Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 6. Defeat

Not wanting to get closer to him, the other party also retreated. After a few steps back, Liu Bei looked at the figure carefully and felt that he looked familiar. He asked with a trembling and surprised voice:

"Yun... Yun Chang? Yun Chang! Did you return to Chengdu safely?!"

"...Brother, I am ashamed. I was entrusted by you to lead Jingzhou, but I fell into the trap of Lu Meng of the Eastern Wu and was defeated in Maicheng. I can only die to repay your kindness. I came here just to see you one last time."

After he finished speaking, a light came on next to Guan Yu, illuminating his tall but blood-stained body. Guan Yu knelt on his knees and kowtowed three times to Liu Bei. Liu Bei burst into tears, sobbing and unable to speak. He stepped forward to help Guan Yu up, but his feet slipped and he fell into the abyss.

"what……!"

Liu Bei suddenly woke up and found himself still sitting at the table with official documents on it that he had not yet finished reading. The scene just now was nothing but a dream.

"Second brother... Yunchang..."

Liu Bei knew that this dream was nothing ordinary. Thinking that Guan Yu might have met with an accident, he couldn't help but burst into tears.

Outside, the military advisor Zhuge Liang was watching the stars at home tonight. Suddenly, he saw a star in the Milky Way flickering a few times and falling towards the Jingxiang area. He was startled and the feather fan in his hand fell to the ground.

Zhuge Liang didn't care about the feather fan, stood up and was about to go into the palace to meet Liu Bei.

"My dear, seeing you like this, is there a change in the stars?"

A woman with yellow hair and a veil but a soft voice picked up Zhuge Liang's goose feather fan and put it in Zhuge Liang's hand.

"Alas... Madam, a general has fallen in Jingxiang. I'm afraid General Guan... I must go to the palace to meet the king now."

Huang Yueying also knew the pros and cons of this, so she nodded, tidied her husband's clothes, and watched Zhuge Liang get on the carriage to go to the palace.

"Military advisor, wait a minute! Military advisor, wait a minute!"

Before the carriage set off, a scholar stopped in front of it. Zhuge Liang took a closer look and found that it was Xu Jing, the Grand Tutor of King Hanzhong.

Zhuge Liang immediately got out of the car and helped Xu Jing up.

"What brings you here late at night?"

"The military advisor came into the palace late at night. I'm afraid he had the same idea as me..."

Zhuge Liang knew that Xu Jing and Xu Zijiang of "Yuedanping" were from the same clan, and that he also had a lot of physiognomy skills. In addition, he had a good relationship with Qiao Zhou, so he probably knew something tonight...

"No, no, Military Advisor, there is an urgent document from Jingzhou, inside... inside... Alas, Military Advisor, please take a look."

Xu Jing could not bear to speak directly, so he could only hand the expedited document sent by the Jingzhou spy to Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang opened the urgent document, which contained only two lines of words. The wording was simple, but the content was enough to make people feel as if they were falling into the abyss.

"Yu broke out from the north of Maicheng, but was defeated and captured. The Marquis of Wu failed to recruit him, so he executed him."

"Ah... I will go see the king in person and explain it to him in detail."

Zhuge Liang stared at these two lines of words for a long time. The move by the Marquis of Wu made it much more difficult for the Eastern Wu and Ji Han to reconcile.

Zhuge Liang came to the palace. As Liu Bei's confidant, the guards naturally would not stop him. Zhuge Liang came to the study where King Hanzhong usually reviewed memorials, and saw that the lights in the room were on. He knew that Liu Bei must be worried and unable to sleep, so he simply looked through the official documents in the study.

"Woooooooo..."

Unexpectedly, Zhuge Liang heard Liu Bei's crying before he got close. He was shocked and suspected that the king had already known the bad news about Yun Chang.

"Your Majesty." Zhuge Liang gently pushed open the door and bowed.

"Kong Ming? Coming here so late at night, it seems that Yun Chang was indeed murdered by the Eastern Wu?"

Liu Bei was covering his face and sobbing. When he saw Zhuge Liang coming, he spoke with a tone that was three parts questioning and seven parts affirmative.

"Why did your Majesty say that? Did someone tell your Majesty something?"

Zhuge Liang did not answer directly, but asked Liu Bei how he knew. Liu Bei then told him in detail about Guan Yu's dream, and Zhuge Liang was deeply moved.

"I never thought that General Guan would be so loyal. My king, this is an urgent report from the secret agents in Jingzhou..."

Zhuge Liang handed the secret report given by Xu Jing to Liu Bei. Liu Bei looked at it carefully and found that there were only two lines of words, but it seemed as if Liu Bei had been reading it for two years.

After reading it, Liu Bei stopped crying and his expression became calm instead. Zhuge Liang couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart.

When Liu Bei cried, it showed that his emotions were at least still under control, but his expressionless face showed that he had become calm after being extremely angry.

To paraphrase the modern writer Lu Xun, this is the silence before the explosion.

"Kong Ming, I want to know the whole story in the next few days, including which generals from Dongwu participated in the attack on Yunchang."

Liu Bei's tone was extremely calm, so calm that Zhuge Liang could only bow and walk out of the study.

"Military Advisor Zhuge, Your Majesty...?"

Outside the palace gate, Xu Jing did not leave as expected. Zhuge Liang sighed and shook his head.

"Master Xu, get ready. The king may be sending out troops."

The two looked at each other and saw the helplessness in their eyes.

A few days later, Zhuge Liang also learned what had happened from various sources, and sorted out the matter concerning Guan Yu and sent it to Liu Bei.

Guan Yu was trapped in Maicheng, knowing that Maicheng was not a place to defend for long. With no reinforcements coming, he could only discuss with his subordinates about breaking out. But once Guan Yu led his army to break out, the Eastern Wu army rushed forward, and Guan Yu's hundreds of troops were no match for him.

When Guan Yu was worried, he saw a steep path in the north of Maicheng that led directly to Xichuan, and wanted to lead his troops to take this path. The military commander Wang Fu immediately advised him, "General, you should not take the path. There may be ambushes on the path. It is better to take the main road."

Guan Yu knew at this moment that it would be difficult for him to escape. "There is an ambush on the small road, but are there no Wu troops on the main road?" He insisted on leading his troops to break out from the small road in the north of the city.

Wang Fu wept bitterly, prostrated himself on the ground, and continued, "I and more than a hundred soldiers of my army have defended Maicheng to the death to stop the Wu army! I hope you will come to rescue us as soon as you are out of danger!"

Guan Yu couldn't bear it, so he left Zhou Cang and Wang Fu to defend the city together.

"I regret not listening to your advice in the past, which led to this." Although Guan Yu did not say it, by leaving Zhou Cang behind, he hinted that when the city was broken, the two of them could surrender to Wu to save their lives.

Guan Yu, with more than 200 remaining men, walked less than 20 miles with Zhao Lei and Guan Ping when they encountered an ambush by Wu general Zhu Ran. They fought for a while, but the Wu army was too numerous and Guan Yu could not resist and could only fight and retreat.

Before they had walked a few miles, another Wu general, Pan Zhang, came on horseback to fight. Guan Yu was furious and swung his Green Dragon Crescent Blade to fight Pan Zhang.

After only three rounds, Pan Zhang became exhausted and rode away, not daring to fight any more. This gave Guan Yu a chance to catch his breath.

When they counted the troops, there were only a dozen or so left. They said that the governor Zhao Lei had died in the chaos, which made Guan Yu sigh.

The group arrived at Jueshi. The path was narrow with reeds and dead grass on both sides. Just as they were about to move forward, they heard shouts of killing on both sides, and hooks, locks, and ropes were used to capture Guan Yu and his group. It turned out that Ma Zhong, a general under Pan Zhang, had been waiting there for a long time.

(End of this chapter)