Summary of the previous chapter: The letter Ma Xiaoquan wrote to Xia Houyuan was actually written by Ma Xiaoquan according to the description of the source. Ma Xiaoquan did not know the purpose of the source, but fortunately, Xia Houyuan followed the first word of each column in the letter
Saw the real content...
Cao Cao really wanted to see the letter, but unfortunately Xia Houyuan didn't bring it with him when he sent someone to report.
"Well" Cao Cao tapped the table gently rhythmically, thought for a moment, raised his head and said, "Let's put this matter aside for now." After that, Cao Cao immediately ordered troops to be sent to assist Yangping Pass.
By the time Cao's military reinforcements arrived at Yangping Pass, it was already evening. There was no way. The terrain on the road to Yangping Pass was very uneven and horses could not move forward very well. They had no choice but to move forward on foot.
Several soldiers died on the way.
On the other hand, Liu Bei's army has many precipitous places in Shu, and Liu Bei's current soldiers account for more than half of the Shu army. Natural dangers like Yangping Pass are as scary as a behemoth in the eyes of Cao Jun, and
In the eyes of the Shu army, he was much kinder.
Of course... Facing Yangping Pass guarded by Cao Jun, the Shu army still couldn't attack it. There are actually several roads leading to Longzhong. Compared with Yangping Pass, other roads are even more difficult to walk. It can also be said that
Can't leave at all.
The battle lasted until late at night, and several times we reached the gate, but were blocked by more than 20 people inside the gate.
Lifting his head, relying on the weak light from the torch, Liu Bei squinted his eyes and sighed helplessly: "This Yangping Pass is really a heroic pass. It's really a man who can't open it when it's a pass... ugh"
Fa Zheng saw his lord's intention and suggested to retreat temporarily before making plans. Liu Bei agreed.
The Shu army began to retreat in an orderly manner. Xia Houyuan, who was standing at the gate, saw this scene and couldn't help but marvel.
After the Shu army retreated completely, Xia Houyuan lowered his guard a little and asked quickly: "How is General Xu Huang at the gate?"
Yi's subordinate replied: "General Qi, several of the twenty or so people led by General Xu Huang have died."
"Oh?" Xia Houyuan asked again, "Supposedly, the pass is very safe, but this person can die?"
The subordinate said: "Two people suddenly got violent and killed several of their companions. The remaining people reacted and killed one of the two people..."
"What about the other one?"
"General...the other one...ran away"
The subordinate looked at Xia Houyuan in horror, already prepared to be scolded. Xia Houyuan clapped his hands twice, stood up and helped the subordinate with a smile: "You did a good job, get off!"
"General? I..."
Xia Houyuan stretched out his hand and said: "No need to say more, you did a good job!"
The subordinate nodded flattered: "Yes!"
Xia Houyuan nodded and watched his men leave. Then he took out the letter Ma Xiaoquan gave him from his arms, opened it and read it carefully...
At the gate of Yangping, Xu Huang and several soldiers were cleaning up the mess inside the door in an orderly manner.
Xu Huang kicked a male corpse in front of him, squatted down, and saw a ring on the finger of the male corpse.
Without saying a word, Xu Huang took out a dagger, cut off the man's ring-covered finger, and then peeled off the bloody ring from the severed finger.
"Hmm" Xu Huang took the ring and looked at it carefully several times by the light of the torch, and then said to himself: "It seems to be the kind of ring that Master Shangxian said, hmm, although I have never seen it before
, but that’s what it looks like, well, I’ll keep this ring for Master Shangxian to look at..."
Xu Huang put the blood ring in his arms without hesitation, raised his head and asked: "The other guy ran away, did any of you notice where he ran?"
"To tell you what the general said, he must have turned his back on himself."
"Get out of the gate?" Xu Huang chuckled, "It's so late at night, you're very brave, humph, okay, forget it, you two keep watch!"
"yes!"
...
The Shu army's encirclement of Yangping Pass did not achieve good results this time, which made Zhao Yun, who had vowed to attack the pass, a little embarrassed.
Liu Bei didn't mean to complain about Zhao Yun. After all, Zhao Yun was not a general in his mind. To put it bluntly, Zhao Yun was just a miscellaneous general.
Zhao Yun in history is not as brave and valued as written in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. On the contrary, Liu Bei has never been too cold towards Zhao Yun. As for the allusion of throwing children on Changbanpo to win people's hearts, Ma Xiaoquan has been since he came to this era.
I have never heard of it, of course. Ma Xiaoquan was not with Liu Bei at the time, so there is no way to know.
"Well, since encirclement doesn't work, let's think of other ways. Hum, I must win this Yangping Pass! No one can stop me from taking Hanzhong!"
Liu Bei looked into the distance with burning eyes, as if he had already broken through Yangping Pass and captured Hanzhong.
"Lord" Fazheng called Liu Bei several times before calling him back.
Liu Bei blushed a little for his gaffe, and nodded quickly: "Xiaozhi, have you thought of other countermeasures?"
Fazheng frowned and asked: "Lord, is the letter that the Great Immortal you mentioned... wrote to you still there?"
Liu Bei nodded: "Yes, I felt very strange. I saw it clearly back then..." As he said that, Liu Bei took out a piece of yellowed letter paper from his arms.
Before the confrontation between Cao and Liu, Ma Xiaoquan wrote letters to Liu Bei and Xia Houyuan respectively. Ma Xiaoquan treated the letter to Liu Bei in a special way and used the more expensive paper nowadays, while for Xia Houyuan, he cut corners and used bamboo chips.
At this time, Liu Bei was holding the letter given to him by Ma Xiaoquan in front of everyone.
Fazheng took the yellow paper from Liu Bei's hand, glanced at the dim torch light, suddenly said "oh" several times, and then put the yellow paper in front of the torch.
"Xiao Nao, what are you doing?"
Fazheng smiled slightly and said: "I think...since the Lord Immortal can write such a magical letter to the Lord, then naturally there are other words in the letter..." Fazheng said
, brought the paper closer.
Liu Bei looked at Fazheng's actions in surprise. He wanted to stop him, but he couldn't find a suitable reason. After all, Master Shangxian and he hadn't seen each other for many years, so why should he become so ambitious just because of a letter?
What if the soldiers under Yi are dissatisfied? What should he, the master, do...
"Yes!" When Liu Bei was hesitating, Fazheng shouted.
"Huh?" Liu Bei stepped forward.
Fazheng pointed to several marks on the paper and said: "Lord, if I guess correctly, these marks should be what the Immortal wants to tell you most!"
Liu Bei nodded and quickly ordered someone to bring sesame oil.
Spray the sesame oil on the paper, and several large characters immediately appeared on the originally empty paper.
Although Huang Zhong is old, he has good eyesight, which has a lot to do with his continuous practice of archery. Before everyone could react to the big characters Liu Bei had made, Huang Zhong had already seen it.
"Yang Ping Pass... was lost... this... what kind of mess is this?"
Yan Yan stepped forward, stared at the paper in his lord's hand, and shook his head in confusion: "I don't understand, I don't understand at all."
Zhao Yun made no contribution to the encirclement of Yangping Pass and was in a hurry at the moment. Seeing that Huang Zhong and Yan Yan, the two old generals, didn't understand, they hurriedly joined in.
Although he was not reused by Liu Bei, Zhao Yun was still loyal to his duties. After pondering for a moment, Zhao Yun said: "My lord, these five words, Master Shangxian...can you understand it as...we must continue uninterrupted
A strong attack?"
"Continuous attack?"
Zhao Yun nodded: "The general believes that if we don't capture Hanzhong this time, it will inevitably lead to a situation where the Cao thieves gain control of Longwang Shu..."
Zhao Yun suddenly stopped talking.
Liu Bei nodded and motioned for Zhao Yun to continue. Zhao Yun then continued: "The general believes that no matter how much we pay this time, we must capture Hanzhong... And the Yangping Pass in front of us,
In addition to forceful attack, there is only forceful attack!"
Zhao Yun's last words were very firm, and this momentum inadvertently reflected on Liu Bei.
Liu Bei spent half of his life in the army, and finally found a base and was able to look forward to Shu? This was something he would never tolerate.
"Okay!" Liu Bei suddenly stood up, "Then attack by force! Pass my order and ask for help from Chengdu. Whether it's food, wages or people, whatever you can use will be used!"
All the generals raised their hands in unison: "Yes!"
...
While the Shu army asked for help from Chengdu, Cao Jun also began its next deployment.
Cao Cao was on his way to Chang'an, but he was always thinking about Yangping Pass.
Although Xia Houyuan and other generals had successfully resisted Liu Bei's attack before, the number of soldiers in the pass was limited, and one less one was killed. Not far from the pass was Liu Bei's main force.
Cao Cao believes that Guanzhong and Hanzhong are only based on Yangping Pass. If Yangping Pass is lost, Guanzhong will inevitably lose contact with Hanzhong. At this time, if Liu Bei's army attacks Hanzhong, Hanzhong will definitely be in danger.
...
Cao Cao's prediction was not wrong. After Liu Bei's order was conveyed to Chengdu, Zhuge Liang immediately adopted the strategic policy of "men should fight and women should luck". As a result, Liu Bei, who originally had the advantage in terms of military strength, increased in number.
yi times.
In the Yangping Pass, all the generals saw that the momentum was not right and urged Xiahou Yuan to retreat.
Xia Houyuan was not a reckless man. Facing a Shu army whose number was several times his own, he was not stupid enough to want to fight with the opponent to the bone.
Zhang Zha took the initiative to petition for help. After Xia Houyuan said a few words of respect, he evacuated hastily.
Facing the pressure of Liu Bei's army, Zhang Jia simply resisted and fled.