Zhang Fei immediately protested. "Hey! What do you mean skip? Does Zhang the Sixth not deserve a proper introduction?"
Guan Yu, meanwhile, froze.
Wei Yan's rebellion?
Wasn't Wei Yan his own registrar—also a close friend of his eldest son, Guan Ping?
How could…?
For a moment, Guan Yu's thoughts were a tangled mess.
But no matter how loudly Zhang Fei complained, the image before them remained unmoved. The viewpoint calmly shifted back to the Hanzhong Campaign, while Zhuge Liang lowered his head once more, carefully tracing lines across the glowing three-dimensional map.
The methods of later generations truly rival spirits and gods, Kongming thought.
The more he studied the 3D terrain, the more envious he became. With something like this—whether governing territory or moving armies—everything would become immeasurably simpler.
[In March of the following year, 218 CE, Liu Bei personally led the campaign toward Hanzhong.
Perhaps because of the size of his army and the number of generals involved, he ultimately chose the widest and most stable route—the Jinniu Road.]
[Li Bai's famous line, "The roads of Shu are harder than climbing to Heaven," does not refer to a single path, but to nearly every exit from Shu during that era.]
[Broadly speaking, the roads of Shu were divided into two major sections.
The first connected Guanzhong (modern Xi'an) to Hanzhong across the Qinling Mountains:
– Chencang Road
– Baoxie Road
– Tangluo Road
– Ziwu Road]
[The Chencang Road was long and circuitous. The Tangluo Road was the shortest, but also the last to be completed—its first historical mention appears in 244 CE, when Cao Shuang campaigned against Shu. It wasn't until the Tang dynasty that it was fully rebuilt as an official road.]
[The Baoxie Road was one of Zhuge Liang's northern expedition routes. After the Chancellor's death at Wuzhang Plains, Wei Yan deliberately burned this very road to spite Yang Yi.]
[The Ziwu Road gave rise to Wei Yan's famous "Ziwu Valley Surprise Attack" proposal—leading five thousand troops to strike Chang'an directly. Zhuge Liang rejected it.
Ironically, during Cao Rui's reign, Wei forces later attempted the same maneuver. Three thousand men struggled along the route for half a year and didn't even make it halfway before retreating.]
Only now did Zhang Fei suddenly snap awake as if from a dream.
"Second Brother!" he shouted. "Didn't you say before that Ping'er's close friend was named Wei Yan?"
Guan Yu stood and clasped his fists. "Eldest Brother, this Wei Yan serves as registrar under my command—"
Before he could continue, Liu Bei waved him off.
"Second Brother, worry not," Liu Bei said calmly. "Punishing a man for deeds not yet committed—how could that convince the masses? If this Wei Yan can one day command an army alone, then he must possess both valor and talent. Let us continue watching."
Guan Yu bowed deeply and sat back down.
Zhuge Liang, meanwhile, carefully marked Ziwu Valley in his mind.
The failure shown by the screen belonged to a future that likely didn't account for Cao Wei's internal chaos.
With preparation—and striking while the enemy was distracted—perhaps it wasn't entirely impossible?
[The second section of Shu's roads linked Hanzhong to the Sichuan Basin through the Daba Mountains:
– Yinping Road
– Micang Road
– Yangba Road
– Jinniu Road]
[The Yinping Road was the most circuitous of all, which is precisely why Deng Ai's later strike on Chengdu came as such a shock.
Some speculate that the folk figure "Lady Guan the Third," Guan Yinping, took her name from this route—but there is no solid evidence.]
Guan Yinping?
Guan Yu's phoenix eyes widened again. He felt that in the past few months alone, he had experienced more shocks than in decades of warfare.
"Congratulations, General Guan," Mi Zhu said warmly. "For a woman to leave her name in history is ten times harder than for a man. Your third daughter must be an extraordinary figure."
At present, Guan Yu's eldest son Guan Ping was away on campaign. His second son, Guan Xing, was only six years old. Just last year, he had welcomed a newborn daughter, still swaddled in infancy.
By the count, that infant could indeed be called "Third Miss Guan."
To hear rumors of her legend so early—
Guan Yu's spirits lifted immediately. He stroked his long beard, already pondering whether Yinping might serve as a courtesy name.
Though… double-character given names were uncommon.
Perhaps Yinping as a style name would work? A reminder against the surprise attack through Yinping—seemed auspicious enough.
Zhang Fei chimed in reassuringly. "Second Brother, if your third niece leaves a legend behind, then that Pang Hui fellow must've been a nobody. Your incense line won't be cut!"
If looks could kill, Guan Yu's glare would've been the Green Dragon Crescent Blade itself.
I'd finally forgotten about that—and you bring it up again?
[The Micang and Yangba Roads were too treacherous for large-scale troop movements. That left only one viable option: the Jinniu Road.
Li Bai praised this path as well—
'Sword Gate towers rugged and steep,
One man may hold it against ten thousand.'
Sword Gate Pass lay along this very road. It was here that Jiang Wei later stationed his forces during Shu's final days.
Hence Jiang Wei's anguished cry in Romance of the Three Kingdoms:
'Your servants were ready to die in battle—why did Your Majesty surrender first?']
"Fine poetry!" Zhang Fei exclaimed. "Bold and magnificent! In just a few lines, it captures the danger of Sword Gate. That Li Bai of later generations truly had talent!"
"Indeed!" Jian Yong laughed. "Listening to the Third General speak, one might think he hailed from Shu rather than Zhuo Commandery!"
"Can't a man admire what he's never seen?" Zhang Fei muttered defensively.
Liu Bei fell silent.
Those twelve words from Jiang Wei stabbed at him painfully, to the point he almost couldn't bear to look at them.
What kind of son did I raise, he wondered bitterly, to betray such loyal blood?
"Your Majesty need not dwell on it," said an unexpected voice.
It was Sun Qian—usually quiet, rarely noticed.
"Ah Dou is still young," Sun Qian said earnestly. "And we old ministers yet have strength to fight. The screen has already shown that you can seize Jing and Yi and take Hanzhong.
If we correct what was lacking… why could we not reclaim Chang'an and bar Cao's thieves beyond the passes?"
Liu Bei looked at Sun Qian, startled—then nodded heavily.
Ah Dou can still be taught.
We can still fight.
[In short, Liu Bei's army had only one path—the 1,200-li Jinniu Road.
Even this 'best' road took the army over half a year to traverse.]
[In modern times, the same journey by high-speed rail takes just three hours—about one and a half ancient shichen.
If the Imperial Uncle experienced this, his eyes would probably pop right out.]
[By the time Liu Bei finally reached Yangping Pass—the gateway to Hanzhong—Xiahou Yuan had been waiting so long that the flowers had bloomed and withered several times over.]
Liu Bei immediately protested at the mockery.
"Why would my eyes pop out?" he shouted. "When you talked about aircraft carriers before, my eyeballs didn't fall out! The Jinniu Road of my era—you try walking it for half a year and see how you fare!"
Zhuge Liang, meanwhile, was already calculating.
"If three hours equal one and a half shichen," he said thoughtfully, "then later generations divide time even further—twenty-four hours per day, two hours per shichen, one hour equal to four ke."
He paused, eyes bright.
"That thing they call 'high-speed rail'… if one can travel from Chang'an to Shu in one and a half shichen, and from Luoyang to Shu in three—then from Liaodong to Lingnan would take no more than a day.
All under Heaven, within arm's reach."
"And moreover," Kongming continued, recalling the numbers, "a ticket from Luoyang to Chengdu costs four hundred yuan. One gold ingot equals roughly one hundred thousand yuan.
That means the journey costs only around forty wuzhu coins."
At this moment, Zhuge Liang felt true envy.
As the man responsible for logistics, he understood better than anyone how slow, fragile, and wasteful ancient transport was.
Compared to high-speed rail, horses were fireflies before the sun.
Liu Bei's first reaction, however, was pain.
Pure, heart-wrenching pain.
By that math, one gold ingot could transport—
He quietly counted.
Two hundred and fifty men straight to Luoyang.
What about Jingzhou to Xuchang? Similar distance.
If he borrowed some capital from Mi Fang, sent ten thousand troops by high-speed rail—morning departure, noon arrival—kill Cao Cao, then ride back and still make it in time for a hot dinner!
At that moment, the Imperial Uncle truly sighed from the depths of his soul:
If only I had high-speed rail in hand—what difficulty could there be in restoring the Han?