Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

Under the blue sky and white clouds, above the green fields.

In the smoke and dust, cavalrymen in black armor rushed over violently, like two black waves, embracing this side. Knights in leather armor and carrying red flags raised their horns as they marched.

Woo… Woo——

The desolate horn sounded with a long and short tone that was completely different from that of the Liao army. The roar of iron hooves flashed across the earth, and the huge sound of horse hooves came from the northwest and southeast.

Countless horse hooves trampled on the green grass ground. The dense crowds and horses were clearly distinguished from the sky. The khaki figures were trying to escape the swallowing of the black tide. War drums were beating among the Qi army infantrymen who were surrounding the chariots. Under the passionate drum beats, the forests of spears were advancing towards the Liao cavalry who were unable to move in front.

The sudden shouts and cries of killing all around made the Liao cavalry panic. Some of them lost their horses and had no hope of retreating, so they gritted their teeth and rushed forward, relying on their armor to kill and injure one or two people. Then they were knocked to the ground by spears, and more sharp weapons stabbed at them along the ground. They screamed and died on the spot.

In the midst of the fighting, the cavalry who had started to flee backwards noticed the cavalry coming quickly from both sides, and they suddenly panicked. The people squeezed in the middle began to run away in a disorderly manner, but could not get out. Some generals roared and issued military orders, but their voices seemed pale and powerless under the trumpets and drums of war.

"Prepare--"

The tide that was running endlessly gave orders, and the knights in black armor drew their bows and arrows and raised their arms to point to the sky.

At the same time, Yelu Dezhong, who was retreating, looked at the cavalry rushing in like a tide, took a deep breath, and angrily yelled to the soldiers beside him: "Hurry up and clear the way, the enemy cavalry is coming, put down the damn flag!"

The guards behind heard the order, were stunned for a moment, and hurriedly let go, letting the large flag with Khitan writing fall to the ground.

Yelu Dezhong raised his Fang Tian Hua Ji and knocked a cavalryman who wanted to run past him off his horse. He shouted, "Go back and fight!", spitting out, and his excited face turned the color of liver again...

Cooked.

The scouts sent out before only discovered that this group of infantry were forming a battle array, and then sent back a message to lure him to attack, but he no longer had time to investigate the responsibility. As long as he rushed out, he would run to the Western Xia side this time, and no one would be able to find him in the next war.

"kill--"

The shouts from both sides made the Liao soldiers change color. Arrows rained down on the retreating army. Then pistols and flying axes were thrown from people's hands. Amidst the howlings, Guan Sheng took the lead and charged into the group of enemy soldiers, waving his Green Dragon Crescent Blade with a huge whistling sound.

Human heads, limbs, and blood were sprayed into the sky along his path. He shouted, "Looking for the enemy commander--" His wide-open eyes were filled with figures, and the general flag that had just been raised was no longer there.

On the other side, a steel spear stained with sticky blood plasma was pulled out of a human body, occasionally drawing a beautiful arc to knock the cavalry in front of him off their horses. Han Shizhong frantically ran through the fleeing crowd, dodged the stabbing spears, raised his hand and stabbed a Liao cavalryman in the chest with a spear. With a "puff" sound, the whole person was lifted off the saddle by him, and with a force far beyond that of an ordinary person, he smashed the corpse into another person. The torn wound sprayed blood, and the two figures disappeared on the saddle again.

Han Shizhong kept swinging his steel spear, looking up at the empty space where the general's flag had been erected. His brows tightened immediately, "Go forward to the front of the flag, and kill those who are armor-piercing!"

He swung his steel spear to knock the man who wanted to launch a sneak attack off his horse, kicked the horse's belly and galloped straight over there, stabbing left and right with the long spear in his hand. The cavalrymen around him and behind him quickly chased after him to protect him on both sides.

……

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

Anxious voices kept erupting. Yelu Dezhong rode forward with a Fang Tian Ji in his hand, anxiously hitting the soldiers blocking his way with the painted halberd. The people being beaten dared not speak out. Not only because of his status, but also because of the hundreds of armored guards beside him, he had the confidence. Who would dare to lose their temper at this time?

The people in front of him kept dodging, and the sudden outbreak of fighting in front of him startled him. In the shadows, he saw a general in a green robe and golden scale armor rushing into the crowd. He immediately pulled the reins, turned his horse's head, and ran in the other direction.

In front of him, more and more black armor flashed in the gaps of the crowd. Yelu Dezhong gritted his teeth and knocked down a cavalryman who was spinning in circles on his horse with his halberd. He ordered the guards around him: "Don't hold back. Kill anyone who blocks the way. Otherwise, you will be implicated by these idiots today."

The next moment, he charged towards the cavalry in front.

……

A little further away, the horses' hooves slowed down slightly, and steel spears flew wildly among the crowd.

……

The scolding and killing behavior of Yelu Dezhong and his personal soldiers finally aroused the bloodiness of some soldiers. With a shout of "Ah!", they swung their spears and scimitars and chopped back. The generals who wanted to escape quickly were instantly dragged down.

"I've turned against you!"

"Get out of the way!"

"Go away——"

Roars rose up in the ranks of more than a hundred people. On the warhorse, Yelu Dezhong, who was wielding the Fang Tian Ji, had red eyes: "Go to hell—"

Not far away, a figure holding a steel spear came forward on horseback, his white cloak covered in sticky blood. With a rustling sound, he shook it open, and the steel spear whizzed out.

boom--

There was a loud bang, and Yelu Dezhong reacted quickly and blocked the stabbing steel spear. His arms were shaking from the impact, and he gritted his teeth and held on tightly, but he still felt a little powerless.

The soldier who was almost killed by him was wearing a ragged earth-colored cloth. Seeing this, he did not run away, but shouted in Chinese: "He is Yelu Dezhong!"

Suddenly, a gun was fired at the horse with great force.

"what--"

The royal family member on the warhorse cried out, and the spear left a hole in his armor, and blood spurted out.

On the side, Han Shizhong, whose steel spear was blocked by Fang Tianji, instinctively thought that this was a Liao general. He was about to use his skills to capture the other party and interrogate the whereabouts of his commander, but suddenly his eyes lit up when he heard the words coming over.

It happened that Yelu Dezhong was injured at this time, and the power of the Fang Tian Ji was immediately reduced. Han Shizhong turned his wrist and stabbed the injured Liao commander on the opposite side.

The steel spear made a sound in the wind.

puff--

The sharp spear head, more than two feet long, pierced into Yelu Dezhong's neck, and he swept his arms outward with force.

laugh--

Most of the neck was cut open, and the head was tilted to the side with only a layer of skin attached. Blood spurted out of the cavity, splashing all over the heads and bodies of those nearby.

Han Shizhong immediately urged his mount forward, ignoring the smelly blood spurting like rain, he drew the protective sword at his waist, grabbed the braid on the opponent's head, and cut the flesh at the connection. The head was immediately cut off and inserted into the steel spear.

While he was killing people here, the guards who were originally protecting Yelu Dezhong were caught off guard by the Qi cavalry who were charging over. They screamed in panic, and many of them were chopped off their horses by the approaching cavalry, while more of them fought with the Qi army with swords on their horses.

"Your commander is dead, why don't you surrender now?!"

A roar came from Han Shizhong's mouth. The Han soldier rescued by Han Shizhong immediately jumped off his horse, threw away his spear and knelt down.

"I am willing to surrender!" The shout came out, and more people looked over. When they saw the head lifted up by the steel spear above the head, chaos broke out. Many people abandoned their horses and surrendered, but more people turned around and tried to find ways to escape. The whole battlefield instantly changed from fighting to capturing prisoners.

Han Shizhong was overjoyed when he saw this, and immediately sent out his cavalry to issue an order: "Separate the defeated soldiers and force them to surrender." Then he ignored the surrendered soldiers and went to see Lu Zhishen and Pan Zhong first. When he saw the concave position on the southeast side of the battle formation, and the heavy casualties on both sides, he immediately understood what was happening and sighed: "This is too risky. Fortunately, the morale of the Liao army is not high. The two generals must not do this next time."

Pan Zhong shook his head and took a step forward: "This is my idea, it has nothing to do with the master."

"I agree to this, too." Lu Zhishen waved his hands and wiped the blood that splashed on his face: "You don't have to keep taking the blame on yourself."

Then he laughed and patted his chest: "Although it was risky, at least we managed to hold back some of the enemy cavalry."

Han Shizhong saw this and knew that the two of them didn't listen, so he had no choice but to change the subject: "Let's call the captives over for questioning first."

With a thought in mind, he ordered his followers, "Find the soldier who just revealed Yelu Dezhong's identity on the battlefield."

At that moment, a guard mounted his horse and ran back, and soon brought the man over. The man was also smart and knelt down quickly: "My humble servant Li Yi greets all the great generals of Qi."

Han Shizhong looked at him and saw that he was strong and resolute, so he liked him a little. He raised his hand and said, "You have done a good job this time. Stand up and answer your question."

Li Yi was also delighted. He stood up calmly and bowed his head slightly with a respectful look on his face.

Han Shizhong looked at Guan Sheng who was capturing prisoners in the distance, then looked at him: "I want to ask you, how many troops are there in the city? How is the defense?"

"There are still more than 2,000 soldiers and horses in the city, and the original number was 120,000 or 130,000." Li Yi clasped his fists and spoke without thinking: "This time, the governor heard that your army was coming, and sent Yelu Dezhong to lead 10,000 soldiers to rebel. Now, only 4,000 cavalry have been defeated by the general, and there are still 6,000 infantry behind. I don't know if we have received the news of the cavalry's defeat at this time, but we are some distance away from the city, and the general should be able to catch up now."

"Good boy, good! Give him a horse, follow me and lead the way!" Han Shizhong turned around and ran onto the horse, shouting, "Brother and General Pan, clean up the battlefield, blow the horn, the cavalry will follow me--"

Lu Zhishen and Pan Zhong hurriedly ordered their men to watch over the prisoners and clean up the battlefield.

As the war horses galloped, the guards beside them hurriedly took the horn and blew a desolate sound. The cavalrymen who were chasing the enemy heard the horn sound and turned around without paying attention to the cavalrymen running in front of them. The horses' hooves flew. Han Shizhong's body swayed with the galloping horse. Guan Sheng, holding the Qinglong Yanyue Sword, caught up from the side and asked: "What's the emergency? Are there more enemies?"

Han Shizhong raised his spear and said, "There is still a group of infantry in the field ahead. If we defeat them, there won't be many soldiers left in Huihe City."

Guan Sheng was overjoyed and urged his troops forward. About 1,400 cavalrymen rode their horses frantically, and under the guidance of Li Yi, they marched forward with clouds of dust rising into the sky.

The enthusiasm of the skylight behind the clouds faded a little, and the undulating hills passed by quickly. The dull sound of horse hooves hit the ground, like the beating of war drums. The nearby grass and trees swayed, and the tiny stones were also restless, jumping slightly in the soil and rocks.

After running for almost the same amount of time, the cavalrymen in front suddenly slowed down their horses, and when the banners of Han Shizhong and Guan Sheng came over, they shouted loudly on their horses: "There are signs of a large group of troops turning around here."

"The infantry is right in front of us!"

Han Shizhong was delighted: "Just jog for a while, then chase after them and defeat them!"

The next moment, the cavalry slowed down their pace upon receiving the order, and soon after, they pursued at full speed again. In just half an hour, the Huizhou infantry, which had no will to fight, was defeated, and more than half of them begged for surrender to Han Shizhong.

The rest either turned into corpses or scattered in all directions, leaving Huihe City exposed to the Qi army.

On that day, Han Shizhong ordered Li Yi to take the captives to the city to make a public announcement. The morale of the defenders had been low since they learned that their army of tens of thousands had been defeated. When they saw that their comrades were not massacred but instead surrendered to the Qi army, they immediately laid down their weapons and opened the city gates. Seeing this, many officials in the city came out to surrender, but the governor of the state saw that there was nothing he could do, so he swallowed some gold and committed suicide in the state government office.

Huizhou was then conquered.

……

Flickering flames burned on the tattered flags, wisps of black smoke drifted over the broken spears that were crookedly stuck in the ground, arrows occasionally flew across the sky, and the Liao soldiers who were staggering on the ground froze and fell down, falling into a pool of blood.

The eyes that gradually lost their luster reflected the field beside them, where densely packed corpses stretched out. The warhorse that had lost its master wandered around its master, occasionally lowering its head to bite his armor with its mouth, making mournful neighs.

Soon, the reins of the warhorse were pulled, and the Jurchens who had received the spoils laughed loudly and showed off to their companions, baring their yellow teeth. They patted the three heads hanging under the necks of the warhorses and said in broken Chinese: "Look, this is a cow. When I get back, I can find another wife and give birth to some boys."

"Don't give birth to only girls. I'll see how many cows and sheep you give as dowry." His companion was displeased with his boastful look, and snorted and made a swearing gesture, which caused him to curse.

On the battlefield that had already ended, Wanyan Huonu, riding on a warhorse, led the Jurchen cavalry to search for surviving Liao soldiers.

A warhorse nudged the corpse on the ground with its mouth. The man squinted his eyes and moved his fingers, trying to push the warhorse away. He heard footsteps coming and quickly closed his eyes and pretended to be dead.

Wanyan Huonu watched with boredom as her personal soldiers looted all the valuable things on the physical body, then she picked up her warhorse and was about to walk away.

The "dead body" on the ground breathed a sigh of relief.

"Live girl."

The voice made the young man who was about to leave stop. As the "corpse" cursed in his heart, the majestic warhorse came over.

"father."

Wanyan Huo Nu turned around and called out, hesitantly saying, "Today is already Yi Si Day, and there are only a few days left until the end of the month. We still have to go and attack Enhua City. Why didn't you go and fight with Han for Huizhou?"

"Hello, General Han!" Wanyan Loushi stopped his horse and glared at his son: "I have my own arrangements, why are you so anxious? I asked you to watch more and talk less during this period of time, and I'm afraid you will forget it again, right?"

He looked around on horseback and said, "Enzhou's soldiers and horses are almost dead. Quickly clean up the battlefield and follow me to attack the city."

"Yes." Wanyan Huonu accepted the order without much enthusiasm.

Wanyan Loushi raised his hand and was about to turn his horse around and leave, but seeing him like this, he put his arm down and said, "No need to be so polite. Today I'm doing Han Liangchen a favor, and he will have to repay me someday."

After a pause, he looked towards the southeast: "It's just Zhongjing, no need to worry."

Wanyan Huonu's eyes moved, and she felt that there was something behind her father's words. She knew that her father had some ideas, and she was much more excited. She quickly said, "It's my son's fault. The advance has been slow these past two days, and I'm a little anxious."

"No need to slow down." Wanyan Loushi smiled: "There is enough time left."

With a pull of the reins, the warhorse turned around: "We need to be faster from now on."

"Just waiting for Dad to say this."

"You still need some training." Wanyan Loushi shook his head, and his horse slowly took two steps forward. He turned his head and said, "By the way, since you left him alive, why tie him up and leave him on the ground?"

"what?"

Wanyan Huonu was stunned. Before she could react, the "dead body" on the ground suddenly stood up. She instinctively raised her hand and chopped the man to death on the spot. She looked at the blood-gushing corpse in astonishment: "Is this guy alive?"

Wanyan Loushi shook his head again, turned around, kicked off his horse, and trotted away.

Soon, the Jurchen troops gathered together, and the army marched towards the city of Enhua with a roar. Wanyan Huonu and Wanyan Zonghan who were with the army attacked the east and west gates respectively, and they entered the city in just one hour.

In the last month of spring, on Bingwu day, the city of Enzhou fell. (End of this chapter)