Hell Upon Hell: The Carnage at Habi Castle
They say that beyond one hell lies another. The siege of Habi Castle by Qi Ling was several times more horrific than the battle at Xiaopei.
"That Mi Fang's no pushover."
I'd dismissed him as some minor officer not worth much attention, but Mi Fang was defending the walls with far more skill than expected.
Still, it was winnable. With that thought, Qi Ling hurriedly arrayed his camp and pressed the assault.
'Leaving the Lord alone feels risky.' It was a rather insolent thought toward his own lord, Yuan Shu, but the state of Yuan Shu's forces was pitiful. Leaving him unsupervised made Qi Ling uneasy.
That line of thinking proved to be a fatal mistake.
"UHAHAHA!!!"
"Fresh corpses everywhere!!!"
From afar came a barbaric roar like the baying of wolves—human voices twisted into something feral.
Clack-clack!!
A horde of cavalry charged at terrifying speed.
Their signature black leather armor jogged Qi Ling's memory. These were the Bingzhou cavalry, famed for their fearsome prowess during the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition.
"Lu Bu…!!"
He'd anticipated reinforcements from Xiaopei to Habi, but not this swiftly.
Lu Bu's cavalry were renowned for their incredible speed, a fact he'd tucked away and forgotten in the heat of battle.
And at their center rode a silver-haired general with blazing red eyes, her locks whipping in the wind.
'Lu Bu…!'
Qi Ling panicked at the sight of the mightiest warrior he'd ever faced.
"Go Sun!! Take your rear guard and cut off their retreat!!! Jang Liao!! You're smashing straight through the front!!"
Lu Bu's strategy was brutally simple, but simplicity didn't matter when it was this overwhelming. Strength made it work.
"Rear guard!! Charge!!"
With her green hair streaming, the female general Go Sun bellowed the order, and her cavalry squad moved with perfect discipline. They wore black armor enveloping their bodies, helmets adorned with feathers plucked from ominous birds of prey.
Knights of death, come to reap soldiers' lives. That was the impression they gave.
Shwaaaa!!
Go Sun's rear guard in their black armor was merciless. With every charge, Yuan Shu's troops scattered like fallen leaves in an autumn gale.
"For the Lord!!!"
But the rear guard wasn't the only threat. The red-haired female general Jang Liao swung her spear like a madwoman, barreling straight for Qi Ling.
"Kuh…!!"
Qi Ling felt the full brunt of the Xiliang cavalry's elite spirit—every one a ferocious champion.
"I'll handle you myself, Qi Ling!!"
Fleeing here would doom the entire plan. Drawing his halberd, Qi Ling desperately tried to block Jang Liao.
"Ha!! You've got some grit!!"
Jang Liao thrust her spear with ferocious speed.
Craaaaaang!!
The heavy spear strike shoved Qi Ling's body back hard.
Clang!! Clang! Chaaang!!
Qi Ling had once held out for thirty exchanges against Guan Yu in the tales, so he managed some semblance of a fight against Jang Liao too.
But the advantage lay firmly with Jang Liao. Qi Ling's side was being pushed back unilaterally.
"Gaaaaah!! Lord!!!"
"Lord!! Save us!! Please!!"
Qi Ling's army was being swept away by Go Sun's rear guard.
Craaaaaang!!
Qi Ling mustered a burst of false bravado, shoving Jang Liao back hard before wheeling his horse and fleeing at full gallop.
"Everyone!! Follow me!! Retreat!! Stay by my side and you'll live!!"
True to form as a general, he rallied his panicking troops and began the withdrawal.
"Ha ha!! Retreating, eh!!! Let's see if you can still command with a blade in your gut!!"
But as one mountain loomed, another rose behind it. Lu Bu marked Qi Ling relentlessly, pursuing without mercy.
"Damn it…!!!"
Qi Ling's face hardened.
He was leading the van, yet Lu Bu had already closed the distance.
'The Flying General Lu Bu… the Red Hare….'
Qi Ling tasted the fabled power of the Red Hare, said to cover a thousand li in a day.
"Come on!! Show me what you've got!!! Drag it all out before you die!!"
Lu Bu cackled wildly, swinging her Fangtian Halberd.
Craaaaaaaaang!!!
On pure survival instinct, Qi Ling parried Lu Bu's spear thrust.
Yet Lu Bu's strength defied reason.
Ching!!
Qi Ling's halberd shattered under the halberd's blade.
'It cut my blade?'
Aghast at the savage ease with which she'd sliced his weapon like a falling leaf, Qi Ling's jaw dropped wide.
That was the expression frozen on his face in his final moments.
Shwaaaa!!
After forcibly redirecting the horizontal sweep of her halberd with raw power, Lu Bu swung it upward like a bell clapper.
Thwooooock!!!
The halberd's blade cleanly severed Qi Ling's head.
"General!!"
"General!!"
Having watched their commander diced in mere exchanges, Yuan Shu's troops lost all will to fight.
"Slaughter them all!!!"
Lu Bu snatched Qi Ling's half-severed head from the air and unleashed a roar like a raging torrent.
That night, 20,000 Yuan Shu soldiers met their end before Habi Castle. The enemy general Qi Ling was slain. It's said the corpses of the massacred Yuan Shu army formed a river of blood blocking the gates.
Yuan Shu had struck first, but those who witnessed the one-sided butchery secretly pitied his forces.
---------
At that moment, Lu Bu was buzzing with exhilaration and triumph.
'I… I did it….'
Grinning ear to ear, Lu Bu hoisted Qi Ling's head.
The enemy had been a dull, one-sided hunt, but the victory's meaning overshadowed that.
'Kim gave the order himself….'
Faithfully executing Kim's command here might earn his favor. With that ulterior motive, Lu Bu had gone all out.
Whistling a tune, Lu Bu stood amid the strewn corpses of Yuan Shu's army, clutching the gift for Kim.
'Kim's gonna love this.'
If Yuan Shu had any sanity left, he wouldn't dare eye Xuzhou again. She'd defended her love nest with Kim. Such romantic notions made even the gruesome scene around her seem picturesque.
"Alright! Everyone, let's head back!!"
Lu Bu beamed at the Xiliang cavalry she'd brought.
But some were shamelessly looting corpses.
"Hey!!!"
Lu Bu kicked their backs in fury.
"Ow!! Lord!! What was that for?!"
The Xiliang soldiers looked aggrieved.
"Hey!! Are we a band of thieves or what? Pack it up and let's go!!"
Lu Bu scolded them sternly.
"Aww…."
The looters grumbled as they rose.
'Kim doesn't like the Xiliang troops acting like bandits.'
Whenever they reverted to old habits and preyed on the common folk, Kim would step in and rage. Those who couldn't shake their ways got personally thrashed by him.
Lu Bu wondered if soldiers looting spoils was really so wrong, but if Kim hated it, she'd just make them stop. Simple as that.
-------
Back to my perspective.
Lu Bu tossed something like rotten meat right in front of me.
"It's the enemy general Qi Ling's head. For you, Kim."
She said it casually, like it was no big deal.
"…Ah. I see."
Word was, not just Qi Ling, but 20,000 Yuan Shu troops had been annihilated before Habi.
"Thanks. Good work, Lu Bu."
I praised her as courteously as possible. "Yeah…. Hehehe."
She grinned like an idiot at the words.
I meant the praise sincerely, but inwardly, I was gripped by massive alarm.
'These guys need a tight leash.'
If they ever turned against Liu Bei, it would be catastrophic.
Keep watching them, win them over to our side… or in the worst case, strike first and wipe them out.
'Don't wanna go with the latter….'
Maybe familiarity had bred some affection. Still, with proper taming, I could fold them into Liu Bei's army entirely. I started scheming in that direction.
'Gotta handle Jin Gung somehow.'
With this raw power staring them down, he'd see it as the perfect blade to kill Cao Cao.
--------
Soon after, word spread like wildfire in Xiaopei.
Lord of Xuzhou Liu Bei himself, along with Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, were coming to Xiaopei and Habi.
"Kim Gong!! Lady Fengxian!! Well done!!"
Liu Bei waved cheerfully at us.
"Ah, Lord Xuande. You must be tired from the long journey."
I smiled and cupped my fists in salute.
"Haha. Even if Yuan Shu brings 100,000, I'm confident we'd win."
Lu Bu beside me laughed and returned a light salute.
"Truly… With you here, I can rest easy."
Liu Bei smiled.
'Yeah. Without Lu Bu, it would've been dicey.'
Liu Bei's crew had top-tier generals, but few troops. He hadn't implemented the tuntian system, gritting his teeth against it because it burdened the peasants too much. If Yuan Shu committed to an all-out rush, it could've been trouble—but Lu Bu's Xiliang cavalry gave us solid stopping power.
"Heh. Should've come to Xuzhou proper. I'm itching for a real fight."
Zhang Fei spat on the ground, disappointed.
"Still, we need better defenses from now on. If Yuan Shu comes again…."
Zhao Yun seemed worried about that.
"Brother. Yuan Shu's already thrown everything he's got. Why not strike first and hit him?"
Zhang Fei suggested.
"No, that's not wise."
Liu Bei shook his head.
"Xuzhou's ravaged from the massacres. We've restored some, but now's the time to focus on internal affairs."
'He's a good man, alright.'
It was an opportunity, sure, but the people came first. Unlike land-grubbing warlords, he was different.
'Realistically, even if we took Yuan Shu's territory, we couldn't hold it.'
With our scant numbers already stretched thin, garrisoning Nanyang would split us further. Land we couldn't manage—better solidify what we had. That seemed to be Liu Bei's thinking.
"No complacency, but don't act like we're at war either. Keep it as is, so the people don't live in fear."
Liu Bei concluded.
"Well, since you're here… How about some cuju?"
The moment the meeting wrapped, Zhang Fei shot me a sly glance.
Ah, Liu Bei's army's staple pastime: cuju.
"Woohee! Sounds good."
"Nuhee."
Just mentioning cuju had me and Zhang Fei grinning like fools. The word alone was peak fun now.
"Cuju? What's that?"
Lu Bu tilted her head.
"Lady Fengxian wants in too?"
More players made it better. Widen the field, endless capacity.
"Sure. Let's try it."
Lu Bu, who loved anything physical, accepted readily.
And so we played cuju with the Xiliang troops included. Even Liu Bei hiked up his robes and joined.
Aaah… This was Liu Bei's army staple: cuju. Picturing spreading it to the Xiliang lads already had my hamstrings twitching in anticipation.
That aside.
None of us knew, as we all enjoyed the game together.
That this was our last taste of peace in Xuzhou. And that Yuan Shu was nothing compared to what was coming.