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

"Pass on my order!"

Pan Zhang roared, veins bulging on his neck.

"The entire central army is to advance and seize Liu Feng's banner! My personal guard, listen to my command—draw a line from behind me to the banner. Anyone who crosses this line will be executed! Anyone who retreats beyond the banner will be executed! Anyone who hesitates will be executed!"

More than a hundred followers responded in unison, holding their ring-pommel swords horizontally in front of their chests, and forming a formidable human wall along the front of the banner.

Pan Zhang was ruthless in his military discipline, and his close followers were all desperate men who had crawled out of piles of corpses with him; they never blinked an eye when killing.

A moment later, just as an old soldier in the back row was about to take a half step back, his attendant's sword came down—blood splattered, and the old soldier's head rolled into the dust, his eyes still open.

The sharp blades of the commanders were more terrifying than the spears of the enemy. The Wu soldiers, their eyes bloodshot, roared like trapped beasts, charging towards the allied army's center like a steel torrent, their bodies falling one after another.

The central army of the allied forces was composed of barbarian soldiers.

They were fierce tigers in the mountains, but not so adept at forming ranks and charging into battle on the plains. The first rank of barbarian soldiers planted their captured shields firmly on the ground, while the second rank thrust their spears through the gaps in the shields. Although their formation was not as disciplined as that of the Han army, it was still layered and dense, like a hedgehog.

But when Wu's heavily armored infantry charged forward with overwhelming force, the entire central army line suddenly slid back a step. The clash of shields against shields produced a dull cracking sound, and the barbarian soldiers gritted their teeth, bracing their shields with their shoulders, their feet carving deep furrows in the mud.

A second wave of impact followed immediately.

Wu Jun's rear-line armored soldiers leaped into the barbarian ranks, stepping over the corpses of their comrades in front. Their hundred-refined steel swords and barbarian short spears clashed in close combat.

Just as a barbarian soldier's short spear pierced the abdomen of a Wu soldier, before he could even pull the spearhead out, another Wu soldier slashed at his shoulder and neck from the side. Blood splattered on the Wu soldier's face, but he didn't wipe it away and lunged at the next barbarian soldier.

Kou Wei saw the perilous situation of the central army from the high ground on the left flank. But he did not return to reinforce them—Liu Feng had given him a strict order beforehand: no matter what happened to the central army, the left flank should just keep pressing forward and completely tear Pan Zhang's left flank apart.

Kou Wei gritted his teeth, pointed his spear forward, and shouted sharply, "Wancheng Camp—Advance! No turning back!"

The veterans of Wancheng Camp were like a finely tuned meat grinder, advancing with swords and shields, crushing the enemy step by step, pushing the Wu army's left flank backward inch by inch.

Kou Wei charged ahead, his spear knocking down a Wu army captain, the tip of which then pierced the throat of a second Wu soldier, killing several in succession. Covered in blood, he did not retreat an inch.

Shamoko's right wing is also still fighting to the death.

His tiger-head shield was already pierced with seven or eight arrows, and his blade was chipped in several places, each swing of which brought out a cloud of blood mist.

No refunds allowed!

Shamoke roared in a barbarian language, his voice hoarse like sand grinding over rough pottery.

"Kill these Wu dogs and avenge our tribe elders!"

The right-wing barbarian soldiers, fueled by his roar, managed to withstand wave after wave of attacks from the Wu army.

But the pressure on the central army has reached its limit.

Under the pressure from the supervising team, Wu Jun's soldiers were nearly driven mad. As one group fell in the front row, the next group stepped on the corpses to fill the gap, as if they could never kill them all.

A gap several meters wide was torn open in the central army line formed by the barbarian soldiers. Wu soldiers poured in from the gap like a flood bursting its banks. Blades flashed on both sides of the gap. The barbarian soldiers fought and retreated, and their formation began to crumble.

Liu Feng stood beneath the central army banner, no more than two hundred paces from the chasm. The Jade Lion Horse pawed restlessly, snorting loudly.

Liu Feng's expression remained unchanged.

"Rear archers, prepare."

Liu Feng waved behind him.

Three hundred elite archers who had been waiting in the rear of the central army responded and stepped forward.

They were selected by Liu Feng from the veterans of Wancheng Camp and Shangyong, and all of them were equipped with strong bows, some of which were even treasures from the Wuxi Man tribe.

The Wuxi barbarians have long lived in the mountains and forests, and they carefully select mountain wood to make hard bows that have a long range, great power, and high accuracy.

At this moment, the three hundred people were divided into three rows: the front row was half-squatting, the middle row was standing upright, and the back row was standing on a temporary low wooden frame. All three hundred crossbows were drawn at the same time.

"Eighty paces ahead, cover and fire."

Liu Feng's voice was calm as water, as if he were talking about a trivial matter, and no one hesitated.

The sound of bowstrings vibrating blended together as three hundred arrows, with sharp whistles, swept over the heads of the allied forces, like a dark cloud suddenly pressing down, before plunging headlong into the rift.

There were not only Wu soldiers there, but also barbarian soldiers who were still fighting with Wu soldiers.

The moment the arrows rained down, the breach instantly transformed into a slaughterhouse.

The arrows pierced through the iron armor of the Wu army, the leather armor of the barbarian soldiers, and all the flesh and blood that blocked their flight path.

The screams even drowned out the war drums.

A barbarian sergeant and a Wu army captain were choking each other when two arrows pierced their chests at the same time. They fell down together, not letting go until their deaths.

The Wu soldiers in the back ranks were shot down as soon as they charged forward, the arrows pinning them to the ground, armor and all, and the pile of corpses grew at a visible rate. The barbarian soldiers on both sides of the gap quickly retreated, putting distance between themselves and the rain of arrows.

Pan Zhang saw this scene from behind the gap, and his pupils contracted sharply. He had assumed that Liu Feng would send reserves to fill the gap—any normal general would have done so.

But Liu Feng did not. Instead of sending a single soldier to block the breach, he used a hail of arrows to obliterate everything in front of it. He killed both his own troops and the enemy's.

Pan Zhang had seen countless ruthless opponents, but he had never seen anyone like Liu Feng who would order the killing of his own soldiers without hesitation on the battlefield.

"You're ruthless." Pan Zhang squeezed out the two words through gritted teeth. "I underestimated you."

He suddenly pointed his ring-pommel sword forward, "My personal guards, follow me! Let's take Liu Feng's banner!"

Pan Zhang could see clearly that Liu Feng's central army formation had been torn open. Although it was temporarily blocked by a rain of arrows, the gap remained after the rain of arrows stopped.

This is the closest he has ever been to Liu Feng today, and his only chance.

Pan Zhang personally led the charge, with only one objective: to kill the enemy general and seize their flag. Under Pan Zhang's personal leadership, the Wu soldiers' morale was revived, and they followed like a group of sharks that had smelled blood, charging forward like madmen.

Looking at the torrent of iron rushing straight towards him, Liu Feng knew that Pan Zhang had already played all his cards on the table.

This is the moment he's been waiting for.

"The rear guard, fight and retreat simultaneously."

Liu Feng turned his horse around, and the Jade Lion Horse slowly moved backward. The banner followed suit, and the formation contracted accordingly.

Unburdened by armor, the barbarian soldiers quickly split into several groups under Liu Feng's command, taking turns to cover their retreat.

One group of barbarian soldiers charged forward and engaged the Wu soldiers in combat for a short while, while another group retreated to the rear and regrouped. After the Wu soldiers repelled this group, another group charged in from the side.

This repeated action slowed down Wu Jun's advance. Pan Zhang slashed down a barbarian soldier blocking his path, and looking up, he saw that Liu Feng's banner had moved more than a hundred paces further away.

The fighting continued from the afternoon until dusk.

The sun slid from its zenith toward the western mountains, turning the entire battlefield a blood-red hue. Both sides' soldiers were utterly exhausted; each swing of their swords felt like dragging a mountain, and each scream was so hoarse it was almost impossible to tell whether it came from humans or beasts.

The corpses piled up on the ground were so numerous that it was impossible to tell who was who. The groans of the wounded and the dying gasps of the dying soldiers rose and fell, sounding particularly mournful in the dim light.

But no one stopped.

Pan Zhang finally broke through the last line of defense of the Han-Man coalition's central army. His bright armor was covered with knife marks, his arm wound had long since reopened, and blood was dripping from his wrist to the ground. His ring-pommel sword was soaked with blood, and the blade had three cuts.

He raised his bloodshot eyes and looked ahead—Liu Feng's banner was right in front of him, and Liu Feng himself was standing on horseback under the banner, his Jade Lion Horse standing out conspicuously in the twilight.

Then Pan Zhang was stunned.

Behind Liu Feng was not a scattered rear guard, but a cavalry force that had never shown itself from beginning to end—five hundred heavily armored cavalrymen, both men and horses clad in heavy armor, standing like a silent iron mountain in the twilight.

The heavy cavalrymen's lances rested on their saddles, their tips still untouched by blood, and their warhorses pawed quietly.

This cavalry force did not participate in any round of blocking, nor did it spare a single soldier to fill any gaps. From the start of the battle until now, it has remained hidden behind the lines, conserving its strength.

Liu Feng used the lives of his barbarian soldiers to block, delay, and wear them down, and finally got what he wanted—Pan Zhang and his personal guard had penetrated too deep and distanced themselves from the Wu army's main force. His cavalry on both flanks were tightly entangled by Kou Wei and Sha Moke, while Pan Zhang's most elite personal guard was now piled up on a pitifully narrow charging path in front.

Pan Zhang's pupils suddenly contracted.

Liu Feng raised his spear, its tip gleaming coldly in the twilight. His voice, though not loud, steadily drowned out the clamor of the battlefield: "Beacon Battalion Heavy Cavalry, follow me—break through the enemy lines!"

Five hundred face shields fell simultaneously, and five hundred spears were laid flat at the same time. The thunderous sound of hooves rose up, like rolling thunder rolling across the ground.

The earth trembled, the twilight shuddered, and five hundred heavily armored cavalrymen, like a moving mountain of steel, crushed toward Pan Zhang and his personal guard.

Shamoke slung the ox-horn bow over his back, snatched a heavy iron spear from his attendant, mounted his horse, and charged into the flank of the Wu army like a mad rhinoceros.

The Jade Lion Horse, with its four hooves in the air, was led by Liu Feng, whose spear tip drew a bright arc in the twilight, pointing at Pan Zhang's tattered banner.

The iron torrent rolled on, unstoppable.