Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1396 Unwilling
Guo Huai was a very good general. He had enough strategy and courage. Although his martial arts skills were not so good, the martial arts of a military commander is actually a very important factor.

The only thing Guo Huai lacked was the tenacity and determination honed from experiencing many setbacks in battles. It was no wonder, as he had experienced too few wars since he came out of seclusion.

However, this is exactly what Wei Yan, who is now facing him, is good at.

Wei Yan entered the army from the bottom, and although he got the opportunity to climb up, deep down, he still had the unyielding and ruthless spirit of the lower-level soldiers. This was also the reason why, even though he heard that reinforcements were coming from the opposite side, he did not retreat but advanced instead, determined to take a big chance.

It was this difference that caused Guo Huai to be at a loss. Originally, he had done well enough in the past two days of fighting, and Sima Yi's reinforcements would arrive in half an hour. However, this was the time when he was most relaxed and careless.

Faced with Wei Yan's entire army's determined charge, the Wei army, whose morale had just been boosted, was horrified to find that the Jin army soldiers on the opposite side were hacking and killing them like crazy. Caught off guard, the army was defeated and the formation was in chaos.

Guo Huai shouted and formed the battle line several times, but failed to organize an effective offensive. Seeing Wei Yan coming towards him with a knife, Guo Huai knew that he would die if he escaped at this time, so he shouted loudly and raised his knife to kill Wei Yan.

The two men had been fighting for a whole day and were actually almost exhausted. They were just struggling to hold on and were tumbling and rolling on the muddy hillside.

After more than ten moves, Wei Yan slipped and lost his balance. Guo Huai took the opportunity to swing his sword and slashed at Wei Yan's shoulder. The blade cut the leather armor on his shoulder and embedded deeply into it. Guo Huai took the opportunity to draw his sword, but failed to do so. While Wei Yan was stunned, he kicked back with his foot and the long sword in his hand had already pierced into Guo Huai's abdomen.

This time the position was chosen very accurately. The blade pierced through the gap in the armor, and the tip of the blade penetrated the robe and went half a foot into the flesh. Guo Huai felt a chill in his abdomen, and then a sharp pain spread. He roared, endured the pain, pulled back the knife, and chopped down Wei Yan's head.

The blade hit Wei Yan's helmet, sparks flew, but Wei Yan did not dodge and continued to stab inside with the handle of the knife. Guo Huai felt the tip of the knife was still going deeper into his body, so he quickly leaped back with all his strength. With a puff, the tip of the knife left his abdomen, bringing out a stream of blood. Guo Huai staggered a few steps, covering his abdomen, and saw Wei Yan continue to stab him in the face with the knife.

Guo Huai's strength was rapidly disappearing at this time. He barely leaned back and suddenly lost his balance, rolling down the hillside with mud and blood on his body. Seeing this, Wei Yan leaned on his long sword and staggered towards Guo Huai. He was actually hit very hard by Guo Huai's two swords just now, but Wei Yan still used his body to withstand the blows. However, he still had stars in front of his eyes and staggered. When the soldiers on both sides saw this, they rushed up and started to kill Guo Huai.

Wei Yan swung his sword along the way, killing several Wei soldiers who wanted to launch a sneak attack on him, but he became weaker and weaker, and finally had to sit down on the hillside, gasping for breath. Only then did he realize that there was something in his mouth, and he spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, with two teeth in it, which he realized were knocked out by Guo Huai's sword just now.

Seeing the Wei soldiers helping Guo Huai escape from the slope, Wei Yan became more and more angry. He took a few breaths, stood up with his sword, and shouted, "Kill!"

"Kill them all!"

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the Funiu Mountains were shrouded in rain and fog, obscuring the view. Although the Jin soldiers tried their best to catch up, the hillside was so slippery that the Wei soldiers fled across the mountains and ridges, making it difficult to search for them. In the end, hundreds of them still escaped.

Wei Yan watched the heavy rain and had to reorganize his troops. When he found out that Guo Huai's body was not found, he could not help but look up to the sky and curse, thinking to himself, could it be that the enemy had escaped this time?

Under the dim sky, the sun gradually set. Guo Huai was supported by his personal guards and stumbled through the dense forest. He felt his steps becoming heavier and heavier, and his eyelids becoming harder and harder to lift. Finally, he lost his strength and fell to the ground.

When his personal guards saw this, they quickly carried Guo Huai on their backs and took turns struggling towards the direction where Cao's army had been spotted earlier.

There were only a dozen of them left, and they didn't dare to take the main road. They could only climb the hillside by grabbing grass roots and branches. They didn't know how long they had walked and how many mountains they had climbed. Finally, in the darkness, someone in front of them shouted, "Who are you?"

After hearing this, the Wei army soldiers knew that if they ran into the Jin army, they would be helpless, so they could only honestly say: "These are the subordinates of General Guo of the Great Wei!"

A few people rushed over and after identifying the armor and military badges of the people, they asked, "Where is General Guo?"

"The general is here to pick you up!"

Guo Huai forced himself to open his eyes and found himself lying in a cave. He had lost consciousness below the chest. Two doctors were lifting his armor to check his abdominal injuries.

Guo Huai was shocked. Was he captured?
At this time, a familiar voice sounded, "Boji, I'm late."

Guo Huai tilted his head slightly and found that it was Sima Yi's face. He quickly said, "General, I have failed..."

Sima Yi shook his head and said, "Needless to say, the reason for this defeat is that I am not as skilled as the opponent and I failed to anticipate the opponent's intentions in the end."

At this time, the doctor raised his head and stammered, "General, General Guo is too seriously injured. I can't do anything for him."

After hearing this, Sima Yi's face changed, "If you can't even do this, what's the use of you?"

The doctor knelt down immediately and kowtowed, saying, "The wound is too deep and has damaged your internal organs. I am really powerless to help you."

Sima Yi's face turned pale, and he heard Guo Huai say: "Although Huai has served the general for a short time, I am deeply grateful for his kindness, but Huai has failed to live up to the trust placed in him..."

A bitter look appeared on his face. "I lost my life just once. I can't accept this." He tilted his head, his voice stopped abruptly, and he died.

Sima Yi stood up, kicked the doctor to the ground, and roared angrily.

At this time, the guard rushed in and said, "General, the spies said that there are traces of the Jin army in the north and south!"

"Calculating the time, I'm afraid they will surround us in less than half an hour!"

Sima Yi listened, glanced at Guo Huai's body, and said, "Pass my military order, the entire army will march westward, and rush directly to Qingni Pass from the mountain road!"

In a moment, Sima Yi led his soldiers away, leaving only Guo Huai's body in the cave, which had not been buried in time. As the last torch left was extinguished, everything was buried in darkness.

In the following days, Huang Zhong and Wei Yan continued to search and chase in Funiu Mountain until they reached Wuguan Pass. They still did not find any trace of Sima Yi. The two looked at Wuguan Pass with Wei army flags in the distance and looked at each other. Huang Zhong said, "There is no trace of Wei army on the way here. They took the route of Qingni Pass. We are chasing the wrong way!"

Wei Yan snorted, "This Sima Yi is really cunning. He didn't take the Wuguan Pass occupied by his own side, but climbed over seven or eight mountains to take the Qingni Pass in the west!"

Huang Zhong said: "This is also a good thing. We didn't find any traces of the Hannan army along the way. I'm afraid they also went to the more difficult Qingni Pass."

"This time their bet was right. I heard that the military advisor over there is Pang Tong, a phoenix who was once as famous as the prime minister. This time he has calculated Sima Yi's fate."

"Now, whether the Hannan army is taking down the Qingni Pass or blocking the front, it makes Sima Yi extremely uncomfortable."

"But what do we do now?"

"Should we go around to Qingni Pass, or attack Wuguan?"

Wei Yan lowered his head and thought for a while, then said decisively: "The Prime Minister is probably following Sima Yi all the time. If we take another detour, we might just cause trouble."

"Besides, Wuguan Pass is so close, there is no reason not to fight. Moreover, if we take it, we can still go to Chang'an. Maybe we can even cut off the road from Qingni Pass to Chang'an!"

Huang Zhong clapped his hands and said, "I think so too. Then we will take Wuguan Pass and cooperate with the Prime Minister to intercept Sima Yi!"

At this time, Zhuge Liang did not know that Guo Huai, one of the biggest obstacles to his later Northern Expedition, had been unreasonably killed by Wei Yan in Funiu Mountain. At this time, he led his army in a hurry and was only half a day's journey away from Qingni Pass.

He did not waste any time along the way, but Sima Yi had already calculated in detail the various roads inside Funiushan when he sent out his troops earlier, so he did not waste any time when escaping. As a result, Zhuge Liang was always one day behind and finally failed to catch up.

However, what made Zhuge Liang feel a little relieved was that he discovered the marching tracks of the Hannan army along the way. This meant that the other side might have reached the Qingni Pass before Sima Yi. If they could take the pass and block the road, Sima Yi would be unable to escape.

However, when Zhuge Liang arrived at the pass, he saw that most of the Hannan defenders had been killed and Sima Yi was nowhere to be seen. When Guan Ping, who was full of shame, came up to meet him and told him the whole story, Zhuge Liang realized that Guan Ping had fallen into the enemy's trap and failed to defend the pass.

At that time, Guan Ping arrived at the pass several days earlier than Sima Yi, and launched a surprise attack at night, unexpectedly eliminating the defenders of the pass, and then stationed there, waiting for Sima Yi to come. Although the Wei army might have reinforcements later, Guan Ping only needed to block the pass for several days and prevent Sima Yi from returning, and when the Jin army arrived, they could wipe out Sima Yi completely.

This was also what Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang had agreed on in a letter before Guan Ping sent out his troops, but something went wrong during the operation.

At that time, Guan Ping received news that the Wei soldiers had arrived, but they did not pass through the pass, but were climbing a cliff more than ten miles away from the pass.

The reason why Qingni Pass cannot be bypassed is that there are extremely steep cliffs on both sides. Although it can be climbed, it will definitely be difficult for a large army to pass through in a short time.

Guan Ping personally led people to check it out, but saw that the entire mountain was filled with Wei soldiers climbing the steep slopes. There were probably nearly 10,000 of them, and there were also many generals among them.

Guan Ping counted the number of people and thought that these should be the main force of the Wei army. Seeing that the enemy could escape in just one day, he could no longer hold back and immediately transferred the main force from Qingni Pass to attack the Wei army from both sides of the hillside.

However, Sima Yi did not expect that this was exactly his plan. He personally led two thousand elite soldiers to ambush behind, and when Guan Ping's army hurriedly arrived, he suddenly attacked Guan Ping's rear army. The Wei army on the hillside also climbed down. Under the double-sided attack, Guan Ping's army had to flee and reorganize.

Sima Yi took the opportunity to gather his troops and captured the Qingni Pass where there were not many soldiers. He did not delay and led his troops directly to retreat to Chang'an.

After hearing this, Zhuge Liang knew that this time the plan had failed, so he had to comfort Guan Ping and said, "General, you have tried your best, but this passage to Chang'an has been opened. I am afraid that Wei will not be able to defend Chang'an anymore."

(End of this chapter)