Han Ji

Two thousand elite cavalrymen once again broke through the right flank of the formation. This time they took a longer detour, making a large circle, bypassing the flanks and rear of the Wuhuan cavalry, and then cutting back from the slopes of White Wolf Mountain.

The horses' hooves pounded on the dry grass, sending bits of grass flying and hitting the riders' faces. The cavalrymen pressed themselves close to their horses' necks, their bodies low to the ground. From a distance, they looked like a cloud of yellow dust moving along the hillside towards the back of the Wuhuan.

Tadun's attention was entirely focused on the breach in front, and he didn't notice what was behind him. His personal guards reported once that there was dust behind him, but Tadun said it was just the wind.

On the front, Liu Bei's personal guard and the Wuhuan's personal guard were already engaged in close combat. The gap was less than twenty paces wide, and hundreds of men were fighting on both sides.

Swords clashed, shields clashed, horses jostled, and men pushed horses. Zhang Wu and a burly Wuhuan man were locked in a struggle, rolling around on the ground. The burly man gripped Zhang Wu's neck, while Zhang Wu's fingers dug into the burly man's eye sockets. The burly man howled and released his grip. Zhang Wu flipped over, straddled him, pulled out a short sword, and stabbed it into his neck. Blood splattered all over Zhang Wu's face.

Liu Bei brandished his sword on horseback. One sword was long, the other short; the longer one parried the curved blade, the shorter one pierced his ribs. He felled two Wuhuan soldiers who charged at him.

The third man swung his scimitar to slash at the horse's leg, but the horse leaped back to dodge. Liu Bei then slashed at the man's wrist with his sword, sending the scimitar flying out of his hand. The man clutched his wrist and crouched down, only to be cut down by the bodyguards who came up from behind.

Tadun spotted Liu Bei. Amidst the chaos of battle, he recognized the large banner. Beneath it, riders clad in greyish-blue armor wielded twin swords. Tadun swung his scimitar in a circle above his head, the blade whistling as it sliced ​​through the air.

"Kill Liu Bei!"

He led his personal guards in a fierce charge toward the breach. The iron-blue horse leaped over the pile of corpses on the ground, its front hooves landing on the shields, which slid off, and the horse staggered to its feet.

The scimitar slashed down from the sky, striking a guard's helmet, cracking it, and the guard fell backward. Tadun's second slash swept horizontally towards Liu Bei.

Liu Bei raised his sword to parry. The two swords blocked the curved saber, and sparks flew as the blades clashed. Tadun was strong, and the curved saber pressed down on the two swords, causing Liu Bei to feel a tingling sensation from the hilts of the swords in his arms.

He used his horse to pull back a circle to dissipate the force, then separated his two swords. With his left sword, he thrust at Tadun's right arm, while with his right sword, he slashed at his horse's head. Tadun sheathed his sword to protect his arm, and his iron-blue horse took a half-step back.

The two men clashed immediately at the breach. The clash of swords was deafening, and sparks flickered in the morning light. Both sides paused for a moment to watch their commanders fight. No one shouted; only the clanging of metal against metal filled the air.

The two exchanged blows in the blink of an eye; the intervals between the swords piercing the leather armor and being pulled out were so short that they were countless.

At this moment, Zhao Yun arrived.

Two thousand elite cavalry charged down the slopes of White Wolf Mountain, their hooves thundering and sending rocks tumbling down the hillside. Zhao Yun led the charge, emerging from the dust cloud, the cold glint of his blade piercing through the swirling dust.

The cavalry charged straight in from behind the Wuhuan cavalry, like a knife piercing their backs. The Wuhuan cavalry, who were originally facing the Han army in formation, were suddenly stabbed in the back, and their formation immediately fell apart.

Some riders were thrown from their horses before they could turn around. Others were knocked sideways by horses charging from behind, and the riders were thrown to the ground.

Shouts of battle came from behind, and the Wuhuan cavalrymen blocking the breach began to panic, turning their heads back and forth, unsure whether to fight forward or look back.

Tadun heard the shouts of battle behind him. He parried Liu Bei's sword, took two steps back, and glanced back. His personal guards' formation was in disarray; the rear guard had been torn open by cavalry, and Zhao Yun's elite cavalry was charging towards the center.

Tadun cursed a vulgar word from the grasslands, tightened the reins on his iron-blue horse, and tried to turn around to block the rear guard.

Liu Bei didn't let him leave. He spurred his jade-white horse forward, his right sword striking the back of Tadun's scimitar, sending the blade flying. His left sword pierced the foreleg of the iron-blue horse. The horse reared up in pain, its front hooves thrashing wildly in the air. Tadun had to hold onto the horse's neck tightly to avoid being thrown off.

Guan Yu, on the right flank, saw the instant Zhao Yun's cavalry charge into the rear of the Wuhuan army. He raised his Green Dragon Crescent Blade, "Kill!"

The Youzhou cavalry on the right flank pressed forward. Guan Yu charged at the very front, wielding his Green Dragon Crescent Blade to sever a flag on the side of the Wuhuan formation. With a swift downward slash, he cleaved half the head of a leader's horse while still on horseback.

The horse fell down, pinning the rider beneath it. Guan Yu charged over the man, his horse's hooves slamming into the man's breastplate with a dull thud.

Zhang Fei, on the left flank, also saw the commotion. His voice was already hoarse from shouting, but he managed to yell the order: "Push forward! Push!"

The left-wing infantry shouted in unison and pushed forward. Swordsmen and shieldmen were in front, spearmen behind, chasing the Wuhuan right-wing cavalry from the bottom of the hill to the top. The Wuhuan cavalry's horses could not run on the slope, and the infantry caught up and cut off their legs, causing many of them to fall.

The Wuhuan coalition was attacked from three directions, and it began to collapse. It wasn't just one side that collapsed; the west, south, and east sides collapsed simultaneously. The cavalry had no room to charge and were trapped between the infantry squares and the cavalry charge, like being sandwiched between two doors.

Horses jostled and shoved through the crowd, riders were thrown from their horses and hacked to death on the ground. Some riders began to run back, towards White Wolf Mountain. More and more people ran away, starting with just a few, then dozens, then an entire line of riders.

Less than a hundred of his personal guards remained, still fighting to the death around Tadun. Blood flowed from the dark blue legs of his horse down to its ankles, and the horse began to stagger. Tadun jumped off his horse, stood in the blood-soaked mud, and gripped his scimitar with both hands.

Zhao Yun charged forward. He dismounted, sword in hand, and walked twenty paces to Tadun. The two men stared at each other.

Tadun grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Hero."

Zhao Yun did not answer. He walked forward.

Tadun charged forward, wielding his scimitar. Zhao Yun dodged the first strike, his scimitar slashing at the ground behind him, the blade striking the stone and sending sparks flying.

Tadun's second slash swept horizontally, which Zhao Yun parried with his own blade. He then stepped forward, his blade piercing Tadun's abdomen. The tip of the blade emerged from his back, carrying a small fragment of his robe.

Tadun glanced down at the knife in his stomach, then looked up at Zhao Yun. He wanted to say something, but blood welled up in his mouth. His legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground. The curved sword fell from his hand, the hilt bounced once on the ground, and then remained still.

Then he slumped to the ground, his face pressed against the soil, his eyes still open, facing the direction of White Wolf Mountain. Blood flowed from the knife wound in his abdomen, seeping into the soil quickly, soon forming a pool of dark red on the ground.

Zhang Wu ran over and beheaded Tadun. He grabbed the head by the hair and lifted it up, blood dripping down. The moment the Wuhuan soldiers saw the head, their swords fell from their hands. Some knelt down, foreheads touching the ground. Others turned and ran, falling after a few steps, getting up and running again, falling several times in a row.

"Tadun is dead! Those who surrender will not be killed!" Zhang Wu shouted, running back and forth in front of the battle lines, holding up a severed head. The surrendered soldiers knelt in large groups, their scimitars scattered all over the ground. Seeing this, Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang's rear guard collapsed, and the remaining soldiers carried the two men as they fled into the depths of the northern grasslands.

Liu Bei sheathed his sword. His hands trembled, and his knuckles turned white as he gripped the hilt. He carefully placed the double-edged sword back into its sheath, aligning the blades several times before finally getting them in place. He took a deep breath and looked at the remaining Wuhuan soldiers still fleeing on White Wolf Mountain.

"Pass on the order. Clean up the battlefield and incorporate the surrendered soldiers. Send Zilong to pursue the Yuan brothers; if he succeeds, great; if not, bring him back."

Jia Xu walked over. He was still holding the white chess piece in his hand, stained with blood, whose it was unknown. "Tadun is dead. The three tribes of Wuhuan are leaderless and will surely fall into chaos within the year. The grasslands will be safe for ten years."

Liu Bei remained silent. Standing in the blood-soaked mud, he gazed at the yak-tail banner still fluttering in the wind atop White Wolf Mountain, and said, "The grasslands will be safe for ten years. Return, and there is still the Central Plains."