Three Kingdoms: I, Yuan Shu, Loyal Officials of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 101 A Humble Scholar, A Few Lives
"I am deeply grateful for the kindness and righteousness shown to me by Lord Xuande, and I am now willing to die for him."

Those of you who are unwilling to die with me may leave on your own."

On the vast plains of Changping, Sun Qian, dressed in Liu Bei's armor, held aloft a banner bearing the character "Liu" on his horse, his gaze calmly fixed on the soldiers behind him urging him to flee.

With such loyalty and righteousness as their commander, the soldiers, under his clear and calm gaze, felt ashamed as if their dark thoughts of deserting had been illuminated by the sun.

They looked up at it with their heads held high!

"We have also received kindness and righteousness from Lord Xuande. Are you humiliating us, sir?"

"It is not a humiliation, but a matter of life and death today. If you are not willing to live and die with me, you need not follow me."

"I am willing to die with the general to repay the kindness of Lord Xuande."

At that time, most of Sun Qian's men had scattered, leaving only four or five hundred men who would follow him to the death.

So the banner bearing the character "Liu" fluttered in the wind once more, and he fled in a different direction.

"Xu Zhongkang of Qiao County is here! Where is that black bastard? Come and fight me for another three hundred rounds!"

"I am Sun Ce, the adopted son of Yuan Shao, the Little Conqueror! Liu Bei, don't run!"

"Ji Ling of Nanyang is here! Guan Yu, you coward, why do you flee at the mere sight of me? Are you afraid I'll take your head in three rounds?"

Three generals arrived first, followed by Yuan Shu in his carriage.

After determining Liu Bei's true breakout direction, he immediately assembled a large army to surround him.

Even so, he still found it quite troublesome to face Liu Bei's army, which had broken up into smaller units and fled in thirty-six different directions.

As for the banner with the character "Liu," Yuan Shu didn't have high hopes for it.

After all, who would run away with a big flag while everyone else was scattering for their lives, as if they were afraid the enemy wouldn't be able to find them?
I was just about to ignore this banner and only pursue the other thirty-five routes, but then I thought it was inappropriate.

What if Liu Bei really had a talent for escaping, and someone anticipated his thoughts and did the opposite, running away with the banner in hand? Wouldn't that be a joke?
Therefore, Xu Chu was sent to lead troops to pursue as a precaution, and the other generals were also ordered to follow orders, each leading their troops to pursue one of Liu Bei's armies.

Although Yuan Shu had done his best to counter the situation, on the battlefield where more than 100,000 people were fighting, without Zhang Fei's shout: "Zhang Yide of Yan is here!", who could tell which was Liu Bei, which was Guan Yu, and which was Zhang Fei?
The shouts of battle shook the heavens and the earth. Bloodshed was everywhere on the Changping Plain. The generals and their troops, along with Liu Bei's thirty-six armies, pursued and fought relentlessly, creating chaos everywhere.

Yuan Shu stood atop a six-horse carriage, his gaze sweeping over a vast sea of ​​people.

He knew that if the three brothers Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei were truly determined to be cowards and not shout things like "Zhang Yide of Yan is here!" on the battlefield, then they would be in trouble.

Disguised as an ordinary soldier, he would be hard to spot among the tens of thousands of deserters.

Didn't you see that during the Battle of Puyang, in the midst of the chaos, Cao Cao was captured right in front of Lü Bu, but he managed to get away with it by saying, "The one riding the yellow horse in front is Cao Cao"?

The battle of over 100,000 people was so chaotic that it was impossible to identify or search for anything in such a short time.

This is why generals always erect large banners and raise large flags; if the banners fall, the army's morale will collapse and the soldiers will flee.

This is because on the battlefield, without a banner to guide them, not only the enemy army, but even their own soldiers cannot find their commander.

In the Battle of Changping, Liu Bei's thirty-six armies scattered and fled, and Yuan Shao's army continued to send troops to pursue them, causing the battlefield to expand continuously.

One fled, the other pursued; soldiers from Yuan and Liu's armies fought fiercely across the mountains and plains until night fell, when the Changping Plain finally returned to silence.

"Tell me, where has Liu Bei fled to?" As he watched the six-horse carriage slowly approach and heard the emperor's cold words that carried the weight of imperial authority, Sun Qian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and laughed loudly.

"Qian Yi is an incompetent and useless scholar. He never imagined that my plan could stump Lord Yuan."

Sun Qian was wounded multiple times, and the armor he wore, originally belonging to Liu Bei, was already soaked in blood.

He did not answer Yuan Shu's question again. Instead, amidst laughter, the scholar led his last dozen or so soldiers in a desperate charge toward Yuan Shu's six-horse chariot.

When Sun Ce thrust his spear and sent Yuan Shu flying high into the air, it was the closest Yuan Shu had ever been to him, so close that he could see Yuan Shu's face clearly.

It was a face that showed neither joy nor anger; he looked at me indifferently, his eyes unfathomable.

He simply said, "Bury me in Changping after I die," and turned to leave.

The blood-stained longsword in his hand fell limply to the ground. As the blood flowed, the reflection of a white moon hanging high in the sky was seen in the blade, and he himself was hanging on the tip of his spear, showing off his position beneath the white moon.

Sun Qian wanted to laugh, but he had no strength left. He watched Yuan Shu turn around and chase after Liu Bei again, tears welling up in his eyes.

pain!
It turns out that feeling the blood slowly draining away along the gun barrel is such a deep-seated despair.

"My lord, please forgive me for being unable to keep my promise and accompany you on your journeys."

At this moment, frost filled the sky, the moon was full in the center of the sky, and the corpse on the spear tip gradually grew cold.

In this battle, Yuan's army suffered relatively few casualties but inflicted a major defeat on Liu Bei at Changping. The elite troops of Danyang were either killed or captured, resulting in heavy losses.

Inside Changping City, one could see the generals being pursued and hunted outside, and the nearly ten thousand elite Danyang soldiers being captured and sent back in batches.

Yuan Shu's gloomy expression, which had been clouded by the news that Liu Bei, along with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, had killed the junior officer who had caught up with them and fled far away, turned into a genuine and warm smile for the first time.

"My friends, are you homesick?"
"Your families often talk about you; today I'm bringing you all home."

Take us home?
Danyang soldier: "???"

You are the enemy's lord, and we are prisoners. Is it right for you to say "take us home"?

However, Yuan Shu didn't care about this. He believed that with his current reputation among the people of Jianghuai, these people would definitely be criticized and denounced by their fellow villagers when they returned to their hometowns.

Then, their relatives tied them with yellow turbans—no, they took up swords, donned armor, and volunteered to join the army.

At that time, Zhang Xun in the rear will give them a simple drill, and they will become a strong and usable army under our command.

What does a full salary count for?
I, the young master of the Yuan family, am so poor that all I have left is money and grain.

Let alone the full salary, once they hear from their relatives about the twenty-level military merit award and the ennoblement, they will definitely regret not meeting me sooner and wish they could have met a wise ruler like me sooner.

Meanwhile, Liu Bei, under the protection of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, disguised himself as an ordinary soldier and fled while being pursued by Yuan Shao's army.

Despite being pursued and blocked all the way, they ultimately escaped danger time and time again thanks to the bravery and strength of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

After all, Yuan Jun's generals were pursuing him in thirty-six routes. With the strength of his forces, as long as he didn't run into generals like Xu Chu, Sun Ce, or Ji Ling, it would be easy for him to fight his way out.

Finally, after escaping a sufficient distance, Liu Bei, with the cooperation of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, led his army back to launch a counterattack, killing the nameless junior general who had been pursuing them all the way. He then shook off his pursuers and fled towards Fule City.

(End of this chapter)