My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 154 Zhang Fei's Might at Xiaoyaojin

Liu Xun, who had been timid for more than a month, suddenly became aggressive and brave enough to fight. Of course, it was not because he was hot-headed and lost his composure.

But he was very clear that if he did not fight, he would be waiting for death under the chronic stranglehold of the Han army's gradually improved siege equipment and tactics.

If you are cowardly, you will die. If you carry out a great plan, you will die. Is it okay to wait for death and let the country die?
It’s a dead country!
In fact, Liu Xun, who mustered up his remaining courage to fight to the death, subconsciously thought of another possibility of survival after the battle:
This time, he only needed to take advantage of Zhang Fei's unpreparedness, temporarily occupy Xiaoyaojin, dig the Feishui dam and flood Guan Yu and Gan Ning. Even if he couldn't return to Hefei, he could take advantage of the chaos to break out with 2,000 cavalry.

He had entrusted the defense of Hefei City to his deputy general before the attack. If the Han army was really overwhelmed on both sides, even if there was only one deputy general left, the morale would be greatly boosted and they would firmly hold on.

Having made such a great contribution, Liu Xun has done his utmost to repay Emperor Zhongjia. After breaking out of the siege, he found his own way out, so Yuan Shu should be grateful to him.

……

Time quickly came to 4:03 in the morning of June 27th.

Liu Xun led two thousand cavalry troops who had just had some wine and meat and were trying their best to restore their morale to a relatively good state.

The men held their mouths shut, their horses' mouths were reined in, and their hooves were wrapped with straw ropes. After they left the north gate of Hefei, they made a small detour, bypassed Zhang Fei's camp, and quietly rushed towards Xiaoyaojin to the side and rear.

"It's so quiet in Zhang Fei's camp. I wonder if he's drunk again. I'm destined to be saved. God bless me!"

After Liu Xun successfully bypassed Zhang Fei's camp, he did not find anything unusual and did not alarm Zhang Fei's troops in the camp to chase them out. This made him feel a little relieved and more confident about the success rate of tonight's sneak attack.

Liu Xun had never fought directly with Zhang Fei before. During the Battle of Huaiyin-Guangling the year before, Liu Bei's main force in the field was always Guan Yu, and Liu Xun was also badly defeated by Guan Yu. In the end, he lost his helmet to attract Guan Yu's attention and escaped.

Because of the crime of losing Xia Pi, Zhang Fei was hidden by Liu Bei. It was only when Liu Bei attacked Guangling and waited for reinforcements that Zhang Fei showed his ability. However, Liu Xun did not experience that battle.

At that time, his main force was defeated by Guan Yu, and before he could escape back to Guangling City, Liu Bei came later and captured Guangling first. Therefore, he had a rather contemptuous view of Zhang Fei.

Liu Xun felt that his failures in the past two years were mainly due to the difficulty in dealing with Guan Yu, which was the case in Huaiyin and later in the Chungu Water Battle. During the Han army's siege, he also attached the most importance to Guan Yu, and he personally supervised the battle and kept an eye on Guan Yu's side.

Today, Zhang Fei must have been drunk and made mistakes again after two years!

Liu Xun gradually relaxed. Seeing that Xiaoyaojin was in sight, he finally waved his spear and ordered the cavalry to charge:

"This is a life-or-death battle! Everyone, you must do your best! Follow me and kill! Rush to Xiaoyaojin, destroy the Feishui Weir, and drown Guan Yu!"

The two thousand cavalrymen under his command were originally nervous, but at this moment, seeing that the enemy had not discovered them and had not left the camp to pursue them, their confidence soared. They drew their sabers and held their spears, and shouted in unison and launched a charge.

For a moment, the sound shook Xiaoyaojin.

But almost at the same time when Yuan's army shouted to charge, many rows of figures suddenly appeared behind the Feishui dike at Xiaoyaojin.

The front few rows were filled with soldiers holding spears, holding up their spears in a dense array to resist the charge. The back row also had archers climbing up to the top of the earthen embankment, looking down from above to create a height difference with the front row of soldiers.

In the darkness, a rider stood on his horse with a spear in hand and shouted, "Shoot!"

Then the array of archers that stretched for hundreds of feet began to suppress the charging cavalry with arrows.

Not long after, a big fire broke out on the embankment. Hundreds of torches were hastily lit, and with the first rays of light at dawn, the embankment near Xiaoyaojin was illuminated.

The fierce general holding the spear, who was originally hidden in the darkness and could not be seen clearly, also revealed his true appearance in the light of the fire. It was indeed Zhang Fei.

The cavalry under Liu Xun were ambushed by this volley of arrows, and hundreds of them were knocked off their horses and their morale plummeted.

But at this point, there was no turning back. The ordinary soldiers had no further orders and could only rush forward mechanically.

Seeing that Yuan's cavalry dared to charge, Zhang Fei sneered and then shouted:

"Liu Xun! You have fallen into the trap set by my military advisor! While you blocked the city gate and could not fight back, I had the siege equipment close to the city wall and deployed them in the low-lying areas to lure you to break the water. This was all arranged by my military advisor! Come and die! I have sent people to watch the city gate every night and have been waiting for you for several days! Why don't you come earlier!"

Zhang Fei had a very loud voice, and these words could be heard even a hundred steps away amid the roar of horse hooves. This really dampened the morale of Yuan's army. Some soldiers were somewhat shaken when they heard that they had fallen into a trap.

The bows and crossbows fired arrows like rain without stopping. Before Yuan's cavalry could reach hand-to-hand combat range, they were hit by three waves of arrows, resulting in more than 200 casualties.

Even after running into the spear formation, Liu Xun was still unable to break in, despite the fact that the Han army's spear formation was long and narrow, with only three or five rows of soldiers. After the initial desperate struggle, most of the cavalry lost their impact and were forced into close combat.

A few wedge-shaped salients, relying on the continuous deployment of cavalry, ignored casualties and tore through the five-layer thick wall of Han army's spearmen.

However, after breaking through the human wall, Yuan's cavalry were unable to immediately detour to the left or right to widen the gap and expand the results of the battle.

Some of the horses were so aggressive that they could not stop their horses and rushed down to the riverbed and rolled into the Feishui River. Even though the rest of the horses reined in their horses, they suddenly found that the land behind the Feishui River Weir was loose and soft, and because of the long-term soaking and infiltration of the river water, it was quite muddy.
The cavalry had difficulty stopping and turning suddenly, and were surrounded and hacked by the Han army's sword and shield soldiers who replaced them, and the archers who put down their bows and drew their sabers to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Zhang Fei and Liu Xun's initial momentum was exhausted, and he finally led his only two or three hundred cavalry reserves to the side of the battlefield and began to launch a flank attack on the Yuan army's cavalry.

"Liu Xun, you bastard, deserve to die! Your Grandpa Zhang is here!" Zhang Fei's snake spear flew around and he shouted loudly in a fierce battle. No one could match his enemy with his spear. He killed his way forward like a razor along the sides of the contact surface between the two armies.

Although the cavalry under Zhang Fei were few in number, everyone fought fiercely. They knew very well that the friendly army's spear formation and archers had already blocked Liu Xun head-on, and they had the advantage of an ambush in advance. Although their cavalry were not as numerous as the enemy, their total strength was greater. If they could not win a complete victory in this battle, they would be too ashamed to face anyone.

Especially these ambush troops, they rotated every three or four days, sleeping during the day and coming here to be ambushed by mosquitoes at night. Because they didn't know whether Liu Xun would come, when he would come, and whether he would be desperate.

However, the Han army's infantry and archers were slow in movement, and could not wait like the cavalry did to wait for the scouts lying in ambush outside the city to see that the gate of Hefei was open and then notify the cavalry to rush over.

In order to avoid alerting the enemy, the spearmen and archers who set up an ambush every night had to stay overnight on the Xiaoyaojin earthen embankment, and temporary tents were set up nearby.

Therefore, the strategy that Zhuge Jin suggested to Liu Bei and asked Zhang Fei to implement actually has a lot of manpower cost. Tonight is actually the sixth night that Zhang Fei has set up ambushes.

There were many mosquitoes by the river, and the soldiers took turns being stung by mosquitoes for two or three days. They felt that the ambush in the previous days was in vain. They had no idea how much resentment they had been holding back, and now they were venting it on Yuan's army.

Zhang Fei was so angry that he almost vented all his anger from being bitten by a mosquito.

Since the siege of Hefei began, he has been stung by mosquitoes several times in the past month. Tonight he will stab a few Yuan cavalrymen to death to vent his anger.

"Puchi! Ka! Puchi!" The sound of sharp blades biting into flesh and bones was heard one after another. Zhang Fei was like a killing machine, leading his troops to charge forward fiercely.

Although he had no chance to fight the general, after killing dozens of cavalry, Zhang Fei still managed to break through the enemy formation, found Liu Xun, and rushed towards him with his spear.

"Liu Xun, you bastard, deserve to die!" When Zhang Fei saw Liu Xun's golden bronze helmet, his eyes lit up and he rushed over.

Two years ago, Liu Xun escaped Guan Yu outside Huaiyin City by throwing his helmet, but he can't escape today.

Liu Xun felt a chill down his spine and waved his spear to prepare for resistance. He was a commander-type talent and also served as the governor of a county. He was not known for his personal bravery.

In other words, if measured by the data from previous Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, this would at most be a being with a force value of around 70.

As a result, with just one shot from Zhang Fei, Liu Xun's arm became numb and sore. When Zhang Fei attacked with the second move, Liu Xun's weapon had already fallen out of his hand, and his knuckles were broken.

Seeing that he was so vulnerable, Zhang Fei realized that he had a more prudent mind and came up with a bolder idea.

Before he was about to stab Liu Xun to death with his third move, he controlled the snake spear to turn slightly, changing the stab into a hit, and with a sweeping blow, Liu Xun's ribs were broken, and he was on the verge of collapse with blood spurting from his mouth.

Zhang Fei reined in his horse and rushed to Liu Xun's side. He stretched out his arm and tightened Liu Xun's neck from behind, dragging him off the horse.

At the same time, he kept wielding the steel spear with his other hand, and stabbed to death three or five Yuan army cavalrymen who wanted to come up to rescue their commander, and then he threw Liu Xun to the cavalrymen, who tied him up.

"Liu Xun has been captured alive by me! If you dismount and surrender, I will not kill you! Anyone who dares to resist will be killed!"

Zhang Fei roared several times, and the Yuan army cavalry finally collapsed. In just half a cup of tea, the fighting stopped completely. Hundreds of cavalry fled in all directions, and nearly a thousand cavalry knelt down and surrendered.

Zhang Fei was very satisfied and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was the least outstanding in the siege of Hefei. His second brother and Captain Gan fought better than him, and Ziyi was not bad either.

Unexpectedly, poor performance also has its own bad luck. Liu Xun thought he was a soft persimmon, and when he wanted to make a last-ditch effort, he specifically bullied him.

All the mosquito bites I've suffered recently were not in vain!

"General Zhang is truly a brave man! He was able to kill his way through the enemy's formation and capture the commander alive among thousands of cavalrymen! He will surely be promoted to a general of miscellaneous rank this time!" The deputy general and his confidant Qu beside him also boasted and praised him endlessly when they saw that the battle was over.

Zhang Fei laughed loudly, but he was also very measured. He immediately regained his serious expression and ordered:

"Keep an eye on Liu Xun for now, and don't let him die for now. Even if you kill Liu Xun, the defenders in Hefei may not surrender immediately. If you tie up Liu Xun alive and go to the city to call for surrender, the final blow will be easier.

Send him to Big Brother and Master first to show off his merits! Master will decide how to use this prisoner! It won't matter if he dies after Hefei is captured!"

The subordinates all nodded in response to the order and immediately went to find a broken ox cart, put straw and linen on it, and then put Liu Xun on it and transported him away to prevent him from dying too quickly.

In just two hours, the ox cart carrying Liu Xun arrived at the camp of Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin in the south of the city. It was already bright and almost noon. After hearing the news, Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin were naturally surprised and came out to watch Zhang Fei's victory.

　Today I was a bit sleepy and worked nocturnally. I couldn't sleep at 4am and got up to write, so I will update after I finish writing.

　　I have been working intensively for five hours in a row early in the morning and have already updated two chapters with nearly 8,000 words. Now I am going to have breakfast and then go back to rest.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)