Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 665: Dilemma

First she lost her husband, then her father.

At the age of twenty-one, he was killed by the Hu cavalry and was held captive for twelve years before returning to Han.

Seven years have passed since the return of Han, and the Han dynasty has still lost power, and Tian Chang has not yet returned.

I only saw the prosperous scene of Xiping in my dreams when I was young. When I woke up in Yecheng, my quilt and pillow were wet with tears and I couldn't stop.

He walked barefoot with disheveled hair and kowtowed to the Prime Minister, showing his loyalty to the Prime Minister.

Reciting poems in remembrance of his deceased father, he presented four hundred poems to Cao, expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Cao.

Alone, with only poetry and the zither as companions, he is not even fifty years old but is already waiting to die.

What Cai Yan didn't expect was that, at first, she came to live temporarily with her sister in Shangdang with the idea that she wanted to die beside her relatives, but she ended up seeing another world that she had never seen before in the books that Xin Xianying brought.

It is not about being sad about the passing of spring and autumn, nor is it about making arbitrary decisions, nor is it about judging the world based on feelings.

Discuss your views based on things, analyze traces based on what you see, and combine the views and traces into principles and follow them.

The simple soil under my feet has taken on several different kinds of content, and the crystal light of the Golden Crow seen when I look up has infinite changes.

Especially the conjecture about heaven and earth:
The higher you climb, the farther you can see. However, the higher you climb, the less you can see.

Using this mathematical argument, we can calculate the height of the mountain, the distance it travels, and the size of the earth as an arc.

Although she didn't know what means the author used to have such a far-sighted vision, and although the mathematical reasoning process was extremely difficult to understand, Cai Yan felt that this method of argumentation was more convincing than those theories that were inferred from ancient records.

However, Cai Yan already had a vague idea of ​​the methods he used.

Although it is said in the chapter on light that transparent glass can be used to gather and diffuse light, Cai Yan recalled what she saw when she was captured and taken to the land of the Hu people and had to work by chiseling ice in winter.

Therefore, she also knew that sunlight would converge and disperse when it penetrated ice, and that objects viewed through the human eye would also experience various changes. To be able to see everything from a high place, it might be possible that the transparent glass was used.

The only pity is that she doesn't know how to make transparent colored glass... Colored glass is not difficult to find in Yecheng, and she also had colored glass beads to play with when she was young.

But the best colored glass is the one that resembles jade. The lighter and more transparent the color, the more valuable it is, not to mention completely transparent.

Now that Xin Xianying had finished reading all the "new books" in her hands, Cai Yan suddenly felt a little eager:

I wonder which extraordinary man under the command of General Liu Bei, the Left General, wrote this book?

That is why, when her sister Cai Zhenji came back and told them that the enemy army had marched towards Shangdang County in large numbers, Cai Yan did not feel too panicked.

Xin Xianying's face wrinkled again:
"It is said that Pingyang County was a city surrounded by three forts, how could it be lost so quickly?"

"The enemy had a lot of cavalry, and they cut off the city walls and forts, leading to the fall of the city... It's just that Pingyang City was indeed lost a little too quickly, but according to the news from Yang County, the enemy's horses were not seen..."

Cai Zhenji frowned and told everything she knew, and then told her husband's decision:

"The governor of Shangdang wants to relocate the people of Lu County to Huguan. My sister and my younger sister Xianying..."

"Amei is also going to Huguan?"

"Of course I will follow my husband to Huguan. After all, General Gao and General Bao... Alas."

Cai Yan also knew that her sister's sigh was mostly due to the grievances complained by Shangdang Prefect Yang Xin, and the reason was no secret, as she had heard about it when she was in Yecheng.

After the Battle of Guandu, most of Yuan Shao's former subordinates joined Cao Xiang's camp. Although some of them, such as Zhang He, were used and moved around, most of them, such as Gao Lan, were given money and then left idle.

The chief general defending Shangdang was Gao Lan. Logically speaking, Gao Lan and Yang Xin, the chief general and the prefect, could ensure the safety of Shangdang by guarding Huguan and Lu County respectively.

But... there is also a Bao Shao who is of the same level as Gao Lan here.

His father Bao Xin was an old friend of Prime Minister Cao. He once responded to the call to attack Dong Zhuo and establish the governor of Yanzhou, and died to save Prime Minister Cao.

His brother Bao Xun is now a subordinate of the Prime Minister's Office and is now a close confidant of Prime Minister Cao. Under such circumstances, the originally simple defense has become much more troublesome.

In order to ensure stability and avoid conflicts between Gao Lan and Bao Shao, the only option was for Yang Xin to move to Huguan and personally command the two men.

And now Governor Yang wants to move all the people of Lu County to Huguan, which shows that he is most likely going to station elite troops here for garrison. Then Cai Yan probably can't stay here either. Her only options are to go to Huguan together... or retreat back to Yecheng.

Yecheng was nice, but what she remembered most was the scene when she went to plead for mercy for Dong Si with dishevelled hair and barefoot when Prime Minister Cao was entertaining his guests, and the increasingly turbulent atmosphere in Yecheng now that Prime Minister Cao was trapped in Jing and Yu.

Huguan is dangerous, but my sister is there.

Besides... isn't Liu Bei's army known for its benevolence?
She didn't quite believe it before, but the books she read in the past two months made her believe it a little bit.

Such a sensible person who is obsessed with heaven and earth also works for Liu Bei, so it seems that Liu Bei should not be a bad person.

After thinking it over, Cai Yan also made a decision:

"Then I will go to Huguan with you."

"If both sisters go, then I can only..."

Xin Xianying sighed, and before she could finish her words, Cai Zhenji pushed her away:
"Then hurry up and pack up. Huguan is quite close. I will leave after noon."

"Hey, hey, hey, I haven't finished yet..."

After Xin Xianying was pushed through the Moon Gate, he saw Cai Zhenji walking away, and then he asked Cai Yan, who was always calm beside him:
"Sister, do you know that pot is closed..."

"Huguan is probably not defendable."

Cai Yan's expression did not change, but she still sighed lightly:

"There are mountains between Huguan and Pingyang, which are not suitable for cavalry to pass through. Therefore, the cavalry must have gone north through Wuxian and Jinyang, bypassed Yuci and Zhanxian, and took the narrow road from Qi'a to Xiangyuan to attack the heart of Shangdang."

Xin Xianying was shocked by these words, but he immediately remembered the experience of his sister being abducted. This place was also a frontier area, so it was no wonder that she was so familiar with it.

But since he knew it so clearly, Xin Xianying was a little confused:

"Then sister..."

"But can you survive in Yecheng?"

Xin Xianying was speechless, with an obvious look of unwillingness on her face:

"If I were a man, why would I be so displaced and have no idea where it would end..."

If we talk about the most majestic city in Shangdang, the only one is Huguan, which cannot be compared with Lu County.

But as Yang Xin moved the people of Lu County here, the city eventually became much more crowded. Fortunately, as the family of the prefect, Cai Yan's three daughters were still able to get a quiet place to study.

Over the past month, the three of them would occasionally talk about Shangdang County, which was now at war again.

Lushi County has been lost, and the bandit commander named Huang Quan has been fighting with Cao's army in Changzi County for several days. It is said that this infantry is composed of strong soldiers from Yizhou, including many Qiang people. These barbarians are even more adapted to the terrain here than Cao's army in Shangdang.

Cai Yan informed Yang Xin of her guess through Cai Zhenji. Now there was also a report from Xiangyuan that scouts of the Qiang cavalry had appeared. It seemed that the disappeared cavalry had really traveled nearly a thousand miles and found ways to enter Shangdang.

But… "Prime Minister Cao has been engaged in battles year after year, and the troops of Shangdang have been repeatedly withdrawn. Now there are less than 6,000 soldiers available for battle."

Cai Zhenji's brows have become more worried in the past month. Even though her sister has determined the movements of Liu Bei's army, there is not much she can do with so few soldiers available.

After all, there were nearly five thousand enemy troops attacking from Pingyang in the west alone, and a cavalry force that could bypass Xihe and Taiyuan and march a thousand miles would have at least three to five thousand people. In terms of numbers alone, Shangdang was already at a disadvantage.

"My husband has gone to Yecheng and has written to me many times, hoping that..."

But thinking about what her sister had said about the chaos in Yecheng, Cai Zhenji couldn't tell what to expect.

(End of this chapter)