Transmigrating to the Three Kingdoms as Lu Bu: I Have a Pseudo-Apocalypse System

They were blessed with divine provisions, which greatly increased their marching speed.

When encountering narrow roads, Lü Bu would take out stone slabs or wooden planks to widen them; when encountering mountain streams blocking the way, he would take out prefabricated wooden bridges to build; when encountering cliffs with no way out, he would take out ropes and iron shovels to have the engineering battalion carve out new paths; when encountering muddy places, he would take out stone blocks to place in them as stepping stones.

What made the soldiers most comfortable was the supply of food and provisions. Whenever they set up camp, Lü Bu would take out hot meals and clean drinking water from his storage space. The soldiers were full and energetic, showing no signs of the hardships that other armies faced when marching through the Qinling Mountains.

Two days later, the army arrived at Yaling Pass, the main ridge of the Qinling Mountains, on the Baoxie Road.

This is the highest point of the Qinling-Baoxie Road, a natural pass with sheer cliffs on both sides, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle. Zhang Lu's army built a wall here and stationed 500 soldiers under the command of Wang Jie, a general.

Cao Xing suggested, "My lord, this place is so strategically important that one man can hold it against ten thousand. It would be better to send troops to scale the cliffs and flank from the rear, attacking from both sides."

Lu Bu shook his head: "No need for that trouble."

He rode his horse a hundred paces to the pass and shouted, "Listen up, commanders of the pass! I am Lü Bu, Grand Marshal, Chancellor of the Imperial Secretariat, and Duke of Jin, here by imperial decree to punish the disobedient. If you open the pass and surrender, you will be spared death and employed according to your abilities. If you resist, when the pass falls, we will all perish!"

The garrison at the pass had already received reports from their scouts and remained calm and prepared for battle.

The garrison commander, Wang Jie, appeared behind the gate and shouted, "Lord Jin, please forgive me. I am under orders from Zhang Shijun to guard the pass and dare not open it without permission. Please withdraw your troops, Lord Jin."

Lü Bu sneered: "Zhang Lu has seized control of Hanzhong, disobeying neither the orders of the Governor of Yizhou nor the orders of the imperial court. Now I am ordered to punish him, so you should not make the same mistake again."

Wang Jie ordered a messenger to quickly inform Zhang Lu, and then replied to Lü Bu, "Duke of Jin, please stop talking. We only obey Zhang Shijun's orders. If you want to pass through, you'll have to die."

Seeing that the other party was stubborn, Lü Bu stopped wasting words and immediately took out ten catapults, five ballistae, and set them up in front of the pass, along with piles of stone projectiles.

"I'll ask you one last time, will you turn it on or off?" Lu Bu's voice turned cold.

The garrison at the pass was in an uproar when they saw the catapults and ballistae appear out of nowhere.

They had only heard of Zhang Lu's various supernatural abilities, but had never witnessed them firsthand. However, they were now witnessing firsthand the legendary divine power bestowed upon Lü Bu.

Such large siege weapons could not possibly be transported in via the Qinling plank roads unless they were built on-site at the pass.

But how could the gatekeepers allow you to slowly build siege weapons? They will surely sabotage you.

That's why mountain passes are so difficult to breach. But conversely, the fortresses are not as strong as those defended against catapults and giant crossbows, and their walls are not as thick as those of large cities on the plains.

Upon seeing the appearance of ten catapults and five ballistae, Wang Jie knew that Yaling Pass could not be defended. Moreover, even if they held on to the death, how many of the soldiers on the pass, who had witnessed Lü Bu's divinely bestowed abilities, truly had the will to fight to the death?

It's even possible that while the two sides are engaged in a battle of offense and defense, someone might betray them on the battlefield and gain merit in front of Lü Bu.

After much deliberation, Wang Jie had no choice but to turn it on and off.

The gate slowly opened, and the drawbridge was lowered.

Lü Bu led his army into the pass and disarmed the garrison.

Wang Jie knelt down and begged for forgiveness: "I was unaware of the divine granary bestowed upon Duke Jin by Heaven, and offended the majesty of Heaven. My crime deserves ten thousand deaths."

Lü Bu dismounted and helped him up, saying, "Ignorance is no excuse. Since you are willing to surrender, come with me to conquer Liu Zhang."

Wang Jie was moved to tears: "Thank you, Duke Jin!"

However, Wang Jie later reported that he had ordered a messenger to send a message to Zhang Lu in the rear. Presumably, there must be a large army guarding the passes in the rear.

Lü Bu said he didn't care, as he possessed the divine ability to store all kinds of grain, military supplies, and siege equipment. No matter how many troops Zhang Lu had, they could not stop him from passing through the passes and attacking Hanzhong.

After capturing Yaling Pass, the army entered the southern foothills of the Qinling Mountains and continued its advance.

The remaining passes along the way were relatively small, some only able to accommodate a few dozen people for defense, essentially functioning as beacon towers, and naturally unable to stop Lü Bu's army of tens of thousands.

The key point is that when Wang Jie opened the gates to surrender, some of Zhang Lu's loyal confidants escaped in advance and reported to the passes along the way that Lü Bu had the ability to be granted divine granaries by heaven.

Therefore, the passes along the way either surrendered at the mere sight of the enemy or fled, and Lü Bu's army did not have to exert much effort to attack them.

The only difficult task was repairing the plank roads. This was because some of Zhang Lu's loyal subordinates who abandoned the pass and fled destroyed the plank roads along the way.

Fortunately, with Lu Bu's divine granary, it was very convenient to transport materials and prepare various tools in advance.

Otherwise, just building roads and transporting provisions would take a year and a half, which is why Hanzhong was able to establish its own independent regime in ancient times. Whether it was the various ancient Qinling roads to the north, or the Jinniu Road and Micang Road to the south, they were all naturally excellent defensive passes.

While Lü Bu was repairing the road and leading his army forward along the Baoxie Road, Liu Zhang's army and Zhang Lu's army clashed and exchanged insults before suddenly realizing there was a misunderstanding.

Whether Zhang Lu intended to surrender Yizhou to Lü Bu or Liu Zhang killed Zhang Lu's mother, these are all rumors. Although Zhang Lu's mother was imprisoned by Liu Zhang, she was perfectly fine; she was not dead.

The two sides faced off at Yangping Pass. Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu immediately realized that this was definitely a rumor spread by Lü Bu's spies, intended to incite the two to fight, create chaos in Yizhou, and allow Lü Bu to reap the benefits.

Just then, Lü Bu ignored Zhang Lu's offer of allegiance to seize Hanzhong and led his army across the Baoxie Road, confirming Lü Bu's strategic intention to take advantage of the internal strife in Yizhou.

Liu Zhang immediately ordered his men to send Zhang's mother and family to Yangping Pass overnight, so that Zhang Lu could see them in person and confirm that his mother was not dead. This would also prove that the conflict between the two was a scheme by Lü Bu to sow discord.

However, Zhang Lu asked Liu Zhang to release his mother, but Liu Zhang did not agree.

On the advice of his advisors, Liu Zhang continued to detain Zhang's mother, citing fear that Zhang Lu would join forces with Lü Bu to attack him. Liu Zhang kept Zhang's mother detained, allowing Zhang Lu to focus all his efforts on resisting Lü Bu's attack.

Without Zhang Lu's mother in his possession, Liu Zhang feared that Zhang Lu might actually surrender to Lü Bu, leading to an attack on him by Lü Bu's forces. Therefore, Liu Zhang's goal was to hold Zhang Lu captive, forcing him to focus all his efforts on resisting Lü Bu's southward advance.

Seeing this, Zhang Lu had no choice but to withdraw all the troops from the Micang Road and also withdraw a lot of the garrison at Yangping Pass, leaving only a few thousand men to guard the pass and prevent Liu Zhang from launching a surprise attack. The remaining troops were then deployed to Jitou Pass at the southern end of the Baoxie Road to await Lü Bu's arrival.

Although Zhang Lu had learned that Lü Bu possessed the divine ability to store grain and carried countless provisions and military supplies, and could travel dozens of miles a day even on the ancient Qinling Mountains, he still had no choice but to confront Lü Bu.

Because his mother was in Liu Zhang's hands, if he couldn't stop Lü Bu's southward advance, his mother might die. This was unacceptable to Zhang Lu. Therefore, he had no choice but to personally take command at Jitou Pass, preparing for a decisive battle with Lü Bu.