Chapter 386: Slaying Hua Xiong with Warm Wine (Part 2)

Yuan Shu was about to speak again, but Cao Cao had already turned away.

He walked to the table and personally lifted a bronze cup; the scalding wine poured from the spout.

White steam rose from the rim of the cup, condensing into a thin mist in the cold air of the tent.

He lifted the bronze cup and handed it to So we will have: Guan Yu with both hands.

"Yunchang, please drink this cup to bolster your courage."

So we will have: Guan Yu looked down at the cup of wine.

The surface of the wine rippled slightly, the heat swirling at the rim, only to be blown off course by the wind entering the tent.

He reached out, not to take the cup, but to gently push the rim outward by half an inch.

"Let the wine be poured; I shall return shortly."

He turned and left.

His footsteps were neither fast nor slow, his boot soles hitting the ground with even spacing.

When the tent curtain was lifted, the darkening sky outside surged in—

No, it was brightening.

The twilight was just turning from gray-white to dim yellow at that moment, plating a thin layer of gold onto So we will have: Guan Yu's profile through the lifted curtain.

He did not look back and walked out.

The tent curtain fell.

The sound of horse hooves came from outside the tent.

First, two short, sharp clicks of horseshoes, then the continuous sound of hooves hitting the ground, going from near to far, from slow to fast, finally merging into a sound like muffled thunder.

The sound of hooves paused for a moment in the distance, then started up again.

The torches in the tent flickered.

No one spoke.

Some lowered their heads, some tilted their ears, some rested their hands on the table, twisting the corners of their robes.

The sounds of shouting and killing began in the distance.

First, human voices—not uniform shouts, but scattered, coarse, gasping cries, high and low, intermingled, indistinguishable as to which side they belonged to.

Then came the sound of drums; the drumbeats intensified for a while, then thinned, then intensified again.

Mixed in were the sounds of swords and armor colliding, intermittent and unclear.

A few sounds were very close, as if just outside the camp gate;

Others were very far away, already at the foot of the pass wall.

The sky-screen did not cut the scene.

Those sounds were amplified, every detail as if polished by sandpaper—

The scraping sound of blade hitting blade, the sound of gravel splashing when horses stopped suddenly.

There was a dull, heavy thud, like a heavy object hitting armor, followed by a long, metallic dragging sound.

Then the shouting and killing stopped.

The torches in the tent flickered again.

Someone in the back row shifted, but did not stand up.

Someone took a breath and slowly exhaled.

Footsteps came from outside the tent—

Not horse hooves, but the sound of boots on hard ground, the steps neither hurried nor slow, each interval even.

The tent curtain was lifted.

So we will have: Guan Yu stood at the entrance, holding a head in his left hand.

Hua Xiong's head.

The hair was disheveled, and blood droplets still hung from the short beard on the jaw.

The eyes were not closed, the mouth half-open, the blood on the lips already congealed into a dark red.

As So we will have: Guan Yu walked in, the head swayed with his steps, blood droplets dripping from the tips of the hair, hitting the ground and making a small spot.

He walked to the center of the tent, raised his hand, and the head left his hand, landing on the ground before the table, rolling half a circle and stopping at the foot of Yuan Shao's table.

So we will have: Guan Yu turned and walked toward the table on the left side of the tent entrance.

The cup of wine was still on the table, the white steam already faint, but a thin layer of residual heat still floated on the surface.

He lifted it and drank it down, the wine entering his throat without a sound.

When he put the cup down, the bottom hit the table with a very light sound.

The sky-screen stopped here.

The heat from the rim of the cup had dissipated to the point of being almost invisible.

But the sky-screen gave a close-up—

On the edge of the bronze cup on the table, there was still a bit of white steam that hadn't completely dissipated, a thin wisp, caught by the wind at the tent entrance, bending, and then dispersing.

The voice of the sky-screen rang out again, higher than at the start, like a bell struck harder:

【Leaving the tent, mounting the horse, engaging and slaying the general, returning to the tent and throwing down the head—it all happened in moments, and the wine is still warm.】

【Slaying Hua Xiong with Warm Wine—the name of the Martial Saint begins to resound throughout the world from this moment on.】

Three large characters appeared on the sky-screen, each as large as half the screen:

【Guan Yunchang】

It was as if something had cracked beneath the ground.

The sound of discussion surged from all directions simultaneously, like tides from all sides crashing against the same reef, shattering into fragments and then gathering back together.

On the Cao camp side, Xu Chu, standing in the front row, switched the sword at his waist from his right hand to his left, then back to his right.

He watched the sky-screen for a long time before slowly squeezing a sentence from deep in his throat: "... He is a horse archer?"

Cao Cao stood a few steps in front of Xu Chu, his back to him.

Cao Cao watched the sky-screen, saying nothing.

But his hand pressed slowly against his waist—

Not pressing his sword, but pressing an empty space, as if looking for something, not finding it, and pulling it back.

On Yuan Shao's side, he sat back in his seat.

Yuan Shu stood a few steps away, his hand twisting his beard paused, the corner of his mouth pursed slightly, the corner of his eye drooping and then lifting.

Gongsun Zan turned to look at Liu Bei; Liu Bei's hand was clenched in his sleeve, then relaxed.

Zhang Fei hammered the military pillar next to him, the sound much louder than usual.

"My second brother! That was the very strike that slew Hua Xiong back then."

Zhuge Liang glanced at the cup of wine on the sky-screen, then at So we will have: Guan Yu standing not far away; the feather fan in his hand shook, then slowly closed.

He looked down at the wrinkles on the fan that he had crumpled at some unknown time, saying nothing more.

Above the clouds, nine imperial shadows appeared one after another at the edge of the sky-screen.

Ying Zheng's hands were behind his back, his gaze falling on the cup of wine on the sky-screen, his voice neither high nor low, as if stating something that had already happened:

【Slaying a general before the formation, the wine is still warm.】

【This strike did not just suppress Hua Xiong alone; it suppressed the eighteen feudal lords before Sisi Pass.】

【From now on, the soldiers in the army will remember—】

【Someone can change the course of a battle in the time it takes to drink a cup of wine.】

Liu Bang's voice carried a hint of a suppressed smile:

【Yuan Shu despised him for his low rank.】

【Yuan Shao despised him for his lack of fame.】

【Yet it was this horse archer with no rank and no fame who took Sisi Pass for the allied army.】

【This strike cut off a head and chiseled into people's hearts.】

【From now on, who would dare say that a humble background prevents one from standing tall?】

Liu Che:

【The twilight was dim when he left, and the setting sun had not yet fallen when he returned.】

【In this fleeting moment, he not only slew a general but also reopened a path for the morale of everyone in the allied army that had been suppressed by Hua Xiong.】

Liu Xiu's voice was slow and steady:

【The three armies look at the outcome before the formation, and the generals compete for face.】

【Only Cao Cao stepped forward with a cup of wine at that time.】

【After this battle, everyone in the tent will remember—】

【Guan Yunchang walked in carrying Hua Xiong's head, and the wine was warm.】

Yang Jian:

【A horse archer slays Hua Xiong, establishing his name in one battle.】

【From now on, the name Guan Yunchang is no longer an unknown colonel under Liu Bei, but a name that any feudal lord must weigh upon hearing.】

Li Shimin leaned over to look at the cup of wine:

【When Hua Xiong slew two generals in a row, no one in the tent dared to fight.】

【It was not that there were no generals, but that no one dared to be the first to stand out.】

【The moment So we will have: Guan Yu stood out, the outcome was already three-tenths decided.】

【The remaining seven-tenths were decided in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea after he left the tent.】

Zhao Kuangyin nodded:

【When martial men fight, the outcome is often in the blink of an eye.】

【But there are few who can calmly pick up that cup of wine that hasn't yet cooled after returning to the tent.】

Zhu Yuanzhang spoke, his tone both like praise and scrutiny:

【With this strike, the morale of the allied army rose from the bottom.】

【Hua Xiong's corpse served as his stepping stone—】

【From now on, when the feudal lords look at Liu Bei, they do not see the archer beside him, but a sword capable of slaying enemy generals before the formation.】

Zhu Di:

【When the generals in Dong Zhuo's tent later heard of this battle, their first reaction was not to ask how Hua Xiong died, but to ask who that person was.】

【After Slaying Hua Xiong with Warm Wine, everyone knew that name.】

【Scene Six, Slaying Hua Xiong with Warm Wine, countdown complete!】

【The content of the next countdown will be revealed tomorrow evening, please look forward to it!】

As the sky-screen's voice fell, it dimmed.

Everyone was looking forward to what famous scene would be counted down tomorrow evening?

... ===== CHAPTER 387 =====