Liu Bei: My younger brother is a deity.

The entire Tanhan Mountain was in a state of chaos.

The corpses of the Xianbei people were piled up into small mountains.

There were also strings of Xianbei women and children bound together with ropes.

He squatted on the ground, trembling.

Liu Bei glanced at the long string of Xianbei women and children bound together, and asked in a somewhat guilty voice, "A-Quan, are we really going to... take all these people away?"

Liu Quan patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Abei, listen to me. If these women stay on the grassland, they will give birth to many little Xianbei in a year or two; and in another ten years or so, these children will become skilled Xianbei cavalrymen."

"By then, they'll be wielding steel swords and storming into the border regions. How many Han heads will they cut off? How many Han houses will they burn down? You and I grew up in Youzhou, and the border regions have been plundered by the barbarians every year. In which year weren't there corpses everywhere?"

Liu Bei sighed and did not reply.

Liu Quan continued, "We will take them back to Youzhou, teach the children to speak Han language and learn Han etiquette, and serve them as slaves; the women will be married off to Han men as wives or concubines, and the children they bear will be Han people."

"Our three prefectures of You, Bing, and Liang have been decimated by the Hu people over the years. We can use them to replenish our population; with fewer women and children on the grasslands, the Xianbei will have one less group of warriors to raise. It's a win-win situation, Abei, what is there to feel guilty about?"

Liu Bei pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded.

Liu Quan added a piece of firewood to the campfire and continued, "Furthermore, A-Bei, think about it. Including Fengxian, Xinzhi, and the others, there are about three hundred of us who followed us to this Danhan Mountain, risking our lives and licking blood. What are we after? Brotherhood is one thing, but we can't let our brothers suffer, can we? Giving them wives isn't too much to ask, is it?"

As he spoke, Liu Quan revealed a mischievous expression, "Look at Yun Chang, he's been a bachelor for many years, without even a single person who cares about him. It's time for him to experience the taste of a woman."

Guan Yu's already red face turned even redder.

Given Guan Yu's proud and arrogant nature, the fact that he didn't get angry or refute shows that he also longed for women.

Liu Quan had naturally figured it out long ago. They were all normal young men, and the kind bursting with male hormones, so how could they not be lustful?

Lu Bu, sitting across the fire, laughed heartily and said, "Yuan Gu is right. What man doesn't miss women?"

Liu Quan laughed and said, "Only a great hero can be true to his nature, and a true scholar is naturally elegant."

Although the surrounding wandering knights didn't quite understand it, they found it catchy and cheered.

Those who were literate, such as Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Lü Bu, found this statement to be very apt.

Lu Bu thought to himself, "This Liu Yuangu truly lives up to his reputation in Luoyang. The fact that he speaks of his womanizing makes it seem like he's a hero."

Actually, these two sentences were not meant to refer to matters between men and women, but Liu Quan was too lazy to care.

Since he was the first person to recite it, how to interpret these two lines of poetry from now on is naturally up to him.

…………

The next morning.

The sun shines on Tanhan Mountain.

Amidst the embers of the flames, wisps of smoke rose, mingling with the morning mist and spreading across the grassland.

Liu Quan and his group began sorting through their spoils.

The cattle and sheep were herded into several large groups, and the women and children were linked together in several rows with long ropes. There were also carts full of gold and silver utensils, furs, and grain...

Although the Xianbei royal court could only take away a portion of its wealth accumulated over twenty years, and the largest sum of 300 million coins had already been secretly taken by Liu Quan and Liu Bei, the remaining amount was still enough to make everyone grin from ear to ear.

After returning home, everyone divided these items among themselves, and each person could earn at least tens of thousands of dollars.

When everyone left, they each had one person and three horses.

He immediately carried large and small bags, a smile on his face that he hadn't seen in days.

Some people started humming folk songs from the border region, some laughed and talked loudly, and others herded cattle and sheep around at the back of the procession.

Even Guan Yu, who always had a stern face, showed a rare moment of relaxation.

Liu Quan rode his horse at a leisurely pace in the middle of the procession.

He appeared relaxed, but in reality, he was multitasking – riding a horse, using drones to scout ahead, and using drones to monitor Tan Shihuai's army, without stopping for a moment.

Since the start of the campaign, he has deployed a drone to follow Tan Shihuai's central army day and night.

They continuously transmitted images of the Tan Shihuai army back, without missing a single frame.

At this moment, Tan Shihuai's army was advancing northeastward, less than a hundred miles away from Tian Yan's army.

Tian Yan was completely unaware of the situation.

He was being harassed wave after wave by Xianbei cavalry, which was causing him a great deal of trouble.

The soldiers were exhausted and their morale was low.

They simply assumed it was the Xianbei people's last struggle.

Little did he know that Tan Shihuai's 60,000 iron cavalry were like a clenched giant fist, fiercely attacking his flank.

At this moment, several fast horses appeared in the drone footage, galloping wildly towards Tan Shihuai's central army.

Liu Quan zoomed in and saw the faces of the Xianbei people on horseback—all of them were filled with panic, and some of them had burn marks on their fur robes.

They were the fish that slipped through the net at Tanhan Mountain.

Liu Quan tapped his fingers lightly on the saddle, his gaze slightly lowered, thinking, "Tan Shihuai, what would you choose?"

If we return to Tanhan Mountain, we can march day and night and return in a day and a half at most.

These three hundred or so people, dragging cattle, horses, women and children, couldn't run fast and would most likely be bitten.

In order to escape, they would have to abandon most or even all of the captured goods.

If we continue our attack on Tian Yan, then we'll gladly accept this fortune.

Tan Shihuai, true to his reputation as a ruthless leader, quickly made a decision.

Family members are gone, cattle and sheep are gone, wealth is gone, but so what?

As long as we eliminate the main force of the Han border troops, we can take them back later.

Wouldn't retreating now mean all our efforts would be in vain?

In the drone footage, the heads of the Xianbei who escaped were chopped off, as were those of the Xianbei chieftains who may have wanted to return to Tanhan Mountain.

Tan Shihuai used a knife to reach a consensus.

The army continued its northward advance.

In the afternoon, before sunset.

Tan Shihuai's army began its attack on Tian Yan's army.

The Han army did not resist for long, collapsing within an hour.

With red eyes, Tian Yan fled, surrounded by his personal guards.

At the same time, Sun Jian and his party of about a hundred people also arrived at Tanhan Mountain.

They stopped their horses and stood there, gazing in awe at the scene before them.

The sunset was like blood.

A huge mound of Jingguan stands at the foot of Tanhan Mountain.

The corpses of thousands of Xianbei people were piled up to form a tall tower, and their heads were cut off and stacked in circles around the tower.

Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, every face glowed with an eerie red light; some stared wide-eyed, others gaped with their mouths agape…

All expressions were frozen in the moment before death, each different: ferocious, fearful, or bewildered.

The blood had long since dried, and dark brown stains trickled down from the severed neck of the head, soaking through the piled-up earth and stones, seeping into the grass below, attracting swarms of buzzing flies.

Sun Jian reined in his horse, looked up at the mound of human heads, and his expression changed from surprise to horror.

He couldn't help but exclaim, "What a magnificent sight! I wonder which hero accomplished this. It's a pity I arrived too late; I've missed it! I've missed it so much!"

Just then, Cheng Pu's voice came, "Wentai, someone has put up a sign here."