Han Ji

The villagers of Zhuoxian knelt down one after another: "General! We are fellow villagers! Please spare us this time, we..."

Liu Bei helped Li Shun up, saying, "Since we are from the same hometown, listen to me: the road to the Yellow Turbans is a dead end. If you transport grain to help the rebels today, you will be guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy when the city falls."

Li Shun's face turned deathly pale: "Then... what should we do?"

"They were assigned to auxiliary troops to transport grain and dig trenches, thus atoning for their crimes through labor."

"General," Li Shun gritted his teeth, "we...want to follow you. Going back home will only lead to starvation, so we might as well earn a living in the army."

Liu Bei looked at the hundred or so young faces, dirty and fearful, but there was still light in their eyes.

"Okay." He nodded. "Jian Yong, register them, form a separate team, and you will lead them."

Jian Yong agreed.

The seized grain carts totaled 9,300 shi (a unit of dry measure), along with several hundred horses and over a hundred carts.

In the distance, the city gates of Quzhou County were tightly shut, and the garrison dared not come out.

Liu Bei led his army to retreat, having arrived with only one man and two horses, which proved invaluable at this moment.

On the way back to camp, Li Shun and other fellow villagers from Zhuojun pushed twenty carts of grain, which were rations that Liu Bei had specially left behind.

"General," Li Shun approached the horse, "how is our Zhuojun... now?"

Liu Bei paused for a moment, then said, "I have been away from my hometown for more than two years and do not know what is happening. But the Yellow Turban Rebellion has broken out, and Youzhou is also in turmoil."

Li Shun's eyes dimmed: "My mother is still at home..."

"After the battle is over, I will take you back," Liu Bei said.

Li Shun nodded emphatically, his eyes reddening.

Zhang Fei, watching from the side, whispered to Guan Yu, "Second brother, our eldest brother seems to run into fellow villagers wherever he goes."

Guan Yu narrowed his phoenix eyes slightly: "This is due to the benevolence and virtue of my elder brother."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is," Guan Yu paused, "you wouldn't understand even if I told you."

Zhang Fei was stunned for a moment. "How am I supposed to understand if you don't tell me? Hey, hey, Yun Chang, don't go! Tell me quickly, what does it mean?"

That night, the army returned to camp.

Upon hearing the news of the successful interception of grain supplies, Lu Zhi nodded: "Good! This interception is like cutting off one of their arms. The grain stored in Zhangjiao City can only last for two months at most."

Is there any activity in the direction of Xiaquyang?

"Zhang Liang is speeding up the transport of grain, but Guangzong is besieged, making the grain route difficult to pass." Lu Zhi got up and walked towards the map.

Liu Bei then went to the front of the map.

"Guangzong is a fortified city; a direct assault would result in heavy casualties," Lu Zhi said. "My plan is to build fortifications on all sides, with deep trenches and high walls, to starve Zhang Jiao to death."

"The students request orders to oversee the construction of the northern camp."

"No," Lu Zhi looked at him, "you have a more important task."

Please enlighten me, teacher.

"Zhang Jiao won't sit idly by and let us be surrounded." Lu Zhi turned around. "He will definitely take advantage of our army's unstable foothold and break out of the city. I want you to lead your elite troops to lie in ambush on the banks of the Ming River west of the city, which is his most likely escape route."

Liu Bei's heart skipped a beat: "This student obeys."

"Remember," Lu Zhi looked at him, "the key to this battle is not killing the enemy, but blunting their morale. As long as we repel their first breakout attempt, Zhang Jiao will know that there is no hope of leaving the city and he can only defend it to the death."

"The student understands."

Stepping out of the tent, it was already late at night.

Guangzong City lay like a giant beast on the plain, with sparse firelight on its walls.

Fifty thousand government troops built fortifications on all sides.

Centered on Guangzong City, three concentric moats were dug, each two zhang wide and one and a half zhang deep. The soil from the moats was piled up on the inner side and rammed into earthen walls, over one zhang high, with wooden palisades erected on top. Arrow towers, two zhang high, were set up behind the palisades, and archers were on guard day and night.

A camp was set up every hundred paces, with five hundred soldiers stationed there to support each other.

Lu Zhi set up his main camp on a high slope three miles south of the city, overlooking the entire city.

Liu Bei led his 4,000 troops to garrison on the east bank of the Ming River west of the city, forming a fortified camp along the river to control the waterways.

For ten days, the Yellow Turban rebels on the city walls merely watched coldly, occasionally a few stray arrows falling but causing no real damage.

On the eleventh day, the weather changed.

At dawn, a fog rolled in, covering the fields in a white expanse, obscuring any figure beyond ten paces. Liu Bei, patrolling his camp to the water fortress, saw the reeds on the opposite bank hidden in the fog and felt uneasy.

"Send more scouts to guard against a surprise attack on our camp."

No sooner had the order been given than drums suddenly sounded from the west of the city.

Shouts of battle echoed through the fog, and shadowy figures of countless soldiers could not be discerned.

"They're here!" Zhang Fei mounted his horse, spear in hand.

"Wait," Liu Bei pressed him down. "The fog is thick, the enemy situation is unclear, we cannot act rashly."

Before he finished speaking, drums sounded simultaneously from the east and north, indicating that the sound came from all three sides at once.

"Is Zhang Jiao going to fight to the death?" Guan Yu said in a deep voice.

Liu Bei mounted his horse and ordered, "All troops, be on alert! Do not leave the camp! Archers and crossbowmen, place them on the walls; fire upon sight of the enemy, and do not approach!"

Four thousand men quickly took their positions. Bows were drawn taut on the arrow towers, and spears formed a forest behind the palisades.

The first wave of Yellow Turbans, numbering about a thousand, burst out of the fog, carrying ladders and shields, and charged straight at the western camp.

"Release the arrows!"

Arrows rained down, and many Yellow Turbans fell. But more kept coming, and countless figures seemed to appear in the mist.

"Damn it, how many people are there?" Zhang Fei glared.

Liu Bei squinted to examine the scene closely. Flags were scattered haphazardly in the fog, and figures moved about, but the footsteps... seemed less dense than he had imagined.

"A bluff," he suddenly said. "Order: No attack, hold your ground!"

As expected, the Yellow Turbans stopped at the edge of the moat, shouting and waving flags, but did not attempt to cross. Any attempts to probe were met with arrows.

After a stalemate lasting half an hour, the fog gradually dissipated.

The view was clear; there were three sides with Yellow Turbans, each with no more than two or three thousand people, totaling less than ten thousand.

"We've fallen into a trap." Liu Bei's heart sank. "Where is Zhang Jiao's main force?"

Just then, deafening battle cries came from the direction of Lu Zhi's camp in the south of the city.

"Damn it! Zhang Jiao is attacking Lu Gong's camp!" Guan Yu gritted his teeth.

Liu Bei urgently ordered: "Yide, hold the camp where you are! Yunchang and Zijing, come with me to reinforce!"

He personally led two thousand cavalrymen and headed towards the southern camp.

Halfway there, they saw that the battle was fierce.

Zhang Jiao personally led 20,000 elite troops in a fierce attack on the southern camp. The Yellow Turban rebels charged forward wave after wave, filling the trenches and scaling the walls, but the government troops fought to the death and refused to retreat. Corpses piled up in the trenches, and blood stained the earthen walls.

Lu Zhi stood on the high slope, waving his flag to direct the troops. The Yellow Turbans outnumbered the Yellow Turbans, but the soldiers of the southern camp held firm.

"Charge!" Liu Bei drew his sword and pointed forward.

Two thousand cavalrymen cut into the Yellow Turban flank like sharp blades. Guan Yu cleared the way with his Green Dragon Crescent Blade, Liu Bei swept his twin swords across, and the mounted archers unleashed a barrage of attacks.

The Yellow Turbans' formation was slightly disrupted.

Zhang Jiao, seeing this from a high vantage point, waved his command flag and dispatched 5,000 troops to meet Liu Bei in battle.

The two armies clashed in the open field outside the camp. Although Liu Bei's troops were well-trained, they were outnumbered and were gradually surrounded.

"Form a circular formation!" Liu Bei commanded.

The cavalry dismounted and formed a defensive line. Arrows rained down like locusts as the Yellow Turbans pressed forward in layers.

Just when Liu Bei was in dire straits, a cloud of dust suddenly rose from the north. It turned out that Lu Zhi's hidden infantry had arrived.

Ten thousand infantrymen joined the battle, and the situation changed drastically.

Zhang Jiao, seeing that Lu Zhi had laid an ambush, sounded the retreat.

The Yellow Turbans retreated like a receding tide, leaving behind corpses scattered all over the ground.

A count of casualties: Over two thousand government troops were killed in action, and the number of wounded was twice that. Over eight thousand Yellow Turban corpses were left behind.

Lu Zhi inspected the wounded soldiers' camp, his face ashen.

"Zhang Jiao's military tactics are indeed methodical," he said to Liu Bei. "Zhang Jiao's attack on the camp today was sudden. I temporarily used the southern camp as bait to keep 10,000 infantrymen stationary. I didn't have time to inform you of this."

"The student is ashamed that he has ruined the teacher's plan to lure the enemy."

"It's not your fault." Lu Zhi shook his head. "You were just eager to save your master, but I was just as eager to save my disciple."

He looked towards Guangzong City: "After this defeat, although we failed to lure and kill Zhang Jiao, he should know that there is no hope of breaking out. What follows is a long siege."