Chapter 364

Chapter 364

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Volume 10: The World in Chaos, The Time of the Chase Chapter 364: Shi Xie Sends Troops

The only chance!

But also a chance that could very well cost his life.

But Wei Yan wasn’t like Zhang Yun, who could rise quickly thanks to his uncle Liu Biao, nor did he have the status of a noble family member like Cai Mao. The only thing he could rely on was himself. How could he not understand the principle of seeking wealth in danger?

Liu Biao was right. When he shouted the news of the governor’s death, not only might the enemy not believe his identity and kill him as a traitor, but if Liu Biao were truly dead, their side would also fall into absolute chaos in an instant.

If he couldn’t quickly kill the enemy leader, they would be the first to collapse from the news, or some proactive soldiers, realizing the need to prevent the news from spreading, might launch a fatal attack on him!

But so what?

The gap in his own conditions meant that without such a desperate gamble, he would never gain Liu Biao’s favor.

Only now, with Liu Biao’s nephew Zhang Yun tragically killed under the elephant’s foot, Cai Mao still far away in Chen County, and Liu Biao’s own life under great threat, did he have a golden opportunity to prove himself.

“Wei Yan is willing to give it a try!”

“Good!” Liu Biao patted his shoulder, feeling that encountering such a daring and capable subordinate at this moment was truly a sign that heaven never seals off all exits.

What made him realize he hadn’t lost all hope was seeing Huo Du and his soldiers arriving nearby just in time to search for him, becoming the perfect companions for Wei Yan’s mission.

The Jiaozhou general commanding the elephant troops was busy directing his mount to wreak havoc, sweeping through the fleeing Jing Province soldiers, when he suddenly heard a shout from the crowd.

“The governor is dead, show mercy!”

The title “governor” was too distinctive!

It was a title mostly reserved for provincial governors and regional inspectors.

The Jiaozhou general with the red headband suddenly realized the significance of the title and quickly looked towards the source of the voice. He saw several panicked soldiers trying to escape the chaos of the stampeding horses, even forgetting who was friend or foe, rushing straight towards the Jiaozhou troops.

This wasn’t entirely a wrong judgment.

If they were accidentally caught in the elephant’s trampling range, they would indeed end up with no remains.

But what if they were hiding behind the elephant troops?

This was clearly their chance for survival.

As the Jiaozhou troops, having regrouped, charged in with torches, from the vantage point of the Jiaozhou general on the elephant’s back, Wei Yan and his men’s counter-current movement was clear, and the youthful face of Wei Yan himself became faintly visible.

He couldn’t help but laugh, “Young people just can’t stay calm.”

Not far from him, another person on an elephant’s back asked, “General, shall we let them through?”

He immediately replied, “Let them! Why not! Isn’t this the perfect time for us to press our advantage?”

If they knew that surrendering to them wouldn’t mean death, the resistance they faced in their encirclement would surely decrease.

Moreover, at this moment, with Wei Yan’s clearly audible slogan reaching his ears, his attention was no longer on whether he could kill all the Jing Province soldiers, but on the two words that gripped his heart: “governor.”

No one among his opponents refuted this statement, and with their situation deteriorating further, it meant that Wei Yan’s shout was likely true.

Had Liu Biao, the governor of Jing Province, personally arrived here, only to be caught off guard by Zhang Jin’s elephant troops and killed?

This possibility made the Jiaozhou commander, who thought he would at most capture a few generals, extremely excited.

He might be about to achieve the greatest military exploit in this northern campaign!

In the face of such a feat, the number of enemies killed was the least important factor.

It was precisely because of this thought, coupled with the chaotic firelight that blurred his vision, that he failed to notice that in the midst of the fleeing action, Wei Yan and his companions were far stronger than ordinary soldiers, even quietly mounting horses and gripping their weapons tightly.

When the Jiaozhou general, intending to verify if Liu Biao had truly died here, passed by them, the seemingly panicked “surrender” team suddenly turned into a sharp blade, thrusting towards the enemy.

Wei Yan’s crossbow aimed at the leading elephant commander.

Even though his heart pounded with the imminent success, the arrow he shot didn’t deviate, accurately piercing the opponent’s head in the crossing.

The close-range force instantly took the enemy’s life.

But Wei Yan’s actions didn’t stop.

The soldiers who simultaneously attacked the surrounding elephant cavalry didn’t stop either.

At this distance, they could clearly see that these Jiaozhou elephant troops, to ensure they wouldn’t be thrown off during the charge, had indeed tied themselves to the elephants’ backs as Liu Biao had predicted.

Thus, even in death, they remained seated, their elephants continuing to charge forward, crashing into the Jing Province soldiers.

They needed to do one more thing!

Wei Yan flung the rope in his hand towards the enemy leader’s corpse.

Then he climbed onto the elephant’s back.

The marching elephants, trained by the Jiaozhou troops, didn’t have the speed of a cavalry charge but slowed their pace slightly. The person on the elephant’s back had already died, unable to effectively stop him.

But even so, the climb wasn’t easy.

As a warning whistle sounded, an arrow from an unknown source shot straight towards Wei Yan’s back. Fortunately, he had donned Huo Du’s protective armor before setting out, blocking the arrow.

However, another arrow followed, piercing his arm.

Driven by an unknown force, Wei Yan didn’t let go of the rope. Instead, he mustered incredible strength, climbing onto the elephant’s back under the pressure of do-or-die, quickly untying the rope that belonged to the enemy cavalry leader and kicking the body off.

The commotion from this height was enough for Liu Biao to see clearly.

Even more noticeable was the subsequent change.

Taming elephant troops wasn’t easy; Wei Yan couldn’t replace the original elephant rider in a few quick moves.

The death of the rider and the stranger’s attempt to control sent the elephant into a frenzy, changing its course from charging forward to running back towards the original camp.

Wei Yan immediately lay flat on the elephant’s back, gripping the ropes tightly.

This return move would inevitably cause collisions with companions, especially with some riders lost, making the impact unavoidable.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Liu Biao, supported by Huo Du, remounting his horse and, with the enemy’s torches they had seized, appearing prominently before the soldiers.

The rumor of the governor’s death was debunked, while the enemy leader had already paid with his life.

If this wasn’t the time for a counterattack, when would it be?

Wei Yan faintly heard Liu Biao’s call to kill the enemy, followed by the sound of the army’s attack horn.

Soon, the sound of close combat replaced the earlier chaos of fleeing.

This was the sign of their side’s turning tide!

Even if Wei Yan couldn’t see the troops under Liu Biao’s command, who had nearly thought him dead, regrouping from their disarray, a significant change was indeed happening.

What he needed to do now was to survive in this chaotic situation.

This wasn’t easy.

Elephants, mostly found in southern Anhui, the Pearl River basin, and Funan, were completely unfamiliar to Wei Yan, who hailed from the Central Plains.

At this moment, he couldn’t even recall how he had mustered the courage to climb onto the elephant’s back or how he had aimed his crossbow at another elephant rider with his remaining strength.

Among those who had risked their lives to charge into the enemy’s front, it seemed only he, who had luckily climbed up, could survive. The rest had become victims of the stampeding elephants.

But Wei Yan dared not feel lucky at this moment.

As long as he remained on the elephant’s back, he was still in danger.

The elephant, unable to shake him off, grew increasingly frenzied.

Perhaps because it was the strongest among its kind, after breaking through all obstacles, it charged back, trampling through the camp gates.

It forcefully opened a bloody path through the crowd.

Perhaps the earlier battle and climb had exhausted all his strength; Wei Yan felt his palms going numb, ready to let go of the ropes and fall at any moment.

When a haystack appeared in the dim night, he gritted his teeth and fell off the elephant.

The fall knocked him out.

When he woke up, the faint morning light filtered through the haystack’s cracks, and the sounds of battle outside had almost completely ceased, as if everything had come to a standstill.

Had the Jing Province troops won, or was it the Jiaozhou troops?

Although according to the situation before Wei Yan fainted, Liu Biao would never miss this opportunity to turn defeat into victory, and the numerical advantage of Jing Province’s soldiers was enough for them to achieve this victory, Wei Yan still felt a bit uneasy in his heart.

But before he could stick his head out to observe the current situation, the upper layer of the haystack he was in was suddenly uncovered.

The sudden, unobstructed light made him instinctively squint his eyes, and then he met Huo Du’s face.

Huo Du was overjoyed to see Wei Yan, “So you’re here! I knew you were lucky, you must have jumped down early and didn’t die with that elephant that fell off the cliff.”

As he had someone carry Wei Yan onto a stretcher, he said, “Fortunately, I came back to search the camp, otherwise you might have had to find your own way back north.”

“Because of the elephant soldiers, the Prefect almost had an accident, which really pissed him off. After winning this battle, he urgently mobilized soldiers from Nanjun and Jiangxia to march south.”

Wei Yan smiled bitterly in his heart; Huo Du not mentioning Liu Biao’s concern for him spoke volumes.

If he had unfortunately died in this battle, he probably wouldn’t have received much credit.

But fortunately, he was still alive.

Perhaps because of the turnaround brought by his efforts, Huo Du, also a general, had a good impression of him, which meant that it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to get a position matching his military merits.

After returning to Chen County with Huo Du to meet Liu Biao, Wei Yan indeed received personal commendation from Liu Biao as the top contributor in this battle.

“It’s a pity you broke your leg and can only be sent back to Xiangyang for treatment temporarily, unable to participate in the operation to suppress Zhang Jin,” Huo Du said regretfully as he sent Wei Yan onto the carriage. “But you’ve turned misfortune into fortune. Since the Prefect has promised you to take over General Zhang’s position after you recover, he definitely isn’t just brushing you off.”

The position left vacant by Zhang Yun’s death was originally supposed to be divided among the noble families of Xiangyang, but Liu Biao, being shrewd, wouldn’t let a position that belonged to his nephew be given to families that could constrain him.

It would be better to give it to this young man with no background but bravery.

As for whether such a promotion was too unconventional?

The credit for rescuing the Governor was enough to silence many voices.

Although Wei Yan didn’t quite understand this exchange of interests and intuitively felt that Liu Biao’s arrangement was unusual, facing Huo Du’s sincere blessing, he still replied, “Yes, it’s turning misfortune into fortune.”

How could this not be considered a rise to power at the cost of one’s life?

In this turbulent era, rising to power and dying could both happen overnight.

Fortunately, his luck was pretty good, and he didn’t have to fill the foundation of this victory with his life.

But what Wei Yan didn’t expect was that his luck didn’t stop there.

Not long after he was sent back to Xiangyang for treatment, he received news that Liu Biao had called off the troops.

“Calling off the troops? Why suddenly… retreat?”

After being provoked by Zhang Jin and even encountering the elephant soldiers, Liu Biao wouldn’t stop until he fought Zhang Jin to the death!

Zhang Jin had perfectly stationed the elephant soldiers at the foot of Keling Mountain to snipe Liu Biao, clearly a tough nut to crack.

With his limited combat experience, Wei Yan felt that it would take at least ten days to half a month to end this war.

Huo Jun, who had returned to Xiangyang from Quanling, came to thank Wei Yan for saving his brother’s life. Hearing Wei Yan’s question, he explained, “Who would have thought that Jiaozhou would strike before us?”

“Jiaozhou? But isn’t Zhang Jin the Governor of Jiaozhou?” Wei Yan asked curiously.

“Zhang Ziyun is indeed the Governor of Jiaozhou, but he’s not the only one with power in Jiaozhou. This might be called… the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind,” Huo Jun replied. “Alright, you don’t need to ask more. Just know that the invasion of Jing Province by Zhang Jin, the Governor of Jiaozhou, has been settled.”

Although he got an answer, it was still not enough to resolve the doubts in Wei Yan’s heart.

Not just Wei Yan, even Zhang Jin, who was in the midst of it, didn’t expect to experience such a sudden turn of events.

Liu Biao surviving the charge of his elephant soldiers and even swallowing his troops stationed at the foot of Keling Mountain was completely unexpected for Zhang Jin.

So much so that when the news reached him at the newly captured Yingdao County, Zhang Jin almost wanted to turn back and teach Liu Biao a lesson.

But he quickly realized that this was not the right time for such a move.

Zuo Ci even advised him that on this day of celestial punishment, hesitation would do him no good.

So rather than returning to the territory of Guiyang County to confront the newly victorious Liu Biao, it would be better to march straight to the capital of Lingling County and take a different route to the heart of the matter!

After all, his reinforcements from Yulin County were almost there.

The troops he lost would soon be replenished.

Thinking this, Zhang Jin had a new plan for his future.

But when the troops from Jiaozhou arrived, he suddenly realized that these were not the reinforcements he was expecting, but—

They were the personal troops of Shi Xie, the Prefect of Jiaozhi County!

The other party did not obstruct his military action in Jing Province, seemingly acknowledging his position in Jiaozhou, thus adopting a wait-and-see attitude towards his stance, but in reality, they had secretly planned this deadly strike against him.

Zhang Jin did not know that there was also persuasion from Fa Zheng behind this. What he saw was Shi Xie’s soldiers boldly charging at him at a time when he desperately needed reinforcements, pulling him out of the Lingling County town he occupied, and then… handing him over to Liu Biao.

When facing the tired yet battle-ready Liu Biao, Zhang Jin found some comfort in seeing the surprise on Liu Biao’s face.

The general who captured him was also from the Shi family of Jiaozhou, and by identity, he should be considered Shi Xie’s nephew. He saluted Liu Biao and said, “Prefect Shi asked me to convey to Governor Liu that Jiaozhou has long admired the talents of the Grand Marshal and wishes to express its submission to the court in Chang’an, but this Governor who couldn’t see the situation clearly emerged. Earlier, because he was still in Jiaozhou and it was inconvenient to act, he successfully mobilized troops. Prefect Shi was anxious and could only take advantage of the chaos when he was dispatching reinforcements to capture him.”

“Since he was captured on Governor Liu’s territory, let Governor Liu send him to the court. Also, please convey Prefect Shi’s intention to submit.”

Liu Biao was quite upset by these words.

Having his opponent snatched away by someone else before he could do so himself didn’t give Liu Biao any sense of victory in battle, but rather a feeling of having punched thin air.

But this sudden move by Shi Xie, the Prefect of Jiaozhi, who had maintained his wealth in Jiaozhou for so many years, was indeed justified, and his action of sending troops to Jing Province to capture Zhang Jin was particularly appropriate.

If he had directly sent his subordinates to take Zhang Jin north to Chang’an or Luoyang to present his military achievements, Liu Biao would have had to compete with him, and he would have had to issue warnings and accusations for this unauthorized entry into his territory.

But Shi Xie directly sent Zhang Jin to him, allowing him to send this rebellious Governor of Jiaozhou to Chang’an, clearly sharing part of the military merit with him to show his goodwill.

One doesn’t hit a smiling face, and Liu Biao clearly knew this.

After returning to Xiangyang under low pressure, Liu Biao quickly adjusted his mood and took two actions.

The first was to send Zhang Jin through Wuguan to Chang’an, to be punished by Liu Yu.

Although military matters had to be decided by Qiao Yan, the Grand Marshal, Liu Biao had heard about Qiao Yan’s previous trip to Chang’an to plead guilty, and intuitively felt that sending Zhang Jin to Luoyang for Qiao Yan might not be a gesture of goodwill, but rather adding to her troubles.

After suffering losses in Guiyang County, Liu Biao couldn’t afford such a distressing situation.

But the military affairs in Jing Province and Shi Xie’s submission from Jiaozhou couldn’t be ignored by Qiao Yan.

So, under Kuai Yue’s suggestion, Liu Biao’s other action was to send the three elephant soldiers brought by Shi Xie’s troops from Jiaozhou, along with the seven captured from Zhang Jin’s forces, to Luoyang.

What’s wrong with sending military weapons to the Grand Marshal? Obviously nothing.

Perhaps these large creatures could be used in Henan to pull goods, assist in farming, transport newly registered refugees, and so on.

In any case, this wasn’t a gift presented under the guise of offering rare treasures.

The entire process of the battle with Jiaozhou’s troops was also reported truthfully to Qiao Yan by his subordinates upon their arrival in Luoyang.

When Qiao Yan saw the ten elephants outside Luoyang, she couldn’t help but show a bit of amazement.

From a modern perspective, elephants aren’t that rare, but when they appear not in a zoo but as war mounts, it does feel somewhat unfamiliar.

The seven elephants originally belonging to Zhang Jin’s generals, having been trained by Jiaozhou people, didn’t realize their ownership had changed after leaving the battlefield, showing a tamed docility.

Qiao Yan also instinctively thought of the animal training manual she obtained from a transaction with a host who had a beast-taming system.

After previously using it to increase livestock production and train carrier pigeons, it seemed it was about to find a new use.

And this use probably wasn’t just for charging at enemy cavalry as Zhang Jin’s generals had used them.

She walked around the elephants, already having a rough plan in mind.

Perhaps because the main business was settled, her rare mischievousness surfaced.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, mentioning elephants inevitably brings to mind the story of Cao Chong weighing an elephant.

Guo Jia, who was also there observing the “spoils of war,” suddenly received a glance from Qiao Yan and heard her ask, “Fengxiao, how much do you think this elephant weighs?”