My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 526: We can only leave the choice of fate to our allies
"Pang Xi's old subordinates are so weak in combat effectiveness? The lord has been sidelined by the other generals and has difficulty controlling his subordinates, so that the soldiers have no will to fight. It's true that the ice is three feet thick and it didn't freeze overnight."

After Wu Yi failed in his first attempt to sneak into Yangping Pass, he hurriedly cut down trees to make simple ladders and battering rams that night, and launched a formal assault the next day. However, after a whole day of bloody fighting, in addition to leaving behind thousands of corpses and even more wounded soldiers, he was completely unable to shake this dangerous pass.

So much so that after a whole day of exhausting and bloody battle, Wu Yi began to doubt his life and couldn't help but express such emotion.

When attacking from Zitong and Jiameng, the size of Liu Zhang's army under Wu Yi was as large as 30,000 to 40,000 people, which could be regarded as pulling out the main defense forces in the area. Only a few thousand people remained in Jiameng Pass and Zitong. It was necessary to draw second-line troops from Chengdu, Fucheng, Mianzhu and other places to block the pass and reinforce the defense in order to ensure the absolute safety of Jiameng Pass.

During this period, although the combat effectiveness of the Shuzhong army was not good, the number of troops was still sufficient.

As the region with the least war and the most isolation from the outside world in the late Han Dynasty, Yizhou only had some small-scale civil unrest and had never had any protracted conflicts with the princes of the outside world.

At the peak of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population of Yizhou exceeded five million. In the late Han Dynasty, there were some rebellions by the Yellow Turbans and the Rice Bandits, but they were quickly quelled. Today, the population still remains around three million. Among the thirteen states in the world, it is only slightly smaller than Jizhou (Yuzhou also had a large population in peacetime, but it was severely devastated by war and is now far less than Yizhou).
With a population of more than three million, Liu Zhang could still maintain a defensive force of 40,000 to 50,000 at the Jiameng Pass front. In case of emergency, he could of course withdraw more than 30,000 troops for a defensive counterattack.

Unfortunately, more than 30,000 people were unable to defeat Yangping Pass, which was defended by 2,000 people. After Wu Yi and Yang Huai and Gao Pei had a real battle, all they got was a mess and increasingly decadent morale.

That night, Wu Yi patrolled the camp with a heavy heart. Hearing the screams and wails coming from the wounded camp as the wounds were treated, he became more and more suspicious of his lord's order to advance recklessly.

Wu Yi didn't think much about it and subconsciously walked towards the wounded camp.

When the tent curtain was opened, a bright fish oil lamp was seen lit inside. The military doctor skillfully wiped the wounds of the wounded with liquid that smelled of strong alcohol, causing even more painful wails. Then, he mixed the boiled medicine with white linen gauze and applied it to the wounds, slowly wrapping them tightly.

Seeing this scene, Wu Yi's heart was even more shaken, because he personally felt the changes in Liu Zhang's army over the past year.

……

That kind of liquor-like liquid was sold by merchants from Jingzhou to local merchants in Yizhou after the General of Chariots and Cavalry entered Sichuan to provide assistance, and then was slowly transported along the Fu River to the Zitong front.

Merchants from Jingzhou unloaded their goods at Chaotianmen Wharf in the east of Jiangzhou City using large ships on the Yangtze River. Local merchants from Yizhou in Zitong then went to Ciqikou Wharf in the west of Jiangzhou City to purchase goods and resell them to counties along the Fu River.

The Jingzhou merchant who sold the goods also specifically explained how to use this thing to enhance the army's combat effectiveness and treat the wounded.

At that time, because Wei Yan was fighting a bloody battle with Xiahou Yuan in Diaoyucheng, wounded soldiers were transported back to Jiangzhou from time to time for treatment. So the officials and merchants of Jingzhou under Liu Bei showed the treatment process to the merchants of Yizhou to verify the efficacy.

When the merchants in Yizhou saw that this thing was effective, they just bought it. In the end, General Pang from Zitong would pay for it anyway, so there was no way the army would not want such a good thing.

Other white linen bandages for wrapping wounds and other military supplies were also purchased from merchants in Jingzhou.

At the same time, the Jingzhou merchants in Ciqikou did not forget to ask the Yizhou merchants to purchase medicinal materials such as Panax notoginseng and Aconitum kusnezoffii produced in southern China.

Under the medical conditions of the Han Dynasty at that time, Chinese doctors were not very familiar with the use of these tropical herbs. There were very few records of these tropical plants in Chinese medical books, including Zhang Zhongjing's "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" and Hua Tuo's "Qing Nang Shu" - it was not because Zhang Zhongjing or Hua Tuo's medical skills were not comprehensive, but they were really limited by geography. They had never been to the tropics in their lives and it was impossible for them to imagine them out of thin air.

Therefore, the main ingredient of "Yunnan Baiyao" in later generations was obviously thought of by Zhuge Jin, the time traveler, based on the common sense of his previous life. After Liu Bei and his second brother Zhuge Liang entered Sichuan, Zhuge Jin reminded his second brother in their daily correspondence:

We can try the medicinal herbs from the four southern counties to see how effective they are in healing the soldiers. If necessary, we can also hire some southern barbarian witch doctors at a high price to discuss and verify with the Chinese doctors in the army.

Zhuge Liang never dared to ignore his elder brother's care, so he started planning last fall, spent several months, and found medicinal herbs and southern barbarian witch doctors in the winter.

This spring, they took the opportunity to conduct some clinical verification on the wounded soldiers brought back by Wei Yan and Xiahou Yuan from the Diaoyucheng battlefield, and found that it was indeed effective. Later, merchants in Jiangzhou heard about this matter to some extent, and even local merchants in Yizhou began to purchase Panax notoginseng and Aconitum kusnezoffii directly from Nanzhong.

The soldiers of Liu Zhang's army in Zitong had only received a small amount of this medicine in the past one or two months. They didn't expect that the first time they would use it in actual combat would be when they attacked Yangping Pass.

These herbs were of course native to Yizhou. But because Liu Bei had done so many good things to win the hearts of the people during his six months in Sichuan, and because of the precedents of alcohol and gauze bandages, the soldiers of Yizhou spread rumors and said that this new wound medicine was sold to Yizhou by Liu Bei's army.

This is not surprising. After all, the Zhuge brothers created so many miracles that in the end some things were not produced by them. But as long as they were new and had miraculous effects, the people and soldiers were happy to believe that this thing must have been produced by Zhuge.

Just like in the original history, during the middle and late period of the Later Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang had passed away for 20 to 30 years, but whenever the Later Han Dynasty came up with a good policy that benefited the country and the people, the local people in Yizhou would spread the word: I heard that this good policy was initiated by the second generation of Wu Hou (Zhuge Zhan). Even if the good thing had nothing to do with Zhuge Zhan, the people would attribute it to him and make associations. It can only be said that the prestige inertia of the surname Zhuge is too great.

The current situation is quite different from the original history, but the principle is the same.

As soon as he saw his own troops, he took the good things brought by Liu Bei's army to heal his wounds and improve his combat effectiveness, but his purpose was to snatch the fruits of victory from Liu Bei after defeating Xiahou Yuan and to be the one who picked peaches. The key is that he hasn't picked them yet.

Wu Yi felt in his heart that he was being punished by God, which was why his life was so unlucky.

"My lord, you are so greedy that you have no self-awareness. But the army has already arrived here, what can we do? If we want to retreat, we will probably be intercepted by Xiahou Yuan halfway, and then we may not be able to return alive...

We can only continue to attack, while strengthening the camp, and try to delay Xiahou Yuan along the Jinniu Road until the reinforcements from Lord Xuande arrive to attack from both sides."

Wu Yi was thinking about his next move in his mind.

……

In the next two days, Wu Yi continued to attack Yangping Pass fiercely, but Cao's army held on despite Liu Zhang's army, which was more than ten times larger than Cao's.

Even though Wu Yi continued to upgrade his engineering equipment and rushed to build a few simple, crudely made ladder trucks, he was still unable to break in.

As for the Ge Gongche, Liu Zhang's army has not yet mastered all the technology for it. At most, they have only seen its appearance from friendly forces, and there is not enough time to build it.

Seeing that the hope of breaking through the pass was becoming increasingly slim, Wu Yi invested more and more energy in the construction of the camp, obviously hoping to use this as a retreat.

He summoned two generals, Yang Huai and Gao Pei, and asked them to divide the work every day, one to be responsible for setting up camp and strengthening it, and the other to be responsible for attacking the stronghold.

Wu Yi also gave them some instructions on the selection of the camping site: "When our army sets up camp, the first thing we need to do is to defend the camp outside Yangping Pass. This is the key point. Even if we fail to break through Yangping Pass, we can at least block Xiahou Yuan's way back to Yangping Pass and prevent him from passing.

In this way, as long as we hold out long enough, the main force of the General of Chariots and Cavalry will come to rescue us and attack us from the front and back. We will focus on defending the camp while the General of Chariots and Cavalry will attack. We will surely be able to annihilate Xiahou Yuan in the field! At least we will force Xiahou Yuan to abandon his main force and all his baggage and carts and return to Hanzhong via the Mi Cang Mountain trail.

Doing this may not ultimately accomplish the lord's mission to capture Yangping Pass, but it can be considered as cooperating with friendly forces to annihilate the enemy's main force. Then join forces with friendly forces to break through Yangping Pass together.

However, this plan is somewhat risky. If Xiahou Yuan comes with great force and tries desperately to escape, we will be in trouble if we cannot stop him. Moreover, we also have to consider that the pursuers of the Chariot and Cavalry General may be delayed by Xiahou Yuan and may not be able to arrive in time to attack us.

Therefore, our army needs to set up another deputy camp in the valley of Chencang Road, northwest of Yangping Pass, near Hechi County, in case of emergency. If Xiahou Yuan's attack is really fierce and we cannot block the road outside Yangping Pass, we will retreat to the northwest deputy camp in an orderly manner.

By then, Xiahou Yuan will have a way back to Yangping Pass. He will definitely be in a hurry to return to the pass to rest and will not chase us to death. We can at least leave a way to survive and wait for reinforcements."

As Wu Yi spoke, he gestured to Yang Huai and Gao Pei on the map.

His words may be difficult to understand for readers who don't look at the map of Hanzhong and its surroundings, but you will understand it after just one look at the map. The road outside Yangping Pass is a sideways "human" shape with two north-south forks. Wu Yi's main camp is blocked at the intersection of the human shape, which will block Xiahou Yuan's way back.

But if the deputy battalion retreated to the northwest to the V-shaped line, that is, retreated to the direction of Hechi County on Chencang Road, it would give up the main road and allow Xiahou Yuan to avoid risking his life when necessary, but the price would be that Xiahou Yuan might run away.

Yang Huai and Gao Pei didn't really want to fight Xiahou Yuan to their death, so they decisively followed the coach's backup plan and decided to fight while leaving themselves a way to retreat.

Of course, this retreat also has big problems. For example, if Wu Yi wants to defend himself for a long time, his food supply will be cut off by Xiahou Yuan. In the final analysis, he still has to bet that Liu Bei will come to reinforce him as soon as possible.

-

(Note: The above is already 3,000 words, so I won’t post an Easter egg chapter here, because I’ve posted something exactly the same before, and I don’t want to copy my own words.

You can go back and look at the map in Chapter 73 of "The Three Kingdoms Begins with Tricking Liu Bei" titled "I Didn't Expect You to Be Such a Yangping Pass", which contains a detailed geographical analysis and explanation.)
(End of this chapter)