Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3680 A tiger falls into a deep ravine, a net is laid in wait; hidden soldiers discern the truth from the false.

"The old general was ambushed?" Pang Shanmin was somewhat incredulous, standing there dumbfounded.

The fragmented messages uttered by the blood-soaked "Wancheng soldiers" seemed to instantly drain the air from the entire tent.

Li Dian's gaze first lifted from the corpse, swept over Liao Hua's tense face, and finally landed on Pang Shanmin.

Zhongfu, meaning to ambush or lie in wait.

It could be said that, for the vast majority of the wars after the Qin and Han dynasties, it was either a matter of being ambushed or lying in wait...

The proper formation of battle formations before actual combat dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period and earlier.

It's not surprising that they were caught in a sudden ambush. When a general leads troops for a long time, it's like walking along the riverbank too often; how can he not get his feet wet?

But the problem is...

This time, it was actually Huang Zhong who got his feet wet?
Li Dian frowned.

Pang Shanmin's face drained of color, his body swayed, his fingers unconsciously clenched, and his eyes were filled with disbelief.

In Pang Shanmin's mind, Huang Zhong should be omnipotent; with Huang Zhong around, even the greatest difficulties would pose no danger. But now, this valiant general, whom he considered as unshakeable as a mountain, had fallen into an ambush?

Seeing that Liao Hua seemed about to say something, Li Dian immediately spoke up first: "Yuan Jian... this..."

Li Dian's voice was low and cautious, seemingly carrying a deliberate heaviness, "Tiger Falls into the Ravine... This place is treacherous, riddled with ravines, certainly not a safe haven... However, General Huang is renowned throughout Jingzhou and Xiangyang, even if there is a minor setback, I believe... I believe he can turn the danger into safety..."

Li Dian seemed to say something, yet also seemed to say nothing at all. He left his words unsaid, his gaze subtly shifting to Liao Hua, then quickly glancing at Pang Shanmin, who was still in a daze.

After all, for Li Dian and Liao Hua, their mission was not to defend Wancheng, but to conquer Fancheng and take Jingzhou!
For Li Dian, Fancheng was clearly more important than Huang Zhong!
Liao Hua frowned. He squatted beside the corpse of the 'Wancheng soldier,' checked its breath with his finger, then pondered for a moment, his eyes sharpening. 'A narrow escape?'

Liao Hua raised his head, his gaze fixed intently on Li Dian. "General Mancheng, that's Huang Hansheng!"

Liao Hua stood up, moved closer to Li Dian, glanced at Pang Shanmin who was still in shock, and said in a low, quick voice, "That's the commander of the guest army from Wancheng! If something really happens to him, how can we face Military Advisor Pang if we stand idly by? How can we face the gossip of the world?"

Liao Hua had fought alongside Huang Zhong and knew the old general's fierce spirit. He also understood the immense moral and ethical pressure the guest army's commander would face if he died because of their "failure to come to his aid."

Upon hearing Liao Hua's words, Li Dian's heart skipped a beat.

Pang Shanmin...

Pang Tong...

Li Dian scratched his head. He couldn't directly object, especially in front of Pang Shanmin.

Li Dian's brows furrowed even more, his tone becoming more serious, carrying a clearer sense of practical consideration: "Yuan Jian is quite right... These reinforcements... are certainly excellent... How could I not know that? However..."

Li Dian glanced at Pang Shanmin again. The latter seemed to be awakened by Liao Hua's words, and his eyes focused a little, but he still looked blank and sad.

"But Fancheng is right before our eyes! Our siege has reached a critical juncture; one move could affect the whole situation! If we divide our forces now to aid that unknown Tiger's Fall Ravine, what if…?" Li Dian lowered his voice again, "what if it's a trap? Not only will we fail to rescue anyone, but we'll also suffer heavy losses and undermine the very foundation of the siege! The name 'Tiger's Fall Ravine' itself sounds ominous; it's a dangerous place we mustn't overlook!"

Li Dian emphasized the words "trap" and "danger," hoping Liao Hua would understand the underlying meaning...

Don't go, it's not worth the risk.

He was reluctant to divide his forces. Firstly, with the siege of Fancheng underway, his and Liao Hua's forces were already quite large, and further division would inevitably leave them stretched thin. Secondly, he didn't have any deep affection for Huang Zhong; it was more of a polite gesture towards the visiting general. He was only saying this now out of respect for the strategist Pang Tong; otherwise, he would have immediately rejected the suggestion of reinforcements.

However, Li Dian's "tactful" explanation did not seem to achieve the desired effect.

Liao Hua shook his head, not only disagreeing with Li Dian's statement, but also becoming even more determined in his own decision.

Liao Hua understood the importance of Fancheng and grasped Li Dian's underlying message, but he remained steadfast in his convictions. "General Mancheng! With you here in Fancheng, I am at ease! If General Huang truly falls into danger, what will become of our morale if we stand idly by? What will become of our principles? I need only five hundred cavalry! I will personally lead them to ascertain the truth! If General Huang is unharmed, we will return immediately; if he is truly in peril, we will risk our lives to rescue him!"

Liao Hua spoke with absolute certainty and brooked no argument; this was his final act of respect and notification to Li Dian, not a request for discussion. He clasped his hands in a salute, then turned and walked out of the tent, his steps hurried and heavy.

"Yuanjian! Liao Yuanjian!"

Li Dian cried out anxiously, and seeing Liao Hua's relentless pace, he gritted his teeth and chased after him. The moment the tent flap was lifted, the clamor of troops gathering outside rushed in.

Li Dian grabbed Liao Hua's arm and pulled him into the shadows beside the tent, away from potential eyes and ears. His voice was low, filled with anxiety and pleading, "Yuanjian! Listen to me! I know you value loyalty! But have you considered this? If this is a trap, you've taken away our army's elite cavalry! If we lose them, neither of us can atone for it! Besides…"

"Five hundred elite cavalry! How many cavalry do you and I have combined?" Li Dian said urgently. "With your departure, you've taken half of them! We still have to besiege Fancheng! The rest are infantry and auxiliary troops! If..."

Li Dian glanced quickly towards the direction of the tent, his voice even lower, "Why don't we let Magistrate Pang take his men back... you and I can allocate some troops to him... just some infantry will do, return the soldiers he brought with him, and give him some more..."

Liao Hua was pulled back, feeling the strength in Li Dian's hand and the anxiety in his eyes. He took a deep breath, met Li Dian's gaze, his expression complex. "Brother Mancheng, I understand your worries. But this matter... I cannot rest easy if I do not go! Lord Pang... I am not a reckless man, I will be careful and cautious, sending out many scouts, proceeding step by step. The situation in Fancheng... I entrust it to you!"

Liao Hua reached out and firmly gripped Li Dian's arm, conveying his promise and determination. Then, he broke free from Li Dian's grasp and strode towards the drill ground, loudly ordering: "Gather five hundred elite cavalry! Follow me to reinforce Tiger Fall Ravine!"

Li Dian watched Liao Hua's retreating figure quickly surrounded by his personal guards, and sighed heavily, his face as dark and unyielding as ink. He paced restlessly outside the tent, glanced back at the main tent, but ultimately didn't go in. He shook his head helplessly and, as he walked out, began to consider how to adjust the defenses of Fancheng to deal with the gap left by Liao Hua's departure.

The dual-command model in the military has both advantages and disadvantages.

There was no problem when Li Dian and Liao Hua led their troops separately, but now that they are united, it's hard to say who will listen to whom.

Normally, the two would discuss things together and usually reach a consensus, but now that they couldn't agree, the two generals naturally had a disagreement...

……

……

Inside the tent, the clamor was shut out by the heavy curtains, leaving only a suffocating silence and a strong smell of blood.

Pang Shanmin remained standing in the same spot. The argument between Liao Hua and Li Dian, and the sound of soldiers being mustered outside the tent, seemed to be obscured by a layer of water.

The initial overwhelming fear and grief crashed over him like a tidal wave, leaving his hands and feet cold and his mind blank.

Huang Zhong...

The old general who always stood before him, his booming voice reassuring him that he "had nothing to worry about," truly...

No, this shouldn't be the case!
Pang Shanmin broke free from the chaotic sorrow and fear, and his solidified brain began to flow again.

A strong sense of unease gripped him.

wrong……

This happened so suddenly...

He forced himself to look away from the tent flap and back at the corpse on the ground that had brought him the terrible news.

He needs to know more!
What kind of ambush did General Huang encounter?
Did it trip over a horse?

Were they injured by rolling logs or rocks?
Or will it be attacked by fire?
Knowing more details might...

Perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope?
This thought, like a tiny spark, ignited his thirst for knowledge, temporarily overpowering his fear.

Pang Shanmin took a deep breath; the strong smell of blood made his stomach churn, but he gritted his teeth, slowly walked to the corpse, and squatted down.

He wasn't a coroner, and he hadn't even seen many battlefield casualties. He simply reached out, driven by an almost instinctive urge to grasp at any straw, and pushed aside the already somewhat cold corpse, peeling back the stench and filth of the broken armor and robes.

"Calm down... calm down... Pang Shanmin! You need to check carefully..."

Pang Shanmin muttered to himself, his voice trembling almost imperceptibly. He tried his best to avoid looking at the victim's grotesque face, focusing instead on the wounds on the body, especially the most fatal one on the chest and abdomen. He carefully, with his fingertips, very gently parted the tattered clothing held together by clots of blood.

The wound was exposed, gruesome and terrifying.

Suddenly, Pang Shanmin's gaze was drawn to the wound...

He forgot his fear and stopped trembling. He moved closer, but seemed to no longer smell the stench of blood, carefully examining the marks around the wound.

The angle at which the arrow pierced...

It's very awkward.

It doesn't seem like it's being shot in from the front or above with the proper angle; instead... it's like it's being stabbed in from below or from its own direction?

The thought made his heart skip a beat.

Pang Shanmin's eyes widened as he used his fingertips to pull at the rolled-up flesh at the edge of the wound.

He recalled the penetrating wounds of the wounded soldiers he had seen before. Those wounds from arrows and crossbow bolts hadn't resulted in large cuts to the muscle and skin, but the wound before him…

It didn't seem like it was instantly pierced and torn apart by a powerful external force, but rather like it was slowly and resolutely...

It pierced in?

Who stabbed himself in? Did he stab himself in?

This discovery was like a bucket of ice water poured over his head, sending a chill down his spine.

An absurd yet fatally reasonable idea struck him instantly!

He's committing suicide!

But why did he commit suicide?

An idea arose in my mind.

Was it to confirm their identity as "Wancheng soldiers," to make the lie more believable, or...?

Did they intend to make Liao Hua believe that Huang Zhong was truly in imminent danger, thus luring him away from the mountain?

A wave of terror gripped Pang Shanmin, and he abruptly turned his gaze to the face of the deceased.

Some details that were just blurred by blood and grief are now gradually becoming clear...

Pang Shanmin used a tattered piece of cloth to wipe the corpse's face, avoiding the hideous, twisted gashes on the cheeks, and reconstructed the person's face in his mind...

do not know.

I have absolutely no recollection of it!

Having managed to break through Cao Cao's encirclement and reach this place to deliver the message, he was certainly no nameless soldier. However, in Pang Shanmin's memory, no military academy or sergeant looked like him, especially with those wounds on his face...

What a coincidence that there wasn't a single fatal wound?
His surname isn't Mi!
(Mr. Luo coughed twice.)
All the clues suddenly came together, pointing to a chilling truth!

"General Li!! General Mancheng!!"

Pang Shanmin sprang to his feet, his voice sharp with urgency. He rushed out of the main tent and demanded of the guards standing nearby, "Where is General Li?"

……

……

At this moment, Liao Hua led five hundred elite cavalrymen at breakneck speed along the winding mountain road.

The outline of Tiger Falling Ravine was already visible among the distant mountains, with two mountains flanking a narrow valley in between, and the terrain was indeed extremely treacherous.

Liao Hua suddenly heard some sounds, as if someone was calling him, so he pulled his warhorse to the side, climbed up the earthen slope by the roadside, and looked back.

"Report!"

A fast horse galloped up from behind. Upon seeing Liao Hua, the rider almost tumbled off his horse, and his warhorse was foaming at the mouth, looking utterly disheveled.

Liao Hua's men quickly helped the fast horse to Liao Hua's side, and then others busied themselves cooling down the warhorse that was foaming at the mouth and loosening its saddle.

The messenger, panting heavily, untied the letter from his body and presented it to Liao Hua, 'General Li... General, urgent order! It's a fake... a trap!'

"What?!" Liao Hua gestured to the guards to give the horse some water. "Catch your breath and drink some water!"

Liao Hua hurriedly opened the letter, looked it over, and his heart skipped a beat.

The fast horse took a couple of sips of water, panted for a moment, and then said urgently, "General Huang should be alright! Tiger Falls into the Ravine...it's...it's a trap! General...please return to the camp immediately!"

Liao Hua clutched the letter tightly. Li Dian's hasty yet forceful handwriting on the letter seemed to confirm the unease that had been lingering in his heart...

A surge of anger at being fooled rushed to the top of his head, but it was instantly suppressed by the calmness honed by the battlefield.

"No rush..." Liao Hua gestured to the fast horse, intentionally slowing his speech, "Tell me properly, what exactly happened..."

Kuai Ma then explained the general situation.

Liao Hua nodded.

Since the news has been proven to be false, then Tiger Falls into the Ravine is obviously a trap!
Yes, such a dangerous place is the perfect ambush site!

Cao Ren's target was not Huang Zhong, but Liao Yuanjian and the elite cavalry he brought!
The strategy of besieging a point and attacking reinforcements had already been discussed in the official gazette of the General of the Cavalry!

Therefore, Cao Ren intended to lure him out of Fancheng, surround and annihilate him, and then launch a counterattack when the forces under Fancheng were weakened.

What a filial son Cao Ren was!

A cold glint flashed in Liao Hua's eyes. He shoved the silk scroll into his robes, stood up, and scanned the Tiger Fall Ravine not far ahead, as well as the towering, densely vegetated cliffs on both sides of the ravine.

"General, shall we retreat now?"

The guard beside Liao Hua asked.

"No!"

Liao Hua suddenly laughed.

He quickly selected ten of his personal guards and ten elite, alert, and experienced cavalrymen. Then, to everyone's astonishment, he swiftly removed his general's armor and conspicuous helmet, put on a set of ordinary scout's tube-sleeved armor and helmet, and took an inconspicuous hard bow and a quiver of arrows from his personal guards.

"General! What's going on here?!" The military academy officer who came after receiving the news was surprised and uncertain.

Liao Hua lowered his helmet, obscuring most of his face, revealing only a pair of sharp, dagger-like eyes. "The bandits have set a trap; they must have heavily fortified the cliffs on both sides of the ravine, waiting for our army to fall into their trap. If the entire army turns back now, the enemy, seeing the situation is unfavorable, will either abandon the ambush or pursue us relentlessly, which would be disadvantageous for us! We should turn the tables on them!"

Liao Hua addressed the twenty guards, who were also dressed in ordinary scout attire, saying, "You will follow me, disguised as an advance scout team, to explore the ravine first... Remember, act like real scouts, spread out in formation, and feign a thorough search. Don't look at the mountaintop, look ahead! Move quickly, straight through!"

Then Liao Hua addressed the military academy students: "The main force will remain here, concealed and awaiting orders! If there are indeed ambushes in the ravine, they will disdain to attack our mere scout squad, lest we alert them and expose our ambush! We can certainly pass through safely, and then turn the tables on them..."

"General! This is too risky!" the military academy officer exclaimed urgently.

Liao Hua nodded, "There are indeed some risks, but the enemy doesn't know we've already seen through their plan... This is the perfect opportunity to turn the tables! The enemy wants to weaken our forces, so now that we have a chance to weaken them in return, how can we let it slip by? Nothing ventured, nothing gained! You lead your troops here, and once the fire breaks out on Tiger Falls Ravine Mountain, immediately make a loud commotion, create a false impression, and come to their aid!"

After confirming some specific contact details, Liao Hua spurred his horse and led twenty equally simply dressed scouts in a loose search formation towards the deep and treacherous Tiger Fall Valley entrance.

The light in the ravine suddenly dimmed, and the steep cliffs on both sides resembled the clenched teeth of a giant beast, creating an oppressive atmosphere.

The mountain wind howled strangely as it passed through the narrow valley.

Don't stare at the mountaintop!

Liao Hua gave the instructions in a low voice, his senses heightened to the extreme. On the surface, he was looking ahead, but out of the corner of his eye, he was scanning every possible rock crevice and dense bush on the cliff face where someone might hide.

He could feel countless murderous gazes being cast down from the cold cracks in the rocks and the dense foliage above, as if they were tangible and stuck to his back.

Sure enough, Cao Cao's army was lying in ambush here!

but……

It's still unknown who's lying in wait for whom!
"Don't panic!" Liao Hua took the lead and walked forward. "Follow me, let's get out!"

The sound of horses' hooves leaped and echoed through the mountain stream, as if playing a concerto of death.