My brothers are all warriors capable of taking on ten thousand men; I'll roam freely in the Thr

Late June, Zhuojun.

When Ji Xuanyuan received Xiang Yu's urgent military report, the imperial edict arrived almost simultaneously.

On the silk, the emperor's seal was bright red and eye-catching, and the content was simple yet weighty: General Ji Xuanyuan was ordered to immediately dispatch his troops northward to suppress the rebellion of Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju and pacify the region. In addition, General Meng Yi was dispatched to lead the troops of Cavalry Commandant Gongsun Zan from the west to assist in the suppression.

"Meng Yi, Gongsun Zan..." Ji Xuanyuan's fingertips brushed over the two names.

Gongsun Zan had just suffered a large-scale defection of his Wuhuan cavalry, resulting in heavy losses and a blow to his prestige. Now, he was sent by the court to quell the rebellion. The implications of this are quite intriguing.

As for Meng Yi... he was not well-known, but the fact that the court, which was in a state of utter chaos at the time, appointed him as a general to lead a region suggests that he was no ordinary person.

He immediately picked up his pen and wrote back, sending it to Dai County by express courier.

"The imperial decree has been issued, ordering my troops to suppress the rebels. Meng Yi and Gongsun Zan are coming from the west, but the journey is still long and their efforts are too slow to be of immediate use. The safety of the border and the defense of Youbei rest entirely on our shoulders! I trust your abilities and grant you the authority to make decisions on the spot. If the rebels come, you must defend the strategic locations and seize the opportunity to attack. Under no circumstances should we allow the barbarian horses to trample our land and slaughter our people! With the cement road open, supplies will arrive quickly, and our crossbows will be sharp and ready to be used. Be careful in everything. I am in Zhuojun, awaiting news of victory and preparing reinforcements."

He knew that Xiang Yu would definitely understand the meaning of the letter.

There's no hope of receiving reinforcements from the imperial court, at least not initially.

Holding the border, curbing the rebels' arrogance, and even taking the initiative to launch attacks to gain military merit all depended on their own decisions on the battlefield.

This is pressure, but also an unprecedented opportunity.

Because of Ji Xuanyuan's intervention, the rebels were unable to successfully invade Guannei and sweep through the four prefectures of You, Ji, Qing, and Xu as they had in history.

Zhang Chun, Zhang Ju, and others were not entirely reckless. They knew that there were still Han troops stationed on the border of Youzhou, especially the Ji Xuanyuan tribe in Zhuojun, which had recently gained considerable influence. Although they had not directly clashed with them, their reputation for suppressing bandits, pacifying the region, and building roads had already spread far and wide.

If the main army were to be attacked on its flank by this Han army when it marched south, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Therefore, an order was sent to Khan Wuyan of Youbeiping.

He was ordered to lead his elite troops and gather the cavalry of the nearby Wuhuan tribes who had already expressed their support, totaling more than 5,000 cavalry, to sweep westward and ensure that the Han army that might come from the direction of Dai Commandery and Shanggu is contained or even defeated, so as to clear the flank threat for the main force of the rebels to go south and take Ji Province.

Wu Yan received the order but didn't take it seriously. Instead, he saw it as a good opportunity to expand the gains and plunder wealth.

Han army?

After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, how much fighting power did the Han troops in the border regions still have?

What came to mind were the defending troops under the walls of Jixian, who collapsed at the first sign of trouble, and the county soldiers who fled along the way.

As for Ji Xuanyuan's army, it might be a little stronger than others, but how much stronger?

His troops were all battle-hardened barbarian cavalry, skilled in archery and horsemanship, and fierce and daring.

In early July, the area bordering Youbeiping and Shanggu was shrouded in continuous rain.

The rain washed over the earth, but it couldn't cleanse the stench of blood and burnt flesh from the air.

Wuyan's cavalry surged into the Han army's defense zone on the border like a murky torrent of iron.

Instead of directly attacking heavily guarded cities, they wantonly swept through villages and towns, burned houses, looted grain and livestock, and slaughtered civilians who had no time to escape.

Occasionally, small groups of Han soldiers would encounter them, but they would quickly scatter under the barrage of arrows and charges of the Hu cavalry, leaving behind corpses and abandoned flags and weapons.

Beside the ruins of a village that had just been ravaged, dozens of Hu cavalrymen were laughing wildly around several stolen oxcarts, with the corpses of several Han Chinese civilians lying beside them.

A young Hu (non-Han) general, carrying a blood-dripping scimitar, pointed at a small group of fleeing Han soldiers in the distance and loudly mocked them in his Hu language, his voice particularly jarring in the rain.

"Look at those Han dogs! They run faster than rabbits on the grassland!"

"Han generals are all spineless cowards!"

"Kill them all! Loot them all! This land will soon be our Wuhuan people's pasture!"

Amidst wild laughter, the Hu cavalry spurred their horses once more, preparing to pursue and kill the remaining soldiers and expand their gains.

However, at this very moment...

"Whoosh—!"

A sharp, piercing sound cut through the air, drowning out the rain and the noise, as if tearing the sky apart!

The laughter stopped abruptly.

The Hu chieftain, who was laughing wildly, was suddenly struck as if by an invisible giant hammer, and he leaned back violently.

A thick, long eagle-feathered arrow pierced his wide-open mouth, with half of the blood-stained arrowhead protruding from the back of his neck.

The sneer on his face froze instantly, and disbelief and terror remained in his eyes. He fell straight off the horse, splashing mud and water everywhere.

Immediately following, three more sharp, teeth-grinding sounds rang out in a single line!

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The three Hu cavalry leaders who were closest to the enemy and reacted the slowest were hit by arrows almost simultaneously.

One man was shot through the throat, another was pierced through the chest by an armor-piercing spike, and the third was shot in the face and died on the spot!

Four arrows, four leaders, killed in an instant!

Swift! Precise! Ruthless! It seemed beyond human capability, but rather the wrath of a mountain god!

The surviving Hu cavalry looked around in horror and finally discovered the source of the arrows.

On a high slope of Jundu Mountain not far away, two riders stood as tall as mountains in the rain.

A man held a giant bow, the bowstring still vibrating.

The other man had just put down his equally powerful bow and was coldly looking down at them.

Behind the two men, a tattered Han Dynasty battle flag was reattached to the flagpole and stubbornly raised.

At the same time, a battle flag with a black background and red border, bearing a huge character "姬" (Ji) on it, was also raised. It fluttered in the wind and rain, appearing lonely but carrying a resolute and murderous intent!

The two were none other than Lü Bu and Ran Min!

They led their vanguard scouts here and happened to witness this bloody scene.

Seeing their compatriots slaughtered, the border troops fleeing, and the barbarian cavalry running rampant, the two men were filled with boundless rage!

"We, the Jingnan Army, act in accordance with the laws of Heaven!"

"My men, follow me and kill!"

Lü Bu raised his halberd, the sound of which shook the surrounding land and overwhelmed the wind and rain.

"Kill all the barbarians!" Ran Min shouted, his left spear and right halberd crossed in front of his chest, his killing intent palpable.

At their command, more cavalry figures appeared indistinctly behind the hillside, amidst the misty rain, unfolding silently and orderly, like a gradually tightening net of death.

That battle flag bearing the character "姬" (Ji) became the only proud symbol in this killing field.

Uyan soon received news that the vanguard had suffered a setback and several leaders had been shot dead.

Despite his shock and anger, he did not panic too much.

"Han reinforcements? They're just relying on a sneak attack! How many of them are there? Have you found out?" Wu Yan asked the scout.

"Judging from the banners... it seems to be the Jingnan Army. The number of people... seems to be less than two thousand, about eight hundred cavalry, and the rest are infantry," the scout reported.

"Less than two thousand? Haha!" Upon hearing this, Wu Yan burst into laughter, his fleshy face twitching.

"I still have over four thousand men under my command! All are brave and battle-hardened warriors! These Han dogs are coming to their deaths! Order the troops to assemble and meet them head-on! Crush them! Let that ignorant Ji Xuanyuan know who the true master of the grasslands is!"

In his view, the Wuhuan cavalry had the advantage in troop strength and high morale, while the Han army was exhausted from their long journey and was a mix of infantry and cavalry. Field battle was the perfect opportunity for the Wuhuan cavalry to demonstrate their strength.

He could almost see a brutal massacre unfolding before his eyes, using the heads of these Han soldiers to add another blood-stained chapter to his reputation as "Khanlu King".

The two armies met on the wet grassland.

As was customary, Wu Yan ordered his cavalry to first harass the enemy formation with mounted archery, probe their positions, and find weaknesses, before preparing to completely crush them with classic alternating charges.

However, from the very beginning, the battle situation deviated from Wuyan's expectations.

As his cavalry approached within about 150 paces and had just drawn their bows and nocked arrows, the infantrymen in the opposite Han army formation suddenly raised a type of crossbow they had never seen before.

The next moment, the nightmare began.

There was no single, clear bowstring sound, only a dense, unsettling "whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh" sound, like a swarm of bees flapping their wings or a sudden downpour pounding on metal!

The black arrows didn't come one by one, but rather in swathes and clumps!

It was as if a wall of deadly iron arrows had appeared out of thin air, advancing relentlessly!

The Wuhuan riders at the forefront were instantly riddled with arrows, along with their horses.

The screams were drowned out by the denser sound of crossbow bolts piercing the air.

The warhorse collapsed with a mournful neigh, and the rider fell like a dumpling being dropped into a pot.

The cavalry that followed had no time to react and crashed into this deadly storm of metal.

"What is that?!"

"Devil! The Han people possess the devil's weapons!"

Panic-stricken shouts in a foreign language spread throughout the army.

Wu Yan stared in astonishment at his men falling like wheat stalks cut by a sickle, the endless barrage of crossbow bolts seemingly without end.

His prized mounted archery skills proved utterly ineffective against the enemy's terrifying firepower.

Before they even engaged the enemy, their momentum was abruptly halted and disrupted!

Just as the Wuhuan cavalry were thrown into chaos and their charging ranks were decimated, the war drums in the Han army suddenly became rousing!

"Jingnan Army! Kill!"

With a deafening roar, four figures burst out of the army like tigers unleashed from their shackles. They broke away from their main force and charged straight into the already scattered Hu cavalry!

Lu Bu took the lead, his Crimson Flame Horse moving as fast as lightning. He swung his halberd, which transformed into a blood-red halo. Wherever it passed, men and horses fell, and severed limbs and broken weapons flew everywhere.

He specifically targeted small groups of barbarian cavalry attempting to regroup, and none could withstand his halberd, tearing open wound after wound in the chaos of battle.

Ran Min was like a vengeful demon. His double-edged spear was cunning and ruthless, targeting vital points such as the throat and face. His hooked halberd was used to parry, chop, and even hook Hu cavalry off their horses.

Young and vigorous, Yang Zaixing wielded his iron-clad spear like a dragon emerging from the sea, nimble and swift, weaving through the enemy ranks. His spear tip would strike from unbelievable angles, taking lives one after another.

Xiang Yu's charge was the most domineering and direct.

His warhorse was magnificent, and his Heavenly Dragon City-Breaking Halberd was a heavy weapon. Often, a simple horizontal sweep or vertical slash would smash and split the man and his horse's armor together!

He swept through the enemy ranks like a chariot, and wherever his double pupils looked, the barbarian cavalry were terrified and retreated. In the direction he charged, the enemy ranks quickly collapsed.

Ordinary barbarian cavalry's swords and arrows could only leave shallow marks on his thick armor, but with a casual strike, he could kill several men.

These four men, like four red-hot daggers, slashed into the Wuhuan army formation as if they were cutting into cream.

They did not charge blindly, but deliberately divided and disrupted the Hu cavalry's organization, preventing them from forming an effective resistance.

The Jingnan Army cavalry behind them seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack and expand their gains, while the infantry stabilized the line and provided continuous long-range suppression with crossbows.

massacre.

This can no longer be called a battle; it is a one-sided massacre.

Surrounded by his personal guards, Wu Yan stood at the rear, watching helplessly as his four thousand elite cavalrymen crumbled rapidly under the terrifying firepower of the enemy's repeating crossbows and the charge of the four demon-like generals. What he had expected to be a crushing defeat turned into a crushing defeat for him.

The tactics, weapons, and bravery of the Han army's generals were completely beyond his comprehension.

"Demons...they must be demons invited by the Han people..." Wu Yan's face was pale and his lips trembled.

When he saw Xiang Yu cleave a centurion, who tried to stop him, in two with a single halberd stroke, blood spraying high into the air, his last shred of courage vanished.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!" Wu Yan no longer cared about the mission of holding the enemy back or saving face. He turned his horse around and, under the protection of his most loyal and best-equipped hundreds of personal guards, fled frantically back the way he came.

With their commander fleeing, the Wuhuan army, already on the verge of collapse, completely lost its will to resist.

"Run!"

"Khanru has fled!"

Cries and screams rose from all sides. The remaining Hu cavalry lost all will to fight, threw down their weapons, and scattered and fled, wishing they had been born with two more legs.

How could Lü Bu, Ran Min, Yang Zaixing, and Xiang Yu let them go?

He led his cavalry in a pursuit that lasted for more than ten miles, until the battlefield was littered with corpses and the wasteland was stained with blood, before finally withdrawing his troops.

After tallying the results, the Jingnan Army killed more than 2,100 enemy soldiers and captured countless others. The warhorses, weapons, and leather armor they seized were piled up like mountains.

As for casualties, there were 15 lightly wounded and only 3 killed, for a total of 18 casualties.

Lu Bu returned, his armor stained with blood, and slew eighty-nine enemies.

Ran Min silently wiped his halberd, level ninety-four.

Yang Zaixing's spear tip was still red, level 102.

Xiang Yu dismounted last, his double pupils still radiating a murderous aura, and slew 152 enemies.

In a skirmish where the forces were outnumbered, a shocking exchange ratio of nearly one to one hundred was achieved!

The rain gradually stopped, and the setting sun cast a blood-red light through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the battlefield.

The banner bearing the character "Ji" stood tall amidst the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, fluttering in the stench of the wind.

Lu Bu wiped the blood off his halberd blade, looked in the direction Wu Yan had fled, and said coldly, "A big fish got away."

Ran Min sheathed his blood-dripping weapons, gazed at the corpses scattered on the ground, the bloodlust in his eyes fading slightly, but the chill remained: "No rush, this is only the beginning."

Xiang Yu gazed southeast towards Fei Ru, his double pupils deep and unfathomable: "Wu Yan has fled, Zhang Chun's flank is lost, and now it's our turn to come knocking."

In the first battle at Jundu Mountain, the Jingnan Army, with the advantage of its divine crossbows and the bravery of its four generals, fearlessly marched forward, achieving a resounding victory in the first battle and making its name known throughout the northern frontier.

The news spread like wildfire, reaching far and wide.

Fear spread among the rebels.