Mid-November, third year of Yankang under Han, third year of Huangchu under Wei—November 222 CE.
Pang Tong, Ma Chao, and Pang Rou led their troops toward Mount Qi, while Fu Rong and Zhang Nan hurried their forces to Hechi.
Since the two armies shared the first stretch of their route, they set out from Yangping Pass at the same time.
Following Fa Zheng's plan, Huang Quan marched in the direction of Shangyong under Liu Bei's commander's banner, making a grand and imposing show of force.
Wei Yan, Wang Ping, and Ma Dai led their troops back to Nanzheng first to make equipment and tools for crossing Ziwu Ridge.
Deng Ai returned to Mianyang to recruit settler-farmers to transport grain. Both sides agreed to meet in Nanzheng three days later, striving to reach the outskirts of Chang'an before mid-December.
Many of the people in Deng Ai's Mianyang farming settlements had endured wandering, displaced lives. Most of their fathers had come from Sanfu. When Li Jue brought calamity upon Chang'an, they fled south to Hanzhong and were taken in by Zhang Lu. Later, when Cao Cao attacked Zhang Lu, Yang Song used rumors to threaten and frighten them. These people fled into Yi Province, supporting the old and carrying the young, and became the settler-farmers of Deng Ai's farming settlements.
Yi Province had barely known peace for two or three years before the settlers followed Liu Bei in his counteroffensive against Hanzhong, returning once more to the familiar land of Hanzhong where they had lived as guests. Now they were to be mobilized to cross Ziwu Ridge and return to Sanfu, the starting point of their lives as refugees. The more Deng Ai thought about it, the less he could bear it. So he adopted a voluntary enrollment system; if the final