Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 72 Everyone is shocked
Wuzhangyuan.

The sky is bright.

The hurried footsteps and the rustling of iron armor instantly woke Liu Chan up from his sleep and he stood up suddenly.

"Your Majesty, Minister Dong is here!" Zhao Guang's familiar voice came from outside the wooden door.

Liu Chan felt relieved, stood up and walked out of the door, only to see Dong Yun waiting in the distance.

Liu Chan was not in a hurry to move forward. He first looked towards the north, somewhat puzzled: "Is there nothing happening in Anguo overnight? I thought there would be a battle at night or in the early morning."

Yesterday he had instructed Dong Yun, Deng Zhi and Zong Yu not to send troops to help if Guan Xing and Yang Tiao's thousand-plus cavalry really caused any big trouble.

There was no way. After the small victory at Weishui, the morale of the Han army was unprecedentedly high, while the morale of the Wei army was completely visibly low.

The Wei army did not attack but instead took a detour through the wilderness, which was obviously a sign of fear in the eyes of most soldiers.

For a time, every Han army officer and soldier was eager to fight, and some even began to say that the Wei invaders were nothing special.

Seeing this situation, Liu Chan began to worry and had to ask Dong Yun and others to repeatedly warn the soldiers not to become arrogant.

He also brought some middle- and low-level officers who had publicly belittled the Wei army to the emperor's camp, severely reprimanded them, and rewarded them with some food. He ordered them to return to the camp and warn the soldiers not to take it lightly.

As a result, after thinking yesterday that the Xiongnu might not know about the Fire Bull Formation, Liu Chan had to propose another possibility:
Guanqiu Jian and Linghu Yu may have deliberately allowed Guan Xing to implement the so-called Fire Bull Formation in order to lure the Han army stationed in Weibei into the depths and set an ambush for them.

However, the war did not happen, and Liu Chan walked towards Dong Yun with a heavy heart.

Seeing this, Dong Yun also came to greet Liu Chan. Without saying a word, he handed Liu Chan a piece of rag and said hurriedly:
"Your Majesty, this is a letter from the angel Wei Xing!"

Looking at the blood-stained rag in Dong Yun's hand, Liu Chan was startled: "What happened to Wei Xing?"

Isn't my Speedy Guardian dead?!

He quickly opened the blood letter.

Dong Yun did not choose to answer the emperor's question about Wei Xing, but only read out the contents of the blood letter in an anxious voice:
"Your Majesty, the letter states that An Guo believes the Wei invaders bluffing in the west are mostly civilians, with only a small number of soldiers.

"The real main force of the Wei invaders will probably attack Wuzhangyuan from the south bank of the Wei River in the next two days. Your Majesty must be careful not to burn the pontoon bridge."

The handwriting written in blood in Liu Chan's hand was crooked and had many typos, but the meaning could still be barely understood.

What made him feel uneasy was that this blood letter was obviously written by two different people.

"What's the matter with this letter? Where is Wei Xing?" Liu Chan frowned.

This was the first low-level pawn he encountered when he was trying to restore morale during the defeat at Xieshui.

Later, he completed several difficult missions continuously and quickly in the face of danger and difficulty.

Liu Chan felt that this person probably had some luck.

In addition, the man said that he had beheaded twelve people in Qishan before, which was very heroic.

If he accumulates military merits, he may become one of his lucky generals in the future.

Seeing the man handing over a letter written in blood, which was written by two illiterate people, Liu Chan was shocked.

Seeing that the emperor was not worried about the Wei invaders coming from Weinan, Dong Yun asked Wei Xing again, but he had no choice but to answer:
"Your Majesty, an hour ago, Wei Xing was in the northern wilderness when he suddenly encountered a scout of our Han Dynasty lurking in the dark.

"When they saw each other wearing Wei invaders' armor, they both asked for the other's password.

"As a result, neither of them could answer, so they thought the other party was a Wei bandit and that they had been discovered, and both raised their crossbows to shoot.

"Luckily, both of them were armed with Yuanrong crossbows, and when they spoke, they spoke with accents from the same hometown. I finally recognized them as fellow soldiers from the same squad."

"Not dead?" Liu Chan was delighted.

Dong Yun immediately shook his head:

"not dead.

"He said it was almost dawn, and if he came out to deliver the letter in person he wouldn't be able to return.

"So he asked Bo Miao's personal soldiers to deliver the message, and he himself returned to the wilderness.

"They say...they say they want to capture the king for His Majesty."

"Capture the king?" Liu Chan was stunned again. "Capture what king?"

Dong Yun shook his head: "I really don't know. Perhaps the scout heard it wrongly."

Liu Chan frowned slightly.

Speaking of capturing a king, there is indeed a Xiongnu Zuoxian King in the wilderness.

But...how to capture it?
Fire Bull Formation?
Dong Yun interrupted Liu Chan's thoughts:

"Your Majesty, if the Wei invaders truly came a hundred miles south of the Wei River, rather than crossing south from the north, should we withdraw our army back to the south bank of the Wei River?"

Previously, everyone thought that the Wei invaders who had made a big fuss a few days ago and pretended to have 30,000 to 40,000 troops probably had 20,000 soldiers.

As a result, after Guan Xing's reminder, it seemed that the number of Wei soldiers stationed in Weibei might be even smaller.

Dong Yun continued:
"The reason why our army is stationed in the north of Wei is simply to disperse the Wei invaders' strength and relieve the pressure on General Zhao.

"Now that the Wei invaders are attacking from Weinan, our army has achieved its goal. It would be safer to lead the army back to Zhongzhou and Weinan."

Although the boats were connected by iron chains and placed across the pontoon bridge not far upstream, and fire prevention measures had been taken on the boats and the pontoon bridge, Dong Yun still felt a little uneasy.

It seems that His Majesty does not want to play it safe, but wants to lure and kill the Wei invaders.

Liu Chan thought about it again and again and asked:
"If it is really as An Guo predicted, how many Wei invaders do you think will attack from Weinan?"

Dong Yun thought for a moment:
"Your Majesty, Zhang He led an army of 50,000 to Long, but was severely defeated by Wei Yan and Wang Ping in only two battles, beheading around 4,000 men.

"And nearly half of them were soldiers from Longyou County.

“In addition to the previous battle with Ma Su, he was pursued by the Prime Minister to Long, resulting in the loss of several thousand more.

"It is estimated that after Zhang He conquers Long, he will still have more than 40,000 soldiers left.

"Conservatively, with 10,000 troops remaining to guard Chencang and another 10,000 heading east to protect grain, the remaining force they used to attack Wuzhangyuan should be over 20,000."

More than 20,000.

It is indeed time to send the Weibei troops back to provide support.

Zhao Guang seemed to have thought of something, and his expression suddenly became a little excited:
"Your Majesty, if the Wei invaders really rush from Weinan to Wuzhangyuan, it would be better for you to order me to lead two thousand elite troops and hide in the dense forests of the Qinling Mountains twenty miles away!

"When they engage our defenders, I will lead my men to attack from behind and join forces with Your Majesty to encircle them from the east and west. We will surely defeat the bandits!"

Liu Chan bowed his head and thought for a moment, and felt that what Zhao Guang said seemed feasible.

If Zhang He wanted to launch a successful surprise attack, he had to take advantage of the darkness and mist to block his vision.

Otherwise, as soon as his army appeared fifty miles away, Wuzhangyuan would be in a commanding position and have a panoramic view of everything.

Since they had to raid at night, they had to raid quickly. How could they possibly search every corner of the nearly 100 square kilometers of dense forest? Moreover, they might not be able to search at night.

Dong Yun's expression changed slightly, and he said:

"Your Majesty, I think this plan is too risky and cannot be adopted.

"What if Zhang He sets up camp more than ten miles away to confront me, and I don't use this night attack?

"The two thousand elite soldiers of Pijiang will either starve to death in the mountains or be discovered by the Wei invaders, leaving them with no way to escape."

Liu Chan was puzzled: "If we don't implement this strategy? Then why is he here? Moreover, he is coming with a light force, so he must not bring much food and grass. He can only last five days at most. How can he set up camp here?"

Dong Yun looked at Zhao Guang first, then became worried.
"Your Majesty...I believe that Zhang He may be besieging Wei to rescue Zhao, luring the old Zhao general to break out of Chencang to rescue Your Majesty.

"As for food and fodder, perhaps we could order the Wei invaders stationed in the north of the Wei River to bring it over by water. Four to five hundred dan a day wouldn't be too difficult."

Before Dong Yun finished speaking, Liu Chan and Zhao Guang had already looked at each other in shock.

"Besiege Wei to save Zhao?" Liu Chan said in a daze.

"How could General Zilong fall for this trick?"

But as soon as he said this, he immediately thought of the man who risked his life to save his lord at Changban Slope, and Liu Chan was not sure for a moment.

(End of this chapter)