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

Guan Ping fought two opponents alone, yet his swordsmanship remained perfectly composed.

With his left hand, he controlled the reins and turned the horse's head to avoid Ma Zhong's spear thrust. With his right hand, he slashed diagonally with his long sword, forcing Ma Zhong back while maintaining his momentum. The sword drew a semi-circle in the air and the back of the blade slammed heavily onto Pan Zhang's shoulder.

Pan Zhang dodged to the side, but his horse tripped over a corpse on the ground, staggering and falling off. Guan Ping seized this opening, abruptly changing his attack with his longsword—no longer slashing, but instead slamming the back of the blade against Ma Zhong's spear shaft, sending the spear flying out of his hand.

Ma Zhong was shocked and tried to retreat on horseback, but Guan Ping had already stretched out his arm and grabbed Ma Zhong around the waist, throwing him heavily to the ground.

"Tie them up," Guan Ping shouted.

Several soldiers from Wancheng swarmed forward and pinned Ma Zhong down. Pan Zhang, panting heavily, knelt on one knee, his ring-pommel sword broken in two, surrounded by Han soldiers.

Pan Zhang raised his head, his sinister eyes meeting Guan Ping's gaze. A smile suddenly appeared on his lips as he hissed.

"Impressive swordsmanship. Did your father teach you?"

"Yes."

Guan Ping raised his long sword high.

The blade gleamed coldly in the morning light, stained with Pan Zhang's own blood. Pan Zhang neither closed his eyes nor begged for mercy; he simply knelt there, motionless. The blade fell.

Pan Zhang's head rolled to the ground, his eyes still wide open, filled with the unwillingness of dying but not quite.

"The commander is dead—those who surrender will be spared!"

Guan Ping held his long sword horizontally on his horse, his voice echoing across the battlefield. With their commander dead, Pan Zhang's remaining troops lost all will to fight, throwing down their weapons and kneeling in surrender.

Liu Feng withdrew his gaze from the hilltop, a slight smile playing on his lips, and then spurred his horse toward Guan Ping.

The Jade Lion Horse, bathed in the morning light, resembled a white lightning bolt, with allied soldiers stretching across the mountains and plains behind it.

He rode up to Guan Ping, dismounted, and took Guan Ping's arms in his hands, looking him up and down. Guan Ping was slightly out of breath, his body splattered with blood, but it was all someone else's blood.

Guan Ping looked at Liu Feng, a calm smile appearing on his lips: "My lord, I have not disgraced you."

"It's more than just not embarrassing."

Liu Feng patted Guan Ping's shoulder forcefully.

"His tactics of advancing and retreating are perfectly in line with military strategy, and he is more than capable of leading an army independently. He turned defeat into victory against two opponents and killed Pan Zhang. This achievement will be personally rewarded by Lord Guan when we arrive in Xiangyang."

After Liu Feng and Guan Ping joined forces, the first thing they did was to order Ma Zhong to be put into the army's prison cart and kept under strict guard.

When Ma Zhong was bound hand and foot and pushed into the cart, his face was ashen, and he hung his head without uttering a word. Several veteran soldiers from the Wancheng Camp stood at the four corners of the prison cart, their swords hilts gleaming from being worn.

Liu Feng stood in front of the prison cart for a moment, then said to Guan Ping, "This man is Pan Zhang's deputy general. He knows everything about the defense of Jiangling and Lü Meng's troop deployment. Let him live for now, and later escort him to Xiangyang to be dealt with by Lord Guan."

Liu Feng chuckled inwardly, knowing that in history, it was Pan Zhang's general Ma Zhong who captured and killed Guan Yu and his son Guan Ping at Linju.

Now the situation is completely different, and the circumstances have reversed.

Guan Ping clasped his hands in agreement and ordered his personal guards to set up double guards around the prison cart, forbidding anyone from approaching.

That afternoon, the combined Han and Man forces began crossing the Yuan River.

The Yuan River makes a wide bend here, its surface as smooth as a mirror, and the city of Linyuan on the opposite bank appears bluish-gray in the afternoon sun.

The barbarian soldiers cut down thick bamboo from upstream and tied it with vines to make wide bamboo rafts, which could carry more than ten people each time.

Kou Wei, who arrived later, personally directed the crossing at the ferry, sending the vanguard troops across to the other side in batches. Bamboo rafts shuttled back and forth on the water, with barbarian soldiers standing on the rafts carrying swords and spears. Some were humming folk songs from Wuxi, the melodies desolate and lingering, drifting far across the river.

Liu Feng stood on a high ground on the east bank of the Yuan River, gazing at the outline of the city of Yuan across the river.

The city wall was nearly three zhang high, and the gate tower was majestic. Behind the battlements, the flags of the defending army could be vaguely seen drooping listlessly in the wind.

Pan Zhang ordered Ma Zhong to withdraw almost all of the elite troops from Linyuan City. At this time, the city's garrison was reduced to only a little over a thousand men, most of whom were old, weak, or wounded.

The number of sentries patrolling the city walls had decreased significantly, and even the usual changing of the guard horn had not sounded.

Guan Ping rode up to Liu Feng's side, dismounted, and clasped his hands in a gesture of respect, requesting permission to serve. This young general had unknowingly shed his naiveté, replacing it with a composure honed on the battlefield.

"My lord, the garrison in Linyuan City numbers less than two thousand, and most of them are old and weak. This humble general is willing to lead the troops from Wancheng to be the first to scale the walls."

Liu Feng nodded: "A swift victory is crucial to minimize casualties. Although Pan Zhang is dead, there are still scattered Wu army strongholds within Wuling County. Taking Linyuan is like removing the most important thorn in our side. If we can win over the noble families in the city, we should try our best to avoid making enemies."

Guan Ping agreed and left.

That night, Guan Ping led the Wancheng soldiers and more than a thousand barbarian soldiers in a fierce attack on Linyuan City.

Outside the west gate of Linyuan City, on a relatively flat and open area, Guan Ping positioned the battering rams in front, using three layers of shields to cover the ram pushers as they slowly approached the city gate.

Ladders were erected on both sides of the city wall, and the barbarian soldiers climbed up them with short swords in their mouths. The Wu army on the city wall poured boiling oil onto the ladders, which were then set ablaze by torches. The entire ladder burned into a fiery dragon, and the barbarian soldiers on top screamed as they fell.

Guan Ping personally supervised the battle from below the city walls, directing his archers to fire a volley of arrows at the city walls to suppress the enemy. Arrows rained down on the city walls like a sudden downpour, and several Wu soldiers who were leaning out to throw stones were hit in the face, screaming as they fell from behind the crenellations.

The battle raged from afternoon until nightfall, with torches blazing atop the city walls and shouts of battle echoing across the banks of the Yuan River.

That night, several local aristocratic families in the city who had not yet been subdued by Eastern Wu quietly opened the west gate.

The leader was an elder of the Pan clan of Wuling, over sixty years old, with white hair and beard, and was a distant cousin of Pan Jun.

After Pan Jun surrendered to Wu, he sent people to persuade him, promising that the Pan family's land in Wuling would be safe. However, after the Wu army entered the city, they still seized the Pan family's three hundred acres of fertile land by the Yuan River and distributed it to powerful families from Jiangdong.

Pan, the elder, harbored resentment over this. Seeing the siege under the city walls was fierce, he secretly contacted several clansmen, gathered dozens of able-bodied men, and sneaked to the west gate under cover of night.

There were only a dozen or so Wu soldiers guarding the gate. Pan's son cleaved down their leader with a single blow, and the rest were either killed or fled, abandoning their weapons. Pan himself then wielded a large axe and, with the help of the able-bodied men of his clan, cut the iron chain winch on the inside of the west gate.

The city gate slid open silently through the night.

Guan Ping had been sending men outside the city to keep an eye on the movements at each gate. Suddenly, the west gate opened wide, and the swordsmen and shieldmen of the Wancheng camp rushed in first, followed by barbarian soldiers carrying torches.

Guan Ping charged into the west gate, leading the way, and rushed straight up the stone steps inside the city wall to the city tower. The Wu general on the tower was directing the defense when he suddenly saw enemy troops attacking from behind. He hastily drew his sword to fight, but Guan Ping severed his wrist with a single blow and stabbed him through the chest with another.

With the commander dead, the defenses on the city wall crumbled instantly. The defending troops, already outnumbered, were now caught in a pincer attack and scattered much faster than expected.

Some people jumped off the city wall and broke their legs, while others fled along the city wall toward the east gate, hoping to escape the city in the chaos.

Guan Ping had anticipated this move. Outside the East Gate, he had ambush a group of barbarian soldiers. As soon as the fleeing soldiers left the city gate, they were intercepted and either killed or surrendered.

Before dawn, Lin Yuan City had already changed hands.

Liu Feng rode his horse into the city in the morning light. His horse's hooves pounded on the main bluestone street of Linyuan City. The houses on both sides of the street had their doors tightly closed, but shadowy figures could be seen moving through the cracks in the windows from time to time.

Liu Feng noticed that Elder Pan and his clansmen were kneeling on the side of the street, holding the iron chain taken from the winch at the west gate and the head of the gatekeeper Wu soldier high above their heads.

Liu Feng dismounted, helped the old man up with both hands, and said gently, "Sir, you are a man of great virtue, sparing the people from harm even after the city fell; your merit is invaluable. As for the Pan family's land in Wuling, I will return it to them!"

The old man from the Pan clan was moved to tears and repeatedly expressed his gratitude.

Liu Feng ordered Guan Ping to post notices in the city to reassure the people and to open the granaries to provide relief to the city's inhabitants. At the same time, he sent a fast horse to Yuanling to invite Ma Liang to come and take charge.

As the capital of Wuling County, Linyuan City's defenses and treasury reserves far surpassed those of Yuanling. The city's grain reserves were sufficient for the army to sustain itself for three months, and the armory also contained a large number of weapons and equipment that the Wu army had not had time to take away.

A day later, Ma Liang's boat came along the Yuan River.

The boat slowly docked at the ferry outside Linyuan City. Ma Liang was still dressed in a plain dark robe, holding a feather fan, his face lean and refined. Behind him followed several clerks, carrying household registers and official documents from Yuanling.

But Liu Feng noticed that after Ma Liang disembarked, he stepped aside and another person came out of the cabin.

He was a man nearing forty, extremely tall, with broad shoulders and a thick back, the muscles on his arms taut over his battle robe. His face was tanned bronze by the sun, his short beard was neatly trimmed, and a broad-bladed ring-pommel sword hung at his waist, the copper buckle on the scabbard worn smooth, clearly a mark left by years of battle.

This man was not young, but his steps were powerful and vigorous, each step carrying a heavy weight. His eyes shone brightly, and he nodded slightly as his gaze swept over the soldiers on the dock. He exuded the fierce and valiant air of a veteran soldier.

Liu Feng recognized the person at a glance, and a rare look of joy appeared on his face as he quickly stepped forward to greet him.

"Brother!" Liu Feng clasped his hands in a fist salute, his voice filled with rare excitement, "It's been so many years, what brings you here, brother?"