My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 527: Liu Bei: We can’t just stand by and watch someone die, but we must also win people over with virtue
When Wu Yi failed to capture Yangping Pass by force, he began to make preparations for both situations. While attacking by force, he also reinforced the camp to block the entrance and leave a way of retreat for himself.

Such an operation, of course, won the support of Yang Huai and Gao Pei, who didn't want to fight to the death.

Although Wu Yi's operation still had many details to deal with, we had to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time. As long as he didn't force his brothers to die in vain and attack at all costs, everything else was negotiable. There was no need to confront the head coach right away.

Moreover, Yang Huai and Gao Pei were not wise generals in history. They had low intelligence, were slow to see things and react, so it was normal that they did not see the potential risks for a while.

After two days of such changes, Yangping Pass was still not captured, and Xiahou Yuan's troops were getting closer and closer.

On the night of the 22nd, the fourth day after Wu Yi arrived at Yangping Pass, Fei Guan, who was in charge of the defense of Jiameng Pass, delivered the last urgent report: Xiahou Yuan's vanguard cavalry had passed outside Jiameng Pass tonight, turned into Jinniu Road, and headed straight for Yangping Pass.

The messenger who delivered this letter escaped before Xiahou Yuan's army passed through the pass. From then on, the Jinniu Road was controlled by Xiahou Yuan, and it was impossible for Liu Zhang's army to send messengers unless they could annihilate or defeat Xiahou Yuan.

The total distance from Jiameng Pass to Yangping Pass is 150 miles.

Considering that during the time the messenger ran the 150 miles, Xiahou Yuan's army could also run dozens of miles, so when Wu Yi saw the letter, it meant that Xiahou Yuan was probably less than 100 miles away from him.

This news made Yang Huai and Gao Pei quite nervous. They also realized that it was impossible to break through Yangping Pass, and they only had two options left:

In other words, you have to choose between blocking Xiahou Yuan's way back to the pass or letting our army hold on to the pass without Xiahou Yuan's way back.

Wu Yi and the two generals sat down again, lighting lamps in the night to discuss the final strategy for battle.

Everyone thought that unless Liu Bei's army could come to our aid within three or four days, or at most five or six days, our army could still hold off Xiahou Yuan by defending the camp and blocking the entrance.

If Liu Bei had arrived later, his side would most likely not have been able to hold on and would have had to retreat to the secondary camp along the Chencang Road, allowing Xiahou Yuan to return to the pass.

It was at this time that the two generals Yang Huai and Gao Pei, who lacked wisdom and were relatively slow to react, realized a problem.

They asked Wu Yi almost in unison: "General, if we retreat along Chencang Road towards Hechi County and give up the main road in front of the pass, won't our food supply be cut off by Xiahou Yuan?
When the time comes, General Fei of Jiameng Pass will transport grain for us, and he will pass through Yangping Pass. After Xiahou Yuan retreats back to the pass, even if he doesn't dare to fight, he will at least dare to send a small force to destroy and rob the grain, right? If the General of Chariots and Cavalry doesn't come in time, how can we protect the grain by ourselves?"

Wu Yi saw how slow they were and how they only thought of this problem now, and he shook his head secretly. But it was also thanks to the slow reaction of these two useless generals, otherwise he might not have been able to appease them from the beginning.

Disaster is inevitable. Since he was asked, Wu Yi told the truth: "After we gave up the main road in front of the pass, our own food supply route was indeed lost. But three days ago, after our army started to attack the pass, I sent someone back to contact General Fei at Jiameng Pass, and before Xiahou Yuan's main force returned, he transported another batch of food and grass to our army.

In addition, when our army left the border, we brought with us half a month's worth of food. Together, these two amounts can last for more than a month. As long as the generals of chariots and cavalry arrive within a month and join forces with us, we won't have to worry about running out of food."

Yang Huai and Gao Pei's faces suddenly changed when they heard this: "What? We have to rely on others and hope that Liu Bei will come to rescue us even for such a basic need as food supply? How can this be possible?"

Wu Yi asked solemnly: "What is there to panic about? The general is the courage of the soldiers. If you are so impetuous, it will shake the morale of the army. Now we haven't fought yet, it is right to boost morale and do our best to defend!"

Yang Huai and Gao Pei were unhappy, but they did not dare to refute. They discussed some tactical details and went to rest. No words were spoken all night.

……

Another day passed, and Wu Yi still failed to shake Yangping Pass, and Xiahou Yuan's vanguard cavalry also successfully returned to the battlefield of Yangping Pass. Discovering that Wu Yi led his troops to block the main road to the pass, Cao's vanguard immediately launched a tentative attack.

It was a pity that Xiahou Yuan's generals were now dwindling. Zhang Xiu, the strongest cavalry general, was killed by Zhang Fei in the battle of Dianjiang County. Now the vanguard cavalry generals were not famous.

After a brief battle, Wu Yi had a numerical advantage of six or seven times that of Cao's cavalry, and was also defending the camp.

Cao's army launched a fierce attack but failed to break through the camp. The cavalry general leading the team was even seriously injured by the bows and crossbows commanded by Wu Yi and had to retreat in a hurry.

The Yizhou army actually won a small victory, and their morale was restored. However, the vanguard of the Cao army was all cavalry, and after Wu Yi repelled the enemy with bows and crossbows, he did not dare to pursue them and could only watch them retreat.

The Cao army cavalry general fled with his troops for dozens of miles, and finally joined up with the main infantry force of more than 10,000 people led by Xiahou Yuan that night. Xiahou Yuan wanted to punish the cavalry general for his reckless advance, but he was seriously injured by the opponent's crossbow arrow and died that night. Xiahou Yuan was too lazy to bother with him.

Another day passed, and Xiahou Yuan finally led the retreating main force of Cao's army to the outside of Yangping Pass to fight Wu Yi. When Xiahou Yuan fought Liu Bei in Dianjiang, he had more than 60,000 men, but was beaten by Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Gan Ning, and Wang Ping. He was defeated repeatedly and fled to Langzhong, with only more than 20,000 men left.

In order to prevent Liu Bei from chasing too closely, Xiahou Yuan also planned to sacrifice Feng Kai and several thousand men to defend Langzhong County as the rear guard. In addition, the cavalry vanguard attacked Wu Yi and was repelled by Wu Yi, and several hundred people were killed in the battle, leaving many wounded.

Therefore, at this moment, before Xiahou Yuan was about to fight Wu Yi, the total number of troops he could mobilize was only about 15,000 (the wounded soldiers who were recovering were not counted, only those who could go to the battlefield were counted).

In terms of numbers, Wu Yi had 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers when he left the pass. In the past few days, he had suffered casualties and lost several thousand men, leaving only 30,000 men able to fight. Therefore, Wu Yi still had twice as many soldiers as Xiahou Yuan.

Unfortunately, fighting is not about numbers, and the elite of the Yizhou army is far inferior to the backbone of Cao's army who have survived hundreds of battles. Moreover, there is a famous general like Xiahou Yuan in person.

On the day of the decisive battle, Xiahou Yuan launched a very swift offensive, personally supervised the battle, led the troops, and encouraged the soldiers in various ways:

"Generals, you must fight to the death! If we win this battle and kill Wu Yi's camp, we can return to Yangping Pass! Return to Hanzhong!
It's fine that Liu Bei and Zhang Fei are good at fighting, but now even these local mountain monkeys in Yizhou dare to come and attack us from behind! Let them see the bravery of the imperial army!"

The Cao army officers and soldiers were touched by Xiahou Yuan's truthful words, and they also knew that only by winning the battle could they secure a chance of survival, so naturally they launched an attack with swift and fierce momentum.

Wu Yi was one of Liu Zhang's most tenacious and determined men. His uncle Wu Kuang was a general under General He Jin and led the elite troops of the Northern Army. When Wu Yi and Wu Ban entered Sichuan, they also brought some of the troops who followed them from Luoyang. Now they have been added to the army as mid-level officers.

However, Wu Yi's military ability was still far inferior to Xiahou Yuan's. More importantly, Wu Yi only had airborne officers, which were useless. His soldiers were still under the command of Pang Xi and Yang Huai Gao Pei half a month ago.

The soldiers of Yizhou had not been well trained for a long time and could only fight in civil wars when the wind was favorable. They were immediately in danger after being attacked by Cao's army.

Wu Yi fought desperately and only managed to hold out for a whole day, but the casualties he suffered in the battle to defend the camp were several times higher than that of Cao's army as the attacking party. It was really cowardly and shameful.

That night, when Wu Yi discussed the follow-up battle plan with Yang Huai and Gao Pei, Yang Huai and Gao Pei seemed like completely different people, as if they were completely stunned by the thunderous attack that day.

The two of them had completely become weak surrenderists, and they repeatedly advised Wu Yi: "General, you should retreat! Retreat to the auxiliary camp on Chencang Road in the north! Leave the intersection back to Yangping Pass to Xiahou Yuan!
Cao's army fought so fiercely because we blocked their way back to the pass, and they wanted to attack Liu Bei from the front and back to annihilate him! As long as we make way for Cao's army and let them see a way to survive, they will not fight us to the death!
By then, everyone can survive, and let Liu Bei fight Xiahou Yuan! Some battles are really unpredictable until they are fought. Liu Bei and Cao Cao are far from being able to provoke our Yizhou army! Xiahou Yuan, who was beaten half-crippled by Liu Bei, can still easily crush us to death! "

Wu Yi was speechless because of these two idiots. How could there be such a cowardly and fearful general in the world? However, the two of them persuaded Wu Yi to go to the wounded camp to see how the morale was.

Wu Yi also did so and went for a personal inspection. He found that the morale of the entire army was indeed extremely low. After being suppressed and beaten for a whole day, they were all confused and terrified.

In this situation, let alone delaying Xiahou Yuan for five or six days and waiting for Liu Bei to arrive, even if we delay for another day, we might be defeated tomorrow!
In today's battle, thousands of people were killed or wounded. At night, the camp was filled with wailing and screaming. How can we continue to fight this war?
Wu Yi painfully realized the reality and finally chose to bow his head. That night he allowed Yang Huai to quietly withdraw his troops from Gaopei.

Fortunately, his main camp was blocking the road in front of Yangping Pass, right at the "human" shaped intersection.

Therefore, there was no need to worry about being ambushed by Xiahou Yuan when retreating to the northwest deputy camp, as Xiahou Yuan had no way of getting around them.

Wu Yi made up his mind to retreat, and finally successfully evacuated more than 20,000 people.

When retreating to the final stage, it seemed that the noise was too loud, and Xiahou Yuan, with his keen sense of smell, seized the opportunity and launched an attack on the camp overnight.

Wu Yi personally stayed in the main camp to guard the rear and cover the friendly forces' retreat, fighting desperately to ensure the orderly retreat. Even so, in the end, 4,000 rear guard troops were killed and wounded by Xiahou Yuan, and more than 1,000 people were killed and wounded, and more than 2,000 people surrendered directly.

Wu Yi himself escaped and retreated to the deputy camp on Chencang Road, but he was also shot by an arrow in the fierce battle. Fortunately, it was only shot by a horse bow, not a strong crossbow, so the arrow did not penetrate deeply into the flesh and did not injure the internal organs.

Yang Huai and Gao Pei retreated earlier than Wu Yi, and they were both leading the front army and the middle army, so they were not injured. But after seeing Wu Yi's tragic injury, the fear of Cao Cao became stronger and stronger, and they began to waver in their hearts.

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PS: Some people criticized me for being from Liu Zhang's perspective all day. I accept the criticism and apologize. It's mainly a three-way battle with three narrative lines. The first update tomorrow will be back to Liu Bei's perspective. Thank you for your support.

(End of this chapter)