Chapter 6

Yu Jin was being closely pursued by Zhao Yun, who brandished his silver spear along the way, flipping over many of Yu Jin's personal guards.

Seeing that Yu Jin was about to be caught by Zhao Yun, at that moment Dian Wei, holding a pair of large iron halberds and barefoot, happened to hear the commotion outside and walked out of the tent.

Yu Jin said to Dian Wei,

"General Dian Wei, this junior officer is truly formidable; please hold him off for me while I go reorganize the troops."

Dian Wei rolled his eyes and sneered.

"Yu Wenze, you're getting more and more useless……"

Before he finished speaking, Zhao Yun had already charged up to Dian Wei; Dian Wei seized his iron halberd and swung it forcefully at Zhao Yun, who, not being careless, used the momentum of his warhorse to thrust his spear at Dian Wei.

Their weapons clashed; Dian Wei's halberd almost slipped from his grasp, and he staggered back several steps before plopping down on the ground. Zhao Yun also felt numbness in his hand, and his Jade Lion steed was brought to a halt.

One must know that the Jade Lion, a warhorse charging with Zhao Yun's divine strength, possesses a force of over a thousand jin, yet it was stopped on foot by the bald, muscular man before them.

Moreover, the bald warrior appeared uninjured; Dian Wei, somewhat dazed, picked up his halberd and glared ferociously at Zhao Yun.

"Pretty boy, come down and have a go with me? That Yu Jin good-for-nothing has no real ability."

Zhao Yun laughed heartily, dismounted, and pointed his silver spear at Dian Wei.

"You do have some skill; today I shall learn from you."

Having said that, the two charged at each other again and became entangled. They exchanged blows, testing each other's strength; Zhao Yun discovered that the bald man's strength was not inferior to his own. Seeing this, Zhao Yun became more cautious, merely employing the Serpent Coiling Spear technique to probe and test, without launching a full-force attack.

As time passed, Zhao Yun noticed that Dian Wei's handling of the pair of large iron halberds was rather ordinary, but the man's strength was immense, seemingly tireless, making it impossible for Zhao Yun to close in on him in a short time.

At this point, Yu Jin had begun to reorganize the troops; although the Cao army was still in disarray, under his command it was gradually able to mount a counterattack.

Liu Bei, observing from the hill outside the camp, saw clearly that the Cao forces were slowly beginning to encircle the over a thousand troops Zhao Yun had led in; Liu Bei knew that Zhao Yun's detachment could not hold out long within the Cao main camp, and he watched as, under Yu Jin's command, the Cao forces slowly started to surround Zhao Yun's men completely.

Liu Bei and Zhang Fei led more than three thousand troops to charge out beyond the gate, watching as the Cao forces began to tighten the encirclement.

Liu Bei drew his twin swords, turned to his troops, and gave the order

"Archers, shoot at the Cao encirclement—do you see those Cao troops with their backs to you? They are the targets!"

In Liu Bei's army, several hundred archers formed three ranks, taking turns loading their bows.

"Fire!"

As Liu Bei's command rang out, a hail of arrows rained down upon the rear of the Cao troops surrounding Zhao Yun and his men; most of the Cao soldiers hardly noticed the appearance of this force behind them and were instantly scattered by the arrows.

Watching the Cao soldiers who had been hit by arrows fall to the ground yet still struggle, some even broke off the arrow shafts, picked up their swords, and continued charging forward.

Liu Bei slowly shook his head; indeed, the power of bows and arrows of this era drops sharply with distance, and it seems he will need to improve the craft of bows and crossbows in the future.

Afterward, Liu Bei glanced at the impatient Zhang Fei beside him and issued a solemn order

"Third brother, now take your men and charge forward to join with Zi Long; preferably capture the enemy commander together!"

"Ah, elder brother, Old Zhang is on his way!"

Zhang Fei brandished his eighteen-foot serpent spear, leading over two thousand men in an assault on the Cao camp; wave after wave of arrow feathers had slain two or three thousand Cao troops, and at this point panic spread among them.

Zhang Fei repeatedly knocked aside several foot soldiers; the troops behind him surged forward like an arrowhead into the Cao ranks, and hundreds of Liu Bei's cavalrymen quickly followed Zhang Fei into the encirclement.

"Zi Long, I'm here!"

Zhang Fei shouted excitedly, then saw Zhao Yun grappling with a bald, muscular man.

Zhao Yun and Dian Wei had already fought sixty or seventy rounds, neither able to defeat the other in a short time.

Seeing Zhao Yun and Dian Wei locked in a tough battle, and noticing that he himself had no equal nearby, the itchy Zhang San ye brandished his serpent spear and rushed toward the two combatants.

"Zi Long, I'm coming to help you!"

The black steed carried Zhang Fei forward as he thrust his spear at Dian Wei, who hastily raised a large iron halberd to block.

The tremendous force transmitted through the halberd caused Dian Wei to drop his weapon outright and sit down hard on the ground; Zhao Yun seized the moment to press his spearhead against Dian Wei's throat.

Several of Liu Bei's soldiers ran over to bind Dian Wei; a rookie soldier, seeing Dian Wei's glaring eyes, felt a bit frightened, while a veteran beside him glared back and stabbed Dian Wei in the lower back with his sword tip.

"What are you glaring at? Don't move—if you move again I'll beat you to death!"

Dian Wei was indeed a tiger, but he wasn't stupid; with a blade already at his body, what would happen if that stab went in?

From afar, Yu Jin saw Dian Wei captured, while his own troops had lost their will to fight; he sighed, ordered the archers to suppress Liu Bei's forces, then gathered the remnants and withdrew from the main camp.

Liu Bei watched the composed Yu Jin, feeling a certain admiration for him, but he knew that with only over four thousand men against the Cao army's twenty-plus thousand, even after his surprise attack they still had over ten thousand troops, and for the moment he could not take the camp.

"System, help me check this guy Yu Jin's stats."

Xiao Luban's voice sounded slowly

"Yu Jin: Martial 82, Intelligence 81, Politics 75, Leadership 95, Health 93, Loyalty to Cao Cao 92."

Liu Bei felt in his heart: "Yu Jin is indeed a fine commander; his Leadership is 95—Cao Cao that old bastard certainly has many capable subordinates. Think of Xu Huang, also one of the Five Elite Generals, who hasn't yet defected to Cao Cao."

Zhang Fei was about to continue leading his men in the assault when Liu Bei rode forward on his horse

"Third brother, don't pursue further; there are some tricks in that enemy formation, we are few in number—let's call it a day and withdraw!"

Zhang Fei somewhat grudgingly lowered his serpent spear, then, as if thinking of something, pointed toward the bald, muscular man being watched by a dozen or so soldiers not far away.

"Elder brother, we've caught a stud!"

Liu Bei opened the character attribute panel

"Dian Wei: Martial 98, Intelligence 13, Politics 22, Leadership 30, Health 99, Loyalty to Cao Cao 100."

"Holy smokes, we've actually captured Cao Cao's top warrior!"

Liu Bei stepped forward and asked

"Are you Dian Wei?"

The bald, muscular man, though his whole body was bound, would not lose his integrity.

Seeing that it seemed to be the group's leader asking, Dian Wei, with great backbone, turned his head and remained silent.

"Our lord is asking you a question!"

The old soldier who had threatened to beat Dian Wei to death to death again stabbed him in the lower back with his sword tip.

Liu Bei broke into a spring‑like smile and waved his hand at that old soldier.

Looks like Da Erduo is a good guy, Dian Wei secretly thought, maybe he'll even let me go back to Cao Gong's side!

"Take him away, starve him for a few meals. Hmm... give him a little water, just enough to keep him alive, keep him for a good price."

Liu Bei, seeing Dian Wei's loyalty to Cao Cao, naturally would not have any thought of recruiting Dian Wei again.

Dian Wei wore an expression of disbelief, just about to shout something, but with a brain of only 13 IQ, thinking took time, and by the time he reacted, he had already been dragged aside by a group of people.

Liu Bei looked at several hundred wounded soldiers and corpses strewn across the ground, sighed, the Cao army's combat power was indeed formidable, his surprise attack had lost so many troops.

"Hurry up and clean the battlefield, we'll head to Xuzhou sooner."