Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 37: Push it forward!
In the eastern part of Xiegu, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry led by Yin Damu ignored the three or four thousand elite Han troops who were still in a stalemate with the Wei soldiers behind them, and headed west.

As General Cao Zhen said, after passing the last elite Han army, the road for several miles was filled with defeated Shu army soldiers, stretching endlessly, probably more than two or three thousand people.

The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry did not stop for a moment along the way. They just casually killed a few Shu soldiers who were stranded along the road, and then continued to rush westward.

Anyone can see that these defeated soldiers can no longer form combat effectiveness, and the opportunity to capture the dragon is right in front of them. Anyone who dares to waste time on these people will only be scolded as a fool by the general and then his body will be sunk into the water.

"Commander-in-Chief, look ahead!"

The guards suddenly pointed forward.

Yin Damu pulled out a lance from a lame one-eyed old soldier who was still leading a few men in stubborn resistance, and looked back to the west.

A mile away, two or three rows of Shu troops, maintaining their formation, suddenly appeared in the mist.

A moment later, there were several more rows.

"What's going on?" Yin Damu was a little confused.

"Didn't the general say that the Shu invaders no longer had any elite troops?"

Suddenly, a cavalryman near the river reined in his horse and ran towards Yin Damu, saying in a tearful voice, "Governor, you've got trouble! The river is rising again!"

"Huh?!" Yin Damu was horrified to death when he heard this, and his mind went blank.

Everyone had seen the raging torrent yesterday. Now, hearing the river was rising again, and the valley was so narrow between two mountains, how could they not be afraid?!

He looked to the west and saw that the Shu army, which came from nowhere, had reversed its original retreating trend and was maintaining its front line and slowly walking out of the mist.

"Retreat quickly, go and report to the general!" Yin Damu shouted in panic, turned his horse around and ran to the river.

I saw that the originally clear stream water had indeed become turbid. Although it was still not deep, the water flow was obviously getting faster and faster.

Looking further upstream, you can already see dead branches and leaves rolling down with the water.

The river channel upstream, which was originally only a hundred steps wide, has now been widened to more than two hundred steps by the thin muddy current.

The space available for footing on either side of the river was slowly being eroded.

In the mist a mile away, the Shu army, whose number was unknown, formed a battle formation along the foot of Nanshan Mountain and marched eastward.

Yin Damu immediately looked towards the north and suddenly realized that the terrain of Xiagu was higher in the south and lower in the north.

Because it is visible to the naked eye, the turbidity current tends to squeeze the space on the north bank.

At the same time, the front of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, which had been rushing on the north side of the Stone Creek, had obviously discovered the muddy current coming, and the place they could stand was getting smaller and smaller.

Perhaps they remembered the horrific flood yesterday, and people began to shout and turn their horses around, rushing downstream without paying any attention to the order.

Yin Damu commanded nearly two thousand Wei cavalrymen, and their battle line stretched for more than a mile or two. With panicked men galloping wildly, even if he wanted to calmly command the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to prevent them from fleeing, it would have been impossible.

As a result, more and more Tiger and Leopard Cavalrymen, who had no idea what was happening and only heard someone shouting "the water is rising", also ran downstream in panic.

Lower reaches of Stone Creek.

The last 3,000 elite Han troops, led by Zhao Yun, Fu Qian, Liu Yin and others, formed several circular formations close to the slightly higher terrain of Nanshan Mountain, stubbornly resisting the offensive of Cao Zhen's army.

But whether it was the Han army or the Wei army, after yesterday's battle and a night of pursuit, their combat effectiveness had been seriously reduced.

Both sides were firing guns and knives, but both were weak and powerless, and it was difficult to cause casualties in a short period of time.

Cao Zhen looked at the Shu army who were resisting stubbornly and hesitated for a moment.

Should they concentrate their superior forces to annihilate the last elite troops of the Shu Army, or should they divide their forces and join Yin Damu's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry in chasing down the fleeing Shu Army?
However, just as he was making a difficult decision, the sound of horse hooves rumbled through the thin mountain fog.

Cao Zhen looked west, feeling surprised and confused.

"General, something bad has happened. The water is rising again!" A rider quickly ran to Cao Zhen with a look of fear on his face.

"What?!" Cao Zhen was stunned. He had many suspicions just now, but he never expected the word "rising water".

After a moment, he looked at the think tank beside him, only to see that Du Xi's face was also pale.

"How is that possible?" the man said in surprise.

"Are they going to drown these thousands of Shu bandits along with us in this valley?!"

When Cao Zhen heard this possibility, his hair stood on end and his beard and hair were all terrified.

At this moment, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry fleeing from the upper reaches of Shixi River were endless.

Although most of them regrouped near the general's banner, some cavalrymen still chose to directly cross the army formation and ride their horses towards the plank road.

They even shouted something like "Run away, the water is rising" while running.

The Wei army was horrified when they heard this and their formation began to waver.

"Are you sure you saw that?!" Cao Zhen still couldn't believe the news.

"General, how could you be wrong?"

The speed of the horse was obviously faster than the speed of the water. Cao Zhen was standing by the stone stream at this moment, but he could not see any signs of the shallow stone stream rising.

Moreover, even if the water level in such a shallow rocky stream rises, how high can it rise?

Without giving it much thought, Cao Zhen quickly observed the surrounding terrain and then looked at the Shu army that had been leaning against the South Mountain. He was furious.

"Send the order, tell everyone to move towards Nanshan!"

The frightened military advisor Du Xi finally reacted at this moment.

"Yes, General!

"This stream is so shallow, and the valley here is so wide. Even if the Shu invaders built a dam, the water can't be as deep as it was yesterday, and the water flow can't be as turbulent as it was yesterday!

"The foot of Nanshan Mountain is nearly ten feet above the river, so there must be nothing wrong!"

Cao Zhen's military order was quickly conveyed to all units.

However, before everyone received the order, the turbid water had already reached this point. Cao Zhen, who had first arrived at the foot of Nanshan Mountain, looked at the widening water in the middle of the valley and the narrowing riverbank from afar, feeling a little bewildered.

Some Wei soldiers had already disregarded military orders and fled in all directions like headless flies.

Yin Damu finally made his way through the numerous military formations and arrived beside Cao Zhen:

"General, we cannot stay here any longer. Please leave Xiegu immediately!

"The Shu invaders' reinforcements are just behind us!"

Cao Zhen's heart palpitated upon hearing this, and then his eyes widened: "This place is still seven or eight miles away from the Xiegu plank road. I can certainly escape on horseback, but are we going to abandon these 20,000 troops?!"

"General, as long as there is life, there is hope!" Yin Da's eyes were red, and it was unclear whether he was anxious or afraid.

As a servant of the Cao family, his loyalty to the Cao family is unquestionable.

At this time, there were not many Wei soldiers fleeing in disarray, and the valley was quite wide, so they could still escape by riding horses.

"No!" Cao Zhen flatly refused.

The water in the river was obviously not as strong as yesterday. He didn't believe that such a small amount of water could drown everyone!
"If I don't leave, I can still organize my troops and fight and retreat! If I leave, these 20,000 soldiers will have no choice but to surrender or die!
"Order everyone to form a formation at the foot of Nanshan Mountain and push upstream!" Cao Zhen thought of something as he looked at the muddy current that was rapidly squeezing towards the north bank, and shouted the order.

The inclined valley is high in the west and low in the east, high in the south and low in the north.

As long as we press westward along the Nanshan Mountain, we will definitely be able to avoid the flood!

"General!" Yin Damu roared.

"At this point, your military orders are no longer spreading. Come with me!"

Cao Zhen roared angrily, "Hurry up and tell His Majesty the news, and escort Him back to Luoyang!"

Yin Damu was stunned when he heard this, and turned his head again to look at the flood that was spreading rapidly from the middle to both sides.

Only then did he realize that there was almost no river channel in the entire valley, or rather, the entire valley was a complete river channel.

The slope on the north side of the valley is only a few feet higher than the original stone stream, and the highest point of the slope on the south side of the valley is only less than ten feet higher than the stone stream.

Seeing Yin Damu hesitate, Cao Zhen drew his sword and said, "Slave, if you don't leave, I will kill you!"

"General!" Yin Damu was in tears.

Seeing that he still didn't want to leave, Cao Zhen directly placed his sword across his neck, pretending to strike him: "Get out!"

Yin Damu was finally helpless and led more than a hundred Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to retreat quickly in the stream, which was still not very deep at that time.

In the valley, nearly 10,000 Wei soldiers squeezed in the middle of the army were on the verge of collapse.

They could see nothing except the muddy water that had already reached their shins and the densely packed heads.

The muddy current, which is not fatal, slowly erodes the banks and the water level slowly rises.

However, nearly half of the Wei soldiers were in a state of panic, like ants on a hot pan, fleeing in all directions. The faster they tried to run, the slower they ran. Many of them fell into the muddy stream and were trampled to death by their own troops.

About half a quarter of an hour later, the muddy current, which was not fatal, had already surged down, and the entire north bank of the stone stream was submerged by floods.

Most of the Wei soldiers who fled there because they did not know the terrain were drowned in the muddy current, and a small number climbed up the steep mountain wall and managed to survive.

Not all of the Wei soldiers who fled to Nanshan were able to reach the shore. The Nanshan slope, which had been eroded by the flood to a width of only a hundred steps, was already crowded with people, and thousands of people were trapped in the muddy current.

Fortunately, the valley was wide and they were not far from the small slope, so the flood only reached their waists. Although some people were still swept away by the rapids, others struggled to squeeze onto the high ground.

However, the more than 10,000 Wei soldiers who had already climbed the small slope of Nanshan Mountain did not actually charge to the high ground in the west as Cao Zhen ordered, but instead fled downstream away from the Shu army based on their survival instinct.

Cao Zhen and his personal guards were caught up in the fleeing soldiers and were powerless to do anything. They could only be pushed downstream by the surging crowd and horses.

The Shu army was chasing them closely.

Cao Zhen soon saw a Jinwu banner.

He was forced to retreat for who knows how many miles.

Cao Zhen was almost unable to move because of the pressure from his own soldiers. Suddenly, Du Xi's horrified voice rang out in his ears: "General, we can't retreat any further!"

Cao Zhen was stunned when he heard this, and then shocked.

After a moment, he finally realized what was happening and looked downstream following Du Xi's gaze.

The entrance to the Xiegu plank road appeared in his sight.

The mountain pass there was extremely narrow, and the water that had been accumulating for who knows how many days was all blocked here, and then formed a backflow, which rolled along the mountain wall towards the north mountain like a whirlpool, and finally made the water in the valley deeper and deeper.

Looking around, the entrance, or exit, of the plank road has been completely submerged.

The small slope at the foot of Nanshan Mountain was slowly eroded by the increasingly deep flood. The soldiers who had originally escaped the fastest began to stop retreating downstream and instead squeezed upstream.

Many soldiers realized that their retreat and forward routes were cut off, and began to scramble to climb up the South Mountain, but they slid down the steep slope.

Even the soldiers in the back row began to pull down those who were climbing the slope, and when they tried to climb up, they were pulled down again. This happened over and over again, and in the end, almost no one could successfully climb up Nanshan Mountain.

This small slope of Nanshan Mountain, which accommodated more than 10,000 people, soon became an isolated island. The water level was getting higher and higher, and more and more Wei soldiers were soaked in the icy torrent.

Fatigue, tiredness, fear, hypothermia, all these factors combined together, anyone could understand that they were vulnerable.

I don’t know how long it took.

The water level upstream seems to have subsided slightly.

The water level seems to have dropped slightly.

The Han imperial guards, who maintained their formation and slowly advanced eastward, finally arrived at the battlefield.

Under the Jinwu Banner that was constantly moving forward, the Han emperor, whose half leg was soaked in water, drew his sword and pointed it forward, shouting angrily:

"Press it down for me!"

(End of this chapter)