Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1437 Fall
Wei State, Chengdu.

When Empress Guo walked into the room, she saw Cao Pi and two concubines lying on the couch. All three of them were naked, with their limbs entangled together, drooling at the corners of their mouths, and looked unconscious.

Smelling the familiar pungent smell in the room, Empress Guo frowned and asked the palace maid beside her, "How much Wu Shi San did Your Majesty use?"

The palace servant beside him said tremblingly: "Two... no, three bottles."

Queen Guo looked grim, "Three people?"

The palace maid stammered, "Your Majesty is alone."

Empress Guo took a deep breath and said in a lost tone, "Didn't I tell you to advise His Majesty not to drink more than half a bottle at a time?"

"Don't you want to live anymore?"

Several palace servants quickly knelt down and said, "Queen, please forgive me, Queen, please forgive me. I tried to persuade you, but Your Majesty had already taken the Five Stones Powder at that time. He would not listen to anyone and even said that if I continued to persuade you, he would execute us on the spot."

After hearing this, Empress Guo gritted her teeth and finally said dejectedly, "Forget it, wrap the two concubines in quilts and throw them back."

Several palace maids kowtowed and accepted the order, found quilts, wrapped the two concubines, and sent them back to their residence.

Queen Guo ordered someone to call a doctor, who fed Cao Pi half a bowl of medicine. Cao Pi screamed and vomited the contents of his stomach all over the floor, then he gradually came to mind.

He felt a splitting headache and slowly opened his eyes. In his blurry and shaking vision, he finally recognized the face of Queen Guo and said to himself with a smile, "The Queen is here?"

"What a pity that the Queen didn't make it in time. The scene just now... Tsk tsk..."

Empress Guo asked, "What did your majesty see?"

Cao Pi looked as if he was in a trance. "It is indescribable and indescribable. It is truly the only one I have ever seen in my life."

"My inspiration for writing a poem has come to me again. Help me up. I can still write. I want to write thousands of words and surpass my father completely!"

Empress Guo asked the doctors and palace maids to leave, "Your Majesty, Wuzhangyuan is lost."

"The Jin army has already entered Hanzhong Road, paving roads and building bridges along the way. I'm afraid that in a year or two, they will be able to threaten Hanzhong."

Cao Pi's face changed, "Queen, why do you have to spoil the fun? I already knew about this yesterday."

Empress Guo said, "So your majesty is looking for a concubine to take drugs to numb himself and escape from reality?"

Cao Pi's face flushed, anger welled up in his heart. He reached out and pushed Empress Guo, "Woman, you are such a bummer!"

"It is precisely because I worry about state affairs every day that I need to relax. Otherwise, I would have gone crazy long ago!"

Empress Guo staggered a few steps before she stood firm. She stood up straight and said, "Your Majesty, I have advised you long ago that Wushisan is not a good thing. Ministers can use it, but Your Majesty, please don't use it and try to use it as little as possible."

"Your Majesty has used a dosage that is close to lethal. If this continues, I'm afraid that before the State of Jin attacks, Your Majesty will be in trouble!"

Cao Pi became more and more angry, "What do you know? Do you know how much pressure I am under?"

"If the Jin State attacks me, I will definitely die. As for you women, as long as you kneel down and curry favor with the Jin army, you can save your lives and even become the concubine of Xionghu and enjoy wealth and glory, right?"

Empress Guo said coldly: "Your Majesty, is this what the emperor should say?"

"Your Majesty, do you think I am such a person?"

Cao Pi was speechless. He waved his hand at Empress Guo impatiently and said, "You go down first."

Queen Guo hesitated to speak, and finally bowed and turned to walk out of the house.

Cao Pi slowly stood up by holding the wall. He saw the mess and filth on the ground. The air was filled with a complex and mixed smell that made Cao Pi feel suffocated and nauseous. He walked to the window and suddenly stretched out his hand to push it.

The window popped open, and what came into view was the bustling street scene of Chengdu City. After Cao Pi arrived in Chengdu, he conscripted civilians to build a high platform modeled after the Bronze Sparrow Tower, so that he could find creative inspiration while staying away from the hustle and bustle of the world.

Now, the Chengdu city under the high platform has just rained, and in the glow of the morning light it is like a dream or a fairyland. If it were any other time, Cao Pi would definitely be inspired to compose a few poems on the spot.

But now he was completely uninterested. He felt that the Chengdu city under his feet was just a miniature box in the sandbox. And in the farther distance, there seemed to be an invisible giant hand, sweeping over with unstoppable and earth-destroying power, which would come at some point in the future and crush the box, and even himself trapped in it, into dust.

Cao Pi slammed his fist on the windowsill and couldn't help but roar. The palace servants and eunuchs outside the window heard it, and they all lowered their heads and left quietly, fearing that fatal disaster would befall them.

It was no wonder that Cao Pi was depressed. The reason why he gave up on himself and behaved in a dissolute manner last night was because of the loss of Hanzhong Road.

Over the past year, Cao Pi has actually been quite diligent in his work, and he has even corrected a lot of his bad habits of extravagance and waste. Overall, Yizhou's performance is even on the rise.

But there is only one thing, that is, facing the offensive of the Jin army, the Wei army tried all kinds of ways to resist, but in the end it was still unable to resist the Jin's push and lost Wuzhangyuan and Hanzhong Road passes one after another.

To be fair, Cao Pi had done a good enough job in defense. He gave the Wei army in Wuzhangyuan, Hanzhong the greatest trust and logistical support. If Cao Cao were in his place, he might not be able to do better than him.

But in the end, no matter how hard they tried, the Wei army was ultimately no match for the Jin army on the front battlefield.

Zhuge Liang was not even sent over there. Zhao Yun just ordered Wei Yan, Xu Huang and others to build siege equipment step by step, and smashed and filled up the fortifications that Cao's army had painstakingly laid out in Wuzhangyuan one by one, and then pushed forward. No matter what methods the Wei army used, they could not stop the Jin army's progress.

Including Sima Yi and Xiahou Shang, almost all the second-generation generals of Wei State took turns to go into battle, but they could only sigh in despair in the face of the Jin Army's large-scale steam-driven armored crossbow carts and firepower trains. With these smoking beasts advancing in line, the Wei Army was unable to stop this torrent of steel in the narrow terrain and could only retreat step by step.

Cao Pi kept receiving such battle reports, from which he could deeply feel the frustration of Sima Yi and others, which completely destroyed his ambitious ambition to achieve something.

So after receiving the news of defeat again, he started using Wu Shi San, which he hadn't used for half a year, to escape the reality, but he almost got into trouble.

However, he didn't know that the Wu Shi San he was using was a diluted version that Empress Guo had secretly replaced long ago. If he had used the most effective Wu Shi San that was circulated among the gentry, Cao Pi might have died suddenly last night.

The cool breeze blowing in through the window made Cao Pi's mind a little clearer. He really felt a little regretful. He had gambled everything to fight for the position of crown prince. He thought he would get the throne that everyone in the world dreamed of, but the result was a mess that made him regret it.

Cao Pi felt that he was ridiculous. He once thought that his elder brother Cao Ang was a huge threat. Now it seems that he had long seen that the Wei Kingdom was hopeless, so he had no interest in the name of the Wei Kingdom and was content to live in Liaodong?

And his stupid brother Cao Zhi, although he is now imprisoned, leads a carefree life and spends his days drinking. In comparison, he works himself to death, what is he gaining?
Thinking of those Yizhou officials in the court who were only interested in preserving their property but were indifferent to the future of Wei, Cao Pi became more and more annoyed. Could it be that they had been looking forward to the demise of Wei for a long time, and would immediately change their allegiance as soon as the Jin army arrived?

You’re dreaming! Even if I die, I will take you with me to be buried with me!

He stood up suddenly and strode towards the court, towards the unknown future.

On the front line, Sima Yi and Xiahou Shang led their remaining troops to retreat all the way from Wuzhangyuan into Hanzhong City, where they met Cao Zhen.

Cao Zhen's face looked very unhappy. He had advocated the establishment of military farming in Hanzhong Road behind Wuzhangyuan, while Sima Yi insisted on establishing military farming with Hanzhong as the center. Now the facts have proved that Sima Yi was right, and the Wei army could not stop the attack of the Jin army at all.

He naturally would not think that Sima Yi retreated on purpose. After all, he was with Xiahou Shang, and the two of them would never treat national affairs as a joke.

The situation is getting worse now. If we travel light and fast, it will take less than a month to reach Hanzhong from Wuzhangyuan. Since the Wei army retreated to Hanzhong, the Jin army may not be far away!
That's why Cao Zhen asked Sima Yi and Xiahou Shang to retreat directly to Hanzhong to discuss the next countermeasures. In response, Sima Yi said: "Within half a year, the Jin army should not attack Hanzhong."

Cao Zhen was surprised when he heard this and asked, "Why? What's the reason?"

Xiahou Shang explained: "After the Jin army captured Wuzhangyuan, they did not pursue the enemy, but started to build roads."

Cao Zhen's brain was not able to react for a moment, and he said in a lost voice: "Repair the road?"

Sima Yi sighed and said, "That's right, build roads."

"In the whole world, only the Jin army has the strength and patience to do this kind of thing."

"They don't want to leave us any chance at all."

After Xiahou Shang's explanation, Cao Zhen finally understood the whole situation. The Jin army planned to advance step by step, so they did not attack rashly. Instead, they requisitioned road construction materials near Chang'an, repaired and widened the Hanzhong Road, and paved the road all the way, moving forward slowly, without any sense of urgency as before.

After hearing this, Cao Zhen immediately understood and his face became even uglier, because it was actually very difficult for the Wei army to defend Wuzhangyuan, mainly because of the supply route starting from Hanzhong.

It takes at least two months to walk along the mountain road, and it is difficult to use animal power on a large scale. Most of the time, grain can only be transported by laborers carrying it on their shoulders or pushing it by hand. After it is transported to the destination, most of the grain has been lost. This is the disadvantage of Cao's army.

Now that Cao's army retreated to Hanzhong, the logistical disadvantage fell on the Jin army's side. As a result, the Jin army was not in a hurry at all. Instead, they sharpened the knife before chopping wood and repaired the road first. By then, the logistical pressure would be greatly reduced, and naturally the supply gap between the two sides could be made up.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhen took a deep breath. This seemed to be the dumbest and slowest way, but it was also the most impeccable way. No matter what strategy the Wei State adopted, the Jin Army would always remain unchanged in the face of all changes. How could this battle be fought?
Cao Zhen now feels as if the person opposite him is a giant, slowly swinging his fist towards him. The fist carries a tremendous force, and although it seems slow, it will fall on his head sooner or later and smash him to pieces.

(End of this chapter)