[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-overthrowing-han":3,"chapter-overthrowing-han-overthrowing-han-chapter-436":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Overthrowing Han",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1223195,1620,"Chapter 436: The Dragon and Tiger of Nanyang Struggle for Supremacy (Continued)","overthrowing-han-chapter-436",436,"\u003Cp>Recalling how Cai Mao had earlier plied him with wine and urged him so earnestly to rest inside the city, Lü Bu’s first reaction there in the tent by candlelight was that Liu Biao had played him for a fool!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was certainly plausible. Back in the Northern Army, when Liu Biao served as its Marquis and Lü Bu as its Colonel, the two had never gotten along — a celebrated scion of the Central Plains Liu clan and a rough warrior from Hebei; it would have been strange if they had! And during Dong Zhuo’s rebellion, open friction and outright division had arisen between them. To put it bluntly, one could say Lü Bu had betrayed his superior Liu Biao, leading the Northern Army away in defection — only Dong Zhuo’s rise had been so swift, and Liu Biao had never had the chance to turn on him before leaving Luoyang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Given such a rift, putting himself in the other’s shoes, now that heavy rain made an enemy attack unlikely, why not settle accounts with him, Lü Bu, first?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And if they meant to settle with him, they would have planned meticulously for everything from himself down to his rank-and-file soldiers. At this thought, Lü Bu nearly despaired. It was not merely that night rain crippled his cavalry’s fighting power, nor that he now had only eight hundred men — it was that, driven out of Chang’an, repelled by Sun Jian by force, and refused by Liu Biao, even if he could escape, where under heaven could he go?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was he truly to become a bandit in the countryside? A bandit chief bearing the seals of the empire’s largest commandery and a county marquis?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or were he and his eight hundred riders all immune to blade and arrow, able to pass unscathed through the hundred-odd cities under Sun Jian or Liu Biao and flee to his old acquaintances Cao Cao or Liu Bei?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An indescribable despair seized Lü Bu’s body. The last time he had felt this was at Pujin, when he had followed Jia Xu’s counsel to march out with Dong Min, only to learn upon reaching Pujin that Jia Wenhe behind him had surrendered Tongguan — and then his whole life had plunged into the abyss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My lord! My lord, are you up?!” At that moment, a man suddenly threw open the tent flap and burst in holding a fire stick — none other than Huang Yuan, Huang Qianjiu, one of the few trusted commanders Lü Bu still had. “Sun Jian is attacking — arm yourself and prepare for battle at once!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still in plain clothes upon his cot, Lü Bu froze. “Who did you say is attacking?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sun Jian!” Huang Yuan answered hurriedly as he lit the lamp. “Judging by the din, it’s no fewer than ten thousand men. In a moment Liu Pan’s vanguard simply collapsed — my lord, don your armor quickly!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lü Bu’s shock and suspicion only deepened. “Is Sun Wentai an immortal, to attack at a time like this? Did you not spend the whole day scouting in the rain until afternoon?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That is precisely why the vanguard collapsed in an instant!” Huang Yuan grew ever more frantic. “Who could have imagined they would descend like divine soldiers? My lord, this is no time to quibble — the question is how to respond. Arm yourself and meet them in battle at once!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a daze, Lü Bu hurriedly donned his armor with Huang Qianjiu’s help, and moments later they stepped out of the tent together. Yet the instant he set foot outside, he stopped dead — for outside it was too dark, too chaotic, and the rain was still pattering down. Only the ever-nearing roar of “Kill Lü Bu!” ahead, rolling like thunder, stood out as the one thing that held any order.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And without a doubt, it was by this that Huang Yuan had earlier concluded the forward camp had collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only… how was one to fight this?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How do we meet them in battle?” Jolted by the rain, Lü Bu came to his senses and turned his head, demanding an answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Yuan, too, now saw clearly. In the pitch-black night, amid the chaos, the cavalry could hardly find a place to form ranks, let alone on ground so slick. But the deadliest factor was not even these — it was how to tell friend from foe, and how to get cavalry moving through a camp cluttered with obstacles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By accent?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or by asking each man before striking, “Whose side are you on?” Or perhaps they could charge wherever the cry “Kill Lü Bu” rose? Even if that worked, galloping through camp on such a pitch-black, rainy night — was that not suicide?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And without their warhorses, eight hundred veteran northern riders floundering in the mud would likely fare worse than the local Jingzhou soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My lord!” Huang Yuan, having grasped the situation, at once changed his expression. “To sally forth is no longer possible. What if we set this tent ablaze here, rally the troops around the rear camp, hold fast, and wait for dawn to counterattack?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Withdraw!” Lü Fengxian drew a ragged breath amid the sky-filling shouts of “Kill Lü Bu” and made his decision, crisp and final. “Before the fighting reaches us, take the warhorses and have the whole army flee toward Dengxian county town behind us…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Yuan struggled to understand. “My lord, I know this battle is dire, and a temporary withdrawal is no shame. But if we shirk battle now, how will we answer to Liu Biao later? And besides, however hard it is, we are not afraid…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know what you mean, and I understand these things better than you.” Lü Bu turned his head coldly. “Right now I can only rely on Liu Biao. And in a chaotic melee, if we could clear space behind and rally the troops, with our seasoned warriors leading, we might yet summon our remaining valor and turn the battle… But why should we stake our lives to help Liu Jingsheng?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Yuan tilted his head slightly — his meaning plain: the whole camp was shouting “Kill Lü Bu”!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It is not like that.” In the rain, Lü Bu did not grow angry but laughed. “This battle, in the end, is between Sun Wentai and Liu Jingsheng. We, utterly destitute, have no real stake in it. Even this cry of ‘Kill Lü Bu’ is no more than Sun Wentai’s momentary passion. What we must do now is preserve our eight hundred riders and not throw them away for nothing in this stinking quagmire!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Yuan began to see the point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Still, you are also right.” Lü Bu cocked his ear to listen a moment longer, then suddenly laughed again. “From tonight’s shouting alone I can tell — Sun Jian still remembers the grudge from Yingchuan. He will never tolerate me. For now, we can only rely on Liu Biao. Do this: you and Wei Xu take our riders and hide behind Dengxian. Make preserving our own men and horses your first priority. I will go alone into the city to find Cai Mao. As things stand, outside the walls is beyond human remedy — only by helping Cai Mao hold the city tightly is there any sound plan!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Yuan at once bowed his head in obedience.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Remember this!” Lü Bu could not resist one more warning. “In the final reckoning, you eight hundred riders are the sole capital of this empty-titled Marquis of Wen and Grand Administrator! Without capital, I cannot rise again. And if I cannot rise again… Qianjiu, I, Lü Bu, am a hero in my own right — how could I bear to languish long beneath another man?! Do you think I threw in my lot with Liu Biao to borrow a single county to stand on? Tonight I will tell you my true intent: the fiercer those two families fight, the heavier Liu Biao’s losses, the more weight my eight hundred riders will carry before him — only we must not let him collapse entirely.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Yuan stared blankly at his old master. In all honesty, after years of idleness, he had not seen the man for a long time before this march out of Wuguan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, after all their years together, he ultimately clasped his hands, bowed, and departed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lü Bu watched this old subordinate of his turn and vanish into the rainy night, his face expressionless. In his pheasant-tailed helmet, iron armor, and leather boots, he stood with hands clasped behind his back before the tent for a long while, listening intently to the wave-like, billowing roar of “Kill Lü Bu.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was a veteran of many battlefields. His earlier panic had merely been the dregs of wine not yet faded, plus a misreading of the situation. Now that his mind roughly grasped the state of affairs, he was instead no longer flustered, and even began to gauge the battle’s progress by the very shouts meant to kill him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be said, the battlefield is perhaps the strangest, most chaotic place on earth. When two sides meet in mortal combat, you may witness any manner of bizarre scene here. Sometimes one side wins a great victory, only for its commander, in his moment of post-battle triumph, to be laid low by a single stray arrow. Sometimes a side clearly holding the advantage, through its very composure, is defeated by a reversal. Sometimes you clearly possess immense war potential yet cannot bring it to bear at all, losing everything to an indescribable sense of helplessness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The upper and lower bounds of humanity are ceaselessly reset in war — foolish beyond comprehension, brilliant beyond belief; fierce as a tiger to be dreaded, frail as a laughingstock; noble enough to be praised through the ages, base enough to be cursed for all time. In such a place, all discussion of “rationality” is hindsight summary, for war itself is a process in which every kind of irrationality piles up to produce a rational outcome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lü Bu listened for a while, “observed” for a while, and soon understood the state of the battle. It was this: no matter what method Sun Jian had used to suddenly appear here, the moment he arrived with his host of ten thousand, this so-called battle by the Yu River where Liu Biao came to Yuan Shu’s aid was, in fact, already over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After this battle, Liu Biao’s main force would utterly lose the ability to actively intervene in the Nanyang campaign, and Sun Jian could calmly await his reinforcements from the rear and sweep the eastern bank of the Bi River.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why was he so certain?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason was simple. Lü Bu keenly perceived that the problem lay neither in how well Sun Jian’s army fought nor in how weak Liu Biao’s army was. In truth, from his observations over the past few days, Liu Biao’s army was quite outstanding — logistics, officer organization, and troop quality were all rather good. But now they had exposed a fatal weakness: Liu Biao’s soldiers clearly had no experience dealing with night raids.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or, to put it more bluntly, they lacked all experience of large-scale battle! And thinking it over carefully, this seemed to be the first time Liu Biao had deployed troops on a large scale since seizing power in Jingzhou. No wonder this army had suffered such a crushing defeat earlier in the open fields of Xinye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, after standing before his tent for only a moment, Lü Bu had already sensed something amiss. There were distinctly two kinds of sound on the battlefield: the shouts of “Kill Lü Bu” raised by Sun Jian’s raiding troops, and the chaotic noise stirred up by the panicking Jingzhou soldiers — and the latter was spreading far faster than the former!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This meant the Jingzhou soldiers’ own chaos was advancing even faster than Sun Jian’s troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no helping it. The Jingzhou soldiers, perhaps because they were born in the Jiang-Han region, might not fear death itself, but they truly had no experience of night fighting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having reached his conclusion, Lü Fengxian shook his head, turned back into a corner of his tent, and led out that famous horse, Dilu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s right — Lü Bu had always slept alongside his warhorse!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be said, the man himself could not quite say whether he had been expelled from Chang’an or had successfully fled it. In any case, these days had been truly hard. Without supplies, without a place to set foot, blocked across the Dan River by Xu Kun, that official’s son using the terrain to his advantage, he had been able to do little but wander the western mountains of Nanyang. For a time he had occupied Shedu Village, nestled in a mountain hollow, then found it laughable himself and abandoned that village to seek refuge with his former colleague Liu Biao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet he had never trusted Liu Biao. Or rather, ever since he felt Jia Xu had betrayed him, he had never trusted anyone. That was why he kept his horse Dilu stabled inside his tent. That was why, though Jia Xu had detained his wife and daughter and he had long been without the comforts of a gentle nest, when Cai Mao urged him to stay in the city, he had still fought through his drunkenness and returned to the damp camp outside the walls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Lü Fengxian, the Fierce Tiger Who Once Ranged Across the World, was ready to flee at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This feeling was utterly wretched!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the more so, the more cautious Lü Fengxian had to be, the more he had to preserve his capital — for only thus could he gain a foothold, only thus could he no longer live beneath another man!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only, in this age of chaos, how could a mere eight hundred riders find footing among these warlords who could casually field tens of thousands? One could only say the burden was heavy and the road long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other side, Cai Mao within the city was no incompetent. As the camp outside collapsed in utter rout, he too reacted at once. Upon the city walls, braziers and torches blazed with choking green smoke. Countless oils, fuels, even cooking oil were brought out regardless of cost. The torches blazed bright, raising a beacon for the routed soldiers in the camp outside the walls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Does Lord Cai fear the Jingzhou troops outside are not routing fast enough?” The gatekeeper, under orders to open the gates and admit the soldiers, naturally recognized Lü Bu when he saw him. Lü Fengxian rode alone into the city and went straight up the wall to find Cai Mao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Marquis of Wen, you must instruct me!” As a scion of a great family, Cai Mao possessed the basic qualities, but famed generals are forged through a hundred battles. No matter how learned or well-trained he was, he could not match Lü Bu’s composure. “Was lighting the fires a mistake?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To call it a mistake it is indeed a mistake, but it hardly matters now.” Lü Bu, in full armor, approached with unhurried steps and spoke calmly. “The Jingzhou troops, though of fine quality, have little experience of major battle — that was why they lost at Xinye before. And now that a night raid has succeeded against them, there is almost no chance of recovery. Yet within this defeat, there are two keys to reversing the situation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Marquis of Wen, speak quickly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One lies in just how much stamina Sun Wentai’s men have left.” Lü Bu stood upon the wall and pointed far off toward the pitch-black, clamorous camp below. “The rain is this heavy, and they scouted all day — none of that can be faked. For Sun Wentai to raid here by night, he must have paid an enormous price; his troops must be utterly exhausted, fighting now solely on the momentum of their success. Had you not lit the fires from the start, had you not opened the gates to admit the routed men, but let the troops fight chaotically in the rainy night, then under such enormous strain, it might have been Sun Wentai’s men who broke first. And that is why I said you should not have lit the fires — by doing so, you have instead urged the rear-camp troops who still had cohesion and fighting strength to abandon resistance and pour into the city.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cai Mao suddenly understood, and quickly asked again: “Then should I put the fires out now?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No need,” Lü Bu shook his head repeatedly. “The moment I set out I knew defeat outside was already sealed. Putting them out now would be pointless. But close the city gates. Let the defeated troops flee along the walls. The rear-camp units that still held formation have long since entered; those outside now are all routed men. And routed men, no matter how many, are useless — they will only shake the morale within the city.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His ears were filled with cries of \"Kill Lu Bu.\" Cai Mao naturally trusted the other party, so he immediately gave the order: \"Close the city gates at once, and order the newly arrived routed troops to go around the city and take shelter on the west side!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And the second key point lies in this very city.\" Lu Bu waited until the other had finished giving orders before he spoke, unhurried and composed. \"With a night raid like this, the larger situation outside the city is beyond salvaging. This city has become the sole reliance... As I said before, the enemy masses are certainly weary and spent... If this city can hold until daybreak, then by that time, though Sun Wentai has won, his troops will be at the end of their strength. And if there are two or three thousand fresh troops in the city at that moment, it will be enough to turn defeat into victory!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cai Mao was thoroughly awakened: \"In matters of the battlefield, Marquis Wen surpasses me tenfold! I will immediately order all troops in the city to assemble and prepare, dividing them into two halves — one half to defend the walls, the other to stand ready...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Bu spread his hands slightly, utterly unconcerned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, in the military camp outside the city, just as Lu Bu had said, Liu Pan and Huang Zhong had courage to spare but were utterly unable to command, nor did they know how to command. They did not know where the enemy general was, nor where their own subordinates were. They only felt the heaven-shaking cries of \"Kill Lu Bu\" pounding the earth like thunder, like great waves, sweeping their entire camp backward in turmoil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Zhong was older and did have some experience. At the time, he had indeed prepared to set the tents ablaze to rally the troops, but in the pitch-black rainy night, positioned in the forward camp, he bore the brunt of the attack and almost instantly lost any room to maneuver, forced to flee in disarray. As for Liu Pan, from beginning to end, he simply had no idea how to respond.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Jian's attacking troops likewise did not know where their own general was, and they were even more exhausted. Yet in the darkness, the unceasing cries of \"Kill Lu Bu\" and the ever-advancing battle line roused their spirits time and again. First they overturned the forward camp, then the central army, and finally they practically crossed the rear camp without bloodying their blades... Amidst the roaring of mountains and surging of seas, every man knew that Heaven's mandate rested with Sun Jian — this battle was a great victory!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Covered in blood and filth, his plain clothes and red headband long since unrecognizable, Sun Jian stood atop the collapsed central command tent of Liu Pan. He then gazed toward Deng County's seat, where countless braziers and torches had been forcibly lit in the rain. Suddenly looking around, he sought out his trusted general Jiang Qin, who was right beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Gongyi, do you see?\" Sun Jian held his ancient ingot saber and pointed from afar, utterly composed. \"In this rainy night, the defeated troops outside the city cannot be rallied. That city is their sole reliance. If we can break it, not to mention total victory in this battle, even Liu Biao will lose three-tenths of his life from this! Let our army rest in this stockade until daybreak. The moment there is enough light to illuminate the walls, I will personally lead the men in scaling the city to serve as your diversion!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Qin, likewise covered in blood and filth, nodded for a moment, but then shook his head again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—————I am the dividing line that couldn't make it in time—————\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Lu Bu possessed the fierce valor of a roaring tiger, but lacked heroic and extraordinary stratagem, and was moreover driven solely by profit. From ancient times to the present, there has never been one such as this who did not meet destruction. In former times, Emperor Guangwu was deceived by Pang Meng; in recent times, our great ancestor was likewise blinded by Lu Bu. To know men is the mark of wisdom, yet even for emperors it is difficult — true indeed!\" — From the Dianlüe, annotated by Pei Songzhi of Yan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>PS: Thanks to the great Hei for sponsoring this classical text — this one is even better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",3597,"2026-06-04T19:42:52.587Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","9019da1638efa1f0a9a2f4953bccea4bbf395f10d44994cee85f6dbb7ba81202","overthrowing-han-chapter-437","overthrowing-han-chapter-435",548,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Foverthrowing-han-cover.jpg"]