Upon returning to his residence, Dianxian secretly ordered someone to find a defeated soldier from the place of refuge in Shehetai.
"Young master, the person has been brought."
"Okay, go get him something to eat."
Dianxian looked at the Shehetai subordinates who had been brought in, and then gave an order to the person next to him.
Soon, several sumptuous dishes were served and placed in front of the soldier, especially the bowl full of beef, which made the soldier's eyes light up and he kept swallowing his saliva.
Dianxian glanced at the soldier, then pointed to the food.
"Eat!"
"Thank you, young master, thank you, young master."
The soldier, who had been starving for several days, didn't care why he had been brought here. He had only one thought at the moment: to eat all the food.
"Tell me, how exactly did you lose? And how did you escape back?"
Looking at the soldiers wolfing down their food, Dian Xian smiled, like a kind leader comforting a lowly worker.
"Hmm~" Upon hearing Dian Xian's question, the soldier swallowed the food in his mouth with difficulty, then wiped his mouth and said, "Reporting to the young master, when we followed the Hao people to Gaoping, we suddenly discovered that there were Han cavalry outside Gaoping City, waiting in full battle formation."
"Han cavalry? How many are there?" Dian Xian asked urgently.
The soldier looked up and thought carefully for a moment, "Hmm, there are probably two thousand cavalry, and the city walls are covered with banners. Judging from the manpower inside the city, there should be more than ten thousand people."
A middle-aged man dressed as a Confucian scholar suddenly spoke up beside Dian Xian: "Young master, those banners should be a feint by the Han army, just to bluff their way in."
“Mr. Han is right. If the Han army really had tens of thousands of men, Shehetai wouldn’t have been able to return.” Dianxian nodded, then looked at the soldier with a puzzled expression. “The Han army only sent two thousand cavalry. How could they have defeated you like this?”
"this..."
The soldier hesitated, glancing fearfully at Dian Xian before daring not to say anything more.
Dianxian still smiled as he looked at the soldier. "Speak. After you finish, I will arrange for you to work under my personal guard. Even Shehetai won't be able to do anything to you."
"That's right, when we were halfway there, Shehetai suddenly ordered a retreat..."
Upon hearing Dian Xian's words, the soldier no longer hesitated and then told Dian Xian the whole story of the battle and what happened after he was captured.
"Hmm, I understand. You may leave now." Dian Xian remained expressionless after hearing this, then looked at one of his men, "Take him away!"
The subordinate nodded, and then led the soldier outside.
After seeing the soldier retreat, Dian Xian's face immediately turned extremely gloomy. He slammed his fist on the table in front of him and said angrily, "That Shehetai is not only cowardly and afraid of death, but he also exaggerated the Han army and disrupted the morale of our troops. He is truly hateful!"
“My lord, we can deal with Shehetai later. Although the Han army has reinforcements arriving, their numbers should not be large. Therefore, we should take Gaoping in one fell swoop before most of their reinforcements arrive.”
"Mr. Han is right. No wonder the scouts my father sent out have not returned. The Han army must be trying to block the news and confuse us so that our army will not dare to advance."
Dianxian had also read some Han military books and was quite shrewd. He quickly figured out the Han army's plan.
"There is no time to lose. Young Master should inform the powerful man immediately and send troops."
"Um."
Upon hearing his son's report, Dianmu was furious, but he also realized that arbitrarily disciplining a small unit before a major battle would destabilize the morale of the troops.
“Replenish Shehatai and his men with horses and weapons, and tell them that if they dare to back down again, they will be severely punished.”
After dealing with Shehetai's matter, Dianmu summoned all the tribal leaders. Seeing that Dianmu not only did not punish the defeated Shehetai, but even allowed him to lead the army again to atone for his mistakes, the Qiang leaders of the smaller tribes were deeply impressed by his magnanimity and expressed their willingness to follow him.
Dianmu welcomed all who came and spoke kindly to the leaders of the small tribes, displaying the demeanor of a powerful ruler.
Mr. Han, who was standing to the side, looked at Dian Mu with a hint of apprehension in his eyes.
With Dianmu's command, a full 30,000 Qiang troops surged towards Gaoping like a torrent. All the Qiang soldiers urged their warhorses on with all their might, dreaming of taking Gaoping as soon as possible and then going straight into the heart of the Han territory to burn, kill, and plunder.
Dianmu, who was leading the army, was in high spirits and did not notice the resentful gaze of Shehetai at the rear of the group.
On the other side, Duan Jiong was in charge, with Dong Zhuo and Tian Yan as his deputies. Even Guo Si volunteered to follow behind Duan Jiong.
After marching for half a day, the Han army arrived at an open area. Suddenly, a scout sent out by Duan Jiong reported:
"General, seventy miles away, the Qiang people have mobilized their entire army of 30,000, led by their chieftain Dianmu, and are rushing toward our army."
“Alright, let’s go back and explore again,” Duan Jiong then looked at Dong Zhuo beside him and pointed to the open space in front of him, “Zhongying, what do you think of this place?”
"General, the terrain here is open and flat, and our army is on high ground, which is extremely advantageous for cavalry charges. It is indeed the best place for the Qiang people to be buried."
"Haha...Okay."
Duan Jiong immediately burst into laughter; Dong Zhuo's words suited his temperament perfectly.
If Huangfu Gui was good at overall planning and Zhang Huan was good at winning through ingenious strategies among the "Three Masters of Liangzhou", then Duan Jiong was the best at commanding battle formations.
In Duan Jiong's view, the so-called "a general's strength lies in strategy, not courage" is utter nonsense. He always believed that the general is the soul of the army, and only when a general dares to fight and is fearless can he maximize the morale of the soldiers and their courage to fight to the death.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
