Traveling back in time to Liu Feng, starting with rescuing soldier Guan Yu.

Chapter 117 Lu Xun's Worries

Meanwhile, outside Yiling City, the sound of war drums shook the heavens and the earth.

Zhang Fei led 20,000 elite troops eastward from Langdong, took the Zigui Road, and traversed the Three Gorges, where they had been fiercely attacking Yiling City for more than half a month.

Although this fierce general of Shu Han was over fifty years old, with graying hair and beard, his fierce might was not diminished in the slightest. He was clad in black armor, wielding an eighteen-foot spear, and riding a black steed, which galloped like a black lightning bolt.

Every day during the siege, Zhang Fei would personally oversee the battle. His voice was like a booming bell, making the Wu soldiers on the city walls tremble with fear, even their hands holding swords shook.

At dawn that day, just as the sky began to lighten, a low horn sounded in the Shu Han camp. Zhang Fei ordered his men to build twenty siege ladders and eight battering rams overnight, determined to capture Yiling in this offensive.

The soldiers set up cooking pots and ate their fill. Once everything was ready, Zhang Fei mounted his horse, pointed his eighteen-foot spear at the city wall, and shouted sternly, "Whoever is the first to scale the city wall today will be rewarded with a hundred gold pieces! Those who retreat will be beheaded!"

The soldiers of Shu Han shouted in unison, their voices echoing across the fields. Pushing battering rams and carrying siege ladders, they surged towards the walls of Yiling like a tidal wave.

On the city wall, the Wu army's defenders were already in full battle array and ready for action.

The crossbowmen behind the crenellations rested their crossbows on the earthen ramparts, the arrowheads gleaming coldly in the morning light. The boulders on both sides of the city wall were piled up to waist height, and boiling oil was bubbling and sizzling in a large pot at the foot of the wall, the smell of oil smoke mingling with the morning mist and permeating the city wall.

The garrison commander shouted orders at the top of his lungs, and the soldiers gripped their swords and spears tightly, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads.

(Please remember the website 202s.tw for the fastest chapter updates.)

The Shu Han army's battering convoy was the first to crash into the barren muddy ground beneath the city walls, which had been ravaged by days of siege.

The wheelbarrow pushers, carrying shields covered with wet cowhide, bent over and chanted slogans as they pushed the heavy battering ram forward inch by inch.

On the city wall, Wu's crossbowmen pulled the triggers, and bolts rained down like locusts, striking the shields with a dense, thumping sound.

Zhang Fei galloped back and forth on his horse in front of the battle formation, swinging his eighteen-foot spear left and right, deflecting all the stray arrows that were shot at him.

His leopard-like eyes widened, and his voice boomed like thunder: "Lu Xun, you brat! Do you dare to leave the city and fight Grandpa Zhang!"

The shout made the tiles on the city wall vibrate, and several guards were so frightened that they shrank back behind the crenellations, unable to even hold their crossbows steady.

No one on the city wall dared to respond.

But Lu Xun wasn't on the city wall at all.

The siege ladder teams advanced from both sides of the battering ram, placing ladders one after another onto the city wall. The Shu Han army's vanguard soldiers, with short swords in their mouths and their hands gripping the ladders, climbed up the shaky bamboo ladders.

Stones and boiling oil poured down from the city wall. The stones struck the siege ladder, causing it to shake violently. The boiling oil was poured onto the ladder and immediately ignited by torches, turning the entire ladder into a fiery dragon.

The Shu Han soldiers, engulfed in flames, screamed as they fell from the city walls, crashing onto the mountain of corpses piled up at the base of the walls.

The acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air, making people nauseous. But the soldiers in the rear ranks did not back down. The first ladder was burned, and a second one was immediately put in place. The second ladder was pushed over, and a third one was erected.

The suicide bombers continued climbing, stepping over the charred corpses of their comrades, and not one of them looked back.

Finally, a Shu Han captain was the first to scale the crenellations. With a short knife in his mouth and his hands gripping the edge of the crenellations, he flipped over and leaped onto the city wall. He then drew his short knife and slashed down a Wu soldier who was pouring oil down on him.

Immediately, a second and third soldier scaled the wall, and a bloody melee erupted at the crenellations. The Shu army captain wiped the blood from his face and shouted back down at the foot of the wall, "The vanguard has broken through! Get on the wall immediately!"

Seeing this scene from below the city walls, Zhang Fei laughed heartily, pointed his eighteen-foot spear at the city walls, and roared, "Good! The first to scale the walls will be rewarded with a hundred gold pieces! All troops, charge!"

The morale of the Shu Han army soared, and the soldiers on the siege ladders climbed even faster, while the reserve troops waiting below the city also surged forward with a shout.

However, at that moment, a series of urgent bugle calls suddenly rang out from within the city. A Wu army reserve force, clad in bright armor, charged up the stone steps inside the city wall. The leader, a general holding a long spear, was none other than Zhu Yi, a lieutenant under Lu Xun.

This reserve force was specifically kept by Lu Xun for counterattacks. It never participated in the frontal defense of the city and was only used to quickly fill in when danger appeared on the city walls.

Having rested and prepared for many days, they suddenly attacked with overwhelming force. Zhu Yi took the lead, his spear piercing the rib armor of the Vanguard Captain from the side, impaling him on the spear tip and throwing him off the city wall.

The Wu soldiers behind them swarmed forward, wielding swords and spears, and cut down all the dozen or so Shu Han soldiers who had climbed onto the ramparts, leaving them in pools of blood.

At the same time, another team of soldiers used long-handled poles to brace the top of the ladder, and seven or eight people shouted at the same time, pushing the ladder and the people away from the city wall.

The siege ladder slowly tilted in mid-air, and the more than 200 Shu soldiers on the ladder screamed as they fell into the pile of corpses at the foot of the city wall, breaking their bones and tendons.

Zhang Fei's face instantly darkened. His leopard-like eyes blazed with fury. He slammed his eighteen-foot spear into the ground, sending shards of stone flying. "That Lu Xun! He's been hiding his true strength!"

Just as he was about to dismount and lead the attack on the city, his deputy general Fan Jiang hurriedly stepped forward to stop him.

Fan Jiang's face was filled with anxiety, and his voice was urgent: "General, you mustn't! That scoundrel Lu Xun has built the cities of Yiling and Yidao into a defensive position, using warships to transport supplies and troops on the river. The two cities are only a dozen or so miles apart by water, and they can travel back and forth like shuttles. When our army attacks Yiling, Yidao sends troops to harass our flanks, and when our army attacks Yidao, Yiling attacks from the rear."

On the other side, General Zhang Da also said, "That's right! General, in the past half month, our army has almost breached the walls of Yiling several times, but Yidao immediately attacked us from the flanks. As the commander of the army, how can you personally risk your life!"

Zhang Fei gripped his spear tightly, his leopard-like eyes blazing with fury, but he ultimately did not charge forward. After a moment of silence, he spat out two words through gritted teeth in a hoarse voice: "Withdraw the troops."

The sound of gongs rang out in the Shu Han army, and the attacking troops slowly retreated, carrying the wounded.

Meanwhile, in a side hall of the Yiling City government office, Lu Xun was bent over his desk reviewing military reports. The faint sounds of war drums and battle cries could be heard outside the window, but he didn't look up. Only occasionally, when he heard the bugle call to charge, would he pause briefly to listen, and then continue reviewing the reports.

This has been the case for more than ten days.

Zhang Fei was indeed brave, but Yiling City was high and deeply fortified, with ample supplies. In addition, the Yidao Pass served as a strategic point, with unobstructed waterways, making it more than capable of defending the city.

Lu Xun didn't need to personally climb the city wall to prove his courage; his courage didn't lie there.

The table was piled high with military reports from the direction of Changsha. Lu Xun unfolded them one by one, reading them line by line, his expression calm and unreadable.

In the direction of Yiyang, Zhu Ran's navy is still besieging the city, while Guan Ping is holding the city to the death, and the two sides have entered a stalemate.

Along the Laodao River, Sun Quan's 80,000-strong army had broken through Liu Feng's defenses and achieved considerable success, while the main force of the barbarian troops retreated into the Mufu Mountains.

Several lieutenants in the tent beamed with joy upon hearing the news, and one of them couldn't help but whisper among himself, "Liu Feng is suffering defeat after defeat; it seems he can't hold on any longer. Our lord's army is at the gates of Linxiang City; the fall of the city is just around the corner!"

Lu Xun did not speak, but simply laid out several military reports on the table in chronological order and compared them repeatedly.

Suddenly, he stood up and strode to the huge map of Jingzhou on the wall.

The candlelight cast his shadow on the map, flickering slightly. His gaze moved from Linxiang City to Mufu Mountain, and from Mufu Mountain to Linxiang, his finger slowly tracing Sun Quan's marching route on the map.

The army penetrated deep into the heart of Changsha and seemed to be winning victory after victory, but the left and right flanks were not completely wiped out. The Han army could launch small-scale raids from the flanks at any time to cut off waterways and supply lines.

Lu Xun's finger stopped on the city wall of Linxiang.

If Liu Feng was luring the enemy deep into his trap, then Linxiang City was the bottom of that trap.

Once the army is thwarted at the city walls and unable to advance or retreat, the barbarian troops in the Mufu Mountains suddenly attack from the flank and rear, cutting off the supply lines. Meanwhile, the Han army troops from the Dongting Lake direction block the retreat route to the west, thus forming a three-sided encirclement.

At that time, the 80,000-strong army would be like a trapped beast, unable to advance to break through the city, unable to retreat to cross the river, with its supply lines cut off and its morale collapsed.

A cold sweat broke out on Lu Xun's back. He grabbed a blank piece of silk from the table, and without returning to the table, spread it on the ground, squatted down, and dipped his brush in ink.

His brushstrokes landed on the silk, the characters more hurried than usual, yet still orderly. He first gave a brief report on the current situation on the Yiling front: Zhang Fei had been fiercely attacking Yiling and Yidao for days, but the two cities were mutually supportive, using warships to transport supplies and troops. The cities relied on the mountainous terrain, making them easy to defend and difficult to attack. For now, they were safe, and Sun Quan need not worry about this route.

Then, with a sudden shift in tone, the writing became solemn.

"Our lord's army has advanced rapidly, breaking through enemy camps and capturing or killing many, seemingly achieving victory after victory. However, after repeatedly reviewing military reports and comparing maps, I am increasingly uneasy. Our lord has led the army deep into the heart of Changsha, while the left and right flanks, the shores of Dongting Lake, and the Mufu Mountains remain uncontrolled. This is a major taboo in military strategy. Liu Feng is cunning; his strategy of attacking layer by layer, burning camps, and retreating south, shrinking back step by step without engaging in a decisive battle, must be a tactic to lure the enemy deep into our territory. I dare to speculate that he has already set a trap under the walls of Linxiang, waiting for our army to crash into the fortified city and exhaust its morale. Then, his ambush troops in the Mufu Mountains will emerge to cut off our supply lines, and the Xiangjiang ferry crossing will be destroyed, cutting off our retreat. At that time, our army will likely be trapped in a three-sided encirclement, unable to advance or retreat, and in imminent danger."

He put down his pen and read the silk scroll from beginning to end, his brow furrowed with worry. Lu Xun was unsure whether the letter would reach Sun Quan, or even if Sun Quan would listen to it.

But Lu Xun had to write it. He put the silk scroll into a bamboo tube, sealed it with sealing wax, handed it to his personal guard, and added an extra instruction: "Travel by water, by fast boat, day and night, without fail."