I, Zhou Cang, am the number one tank in the Three Kingdoms.

"Whoa—! Xingba, do you find something strange?" As they approached the city of Hefei, Zhou Cang reined in his horse and asked Gan Ning beside him.

"What's the strange thing?" Gan Ning asked, puzzled.

"Two days ago, I used this route to receive supplies and provisions back to the city. There were countless scoundrels from Jiangdong on the road. Today, after traveling for a long time, I haven't seen a single scout," Zhou Cang said, frowning.

"Does Yuanfu mean that Jiangdong has ulterior motives?" Gan Ning also noticed something was amiss.

Recalling Pang Tong's inexplicably worried expression when he was dispatched, Zhou Cang instantly had a bad feeling.

"Something terrible has happened! General Lei is probably in trouble!" Zhou Cang shouted.

"Giddy up! Hurry! Hurry!" The two quickly led their team to turn around and rush towards Mount Dashu.

Upon seeing the long trail of hoofprints leading out of the mountain path, Zhou Cang and his companion were filled with regret. They bent down, spurred their horses, and sped off towards the six counties.

Lei Xu, you have to hold on! You absolutely have to hold on!

At this moment, Zhou Cang only regretted that the entire army wasn't riding Red Hare, and why the journey was so long!

In Nomura, the thirty or forty riders of Lei Xu's hundred men who were responsible for restraining Chen Wu had all been killed in action. Chen Wu's troops suffered even greater losses, with nearly a hundred riders completely losing their fighting ability in the charge of Lei Xu's elite soldiers.

Meanwhile, most of the enemy cavalry who broke through to the village entrance had been killed or wounded.

Lei Xu was stabbed three times, but he was still on horseback preparing for the next charge. The steel strips of cloth wrapped around his hands were already soaked with blood.

"Lei Xu, I respect you as a hero. Is it worth dying here?" Chen Wu shouted at Lei Xu.

Lei Xu completely ignored Chen Wu behind him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was panting heavily. He wiped the blood from his steel blade with his sleeve, glanced at the two men beside him, and shouted, "Kill again!"

The remaining thirty-odd riders split into two groups once again. Ten men charged towards Chen Wu, while the rest followed Lei Xu to continue attacking the enemy troops at the village entrance.

"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" Two cold arrows suddenly shot out from the rear of the enemy ranks, hitting Lei Xu's warhorse directly.

"Thump!" The warhorse fell to the ground on the muddy dirt road with a dull thud, throwing Lei Xu away.

Lei Xu's assassins were completely unaffected; they not only charged forward even more fiercely, but two of them immediately moved towards the center, shielding Lei Xu behind them.

Despite some fear of the repeated attacks from Lei Xu's elite soldiers, the Jiangdong army blocking the village entrance continued to charge forward to engage them, relying on their superior numbers.

In just a few breaths, this charge ended in failure once again.

The ten riders who were trying to hold Chen Wu back fought fiercely but only managed to take away six enemy soldiers before being hacked to death.

The nine remaining assassins who had charged the village entrance retreated and surrounded Lei Xu in the center.

This is the brotherhood among bandits who wander the world together. In this chaotic world, they share joys and sorrows, and their cohesion is stronger and their determination to die is more resolute than that of regular soldiers who rely on military pay to maintain their fighting power.

Lei Xu was coughing up blood, clearly indicating that being thrown from his warhorse had caused him serious internal injuries.

Chen Wu looked at the ten people who were less than fifty paces away from him and began to lose patience.

"Shoot them to death!" Chen Wu gave a calm military order, and the soldiers behind him took out their bows and arrows, ready to aim at Lei Xu and the others.

Suddenly, Chen Wu's warhorse fidgeted restlessly. Chen Wu waved his hand and said, "Wait!"

It wasn't an illusion! The ground trembled slightly!

"Enemy behind us!" Chen Wu shouted, and his men hurriedly turned their horses around to look back.

"Thump thump thump thump!" The dull sound of hooves grew closer and closer, and sure enough, a troop of cavalry charged towards them at high speed.

A tall, dark-faced rider, clad in armor and wielding a long sword in one hand, charged at the forefront, creating a considerable distance between himself and the troops behind him.

"Fire arrows! Fire arrows!" Chen Wu shouted as he saw his men intimidated by the enemy's formation.

The cavalrymen at the front quickly drew their bows and shot at the dark-faced knight.

The dark-faced knight deflected three or five arrows with a swing of his sword. The Jiangdong cavalry quickly fired a second volley, this time at closer range, and sure enough—

Although the black-faced knight swung his greatsword to deflect several more arrows, three still hit him! They pierced his body firmly!

"Hit!" "I hit it!"

The Jiangdong knights' excitement didn't last long, because they discovered that the black-faced knight, after being shot by an arrow, not only didn't stop, but instead used his free hand to pull out the arrow and spurred his horse forward even faster!

"Quick! Fire again! Fire again!" Chen Wu shouted, urging his somewhat disorganized subordinates.

In this hasty and hurried firing, only two arrows hit the target, but!

Despite being hit by an arrow, the enemy seemed unaffected. Instead, he straightened up, raised his long sword high, and charged like a tyrant descending to earth, closing the distance to within fifty paces of Chen Wu's troops!

"Scatter! Scatter!" Chen Wu shouted as the black iron tower was about to crash into them, but the knights in the front row were too terrified to hear Chen Wu's words.

The menacing Black Iron Tower suddenly roared the moment it engaged Chen Wu's troops—

"Zhou Cang is here!" At the same time, he wielded his sword with both hands and slashed down, sweeping across the enemy ranks!

The Jiangdong army had never seen such a monster before!

"Whoosh!" The Jiangdong cavalry, who were already too frightened to move, were suddenly smashed open by Zhou Cang!

The blade of the Mo Dao swept across, instantly cutting down all three riders at the front!

"Quickly! Kill him! Quickly!" Chen Wu roared at his men.

The Jiangdong army quickly surrounded Zhou Cang, but Zhou Cang wielded his Mo Dao (a type of long-handled sword) with incredible speed and skill, and for a time no one could get close to him!

Chen Wu and all his soldiers were completely focused on Zhou Cang, and forgot about the iron cavalry rolling in behind Zhou Cang.

"Kill!" By the time Chen Wu reacted, it was too late, and the cavalrymen charged into the village with shouts of "Kill!"

"Crash!" The Jiangdong Army's vanguard was instantly routed!

As the vanguard fell in rows, the soldiers and horses of the central and rear armies became completely unruly and scattered along the village paths.

At the same time, the Jiangdong army blocking the village was also cut off by Gan Ning from the side, and they scattered in an instant.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Chen Wu glanced back at Lei Xu and his ten men, then spurred his horse and galloped towards the village path without hesitation.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Zhou Cang and Gan Ning swept through the village like a whirlwind, scattering all the Jiangdong troops.

"Xingba! Go and hunt down the remaining enemies! Leave this place to me!" Zhou Cang shouted to Gan Ning.

Gan Ning nodded and led his cavalry in pursuit towards the direction of Mount Da Shu.

At this moment, the village was littered with corpses, the bodies of warhorses and soldiers were scattered all over the ground, and blood pooled on the pitted ground.

Zhou Cang quickly jumped off his horse and ran towards Lei Xu, who was sitting in the blood.

"General Lei! General Lei!" Zhou Cang shouted as he ran.

When Zhou Cang reached Lei Xu, who was covered in blood, he threw down his longsword, bent down, and placed his hands on Lei Xu's shoulders, blaming himself, "General Lei, Zhou Cang is late. Please forgive Zhou Cang for his inadequate escort..."

Lei Xu grinned and said, "Yuanfu, you're not late! Not late at all! Just in time! This battle was exhilarating! Exhilarating indeed! Hahahaha!"

After Lei Xu finished speaking, he used his knife to support himself and struggled to stand up. Zhou Cang wanted to help him up, but Lei Xu waved his hand and refused.

Seeing that Lei Xu's entire body, including his armor, was soaked in blood and there wasn't a single clean spot, Zhou Cang was filled with remorse.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, Yuanfu, don't blame yourself, it's not your fault!" Lei Xu comforted Zhou Cang instead.

"It's just a pity for my brothers, who have followed me through thick and thin in Huainan for so long, and now... now that they have finally met a wise ruler, they have lost their lives here." Lei Xu looked at the corpses of the dead soldiers all over the ground and couldn't help but choke up.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Cang thought of the brothers who had died alongside him in battle after battle, from defending Runan to the surprise attack on Gualijin and the final battle at Wancheng... He was overcome with grief, lowered his head, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh.

"Yuanfu! I have an important mission to fulfill and cannot delay important matters. The journey to Wancheng is still long, so I must go ahead!" Lei Xuxian emerged from his grief and looked solemnly at Zhou Cang.

"General Lei, since you are injured, why don't you come back to Hefei with me? The strategist's letter can be delivered by someone else!" Zhou Cang said immediately, looking at Lei Xu's injured body.

"No! I have been entrusted with this task by the strategist, how can I give up halfway? Yuanfu, I only have one request!" Lei Xu said firmly.

"General Lei, please speak. I, Zhou Cang, will gladly die for you!" Zhou Cang said, clasping his hands in a fist salute.

"Please, Yuanfu, bury these brothers on the spot, and don't let their bones be exposed in the wild..." Lei Xu finished speaking through gritted teeth, and the remaining nine people around him were already in tears.

"Please rest assured, General Lei, Zhou Cang will not leave anyone behind! Brothers, take care on your journey!" Influenced by Lei Xu, Zhou Cang's eyes also welled up with tears.

After Lei Xu finished speaking, he suppressed his physical and mental pain, mounted his horse, clasped his hands in a salute to Zhou Cang once again, and then led the remaining nine men towards the six counties without looking back.

"How many righteous men there are..." Zhou Cang said with emotion, bowing deeply as he watched Lei Xu and the others gradually disappear.

After Lei Xu left, Zhou Cang led his men and quickly collected all the bodies and remains of Lei Xu's fallen men, totaling ninety-one, leaving no one behind.

An hour later, Zhou Cang and the others found an abandoned field in the village and buried all the bodies. Before they were done, they found a wooden raft, carved the words "Ninety-one Warriors" on it with a knife, placed it on the field, knelt down and paid their respects before setting off to return to Hefei.

After Zhou Cang and Gan Ning returned to the city, they reported the incident at Nomura to Pang Tong, and both of them requested to be punished.

Pang Tong didn't blame him too much, but said, "When Lei Xu left, I suddenly felt palpitations and had a vague sense of unease. Sure enough, this calamity has befallen me. Although you two made mistakes, you made timely amends... Go and rest."

Upon hearing this, the two withdrew, leaving Pang Tong alone to continue gazing at the map in a daze.

Five days later, the soldiers guarding the city wall of Wancheng in Lujiang County were intently watching every possible route that the enemy might take.

Suddenly, five riders galloped out of the mountains and forests in the distance.

The guards rushed up to the watchtower to report to Guan Yu.

Upon hearing the news, Guan Yu went to the arrow emplacement and looked around.

Two hundred paces away, the lead rider was covered in blood, with four riders closely following him.

"It's Lei Xu! Lei Xu is back! Open the city gates quickly!"

Seeing Guan Yu come down to the city gate to greet him, Lei Xu quickly reined in his horse, rolled off, and walked with difficulty toward Guan Yu, while taking out a silk scroll stained with blood from his bosom.

"General Guan, Lei Xu... has not failed in his mission!" Pale-faced Lei Xu knelt on one knee before Guan Gong, who was coming to greet him, and held the silk scroll high. His chapped lips trembled as he uttered a few words.

Before he could finish speaking, with a "thump," his burly body collapsed to the ground.