Battle Royale of the Sinners

October 20th, 184 A.D.

Jinyang City.

As Li Feihong predicted, 100,000 Xiongnu mobilized closer to Jinyang City. They came here with no good intention.

The Mountaineer Legion, led by Ding Yuan and Zhang Liao, took 40,000 heavy cavalries to meet them on the battlefield.

Lu Bu, who had been staying home all these months, got out of his house with a new steel crescent halberd. He tagged along with the army to protect his home as well.

The look of Lu Bu changed as half of his hair had turned grey and white. His smirk and arrogance expression could not be seen on his face anymore as it became serene and tranquil. He tied his long hair into a topknot and abandoned all decoration for the flexibility, which highlighted his white hair further.

He was not with his pet, the Red Hare King. Instead, he rode a standard warhorse and wore a similar armor to the other soldiers. If he wore a helmet, nobody would have recognized him.

Lu Bu did not ask Ding Yuan or Zhang Liao to be a commander of an army. Instead, he wanted them to treat him as an ordinary horseman.

"Fengxian, are you sure?"

Zhang Liao and Ding Yuan could not believe their ears.

"Please."

A rare word came out of Lu Bu's mouth.

'Is this THAT monster!?' Ding Yuan was astonished.

'He can be polite!?' Zhang Liao was shocked, too.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was immature back then. That's maybe the reason why I lost everything to Tong and Xiao Wu. I want to try to be myself when I first joined the military from scratch again. I want to review what I am lacking and what Tong has that I didn't have."

Ding Yuan was amazed for a few seconds before he laughed.

"Good, Fengxian. VERY GOOD! FENGXIAN! That's what I've been waiting for, the self-reflection! As long as you notice your past mistakes, you will grow stronger! Come! Let us head to the battlefield like a father and son once more!"

Seeing how happy Ding Yuan was, Zhang Liao also chuckled in a good mood.

…

Twenty kilometers, northwest of Jinyang.

The massive army of 40,000 Xiongnu heavy horsemen and 60,000 light horsemen formed arrays, facing the smaller troops of 40,000 heavy cavalries of Jinyang.

The two forces had not launched an assault. The Mountaineer Legion's strategist, Li Feihong, went to Ye and had yet to return. As the reserve strategist, Zhang Liao wanted to play it safe.

Xiongnu's signature strategies were the hit-and-run horse archers. Their light cavalries carried short bows and hundreds of bolts, which they usually ran around the battlefield in a circle to disrupt the enemies with their arrows.

Their heavy cavalries were also Ding Yuan's headache in the past. All of them equipped with lances, scimitars, and halberd, which they could use in any close-combat situation.

However, things changed. With the recent new weapons and armors, Ding Yuan was more confident that the 100,000 soldiers of Xiongnu were no match for his 40,000 elites with new tools.

Unlike the scarcely resources that Ye City had, Jinyang had abundant of iron ores and coals, which they mass-produced many sets of the new steel armors for their men. Everybody with the rank of 10-man commander or higher wore the shiny knight plate mail while the subordinates wore the outdated Li Feihong's chainmail and hard leather armor sets.

All Mountaineer Legion squads possessed both repeating crossbows and handgun crossbows to use in a different situation. Each of them still wielded an iron lance and an iron sword, since they could not supply all soldiers with steel weaponry yet.

For the protection, everyone also hung a wooden shield behind their back. They could use it to defend themselves from arrows or from a strike at their rear.

*BWOO*

Xiongnu light cavalries began moving. Two platoons of 5,000 men rushed toward the flanks of Ding Yuan Army, the usual tactic that they used against Ding Yuan in the past.

Ding Yuan smirked.

"Have the flank ready their crossbows! Return fire if they get into our range!"

Lieutenants of Ding Yuan relayed the order, and the flanks of Mountaineer Legion transformed to a loose square, which was a formation for trading arrows.

Before the Xiongnu got into their bow range, the repeating crossbows fired first, and the barrages were continuous.

The Xiongnu men were caught off guard. Their horses were pinned down by the arrows a tenth of the probing battalions were killed on the spot as they were pierced by the head or the face.

However, these nomads were masters at hit-and-run tactics. Their clothes were multi-layer silks, which was resilient to projectile arrows. Under their silk clothes, hard leather armor was inside, making it another layer of defense to the riders.

The slippery and hard-to-pierce nature of silk diverted the direction of arrowheads, causing arrows to lose their carrying momentum to harm the body. Even if arrows were to penetrate into the silk clothes, hard leather armor was there to absorb the impact forces, which usually prevent the instant-kill.

As a result, nine out of ten Xiongnu who lost their horses ran back to their army unharmed.

Ding Yuan had a wry smile on his face as he was expecting it. Killing a few of them with arrows was already a miracle to him.

Zhang Liao clicked his tongue. He fought with Yuan Shao's men and Imperial Army, and all of them usually fell with their repeated fire. Seeing the nomads unharmed by their weapons caused Zhang Liao to get annoyed.

Lu Bu, on the other hand, was surprisingly calm. He did not mock anyone or comment on the performance of the ally soldiers as he usually did in the past. His gaze and the expression on his face was calm and peaceful.

*BWOO*

Xiongnu grand commander sent another signal and all their heavy cavalries throating forward, getting ready to gallop and charge directly at the Mountaineer Legion.

"They probed us but failed. Now they want to test our melee fighters."

Ding Yuan and Zhang Liao sneered.

"Wenyuan, you go. Take Fengxian with you."

"Understood. Private Fengxian, let's go."

"Hmm."

The 30,000 heavy cavalries rushed against the oncoming Xiongnu 40,000 heavy cavalries while Ding Yuan maneuvered the remaining 10,000 as their support.

Zhang Liao led the charge on the front, and Lu Bu in the ordinary soldier disguise followed after his friend.

The all-out charge between two forces collided.

*BWOO*

Xiongnu light cavalries circled around the Mountaineer Legion, using their superior numbers. They got into the range and used the short bows to shoot arrows at the back of Zhang Liao's soldiers.

Despite the threat of arrows, Zhang Liao's soldiers disregarded them since the nomads attacked their back. The wooden shield, which they did not bother to use acted as their life-saving tools.

Arrows got stuck on the back shields of Zhang Liao's men, who focused on fighting the heavy cavalries at their front.

Ding Yuan provided support. His men counterattack with the repeating crossbows, crippling all horsemen that tried to get closer or flank Zhang Liao's battalions.

After 10 minutes of the chaotic collision, a change occurred.

Lu Bu, in disguise, swept all soldiers that came for him. He did not flashily weave his crescent halberd around or relying on the brute force and speed to decimate everything in his path. Instead, he concentrated on the efficiency of each kill as he saved his strength for the prolonged battle.

In the past, one swing of his halberd could eliminate five to ten soldiers at once. Now, he took down one soldier with one strike as he focused all of his sense around him in a small area.

The kill count of Lu Bu was slower than his usual past, but he gained something in return for his action.

His six-sense did not spread too wide, but it surrounded a small area of 100-meter radius around him. Instead of sensing the hazy presence in general directions, Lu Bu could see everything as if he had eyes behind his back.

The breathing of each soldier.

The sweat and wounds on each man.

Every small detail in the radius of 100 meters was so clear!

As Lu Bu was refining his sense, his weapon skill got sharper as he got used to the fighting style. All attacks came from his halberd was short, fluid, and smooth.

As a consequence, Lu Bu's killing speed got faster.

His weapon strike got quicker.

Thirty minutes into the fight, Lu Bu's killing speed matched with former self. Compared to his previous mindless attack style, this quick strike style did not consume as much stamina.

As Lu Bu was experimenting with his combat style, his action stood out from the rest of the battlefield. All Xiongnu soldiers dropped from their horses one after another while Lu Bu subconsciously broke into the middle of Xiongnu formation.

Behind Lu Bu, the Mountaineer Legion soldiers switched into a wedge formation and followed after the trail of corpses, assisting Lu Bu from behind.

If someone could see the battlefield from the birds-eye-view, they would see two blue triangles wedging into the brown troops.

One of the triangles was Zhang Liao, who led his subordinates in a wedge formation. The other wedge was Lu Bu, who did not command anyone into doing anything, yet the soldiers acted along with his actions.

Zhang Liao used his broad area sense to detect the general location of his allies. Noticing that Lu Bu's natural charisma and his skills were improving, he chuckled.

"Correct answer, Fengxian. If you fall, don't be afraid to go back where you start, and you will get stronger."

…

At the flank of Mountaineer Legion, the Xiongnu light cavalries, which were shooting arrows at their enemies, ran out of arrows. In addition, over 20,000 light cavalries lost their horses to Ding Yuan's repeating crossbows.

The grand commander of Xiongnu glared at the unaffected heavy cavalries in front of them, who ignored their existence and focused on fighting their heavy cavalries.

It was a humiliation to Xiangnu.

"Our troops are useless here. Signal a retreat!"

*BWOOOOO*

…

The aftermath of the brief skirmish.

Lu Bu, whose armor soaked in blood, was welcomed by the soldiers.

"Well done, mate! I don't know how, but you are awesome!"

"Which squad are you from? Why haven't you gotten promoted with your skills?"

"That's right. With your skills, you can make it big here."

The steel knight helmet covered Lu Bu's face. None of them could even guess who it was under the mask.

Despite being showered by praises of his soldiers, Lu Bu did not feel anything. Had it been his former self, he would have been elated and savagely bullied his soldiers.

Lu Bu turned around to gaze at the remaining of the battlefield, "What's our casualty?"

"Almost non-existence!"

A soldier knocked his armor, "Our new armor is just that awesome. I thought there were many gaps between our arm and leg parts, but all the vital points are fully covered! Most of us should come out of this alive."

Within the knight helmet, Lu Bu hid his bitter smile.

'I would never be able to come up with this armor and the new metal if I were their lord. If it were me before, at least half of them would have been dead by those arrows.'

'It's true that I won't be able to match you with my intelligence, but …'

Lu Bu looked back toward the east in the direction of Julu City. At the same time, he thought about a sage who visited him and his family a few months ago. The sage, Zuo Ci, left him with teaching.

Lu Bu recited the teaching in his mind.

"Modesty. Diligence. Humility. Charity. Love. Chastity. Patience. Honesty. Master all of these, and I will reach the same level as Tong."

The eyes of Lu Bu glittered with hope.

"Next time, I won't lose!"