A Power That Could Not Be Overlooked
Guan Yu and Dian Wei stood at the vanguard, mercilessly slaughtering the enemy soldiers.
In the two previous battles against Yuan Shu, they had done the same—overwhelming the defensive lines from the front and forcing an immediate retreat.
This battle would surely follow the same pattern.
After all, it was none other than Guan Yu and Dian Wei. If anyone could stop those two charging side by side, it would have to be either Lu Bu’s army or the forces of Sun Ce and Zhou Yu from the Southland, who were just now reaching their prime.
“Ziye, this is truly incredible. Both of them are renowned generals of the realm, aren’t they?”
Cao Ang had been waiting in the second wave, but as he watched Qiao Rui’s troops being cut down without mercy, he couldn’t help but marvel at the martial prowess of those two monsters.
Yes, both Guan Yu and Dian Wei were indeed living up to their reputations. And yet… something felt off.
“…What is this?”
“Ziye, what’s wrong?”
Something had been strange since the very beginning.
The vanguard cavalry had supposedly torn through Qiao Rui’s first defensive line without mercy. Under normal circumstances, the enemy formation should have collapsed the moment they broke through. Instead, the fallen soldiers were rising again, rushing toward Guan Yu and Dian Wei without any regard for death.
“Those bastards aren’t breaking. They’re throwing their lives away just to slow down Uncle Yunchang and Commander Dian.”
“Hmm? Now that you mention it… quite a lot of time has passed, yet the enemy still hasn’t routed.”
This was not the Yuan Shu army they had fought before. Both Guan Yu and Dian Wei, who were fighting at the front, and even Cao Cao commanding from the main camp had noticed the anomaly.
Dum dum dum— Dum dum dum— Dum dum dum—
“A retreat signal?!”
Bwoo— Bwoo— Bwooooo—
“That’s the horn signaling the second wave to charge.”
Guan Yu and Dian Wei would pull back while I, along with Cao Ang, took their place.
To understand this bizarre enemy morale, I would have to clash with them myself.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on, but let’s go crush those bastards!”
The advance horn had already sounded. It was time to charge.
As I spurred my horse forward, Dian Wei shouted after me with a regretful expression.
“Damn it! I should be the one capturing the enemy commander! This is humiliating!”
“You’ve already softened them up nicely, Commander Dian!”
I raised my spear and led the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry in a breakthrough toward Qiao Rui’s battered defensive troops, who had already been beaten half to death by Guan Yu and Dian Wei.
The thunderous crash of horses and shields colliding rang out as we used the full momentum of the cavalry charge to trample them completely.
“Guh!”
A soldier foolishly charged at me. I drove my spear straight through his gut.
The moment I tried to pull it free, the dying man grabbed onto my spear with both hands.
“!?”
“Long live… the Zhong Dynasty…”
“???”
“Capture the enemy commander! Capture the com—”
Shuuuk—
“Tsk!”
Seeing the impaled soldier clinging to my spear, I tried to wrench it free, but dozens of other soldiers swarmed in, thrusting their own spears at my neck.
I barely dodged, then yanked the spear out with brute force and began swinging it in wide arcs rather than thrusts. These men wore crude leather armor that could barely stop a blade and wielded poorly forged spears and swords.
Yet they charged with terrifying ferocity.
“Heaven’s mandate is with us…”
“Long live the Emperor of Zhong!”
“You lunatics!”
I swung my spear like a madman at the soldiers who rushed forward as if possessed.
No matter how overwhelmingly I crushed them, they kept writhing and grabbing at my horse’s legs.
Within that relentless assault, our own troops gradually grew weary and exhausted.
This was impossible. Had Yuan Shu truly created soldiers with this kind of morale?
If things had reached this point, there was only one solution.
“Zisu!”
“Ziye!”
“We must capture the enemy commander right now! Instead of dragging this war of attrition out, I’ll charge straight into the center and take Qiao Rui’s head!”
At that moment, Cao Ang turned and rallied the soldiers under his command.
“If we make a proper concentrated charge… we should be able to commit about three thousand men.”
“That’s more than enough!”
“Good. Let’s go! We’ll end this battle quickly by taking the enemy commander’s—”
Dum dum dum— Dum dum dum dum dum— Dum dum dum—
“What?”
…A retreat signal?
The sun was beginning to set and evening was approaching, but now? It made no sense, but military orders had to be obeyed.
“Damn it. They’re sounding the withdrawal drums.”
“Nothing we can do about it. Let’s fall back, Ziye!”
In the end, even the second wave had to retreat. Thus, the first day of battle came to a close.
It had been a truly bizarre fight that defied all understanding.
That evening, a strategy meeting was held with those who had participated in the battle.
“With Colonel Guan and Commander Dian leading the vanguard, they likely took around three thousand. With Lord Zisu and Lord Ziye in the second wave, another two thousand. In total, about five thousand enemy casualties.”
Cheng Yu’s estimate meant ten percent of the enemy’s fifty-thousand-strong army had been wiped out on the first day. Yet their morale showed no signs of breaking.
“I’ve roamed many battlefields in my time, but I’ve never seen enemies like these. Are you truly saying these are Yuan Shu’s troops?”
I voiced my confusion, but Guan Yu spoke quietly.
“Still, they are not unbeatable. It seems they are trying to drag us into a war of attrition. We killed five thousand today. Tomorrow, we simply need to kill ten thousand.”
“That is true. However, the Yuan Shu army this time is proving remarkably tenacious.”
As everyone expressed their bewilderment, Cao Cao finally opened his mouth.
“I have seen enemies like this once before.”
“Uncle, what battle was that?”
“The Yellow Turban Rebellion.”
“!?”
Several generals nodded, clearly remembering that nightmare.
“They were poorly trained, nothing more than a massive rabble of peasants. Yet they swarmed like men possessed, throwing themselves at us until they died. I saw far too many gruesome sights back then.”
“Indeed… their momentum is exactly like the Yellow Turbans… no, perhaps even stronger.”
I had been very young at the time, and it was a story from before my transmigration, but it seemed the Yellow Turban Rebellion had left a deep scar on these veterans.
After listening to everything, the strategist Cheng Yu offered his analysis.
“From what I can see, this situation matches the circumstances that existed even before Yuan Shu declared himself emperor.”
“Cheng Yu, what do you mean?”
“Didn’t we receive reports through the Wei Trading Company that Taoist priests were gathering throughout the Huainan region and that prophetic texts were spreading rapidly?”
“That’s right. Weren’t those all schemes Yuan Shu prepared in advance for his grand treason?”
At Cao Cao’s words, Cheng Yu smiled and nodded.
“While the ruling class of Han centers on Confucian thought, the common people have long been more deeply influenced by Daoist beliefs. A single Taoist priest claiming divine powers can move thousands or even tens of thousands of peasants far more effectively than a renowned scholar who has read ten thousand books.”
“Hmmm~”
During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Zhang Jue had claimed to receive a divine calling. He cured the sick with talismans and sacred incantations, gathering hundreds of thousands into a massive army.
“This is getting troublesome. Is there no way to counter it?”
As Cao Cao scratched his head and clicked his tongue, I stepped forward.
“Uncle, allow me to investigate.”
“Ziye, how do you plan to do that?”
“We inflicted over five thousand casualties today. I want to locate where the prisoners are being held. We can start by questioning them.”
“Oh?”
“You intend to interrogate the prisoners yourself, Lord Ziye?”
“If necessary, I will even resort to torture.”
"I will uncover the truth behind their madness."
Cao Cao clapped three times on the spot and nodded.
“Permission granted.”
“Thank you, Uncle.”
I rose from my seat and left the camp. I headed straight for the prison where the captives were held.
It was late at night. By the light of torches, I examined them one by one. They all looked like ordinary commoners.
“Are you soldiers of that traitor’s so-called Zhong Dynasty?”
“Just kill us already!”
“That’s right! We are an army fighting for Heaven’s mandate!”
“Ha, how ridiculous. Since when has Heaven’s mandate been handed down to lowly foot soldiers? Can any of you even write the characters for ‘Heaven’s mandate’?”
Seeing them in person only made it more absurd. These were clearly uneducated conscripts, yet they spoke of Heaven’s mandate and the Zhong Dynasty. Just how thoroughly had Yuan Shu brainwashed them?
“Enough. Stop humiliating us and just cut off our heads. Ptui!”
“As you wish.”
Slash—!
“!!”
I immediately beheaded the loudest one who had even spat at me. The narrow prison cell was sprayed with blood as the prisoners nearby were drenched in it.
“I wonder… did that man ascend to the blue heavens, or was it a meaningless dog’s death?”
“…You bastard! Kill me too! You filthy dog of Han!”
“Gladly.”
I granted the second prisoner his wish with a single stroke. Once again, blood splattered across the remaining captives.
“I used to truly despise doing things like this. But it seems people grow numb over time, don’t they?”
“Hii… Hiiiik!”
Finally, the terror began to surface in the eyes of the once-defiant prisoners.
“Go on, keep babbling about this Heaven’s mandate of yours. If you want, I’ll give you the chance to die ‘honorably in battle’ like the first two.”
When I thrust my blood-soaked blade forward, one prisoner trembled violently at the sight of the severed head rolling on the ground.
“W-we’re all going to die here…”
“The moment we die, we will enter a world without suffering! Do not be afraid!”
This was getting interesting.
“Did your fake emperor tell you that, or did nameless immortals come down and deliver the message?”
“The Han Dynasty has already fallen. We are the ones united for a new world…”
Thwack—
I struck the babbling fool on the head. This time I used the scabbard instead of the blade, so there was no third bloodbath.
“You can’t even write it, yet you keep spouting nonsense?”
“Ugh…”
“Since when have you been brainwashed to this extent?”
“It’s not brainwashing! If not for the Lord of Huainan, we would have all starved or died of plague! That is why he received Heaven’s mandate and—”
Thwack—
I struck him on the head with the scabbard again. Blood streamed down his face from the blow.
“Then I’ll send you to those blue heavens along with the first two. I’ll just ask the next one.”
It was then.
“I-I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!”
“Hmm…”
“We were refugees who fled the chaos and gathered in Shuchun. They told us the streets were paved with gold and that we would be given enough grain to eat for the rest of our lives.”
“Keep talking. And I might just spare you.”
I listened to the entire story and reported it back to Cao Cao’s command tent.
“This is not an army created by a few random Taoist priests in a short time. These men have been meticulously cultivated.”
“Hmmmm.”
“Just like the Yellow Turbans of the Taiping Sect in the past, Yuan Shu distributed wealth throughout the Shuchun region, gathered the displaced refugees, and brainwashed them into forming this massive army.”
“So that bastard Yuan Shu, realizing his own military talent was lacking, decided to create an entirely new kind of army. If an army like this had appeared back in Xu Province or Qiao County, it would have been a real headache.”
Two years had passed since that defeat. It was entirely possible that he had been preparing this since his time in Shuchun. If this was Yuan Shu’s final card, it was going to be extremely annoying.
Cao Cao clutched his head after hearing the full report.
“Then won’t Xiahou Yuan’s forces coming down from Yan Province, along with Xun You and Xuande’s group, face the exact same situation?”
“My lord, even so, if we can persuade Lu Bu to abandon the marriage talks with the Yuan family, he will also gather his troops for the imperial court and fight against Yuan Shu.”
“Well, that wild boar is certainly good at fighting.”
“Moreover, from the information gathered through Lord Ziye’s interrogation, these enemies are essentially on the same level as the Yellow Turbans who once shouted ‘Central Yellow Taiping.’ In that case, there is a clear way to break them.”
“What is it?”
“Didn’t the Yellow Turbans eventually collapse in the exact same manner?”
“Oh… a war of attrition!”
Cao Cao spoke as if a light had gone on in his head.
“That’s right. At first, those Yellow Turban bastards were a real pain because they seemed to fear nothing, not even death. But the more they charged, the more we killed. Eventually, when the government forces outnumbered them, they exhausted themselves and fell into terror.”
“If there is someone inside Yuan Shu’s army capable of maintaining morale like Zhang Jue did, it would be truly troublesome. However, I do not believe Qiao Rui is capable of that.”
“Did everyone hear that? It looks like we’ll have to commit to a prolonged war of attrition here. Whether we annihilate them or they annihilate us, this is a fight to the end.”
“Just as I hoped.”
“Understood. Whether they number fifty thousand or five hundred thousand, if killing them never seems to end, then we will see that end for ourselves!”
Both Guan Yu and Dian Wei burned with fighting spirit for tomorrow’s battle. Cao Cao chose the straightforward method—slowly sinking the enemy, taking as much time as necessary to completely shatter their morale.
And so, the next day’s battle arrived.