Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

The eagle spread its wings and glided through the clouds. The air currents in the high altitude made its feathers tremble. Suddenly, it let out a loud eagle cry, turned around and flew to the side.

Several riders were walking through the fields below. They looked at the eagle flying in the sky and pointed to the forest not far away: "Go over there and take a rest."

The wind blew through the woods, and the treetops bent slightly. When they bounced up, the fragile leaves broke free from the branches and were carried down by the wind. However, it was not the time for falling leaves, so the leaves were not seen floating all over the sky.

Several big men ran to the edge of the woods, dismounted their horses, and without tying them up, patted their horses' butts and told them to go find some tender grass to eat. They took off their hats, revealing their shaved foreheads. Their left and right braids hung down to their shoulders, and were tied with brightly colored silk threads that spiraled down the braids and were tied into a knot at the ends.

"Yinzhou is just across the river ahead." The leading man took out the water bag he was carrying and pulled out the cork. A strong smell of alcohol emanated from it. He raised his head and took a sip: "Fortunately Du Bojilie ordered us to come down and investigate. Before we even got there, we heard the news that the Yuan Dynasty had been destroyed."

The bearded, rugged-looking man shook his head and said, "Fortunately, we didn't join forces with them. These Bohai people are really useless."

"That's right. They are weak and incompetent. They couldn't even defeat the Liao people, and were even annihilated by a group of rebels who came from nowhere. How can they be qualified to form an alliance with our Great Jin?"

"I'm afraid he's here to seek asylum."

Several men laughed loudly. The leader drank two sips of wine, and seeing that they were greedy, he handed over the water bag and said, "Okay, you guys will decide how to proceed. We just need to report back what we see and hear."

"indeed."

Several men who were drinking nodded repeatedly. The man looked up at the sky and sat down on the ground: "Let's take a rest before we go. I think we are not in a hurry to go back. Let's just go and take a look at the rebels."

The others stopped what they were doing, looked at each other, and agreed: "Very good, our Great Jin cannot just stay in the north, sooner or later we have to go south, it's a good opportunity to see what these people over there look like."

"Great! I'll go buy some cloth. I heard that there's a lot of cloth from Song in the south coastal areas. It's much more exquisite than what we usually see. My wife wants one."

"Really? Then I want to buy some too." A young man's eyes lit up when he heard this and he couldn't help but speak up.

"You don't have a wife yet, why are you so anxious?"

"He has set his eyes on the pearl of the Xiani family and might want to use cloth as a betrothal gift."

"Hahaha, it looks like the horses and blue bulls are ready."

The young man was very anxious: "Who said that? I bought it for Ne Nei."

"Oh..." Several men saw his face turn red and laughed, "Hahaha——"

Gradually the conversation became less focused, and the men had enough time to rest from talking and laughing. The leader shouted, "Let's go!" and they all stood up and blew their whistles. Soon several horses came running over.

He jumped onto the horse with a nimble figure, shook the reins, and ran towards the south again.

……

The wind was howling, and under the bright sunlight, the smoke and dust were blown away in the air. The army with the flags of "Lü", "Du", "Shi", "Yuan" and so on was running under the sky. In front and behind were knights riding war horses. The armor with knife marks and some damage looked embarrassed and dilapidated, but magnified in the momentum of the entire march, it was daunting. Farther ahead, the gate of the military camp was open, and Xi Sheng and other generals lined up in a row surrounded by soldiers. Seeing the smoke and dust in front of them, they were all very excited and straightened their backs.

The rumbling of horse hooves gradually slowed down, and a gust of yellow dust drifted past in the wind. The knights with banners separated to the left and right, and the flaming red war horses walked over with their necks shaking. The waiting generals all bowed and said, "Welcome the cavalry general back to the camp!"

The mighty figure on Red Hare waved his hand and said, "No thanks." He stepped forward and dismounted, holding Xi Sheng and Xiao Haili's arms, and smiled, "Thank you for your hard work."

"It's not as hard as the leader."

He turned around and followed Lu Bu to the military camp: "The leader rushed to attack Yelu Yudu, defeated him in one battle, and then rushed here non-stop. This is hard work."

"You are even trying to flatter me now." Lü Bu scolded with a smile, and walked into the military camp. He looked at the soldiers patrolling the camp with swords and spears and nodded: "The morale looks good. Have you fought against the Liao people? How do you feel?"

"We have fought." The two people following behind nodded, and Xi Sheng said, "The Liao army on the other side is not very strong, but Yelu Dezhong is cautious in using troops, and he has a few generals who can fight tough battles. To be honest, we have suffered some losses."

"Oh?" Lu Bu raised his eyebrows.

Xiao Haili said with his bald head tied up: "Brother Sun An's two military Sima, Guan Sheng and Pan Zhong, were injured and can't go to the battlefield in the short term. Among the fake Sima, only Zeng Kui is still intact. Yu Dajiang almost lost his life on the battlefield to save Pan Zhong."

Lu Bu shook his head and said nothing. He had experienced a lot of such things on the battlefield. In the past, when he served under Dong Zhuo, the governor Hua Xiong was also a brave man, but in the end he ended up with his head and body separated. Even several generals under his command who were favored at the time were killed in the battle. Although several generals were injured now, at least they were still alive.

The group walked and talked. After a while, Lu Bu walked into the central army tent without taking off his armor. He walked to the table where the geomancy map was placed and took a look. His tiger eyes lit up and asked, "Are you ready for a counterattack?"

"The general has arrived. Although we are not superior in terms of military strength, we are not as disadvantaged as we were yesterday." Xi Sheng said, "I think we should defeat the Liao people as soon as possible. A long battle will not be good for us. After all..."

The gaunt figure stopped talking, and Lu Bu knew what he meant. Liangshan's power had changed from a bandit force to a separatist force. It was far inferior to the Liao Dynasty in terms of popular support and foundation. The army's food and grass were consumed quickly but replenished slowly. If the war was allowed to drag on, the army would collapse in no time.

"It's just that fortunately, the Liao people don't intend to fight for a long time." Xi Sheng's mouth curved into an arc.

Xiao Haili curled his lips and said, "I'm afraid the tyrant emperor wants Yelu Dezhong to defeat us quickly so that we can go north to wipe out the Jin thieves."

"It's exactly what I thought..." Lu Bu nodded, took off the knife from his waist and placed it on the table: "I also want to go north!"

"Call all the generals to discuss the matter, and beat the drum to gather them together."

dong dong dong-

The order was given, and two rows of war drums were beating in front of the big tent. When the generals in the camp heard the drums, they hurriedly stopped what they were doing, put on their armor, walked out of the tents, jumped on their horses, and passed through the tents to the central tent.

Before the three drums for gathering the generals were finished, a group of generals in helmets and armor were already standing in the big tent, bowing to Lu Bu, who was in the position of the chief commander, and saying: "Greetings to the Great General of the Cavalry!" (End of this chapter)