Chapter 526

Bai Lang entered the Prefect's office and heard that Guo Tu, Guo Gongze, a strategist under Yuan Shao, had arrived. Bai Lang received him at the Prefect's office. He saw this man present a letter, which was in Yuan Shao's own hand. Bai Lang unfolded the silk and saw it was written in a tone of admiration for him. When Bai Lang raised his head to look at Guo Tu, Tu also cupped his hands in greeting, "The General's courage is the best under heaven, and Yuan of Jizhou has long admired you. Now that the world is in turmoil, it is the time for heroes to display their talents. I have always known that the General's lifelong ambition is to restore the Han house, and my master, Yuan of Jizhou, shares this same lifelong ambition..."

As soon as Bai Lang heard this, he understood what it meant; his intelligence was not low, after all. Wasn't Yuan Shao's intention to recruit him, this fierce general? If the recruitment succeeded, not only would he gain one of the world's few fierce generals, but he could even get half of Bingzhou; it was truly a good deal. "Gongze, wait a moment, let me think about it." Bai Lang had Guo Tu stay in the guest room of the Prefect's office, and he himself took the letter to "consider" it.

Although Bai Lang was the legitimate Governor of Bingzhou just appointed by the imperial court, no strategists had come to join him yet. Perhaps it was because he had occupied Xihe and Taiyuan for too short a time, or perhaps it was because Bingzhou had many warriors but few strategists, and the strategists had all gone elsewhere to make a living. "Suddenly remembered that I am still the Governor of that fellow Lu Bu," Bai Lang laughed while stroking his bristly beard. He didn't need to find a strategist, because from the beginning he had decided it was impossible to join Yuan Shao.

There was nothing else to it, he was just dissatisfied with Yuan Shao being a pampered young master who wanted to establish Liu Yu as emperor instead of rescuing the young emperor. But didn't Uncle Liu do the same thing later? However, after all, LiuBei only ascended the throne because he thought Emperor Xian was dead; this position could be ascended but not descended, so it could only be "wronging the wrong." "Forget it, forget it, I won't think about it. I'll appease Guo Tu today and refuse him tomorrow."

Bai Lang didn't care for the wine of this era either. After dinner, he practiced martial arts for a while, then read some books and went to sleep. It was pitiful that a Governor of Bingzhou didn't even have a maid, and he went to sleep all alone.

At this time, warlords like Yuan Shao didn't have a daughter to marry off, otherwise, he might have recruited Bai Lang as a son-in-law. Lying in bed, Bai Lang was actually calculating which beauties were in the world... Lu Bu's concubine Diaochan counted as one, Cai Yong's widowed daughter Cai Yan counted as one; there didn't seem to be any others? It seemed Yuan Shao's daughter-in-law Zhen Ji hadn't married over yet, right?

In such wild thoughts, Bai Lang fell asleep.

The next morning, Bai Lang got up early to temper his strength and practice martial arts. The Cloud Water Spear turned freely in his hands; his thrusts were like an evil dragon emerging from the water, and his slashes were like thunder and lightning. The double iron halberds were also played with great skill in his hands. At this time, Bai Lang did not carry the double iron halberds when going into battle, but instead carried a separately forged thin iron halberd and a Huan Shou saber. There was no help for it; if he carried everything, the horse wouldn't be able to bear it. Bai Lang didn't have a tall, famous horse.

His Snow-White Blue was only five and a half feet tall at the shoulder, which was already a very good warhorse. But whether in strength or visual effect, it was far inferior to Lu Bu's Red Hare.

After finishing his martial practice and washing up, Bai Lang received Guo Tu again. He took out the letter he had written and gave it to Guo Tu, "Although I am untalented, I do not wish to join Yuan Benchu. Wanting to establish Liu Bo'an, Governor Liu, as emperor—how can this be considered loyalty to the Han house?" After speaking, he asked Guo Tu to leave. "Does the Governor of Bingzhou wish to die?" Guo Tu was quite bold to say this. "Bingzhou is here; if Yuan Benchu wants to take it, ask him to lead his army to take it himself."

After Guo Tu left, Bai Lang sighed. The guards on duty asked, "I do not know why the General is sighing."

"Only because Yuan Benchu has come, I have no choice but to fight, and thus have no time to invade Guanzhong and drive away the Xiliang rebels," Bai Lang said. It seemed Yuan Shao's great army had also been prepared for a long time, directly using the four pillars of Hebei—Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Zhang He, and Gao Lan—to lead the army as the vanguard, pressing straight toward Jinyang. They took Bai Lang very seriously. Lu Bu was a fierce general peerless under heaven, and since Bai Lang could contend with him, he was naturally a fierce general who could fight a thousand alone.

People of the time even said that the one peerless in mounted combat was Lu Bu, while the one peerless in foot combat was Bai Lang. His feat of single-handedly raiding Hangu Pass had also become famous throughout the world. Bai Lang could be considered a loyal subject of the Han house today, which forced Li and Guo to hold their noses and grant him an official title. Bai Lang also brought his three thousand troops—that's right, the entire strength of Xihe Commandery plus half of Taiyuan Commandery was just this much; the rest had been sent back to farm after Bai Lang divided the land.

Among them were eight hundred cavalry and two thousand two hundred infantry. Among the infantry, there were eight hundred crossbowmen, and the remaining one thousand were spearmen and four hundred shield-bearers. Because Bai Lang's army had plundered the Xiongnu and taken in tens of thousands of Xiongnu and Qiang people to farm and herd, their military provisions were all hauled by horse-drawn carts, and they also drove a large number of cattle and sheep to serve as military rations. The entire Xihe army looked more like an army of Xiongnu and Qiang people, except for their equipment, with countless cattle and sheep moving along with them.

Bai Lang ordered the infantry to drive the cattle and sheep in the rear under the leadership of a dozen Sima who had been promoted from his personal guards, while he himself led the eight hundred cavalry to charge toward Jinyang City first. Yuan Shao's Jizhou army had eighty thousand men, and the vanguard alone had twenty thousand reaching Jinyang City. Although Jinyang City closed its gates and did not open them, it likely would not resist resolutely. After all, they hadn't resisted Bai Lang, so naturally, they wouldn't resist the great army of Yuan Shao, the Governor of Jizhou.

Besides, the commandery army in Jinyang, most of which had been disbanded by Bai Lang, couldn't defend it anyway. The reason the four vanguards didn't attack the city was that they wanted to fight a decisive battle with Bai Lang outside the city; defending the city would likely limit their mobility, and they already knew that Bai Lang had led his cavalry to charge ahead first. Once Bai Lang arrived, he didn't care about fatigue—of course, mainly the cavalry behind him were a bit tired, but their morale was very high.

The only benefit of Bai Lang being a Prefect was that he finally forged a decent suit of armor for himself. This suit of armor was like fish scales; the tongue-shaped pieces of refined iron, each the size of a child's palm, were originally meant to be strung together with leather straps, but Bai Lang had the craftsmen use iron rings to replace the leather straps, which increased the weight while making the armor much sturdier. From the two-piece breastplate to the shoulder guards and arm guards, down to the hanging skirt, leg guards, and foot armor, the whole person looked as if they were wrapped in fish scales, like a dragon.

It just lacked neck protection and a high collar, with only a semi-circular standing plate in front of the throat to provide slight cover. This suit of armor was not bloated. Bai Lang knew he couldn't add horse armor, otherwise, his Snow-White Blue would be exhausted after two charges. Now, with him, the armor, and his weapons, he weighed over four hundred jin; it was already very difficult for the horse to carry him. If it weren't for the fact that the warhorses in this world were not like the later Mongolian horses but more like Central Asian warhorses, he really wouldn't have been able to use it.

Once Bai Lang arrived, he charged directly to the front of Yuan Shao's army to challenge them, driving the eight hundred cavalry behind him to press directly toward Yuan Shao's vanguard. If no one from the Yuan army came out to fight and their morale weakened, he could immediately lead his cavalry to trample their formation. Thus, with a violent shout, "I have come to fight you!" a top general from the Yuan army killed his way out.