I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 492 Piercing the Heart!

The snow was so heavy that it transformed the desolate, earthy land of the Central Plains overnight into a strangely beautiful landscape, resembling a rich land sprinkled with salt or silver.

"It looks nice, but it's a bit too cold."

Zhou Tai, who had just finished inspecting the camp with Liu Miao, was a native of Huainan and lived by Chaohu Lake. Chaohu Lake had never frozen over even in the coldest times. Unlike now, when even Weishan Lake and Danshui were frozen into slippery ice shards.
Zhou Taitong asked Gao Shun, who was standing next to him, with some curiosity, "Is your Bingzhou colder than this?"

"Ah."

Gao Shun remained as quiet as ever.

Perhaps unable to bear seeing Zhou Tai, this burly man, freeze like a coward, Gao Shun taught Zhou Tai a trick—

"Put your hands inside your crotch, and you won't be cold."

"Ok?"

Zhou Tai hesitated for a moment, but still managed to slip his hand under his belt...

"Whoo~~~"

The sudden chill made Zhou Tai shiver violently!

But after feeling the warmth continuously transmitted to his hands and his fingers finally starting to throb, Zhou Tai was completely absorbed in the moment.

"It's good, but it also makes my crotch feel cold."

As brilliant as Zhou Tai was, he immediately came up with a mischievous idea: "If only we could stuff it into someone's crotch!"

Gao Shun frowned and glanced at Zhou Tai, then silently moved far away from him.

"Why are you dodging? I'm not going to stuff it in your crotch! If anyone's going to stuff it in, it'll be a woman's crotch!"

Zhou Tai cursed twice, then immediately started showing off his method of keeping warm to everyone he met.

"Zilie! Come and give it a try!"

"Ziming! Don't be shy!"

"Your Majesty, is this more comfortable?"

"..."

Wearing a cloak and warming his hands over a charcoal fire, Liu Miao stared speechlessly at Zhou Tai.

"Youping...you've disgraced scholars!"

"Ah!"

Zhou Tai rolled his eyes at Liu Miao, but realizing that it was indeed somewhat indecent to have his hand in his crotch in front of everyone, he silently took his hand out and then subconsciously brought it to his nose to smell it—

Ugh, it smells bad!
After witnessing this scene, Liu Miao silently decided that he would never let Zhou Tai touch his things again, and then he discussed matters again with Zhou Yu and Lu Su, who were sitting in front of him.

"Now that it's snowing, Yuan Shao certainly won't attack."

"Although this delayed Yuan's army's attack, it was ultimately more beneficial than harmful to Yuan's army."

Liu Miao and others did not forget.

Before the war began, it was already predicted that Yuan Shao would definitely launch an attack on the Han army when the weather was coldest.

Northerners are accustomed to the cold, and they often have winter clothes or even fur coats at home; while many soldiers in the south have never left Huainan in their lives and have no idea what the so-called severe cold is like.

At least Liu Miao saw that many of the southern soldiers in his camp stared at the sky with pure and innocent eyes, and even stuck out their tongues to catch the snowflakes... It was so innocent that it was frightening!
Lu Su reported to Liu Miao: "Although we started preparing winter clothes well in advance, 30% of the soldiers still have to endure the cold. They can only stay huddled in their tents every day and are not allowed to go out casually."

"In addition, timber remains extremely scarce..."

Pengcheng has been a strategic location fought over by military strategists since ancient times.

The trees in this area often don't live past fifty years before being cut down by soldiers from who-knows-where to set up camp or keep warm.

Now, more than 100,000 Han soldiers have gathered in Pengcheng and have long since cleared all the trees around Pengcheng.

Although Zhang Zhao and Gu Yong had been transporting timber from Huainan and even Jiangdong to Pengcheng for a long time, it was still a drop in the ocean for the Han army gathered there.

"Kongming used a lot of coal for heating in Qingzhou, and we can try it in Pengcheng now."

Lu Su's eyes lit up upon hearing this: "There's no shortage of coal around Pengcheng! It could certainly be useful!"

Once the fuel issue is resolved, the rest becomes much easier.

However, Zhou Yu also had bad news to report—

"Your Majesty, the weather is cold, so we are afraid that we cannot use trebuchets, crossbows, or heavy arrows."

In the frigid weather, the bowstrings on these pieces of equipment are extremely fragile; they can be broken with just a little force.

If these long-range weapons were lost, the effectiveness of blocking Yuan's army would likely be greatly reduced.

"Tsk! So, it turns out Yuan Shao was just waiting for this!"

Liu Miao complained, but his expression showed no sign of tension.

Seeing Zhou Yu and Lu Su with long faces, I managed to make them laugh a couple of times.

"Alright! Before the war even started, didn't we anticipate that Yuan Shao would definitely wait until the coldest time to attack?"

"No matter how late the snow falls, it will eventually come down! Good luck is nice to have, but it's not something to regret if you don't!"

How could a great man possibly have all the luck in the world?

What destiny... Just listen to that stuff, it's not worth believing!

"However, there are still quite a few people on Yuan's side who believe in the concept of the interaction between heaven and man, and Yuan Shao will certainly not let this opportunity pass to boost morale, so this is actually not a good thing."

Liu Miao suddenly closed his eyes reverently: "Emperor Taizu! This Pengcheng is your territory! Look how powerful Emperor Shizu was! He directly threw a meteorite into Nanyang! As the ancestor, you can't be inferior to Emperor Shizu, can you? In consideration of my filial piety in helping you repair the ancestral temple, why don't you also throw a stone and kill Yuan Shao..."

Lu Su was exhausted: "Didn't His Majesty say that we can't rely on luck?"

"Moreover, the ancestral temple of Emperor Gaozu in Pei County seems to have been built with funds from Yuan Shao..."

"Damn it! I knew Emperor Gaozu was shameless! He'd follow whoever feeds him! Yuan Shao built him a temple, so does he think he'd send snow down for Yuan Shao?"

"..."

Faced with Liu Miao's uproarious laughter, Lu Su chose to ignore it.

"It looks like this snow will continue for another two days. After two days, Yuan Shao will probably launch a general offensive."

Zhou Yu's expression remained solemn.

"Yuan Shao's battle will likely be swift and fierce, and Your Majesty should prepare accordingly." Right now, Yuan Shao is charging headlong into Pengcheng, where the Han army is amassed, like a raging bull.

If the Han army can hold out, Yuan Shao will surely be the one to die suddenly in the end.

Therefore, it can be foreseen that Yuan Shao's well-prepared attack will be incredibly fierce, even overwhelming the Han army!

Liu Miao also stopped smiling.

"In your opinion, Gongjin, how will Yuan Shao attack?"

Zhou Yu shook his head.

"At this point, strategies and tactics are useless."

"The Battle of Pengcheng was nothing more than a change of personnel."

"If one Han soldier can only take down one Yuan soldier, then we are bound to lose."

"If one Han soldier can be exchanged for two Yuan soldiers, then we will have achieved a Pyrrhic victory."

"If one Han soldier can be exchanged for three or more Yuan soldiers, then we will have won a great victory!"

Zhou Yu recounted the most brutal aspect of war—

Duizi!

Whoever pays out the most is the winner!
"Ah."

Liu Miao let out a soft, ambiguous laugh.

"It seems that Yuan Shao thinks so too."

Even if 100,000 of Yuan Shao's 200,000 troops died, as long as they could exchange for 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers from the Han Dynasty, it would be worth it in Yuan Shao's mind.

Zhou Yu is right.

The battle has reached this point, both sides are exhausted and have no more strategies to rely on.

At this moment, the only thing that could determine victory was not Emperor Liu Miao, not Commander Zhou Yu, nor strategist Lu Su, but the soldiers fighting one by one on the battlefield.

Every soldier became crucial to this battle.

To put it bluntly, if both sides had just one more breath and managed to take one more soldier with them at the last moment, that might have been the key to the outcome of the battle.

Morale is the most important thing in this battle, without exception!

This is why Liu Miao first discussed winter clothing and coal.

He who wins the hearts of the army wins the world!
Yuan Shao clearly understood this principle as well!

A brilliantly written proclamation, penned by Chen Lin, was delivered to Liu Miao by Yuan's envoy.

Its literary style is outstanding. Even though Liu Miao didn't quite understand it, he still knew that it was probably a manifesto that would go down in history!

Upon receiving the proclamation, one should naturally reciprocate.

There were actually quite a few great writers under Liu Miao's command.

Even without Zhang Zhao and Chen Yu by his side, Lu Su, Liu Ye, and even Pang Tong and Jia Xu were all top-notch fighters.

Even if what these people write is not as good as Chen Lin's, it is still comparable to his work.

But Liu Miao directly rejected their requests.

"This time, I will write it myself!"

Lu Su was somewhat worried after hearing this.

"Your Majesty, it is a proclamation, not an insult."

"I know!"

"Your Majesty, you must not use vulgar language, otherwise you will make a fool of yourself and damage the dignity of the country."

"I know!"

"Your Majesty, I saw it all! Did you curse Yuan Shao's mother in the letter again? I've already told you not to curse people..."

"you are annoying?"

Liu Miao glared at Lu Su: "I've read more proclamations than scriptures! Do you think I don't know how to write one?"

"And what do you mean by insulting Yuan Shao's mother? Yuan Shao's mother was originally a maid! Am I wrong?"

"..."

Lu Su dared not offer any further advice, but after Liu Miao finished writing, he still carefully checked it over to prevent Liu Miao from doing anything that would harm the national dignity.

"hiss--"

"This……"

Lu Su was shocked after reading Liu Miao's "proclamation," and he even called Zhou Yu over to appreciate it together.

"Something His Majesty wrote? Zijing, don't you have anything better to do? Why waste your time on something like that?"

Unsurprisingly, Zhou Yu had great confidence in Liu Miao's literary talent!

Two out of ten sentences Liu Miao spoke might be of great benefit to one.

But what he writes? Ha! Even a dog wouldn't read that stuff!
"His Majesty's writing this time is truly different!"

"What could be different? Did he write another poem? To be fair, His Majesty does have some talent for poetry, it's just that the tonal patterns are a bit strange..."

Only after Lu Su's repeated recommendations did Zhou Yu reluctantly begin to read what Liu Miao had written.

"Uh-huh?"

As Zhou Yu looked at it, his brows suddenly furrowed.

But after watching the ending, I smiled with relief.

"Your Majesty's words are a veiled attack on the heart."

"Given Yuan Shao's temperament, if he reads this article, even if he doesn't die of anger, he'll probably be half-dead with rage, right?"

(End of this chapter)