Chapter 25 Intensive Preparations

While Zhong Hui was leading his troops south toward Hanzhong, the machinery of war also began to turn in Didao County, where Deng Ai was stationed.

Even though Deng Ai had repeatedly submitted memorials arguing that a campaign against Shu was not feasible, Sima Zhao's military orders were crystal clear: the Wei army in Longyou, acting as the Western Route Army, was to coordinate with Zhong Hui's Eastern Route Army, with the primary operational objective of pinning down Jiang Wei's elite Shu forces!

Sima Zhao's directive was unmistakably clear. Whether Deng Ai understood the purpose or not, preparations for the military expedition could not halt for even a moment!

Just as Deng Ai was sighing all day long, Shi Zuan, Sima Zhao's chief registrar, arrived. He brought with him a personal letter from Sima Zhao as well as an official appointment document from the imperial court naming him as the army's military registrar.

Deng Ai was over-the-moon overjoyed.

In truth, he had never figured out what Sima Zhao was actually thinking. Now that Shi Zuan had arrived, he could finally probe and fish for information indirectly.

That very night, Deng Ai hosted a banquet for Shi Zuan in his commander's tent. After the deputy generals and lieutenant generals had eaten and drunk their fill and departed, he kept Shi Zuan behind.

"Registrar Shi, there is a matter that Deng has pondered endlessly without finding an answer, leaving me quite apprehensive in my heart.

Now that the wine has flowed thus far, I wonder if I might be so bold as to ask a single question."

Deng Ai poured a cup of wine for Shi Zuan and inquired slowly.

"General Deng, please speak your mind without reservation."

Shi Zuan nodded, noncommittal.

"Why is the General-in-Chief so persistent in wanting to attack Shu?"

Deng Ai asked with a puzzled expression.

Here it comes!

Shi Zuan put on a show of sighing before explaining: "This matter is a long story. Hear me out slowly."

He came from a humble background, possessed a rather hasty temperament, was hardly a man of refined elegance, and his abilities were certainly not out of the ordinary.

However, such a person had one good trait: he knew how to obey orders, could get things done, and possessed strong execution skills. If told to go east, he would not dare to go west, and he would never meddle in extraneous matters.

In Sima Zhao's eyes, people of Shi Zuan's ilk were merely tools, existing to fetch and carry like hunting dogs.

Usable, sufficient, and convenient.

If Sima Zhao did not use someone like Shi Zuan, did he seriously expect to find someone of both moral integrity and talent like Zhuge Liang? Even if such a person were found, they would not deign to pay him any heed; why court humiliation and bring shame upon oneself?

Looking at Deng Ai, who wore an expression of earnest instruction and eager learning, Shi Zuan cleared his throat, let out an involuntary, drawn-out sigh, and instead posed a question in return: "General Deng must know something about the affair of the Grand Preceptor of Noble Station from a few years ago, right?"

At the mention of Cao Mao's death, Deng Ai's heart sank, and he gave a slight nod.

Some matters were profoundly sickening.

Even an onlooker like Deng Ai, who had no intention of raising a hand to help the Cao family, felt a deep sense of unease at the thought of an emperor being murdered right out in the open street.

"That incident dealt a heavy blow to the General-in-Chief's reputation. His insistence on attacking Shu is also driven by a desire to redeem some of his renown through military achievements."

Shi Zuan hinted pointedly, leaving almost nothing unmasked.

Having said this much, it was enough. The rest depended entirely on whether Deng Ai could comprehend it himself. If the man still failed to grasp it, there was simply nothing more to be done.

"Yet... to take an army of seasoned veterans through hundreds of battles just to salvage the General-in-Chief's lost reputation, isn't that rather rash?"

Deng Ai asked with a trace of discontent.

Hearing these words, Shi Zuan nearly spat a mouthful of old blood onto the table.

Was not Sima Zhao's reputation far more important than the army under your command, General Deng? Could he not even see through something this simple?

Shi Zuan was struck utterly speechless by Deng Ai. After a long while, he could only shake his head helplessly and offer a stark, unvarnished reminder: "Regardless of everything, General Deng must still exert himself. A bright future is something one earns for oneself, and it is also something one loses by oneself. Attacking Shu is your future. That is all Shi has to say."

With that, Shi Zuan could not be bothered to say another word, stood up, and left.

After Shi Zuan departed, Deng Ai sat alone in the silent commander's tent. Gazing at the leftover scraps and cold remnants of food on the table, his heart felt as though it were being clawed at by something unseen.

What Sima Zhao actually intended to achieve, Deng Ai did not fully comprehend. However, Shi Zuan's final sentence had hit home:

Attacking Shu meant having a future!

Since things had reached this pass, Deng Ai could not be bothered to delve too deeply into Sima Zhao's ultimate motives. In any case, it all boiled down to a single principle:

He would simply lead his troops south and pin down Jiang Wei. As for the rest, there was no need to overthink the fine details! Those were problems for Sima Zhao to worry about.

***

Meanwhile, while Deng Ai was preparing provisions and heavy baggage, over at the Baoxie Trail, the engineering teams responsible for repairing the plank roads were forced to halt due to the complex terrain ahead.

Xu Yi was not a general versed in engineering. As a vanguard vanguard commander, he was fine when it came to clearing mountains when facing blocked paths or building bridges when encountering rivers, but when faced with plank roads that had been utterly burned to cinders, he was completely at a loss.

Shi Shouxin led his one hundred personal guards south until they reached a place called "Jiangwozi," where converging currents caused the water level to rise far higher than before!

The plank roads they had traversed previously all possessed foundations or diagonal struts underneath for support. Here, the water was terrifyingly deep, making it entirely impossible to establish any footing or support for a plank road.

Back in the day, Prime Minister Zhuge had solved this problem by chiseling square holes into the cliff faces and hammering square timbers of exact dimensions directly into them. These served as horizontal beams, upon which wooden planks were laid to form the suspended walkway.

However, in the past, the Baoxie Trail had been a major transportation artery for the Shu army's northern expeditions, and the Shu forces had naturally taken great care to maintain the plank roads here. Following the death of Zhuge Liang, Shu's defensive strategy for Hanzhong shifted to strategic defense, and consequently, these timber-beamed plank roads were put to the torch by the Shu troops.

Legend had it that Zhao Yun was the one who burned them.

The climate here was a completely different world from the northern regions. The road further back was close to Shaanxi, where the streams iced over, but here the climate drew closer to Hanzhong, and the river waters refused to freeze!

Looking at the jade-green waters of the Bao River before him, then surveying the sheer, knife-carved cliff walls and the square socket-holes carved into them, Shi Shouxin seemed to understand something.

"Inspector Shi, it is truly impossible to press any further. The vanguard army has already lost dozens of brothers trying to repair the plank road, and the men are utterly exhausted.

As for the road ahead, vast stretches require complete reconstruction, and we cannot source this kind of thick, square timber anywhere nearby. How we are to proceed with construction is beyond Xu's comprehension; we will likely have to return to Sanjian City before we can deliberate further."

Xu Yi sighed, wearing a deeply dejected expression. He had originally hoped to secure a measure of military merit, but with the road ahead blocked and the main army unable to pass, he would consider himself lucky if Zhong Hui did not behead him as vanguard commander—dreaming of merits was out of the question!

"Very well, let us return to Sanjian City first and discuss it there."

Shi Shouxin nodded. Loitering here offered no solution; it would be better to fall back to the stronghold of Sanjian City, let the vanguard troops rest and regroup, and then have Hu Lie summon the high-ranking officers for a meeting to pool their wisdom—and conveniently rope others in to share the blame.

Sure enough, upon returning to Sanjian City, when Xu Yi reported to Hu Lie that the plank road ahead was beyond repair, Hu Lie flew into a furious rage. Seizing the opportunity, he ordered Xu Yi to be given fifty military杖 (strokes of the heavy staff), stripped him of his post as vanguard commander, and relegated his personal troops from the vanguard to the rear, swapping positions with a general named Li Bao.

While this appeared cruel, it was actually an act of protection, saving Xu Yi from being nitpicked and liquidated by Zhong Hui. Xu Yi evidently understood the drill; he took his fifty blows with a cheeky grin and even joked and laughed with Shi Shouxin at their parting.

Disciplining Xu Yi merely resolved the issue of the vanguard army "violating military law" and did nothing to solve the blockage of the Baoxie Trail.

With no other choice, Hu Lie on one hand dispatched a report to Zhong Hui stating that the section of the Baoxie Trail close to Hanzhong had been burned down by the Shu army, emphasizing not only the treacherous nature of the terrain but also the fact that the cliff bases were flanked entirely by rushing rivers.

On the other hand, Li Bao—a general within the imperial guards who excelled at constructing fortifications and was well-versed in earthwork operations—was invited by Hu Lie to Sanjian City to deliberate on the grand enterprise of repairing the plank road, and was requested to lead troops to clear the path ahead.

Within two days, Zhong Hui's military directive arrived: overcome all difficulties to repair the plank road, ensure it is properly restored, and do not delay the march. The Tangluo Trail route would serve as the main offensive thrust, while the Baoxie Trail route would act as a feint; as long as the general offensive was guaranteed to launch before April of next year, all would be well!

Calculating the time, there were barely three months remaining.

Whether it was Hu Lie or Shi Shouxin, these generals taking the Baoxie Trail route finally snapped back to reality.

The reason Zhong Hui had chosen not to lead this route himself was not merely due to poor leadership on his part; rather, he had known long in advance that this route was completely impassable!

The hope of conquering Hanzhong lay entirely with Li Fu's faction.

Anyone capable of surviving in Sima Zhao's inner circle could not possibly be a genuine fool. Seeing that the Wei generals taking the Tangluo Trail were all unruly and arrogant, Zhong Hui had assigned them to this dead-end route to burn through time, preventing them from interfering with his actual plans.

Whichever subordinate was obedient, he would simply transfer to the other route!

Though Shi Shouxin was quick-witted and essentially taking an open-book test, he had still been played by Zhong Hui this time.

If the plank roads were not completed on schedule, the vast majority of generals on this route, starting with Hu Lie, would face severe punishment and come out of it empty-handed. As the imperial inspector, Shi Shouxin would certainly not be able to slip away either.

How could they break this deadlock?

Inside a military tent within Sanjian City, Hu Lie gazed with a worried expression at Shi Shouxin, Du Yu, and the others. Resting on a table was a wooden board inscribed with an "engineering draft" drawn by Shi Shouxin after leading surveying teams out to take measurements.

The number of socket holes in the cliff face, the distances between them, the side lengths and depths of each square hole had all been thoroughly surveyed.

Every detail was numbered and accompanied by data on the blueprint, making everything instantly clear at a glance. Everyone present could not help but admire the solid foundational engineering skills Shi Shouxin had acquired while serving in the Imperial Secretariat.

"Everything else can be managed, but figuring out how to transport the timber here is a troublesome ordeal. Timbers of such massive square dimensions cannot be provided by just any ordinary tree."

Du Yu sighed and spoke.

"Furthermore, these woods must be hewn into square beams, which requires locating trees with exceptionally thick trunks. Trees of that caliber... I fear we can only find them in Shu territory or Guanzhong, as Longyou possesses none."

Li Bao added his thoughts as well.

An expert makes a move, and you know instantly if they have the skills. Compared to Xu Yi, who only knew how to take orders from Shi Shouxin, Li Bao clearly possessed a deep understanding of architectural engineering. Building plank roads, after all, was hardly difficult when it came to manpower or similar logistics.

The only nuisances were the materials themselves and how to transport those materials to the precise locations where the plank roads needed to be built!

One had to bear in mind that the plank road ahead had been constructed by Zhuge Liang, not the Wei state. Even the engineering design of the plank roads had been laid down by Zhuge Liang himself!

Those square beams and pillars had likewise been hauled from Hanzhong, or even from the densely forested depths of Shu!

Shi Shouxin silently pondered to himself that Zhong Hui might have known about this in advance and intentionally dug a pit for them here! However, dwelling on that now was useless. He noticed that the gazes of everyone present were firmly fixed upon him—an official hailing from the Imperial Secretariat.

After all, he was a trained professional! It was hardly surprising that they placed such high hopes upon him.

"Inspector Shi, Li has heard that you spent over two years in the Imperial Secretariat and even built bridges in Luoyang, possessing quite a bit of genuine skill in this domain.

May I ask how these plank roads ought to be repaired?"

Li Bao did not stand on ceremony with Shi Shouxin, asking the question straight to the point.

Judging from the engineering draft on the wooden board upon the floor, Li Bao knew that Shi Shouxin's level of expertise was definitely superior to his own.

Could a person truly wield immense weight in the expeditionary army merely by virtue of being Li Yin's son-in-law? Little did one know that Li Yin's eldest son, Li Gu, had previously been nothing more than a mere county magistrate!

Proppping up one's son to secure an official post was ordinary enough; how much further could one prop up a son-in-law? Thus, it was self-evident why Shi Shouxin was able to speak with such authority and eloquence here today.

Hu Lie and the others could tell with a single glance that Shi Shouxin's status had been earned largely through his own competence.

"Allow me two days to ponder it. In any case, establishing granaries and military staging posts along the Baoxie Trail requires time as well, so it will not cause a delay.

What does General Hu think? Let us discuss it again in three days."

Shi Shouxin replied with a calm expression, appearing thoroughly composed. His steady demeanor allowed the others to settle down as well; at the very least, there was now someone willing to bear the heavy burden.

"Very well, let us attend to our respective military duties for now, and gather to discuss this matter again in three days."

Hu Lie naturally had no objections. After all, this was not strictly part of Shi Shouxin's official duties; it was merely that he happened to possess experience in this field.

Shi Shouxin's official assignment for this expedition was to serve as the imperial inspector—a role specifically meant to find fault with the generals!

Helping out was a matter of personal favor; refusing to help was within his rights. Of course, if an inspector focused solely on nitpicking faults, it would be tantamount to courting death!

The primary prerequisite for everything was "winning."

If they won, minor issues ceased to be issues, and major problems could be brushed aside with a mere three cups of forfeit wine.

If they lost, the inspector needed to be able to find someone to take the fall so that he himself escaped blame.

Therefore, the post of imperial inspector might seem simple—as if one could sleep away the days in the military camp without issue—yet in reality, the difficulty was immense, the nuances were numerous, and the slightest lapse in judgment meant losing one's head.

Before parting, Du Yu quietly sought out Shi Shouxin for a private conversation.

Wearing a troubled expression, he said, "Gandang, wouldn't it be better if you found a way to return to Luoyang? You have already offended Zhong Hui, and I fear... things will become perilous for you hereafter."

"It is already too late to speak of leaving now."

Shi Shouxin sighed. To withdraw at this juncture would be no different from bringing shame upon Yang Huimu, let alone abandoning all future prospects. Where else could he find a path of retreat?

"Zhong Hui is so unbridled, acting without any regard for consequences. It seems he has no intention of returning to Luoyang.

Gandang must still remain cautious. Zhong Hui... will definitely rebel."

Du Yu cautioned with a solemn expression.

"I understand. Thank you for the warning, Yuankai."

Shi Shouxin nodded, his heart weighing heavily. Even Du Yu could perceive that something was amiss with Zhong Hui; it was hard to say what kind of madness this commander-in-chief might ultimately unleash.