Before long, Liu Xiang led ten thousand troops out of the city.
The hundred-odd battered soldiers also moved to join them.
One of them shouted loudly, “General Liu Xiang, wait! Let us guide the way for you!”
“Very well. Then follow along.”
Liu Xiang did not think much of it and said, “Once I rescue the lord, your rewards will not be lacking.”
“Understood!” The battered soldiers agreed enthusiastically while quickly drawing closer.
“Hm?” Liu Xiang glanced at them again and noticed a powerfully built man among them, wielding a pair of halberds.
Just as curiosity arose in his mind, the burly warrior suddenly hurled one of his short halberds straight at him.
Whoosh!
A sharp whistle cut through the air.
The short halberd pierced through Liu Xiang’s throat.
Thud! Thud!
Before the Yuan soldiers could even react, the battered troops instantly transformed into ravenous wolves, cutting down several Yuan officers.
“Yuan Shu is dead!”
Raising Liu Xiang’s severed head high, Dian Wei roared, “Surrender and you will be spared!”
As soon as his words fell, the sound of galloping hooves thundered outside Juancheng.
Zhang Jing and Guan Hai appeared, leading their forces at full speed toward the eastern gate.
“Enemy attack!”
The Yuan soldiers finally came to their senses, their faces turning pale with shock.
Yet many were cut down by Dian Wei’s men before they could react.
“Surrender and live! Kneel and you shall not die!”
Dian Wei led his hundred-odd soldiers, shouting as they charged forward relentlessly.
“Quick! Close the city gates!”
Seeing the scene unfold, the junior officer defending the gate was nearly frightened out of his wits.
“But there are still thousands of our brothers outside!”
The officer was at a complete loss.
“Then hurry and let them back into the city! Any later and it’ll be too late!”
He was only a junior officer.
He dared not shut his own comrades outside the gates.
Had he done so, the soldiers might have torn him apart on the spot.
If it had been Liu Xiang giving the order, it would have been different.
Liu Xiang possessed the authority and prestige to bear such a cost.
“Kill!”
Zhang Jing and his men rapidly closed in on Juancheng, surging into the city together with the retreating Yuan soldiers.
Without a commanding general to rally them, the Yuan troops were quickly subdued and incorporated under Zhang Jing’s control.
Juancheng fell into his hands.
“Guan Hai!” Zhang Jing ordered, “Detach five thousand men to guard the grain stores and the prisoners. Throw dry grass and deadwood into the Administrator’s Office and set it ablaze.”
“Make sure the Yuan army several li away can see Juancheng burning!”
“Yes, sir!” Guan Hai clasped his fists and accepted the order.
“Dian Wei.” Only then did Zhang Jing notice Dian Wei’s face covered in blood.
“How are you? Can you still fight?”
“My lord, rest assured!” Dian Wei wiped the blood from his face and replied, “None of this blood is mine. I can fight for another two hours without any problem.”
“Good.” Zhang Jing nodded before turning to Pan Zhang.
“And what about you? How does it feel to kill a man?”
Though Pan Zhang looked seventeen or eighteen years old, he was actually only thirteen—he simply looked older than his age.
“Thank you for your concern, my lord.” Pan Zhang answered seriously, “I feel no discomfort whatsoever. If anything, my blood is boiling. The battlefield is clearly where I belong.”
He was genuinely worried that his lord might make an issue of his age.
If he were sent away from the army camp, life would become unbearably dull.
At present, although he was merely Dian Wei’s deputy, the authority he wielded was by no means small.
He greatly enjoyed that feeling.
“Good.” Zhang Jing said, “Then go reorganize the troops. Later, join forces with Sui Gu and strike Yuan Shu from both sides.”
“After this battle, he won’t dare harbor ambitions toward Yanzhou again.”
“This subordinate obeys!” Pan Zhang clasped his fists and shouted in acknowledgment.
…………….
Meanwhile, about ten li from Juancheng, under the protection of Ji Ling and the other generals, Yuan Shu was trudging toward the city with nearly thirty thousand troops.
“What a brilliant strategy of besieging a city to strike the reinforcements!”
Zhang Miao panted heavily from exhaustion as he said, “Left General, these Yellow Turbans are no ordinary force.”
“No wonder Mengde would rather retreat to Hebei after his defeat than continue contending with them.”
“I was careless!” Yuan Shu replied bitterly.
“If I had listened to Li Feng’s advice, how could I have suffered today’s defeat?”
“The Yellow Turbans never intended to attack Juancheng at all.”
“Look! What is that?”
As soon as Yuan Shu finished speaking, a cry of alarm arose from the troops ahead.
“What is that?” Zhang Miao and the others looked toward the distance.
Far to the west, a massive column of white smoke stretched into the sky.
And the direction of that smoke was Juancheng.
After all, the nearest city in that direction was none other than Juancheng itself.
“Not good!” Zhang Miao and the others turned pale, not daring to voice their fears.
Yuan Shu cried out in alarm, “That’s the direction of Juancheng!”
“My lord.” Only after Yuan Shu said it himself did Ji Ling speak.
“With smoke that thick, Juancheng has most likely fallen.”
“Should we try to retake it?”
“Yes!” Yuan Shu answered without hesitation.
“We must retake it!” Yuan Shu replied without the slightest hesitation, “Juancheng has twenty thousand of my troops stationed there. Those Yellow Turban bandits cannot possibly have enough spare forces to capture the city.”
“This smoke is nothing more than the result of Liu Xiang’s efforts in defending it.”
“Pass my orders immediately!”
“Have the entire army increase its pace and reinforce Juancheng!”
For Yuan Shu, Juancheng was a city that absolutely had to be saved.
Especially now, with pursuers at his back and no source of provisions other than Juancheng.
If they abandoned the city, they might very well starve to death.
With Yuan Shu’s order issued, the Yuan soldiers once again forced themselves to muster their spirits.
Even so, pessimism filled their hearts.
Rumble!
As they passed along another stretch of official road, that earth-shaking sound—like something from a nightmare—once again reached the ears of the Yuan troops.
On a nearby hillside, massive boulders came rolling down in an endless stream.
“Yuan Shu, you have fallen into my lord’s trap!”
Sui Gu waved his hand and shouted, “Loose arrows!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Boulders and arrows rained down together upon the Yuan army below.
The already exhausted troops suffered heavy casualties.
“Damn those Yellow Turban dogs!” Yuan Shu roared furiously.
“I, Yuan Gonglu, will never coexist under the same heaven as you!”
He had never imagined that even their ambushes would come in waves.
It was as if they simply never ended.
“My lord, retreat!” Ji Ling guarded Yuan Shu as he urged, “There are no fewer than ten thousand Yellow Turbans hidden in these hills. They are fresh and waiting in ambush, while our troops are exhausted.”
“I fear we cannot defeat them.”
“Our first priority must be to leave this place!”
“Retreat!” Yuan Shu’s face flushed red with rage.
Yet there was only one option left: escape.
At that moment, a troubling thought even entered his mind.
Was Juancheng truly still in his hands?
Could it already have fallen, just as Ji Ling feared?
“Brothers!”
After several volleys of arrows had been fired, Sui Gu roared, “Follow me! Kill Yuan Shu! Behead the commander and seize the banner!”
“Kill!”
“Charge!”
Under Sui Gu’s leadership, more than ten thousand troops surged out of the forest.
The already routed Yuan soldiers wished only that they had been born with two extra legs.
……………….
Approaching the Hour of Si (around 9–11 a.m.)
Yuan Shu, leading the remnants of his army, finally arrived within three li of Juancheng.
The city he had been yearning for was now right before his eyes.
“Kill!”
Yet what awaited Yuan Shu was not salvation.
Instead, the great banner of the Qihuo Army came charging toward him at tremendous speed.
“My lord, retreat!” Zhang Miao and the others turned pale with shock.
Ji Ling shouted, “This general and the others will hold them off for you!”
— The end of the Chapter–
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