Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 134 Reinforcements
"Your Majesty, General Zhen Dong, urgent report from the scouts: enemy infantry and cavalry have arrived at Hongmen!"
"We have discovered over four thousand warhorses! The combined infantry and cavalry force is no less than twelve thousand!"

Just as the fire broke out on the Lishan Plateau, Tiger Cavalry Supervisor Mi Wei strode up to the command platform.

The leg armor and the exposed prosthesis collided repeatedly, making a clanging sound.

"Twelve thousand?" Liu Shan asked expressionlessly.

"Are they coming for us, or for the Prime Minister?"

“The cavalry are located both north and south of the canal! The infantry are all south of the canal!” Mi Wei replied.

Liu Shan pondered for a moment and nodded slightly.

The arrival of Bingzhou light cavalry was expected, but the arrival of infantry meant that the defenders of Zheng County and Huayin City were making a desperate gamble.

If Sima Yi loses this battle, these two cities will not be able to hold for long.

“The combined infantry and cavalry force numbers no less than twelve thousand…” Zhao Yun asked with a hint of doubt.

"According to the intelligence we have recently obtained, there are only about three thousand soldiers guarding the two counties of Zheng and Huayin in the east. Has Hedong sent reinforcements again? Or have they sent laborers here to bluff their way in?"

Miwei shook his head, indicating that he did not know:
"Several thousand Wei cavalrymen came with great force, forcing my scouts to retreat and preventing them from getting close to investigate. I took a look from afar and thought... the number of cavalrymen should be more than four thousand, around six thousand."

Around six thousand? Liu Shan frowned slightly.

It's no wonder that these were distributed in two locations, one north and one south of the canal.

The corridor from Hongmen to Xinfeng is nearly twenty li long and two kilometers wide.

If all six thousand cavalry were stationed on this narrow corridor, they would easily fall into chaos if attacked or blocked, and could easily overthrow each other.

Even the more than 7,000 cavalrymen under the command of the Han were divided into two groups.

The Prime Minister left only three thousand cavalrymen in his army, while the other four thousand cavalrymen were in the wide open fields between the Wei River canals where Liu Shan was located.

Yang Tiao, who was assigned to serve at the emperor's side, volunteered:
"Your Majesty, I request permission to lead two thousand light cavalry from Anding to the east to intercept and investigate!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Shan looked at Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun pondered for a moment, then looked at the Emperor:
"Your Majesty, I believe that Yang Anding need not go."

"Whether the Wei invaders send 10,000 or 20,000 infantry and cavalry today, the key to the battle does not lie there."

"We only need to strike after the enemy has made their move, form a defensive formation here, and wait for them to tire themselves out."

Liu Shan had no objection upon hearing this.

No one was sure about the fighting strength of the cavalry from Bingzhou.

After all, they were a victorious army that had just followed Generals Tian Yu and Qian Zhao to Bingzhou and beheaded more than 10,000 Xianbei.

Of the seven or eight thousand cavalrymen currently under the command of the Han Dynasty, Yang Tiao is the most useful and the most trustworthy. Keeping him by our side is to provide a safety net for the Han Dynasty.

As for the remaining few thousand Hu cavalry from Longyou, it wasn't that Liu Shan didn't trust them.

Rather, these Hu cavalry were a loose tribal alliance, and once they encountered a major setback, elected leaders such as Yang Qianwan and Yao Kehui might not be able to command their subordinates.

After all, even the mighty general Ma Chao had suffered several losses at the hands of these barbarian cavalry.

Liu Shan had not yet established any ties of interest or emotion with these tribes, and his appeal was probably not even as strong as Ma Chao's back then.

Once their momentum falters, these barbarian cavalry might be so frightened by the Wei army that they might charge back towards the Han main force, or they might simply scatter like birds and beasts.

But they weren't without purpose.

To bolster the morale of the Han Dynasty and to unleash them to finish off the remaining enemies after the Han's victory—this was a task that could be entrusted to them, and it was something that these nomadic cavalrymen were willing to do, and even something they had always hoped to do.

At this thought, Liu Shan had a very ominous image of Fu Tianwang's Battle of Fei River, the so-called 800,000-strong army that supposedly stopped the flow of the river with its whips... In the end, didn't it all disappear without a trace?
As for the might of the Great Han Dynasty... these barbarian cavalry still don't know that the Emperor of the Great Han Dynasty is right here.

To put it bluntly, it's a lack of trust.

While leaders like Yang Qianwan might not be that stupid, their subordinate chieftains might certainly do something foolish.

Lishan Plateau.

Although the five Wei generals, Zhou Tai, Sun Li, Wang Guan, Zang Ze, and Fei Yu, each held their own positions, their current situation was no different. They were all blinded by the thick smoke, unable to open their eyes or see anything.

Before they even reached the Han army camp, the Han army had already set it on fire.

Driven by the southeast wind, the flames continued to devour the scorched vegetation, forming a wildfire that stretched for over two miles and was sweeping toward the Wei army's position at an ever-increasing speed.

The wind fanned the flames, and the fire, fueled by the wind, quickly spread to the dry grass and oil that the Wei soldiers had thrown down in their panic, making the wildfire burn even faster and more fiercely.

The scorching heat, almost tangible, blew in waves towards the Wei army in the southeast, making the armor on the Wei soldiers increasingly hot, and soon almost unbearable.

Meanwhile, the four or five thousand Han soldiers who had set fire to the platform earlier were incredibly brave. Taking advantage of the Wei army's disarray, they braved the heat and clashed with the Wei soldiers who had climbed onto the platform, killing and wounding more than three hundred of them before calmly retreating to the side behind the fire.

Seeing the fire growing stronger and closer, the Wei army on the platform dared not advance further to engage in further conflict, yet they also dared not easily withdraw from the platform. They could only keep sending people to Sima Yi's central army to request orders.

"What's going on?" On the central command platform, Sima Yi remained calm, as if he could remain unmoved even if Mount Tai collapsed before him.

Zhou Tai's personal guard hurriedly reported: "General of the Flying Cavalry! Before we even approached the Shu bandits' camp, they set fire to it before us! My general asked whether we should go to relieve the siege of Xinfeng!"

Sima Yi sighed slightly upon hearing that it was indeed as he had expected.

He had considered the southeast wind, and he had also thought that the Han army would be prepared for fire attacks; these were all things that were expected to happen.

But in general, he still held onto a sliver of hope, thinking that the Han army might overlook it and that the Wei army could circle around to the back of the Han army's camp and set it on fire.

In this way, all the soldiers and laborers left in that village can be driven out and then driven to disrupt the Han army's formation.

Even before Zhou Tai and his men successfully ascended the platform, he had another speculation: that Zhuge Liang might be on that platform, commanding from a high vantage point.

After all, the wooden palisades of the Han village on the plateau stretched all the way to the city of Xinfeng, and the Han army's forward-protruding Bagua formation conveniently shielded the camp from the side and rear.

"The Shu bandits set fire to the plateau; aren't they afraid of burning themselves down and their own camp?!" His son, Sima Zhao, exclaimed in disbelief.

Before Zhou Tai's personal guards could reply, Sima Yi, who still appeared calm and collected, said, "The Shu bandits must have cleared all the vegetation around the camp overnight."

Upon hearing this, Sima Zhao was taken aback again and hurriedly said:

"The intelligence we received last night wasn't..."

He stopped before he could finish his question, as if realizing how idiotic it sounded. Sima Yi took a few steps to the edge of the platform, coldly observing the two battle formations clashing. After a moment, he spoke in a chilling voice:
"Order Zhou Tai, Sun Li, Fei Yu, and Zang Ze to advance behind Wei Ping's generals."

"Then, the two groups of Fei Yu and Zang Ze will engage the Shu bandits in battle, gradually replacing the two groups of Wei Ping and Jia Xu."

"He appointed Zhou Tai, Sun Li, Wang Guan, Wei Ping, and Jia Xu as commanders of the vanguard of the remaining ten divisions."

"Any soldier in the vanguard who retreats without orders will be executed by the rear guard; any soldier supervising the battle will be executed by the rear guard!"

Sima Yi's voice was cold and stern, yet it carried a murderous aura.

General Wang Chang, standing beside Sima Yi, was taken aback at first, then asked:

"Lord Sima, if we move all the Jing and Yu armies to the rear to supervise the battle, I fear the morale of the vanguard will be unstable. What if we force the vanguard to surrender...?"

The so-called ten vanguard troops were almost entirely composed of the original garrison soldiers of Chang'an and the troops that had been defeated by the generals Cao Zhen and Zhang He.

Sima Yi frowned: "What do you mean by 'all'? Among the ten divisions, Zhang Jing and Shan Jun's divisions have four thousand men. Aren't they the elite of Jing and Yu?"

"Could it be that Wen Shu (Wang Chang) thought that I would still have selfish motives at this point, wanting to protect my Jingyu army, and that's why he made this arrangement?"

"This battle concerns the fate of the Great Wei. Must I pretend to be selfless and wager all the elite troops of my Jingyu army to appease others?"
"Now that things have come to this, if my Jingyu army presses forward but fails to break through their formation, how can those ten remnants of the defeated army possibly muster the will to fight?"
"As for the so-called forced surrender... tell them that I only need them to hold out for another half an hour. If they can't even hold out for half an hour, then they can surrender! If this can disrupt the Shu bandits' formation, then it's not impossible!"

Wang Chang was speechless for a moment.

Sima Yi's ability to say this clearly demonstrates his confidence in his Jingyu army, believing that their morale would not be affected by the defeat and surrender of the vanguard, or at least that they would not follow the vanguard in surrendering.

Sima Yi continued:

"When it really comes to the final moment, let alone those ten tribes that can be killed or abandoned, even generals like Zhou Tai, Wei Ping, and Jia Xu, if they dare to take a step back, can also be killed or abandoned!"
"There is no room for maneuver in today's battle; we must fight to the death."

After speaking, Sima Yi ordered Zhou Tai's personal guard to repeat the general's order and let him leave. Zhou Tai's personal guard turned and left with a complicated expression.

The burnt smell in the air grew stronger, making it increasingly difficult to breathe.

Sima Yi couldn't help but cover his mouth and cough twice.

Then, as if it were contagious, the brothers Sima Shi and Sima Zhao also started coughing, followed by the surrounding guards.

For a moment, the place where the General of the Cavalry's banner stood did not resemble a solemn and dignified command platform, but rather a place for dealing with infected patients.

Half an hour later.

Zhou Tai, Sun Li, Wang Guan and five other generals led 10,000 troops to reappear on the edge of the plateau. Wu Ban's 4,000-5,000 troops of the Han army saw that these 10,000 troops were about to retreat. They were not worried that it was some kind of strategy to lure the enemy deeper into the territory. They just kept chasing them.

The Wei army had trekked from the central camp four miles away to this platform, and their physical strength was greatly depleted. In addition, the sun and the fire had been scorching them, and the unexpected fire had caused chaos in the morale of the army. Under the combination of these unfavorable conditions, the Wei army was defeated and its formation became unstable when faced with the thousands of Han soldiers who were well-rested and prepared to attack the unprepared.

A quarter of an hour later, after another four or five hundred corpses and wounded soldiers were lost on and around the plateau, Zhou Tai, Sun Li and other generals, who had barely withstood the pressure from the Han army by leading from the front, finally brought the main force of the Jingyu army, which had only nine thousand men left, back down to the plateau.

Wu Ban also stopped the pursuit and began to collect the wounded soldiers along the way. He then beheaded the remaining Wei soldiers who were barely clinging to life. The civilian laborers and auxiliary soldiers who followed behind to bolster morale were responsible for picking up the swords, spears, bows, crossbows, armor, and helmets that had fallen to the ground.

Today is destined to be a fierce and arduous battle. In the end, in addition to the dual torment of physical and mental exhaustion, we may also face the reality that we simply do not have enough replacement weapons.

In the Han army formation, on the general's platform.

Seeing the Wei army that had ascended the platform being driven off the platform, and Wu Ban, who remained behind, leading his troops to retreat calmly, Meng Yan, Cuan Xi, Chen Shi, and Wei Yan, who had been comforted by the Prime Minister and returned to the general's platform to await the opportunity for battle and orders, were all greatly encouraged.

With the addition of this 10,000-strong army that had only recently risen to power and was then driven off by Wu Ban, the generals could roughly estimate that Sima Yi had deployed around 30,000 soldiers to the battlefield.

Judging from the speed at which this legion regrouped after being defeated, or from the analysis of the enemy's military intelligence gathered, this legion of about 10,000 men must undoubtedly be Sima Yi's main force in Jing and Yu.

As the Prime Minister had previously stated, the main force of the Wei army attempted to set fire to the platform but returned empty-handed. Sima Yi had already lost a step by using his limited troops, and even his mental and physical strength, which were destined to be worn down by the fierce battle and the heat, on the flanks that could not determine the outcome of the battle.

But could Sima Yi not give it a try?

As the main attacking force in today's decisive battle, the Wei army, due to various reasons, lacked sufficient battlefield intelligence and was unaware of the deployment of the Han army's forces on the left flank of the platform, the central army in the Bagua formation, and the right flank where Liu Shan and Zhao Yun were located.

To have a clear understanding of the battlefield and make targeted decisions, he must thoroughly understand the situation of the Han army's left, center, and right wings.

How can reconnaissance with firepower not come at a price?
This is the advantage of the Han army maintaining the initiative and controlling the enemy rather than being controlled by them.

On the battlefield, due to the fire on the plateau, the thick smoke was blown towards the direction of Sima Yi's central army by the southeast wind. Some of it drifted away, but some heavy particles settled down, which not only obscured the view of Sima Yi's central army, but also made the air even hotter and more difficult to breathe.

Sima Yi's central army had to move forward to the edge of the canal to take shelter, and his soldiers took turns quenching their thirst and cooling off with the canal water.

At this point, Sima Yi's central army was less than three miles from the command post where Liu Shan and Zhao Yun were located, and they could cross the canal at any time to launch an attack and probe.

For tens of thousands of foot soldiers and laborers capable of carrying out earthworks, the canal, which was only a dozen or twenty meters wide and less than two meters deep, was hardly an obstacle.

Whether it's filling with sand or building slabs, it's all very easy to do.

The Han army had no intention of hindering them. The so-called "attacking when halfway across" did not mean attacking the enemy when they were halfway across the river, but rather when half of the Han army had already crossed the river while the other half was still on the opposite bank.

Furthermore, the Wei army had already exhausted half of its manpower and energy in the fierce battle with the Prime Minister.

For them, the best approach was clearly not to cross the river to attack, but to prevent Liu Shan's right-wing Han army from crossing the canal to provide support, or in other words, to besiege the enemy and attack their reinforcements.

"General Zilong, how many men does Sima Yi's main force in the central army have left?" Liu Shan asked, unable to judge the number of his troops due to the distance.

Beneath the tall banner bearing the character "Zhao," the old general, still fully armed despite the sweltering heat, was remarkably vigorous. He declared in a strong voice, "Sima Yi has already dispatched over 30,000 troops, and in the central army... there are approximately 20,000 remaining."

Upon hearing this, Liu Shan nodded slightly, pondered for a moment, and then looked eastward. The Wei reinforcements from the east had still not arrived.

Soon, Wei Ping and Jia Xu, whose forces had been reduced by nearly 30%, were gradually replaced by the troops that arrived later. The Wei army continued its relentless and costly attack, displaying no skill whatsoever.

By this time, the battle between the Han and Wei armies had lasted for nearly two hours. It was noon, and the temperature was rising higher and higher under the blazing sun and the scorching heat of the fireworks on the plateau.

In the Wei army's ranks, some soldiers began to faint due to the extreme heat.

Initially, these fainting spells only occurred on the front lines of the fierce battle with the Han army, and there were only a few scattered individuals, sometimes three or five.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, the same fainting occurred in the rear ranks who had not yet entered the battle.

The number, like a contagion, slowly grew to ten, then twenty people.

Almost every breath, someone fainted from the sweltering heat.

In the rear ranks, where no battle has yet taken place, more and more people are finding it unbearable to endure the high temperatures and sweltering heat, and are disregarding military orders by taking off their armor to cool off.

(End of this chapter)