The Three Kingdoms: I, Yuan Tan, intercepted Guo Jia's...

Chapter 92 Taking Hefei in One Fall

Hefei city.

The morning mist, like dark clouds pressing down on the city, surrounded the towering city walls of Hefei.

Lou Ban stood before the army formation, his fingers unconsciously stroking the hilt of his sword. The three thousand soldiers behind him were completely silent.

Most of these soldiers had shifty eyes, wore old and worn-out armor, and many did not even have decent weapons.

"General," the lieutenant whispered, leaning closer, "these surrendered soldiers...can they really breach the city?"

Lou Ban did not answer. He was just as puzzled when he received the military order last night.

Yuan Tan ordered him to lead the three thousand newly incorporated remnants of Liu Xun's troops to launch a major attack on the east gate of Hefei.

There were no elite troops, no decent siege equipment, only a few dozen hastily made siege ladders, the wood of which hadn't even had time to fully dry.

"Alas, surrendered soldiers are the vanguard..."

The deputy general didn't finish his sentence, but Lou Ban understood the unspoken meaning.

Everyone thought this was a battle they were destined to lose, but why did the lord arrange it this way?

Forget it, if I can't figure it out, I won't think about it anymore.

Since my brother-in-law made this arrangement, he must have had his reasons.

My sister had worked so hard to get a chance to go south, and I couldn't let her down.

He took a deep breath.

When we attack the city later, I must work twice as hard and try to be the first to enter the city.

"Siege—"

The ladder slowly dragged along in the mud.

The first wave of surrendered soldiers charged bravely toward the city wall.

Lou Ban saw the first soldier climb the ladder, and the logs on the city wall came crashing down.

A human body fell from a height of three zhang (approximately 10 meters), leaving a dark red puddle in the mud.

"Second team! Charge!"

Lou Ban brandished his knife and pointed forward.

More siege ladders were erected on the city walls.

This time, the defenders fell into the boiling oil, and their agonizing screams made the soldiers behind them hesitate.

Lou Ban gritted his teeth and personally rode his horse to the front of the battle:

"Those who fear battle will be executed! Those who scale the city walls will be rewarded with ten gold pieces!"

With the generous reward, a third wave of people surged toward the city wall.

Just then, Lou Ban heard a strange noise behind him.

It wasn't the sound of war drums, but the hoofbeats of galloping cavalry.

He turned around abruptly.

A cavalry force of about five hundred men charged out from the mist. Their armor was tattered and their banners were askew, but the character "吕" was clearly engraved on them.

But that fierce and unruly aura was clearly something that his three thousand surrendered soldiers could not withstand.

The leader's face was covered in blood, making it impossible to see his features.

Instead of charging towards the city gate, the cavalry charged straight at the flank of the Louban army formation!

"Enemy attack—!"

The lieutenant shouted hoarsely.

The blood-faced general's lance, like a venomous snake spitting its tongue, instantly pierced the chests of three surrendered soldiers.

The cavalry behind him were like wolves among sheep, slaughtering indiscriminately.

Upon seeing this, the defenders on the city wall erupted in a deafening cheer.

"Reinforcements! Marquis Wen has actually sent reinforcements!"

Lou Ban's mind went blank.

Lu Bu's reinforcements? How could they arrive so quickly?

How could they have appeared from the direction they came from?

Before he could think further, the blood-faced warrior had already broken through all the obstacles and was rushing straight at him.

"Protect the general!"

The guards fought desperately to form a defensive line.

The blood-faced general's lance clashed with Lou Ban's scimitar in mid-air, sparks flying.

In that instant, Lou Ban saw a strange expression on the other person's face beneath the bloodstains.

What does this mean? Is this a sign of self-contempt?

Lou Ban was furious and was about to continue the fight when

But then the general made a feint, turned his horse around, and led his cavalry straight toward the city gate.

"Open the door! Open the door now!"

The blood-faced general roared in a hoarse voice, his accent seemingly carrying a Xuzhou dialect.

"I am a subordinate of General Gao Shun! I have come to the rescue on the orders of Marquis Wen! Where is General Liu?!"

A commotion broke out on the city wall.

An armored general peeked out:

"Do you have any proof?!"

"With the war raging, where would we get proof?"

Another voice rang out.

Lou Ban then saw a rider charging out from the cavalry, dressed as a scholar, who was none other than Liu Ye!

"I am Liu Ye, Liu Ziyang! I broke through the siege yesterday to seek reinforcements, and fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission! Quickly open the city gates and let the reinforcements into the city! If we are too late, Yuan Tan's army may surround us!"

"It's Mr. Liu! It really is Mr. Liu!"

Someone on the city wall recognized him.

The garrison commander was still hesitating.

The lieutenant said urgently:

"General, shall we test it first...?"

"What's there to test!"

The garrison commander kicked his deputy aside and pointed at the garrison troops that were regrouping outside the city.

"Can't you see? Reinforcements have routed the enemy vanguard! If we don't open the gates now, when will we?! Open the gates—!"

The city gates slowly opened.

The blood-faced general charged into the city gate first.

The moment his horse stepped into the barbican, a sudden change occurred.

He then pulled a small blue flag from beside the saddle and waved it three times in the air.

The five hundred "reinforcements" shouted in unison, suddenly tearing off their tattered outer robes to reveal the neat light armor of the Qingzhou Army underneath.

Even more striking was that each person had a white cloth wrapped around their waist.

"The Qingzhou army is here! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

Gan Ning shouted loudly, his voice like thunder.

With a flick of his spear, he knocked the still-stunned city gate guard off the city wall.

Five hundred elite soldiers were divided into two groups: one group seized the city gate, and the other group charged up the city wall along the horse path.

Almost simultaneously, dust billowed up on the distant horizon, and the main force of the Qingzhou army surged in like a tide.

Lou Ban stood frozen in place, watching the soldiers with white cloth wrapped around their waists sweep past him and rush into the wide-open city gate.

The soldiers didn't even glance at him, as if he and his three thousand surrendered soldiers were merely insignificant scenery in this grand drama.

"General..." the lieutenant's voice trembled, "We..."

"Prepare the troops." Lou Ban's voice was so dry it sounded like a stranger to himself. "Follow me... into the city."

The battle ended within an hour.

Most of the defenders in Hefei surrendered, and the small number of resistance fighters were quickly wiped out.

When Lou Ban stepped into the city gate surrounded by his guards, he saw corpses lying haphazardly on the street, most of them wearing Liu Xun's army's armor.

Occasionally, a few corpses of Qingzhou soldiers could be seen, their white cloths stained dark red with blood.

He dismounted in front of the prefect's residence.

Yuan Tan was talking with Guo Jia and Jia Xu in front of the gate when he saw him coming and greeted him with a smile.

"General Lou Ban, you have worked hard." Yuan Tan's smile was as gentle as ever. "The feigned attack on the East Gate was successful, holding back the main force of the defending army, which allowed Mr. Wenhe and Mr. Ziyang to succeed in their plan to deceive the city."

Lou Ban took off his helmet and stared at Yuan Tan.

Then slowly kneel down, touching the ground with one knee, and press your right hand against your left chest.

He felt a tightness in his chest. In Shouchun, he had helped Yuan Tan massacre three thousand surrendered soldiers.

At the time, he could understand, after all, it was for the sake of his lord's reputation.

For the greater good of Qingzhou!

But what is it all for today?

"This humble general has three questions, please answer them, my lord."

The surroundings quieted down.

Guo Jia narrowed his eyes slightly, Jia Xu lowered his eyes and remained silent, and Gan Ning leaned against the doorpost while holding his horse spear, his face still covered in bloodstains that had not been wiped clean.

"Excuse me."

Yuan Tan remained expressionless.

"First question: Did our lord know from the beginning that those three thousand surrendered soldiers were expendable pawns?"

"Yes," Yuan Tan answered readily. "Liu Xun's old troops are demoralized, and attacking the city would be suicide. It would be better to use them as bait to make the defenders believe that our main force is at the east gate."

"Second question: If I had reacted even slightly slower when General Gan Ning charged into the enemy lines, I would have been killed by his spear. Was this also part of the plan?"

This time, it was Gan Ning who answered.

The general, who had come from a pirate background, grinned, revealing his white teeth:

"General Louban, if I truly intended to kill you, you wouldn't withstand three blows from me. During the charge, if I thrust my spear into your left shoulder instead of your throat, wouldn't you feel it?"

Lou Ban was startled. He suddenly remembered that strange shot he had fired during their fight.

It was aimed straight at his throat, but at the last moment it missed by three inches, only managing to rip off a piece of his shoulder armor.

"The third question..."

Lou Ban's voice trembled slightly.

"Why didn't you tell me? If I had known it was a trap, why would I have sent those surrendered soldiers to their deaths? Some of them genuinely wanted to surrender..."

It seems that my brother-in-law is being a little too kind.

But that's good, kind people are easy to fool.

"Because you will give yourself away."

Yuan Tan interrupted him, his voice remaining calm.

"Lou Ban, you are a good general, brave and loyal, but you are not good at pretending. If you knew the truth, you wouldn't have shown that desperate anger during the siege, nor would you have instinctively formed a defensive formation when Gan Ning charged into the enemy lines. The enemy is no pushover either; he could see through the deception at a glance."

Yuan Tan stepped forward and personally helped Lou Ban up.

"A leader must have a holistic view."

Yuan Tan's voice was close to my ear.

"The three thousand surrendered soldiers were expendable pawns. All of this was for one outcome: Hefei fell in a single day, and our army suffered fewer than three hundred casualties."

He took a step back and then slowly spoke:

"General Louban, you have indeed rendered meritorious service today. But you must remember that in this chaotic world, mercy is the most luxurious weakness of a commander. Those surrendered soldiers may have sincerely submitted, but their sincerity is not as precious as the lives of my Qingzhou men."

Lou Ban stood there, watching Yuan Tan turn and walk into the prefect's mansion.

Guo Jia patted him on the shoulder, Jia Xu nodded slightly to him, and Gan Ning whistled as he went to count the spoils of war.

Everyone remained calm, as if what had just happened was not a massacre, but merely a routine tactical maneuver.

He suddenly remembered what the old shaman had said many years ago on the grassland: when wolves hunt, the old and weak wolves are driven to their deaths in front of their prey, just to exhaust the prey's strength.

He thought it was cruel then, but now he understands that it wasn't cruel, it was a tactic.

Achieve the greatest victory with the least cost. As for what the cost is and who pays it, that is not within the scope of tactical considerations.

"General, what should we do with the bodies of the surrendered soldiers?" the lieutenant asked cautiously.

Lou Ban remained silent for a long time.

"Bury them," he said. "Bury them separately. Don't bury them with the men of Qingzhou."

"Then... what's written on the tombstone?"

Lou Ban looked towards the city gate, where the bloodstains were still wet.

"Just write..." he said slowly, "Forget it, why bother carving words? Anyway, after a while, no one will remember them."

The lieutenant paused for a moment, then lowered his head and wrote it down.

As the sun set, Lou Ban climbed the East Gate tower alone.

On the battlefield outside the city, laborers were digging pits.

Corpses were thrown in one by one, without coffins, without ceremonies, only the dull sound of the earth covering them.

He touched the bone in his ear.

The icy touch reminded him of winter on the Wuhuan grasslands, and of the elderly, women, and children who froze to death on their migration route.

My father said it was a choice that had to be made so that the tribe could survive.

It turns out the world of the Han people is the same.

No, it's even more cruel.

On the grasslands, the law of the jungle is at least not concealed, but here, killing must be disguised as scheming, and sacrifice must be given the noble name of strategy.

"Did you understand?"

Lou Ban suddenly turned around.

Gan Ning was leaning against the crenellations, peeling fruit with a knife.

The fruit peel stretched out in a long strip, hanging down to the ground.

"General Gan..."

"Don't call me General, I'm not used to it."

Gan Ning grinned and tossed the peeled fruit over.

"My lord is right, you are a good person. But in this world, good people don't live long."

Lou Ban took the fruit but didn't eat it.

"Did those surrendered soldiers... really deserve to die?"

"Whether I deserve to die or not, I don't know."

Gan Ning then took out an apple.

"All I know is that if we hadn't used them to die, the ones filling the pits today might have been my former Jin Fan troops, or those soldiers from the Qingzhou Army. Tell me, if you had the choice, who would you choose to die?"

Lou Ban couldn't answer.

Gan Ning munched on fruit, juice dripping down his chin, mingling with the bloodstains he hadn't wiped off, a glaringly red stain.

"Lou Ban, I have a question for you. If you were on the grasslands, and a pack of wolves were hunting gazelles, would you chase the strongest one or the slowest?"

"The slowest..."

Why?

"Because it saves effort, the chances of success are greater."

"yes."

Gan Ning threw the apple core off the city wall; it arced through the air and landed in a deep pit that was being filled in.

"Warfare is the same principle. These three thousand surrendered soldiers are the slowest of the slowest sheep. If we don't use them, are we going to use my brothers as cannon fodder?"

He patted Lou Ban on the shoulder and grinned:

"Don't think about it. If we win the battle, we'll live, have wine to drink, meat to eat, and rewards to collect—that's what matters. As for the dead... they're already dead. Thinking about them too much will only give you nightmares."

Gan Ning hummed a little tune as he went down to the city.

I'd never heard that tune before; it sounded like a boat song on the river, or a battle song sung by river pirates during a raid—light and cheerful, yet tinged with desolation.

As the evening breeze rises, it stirs the tattered flags atop the city walls.

Lou Ban saw that the huge character "Yuan" on the flag looked as if it were stained with blood under the setting sun.

He suddenly remembered the look in Yuan Tan's eyes when he said those words.

Calm, profound, without pride or guilt.

Just like when the old shaman tells the story of the wolf pack hunting, he is simply stating a fact.

A leader must have a holistic view.

Lou Ban slowly took off his helmet, revealing a hideous wound on his face.

This was the first wound he sustained on the battlefield, in order to save a trapped Han Chinese soldier.

That soldier eventually died.

Before she died, she held his hand and said, "General, I want to go home."

Where is home?

Lou Ban thought.

The grassland is not home; he and his sister have been abandoned by the grassland.

He fought battles, earned merits, received rewards, and then fought even more battles and earned even more merits.

As for why he was fighting, or for whom he was fighting, he rarely thought about it.

He thought about it today and realized that some issues shouldn't be thought about too deeply.

Like those surrendered soldiers, they never knew why they had to die.

Perhaps knowing will only cause more pain.

They did not die at the hands of the enemy, nor on the battlefield, but from a principle called "sacrificing the individual for the greater good," and from a brilliant tactic.

As night swallowed the last rays of light, Lou Ban put his helmet back on.

The helmet was still cold against my cheek.

Some truths, if seen too often, can drive you crazy.

Did those three thousand surrendered soldiers really deserve to die?

They died without even knowing why they were killed.

He took one last look at the graves outside the city, then turned and left the city.