Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 20: Setting up camp with a visual advantage
The sun is setting.

After learning that Cao Zhen's army had left Meiwu, Liu Chan, with more than 20 tiger riders, reined in his horses and left the Han army camp on the Guanzhong Plain, and went up the Qinling Mountains south of the camp.

In fact, after choosing the battlefield and deciding to meet Cao's army on the right bank of Xieshui River, Zhao Yun ordered his men to cut down trees and clear a path on a small hill south of the camp, which was called Yushan by local villagers.

Finally, the Han army's general command post was established on a wide platform halfway up the mountain, about ten feet above the camp at the foot of the mountain.

The terrain of the Guanzhong Plain is high in the south and low in the north. Although this plateau, which is about ten meters high, still cannot see Meiwu, which is forty miles away, it is enough to take in the entire plain within a radius of more than twenty miles.

The next battle will most likely take place on the northeast side of this plateau, that is, on the plain at the foot of the Qinling Mountains, east of the Han camp, far away from the Wei River.

The Han army was in the west and the Cao army was in the east.

There is no other reason, because the terrain south of the Wei River, which stretches across Guanzhong, is high in the south and low in the north.

The plain of more than 20 miles from the foot of the Qinling Mountains to the Wei River is generally a relatively gentle slope.

However, if we zoom in on the entire battlefield, the drop is as much as 150 to 160 meters. If Cao Zhen crossed the Wei River and set up camp in Weinan, even if he built a general's platform, he would not be able to gain a view of the battlefield.

Moreover, although the attack from the Wei River to the Qinling Mountains is a slow climb to a height of 150 meters, it will still consume the soldiers' physical strength in vain and provide some assistance to the Han army when they engage in battle.

Therefore, Cao Zhen would most likely choose to set up camp to the east of the Han army, so that the two armies would face each other from east to west, in order to obtain the same field of view as the Han army and eliminate the disadvantages brought by the terrain.

In fact, the entire Guanzhong Plain is a funnel-shaped terrain with high north and south and low middle. If Cao Zhen takes a defensive stance, he can choose to set up camp on the north bank of the Wei River to obtain the same advantage of vision and slope.

The attackers on the south bank of the Wei River need to cross the river and climb the hill to attack, which is very difficult.

These things were said by Zhao Yun to Liu Chan when he sent people to Yushan to cut down the mountain and set up a camp. They were all plain words, so Liu Chan could understand them.

And he immediately thought that in the original historical line, Sima Yi built a camp on the north bank of the Wei River and occupied a favorable defensive terrain, making it difficult for the prime minister to attack.

Back to the present, it was precisely because Zhao Yun anticipated that Cao Zhen would set up camp in the east that he focused on building more defensive fortifications on the east side of the Han army camp.

Trenches, fences, deer horns, horse traps, and even water was diverted to the eastern outskirts of the Han camp, turning a large wheat field into mud, in order to prevent Cao's army from sending cavalry to the foot of the high Qinling Mountains and swooping down to stab them in the back when the two armies were fighting.

as predicted.

When Liu Chan reined in his horse and climbed up Yu Mountain, he could barely see Cao Zhen's hundreds of cavalrymen appearing at the end of his sight like a thin black line. Judging from the distance, they had been away from Meiwu for half an hour.

Further away, there is a very vague black line.

In other words, Cao's army did not advance westward along the Wei River, but instead moved from north to south towards the Qinling Mountains along the small stream that flows out of the Qinling Mountains and into the Wei River.

Liu Chan watched for a long time. Cao's cavalry was galloping at a moderate pace, getting closer and closer to the Qinling Mountains.

The black line at the back is getting longer and clearer.

Finally, he got tired of looking and looked eastward along the foot of the Qinling Mountains.

If Cao's army reached a place with the same terrain as the Han camp and set up camp, the front of the two camps would be estimated to be ten miles apart, and the rear would be fourteen or fifteen miles apart.

The ten miles in the middle is the main battlefield.

"General Zilong, why did Cao's army choose to leave Meiwu at this time? Wouldn't it be better to set up camp during the day?" Liu Chan suddenly asked with some confusion.

He longed for all knowledge related to the battlefield.

Under the fluttering dragon banner, the old general, fully armed, thought for a moment and said:
"Your Majesty, I believe Cao's army may be trying to use the cover of darkness to shield their troops and prevent us from finding out how many troops they have brought.

"Especially because he didn't want us to see how many cavalrymen he brought with him."

Deng Zhi, the military supervisor, nodded in agreement at first, then said after a moment, "Or perhaps he has already discovered that our army is not strong enough, and fearing that things will change if things continue for too long, he is eager to fight a quick victory, so he left the city to prepare as soon as he received the false emperor's edict."

Liu Chan suddenly realized: "If this is true, does that mean the war will start tomorrow?"

Moreover, if Liu Chan had not come here in person to lead the army, perhaps when they saw Cao's army coming with a large force, this decoy army would have started preparing to retreat and would have retreated the next day.

Zhao Yun shook his head. "It's uncertain, Your Majesty. We have few soldiers and no spare cavalry. The decision of when to start the battle rests with them. But regardless, we must proceed with caution from tonight on."

The Han army had no spare cavalry, and no one knew how many cavalry Cao's army had brought. If a battle broke out, they would have to resort to defensive tactics. Liu Chan glanced around and confirmed that besides Tiger Cavalry Supervisor Mi Wei, only Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi were by his side. He asked, "Supervisory Deng, how is the damming and blocking the river going?"

Deng Zhi also took a look around before saying, "Your Majesty, it was basically completed the day before yesterday. The ten-mile waterway in the valley was blocked in three sections. The dam is nearly ten feet high and is still being consolidated and raised."

Liu Chan thought for a moment and nodded slowly.

When he was building the first outermost dam, he went into the valley and saw that the two mountains were very close together, with a distance of less than 300 meters between them.

The Han army already had experience with this kind of fortifications. According to Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi, when Guan Yu flooded the seven armies, he not only relied on heavy rain from heaven, but also built a dam upstream of the Han River. Finally, he dug the dam to release the water and took a large ship downstream to Fancheng.

As for the reason for building the dam, it was naturally what he talked about with Zhao Yun when he first arrived at Xiegu that day.

He wanted to follow Han Xin's strategy of feigning defeat while crossing the Wei River, and finally breaking the dike to flood the river and kill Long Ju halfway across the river. After this inevitable battle, he would intercept and kill Cao Zhen's army that was crossing the Xie River to pursue him.

I just don't know if Cao Zhen will follow the Han army to the west bank of Xieshui, just like Long Ju chased the pretended defeated Han Xin across the Wei River.

Of course, it is unknown whether the Han army, which has "pretended to be defeated" or is actually defeated, can organize a decent counterattack force on the west bank of Xieshui.

If it really doesn't work, then you can only accept your fate.

After all, this so-called strategy is a crooked and unorthodox approach that was resorted to out of necessity, and the probability of failure is quite high.

After all, the enemy is not a puppet, and it is impossible for them to perform with you according to the script you write.

There was only one thought that prompted him to take the risk:
Now that this "fake Han emperor" is here, is Cao Zhen not at all tempted to "capture the dragon"?

Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi quickly rode down the mountain to arrange and inspect the defense of the Han camp.

Liu Chan led a group of Tiger Cavalry guards to walk around the command platform.

All the trees on the west side of the plateau have been cut down, and the ground has been leveled and trimmed to form a slope of more than ten degrees, directly connected to the sloping water on the plain.

The purpose was naturally to make it easier for him, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, to escape with his personal guards when things went wrong.

On the 200-meter-wide embankment of the Xieshui River to the west of the Han camp, dozens of wooden bridges were built. These had been built long before he came here, because the entrance to the Xiegu plank road was on the west bank of the Xieshui River.

Of course, if you really want to escape, you can just wade through the sloping water that is only half a meter deep.

...

...

the other side.

When the sun completely disappeared behind the Qinling Mountains, Cao Zhen led more than 500 cavalrymen to the foot of the Qinling Mountains.

He changed horses and continued to gallop slowly across the plain, looking for a suitable place to set up camp.

Just as the night was about to completely cover the plain, he finally found an ideal place to set up camp.

The edge of a large plateau.

In other words, the place where he was at this time was a wide plateau about eight or nine miles long and more than ten miles wide.

This plateau is suddenly three or four feet higher than the plains to the west.

If we set up camp here, even if we are unfortunately defeated, it will be difficult for the Shu invaders to attack us.

Not far to the south of this plateau, there is another large earthen plateau connected to the Qinling Mountains, which is dozens or even hundreds of feet higher than this plateau.

He rode his horse to the foot of the plateau, abandoned his horse, found a gentle slope, climbed up slowly, and looked to the west.

The lights of the entire Han camp are in full view.

After a moment, he called his guards and pointed to the plateau below, saying, "Let's set up camp here!"

(End of this chapter)