Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 54: The First Three Thousand (Please Order First!)
In fact, Yang Tiao has been very nervous.

Although he and Zhao Tong jointly sent 400 light cavalry to block the mountain road between the Longdi Avenue and the main trail west of Jieting, they stopped and killed the messengers from Tianshui and Jieting.

However, the hills on both sides of the Longdi Road were too flat, allowing horses to gallop everywhere, making it impossible to completely isolate the traffic.

If dozens of riders came from the direction of Tianshui and fled along the hills to the city of Jieting, or if the messenger who went out from Jieting to deliver a letter and explore the way fled back to Jieting, or if the real Wudu White Horse Qiang King Yang Qianwan really led hundreds of elite riders to rescue Jieting.

Then the possibility of these more than a thousand Qiang warriors tricking their way into Jieting would instantly disappear.

However, for some unknown reason, the hundreds of elite cavalry and over a thousand Qiang warriors he deployed west of Jieting had never even seen a envoy from Tianshui.

He even began to suspect that the angel from Wei had accidentally fallen off his horse and died, while the Wei generals Zhang He and Guo Huai had never expected that Jieting might be lost.

Otherwise, why is there no movement in the direction of Tianshui?
Or perhaps, something unexpected happened in Tianshui, leaving the Tianshui defenders with no time to send envoys to support Jieting?
If this is true, what kind of drastic changes could there be?
The Prime Minister’s army suddenly arrives?

Tianshui County rebelled again?

But no matter what, he successfully entered Jieting with more than a thousand soldiers.

At first he thought that Zhang He's son would probably mix his Qiang Yong with the Wei soldiers before he led them to the city in order to gain control over them.

Actually no.

At first, he thought that Zhang He's son would probably let his Qiang Yong go to guard other city walls, and then detain him alone for various reasons to cut off his contact with his Qiang Yong.

Not actually.

This really made him a little dazed. He didn't know whether it was because these Wei people were not vigilant enough, or because his acting skills and those of Zhao Tong were too good, or because his self-torture plan was too real, and the plan of the Han emperor was too flawless.

Looking at the skin and flesh on his left arm that had been rolled up and still unbandaged, the Qiang chief who had been standing on the city wall and waiting for the Han army to appear began to look forward to meeting the Han emperor who had entrusted him with such an important matter.

But I was also afraid.

During the hundred years of Qiang rebellion, have you ever heard of the Han emperor receiving a meeting with the Qiang chieftain?

"King Qiang, they are coming." Zhang He's son looked a little confused.

At the end of the sight more than ten miles to the east, a black line slowly appeared, filling the Long Road and extending towards the Jieting City.

How can I not be confused?

Although he was the son of a famous general, he was the new son born to that general after he surrendered on the battlefield and was given a new wife by Emperor Taizu of Wei.

Now in his early twenties, he has been a hostage in Yecheng and Luoyang. This is his first time to join an expedition. Because the right general only appoints people based on their merits, he has no choice but to supervise military supplies and enforce the law in the rear. He never expected that in the end he would end up defending an isolated city with a group of greedy and violent Qiang people.

Caution can be innate, and the famous general who quickly stabilized the morale of the army after knowing the defeat in Guanzhong can also pretend to be magnanimous. At this moment, he can organize the Qiang and Wei soldiers to distribute defense and boost morale and remain calm in the face of danger.

But now that the two armies are about to face off in offense and defense, inexperience is inexperience.

And at this moment, how could he not understand that Tianshui must have undergone tremendous changes.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for the angel to have been gone for three days without receiving any news. At this time, it is normal and necessary to run a few horses to death.

So when the Qiang King led the Qiang warriors into the city, he felt a little scared.

If his excessive caution caused the last reinforcements invited by Envoy Guo to abandon Jieting and leave, he would be an eternal sinner of the Wei Dynasty, and even death would not be enough to atone for his sins.

Because more than a thousand Qiang warriors were guarding the city wall together, the originally slightly stretched defense force was just enough to cover the city wall and there was also a reserve.

There were six hundred guards in each of the four directions: east, west, south and north.

There are 800 open spaces in the city as reserves.

Each archer was equipped with two hundred arrows.

A large shield made of wood or iron, used by soldiers on the battlements to defend against enemy arrows.

The civilians and auxiliary soldiers were waiting at the foot of the wall ladder, where a large number of battering rams and rolling logs had been piled up in advance.

When the front Han army was only two or three miles away from Jieting City, they finally stopped, began to raise flags, and set up camp.

In the city, hundreds of jars of boiling water, hot oil, and "golden juice" emitting a foul smell began to bubble up.

An hour passed and the sun set.

In the open space east of Jieting City, there seemed to be more than two thousand Han soldiers waiting in armor.

Behind them, the laborers and assistants were still doing earthwork, digging trenches and setting up camps.

"It seems that we can't fight today." The Qiang King was quite bored.

Yang Tiao, Zhang Xiong, and the captain were all standing on the east city wall. Probably out of mutual trust, none of them carried any weapons with them.

Each of them led a few personal guards to protect him.

"Although I've never defended a city before, I imagine they must be exhausted after their long journey. Why not take this opportunity to attack them from outside the city?"

"King Qiang doesn't know that we have too few defenders in Jieting City." Captain Li was helpless.

"If we want to attack from outside the city, we must set up a camp near the city gate in advance to block our view, and set up multiple gates so that we can quickly send out troops and not give the Shu invaders time to react.

“But if we want to set up a camp and defend it in advance, how can we withstand the enemy’s attack if we don’t have more than a thousand soldiers?
"The enemy has one to two thousand soldiers on guard in front, so this is not the right time to attack the camp.

“Besides, our defenders are already stretched thin. If we send one or two thousand to charge forward, who will defend the city?
"And if we send too few, wouldn't that be like sending a sheep into a tiger's mouth?"

If there are enough troops, it is easy to achieve some results by setting up a camp at the foot of the city in advance and harassing the enemy when they have traveled a long distance and have not yet established a firm foothold.

But now Jieting’s mission is to retain strength as much as possible and hold on until help comes.

"Then we can only wait for them to attack?" Yang Tiao asked.

Captain Li sighed helplessly, "Now we can only hope that they don't have time to build a camp and siege the city, and that the Right General will send reinforcements from Tianshui. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to hold our ground."

The Qiang King seemed to be puzzled: "How do you build a camp and besiege a city? Should you just surround the city on all sides?"

Captain Li thought to himself that this Qiang had no military knowledge at all, but his expression was enthusiastic:
"If the Shu invaders want to besiege the city, how can simply surrounding it from all four sides be enough?

"We need more than ten or even dozens of camps to form a multi-layered encirclement. The outermost camp may be more than ten miles away from our Jieting City to prevent Tianshui from coming to help.

"But the King of Qiang need not be afraid of him. He has over a thousand brave Qiang soldiers defending Jieting together. Jieting is also well prepared. Holding it for two months will not be a problem!
"Back then, Lai She had only two thousand men who held off an army of forty to fifty thousand for more than half a year!"

Before the Qiang King arrived, Captain Li thought he was not coming to She and wanted to retreat.

The Qiang King won a great victory last night and captured many armors of the Shu invaders. He came to defend the city together, and the morale of the people in the city was boosted. Captain Li began to wonder why he could not come to She?
The Qiang King then asked, "Since the Han... and Shu bandits are here to besiege the city, why are they only camping on the east side, near the mountains?"

"They have come from afar, so naturally they have to concentrate their strength to set up one camp first, and then calmly set up another camp. Unless they have an army of 50,000 to 60,000 plus 40,000 to 50,000 auxiliary soldiers, how dare they lay siege to the city in one day?" Captain Li was speechless. It turned out that the Qiang people had never fought any big battles.

Zhang Xiong suddenly realized something: "Captain Li, it seems to me that the camp set up by the Shu invaders behind them is a little disorganized."

Captain Li was stunned when he heard this.

He turned his head and looked carefully again, and after a few breaths he looked around, and was shocked to find that the camps set up by the Shu army under the city, except for the twenty or thirty camps closest to Jieting, the camps farther away were indeed a bit messy, and did not look like the work of an elite force.

"Are they trying to lure us out of the city to attack them, knowing we have few soldiers inside?" Captain Li was a little unsure. "Or are these Shu invaders just bluffing, and are actually mostly auxiliary soldiers and civilians?"

outside the city.

Four captains, Feng Hu, Fu Qian, Guan Xing and Zhao Tong, gathered in front of the Han army camp and looked towards the street pavilion that was supposed to be guarded by Ma Su.

Zhao Tong saw from afar the unusually tall Qiang King Yang Tiao standing on the city wall.

The scene of the man stabbing himself last night as a self-torture trick is still vivid in my mind: "I never thought that the Qiang chief would actually bring the Qiang warriors into the city."

Before arriving here, Zhao Tong really didn't know whether Yang Tiao had entered the city. After all, after entering the city, Yang Tiao would not be able to pass on the message.

Feng Hu asked, "What should we do now? Have we made an agreement with the Qiang chief on when to start the rebellion in the city?" "The Qiang chief said that we will attack at night in the early morning, open the city gates from inside, use ox horns as a signal, and cooperate with us from inside and outside." Zhao Tong suddenly frowned as he spoke.

"But now I'm starting to worry that if things get too complicated, there might be more trouble."

"The night is long and dreams are many?" Feng Hu was stunned.

With so many Qiang people, they even managed to overcome the most incredible challenge of being tricked into the city. How could they still have more troubles?

Zhao Tong was worried: "Brother Shanju, today is the first day that the Qiang chieftains have entered the city. The Wei rebels may not be so cautious against them.

"What if the Wei rebels in the city have already dispersed all the Qiang warriors under the Qiang chieftain and mixed them in with the Wei invaders?

"And what if one of the Qiang chief's men is seduced by Wei Ni and reveals the Qiang chief's plan?

"If that's the case, Wei Ni only needs to poison the water and I'm afraid he can kill the Qiang chieftain Qiang Yong in the city."

Although Yang Tiao had already entered the city, Zhao Tong was a little frightened.

The closer you are to success, the more you dare not relax and cannot relax.

Guan Xing simply shook his head: "If you employ someone, trust him; if you doubt him, don't employ him. Since Wei Ni dared to let the Qiang chieftain into the city and sent so many Qiang warriors to guard the city walls, he must no longer be suspicious of him.

"Otherwise, if more than a thousand armored Qiang warriors rebel in the city, can Wei rebels dare to say that they have a 50% chance of defending the Jieting city gate?
"He must have seen that there were no more reinforcements from Tianshui, and that the Qiang chieftain was seriously injured last night when he attacked us for the iron armor, so he really thought that you and the Qiang chieftain were the reinforcements invited by Guo Huai.

"As for what you said, Hunyi, about the fear that the Qiang warriors might be lured by the Wei rebels and that the Qiang King might be killed in the city, I think there's no need to dwell on it.

"Chief Yang Qiang was able to think of catching you off guard outside the city and then escape calmly with a whip. He also thought of cutting off his own arm as a self-torture tactic.

“Such a resourceful and courageous person is rare even among our Han army. Those Wei rebels who were deceived by the Qiang chief’s appearance and thought that he was greedy, violent and foolish are probably the real fools.

"Last night, when the Qiang warriors feinted into battle with our army, their advances and retreats were orderly, and there was no chaos as we imagined.

"I believe this group of Qiang warriors must be the Qiang chief's trusted confidants. Even if there are one or two people with ulterior motives, they should be restrained by other Qiang chief's confidants, so that they dare not act rashly.

"Besides, the Wei rebels have been defeated in Guanzhong, Cao Zhen has been killed in Xiegu, and the military might of the Han Dynasty is so great that Jieting is inevitable.

"The Qiang are human beings too. Why would they join the rebels and rebel when they are sure to be defeated? And how can they trust that the Wei rebels won't kill them?"

Zhao Tong pondered for a long time, and finally felt relieved: "An Guo is absolutely right. I was overthinking it. Then let's wait for news from the Qiang chief!"

Everyone watched in silence for a moment. Fu Qian looked back at the Han army camp and said:

"Our camp is so messy, I wonder if Wei Ni will figure out that our army is made up of civilians in disguise and attack our camp."

Since they need to cooperate with the outside forces, the camp cannot be set up too far away, but this army is indeed mostly composed of civilians.

There were not enough soldiers to organize the setting up of camp, so the civilians naturally could not make sure that the camp was set up in accordance with the rules.

But everyone was thinking that if Wei Ni really dared to leave the city and attack at night, that would be the perfect opportunity to take him down.

The 4,000 Han troops that came here were all elite troops under Huben, Fu Qian and Feng Hu. They had only been preparing for one or two nights, so how could there be chaos?

into the night.

Full moon.

midnight.

The moon sets.

The Wei army showed no signs of leaving the city.

Inside the city.

Zhang He's son simply stayed on the east city wall all night to prevent the Shu bandits stationed in the east from climbing over the city walls at night.

Captain Li was in the west of the city, and the two military commanders were one in the south and one in the north.

Each of them led twenty elite soldiers who had been drinking mutton and beef liver porridge for several days in a row, and took turns to guard the night.

There are not many cattle and sheep raised in Jieting. The cattle and sheep livers, which are prepared by air-drying, pickling, and charcoal grilling, are strategic materials. In order to maintain long-term night guard, they need to be used sparingly.

Beef, mutton, and cow's milk, which seem to be more valuable, actually have no effect on curing night blindness.

The Qiang people are not participating in the night watch tonight.

The truth is that Zhang Xiong, Li Duwei and others were afraid that these Qiang people, who were always greedy, violent and careless, would neglect their duties. If they fell asleep on the city wall, they would not know when the Shu invaders came.

Outside the city, many torches were set up behind the antler trench to illuminate the enemy at night.

Inside the city, the four main roads and the four gates were also kept lit so that any abnormalities in the city could be detected at any time.

In the dim light of the fire, you can vaguely see many tents located in the open space and among the houses and alleys.

This is a rare sight that Zhang Xiong and other people from the Central Plains have never seen. The Qiang people said that they were not used to living in wooden houses and insisted on sleeping in tents in the city.

"Woo——"

Suddenly, a long horn sounded suddenly in the west!

Zhang Xiong and others were shocked when they heard the sound, and subconsciously wanted to run to the west but couldn't.

Because it was very likely that the Shu bandits were making a feint to the east and attacking in the west, he could only be extremely alert and look towards the Shu stronghold in the east of the city to see if there were any Shu bandits attacking from the east and then wait for the personal followers in the west of the city to report.

The night drums of the Wei army soon sounded in the city.

However, before the Wei army could light torches in the city, they saw that nearly a hundred tents near the west gate of the city, a mile away, were almost instantly ablaze, and the fire quickly spread to the wooden houses nearby.

There was a raging fire and billowing smoke, and the soldiers on the western section of the city wall were fighting each other so fiercely that it was impossible to tell who was who!
The sound of horns continued to ring out, and it seemed to have a special frequency, like the beat of a drum commanding the army.

But in just a moment, the west gate of the city was completely opened!

After a while, countless soldiers filed into the city from outside.

Seeing this situation, Zhang He's son was so disheartened that he was on the verge of collapse. How could he not understand that he had finally concluded that it must be the Qiang people, whom Envoy Guo had sent as reinforcements and whom he trusted, who were causing the rebellion?

On the western section of the city wall, with the surrender of Li Duwei in the west of the city, the defenders of Jieting City, who were attacked from both inside and outside and by fire at night, were so panicked that they had no time to put on armor and wield swords, and almost surrendered at the first sight of the enemy.

Only a few people opened the north and south gates and escaped from the city, but they were caught up and killed by the Han and Qiang cavalry outside the city.

early morning.

The Qiang King threw the head of Captain Li in front of Zhang He's son who was tied to the ground.

The Han army began to change defense.

The prisoners were escorted down the mountain.

March sixteenth.

An angel suddenly appeared in Chencang.

When Liu Chan saw Wei Xing, he was stunned.

This guy is really not dead?
He actually went down Longshan Mountain from the Weishui River?!
"Your Majesty, the Wei envoy and Captain Wang Ping surrounded Xi County from the front and back, defeating over ten thousand Wei invaders!

"We have captured three thousand armored heads and five thousand black armored soldiers, and are besieging Ji County in Tianshui!"

what?
Liu Chan was stunned again.

No, how come Wei Yan and Wang Ping had already killed 3,000 soldiers before any news came back from Jieting?!
(End of this chapter)