Chapter 32
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: The Suppressed Rebellion
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Guangzong City's government office was shrouded in deep silence.
The door to the innermost chamber, the deepest one, was firmly shut. The elite guards standing watch before it didn't so much as twitch, but their faces betrayed an unmistakable anxiety.
"General... Lord Heavenly Master is still..."
The adjutant, who had been pacing anxiously in front of the inner chamber, asked Infantry General Zhang Liang as he emerged from the room. The city's grain stores had run dry, and the starving soldiers' grumblings grew louder with each passing day.
"Don't worry. Our eldest brother is offering prayers to the Yellow Heaven and awaiting the auspicious hour that will bring us victory. Good news will come soon."
Zhang Liang forced a calm expression to reassure the adjutant. But as he glanced back at the inner chamber, his eyes were filled with profound anguish and sorrow.
In truth, his eldest brother Zhang Jiao inside that door had already passed away from illness days ago. Zhang Liang was perpetuating this precarious lie to conceal his brother's death and prevent the army's collapse.
"Haa..."
Dismissing the adjutant, Zhang Liang dragged his heavy footsteps onward.
As he passed through the office corridors, he couldn't help but see soldiers collapsed in exhaustion and the wounded moaning in pain.
'This can't go on. I have to find some breakthrough, anything.'
In search of answers, Zhang Liang headed for the northern wall, which offered the best view of the enemy camp. When he climbed atop the ramparts, an unbelievable sight unfolded before him.
"L-Look at that! The imperial dogs are retreating!"
"They're... they're striking their tents!"
Lu Zhi's army, which had maintained a steadfast siege, was suddenly packing up their tents and supply wagons in preparation to withdraw.
It was a sudden, sloppy retreat that anyone could see through.
A cheer laced with hope erupted from the Yellow Turban soldiers atop the wall at the sight.
"Heaven hasn't abandoned us! The Heavenly Master's prayers have been answered!"
But Zhang Liang thought differently.
'Lu Zhi—that cunning old fox—retreating so sloppily? Impossible. This is a trap.'
Contrary to Zhang Liang's suspicions, the generals and soldiers inside the city began buzzing that they couldn't miss this chance.
Exhausted from hunger, the generals swarmed the ramparts and begged Zhang Liang to sally forth. Their eyes burned only with the desperate hunger for survival.
"General! Now's the time! We have to hit their rear as they retreat!"
"Don't move rashly. It's probably a trap."
Despite Zhang Liang's words, one general cried out in anguish.
"Trap or not, what does it matter?! If we stay here, we'll all starve to death! Even if it's a lie, if we don't seize this moment, there won't be another chance for us!"
From below the wall came the soldiers' clamor: "Let us fight!", "Open the gates!"
Zhang Liang was cornered by a hopeless choice.
He knew it was a trap, but his starving men were on the verge of devouring him. Clenching his fists in torment, he thought of his fallen eldest brother and the second brother who had died in battle.
After a long silence, Zhang Liang finally made his decision.
".........Open ...the gates."
"Yes, General!"
"The Yellow Heaven has granted us this heavenly opportunity!"
At Zhang Liang's command, Guangzong's massive gates creaked open.
'Eldest Brother... Little Brother... please help this foolish younger brother achieve victory.'
Zhang Liang looked to the sky and offered a prayer.
"Waaah!!"
"Death to the tyrant scum!"
As the gates swung open, the starving Yellow Turbans poured out with roars, chasing after Lu Zhi's retreating army.
They charged without formation, like a pack of famished beasts lunging at prey before their eyes. Watching from the ambush point, I sneered coldly.
'You've taken the bait, you fools.'
Lu Zhi's main force halted their feigned retreat at the designated spot and swiftly formed a massive defensive square.
The Yellow Turbans panicked and tangled among themselves as the main body suddenly wheeled about. And we didn't miss that opening.
Far off on the hill, the promised beacon fire flared up.
"The whole army, advance!"
"Yes, Commander!"
I took the lead of the 3,000 hidden cavalry and bellowed.
"Sons of Bing Province! Leave no rebels alive! Full charge!"
"Waaah!!"
"Slaughter all the heretics!!"
At my shout, the 3,000 Bing Province cavalry erupted from hiding with a unified roar.
—Thud thud thud thud thud!
Amid the earth-shaking thunder of hooves, we smashed into the Yellow Turbans' exposed left flank.
"E-Enemies! Enemies incoming!"
"Ambush! It's a trap!"
By the time the Yellow Turbans spotted us, it was far too late. And almost simultaneously, a massive roar exploded from the opposite side of the plain.
""Uralalala!!""
Colonel General Zong Yuan of the Wuhuan led his 5,000 Wuhuan cavalry crashing into the Yellow Turbans' right flank.
"Kuhahaha! Show these traitors the might of the Wuhuan! Tear them to shreds!"
"Uoooooo!!!"
The front was blocked by Lu Zhi's square formation, the left ripped by my Bing Province cavalry, the right by Zong Yuan's Wuhuan horsemen. The Yellow Turbans were being torn apart.
The battlefield turned into a one-sided slaughter in an instant.
In the distance, I spotted the banner of Infantry General Zhang Liang and his face twisted in shock and despair.
I flashed my eyes at him, leveled my spear, and spurred my horse.
'Zhang Liang. I'll acknowledge your command of troops. But you were too naive.'
If Zhang Liang had leveraged his numerical superiority with desperate fury instead of holing up in Guangzong, we would have suffered heavy losses or been forced to withdraw.
But now, though numerous, the starving enemy couldn't mount a proper counterattack, holes opening everywhere.
"Don't retreat! The age of the Yellow Heaven is at hand! I'll personally behead anyone who flees!"
Even as his entire army crumbled, Zhang Liang desperately scraped together his elite guards, trying to rally the troops.
"General Gao Shun, Zhang Liao! The rest is yours! I'm taking that bastard's head!"
""Yes, Commander!""
Handing the mopping up to Gao Shun and Zhang Liao, I led a detachment straight for Zhang Liang.
Seeing me charge, Zhang Liang didn't flee like Zhang Bao. Instead, he rallied his remaining elites and countercharged me.
"It's you... the one who killed my brothers and ruined our great cause!"
"A rebellion without a cause is just a disturbance. Hand over your head already, Zhang Liang."
"A cause?! You tyrants who exploit and oppress the people dare speak of justice?!"
"Ha, tyrants? Fine. Then what are you?"
I parried his swinging sword and replied coldly.
"On my way to this Jizhou, I saw villages plundered and burned, bodies everywhere—all the work of you Yellow Turbans. How are you any different from the tyrants you decry, you bastard?!"
At my words, Zhang Liang's sword wavered for a moment. Unable to retort, he clamped his mouth shut and soon shouted.
"Shut up! When the age of the Yellow Heaven dawns, it will all vanish!"
I saw no value in engaging a foe lost to fanaticism and blind faith.
"Save your ravings for your brothers in the afterlife."
—Clang!
Zhang Liang's sword shattered against my spear. I swung it wide, striking his waist and hurling him from his horse.
"Kuhuk!"
Zhang Liang tumbled across the ground. I approached the gasping man still on his mount.
".........Kill me."
"......"
Without a word, I raised my spear and pierced his heart.
"T-The Infantry General!"
"R-Run!!"
"Surrender! We surrender! Spare us!"
The moment Infantry General Zhang Liang fell, the last of the Yellow Turbans' will to resist shattered.
They dropped their weapons and surrendered or scattered in all directions. It was the moment the vast Yellow Turban wave utterly dissolved.
The crushing defeat at Guangzong was the deathblow to the Yellow Turbans.
With even Infantry General Zhang Liang's head impaled on Lu Bu's spear, the headless Yellow Turbans' organized resistance effectively ended.
The news spread via couriers to the subjugation armies everywhere, sparking a massive cleanup operation.
Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun's subjugation forces, already pressing the rebels with victories on the southern front, launched their final all-out assault bolstered by the news.
True to their elite training, the imperial troops waged one-sided battles against the crumbling foe, swiftly recapturing lost cities and territories.
In this process, Sun Jian of the Hanoi Regiment under Zhu Jun stood out.
Sun Jian was the first to scale the blazing walls where others hesitated, charging into the enemy ranks with fearless valor. His unit routed Yellow Turbans wherever it went, amassing tremendous merit.
In Yingchuan, another fierce battleground in the Central Plains, Cao Cao—promoted from Squadron Commander to Commander—truly made his mark.
Rather than relying on mere bravery, Cao Cao demonstrated masterful strategy and tactics, luring and annihilating Yellow Turbans.
His feints exploiting enemy numerical superiority and bold decisiveness proved he was no mere warrior, but a true commander.
Even more unbelievable news came from You Province in the north.
A mat-weaver named Liu Bei, with his sworn brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, had defeated 50,000 Yellow Turbans with just 500 volunteers.
Liu Bei, without regular army support, seized the enemy's complacency with a daring raid using only his small band, striking their command directly.
This reckless charge succeeded, and the decapitated tens of thousands scattered without a fight.
Yet overshadowing all these heroes' feats with overwhelming impact across the realm was Bing Province's Lu Bu.
While others crushed Yellow Turban 'armies,' Lu Bu dismantled their 'leadership.'
Accompanying Lu Zhi's army as Commander, Lu Bu beheaded Earthly Master General Zhang Bao at the Battle of Julu, turning the tide, and pursued Infantry General Zhang Liang at Guangzong to end him.
Thus, the Yellow Turban Rebellion, which had shaken the land, officially ended after just five months. But the war's scars ran deep.
Countless villages lay in ashes, and the court's authority had plummeted.
The embers sown by the Yellow Turbans hadn't fully died; in survivors' hands or the ambitious, they smoldered, ready to ignite anew.