Yuan stared fixedly at the strategist before him.

For some reason, a heavy feeling made him unable to speak. He subconsciously turned his head, wanting to find Fa Xiaozhi, wanting to find Pang Tong, wanting to find Liu Xuande, to have them persuade A-Liang. But he saw that the former young strategist was all alone now.

Yuan looked at that pair of dark, almost lightless eyes.

The former grand aspiration of supporting the Han Dynasty had left him standing there, utterly alone.

Just like himself…

It was because he had almost the same experience that Yuan could better understand the pain of the strategist before him.

Yuan returned home and silently took out the Nine-Section Staff.

He handed the Nine-Section Staff to the strategist.

Zhuge Liang took the Nine-Section Staff, his eyes seemed to brighten a little. He thought for a moment, then took out his own feather fan and handed it to Wei Yuan, saying, "Teacher Yuan, the Nine-Section Staff is very important. Liang is just borrowing it for a while. This item was made by Liang, and I carry it with me. Well, I'll exchange it with you, as a contract."

The white-haired Daoist took the feather fan.

And the strategist turned his head and walked towards a more distant road.

………………

Only after Liu Xuande's death, Zhu Bao, Yong Kai, and Gao Ding rebelled, and the Nan Zhong region also revolted.

At that time, with the monarch of Ji Han having passed away, and two peerless fierce generals dying one after another, Cao Wei had a large army pressing down from the north, Sun Quan's Jingzhou army threatened from the east, ministers rebelled, and three commanderies in the south were in revolt. There was a danger of collapse at any moment. The strategist worked from dawn till dusk, so busy that he was dizzy. He subconsciously shouted:

"Xiaozhi, the matter of the laws is entrusted to..."

The voice paused.

There was only himself in the room.

Fa Xiaozhi, who repaid both kindness and grudges, was long gone from his position.

Zhuge Liang was silent, then suddenly smiled. Xiaozhi was gone, Shiyuan was gone, Yuanzhi was gone, the lord was gone. For some reason, the place suddenly felt empty. He stared fixedly at the place, the candlelight reflecting in his eyes. Zhuge Liang held a scroll in one hand, and the other hand suddenly hung in the air, as if wanting to reach for his face.

In the end, the strategist, almost alone, was like a peerless, sharp sword.

Or perhaps an inexhaustible, tireless god who didn't need rest or food.

Incredibly, he maintained the stability of Ji Han.

He quelled internal strife, allied with Sun Wu, resisted Cao Cao in the north, and pacified the rebellion in the south.

Later generations found it hard to imagine what kind of persistence allowed him to accomplish such unimaginable feats when he lost his monarch.

Yuan saw the flames burning in the eyes of the former youth.

He had seen such flames before.

In Zhang Jiao's eyes…

A person who single-handedly reversed the tide and fought against the great power of heaven and earth.

Then, two years later, Zhuge Liang personally went to Nan Zhong to quell the rebellion.

Yuan was still worried about his health, but the news that came later said that he had successfully conquered the region. Besides relying on the crushing force of military strategy, there was also a policy of appeasement. There were many pieces of news, including this concise sentence: "The Prime Minister pacified Qian Zhong, passed by the Green Stone Shrine, then drew his sword and stabbed the mountain, throwing the sword away without pulling it out, leaving travelers puzzled."

Liu Chan couldn't help but sigh, "The Imperial Father is indeed profound."

The white-haired Daoist couldn't help but laugh, and only after Liu Chan asked repeatedly did he answer:

"He was clearly thinking of pulling it out to test the sword."

The Daoist thought of the youth who, more than twenty years ago, carried a zither and ran to his door to sing poems from the Book of Songs, and said with a smile, "Then that kid stabbed the knife in and suddenly realized that the patterns on the knife were stuck in the stone and couldn't be pulled out. After trying a few times, he really couldn't pull it out."

"Feeling that stepping on the ground to pull out the knife was too embarrassing, he had to keep a straight face and pretend he didn't see it, of course, leaving travelers puzzled. Who knew what he was doing stabbing a stone and leaving? Haha."

"He must have been heartbroken inside."

Liu Chan was dumbfounded.

He felt that the unfathomable Imperial Father in his heart suddenly had a crack.

And Yuan saw that the former youth seemed to have slowly adjusted his state of mind.

After thinking about it himself, he also chose to leave the Shu region and travel around. He told Liu Chan that he had no ability to charge into battle and kill enemies like Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and he was not good at internal affairs either, so he might as well take advantage of being alive to do what he could.

Liu Chan was gentle in nature and allowed the Daoist to leave.

This year, Yuan was already fifty-two years old.

But for some reason, although he was still weak, most of his hair was still pure black, only his temples were white. He looked sickly but refined, only like thirty years old. Obviously, this was a very high level of Daoism, but his body could not keep up with such Daoism and had no special characteristics.

…………………

The strategist returned to Hanzhong.

He successfully pacified Nan Zhong.

Then, facing the problem of how to use the land of one province to compete with the world, how to fight against the Wei Kingdom, which was ten times larger than the Shu region, he was silent for a long time, and thought of what the Daoist had said to him when he was young. He turned around and went to develop the land of Hanzhong.

At that time, this man said that he still wanted to restore the Han Dynasty, but no one would believe him anymore.

This strategist, who was no longer a youth, walked through the land of Hanzhong step by step.

And the Shanhe Weir, which he built and expanded, still remained the largest water conservancy project in Hanzhong, spanning two thousand years of wind, frost, rain, and snow, still irrigating 46,000 mu of land in later generations. He did not know that in the distant future, this place would still retain seventy ancient weirs from the Han Dynasty, saving the lives of the people once cherished by Liu Xuande in years of famine.

Finally, the former youth was ready and led his army north.

He failed again and again.

This is what he thought himself.

In Zhuge Kongming's view, failing to overwhelm the land of nine provinces with the land of one province was a failure.

But at that time, it caused extreme terror and shadows to the Wei Kingdom.

In Zhuge Liang's era, the Wei Kingdom could almost only use ten times the land to be forced to defend against the troops of one province, watching the fully-manned army come every two years, and only retreating when they had no food to eat. After several years, Zhuge Wuhou accumulated food and grass, and then continued the Northern Expeditions.

Using the land of one province to contend with the northern foundation of Cao Wei, there was never a shortage of food and grass.

Cao Wei almost failed to organize any effective counterattacks.

For Ji Han, this was a failure.

But from the perspective of Cao Wei, of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Wu was not worth worrying about, but they were never able to truly set foot on the border of the Shu Kingdom, and instead, their own territory was constantly being invaded.

During the fourth Northern Expedition, Sima Yi, the top general in the world at that time, appeared. He had broken Meng Da in eight days, defeated Gongsun Yuan by attacking the east and striking the west, and easily suppressed Wang Ling, as swift as the wind. Then he discovered that Zhuge Wuhou had actually run under his nose to cut wheat and steal food, so he took the initiative to attack.

Then in this battle, Zhang He was beheaded.

Before the battle, Zhang He advised Sima Yi not to go out and divide his troops to fight Zhuge Liang in the wilderness, but Sima Yi sneered and said, "Liang has great ambitions but does not see opportunities, is full of schemes but lacks decisiveness, loves soldiers but has no authority. Although he leads an army of 100,000, he has already fallen into my painting. He will be defeated."

After Zhuge Liang left, Sima Yi stroked his chest and sighed:

"Truly a famous scholar in the world."

He looked at the people around him and ordered, "Just say that we won a great victory in this battle and successfully defeated Kongming. Only in this way can we suppress the death of General Zhang He."

Therefore, in the records of this battle, later historical books actually have three records. Only the Book of Jin, out of respect for the deceased, claimed that Sima Yi won a great victory, but even so, the death of Zhang He could not be concealed. Then, Zhuge Liang went out again for the fifth time.

Sima Yi, known for being unpredictable as shade, invasive as fire, and moving like thunder,

Directly comprehended immovable as a mountain.

He chose to use the advantage of several times the military strength to directly defend and not come out.

There was a saying that as long as Zhuge did not stop, Liang and Yong would not unload their armor, and the Central Plains would not release their saddles.

This was the last brilliant flame of the Great Han, brilliant and dazzling.

…………………

"I didn't expect that you, Yuan, would come to find us."

On a mountain, an old man with white hair and a kind face looked at the Daoist sitting cross-legged in front of him. The latter only had slightly white temples, and was mostly still black-haired, with a refined temperament. The latter collected dry grass and fallen leaves, lit a fire, and warmed tea. The old man took out his treasured fine wine and handed it over.

So they warmed the wine with fierce flames.

Yuan watched the fierce flames crackling and burning the leaves, leaned against the tree, and murmured:

"Yun Chang lost Jingzhou and died, Cao Mengde died of a headache, Zhang Yide died unexpectedly, Liu Xuande entrusted his orphans in Baidi, after that, Ma Mengqi died with regret, Huang Hansheng died in his sickbed, Zhao Zilong grew old in the Shu region... I don't know why, but this world suddenly has a bit of an autumnal desolation."

"Cough cough..."

The old man said, "You are different from your teacher."

He was none other than Zuo Ci.

Yuan said, "Of course I am different from my teacher."

"This time I came to find you, old sir, and other fellow Daoists, for one thing."

"What is it?"

The one who spoke was another old Daoist next to him, named Ge Xuan.

Yuan, with half-white temples, looked into the distance and said softly, "To perform the Seven Stars Lamp, to save a person."

"Save who?"

"Zhuge Liang."

Yuan said slowly, "The Yellow Turban Warrior method I created can be used by all Daoist sects."

"How about this as a reward?"

Ge Xuan raised his eyebrows, did not say much, but only said:

"I heard that Ge Gong is a modest gentleman."

Yuan raised his eyebrows and shook his head, "A modest gentleman?"

"Who said that?"

He couldn't help but laugh softly, "He has never been a modest gentleman. When he was conquering Nan Zhong, the other generals said they didn't want to go, so he simply said, 'Anyway, you can't do it, I'd better go myself.' Of course, he was just saying it gently, and the order was 'Expecting that the talents of the generals are not as good as his own, he intends to go.'

"Which general below dared to say that he was stronger than him? They had no choice but to let him go."

"In fact, he was also thinking that the reason why these generals rebelled was because they hadn't done well before."

"When Sima Yi falsely claimed that the Wu Kingdom had surrendered, he directly replied, 'You are a sixty-year-old man, why bother with such deceit?' He was also saying it gently, but in fact, he was probably saying, 'You old fool, you're already sixty years old and about to be buried, aren't you ashamed to be playing these tricks?'"

"Even when Xu Yuanzhi traveled and studied with him, he bluntly said that Xu Yuanzhi and the others could only become commandery governors at most."

"When others were unconvinced and questioned him, he just smiled without saying a word, meaning you wouldn't understand even if you listened. How could he be a modest gentleman? ... What's more, cough cough cough..."

He coughed violently and smiled:

"I heard A-Liang say before that Sima Yi said he had a way to defeat him long ago, but he had to ask the Cao Emperor for instructions. That kid said in a letter that the old guy was just bragging and didn't have the guts to fight him at all. 'A general abroad is not bound by the orders of the sovereign.' Who has ever heard of someone who can win a battle still needing to specifically ask the monarch for instructions?"

"His temper hasn't changed at all."

They drank monkey wine from the mountains, and Yuan fell into a deep sleep.

After he was drunk, he thought of the clear and bright youth like mountain wind and bright moon, thought of the persistent strategist, thought of the child playing the zither and singing, thought of that afternoon, the sleeping child, and the young Daoist who pushed the door open and walked in.

Yuan murmured, "He is my disciple, my younger brother..."

"He is also the last flame of the world."

Zuo Ci said softly, "The Northern Dipper governs death, and the Seven Stars prolong life. It is an ominous method."

"What needs to be done?"

Under the moonlight, the drunken Daoist muttered in his sleep:

"Seven Stars prolonging life, Seven Stars prolonging life."

"Use my life, to prolong his life."

"Use his life, to prolong the life of the world..."

Zuo Ci looked at the drunken Daoist with a complex expression, and thought of decades ago, when the young Daoist smiled and asked him for the instruments to cut the dragon and attack the veins. The old immortal got up and sighed, cupping his hands, and said, "Since that's the case."

"We should help a fellow Daoist."

"And see if human power can defy the mandate of heaven."

ps: Thank you yangfanshangqing for the ten thousand reward. Sima Yi did say those two sentences, recorded in official history, but the time period is different, used for second creation. *Gujin Daojian Lu*: Zhuge Liang pacified Qianzhong, passed by the Green Stone Shrine, then drew his sword and stabbed the mountain, throwing the sword away without pulling it out, leaving travelers puzzled.

The *Book of Jin* records that Sima Yi won, while the *Records of the Three Kingdoms* is neutral. The *Han-Jin Spring and Autumn* says that Zhuge Liang won a great victory.

And historians represented by *Zizhi Tongjian* adopted the latter.

*Book of Jin*: At that time, the military advisor Du Xi and the supervisor Xue Ti both said that next year when the wheat is ripe, Liang will definitely be a bandit (this is official history, obviously the Prime Minister's behavior of stealing wheat caused a huge shadow on the opposite side, which is simply funny).

The Great Tang military god Li Jing complained about Chen Shou: "Zhuge Liang's methods of oddity and correctness, this is already well known. Famous generals of all dynasties, using one or two of them, have also succeeded. However, the historians rarely know how to overcome soldiers and cannot record his actual achievements."