Transmigrating to the Three Kingdoms as Lu Bu: I Have a Pseudo-Apocalypse System

The fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, at noon.

Lü Bu led his army to the north bank of the Yellow River at Gaotangdu.

The sight before them made the generals frown.

The ferry crossing facilities that could be dismantled have been dismantled, and those that could be burned have been burned to charcoal, with only the remaining wooden stakes emitting wisps of smoke.

Broken pottery jars, torn sacks, and the corpses of many laborers lay scattered on the riverbank, likely killed by Yuan Tan for disobeying orders or being too slow. The wide river was deserted; not even a fishing boat could be seen.

Zhang Fei cursed, "That scoundrel Yuan Tan, he ran fast, and even took the ferry to the south bank and burned it all!"

Guan Yu squinted and looked towards the south bank: "Judging from the flags on the opposite bank, Yuan Tan's army has already built camps on the south bank, and catapults and ballistae are all deployed."

Zhang Xiu rode closer and said, "My lord, the river is too wide, and building a bridge will be difficult. I have observed the riverbed and the silt is deep. If we use the method of building a bridge like the one at Anyang Ferry, the bridge piers may sink."

Xu You cupped his hands and said, "My lord, this section of the river at Gaotang Ferry is about 230 zhang wide and more than 10 zhang deep at its deepest point. Building a bridge here would require an extremely long bridge, and the current in the middle of the river is still swift, so whether the bridge piers can be stable is a big problem."

Lu Bu remained silent, riding slowly along the riverbank, carefully observing the river's surface.

As Xu You said, this section of the Yellow River is indeed wide.

Although he had a lot of stones in his storage space, there weren't many that were more than ten feet tall, so there probably weren't enough to carry him to the other side.

"Let's use a boat." Lü Bu dismounted and walked to the deep water at the ferry crossing. "I was prepared."

With a thought, twenty large ships appeared out of thin air in the river.

These ships were about ten zhang long and three zhang wide, with hulls made of hardwood. Each ship could carry over a hundred soldiers and dozens of horses. A small catapult and crossbow were mounted at the bow and stern, with a range of about 150 paces.

Although the generals knew that Lü Bu possessed the divine ability to create a massive ship, they were still shocked to see such a huge ship appear out of nowhere.

Lu Bu pointed to the opposite bank and said, "Yuan Tan has set up defenses on the south bank, thinking that burning the ships and destroying the ferry crossing will stop me. Today, I will show him what it means to turn a natural barrier into a thoroughfare."

"Zhang Xiu, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, each leading five hundred men, will cross the river first in fifteen boats. Catapults at the bows will suppress the defenders on the opposite bank, while ballistae will be aimed at enemy weapons. I will lead my personal guards in five more boats to follow, and the rest will await orders."

"promise!"

The generals received the order and immediately organized the soldiers to board the ship.

Just then, a fast boat came along the river. It turned out that Yuan Tan had finally accepted Xin Ping's suggestion to send an envoy to talk to Lü Bu about the terms and see if they could reach an agreement.

Yuan Tan's envoy stated that Yuan Tan was willing to lead the entire Qingzhou to surrender and persuade Yuan Xi, Zhang He, Gao Lan, and others to surrender to the court and obey the orders of Duke Jin, Lü Bu. However, he hoped that Duke Jin would publicly promise to preserve the lives of the entire Yuan clan, retain Yuan Shao's position as governor of Jizhou, and allow Yuan Tan to lead an army alone.

In this way, Yuan Tan could lead several counties in Qingzhou and 30,000 soldiers to surrender.

Upon hearing such outrageous words, Lü Bu was both amused and exasperated. He ordered his messenger to reply to Yuan Tan that Yuan Shao, as the ringleader of the rebellion, was to be executed. If Yuan Tan surrendered, he and his wives, concubines, and children could be spared and given a sinecure to live out their remaining years in peace, but the idea of ​​him commanding an army should not be mentioned again.

After the messenger returned to the south bank with Lü Bu's words, Yuan Tan was both angry and helpless.

He knew that with Lü Bu's current overwhelming power, how could he possibly agree to his conditions? Judging from Lü Bu's tone, even if he lowered his demands and only asked Lü Bu to forgive his father's death, it would still be impossible.

As a son, he could not surrender just to save his own life, ignoring his father; otherwise, he might become the target of public condemnation.

But it's impossible for him to fight against Lü Bu, even if he were to defend the natural barrier of the Yellow River.

His father had already informed him by messenger about Lü Bu's construction of bridges across Anyangjin, Zhangshui, and Jieqiao. Even if he were to defend the Yellow River, he had no confidence that he could hold out for more than a few days.

Without the Yellow River, defending Qingzhou would be a joke. With Lü Bu and Song Xian attacking from both sides, he would definitely die without a burial place.

After much deliberation, Yuan Tan gave Feng Li a death order to defend Gaotang Ferry to the death. Then, he disguised himself and led several hundred personal guards to take Xin Ping, Guo Tu and their families away from Gaotang County. They fled along the Luo River to the confluence of the Luo River and the Yellow River at Liaocheng County in Le'an State.

There he had prepared a ship and over a thousand soldiers skilled in swimming, and he was ready to take them to escape overseas.

He could flee overseas with over a thousand elite soldiers, finding a place to settle whether in Liaodong, the Three Han Kingdoms, or the Japanese islands. But staying in Qingzhou meant certain death.

On the north bank of the Yellow River at Gaotang Ferry, seeing that Yuan Tan's envoy had not returned, Lü Bu knew that Yuan Tan could not accept his conditions.

It's obvious that, as a son, how could Yuan Tan possibly surrender to save his own life and then abandon Yuan Shao to his fate? In this era that emphasized filial piety, it was simply impossible for him to do so.

Therefore, the two sides can only face off once.

Lu Bu was unaware that Yuan Tan had already fled; he still believed Yuan Tan intended to hold the Yellow River to the death. Therefore, Lu Bu didn't hesitate and immediately ordered his troops to cross the river and attack the south bank.

Upon receiving the report, Feng Li, the Yuan army's garrison commander at the southern camp on the opposite bank, hurriedly climbed the watchtower.

When he saw twenty large ships sailing from the north bank toward the south bank, he was terrified.

"Quickly, prepare the catapults, cock the ballistae! We absolutely cannot let Lü Bu's army cross the river!"

On the south bank of the river, twenty hastily assembled catapults and ten ballistae slowly turned and aimed at the river.

On the bow of the boat in the middle of the river.

Guan Yu stood at the bow of the boat, his green robe fluttering in the river wind. His hand rested on his Green Dragon Crescent Blade, his phoenix eyes fixed on the increasingly clear Yuan army positions on the south bank.

"Enter firing range!" Zhang Xiu shouted from the neighboring ship. "Prepare to fire!"

The catapults on the fifteen ships were simultaneously loaded with stone projectiles—these projectiles were small, each weighing about ten pounds, but there were many of them, enough to cover an area when fired in unison.

"put!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

The stone projectiles whistled through the air, skimming across the river and crashing onto the south bank beach.

Feng Li urgently ordered, "Fight back! Fight back!"

Yuan's catapults fired, but their accuracy was far worse. Most of the stones landed in the river, splashing up huge sprays. A few hit boats, but the boats were sturdy and only suffered minor damage.

The fleet continued forward, and when it was a hundred paces from the south bank, the ballistae began to fire.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The giant arrow pierced the air and shot straight at Yuan's army's position.

An arrow pierced through the wooden frame of the catapult, causing it to collapse with a crash and injuring several operators.

Another arrow pierced through the shield formation, stringing three Yuan soldiers together like candied hawthorns.

Yuan Jun began to panic.

Feng Li drew his sword and roared, "Hold on! Archers, fire! We absolutely cannot let Lü Bu's army land!"

Arrows rained down.

The soldiers at the bow raised their large shields, and the clanging sound was incessant.

Occasionally, arrows would pierce through the gaps, causing casualties, but the overall pace of advance remained undiminished.

At this time, Lü Bu's boat had reached the middle of the river.

He stood at the bow of the boat, took out a powerful bow with a ten-stone length, and nocked an arrow.

With his Perception attribute at 140 fully activated, the soldiers operating catapults and ballistae, the commanding officers, and the rope structures of the catapults and ballistae on the south bank of the Yuan army's position were all clearly visible to him.

Loose the string.

"Whoosh—"

An arrow flew out and accurately pierced the throat of a ballista operator on the south bank, two hundred paces away.

With another arrow, the catapult's launching rod rope was severed.

The third arrow pierced the left shoulder of Feng Li, who was directing operations from the watchtower.

"Ah!" Feng Li cried out in pain and fell down, but his personal guards quickly caught him.