Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 19: The soldiers marched out of Meiwu
The second year of Taihe in Wei.

The sixth year of Jianxing in the Han Dynasty.

March, the second day of the new year.

On this day, Zhang He ordered his men to cook before dawn.

After dawn, he began a forced march with 30,000 soldiers and 10,000 civilians, each carrying five days of dry food.

The baggage and food supplies were escorted by the last three thousand soldiers and six thousand civilians down the West Han River.

When the sun is flat.

Regardless of the fatigue of the soldiers and the disconnection of 20% of the troops, Zhang He's troops marched a total of 80 miles and arrived at the north of Wudu, where the Shu army had camped yesterday.

Zhang He ordered his men to rest on the spot and continue marching after two quarters of an hour.

After sitting for a while, the scouts reported that Zhuge Liang's army had passed Wudu, and the rear guard was only forty miles away from this camp!
Zhang He was excited.

He walked eighty miles, and Zhuge Liang walked forty miles.

Then at this time tomorrow, he will be able to catch up with Zhuge Liang when he reaches the east of Shanglu County!
With so much food and supplies, Zhuge Liang could not move fast at all. When the time came to engage in battle with the enemy, the enemy would not dare to send a large number of troops to block the Chencang Road, and could only fight and retreat with him.

The time he and Guo Huai agreed to meet was the fifth day of March, which was three days away. However, when he encountered Zhuge Liang tomorrow, Zhuge Liang would still be more than a hundred miles away from Chencang Road. With the continuous fighting, most of his troops would not be able to reach Chencang Road!
Success is expected!

By then, even if Zhuge Liang did not collapse, he and Guo Huai would be able to completely block Zhuge Liang in the narrow corridor of the West Han River, one in front and one behind, making it impossible for him to advance or retreat!

The Han army's Xieshui camp must be an empty camp to decoy the enemy. After General Cao Zhen receives the news of the great victory in Longshan, he will definitely attack it.

After winning, he can lead the army into Chencang and annihilate Zhuge Liang in one fell swoop!
In short, apart from the miscalculation of the capture of Qishan, Guo Huai's strategy could almost be said to be foolproof.

The only thing that puzzled Zhang He at this time was that Zhuge Liang had not expected that he would send people to intercept his return route from Chencang Road?

Otherwise, why would they retreat so slowly at a speed of no more than forty miles a day?
Two quarters of an hour passed quickly, and Zhang He ordered his troops to continue marching south.

However, after walking for a few miles, a scout suddenly came from the north, running all the way to Zhang He's side, pulling the reins and saying anxiously:

"Right General, something bad has happened!
"At noon, the commander of Qishan Fort led four to five thousand men out of the fort to attack!

"General Fei was leading his men to set up antlers at the foot of the fort, but they were caught off guard and were beaten all the way into the camp by the bandits!

"The bandit general Yangchen roared and charged forward, killing more than a thousand of us.

"They broke into our granary and stole over a thousand bags of grain, and finally set it on fire before leaving!

"Fortunately, Lord You arrived in time with his army and drove them back to Qishan Fort!"

Zhang He felt dizzy while riding his horse and almost fell off.

How come something happened in Qishan Fort only half a day after he set out?

"What a piece of shit!"

Zhang He was so angry that he couldn't help but curse.

I thought Fei Yao was steady, but how could he make such a stupid mistake?!

The scout was panting and dared not speak.

Zhang He asked again, "Who are the rebel generals? Did they really have four or five thousand men leaving the fort?"

"Lord You said there should be more than 4,000 people, and the bandit leader seems to be Wei Yan!"

"Wei Yan?" Zhang He immediately frowned, looking incredulous.

The deputy general Niu Gai beside him was also shocked:
"Wei Yan is the only great general in Shu. How could the Shu invaders order him to defend Qishan? Are you sure?"

The scout said anxiously, "I don't know. It was Lord You who sent me to deliver the message!"

Zhang He felt inexplicably panicked.

Why did Zhuge Liang send Wei Yan to guard Qishan alone?
Is there any conspiracy?
What Niu Gai thought of:
"Could it be that Wei Yan wants to pretend to be a Han Dynasty official and come to She, hoping to nail him to Qishan, and then wait for the false emperor to come to Long to help him like Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han Dynasty did?"

Zhang He was stunned.

Just as everyone was in wonder, suddenly another rider came from the south.

Zhang He watched from afar, and when the rider came closer, he found that the expression on his face was almost identical to that of the rider in front.

Zhang He suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

But the rider came panting and said:
"Reporting to the Right General, Zhuge Liang has led his army into Shanglu City!"

"What?!" Zhang He couldn't control his voice at all.

"Zhuge Liang led his army into Shanglu City!"

Zhang He was completely confused now.

First, Wei Yan guarded Qishan.

Later, Zhuge Liang entered the upper echelons.

Could it be that I really fell into a trap? !

Now Wei Yan is in the north and Zhuge Liang is in the south.

So... now I'm surrounded?

Or did Zhuge Liang already anticipate that Guo Huai would cut off his way back from Chencang Road, and knew that he could no longer escape, so he thought of going to Shanglu to hold on and wait for help?
But who is his support?

Do the pseudo-Han have any reinforcements?
And if he could have predicted it, why didn't he abandon the food and supplies and retreat quickly?

Question after question bombarded Zhang He's brain, making him sweat in the chilly spring weather.

"Right General, what should we do now?" The deputy general Niu Gai was also completely unconscious at this time.

Not to mention a minor general, even the right general of the Wei Dynasty could not make up his mind for a while.

If Wei Yan is really in the north, should we send more troops to support him?

If we go to Shanglu to besiege Zhuge Liang now, what if his reinforcements arrive faster than General Cao Zhen? Then our tens of thousands of troops will be really blocked in this West Han River channel!

This narrow corridor is flanked by the cliffs of the Qinling Mountains, not the mounds of Longyou!

There will be nowhere to escape by then!
Zhang He felt hesitant for a moment, not knowing whether to advance or retreat.

The safest option would be to retreat to Qishan, but then Zhuge Liang would be let go, and without anyone to support him, Guo Huai might be in danger!

After thinking for a long time, Zhang He finally made a decision:

"Continue to march to Shanglu!"

No matter what, go and pick up Guo Huai first, and then make plans.

...

...

Sunset.

Guanzhong.

The Han camp at Xieshui. The Han emperor, fully armored and holding bamboo slips, walked through the camp.

Cousin Mi Wei followed closely behind.

Further behind, more than twenty Tiger Cavalry Guards, also fully armored but with white furs inserted into their helmets to show their power, followed not far away.

Ever since he swore an oath to heaven on the parade ground yesterday, the great Han emperor has been personally doing things, constantly moving between the camps, and personally writing down the personal information and "last words" of the old and weak soldiers and the soldiers stationed in the fields.

It has to be said that he still underestimated the workload of this job.

There are not many people in the army who can recognize complete characters, but the soldiers have so much to say to their families that they had to order some restrictions on the number of words in the "last words".

Even with the restrictions, the bamboo slips, writing brushes and ink that he had ordered brought from Hanzhong when he arrived were still not enough, so he had to urgently send people to deliver more from the Chi'an warehouse in Jigu.

Because there were not enough people who could read, most of the tiger riders around him were sent to take notes.

After skillfully entering a small tent, the Han emperor took off his silver helmet and handed it to Mi Wei behind him.

After looking around at everyone in the tent, he asked, "Who is here?"

An old soldier who was diligently wiping his leather armor with tung oil turned around upon hearing the sound and looked at the legendary Han emperor in a daze.

"You are... His Majesty, right?" The old soldier's voice was trembling with vicissitudes of life.

"Hmm." Liu Chan was stunned.

It wasn't because he was surprised to be recognized, but because the old soldier was blind in one eye, skinny, and looked to be around sixty years old.

The old soldier had seen a lot of things in the past two days, including one or two blind people, but he had never seen a blind person so old and yet he was still a squad leader.

He also saw the old soldier carefully and cautiously wiping his leather armor with tung oil.

Looking more closely, the eye that was not blind was still bright and lively, unlike the other old soldiers who looked a little tired and lifeless.

The other soldiers in their forties in the tent originally thought that the general had gone crazy, but they did not expect that the young general in full armor actually nodded. So they all stood up in surprise, and then carefully squeezed into the corner of the tent, not daring to breathe.

They had all heard from their superiors yesterday that the emperor who came here to supervise the battle had promised a compensation on the parade grounds that was so exaggerated that many people were willing to die for it. They had also heard that the emperor had sworn to heaven that he would never go back on his word.

And today, I heard that His Majesty seemed to like winning people's hearts and actually personally wrote down messages and last words for the soldiers.

At first they scoffed at it, thinking it was just a rumor spread by those greedy and compassionate people.

But I didn't expect that the emperor would actually come.

Liu Chan ordered several tiger riders to take charge of the other soldiers, and he called the sergeant over.

"What's your name, old man?"

"Your Majesty, my name is Tian Yong."

Liu Chan paused and looked at the one-eyed old soldier in surprise.

He had been traveling through time for so many days, and today was the first time he heard the word "old slave". He was really not used to it.

"age."

"fifty-four."

"Where do you live?"

"Your Majesty, I have no home and have been living in the military camp."

Liu Chan paused again, and after a moment asked again:
"Then do you have any other family members?"

"Nothing."

"Who is your Du Bo and Sima?"

"Du Bo is Xiang Jing, and Sima is Liu Yin."

"If you die in this battle, do you have any...last words? To whom would you say them?" Liu Chan asked this question procedurally, feeling sad again.

Without family, who can I tell my last words to?

"No."

"What about your compensation?" Liu Chan asked again.

If you don't have family, then there must be someone in the army who you care about, right? Why not adopt a son or something?

"It is enough to kill the bandits for your majesty. No compensation is needed."

Liu Chan was stunned.

It’s not the first time I’ve heard something like this, but it feels a little different coming from the mouth of such an old soldier.

Soon, the information of all the soldiers in the small tent was recorded.

Liu Chan dried the bamboo slips, put them away, and hurried away to the next tent.

However, just as he lifted the curtain, the old soldier suddenly called him from behind.

"Your Majesty... Is this the same armor worn by the late emperor?"

Liu Chan turned around and nodded.

"Yes."

Suddenly thinking of something, Liu Chan asked:

"Old man, your accent doesn't sound like Bashu or Hanzhong. It sounds a bit like... like General Zilong. Are you from Hebei?"

"I am from Anxi County, Zhongshan!" The old soldier's one eye suddenly lit up and he said excitedly.

Liu Chan suddenly realized.

Then he was suddenly stunned.

Anxi County, isn’t this the place where Emperor Zhaolie whipped the Inspector and made him abandon his seal and flee?

Did this old soldier follow Emperor Zhaolie at that time?

Without time to think too much, Liu Chan gave the old soldier a forced smile and then hurried away.

Just as he was about to move to the next tent, Fu Qian strode towards him from a distance.

"His Majesty!"

"News has come from the plank road: Cao Zhen's army has left Meiwu!"

...

...

For some reason, Liu Chan suddenly had tinnitus and could not hear any sounds around him.

After a moment, he looked up in confusion and looked in the direction of Meiwu.

"Oh."

(End of this chapter)