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

Wu Bing's shouts and curses rose and fell, mingled with the booming of gongs and war drums, carrying far across the quiet wilderness in the early morning.

The allied camp remained tightly shut, and the sentries at the gate stared expressionlessly at the Wu army shouting insults in the distance. The barbarian soldiers inside the camp listened to the abuse, their sword hilts creaking as they gripped them.

Shamoke walked to Liu Feng's side several times, wanting to speak, but he held back each time—he had already promised Liu Feng that he would obey orders from beginning to end in today's battle.

Liu Feng and Kou Wei stood on the hillside, silently observing the movement of the Wu army's entire formation.

"Wild Geese Formation - Pan Zhang's wild geese are arranged very methodically."

Liu Feng turned to look at Kou Wei.

Kou Wei nodded and explained the changes in the wild goose formation to Liu Feng: the cavalry on both flanks are fast and can advance to outflank the enemy's rear or retreat to cover the retreat of the central army; the central army is heavy and will not be at a disadvantage in a head-on confrontation.

If the central army gains the upper hand in the opposing formation, the cavalry on both flanks can close inwards to form an iron pincer, cutting the enemy in half; if the goose-wing formation is thwarted, the cavalry on both flanks can spread outwards to cover the central army's retreat.

Pan Zhang skillfully deployed the formation on the flat ground, intending to crush the poorly armored barbarian soldiers with the overwhelming force of eight thousand armored warriors.

Liu Feng nodded, then suddenly asked, "Do you understand the saying, 'One should strike while the iron is hot, but the momentum will wane on the second attempt, and be exhausted on the third'?"

"Understood," Kou Wei said. "Pan Zhang has been beating drums and shouting since dawn, but we'll ignore him. We'll wait until he loses his temper and his edge is worn down before we make our move!"

"Order all villages to keep their gates tightly closed. Set up sentry posts for vigilance, leave the armored soldiers of the 'Beacon Battalion' to guard against a surprise attack by Wu troops, and the rest of the soldiers are not required to fight. Let them dry their armor, rest, and recharge their energy."

Liu Feng turned his horse around, and the Jade Lion Horse snorted, seemingly surprised by its master's decision.

The hour of Chen (7-9 AM) has passed.

The hour of Si (9-11 AM) has passed.

As noon approached, the sun on the plains grew increasingly scorching. The eight thousand armored soldiers of Wu had been fully armed since dawn and stood in the open field for more than two hours.

The armor was scorching hot from the blazing sun, and the undergarments were already soaked through and then dried. The central army could barely maintain their formation, but several veteran soldiers in the back ranks had quietly used their spears to brace themselves against the ground.

The voices of the shouters who had been hurling insults earlier were now hoarse, and their shouts had gone from being loud and forceful to being weak and feeble.

The air was thick with the stench of sweat and rust, and dust filled the air. Some people began to sneakily pull out water pouches from their waists to drink, but the water provided in the pouches had already been drunk up by Chenshi (7-9 AM), and what was being poured into their throats now was just bland, cold water.

The cavalry were in an even worse state—their warhorses, which had been clad in armor since dawn, were now pawing the ground restlessly and snorting loudly.

Ma Zhong rode back and forth through the ranks, constantly ordering his soldiers to maintain formation, but his voice was already hoarse. He looked at the tightly closed gates of the allied camp, a sense of unease creeping into his heart. He whispered to Pan Zhang beside him, "General, the soldiers have been baking in the sun for over two hours. Should we halt the troops now, order the cooks to prepare food, and then regroup in the afternoon?"

Pan Zhang remained unmoved and flatly refused: "No way. If I retreat once, he'll stall once more. When will the decisive battle be? It's good that he doesn't leave the camp; the enemy's morale will be dampened. Let's wait until nightfall and then storm the camp."

In the afternoon, Liu Feng once again rode his horse up the hillside to survey the area, only to find that the Wu army's formation had become noticeably loose. The shields of the front-line shield bearers were no longer tightly sealed, revealing several gaps. The cavalrymen's horses were kicking and circling incessantly, clearly extremely agitated.

Some soldiers secretly sat on the ground behind them, but Ma Zhong whipped them up, and they went limp again as soon as they stood up.

"The time has come."

Liu Feng withdrew his gaze and turned to give orders to the messengers who had been waiting down the hillside.

"Kou Wei led the Wancheng soldiers and Shangyong veterans to the left flank and formed ranks. Spearmen were in front, archers and crossbowmen in the middle, and cavalry at the rear, spreading out in a four-mile horizontal line. Sha Moke led a select group of armored barbarian soldiers to the right flank and formed ranks, with a thick formation, two in front and one behind. If the shields were not aligned, swordsmen and shieldmen would protect the front ranks. The remaining barbarian soldiers formed a central square formation, positioned in the middle where the left and right flanks met, and I personally commanded them."

With orders obeyed, the Han-Manchu allied forces quickly deployed.

Kou Wei's left flank was the first to complete its formation. Rows of veteran soldiers who had fought in battle stood straight, their spears like a forest, their ranks disciplined and imposing.

Although the right-wing barbarian soldiers' ranks were not perfectly aligned, they were arranged very thickly, and their swords and spears gleamed with a chaotic, cold light in the sunlight.

The central army marched out from the camp gate in formation. Shamoke placed the giant shield that he had captured from the Jiefan army in front of the formation. The shield was painted with the tiger totem of the Wuxi barbarians in cinnabar.

Pan Zhang saw that the Han-Manchu allied forces had finally formed ranks and marched out of the camp, and he suddenly drew the ring-pommel sword from its sheath.

The pent-up frustration from the entire morning erupted at this moment, the blade flashing a blinding arc in the sunlight: "Liu Feng, you brat, I've finally waited for you!"

He turned his horse around, pointed his sword forward, and roared, "All troops, listen to my command—fly formation, right flank advance, concentrate your forces and take down his right flank!"

The war drums suddenly became more rapid.

The formation of the wild geese resembled a giant goose slowly turning around. The right-wing cavalry and right-wing infantry suddenly accelerated and pounced on Shamok's right flank.

Pan Zhang's judgment was simple—the allied forces' right flank formation was loose, their shield and spear coordination was clearly rusty, and those barbarian soldiers wearing captured armor were ultimately not a regular army.

By concentrating superior forces to destroy this weakest link, the entire Allied front can be swept away from the flank.

This is a standard killing move in the Wild Goose Formation, and it's something Pan Zhang is most familiar with after decades of fighting.

Kou Wei was the first to spot the Wu army's change of formation from the high ground on the left flank. He did not panic, but quickly used flags to transmit the direction of the enemy's movement to Liu Feng.

Liu Feng, positioned on high ground in the central army, had already taken in the movements of the Wu army's right flank. He calmly said two words to his personal guard beside him: "As usual."

Wu Jun's right-wing vanguard cavalry were the first to engage the enemy.

More than a hundred light cavalrymen galloped over, their hooves kicking up large swaths of mud. When they were about a hundred paces from the right flank of the barbarian army, they fired a volley of arrows, which flew high into the air, drawing dense arcs.

The barbarian front ranks fell in droves, creating the first gap in their formation. Immediately afterward, Wu's heavily armored infantry charged in like an iron wall. The barbarian shields in the front ranks were pushed backward by the large shields, while the spearmen in the rear frantically thrust their spears. Several Wu soldiers were pierced through their armor, falling to the ground with screams, but more Wu soldiers poured in through the gap. The hundred-refined steel swords and the barbarian short spears clashed at close range, blood and flesh flying everywhere.

Shamoke stood at the forefront of the right flank, wielding his sword and fighting fiercely. Several Wu soldiers' corpses lay scattered at his feet. He leaned on his tiger-head shield and stood at the forefront, smashing back every wave of Wu soldiers that rushed forward.

However, the right-wing barbarian troops were indeed faltering, with the first and second ranks beginning to separate, and Wu's layered assaults surged like a rising tide, wave after wave.

Many barbarian soldiers were forced to retreat, the mud on the ground was trampled into dark red mud, mixed with broken armor and spears, and the air was filled with the rusty smell of blood.

While Wu Jun's right flank was advancing triumphantly, Pan Zhang's central and left flanks remained in place. In a large-scale battle, the worst thing to do is to gamble everything; he wanted to first crush Liu Feng's right flank before sweeping his troops across.

But moments later, Pan Zhang's pupils suddenly contracted—the left wing of the Han-Manchu allied forces had suddenly moved. Instead of converging on the central army, they launched a preemptive attack on the left wing of the Wu army.

At Kou Wei's command, the veteran soldiers of Wancheng Camp pressed forward like an iron wall, quickly cutting into Pan Zhang's left flank. Swords and shields clashed, and spears crisscrossed and thrust.

The Wu army on the left flank was waiting for the order from the central army to encircle them when they were suddenly attacked. Several shield soldiers in the front row were knocked down, and their formation suddenly became tense.

At the same time, the central army formation, personally commanded by Liu Feng, began to slowly advance. The barbarian soldiers advanced steadily in dense formation, each rank moving in unison, their spears pointing diagonally, like a slowly moving forest.

Interestingly, Liu Feng did not send his central army to support the most critical right flank, but instead pressed straight towards Pan Zhang's central army.

Pan Zhang's brows furrowed suddenly.

His battlefield instincts told him that Liu Feng's right wing was clearly a barbarian army, yet it was barely holding on under the combined attack of Wu's cavalry and armored soldiers. Although it was teetering on the brink of collapse, it had not completely disintegrated.

The proactive pressure from the left-wing commander and the forward movement of the central army were forcing Pan Zhang to make a choice—either to consolidate the right wing and abandon the breakthrough he had finally managed to open.

They could either continue their fierce attack on Shamoke, but risk having their left flank wiped out by Kou Wei and their central army breached head-on by Liu Feng.

Liu Feng's meaning was clear: it will take you time to crush my right wing, but I may not give you that time.

The drums beat faster and the horns blared longer as nearly 20,000 men engaged in a chaotic battle on the plain.

Wu Jun's right flank had forced Shamoke's troops to retreat steadily, and the first line of defense of the barbarian soldiers had been breached. Shamoke slashed several men on the front line to stabilize his position and roared, "Hold on! Anyone who retreats another step will be executed!"

The barbarian soldiers thrust with their hunting knives, withstanding the ramming of the heavily armored Wu army. But at the same time, Kou Wei's left flank had cut into Pan Zhang's left flank, and several wedge-shaped arrows began to tear apart the Wu army's formation.

Liu Feng's central army formation pressed down to within 500 paces of Pan Zhang's central army, with the tips of the spears in the front row no more than an arrow's distance from the central shield wall of the Wu army.

Pan Zhang immediately stood at the center of the formation, staring intently at the young figure under the central banner opposite him. He finally witnessed Liu Feng's military tactics—calm and composed, unperturbed, every step seemed to be timed perfectly, and every force struck at the most vulnerable spot.

This young man, through several hours of patience and meticulous planning, wore down the morale of his eight thousand armored soldiers.

But Pan Zhang was not someone who could be easily outmaneuvered.

Before the battle was decided, Pan Zhang suddenly raised his ring-pommel sword, drawing three arcs of light above his head. This was the signal for a general offensive, with the entire central army pressing forward to meet Liu Feng's central army head-on.

The banner bearing the character "Pan" behind him tilted forward, and the sound of the war drums suddenly became rapid and heavy, like the heartbeat of a giant running.