My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 292: Live as a hero, and treat death as returning home

Han Dang saw that the situation was hopeless, and tried his best to persuade Sun Ce to immediately abandon the main force of the infantry and escape with only the cavalry.

But Sun Ce was arrogant and proud, how could he bear this? He brought more than 20,000 soldiers and horses just to break through and return to the rear where there was plenty of food and grass. If the main force was defeated in the end, there would be no point in returning.

And to be honest, in today's bloody battle, only 10% of his 20,000 troops were directly killed or wounded by Zhang Liao's troops. The vast majority of Jiangdong's army's losses came from being caught off guard by surprise attacks, the collapse of the army's morale, and the trampling of each other.

After all, the Jiangdong army had been besieged in Moling City for more than five months, and their morale was already low. No one thought that the Sun family could turn the situation around.

If the battle on the front battlefield is going in your favor, the situation will remain stable. However, once there is the slightest sign of adverse conditions, the herd effect of chain collapse will be extremely exaggerated.

Zhao Yun's troops, who came after him, had more than 4,000 cavalrymen. Zhao Yun pursued and expanded the victory like chopping melons and vegetables, killing more enemies than Zhang Liao. Zhang Liao's greatest contribution was to throw Sun Ce's army into chaos and delay the time.

Sun Ce never got the chance to engage in a head-on battle with Zhang Liao from beginning to end. Zhang Liao was always harassing him, pretending to retreat and then coming back to ambush him halfway.

Now, seeing that Sun Ce's main force had collapsed, Zhang Liao finally dared to intercept him head-on. Sun Ce would of course seize the opportunity to fight the enemy to the death.

Life and death are no longer important. He must vent his anger, otherwise he will not be Sun Ce.

"Zhang Liao, you unworthy man, deserve to die!" Seeing Zhang Liao leading hundreds of cavalry blocking his way, Sun Ce rushed towards him like a mad tiger.

Sun Ce's personal martial arts were still very fierce, enough to be among the best in the world. He swung his steel spear wide and wide, stretching and retracting like a dragon, and stabbed to death several Bingzhou cavalrymen who were Zhang Liao's personal guards. None of his men could match him.

In order to gain the title of nobility, Zhang Liao took the risk to seek wealth and fame. He charged into the enemy ranks himself and led his troops to surround the enemy. Hundreds of cavalrymen from both sides collided head-on with each other, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.

On the battlefield far behind, there were more than 10,000 main infantrymen of the Jiangdong Army who were being cut and annihilated by Zhao Yun like boiling water and snow, and were forced to land in large numbers. However, Sun Ce lost his composure and didn't care about the rear army at all. He knew that the rear army was beyond saving, so he just held on to Zhang Liao and stabbed him wildly in order to take revenge.

Zhang Liao blocked the attacks repeatedly with his saber and broke out in a cold sweat. He had not expected that Sun Ce, as a local tyrant and a vassal lord, was also such a skilled martial artist.

In the whole world, Zhang Liao had never seen any other prince except Lu Bu who had such personal martial arts skills.

After all, this kind of life-and-death fight was not a duel of generals, and the two sides could not fight strictly one-on-one. After only a few moves, the miscellaneous soldiers and bodyguards of both sides surrounded them layer by layer to assist the main generals, and the fight became a mess.

Sun Ce had Han Dang's help, and Sun Ce hated Zhang Liao so much that he fought like a mad tiger, and Zhang Liao was soon in danger.

The two sides fought in chaos while hacking and killing the surrounding enemy soldiers. After another seven or eight rounds, Zhang Liao's saber had just knocked away Han Dang's weapon when he was stabbed in the abdomen by Sun Ce's spear. He desperately dodged to the side and barely avoided the vital points, but the spear still cut a long bloody wound on his waist and ribs.

Due to the injury, Zhang Liao's morale was slightly weakened. He also knew that his martial arts and military strength could not stop Sun Ce after all. There were too few soldiers around him, so he had to retreat in anger.

Cao Xing, who was in the rear, was originally leading hundreds of light cavalry to harass the enemy and provide support. He had good eyesight, and when he saw Zhang Liao in danger, he quickly ordered his men to shoot arrows at Sun Ce.

Because Sun Ce refused to follow his father's example and take off his red cap and golden helmet in order to survive, he became too conspicuous and was targeted by Cao Xing.

Cao Xing shot an arrow into Sun Ce's cheek, entering from the side of his cheek. Because Sun Ce was shouting and fighting, his teeth were not clenched, so the arrow entered from the left cheek and exited from the right cheek, directly turning Sun Ce into a man with a gaped mouth. Otherwise, if he had clenched his teeth, this arrow would probably have broken at most two back molars, and would have been stuck in the jawbone.

"Ah!" Sun Ce howled miserably, his eyes turned red, but he was still able to fight again. He left the slightly injured Zhang Liao behind and turned to rush towards Cao Xing.

Cao Xing was also a little greedy for the title of Tinghou. Seeing that Sun Ce had been seriously injured by an arrow, he thought that his close combat skills might be able to defeat the opponent, so he continued to shoot arrows to weaken the opponent.

"Don't fight with this thief! He has gone crazy!" Zhang Liao was well aware of Sun Ce's bravery and terror through the previous fight, and tried to warn him, but after being injured, he was quickly entangled by Han Dang and could not escape.

On the other side, Cao Xing was too arrogant after all. When Sun Ce rushed to him, Cao Xing shot Sun Ce with two arrows, but Sun Ce lowered his head to avoid the vital parts. Even if the arrows with steel armor-piercing cones pierced other parts of his body, they did not penetrate deep into the flesh and did not cause serious injuries.

These injuries, instead, aroused Sun Ce's ferocious nature to fight for his life.

When Sun Ce rushed in front of him, Cao Xing hurriedly picked up a melee weapon to fight back, wanting to fight and retreat, but his martial arts were not good enough, and he was assassinated by Sun Ce in just three moves.

After killing Cao Xing, Sun Ce seemed to have lost a breath of air. He had many arrow wounds on his body and lost too much blood. He was a little shaky. Han Dang, who was far away, was always concerned about his master's condition. Seeing that Sun Ce was exhausted, he also fought hard to drive away the injured Zhang Liao, and asked his personal guards to surround Zhang Liao. He himself rode his horse to Sun Ce's side and protected Sun Ce to retreat quickly.

Sun Ce was gradually losing consciousness and could no longer command his troops, let alone stop Han Dang.

After all, Zhang Liao's troops were too small in number, and were entangled in close combat with Han Dang's cavalry, and were unable to break through.

The casualties of his thousand-plus cavalrymen in the harassment and sneak attack that lasted for an hour just now were not as many as the casualties of Sun Ce, who was trying to keep the trapped beast in his arms, in just two cups of tea. Zhang Liao's troops were too few after all, and were on the verge of collapse. Zhao Yun in the rear saw that Zhang Liao's army was losing ground, and he also wanted to kill through the entire Jiangdong army formation and rush up to capture the thief and the leader.

Unfortunately, among the enemies Zhao Yun encountered, there were also some who were loyal to their master and fought to the death - the vanguard cavalry general Zhou Tai stopped Zhao Yun and fought hard without retreating.

The two sides fought for a long time, Zhao Yun left three not-so-deep spear wounds on Zhou Tai, but Zhou Tai still shouted that he would fight on. Finally, Zhao Yun finally found an obvious flaw, but seeing that the other party was loyal to his master and fought to the death, he already cherished his talent, so he did not kill him, but just swung his spear hard, knocked Zhou Tai off his horse, and let the soldiers tie him up.

However, Zhou Tai's desperate delay allowed the seriously injured and unconscious Sun Ce to escape, and he was protected by Han Dang and returned to give his last words.

It can only be said that Zhou Tai's ability to protect his master was so terrifying that he even held Zhao Yun back.

On the other side, Jiang Qin, Zhou Tai's companion who was also a former pirate from Danyang, saw that Zhou Tai's troops were being cut off and crushed by Zhao Yun and were in danger, so he also wanted to come to rescue, but was held back by Wei Yan under Zhao Yun.

Wei Yan was only nineteen years old after the Chinese New Year, an age when he was full of vigor and eager to make achievements.

In the previous battle in southern Jing, his two contributions were not decisive, not enough to directly cross the gap between middle-level officers and generals, and he could not be promoted to military commander. Liu Bei also encouraged him to accumulate more merits so that he could be promoted.

This time, when he and Zhao Yun came to fight Sun Ce, Wei Yan was desperately trying to seize every opportunity to make merit. He had no intention of cherishing talent, not to mention that the other party was much older than him, so Wei Yan just wanted to fight hard and kill the general to make merit.

Jiang Qin's potential was far inferior to Wei Yan's, but Wei Yan had just made his debut, was still young, and his martial arts had not yet reached the peak of his life. He just relied on his courage to fight. Jiang Qin was suppressed by the opponent's fierce offensive, and he thought he was no match for him, so he did not dare to fight for his life. They both suffered some minor injuries, so he had to leave Zhou Tai behind and escape for his own life.

However, except for the cavalry of more than 1,000 people who escaped, at least half of the other 20,000 infantry of Sun Ce's main army were annihilated or forced to surrender, and countless soldiers fled in all directions.

These deserters fled in all directions, and it is possible that some of them slowly walked back to the rear after the war to join the Sun family and rejoin the team, but the proportion could never exceed 30%.

Therefore, after this battle, only two to three thousand people of the main force of the Jiangdong Army escaped for the time being, and in the medium to long term, the number will not exceed five thousand.

A force of at least 15,000 men was completely annihilated, and the number of prisoners who surrendered in an organized manner alone reached as many as 7,000 to 8,000.

……

Later that day, Guan Yu also arrived at the battlefield with the main force of Liu Bei's infantry reinforcements from the rear.

If Zhao Yun at least managed to eat meat, Guan Yu could only drink soup. All that was left for Guan Yu was to capture escaped prisoners and clean up the battlefield, with no hard fighting at all.

Upon hearing that Sun Ce had fled back to Jurong County, Guan Yu was not anxious. He asked the infantry troops to stay and capture prisoners, clean up and take over the battlefield, and then asked Zhao Yun to quickly chase to Jurong County.

As for Zhang Liao, who was injured and suffered heavy losses in troops, Guan Yu said that he would definitely give him credit fairly and let him go back to recuperate first, and his troops should also go back quickly for treatment and rest.

"Wenyuan, rest assured. Although you didn't kill as many as Zilong in this battle, you delayed Sun Ce and bought time for the army to catch up with Sun Ce's main force. This is the first merit. I will record it fairly and report it to the lord."

After Guan Yu said this, Zhang Liao no longer asked for a fight. He decided to quit while he was ahead and took the remaining soldiers back to heal their wounds.

He just reported to Guan Yu that he saw Cao Xing shoot and wound Sun Ce in the chaos, and then was killed in return.

After hearing this, Guan Yu also looked solemn: "If so, Cao Xing's contribution is not small. In the future, as long as Sun Ce dies from his injuries, it will be considered his first contribution. Does he have any children left? His son can inherit his title. Even if Sun Ce does not die from this injury, I will also report to the lord and ask him to give his son the title of Guannei Marquis first."

After explaining everything, Guan Yu stayed behind to clear out the fleeing soldiers and clean up the battlefield, while Zhao Yun rode non-stop to Jurong County.

However, Zhao Yun's troops were all cavalry, so they were unable to attack the city when they arrived. Moreover, after continuous fighting and forced marching throughout the day, their men and horses were very tired. Zhao Yun did not dare to divide his troops to surround the city on all sides. He just set up a camp hastily to the west of Jurong City, and then waited for the main force of the infantry to catch up before attacking the city.

The Jiangdong army in Jurong knew that the enemy was powerful, so they did not dare to stay in this isolated city surrounded by enemy territory on three sides. So Han Dang escorted Sun Ce back to Jurong and stayed there for only one day. He asked the city medical officer to treat Sun Ce's injuries and found a carriage with a lot of soft and shock-absorbing materials to transport Sun Ce.

On the morning of the third day, before daybreak, Han Dang took advantage of the fact that before Guan Yu's main infantry force arrived in Jurong, and withdrew in the dark with all the cavalry in the city, as well as all the horses and vehicles he could find, and about two to three thousand people.

After Guan Yu arrived, he prepared for the siege. The miscellaneous infantry who were abandoned in Jurong to buy time had no will to fight and surrendered three days later on the 14th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Guan Yu and Zhao Yun continued to advance, and arrived at Piling a few days later. The Piling defenders only held out for three or four days, and the local county magistrate surrendered when he saw the situation was not good. After that, several counties surrendered, and Guan Yu and Zhao Yun took over while advancing, and arrived at Wu County, the seat of Wujun County, before the end of the year.

(End of this chapter)