Chapter 42: Only a General with Troops is a General

I have things to do today, so I have no choice but to update in the middle of the night...

"Remember this grudge! There will be a heavy retribution in the future!" Lu Bu tossed out a hollow platitude and sprinted off in another direction without looking back. Under the high speed of Red Hare, he became a mere speck within a minute.

Shortly after Lu Bu left, the Xiahou brothers and Le Jin, who was supporting Cao Hong, arrived quickly. Seeing Guan, Zhang, and Zhao guarding the spot, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Yunchang, Yide, and Zilong!" the Xiahou brothers said, cupping their fists in gratitude.

"My Lord was worried that Lord Cao might encounter danger while pursuing Dong Zhuo alone, so he sent the three of us ahead," Zhao Yun explained, cupping his fists as he saw Guan and Zhang looking at him. "You four should hurry and regroup the routed troops to protect Lord Cao back to the main camp. This place is not safe for long; the three of us still need to assist my Lord in crushing the Xiliang Iron Cavalry."

"Thank you for the assistance, Excellency Xuande!" Cao Cao sighed, yet he maintained his poise, bowing to the three men before departing with a look of disappointment.

On the other side, Chen Xi looked at the long line of cavalry stretched across the plains and sighed. This was the so-called Xiliang Iron Cavalry? They were so desperate for credit that they had even lost their formation. Wasn't this just seeking death?

"This is the Xiliang Iron Cavalry?" Chen Xi asked Hua Xiong.

"That bastard Lu Bu is definitely doing this on purpose! Since when did he let his Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry turn into this!" Hua Xiong cursed loudly.

Chen Xi shrugged without a word. Having been in this world for so long, he had completely figured it out. Indeed, there were masters in this world, but most were just ordinary people. "Poor in literature, rich in martial arts"—how could they expect to draw energy from food when they could barely afford to eat? What a joke!

Thus, while the physical fitness of the common people in this world was strong, it was only roughly comparable to the special forces of the modern era. As for internal breath (*neixi*), it was sporadic at best. Fortunately, their potential was high; with proper training and enough food, they could cultivate a small amount of internal breath.

However, such a small amount of internal breath was basically useless. At most, it could make one slightly stronger than before, but it was utterly ineffective against non-human entities like Guan, Zhang, and Zhao.

Looking at it this way, no matter how many men there were, none were as important as a top-tier general. But in reality, that was a complete misconception. When soldiers formed a formation and their auras connected into a single whole, they would offset the stray, anomalous auras of outsiders. In other words, a unit that maintained its formation or stayed connected would not suffer much against a general. In fact, if a general charged in alone, if the soldiers fought desperately enough, they might even be able to slay him.

Therefore, formation was vital to an army. If they charged in a chaotic mess like pigs, a hundred thousand men might find themselves unable to even lift their heads against a well-disciplined force of only a few thousand.

The current situation was that the Xiliang Iron Cavalry had turned their excellent wedge formation into a messy, long string. They had completely lost that momentum of an unstoppable spearhead, and the auras above them had become a disorganized mess, with patches of it disappearing from time to time. This was supposed to be the world's finest elite, so how could they be so much worse than the White Horse Volunteers?

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun did not return too late. The Xiliang Iron Cavalry had made such a mess of themselves that they looked ready to be taken prisoner.

"Zilong, lead your White Horse Volunteers and give these idiots a lesson!" Chen Xi said indignantly. He was almost embarrassed to accept such trash as his upcoming troops.

"Yunchang, lead the soldiers to strike their center! Yide, lead the soldiers to block the vanguard! We will devour the entire Xiliang Iron Cavalry!" Chen Xi arranged with fury. "Zijian, get ready. Once you feel you have the situation under control, act immediately. Otherwise, I will not give the order to stop!"

Zhao Yun led his one thousand three hundred White Horse Volunteers as they mounted their horses simultaneously. Then, a visible cloud of white mist appeared above the unit, rapidly condensing around Zhao Yun's aura. Before the unit even charged, they had become a single entity.

"White Horse Volunteers!" Zhao Yun tapped his bright silver spear against his helmet, then took the lead in a charge toward the Xiliang Iron Cavalry!

"Kill!" With a roar, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei charged with their soldiers. A patch of green light and a patch of black light hovered above their heads, enveloping their entire units.

*Thud!* A casual strike from Guan Yu reached nearly the power of his previous full-strength blow, and a streak of green light violently severed the Xiliang Iron Cavalry.

"This is what a general looks like. A general without soldiers is just a weakling," Chen Xi remarked with emotion as he watched the attacks of Guan, Zhang, and Zhao. With the empowerment of the soldiers' strength, a general's power would increase significantly. Similarly, within their own limits, the more troops they commanded, the stronger they became. However, once they exceeded that limit, the troops became a burden; not only would they fail to grow stronger, but poor command and movement would disrupt the formation, causing the overall strength of the unit to plummet.

After three moves, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry were completely dazed. If their formation had been intact, those three moves would have killed at most a hundred or so men. But now that the formation was broken and they lacked the collective momentum to distribute the damage, even though Guan, Zhang, and Zhao had intentionally avoided the densest areas, more than three hundred men had already fallen.

"Everyone, stop!" Hua Xiong rode his yellow-maned horse directly out from the crowd and shouted loudly, "I am Hua Xiong! If you have any sense, drop your weapons! Look at you idiots! With me here, what have you turned into! You damn fools, you've lost your formation! Are you looking for death? Bah! Surrender! Everyone, surrender!"

As Hua Xiong kept shouting, his tone drifted. He could maintain some decorum when speaking to Liu Bei and the others, but upon seeing these fellow countrymen, his shouts turned into local dialect. After a loud tirade, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry surrendered collectively.

Their commander, Lu Bu, had vanished, the troops were stunned, and the former top general of Xiliang—Hua Xiong—who was also their former superior, was calling for surrender. With a leader present, all the soldiers surrendered. After all, they were just soldiers earning a living; if they didn't listen and got killed, it was the end.

"Blackie, are you an idiot!" Hua Xiong went up and slapped the leading officer, knocking him off his horse, and then proceeded to kick him. "How did I teach you back then? Have you forgotten everything, you bastard? Er-gou, and you too! Do you want to die? The formation is gone, and you're still chasing! Seeking death! Do you want to reincarnate?!"

None of the officers being beaten dared to resist, allowing Hua Xiong to vent his rage. "Get up! Come with me to see my Lord. I'm done with Chancellor Dong. What about you?"

"We follow the General's command!" the officers said hurriedly.

"Let's go. Chancellor Dong is no longer the commander who used to drink with us in Xiliang. There is no need for us to die for him. We have repaid our debts to him over these years. At most, we will give him a wide berth when we face him in battle in the future!" Hua Xiong said as he helped the officers up.

"My Lord, these were all officers under my command previously. A portion of the Xiliang elite cavalry arriving this time were also my former troops," Hua Xiong bowed to Liu Bei. "Their abilities are not as poor as they have performed today. I ask my Lord to give them a chance!"

"Rest assured, Zijian. The defeat of your subordinates this time was caused by Lu Bu's haste for credit; what does it have to do with them? It was the result of military orders. How could these men disobey?" Liu Bei smiled, indicating he did not care about the matter.

(End of Chapter)