan Huan would come up with a plan to turn things around. Thinking back to his disrespectful attitude towards Yuan Huan in the past few days, he couldn't help but say with shame:
"I thought you had lost your will to fight, but I didn't expect you to have a plan to defeat the enemy. If I have been disrespectful in the past few days, I hope you can forgive me."

Seeing Ji Ling apologizing to him, Yuan Huan stroked his beard and smiled:

"I also know that the general is dedicated to the public, how dare I criticize him!"

"In fact, I have no plan to defeat the enemy. It was only after I saw what was written on the enemy's letter of surrender that I came up with this plan!"

"It's thanks to General Liu that he is willing to care about the people and come to persuade them to surrender!"

"Otherwise, I really can't think of a way to dig water on my own initiative!"

Having said that, he looked at Liu Bei's letter of persuasion to surrender in his hand, and was filled with emotion for a moment.

I thought to myself that Liu Bei is still the same Liu Bei!
Just like the Liu Bei he knew at the beginning, even now, Liu Bei still cares about the people, which is truly admirable!
When Ji Ling heard this, he shook his head and said:

"Although Liu Bei has this idea, he is not a kind and righteous person, otherwise how could they carry out such a vicious plan!"

"Sir, don't think that he is a good person because he wrote this letter. He just wants to seize this city without bloodshed."

"Since we have already decided to launch a surprise attack outside the city, how should our army be arranged?"

He thought that since it was Yuan Huan who proposed the plan, it should be Yuan Huan who should arrange the actions.

When Yuan Huan heard this, he stroked his beard and thought deeply, then stepped forward and said:
"If our army wants to carry out this strategy, we must guard against three things. First, we must not let the enemy know that we are leaving the city. Otherwise, once the enemy is prepared, it will be difficult for us to act!"

"Secondly, after our army leaves the city, we must fight quickly and decisively, without giving the enemy a chance to react!"

"Third, since our army has taken the initiative to dig a river, we must be prepared for a flood to enter the city!"

"So I'm thinking, General, why don't you just attack from the east gate tonight to attract the enemy's attention? After this army leaves, we will send another troop out from the west gate to surprise attack the enemy's dam! This is one way!"

"I estimate that the enemy's troops blocking the river must be few, so if we want to win the battle quickly, the more troops we send out, the better! This is the second reason!"

"In addition, our army needs to quickly make a large number of sandbags to block the city gates before our army takes action. This will reduce the flooding! This is the third point!"

"This is the general strategy. It is up to you, General, to decide how to arrange and deploy the strategy!"

Ji Ling had a clue in his mind after hearing this. After thinking for a while, he said:
"Let's follow your advice, sir. Send out orders to collect the cloth bags in the city, fill them with earth, wood, firewood and straw, and pile them at the north and south gates!"

"Order the soldiers to cook at the first watch tonight and leave the city at the third watch!"

"Chen Lanru will lead 3,000 soldiers to launch a feint attack from the east gate to attract the enemy's attention. I will lead 12,000 soldiers to exit from the west gate!"

"Lei Bu will lead the remaining soldiers to defend the city. The rest of the soldiers, unless ordered otherwise, will follow me out of the city to fight!"

"Tonight, our army will completely destroy the enemy forces outside. There can be no mistakes!"

Upon hearing this, all the generals bowed and agreed without any objection!

As long as we don't let them fight head-on, this battle can still be fought!
But after everyone said this, the soldier who came to deliver the message was stunned and said:

"General, I wonder how I should respond to Zhang Fei?"

Upon hearing this, Ji Ling shouted angrily:
"How else can we respond? Shoot him back with arrows to stop him from trying to persuade us to surrender!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Yuan Huan stepped forward and said with a smile:

"Wait a minute, General. Since our army has already made a plan, why not use this incident to make light of the enemy's intentions?"

"I am an old friend of Liu Xuande. I can go and pretend to tell him that our army wants to surrender, but needs to think about it for a few days. This way, you can't figure out our strategy. If we go out again tonight, we can be sure that our plan will succeed!"

Upon hearing this, Ji Ling nodded in agreement and simply let Yuan Huan go.

After receiving the order, Yuan Huan went all the way to the city wall. Seeing Zhang Fei leading his troops outside, he could not help but shout:
"I am Yuan Huan, Yuan Yaoqing, and I am an old friend of yours. I wonder if you dare to come forward and meet me?"

Zhang Fei heard this and did not step forward, but just shouted:
"Don't try to curry favor with me. I just want to ask if you are willing to surrender."

Seeing Zhang Fei so alert, Yuan Huan stroked his beard and smiled, saying to his attendants:

"Bring me a pen and paper. I'll write a letter and send it out of the city!"

After a while, paper and pen were brought, and Yuan Huan raised his hand and wrote a letter. In it, he first reminisced about the past, and then stated his attitude. He said that he wanted to surrender, but Ji Ling needed two days to consider it. He hoped that the coalition forces would postpone flooding the city.

After writing this, he ordered someone to send it out of the city. Zhang Fei read the letter and was overjoyed. When he returned to the camp, he laughed and said:

"Brother, brother! I have persuaded Shouchun to surrender!"

"If Shouchun is conquered this time, I will be the first to achieve the credit!"

At this time, Liu Bei was discussing matters with Qin Zhen in the camp. When he heard this, he was immediately surprised and asked hurriedly:
"What are you talking about, Third Brother? Are the enemy troops really willing to surrender?"

"Of course, I have a letter from Yuan Yaoqing here!"

Zhang Fei smiled and handed over Yuan Huan's letter.

Seeing this, Liu Bei couldn't help but glance at Qin Zhen, then took out the letter and looked at it carefully. Seeing that it was indeed Yuan Huan's handwriting, he couldn't help but smile and said:
"It is indeed written by Yuan Yaoqing himself!"

He took another closer look and saw the true meaning. He couldn't help but said to Qin Zhen happily:

"Military Advisor, look, Yuan Yaoqing really wants to surrender!"

However, when he handed the letter over, Qin Zhen didn't even look at it. He just smiled and said:
"Even if I don't read it, I know what the enemy wrote!"

"He must be pretending to surrender so that we can postpone the flooding plan. Is that right or not?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Bei was shocked and said:

"How did the military advisor know what Yuan Yaoqing wrote in the letter?"

"Because the enemy has fallen into a trap!"

Qin Zhen smiled slightly and said:

"I was wondering who was planning for Ji Ling, but I didn't expect it to be Yuan Yaoqing!" "This man knows how to handle things, how could he surrender so easily? It must be a delaying tactic!"

"I think the enemy has been fooled. They must want to leave the city and attack the dam, so they are trying to confuse our army!"

Liu Bei was stunned when he heard this, while Zhang Fei asked curiously:
"How can the military advisor be sure that the enemy has fallen into the trap?"

That’s right, sending Zhang Fei to persuade the enemy to surrender was Qin Zhen’s plan, and his goal was to induce the defenders in the city to set their sights on the dam.

Zhang Fei always felt that this strategy was somewhat unreliable.

After all, how can a letter of surrender from you make the enemy target the dam?
Now seeing Qin Zhen so sure, he was naturally confused!

When Qin Zhen heard this, he stepped forward and said with a smile:

"This is a method of psychological suggestion, Yide naturally doesn't know it!"

"To understand this matter clearly, we must deduce it in reverse. The reason why Yide is unclear is because we are outside the city, while they are inside. We don't know what the people in the city are thinking!"

"But if you look at it from the enemy's perspective, Yide will find that this is a must-have for the enemy!"

"Because the current situation is that Ji Ling has retreated to the city, causing the morale of the people in the city to drop sharply. If he confronts us head-on, he will definitely be defeated!"

"Similarly, if he doesn't come out now, once the flood comes, he will be trapped in the city and will also be defeated!"

"That is to say, the enemy now urgently needs a way to break this situation."

"But although we have been digging canals these days, we are also on guard against enemy troops. It would be risky for Ji Ling to leave the city during the day!"

"Similarly, we have been on high alert these past few days, and Ji Ling has no chance to launch a night attack!"

"In this way, the enemy has actually fallen into a dilemma. They want to leave the city, but they can't find any chance of victory!"

"At this time, our army only needs to give hints, and the enemy will think they have found a way to win and act according to our plan!"

"Of course, the enemy may not be aware of this strategy, so our army needs to keep giving hints."

"But from Yuan Yaoqing's reaction, I can see that he has realized that this is the only chance of victory!"

It can be said that Qin Zhen’s strategy was specially designed for Yuan Huan!

Because he could feel along the way that there was someone behind Ji Ling who was helping Ji Ling to plot against their three families!

But from the beginning to now, this person has been advising Ji Ling to play passive defense.

From this he deduced that the person in the city who was giving advice had strategy but was not good at military affairs!
After realizing this, he planned the game. He would first use flooding to block Ji Ling's determination to hold on, and then use hints to lure the enemy into the trap!

It can be said that if Ji Ling had fought on the first or second day, he would not be so sure now.

But Ji Ling did not go into battle on the first two days. It was not until today when they persuaded Yuan Huan to surrender that he surfaced.

This means that Yuan Huan was at his wits' end before, and his current reaction is most likely because he has received his hint!
That's why he was so sure that the enemy had taken the bait!

Thinking of this, Qin Zhen couldn't help but smile:
"Yuan Yaoqing is quite intelligent and knows how to conceal his intentions, leaving us wondering what his intentions are!"

"Unfortunately, he was too clever for his own good. He was influenced by our army's letter of persuasion to surrender and acted like this!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei both fell into thought.

There is no other reason, it’s just that his way of thinking and designing are not what he has now, and he has never heard of any psychological hints!

But seeing Qin Zhen's confident look, Liu Bei couldn't help but ask:

"Since the enemy has fallen into the trap, what should our army do?"

When Qin Zhen heard this, he turned around and said with a smile:

"We are acting according to the original plan. Sun Ce's army has been patrolling around our army these days. It is obvious that the enemy is very curious about why our army is cutting down trees!"

"Since Yuan Huan has sent a letter now, we can call Sun Ce and Lu Bu to discuss matters later!"

"In this case, with Zhou Yu's intelligence, he can probably guess what the enemy wants!"

"We can ask the two families to fight over the dam, and our army can seize the opportunity to capture Shouchun in one fell swoop!"

Hearing this, Liu Bei nodded, but Zhang Fei asked curiously again:

"What if Zhou Yu didn't guess our army's strategy?"

Then Qin Zhen smiled and said to him:

"If he doesn't guess, then our army will wait until Yuan Shu's army leaves the city and inform him of their movements!"

"Now Sun Ce's army has several thousand soldiers and horses blocking the river and building a dam. Seeing Yuan Shu's army approaching, if Sun Ce wants to keep this army and horses, he must send troops to rescue them!"

"And he didn't have enough time to withdraw the camp, so he could only lead his troops to stop the enemy at all costs."

"In this way, with Sun Ce holding back Ji Ling's troops, our army can take advantage of the situation and capture Shouchun!"

"This is an open conspiracy. We have no choice but to use him for our army's benefit!"

It can be said that their focus this time is to lure Ji Ling out of the city.

As long as Ji Ling leaves the city, they will be halfway won!
As for how Sun Ce would react, that was not within Qin Zhen’s consideration!

Anyway, they are going to turn against each other after taking Shouchun. They just need to accept it no matter how and when it happens!
Liu Bei and Zhang Fei naturally didn't know what Qin Zhen was thinking, so Liu Bei smiled and said to Zhang Fei:

"Since the military advisor has already made a plan, Yide, do you know what to do tonight?"

Zhang Fei smiled when he heard this:

"How could I not know? Wait for the enemy to leave the city, and I will lead the troops to take the city!"

Liu Bei saw this and nodded:

"Although there are fewer soldiers in the city tonight, it is still difficult to capture the city. You can first prepare the soldiers and prepare for a strong attack!"

"This battle will be a tough one, Third Brother, you should go down and rest first!"

After hearing this, Zhang Fei grinned and naturally took the order and left.

(End of this chapter)