Traveling through an ancient military camp: Bao'er's survival song

(Chapters 8 and 9 are for explaining the world map. If you don't like the background descriptions in these two chapters, you can skip them quickly.)

Four years ago, General Peng Zizheng, only fifteen years old, was a seventh-rank colonel under his adoptive father, General Peng Yi of Ningyuan. That year, General Peng Yi used the tactic of avoiding the enemy's strength and attacking their weakness to break through the Qiang Kingdom's easily defensible fortress and reclaim Luntu City, which originally belonged to the Han Kingdom.

At that time, when the battle was at a stalemate, it was Peng Zizheng who led a suicide squad of only ten men to infiltrate Luntu City and destroy the Qiang Kingdom's armory in a fierce and bloody hand-to-hand combat. This was a crucial step in the great victory at Luntu City.

Of the ten-man suicide squad, only two returned.

At the age of fifteen, Peng Zizheng was commended by the late emperor and was directly promoted to the rank of Guide Langjiang, a fifth-rank official.

However, the joy of the great victory did not last for half a year. Enraged, the Qiang Kingdom announced everywhere that it would sprinkle the upper reaches of the Lanchuan River with a special poison powder made by the Qiang people, and prohibit the people on the border of the Han Kingdom from drinking their sacred water unless the Han Kingdom returned Luntu City to the Qiang Kingdom and paid a large amount of silver every year as a drinking water fee for the Lanchuan River.

The Lanchuan River originates from the snow-capped mountains within the Qiang Kingdom that never melt, and flows into the Han Kingdom along the border of the Qiang Kingdom. It is the main source of drinking water for the people on the southwestern border of the Han Kingdom.

This is a vicious plan that will kill eight hundred enemies but also lose a thousand of your own, because the Lanchuan River not only nourishes the people on the southwestern border of the Han Kingdom, but is also the main water source for the people on the border of the Qiang Kingdom.

The Han emperor could not gamble on whether the Qiang's threats would be put into action; the Han court officials also dared not gamble on whether the surging waters of the Lanchuan River could dilute the deadly poison in the hands of the Qiang, who were particularly skilled at making poisons; moreover, Luntu City was a strategic location that was the subject of fierce competition, and to give it up would mean giving up not only a city but also a place that was being eyed by covetous eyes; if the people were to be relocated, it would not only be a loss of dignity for our great nation, but also a waste of manpower and resources that would not be accomplished in a day.

At that time, the military generals clamored to drive straight into the territory of the Qiang Kingdom and wipe out this small border country once and for all.

However, although the Qiang Kingdom was small, the entire country was located in a harsh environment with dangerous mountains and dense forests. Even if the Han Dynasty could conquer it with its vast military strength, it would not be of much use and would be a waste of resources and manpower, making it like a chicken rib.

At the time, General Peng Yi of Ningyuan was also a proponent of war. Military generals don't have that much patience for forbearance and maneuvering, and they couldn't swallow the humiliation of being threatened. Several times they almost gathered their troops to charge into the Qiang Kingdom, but were persuaded to stop by Wu Peng'en. They could only wait for news in the military camp every day while cursing those cowardly civil officials.

At that time, Wu Peng'en, the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, sent one secret letter after another to the military camp, trying his best to reassure General Peng not to act rashly and not to force the enemy into a dead end, lest the people on the border suffer.

However, General Peng Yi had no prior dealings with Grand Tutor Wu, so this unusual initiative to contact him left General Peng somewhat bewildered. At the same time, the clamor from the Qiang Kingdom grew increasingly brazen. Unable to tolerate it any longer, General Peng decided to keep his army inactive while he himself secretly entered the Qiang territory on horseback to investigate whether the so-called deadly poison of the Qiang Kingdom truly existed.

Five days later, Peng Zizheng received General Peng Yi's body.

At the same time, there was also news that the Qiang Kingdom was seeking peace.

It turned out that during the ten-odd days that the border army anxiously awaited orders, the imperial court secretly organized a large number of craftsmen to work day and night to quickly build a dike.

This dam is blocking a large river that flows into the Sui Kingdom.

Sui was another small state bordering Han, separated from Qiang by the Han like two ears on a large head. However, this state had numerous rivers and abundant fish and rice, so it didn't need the rivers from the upper reaches of Han. Regarding Qiang's audacious provocations against Han, Sui outwardly pretended to be neutral, remaining indifferent in its corner, but in reality, it was happy to be a fisherman, waiting for the two sides to fight it out.

However, this secret operation seemed to have nothing to do with the crisis of poisoning the Qiang Kingdom, and the anxious generals did not understand the court's intentions.