Chapter 9: Sudden Appearance of a Strange Soldier

  At night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. A person descended from a hanging basket and walked out into the darkness for over a hundred steps before being captured by Zhao Wei's rebel army and dragged directly to Zhao Wei's tent.

  "Who are you? Sneaking out of the city in the dead of night, are you going to find reinforcements for Liu Zhang?" Zhao Wei coldly asked, seeing that the person in front of him had an ugly face and a short stature, evoking a sense of disgust.

  The man who was caught struggled with both hands, broke free from the soldier's bondage, and proudly said: "I am Zhang Song, a former governor of Yi Province, and I have come to present a gift to the general."

  "Zhang Song?" Zhao Wei furrowed his brow and said, "You are a high-ranking official of the provincial governor's mansion, why have you come to surrender to me? It's clearly a trick, take him away and behead him."

  Two soldiers immediately stepped forward, Zhang Song calmly and fearlessly said with a sarcastic tone: "Originally thought that the Eastern Expedition General Zhao Wei was a world-renowned hero, but didn't expect to be so unable to distinguish right from wrong. Never mind, I, Zhang Song, have been blind, coming to rely on such a doomed lord, since it's bound to die anyway, might as well die now and get it over with."

  Laughing loudly as he walked out of the tent, Zhao Wei hesitated for a moment before shouting: "Wait, Zhang Biejia, you say you are truly surrendering, how can I trust you?"

  Zhang Song turned back, smiling leisurely: "General Zhao, although I am the deputy governor of Yi Province, Liu Zhang never trusted me. Every time I had an opinion, it was never adopted. Following such a foolish lord, how can I have a chance to stand out? Today, I'm lucky to hear that General is leading troops to retake Western Shu, thinking that I've met a wise lord, but unexpectedly, I'm suspected by the general. Zhang Song is really heartbroken."

  Zhao Yun thought to himself that he had defeated Liu Zhang and taken control of Yi Province, so it was only natural that these high-ranking officials would support him. Zhang Song was the governor of Yi Province, and there must be a way to make use of him. So, Zhao Yun went down to see Zhang Song, laughing loudly as he said: "Governor Zhang has come to surrender, and I, Zhao Yun, am deeply honored. I have long heard that you were dissatisfied with your position in the provincial government, but now you are abandoning Liu Zhang and joining me, which is like abandoning darkness for light. Please, Governor, go and rest for now. Once I capture Fu City and enter Chengdu, there will be many things that I will need your help with."

  "Hold on." Zhang Song waved his hand and said loudly, "Since General Zhao has recognized me, I am grateful. I have promised to give the general a gift, how can I go back on my word?"

  "What gift? What gift?" Zhao Wei asked in puzzlement.

  "One thousand soldiers, one city."

  Zhao Wei's subordinate general Li Yi stood up from his seat and said: "The vice captain is a civil officer, and he does not command the army, why did you bring soldiers?"

  Zhang Song said to Zhao Wei, "Has General Zhao not heard that his old subordinate Deng Xian is in the city of Fu? Deng Xian is a member of the wealthy Deng family from Jiangzhou. He is deeply concerned about the safety of his family and grateful for General Zhao's past kindness. He has expressed his intention to surrender to me. Now, General Deng is guarding the west gate of Fu City. As soon as I give the signal arrow, he will open the city gates to welcome General Zhao."

  "Really? Indeed?" Zhao Wei was overjoyed: "If so, I will lead the troops to Xicheng immediately, with General Deng as our inside helper. We can surely capture Fucheng in one move, and Liu Zhang's little son won't live much longer."

  "Slow down." Li Yi saw Zhao Wei being overly excited and immediately stopped him, saying: "General, you are the commander of the three armies, and cannot lightly expose yourself to arrows and stones. It's better to send a deputy general instead." Li Yi said to Zhang Song: "I'm doing this not because I don't trust General Zhang, but because it's dark and visibility is poor, and we can't avoid accidental injuries. I believe if General Zhao doesn't go, General Deng won't suspect our sincerity, right?"

  Li Yi finished speaking and stared at Zhang Song tightly. Zhang Song knew that if he advised Zhao Wei to leave now, it would inevitably arouse suspicion. So he smiled and said: "What General Li is worried about is indeed important, General Zhao's safety is crucial, and General Deng will surely understand."

  In the dark of night, a green signal arrow shot into the sky. Zhang Ren and Deng You looked at it from the city wall. Zhang Ren said: "The green signal arrow indicates that Zhao Wei is not in the army. It seems that luring Zhao Wei into the city to kill him won't work. We'll implement the second plan." Deng You nodded.

  Before long, a shout of killing came from inside the west gate. The city gate opened and a team rushed out. The leader was Deng Xian. At this time, Zhao Wei's troops had not yet crossed the drawbridge. Arrows rained down from the city wall, and the city gate creaked shut.

  "I am Deng Xian. Are you here to meet me on behalf of General Zhao?" Deng Xian shouted back while fending off the arrows.

  Zhao Wei was originally ordered to come and respond from the inside, but he didn't expect Deng Xian to leave the city, and the city gate closed. He could only retreat with Deng Xian, asking: "General Deng, why didn't you wait for our army to arrive and open the city gate, but instead took your soldiers out of the city?"

  Deng Xian said loudly: "It's all the fault of this commander, who didn't plan carefully. Zhang Ren suddenly came to inspect the city defense and discovered our weakness. He launched a big attack on my troops, and we couldn't resist, so we had to come out of the city."

  "So it was."

  Zhaoyi personally welcomed Dengxian. As soon as Dengxian saw Zhaoyi, he immediately bowed his head and said: "General Zhao, Dengxian is back." Dengxian's eyes were slightly red, seeing his old master, he was particularly excited.

  Zhao Wei looked at Deng Xian's expression, proud of his own commanding charm. His former subordinate heard that he had arrived and immediately defected to his side. He helped Deng Xian up: "We are all brothers, no need to be polite, but why did you end up in such a state?"

  Zhao Wei only saw Deng Xian covered in blood, his armor pierced with many large holes, and his clothes stained with blood. Deng Xian bowed again: "General Zhao, Deng Xian owes you an apology. Originally, I wanted to surrender the city and defect, but unexpectedly Zhang Ren discovered it. Deng Xian was unable to resist and could only abandon the city and flee. I have failed General's expectations, please punish me."

  Zhao Wei looked at the soldiers brought by Deng Xian, almost all of whom were covered in blood. Some were seriously injured and couldn't get up from the ground, while others had their arms dangling and could only hold their spears with their left hands. The situation was extremely miserable. Zhao Wei couldn't help but say: "Don't blame yourself, I know you've done your best. Our army is ten times larger than the enemy's, so why worry that we won't take Fu City? I'll arrange for tents to be set up now, and you can rest with your soldiers."

  "Thank you, General Zhao." Deng Xian was overcome with emotion as he led the soldiers, supporting each other, into the arranged camp.

  Li Yi stepped forward and said to Zhao Wei: "Sir, isn't it unwise to place Deng Xian's troops in the main camp like this?"

  Zhao Yun said: "You are worrying too much, haven't you seen that Deng Xian's troops are all wounded and can hardly move? Now Liu Zhang is in a desperate situation, the officials of Fu City are all in danger, we should treat these surrendered people well, so that more people will surrender. After Fu City, there are still Mianzhu, Guanghan, and Chengdu, we can't keep attacking forever. The best strategy is to defeat the enemy without fighting. Zhang Song and Deng Xian are examples for those defending generals in Chengdu."

  Zhaoyi finished speaking and entered the tent, Li Yi looked worriedly at Dengxian's camp, but ultimately couldn't think of what to worry about with a heavily wounded army, and followed him into the tent.

  In the dead of night, Deng Xian looked at Zhang Song and said: "Zhang Biejia, why hasn't the main force arrived yet? The brothers' bodies are all swollen from being soaked in blood." The blood on those soldiers was actually from the casualties during the day, and their armor had been deliberately slashed beforehand. In the dark of night, it was hard to tell, giving Zhao Wei the appearance that his entire army was heavily wounded.

  Zhang Song smiled and said, "General Deng, don't worry. Since the lord said there are troops coming, then there must be troops coming. Even if there aren't any troops, now that we have a foothold in Zhao Wei's army, we can still make our move at the crucial moment."

  Deng Xian nodded and continued to wait.

  Just then, Deng Xian suddenly felt the ground shaking slightly, and it was getting stronger. Having often watched cavalry drills in Chengdu, Deng Xian knew this was the sound of cavalry accelerating.

  "Where did the cavalry come from? The lord has no cavalry in Fucheng, it must be Zhao Wei's cavalry. What are they doing sneaking out at midnight?" Deng Xian was full of doubts.

  Zhang Song burst out laughing and said: "Zhao Wei is still snoring loudly in his tent, how can his cavalry move quietly? This must be the troops that our lord has sent."

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