Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1419 Dead End
When Jingzhou sent Zhuge Liang's two sisters over, Zhuge Liang received the news and felt something was wrong. Later, after meeting the two girls and asking them, he found out the whole story.

It turned out that several counties on the border between Jingzhou and Yizhou, Hannan and Wei had already started fighting. The major families in Jingzhou took sides and were involved in the turmoil between the two countries.

In fact, at the beginning, some families wanted to surrender to the State of Jin, but the main offensive direction of the State of Jin in the past two years was focused on the Sanfu Guanzhong area. After Jingzhou took over Nanyang Jiangxia to the east of Jingzhou, it no longer expanded westwards.

Nanjun and Wuling, which border Jingxi and Yizhou, were mostly under the control of the Wei State, while Changsha, Lingling and Guiyang in Jingnan were occupied by the Hannan State, and conflicts often occurred between the two sides.

Under such circumstances, the Kuai family and the Huang family, into which Zhuge Liang's two sisters married, naturally fell into conflict. There were also conflicts within the two families. Most of the Kuai family supported the Wei State, while half of the Huang family tended to favor the Jin State. After all, Huang Zu's branch was in Jiangxia.

But no matter what, Zhuge Liang now holds a high position in Jin State, and the identities of his two sisters can easily be held hostage and used by others. So after discussion among his two family members, they simply secretly sent the two girls to Nanyang through Hannan State.

Zhuge Liang was naturally not stupid. The Kuai and Huang families wanted to establish a relationship with him through the two women, and then get the best of both worlds to avoid losing everything in the future. However, this was not bad for Zhuge Liang. At least it relieved him of a worry. After all, if the war spread and his two sisters were implicated, he would also feel uneasy and guilty.

At that time, Zhuge Liang had a military mission, so after a quick meeting with his two sisters, he sent people to place them in Xudu, which was closest to Nanyang.

Afterwards, Zhuge Liang led the army on a march, joined forces with other troops, and approached the city of Chang'an, where he launched a fierce offensive and defensive battle with Cao Hong and Yu Jin, who were determined to die.

Under the repeated attacks of the Jin army's siege equipment, Yu Jin was beaten back step by step even though he tried his best. Finally, seeing that the Wei army was on the verge of collapse, he could only sigh, gave up the last Xin'an Pass outside Chang'an City, and retreated into Chang'an City.

Zhuge Liang then led his troops to besiege Chang'an, set up camps in the southeast and east directions, and began to harass the city walls day and night. He left the west to the Wei army in Chang'an, and waited for Zhao Yun to lead his troops to encircle the north.

The reason why Zhuge Liang was faster than Zhao Yun was that Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao encountered another Wei army that tried their best to stop them on their way south from Tianshui County.

This route was led by Cao Zhen. He and Xiahou Shang concentrated almost all of Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and launched a full-scale battle with the Youzhou Iron Cavalry led by Zhao Yun on the border between Sanfu area and Tianshui County.

This series of battles was far more brutal and intense than those fought by Zhuge Liang, because Wei State already knew that with the loss of Liangzhou Sili, Wei State would lose all its horse farms, which meant that every death of a Tiger and Leopard Cavalry would mean one less, and it would be almost impossible to replenish them, so Wei State invested almost all of its cavalry.

Although Yizhou also raised horses, the mountain roads leading to the outside of Yizhou were long and not suitable for large-scale cavalry combat. In other words, even if the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were brought into Yizhou, they would not be able to play much of a role. The retreat of Wei State to Yizhou also meant that subsequent major battles were almost all dominated by infantry, and the cavalry withdrew completely.

In this situation, Cao Pi directly gave a death order to Cao Zhen and Xiahou Shang, asking them to gather almost all the remaining cavalry of Wei and fight with Jin at the border of Sanfu, in order to consume as much of Jin cavalry as possible and prevent Jin from taking the opportunity to follow Wei Ting's escape route and attack Hanzhong with a large number of cavalry.

So Cao Zhen and Xiahou Shang took the last glory of Cao Wei, thousands of Tiger and Leopard Cavalry and thousands of other scattered light cavalry, and headed towards Tianshui County in the northwest.

After they fight with the Jin army, if they can hold off the enemy for enough days as planned, they will retreat directly south into Yizhou and deploy defenses at the pass on the road to Hanzhong. By then, it will be difficult for the Jin cavalry to attack the pass, and the two men will be able to keep Hanzhong safe and form a confrontation with the Jin army.

As for Chang'an, they would never go back. This was the last time they would meet each other, so Cao Zhen, Xiahou Shang and Cao Hong were all sighing when they said goodbye.

Cao Zhen could not help but said to Cao Hong: "Uncle, can't we all ask His Majesty for mercy and not let you guard Chang'an?"

Cao Hong shook his head and said, "I have made up my mind, no need to say more."

"The future of Wei depends on you to protect it."

Cao Zhen and Xiahou Shang both felt heavy-hearted upon hearing this. Does the State of Wei really have a future?

Later, the battle between the Wei army and Zhao Yun's army seemed to confirm the ideas of Cao Zhen and Xiahou Shang. In the face of the armored crossbow carts, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry could not pose an effective threat to the Jin army. However, the Jin cavalry could rely on the frontal crossbow carts and firearms to cooperate with the advancement of heavy infantry to gradually compress the combat range of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry until they were forced into the Jin army's shooting range.

After being defeated in another brutal battle, only three out of ten Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were left. Cao's army escaped under the cover of night and retreated to the Fufeng and Xianyang areas.

Cao Zhen saw the soldiers behind him in a state of disgrace, covered in blood, and only a few who were not injured. He could not help but sigh to the sky, "How aggrieved."

"After so many years, we are getting more and more helpless in fighting against the Jin army. It's really shameful."

Xiahou Shang was also silent. If ten years ago the two sides were evenly matched and the outcome on the battlefield depended on the strategies of the counselors and the bravery of the generals, and the outcome was still unpredictable before the war, then now the outcome was almost known before the battle even started.

The armies on both sides were simply not on the same level. Every time Xiahou Shang stood in front of the battlefield, he repeatedly felt the absurdity of leading the Shang Dynasty army to fight against the Seven Kingdoms of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

The other side doesn't need any strategic tricks at all, they just keep pushing forward, and we can only retreat step by step. What's the point of continuing this battle?
He rode his horse closer to Cao Zhen, "The future of Wei still depends on Zidan, so you must not lose heart."

Cao Zhen smiled bitterly and raised his empty sleeves, "What else can I do in this state?"

"Besides, the court of Wei is in such a state. From His Majesty to the civil and military officials and soldiers, how many people are still willing to show their spirit?"

"When I see His Majesty in the future, I will resign and go home to live a peaceful life. Anyway, His Majesty does not trust people like us from the Cao Wei clan." Xiahou Shang said in a deep voice: "So Zidan wants to retire like this and give all the power in the court to Sima Yi?"

Cao Zhen was stunned, "You mean...?"

Xiahou Shang lowered his voice and said, "I always feel that Sima Yi is a man with great ambitions."

"He is too low-key. For a man of his caliber and intelligence, who is unrivalled in both domestic affairs and military affairs, why does he live a humble life all day long?"

"When he sees me, he has to perform formalities. Is that necessary?"

"The more this happens, the more suspicious I find this person!"

Cao Zhen's eyes flickered, "Bo Ren thinks Sima Yi has ambitions?"

Xiahou Shang said in a deep voice: "I can't be sure, but I only know that your Majesty's behavior of favoring outsiders will sooner or later lead to chaos!"

"Only people like us from the Cao Wei clan are truly loyal to the Great Wei. If you and I give up, who will be able to turn the tide if there is a change in the court in the future?"

Cao Zhen remained silent after hearing this. He hesitated and said, "But our emperor is very different from the late emperor."

Xiahou Shang said in a deep voice: "The more this is the case, the more we must not let down the late emperor's trust!"

"You and I were both chosen by the late emperor, and that's why we are so prominent. No matter how famous the late emperor is after his death, he has given us a new life. Are we going to sit back and watch the mess of Wei he left behind?"

Cao Zhen was moved when he heard this and stretched out his only remaining right hand, "Bo Ren is right. How can I forget the late emperor's kindness in recognizing my talent?"

"Let us fight to the end for the Great Wei!"

Xiahou Shangye stretched out his hand and shook Cao Zhen's tightly. "Don't worry, Zidan. Even if we die, our descendants will inherit our aspirations. No matter what happens, we will live and die with the State of Wei!"

At the same time, Zhao Yun had joined forces with Zhuge Liang. Upon hearing that Cao Wei's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry had suffered a devastating blow, Zhuge Liang could not help but praise: "General Zhao did a good job."

"The Wei army gave up the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, which was equivalent to cutting off one of its own arms. After they conquer Chang'an in the future, the threats from nearby areas will be much smaller."

Zhao Yun shook his head and said, "I don't know what the Wei army is thinking. They are simply sending the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to their deaths on purpose in order to out-attack us."

"Jin now has three states in the north and a large horse farm. Wei didn't save its only manpower and just gave it away. I really don't know what they want to do."

Zhuge Liang said leisurely: "They did this for their own reasons."

"The strength comparison between the two countries is now completely different. They have the opportunity to retain a few thousand cavalrymen, and they cannot reverse the situation when facing the horse farm of Jin State that can produce tens of thousands of cavalrymen."

"On the contrary, after their cavalry entered Yizhou, the roads were difficult to travel, and it was not as convenient as infantry. If they wanted to play a role, they had to be transported through hundreds of miles of mountain roads and put in the plains. In fact, this opportunity only existed in the Sili area."

“But the cost of bringing out thousands of cavalry has exceeded that of tens of thousands of infantry. Now that Wei State only has Yizhou and Jingzhou counties behind it, it is impossible to do these things without considering the cost.”

Zhao Yun agreed and said, "Wei State has made mistakes step by step. Now that they have captured Chang'an and are blocking the road to Hanzhong, their demise is only a matter of time."

Zhuge Liang said: "Although we should not be careless, if I were in Yizhou, it would be really difficult to come up with a way to turn the situation around."

"Now, the counselors of Cao Wei are probably going to confront us with the courage to do something they know is impossible."

"What we have to do now is to capture Chang'an and completely remove the last nail of Wei in the Central Plains."

As siege weapons were piled up outside the city of Chang'an, the fortification soldiers dug tunnels and drained the moat under the risk of arrows. The battle to attack Chang'an officially began.

Chang'an was the capital of Wei State and also the last big city in the Central Plains. For different purposes, the two sides launched what might have been the last large-scale battle for the city in the history of the war between Jin and Wei.

(End of this chapter)