Chapter 80: Newly Acquired Talent

  Wen Ping had already heard Liu Jue shouting outside the tent to spare his life, and he was taken aback. Could it be that Liu Jue still had some connection with this small garrison commander?

  Logically, Liu Xuan's position was not high, just a small military marquis, he did not have the qualifications to plead for Wei Yan, but his identity was special, as Liu Biao's nephew, even Cai Mao had to give him some face.

  However, Wen Pin has always been strict and upright. He wants to spare Wei Yan, which is not easy. Liu Xuan's heart is nervous, and he can only force himself to say: "Jingzhou's good general is hard to find, I hope General Wen will spare Wei Yan's life!"

  Wen Ping gazed at Liu Xuan for a long time, and said calmly: "Young Master Xuan will also become a general in the future. Military law is as severe as a mountain. If one deserves to be killed but is spared, or if one deserves punishment but goes unpunished, how can Young Master Xuan command the respect of his troops?"

  "Liu Jue did not understand Wei Yan's situation and could not find a reason to plead for mercy."

  At this time, only Wei Yan was heard shouting outside the account: "The military law is not wrong, but I, Wei Yan, am not guilty of death. The commander-in-chief is lenient with the heavy punishment, and how can he convince the crowd?"

  Wen's expression changed, and Wei Yan's ears perked up, just as he was about to shout loudly. But Liu Xun seized the opportunity to say: "General Wen, can't you let him explain himself a bit more? If not, mistakenly killing a soldier will also harm your reputation in the army."

  Actually, Wen Pin also wanted to hear Wei Yan's explanation. He had a faint feeling that things might not be as simple as they seemed.

  Wei Yan's position was lowly, and he couldn't bring himself to do it at the time. Now that Liu Jue has interceded, Wen Ping is going along with it.

  "Considering it's Young Master Jing's face, I'll give him a chance to defend himself. Bring him forward!"

  Several soldiers pushed Wei Yan in and forced him to kneel down. Wen Ping looked at him coldly and said, "Speak! What grievances do you have? Say it out loud."

  Wei Yan escaped with his life, and with a grateful glance at Liu Xuan, he said in a low voice: "I am guilty of not being vigilant enough, which led to the Cao army scouts approaching the main tent. I dare not shirk my responsibility, but as the commander of the garrison, I had previously applied to General Hou to bring all fifty brothers out of the camp, but General Hou refused and only allowed me to bring twenty people, resulting in insufficient sentry forces. Although I am guilty of a great crime, General Hou also has the fault of misdeploying troops."

  Wen Pei walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, pondered for a moment, and then asked: "Then did you tell your superior why you wanted to bring fifty patrol soldiers?"

  "I said that we need to patrol thirty miles of land, and twenty men are absolutely not enough, there will be loopholes. But the military marquis didn't listen, saying he would only give us twenty people, not one more."

  Wen Pin's heart slightly stirred with anger, and he ordered his attendants: "Bring me this man's military marquis!"

  A soldier rushed away and soon brought back two officers, one of whom was the army commander, Wei Yan's immediate superior, and the other was a lieutenant, who was in charge of military affairs.

  The two men knelt down on one knee together: "We pay our respects to the General!"

  "I've come to ask you, why did you only send twenty men to patrol the thirty-mile forest? Do you think twenty men are enough?"

  The two generals exchanged a glance, both of whom were seasoned veterans. They had already discussed their strategy on the way and although they had set Wei Yan up for failure, if things went wrong, they would still have to clear their own names.

  "Reporting back to the commander, it's actually because of insufficient war horses, that's why he wasn't approved to bring fifty men along."

  "Nonsense!"

  Wei Yan couldn't help but let out a loud roar, "The war horses are mine to fetch, what does it have to do with you? It's clear that you don't want to send fifty men with me. And all fifty of my subordinates know how to ride horses, so you won't say again that there aren't enough horsemen!"

  Wei Yan's face turned red, unable to speak, but Zhang Fei calmly said: "Report to the commander-in-chief, this Wei Yan has always been arrogant and disobedient towards his superiors, refusing to follow military orders. He is notorious in the army for being a troublemaker. The number of soldiers dispatched was ordered by the commander-in-chief, he should just carry out the order without questioning it. It's not up to him to argue or criticize the commander-in-chief for sending too few troops. Although twenty men may be insufficient, it cannot be used as an excuse for his dereliction of duty, nor can he shift the blame onto his superiors. Please, commander-in-chief, see through this clearly!"

  Liu Jue, who was beside him, saw that he was being unreasonable and refuted: "From ancient times to the present, taking responsibility has always been from top to bottom. If one day a sentinel is derelict in his duty and leads to the defeat of Jingzhou, would General Wen still have to go and explain it to the governor? This is the responsibility of a small soldier, what does it have to do with him?"

  Inside the main tent, there was a moment of silence. Wen Pin nodded slowly and said, "Yazheng Wuqing should take primary responsibility, be flogged 50 times with military clubs, and demoted one rank; General Hou's judgment was mistaken, his troops were not strong enough, he should take major responsibility, be flogged 100 times with military clubs, and demoted one rank; Wei Yan's patrol was not strong enough, and the enemy scouts were missed, so he should take main responsibility, be flogged 30 times with military clubs, and stripped of his title to become a soldier!"

  The guards pushed the three men out, and a burst of applause erupted. Wen Pin then smiled at Liu Xuan and said: "Speaking of which, I should thank you for reminding me, Master Liu. I almost made an unfair decision and damaged my reputation."

  Liu Xuan bowed and paid his respects. "A literary commander who hears of a fault and changes, with a humble heart like a valley, Liu Xuan deeply admires him, but I still have one more thing to ask."

  "Is there anything else you'd like to say? As long as it doesn't violate military regulations, I'll consider it."

  Although Wen Hui was being polite, in the end he still didn't treat Liu Xuan as his subordinate.

  Liu Jue turned his head and took a look at Wei Yan, who was being scolded outside the tent. He sighed and said: "It's this Wei Yan, he may have escaped with his life, but Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun will definitely not let him off, he will surely die at their hands. I beg General Wen to transfer him to my side."

  Liu Xuan had taken a liking to Wei Yan, and Wen Ping understood Liu's intentions. Since it was a favor that would bring him good relations with Liu, Wen Ping gladly agreed: "Alright! You can take him away later."

  ．．．．．．．．

  "Wei Yan is deeply grateful for your life-saving kindness, young master!"

  Inside Liu's tent, Wei Yan endured the pain and knelt down to kowtow. Although he was beaten until his face was covered in blood, thirty military rods were nothing to him, without hurting his tendons or bones, and he would recover after resting for a day or two.

  But in his heart there was only one kind of rebirth gratitude, if it wasn't for Liu Xuan saving him today, he would have lost his head today, he didn't know how to express his gratitude.

  Liu Xuan did not help him up or comfort him with a few words. This clichéd plot would not be replayed here with Liu Xuan.

  Liu Xuan coldly said, "Firstly, you can't address me as 'young master', you're just a foot soldier under my command, you should call me 'General'. Secondly, I saved you because I thought General Wen's punishment was unfair, so I intervened to maintain military discipline. I don't know you personally, and it wasn't for your sake that I did it."

  "Thirdly, you think I saved you, so you have something to rely on. If you dare to violate military discipline, if you dare to be afraid of death, I will kill you just the same, remember?"

  Wei Yan nodded silently, "Your subordinate remembers!"

  Liu Jiong smiled faintly, "Although General Wen demoted you to a soldier, I think it's enough for you to be demoted one level. So, you are now appointed as Bo Chang, your superior is Tun Chang Liu Hu, do well!"

  "I understand and won't disappoint General Hou."

  Wei Yan made a bow, and a soldier helped him retreat. Next to him, Liu Hu had been holding back his words for a long time, and when he saw Wei Yan leave the tent, he immediately shouted: "This famous thorn in my side, how can you be given to me?"

  Liu Xuan patted Liu Hu's shoulder and smiled slightly: "He is not a thorn in the side, one day he will become a great general who shakes the world, I won't misjudge him."

  Liu Hu rubbed his head, as if he had said this to himself before, and also to Gan Ning. It seemed that the awe-inspiring reputation was a bit too cheap.

  Liu Xuan seemed to understand the meaning of his scratching head, and with a heavy slap on his shoulder, he said in an unpleasant tone: "Still not arranging for your new hand to go down, take a look at his injury, apply some medicine or something, hurry up!"

  Liu Hu left with a smile, Liu Xuan clutched his hands to his chest, tilting his head back to savor the gains of today. This feeling was just like when he caught a three-jin heavy carp in the river in his previous life, having an unexpected surprise.

  This is Wei Yan! If Zhuge Liang had listened to his plan to take the Subduing-the-Bandits Valley and attack Chang'an, history might have been altered.

  ．．．．．．．．

  As night began to fall, Cai Zhong hastily walked into the central army tent and bowed his hands to Wen Ping: "Does Zhong Yi have something for me?"

  Wen Ping nodded, "I just received an urgent military report from General Zuo. Their side is short of grain and fodder, and they hope we can send some over."

  Cai Zhonglang sneered, "He's not short of grain and fodder, is he? He wants to test whether we're willing to help him."

  Wen Pin looked at Cai Zhong with surprise, he had always looked down on Cai Zhong, who was of a low character, foolish and unintelligent, but unexpectedly reacted quite quickly today.

  "No matter what his reasons are, since he has sent someone to ask for help, we can't just stand by and do nothing. What does General Cai think?"

  Cai Zhong was beaten by Cai Mao last night and has gradually come to his senses, realizing that killing someone doesn't necessarily require a fierce expression, sometimes a smile can be even more deadly.

  He changed from his former cruelty and became polite and courteous, treating Wen Pin with great respect and Liu Xuan with special care.

  These people all knew that he only felt that Cai Zhong seemed to have changed his temper, and soon he would come around, perhaps this was the reason for going out on a campaign, without Cai Mao's backing, he had no choice but to restrain himself.

  So Wen Pin spoke to Cai Zhong with a hint of politeness, as Cai Zhong was in charge of the rear army and managed all the grain and supplies. Wen Pin used a tone of consultation.

  Cai Zhong also smiled and said: "Zhong Ye is the commander of the army, since the commander has an order, Cai will certainly obey, and immediately allocate food and grass."

  Hesitating for a moment, Cai Zhong proposed: "I suggest letting General Jing escort the grain to Liu Xuan's military camp. What does Commander Wen think?"

  Wen Pin thought for a moment, it's actually not bad to let Liu Xuan escort him. He has a close relationship with Liu Bei, and having him deliver the grain would be more likely to dispel Liu Bei's suspicions. However, Wen Pin wasn't quite at ease with just letting him go alone.

  Wen Hui walked up to the map, found Liu Bei's garrison location, in the northwest of Xinye, at Bowang Slope, a hilly area, about fifty miles away from here.

  Judging from current intelligence, Cao's army is facing off against Liu Bei and has no intention of attacking the Jingzhou army.

  What's more important is that Xiahou Dun's main force has not arrived, and now it's just General Li Dian and Liu Bei's army facing each other, which isn't too dangerous. If we set out now, the grain and fodder can reach Liu Bei's camp by tomorrow morning.

  Wen Ping hesitated for a moment. Although he needed to consider Liu Xuan's safety, he also believed that a man who had never experienced wind and rain would never grow into a towering tree.

  "Ke Ming Deng Wu led a thousand soldiers and Liu Jing together to escort grain."

  Deng Wu was a native of Xinye, born into the Deng clan, with high martial arts skills and a cautious and stable personality. He had always been Wen Ping's right-hand man and was very familiar with the terrain around Xinye, so he went with Liu Jue to meet Cao Jun, even if they were ambushed by Cao's army along the way, they could respond calmly.