Chapter 101 First Battle

Yongzhou, Shu army camp.

Zhuge Liang gently swayed the feather fan in his hand and looked carefully at the map of Yongzhou in front of him.

Deng Zhi stood beside him with his hands down, holding a document in his hand, and said slowly: "Prime Minister, according to the spy's report, Jincheng has been occupied by the Qiang and Di coalition forces. Now General Ma Chao is trapped in Guzang City. In the entire Liangzhou, only Guzang City is still under control."

Zhuge Liang nodded indifferently, shook the feather fan in his hand slightly, and Deng Zhi continued: "Yongzhou Shicheng and Anding Town have been captured by the Xianbei people. Gaoling, Fufeng, Chencang and other places east of the Jing River have also been captured by the Huns. Hanxing is rising to the north of the Wei River, and Fufeng has also been destroyed by the Hu people. Now, except for Chang'an and Weinan, along the Wei River, there are only Tianshui and Jicheng to the west of Tianshui are still under the control of our army."

Weinan is located on the east side of Chang'an, between Chang'an and Chenggong. It is normal for these two cities to be under the control of the Shu army. However, when he heard that Tianshui was still in the hands of the Shu army, Zhuge Liang raised his head and opened his mouth in surprise and said, "Did the Hu people not attack Tianshui?"

"Yes, the Jie army is now besieging Tianshui. I heard that Tianshui has been holding on for several months." Deng Zhi replied.

"Who is the Tianshui Guard?" Zhuge Liang asked again.

"The general of Tianshui was named Ma Zun, who was originally a general under Xiahou Wei. When His Majesty entered Yongzhou, Ma Zun, together with Tianshui Lord Bo Yinshang, Gongcao Liangxu, surrendered, and was appointed as the prefect of Tianshui by His Majesty."

Zhuge Liang nodded and carefully recalled Ma Zun.

Zhuge Liang is also a person who can never forget everything he has seen. However, Zhuge Liang thought about it for a long time and never thought of Ma Zun's outstanding deeds except for thinking about Ma Zun.

"Emperor Yong is indeed very talented. It is not unreasonable that the powerful Qin Dynasty could unify the Central Plains back then." Zhuge Liang sighed slightly, then lowered his head to look at the map, and then asked, "Well, the Jie army is still besieging Tianshui City now?"

"What the Prime Minister said is that the Jie people are still besieging Tianshui City, but I heard that the Jie people have lost several times in a row, and there are no less than ten thousand Jie people who died under Tianshui City." Deng Zhi replied.

"How many Tianshui Tianshui defenders were there?"

"Not less than three thousand, even if the people in Jicheng are added, there are only more than four thousand!"

"Huh..." Zhuge Liang took a breath slightly, and a look of surprise appeared on his face, which was originally calm.

"This Ma Zun is a talented man! Deng Zhi immediately sent an order and immediately sent troops to Tianshui."

At this time, Shi Yong was sitting in the camp with a depressed face, drinking alone.

Before, the Jie tribe army attacked cities and captured the villages, and they were invincible. Even a strong city like Xianyang and Chen Cang was captured by the Jie tribe army. But now, facing a Tianshui City with only 3,000 defenders, the Jie people actually lost their troops and generals, and they had not captured Tianshui for several months. A few days ago, Shi Yong ordered people to make a rough calculation that the Jie people had lost more than 10,000 people under Tianshui City!

Shame! This is a huge shame for the Jie people who are good at fighting! But for Shi Yong, the failure to attack Tianshui for a long time has brought greater trouble, that is, Shi Yong suffered a crisis of trust.

Shi Yong was originally just the chief of a medium-sized tribe among the Jie people. When Jie people chose Shi Yong as the commander, they did not value Shi Yong's ability or Shi Yong's qualifications. Instead, the Jie people distrust each other's major tribes. At this time, Shi Yong asked for food from the Di people. In the end, these great chiefs compromised each other and selected Shi Yong, who made great contributions to the Jie people, to be the commander of the Jie people.

After Shi Yong took office, he led the Jie people into Yongzhou and even broke several cities. The Jie people also grabbed countless food and property from the Han people. This also made Shi Yong accumulate a high prestige among the Jie people.

However, all of this prestige is based on the continuous burning, killing and looting of Jie people. The Jie people believe in Shi Yong because Shi Yong was able to lead everyone to looting property and women. However, in the past few months, the Jie people have been blocked under the Tianshui City, unable to move forward for half a step, and have also lost troops and generals. This setback has caused the Jie people to doubt and distrust of their use. Shi Yong encountered the biggest crisis since becoming the commander of the Jie tribe.

However, Shi Yong is now in a difficult position to ride a tiger. If he cannot conquer Tianshui, then the more than 10,000 people in the past will be lost in vain. Moreover, such failure and setbacks will have a huge impact on the position of Shi Yong's general. Shi Yong is likely to lose the position of the Jie people because of this setback.

In order to maintain the position of the commander, Shi Yong had to continue to waste his life until he captured Tianshui City.

In short, the materials robbed by the Jie people this time were already very rich, and many of them were enough for the Jie people for several years. Therefore, several tribes of the Jie people had already wanted to retreat and wanted to return to the grassland. However, Shi Yong refused.

Shi Yong knew that once he retreated to the grassland, the Jie army would disband and return to the original appearance of various tribes. Shi Yong was no longer the superior commander among the Jie people, but just the chief of a medium-sized tribe.

After being the commander of Jie people for so many days, Shi Yong has fallen in love with this feeling above ten thousand people. Shi Yong is reluctant to give up the power in his hands. As long as he stays in Yongzhou for one day, Shi Yong is the commander of the Jie people and commands the tens of thousands of Jie people. Therefore, Shi Yong will not agree to the Jie people return to the grassland.

The sound of footsteps came from outside. Shi Yong raised his head and a Jie general came in. After seeing Shi Yong, he immediately spoke, "Master General, the Han reinforcements are coming!"

"Where did the Han reinforcements come from? How many did they come?" Shi Yong asked immediately.

"According to the horse exploration report, the Han army has left Qishan and entered Yongzhou, and is coming towards Tianshui, with a population of about 100,000."

"Who is the leader?" Shi Yong continued to ask.

"It's the Han Prime Minister Zhuge Liang."

"Prime Minister? The prime minister among the Han people should be a civil servant!" Shi Yong said.

The position of prime minister had already appeared during the Warring States Period. For example, Wei Ran and Lu Buwei of the Qin Dynasty held the position of prime minister. Later, the Qin Dynasty unified the world, Li Si was the prime minister, and later in the reign of Emperor Gaozu, Xiao He was the prime minister, and after Xiao He died, Cao Shen succeeded him. However, before Emperor Wen of Han, the prime minister was divided into the left prime minister and the right prime minister. Until the early years of Emperor Wen, it was changed to only one prime minister. Before Emperor Wu, the prime minister was the chief minister and the head of all officials.

By the end of Emperor Wu, Huo Guang was the Grand Sima General, and since then, the Grand Sima's power was greater than that of the Prime Minister. During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, the three metric system began to be implemented. At that time, the three dukes were the Grand Sima, the Grand Sikong and the Prime Minister. It can be seen that the prime minister was only ranked last in the third duke. During the reign of Emperor Ai of Han, the Prime Minister was changed to the Grand Situ, and at this point, the Prime Minister disappeared into the power organization of the Han Dynasty.

Until Cao Cao took the emperor to command the princes, in order to strengthen his rights, Cao Cao abolished the three metric system, greatly weakened the power of the three monarchs, restored the prime minister's system, and appointed himself as prime minister. All military and political powers in the country were responsible for the prime minister. At this time, Cao Cao's monopoly of military and political power was no different from the monarch.

After Liu Bei ascended the throne, he did not follow the three-metric system of the Han Dynasty, because before Liu Bei ascended the throne, all military and political affairs were managed by the Left General Grand Sima Mansion, and the officials under Liu Bei, including Pang Tong and Zhang Song, were also assigned to the Left General Grand Sima Mansion. Therefore, the prime minister established by Liu Bei, that is, Zhuge Liang, was also under one person and above ten thousand people, and controlled the military and political power of Shu.

From the candidates for the prime ministers of the Han Dynasty, we can see that the prime ministers are all civil servants, and the Jie people are just slaves of the Huns, so they don’t know much about the Han people. Shi Yong did not know how much power the prime minister now has, so it is natural to think that the prime minister is a civil servant. In Shi Yong’s subconscious, civil servants are all literati who are called “life-saving” when they encounter danger without any power. They are not familiar with military affairs. When they hear that the person who leads the army is the prime minister, they immediately label Zhuge Liang as a type that can be bullied at different military affairs.

Shi Yong curled his lips and smiled disdainfully, and then said, "The Han people are incompetent. Send a civil servant to lead the troops. What can you do if there is a 100,000 army? Send 30,000 to 40,000 people to defeat the Han people's agility."

In the Three Kingdoms era, many capable people emerged, and they must not despise a person casually. On the list of those who must not be despised, Zhuge Liang could definitely enter the third place. At that time, Liu Bei visited Zhuge Liang three times and invited Zhuge Liang to Xinye. Cao Cao paid a heavy price because of his despised Zhuge Liang. From burning Bowangpo to burning Xinye, later to losing the battle in Chibi, he fled like a dog of a broken family. Cao Cao suffered a lot from despising Zhuge Liang.

Now Shi Yong despises Zhuge Liang, the result can be imagined. Even Zhuge Liang suffered a lot in his hands, let alone these Jie people.

The Jie clan cavalry is very mobile and proficient in cavalry. On weekdays, facing the dense military formations of Han infantry, the Jie clans can use the mobility of the cavalry and the kung fu to tear apart the dense formations of infantry. However, this time, the Jie clans encountered a Zhuge Liang who was very proficient in formations.

In this world, Zhuge Liang's formation was the best in the world. Facing the Jie cavalry, Zhuge Liang did not densely arrange all the soldiers together as usual, but set up a nine-palace formation according to the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams.

In the distance, Shi Yong looked at the formation arranged by Zhuge Liang in the distance and laughed out loud: "This civil servant of the Han Dynasty really does not lead troops to fight. Look at his formation, it is loose and loose. In this way, a charge can be dispersed!"

In the era when the high bridge saddle and bilateral kickstick were lacking, the impact of the cavalry was far less powerful than that of later generations. When facing dense infantry formations, the cavalry could not exert a very powerful impact, but when facing loose enemies, the cavalry could still exert its innate advantage over the infantry.

"Swish!" Shi Yong pulled out his weapon, pointed in front of him, and shouted: "Run for me and kill these Han people!"

With Shi Yong's order, countless Jie cavalry rushed towards the Nine Palace Formation arranged by Zhuge Liang.
Chapter completed!