Mountains and Rivers Stained with Blood
By the time Li Jue and Guo Si at Sishui Pass sensed something was wrong, two days had already passed since Liu Seong-hwi's army marched out. They realized that Liu Seong-hwi, who had been picking off the fortress guards with Hundred Shots, Hundred Hits precision, had vanished.
The bastards are gone.
The troops in front of the fortress are nothing but a decoy.
Governor of Bohai Yuan Shao.
Chancellor of Jibei Bao Xin. Inspector of Yu Province Kong Zhou.
Compared to the southern elites, the local officials' forces were a motley rabble. At best, the troops led by Governor of Bohai Yuan Shao were seasoned men, but their numbers were utterly insufficient.
"They dare make fools of us...! Slaughter them all!!"
"Strike down the Guandong rebels!"
Kiii-ik—
The fortress gates, which had held firm under the relentless assault, swung open.
At the same moment, cavalrymen raised their sharp spearheads and charged across the battlefield. The heavy hooves trampled the Coalition Army's camp as if venting their rage at having been one-sidedly ravaged by Liu Seong-hwi's forces.
"Guh-huk!"
"Uu, uwaaah!!"
The Xiliang cavalry, alongside the Bing Province Cavalry, were famed as elite horsemen of the Han Dynasty. Kicking up clouds of dust, the Xiliang riders speared the routing Coalition soldiers like wild beasts.
Coalition men crumpled with each thrust.
And those caught in the cavalry charge were trampled under the brutal hooves, their limbs shattered.
The battlefield dominance was absolute. The moment the battle began, victory was decided. To the Xiliang cavalry, who had faced the Qiang people and the Xiongnu on the frontier, the Guandong troops were utterly helpless.
"Li Jue and Guo Si have finally launched their general assault. Let's withdraw to the main camp at once."
Liu Seong-hwi had ordered Deputy Alliance Leader Yuan Shao to abandon the Sishui Pass line and retreat to the encampment the moment Li Jue and Guo Si launched their all-out attack. The woman with the long, fine blonde hair wheeled her horse and led the Guandong officials away.
Kwaaaaang──!!!
A siege tower that had flaunted its massive presence collapsed.
That was not all. The battering-ram carts that had assailed the gates, and even the catapults that had so viciously tormented Dong Zhuo's army—all were wrecked by the cavalry.
"Uhahaha! A worthless rabble not even worth the trouble! Where is Liu Seong-hwi? I, Li Jue, will take his head!!"
The Guandong rebels were fleeing in utter panic.
Most of the siege engines they had boasted of were destroyed.
Left General Li Jue raised his sharp blade and glared at the rebels' backs. He seemed intent on repeating this general offensive and sweeping away every last rebel who had advanced on Sishui Pass.
"Zhiyan, have you forgotten the Commander's orders? Our priority is to link up with his main force."
"Kh-hm! I am well aware!"
"We join forces with the Commander and sweep the Guandong rebels away. Still, something feels off. Where did those southern bumpkins who were assaulting the Sishui line go?"
"They must have tucked tail and run at the last moment!"
Pressing the Guandong rabble like this would be a poor move. They needed to link up with Hua Xiong's main force, which would reach Sishui Pass by circling Mount Song, and establish an encirclement net to hunt the Guandong officials.
Li Jue finally yielded under Right General Guo Si's insistence.
"Turn your horses south!"
"Break off pursuit! We're moving on Yangcheng starting now!"
Yangcheng was a Sili Province stronghold located in the Mount Song region. Li Jue and Guo Si turned their horses toward Yangcheng to link up with Hua Xiong's main force.
The counteroffensive had begun.
Now they would hunt down the sewer rats caught in their trap.
Having broken through the Sishui Pass line, Dong Zhuo's army passed through a narrow mountain ridge with a triumphant air. To reach Yangcheng as quickly as possible, they had to traverse the ridge where a dark gloom had settled.
"Now! The bastards have entered the gorge!"
"Loose fire arrows! Soldiers of Pei Kingdom, show them hell!"
Once the vanguard cavalry had passed through,
countless spears and blades revealed themselves alongside blue banners.
General Who Displays Martial Might Cao Cao. Her forces, lying in ambush along the ridge, launched a surprise assault on Li Jue and Guo Si.
The ridge, dark as pitch, brightened in an instant. At the same time, countless fire arrows rained down from both sides, pressing the ambushed Dong Zhuo troops hard.
"Kuh-huk...! Guh-huk!"
"Ambush! It's a fucking ambush!!"
Having deployed in a Long Snake Formation for the forced march, Dong Zhuo's army was fatally vulnerable to a sudden ambush. Worse, the ridge leading to Yangcheng was deep and narrow—terrain that heavily favored an ambush.
The dry leaf litter caught fire instantly.
Soon, fierce flames engulfed the ridge.
The fire stratagem was a lethal weakness for Dong Zhuo's cavalry-heavy army. In a flash, the fire devils that seized the ridge belched out vicious heat, neutralizing the Xiliang cavalry who were known as one-man armies.
Hiiiiing—!!
Purrung! Purururung!!
No matter how harsh their training, a beast's instinctive fear of fire cannot be erased.
So it was with the Xiliang warhorses.
As hot flames flickered before their eyes, the panicked horses went berserk, heaving their bodies. The carnage went so far that they threw their riders to the ground and then trampled them to death.
"They've taken the bait nicely! Brothers of Pei Kingdom, time for us to shine!"
A fierce woman with flowing red hair shouted.
It was Xiahou Dun, Cao Cao's cousin.
Led by the heroine of Pei Kingdom, Cao Hong and Xiahou Yuan rallied the troops and charged at Dong Zhuo's army.
* * *
Fifty paces—
My arrows never miss.
I will kill for certain. At this range, it is possible.
In the worst possible situation, completely surrounded by Dong Zhuo's personal guards, Liu Seong-hwi sprinted again and again, closing the distance as much as possible. Because he was certain: if he could just narrow the range, he could absolutely kill with a volley.
Shwaaak—
He drew the bowstring.
His aim had five arrows nocked all at once.
There was no hesitation. As if to prove it, the hand gripping the bow remained as steady and proficient as ever.
"You——!!"
The Monster of Superhuman Strength sensed the mortal danger and raised his iron mace, but he could not possibly be faster than the sharp arrows loosed from the string. The five arrows drew a perfectly straight line and buried themselves in Hua Xiong's nape.
Pubababak—!!!
They pierced the jugular and the carotid.
Then they tore through the cervical vertebrae and stabbed the spinal cord.
The five arrows had cleanly penetrated the vital points of his neck.
"Commander Hua Xiong!"
"Uwaah! Uwaaahk!!"
The Greatest Archer Under Heaven nocked five arrows at once and shredded the neck where his iron armor hung open. Witnessing Hua Xiong collapse, gushing massive amounts of blood, Dong Zhuo's personal guards shrieked and crumpled to the ground on the spot.
No way to save him.
His neck was completely pierced through.
Every soldier on the field witnessed the Monster of Superhuman Strength's final moment. That the iron-armored giant who had rampaged across the battlefield fell in an instant was so shocking it was hard to believe despite happening right before their eyes.
Hua Xiong.
The ten-foot-tall giant had fallen.
He had died on the spot, not even letting out a final death scream.
To proclaim that he had slain the enemy supreme commander, the Greatest Archer Under Heaven hoisted his Black Horn Bow high. At that, the southern soldiers raised their sharp weapons and roared with fierce exultation.
"The Crown Prince has felled the enemy general!"
"Hua Xiong is dead! An arrow from the Greatest Archer Under Heaven struck true!!"
Cheers.
And screams.
A multitude of emotions ruled the battlefield.
Having witnessed the pitiful end right before their eyes, Dong Zhuo's personal guards went berserk and targeted Liu Seong-hwi. After all, a Greatest Archer Under Heaven who had exhausted all his arrows and was isolated deep in the enemy ranks was nothing but a helpless body.
"Did you really think I'd been running around all this time arrogant about nothing but the bow?"
He cast aside his Black Horn Bow and drew the Shangfang Sword.
And he swung the sharp blade at the enemies swarming in like a tidal wave.
Insisting on surviving this chaotic age by archery alone would have been nothing but arrogant foolhardiness. Though not nearly as skilled with a sword as he was with the bow, Liu Seong-hwi could still wield a blade well enough to protect his own person.
He parried the attacks and fought a running melee. But a Greatest Archer Under Heaven who had used up every arrow was reduced to a mediocre nobody, his Martial Power far diminished.
Firewood drenched by rain. Socks that have lost all their snap. A web novel author who goes on permanent hiatus. A calligraphy brush that's started to go bald.
The Greatest Archer Under Heaven, who once boasted 100 Martial Power, had devolved into a bumbling second-rater. In the Three Kingdoms setting, the Greatest Archer Under Heaven had become a mediocre officer good only for a deputy role, never fit to serve as a main commander.
Claang—!
As if to prove it, he was disarmed of the Shangfang Sword.
Sure, maybe if he were one of the Five Tiger Generals boasting supreme martial strength, but demanding that a nobody like Mi Fang or Fu Shiren achieve total victory alone against dozens of guards was unbearably absurd.
'No... even if I die right now, I won't regret insisting on the bow.'
Actually, he regretted it a little.
If I'm reborn, I'll go for Best Sword in the Central Plains under Cao Cao's command.
The guards whose master was slain raised their sharp spearheads and snarled viciously. Liu Seong-hwi found himself facing a forest of gleaming blades that looked ready to turn him into a pincushion at any instant.
"Sun Jian is here! If you mean to harm the Crown Prince, you must kill the Tiger of Jiangdong first!!"
When death loomed before him,
a man covered head to toe in blood charged in, riding alone, a single spear.
The Tiger of Jiangdong. The monster who was peerless in Martial Power had arrived.
Sun Jian's treasured sword, the Ancient Ingot Saber, scattered a keen light. At the same instant, he displayed astounding martial skill, slaughtering the Dong Zhuo guards indiscriminately.