The Decisive Battle
On a plain roughly ten li east of Jiangling, the armies of both sides had gathered.
Shu forces: some fifty thousand. Wu forces: roughly seventy thousand. More than a hundred and twenty thousand men in all stood ready for a decisive clash.
The supreme commander of the Shu army was Zhuge Liang. The supreme commander of the Wu army was Lu Xun.
Wu held the advantage in numbers, yet successive operational failures had left their morale badly shaken. Sun Quan, King of Wu, had brought his personal guard into the field himself, shoring up that sagging spirit — or so Lu Xun hoped.
The Shu army, by contrast, had endured hard fighting throughout, yet the tireless efforts of veterans like Jin Cheong and Zhang Fei had kept their spirits intact. And now that their lord Liu Bei had taken the field in person, their morale soared as if it might pierce the heavens.
Lu Xun had been skeptical of this battle from the start, but with Sun Quan himself present on the field, withdrawal was no longer an option.
If this engagement could capture Liu Bei, every hardship and failure suffered so far would be more than redeemed. Of course, the enemy had not the slightest intention of allowing that to happen.
Since it has come to this, there is no choice but to win.
Morale might be low, but the numbers favored them. And with Ding Feng, Jiang Qin, Xu Sheng, Han Dang, Pan Zhang, and other champions of Wu committed in force, their strength was by no means inferior.
Lu Xun swept his gaze once across the Shu lines on the far side of the plain, then issued an order to a courier.
"Deliver my command to Ding Feng. Execute the plan."
"Yes, sir!"
Ding Feng received Lu Xun's order, nodded once, and raised his blade toward the front. Ahead of him, a cavalry unit stood in perfect formation, just as his own did.
And at the center of that enemy cavalry, a banner snapped in the wind, bearing a single name:
"The Grand Commander's order has been given! Follow me — charge!"
"Waaaaah!"
With Gan Ning and Ling Tong both captured by the enemy, Ding Feng was the strongest card Wu still held. He had been checked by Jin Cheong several times, yet the martial prowess he had displayed throughout the campaign had earned him considerable influence across the Wu ranks. The trust placed in this young general — by officers and common soldiers alike — was substantial.
And that strongest card was now committing to a frontal assault from the very opening of the battle.
Ding Feng's cavalry thundered forward through a great cloud of dust, roaring as they drove straight at the opposing horsemen.
Something feels off.
A flicker of doubt crossed Ding Feng's mind as he charged. The Shu cavalry ahead watched his force race toward them in a straight line — and made no move at all.
Then the Shu lines stirred. But it was not a counter-charge.
Jin Cheong's banner dropped. Instead of meeting the assault head-on, the cavalry began to split left and right.
Like a current parting around a rock, the horsemen opened a gap — and through it emerged Liu Min's Strong Crossbow unit.
The moment Liu Min raised his hand, the crossbowmen loosed a simultaneous volley. A great many of Ding Feng's lead riders took shafts and tumbled from their mounts.
Jin Cheong isn't here? A ruse. Tch — so this is the game they're playing.
It was not the frontal clash he had expected, but the losses were the sort any battle routinely inflicted. He paid them little mind.
"Keep charging! Once we close, those crossbows are useless!"
He was right. The enemy had struck first with a preparatory volley, but Ding Feng's cavalry had not yet lost their momentum. If they could close at this speed, they would trample the Strong Crossbow unit flat.
Crossbows took time to reload. Ding Feng calculated he would reach Liu Min's force before a second volley could be loosed.
That prediction, too, proved wrong.
Instead of reloading, the Strong Crossbow unit scrambled back. And what appeared as they withdrew was something else entirely outside Ding Feng's expectations.
Those are… wagons?
Originally supply carts, they had been positioned at the front as a defensive barrier. Behind them, infantry thrust long spears forward, their sharp points bristling outward. And further back, Liu Min's withdrawn Strong Crossbow unit and the archers were already nocking fresh arrows.
Pressed by the cavalry still thundering up from behind, Ding Feng's force could not slow in time. They slammed into the wagon barrier, lost the advantage of their charge, and immediately had to absorb the onslaught of spears and arrows with their own bodies.
To make matters worse, the cavalry that had scattered to either side at the opening of the battle now wheeled in and struck Ding Feng's flanks.
Damn it…
Watching Ding Feng's movements, Lu Xun clicked his tongue. He had not failed to anticipate that Ding Feng might be checked — but not like this.
Ding Feng was Wu's fiercest champion; of course the enemy would prepare accordingly. Lu Xun had expected either Zhang Fei or Jin Cheong to be the one to stop him — either of those two was a twin pillar of the enemy's strength.
If Ding Feng could pin down Jin Cheong, one of Shu's core assets, Lu Xun had planned to feed in the rest of his forces in sequence and gradually dominate the field. But the opening itself had already gone awry.
Still — it was only the first charge that had been blocked. Plenty of cards remained to play.
"Zhu Ran and Pan Zhang — advance and support Ding Feng."
"Yes, sir!"
Though the charge had been stopped, Ding Feng was still fighting well against enemies pressing from three directions. Leaving him unsupported was not an option, so Lu Xun ordered the two generals to reinforce him.
Meanwhile, Lu Xun continued to scan the battlefield, searching for a weak point. What caught his eye was the enemy's right wing.
Holding the right wing was Wu Ban's force. A thicket ran along their flank; their numbers were relatively few, and their commander was no figure of legendary renown.
Even so, Lu Xun did not grow careless.
"Order General Jiang Qin to strike Wu Ban on the enemy's right wing, and order General Xu Sheng to support Jiang Qin from the rear. Instruct General Xu Sheng in particular to advance with special caution for ambushers in the thicket beside Wu Ban's lines."
Jiang Qin led his troops in and slammed into Wu Ban's force. As expected, Wu Ban struggled to hold him, and the line began to give ground step by step.
Then a body of Shu soldiers burst from the thicket and attacked Jiang Qin's force. But Xu Sheng, faithfully following Lu Xun's orders, struck the ambushers in the flank and supported Jiang Qin. Under the combined assault of Xu Sheng and Jiang Qin, the ambushers were driven back into the woods.
The force hidden in that thicket, however, was no ordinary ambush party.
"This old man Zhang Fei has been waiting right here!"
Having lured Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng into the confined terrain of the thicket, Zhang Fei began using the narrow ground to hold both units at bay. Outnumbered though they were, Zhang Fei's men faced Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng together without yielding an inch.
So the fierce general Zhang Fei was lying in wait.
The attack on the right wing, too, showed no sign of a quick decision.
Both the center and the right wing had received more troops than the enemy opposite them — and yet the Shu army was repelling every assault with skill.
Ding Feng's cavalry, having lost their charging speed, fought from horseback with spear and sword against the wagon barrier and the long-spearmen. The Shu center had prepared not only the wagon wall but also hooked ropes and nets, snaring or toppling any horsemen who broke through the barrier.
Even so, Ding Feng was unleashing his full martial might — batting aside every flying spear and hook, shattering sections of the barrier, and pressing forward. But the Shu troops used their dense formation to continually fill the gaps he tore open and hold the line.
Ding Feng was fighting with everything he had, yet he could not bring his courage fully to bear.
Whoever commands the Shu center is no ordinary man.
The officers directing the Shu center were Xu Shu and Zhao Lei. Xu Shu, in particular — having once tasted Ding Feng's destructive power — was concentrating not on breaking him, but on containing him.
Having finished that brief appraisal of the enemy's command, Lu Xun issued new orders.
"Zhu Huan, Quan Cong — deliver my command to both generals: strike the enemy's left wing. Also instruct General Han Dang to approach from their rear as if reinforcing them, then seize the opportunity to swing wide around the field and strike the enemy's main camp."
"Yes, sir!"
Couriers raced back and forth, carrying Lu Xun's commands. True to the elite reputation of the Jiangdong army, the units moved as one.
A fierce assault by Quan Cong and Zhu Huan crashed down on Shu's left. Compared to the center and the right, the left showed signs of giving way. The officers commanding Shu's left wing — Zhang Nan, Feng Xi, and others — were, in truth, less capable than the commanders of the center and right.
"Excellent! If General Han Dang can cut past the enemy's left wing at once and drive into their main camp —!"
Having found the Shu army's weak point, Lu Xun resolved to exploit it without delay. Watching the flow of battle, he fed in his rear reserves one wave at a time, forcing the enemy to bleed while simultaneously masking Han Dang's movements so they could not be spotted.
As the pressure on the front mounted, the Shu army began committing more of its own reserves from the rear.
Watching Han Dang's force swing far around to target Liu Bei's main camp, Lu Xun allowed himself a measure of hope. But in trying to oversee so many threads of the battle at once, he had overlooked one thing.
"Military Advisor — a Wu detachment has swung around and is driving hard toward His Majesty's main camp!"
"I know."
The urgent report reached Zhuge Liang. He furrowed his brow slightly.
So they were aiming for the rear where His Majesty stands after all. Has it come to this in the end?
Zhuge Liang was doing everything in his power, but Lu Xun was clearly no ordinary opponent. To find a gap and complete a flanking maneuver — even accounting for Wu's greater numbers, it was excellent command.
It was not a development he had wished for. But it was not one he had failed to anticipate either.
Zhuge Liang had opposed it. Liu Bei had steeled himself for it.
Zhuge Liang looked toward his lord, who stood some distance from the command post. Sure enough, there was Liu Bei, twin swords raised toward the sky, rallying his personal guard.
A man who had spent half a lifetime on the battlefield and weathered countless perils — he knew better than anyone what to do at a moment like this.
The personal guard raised their weapons high and cheered. The steel they lifted for their master flashed in the sunlight.
Liu Bei's personal guard was rarely committed to direct combat — but when they did take the field, they fought with a ferocity unmatched by any other force. It was winter now, the cold air sharp and biting, yet the heat radiating from among them was enough to put that chill to shame.
They kept roaring their war cries, swinging their weapons through the empty air. It was not merely a gesture to inspire the personal guard. It was encouragement and a message to every allied soldier on this field:
Your king stands unbroken — do not look back. Fight.
At that soaring surge of spirit, Zhuge Liang's furrowed brow gradually eased.
His Majesty the King of Hanzhong's first battle since taking the field…
Jin Do, captain of the personal guard, raised a razor-edged blade high and charged out to meet Han Dang.
Han Dang — the veteran who had served three generations of the Sun family. Jin Do — the steadfast commander who had served Liu Bei alone his entire life. The two men's blades traced elegant arcs through the air and met almost exactly even.
Galvanized by Liu Bei's rallying cry, the personal guards gripped their weapons and followed their captain.
Wu had been first to complete the flanking maneuver — but the Shu army had not yet broken. And one unit that had not yet been committed to the field was now uncoiling from its crouch, ready to drive the decisive wedge into this contest.
Han Dang had succeeded in his flanking maneuver, yet the Shu army still held without collapsing — and that unsettled Lu Xun.
What is it? There's something I'm missing… Ah! Jin Cheong! Where is Jin Cheong right now?
One of the two fierce generals who represented Liu Bei's army on this field. Zhang Fei was currently holding Xu Sheng and Jiang Qin at once — but she had not shown herself at all. And then —
"Grand Commander! A force is driving at full speed toward His Majesty's main camp!"
Ah —!
While he had been straining to complete his own flanking maneuver, the Shu army had been preparing a flanking strike of their own against Sun Quan's main camp.
He looked where his aide was pointing. Indeed — a body of horsemen was racing at full gallop straight toward Sun Quan's main force. Lu Xun's face went pale.
Zhang Fei, having driven his Serpent Spear through Jiang Qin's chest, bellowed toward the charging horsemen:
"General Jin Cheong!"
As if answering that cry, a storm of dust swept along their charge path, and spear-blades and armor blazed brilliantly in the sunlight.
"Finish themmmmm!!!"
Zhang Fei's roar echoed like a peal of thunder at the backs of Jin Cheong's force as they drove hard into Sun Quan's army.
