Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

The Wei Dynasty and the Shu Han Dynasty had been fighting for many years. Although they both had a general idea of ​​each other's abilities, when it came down to it, there were still many opaque areas, like a fog.

These vague and unknowable things constitute a huge variable in the war between the two countries. The way to defeat the enemy and win the battle, attack and defend, lies in them.

The next day, which was the early morning of October 19th.

As soon as daybreak, all 15,000 Wei troops were on alert, forming battle arrays, and preparing for today's planned attack on Wudu.

Li Yan and Chen Ping talked a lot yesterday, and Chen Ping asked about every detail, not stopping until the second half of the night. Even at Chen Ping's usual fast recording speed, he still filled up two booklets.

In the future, when we find an opportunity, we will first send these two books to General Cao Zhen, and then send them to His Majesty in Xuchang. Chen Ping asked for details, and Li Yan explained everything he could say.

This will be the step for Li Yan to advance in the future.

As for Li Yan's personal situation, Chen Ping did not ask, and Li Yan did not say. Huang Quan's son was still living in peace in Shu, so why should Li Yan's son be convicted?

Even if you are convicted...

So what if he is over fifty years old? Haven’t you seen that the late Grand Tutor Zhong Yao of the Wei Dynasty gave birth to a son when he was nearly eighty years old?

Just have another one.

With Li Yan's high position, although he had not served in Zhuge Liang's prime minister system before, he still knew everything about the internal political situation of Shu Han. He also knew the number of troops in this northern expedition.

It's just 8,000 troops.

Wujie City was in ruins and difficult to defend, and Zhuge Liang's headquarters was far away in Xiabian, 160 miles away, so it was absolutely too late to rescue him. Zhang He, who had learned the details of the Shu army, could only be described in four words: fearless and confident.

Of course he was not afraid, and Zhang He believed 99% of what Li Yan said, if not completely.

How could a minister who was entrusted with the care of an orphan pretend to surrender to an enemy country? If this happened to the Wei Kingdom, it would be like Sima Yi or Chen Qun pretending to surrender to the Eastern Wu or Shu Kingdom, which would be impossible.

Fifteen thousand soldiers marched southward in orderly battle formation. For Zhang He, even if he did not rush to attack the city, relying on his military strength to besiege the city would be enough to achieve his strategic goal.

The Wei army was getting closer and closer to the ridge where they had set up an ambush yesterday.

Wei Yan and Fei Yi stood on a high place, looking at the gradually approaching Wei army, and their faces looked extremely ugly at this moment.

For Fei Yi, Li Yan was in a high position of power and was well aware of the inner workings of the Han Dynasty. If this man surrendered, not to mention the leakage of military information, the people of Yizhou would be greatly depressed for a while.

As for Wei Yan, he had a complex feeling of regret and hatred for causing a disaster that he could not explain or change.

After Feng Sima, the commander of the army, reported yesterday, Wei Yan, Fei Yi and Liu Yong were all shocked. After arguing for a long time, they finally sent a messenger overnight to report the matter to Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, as it could not be covered up.

At this moment, Fei Yi looked at the Wei army in the distance and said softly: "Wen Chang, it's time to withdraw the troops."

Wei Yanchang sighed: "Wenwei, I'm going to tell you the truth. I never thought things would come to this. Li Yan is a man with evil ambitions. He could have rebelled at any time, but why did he choose to rebel now?"

Fei Yi turned around and looked directly at Wei Yan: "Wen Chang, it's too late to say more. Let's withdraw the army towards the narrow mountain. While retreating, wait for the prime minister's order."

"We encountered this kind of thing at the beginning of the Northern Expedition. The Prime Minister will definitely issue a new order. You and I will just follow the order and don't cause any more trouble."

"I understand." Wei Yan sighed.

At this time, Zhang He, who was in the Wei army, sat on his horse side by side with Li Yan, looking south and saying:
"At the end of the first year of Taihe, the Shu army of 80,000 invaded. Three years later, the army of the two invasions was more than 20,000 each time. This year, Zhuge Liang sent another 40,000 troops."

"Zheng Fang, how many years do you think the people of Shu can support him with such conscription?"

Li Yan responded calmly, "Mr. Zhang, do you want to hear some nice words from me, or do you want to hear the truth?"

Zhang He sneered and said, "I can say nice things myself, so there is no need for you to say more."

Li Yan pointed to the south and said, "After passing Wudu, there is Wujie. After passing Wujie, there are Baishui Pass, Jiameng Pass, Jiange and other places, all of which are strategically located in the world."

"Mr. Zhang, I have different political views from Zhuge Kongming, but I admire his talent and virtue very much."

As he spoke, Li Yan sighed again, spread out his hands, and looked down at his fingers.

"With Zhuge Kongming's talent, if he had been good at defending the pass instead of wasting military power, even if Wei had raised an army of 100,000 or 200,000, it would certainly not have been able to invade Shu. But judging by the situation in recent years, if he continues to waste Yizhou like this, in my opinion, the time Mr. Zhang asked about can probably be counted on two hands."

Zhang He glanced at Li Yan and then laughed, "Ten years? If I could see Wei defeat Shu and unite the four seas when I was seventy, I would surely have more space in the history books."

Li Yan nodded silently.

The ridge was a little narrow, but after learning about what happened yesterday, Zhang He had already sent two thousand soldiers to climb the mountain. After confirming that there was no ambush by the Shu army here, they passed through here and headed straight to the city of Wudu.

Wei Yan, Fei Yi and others had already galloped back to the city, and slowly evacuated with the Shu army soldiers who had been prepared long ago, without stopping for a moment. Retreating without a fight, especially because of Li Yan's defection, made Wei Yan angry.

After the Han army marched for several miles, Wei Yan, riding on his horse, grasped the hilt of his sword with his right hand, looked back in the direction of Wudu City, and said bitterly: "Wen Wei, in the battle tomorrow, I swear to kill Li Yan!"

Fei Yi nodded: "That's right."

What else could Fei Yi say at this moment? He just said a few perfunctory words. Even in such a situation, he still wanted to kill Li Yan to vent his anger, but he didn't consider how the entire Northern Expedition would change because of this incident.

Even if he could fight a war again, he would just be a foolhardy man and unable to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the country.

Fei Yi felt that all the efforts he had made on Wei Yan were in vain. This man had a way of bringing disaster upon himself, so he should stay away from him from now on!

……

This year, the grain situation in Guanxi of the Wei Dynasty was extremely severe. Deng Ai personally supervised the delivery of grain to Cao Zhen in Hechi, and then immediately returned to Chencang.

Deng Ai came and went in a hurry, not only to supervise the transportation of the next batch of food and fodder, but also brought a document written by Cao Zhen himself.

"Greetings, Lord Wei." Deng Ai strode into the side hall of the General's Mansion at Chen Cang and bowed to Wei Zhen, who was frowning and looking at the bamboo slips behind the desk.

Wei Zhen raised his head and glanced at Deng Ai, his voice a little hoarse: "Shi Zai is back, don't be polite at this time. What is the military situation in Hechi?"

"What's wrong with Lord Wei's throat?" Deng Ai asked with concern. After that, Deng Ai looked at Wei Zhen's face again, only to find that Wei Zhen's eyes were red and his eye bags were swollen, as if he had not had a good rest for several days.

Wei Zhen shook his head slightly: "The affairs are complicated and urgent. Now that Shi Zai is back, please help me share some official duties."

"Yes, sir. This is my job." Deng Ai nodded, then took out a letter from his arms, held it in both hands and handed it to Wei Zhen.

After Wei Zhen took the document, Deng Ai said again:
"Duke Wei, the general has led his army to a place 20 miles east of Xiabian City. On the 14th and 15th, he fought two battles with the Shu army and captured several small camps."

Wei Zhen did not speak after hearing this, but sighed imperceptibly, stood up from his seat and walked to the shelf behind him that was neatly stacked with bamboo slips, pulled out two volumes that were placed diagonally, put them back on the table, and pushed them in the direction of Deng Ai:
"Shi Zai, just wait and see."

"Yes." Deng Ai responded and carefully unfolded the first volume. His brows furrowed more and more, and then he finished reading the second volume with the same expression.

Deng Ai took a few deep breaths, calmed down a little, and then asked: "Duke Wei, why is it so?"

Wei Zhen rubbed his eyes and responded, "What else can it be?"

"We can collect some food from the common people to tide us over the hard times. Even if there are some stubborn people, we can persuade them to calm down. If we collect food from the Qiang people, they won't care about the court or the government. We can take less, but if we take too much, they will fight for their lives!"

Deng Ai's throat moved slightly, and after a pause, he asked, "Duke Wei, these two bamboo slips only record the rebellion of the Qiang people in Meiyang and Chiyang. I wonder if there are similar incidents in other places?"

"Why not?" Wei Zhen laughed self-deprecatingly. "Take Meiyang and Chiyang for example. There are more than 500 Qiang people who protested and wanted to revolt. I have already sent troops to suppress them. As for the cases where dozens of people rebelled, there were even more. Not to mention other places, there were two such incidents in Chencang."

"Alas." Deng Ai sighed, "Is it because I haven't been educated enough? Why can't I understand the principle of overcoming difficulties together with the court? There was a severe drought last year, and the winter wheat has been planted. There is hope for a harvest next year. Why must it come to this?"

Wei Zhen stood up, walked to the door with his hands behind his back, and said in a deep voice: "Since Shi Zai already knows the difficulties here, he should tell the general the truth."

"Tell the general that I can only provide him with 60 days of food for his 15,000 troops. I have to take care of the people and Hanzhong. I have done my best to give the general 60 days!"

Deng Ai bowed to Wei Zhen and said, "Lord Wei has explained it clearly, and I understand. I will go to Hechi again tomorrow to supervise the grain supply, so that I can explain Lord Wei's difficulties to the general in person."

"Very good." Wei Zhen replied.

After a few moments, Wei Zhen turned back to look at Deng Ai and said, "Shi Zai, I vaguely remember hearing someone say that you were also a farmer?"

Deng Ai replied: "I have been engaged in farming since I was young, so I know a little about the difficulties and hardships involved."

Wei Zhen said: "No matter how hard it is to collect food, we can get through it if we endure it. It is better than being cut off from food supplies at the front. Shi Zai, you should understand that the faster the battle is fought at a time like this, the better it will be for the soldiers and civilians at the rear."

"I won't say anything extra, you should know your limits."

"I understand!" Deng Ai bowed again.

Just when Deng Ai was about to say goodbye and leave, Wei Zhen waved and called Deng Ai back before he had gone far:

"How many days will it take for Shi Zai to ride a fast horse to the general's place?"

Deng Ai did not think much about it and immediately replied: "It is four hundred miles away. It will take less than three days to reach the general's camp."

Wei Zhen said, "I've thought about it again. Shi Zai should go there on horseback tomorrow. It would be good to let the general know two days earlier. Food and fodder are the most important things in the army and should not be underestimated."

"As you command!" Deng Ai bowed. (End of this chapter)