Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 62 Checkmate
When the commander-in-chief abandons his troops and flees, it basically means the end of the war.

Cheng Gongbao, a captain born in Jincheng and inheriting his father's title of marquis, had no complaints about this.

The situation is too clear.

Ever since nearly two thousand elite armored spearmen suddenly appeared in the south, their Hexi troops, including their commander Zhang He and dozens of elite cavalry, have actually been surrounded.

To the south are spearmen, and there is absolutely no way to break through.

There is a river to the west, and if you rein in your horse and step into the water, you will become a sitting duck for crossbowmen.

To the north... The Shu invaders will definitely come out of the river valley to set an ambush, so how to go north?
Only westward.

At this moment, when they reached the top of the hill, they saw that the right general and dozens of elite cavalry guards had already left in a cloud of dust. The captain who was already surrounded finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Your leader has fled, and you rebels, why don't you surrender? When will you do that?!" Cuan Xi began to persuade the forty or fifty Wei soldiers who were running up the hillside to surrender.

However, since they abandoned their formation and rushed up this slope without hesitation, their original intention was to support their commander in escaping to the west. How could they surrender because of a single word from the enemy general?

"You rats wouldn't dare to attack the Great Wei with a full-scale battle array, and you only devise such conspiracies and tricks!

"How can I, Cheng Gongbao, surrender to you and tarnish my father's reputation for loyalty and righteousness?"

After saying this, the captain, who had no outstanding military achievements, led the last forty or fifty Wei soldiers and rushed forward, intending to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the hundreds of Wudang flying soldiers led by Cuan Xi.

But the overall situation was already decided, and dozens of soldiers were ultimately unable to make any waves.

The Wudang flying army, with nearly half of the crossbow arrows still in the box, were kited less than a hundred steps away and all fell dead, and then beheaded.

"Bo Yue, are you seriously injured?" Cuan Xi was shocked by Jiang Wei's desperate desire for merit and not his own life.

After dealing with the Wei soldiers on the hillside, he came to Jiang Wei who was slumped on the ground.

The South has always valued heroes, and the performance of this young general from Tianshui has apparently won the recognition of the Wudang Flying Army and those who have been influenced by the habits of the southern barbarians.

"It's alright, General Cuan, don't worry about me.

"Please help the Wu army intercept the Wei invaders and don't let them escape."

Jiang Wei clenched his teeth and sweat broke out on his forehead.

After a while, Cuan Xi took the scissors from the personal guard and cut off the tail of the arrow on Jiang Wei's body.

Fortunately, this place was still about seventy or eighty steps away from the valley, and the other short arrows used with horse bows did not penetrate deeply into the flesh and failed to hit the vital parts of the young Tianshui general.

Only one armor-piercing arrow passed through his collarbone and shoulder. If it had been an inch to the left, Zhang He would have taken his life.

Cuan Xi was moved for a moment, thinking that maybe it was the east wind that saved him.

After Cuan Xi led his men down the mountain, his good friend Yin Shang came to Jiang Wei. He was frightened when he saw the sharp arrow that pierced through Jiang Wei's back from the bone.

"Boyue, Boyue, we are too reckless!"

Jiang Wei ignored Yin Shang's nonsense and stared blankly to the west.

It seemed as if he was trying to find the shadow of Zhang He's flag, but the meadows there were scattered and undulating, and he could not see anything.

Yin Shang also followed Jiang Wei's gaze westward, a look of regret on his face. "Did Bo Yue really shoot the bandit leader Zhang He?"

Jiang Wei frowned as if recalling something, then shook his head after a moment:

“Not necessarily. This place is still dozens of steps away from the bottom of the mountain. The light in the valley is dim and it’s hard to see clearly.

"But... although I can't guarantee that I can hit the man's head with one arrow, it's not difficult to hit the horse under his crotch.

"I stood still and aimed at the horse's belly, but the horse galloped away unharmed, showing no unusual behavior. I thought... I probably shot the man in the leg or foot."

Yin Shang was excited when he heard this: "That's great! This way, your arrow won't be in vain! Since the arrow is coated with poison, I'm afraid the bandit commander will be off his horse in a quarter of an hour or two!"

Before setting up an ambush here, all crossbow arrows were soaked in highly poisonous herbs from the south. The poisons varied, but they generally included Gelsemium elegans, Aconitum carmichaelii, Tripterygium wilfordii, and other poisonous herbs commonly used by the brave warriors of the south.

River Valley Avenue.

Wu Ban led two thousand Tiger Infantrymen and joined forces with more than a thousand Wudang Flying Troops led by Cuan Xi, Meng Yan, and Ma Dai to encircle the enemy.

Soon, nearly a thousand Wei troops in the Hexi battlefield were wiped out, and more than 800 people were captured.

Some of the Wei army soldiers who were hit by crossbow arrows but not fatally had already suffered the poison's effects. Their faces turned red, their bodies were arched in opisthotonos, and they rolled on the ground, clutching their throats and breathing heavily.

Wu Ban was not surprised. He had seen this situation before when he accompanied the Prime Minister on the expedition to the south a few years ago.

It’s just that at that time, it was the Han soldiers who were poisoned.

Once poisoned, you will have difficulty breathing, high fever, and water accumulation in your abdomen. Whether you can survive is entirely up to fate and there is no cure.

Looking towards the hillside east of the river, he saw a group of two to three thousand men fleeing southwards. So Wu Ban ordered Ma Dai:

"Bo Zhan, you will lead four hundred Wudang flying soldiers and take the captives here to Jiangluo Valley.

"I and General Cuan will continue our pursuit southwards to see if we can expand our victory!"

"Yes!" Ma Dai bowed, turned around and went to deal with the prisoners of war.

These are the elite troops of Wei State. If they are properly handled, it may be possible to lead those who are willing to surrender to fight against the rats of Dongwu.

As for the Jiangluo Valley mentioned by the general, it is a small basin behind the Shili Canyon, and Qishan is a hundred miles northwest.

The reason why the ambush was successful and not detected by Wei scouts was probably because the southern entrance of the valley was thirty miles away from the Wei camp, which was at the limit of the detection range of the outbound scouts.

The Prime Minister personally led his army in pursuit, which made the bandit leader Zhang He careless for a moment.

Furthermore, how many Wei people from Guandong could there be who knew the terrain of Longnan well and had a say in the army like Ma Bozhan?
Leaving Ma Dai behind, Wu Ban and Cuan Xi led two thousand Tiger Infantry, nearly a thousand Wudang Flying Army and crossbowmen under the command of Jiang Wei to wade eastward.

After crossing the river, they could join forces with Wu Yi, Chen Shi, Ma Zhong and more than 5,000 people in the east to pursue the fleeing Wei bandits.

……

The rear camp of the Wei army.

Zhang He, the right general of the Wei Dynasty, who had suddenly fallen off his horse an hour ago, now looked like a fully drawn bow or a cooked shrimp.

The neck in the upper part of the spine and the waist and legs in the lower part of the spine are exaggeratedly bent backward, while the waist and abdomen in the middle part of the spine are exaggeratedly stretched forward.

In addition, the man was twitching and wailing constantly, and everyone who saw him in the tent was shocked.

Dozens of veteran military doctors gathered in the commander's tent. They were horrified by the situation and after exchanging opinions, they all said they had never seen such a poison and were helpless.

Only a wound doctor who had followed Zhang He for decades worked diligently and carefully to remove the poisonous arrow that had penetrated Zhang He's knee and bone.

"Can scraping bones cure poison?!" Niu Jin, who had luckily escaped from the ambush, remembered that Guan Yu had scraped bones to cure poison.

At this moment, he grabbed the collar of the old doctor who had removed the arrow and questioned him angrily.

Once Zhang He died, the tens of thousands of people in Longyou would be like headless flies.

Not everyone has the qualifications and ability to command tens of thousands of troops without making mistakes.

"I didn't expect the Shu bandits to be so vicious!" The commander of Zhang He's personal guards had a friendship with Zhang He for decades, and they were as close as father and son, and as close as brothers. At this moment, his eyes were red and tears were flowing.

Zhang He was already unconscious before returning to the camp, but he still forced himself to stay awake and ordered the three captains who stayed behind in the camp to lead 6,000 troops to the river valley to pick up the defeated soldiers.

If not for this, Zhang He, the commander of his personal guards, would not be able to bring back even a thousand soldiers to the main camp.

However, including the two thousand defeated soldiers who fled south at the beginning, there were only a little over three thousand soldiers returning to the camp.

Moreover, among these three thousand people, only about fifteen hundred returned with armor, and the rest abandoned their armor and weapons and fled.

"Niu Jin, Zhang Yu, what's wrong with you two?!" Zhang He seemed to have regained some consciousness after hearing the voices of Zhang Yu and Niu Jin.

Although he was still groaning, he struggled with all his strength to ask questions.

Everyone in the tent was shocked when they heard Zhang He finally speak.

Niu Jin and Zhang Yu rushed towards Zhang He almost at the same time, knelt on the couch, and trembled all over.

"Right General! Last night I led two thousand men and horses to pursue the Shu invaders at a close distance!" Niu Jin was so ashamed and angry that he wanted to cry.

"Those thousands of Shu pirates were already exhausted, and I chased them till they were completely exhausted. In less than half an hour, they abandoned their armor and fled!

"Some soldiers were planning to pick up their weapons and return to the camp, but I wanted to show the general the way, so I ordered them to continue chasing the Shu invaders!
"I never thought that as soon as the sound of killing started from here, the Shu invaders suddenly changed direction and fled to the east!

"I... I couldn't bear to let them go, so I continued chasing them. I never expected... I never expected to be ambushed by the Shu invaders' crossbowmen!
"Right General! That crossbow turned out to be our Great Wei horn crossbow! I'm afraid there are more than seven or eight hundred of them!"

When Niu Jin talked about this, he was completely panicked.

The crossbow was a national treasure. Apart from the 4,000 crossbows provided to the 50,000 troops they brought with them into Long, it was impossible for the Longyou County troops led by You Chu and Guo Huai to have them.

This means that the hundreds of horn crossbows were seized from Fei Yao and Dai Ling who were guarding Qishan.

Such a huge amount of spoils seized at one time can only mean that the 10,000 people led by the two men were probably wiped out!
"Right General... That Zhuge Liang, how could that Zhuge Liang be so sinister and cunning!"

However, Niu Jin was suddenly speechless as soon as he opened his mouth. After a moment, he struggled to grab the ground with his head, blaming himself:
"Right General, today's defeat is all my fault, Niu Jin!
"It was my fault for not keeping a close eye on the camp, allowing the Shu invaders to take advantage of the situation. I also sent the Right General to pursue them... When we return to Guanzhong, please have me executed!"

Zhang He was speechless and could only wave his hands tremblingly. Then he tried to twist his body and look at the commander of his personal guards.

Zhang Yu looked at Zhang He's strange and painful expression, and he felt even more exhausted and powerless. "Right General, I originally wanted to climb the mountain and cut off the ridge, so that I could look down from above...

"One is to stop those Shu bandits armed with crossbows from going up the mountain and shooting again, and the other is to join forces with the Right General to encircle them!

"But I never expected that I would suddenly see General Niu's troops fleeing in all directions, and not long after, four or five thousand Shu bandits would press westward!

"At first, I thought I'd use three thousand soldiers to hold them off in the east. After the Right General had dealt with the small group of Shu invaders in Hexi, they'd come over and join me in the attack...

"I didn't expect the Shu invaders to have an ambush in Hexi!"

Zhang He, who was rolling and struggling on the couch, stopped all movements as if he had lost all strength when he heard this.

However, after just a few breaths, the man began to struggle and groan in pain again.

Everyone in the tent was at a loss when they saw that the usually majestic right general was now bent like a shrimp, with no dignity at all.

After dozens of breaths, Zhang He finally stopped groaning for a moment.

I don't know why, but my waist seemed to be a little straighter than before, and I tried to speak:

"You...you must withdraw immediately! You cannot linger any longer! If you...if you linger any longer, something bad will happen!"

"Yes!" Zhang Yu answered hastily.

In fact, there was no need for Zhang He to give orders. As early as when three captains brought Zhang Yu's thousand men back to the main camp and found that the Shu people did not pursue them, the camp, under the leadership of several captains, pretended to be calm and handled the matter of capturing the camp.

Everyone knows that delay will lead to changes.

The right general was poisoned, and no one knew whether he could withstand it.

If they stayed any longer and the Right General died of his injuries, Zhuge Liang would lead the Shu invaders to pursue them, and they might not be able to escape.

noon.

Cao's army captured the camp.

All soldiers were fully armed.

Under the banner of General Zhang, there was a rider with white hair and beard, fully armored, standing straight, as if nothing had happened.

The army slowly moved eastward.

(End of this chapter)