Voluies (1/2)

Voluies

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In the twelfth month of the nineteenth year of Xiande, the Southern Chu ar At the sa Pass Before long, there were rudom of Shu intended to make peace The Prince of De, Zhao Jue, becay and secretly discussed the matter for some time The next day, the Chu arency On the nineteenth day of the twelfth month, General Wei Xian was killed in an aain attacked the city Long Bu listened to an erroneous intelligence report and sallied forth froive chase and was lured into an encircle for an entire day, men and horses tired, the Prince of De personally proceeded forward to request a surrender Long Bu refused In anger, he cohed in ad Bu’s re

— Suiyun</e left the rooolden armor and a white cape Behind him to the side stood a black-robed scholar Behind the had stayed within the Southern Chu army for almost a month no could he not know the identity of the person before hilance before entering the building Rong Yuan uards i Zhe’s study roo announce the visitor Just as I was feeling strange, I saw Zhao Jue entered the roo, “For what reason has Your Highness co out to welcoivebefore apologizing, “Zhao Jue has been busy with military matters of late and has not had the opportunity to inquire after Jiangive hness holds a strong ar to deal with ten thousand matters on a daily basis How do you have the free time to worry about this lowly official? May I ask what is the reason for Your Highness’s visit today?”

Zhao Jue glanced at Rong Yuan who hurriedly stepped forward and said with rehted you previously Please forgive me”

I naturally responded, “There is no need for Sir Rong to be so courteous For the two gentlemen to have come personally, there must be a htly”

Rong Yuan gave an ashadom of Shu has dispatched an envoy to seek an audience with the Prince of Yong, Li Zhi, to request to reed, but also has not declined”

As he spoke, he handed over a hefty pile of intelligence reports They were extre the entire contents of the conversation between Li Zhi and Yang Can After I read through the Can was very similar to my first student, Lu Can They had si both threats and enticehed heavily before speaking, “The Kingdo of Shu does not kno to use thedom was in peril, all of these individuals refused to abandon Shu No wonder it is said that the people of Shu are loyal and righteous”

Zhao Jue asked, “What is it? Has Suiyun already seen that Great Yong won’t accept the Kingdo, I replied, “If the Prince of Yong illing to agree to peace, he would have asked questions to ascertain the benefits However, the Prince of Yong inquired after Sichuan’s talents He clearly intends to win the support of these talents to govern Sichuan Therefore, the Prince of Yong will not agree to peace”

Furrowing his brows, Zhao Jue wondered, “But ould the Prince of Yong allow this information to spread? If our Southern Chu were to learn of this, it seems somewhat …”

In an detached voice, I explained, “The Prince of Yong is indeed capable He deliberately allowed these ru our Southern Chu to learn of this From what this lowly official knows, over the last few days, our Southern Chu has not earnestly attacked the city I believe that Your Highness wishes that the Prince of Yong would fight a bloody battle to capture Jia will be affected and cannot be fully devoted to defending the city When the ti”

Zhao Jue and Rong Yuan exchanged a look This was the strategy that they had adopted after secret discussions They could not believe that I had seen through it so easily The two did not say a word, but tacitly agreed I continued, “I believe the Prince of Yong also is worried about his own losses, and has therefore used these rumors to force us to resolve this battle as soon as possible Alas, the Prince of Yong is truly fearsoh his intentions, what can we do? At worst, the Prince of Yong agrees tous to directly face the entirety of Shu’s anger Great Yong can tolerate Shu’s existence As long as they control Yangping Pass, they can control the entire Hanzhong region But to date, after fierce fighting, we have only gained control of the difficult and dangerous road into Sichuan Our gains do not make up for our losses We do not have the ability nor do we dare drag this out If Shu recovers, they will attack Southern Chu for our betrayal At this tiies—upper, middle, and low”

At this, Zhao Jue becaies? Will htforwardly clarified, “The low strategy would be to continue our current path If Great Yong beco Pass, then ill achieve our original aies its mind and decides to make peace with Shu At that point, ill be coy, victory and defeat are co”

Zhao Jue sadly said, “If victory and defeat are completely in the hands of others, aren’t we completely at their y?”

In a heavy tone, I continued, “The y would be to launch a concerted attack on Luocheng As long as we are able to capture Luocheng, Great Yong will also forcibly attack Jia Pass At that point, Shu will fall We will attain more than we had planned, but will also lose far more than we had planned”

Zhao Jue’s brow furrowed He did not want to suffer too many casualties and thus had notIn a heavy voice, he inquired, “Then what is the upper strategy?”

I smiled as I said, “We will use surprise to attack and capture the city Our losses will not be too great At that point, as long as we restrain ourselves during the division of spoils, ill have cooals”

Zhao Jue’s brow smoothed over, as he considered “But how are we to use surprise to capture the city?”

I ell-prepared² and expounded, “Luocheng’s garrison is split in tith one ar the city and the other army encamped outside the city The two forces are able to assist each other If ant to e ently attack the city The enemy forces camped outside of the city will see the flames of battle The outside eneer and co their path and completely annihilate this army With outside assistance eliarrison Afterwards, ill once again launch another attack against the city We will then use soldiers dressed in Shu unifor them to believe that there are still Shu soldiers outside to help We will pretend that our supplies have been destroyed and hastily retreat, enticing the city garrison to sally forth and chase us We can place an ambush to cut off their path of retreat, tempt, and then kill the ene for Luocheng to fall”

Zhao Jue crushed the teacup in his hand This strategy was arded me with a newfound expression I couldn’t aze Zhao Jue finally confiryuan</e and capable of such guile Zhao Jue couldn’t help but feel a chill run through hiht³ person Although he had used stratagems before, he had never used such a treacherous chained stratage of an ene Zhe and went to prepare for battle

At dusk of the sixteenth day of the twelfth an to furiously attack Luocheng Not long afterwards, a blaze was ignited Wei Xian naturally and er He hurriedly sped over They were aht to the bitter end and was personally killed by Zhao Jue The Shu arhtly controlled the roads to prevent any infor

At dawn of the seventeenth day of the twelfth ain attacked Grand General Long Bu co heavy casualties Around 1 PM, the Southern Chu ar and retreating Atop the battle Bu saw that the Southern Chu encampments at Fushui Pass were aflame At this point, Zhao Jue dispatched one of his trusted aides, disguised as a Shu ar Bu with the news that Wei Xian had destroyed Southern Chu’s supplies Jubilant, Long Bu saw that the retreat was disorderly and personally led cavalry to pursue Seeave chase for twenty li His return route was cut off by a Southern Chu force hidden in theBu⁴ Leading seven thousand elite horseht, entirely soaked in blood, he ounded over a dozen tiuards were all dead and he was completely surrounded with no hope of escape The Prince of De personally ca Bu laughed loudly and replied, “My Kingdoenerals; how can there be any who bend their knees and surrender?” Finished, Long Bu slit his throat Sighing with admiration, Zhao Jue ordered that he be buried with honors