Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 136 Liu Bei, King of Hanzhong

Meanwhile, Hao Zhao, Wang Shuang, Wang Jun, and others were liberated from Xinfeng City.

The remaining thousand or so troops in the city quickly joined forces with the four generals Zhou Tai and Wei Ping, and held off the four southeastern formations of the Han army's Eight Trigrams Formation.

Upon seeing the group of over a thousand retainers behind Hao Zhao, clad in leather armor, displaying a dejected and fearful demeanor, and even including several hundred able-bodied men, Wei Ping was initially taken aback. He then angrily questioned Hao Zhao, who had come to join the attack:

"Hao Bodao, when you took over Xinfeng, didn't Wang Yanglie allocate four thousand armored soldiers to you?! Where are those four thousand armored soldiers?!"

Hao Zhao was speechless when asked the question. After a moment, he managed to answer: "They were all scattered by the Shu bandits... Only about a hundred of them managed to enter and defend Xinfeng. I estimate that half of them fled eastward."

Wei Ping and Zhou Tai looked at each other, speechless for a moment.

As Wang Guan looked at this group of weak and ineffective soldiers who could be of little use to the overall situation, his morale also plummeted.

Heaven have mercy! Although they knew that the four thousand armored soldiers Hao Zhao had taken away had encountered the pursuit of the Han army, and they also learned from the defeated soldiers who had managed to escape back to Baling that Hao Zhao had abandoned the four thousand armored soldiers, they never expected that only a hundred or so would be able to return to Xinfeng in the end!
According to their plan, even if they were attacked by the Shu army for several days, Xinfeng City could still provide at least three or four thousand garrison soldiers in addition to the several thousand cavalrymen led by Wen Qin!
Wei Ping hurriedly asked, "What about Wen Zhongruo? How many of his Tiger and Leopard Cavalry are left?"

Hao Zhao replied: "There are over 1,800 cavalrymen who can fight, over 300 mixed Hu cavalrymen, and 700-800 wounded soldiers from Xinfeng who are unable to ride horses and draw bows, as well as 700-800 laborers transporting grain!"

Just as Hao Zhao finished speaking and the other generals were about to speak, a sudden burst of shouts and screams erupted from the point where the two armies clashed.

The group straightened up and looked around, only to see that the elite Shu army, clad in heavy armor, had emerged from the Bagua Formation passage like sharp knives, spears thrust out.

Whether the exact number was dozens or hundreds is unknown, but it is obvious that the Wei vanguard soldiers were completely powerless against such elite troops.

"With the heavy armored soldiers of Shu now taking to the field, the Bagua Formation is probably about to collapse!" Wei Ping was not worried at all; on the contrary, he was finally overjoyed.

Just as the last two hundred heavily armored soldiers of the Great Wei were held in the hands of the General of the Flying Cavalry, and would not be released until the very last moment,
The Shu army's decision to release these elite troops, who could decisively influence the course of the battle, clearly indicated that they had no other choice.

"If we let them keep digging like this, we're afraid we'll collapse before they can hold on!" Zhou Tai shouted, then ignored the other generals and stepped into the formation, urging his troops to advance.

The Han army's heavy armored soldiers' charge was extremely effective.

After nearly a hundred Chang'an soldiers fell in the front row, the rear ranks almost lost their composure and began to collapse from both sides.

After Zhou Tai's hundreds of troops entered the battle, they first killed nearly a hundred fleeing soldiers from Chang'an, and the battle formation under his command was finally able to stabilize for a short while.

However, it only lasted for a moment.

The Chang'an defenders, who were holding the front line, had been fighting the Shu army for a long time and were severely exhausted, yet they had not been allowed to rest. They had long since entered a tacit phase of holding back their troops.

Suddenly, they were repeatedly rammed by the impenetrable iron cans, their comrades dying one after another in front of them and collapsing one after another behind them. Their fear of the Shu army quickly outweighed their fear of supervising the battle.

As Wei Chang, clad in heavy armor, charged forward with his spear, he carved a depression more than ten paces deep into the Chang'an army under the command of Zhou Tai, and a large-scale, organized rout began to occur.

Zhou Tai was too late to kill those in front of him, and countless soldiers were trampled to death in the ensuing chaos. Zhou Tai had no choice but to stay in the middle of his own army to prevent his troops from being scattered by the fleeing soldiers from Chang'an.

Nearly a hundred heavily armored soldiers, including Wei Chang, the son of Wei Yan, and nearly a thousand elite troops in the central army, did not pursue the routed and defeated soldiers of Chang'an.

They merely maintained the front line, peeling away layers of the enemy's defenses like skinning and scaling, penetrating deep into the enemy ranks at an extremely rapid pace.

In less than a quarter of an hour, they engaged the vanguard of the Zhou Tai army.

The same battle, almost like a replica, took place in the Jingyu main force led by generals Wei Ping, Sun Li, and Wang Guan.

Fu Qian, the Commandant of the Expeditionary Army, and Feng Hu, the Commandant of the Destroyer of the Barbarians, who had been waiting for battle near the canal, finally received the order from "General Liu".

The two generals then raised their banners and led four thousand elite armored soldiers into battle, cutting into the battlefield from the northeast.

This was to support Wei Yan's breakout attempt from the perimeter of the battle line.

Upon seeing the two generals coming to the rescue from the south, Meng Yan and Cuan Xi, two barbarian generals in the Eight Trigrams Formation, also received orders from the Prime Minister to divide their troops and set out into battle.

After forming a battle formation and emerging from the passage, they quickly joined forces with Generals Feng Hu and Fu Qian to cut off the communication between the four generals Zhou Tai, Sun Li, Wei Ping, and Wang Guan from the flank of the Wei army.

Subsequently, Wei Yan's central army of over four thousand elite troops, along with over three hundred heavily armored warriors, all donned their armor and entered the battle, launching the most intense and fierce attack since the start of the war against Sima Yi's main force in Jing and Yu.

Less than a quarter of an hour into the battle, the vanguard of Zhou Tai's army, which lacked heavily armored elite troops to counter, could no longer withstand the charge launched by Wei Yan's elite central army, and their formation began to falter.

The heavily armored Han soldiers fought for a long time and still had plenty of strength left, with very few casualties. This terrifying fighting power made the morale of the retreating Wei army even lower.

Whether due to the sweltering heat or the tension, Zhou Tai was drenched in sweat. He summoned a personal guard, gave him instructions for a while, and only after the guard mounted his horse and left did he continue to issue military orders, urging the rear guard to press forward and stabilize the front line.

On the banks of the canal.

A cavalryman, carrying orders, galloped up and arrived in front of Sima Yi.

"General of the Flying Cavalry! The communication between my family's military advisor, and Generals Wei Ping, Sun Li, and Wang Guan has been cut off by the Shu bandits on the outskirts, and we can no longer support each other!"
"My state military advisor was attacked by nearly a hundred heavily armored soldiers and nearly a thousand medium-armored soldiers from the Shu bandits. He was caught in a fierce battle, and two military commanders were killed in action!"

Upon hearing this, Niu Gai, a lieutenant general awaiting battle beside Sima Yi, turned deathly pale, then flew into a rage:
"Wei Ping is asking for help! Sun Li is asking for help! Wang Guan is asking for help! Now even your state military advisor is asking for help?!"

"We clearly have more troops and better physical strength, so why were we able to maintain a stalemate with the Shu bandits, with both sides winning and losing, even without deploying you out!"

"You guys were deployed out, but now you're asking for help everywhere!"
"Could the Shu bandits really conjure soldiers from beans? Or are they all made of iron?!"

Zhou Tai's personal guards were also furious: "Our military advisor Zhou is not here to ask for help! He just has something he wants to ask the General of the Cavalry!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Chang, Niu Jin, Yin Damu, Sima Shi, and more than ten others who were watching and waiting for the battle on the platform were all stunned.

Sima Yi also slowly withdrew his gaze from the battlefield, staring intently at Zhou Tai's personal guards and asking, "What do you want to ask?"

The blood-soaked guard replied:
"My family's state-level military recruit said!"
He knew that the General of the Cavalry still had 14,000 to 15,000 men at his disposal, who were still conserving their strength and had not yet been deployed!

"It is also known that after Zhao Zilong sent two detachments to reinforce the south from the north of the canal, there are probably fourteen or fifteen thousand men left besides those few thousand Hu cavalry!"
"I also know that General of the Flying Cavalry sent General Wen to join forces with Du Xi and Lü Zhao in the east, with the intention of breaking through Zhao Yun if things went wrong!"
"So let me ask you a question, General of the Flying Cavalry: are you planning to fight Zhao Yun or Zhuge Liang next?!"
"If General Flying Cavalry goes north to attack Zhao Yun, even if we all die on the battlefield, we will hold back Zhuge Liang for General Flying Cavalry!"

"If the General of the Flying Cavalry insists on attacking Zhuge Liang, please give us a definite answer!"
"We are fighting to the death, determined to die on the battlefield?!"
"Should we conserve our strength and slowly wear down Zhuge Liang?"

Upon hearing this, Sima Yi finally fell silent.

They turned their gaze once again toward the crescent-shaped formation on the north bank of the canal.

The fact that the war had developed to this point was something he had never imagined when the war began.

Zhuge Liang clearly only had 30,000 men, was clearly attacked from both sides, was clearly unable to catch his breath for a moment, and was clearly fighting in such hot weather, so how come he became more and more courageous after the Wei finally deployed its well-rested Jingyu main force?

At this thought, the general's heart grew increasingly bitter, and his throat increasingly dry. He let out a barely perceptible long exhale before feigning composure and saying:
"Those who abandon formations in their military operations are destined to be defeated generals."

"A general who seeks victory by clinging to battle formations is a fool."

"Zhuge Liang's formation is indeed strong, but it lacks offensive capability. It cannot win with this formation, but it can only ensure that he is invincible."

"The fact that Zhao Yun has now sent two detachments of his troops to aid Zhuge Liang in the south is enough to show that Zhuge Liang's Bagua Formation has reached its limit."

"The elite troops of Shu were all in Zhuge Liang's army, while Zhao Yun's force was just a small, weak detachment."

"The reason why they dared to send generals to the south must be because they thought that I had been fighting Zhuge Liang for half a day and would not abandon Zhuge Liang and head north."

"The more than 10,000 men I left in the central army to rest and recuperate are the elite of the elite, and there are also more than 200 heavily armored soldiers that have not yet been used. How can Zhao Yun's small and weak force be a match for them?"

At this point, Sima Yi suddenly gave an order:
"Wang Chang, Niu Jin, Niu Gai, Yin Damu, Zhang Jing, Shan Jun... you will lead your troops to cross the river with me to the north!"
"Zhao Yun's Crescent Moon Formation, which uses chariots as an encirclement, is exactly the same as Zhuge Liang's Eight Trigrams Formation. Both are indestructible, good at defense but not offense, and are dead objects that can remain still but not move!"

"After crossing the river to the north, we will first attack the Shu bandits and Hu cavalry together with the light cavalry brought by Du Xi and Lü Zhao, and Wen Qin's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and then attack Zhao Yun's army formation!"

"If Zhao Yun gets into a tough battle, Zhuge Liang will definitely have to disperse his troops and go north to provide reinforcements!"

"Thus, Zhuge Liang's formation will collapse without a fight!"

After saying this, he looked at Zhou Tai's personal guards and said, "I order your military advisor to hold the line. There is no need to fight to the death. Zhuge Liang will surely break his formation and flee within an hour!"

The state's personal guards received the order and rushed off.

Xinfeng City West.

In the ranks of the Taizhou army.

The front of the battle line, which was over a hundred paces long, had been carved out by Wei Yan's elite central army, creating a depression more than twenty paces wide.

His son, Wei Chang, took the lead, leading more than forty heavily armored soldiers deep into the area, with another forty heavily armored soldiers following closely behind.

The Wei soldiers around the depression dared not confront its attack directly, as if they were terrified, and could only parry and retreat continuously.

Seeing this, Hao Zhao hurriedly led Wang Shuang, Wang Jun, and their last seventy or eighty personal guards and family soldiers to the flank to join forces with Zhou Tai.

Upon encountering Zhou Tai, Hao Zhao, drenched in blood and sweat, ignored the sight of it blurring his vision and shouted at the top of his lungs:
“Military Advisor, these nearly one hundred heavily armored soldiers are the elite of the Shu bandits. If no pillar of support steps forward, your forces will collapse sooner or later, ruining the entire plan!”

Zhou Tai's eyes were bloodshot:

"How could I not know! But I am also without help. If I am defeated and die in the battle, this formation will be without a commander and will also collapse! You have come at the right time, so please stand behind me and hold the line!"

Hao Zhao shook his head directly, then adopted a resolute expression:
"State Military Advisor, that's not what I meant!"
"I never imagined the battle would be so difficult. Ziquan (Wang Shuang) and I have long since lost all our troops. Now, all we can do is lead our personal guards to the front and do our last bit of strength for the Great Wei!"

Zhou Tai suddenly paused.

When the Shu army charged out of the formation just now, he never imagined that it would be so difficult to fight, that the Shu bandits would be so powerful, and that they would fight so swiftly. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they were as devastating as a hot knife through butter.

Is it now that even a great general like Hao Zhao is forced to step forward and fight to the death for the country in order to win this battle?

Ignoring Zhou Tai's demeanor, Hao Zhao resolutely declared as if giving an order:
"I intend to cut off this elite Han army force that has penetrated deep into the battle lines. If necessary, I request that the military advisor of the prefecture bring your personal guards forward as well, and make sure to annihilate this heavily armored warrior here!"

"it is good!"

Zhou Tai resolutely changed his expression; he couldn't wait for Sima Yi's order, and he couldn't care less at this moment.

North of the canal.

Central Commander's Platform.

Fully armed, with a bow and sword at his side, Liu Shan suddenly saw something, and his heart pounded wildly. Finally, he abruptly stood up from his chair.

The armor plates rattled.

Whether it was due to excessive excitement, excessive anxiety, or some other emotion, his body trembled slightly uncontrollably.

He could only grip the sword at his waist tightly and press his feet down as if trying to sink himself into the rammed earth platform, so that he could barely appear calm and composed as always.

Behind him, Zhao Yun, Zhao Tong, Zhao Guang, Guan Xing, Zong Yu, Deng Zhi, Yang Tiao, Wei Xing, and more than twenty others stood up straight and quietly looked towards the south bank of the canal.

Before long, a tall banner bearing the words "Sima" crossed the canal to the north.

At the same time, the central army of the Wei army, which surrounded the tall banner, crossed the river to the north.

Seeing this, the young general, who was called the Emperor of Han, seemed to have made up his mind. After straightening his helmet, he took a few big steps to the old general's side, grabbed the old general's hands, and held them tightly: "General Zilong, please take good care of yourself."

Zhao Yun nodded.

The Han emperor immediately released his grip and turned to walk down from the platform without hesitation.

Generals Zhao Guang and Deng Zhi, leading over three thousand elite cavalrymen, followed closely behind, while Tiger Cavalry Supervisor Mi Wei led a hundred Tiger Cavalrymen to the banks of the canal.

When Sima Yi's central army crossed the canal northward from upstream, with more than half of his troops already deployed, three thousand Han soldiers, escorting a banner with the character "Deng," crossed the canal southward from three or four miles downstream.

Half an hour later, all 14,000 to 15,000 men of Sima Yi's central army crossed the canal, formed ranks, and then slowly marched eastward.

Meanwhile, more than ten miles to the east, downstream of the canal, Du Xi, Lü Zhao, Yue, Zhang Hu, Wen Qin and other generals, who had long been waiting after crossing the canal to the north, led more than ten thousand infantry and cavalry westward.

At the same time, the three thousand armored soldiers under the Deng banner had all crossed to the south of the canal and then gathered towards the Prime Minister's army.

At the same time, a golden banner symbolizing the emperor's majesty was raised from the platform where Zhao Yun was located.

South of the canal, the three thousand armored soldiers of the Prime Minister's army, who had gathered there, had another Golden Guard banner hidden within their ranks.

The inscription contained five characters.

Liu Bei, King of Hanzhong.

(End of this chapter)