My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 518: Execute Zhang Xiu and destroy the enemy

"Zhang Fei is indeed worthy of his reputation. He actually has such great strength."

Zhang Xiu turned his horse around and was alert, but his head was still buzzing. For a moment, he seemed to be unable to hear the sounds of the bloody battles among the other soldiers around him.

He could only stare at Zhang Fei with his eyes, nervously paying attention to even the slightest movement of Zhang Fei, so as to avoid being suddenly attacked by the opponent.

"You Xiliang bastard, take my spear!" Zhang Fei was relentless and while the other party's tinnitus had not yet subsided, he shouted again and swung his snake spear wildly, rushing towards Zhang Xiu fiercely.

As Zhang Fei rushed over, two old soldiers from Xiliang, one on the left and one on the right, were hit by the spear tip and fell off their horses and died without a sound.

Seeing that he was coming at him fiercely, Zhang Xiu did not dare to take it lightly, but just held his spear horizontally and did not dare to block it head-on. He intended to release the force after the spear and spear collided, and then deflect Zhang Fei's snake spear like the two moves just now.

However, as the spears collided, Zhang Xiu was stunned to find that the situation was completely different from before.

At first, Zhang Xiu stretched his arms with all his strength and tensed his muscles, thinking only of blocking the powerful blow from the snake spear.

But after the spears collided, Zhang Fei's great force only lasted for a very short moment, and was quickly recovered. Zhang Xiu had never expected this to happen, and he used too much force, and the steel spear could not help but be sent forward, and his body also slightly lost its center of gravity.

Fortunately, Zhang Xiu was also an experienced and brave general. When he found something wrong, he immediately bent his waist and horse, clamped the horse's belly and retracted his body. The warhorse under his crotch was also in pain and raised its front hooves.

But Zhang Fei on the other side was a rare and fierce general in the world, so how could he miss such a flaw? He immediately pressed down the spear shaft and dragged the weapon back. Because of the uneven force, the forked side tip of the snake spear immediately stuck to the inside of Zhang Xiu's steel spear shaft and pecked at the position where Zhang Xiu's front hand was holding.

Zhang Xiu's attention was entirely focused on stabilizing his body's center of gravity. By the time he noticed something was wrong, it was already too late.

He loosened his front hand repeatedly, but only felt a chill on his palm. Before he felt any pain, the little finger and ring finger of his front hand holding the gun had been cut off by the fork of the snake spear.

It turned out that Zhang Fei's move, seemingly as powerful as thunder, was actually just a lot of noise but little action. After the weapons met, he wanted to use the forked barbs of the snake spear to lock Zhang Xiu's spear and pull it back, forcing the opponent to let go!

It's like when two people are wrestling, and the other person is obviously a strong man, so the other person tries his best, but the strong man plays a dirty trick on you and immediately pulls back. The one who tried his best is lucky to be able to stand firm and not fall forward, so how can he have the energy to resist?

Although Zhang Xiu's martial arts were obviously not as good as Zhang Fei's, he could still easily withstand dozens of Zhang Fei's moves in a fair fight.

It was a pity that he never expected that Zhang Fei, a brave and rough general with a full beard, would actually play dirty tricks on him. After the first three or four real moves, he suddenly mixed in a fake move.

By the time Zhang Xiu had been on guard, he had already lost two fingers. If he expected to use the remaining eight fingers to hold the spear and fight again, he might not be able to last even ten moves.

Moreover, it was very depressing for a general to be tricked by an enemy who seemed to be less intelligent than him. Zhang Xiu was shocked, angry, and hurt, and his moves became more and more chaotic.

He danced wildly with anger, and used his steel spear to make it like a gust of wind in order to protect himself. For a while, the water could not penetrate him.

But such a frenetic fighting style consumed too much physical strength. Zhang Fei succeeded in a sneak attack and broke two fingers of the opponent, but he did not fight with him for a while. He just kept a distance and used the snake spear to sweep the block and interrupt Zhang Xiu's rhythm.

However, after just a few moves, Zhang Xiu's anger faded a little, and his tactics gradually became chaotic. Zhang Fei seized the opportunity and stabbed Zhang Xiu's ribs with his snake spear as cunningly as a venomous snake.

Zhang Xiu screamed in pain and lost his strength, but Zhang Fei added two more moves and completely defeated him.

During the whole process, the cavalry of both sides did not let the main general fight alone, but fought together in groups. Just now, when Zhang Fei was killing Zhang Xiu, they each used one or two moves to stab the approaching enemy cavalry to death. When Zhang Xiu died, there were more than a dozen corpses lying on the ground beside him, from both sides.

"Zhang Xiu is dead! Those who surrender will not be killed!" Zhang Fei swung his snake spear like flying, clearing a space around him again, and then shouted loudly to suppress the enemy's momentum.

His uniquely loud voice made the news of Zhang Xiu's death spread faster and farther than any of his previous killings. In just a few breaths, all Cao's soldiers within a hundred steps knew that General Zhang was dead.

Liu Bei's army became more and more motivated as a result. The soldiers with long spears who had been hiding in the gaps between the chariot poles now charged forward, thrusting their spears and launching a counterattack.

The cavalry under Zhang Xiu's command were soon pushed back by the smaller infantry. The soldiers were in a panic and wanted to use the speed advantage of their horses to quickly withdraw from the battle and reorganize their formation.

Zhang Fei did not dare to pursue the enemy too closely. After all, he did not have many cavalrymen under his command, and if they chased their own infantry and chariot formations too far, any mishap would dampen their morale.

So Zhang Fei decisively ordered the crossbowmen to get back on the chariots and shoot arrows at the enemy cavalry. For a moment, the air was raining arrows again, causing Cao's cavalry to leave more than 200 bodies on their way back.

"General, shall we chase them?" The generals around Zhang Fei had bloodshot eyes and were eager to try.

Zhang Fei, however, was able to control his movements and even patted the other party on the shoulder: "Why are you chasing us? We only have a few cavalrymen, and you have all forgotten what you are doing here today? Get on the boat and retreat! We are just feinting all the way here! We are covering our big brother's landing on the other side!"

The subordinates did not dare to disobey the order and carried out it immediately. After an incense stick of time, all of Zhang Fei's troops boarded the ship and evacuated.

……

On the other hand, the defeated soldiers under Zhang Xiu did not dare to look back after running away, and finally ran into the infantry reserve led by Xiahou Yuan himself to support Zhang Xiu. As mentioned earlier, Xiahou Yuan also wanted to save time, so he let Zhang Xiu lead the cavalry first, and he led the infantry to reinforce later.

Unexpectedly, the infantry had only traveled two-thirds of the distance when the contact battle on the front line was over, and they were defeated.

Xiahou Yuan stopped the defeated soldiers and shouted at them to rectify discipline and gather the troops. After making inquiries, he learned that Zhang Xiu was suspected to have died in the battle.

Upon hearing this, Xiahou Yuan was shocked and angry, but unwilling to accept it. He immediately ordered his troops to speed up and go to Zhang Fei's landing site to see what was going on.

Unfortunately, more than a quarter of an hour later, when Xiahou Yuan arrived at the battlefield, he saw that the enemy had already run away.

Xiahou Yuan was shocked. He thought that after killing Zhang Xiu and repelling Cao's cavalry, Zhang Fei would seize the time to expand the landing site and consolidate the beachhead.

I didn't expect it was a complete feint!
At this moment, even if Xiahou Yuan's IQ was low, he had already thought of this:

"Not good! Zhang Fei's feint here must be a diversion to cover the main force crossing the river in another direction! I didn't expect that this route with Zhang Fei himself could be a feint! Hurry back to the camp!"

The soldiers of Cao's army hurriedly carried out the general's order and turned back in a hurry.

After a long time, after traveling thirty miles, the troops returned to the main camp in Jiangbei. The reserve troops were already exhausted. If Xiahou Yuan wanted to organize a reserve force to block the enemy, he could only temporarily select another group of troops.

Unfortunately, Liu Bei and Pang Tong would not give him this time at all.

As soon as Xiahou Yuan rushed back to the main camp, Jia Xu came up to him with a sullen face and told him the bad news:
"General, half an hour after you left the camp, scouts came from downstream to report that the enemy fleet turned into Dangqu, found a deep river bend, and landed a troop of soldiers. The number of soldiers is larger than that of Zhang Fei's troops who just reported.

But the main cavalry forces in the camp were assembled to fight Zhang Fei, and I was unable to immediately organize a blocking force and attack him halfway across the river. Please make the decision, General!"

When Xiahou Yuan heard that the "main force" downstream had already landed for so long, his heart sank: it would be too late to attack them halfway across the river. By the time he transferred his troops over, the enemy would have already established a firm foothold.

Xiahou Yuan was still somewhat unwilling and puzzled, and could not help but ask:
"The one led by Zhang Fei was actually a feint attack? The one without Zhang Fei was actually the main attack? Have you found out who was leading the troops without Zhang Fei?"

Jia Xu was able to answer this question: "It has not been found out yet. The enemy did not raise the flag immediately after landing, probably to match the real situation with the fake one. But I have asked people to do their best to keep an eye on it and find out."

After a while, another team of scouts came into the camp to report. Xiahou Yuan summoned them immediately and asked them in detail, and only then did he get the result.

"Reporting to the general, our scouts have found out that the enemy has successfully set up camp at the landing point downstream in the direction of Dangqu, and they are flying the banner of Liu Bei himself!"

Xiahou Yuan and Jia Xu couldn't help but look at each other, with a grim look in their eyes.

"It is Liu Bei who is personally leading the army to cross the river? Liu Bei really values this general! Since things have come to this, tomorrow we will have to fight Liu Bei in person! If he has the guts, just come and storm our main camp!" Xiahou Yuan sighed as he clenched his fists.

Although they suffered another defeat today, it was impossible for Xiahou Yuan to change his mind and retreat immediately.

Firstly, the enemy's landing site was closer than expected, and if he wanted to retreat, he would definitely be chased and killed.

Secondly, the detachment that Xiahou Yuan sent to Dangqu to collect grain had not all returned yet. If he ran away at this time, he would be abandoning his friendly army. Although Xiahou Yuan was not very intelligent, he was still a very righteous person.

Since all other options were blocked, he had no choice but to defend his camp and fight to the death with Liu Bei.

It was at this time that Xiahou Yuan finally found time to explain the details of today's defeat to Jia Xu and Feng Kai and mentioned the news of Zhang Xiu's death.

Jia Xu and Zhang Xiu were both born as Xiliang bandit generals, remnants of Dong Zhuo. Hearing about this, Jia Xu could not help but feel sad: he persuaded Zhang Xiu to surrender to Cao Cao, which was selling out Zhang Xiu in exchange for his own safety and wealth. He did not expect that Zhang Xiu would finally be killed.

……

On the other hand, after Liu Bei completed the landing at nightfall that day, he urgently called on his soldiers to set up camp and consolidate the defense.

It was not until the evening of You hour that Liu Bei and Pang Tong saw Xiahou Yuan coming to "attack halfway across the river", so they knew that Xiahou Yuan had given up.

It was delayed until the hour of Xu. Zhang Fei, who had retreated after a feint from upstream, also went down the Jialing River and turned into Dangqu, where he landed and joined forces with Liu Bei.

Liu Bei asked about the battle results and was overjoyed when he heard that Zhang Fei had killed Zhang Xiu. He ordered people to prepare three bowls of wine, and he and his third brother drank three bowls of wine.

Zhang Fei wanted to drink more, but Liu Bei personally stopped him: "Brother, no! We have to attack Xiahou Yuan's main camp tomorrow. As long as we defeat Xiahou Yuan, you can drink as much as you want! If you dare to drink more now, you won't be able to participate in the general attack on Xiahou Yuan tomorrow!"

Even if Zhang Fei loved drinking, after hearing this condition, he could only turn his desire for alcohol into hatred, and force himself to go back and rest early, so as to strive to achieve greater achievements in the future.

(End of this chapter)