Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

Seven days later, in Hepu City.

Hepu City was the seat of Hepu Commandery. As the northernmost of the four commanderies in the Jiaozhou rebellion, Prefect Huang Fu was clearly under greater pressure than Chen Shi, Shi Song, and Huang Gai.

Whether on a spiritual or military level.

"Your Excellency, His Majesty has sent an envoy!" A middle-aged official rushed in from outside the hall, speaking with a heavy Jiaozhou accent, clearly a local: "Prefect Chen's fleet has also come!"

Huang Fu suddenly stood up: "Really?"

The middle-aged official repeatedly clasped his hands in greeting: "Absolutely true! The envoy has already entered the city, and Your Excellency can meet with him at any time!"

"Please come in quickly!" Huang Fu said hastily, then stepped outside himself, saying, "No need for you to invite me, I will go and greet you myself!"

Huang Fu was not from Jiaozhou, but from Danyang County in Yangzhou, and his family lived in Wuhu. Wuhu was one of the most tragic places in the siege during the previous Wei's conquest of Wu, and the surrounding people and wealthy families could not escape the calamity.

After Huang Fu surrendered to the Great Wei, he sent his trusted subordinates to Danyang County in Yangzhou to search for his family, but they found nothing.

What else could it be? Naturally, it was due to the war, and Huang Fu decisively blamed it on the Great Wei.

This was also the biggest reason why Huang Fu was determined to rebel with Chen Shi and others.

"It's actually Attendant-in-Ordinary Pan!" Huang Fu, of course, knew Pan Zhu's important position by Sun Deng's side. Overjoyed, he quickly stepped forward and grasped Pan Zhu's hands: "Your Majesty and Prefect Chen, have any reinforcements arrived?"

Pan Zhu calmly withdrew his hand from Huang Fu's, coughed lightly, and slowly said, "There are certainly reinforcements, but His Majesty has something to say, and I hope Prefect Huang will listen carefully."

Huang Fu nodded: "Please speak, Attendant-in-Ordinary Pan!"

Pan Zhu glanced around and whispered in Huang Fu's ear, "His Majesty and Prefect Chen request that Prefect Huang lead his troops to withdraw from Hepu and defend the territory of Jiaozhi County."

"Withdraw?!" Huang Fu's voice suddenly rose several octaves, and he took two steps back, his expression astonished: "How can this be? Our four counties have agreed to rise up together in support of His Majesty in order to restore the dynasty. How can we abandon a county before even starting a battle?"

“You didn’t understand.” Pan Zhu shook his head.

Huang Fu's face was still filled with indignation: "I only heard that I was told to withdraw from Hepu! This is my Hepu, and I am unwilling to abandon it. Please inform His Majesty to send reinforcements immediately! The Attendant-in-Ordinary may not know that Guanqiu Gong's army has already set out from Guilin and arrived about a hundred miles from Hepu about three days ago. Now they are only forty or fifty miles away. It is a critical moment!"

"Take your time, take your time." Pan Zhu sighed softly, "Prefect Huang didn't understand. It was His Majesty and Prefect Chen who asked Prefect Huang to move his troops to Jiaozhi, and Prefect Chen even dispatched his entire fleet."

"You mean..." Huang Fu asked, narrowing his eyes, "Prefect Chen doesn't want to save me!"

Pan Zhu stood up straight with his hands clasped, his expression solemn, and did not answer.

Huang Fu ignored Pan Zhu and paced anxiously back and forth in the hall. After about a quarter of an hour, he finally stopped beside Pan Zhu, grabbed his sleeve tightly, and asked, "Minister Pan, why doesn't His Majesty send troops to rescue me? Prefect Chen is unwilling to help, does His Majesty also refuse to help?"

"Your Majesty has no boat," Pan Zhu replied calmly.

Huang Fu finally let out a long sigh, looking up as if to weep: "I swore an oath with the three prefects Chen, Shi, and Huang to rise up together, how could they abandon me before even fighting a single battle! So be it, so be it!"

Pan Zhu also felt embarrassed. He sighed softly and calmly asked, "Has Prefect Huang made up his mind?"

Huang Fu smiled bitterly, "What else can we do but retreat? Although we have five thousand soldiers in the city, three thousand of them are newly recruited, and only two thousand are capable of fighting. How can we possibly fight against the armored soldiers of the Central Plains? Hepu has no natural defenses, while Jiaozhi is probably in a better position..."

Clearly, Huang Fu was helpless in the face of being betrayed. He only had five thousand soldiers as his capital, and he was unwilling to fight, nor could he surrender again. He had no choice but to compromise and endure for a while longer, revealing his inner weakness.

Despite his weakness, when it was time to leave, he still had to take with him all the gold, jewelry, and wealth he had accumulated over the years.

Huang Fu also reassured his soldiers, saying that he would lead tens of thousands of troops back to fight in a few months, and that the State of Wei would not harm their families, adding that Lord Guanqiu was known for his kindness and generosity...

Hepu City was built along the river, and ships could enter the city directly from the sea via waterways. Just as Huang Fu was sending people to move his wealth, his men reported that Guanqiu Jian's army was coming from the north and was only about fifteen li away from the city.

Pan Zhu, who had already boarded the ship, personally disembarked and came into the city to persuade him: "Prefect Huang, board the ship quickly, do not hesitate any longer! If the Wei army arrives, it will be difficult to leave."

Huang Fu earnestly said, "Minister Pan, even fifteen li will take one or two hours, right? I have many wives and concubines at home, and there are still some valuables that haven't been moved. It will only take another hour! Just one hour!"

Pan Zhu hadn't expected Huang Fu to remain so stubborn, to the point of being obtuse. He looked at the man's face carefully and asked, "Prefect Huang, have you considered that sending a message takes time? I entered the city by boat from the dock, and by now, the Wei army is probably less than ten miles away from the city!"

Huang Fu replied, "Your Excellency, please board the ship first, and I will arrive shortly after!"

"You!" Pan Zhu stamped his foot, sighed deeply, and left helplessly. Huang Fu was courting death, and Pan Zhu would not accompany him.

Sure enough, Huang Fu hurriedly fled from the city to the boat by carriage when he could see the Wei army coming from the north from the city wall. He didn't even care that there were still more than two hundred soldiers behind him who hadn't boarded the boat.

The fleet immediately set sail without stopping at the edge of Hepu City. The Wei scouts at the forefront could only report what they saw to the generals in charge behind them.

The 10,000 troops of the Great Wei in Jiaozhou consisted of two parts. Guanqiu Jianzhi led 4,000 elite soldiers from the north, and in more than two years, he trained 6,000 local soldiers from Jiaozhou in the three prefectures of Yulin, Cangwu, and Nanhai.

Guanqiu Jian had served as the Commander of the Central Army for many years, and he was in charge of overseeing the daily training of the Central Army. Putting aside other matters, he was already very familiar with training troops. Except for the navy, he was already very familiar with light infantry, heavy infantry, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, armored cavalry, and other types of troops.

Guanqiu Jian trained 6,000 soldiers because the Jiaozhou treasury, after spending money on building cities, supporting officials, maintaining the system, and restoring production, could only support 6,000 soldiers for the time being, not because the local population was insufficient.

In Guanqiu Jian's and the others' view, these 6,000 soldiers were already at the level of the northern prefecture and county troops.

Four thousand elite foreign troops and six thousand local soldiers—this was the source of Guanqiu Jian's confidence in submitting his memorial to the throne, proposing to attack Hepu first.

When the general who was leading the charge to seize Hepu learned of this, he ordered his men to enter the city and take over the defense of Hepu. He then personally left the army to report to the army where Guanqiu Jian was located in the rear.

This person was Shi Bao. In the tenth year of the Taihe era, during the large-scale appointment and dismissal of officials in the south, he was appointed as the Prefect of Cangwu from the position of Shangshu Lang. Together with the Prefect of Nanhai, he became one of only two prefects in Jiaozhou appointed by the imperial court.

Of course, if we include Sima Fu, the prefect of Zhuyai, then there are three.

When Guanqiu Jian marched south from Yulin County, he brought a total of 8,000 soldiers with him. Shi Bao was ordered to lead 2,000 county soldiers as the vanguard.

Shi Bao met Guanqiu Jian at the central command: "My lord, Hepu City has surrendered, and the traitor Huang Fu has already escaped by boat."

Guanqiu Jian seemed unsurprised, nodding slightly: "Have all the soldiers in the city been taken away?"

"They took everything with them," Shi Bao replied earnestly. "We learned from the prisoners in the city that Chen Shi, a bandit from Jiaozhi County, sent a fleet to pick up Huang Fu. The city's original five thousand soldiers and valuables were all taken away. In addition, Huang Fu set fire to the city's granaries when he fled. Fortunately, only a small part of them burned. I have already ordered people to do their best to put out the fire and salvage it."

Guanqiu Jian sighed softly: "It doesn't matter if he escapes, but the granaries of the entire Hepu prefecture are all in this city. With his burning, how many ordinary people's hard-earned money will be destroyed? This man's crime should be increased by one degree."

"Yes," Shi Bao replied briefly. "My lord, what should we do next?"

Guanqiu Jian said, "Since Huang Fu has fled, he should not return for a while. Now that Hepu has been pacified, I will lead my troops to garrison in the city and pacify the people. You should lead your troops along the riverbank towards the sea and stop there. I will have General Pu pacify the surrounding areas."

"Understood, Your subordinate." Shi Bao bowed slightly and then left.

After entering the city, Guanqiu Jian, as the governor of a prefecture, personally came forward to appease the people, promising that the traitor Huang Fu had fled, and that all the soldiers, civilians, and officials in the city were obedient citizens, innocent of any crime, and that no matter would be investigated. The panicked atmosphere in the city was temporarily suppressed.

It wasn't until the evening that Guanqiu Jian finally had some free time to discuss the upcoming military campaign with a few trusted confidants.

One of them was named Zhu Yi, the son of Zhu Huan, a former general of the Wu Kingdom. He was the first to open the city of Wu County when Guanqiu Jian led his army to conquer Wu Commandery, and was therefore promoted to an official position. Last year, Guanqiu Jian requested the court to appoint a chief clerk to assist him in political and military affairs because of his training of troops. Cao Rui then sent Zhu Yi to Guanqiu Jian.

Guanqiu Jian was Cao Rui's protégé, and Guanqiu Jian also needed his own protégé. Zhu Yi, a young official who had no connection with the Wei officialdom and whose family was almost wiped out, was perfect for the job, not to mention that he had a past relationship with Guanqiu Jian.

“General,” Zhu Yi said earnestly, “when Lü Dingping quelled the rebellion in Jiaozhi, he set off from Hepu and traveled by sea to Longbian to quell the Shi family rebellion. If we talk about the events of the Later Han Dynasty, when General Ma Yuan quelled the rebellion in Jiaozhi, he traveled a thousand miles along the coast to Jiaozhi, but there were still nearly two thousand warships and ships of various sizes.”

“Ma Yuan once led an army of nearly 30,000, while you, General, lead 8,000. Whether by land or sea, several hundred ships would be needed. But now all the ships in Hepu have been taken away by the bandit Huang Fu, making the march difficult.”

"I believe that the court should issue an order for the fleet to sail south. If the Zhouhu and Wa (Japanese) can go there, wouldn't it be as easy as turning one's hand to transport troops from Hepu to Jiaozhi?"

Guanqiu Jian nodded: "I have the same idea. However, if I lead an expedition with 8,000 troops, I'm afraid there will be criticism in the court. It would be better to send someone familiar with military affairs to Luoyang to report to them and dispel any doubts."

"Your subordinate is willing to go!" Sima Shi replied, bowing. "General, I am skilled in both boats and horses. Even if we depart from Hepu, we can reach Luoyang in about thirty days!"

Guanqiu Jian frowned.

For the past three years, Sima Shi had been diligent and meticulous under Guanqiu Jian's command, accumulating both merit and hard work, and their relationship appeared to be quite good. However, for some reason, Guanqiu Jian simply couldn't bring himself to like Sima Shi. Guanqiu Jian treated Zhu Yi as a trusted subordinate, yet he had virtually no personal connection with Sima Shi.

After a moment's thought, Guanqiu Jian replied, "Sima is a steady and reliable man, and familiar with Luoyang. You are the most suitable person to go. The journey is long, so please take care!"

Sima Shi nodded and replied, "General, rest assured!" (End of Chapter)