Three Kingdoms

North of Jianning.

Wei Yan camp.

Wei Yan felt that there seemed to be something wrong with his seat. It was uncomfortable no matter how he sat. He looked left and right in the big tent, but nothing he looked at was pleasing to the eye.

"General, why don't you go hunting in the surrounding area to relax?" "When the personal guard saw Wei Yan acting like this, he probably guessed Wei Yan's impatience, so he said.

Xu Shu only gave Wei Yan three thousand soldiers, and emphasized that Wei Yan could not take the initiative to attack. On the one hand, the situation was unclear and needed to be understood more clearly before handling it. On the other hand, neither Xu Shu nor Wei Yan were very interested in Jianning. We are familiar with it, so jumping into it rashly is not a good choice.

Wei Yan also understands this.

But...

Everyone has a gambling instinct.

Big or small.

Strictly speaking, gambling at that time was not a heinous thing. After all, the future was unknowable and no one knew what would happen. When problems occurred and there was no way to completely predict them based on experience, many times There is only one way to gamble subconsciously.

Of course, it is definitely wrong to indulge purely in the sensory stimulation of gambling.

Wei Yan likes gambling. Because Wei Yan was not very peaceful by nature.

Normally speaking, Wei Yan is at most a minor official under Jingxiang, and should generally be a subordinate in a certain city. After all, Wei Yan's background is not considered good, so he can only get this kind of position. , if there aren’t many changes, maybe I can catch thieves every day, and then buy some drinks after get off work, and that’s it for the rest of my life.

But Wei Yan wanted more.

People who want more are generally very expressive, and will naturally be considered extremely ambitious. That's why Brother Zhu said that Wei Yan is a traitor in the back of his head. Because of Brother Zhu, who is naturally cautious, and Gastritis, who is naturally adventurous, Personally speaking, they already dislike each other.

So, now Wei Yan is ready to go "hunting".

According to Wei Yan, idleness is idleness. The New Year is coming soon. Shouldn't we get some prey to celebrate?

Normally, a general in the Chinese army like Wei Yan should not act rashly, because if something goes wrong, the impact will be huge. But the problem is that Wei Yan's butt is not flat, but pointed, so he couldn't sit still, so he took advantage of the pretext of hunting and brought his elite guards directly out of the camp. He suddenly felt that the air was sweet. …

"General, please come back soon!" 』

The lieutenant of the Central Military Academy was temporarily in charge of the camp, and he was very helpless and stressed on the wall of the camp, although he also understood that General Wei Yan might not listen to him...

Wei Yan laughed twice, waved his hand, and led the people towards the mountain.

After going around and around, Wei Yan took his guards and changed the direction...

"General..." Seeing Wei Yan walking further and further south, the immediate bodyguard felt that Wei Yan didn't seem to be "hunting" and couldn't help but asked somewhat differently, "Where are we going?" 』

"hunt! Wei Yan laughed, "What's the point of hunting those wild beasts?" We're going to hunt some people today! 』

"General... we can't go with just these few people. Do we need to go back and call in more people?" 』The guard... was a little nervous and a little helpless. What about the "ordinary hunting" that he had promised?

Wei Yan waved his hand and said, "You are wrong... It is precisely because there are few of us that we can hunt easily... If we go out in large numbers, it might be more dangerous..."

When the two armies confront each other, it is indispensable to send scout posts to each other to explore and test, so Wei Yan with more than 20 people is like an enhanced scout team. Most people would not expect that Wei Yan is hiding among them, and those who come to take action will not Usually they are the other side's scouts and will not send out all their troops to encircle and kill them.

According to the previous investigation by the scouts, there is a cave fifty miles ahead, on the mountainside, which the barbarians regard as a temporary resting place, and scouts often rest in it...

Of course, these Yi people thought that Wei Yan's scouts would not come so far away, so although they could not be said to be unscrupulous, they were at least relatively relaxed at the time, and even the normal warning posts were a bit perfunctory.

It is also understandable. After all, these barbarians are not serious soldiers. Many of them are hunters or farmers in the villages. They have some fighting ability when they are fierce, but this is discipline. No matter how you say it, it will be different from the regular soldiers. There are some differences between time-trained soldiers.

It's like the eighth master beating the Japanese in the drama of later generations, which is similar to the father beating the grandson. It's not a big deal for one to beat eight, but the real situation at that time was not so beautiful. Well, Osaka Legion said otherwise, that guy is like a husky among the wolves, his style is always so amazing...

But many times, things happen by accident.

The observation point chosen by the scouts was naturally a traffic artery. If it were an unimportant place, no barbarians would establish an observation point.

However, the Yi people here at the observation point are a bit undisciplined. They are originally people who are used to being unorganized. As the biggest war scenes are often armed fights between villages, most of them have never experienced any wars. At most, they are curious about the wars in Sichuan and Shu. Not even curiosity, just pure indifference.

What does the fighting between the Han people and the Yi people have to do with it?

As for the Jianning Rebellion, it was more of a booing, like a group fight downstairs in a dormitory, where someone yelled that so-and-so department was fighting so-and-so department, and then no matter what happened, maybe a few people who knew each other started talking about it. , and joined the battle group together.

Therefore, even if these barbarians are at the observation point, they are not in a hurry. Even if they are sentry duty, they will often chew sweet grass roots, nest in the shelter, and only stick out their heads after a while, without even taking a glance. Take a look at your surroundings.

In the eyes of these Yi people, the Han people here in Wei Yan have been guarding the camp for so long without seeing any movement. Besides, if these Han people really want to take any action, there will naturally be a lot of movement, and they can be heard from ten miles away. You can hear it, and the surroundings are quiet now, so why should you be nervous?

The relaxed mentality and lazy style of these Yi people brought fatal consequences to them. When Wei Yan led his people to touch the bottom of the Yi people's observation point, no Yi people were alert to find anything unusual.

Wei Yan stood up quietly from behind the hidden bushes, drew his bow and arrow, and aimed at the half head exposed behind the rock above...

The long arrow leaves the string!

Apparently, the abnormal whistling in the wind alarmed the Yi people who were actually hiding behind the rocks for shelter. The Yi people, who did not have much war experience at that time, made a wrong decision. Instead of immediately shrinking their heads to avoid it, they wanted to turn their heads... , and then it was tragic. A long arrow penetrated his skull, bringing out a large amount of brains and blood!

As Wei Yan's long arrow was released, the elite guards rushed out from their hiding places, either bending their bows and setting arrows, or rushing towards the cave entrance quickly along the mountain like apes!

The Yi people were alarmed by the sudden sound, and several Yi people who tried to run out of the cave were shot by long arrows. They suddenly fell down from the mountainside and crashed into the bushes at the foot of the mountain.

The Yi people who were in the cave were yelling and screaming, like a group of crabs that were suffocated in a pot. Although they were still catching them with their teeth open, it had no practical effect. Even if they wanted to escape, there was no place to escape. , and Wei Yan's guards threw two half-dried bundles of firewood in succession. The smoke was billowing, and they had no choice but to knock them out of the holes one by one. They were either killed or knelt down and surrendered.

Wei Yan asked his men to interrogate, but these Yi people simply said whatever they asked, without any indication that they wanted to be strong-willed and keep the King of Yi people's secrets secret. They even included some gossip, such as the fact that the King of Yi people had a new wife, etc. When all is said and done...

However, among the matters confessed by the Yi people, one thing caught Wei Yan's attention.

"A large army will come?" Wei Yan asked, "Let's ask again, what kind of army is it and the people and horses over there?" how many people? 』

The guard left again. After a long and short scream, the guard came back with some helplessness on his face, "Reporting to the general, this guy said he didn't know this... I used the punishment again, but this guy just listened to me." When asked about one thousand, he said there was one thousand; when asked about ten thousand, he said ten thousand... I think he really didn't know..."

Wei Yan nodded.

This is normal. Rumors in the military are naturally passed around. Some are true and some are false. If we want to talk about the specific situation at that time, it is not like catching two soldiers and immediately knowing the whole situation from their mouths. Yes, at most it is only information within the range that this soldier can access.

"Very many..." Wei Yan scratched his head, feeling depressed as well. He deeply felt how important it was for General Hussar to promote cultural knowledge, "How many people are very many?" One thousand, three thousand? Ten thousand? 』

The Han scouts still know some numerical knowledge, at least they know how to report when they go back, but the Yi people...

Among the adjectives of the Yi people, there are only two concepts of "more" and "less", and then derived from the secondary concepts such as "many" and "few", and the following "very many" and "very few" also focus on There are few standard numerical expressions for subjective feelings, which makes the results obtained by Wei Yan's inquiry so vague and frustrating.

He originally thought that if he captured a living person, he would be able to ask some questions about the situation, but now he only provided some very vague concepts and information, which was not enough for Wei Yan to understand the specific situation of the Jianning Yi people.

"This is a bit troublesome..." Wei Yan thought.

I went out to hunt "prey", and found out that I knew something about the situation. At that time, I was even worse than not knowing. Damn it, didn't the Yi people send a few guys who can understand numbers as sentinels? ? If I send an army to attack, will this guy report that it is "a lot" or "a very large amount"?

Continue to explore south?

Not suitable. After all, if you go further south, you will basically enter the territory of Jianning. Putting aside the distance issue, the scouts have not been placed that far away, and the terrain is not familiar.

Wei Yan likes to take risks. At that time, he took risks more when he had some confidence, rather than out of sheer recklessness.

"Put these guys in custody now!" Clean up the surrounding corpses to avoid attracting tigers and wolves! Wei Yan ordered, "Put the sentry higher and rotate it every two hours!" Return at dawn tomorrow! 』

The corpses on the mountain road and mountainside don't need to be dug and buried. They can just throw them into the dense bushes at the foot of the mountain. Anyway, the scavengers in the trees will quickly digest the flesh and blood into white bones.

Now we can only take these people back and ask them in detail. For example, first find out how many of these guys are "a lot" and "very many"...

Although Wei Yan set out early in the morning, the mountain road was difficult to travel at that time. After setting down the barbarian sentry post and asking for confessions, it was already approaching dusk. Although it was not impossible for Wei Yan and others to go late at night, it was not impossible for Wei Yan and others to do so. There is no need for this. After all, in this era of backward communication methods, the Yi people may not realize that there is a problem until the next batch of people, or even wait for a long time before this batch of people return, and even at that time, the first batch of people will not realize the problem. Looking for him again, Wei Yan didn't know how long it had been since he returned to the camp.

However, at night, Wei Yan, who was half-asleep and half-awake against the stone wall of the cave, suddenly opened his eyes as if he noticed something. This shocked the guards who came to wake Wei Yan up.

"General...it seems someone is coming..."

Wei Yan suddenly lost all sleep.

On the mountain trail, there seemed to be three or five people holding torches, and then slowly came from a distance. Because it was nighttime, it was extremely obvious and could be seen from a long distance.

"Um? Aren't these people afraid of death? Wei Yan whispered to himself, "Why did it come from this direction?" 』

When it comes to the topography and landforms around Jianning, the Yi people are naturally the first to praise it, so the observation point chosen by the Yi people happens to be at the key point of transportation, where two or three mountain roads converge. The direction to the northeast is naturally where Wei Yan came from, and the direction to the south is Jianning. And these guys who are risking their way in the dark are neither from the northeast nor from the south...

No matter where they came from, Wei Yan had no reason to let them go in vain, so he ordered his men to ambush them in the nearest area.

The torches are getting closer.

Wei Yan's brows furrowed more and more tightly.

Although the night was dim and unclear, through the light and fire, it could be seen that these people were not wearing Yi people's clothes, nor did they look like Yi people at all. Instead, they were wearing Han people's robes and Han people's armor.

Wei Yan silently retracted his head into the shadows. After these people entered the ambush circle, he issued the order to attack. What Wei Yan did not expect at that time was that when these people realized that they had entered the ambush circle, they first Time turned out not to resist or escape, but raised his hands to show that he was the messenger...

"messenger? What messenger? ! Wei Yan's eyes widened, "Where the hell did the messenger come from?" ! 』