Tiger Guards

Chapter 620 Hitting the Bullseye
After Liu Bei crossed the Honggou Canal, he pursued the enemy for seventy or eighty li and entered the outskirts of Zhongmu County.

North of Zhongmu County, at Guandu Ferry.

When Liu Bei's central army arrived, there was a resting pursuing force there, and they captured more than 300 fleeing soldiers from Zhang Yang's Yanzhou troops.

When Liu Bei arrived, he saw that the general of this army, Wang Zhong, was warming himself by a fire and drinking wine in the pavilion at Guandu Ferry.

The more than 300 captured Yanzhou soldiers were all killed. Their headless corpses, stripped of their armor, along with their torsos and limbs, were hoisted up with various bamboo sticks and erected on the riverbank near Guandu Ferry, resembling a forest of flesh.

The dripping blood had stained the sandy riverbank red and seeped into the ditch, staining the shallow waters along the shore.

Liu Bei stared blankly at the scene before him, raised his whip and pointed it at the location of Wang Zhong's banner. He felt a lump in his throat and tried to speak several times, but he was too angry to utter a word.

"Poof!~"

Liu Bei was so angry that he couldn't catch his breath. When he finally managed to exhale, he spewed out hot, blood-stained air.

He suddenly fell off his horse, but was caught by the foot soldiers beside him. Everyone rushed over and anxiously called out, "My lord!"

"Lord!"

Liu Bei did not faint. Despite the pain in his backside, he gripped his whip tightly, pointed towards the crossing point, and spoke through his teeth, "Kill this traitor at once!"

"Here!"

Xiahou Bo responded and led a dozen men to their horses, spurring them on and galloping towards the pavilion where Wang Zhong was.

The pavilion was dilapidated, but the Wang Zhong battle flag planted on one side was very bright.

As the wind blew, Wang Zhong inexplicably stood up, surrounded by several nearby military officers and leaders, all of whom were also confused and couldn't figure out what was going on.

Seeing a group of Liu Bei's personal guards galloping towards them, Wang Zhong, reluctant to put down the golden-brown roasted lamb leg he was carrying, turned to look at his personal guards and gestured, "Go see what's going on."

"Here!"

The accompanying officer wiped the oil off his hands and hurried away. After walking a dozen steps, he still reached out his index finger to pick out the beef tendon or shredded meat from between his teeth.

Before he could ask any questions, Xiahou Bo, who was galloping towards him, showed no sign of slowing down. He raised his hand and threw a short spear, which struck the officer in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

Seeing this, Wang Zhong reacted quickly, running towards where the horse was tied. Hearing the approaching hoofbeats behind him, he threw the roasted lamb leg in his hand without turning around.

Xiahou Bo deflected the spinning lamb leg with his short spear, and when he was seven or eight steps away, he steadily threw the spear. The spear pierced Wang Zhong's back. Because he was lazy and didn't want to wear armor, the spear pierced through his chest and revealed a bit of its edge.

Despite suffering such a fatal wound, Wang Zhong still ran forward more than ten steps before collapsing to the ground.

Xiahou Bo then took out his bow and arrows and began shooting at the suspected leader.

Liu Bei's more personal guards galloped away on horseback, and Wang Zhong's troops, who had been sitting together with fires lit in various places at Guandu Ferry, were routed. They had no courage to resist, and they all abandoned their weapons and knelt down to kowtow repeatedly.

The soldiers begged for mercy, but some of the captured women, finally freed from their numbness, began to wail.

Upon hearing the news, Zhang Fei, who was supervising the rear guard, rode quickly to the scene and saw a woman in tattered clothes covering her chest with a flag, lingering near Liu Bei's battle flag, not daring to approach.

Seeing Zhang Fei approaching alone, he mustered his courage and stepped forward, asking loudly, "General, are you under the command of Grand Marshal Zhao of Pingyang?"

Zhang Fei didn't stop his horse and galloped past the woman two steps away. The woman stopped in surprise to avoid the impact and ran westward without looking back, shouting to the other surviving women and waving her arms to indicate something.

Zhang Fei reined in his horse, turned to look at the woman's barefoot, panicked figure as she ran away, frowned for a moment, then jumped off his horse and quickly entered the makeshift curtain.

Inside the tent, Liu Bei lay supine in a cart, the horses that had been pulling it already moved away.

Liu Bei couldn't stop coughing, and every now and then he would cough up some blood.

Before his instinctive panic had subsided, Liu Bei reached out his left hand when he saw Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei strode forward, grabbed Liu Bei's hands, and half-squatted near the cart wheel: "Brother?"

"How could there be such a vicious man as Wang Zhong in the various armies of the court?" Liu Bei said in a low voice, "No wonder when Marquis Wen left, he abandoned such a person as if he were a worn-out shoe."

"Brother, there are very few cannibals like Wang Zhong. Don't overthink it. Please calm down and focus on healing."

"With the nation facing such difficult circumstances, how can we govern the country well and restore peace to the world by associating with such wolves and tigers?"

As Liu Bei spoke, a cold wind entered his mouth, and he coughed violently again.

Zhang Fei quickly took off his cloak and draped it over Liu Bei's head to shield him from the cold wind, his voice urgent: "Brother, please stop talking."

Liu Bei covered his mouth with both hands, barely managing to stop coughing after several instinctive urges.

He simply issued the order to pursue and arranged the order and direction of the pursuit for each army.

But he never expected that there would be such a cruel person as Wang Zhong, who would use such ruthless methods to deal with the captured Yanzhou soldiers, men and women.

Throughout the entire process, the soldiers that Liu Bei had personally led were able to perform the task of capturing prisoners without needing any special instructions.

He truly hadn't expected that among the generals and armies assigned to him by the imperial court, there would be a ferocious beastman like Wang Zhong.

Soon, Zhang Fei and the others pushed a cart and took Liu Bei into one of the few remaining intact houses at Guandu Ferry.

As long as he could avoid the wind and find some warmth, Liu Bei could refrain from speaking and keep his breathing slow, allowing the ruptured wounds to gradually be covered by the congealed blood and stop bleeding.

But in this situation, how could Liu Bei possibly remain silent?
How could one possibly maintain a stable mindset?
Just as Liu Bei lay quietly on his back, Gan Ning's navy sailed down the Honggou Canal and slowly hovered on the north bank of Guandu Ferry.

The inlet of the Honggou Canal is located downstream of Aocang, but the Honggou Canal often dries up or becomes submerged, so a sewer was dug downstream.

The Honggou River flows southeast, while the Yingou River flows roughly north-south. They eventually merge in the Chenliu area to form the Langdang Canal.

Guandu Ferry was an important ferry crossing in the Central Plains. Because of the large amount of marshland and swamps around it, the road conditions were simple and not complicated at all.

Guandu Ferry became a stable, largest, and most important ferry crossing because of its abundant water supply, which facilitated the travel of boats.

At this moment, Gan Ning's naval warships hovered in the waters of the Dujin Canal.

As the accompanying transport ship approached the Guandu North Ferry, Han Meng and Wei Xing's troops disembarked and set up simple temporary camps.

On the flagship, Gan Ning gazed indifferently at the bloody carnage on the banks of the Nan Du Jin River, watching the rebel army of Liu Bei forming ranks and preparing for battle on the shore.

Zhang Fei dared not let Liu Bei know, but with Gan Ning's wave of his hand, more than twenty warships beat their drums in unison, alarming Liu Bei.

Liu Bei, supporting himself, walked out of the dilapidated house with the help of Jian Yong and Xiahou Bo on his left and right. When he saw Gan Ning's navy on the river and the other troops disembarking on the north bank, he froze on the spot.

His thoughts weren't on this place, but rather on the various armies sent upstream to pursue them.

When these troops saw Gan Ning's navy sailing blatantly down the Honggou Canal... how could they dare to pursue them?
Gao Shun didn't even need to set up an ambush; he could simply pursue them directly.

Just as Liu Bei's mind was racing with conflicting thoughts, a messenger galloped up, about to deliver an urgent report. Zhang Fei, anxious, stepped forward and demanded, "What is it! Speak in a low voice!"

"Yes……"

The cavalryman approached and whispered to Zhang Fei, "Liu Dai's troops have been routed and are less than thirty li from Guandu!"

Zhang Fei strode toward Liu Bei: "Brother, the battle is going badly. This is a trick set up by Lü Bu. Please break out of the encirclement quickly."

"The situation is hopeless. Yide, do not force the issue. Cover the rear and then withdraw the troops."

Liu Bei held his breath and slowly gave the orders, his cheeks flushed red.

Zhang Fei nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, brother."

(End of this chapter)