Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 55 What’s in the Bag
Chencang Road Crossing.

Han army camp.

Liu Chan was a little dazed.

I just received news from the scouts that a Wei bandit was running down the mountain from the narrow path of the Wei River. I thought it was a messenger from Wei State, but after capturing him, I found out that it was actually this bearded Wei Xing.

What he didn't expect was that this envoy he entrusted with an important task was not only alive, but after careful calculation, he had entered from Chencang Road, exited from the narrow road of Weishui, and finally returned to Chencang Road, making a complete circle in just ten days!
It's like running in circles, he's simply the modern-day Speedster!
"So, the Prime Minister has already led his troops to Tianshui?" Liu Chan finally thought of something.

"Could it be that Zhang He has been defeated by the Prime Minister and driven down the mountain?!"

We just received news three days ago that the Prime Minister and Wu Yi, Wang Ping, Chen Shi, Zhang Yi and others were still leading a large army but were being blocked by Zhang He at Xiabian.

Wei Yan was only trapped in Qishan.

How come Wang Ping and Wei Yan suddenly had an army of 3,000?
Wei Xing, who was casually captured by Liu Chan as a daredevil and risked his life to deliver Cao Zhen's head to the Prime Minister, was also stunned when he heard this and quickly shook his head to deny it:

"Your Majesty, I was in such a hurry to report the news that I didn't know whether the Prime Minister had defeated Zhang He."

Liu Chan suddenly realized.

I thought I could take advantage of some of Zhang He's defeated army at the Chencang Pass.

"What exactly happened? How did Wei Wenchang and Wang Zijun defeat the Wei invaders?" General Zhao, who personally led his troops to station at Dasan Pass on Chencang Road, also asked.

The bearded man, covered in mud and tattered clothes, explained:

"Your Majesty, Marshal, on the tenth day of the lunar month, the Prime Minister sent General Wang Ping with 5,000 elite troops to Xi County by night, traveling along a mountain road to encircle the Wei invaders who were retreating from Qishan and heading back to Tianshui!
"Then I went to deliver a letter to the Wei envoy on behalf of the Prime Minister. In the early morning of the 12th, not long after I delivered the letter to Qishan Fort, the Wei invaders secretly withdrew their troops before dawn.

"The Wei envoy led his troops directly out of the fort, caught the Wei invaders by surprise, and killed hundreds of them!
"The Wei invaders fought and retreated, leaving behind some food and supplies. The Wei envoy led 4,000 troops and kept chasing them.

"We chased them from sunrise to sunset, and when we reached Xi County, we killed hundreds of them along the way.

"At nightfall, Captain Wang Ping suddenly emerged from the mountain path north of Xi County, leading five thousand of our elite troops to charge forward!
"The Wei envoy led his troops in pursuit, and together with Captain Wang Ping, they surrounded the Wei invaders from the north and south. The invaders collapsed instantly, abandoning their armor and supplies and scattering into the surrounding mountains.

"We captured over 2,000 soldiers, over 4,000 civilians, 3,000 armored heads, over 5,000 pieces of black armor, and over 1,000 horn crossbows!"

"Your Majesty, I also followed Envoy Wei to chase them, and killed twelve of them in total!" The bearded Wei Xing, who seemed a little weak, was cheered up when he said this.

"Okay." Upon hearing this, Liu Chan put aside the huge amount of information that was difficult to digest for the time being, and regardless of the dirt on the man's body, he walked forward to help him up and patted his arm gently.

"As expected of the person I chose, you did not disappoint me."

At this time, Liu Chan still didn't know how Wei Xing had managed to deliver the letter through all the obstacles and defeat all the generals. He only thought that it was a great luck for this guy to successfully deliver Cao Zhen's head to the prime minister.

Not to mention that he completed three missions in a row and beheaded more than a dozen people in just ten days. It can be said that this guy has great luck!
"Why did the Prime Minister resort to such a cunning and risky strategy to send Wang Ping to flee to Xi County at night? And why did the over ten thousand Wei invaders at Qishan suddenly abandon their siege and flee?"

General Zhao suddenly thought of something. It was not like the Prime Minister's style to use a risky strategy. It was also puzzling that the Wei invaders withdrew in the middle of the night.

Wei Xing said excitedly: "Marshal, when I sent Cao Zhen's head to the Prime Minister that day, the Prime Minister showed it to the Wei invaders.

"Then the Prime Minister predicted that the Wei invaders would withdraw a small group of troops to Tianshui overnight to defend it. The 10,000 Wei invaders who surrounded the Wei envoy were supposed to defend Tianshui together with that small group of troops."

Liu Chan didn't react at first, but after a moment he was shocked:
"Since Wei Liangzhou and Captain Wang have defeated the Wei invaders at Qishan, shouldn't the Wei invaders' garrison in Tianshui be depleted of manpower?

"Have Wei Yan and Wang Ping led their troops to attack the city now?"

Wei Xing shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, when I came down the mountain, Envoy Wei and Captain Wang had not yet attacked the city, but they had cut off Tianshui's traffic from the east and west.

"The Wei envoy told me that since Your Majesty has captured the two camps at the entrance of Xiegu Valley, the Wei invaders in Guanzhong, west of Meiwu, have no more troops.

"Then even if Your Majesty doesn't think of sending people to seize Jieting, General Zhao will definitely think of it.

"So the Wei envoy quickly sent people to the east of Tianshui to build a siege to prevent the Tianshui troops and food supplies from aiding Jieting.

"We also sent dozens of scouts wearing Wei army armor to patrol the Jieting area, and they actually managed to capture a messenger from the false emperor!"

"Oh?" Liu Chan was slightly surprised.

He was unfamiliar with the terrain of Longyou and was somewhat bewildered when he heard this. After sorting things out, he suddenly felt incredible: "Did Wei Liangzhou send troops to Jieting?"

"No." Wei Xing shook his head. "The Wei envoy said he believed Your Majesty would handle Jieting. He and Captain Wang Ping were short-handed, so they planned to build a siege to cut off Xu Miao, the pseudo-Wei governor of Liangzhou, from sending aid to Tianshui, and wait for the Prime Minister's army to attack."

"Do you believe that I can handle Jieting well?" Liu Chan didn't know whether Zhao Tong had persuaded the stable Da Qiang Yang Tiao, so he was very worried about whether Jieting could be successfully captured.

After all, Feng Hu, Fu Qian and Guan Xing set out too late, and they only brought 4,000 troops and 20,000 civilians with them.

Since Cao Rui's envoy was captured by Wei Yan near Tianshui, he must have passed the news of Cao Zhen's defeat to Jieting.

Jieting is already prepared. If Zhao Tong cannot successfully persuade the Da Qiang to come to the rescue, then there will be a tough battle to be fought under the city of Jieting.

Liu Chan suddenly came to his senses from Wei Xing's words:
"You just said that Weiliangzhou should wait for the Prime Minister's army to attack Tianshui. Does that mean that Weiliangzhou and Captain Wang's 10,000 troops are not enough to attack?"

Wei Xing nodded:

“Tianshui Ji County is more than three miles long and wide. The Wei envoy said that the only way to cut off the reinforcements from entering the city is to do everything possible.

"Until the camp is firmly established, we must be on guard against the Wei invaders coming out to attack us, so we cannot attack the city."

Zhao Yun stroked his beard for a moment:

"Zhang He's small group of troops retreated to Tianshui, and the main army will inevitably march down to Guanzhong.

"They also don't know that the Prime Minister has already plotted to have Wei Wenchang and the prince defeat the Tianshui garrison. Therefore, the Prime Minister will not lead his army to follow them into Guanzhong, but will go straight to Ji County."

"Why?" Liu Chan asked.

Zhao Yun: "The army has been going up and down for more than forty days. If we delay, something will happen."

"By the way, Your Majesty, General Zhao." Wei Xing thought of something.

"Wei Liangzhou also said that the Wei bandit Zhang He would lead his army back to Guanzhong, whether because he could not receive news from Chang'an or because his food supply was cut off.

"When Zhang He's 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers block the Chencang Road, the Prime Minister and Your Majesty will be at odds. Your Majesty, please proceed with caution and refrain from inviting an attack on Zhang He's returning troops."

Liu Chan was a bit troubled. According to his plan, Zhang He should send a small force to Long, and the main force should return north to join the Wei army at Qishan Fort, and then return to Tianshui safely. However, he did not expect Zhang He to do the opposite.

It seems that he still overestimated the food and grass that Cao Wei transported to Longshan. If the food and grass were not really insufficient to support, he did not think that someone like Zhang He would easily give up Longyou.

After all, there were tens of thousands of troops in Chang'an City. In the eyes of a seasoned and prudent veteran like Zhang He, Cao Rui should be able to escape back to Luoyang safely.

Originally, he thought that he could concentrate his superior forces with the prime minister to fight Zhang He's small group of troops on the Guanzhong Plain, and then march to Longyou.

As for Wei Yan's advice to him not to attack Zhang He at Dasan Pass, Liu Chan had no doubt about it.

He still understood the principle of not stopping the returning teacher.

Not only is the returning army unstoppable, the plank road in the Xia Valley has still not been repaired, and no more than a thousand soldiers emerge from the valley every day.

At Dasan Pass at the entrance of Chencang Road, there were only more than 3,000 garrison soldiers responsible for farming. How could they stop Zhang He from returning?

The reason why we are deploying troops and setting up checkpoints at Dasan Pass with such fanfare is just to cut off the scouts and to confuse Zhang He.

Zhang He didn't know how many troops he had left in Guanzhong, nor did he know whether Cao Rui was surrounded in Chang'an. If the army really went down to Long, he would fight his way out of the encirclement even at the cost of his life.

This kind of veteran general has many trusted elite soldiers around him who are willing to fight to the death. He is really trapped in the dead end of Dasan Pass with no way out. With his determination to die, his fighting power is terrifying.

Do I really want to use these 3,000 garrison soldiers to fight against his elite troops who are determined to die?
There are still nearly 10,000 troops in the valley and it is difficult for them to leave.

Guan Xing took away a thousand Tiger Guards, and Feng Hu and Fu Qian took away nearly three thousand elite troops from their own unit.

Guan Xing's Tiger Guards are still okay, but the more than 2,000 people under Feng Fu's command are said to be elite, but in reality they have fought so many battles in a row and are exhausted, without any rest. If they don't have a good rest for ten days or half a month, it is hard to say whether they can still maintain their fighting spirit.

On the other side, Zong Yu and Deng Zhi, with two thousand personal soldiers and two thousand Yuanrong crossbowmen from Zhao Yun's headquarters, guarded several newly built wooden bridges over the Wei River and watched Meiwu from afar to prevent the Meiwu troops from heading towards Chencang or Xiegu.

There were only Dong Yun leading more than 2,000 Tiger Guards and 3,000 civilians in the two camps in Xiegu. At this moment, they were transporting food and supplies from the two camps to Wuzhangyuan to set up a camp.

There was no other way. If the two camps in Xiegu were not defended by the Huben, it would be very easy for something to go wrong if a hundred or so people came out of Meiwu to launch a night attack.

Therefore, the old general Zhao Yun had to be in charge of Sanguan at the Chencang Pass.

Although there were only 3,000 garrison soldiers, with Zhao Yun as the backbone, everything was in order for a while.

After Liu Chan left Xiegu and came here, he was not afraid of being attacked. There were only three wooden bridges in Chencang between here and Meiwu. He and the Tiger Cavalry could gallop eastward and directly return to the big camp on Wuzhangyuan.

Next, the Han Dynasty had to rely on Wuzhangyuan to hold out against the Wei invaders.

If Zhang He really didn't go to Chang'an, but instead deployed his troops at the foot of Wuzhangyuan, then I, the emperor, would probably have to retreat and return to Xiegu temporarily.

After all, this time even the Xiegu plank road is gone.

If he were to be defeated, he, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, would probably be captured by Zhang He.

Before, when he was in Xiegu, he was barefoot and not afraid of wearing shoes. He thought that death was death, and if he couldn't win, life would be worse than death.

But now the hope of capturing Longyou was within reach, and he, who was barefoot and about to put on his shoes, suddenly felt a little hesitant to take risks easily.

It’s better to be stable.

The scene of Zhao Yun, Guan Xing and others chasing Cao Rui on horseback like crazy and risking their lives is still vivid in my mind.

Let Wei Xing go down to rest, and Liu Chan and Zhao Yun returned to Dasan Pass at the entrance of Chencang Road.

Because he had been busy fighting and recruiting soldiers for more than 20 days, Liu Chan had no time to deal with military affairs and defense.

It's a rare opportunity to have some free time nowadays. Although military affairs and defense are complicated and boring, I probably don't have to deal with these things.

But Liu Chan still asked General Zhao to guide him to learn from the most basic, most easily overlooked, but most important things.

Zhao Yun was visibly excited, praising His Majesty for truly emulating the late emperor's style! Liu Chan was so flattered by his praise that he felt almost overwhelmed.

Who can handle such sincere and generous praise in person? This is positive feedback!

So we started with the food and fodder allocation plan to ensure that each battalion had at least ten days' supply of food.

Then they inspected the troops in the parade grounds, checked the completeness of the equipment of the three divisions, checked whether there were any defects, and whether the weapons, armor, bowstrings and arrows were properly cared for and maintained.

While supervising the formation drill in the afternoon, Liu Chan also memorized the flag and drum commands for the transformation of the square formation into the crane wing formation.

The next step was to check the registration of wounded soldiers and inspect the repair status of deer huts, trenches and earth walls. Liu Chan also took the opportunity to remember that each laborer could complete two to three cubic meters of earth every day.

In the evening, he followed Zhao Yun to deploy the torch lighting plan, learning which key sentry towers needed to be kept lit all night, and where to deploy secret sentries in this special terrain.

After just half a day, Liu Chan felt a little overwhelmed and forgot a lot of things. Fortunately, there was a note-taker with him who was taking notes, so he could review them when he returned home in the evening.

Finally, they returned to the big tent to deal with the documents. After Zhao Yun finished working on them, Liu Chan took them and looked at Zhao Yun's comments, wondering why they were like that.

Although it is not wartime, Zhao Yun, the commander-in-chief, still has to deal with about thirty documents and make more than fifty decisions today.

Liu Chan was completely confused by many of the decisions and actions. He then realized that the saying that being able to take three to five thousand people out for a stroll and come back safely was considered a qualified general was not an exaggeration.

Reflecting on his previous strategies to defeat the enemy, at best he was just a staff opinion. Without capable people like Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi to judge the feasibility and organize reliable personnel to implement it, problems might arise at any stage.

But who taught him that he was the emperor?

Not to mention coming up with strategies to defeat the enemy, even if he just sat in the center of the army without saying a word, the greatest credit would still belong to him!

When they were having dinner in the evening, suddenly several scouts crossed the Chencang Wei Bridge and headed straight for Zhao Yun's central army tent with a talisman.

"Your Majesty, General Zhao, Jieting has been captured!"

Liu Chan, with a seemingly calm face, took the battle report and tried hard to suppress the restlessness in his heart.

The troops arrived at Tianshui in the morning!

Jieting has been conquered at night?!
In this way, wouldn't Longyou be in our pocket?!
(End of this chapter)