Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 68 King, are you going to abandon us?!

"Linghu Yu, Linghu Yu! Emperor Gaozu's scolding was truly brilliant! How foolish!"

In Meiwu, the General of the Central Army Guanqiu Jian had a dark face and directly called out Linghu Yu and started cursing him without giving him any face.

At that time, Tian Yu, the captain of the Wuhuan Guard, made great contributions in suppressing the Hu people, but he violated the military order slightly, so Linghu Yu brought him to justice.

Emperor Gaozu Wen was furious and tortured him, dismissed him from office and punished him. He issued an edict saying: How foolish Jun is!
After that, Linghu Jun changed his name to Linghu Yu.

This man, along with the sons of the Jia family, the Pei family, and other young men from the great families of Hedong, led several thousand people tonight, abandoning all their baggage and food and fleeing.

In addition to forty ships of food, they also left hundreds of iron armors and nearly a thousand leather armors for the Han army.

Although Guanqiu Jian was not sure how much armor the Han army had captured in the Guanzhong battles,
But it is obvious that based on the captured armor alone, the enemy's armored soldiers far outnumber the more than 10,000 grain guards in Meiwu.

How could Linghu Yu bear the insults from Guanqiu Jian, a man who relied on the emperor's favor to become spoiled? He stiffened his neck and retorted:

"Guanqiu Jian, even if you were in my place, you wouldn't be much better!
"If I hadn't led the ships ahead tonight, I'm afraid the Great Wei would have lost more than just forty ships of food. Perhaps the entire army would have been wiped out!"

Hearing this, Lu Zhao, Yin Damu and others all frowned.

I've never seen anyone pass the buck like this.

"What does this mean?" Guanqiu Jian tried hard to suppress his anger.

Linghu Yu snorted coldly.

Although he was angry at Guanqiu Jian's scolding of him by name, he also knew that he had to clear himself of the blame.

Otherwise, if the emperor punishes him, he will be completely finished as he has finally regained his official position.

"The waterways north of Zhongzhou are narrow, how could I not know that the Shu invaders might cross the river and attack?

"How can you be defenseless?
"Do you really think I'm stupid?!

"I ordered three thousand soldiers to line up on the banks of the Wei River to face them. Seeing that the Shu invaders had no intention of crossing the river, I ordered a thousand soldiers with bows and crossbows and a thousand with shields to sail westward!

"The Shu invaders from Zhongzhou number only three or four thousand men, and there aren't even a single boat ready on the water!

"Logically speaking, how else do you think they can launch a surprise attack by crossing the water?!"

Everyone fell silent when they heard this.

There seemed to be nothing wrong with Linghu Yu's arrangement.

Guanqiu Jian stared at Linghu Yu and saw that he was speaking righteously and seriously, and that his words did not seem to be fabricated out of thin air.

Moreover, it is estimated that the person would not dare to do so. The emperor would definitely find people to verify the facts from multiple sources afterwards. Anyone who dares to make up stories will only end up dead.

"What's going on?" Guanqiu Jian calmed down and asked.

Linghu Yu gnashed his teeth, grumbling at the Shu invaders' cunning: "The Shu invaders have done something tricky under the Wei River!
"When our grain ship arrived there, it was intercepted by several underwater stakes and was about to capsize!
"Dozens of soldiers and laborers fell into the water and fled in panic!
"The Shu invaders have already hidden dozens of boats linked by iron chains on the south bank, out of our sight!

"Take advantage of the chaos in our boats, which prevent us from advancing or retreating, and take three or four hundred of our warriors upstream to force a crossing!"

"Only three or four hundred? Is there no way to stop them?!" Before the man finished speaking, Guanqiu Jian questioned again.

"There are only three or four hundred of us, and only a dozen boats. You have three thousand people on the shore, and you're just going to watch him force his way across?"

"What else can we do?!" Linghu Yu snorted coldly and confronted him again, and the atmosphere became tense.

“Who could have guessed that they could actually block the Wei River?!

"You people from Meiwu are completely unaware of this?!"

Having said that, Linghu Yu glared at Yin Damu and Du Xi.

Yin Damu and Du Xi were speechless for a moment.

Linghu Yu continued:

"To prevent the Shu invaders from crossing the river, I have deployed archers and shieldmen to the boats!
"As a result, the Wei River was blocked, and all our grain ships were stuck downstream, unable to move, and in the middle of the Wei River!
"The civilians on the shore were blasted with arrows and crossbows by the Shu invaders, causing great panic. They had no time to pull the boats back and rushed back! They threw our formation into disarray!
“The Shu invaders who crossed the river to attack us have the advantage of powerful crossbows and shields!
"My crossbows and shields are all on the boat, and I can't get off the shore, so how can I stop them?

"They used iron chains to connect the boats. After the first three or four hundred brave warriors went ashore and secured a clearing, thousands of elite soldiers from Zhongzhou immediately built a pontoon bridge and crossed the river!

"If it were you, would you be able to stop it?!"

Linghu Yu not only had to clear himself of the blame, but also had to think about how to atone for his sins.

Everyone was silent.

If what Linghu Yu said was true, and the Wei River was really blocked by the Shu invaders, then perhaps we should really thank him for exploring the way.

"In that case, Gongzhi was able to bring back more than 3,000 troops, mostly because the vision was limited at night, and the Shu invaders were afraid of being ambushed and did not dare to pursue further." Du Xi spoke a fair word for Linghu Yu.

The Wang and Linghu families of Taiyuan had frequent contacts with General Cao Zhen, and Du Xi had a favorable impression of Linghu Yu.

Although he has high aspirations but lacks the ability, he does have some ambitions and wants to accomplish something big. He is not an elite, but he is not mediocre either.

Linghu Yu's expression softened slightly when he saw someone finally speaking up for him:

"Not only that, the three or four hundred elite Shu invaders who crossed the river were clearly wearing the heavy armor with basin collars captured from the general. Each one of them was practically invulnerable to swords and spears."

Upon hearing this, everyone, including Guanqiu Jian, Yin Damu, and Du Xi, changed color.

The basin-collar armor is heavy and takes a lot of time to forge. Only the Sima, the lieutenant and the elite among the elite are qualified to wear it.

As for the iron armor which has higher defense than the Penling heavy armor and takes more time to forge, there is only one kind in the world, namely the Ming Guang armor and Hei Guang armor, which are only worn by generals, Sima and other relatives of the clan.

In order to encourage craftsmen to cast more medium and light armor and increase the armor-wearing rate of soldiers, the country cast less than 100 pieces of heavy armor a year.

Three or four hundred heavy armored soldiers were now all captured by the Shu invaders, and they were even used to arm a scout group, which really made everyone hate them.

"These three or four hundred elite heavily armored soldiers, gathering together to attack, are likely to be as powerful as three or four thousand men." Du Xi's expression darkened slightly. "In that case, Gong Zhi's defeat is enough to offset his own merits and demerits."

When Guanqiu Jian heard Du Xi's words, his face darkened again, but he really couldn't say anything.

If Linghu Yu had not led the way, he would have led 140 to 150 grain ships westward to Chencang tomorrow.

By then, all the ships were stuck in the Wei River and could not move, and the grain transport team was more than three or four miles long.

If their formation was broken by just three or four hundred elite Shu bandits, the losses would probably be more than just forty ships of food and one or two thousand soldiers.

"I remember." Du Xi finally thought of something.

"Some time ago, the Shu invaders transported over a hundred grain ships from the Wugongshui camp back to Xieshui.

"A few days later, someone saw more than a hundred Shu pirates' grain ships entering the Wei River from the Xieshui River and heading upstream.

"At the time, I thought the Shu invaders were transporting grain to Chencang and Jieting, so I didn't think much of it.

"Now it seems that the Shu invaders have sunk those ships in the Wei River."

Everyone suddenly understood what was said.

Guanqiu Jian frowned. "The Xiegu plank road was destroyed just when the Shu invaders were using ships. The Han is a small nation with few resources, yet they were willing to sink over a hundred ships. I wonder if it was Liu Chan or Zhao Yun who gave the order. This is truly a difficult situation."

Not everyone is willing to make such a decision.

"The Shu invaders are elite, and have won another small victory. Their plan to block the Wei River from robbing our grain ships has been exposed, and their plan has not been fully accomplished." Du Xi stroked his beard and pondered for a moment. After a moment, he said:

"If this is the case, I'm afraid the thousands of people in Central Continent will not choose to return to Central Continent."

"Not going back to Zhongzhou?" Lu Zhao wondered.

"Not only will those thousands of troops never return to Zhongzhou, but the Shu invaders' troops on Wuzhangyuan will also have to be stationed in Weibei." Guanqiu Jian nodded with a thoughtful look on his face.

“First, to prevent our army from transporting grain westward.

"Secondly, it is to force the Right General's army under Chencang City to come here to support us.

“General You’re coming with fewer men to support them, so they can rely on the fortifications in the camp to hold on.

"General You has many reinforcements, and they can retreat to Zhongzhou at any time."

Guanqiu Jian was really troubled by this.

He originally wanted to lead his troops and supplies westward to join forces with Niu Jin, and with a combined army of 60,000, he would surround Chencang, fight against the reinforcements from Shu, and wait for help from the east.

They never expected that the situation would suddenly reverse. They were blocked from advancing westward by the Shu invaders and were about to be attacked by the Shu invaders for reinforcement.

What did Lu Zhao think of?
"Can't our army avoid the Wei River? We can take a detour north.

"I will immediately order Liu Bao to lead 3,000 cavalry here to protect the food. The Shu invaders' infantry will not dare to pursue them."

Du Xi immediately shook his head in denial:

"Once we leave the riverside road, Guanzhong is covered with weeds. We must order the laborers to carry food westward, and the soldiers to carry their armor.

"Not only can we not transport much food, but we are also traveling very slowly and are exhausted. This is not a good idea."

In Guanzhong, west of Chang'an, except for a few powerful families who still built forts near the former county seat, it can be said that there was no crowing of roosters for a hundred miles and wild grass grew everywhere.

Once you leave the official road, you can only travel on foot, and you cannot rely on food carts or baggage carts.

Guanqiu Jian sighed:
"If we leave the main road and take a detour north, the journey that would normally take three days will be extended to seven or eight days, and we will have already eaten less than half of the food we carry.

"Halfway through, our army and civilians are already exhausted, and the Shu invaders can safely take the main road and then harass us from the north. They are at ease while we are exhausted. How can our army not be defeated?"

If the food supply was so good, there would be no need to protect the food supply route. Linghu Yu curled his lips at Lu Zhao:

"Hedong and Hongnong counties are still transporting food and fodder to the rear. Our nearly 20,000 troops may be able to leave the main road and carry food westward.

"But what about the rest? Without the support of the army, won't we be easily robbed by the Shu invaders?"

Cheng Xi, the governor of Hedong, and Lü Zhao, the captain of the guard against the Xiongnu, were both promoted simply because they had followed the emperor in Pingyuan.

I had thought Lü Zhao was just a mediocre talent, but I never imagined he didn't even know about the grain route. How could he be a mediocre talent? He was clearly an idiot, truly ridiculous.

"In that case, I will immediately send light cavalry to invite General Niu to lead his troops here." Lu Zhao was unfazed by his idea being rejected. "But I wonder how many troops it would take?"

"At least 20,000." Guanqiu Jian looked helpless.

"The Shu invaders have taken over Zhongzhou first, and our army has lost the initiative.

"Without 20,000 troops, we will never be able to drive the Shu invaders back to the Wei River."

Hearing this, Du Xi sighed helplessly:
"In this case, we only have 40,000 men and horses left. In addition, we still need to send more than 10,000 men and horses to protect the food. I'm afraid there are only 20,000 to 30,000 people under the city of Chencang.

"Let alone going to Longyou to provide rescue, I'm afraid we'll have to be very cautious even when besieging Chencang.

"Zhao Yun is not an easy man to deal with. Without the Right General's command, it's a blessing that those tens of thousands of people can maintain order."

The food and grass over there will not last long. According to Niu Jin, although some of the servants and auxiliary soldiers still have two meals a day, they have started to drink porridge. They were not full to begin with, but now they will not starve to death.

This time, Linghu Yu finally remained silent and never mentioned anything about going to Long to assist Envoy Guo.

The next day.

Chen Cang.

Zhao Yun went up to the tower to watch.

There were already twenty to thirty thousand Wei invaders setting up camp and besieging Chencang, while at Sanguan, south of the Wei River, there were still tens of thousands of troops more than ten miles away from Chencang.

Four or five hundred Xiongnu light cavalry were scattered around Chencang.

It is obvious that they wanted to use this to cut off the traffic between Longyou and Guanzhong of the Han Dynasty.

Although he had sent an envoy to inform the prime minister to be careful of Zhang He's support from the narrow road of Weishui River, he was still a little nervous, wondering whether the message could be delivered.

"General Zhao, look!" Fu Qian, who rushed to Chencang from Jieting, pointed to the east towards Wuzhangyuan.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Yun squinted his eyes, but the place was too far away and he couldn't see at all.

Fu Qian's face was filled with determination. "Your Majesty has sent us a message! There are several red flags waving in the direction of Weinan. The Wei invaders' cavalry are rushing to drive them away."

Zhao Yun gazed far into the distance, but still could not see anything. With a solemn expression, he spoke, "So, the strategy of sinking the ships to stem the tide must have worked. Can you see Zhongzhou?"

There had been an agreement with the emperor before that if they succeeded in forcing Cao Wei's grain ships to go ashore, Wuzhangyuan would send tiger cavalry to wave red flags on the south bank of the Wei River as a signal.

If it fails, wave the black flag.

Fu Qian shook his head: "I can't see it. Sixty or seventy miles is still too far."

"The Wei invaders seem to be breaking camp!" Zhao Yun suddenly discovered something.

"They must have received word that their grain ships were intercepted, and are about to dispatch troops to retrieve the grain."

At this point, the old general smiled with satisfaction: "Even without an old bone like me, Your Majesty can still handle things with ease."

Wuzhangyuan.

It was almost noon when Liu Chan got up.

He stayed by the river until late last night before returning to the plateau to rest.

More than 200 people were slightly injured and 36 were seriously injured.

Eight people died of their injuries, eighteen were killed directly in action, and another ten were missing. No bodies were found during the battlefield cleanup, which means the total number of deaths was also thirty-six.

This casualty data is very good for a battle in which nearly a thousand people were beheaded, more than a thousand armored soldiers were captured, and more than ten thousand stones of millet were obtained.

In particular, of the 208 suicide squads recruited, only six were killed and sixteen were seriously injured.

But last night, nearly a thousand heads were taken, and more than six hundred of them came from this group of daredevils.

It has to be said that this gave Liu Chan a new understanding of vanguard warfare.

With the advancement of equipment, two hundred scouts are equivalent to two thousand people, or even more.

I can only thank Cao Zhen for the heavy armor he sent me.

After all, in the past, only top generals like Wei Yan, Wu Yi, and Zhao Yun were qualified to wear such heavy armor.

The best armor worn by others, from the lieutenants to the elite soldiers, was the tube-sleeved armor improved by the prime minister.

So after several battles, Liu Chan had fully experienced what it meant to fight to support the war.

I immediately thought of the Battle of Shayuan where Gao Huan conquered Yuwen Tai.

Gao Huan led hundreds of thousands of people to Chang'an to fight against Yuwen Tai's more than 10,000 people. As a result, he lost 180,000 armors in one battle, and Northern Qi began to die slowly.

Isn’t it the same with Cao Wei today?

Not to mention the tens of thousands of shi of grain and grass, it’s just a small amount of money.

But once Cao Zhen was defeated, the Han army stripped off more than 4,000 pieces of iron armor from the captives in Xiegu.

When the flood came, the Wei people abandoned their armor and fled, leaving more than a thousand pieces of armor scattered on the ground.

Finally, when he returned to Guanzhong, the soldiers cleaned up the corpses along Baili Xieshui and found more than a thousand items.

Nearly seven thousand pieces of iron armor made the Han soldiers wealthy and enabled them to upgrade their rifles to cannons.

Not to mention the great victory won by Wei Yan and Wang Ping, and the seizure of several thousand pieces of iron armor.

According to Deng Zhi and Zong Yu, the number of armored soldiers captured by the Han Dynasty in these battles has exceeded the total number of armored soldiers forged by the Prime Minister in the past five years.

In terms of quality, the 300 or so pieces of heavy armor seized from Cao Zhen were so impressive that they made Wei Yan, Wu Yi and the others dazzled.

In the afternoon, after Liu Chan washed up and had his meal, he came to Zhongzhou Camp again from Wuzhangyuan under the protection of Zhao Guang.

Under the emperor's watchful eye, Generals Deng Zhi and Zong Yu organized their men to gather and bury the soldiers who had sacrificed their lives last night, and set up plaques to commemorate their merits.

Under the watchful eyes of nearly ten thousand soldiers, the emperor of the Han Dynasty brought the last handful of yellow earth to the graves of the soldiers who were buried in a foreign land.

Some soldiers whispered and asked His Majesty why he was wearing a strange cloak that looked like a patchwork robe.

After the soldiers dispersed and camped on the north bank of the Wei River, Liu Chan turned back to the plateau, only to see Zhao Guang hurriedly approaching, "Your Majesty! An Guo and the Qiang King have led the light cavalry out of Mount Qi!"

Liu Chan was stunned at first, then nodded slightly.

Returning to Wuzhangyuan and looking towards Mount Qi, we saw two groups of light cavalry facing each other across more than 20 miles of wilderness just north of Wuzhangyuan.

The group in the south was of course the Southern Xiongnu light cavalry guarding Cao Wei's grain route.

To the north are naturally Guan Xing and the Qiang chief.

"What does An Guo want to do?" Liu Chan asked.

The group that was facing Guan Xing from a distance looked to have more than two thousand cavalrymen, while Guan Xing and the Qiang chieftain probably had just over a thousand cavalrymen.

Zhao Guang also shook his head: "Your Majesty, could it be that An Guo and the Qiang chieftain intend to engage the Xiongnu in direct combat on horseback?"

Qishan Pass.

Wild grassland.

A bearded Han angel was bored, sitting with his legs crossed and resting his head on a haystack, with a piece of dogtail grass in his mouth, repeating a sentence in broken Xiongnu language.

“Tani medeniig orhilj chadakhü?”

“Tani medeniig orhilj chadakhü?”

"..."

This person has repeated this sentence hundreds or thousands of times today.

The hundred tiger riders who came here with Guan Xing had no idea what this meant, but their ears were already callused from hearing it.

If you really want to learn now, I'm afraid it won't take long before you can speak it better than this angel.

But what’s the use of learning it?
You have been interacting and communicating with the Huns for several years or even more than ten years. When they hear your poor Hun language, they will know that you are a fake.

The Qiang chief on horseback looked down at the bearded angel and said in a muffled voice:

"Brother Wei Buxing, I've seen many men learning the Xiongnu language, but you're the first one who's so determined despite being so poor at it. I, Yang Tiao, admire you."

A tiger rider who was also familiar with the Qiang chief couldn't help but wonder:

"King Qiang, what exactly does Wei Buxing mean by this muttering?"

Yang Tiao thought without hesitation: "He is asking his king how he could abandon everyone and escape alone."

(End of this chapter)