Chapter 34 Chapter Thirty-Four The Prime Minister Falls Ill

In the twelfth year of Jianxing in the Shu Han Dynasty (AD 234), Zhuge Kongming once again led his army to the Northern Expedition, crossed the Xiegu Road, and came to the banks of the Weishui River. This was a team of 100,000 soldiers mobilized after two years of preparation.Between the battle of Jieting and the battle of Zhang Yun's death, there was once a battle in which he attacked Chencang and then retreated. Therefore, this Northern Expedition can be regarded as the fourth time.Thanks to the use of wooden oxen and flowing horses invented by Kong Ming, the transportation operation was extremely smooth, and the huge army came to a place called Wugong in the south of the Wei River.On the current map, Wugong is on the north bank of the Weishui River, but according to the waterway situation in the first half of the third century, the city of Wugong should be on the south bank of the Weishui River.

Wei's coach is Sima Zhongda again.The Shu army who intends to attack Chang'an will definitely cross the Weishui River to the north bank. Therefore, the Wei army can wait in full force on the north bank of the Weishui River, and give a severe blow when the Shu army has just crossed the river and has not yet reorganized its formation.But Sima Zhongda's order was: "The whole army crosses the river!" "The coach is preparing to set up a back-to-back formation?" Wei Jun's staff guessed the purpose of this order.After giving the order, Sima Zhongda seemed extremely nervous. He shook his head lightly and said to himself:

"If the Shu army goes around the mountain to the east, it will be a big problem. I hope they go to Wuzhangyuan in the west..." War is a gamble.Sima Zhongda's bet was that Kong Ming would walk through the Wuzhang Plain. If the Shu army takes the eastward route, its purpose is to make a quick victory.Zhong Da judged by Kong Ming's character that the Shu army would go west for a long-term battle.Because this was a gamble, Zhong Da did not make any preparations for the enemy's eastward advance. All his battle plans presupposed that the Shu army would march to Wuzhang Plain.

Kong Ming really went west. "They are going to Wuzhangyuan! They are going to Wuzhangyuan!" Sima Zhongda jumped with joy like a child.In this way, he doesn't have to worry about changing the battle plan. In fact, Zhuge Kongming did not decide to go west from the beginning. He would once prefer a quick victory, so he considered adopting an eastward strategy.Later, he changed his decision to advance to Wuzhangyuan in the west because of the results of negotiations with the allied Wu State. ——I hope that your country will attack Hefei Xincheng from Juchao and Hukou. Kong Ming once asked Wu for this.

In the past, the alliance between Shu and Wu was not harmonious, and the reason was nothing more than the fact that the interests of each other were not consistent.This time, the two countries finally have a common stake.It is Wu's long-cherished wish to conquer Hefei, and once Hefei is obtained, it will become a bridgehead for the northward advance.In addition, with this outpost, the threat of attack from the north can be avoided in the future.In the past, we didn't dare to attack Hefei because Wei's army was too strong. Now the situation is very different, because Wei's army is going to meet the Shu army. Therefore, it is impossible for Wei to send reinforcements when Wu attacks Hefei at this time.

Wu Sui readily agreed to attack Hefei. Since Shu has already adopted a posture of protracted warfare in Wuzhang Plain, Wu has no worries about sending reinforcements from Wei, so he is much more relaxed mentally. The Shu army stationed in Wuzhangyuan, 100,000 generals were ordered to start living a self-sufficient life there.This is the so-called "farming policy". So the soldiers became farmers. — Take your time. The Shu army put on this posture to show the Wei army, the purpose is to make the opponent become impetuous. "You have to take your time, we can be neither too fast nor too slow!"

Sima Zhongda said this with a smile. Zhongda knew the inside story of Shu very well because of the spy's report.Frequent internal strife is a tradition within the Shu army. Therefore, the longer the life in the village is dragged on, the more intense the internal factional struggle will be. ——Wait for them to split! Zhong Da played this wishful thinking. Kong Ming certainly knew the weakness of his army.But he was optimistic, hoping that Wei would be shaken by Wu's attack on Hefei before the factional struggles in his own army became fierce. Unexpectedly, Kong Ming's expectation fell through.

Because the situation of Wu Jun's attack on Hefei was not smooth.Perhaps Wu Jun should not be blamed for this point, but Wei Jun who guarded Hefei should be praised for his bravery? Because Wei General Manchong of Hefei was very good at fighting, the Wu army was still unable to capture the city. Not only that, although the Wei army was at war with the Shu army in the west, Wei Mingdi took a dragon boat at this time to come to the battlefield where he was confronted with Wu in person-this was the emperor's own conquest.This shows how much Wei attaches importance to this battle with Wu.As a result, the morale of the Wei army was extremely high. In contrast, the Wu army was terrified.

Wu, who marched into Hefei when Wei and Shu were at war, originally planned to take Hefei by taking advantage of the fire.On the other hand, Wei continued to fight with Shu, and on the other hand, the emperor personally conquered it. Sun Tai, Sun Quan's nephew, was killed in this battle, and the morale of the Wu army was further depressed. "What! Sun Quan withdrew his troops from Hefei..." When receiving the report, Kong Ming showed an obviously frustrated expression.He, who has always been indifferent to emotions, was too surprised to hide his disappointment in time. What Kong Ming expected was that Wei Yin fell into a dilemma when he heard that the Wu army, who was known as a 100,000 army, was attacking.Even though it is not easy for Wu to defeat Wei, the confrontation between the two armies will always last for a period of time. Unexpectedly, Wu withdrew his troops after only two months!

--retreat!We don't need to fight hard here! Sun Quan is a very straightforward person. Seeing that the situation is unfavorable, he immediately ordered to retreat to avoid further damage. "I thought they could survive at least half a year!" Seeing Kong Ming's disappointed expression, the staff unconsciously looked at each other. ——Prime Minister has never been so depressed... The staff said this sentence with each other's eyes. --really…… This is the conclusion that they speak with their eyes. "Sure enough" what?Zhuge Kongming's health has been very poor recently.Although this situation has so far only been known to those close to him, he is indeed seriously ill.

This can be seen from the way he talks.He had often paused in his speech lately, evidently from being out of breath.Years of hard work had finally eroded his health. ——The prime minister is clearly in a state of anxiety... Some of the closest people on the staff noticed this. "Before I let go, I still have a lot of things to do..." Knowing that his health was declining, Kong Ming was very anxious.There are not many days to come, but the things to do are piled up like a mountain. In this situation, how can he not be anxious? "There's something wrong with Kong Ming's appearance..." The enemy general Sima Zhongda also noticed this.Kong Ming is an old enemy he has confronted many times. "What is Kong Ming thinking?" This is a question that Zhongda has been thinking about for several years.War is to speculate on the opponent's tactics, and then establish one's own combat policy. Zhongda's most important work can be said to be "the study of Kong Ming".He is confident that he knows all of Kong Ming's movements better than anyone else, and he can probably guess what Kong Ming is thinking. But Kong Ming's recent combat commands often have things that Zhong Da can't understand. "Strange?" Zhong Da was puzzled more and more times.This is not normal, something must be wrong with Kong Ming. Kong Ming frequently put on a challenging posture.This is extremely unusual compared to the past. "Even if the opponent provokes, you must never attack!" Sima Zhongda ordered his subordinates to do so.After giving the order, he felt at a loss again.Now, a reasoning gradually took shape in his mind. "Could it be so? It must be so!" Zhong Da began to think that Kong Ming's health was probably out of ten.According to the words of the military envoy, the punishment of more than 20 lashes for veterans in the Shu army must be adjudicated by Kong Ming himself.As a result, Kong Ming was deprived of a lot of sleep time. "In this way, it's no wonder that a person's health is not dragged down!" Zhong Da had this idea when he heard about it. ——Kong Ming must have fallen ill from overwork, and he was quite seriously ill! People who are not simple like Kong Ming feel anxious, it must be because they feel that their lives are dying.There are many things he wants to see when he is still alive... Once, the military envoy of the Shu army sent women's veils (female veils) and women's clothes. ——You can only set up formations but dare not attack, don't you look like a woman? A gift, meant to be mocking. When unpacking the gift, everyone in the field will be furious. "How can we endure such insults, let's attack immediately!" The young general You Qi stomped his feet in anger, and kept saying that he must attack immediately. "Wait!" Zhong Da stopped his subordinates who were eager to take action, and said, "It is the emperor's will not to accept the challenge. Even so, Kong Ming insulted us so much, and I am as angry as you are. Good! I will play Please let the emperor allow us to attack. I will send an urgent envoy to ask the emperor for instructions later." Of course Zhong Da was just posturing, he had absolutely no intention of attacking. ——He wants to wait for Kong Ming to let go and return to the west. Min—Zhuge Kongming put down his pen after writing this word on the white paper on his desk.He felt very tired after only writing one word. He looked at the word he wrote and sighed deeply. This word really didn't have the usual strength. "It's time to lie down and rest!" the follower said. Kong Ming, who was so exhausted that he could no longer support himself, was about to lie down and rest for a while, but unexpectedly, the manager came in at this time and reported: "Shang Shu Pu She (official name) Li Fu is here." This is when the emperor of Chengdu heard that the prime minister was seriously ill, so he specially sent an envoy to visit Wuzhangyuan.It was reported this morning that Li Fu came as an emissary. It is of course impossible to lie down to greet the imperial emissary. Li Fu came here not only to visit the sick, but also to follow the emperor's will to consult on the country's plans.Zhuge Kongming is in charge of all the political and military affairs of the Kingdom of Shu. Once Kongming dies, the emperor will not know how to rule the country. Kong Ming only answered the consultation questions.The emperor of Chengdu asked all the details. "Only caring about the little things..." Kong Ming was worried that the emperor in Chengdu didn't pay attention to the key issues, but only cared about the trivial and other trivial matters.The emperor ignored all the things that should be asked. "Then I will take my leave!" Li Fu stood up. "Brother Li, please take that thing back!" Kong Ming pointed to the paper on the desk. "What does the word '愍' written on it mean?" Li Fu couldn't comprehend the meaning of this word for a while. "That's Luoyang... the posthumous name of the Han emperor. The Chengdu emperor told the emissary who came last time that he wanted me to give the posthumous title of the recently deceased Luoyang Han emperor..." "Really? Okay, then I'll take this thing back!" Li Fu picked up the paper and respectfully placed it on his head. Duke Shanyang, that is, Emperor Xian, the deposed emperor Liu Xie who abdicated the throne to Wei, died in March of this year. "Xian" is the posthumous title given by Wei, and Shu naturally needs another posthumous title, because Liu Bei came to the throne as the successor of Emperor Xian. Kong Ming's posthumous name for the deposed emperor was "Min".The person who was called Emperor Xian in Wei was called Emperor Min in Shu.This posthumous name commemorates the unfortunate emperor who was forced by Cao Pi to lose his throne. After Li Fu was dismissed by the imperial edict, Zhuge Kongming lay down to rest.Unexpectedly, after lying down, he never got up again.Lying on the bed, he occasionally asked in a weak voice: "Has Li Fu not come back yet?" The people who served him thought Kong Ming was talking nonsense.Imperial emissary Li Fu had already left Wuzhangyuan and returned to Chengdu, how could he come back again? "Master Li has gone back to Chengdu." The servant replied sadly.Zhuge Kongming, who is said to be wiser than the gods, has his consciousness started to become clouded? Unexpectedly, Li Fu came to Wuzhangyuan again two days later. "You seem to have forgotten something?" Zhuge Kongming slightly opened his eyes and asked. "Yes. This is why I came back." Li Fu replied. "You forgot to ask one important thing, didn't you?" "The prime minister guessed right. The thing to ask is..." When Li Fu said this, he leaned forward, and Kong Ming snapped back and said: "Gongyan (Jiang Wan's character) is the most ideal..." After the death of Zhuge Kongming, who is the ideal prime minister to preside over state affairs? ——Li Fu came back to ask about this matter.In fact, Liu Chan, the emperor of Chengdu, did not ask the emissary to inquire about this matter.The emperor consulted all the little things. ——I asked the prime minister all the things that His Majesty explained, and got answers.But is it enough to ask these questions?Did you miss something more important... Li Fu thought about this question over and over again on the way back to Chengdu.As a result, he finally found himself due to ask for advice on his successor.Although he was not within the imperial order, he rushed back to Wuzhangyuan immediately to ask about this matter. "What about Jiang Gong?" "It's better to use Wenwei (Fei Yi's word)." "And after this?" Zhuge Kongming shook his head slightly on the pillow.He didn't answer any more.