Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 36: Dragon Banner Presses Forward
cold.

Sleepy.

hungry.

Tired.

Yesterday, there was a day-long battle, followed by a night-long chase on the narrow and simple plank road. Not to mention the ordinary soldiers, even General Cao Zhen had almost reached the limit of the human body at this moment.

The valley is already extremely cold in early spring. The melting of ice and snow on Mount Taibai has brought about a huge amount of water vapor precipitation, causing the sea of ​​fog between the two narrow mountains to evaporate, making the mid-spring coldness penetrate deeper into the bone marrow.

There was a sound of horse hooves.

A horseman pierced through the light white fog at the bottom of the valley and appeared a hundred steps away from Cao Zhen. He then dismounted and galloped to Cao Zhen's banner.

"General! My captain Zhang Hu asked me to come and ask for your instructions.

"It's too cold. The soldiers are almost exhausted. Can we all rest for a while, warm ourselves by the fire, and eat some dry food before continuing the pursuit?"

"What's going on up ahead?" Cao Zhen asked with a frown, his voice losing a bit of its strength.

He had not joined the battle, but the fatigue, hunger and cold that were beyond his control had made it almost impossible for him to resist, not to mention Zhang Hu, Lu Fan and other front-line troops who had been chasing him all night and were in a highly nervous state.

"Reporting to the General, the rear of the Shu bandits has retreated five or six miles ahead, but they are still forming a battle formation and retreating slowly.

"My captain, Lu captain, and Le Sima's troops have been chasing us closely.

"Some of the Shu bandits, including the elderly, weak, disabled, and transport workers, could no longer run and surrendered.

"Our soldiers have seized a lot of supplies, food, armor, swords and guns along the way!"

Hearing this, Cao Zhen frowned again.

"Military Advisor, have you thought of anything?" He looked at the military advisor Du Xi, whose face was pale with exhaustion.

How could Du Xi not know?

"In the early days of the battle between Emperor Taizu Wu and Yuan Shao in Hebei, Guan Yu killed Yuan Shao's general Yan Liang, and the siege of Bai Ma was lifted. Emperor Taizu then exiled the people of Bai Ma back south.

"Yuan Shao sent Wen Chou and Liu Bei with a total of 5,000 to 6,000 cavalry and tens of thousands of infantry to pursue.

"All of Taizu's generals thought they should return to camp quickly, but his chief strategist, Xun Gongda, suggested abandoning the food and baggage on the road to lure the enemy out.

"So the enemy who came to pursue us really stopped pursuing us and competed to seize the baggage, armor and soldiers.

"Taizu then sent out 600 cavalrymen to counterattack, beheading Shao's general Wen Chou and capturing countless others alive. Shao's army was terrified."

Cao Zhen nodded slowly upon hearing this, and then ordered Zhang Hu's personal guards:

"I order your captain to pursue the Shu invaders at full speed. Do not separate yourself from them for even a moment, and do not take anything from them on the road. Anyone who disobeys this order will be executed!

"Tell them again that my army and I will not take anything from this battle; everything will be given to the soldiers!"

Zhang Hu's personal soldiers had no choice but to leave.

Afterwards, Cao Zhen immediately summoned his personal soldiers and conveyed the military order to the various camps and units waiting there.

He has been leading troops for many years, so how could he not understand what his soldiers are thinking?
Yesterday on the battlefield, the soldiers had already made many gains.

After the Han army evacuated the Han camp, they left behind 10,000 to 20,000 dan of baggage and food in the camp. These things were fought over by the soldiers based on their own abilities.

The soldiers who had already made many gains were naturally unwilling to risk their lives to pursue the enemy further, while the soldiers who had not made any gains were more inclined to fight for the scattered weapons and supplies of the Shu invaders rather than risk their lives in a fight.

This kind of strategy is almost impossible to defend against.

Unless all of them are his personal soldiers.

If Cao Zhen did not have enough prestige and often used his own money to reward the troops, this military order would have been difficult to implement.

But then again, Cao Zhen didn't think this was really Liu Chan's strategy. The reason he gave the order was just to err on the side of caution.

"Military Advisor, do you think this is Liu Adou's plan?" Cao Zhen finally looked at his think tank.

Du Xi shook his head and said, "General, there is no doubt that the Shu invaders are defeated."

After a pause of two breaths, he continued:

"Since Liu Bei's rise to power, the Shu invaders have always claimed to put people first.

"If they abandon the wounded and civilians in order to retreat safely, they will have completely lost their sense of justice. How can they gain the trust of the soldiers and civilians in the future?

"The Slanting Valley is vast, and they have few men capable of fighting. They probably just don't have time to care for the wounded soldiers and civilians. After all, we've been chasing them all night, and they've been running all night. We're tired, and they're just as tired."

Cao Zhen nodded, reined in his horse again, and looked around at the terrain of the Xiagu Valley.

The place where the army was now assembled was a broad valley more than two miles wide from north to south.

In the center of the valley is a rocky stream that is no more than a hundred steps wide and no more than one or two feet deep. The water is so shallow that even the deepest part does not reach the knees.

This is also a natural thing. This is just a main stream of Xieshui. The reason why the downstream Xieshui can be three or four feet deep is that it absorbs tributaries from other valleys of Qinling Mountains.

Cao Zhen rode his horse into the shallow stone stream and walked towards the south bank of the stream, wondering if there would be an ambush of the Shu army there.

Another quarter of an hour passed.

More than 1,800 spirited Tiger and Leopard Cavalry finally joined up with the exhausted but fully reorganized bulk of the Wei army. Cao Zhen gave the order.

The army, with 1,800 Tiger and Leopard Cavalry as the vanguard and 22,000 infantry as the follow-up, marched westward in pursuit.

Except for the huge pebbles in the stone stream, the road in the valley was smooth. In just two quarters of an hour, the army traveled six or seven miles.

At this moment, the sky was completely bright.

The thick morning fog at the bottom of the valley gradually dissipated.

As Cao Zhen reined in his horse and headed westward, his vision became increasingly distant. Soon, he could vaguely see the front of the Shu army fighting a mile away.

It was visible to the naked eye that the area was still wide, more than a mile in width, and in order to maintain the depth of the front line, several thousand Shu troops were unable to block the valley.

After moving forward for a while, Cao Zhen was shocked to find that there were about 3,000 Han troops resisting here, and he finally felt relieved.

You know, ten years ago, after Xiahou Yuan was beheaded, he was ordered to lead the army into Hanzhong, and they took the Xiegu route. He still had a very deep memory of the topography of the Xiegu, and knew that about ten miles further west, there was a mountain pass less than two hundred steps wide.

If the Shu invaders were allowed to escape there, even if they only had two or three thousand men, they would be able to resist for another half a day thanks to the terrain.

The Wei soldiers had been fighting for two consecutive days and were now relying on their own strength. Once their momentum was blocked there, their momentum would be lost and it would be difficult to maintain their unstoppable momentum.

"Yin Damu!" Cao Zhen summoned the commander of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry from Chang'an.

"As I expected, the last elite troops of the Han army are ahead!
"The Shu invaders also came down the plank road, which must have stretched for at least ten miles!
"Lead the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to flank the Shu invaders in front and continue the pursuit!

"Kill the defeated soldiers along the way if you can, abandon them if you can't, and continue the pursuit!

"In my opinion, the false emperor suffered a series of heavy defeats yesterday and has lost the support of the army and the people. In all likelihood, he will hold back and retreat slowly to win back the people's hearts!
"If that's the case, then he has no soldiers left to fight with. When he sees our cavalry suddenly approaching, he will surely think that his front troops have been completely lost!
"Then the false emperor will surely be in great chaos, and I may be able to capture him in one battle!"

Yin Damu was shocked and excited when he heard this. He quickly clasped his fists in agreement. One thousand eight hundred tiger and leopard horses rode with rumbling hooves and rushed westward.

A small group of Han troops came to block them. The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry fought hard and quickly broke through the weak line after paying the price of only dozens of cavalry. The Wei army soldiers who followed immediately rushed up to cover and block the Shu army.

More than a thousand Tiger and Leopard Cavalry easily passed the last elite of the Shu Army and chased them westward along the flat ground at the foot of the mountain, just like the three thousand Tiger and Leopard Cavalry who rushed hundreds of miles to chase Liu Bei.

...

The middle section of the slope valley.

The Jinwu Banner, a symbol of supreme imperial power, stood at the foot of the mountain south of Shixi, motionless for a long time.

Gusts of mountain breezes carrying with them a strong sense of moisture blew over.

After walking in fear all night, Liu Chan was now exhausted both physically and mentally, and his whole body was shaking uncontrollably.

But the trembling at this moment was not necessarily caused by the cold mountain wind and weak body.

Maybe it's anxiety.

It could be fear.

It could also be excitement.

He faces east and his back faces west.

A few miles to the east was the pursuing Cao army.

A few miles to the west was the retreating Han army.

However, when four thousand high-spirited Han imperial guards suddenly appeared in the fog and stood ready to fight, blocking the retreat of all the fleeing soldiers, the Han army, which had been fleeing all night, finally stopped its westward steps and finally stopped complaining.

Led by the captains of each unit, down to every Sima, military officer, captain, team leader, and even every soldier, they all turned their heads in disbelief and looked at the Jinwu flag that they had left behind.

Just now.

Under the Jinwu banner, Zhao Guang, who had been lying on the ground listening to the sound, suddenly stood up.

"Your Majesty, here you come!"

For some reason, the young man who was standing facing east and was called "Your Majesty" suddenly looked confused after hearing this.

However, in just a moment, the confused look on his face suddenly disappeared, replaced by gritting his teeth and shaking fists.

His Adam's apple began to roll, and his slightly hoarse voice, filled with depression and anger, shook the air.

"let's start!"

Soon, the beacon fire was lit.

A faint horn sounded in the valley behind him.

A long half a minute passed.

A thin stream of water came from nowhere and flowed under the feet of the imperial guards who completely blocked the valley.

The Han emperor, fully armed, carrying a bow and a sword, strode out.

The imperial guards followed.

The dragon banner moved eastward.

(End of this chapter)