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

Early morning, the 22nd day of the first lunar month.

The Southern Xiongnu Chanyu's court was located in Meiji County.

This city is located in the southern part of the Hetao Plain and was the site of the royal court of the Southern Xiongnu.

The city wall is over two zhang high, built of rammed earth and lined with blue bricks. Although it is not as sturdy as the major cities in the Central Plains, it is still considered a formidable city on the grassland.

Inside the city, the Right Wise Prince's residence in Qubei was in complete chaos.

Since escaping back to Meiji, Qu Bei ordered a citywide curfew and instructed his subordinates to quickly gather their belongings and drive away the cattle and sheep on the pastures outside the city, preparing to flee north to the northern desert.

Inside the main hall of the royal palace, chests and leather bags were piled high, filled with gold, silver, jewels, silk, and furs. A dozen or so Xiongnu nobles surrounded Qu Bei, chattering amongst themselves.

"Your Majesty, will the Han army really attack? We have cities to defend and enough food to last us for half a year. What are we afraid of?"

"Yes, the combined forces of Yufuluo and Duji only number five thousand. We have five thousand brave warriors defending the city. Why should we run?"

"These valuables were so hard to plunder, how much will be lost transporting them to the northern desert? It's better to defend the city and fight!"

Qu Bei was getting a headache from the noise and was about to scold them when suddenly a scout rushed into the palace and tumbled and crawled to the front of the hall.

"Report—Your Majesty! Han cavalry has been spotted south of the city, carrying a banner with the character '[Lü]' on it, and they are less than fifteen li from the city!"

The room was completely silent.

Qu Bei suddenly stood up: "What did you say? Wasn't Lü Bu at Yanmen Pass? How did he end up here?"

The scout, his face contorted with despair, exclaimed, "It really is Lü Bu! I saw that banner clearly, there's no mistake!"

A nobleman exclaimed, "Could he have flown here? It's hundreds of miles from Taiyuan to Meiji, and we have to cross the Yellow River. We even burned all the boats at the ferry crossing. How could he be so fast?"

Qu Bei's expression shifted constantly, a mixture of fear, anger, and greed.

What is terrifying is Lü Bu's reputation—Kebineng's main force of over ten thousand men was wiped out in an instant; such an enemy is too terrifying.

What angered him was that Lü Bu dared to pursue him to his royal court with only a thousand men.

What was greedy was that... Lu Bu only had a thousand cavalrymen, but he himself had five thousand soldiers.

If I can defeat or even kill Lü Bu here, I will not only be a force to be reckoned with on the grasslands, but I can also use that power to launch a counterattack against Fuluo and Duji, and seize the entire Bingzhou.

"Your Majesty, what should we do?" Liu Gui asked in a low voice.

Qu Bei gritted his teeth, a fierce glint in his eyes: "Send the order! Gather all troops and march out of the city to meet the enemy! Lü Bu only has a thousand men, who have come from afar and are exhausted. We are well-rested and ready. Five thousand against one thousand, the advantage is on our side. How can we not win?"

Liu Gui said urgently, "Your Majesty, since Lü Bu dared to come with only a thousand men, he must have something to rely on! We should take advantage of the fact that he hasn't surrounded us yet and retreat lightly through the north gate. The northern desert is so vast, he won't be able to catch up!"

"Withdraw?" Qu Bei pointed to the wealth piled high in the room. "You don't want all this? You don't want the tens of thousands of cattle and sheep outside the city? Are you going to flee to the northern deserts and starve?"

He drew his sword abruptly: "My mind is made up! We'll go out of the city and fight in the open, kill Lü Bu! If we win this battle, the entire Hetao region will be mine! Anyone who dares to talk about retreating will be executed on the spot!"

Seeing this, the nobles dared not offer any further advice and readily agreed.

Qu Bei strode out of the palace and shouted, "Sound the horn! Gather all the brave warriors who can fight, and follow me out of the city to kill the enemy! Kill Lü Bu, and the reward will be a thousand taels of gold and a fiefdom of ten thousand households!"

The sound of horns rang out over the city of Meiji.

It is three miles south of Meiji City.

Lu Bu reined in his Red Hare and raised his hand to signal the entire army to halt.

A thousand personal guards quickly deployed into a standard charging wedge formation. Everyone dismounted, inspected their equipment—the armor and weapons Lu Bu had taken from his spatial storage—and fed and watered their warhorses, making final preparations.

Cheng Lian rode up to Lü Bu's side and looked at the city gate in the distance: "General, it seems that Qu Bei is going out of the city to meet the enemy."

Lu Bu saw it too.

A large number of Xiongnu cavalry poured out of the city gate and were forming ranks, numbering no less than four or five thousand.

Zhang Xiu sneered: "This Qu Bei is quite bold, daring to go out of the city for a field battle."

Lu Bu said calmly, "He was reluctant to abandon the city's valuables and flee north lightly, and he also felt that we were outnumbered, five thousand against one thousand, so he wanted to take a gamble."

Just then, a rider galloped out from the opposite ranks, stopping a hundred paces away. He shouted in broken Chinese, "Is that General Lü Bu over there? My king said that if you withdraw your troops, acknowledge him as the Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu, and appoint him as the General of the Xiongnu, he is willing to offer ten thousand head of cattle and sheep and a thousand fine horses, and from then on submit to the Han Dynasty and never invade our borders again!"

Lu Bu didn't answer at all, but simply took out a whistling arrow from his quiver, drew his bow, and nocked an arrow.

"Whoosh—whoosh—!"

The whistling arrow shot towards the messenger.

The messenger shrank back in fright, and the arrow whizzed past his head and embedded itself in the ground behind him.

"Go back and tell Qu Bei," Lü Bu's voice was like iron, "either surrender the city and I'll leave him with a whole corpse, or resist to the end and I'll slaughter the entire royal court and build a mound of corpses to intimidate the Northern Barbarians."

The messenger turned pale and turned his horse around, galloping back to his camp.

A moment later, a roar erupted from the opposing side, clearly indicating that Qu Bei had been provoked.

Cheng Lian whispered, "General, should we charge straight into their formation?"

Lu Bu shook his head: "No rush. Let the soldiers rest for another quarter of an hour, until the horses recover. Go and give the order: take no prisoners in this battle; kill all those carrying weapons. But do not pursue the fleeing troops into the city, to prevent casualties in street fighting."

"promise!"

A quarter of an hour later, the Xiongnu army was in formation.

Qu Bei himself stood at the front of the battle, wearing magnificent lamellar armor, a golden crown, and holding a long spear, looking quite imposing.

Seeing that the Han army was hesitant to move, he assumed that Lü Bu was afraid to fight and laughed loudly: "Lü Bu, you have traveled a thousand miles and your men and horses are exhausted. It's not too late to retreat now! Otherwise, when my army charges in, you will die without a burial place!"

Lu Bu ignored him completely and simply raised his halberd slowly.

A thousand heavy cavalrymen mounted their horses simultaneously behind them, their movements perfectly synchronized, the clatter of their armor like a metallic wave.

Qu Bei's laughter abruptly stopped.

He then realized that the equipment, discipline, and morale of the cavalry opposite him were completely different from the Han army troops he had encountered before.

The terrifying sight of the armored figures of the centaurs made Qu Bei somewhat apprehensive.

But the arrow was already on the bowstring, and it had to be released.

"Warriors!" Qu Bei shouted, raising his spear, "Kill Lü Bu, and the entire Bing Province will be ours! We'll plunder money, grain, and women! Charge!"

"Whoa—!"

The Xiongnu cavalry let out wild howls and began their charge.

Four or five thousand cavalrymen spread out across the grasslands south of Meiji County, their hooves thundering like muffled thunder, raising clouds of dust.

Lu Bu remained unmoved, merely watching coldly.

Five hundred steps.

Four hundred steps.

Three hundred steps.

Enter the range of the powerful bow.

"Personnel Guard Battalion—!" Lü Bu roared, "Wedge formation, follow me—kill!"

"kill--!"

Red Hare shot out like an arrow.

A thousand heavy cavalry followed closely behind, like an iron torrent, crashing head-on into the Xiongnu cavalry.

A great war broke out.

During the charge, both sides' cavalry drew their bows and began hurling arrows. Killing off some of the enemy beforehand would naturally reduce the pressure during the final head-on battle.

In archery duels, the Han army naturally had the advantage.

Not only were the bows and arrows of Lu Bu's personal guard better quality, but more importantly, the men and horses of Lu Bu's personal guard were fully armored, making it difficult for them to be injured even if they were hit by arrows.

The Xiongnu rebels in Qubei were different. Few of them had armor, and ordinary soldiers had little to no leather armor, let alone armor. Many of them charged forward wearing tattered fur coats.

This was the state of the northern nomadic peoples, who were essentially soldiers; it would have been impossible for them to have the same standard equipment as the Han army.

Thus, in the two rounds of archery exchange during the charge, not a single soldier in Lü Bu's army died; only a few unlucky ones suffered minor injuries.

The Xiongnu suffered over a hundred casualties.

Then, the two forwards collided.