Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 17 can also be considered a desperate battle.

Southern part of Shanggu County.

"Traitor! Not content with killing innocent people and claiming credit for them, you even dare to let barbarians enter the country! Are you not afraid of the lives of your entire tribe?!"

Zou Jing, the Protector of the Wuhuan, stood up, leaning on his spear, spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, and glared at the scarred official in front of him with gritted teeth.

Several corpses lay on the ground; they were Zou Jing's personal guards.

There were about a hundred barbarian cavalrymen with braided hair around Zou Jing, who was staring at him menacingly.

"General Zou, you are mistaken... You are the one in charge of the Hu people. It was you, General, who killed innocent people and allowed the Hu people to enter the country, not us subordinates..."

The scarred official rode forward a few steps, looking down at Zou Jing. Touching the scar on his face, he shook his head and sneered, "So, Commander Zou forced the people of the county into rebellion and was attacked and killed by a mob..."

"Shameless traitor! How dare you frame me..."

Zou Jing raised his spear: "You, a mere military commander, don't have the guts to intercept and kill me. Who ordered you to do this?!"

"Commander Zou might as well go to the Underworld and ask the King of the Underworld; the King of the Underworld knows everything..."

The scarred military commander grinned maliciously and waved his hand: "Kill him!"

The surrounding Hu people swarmed forward, brandishing their swords and attacking Zou Jing.

"Come die!"

Zou Jing roared, ignoring the Hu people rushing towards him, and charged straight at the scarred military commander with his gun raised.

Scarface probably didn't expect Zou Jing to still have fighting power, his expression changed, and he planned to retreat on horseback.

But the horse wasn't going very fast when it was retreating, and as a result, Zou Jing rushed up in front of it.

Scarface quickly dismounted and scrambled to his feet, finally managing to hide behind several Hu cavalrymen.

Zou Jing was blocked by the scarred man's horse, so he simply leaped onto the horse, stabbed the Hu rider in front of him with his spear, and spurred his horse to continue charging towards the scarred man.

The moment he mounted his horse, several Hu men's knives had already struck Zou Jing, and the horse itself was also slashed twice.

Zou Jing's armor was quite fine, and although he was stabbed several times, they were all superficial wounds and not fatal.

The horse, writhing in pain from the two cuts, neighed wildly and lunged forward. Just then, Scarface, who was also retreating and dodging, disrupted the Hu people's formation, and the horse, carrying Zou Jing, broke through the encirclement.

Seeing that there was no one in front of him, Zou Jing realized that he had inadvertently broken through the encirclement. He glanced back, then bent down to protect his neck and continued forward.

This time it was no longer a charge, but a flight to safety.

"Quick, after him! We can't let him get away!"

Scarface sat on the ground in a panic and quickly called for the Hu people to give chase.

Several Hu men raised their bows and arrows, aimed at Zou Jing, and shot.

His archery skills were quite accurate; three arrows hit Zou Jing's back, and another hit the horse's rump.

However, the horse bows and wolf-tooth arrows used by the Hu people were clearly not powerful enough to penetrate the armor when they were chasing forward, and Zou Jing was still flying forward with arrows stuck in his back.

His horse, after being shot with an arrow, ran even faster, but it was panting heavily and clearly couldn't keep up for long.

Nearly a hundred Hu cavalrymen were in hot pursuit.

……

"Nine feet, are you sure the Hu people are here?"

Liu Bei was leading his ragtag army northwest, and they had now reached the Juma River, forty li northwest of Zhuo County.

The current executioners are indeed a motley crew, armed with all sorts of weapons—swords, spears, halberds, axes, maces—making them look quite chaotic.

“Right here, I saw them watering their horses by the river. There were about thirty of them, but more than a hundred horses.”

Jiu Chi nodded and pointed to the north bank of the Juma River: "Young master, look, there's still horse manure by the river. They should still be nearby."

There was indeed a lot of horse manure along the riverbank, as well as several campfires and many hoofprints.

Judging from the number of bonfires, it was indeed a group of about thirty people.

Zhangba couldn't count. He said the number of Hu people and executioners was about the same, probably including the number of horses in the count.

"Yes, if we pull off this job, you'll all become cavalry!"

Liu Bei nodded and said.

Actually, before coming here, he was worried that the executioners would be unwilling to fight in the open field against the Hu people. Because the Xianbei had been raiding the border every year for the past few years, and their strength was quite great, the executioners had not received formal training, and Liu Bei was afraid that they would be afraid.

But to everyone's surprise, after these guys returned from their investigation in Jiuchi, they were all very enthusiastic and expressed their determination to pull off a heist.

These guys have a rather simple and crude logic.

They felt that it was best not to provoke the Hu people, especially in winter or when their numbers outnumbered their own, because the Hu people were fast on horseback.

But if it weren't winter, and the Hu people had more horses than men, then they would definitely pull off a heist, also because the Hu people's horses were fast...

A fast horse is valuable.

They say the Hu people fight fiercely in winter, but it's late March now, not the season when they are most ferocious.

Moreover, if there are only twenty or thirty people, but they bring more than a hundred horses, they are most likely horse traders from the Central Asian region—the fattest sheep.

Most of the Han people in Youzhou were indeed not afraid of small groups of Hu people, but they hated them.

Although there have been invasions by Hu people in Youzhou every year, most Han young men still do not find the Hu people scary, but only hateful.

This is, after all, a great man.

Although this was the last period of the Han Dynasty, the spirit left by Emperor Wu of Han still remained.

Of course, there is another reason.

The number of people harmed by officials over the years far exceeds the number harmed by barbarians...

The soldiers of Shanggu County, where Zhangba and Jiuchi originally lived, often killed innocent people and claimed credit for their crimes, then pinned the blame on the Xianbei leader Tanshihuai.

In the eyes of the people of Youzhou, the Xianbei, bandits, and county soldiers were no different; they were all the same kind of scourge of war.

Most of the executioners were originally bandits.

"Shh, don't talk!"

Suddenly, Jiu Chi raised a finger, then dismounted and lay down on the ground to listen for a while: "My lord, I hear the sound of horses' hooves... coming this way!"

"Prepare for battle!"

Liu Bei took a long spear from Zhang Ba and ordered the executioners to prepare for battle.

He didn't devise any tactics, because these guys only knew two tactics at the moment...

Either charge or ambush.

To be precise, it's either a matter of swarming in directly, or hiding first to assess the situation before swarming in...

Oh, there's another one: disperse and retreat—that is, when you can't win, you scatter in all directions.

They're just a motley crew; they haven't had time to train yet, so there's nothing we can do.

Currently located on the banks of the Juma River, there is nowhere to hide, so they can only face the enemy with their backs to the riverbank, which can be considered a battle with their backs to the river.

A motley crew formed a clumsy skirmish formation, with about twenty mounted men scattered on both sides and more than a hundred foot soldiers standing in the middle.

They stood far apart because many executioners were already preparing to throw the lassos, which require quite a bit of space.

As soon as the procession was lined up, they saw a cavalry caravan coming towards them.

"They're here... Hey, it looks like someone's being chased by the Hu people?"

Nine feet tall indeed possessed eyesight and hearing far exceeding that of ordinary people, which was probably why this skinny, short man was able to become the gang leader.

"Prepare to advance...charge!"

Liu Bei had good eyesight and saw them too, so he immediately ordered a charge to prevent the Hu people from turning around and running away when they saw that there were many of them—the Hu people's horses were fast, and if they really ran away, they wouldn't be able to catch up.

But the Hu people didn't run away; instead, they charged even faster.

As soon as he gave the order, Liu Bei regretted it.

Nine feet ago, it was said that there were only twenty or thirty Hu people, but they had over a hundred horses.

But Liu Bei felt that there seemed to be more than that number of Hu people rushing over.

It looks like there are hundreds of cavalrymen, and there seem to be people on those horses.
"My lord... no! These aren't the barbarians we saw before!"

Jiu Chi suddenly panicked: "This...this is Tan Shihuai's troops! They are Xianbei cavalry!"

(End of this chapter)