Zhang Fei immediately spoke up loud and indignant. "Hey! Host! What do you mean skip?! Does Old Zhang the Six not even deserve a single mention?!"
Guan Yu froze mid-stroke on his beard. 'Hmm, Wei Yan's rebellion? Is that not my chief clerk? Guan Ping's closest friend? How...?' His thoughts spun into a tangled mess, and for a long moment he simply could not pull himself together.
But no matter how frantic Zhang Fei grew, the screen calmly shifted its focus right back to the Battle of Hanzhong.
Zhuge Liang kept his head down, diligently copying every detail of the three-dimensional map.
'The technical skill of future generations is truly godlike', Zhuge Liang marveled to himself. And this three-dimensional map... if only I had something like this, governing territory or marching armies would be a thousand times easier.
[Lightscreen]
[In March of the following year, 218 AD, Liu Bei personally took command and marched straight for Hanzhong. Perhaps because he had such a massive army and so many generals, he ultimately chose the widest route, the Jinniu Road.
When Li Taibai sighed in his poem Shu Dao Nan, Hard Roads in Shu, that the roads to Shu were harder than ascending to the blue sky, he was not speaking of one single path. He meant nearly every road leading out of Shu at that time.
The Shu roads fell into two groups. The first group consisted of the four Qinling paths leading straight from Guanzhong to Hanzhong. These were the Chencang Road, the Baoxie Road, the Tangluo Road, and the Ziwu Road.
The Chencang Road was a long roundabout way. The Tangluo Road was the shortest, which was also why it was built last. The first historical record of it was in 244 AD when Cao Shuang attacked Shu. Later during the Tang dynasty, it was repaired and turned into an official road into Shu.
The Baoxie Road was one of the routes the Prime Minister used for his northern expeditions. After the Prime Minister passed away at Wuzhang Plains, Wei Yan deliberately set fire to this very path just to spite Yang Yi.
The Ziwu Road became famous because of Wei Yan's bold Ziwu Valley strategy. He wanted to lead five thousand troops on a surprise strike against Chang'an, but the Prime Minister turned it down. Later during the reign of Cao Rui, someone had the exact same idea to sneak up on the Shu army through the Ziwu Road. But three thousand men struggled along that road for half a year and only made it halfway before they had to turn back and retreat defeated.
These four roads were collectively known as the Northern Four because they all crossed the Qinling Mountains from Guanzhong into the Hanzhong Basin. South of Hanzhong, there were three more roads that crossed the Daba Mountains into the Sichuan Basin: the Jinniu Road, the Micang Road, and the Lizhi Road. Together, they were called the Northern Four and Southern Three.
Liu Bei's choice of the Jinniu Road made strategic sense. It was the widest and most well-established of all the Shu roads. The Jinniu Road ran from Hanzhong all the way to Chengdu, spanning more than 600 kilometers, making it the most practical route for a large-scale invasion. The road was also famous for the Jianmen Pass, a towering fortress where a single man could hold off ten thousand.
As for why the other generals did not take the shorter routes, the answer was simple. The Tangluo Road was the shortest, but it was also the most treacherous, with long stretches lacking water sources. The Ziwu Road was notorious for its difficulty. Even the later attempt by Cao Zhen's army proved that three thousand men could barely make it halfway through in six months. The Chencang Road was far too long and roundabout. Liu Bei was no fool. He chose the road that could actually deliver his army intact.]
Zhang Fei suddenly slapped his thigh hard, as if waking from a deep dream. "Second Brother! That close friend you mentioned for Ping'er... was it not this very Wei Yan?"
Guan Yu stood up at once and cupped his fists toward Liu Bei. "Big Brother, this Wei Yan serves as chief clerk under my command..."
Before he could finish, Liu Bei waved a hand and cut him off gently. "Second Brother, do not worry yourself over this. How could I punish a man for something he has not even done yet? That would never sit right with anyone. Besides, if this Wei Yan can one day command an entire army on his own, he must have real talent and courage. Let us just keep watching."
Guan Yu cupped his fists solemnly and sat back down.
Zhuge Liang, meanwhile, had circled the Ziwu Valley strategy in his notes and was staring at it intently.
'The screen says this plan failed in that future. But that future likely did not know how weak and divided Cao Wei truly was inside. If we prepare well in advance and strike with full calculation against an enemy who never sees it coming... perhaps it could actually work?'
[Lightscreen]
[The second group of Shu roads consisted of the four Bashan paths connecting Hanzhong and the Shu heartland. These were the Yinping Road, the Micang Road, the Yangba Road, and the Jinniu Road.
The Yinping Road was the longest and most roundabout way. That was exactly why Deng Ai's surprise strike on Chengdu much later came as such a total shock. Some people guess the folk legend of Third Miss Guan, Guan Yinping, got her name from that very event, though there is no firm proof to confirm it.]
'Guan Yinping!' Guan Yu, who always kept his eyes narrowed in calm composure, snapped them wide open. 'I have been startled more times in the last few months than in my whole life before this.'
Mi Zhu beamed and pressed his hands together happily. "Congratulations, Yunchang! It is ten times harder for a woman to leave her name in history than a man. Third Miss Guan must truly have been a heroine worthy of the name."
Guan Yu's eldest son Guan Ping was away on campaign nearly all year round. His second son Guan Xing was only six years old. And just last year he had welcomed a baby daughter who was still wrapped in swaddling clothes. By birth order, this little girl could indeed be called Third Miss Guan. He never imagined he would hear her legend spoken of so far ahead of time.
His spirits lifted at once. He stroked his long beard and began turning the name over in his mind. 'Guan Yinping... but who uses two characters for a given name? Perhaps Yinping would work better as her courtesy name. A constant reminder to stay watchful against any sneak attack through Yinping Pass. That actually carries a very fine meaning.'
Zhang Fei leaned over and gave him a hearty slap on the back. "Second Brother, cheer up! Since my third niece left a legend behind for all time, that Pang Hui fellow must have been completely useless. Your family line did not get wiped out after all!"
If looks could kill, the glare Guan Yu gave him would have cut like the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
'This damn Yide. He needs a good beating after we finish watching the light screen. I had finally pushed that miserable future out of my mind, and you just had to go and bring it right back up again?'
[Lightscreen]
[The Micang Road and the Yangba Road were far too steep and dangerous for moving large armies. That left only the Jinniu Road for Liu Bei to take. The great Jiange Pass, which Li Taibai also praised so highly, saying it was so rugged and towering that one man holding the pass could keep ten thousand out, stood right on this road.
It was also the place where Jiang Wei stationed his troops when Shu Han fell.
That is exactly why Jiang Wei spoke those famous words in the novel. He asked, we were ready to fight to the very death. Why did Your Majesty surrender first?]
Zhang Fei slammed his palm down hard on the table. "Now that is a truly great line! Majestic and full of heroic spirit! It captures all the danger of Jiange Pass in just a few words. This Li Bai from the future is an exceptionally talented man!"
Jian Yong grinned from the side. "Yide speaks with great truth! For a moment I was half convinced you were not from Zhuo Commandery at all, but actually born and raised right here in Ba and Shu!"
Zhang Fei grumbled under his breath. "Can a man not praise something beautiful just because he has never seen it with his own eyes..."
Liu Bei, however, had gone perfectly still. Those twelve characters from Jiang Wei burned bright in his mind, and he found he could not bear to look at them.
'What kind of son have I raised? How could he ever be so unworthy of a minister who served with such burning devotion?'
"My lord, you do not need to carry this weight upon your shoulders."
Liu Bei looked up, surprised.
The voice came from Sun Qian, a man who rarely spoke up at all. This loyal follower from the very beginning met his gaze with complete and utter seriousness.
"A-Dou is still young," Sun Qian went on. "And we old ministers still have the strength to fight on. If the screen says we could once take Jingzhou and Yizhou and march into Hanzhong, then we simply watch each other's backs and fill each other's gaps. Why could we not retake Chang'an and lock the Cao thieves out behind the passes forever?"
Liu Bei stared at Sun Qian, the man who was always there but so easily overlooked. Then he nodded slowly at first, then with growing resolve.
'A-Dou can still be taught. We can still fight.'
[Lightscreen]
[Getting a little off track here. Anyway, when Liu Bei's massive army set out, the Jinniu Road, stretching one thousand two hundred li, was their only choice.
But even on this easiest route, it took him and his army more than half a year just to arrive.
Today our high-speed rail covers that exact same distance in just three hours. That equals one and a half traditional shichen. If Liu Bei could ride it himself, his eyes would probably pop right out of his head.
Liu Bei's army walked for more than half a year along the Jinniu Road before finally reaching Yangping Pass, the gateway to Hanzhong.
By the time they got there, Xiahou Yuan had been waiting so long the grass had grown tall and the flowers had bloomed and faded all around him.]
Liu Bei, who had only just calmed down, saw the screen teasing him and immediately shouted back at it. "What do you mean my eyes would pop out?! When you showed those great ships from the future, my eyes stayed perfectly fine! And as for the Jinniu Road, if you tried walking it yourself, you might not even finish it in half a year!"
Zhuge Liang was already scribbling furiously in the margin, working out the numbers. "If three hours equal one and a half shichen, then the future system divides our time system exactly in half. A full day has twenty-four hours. One shichen equals two hours. One hour equals four quarter hours."
He looked up, eyes bright with calculation. "This high-speed rail carries people using tickets. Chang'an to Ba-Shu takes one and a half shichen. Luoyang to Ba and Shu takes three shichen. By that same reckoning, traveling all the way from Liaodong to Lingnan would take only one full day. The entire realm could be crossed in the time it takes to finish a single meal."
Zhuge Liang paused, then added, his voice dropping lower full of wonder. "And... the ticket from Luoyang to Chengdu costs four hundred yuan. One horseshoe gold ingot is worth one hundred thousand yuan. That means a single ticket comes to roughly forty Wuzhu coins."
At that moment, a deep ache settled into Zhuge Liang's chest.
'Ever since I began serving my lord, logistics have always fallen to me. I know better than anyone the limits of transport speed and supply in this era. Compared to this high-speed rail, our fastest horses are nothing but the faint glow of a firefly beside the blazing sun.'
Liu Bei's first thought was not excitement. It was heartache. Pure crushing heartache.
If one horseshoe gold ingot can... He counted quickly on his fingers.' It can send two hundred and fifty people all the way to Luoyang!'
His mind raced further ahead. 'What about the journey from Jingzhou to Xudu? The distance is roughly the same. If I borrow some funds from Mi Fang, I could put an entire army of ten thousand on the high-speed rail. Leave at dawn, arrive by midday. Strike down the Cao thieves and be back in Jingzhou before sunset! Still home in time for a warm supper!'
At that moment, Liu Bei let out a long sigh that seemed to rise from the very bottom of his soul.
If I had this high-speed rail at my command... restoring the Han dynasty would be nothing more than a piece of cake!