Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

A refreshing cool breeze blew for dozens of miles.

Under the city of Huizhou, the military camp of the stationed troops was in constant hustle and bustle. Soldiers hurriedly ran past with spears in their arms, generals kept shouting loudly, war horses raised dust on the ground, bundles of arrows were loaded onto vehicles, and brand new swords and guns were put into wooden boxes. These were spare weapons for the soldiers to replace.

When the sky was bright, Yelu Dezhong finished his breakfast and stood up from his position. His four sons were eating beside him. Seeing him stand up, they hurried forward and helped their father put on his armor. Seeing his worried look, Yelu Zongyun frowned and asked, "Dad, are you thinking about General Li Ji?"

"What else could it be if not this?" Yelu Dezhong smacked his lips and sighed, "Father didn't want to attack Lu Bu at night, but Li Ji insisted on doing so and even issued a military order. Father thought that he was also a man who knew military affairs and the Right Guard was also an elite in the army, so he reluctantly agreed. It's just that he hasn't come back yet at this time..."

He didn't finish his words because he felt that saying discouraging words would affect his mood. Secondly, he was afraid that good things would not work and bad things would come true. If this omen came true, he would be short of troops, which would be disadvantageous for the future battles. So he just sighed slightly.

Yelu Zonglin standing behind him didn't think as much as his father thought. He tied the belt of his armor and said thoughtfully: "He hasn't come back yet..." After tying the belt, he clapped his hands and said: "He must have been killed by Lu Bu. Maybe his grave has been built by now. We can burn incense at this time next year."

"Beast!"

Yelu Dezhong turned around angrily, raised his arm and slapped his fourth son on the smoothly shaved head.

Snapped--

"Ouch!"

"If you have nothing to say, just shut up and eat more." Yelu Dezhong glared at him and slapped him on the forehead again: "You are crazy and talking nonsense all day long, how can you live in the future... No, you just want to piss me off to death now!"

He rolled up his sleeves and wanted to go up and beat up the fourth guy.

"Dad, Dad, Shi Lang can't speak, so don't be angry."

"It's Dad. It's not worth it to get sick from being angry. We're going to go to war soon, so why bother getting angry with him?"

While the two brothers Yelu Zongyun and Zongdian were trying to persuade them, the third brother Zonglei kicked his brother directly on the crotch, making him scream "Ah!" and staggered two steps to the side, glaring at him and saying, "Go to the side, you're ruining Dad's mood." Then he turned around and shouted, "Dad, I've already taught him a lesson, don't be angry." He also went to comfort his father.

Yelu Zonglin rubbed the place where he was kicked, and saw his three brothers gathered around their father, rubbing their noses and mumbling, "How can I eat with my mouth closed? Are you asking me to eat with my nostrils? They're not that big."

"You still say that!" The father picked up his sword and was about to come over. The three people in front of him hurriedly hugged their arms and waists.

"Daddy, don't be anxious!"

"Dad, there's no need to get angry."

"Dad, calm down."

"Why should I stay calm? I might as well execute this beast first, and then I'll lead the troops to fight that bastard Lu Bu!" Yelu Dezhong was furious and broke free from his three sons to beat him. Seeing that the situation was not good, Yelu Zonglin said, "I'll go back to the camp and reorganize the troops first!" and disappeared in a flash.

The three sons behind him hurried forward and finally managed to calm their furious father. They "helped" him to sit down, one rubbed his chest, one stroked his back to help him breathe smoothly, and another went to fetch him some warm water, saying nice things to him all the time.

"Alright!" Yelu Dezhong waved his hand and asked Zong Yun and the other two to move aside. "I'm not angry anymore. Get out of my way."

Yelu Zongyun and the other two looked at each other and then stepped aside. Just as the Yelu father and son were acting out their filial piety, footsteps were heard outside. The guards who came in knelt down and clasped their fists: "General, General Li Ji is back."

The people in the room stopped what they were doing and looked over. The voices fell silent. Yelu Dezhong stood up and gestured with his hand: "Hurry up and ask General Li to come over."

"Yes."

Not long after, Li Ji walked into the tent with a swollen forehead and in a disheveled state. He knelt on the ground with a plop, took off his helmet, lowered his head and remained silent.

Yelu Zongyun
Yelu Dezhong closed his eyes immediately, raised his head slightly, and opened them after a while. He turned to look at the dejected Li Ji, and suddenly felt his throat dry: "...Failed?"

The hoarse voice reached their ears, causing the three little ones to sniff with strange expressions and look at each other.

Li Ji's kneeling back moved, and he said in a low hoarse voice: "I have been tricked. Seven or eight out of ten men from the Right Guard were killed, and the rest are injured..." "Bang", his head without the helmet hit the ground heavily, and the swollen wound was hit so hard that the muscles on his face trembled.

"You..." His finger pointed at the person kneeling on the ground, trembling in the air for a few breaths, and Yelu Dezhong put it down fiercely: "Get up."

Take a few breaths and calm yourself down.

The armor made a slight sound, and Li Ji stood up with a face full of shame. The armor was covered with all kinds of dirt, but he had not been able to clean it in time because he was in a hurry. As he stood up, all kinds of smells drifted into Yelu Dezhong's nose. The man was so excited that he didn't pay attention to the smell of the other person for a while. When he smelled it, he suddenly frowned: "You... drank?"

Li Ji opened his mouth and was about to make up an excuse, but then he thought that there was no reason to drink, so he could only nod sullenly: "After being captured, Lu Bu invited me to drink, saying that he would release the surviving men and me and others together, so I agreed."

Yelu Dezhong's eyes twitched, and he narrowed his eyes slightly when he looked at Li Ji. Then a smile appeared on his face: "It seems that Lu Bu still kept his promise." Then he sighed: "Next, I still have to fight a decisive battle with Lu Bu. General Li's troops have suffered too many casualties. Let the seriously injured go to the city first, and the lightly injured should follow the rear army."

"I obey your command." Li Ji bowed, and seeing that Yelu Dezhong had no other orders, he took his leave.

The sturdy figure disappeared at the door. Yelu Zonglei looked outside and then turned his head: "Dad, General Li was so easily..."

Yelu Dezhong stretched out his hand to stop him: "Don't say any more." He turned to look at his third son: "Zong Lei, lead your troops and follow the rear army, and keep an eye on things for your father."

Yelu Zonglei looked at his father and nodded: "Yes." He thought for a moment and said: "Dad, what if there is any unusual movement in General Li's army?"

"Do I need your father to teach me this?" Yelu Dezhong narrowed his eyes and took two steps to pick up the cloak: "If there is any abnormality, you can mobilize the rear army to strangle him."

He walked out of the tent and said, "Let's go. The army should be assembled now."

The three sons behind him smiled bitterly and followed the figure of their father in front.

……

The sun was occasionally obscured by thick clouds.

To the west of Rongzhou, a cavalry force of three thousand men were galloping. Countless tumbling hooves kicked up the dust under their feet and raised it into the sky, blocking the light from the sky. The armor plates on their bodies made noises as they rubbed against each other. Soon, the troops slowed down and trotted forward.

The flag with the character "Shi" fluttered behind the character "Qi", and the expressionless general on his horse showed his anxiety.

When Xiao Haili was injured and sent back to the rear to recuperate, this man was originally guarding the defense line in Rongzhou. It was just his duty and he had to sleep with his weapons by his side every day to guard against the possible eastward advance of the Liao people. Unexpectedly, Lu Bu's transfer order came into the hands of this cold-faced general. Now that he had the opportunity to participate in the war, he was overjoyed and quickly led his cavalry to set off.

Now, after a while of rushing, Shi Wengong slowed down to conserve the horse's power. He looked around at the scenery and waved to his guards: "The geomancy map."

The guards at the back quickly took out a map and a compass drawn on cowhide from their cloth bags and handed them over immediately.

"...Fuzhou." Comparing with the Si Nan, Shi Wengong moved his finger slowly for a while, tapped it lightly on Fuzhou, and then handed the thing to his bodyguard: "Pass the order, continue westward and detour to Huizhou." "General, doesn't the military order say to rush to Huizhou?" A captain on the side spoke after a slight hesitation.

"Follow the general's orders." Shi Wengong had a cold face and said nothing more.

Soon, the rumbling sound of horse hooves sounded again.

……

The same sound of horse hooves coming from different directions.

Yelu Dezhong led Xiao Gan as the vanguard to meet Lu Bu's army coming from the west. Zhao Heshou was ordered to lead a thousand reinforcements and Xi cavalry as the vanguard to explore the Qi army.

On the Qi army side, Wanyan Zonghan's 1,000 cavalrymen led the way.

Both sides sent out a large number of scouts to search, but after walking no more than ten miles, the scouts who were running back and forth and constantly transmitting information began to suffer casualties. They immediately realized that the enemy's advance troops were here.

A large number of scouts were sent out again to investigate, and finally the enemy was discovered at the same time. When they were sure that the enemy was also cavalry, Wanyan Zonghan led a thousand cavalrymen and threatened them directly.

The two sides met on the field. Zhao Heshou led his cavalry to stagger out, drew their bows and arrows, and started shooting at the Qi army. Arrows fell in the air. The Qi knights raised their round shields to defend themselves, and then they also fought back with arrows, chasing forward without stopping.

The cavalry under Zhao Heshou did not turn around to fight the Qi army, nor did they engage in a tangle with them. They just ran forward at the shouts.

"General Zhao, just running away is not the way to fight!"

The general named Bai Di Ge was dissatisfied. He followed Xiao Gan in his campaigns. Although he was a family slave, Xiao Gan treated him well because of his martial arts skills. He had already developed an arrogant character. He looked back at the Qi army that was following closely and said, "My master did not send me out to fight with you just to get away with it!"

"General Bai..."

"My name is Brother Baidi, not Bai!"

"..." Zhao Heshou was furious. Hearing the sound of the horses chasing him from behind, he shouted back, "Our orders are to investigate the enemy, not to fight to the death with the Qi bandits. Now that we have traces of them, we must report back as soon as possible."

"Coward!" Brother Baidi said, "Pah!" and shouted, "Follow me if you are brave enough. We will defeat those Qi bandits behind us and show the cowardly fools how we Xi people fight."

Zhao Heshou looked at him in shock and anger.

The Xi cavalrymen let out strange cries as the figure in front of them suddenly changed. They ignored the resentful cavalrymen such as Zhao Heshou who were running forward, and drew a long arc while galloping, attacking Wanyan Zonghan behind them like a whirlwind.

"The Liao dog is coming! Follow me to kill him——"

Wanyan Zonghan was overjoyed. The enemy had been chasing for some distance and he was considering turning back to avoid running into the large group of Liao troops over there. However, he didn't expect that the person in front of him turned back on his own and immediately raised his hand to gesture for a change of formation.

The marching team was changing. Wanyan Zonghan took the lead and, protected by his personal soldiers, turned into an arrow and rushed towards the Xi cavalry.

While galloping on both sides, Wanyan Zonghan grinned at the general flag in the enemy's formation, turned the spear in his hand, and held it in his hand. On the field, densely packed cavalry rushed forward, like two surging waves, occasionally shining through the light between the clouds, and charged towards each other.

Wanyan Zonghan raised his spear and used all his strength: "Hurry!"

“Hoo-hoo!”

The Jurchen cavalry in the rear had their eyes lit up and made strange noises.

Rumbling--

The iron hooves roar!

Brother Baidi held a broadsword in his hand, feeling the rise and fall of the warhorse under his crotch, and his voice resounded in the thunder: "Grit your teeth, hold your weapon tightly, and kill——"

Then, the two sides come into close contact.

boom--

The galloping war horses on both sides collided with each other, and the flesh and bones made a sound that made people's hair stand on end. War horses kept wailing and falling to the ground, and the knights on their backs were pierced by their spears and iron spears, and their saddles fell off in the spray of blood.

In a flash, the two groups of cavalrymen collided with each other and became entangled. The fallen figures were turned into minced meat under the iron hooves, and their tattered bodies were rolled up among the galloping four-legged animals.

The long spear thrust out and pierced into the body of the Xi cavalryman who was charging towards him. Wanyan Zonghan waved his hand casually, and the corpse knocked another Xi man off his horse, and screams came from under the horse.

There were clanging sounds of metal clashing all around. Among the charging cavalry, some corpses wearing brown armor and holding spears fell after running wildly on the ground for a while, and some collided with each other. The rough-looking black-armored knights grabbed the opponent's long weapons, roared, swung out their maces, and beat the people to death on the spot. Some people threw away the spears in their hands, drew out the bone clubs they carried with them, and hit the opponent's chest hard, killing the people on the spot.

The charges gradually staggered, and the generals who were staggered turned their heads to look back.

hum-

Wanyan Zonghan picked another man and reined in his horse: "Don't worry about the Liao dogs running away, kill these people first!"

"Damn it..." Brother Baidi's face was filled with fear. If he hadn't reacted in time, he would have had two more holes on his body. Even so, his shoulder was grazed by the mace. Fortunately, he had thick armor and dodged, so he was not seriously hurt.

"Go, go, go! Get out of here!"

Brother Baidi no longer dared to show off his strength. He shouted and turned his horse around and left.

Woohoo——

On the plain, the more than 200 Xi cavalrymen who were lucky enough to survive did not dare to delay. Those who could run directly moved closer to their generals, while those who could not run made a few feints and retreated even at the risk of being hit.

"Stop chasing!" Wanyan Zonghan saw that this place was too far away from his army, and hurriedly said to stop them: "Count the casualties and take away the wounded who can be taken away."

Upon hearing this, the surrounding Jurchen cavalrymen, some on horseback were on alert, while others quickly dismounted and searched for their comrades who were still alive. When they saw a Xi cavalryman who was not dead, they raised their maces and hit him with them, splashing blood on his face. Then they squatted down expressionlessly and looted money and armor.

After an inventory, Wanyan Zonghan led more than 900 cavalrymen and galloped towards the main force in the rear.

From time to time, news of fighting between scouts was reported on both sides, and the fields and forests were covered with the blood of the Qi and Liao armies.

News of the fighting continued to reach the armies of both sides. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the other side's army was not far away, and the atmosphere of the war was becoming increasingly tense. (End of this chapter)