Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 240 The First Battle
Qutang Gorge.

On the great river.

The sky was just beginning to lighten.

Liu Shan stepped out from the top deck of the ship.

He stretched and yawned towards the downstream direction of the river.

It is now the time of year when spring is still chilly and the weather is unpredictable. The mountains and rivers across the country, as well as the mighty rivers themselves, are all shrouded in a thick, damp fog that lingers.

Ten feet away, the water lost its waves.

A hundred feet away, the mountain disappears from view.

The world was a vast expanse of white.

A cold wind carrying damp mist blew in.

With the dragon banner fluttering, Liu Shan was instantly wide awake.

Zhao Guang, who was guarding the cabin, saw that the emperor, who was standing at the bow of the ship, was dressed in thin clothes. He turned back into the cabin and returned to the deck. He then presented the emperor with a fur robe and cloak and draped it over the emperor.

Liu Shan tightened his cloak himself, then turned around to look at Zhao Guang, who bore a resemblance to General Zhao:
“Pijiang, you should also go and prepare. The Longxiang warriors have been hiding their strength for a long time, and now it’s time for them to show their mettle.”

Zhao Guang took half a step back, resolutely clasped his hands in a gesture of respect, and said yes.

He then summoned his trusted confidant, Sima Jishu, gave him a few instructions, and then left the warship, jumping onto a small boat. Before long, he disappeared into the river mist.

Since Liu Shan personally led the expedition, the function of the Tiger Warriors has changed from guarding the imperial palace to becoming the elite field force of the Han Dynasty.

After Liu Shan returned the capital to Chang'an and rewarded his officials, Dong Yun, the original Tiger General, completely relinquished power, handing over his seal and four thousand Tiger Generals to the newly appointed Tiger General Guan Xing.

As for the task of protecting the emperor's personal safety, after the battle to kill Cao Zhen, it was handed over to Zhao Guang, who had gone through thick and thin with him, and a military guard named Long Xianglang.

Ryūjōrō is in charge of the inner perimeter.

Tiger Warrior was in charge of the perimeter.

The Dragon Soaring Warriors are selected from the best of the best among the Tiger Warriors, and there are only about eight hundred of them now.

Liu Shan's purpose in training the Longxiang Lang was not to cultivate fierce and resolute soldiers, but to cultivate a group of mid-level officers who were loyal to the country and to him as emperor.

These Ryushorou, who usually study and practice repeatedly, do not use killing techniques.

Rather, it refers to advanced skills that enhance their comprehensive qualities in various aspects, such as commanding troops, managing troops, using troops, and simple strategies.

They were already very skilled at killing.

The battles in Guanzhong and Hanzhong were too crucial, and these young warriors were still too inexperienced and their overall qualities were not yet sufficient to shoulder heavy responsibilities. They could only do the work that brave warriors and suicide soldiers could do.

During this expedition to Wuxian, there were seven or eight checkpoints of varying sizes along the way.

The Han Dynasty has a high margin for error in this campaign, so it can use the passes west of Wu County as a testing ground for the Longxiang warriors to hone their skills and see if they are truly sharp blades or worthless junk.

An hour passed.

The sun gradually rose higher.

The river mist and mountain fog gradually dissipated.

The warm sunlight streamed into the great river through the gap between the two gorges.

Hundreds and thousands of boats of all sizes filled the great river as far as Liu Shan could see, making it seem as if there was not a single gap.

However, the agile and nimble light boats were still able to shuttle back and forth on the river, transmitting military orders to the various warships.

The rippling water shimmered and rocked the moored boats.

The mongooses, which are larger than the small boats, are built to be narrow and long, a shape that allows them to move swiftly across the river.

The bow was fitted with a ram covered in sheet metal, specifically designed to ram enemy ships.

The raw cowhide covering the hull could not only protect against arrows, stones, and fire, but also effectively cushion the impact of the ramming hammers used by the Wu army's warships, preventing the ship from sinking after just one hit.

After several months of familiarization, Liu Shan also realized that bigger warships were not necessarily better.

For the Han Dynasty, located upstream on the Yangtze River, these inexpensive, rapidly constructed, and numerous junks with sturdy rams were the true backbone of their forces.

Taking advantage of the turbulent water, a single impact could directly destroy a large ship, just like in later times, where a drone costing a few thousand dollars can destroy precision units worth millions, making it the king of cost-effectiveness.

For the Wu navy, since they always had to fight against the current, the rammed warships were not very practical. Instead, large warships with wide and thick hulls that could withstand more impacts and carry more naval forces were more desirable.

Therefore, Wu Jun's navy was better suited to fighting in places where the river was wide and the current was calm.

The Wu Gorge downstream is not wide and the current is rapid, which is obviously advantageous to the Han army upstream. Therefore, the Wu army did not arrange boats to cross the river in front of the Iron Chain Pass.

Instead, they sailed all their main warships into a large harbor, five or six miles inland, three or four miles upstream from Tiesuo Pass.

If the Han army ships attempt to attack the Iron Chain Pass from the river, then the Wu army ships will be able to sail out from the upstream harbor, at which point the Wu navy will be in control upstream.

Wu's navy was already unparalleled in the world, and if they were allowed to occupy the upstream position, the Han navy would have virtually no chance of winning.

It was precisely because of this that Wu Jun was not afraid of the Han navy sailing downstream, so he focused his defensive forces on the Iron Chain Pass, which is the few passes guarding the iron chains across the river.

Last night, Liu Shan discussed matters with generals Chen Dao, Chen Hu, Fu Qian, and Zhang Gu until the early hours of the morning, finally finalizing all the details of this campaign against Wu.

So, before dawn today, more than 30,000 Han infantry and naval troops within a radius of 30 li had already received Chen Dao's orders and were ready to go.

Although the distance from Baidi to Wuxian is only about eighty li, that is by water, or rather, a straight-line distance.

The Han dynasty's campaign against Wu required a combined land and water advance, with infantry traversing mountains and valleys, covering no more than ten li (approximately 5 kilometers) per day.

Sometimes, when encountering obstacles, one cannot travel even ten miles.

Many of the roads that allowed large armies to pass six years ago are now in ruins and impassable.

The infantry had to spend time clearing forests and making way, so the navy had to stop and wait for the infantry to maintain their parallel advance.

This meant that a distance that a navy could cover in half a day would take a large army more than ten days to reach.

However, in battles along the Yangtze River, both naval and infantry forces are indispensable. Back then, because of the heat in the land, the late emperor ordered the army to abandon their boats and go ashore. In the end, Lu Xun saw through the flaw and that led to the defeat at Yiling.

Before long, the mountain fog completely dissipated.

Chen Dao, wearing a white feather tucked into his military cap, ascended to the top deck of the warship and petitioned the emperor: "Your Majesty, everything is ready. We may send out the troops!"

"Alright!" Liu Shan nodded in agreement and walked alongside Chen Dao to the bow of the flagship.

Not long after.

Raise the banner.

Drums sound.

The command flag is waving.

"—Knock knock."

Between the two mountains, on the river, the sound of drums responding to the flagship rose from afar.

"—Knock knock."

The sound of drums rolled in from both the north and south banks.

The Han army, which had already lined up in marching formation, began to assemble under the urging of the drums.

After just one drumbeat, the Han infantrymen within Liu Shan's sight were already aligned in all directions, standing still and waiting for the next signal.

Only when the sound of the great drums on Liu Shan's flagship resounded once more through the mountains and rivers did the Han infantrymen, positioned on both the north and south banks, slowly incline forward.

Since Liu Shan's flagship would depart a little later, Liu Shan and Chen Dao disembarked and went ashore, climbing the highest slope on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

From above.

For more than ten miles, carriages and horses with bells hung in long lines, some going up the mountain and some going down the mountain, in an endless stream.

As far as the eye could see, boats began to slowly move eastward on the great river, gradually disappearing into a steep bend obscured by towering mountains and cliffs amidst the loud shouts of the helmsmen, boatmen, and trackers.

Looking upstream, at a bend in the river where the view was also obscured by high mountains, hundreds of junks, warships, and cargo ships kept coming.

There were no wide official roads on either side of the Yangtze River, and the army that was going to attack Wu was stretched too far. The rear troops were still in Baidi City, while the vanguard was less than 20 miles away from Wu County.

When the late emperor campaigned against Wu, it was said that the sound of drums could be heard for seven hundred li without ceasing. Liu Shan thought it was an exaggeration at the time, but now it seems that it might be a true account.

...

About an hour later, Liu Shan and Chen Dao returned to the flagship.

"General Shuzhi, are Gongquan, Pijiang, and Dingjiang's troops about to reach the first line of defense of the Wu people?"

Chen Dao nodded without hesitation: "They marched the fastest and traversed dangerous roads through mountains and valleys, so they should have arrived by now."

After a pause, Chen Dao added, "Perhaps... they have already clashed with Wu the traitor!"

Wuxian County.

Xilin Pass.

There is a narrow path in front of the pass, winding and twisting, with no end in sight.

The path is flanked by dense forest and giant trees.

The vanguard of the Han army, led by Fu Qian, Zhang Gu, and Lei Bu, clashed with the Wu people who were blocking their way in the narrow paths and dense forests.

There were originally more than 500 Wu soldiers at the foot of the mountain, who blocked the way with several layers of deer antlers and several deep ditches.

The elite 800 soldiers brought by Fu Qian were easily defeated, with more than 60 people beheaded and more than 100 captured on the spot. The remaining 300 or so fled up the mountain along this secluded forest path.

When Fu Qian led his men up the mountain, they were indeed ambushed by more than a thousand Wu soldiers hidden in the dense forest.

However, to the surprise of this ambush force, the small group of Han soldiers who caught up did not show the slightest sign of fear or trepidation at the appearance of the Wu army's ambush force.

Their eyes were filled with nothing but a frenzied desire.

"Kill the thief!"

"avenge!"

The Han soldiers worked in perfect unison, each shouting loudly before charging forward to engage the Wu soldiers who were also charging up.

In an instant, the passionate cries of "Kill the traitors and avenge our grievances" and the shouts of battle and killing resounded through the mountains and valleys.

Within a radius of three to five miles, birds flapped their wings and beasts fled in terror.

Sun Xiu, the Wu clansman in charge of the ambush and the general who quelled the bandits, had a clear view of the battle situation from his high vantage point.

Although the Wu ambush troops had the upper hand, the Shu army that caught up was extremely ferocious. In less than a quarter of an hour, they turned the tables and routed the Wu ambush troops.

Fear and despair did not appear on the faces of the Shu soldiers, but rather on the faces of the generals and soldiers under his command.

"Wu Gou, prepare to die!"

Fu Qian was already tall and imposing, and now, with the bronze mask of a lion bestowed upon him by the emperor covering his face, coupled with a suit of heavy armor that was impervious to swords and spears, he looked like a god of war.

As Fu Qian shouted to kill the traitors, the soldiers who had fought alongside him to defeat the Wu bandits in the west city a few months earlier were not slow at all. They all brandished their swords and stepped forward, hacking at the Wu people with all their might.

The sounds of clashing swords were incessant.

Then came the screams of the Wu people rising and falling.

Almost instantly, the Wu people in the front row were lying on the ground.

"Kill!" Another dozen or so Han soldiers stepped forward.

Clad in heavy, impenetrable armor, with ferocious expressions, they abandoned all defense, gripping heavy spears and axes as they charged directly into the Wu army.

The great Han swordsmith Pu Yuan, who was discovered by the emperor last year, forged the Su Tie steel sword using the double-liquid quenching method. The sword pierced straight through the Wu people's iron armor and cut deep into their flesh and bones.

Wei Xing's younger brother, Wei Qi, wiped the blood splattered on his face and took a breath while pressing the tip of his knife against the stone steps.

During his charge, the blade of his iron sword had become chipped and worn, and at least seven or eight Wu soldiers had died under its blade.

Right at his feet, a Wu soldier, his belly ripped open, was still alive, his fingers like chicken claws digging into the moss in the cracks of the stone.

"Lord Du, need a new knife?!" a soldier behind him shouted, handing Wei Qi a prepared knife. "The Wu people's armor is as flimsy as paper!"

Wei Qi waved his hand, pulled out a whetstone from his waist, and began rubbing the blade on the stone steps with the blood.

After chasing the enemy for a long time and killing more than a dozen people, he was exhausted. Now he was sharpening his knife as a way to rest and recover his strength.

The distinctive steel grain of the Sutetsu sword was faintly visible beneath the bloodstains.

According to those above, this kind of iron-slaying knife can cut through thirty stabs of armor without bending, and it can cut through iron like mud. At first, I thought it was just bragging, but now it seems that cutting through iron like mud is indeed a bit exaggerated, but it can definitely cut through thirty stabs of armor without bending.

In the past, an iron sword would be replaced with a spare sword after it could kill three armored soldiers, but now its durability is more than doubled.

Although it's not quite as sharp as cutting through iron, the fact that the armor plates of the Wu army leader shattered when it was cleaved through shows that this blade is harder and tougher than any before.

The mountain wind carried screams from above.

Wei Qi spat out blood and threw the millstone away:
"Come with me!"

"General Fu and his men have advanced!"

The higher you go up the mountainside, the more difficult the stone steps become.

Wu Jun set up three layers of fences here, and arrows were sporadically shot down through the gaps in the wooden fences.

Several soldiers who charged too aggressively were pinned to the slope, their bodies rolling down the slope and bringing with them a lot of rubble.

"Raise your shields! Form a tortoise formation!"

Wei Qi roared, and the dozen or so survivors immediately huddled together in a hedgehog-like circle.

Arrows clanged and clattered against the iron-clad wooden shields. A young soldier trembled in fear, and Wei Qi kicked him in the backside: "What are you shaking for! Can the Wu people's bamboo arrows pierce our iron shields?!"

He said this partly to bolster his courage, and partly to tell the truth.

The shields that were replaced last year are indeed very sturdy; during one training exercise, they even withstood a close-range direct shot from a crossbow with a four-stone crossbow.

Sure enough, after the Wu army's arrow rain subsided, Wei Qi looked at his shield and saw that only a few white spots remained on the shield's surface.

"not good!"

Suddenly, a cry of surprise rang out from behind the fence.

Several streaks of silver light flashed by.

The Wu soldiers at the very front, along with their palanquins, were cleaved in two by the Han army.

Fu Qian's heavily armored elite troops finally attacked from the flank.

The axes, nearly ten feet long, were swung around, creating an extremely terrifying whooshing sound.

If it hits a knife, the knife will break; if it hits armor, the armor will crack.

In a moment of desperation, one of Wu Jundubo tried to parry with his ring-pommel sword, but both the sword and his arm were smashed into a twisted shape.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Wei Qi led his men from the prefecture to crash into the gap in the fence from the side.

A soldier from Wu charged forward with half a spear shaft, but Wu slammed it upward with the edge of his shield, and Su Tiedao cleaved into the soldier's shoulder blade.

The sensation of bones shattering traveled down the hilt of the knife, and hot blood sprayed all over his arm.

"Those who surrender will not be killed!" the Han army began to shout.

The remaining Wu soldiers suddenly launched a frenzied counterattack.

Wei Qige unleashed a slash and discovered it was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old, with bloodshot eyes shouting in some Jiangdong dialect.

He sidestepped the attack, and the hilt of his knife slammed heavily into the other man's temple.

As the boy collapsed, a crookedly embroidered amulet fell from his arms.

While Wei Qi was still in a daze, he heard the sound of wind breaking behind him.

He instinctively spun around and swung his shield, deflecting a stray arrow.

"Damn it!" Wei Qi cursed. It's easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark. He almost fell for it.

Steadying himself, Wei Qi spat out the blood and foam in his mouth, kicked the broken arrow that had been blocked by the shield, and continued to charge towards the wall with his sword.

(End of this chapter)