Ji Han Liu Zhang

The second year of Jian'an, early August.

Jia Xu received a message that a grain officer in Han Sui's army was killed by Han Sui because of corruption and distribution of small hu in the army. This was a simple corruption case, but in Jia Xu's eyes, it was not so simple, and he saw through the mystery at a glance.

Carrying the confidential documents handed over by the spies, Jia Xu arrived at the central camp of the Shu army. After nodding to the captain Ma Dai and the commander of a hundred men Wu Ban at the door, he opened the curtain and walked into the big tent.

"My lord." Jia Xu, holding the confidential document, bowed and saluted Liu Zhang.

Liu Zhang waved his hand and motioned Jia Xu to sit down: "No need to be polite in the army...but is there any good news?" Liu Zhang asked.

"You are worthy of being my wise sir. You can predict the future." Jia Xu praised him neither lightly nor lightly, and then he reported the news he brought.

"According to the spies, Han Sui ordered the grain officer to use the trick of reducing the consumption of grain and grass, but due to the resentment of the soldiers, Han Sui had no choice but to kill the grain officer on the pretext that it was because of corruption to vent the anger of the officers."

As he spoke, Jia Xu handed the confidential document passed to him by the spy in his arms to Liu Zhang's desk through the servant.

"What a familiar feeling!" Liu Zhang listened to Jia Xu's story and felt that this operation was too familiar. This was clearly a trick that Cao Cao had used before.

Taking the confidential document handed over by the servant, Liu Zhang began to read the details. As he read, he couldn't help revealing a sarcastic look. Han Sui was too dishonest. He took advantage of the grain official and used him to vent the anger of the people, but he did not treat the grain official's wife well. Instead, he demoted the grain official's wife to a slave. He was far inferior to Cao Cao.

"What a despicable person!"

Liu Zhang developed contempt for Han Sui's personality. It was unfortunate that Han Sui was once known as a hero of Liang Province, but he actually did such a despicable thing, which was not what a hero should do.

"What do you think, Mr. Jia?" Liu Zhang asked. He wanted to know what Jia Xu thought about this matter.

Jia Xu stroked his beard several times, and then said: "Han Sui's army is running out of food and grass... Otherwise, Han Sui would not have done such a despicable thing. I estimate that Han Sui's army will not be able to sustain food and grass until the end of this month."

"That's what I think." Liu Zhang nodded. Han Sui only occupied Jincheng and Longxi counties, so he could not outlast him. Now it was already August, and Han Sui's army must be running out of food and grass.

"Wait a few more days and see how Han Sui reacts." As always, Liu Zhang maintained a posture of defending the city and not engaging in a fight. He planned to wait until Han Sui ran out of food, his army collapsed, and his soldiers fled.

Jia Xu nodded, but he had a plan or two to offer: "Mingsir, most of Han Sui's troops are here, and Jincheng and Didao are empty. We can send a general to attack Han Sui's rear secretly. Han Sui's troops will be terrified when they hear about it, and we can defeat Han Sui sooner."

When Zheng Du, an officer, heard this, he shook his head and said, "This may not be easy. Han Sui is stationed in Xiangwu, and his scouts are scattered. If our army wants to launch a surprise attack, we are afraid that Han Sui's scouts will discover us."

"We need to let the scouts in Han Sui's army find out." Jia Xu stroked his beard and smiled, "Otherwise, this plan will not succeed."

"So that's how it is. I understand Mr. Jia's intention." As a wise man, Zheng Du was also a smart man. After hearing just a few words from Jia Xu, he understood the true meaning of this strategy.

"Just as you said." Liu Zhang made the decision. Compared with Zheng Du, he understood Jia Xu's intention as soon as he heard Jia Xu's plan. Jia Xu's original intention was to make Han Sui's army worry about their retreat being cut off and panic. In addition, Han Sui's army was about to run out of food. As a result, Han Sui's army was about to be defeated.

Not long after, the scouts Han Sui sent out around Xiangwu City brought bad news to Han Sui who was in the county temple. The Shu army was on the move, and judging from their direction, they were heading towards Jincheng and Didao, and might be planning to attack his retreat.

"This is a decoy." Cheng Gongying made a judgment after hearing this. He did not believe that the Shu army would bypass Xiangwu to attack Didao City and cut off Han Sui's retreat. As for Jincheng County, it would be lost if it was lost. The most important thing at the moment was to defeat or drive away the Shu army before the food ran out.

Han Sui nodded. He thought so too. However, if such news were to reach the army, the army would be in turmoil due to rumors. In addition, the army was running out of food and grass, which might cause a great shock to the army.

Han Sui frowned, his face full of wrinkles, and he fell into deep thought. Time had left its mark on his face, and he was no longer the heroic young man from Liangzhou.

After a while, Han Sui instructed Cheng Gongying: "This news needs to be suppressed, otherwise the soldiers will be upset if they hear it. Tell Yan Xing to train the soldiers well. Any soldier who spreads rumors and shakes the morale of the army will be executed immediately."

"Yes." Cheng Gongying bowed and accepted the order, then went down to convey Han Sui's order.

However, the development of the situation far exceeded Han Sui's prejudgment. First, the news that the Shu army had captured Didao and Jincheng spread throughout the army, and most soldiers in the army said that Didao and Jincheng had been captured by the Shu army, and their retreat had been cut off, leaving them trapped.

Secondly, there are rumors in the army that food and grass will run out and they will be out of food soon. By that time, they will not even have enough to eat, and they will have to sit and hold out with the Shu army. Sooner or later they will be conquered and killed by the Shu army.

Yan Xing was sent by Han Sui to quell rumors in the army. Although he was extremely ruthless, anyone who spread the rumors, regardless of their identity, would be killed with a sword, and blood would splatter, in order to intimidate other soldiers.

However, panic and worry still spread in the army. Many patrolling soldiers fled from Xiangwu City when they saw an opportunity. As for the Qiang and Hu people, they fled in a swarm to stay away from Xiangwu City, a place of death.

However, after a few days, Han Sui counted the number of soldiers in the army and found that there were more than a thousand fewer people. This gave Han Sui a headache. Whenever he heard unfavorable news, he felt a splitting headache and was afraid that he had a migraine.

What made Han Sui even more headache was that his allies Song Jian, Shao Dang, Diaohujin, Canmuda and others also asked him about the movements of the Shu army, worried that the Shu army would attack Didao and cut off their way back.

“Please rest assured, gentlemen. The art of war says that if you are capable, pretend to be incapable, and if you are incapable, pretend to be capable. Now the Shu army is openly making a gesture of attacking Didao city. It is clear that they have no intention of attacking Didao city. They are just trying to disturb our army.” Han Sui explained to Song Jian, Shao Dang and others.

Song Jian, the King of Heshou Pinghan, showed a hesitant look on his face. He did not believe Han Sui's words too much: "Brother Han, have you sent someone to investigate clearly? It is better to be cautious and send someone to Didao City to take a look. If Didao City is captured by the Shu army, it will be too late to regret it."

Han Sui patiently continued to explain to Song Jian. After all, Song Jian was not his subject, so he could not dismiss him with just one sentence: "Brother Song, we are now in a one-on-one battle with the Shu army, and the outcome is about to be decided. How can you send a team of troops out to weaken our army's strength?"

"But please be at ease, Brother Song. The Shu army has no chance of attacking Didao City. Even if they do, our army will definitely know about it. It won't be too late to respond then." Han Sui patted his chest and assured Song Jian. "I hope it's as you said." Seeing the situation, Song Jian didn't ask any more questions. After all, he was in the county temple, surrounded by Han Sui's personal guards. If he said something wrong and angered Han Sui, he would be in trouble.

Then Han Sui spent a lot of time and effort to calm the hesitations in the hearts of Qiang and Hu leaders such as Shaodang, Diaohujin and Canmuda.

However, when the meeting was over and Song Jian, Shao Dang, Diao Hujin, Chanmuda and others left, one or two of them still had a look of hesitation on their faces and could not calm down.

Cheng Gongying looked at the backs of Song Jian and the other Qiang and Hu leaders as they left. He said worriedly, "General, judging from their expressions, they may still be hesitant and might even betray the alliance."

"I know that." Han Sui nodded and sighed, "But it is not easy to detain people like Song Jian and Shao Dang and deprive them of their military power. After all, they are not like the Qiang and Hu leaders of the minor tribes. We can detain them and use our strong troops to suppress the men under their command."

"If we detain Song Jian, Shao Dang and others, their subordinates will send troops to attack us. If we rescue Song Jian and Shao Dang, we will kill each other without the Shu army attacking us."

At night, Han Sui tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, so he simply got up and sat at the head of the bed, thinking about the situation in front of him. After thinking for a while, in the dead of night, he sighed from time to time.

"Why am I in such a predicament?" Han Sui sighed deeply. He had been in Liang Province for more than ten years. Although he had experienced difficulties, he had never been as distressed as he is today. There was absolutely no hope for his survival.

Liu Jiyu, Han Sui muttered Liu Zhang's name. He was not willing to be trapped here for a young age, but he found it difficult to cope with the current situation.

"Hmm?" Just as Han Sui was worried, there were noisy and complicated footsteps outside. The light of torches from the yard outside the house shone into the house and fell into Han Sui's eyes, giving him a bad premonition.

"General." As Han Sui's confidant, the counselor Cheng Gongying pushed open Han Sui's door and walked straight into the room.

"What's the matter?" Han Sui calmed himself down, put on his cloak, and asked Cheng Gongying in a low voice.

Cheng Gongying's tone was low, and he said with a bad look on his face: "General, Canmuda led the Canlang Qiang people and left the camp at night and fled secretly."

As Han Sui's allies, Song Jian, Shao Dang, Diaohujin, Canmuda and others were all stationed outside Xiangwu City, forming a pincer attack with Han Sui who was stationed inside Xiangwu City. If they were not stationed inside the city, it would be because everyone was not in harmony with each other and did not dare to be open with each other, so they were stationed in different places.

"Oops." Han Sui turned one hand into a palm and the other into a fist, and the two hit each other with a sound.

This was terrible news for Han Sui. As one of his important ally, Chanmuda had left the camp when he saw the situation was not good. Others would surely follow his example and leave Xiangwu as soon as possible.

Just as Han Sui expected, at this moment in Shaodang's camp, Shaodang half-closed his eyes and carefully questioned the scout who brought the news: "Did you see it clearly? Did Canmuda run away?"

"Captain Qu, I saw it clearly. The Canlang Qiang slipped away in the dead of night." The scout said with certainty: "Not only did the Canlang Qiang run away, but many people from the Xiaozhong tribe also ran away."

"Oh." Shao Dang nodded. After thinking for a moment, he gave an order to the messenger: "Even if the Canlang Qiang are gone, we should not stay here and wait to die..."

"Yes." The messenger bowed in agreement. He sent his men to gather Shaodang's troops and prepare to leave Xiangwu City as Shaodang wished.

After a night, when Han Sui inspected his troops, he found that the Shaodang Qiang, Canlang Qiang, and many small Qiang and Hu tribes had taken advantage of the dead of night to flee and left Xiangwu without saying goodbye.

The only ones who stayed behind were Song Jian, the King of Heshou Pinghan, Diaohu Jin, the leader of the Xianrong Qiang, and a small number of small Qiang and Hu tribes. Together, they numbered no more than 15,000 people.

Xiangwu City, County Temple.

"Hiss." Han Sui listened to Cheng Gongying's report, and he felt that he was about to have a headache. His mind was in a mess and he couldn't calm down to think. He couldn't help feeling worried. It was also because he hadn't slept all night.

Han Sui's worried look caught Cheng Gongying's eyes. In his eyes, Han Sui, who had not slept all night, looked very tired at the moment. His eye circles were dark as if smoked, and his hair was suddenly white, black and white. His body was no longer straight and tall. His whole spirit seemed to be drained out, and he looked like a down-and-out man.

"General, please take care of yourself." Cheng Gongying said with earnest concern.

"Take care of yourself." Han Sui smiled bitterly and sighed, "Now that Shaodang and Chanmuda have fled, my situation has suddenly deteriorated and I am doomed to fail... My head will soon fall from my neck, so what's the point of taking care of yourself?"

"General, please cheer up. The Shu army must have known about Shaodang and Canmuda's departure. Today, the Shu army may end their avoidance and lead the army to attack Xiangwu City. Now that Shaodang and Canmuda have left, our army is unstable." Cheng Gongying said, "So the defense still needs the general to take charge. If the general does not come forward to take charge, the soldiers under you will definitely lose their fighting spirit, and Xiangwu City will be undefendable. We will all die at the hands of the Shu army."

"What's the point of defending Xiangwu City today? The army's food and grass are running out, and I'm afraid we can't hold on for long. We can hold it today, but not tomorrow." Han Sui shook his head and sighed.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Gongying, in accordance with the ethics of a counselor, earnestly advised: "General, if we hold on today, we will have tomorrow. Please cheer up and deal with the current crisis."

As they were talking, a lieutenant came forward on Yan Xing's orders to report that a large army of Shu troops had set out and were about to launch a massive attack on the city.

"Liu Jiyu." Han Sui gritted his teeth. The Shu army first avoided fighting and consumed his food and grass until they were almost out. Then they used the strategy of confusing the enemy and pretended to cut off his retreat, causing Shaodang, Canmuda and other Qiang and Hu leaders to be frightened and hesitant, and left without saying goodbye in the middle of the night. Now that the Shu army saw that his troops were scattered and his military strength was declining, they seized this opportunity to send out a large army, wanting to capture him in one fell swoop.

Han Sui, who had been feeling as if his throat was being strangled by Liu Zhang and he could not breathe, was now filled with rage, his eyebrows raised. He strode out, intending to fight Liu Zhang to the death.

"Let's go and meet little Liu Jiyu for a while." (End of this chapter)