Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 58 Fire
Wudu.

Just after noon.

Zhang He's army of 50,000, plus civilian laborers and auxiliary soldiers, totaling more than 80,000 people, were divided into three parts: front, middle and rear, and they successively broke camp.

The process of breaking camp was long.

Starting from March 11, which was the second day after Guo Huai led 5,000 people to Tianshui through the mountain road at night, the front 20,000 armored soldiers and 8,000 civilian laborers began to leave first.

By March 13, the baggage camp in the central region, which was mainly composed of 20,000 auxiliary soldiers and civilians, had completed its evacuation, and 10,000 combat soldiers were responsible for maintaining order.

It was not until March 15th that Zhang He, who led 10,000 elite soldiers and 10,000 young and strong soldiers, plus 8,000 civilian laborers and auxiliary soldiers to transport supplies, finally broke camp.

It took two days, and on March 17th, Zhang He finally led 20,000 elite soldiers to retreat 60 miles eastward and arrived at Xiabian, the capital of Wudu County.

The fifty-year-old Wudu prefect Wei Dan led his officials out of the city to greet them. He almost burst into tears on the spot and said frankly that he almost thought he could not return to Luoyang.

He came from a prominent family in Jingzhao and was the son of Wei Duan, the former Grand Coachman of the Great Wei Dynasty. He studied under the cursive master Zhang Zhi and was proficient in various types of calligraphy, including official script, regular script, flying white, and small script.

The "Wei Dan Ink" he made is known as one of the "Three Wonders" along with "Zhang Zhi Brush" and "Zuo Bo Paper".

The inscriptions on the plaques and inscriptions on the sacrificial vessels in the palaces of the Wei Dynasty were all written by him in the past few years. He was only transferred to Wudu to take up a post last year, as it seemed that Cao Rui wanted to increase his qualifications.

However, since the population of Wudu County, where he was in charge, had been moved out by Emperor Taizu of Wei ten years ago, the population under his jurisdiction was only a few thousand. Moreover, the city was more than 60 miles away from the waterway of the Western Han Dynasty.
Therefore, two months ago, the Han army only symbolically arranged a few hundred people to monitor Xiabian's movements and did not waste time attacking the city.

"The Right General's army is going to Guanzhong? The Shu bandits are chasing us? I wonder if I can go back to Guanzhong with the Right General? Your Majesty will not punish me, will you?" Wei Dan was very panicked and asked several questions in succession.

According to the laws of the Wei Dynasty, anyone who leaves the seat of government without permission will be executed. The current emperor is very strict in enforcing the law, so when the three counties of Tianshui, Nangan and Anding all rebelled, he did not rebel because he really did not want to break the law.

Even if he manages to escape punishment, he will have ruined his family's reputation and his own decades of fame. He will be socially dead, which is worse than death!

But you said he is not afraid of death, how is that possible?

When Cao Pi became emperor, he built a 30-meter-high Lingyun Tower and ordered him to write a plaque for it.

After the plaque was hung up, Emperor Wen found that there was something wrong with the writing, so he ordered people to bring the great calligrapher to where the plaque was and told him to correct the spot.

He was scared to death after he finished ordering. He went home and warned his children and grandchildren not to practice calligraphy in large characters anymore, as it was really too scary.

In the two months since the Han army launched the Northern Expedition, he, who valued his life very much, was in a state of panic, fearing that the Han army would suddenly come to seize the city one day. He wanted to run away but dared not.

It was not until more than ten days ago when Yongzhou Governor Guo Huai suddenly led his army into Wudu from Chencang Road that he felt that he was alive!
But no one expected that Zhang He's army retreated again a few days ago!
According to people I know, the Han army is chasing us closely behind!
Poor him, he is fifty years old and has not been able to sleep these days. He feels that if he does not follow them, he will either die in Wudu for his country, or be captured by the Shu bandits and his reputation will be ruined.

I wanted to wait for the governor Guo Huai to withdraw his troops, and then ask him whether he could leave, but I never waited!

He was completely desperate, but when he saw the banner of Right General Zhang He today, he finally mustered up the courage to come down and ask, hoping that this Right General, whom he had met several times in Luoyang, would take him back to Guanzhong.

"How much food and grass is there in the city?" Zhang He did not answer the man's question, but asked instead.

Wei Dan said calmly, "Right General, we originally had 1,000 dan of grain, but some time ago, General Guo led his troops here from Chencang Road and said they had no food.

"I decided to give all the food in the city to Envoy Guo, leaving only 100 dan, enough for me and the county officials to eat for half a month. But now there is almost no food.

"Otherwise, why would I, a humble official, ask the Right General if I can leave the administrative center? That's a capital offense!"

The seventy-year-old veteran Zhang He frowned for a moment when he looked at the fifty-year-old boy.

Turning my head to look down at Biancheng, it seemed not much different from what I saw ten years ago.

It just looked like it hadn't been repaired for three or four years. The city walls were full of cracks, and several sections of the wall had collapsed and had not been repaired, visible to the naked eye. Even the moat was only one foot deep and almost dry.

"The Shu invaders have been raiding the north for two months. Why hasn't Lord Wei repaired the city walls or even dredged the moat?"

The Lord of Wudu Wei looked helpless:
"Right General, you may not know that as soon as the Shu invaders invaded from the north, almost all of the few people left in the city fled outside.

"There's only me and two hundred or so servants, county soldiers, and county officials left. Where will we find the manpower to repair the city and dredge the river?"

"What about before the Shu invaders arrived? As the county commander, why didn't Lord Wei organize people to do it?"

Wei Dan looked ashamed, as if he had nothing to say. After a moment, he struggled and said:

"I have only been here for a year, and the previous governor, Du, was in office for three years, and he never repaired or dredged the river."

Upon hearing this, Zhang He frowned immediately.

Wei Dan knew what the Right General was thinking. He sighed and shook his head repeatedly:

"Right General, ever since Emperor Taizu relocated over 50,000 Qiang people from Wudu, Xiabian has been practically a deserted city.

"Since the death of Liu Bei, the Shu invaders have not invaded for several years, and only now have some people returned to live here, but there are less than two or three thousand people in total, which can only be considered a small sign of life.

“There are only about 2,000 registered civilians outside the city, and even if we send them to do corvée labor to build roads, it wouldn’t be enough to cover the cost.

"It's not that I don't want to repair the city, but everyone says it keeps getting worse every year. We repair it every year, but it keeps getting worse. Since the Shu invaders are no longer invading, repairs are useless. It won't be too late to repair it in two or three years. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste of effort?"

When Zhang He heard this, he was speechless for a moment.

Taizu feared that the Qiang people would join forces with the Shu invaders and cause rebellion, so he relocated over 50,000 tribes of Qiang people living in tents to Tianshui and Guanzhong to cultivate land. However, several thousand local Han people remained. This led to the situation where only a few thousand people had one prefect, a common practice in Liang Province. The registered populations of Beidi and Jiuquan counties were only 7,000 to 8,000.

After walking around the city of Xiabian, Zhang He began to assess how many people and food he needed to leave behind to defend the city, who he should send to defend it, how long he could hold out, and whether he could delay Zhuge Liang's pursuit.

Ever since the army broke camp, Zhuge Liang's tens of thousands of troops have been chasing him closely.

The 20,000 rearguard soldiers he led had fought more than 30 battles of varying sizes with the pursuing Shu army and were exhausted.

It was not until noon today that the Shu army finally stopped, but more than a thousand of the troops he led in the rear were seriously injured and killed. Of course, the Shu invaders were not necessarily much better than him.

Last night, a small group of elite Shu soldiers, numbering about four to five hundred, took advantage of the moonlight and walked along the mountain road to the center of his troops, intending to attack his baggage and food supplies and drive out the civilians from the camp.

Fortunately, he had been prepared and issued a strict order that anyone who left the tent without permission at night would be killed. He also selected four or five hundred elite soldiers with night vision from the entire army, and had them eat cattle and sheep livers to guard the night. He discovered the small group of Shu bandits early on and relied on the defense system of the camp to drive them away, preventing the Shu bandits from succeeding.

This also made him feel relieved.

Since the elite soldiers of Shu who could participate in the night attack were in the rear, they would not have time to attack the central baggage camp which was mainly composed of civilians, auxiliary soldiers and food supplies.

They were already forty or fifty miles away from here and were almost entering Chencang Road.

Moreover, today is the seventeenth day, and the moonlight is getting dimmer and dimmer, making it no longer easy to launch a night attack.

In two days, when all his rear troops have walked out of this hilly area and entered the Chencang Road, which is surrounded by high mountains and steep hills, they will be completely safe.

"It's better for you, my lord, not to go down the mountain. Since we have already defended it for two months, why not defend it for another one or two months?" Zhang He felt that this city was worth defending.

"Zhuge Liang has been pursuing my army these past few days simply because he didn't know I had already sent Guo Huai, You Chu, and Fei Yao to lead 15,000 soldiers back to Tianshui to defend it.

"But judging by the time, the news will probably reach him from Wei Yan in Qishan Fort in the next two days.

"Perhaps the reason he stopped the pursuit at noon today was because he had just received news and was preparing to lead his troops to Tianshui to capture the city?"

The great calligrapher was in a daze. "Envoy Guo has returned to Tianshui? Fifteen thousand soldiers? Does that mean Zhuge Liang is going to attack Tianshui again?"

I thought Zhuge Liang came to remove Bian!
Guo Huai had told him before that when defending Shanggui, there were only six or seven thousand soldiers, and Zhuge Liang's army could not capture it for more than a month.

Now there are 15,000 soldiers guarding Tianshui, isn’t that more than enough?

Zhang He nodded and said, "For the time being, I will allocate a thousand dan of grain to Lord Wei and send a captain with five hundred soldiers to garrison with Lord Guo. In two months, the Shu invaders will retreat on their own."

The army now has a total of 40,000 dan of grain. If we eat it sparingly, it will be enough for 20 days, which is enough to last until he captures Guanzhong.

Zhuge Liang will undoubtedly go to Tianshui now. It is unlikely that he will attack Xiabian City. He will send 500 people to guard it, and repair the lower city wall and dredge the lower moat along the way.

After a month or two, the city was repaired and looked presentable.

When he returns to Longyou, these 500 people might be used as a surprise force.

The great calligrapher's face became more and more joyful: "Then I would like to thank the Right General!"

Although there is not much more food than before, there are at least 500 more people to help defend the city!

"Is the Right General planning to fight back after leaving Longshan?" the man asked again.

Zhang He shook his head and said, "If they come down from Longshan and fight back, why should our army go down the mountain again?

"The Shu invaders are blocking the Sanguan Pass. My scouts are unable to determine how many troops they have in Guanzhong. We must first go to Longyou and communicate with Chang'an before making any decisions.

"Okay, time is running out, and the longer the night, the more dreams there are. I won't chat with you any more."

Zhang He said goodbye to Wei Dan, selected a military commander and five hundred armored soldiers, left a thousand dan of grain, and ordered them to repair the city. Then he reined in his horse and continued to move forward with the army.

On the way, he called several personal guards and asked them to ride horses to the front to deliver a message, asking the central baggage camp to remain vigilant before entering Chencang Road, and to add two hundred more elite soldiers to guard the night, so as not to let the Shu bandits succeed in their night attack at the last moment.

In the evening, the army marched to the border of Hechi County.

As expected, Zhuge Liang's army did not pursue eastward, but chose to retreat westward.

Zhang He calmed down and set up camp.

into the night.

The moon rises.

The moon sets.

early morning.

Zhang He had just fallen asleep when a man who was in charge of night watch on the mountain suddenly ran in with a panicked look on his face.

"Why are you so scared?" Zhang He frowned.

"Right General, there seems to be a huge fire in the eastern sky!"

(End of this chapter)