Chapter 289 The First Failure

Gao Bing moved very quickly. He sent all the troops from Chang'an to Da San Pass to hold the Chencang Road. At the same time, he sent messengers to the Western Liang region to notify them, preventing Gao Yuan from taking an alternative path through the Qishan Road to attack Western Liang.

Gao Yuan's initial target was indeed the Chencang Road, but after learning that the defenses at Da San Pass had been strengthened, he abandoned the plan.

Later, he thought of the Ziwu Valley Stratagem, which had been a subject of constant debate on the internet in later generations, and immediately wanted to give it a try. However, reality soon doused his enthusiasm with a bucket of cold water.

After half a month of struggle, Chen Dao returned to the main camp in a state of utter disarray.

"My Lord, This humble general has already sent men to scout the Ziwu Road and the Baoxie Road. These two paths are rugged and difficult to traverse. Let alone grain and supplies, even lightly equipped troops would find it hard to pass."

"Is it truly impassable?"

"If it were a small number of troops carrying their own dry rations, it might be feasible."

Gao Yuan suddenly understood why someone as wise as the Prime Minister could only choose to go out through Qishan six times when the Chencang Road was blocked. It was because the so-called Ziwu Valley Stratagem was truly just a tactical exercise on paper.

The reason Chang'an could become the ancient capital of nine dynasties was inevitably due to its extremely superior geographical environment.

Without a heavy siege and long-term encirclement, and without a continuous supply of logistics, it was impossible to take Chang'an.

The prerequisite for all of this was a smooth and stable logistical supply line, and the so-called Ziwu Valley simply could not bear such a heavy responsibility.

Later, the Shu Han Dynasty was taken by Deng Ai crossing the Yinping Ancient Road, largely because the hearts of the people in Shu Han Dynasty had already scattered at that time. As soon as Deng Ai arrived, many people surrendered directly.

Soon, the scouts sent to the Qishan Road also returned. Troops had also been added in the Qishan direction, meaning that the two most important roads out of Sichuan were now impassable.

Shortly after, more news arrived saying that Gao Wu had personally led ten thousand elites to Chang'an. Gao Yuan lost even more of his desire to attack.

"Sigh... I was one step too slow after all!"

Gao Yuan knew his only chance was one word: "Speed."

It was by virtue of speed that he had quickly broken through Yangping Pass and swept across the entire Hanzhong Plain before Gao Wu could react.

And for a surprise attack on Chang'an, he also had only one chance: to break through Da San Pass and occupy Chencang City at the fastest possible speed. However, none of that was possible now.

In fact, for a long time to come, Gao Yuan would have no opportunities in the direction of Chencang. Gao Wu would not give him such a chance.

Inside the Chang'an Palace, Gao Wu's face was ashen. He hadn't expected Gao Yuan's movements to be so fast and so ruthless.

Hanzhong was lost in less than a month. In fact, if he hadn't moved fast enough, Gao Yuan would likely have already stepped onto the soil of the Guanzhong Plain.

Over the years of conquering territories, his Northern Liang had occupied vast lands, but he knew very well in his heart that Guanzhong was his core base.

More than half of Northern Liang's grain and soldiers came from the fertile Guanzhong Plain; it was something that absolutely could not be lost.

"Third Son, you have done well!"

Gao Wu patted Gao Bing on the shoulder and encouraged him in a deep voice.

"Thank you for your reward, Great King! Great King..."

Gao Wu let out a sigh.

"I know you want to ask about the Seventh Son. Rest assured on that point. As long as he isn't dead, the third boy likely won't make things difficult for him..."

Gao Wu's words were soon proven true. Gao Yuan sent a letter expressing his hope that Gao Wu would send en own reason's family and the families of the captured soldiers to Chengdu.

At first, Gao Wu was unwilling to do this. He felt that at the very least, Gao Yuan should send someone to bring en own reason back to spend his remaining years in peace.

However, after Gao Yuan explained that en own reason's physical condition could no longer withstand the jolts of the Shu roads, Gao Wu finally relented and sent en own reason's and the soldiers' families to Chengdu.

This won Gao Yuan a great deal of public support. Of course, none of this was without a price. Gao Yuan made a promise, burned the plank roads leading from Hanzhong to Guanzhong, and pledged not to send troops toward Hanzhong for three years.

Although everyone knew clearly that this clause was purely for show and could not be taken seriously, it could still play a certain role.

No one knew how great a price Gao Yuan paid to make this decision.

Sure enough, as he picked up the pen to sign his name, the system notification arrived immediately.

"S-rank Temporary Event: Ambition of the Martial Marquis;"

"Event Objective 1: Occupy Hanzhong within six months; (Completed)"

"Event Objective 2: Occupy Chang'an within one year; (Failed)"

"Event failed. The Host has permanently lost the opportunity to unlock the series event: The Momentum of Strong Qin."

"Congratulations to the Host for obtaining Mysterious Key X1."

"System, what kind of event is 'The Momentum of Strong Qin'?"

"The series event 'The Momentum of Strong Qin' is divided into seven stages. Completing all of them grants one S-rank Random Talent Summoning Card, two A-rank Random Talent Summoning Cards, 5,000 permanent Qin Elite Martial Soul Cards, and five b-rank lottery cards."

Gao Yuan felt like he was about to have a heart attack. He hadn't expected that by making a choice, the loss would be this massive.

On the surface, Gao Yuan maintained a calm and indifferent expression, but in his heart, he had already started to resent this cheap father of his.

"Damn it, if I'm going to hit you, why do you have to struggle? Wouldn't it be better to just lie flat and enjoy it? And that Wei Yan, what kind of nonsense is the Ziwu Valley Stratagem? It's just a trap!"

After venting his frustrations internally for a long while and looking over the reports of the gains from this campaign for a bit, Gao Yuan's mood finally improved.

Because they were all surprise attacks, the battles started quickly and ended just as fast. The enemy forces collapsed at the first contact, so there were essentially no casualties.

After screening the more than ten thousand surrendered soldiers, over four thousand were incorporated into the Diannan Corps. As for the remaining Qiang and Xiongnu soldiers, Gao Yuan didn't care for any of them and turned them all into slaves.

Without firearms, machine guns, or cannons, these foreign tribes could never become ethnic groups that were good at singing and dancing. Any talk of ethnic integration or various ethnicities being as close as one family was just empty talk.

History had repeatedly proven that as long as they were given time to recuperate, and as long as they were given blades, spears, and warhorses, they would surrender and then rebel again, continuing to be a major threat.

Recovering Hanzhong was considered quite a significant achievement, so Gao Yuan naturally wanted to publicize it everywhere.

Now that Zhao Ji was dead and Zhao Changluo was not a legitimate successor in the proper line, his prestige and legitimacy were easily criticized.

Gao Yuan now had to start making preparations to push Zhao Xiyao onto the throne. The accumulation of prestige among the people was extremely important.

Compared to the Powerful Families pushing for Zhao Changluo's succession, the difficulty of Gao Yuan wanting to push for a female emperor to ascend the throne would be even greater. This required all sorts of conditions to be met, and a very important one was achievements.

Under Gao Yuan's promotion, news soon spread everywhere that the Prince of Nanyue, Zhao Xiyao, had wiped out fifty thousand Northern Liang troops, beheaded the enemy general en own reason, and recovered Hanzhong.

Zhao Changluo, Xiao Yu, Cui You, and the others were very unhappy with this news, because it had been over a year since they took power, and it could be said they hadn't achieved a single merit.

Furthermore, issues like land annexation and large-scale military disarmament had led to a decline in the people's living standards, causing a large number of people to flee and bandits to run rampant, resulting in widespread grievances.

What frustrated them the most was that they still had to commend Zhao Xiyao and Gao Yuan. No matter how you looked at it, they had recovered lost territory on behalf of Da Qian, so they had to be commended, even if only verbally.

However, Xiao Yu, Cui You, and their group were indeed old foxes. They soon came up with a brilliant plan through discussion.

In the eleventh month of the second year of the Jianan era of Da Qian, a diplomatic mission from the Great Qian Imperial Court entered the borders of the Nanyue Kingdom and was subsequently escorted all the way to Panyu City by the Xuanjia Army.