Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 27: Terrified to Death
West of Xieshui.

North of Weishui River.

It was only twenty miles away from the battlefield.

Due to the low terrain and the smoke and dust raised by the fighting on the battlefield, the wind turned it into haze.

So when the two thousand Tiger and Leopard Cavalry from Chang'an arrived at the north bank of the Wei River, only the outline of the Qinling Mountains could be seen below the mountainside.

As for what was happening on the battlefield, they had no way of seeing it.

Not to mention the battlefield twenty miles away, even the Wuzhang Plateau six or seven miles in front of them was a little hazy due to the distance and the thin dust, making it difficult to see the scenery clearly.

In order to prevent the Han army from discovering his intentions, Cao Zhen did not prepare any bridges or ships on the north bank of the Wei River to prevent the Han army from being prepared.

Therefore, the boats that came today to pick up these two thousand Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to cross the Wei River came from Chencang, a hundred miles upstream of the Wei River.

Set out in the morning and arrive at noon.

There were not many ships capable of transporting troops, only thirty-two, eight large ships and twenty-four small ships.

There was no way. The Great Wei had indeed not thought about any war that would break out in Guanzhong, otherwise it would not have sent Xiahou Mao, a second-generation general who had never fought in a war, to Chang'an to serve as General Anxi.

As for Chencang, which was famous four hundred years ago, the water route was completely cut off due to the Wudu earthquake. The story of "secretly crossing Chencang" could no longer happen, and it lost its historical status. It is now just an inconspicuous small town.

An unknown farmer was stationed there, supervising the farmers who had moved from Hanzhong and Longyou to farm.

It is remarkable that such a small city could provide the general with more than 30 usable ships in such an emergency.

By the Wei River.

Under the general's banner.

Cao Rui, wearing a fox fur cloak, stopped his horse.

Not far behind him, the pack animals responsible for carrying equipment and food were scattered around grazing.

The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry had finished watering and feeding their horses, and were waiting on the shore with their war horses.

There are more than two hundred riders who are now carefully boarding the ship using a makeshift longboard.

This is not a ferry, so this is the only way.

Not long after, there was another "crash" sound and the neighing of war horses.

Another warhorse slipped from the wooden planks and fell into the water.

Cao Rui frowned slightly.

Because the warhorse was too heavy, the center of gravity of the empty boat shifted as soon as the warhorse boarded, and it swayed from side to side.

This shaking of the boat frightened some of the war horses and made them want to retreat, causing the boat to shake even more violently, and finally the horses lost their footing and fell into the water.

The same thing happened to four or five empty boats.

The situation was not improved until war horses were added to the boats as ballast.

On the other hand, this did not happen to the eight larger ships.

About half a quarter of an hour later, thirty-two fully loaded troop transport ships rowed southeast of the Wei River.

Cao Rui looked at the slowly moving ship and frowned again.

"A large ship can only carry 20 soldiers at a time, and a small ship can only carry 5 or 6. They can't carry more than 300 soldiers at a time. How long will it take?"

Cavalry Commander Yin Damu said:

“Your Majesty, this is unavoidable. One man and one horse can easily weigh two to three thousand pounds.

"Fortunately, the Wei River is only a mile wide, so it only takes about a quarter of an hour to go back and forth. We can all cross the river before 3 p.m."

Cao Rui was about to nod, but then frowned:
"By the time the boat reached the other side, it had been swept two or three miles away by the Wei River. It would probably take even longer to return here."

Yin Damu was stunned for a moment. He looked at the boat which had been washed eastward by the Wei River for more than a hundred steps and was shocked to find that it was indeed the case.

He didn't expect that he would have a seizure in such a place, and said in a daze:

"I have been negligent. In this case, we should not have boarded the boat here. We should have gone further upstream..." It was his decision to cross the river here. In theory, there was nothing wrong with it. The shore was flat and wide, and the water depth was suitable. The boat would not run aground when it docked.

But unexpectedly, I forgot to take the water flow into consideration.

In this case, if the army wanted to cross the river as quickly as possible, it would have to move four or five miles east, cross the river once more, and then move another four or five miles east.

This……

By then they would be east of Xieshui. How could they carry out the general's tactic of attacking the Shu army from behind?

Since it was not feasible for the entire army to move south, the boatman could only go upstream.

In this case, it will take a lot more time to go back and forth.

As for how much it was, he couldn't figure it out.

Thinking of this, he immediately bowed nervously to the emperor: "Your Majesty, I am guilty! Will I miss the time I had scheduled with the general?!"

Cao Rui was silent for a moment and shook his head:
"If you were the only one leading the army here, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to escape the charge of being late.

“But I was here too, and I didn’t think of it either, so how can I blame you?

"Besides, we still have plenty of time. At most, we will need to cross the river for four or five hundred more cavalrymen."

After saying this, the man stopped talking and did not even look at Yin Damu's expression. He just stared quietly at the boat that was getting closer and closer to the other side.

The warhorse had just fallen into the water, which made him doubt the carrying capacity of those small boats. He was worried that if the warhorse got frightened when the boat was transported to the river and capsized, what would happen?

This kind of thing is not impossible to happen. Even grain-carrying ships capsize from time to time, let alone ships transporting horses?
As more than thirty troop transport ships got closer and closer to the river bank, he finally relaxed a little and looked away.

Suddenly, he thought of something and said:
"Pass the word down, have the next group of people crossing the river go and see if the sloping water over there is wadable.

"If possible, we can land on the east side of the slanting water and then wade back to the west of the slanting water."

Yin Damu's eyes lit up and he immediately agreed.

Your Majesty still has a solution!
Yin Damu was excited, and then looked towards Wuzhangyuan.

The reason for returning to the west of Xieshui was to let the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry climb Wuzhangyuan.

Wuzhangyuan is about thirty or forty zhang high, and the platform is wide. From the bottom of the plateau, you can only see the edge of the plateau, but not the middle of the platform.

Once on the plateau, they could not only hide the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, but also use the high slope to swoop down on the fleeing Shu army.

As for whether there would be ambushes or spies on the plateau, he was not worried.

Even if the Shu army was more clever and placed spies on Wuzhangyuan, what could they do?

Once the two thousand Tiger and Leopard Cavalry arrived, the overwhelming force would be overwhelming. What would the retreating Shu army do to stop them? Did he also have Tiger and Leopard Cavalry?

Let’s not even talk about the combat effectiveness of just a few hundred imperial guards. Doesn’t that mean they don’t have to deal with the general’s seven hundred tiger and leopard cavalry?

While Yin Damu was thinking, he turned around and ordered the next round of Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to cross the river.

However, after walking a few steps, I heard a familiar voice coming from the other side of the river.

He was stunned for a moment, stopped, stretched his neck and looked into the distance at Wuzhangyuan.

"Did you hear anything?"

Cao Rui seemed to have heard the voice as well. He turned his head to look at Yin Damu, only to see that Yin Damu's big eyes were wide open and almost popped out of his eye sockets.

He quickly turned around to look at the Wuzhangyuan, a mountain that rose abruptly from the ground for dozens of feet, like a small hill, six or seven miles away.

Suddenly, he felt his heart jumping into his throat.

I saw a cavalry of unknown number appearing in the thin dust, swooping down the slope of Wuzhangyuan at an extremely fast speed!

The faint but regular sound of horse hooves could be heard.

"How could this happen?" Yin Damu was horrified to death.

　I wrote it wrong before, but after watching the video I found that Wuzhangyuan rises abruptly from the ground and is more than 100 meters high. It is named Wuzhangyuan because its narrowest part is only 5zhang wide... The widest part is 4 miles, and the longest from north to south is 10 miles.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)