"Zhang Xin's army... they are not men. They are demons," Zhao Fu whispered, his hands trembling against his saddle pommel. He turned a haunted glare toward Cheng Huan. "What do we do now? Speak!"
Cheng Huan stared blankly at the shattered wreckage of their vanguard, then let out a heavy, hollow sigh that seemed to age him ten years.
"We pull back... Order a full retreat."
"Retreat?!" Zhao Fu's voice cracked, a vein bulging on his forehead. "You were the one shouting about our absolute advantage ten minutes ago! Now you want to turn tail?!"
"Look at how fast the wall broke!" Cheng Huan barked back, gesturing wildly toward the front. "Their vanguard is an unyielding wall of iron! Even if we commit the main body, can we grind them down before twilight? Look at the sky, General!"
Zhao Fu looked up. The sun was dipping lower into the horizon, casting long, blood-red shadows across the Jizhou plains. It was mid-summer; the days were long, but the darkness would still find them soon. If they turned back now, they could barely make the gates of Wei County before nightfall.
If they stayed, and night fell over thirty thousand panicked, raw conscripts... they wouldn't even need the enemy to kill them. They would trample themselves to death in the dark.
"Besides," Cheng Huan pressed, his voice dropping to a desperate whisper, "this is only a fraction of their force. Zhang Xin has over ten thousand elite infantry and an unknown number of heavy cavalry. If their reinforcements arrive while we are stuck in a meatgrinder, we are dead men."
Zhao Fu's jaw clenched. The logic was brutal, but unassailable. If they couldn't even dent a two-thousand-man roadblock, trying to fight a battle of attrition was suicide.
"Fine," Zhao Fu gritted out. "We fall back to Wei County!"
"Do not despair, General," Cheng Huan said, attempting to salvage his pride with a confident smirk. "If their infantry moved this fast, their cavalry must have marched even harder. A warhorse is a delicate beast; its stamina cannot match a human's over long distances. Even if they try to pursue us, their horses will collapse from exhaustion before they can breach our lines."
Reassured by the theory, Zhao Fu issued the command. The Jizhou army began to pivot, a clumsy, massive beast turning its back on the enemy.
Miles away, Gao Shun watched the enemy's banners turn south. His expression remained an unreadable sheet of iron. He raised a hand, signaling a rider. "Inform General Guan. The bait has run."
Upon receiving the scout's report, Guan Yu stroked his magnificent beard, his eyes flashing with a predatory light as he looked over at Zhao Yun. "Boping is a master of the anvil. Zilong, shall we act as the hammer?"
Zhao Yun's lips curved into a faint, lethal smile. He tightened the straps of his silver gauntlets and mounted his white stallion. "It would be my absolute honor, Yun Chang."
Cheng Huan's calculations would have been brilliant against any ordinary army. But he did not know that Zhang Xin had anticipated this exact chess move.
Guan Yu and Zhao Yun's cavalry hadn't marched blindly through the night; they had been slipped into the Wulu Market ambush sector half a day in advance. Their mounts had spent the night resting, feeding on grain, and drinking fresh river water. Their only exertion had been the swift, singular decapitation strike against Yan Liang. At this exact moment, both the riders and their mounts were bursting with terrifying, rested energy.
The two generals split the cavalry into two sweeping wings, tearing southward like a pair of crescent blades.
Zhao Fu's army hadn't even covered three li when the world began to shake. A low, rhythmic rumble built from behind them, growing into a deafening roar that vibrated through the soles of their boots.
Cavalry!
"Kill—!"
Guan Yu led the left wing; Zhao Yun spearheaded the right. They slammed into the Jizhou rearguard like twin lightning bolts striking a dry forest.
The Jizhou rearguard was comprised of the exact same vanguard troops who had just been brutally broken by the Trap Camp. They had barely caught their breath from being slaughtered in the front, and now, suddenly, they were being trampled from behind.
Why is it always us?! was the collective, unspoken scream before the iron hooves pulverized them. The rearguard didn't just break; it dissolved into a screaming, chaotic mass of humanity, men trampling their own comrades in a desperate bid to flee the green-clad demon and the silver flash of Zhao Yun's spear.
Zhao Fu spun his horse around as the screams reached his ears. "What is happening?!"
A blood-soaked rider tore past the chaos, collapsing near him. "General! Enemy cavalry! They have pierced our rear! The rearguard is completely shattered!"
"How?!" Zhao Fu grabbed Cheng Huan by the collar, shaking him furiously. "You said their horses would be dead! You said they couldn't pursue!"
"I... I don't understand!" Cheng Huan's face was white as a sheet, his mind fracturing under the impossibility of it. Were Zhang Xin's horses forged in a blacksmith's fire? Did they not breathe air?
Cheng Huan bit his lip until it bled, tearing himself from Zhao Fu's grip. "General! Take the main core and the vanguard! Run for Wei County! I will take my personal guards and attempt to rally the rearguard to buy you time!"
"Cheng Huan—"
"Go! Before the net closes!" Cheng Huan wheeled his horse around and charged back into the meatgrinder.
Zhao Fu didn't hesitate. He screamed at his commanders to double the pace. The main Jizhou army, driven by pure, primal terror, turned into a stampede. The vanguard troops completely abandoned all semblance of military order, throwing away their heavy pikes, discarding their helmets, and running wild toward the horizon.
Zhao Fu couldn't stop them. He didn't even try. Let them run, he comforted himself frantically. There are no enemy troops between here and Wei County. Once we are behind the city walls, we can re-gather the rabble.
Then, the earth trembled again.
But this time, the thunderous roar didn't come from behind. It erupted directly from the front.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Out from the dust storms of the southern horizon, two fresh columns of heavy cavalry tore into the fleeing Jizhou vanguard.
"Cavalry! More cavalry!"
"We are surrounded! The gods have abandoned us!"
Zhao Fu's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Where did they come from?! How?!"
A scout fell from his horse, weeping openly. "General... it's the Liyang garrison cavalry! They have cut off the road to Wei County! The vanguard is gone... completely gone!"
"Liyang?!" Zhao Fu's voice was a ragged scream of disbelief.
Liyang was one hundred and sixty li from Wei County. This battlefield was another twenty li out. That was one hundred and eighty li!
Two nights ago, Zhang Xin had obliterated the Xiongnu horde. Yesterday morning, he had crushed the White Horse Volunteers. And now, his Liyang detachment was blocking the road to Wei County?
Three days. Over four hundred li of forced marching. Three massive, back-to-back victories against entirely different armies.
"They say the Xuanwei Marquis wields his men like a god..." Zhao Fu murmured, a sudden, cold sense of awe washing over his terror. "To see it... is to witness a miracle of slaughter. How can flesh and blood move this fast?"
There was no more running. The path to the city was closed.
"Form the ring!" Zhao Fu roared, tapping into his last reserve of generalship. "Main army, anchor your shields! Form a defensive square! Hold your ground!"
He knew the calculus of war. Even if Zhang Xin's men were gods, their horses had to be at the limit of their endurance after a hundred-li raid. If they could just hold the line, the cavalry would be forced to disengage to save their mounts.
On a towering ridge overlooking the entire valley, a massive, gold-embroidered banner caught the dying light of the setting sun: The Xuanwei Marquis, Zhang Xin.
Zhang Xin sat calmly atop his warhorse, his cape fluttering in the wind. Beside him, Xun You—Gongda—quietly adjusted his scholar's robes.
Zhang Xin smiled, watching the Jizhou army attempt to form a frantic, messy square under the tightening vice of his forces. "As expected of you, Gongda. You didn't leave them a single inch of earth to breathe."