Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 252 The Number One Under Heaven?

Lu Bu patted Yuwen Pu on the shoulder, then turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the still-shaken generals and soldiers inside and outside the tent, and raised his voice.

"You all saw that? As long as the map exists, we're here! If the map dies, we die! This godforsaken place wants to freeze us to death? Trapped us to death? No way! Once this damn wind stops, keep heading north! Measure every inch of this godforsaken place! Nail it to the map!"

"promise!"

This time, the responses came not only from the wolf riders, but also from the centurions of the loyalist cavalry, whose voices carried a sense of belonging.

The north wind still howled outside the tent, but the chill that threatened to overwhelm the main tent had been largely dispelled by the strong liquor.

After Lü Feng disinfected the lacerated wound on Yuwen Pu's arm with strong liquor, he applied a wound medicine.

The excruciating pain turned his face deathly pale, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat, but he gritted his teeth and didn't utter a sound. Only when Lü Feng handed him the Jin Yang Shao again did he gulp it down.

Lu Bu's words, "As long as the map exists, I live! If the map dies, I die!" are branded into the hearts of every soldier.

When the blizzard that had raged for three days and three nights finally gave up and the sky turned a bleak gray, the exhausted army once again broke camp and headed north.

This time, however, the atmosphere within the team underwent a subtle yet profound change.

The Wolf Riders remained the same silent, iron-willed black torrent, but when their gaze occasionally swept over the Righteous Cavalry, there was less scrutiny and distance, and more of a subtle, almost imperceptible, sense of approval.

Especially Yuwen Pu, whose hideous wound and resolute determination when protecting the map won the approval of these elite wolf riders.

During rest periods, veteran wolf riders would quietly hand over a piece of roasted jerky. When marching, if they saw the Guiyi Army's warhorses stuck in deep snow, nearby wolf riders would naturally ride over and help them with ropes.

Yuwen Mowei saw all of this.

He remained taciturn, maintaining the respect due to a Guiyi Captain, but in the deep-set eyes, a faint light seemed to ignite in the depths of weariness.

He disciplined his troops even more strictly, striving to match the Wolf Riders in both marching and camping.

The Guiyi Cavalry, these once unruly Xianbei warriors on the Yunzhong Grassland, after experiencing tribal disintegration, surrender to the Han, the bitter cold of the northern frontier, and the bloodshed of their comrades, seemed to have had some of their wildness worn away by the harsh environment and heavy mission.

They began to imitate the wolf riders' strict discipline.

The process of getting to know each other happens quietly in the unseen details.
-
As winter turned to spring, the wolf riders and the Guiyi cavalry, who had been exploring, drew a perfect semicircle across the vast desert and headed towards Han territory.

A desert.

"Master Craftsman Xu, have we deviated from the correct direction?"

Lu Bu's voice was a little hoarse as he looked at the cartographer in the group.

Xu Yan wrapped his head and face with a cloth, revealing only a pair of bloodshot, worried eyes.

He lay prone on the horse's back, with a simple compass and a half-dry, unrolled draft parchment fixed in front of him.

He kept checking the compass, then looked up in despair at the almost identical sand dunes all around him. His fingers trembled as he drew a dotted line on the sheepskin. Finally, he said dejectedly, "General... the desert is boundless, with no landmarks to refer to. Although the compass points south,... the dunes are unpredictable and it's easy to get lost. We... may already be going in circles."

A suppressed sense of panic silently spread through the ranks.

Getting lost in this sea of ​​sand is more despairing than freezing to death in the snowfield.

The horses began to stir restlessly. Water intake had been strictly controlled, but their energy expenditure remained astonishing.

Just then, Yuwen Mowei rode his horse closer to Lü Bu.

"General."

His voice was low and deep: "Let my men try?"

Lu Bu turned his head, his phoenix eyes sharp: "You have a way?"

Yuwen Mowei did not answer directly, but turned around and quickly gave a few instructions in Xianbei to Yuwen Pu and several of the oldest Guiyi cavalrymen behind him, whose faces were etched with the marks of time.

Upon hearing this, a look of seriousness flashed across the eyes of the old cavalrymen. They then dismounted and untied the water bags hanging from their waists.

But they weren't drinking the water; they were carefully pouring out the last bit of murky liquid that remained inside.

Then, to everyone's astonishment, these veteran Guiyi cavalrymen began to crawl forward on the scorching sand.

Like lizards hunting prey, they pressed their ears tightly to the sand, their nostrils flared, and even extended their tongues to lick the surface of the sand grains with extreme lightness.

Their movements were slow and focused, completely ignoring the sand and the choking wind.

Time passed slowly, and the atmosphere became so oppressive it was suffocating.

The wolf riders looked at each other in bewilderment, and the Righteous Cavalry held their breath.

Suddenly, an old cavalryman who was lying on the shady side of a sand dune with his face almost buried in the sand raised his head and shouted excitedly in a hoarse Xianbei language!
A glint flashed in Yuwen Mowei's eyes, and he immediately spurred his horse forward.

Lü Bu followed closely behind.

The old Guiyi cavalryman pointed to the seemingly normal sand beneath him and said hurriedly in broken Mandarin mixed with gestures, "Down there... dampness! Wind... smell! There's... something there!"

Yuwen Pu immediately dismounted, drew his short sword from his waist, and began to dig vigorously.

A dozen strong men from the Wolf Riders and the Guiyi Army immediately rushed out and began digging frantically with shovels, scimitars, and even helmets.

The sandpit was dug deeper and deeper, and the sand gradually became damp, even carrying a very faint earthy smell.

Just as everyone was digging with all their might, Wei Xu's short knife struck a hard object with a clang!

"A stone!" someone exclaimed.

The group's spirits lifted, and they dug even harder.

Soon, the edges of a huge, porous, dark brown basalt rock were revealed.

Continuing downwards, digging along the cracks in the rocks, a very faint, damp smell, carrying a strong earthy odor, finally seeped out!

"It's a water vein! Water is seeping from the cracks in the rocks!"

Xu Yan's voice trembled with excitement.

Although the amount of water was extremely small, as slow as a tear seeping out, it was like a godsend for the team on the verge of despair! The soldiers burst into long-suppressed cheers, and hope rekindled in their eyes.

Lu Bu looked at Yuwen Mowei, then at the old Guiyi cavalrymen covered in sand, exhausted but with bright eyes, and slowly nodded.

"Commander Yuwen".

"Your men lead the way, find the path across this sea of ​​sand!"

"The last general takes command!"

Yuwen Mowei clasped his hands in a fist salute, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of excitement.

"Master Craftsman Xu, draw it carefully!"

"promise!"

In the days that followed, the veterans of the Guiyi Cavalry, who had fought their way through the desert, became the guiding lights for the unit.

They observed the texture and direction of the sand dunes, discerned subtle differences in the smell of the wind, and even determined direction based on the extremely rare, almost indistinguishable insect tracks on the sand.

Their experience, combined with Xu Yan's compass and ranging tools, finally allowed them to painstakingly trace a winding but clearly directional path through this deadly desert.

The wolf riders took on the tasks of clearing the way and keeping watch.

They used ropes to pull the supply wagons to avoid getting stuck in quicksand, set up outposts on the most dangerous sand ridges, and hunted the occasional sand foxes and wolves with powerful bows.

When a quicksand trap swallowed a Guiyi Army warhorse that had inadvertently stepped into it, nearby wolf riders were the first to throw out a rope and pull the shaken Guiyi cavalryman up. Crisis after crisis, mutual assistance after mutual help.

The discipline of the wolf riders and the survival wisdom of the steppe warriors were painstakingly and gradually merging together in this desolate land that even the heavens seemed to have forgotten.

During the rest, the wolf riders and soldiers of the Guiyi Army began to have simple conversations around the dim campfire.

Although their language skills were still somewhat rudimentary, interspersed with gestures and half-understood words, the sense of shared destiny and mutual understanding in their eyes was silently growing.

When the withered yellow once again replaced the boundless yellow sand, and specks of green appeared, they had completed their first desert painting task and returned to their homeland.

The horse was thin and bony, with a dull coat.

The soldiers' faces were more weathered, but their eyes were like polished obsidian, calm and sharp.

The mottled scratches on the wolf riders' black armor and the tattered red robes of the Guiyi cavalry silently testify to the perilous terrain they have traversed.

But the core of the team, the wooden crates containing surveying tools and heavy parchment scrolls, were protected with very little damage.

Upon returning to their familiar land, they were no longer like headless flies, wandering aimlessly across the wasteland.

The route home was clear and predictable: heading south along the east bank of a seasonal river, passing through a narrow pass marked as White Wolf Pass, one would reach the northern gate of Wuyuan County, Jiuyuan City.

Lu Bu was still leading the charge.

The once majestic Red Horse had also become much thinner. The joy of returning home improved Lü Bu's mood considerably, and he even hummed an off-key frontier tune, a rare occurrence for him.

More than half a year of living in the open and fighting to the death did not diminish his spirit; on the contrary, it made his aura more refined and restrained.

He would occasionally turn back, his gaze sweeping over the righteous cavalrymen in the ranks, his eyes conveying approval.

In the past six months, they have encountered roaming bandits, fought fiercely against hungry wolves, lost their way in sandstorms, struggled through swamps, and even miraculously found a spring in a dried-up riverbed.

In every desperate situation, the Yuwen tribe's cavalry demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability to the harsh conditions of the grasslands.

Yuwen Pu further won some recognition from Lü Bu's loyal generals, including Song Xian and Wei Xu, through his actions.

That map, bearing the weight of countless efforts and bloodshed, acted like an invisible bond, tightly binding these two originally disparate armies together under a common goal and a brutal environment.

"General!"

Song Xian, who was in charge of the outpost, rode back from a distance with a hint of excitement on his face.

"The 'White Wolf Pass' is less than thirty li ahead! After passing the pass, we'll see the beacon towers of Jiuyuan City in about half a day!"

"it is good!"

Lü Bu's spirits lifted, and he suddenly spurred his horse.

"Pass the order! Speed ​​up! We must reach Jiuyuan before sunset!"

Returning like an arrow.

The pace of the procession noticeably quickened, the dull thud of hooves echoing across the hard, dry ground.

When the towering, jagged "White Wolf's Mouth" pass, resembling the fangs of a giant wolf, came into view, even the most shy soldiers broke into beaming smiles.
-
My long-lost homeland.

The long-awaited fresh air.

The long-lost grassland.

Even that mound of Jingguan (a type of human pyramid) is something I miss so much.

More than 2,800 riders galloped all the way, passing through numerous beacon towers and passes, and finally arrived at Jiuyuan City.

Half a year later, the original ruins of the city have been replaced by your magnificent construction, with the rammed earth walls completely replaced by gray-white concrete blocks.

The city walls were towering, and the city gate tower was several times larger.

Lu Bu ordered Lu Feng and Yuwen Pu to lead the Wolf Cavalry and Guiyi Cavalry to camp ten miles outside the city, while he led Yuwen Mowei and other generals back to the city to report on their duties.

Just as everyone was passing through the archway, a commotion arose from the main street of the city, accompanied by the excited screams of children and the chatter of the crowd.

"Look! It's posted! The top ten list of the World's Greatest Martial Arts Tournament!"

"Really? Read it out quickly! Who are they?"

"Dian Wei of Chenliu! Xu Chu of Qiao Commandery! Gan Ning of Ba Commandery! Zhou Da also has an unknown nobody named Pei San who has also made it into the top ten this time..."

The murmurs flooded into Lü Bu's ears like a tidal wave.

His foot, which had just been taken, suddenly stopped in his tracks!

The World's Greatest Martial Arts Tournament?

What kind of excitement has been happening in Bingzhou while I've been away for half a year?

Filled with curiosity, the generals entered the residence of the Protector-General of the Xiongnu.

"Fengxian!"

Huang Zhong was handling military affairs when, after being informed by the garrison commander of the Colonel's Office, he went out directly to greet Lü Bu and the others.

The map of the desert is crucial to the details of conquering it, so he couldn't afford to be careless.

When Lü Bu, Yuwen Mowei, Wei Xu, and the others saw Huang Zhong, they all clasped their hands in a salute.

Nowadays, the Wolf Cavalry and the Guiyi Cavalry are nominally under the control of the Protectorate of the Xiongnu, and Huang Zhong, the Protectorate of the Xiongnu, is naturally their direct superior.

However, Lu Bu and Huang Zhong were already quite familiar with each other, and after bowing, Lu Bu couldn't wait to ask.

"General, when I entered the city just now, I heard about the World's Number One Martial Arts Tournament. What's going on there?"

Huang Zhong's face showed a look of longing, and he sighed slightly: "When the preparation for the conference was underway, you were sent to the desert, so you didn't know that this conference was organized by our lord. He invited all the warriors of the Han Dynasty to compete and determine the best in the world!"

"what!"

Lu Bu was shocked, while Yuwen Mowei beside him was somewhat bewildered. It was just a martial arts competition; their Xianbei tribe held one every year.

Huang Zhong, however, saw through Lü Bu's thoughts. In fact, he felt the same way. If he hadn't been tied up with other matters, he would have insisted on going.

That's the title of the best in the world!
Lu Bu cupped his hands to Huang Zhong, deftly took the wolf cavalry's badge from his waist, and then took off his captain's belt and handed it to Huang Zhong.

"Brother Hansheng, you should ask Commandant Yuwen and Master Craftsman Xu about the maps. This...this..."

His eyes darted left and right, and when he saw the wooden box in Master Xu's hand, an idea immediately came to him!
"My lord attaches great importance to the affairs of the desert, so I will send this map directly to him!"

"I will retire at the end!"

After saying that, he picked up the wooden box from Master Xu's hand and walked out without looking back.

Number one in the world!

He, Lü Bu, is the one.
Wait a minute, Brother Hansheng is stronger than me, and our lord is stronger than me too.
The title of third in the world must belong to me!

He needs to go to Jinyang to see what kind of people they are. Otherwise, how can just any Tom, Dick, or Harry be worthy of the title of being ranked number one in the world?

Huang Zhong watched Lü Bu's retreating figure, smiled helplessly, and thought, "Let him be."

The map was originally intended to be sent to Jinyang, and the cartographer who drew it was also there, so he could get a general understanding of the situation.

(End of this chapter)