Chapter 498: Strength Exhausted, the Passes and Mountains Remain Unbroken (Part Two)

The Jiujiang white-armored troops under Xu Sheng had long since become birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring when it came to arrows. Out of pure instinct, they immediately halted and reformed their ranks, raising shields in unison to block.

Perhaps the Yan army had deliberately held back some arrows, waiting for this very moment to attempt a charge against the formation — this was the instinctive reaction of both Cao Mengde and Xu Sheng!

But what followed made Cao Cao and all his officers' faces change color, even making their hearts pound with dread — more and more light cavalry kept surging forward, loosing volley after volley without pause upon Xu Sheng's division!

And that was not all. Standing atop his war chariot, Cao Mengde could see clearly: one contingent of light cavalry had also begun testing their mounted archery skills, harassing and attacking the somewhat clumsier Cao cavalry stationed at the edge of the great formation, seemingly unconcerned about arrow supply. Two units of Yan armored cavalry, roughly four thousand strong, even used the light cavalry's cover to circle southward, charging straight toward the last remaining Cao cavalry force... and judging by their banners, they were personally led by the two commanders Cao Cao hated to the bone — Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian.

After all, on an open plain battlefield, how swift is cavalry in motion?

The moment Cao Cao spotted this from afar, he immediately ordered the surviving Leopard Cavalry at his side to relay orders and rescue his last cavalry unit. Yet just as the remaining two or three hundred Leopard Cavalry surged to the southern flank of the great formation, Zhang Liao's armored riders arrived in force. Under the long-range cover of light cavalry on both flanks, they charged with full force and scattered the last Cao cavalry unit completely!

This was entirely expected — it was a force cobbled together from broken remnants and defeated soldiers. Had cavalry not been so vital on open ground, Cao Cao would never have brought them out at all this time.

Yet one thing was unexpected: though fellow defeated soldiers, those two or three hundred surviving Leopard Cavalry displayed a military discipline and death-defying resolve utterly different from their comrades!

A mere two hundred-odd riders, yet without so much as a backward glance, they charged headlong into four thousand Hebei armored cavalry — and were swallowed up in an instant amid the Yan ranks.

That was enough — enough for Mao Jie, positioned behind the cavalry, to order bows and crossbows to fire at once, dispersing his own routing troops to prevent them from crashing back into his formation.

Cao Mengde watched this scene from afar, uncertain whether to feel relief or grief.

But in the very next instant, as his aide Wang Kai beside him cried out softly and pointed, Cao Cao, standing on his war chariot, was stricken with mortal terror!

It turned out that just as the Yan army had suddenly struck Cao's last cavalry force and won a swift victory, on the battlefield's western face, in the open ground not far before Zhou Tai's formation — directly in front of the White Horse Banner — the Yan army laid bare before everyone the secret of their suddenly restored long-range striking power: hundreds of horses, nearly every one laden with tightly bound tubes of arrows, were paraded out before the battle line! Combined with the Yan light cavalry around them who had abruptly resumed their long-range attacks, it seemed to proclaim something!

At first, Cao Cao found it somewhat absurd — after all, this was a meeting engagement, and the enemy had never seen his hollow-within-hollow great formation before. How could they possibly have brought so many arrows specifically for this?

But like everyone else, he soon realized that these arrows must have been rushed over from the Yan army's Guandu encampment — otherwise there would not have been that earlier lull in the barrage... And the moment this thought struck him, Cao Cao felt an even deeper absurdity: was cavalry truly so unrestrained when dealing with infantry? Could they really, so simply and so effortlessly, break the fatal flaw of the great formation he had agonized over for so long?

Yet in another instant, Cao Cao had a second realization. The Guandu encampment was neither close nor far from here. Even if the Yan army had transported arrows from their rear, it would have taken a great deal of precious time... The fact that they arrived so swiftly could only mean one thing: the moment his old friend on the opposing side reached the battlefield, saw this great formation, and praised him as a prodigy of the age, he had immediately thought of the method of grinding them down with arrows — and at once sent orders to the Guandu encampment to dispatch bow and arrow supplies here.

Judging by the course of the engagement, from probing to concentrated attack, the Yan army moved like flowing clouds and water, without the slightest hesitation — it seemed exactly so.

At this thought, Cao Mengde was truly dazed for a moment... He struggled to gather his thoughts, to find a viable strategy, but apart from abandoning Xu Sheng's division and immediately rolling southward layer by layer, there was no effective plan whatsoever.

Yet abandoning Xu Sheng was not merely a moral dilemma — it carried enormous military risk. One must understand that on this battlefield, aside from Wen Ping's division, the entire army was composed mainly of his own forces and Liu Bei's, with Liu Bei's contingent perhaps even larger. Zhou Tai, Chen Wu, Li Tong, Xu Sheng — all were under Liu Bei's command, and Xu Sheng's division was the so-called Jiujiang White Armor, Liu Bei's core force. If he chose to abandon Xu Sheng now, what if Chen Wu, Zhou Tai, and Li Tong refused to obey the order?

If the army split apart in the midst of battle, leading to total annihilation, that would be the greatest joke of all!

But then, whom could he blame?

The so-called Central Plains Alliance was never a single house to begin with. That it had held together until now was already something of a miracle.

"Boren, go personally and deliver the order to Xu Sheng." After a moment of stunned silence, knowing full well that further hesitation would only worsen the situation, Cao Cao suddenly spoke with fierce urgency to Xiahou Shang, who had fled in haste to his side. "Tell him to prepare at once to raise shields and shift formation... Tell him the situation is desperate, there is no time for anything — they can only bear the Yan cavalry's mounted archery and flee in rapid alternation! But the more critical the moment, the more they must steady their formation. Mao Xiaoxian still has routed troops before him and cannot move for now. Have him withdraw slightly to the rear — I will send Du Xi through the gaps in the great formation to receive him!"

Xiahou Shang's forehead was split, blood streaming without cease. Upon hearing this, he was about to spur his horse to find Xu Sheng, but to his surprise, Cao Cao suddenly called him back and hurled the Qinggang Sword to the ground before his horse: "Take this sword with you. Beg him to obey orders without fail, and on no account act rashly! And you yourself — do not return. Stay and fight alongside him!"

Xiahou Shang dared not delay. He dismounted and picked up the Qinggang Sword from the ground. With no time to salute or acknowledge the order, he departed in haste.

A mere few hundred paces away, Xu Sheng, Xu Wenxiang, was near despair... And little wonder — he had been shot at relentlessly by several times his number of Yan troops for nearly two full hours, his unit's strength reduced by a quarter. Just as he was about to return to a safe position, the enemy had suddenly resumed their earlier barrage!

The sole purpose: to deny him escape!

Even so, when Xu Wenxiang saw Xiahou Shang and the treasured sword in his hand, he gritted his teeth and accepted the order, then commanded his troops to raise shields and shift formation. It was not merely that he understood the gravity of the greater situation, nor only that Liu Bei had given instructions before the battle. More importantly, he simply could no longer endure this posture of passively taking hits and losing men.

Yet no sooner had the order been given than the entire army, having just raised their shields, let them fall again... There was no helping it. Xu Sheng's division was severely depleted and utterly exhausted, while the Yan light cavalry's arrow storm had by now grown even more unbridled. Under such conditions, when they raised shields to retreat, those at the rear withdrew quickly, but those at the front could only fall back slowly — so much so that gaps appeared in the formation, causing massive casualties!

With no other choice, Xu Sheng could only order a halt and continue passive defense — or rather, continue passively losing men.

And Xiahou Shang had no words to offer either!

But there is a limit to such attrition. Under the renewed arrow storm, the losses came faster and more swiftly, the wailing wounded reappeared, and as heavy infantry, they had not a single chance for close-quarters combat throughout the entire engagement... By this point, Xu Sheng's troops were gradually reaching their psychological breaking point!

Just as Du Xi's division, braving the Yan riders' long-range killing, struggled to move into position behind Zhou Tai's unit, it happened. A company commander in the front ranks of Xu Sheng's division, who had held his shield for an eternity, could endure no more. With a hoarse roar, he raised his great shield bristling with arrow shafts and charged forward with all his might! And as expected, he was immediately struck from the flank by the arrow storm, collapsed to the ground, and was then singled out and shot dead — and in the process, he doomed the comrade behind him, suddenly deprived of cover, who took an arrow to the knee and fell howling.

Yet, contrary to all expectations, this man's nearly suicidal charge did not strike fear into Xu Sheng's troops... As the core soldiers of Liu Bei's army, masters of the lands between the Huai and the Yangtze, even in collapse they chose a manner of collapse that caught everyone off guard.

Moments after that company commander fell, almost in a single instant, the very front rank of Xu Sheng's formation erupted with a roar that shook the entire battlefield. One after another, front-rank officers surged forward, leading the way with raised shields and leveled spears!

And behind these officers, without the slightest hesitation, the remaining two thousand-odd Jiujiang White Armor likewise raised their shields and followed!

At this moment, Xu Wenxiang, the army's commanding general, uttered not a single word. He simply adjusted the white armor on his body, picked up his silver spear, mounted his white horse, and charged with the army, striving to be at the very front!

Xiahou Shang gave a sigh, and then, without any hesitation whatsoever, immediately mounted his horse and followed with the Qinggang Sword in hand — as Xiahou Yuan's nephew and Cao Zhen's brother-in-law, what did he have to hesitate about?

Only that his strength could not match his will.

The ones pressing the attack with arrows were Wuhuan troops, of relatively low quality. For a moment, they were caught off guard as Xu Sheng's division charged with raised shields right up to their faces, suffering heavy losses and causing the other light cavalry to fall back too late.

But that was all. At this moment, Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian, who were prowling with their respective armored cavalry on the battlefield's southern flank, were cavalry commanders of such vast experience — and the Yan army's main armored cavalry on the battlefield's westernmost edge was watching with tiger-like intensity.

So who would miss such an opening?

Had they not waited nearly two full hours, the sun already sinking so far to the west, precisely for one corner of the enemy's great formation to collapse?

Thus, almost at the same instant, with a wave of Gongsun Xun's hand, Tian Chou and Yang Kai from the northwest toward the southeast, and Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian from the southeast toward the northwest — four divisions, eight thousand armored cavalry — before the eyes of both armies, each executed a flank insertion into Xu Sheng's two thousand-odd gleaming white-armored troops, and together completed a two-direction pincer attack!

Having lost their formation, with gaps so glaringly obvious in their charge, how terribly vulnerable were the flanks of two thousand-odd infantry? And how overwhelmingly powerful were eight thousand armored cavalry who had rested while their foe exhausted themselves? At such a moment, what use were shields and long spears?

In nearly a single instant, heaven and earth changed color. The hoarse roars and battlefield charge of Xu Sheng's division were effortlessly dissolved, leaving only the exultant cheers of the Yan army and the countless hoofbeats shaking the battlefield.

Xu Sheng's attire was far too conspicuous. Pitifully, a general who had always led the vanguard, before he could even engage, was shot down by a volley of random arrows. His warhorse died first, and he broke a leg in the fall. Before he could rise, he was trampled to death by cavalry — the same fate as Tian Yu, who had fled from before his formation earlier, yet with a different outcome!

As for Xiahou Shang, midway through his charge, he suddenly spotted Zhang Liao's banner approaching from the southeast. He simply charged straight ahead. Though he fought with all his might, he never even caught a glimpse of Zhang Liao's face before he was easily surrounded and slain by countless Yan armored riders — the Qinggang Sword, together with the Yitian Sword from before, fell into the blood and filth of the battlefield, their whereabouts unknown ever after.

One corner of the great formation had suddenly collapsed. Cao Cao watched this scene from afar, both furious and frantic. He had half a mind to follow his temper, to sneer and curse a few times, but he could never open his mouth. Instead, it turned into a quiet sigh, and he continued issuing orders for the entire army to steady their formation and roll southward in retreat.

But by now, it was no longer the same matter.

Xu Sheng's division's counter-charge had failed, and they immediately became targets of slaughter. Du Xi's division was also blocked by cavalry surging forward into the gap between Zhou Tai's formation and Cao Cao's main formation, unable to advance or retreat. Chen Wu's division was once again exposed on two sides, and light cavalry immediately pressed in, continuing that unbearable archery suppression. As for Zhou Tai's division, though it had suffered no damage before, it was now exposed on three sides, and the Yan light cavalry, their bloodlust roused by slaughter and charging, would rather endure the counter-fire of Zhou Tai's powerful crossbows than cease their three-sided suppression!

Zhou Tai was a man of few words, a great general. After Liu Bei obtained him, he had always compared him to Gongsun Xun's subordinate Gao Shun, and he had always served as a trusted confidant, commanding the most elite troops under Liu Xuande... His status was far above Chen Wu and Xu Sheng. Even before the rise of the Three Heroes of Huainan, among the southern army's military officers, he had held a position faintly second only to Zhang Fei.

And of course, Zhou Youping had never failed Liu Bei's trust. It seemed he could forever give everything for Liu Bei.

At this very moment, Zhou Tai first glanced at the sun — the greater part of the entire afternoon had passed. At most, at the very most, two more hours, or more reasonably, just an hour and a half, and the sky would darken.

But in this state, what use would darkness be?

Standing atop a pile of debris, Zhou Tai first looked back at the chaotic mess of Du Xi's division, then gazed far to the northeast. He knew that Chen Wu's division over there could not hold out much longer and was certain to collapse at any moment. And he could see clearly that Yang Kai and Tian Chou's two divisions, along with Tian Yu's armored cavalry — which must have been the unit thwarted at the very start — were already massing in that direction, preparing to strike... In this way, the Huainan Elite Armor that Liu Bei had relied upon as his mainstay would be utterly annihilated here.

Then it would be his own division's turn. Zhou Tai turned back and looked around. Watching arrows pour down like rain from three sides, he remained utterly silent even as a nearby bodyguard raised a shield to block a shot clearly aimed at him by an enemy sharpshooter... Without a doubt, under this level of attack, before nightfall — he could not speak for elsewhere — but at the very least, his own Danyang troops would absolutely be routed here by the Yan army in the same manner!

And after nightfall?

Perhaps Cao Cao could steady the formation and continue south. Perhaps Cao Ren would risk sending a large force and succeed in relieving them... Perhaps there was some chance to turn the tables in this entire war that he did not know of. But if so, what did any of that have to do with his own lord, Liu Bei?

Without these ten thousand core elite armored soldiers, without Zhou Gongjin, without Xuzhou — no matter the final outcome of this battle, his lord could only retreat to Huainan, or even Jiangnan.

With this thought, Zhou Tai looked squarely at the white-horse banner directly ahead, then let his gaze slide toward the arrow-transport teams in front of the formation. For Cao Cao, there might still be other roads to take, but for him, Zhou Tai, these were the only two objectives by which to seek life amid death!

"Pass the order!" As another clearly targeted arrow brushed past his shoulder and killed one of his personal guards, Zhou Youping finally spoke, his expression unchanged, yet his words remained terse. "The entire army, raise shields and charge forward! Strike straight for that white-horse great banner ahead!"

The officers relayed the order down the ranks, and as Zhou Tai silently drew his blade and advanced on foot, the entire military formation, following the great Zhou banner, raised their shields and slowly pressed westward!

This was a fresh force, perhaps the most elite infantry unit on this battlefield. Now, suddenly abandoning their formation to advance, it was utterly unlike the suicidal, collapsing charge of Xu Sheng's division. Even as they moved forward, though they suffered rapid casualties from the long-range attacks of the light cavalry harassing them on all sides, they showed not the slightest disorder, essentially maintaining a fearsome heavy-infantry close-combat formation!

Zhou Tai's sudden action immediately shook the entire battlefield and triggered a chain reaction. The first to suffer a heavy blow was naturally Du Xi's division, which had been sheltering behind Zhou Tai's troops. They hurried forward, attempting to take over Zhou Tai's original position, but instead bore the brunt and fell into the inevitable predicament of being attacked from three sides. At the same time, upon detecting Zhou Tai's advance, Chen Wu's division also unhesitatingly chose to charge on their own initiative — an even more speechless choice, yet one that plunged Cao Cao's main camp and Wen Ping's division behind them into trouble.

A single proactive sortie, barely begun, had already caused half of the Cao army's great formation — which had only lost one corner — to collapse in an instant. Cao Cao was naturally furious, yet ultimately had nothing to say, for these were not his direct subordinates! Moreover, he had grasped the stakes even earlier than Zhou Tai — Zhou Youping's move was not at all problematic; what was problematic was the Central Plains alliance that could only oppose Gongsun Xun by relying on a coalition.

And at this moment, while the Cao army was split in two by helplessness and desperation, the Yan army also encountered some trouble for a time.

Zhou Tai's division naturally had to be blocked with all possible effort, and this formation clearly required a large force of armored riders fighting to the death to halt its advance. But the twelve thousand armored riders capable of mounting an effective blocking action were at this moment extremely dispersed. Zhang Liao and Cheng Lian's four thousand armored riders had spread out and were hunting down the routed Xu Sheng division, with some troops directly joining the assault on Du Xi's division. The two generals, in their haste and with no time to reassemble their forces, could only each lead a few hundred armored riders surging toward Zhou Tai's division. Yang Kai, Tian Chou, and Tian Yu's five or six thousand riders were in a very similar situation — they had encountered Chen Wu's desperate counterattack and could not break free for the moment, yet could not abandon the chance to thoroughly crush Chen Wu. So they split in two: Tian Chou remained to hold back the dark-armored troops dealing with Chen Wu, while Yang Kai and Tian Yu each led a few hundred armored riders hurrying back in support.

Or rather, Zhou Tai had launched his assault precisely because he saw this opportunity.

The four generals charged forward with desperate valor, heedless of life and death, plunging directly into Zhou Tai's formation from the rear. By then, Zhou Tai had already covered half the distance. Yuwen Heita and Yufuluo also hurriedly led the last unit of two thousand armored riders in a valiant sortie, splitting into two groups to strike the flanks. Countless light cavalry, without waiting for orders, galloped left and right, shooting and harassing. Under such all-out resistance, although Zhou Tai's troops were fully equipped with great shields and iron armor, and though they were incomparably fierce, it was as if they shed a layer of skin with nearly every step forward.

As Zhou Tai's advance continued, the battle entered its most intense phase, the stage where both sides suffered the greatest expenditure of human life.

Yet, that being said, because of the need to display those pack horses, Gongsun Xun's initial distance from Zhou Tai's formation had simply been too close — a mere few hundred paces. And so, bearing enormous casualties, Zhou Youping gradually pressed closer and closer.

Gongsun Xun let out a brief, helpless laugh. Without waiting for Jia Xu, Xun You, or the other advisors and volunteer guards to dissuade him, he took the initiative and gave the order: "I know. At this point, the overall outcome is already decided; there is no need to contest a momentary impulse. Withdraw, together with these 'arrows'!"

With the order given, Pang De and the others naturally breathed a sigh of relief. The three thousand White-Horse Volunteers, shielding the white-horse banner and the so-called arrow-laden pack horses — the vast majority of which actually carried half-tubes of sand — hurriedly withdrew several hundred paces before pausing briefly.

The great banner was planted anew. Everyone turned to look back and saw that Zhou Tai's formation could no longer maintain its square shape. Countless Danyang soldiers were scattered in all directions, locked in fierce hand-to-hand combat with armored riders and light cavalry, both sides falling in droves. Yet, unexpectedly, a force of about a thousand men still held together near Zhou Tai's great banner. Beneath that banner, a general clad in heavy armor, with several arrows embedded in his armor, still gripped a long spear and raised a great shield, personally charging and killing at the front. His followers shouted and pressed on with him, and for a time, none who faced him could stand!

His steps were slow, but he advanced step by step, never retreating. There was no need to ask — this was naturally the Tiger General of Huainan, Zhou Youping!

Seeing this, Gongsun Xun, half sighing, half helpless, once again took the initiative to rein his horse back, and casually gave the order: "This time, leave those things on the pack horses for him."

Pang De and the others, after breathing a sigh of relief, hurriedly cast aside those "precious arrows" and shifted slightly westward once more.

Having repositioned again, Gongsun Xun turned his head back. He watched as the troops around Zhou Tai rapidly fell away until clearly no more than four or five hundred remained, yet still they pressed forward without cease.

Not only that, Gongsun Xun saw with his own eyes: Zhou Tai had by now lost his great shield, and his long spear, within Gongsun Xun's field of vision, had snapped off directly inside the body of a Yan army cavalry Company Commander. Yet still he fought on without pause, wielding his ring-headed saber.

A rider charged at him head-on. Zhou Tai pinned down the rider's spear, reversed his blade and stabbed into the man's neck, then seized the spear and pressed forward!

A rider came from the flank. Before reaching him, a Danyang soldier leaped up fiercely, crashing into the rider from the side with his shield. The rider fell from his horse, and the Danyang soldier, thrown back by the horse's immense force, also fell to the ground and vanished from sight.

The surrounding advisors all paled and instinctively looked toward their Duke of Yan.

Gongsun Xun had been about to give an order, but then he suddenly saw that the man had already fought his way to that somewhat scattered pile of arrow bundles. He held back a moment and did not hurry to retreat.

Yet when Zhou Youping reached those bundles of arrows tied in tubes, he made a slight movement, discovered the secret within, and then merely paused for an instant. After that, paying no further heed, he simply bypassed those things and, without stopping a single step, continued straight toward the white-horse banner.

Beneath the white-horse banner, the generals once again looked toward their Duke of Yan.

And Gongsun Xun, as ever, gave a faint smile — then his expression suddenly changed and he erupted in fury: "On the battlefield, it is normal for cavalry to advance and withdraw slightly. But not thrice over! How can the command banner of a sovereign retreat three times without end?!"

His attendants were momentarily terrified. But Gongsun Xun once more drew his broken blade and pointed it at Zhou Tai, who was now just over a hundred paces away, the blood streaming from his body faintly visible. In a harsh voice, he commanded: "I shall count to a hundred silently. If after a hundred counts you have not killed this man, I will go and kill him myself!"

The officers among the surrounding volunteer guards dared not delay a moment. From Pang De on down, dozens of officers rushed out, heading straight for Zhou Tai.

The fastest rider at the forefront was, of course, Pang Lingming. Relying on his exceptionally ugly horse, he seized the moment and actually accelerated at the last instant. With a single strike, he thrust his spear and sent the long spear in Zhou Tai's hands — which had already shown signs of exhaustion — flying through the air!

Close behind him was Wang Ling. Seeing Zhou Tai disarmed, he was naturally overjoyed and also leveled his spear to thrust.

Zhou Tai, without a sound, simply twisted his body to dodge on the ground, and in the same motion pinned down the other man's spear. Then, with a violent wrench powered by his waist, he not only succeeded in seizing the spear but also flung Wang Ling straight off his warhorse!

Then, Zhou Youping — who had barely looked back since the start of his assault — finally turned his head. Ignoring the dense swarm of white-horse officers surging from the west, he directly impaled Wang Ling, who had fallen to the ground, killing him with a single spear thrust.

Watching this scene from afar, Gongsun Xun's eyelid twitched. He was inexplicably reminded of that time when Cheng Pu had saved him and his wife.

However, back then, after Cheng Pu had slain several Xianbei riders barehanded, what followed was a large force of Liaoxi Han cavalry reinforcements. But now, after Zhou Tai had successively slain Yan cavalrymen, what followed were even more Yan cavalrymen, each more formidable than the last.

Ma Dai arrived next. Having likely witnessed the man's strength in seizing a spear barehanded, he did not dare be overconfident even though the opponent had yet to turn around. He thrust his spear, striking Zhou Tai squarely in the unprotected armpit beneath his armor, then immediately let go, abandoned the spear, drew his blade, wheeled his horse, and charged directly into the Danyang soldiers behind Zhou Tai to begin his slaughter!

Zhou Tai's shoulder was pierced through. The pain was momentarily unbearable, yet he gritted his teeth and remained silent. Dropping to one knee for leverage, he wrenched the spear out through his armor with sheer force, blood gushing forth like a spring.

But at that very moment, Ma Chao also arrived from a short distance away. With an equally powerful thrust, he easily drove his spear into Zhou Youping's calf, which had been left exposed by his kneeling posture! He then pinned the man, who had just been about to rise, back to the ground!

Immediately, following suit, Ma Chao likewise abandoned his spear for his blade. Ignoring whatever state Zhou Tai was in, he charged into the Danyang formation, blade in hand. Behind Ma Chao, dozens of white-horse officers, seeing how these two brothers conducted themselves, all followed suit. Whether with blade or spear, a full seven or eight riders succeeded in landing blows, inflicting extremely conspicuous wounds on Zhou Tai.

In that brief span, his shoulder, armpit, arm, calf, and neck were stabbed by spears and slashed by blades, suffering no fewer than ten severe wounds. Any other man would likely have long since fallen dead. Yet Zhou Youping, using the spear he had seized from Wang Ling as a staff, actually tried to rise! Truly a tenacious life!

At this sight, the obvious fury on Gongsun Xun's face momentarily receded, leaving it utterly expressionless. Yet he gripped the broken blade in his hand, which only made those around him more panicked, unsure how to respond.

And at that moment, suddenly, a rider wielding a ring-headed saber came from within the Danyang formation heading west, his posture awkward. But as his horse swept past Zhou Tai's side, he leaned over with all his might and delivered a horizontal slash, severing both the spear Zhou Youping was leaning on and the man's own head in a single stroke.

Zhou Tai, whose blood had seemed to flow without end, now had no head and no support, and finally crashed to the ground. But at the same moment, Tian Yu, who had succeeded in the killing blow, also toppled straight off his horse!

Yet, to everyone's stunned amazement, although Tian Guorang's helmet had fallen to the ground, because his body was bound and tied to the horse, he did not actually fall off.

A moment later, the volunteer guards who had rushed forward to rescue him brought the terrified, half-dead Tian Yu back beneath the white-horse banner. Only then did everyone discover that this youngest two-thousand-dan cavalry general in the army, Gongsun Xun's fellow townsman and disciple, had been disfigured — one of his ears had been cleanly sliced off by some exposed blade on the ground.

The incident had happened right before everyone's eyes; the cause and effect were clear at a glance, and no one had anything to say.

Yet Gongsun Xun, who had been staring motionlessly at Zhou Tai's corpse before him, something stirring in his heart, could not help but turn back at last. Pointing at the battlefield before him, strewn with severed limbs and broken arms, he spoke calmly to Jia Xu, Xun You, and Tian Yu — who had twice escaped death that day — and the others beside him:

"This is why I had to choose to strike today and end this battle as quickly as possible! Relay my order to the entire army: today, I do not seek Cao Cao's head, nor do I seek total victory. But the bows and arrows will arrive momentarily, and there are so many routed soldiers on the battlefield to be driven before us. Before nightfall, I want to see at least three more enemy formations collapse!"

—————I am a calmly-toned dividing line—————

"In this battle, the Grand Ancestor assembled twenty thousand horse archers who fired in ceaseless rotation, arrows falling like rain. The southern army all raised shields and hid, unable to lift their heads, merely waiting for the arrows to be exhausted. By mid-afternoon, two or three out of every ten in the southern army's front line were dead or wounded and on the verge of collapse, yet the horse archers' arrows were also spent. Cao thereupon arranged his formations in a ring and prepared to withdraw south. At that moment, the Grand Ancestor called for arrows from the main camp, but they had not yet arrived. He secretly ordered that all the arrow tubes carried by the armored riders be given to the horse archers, so the ceaseless volleys continued. He then took several hundred warhorses, loaded them with empty tubes filled with earth, with a few feathered arrows lightly placed on top, and displayed them before the formation. The southern army, exhausted, saw this from afar and was shaken. The front-line troops, believing themselves doomed, abandoned their formation and charged forward, only to be utterly slaughtered by the armored riders. In quick succession, the camps of Zhou Tai, Chen Wu, and Xu Sheng were all broken. By then, the feathered arrows had arrived from Guandu, and he pressed the attack on Cao's army without cease." — *Dianlüe*, Yan, annotated by Pei Songzhi

PS: Debt repaid.

(End of Chapter)