Chapter 128: The Allied Forces Suffer a Setback
The presence of a million-strong army at the gates of the city obviously intimidated many small families in Luoyang. Many of them involuntarily turned to the coalition forces of princes outside the Great Wall.
Hundreds of letters flowed out from Luoyang every day, and Jia Xu added a few aristocratic families to the list every day.
"Military Advisor Jia, why did you let Gongjin and Bofu slip away? Even their families disappeared with them." Wang Yue couldn't help but ask as he watched Jia Xu busy.
Sun Ce learned a lot from him. Although his IQ was a bit problematic, his talent in martial arts really impressed him. He was stronger than any other disciple he had ever taught.
"Bofu's father is outside the pass, how can I control Bofu's movements? Besides, Gongjin is also giving advice. It is reasonable for me to let them escape due to my carelessness, right?"
Jia Xu said with a smile. It was obvious that he did it on purpose. Luoyang was in his control. He really couldn't stop Zhou Yu and Sun Ce from running away. After all, Zhou Yu was not a simple character. It was okay to say that he was evenly matched with him.
But even Zhou Yu and Sun Ce's families slipped away, which was impossible. How could he make such a big mistake?
"If we don't do this, how can we make them gain the trust of the coalition forces?" Jia Xu said in his heart, but his expression remained calm and he had no interest in explaining to Wang Yue.
Wang Yue was tactful enough not to ask any more questions. Whether it was Jia Xu's mistake or Jia Xu did it on purpose, there must be some calculation involved, so it was better for him not to ask any more questions.
He had finally brought honor to his family, and he didn't want to offend Jia Xu.
Outside Hulao Pass, Sun Jian and Ding Yuan lined up outside the pass and kept provoking.
The person Sun Jian sent to provoke at Guanxia was Sun Ce. Sun Ce was a master of internal energy, so Sun Jian naturally wanted his son to show off.
"This guy Bofu actually defected to Sun Jian! Let me go down and teach him a lesson!" Ma Chao shouted and was about to go out to teach Sun Ce a lesson.
Guo Hao covered his face helplessly, speechless at Ma Chao's IQ.
Let’s not talk about whether you can beat Sun Ce. Sun Ce actually relies on his own father. How did you come up with such anti-intellectual remarks?
"Go away, the first charge is left to you, Mengqi!" Guo Hao waved his hands helplessly. Ma Chao's strength is about the same as Sun Ce's. The most important thing is that the two have similar IQs, so they should be a good opponent.
"My lord, rest assured. I will definitely capture Sun Ce's son!"
Ma Chao rode the Sharifei sent by the Qiang people and rushed out of Hulao Pass with great momentum. He shouted angrily, "Sun Bofu, look, your grandfather Ma Chao is here to teach you a lesson!"
Sun Ce was very happy when he saw Ma Chao coming out. Ma Chao was one of the few generals he could play with. For some reason, others didn't like to play with him.
However, the dirty words from Ma Chao directly angered him. Sun Ce ignored Zhou Yu's gaze and rode forward to wrestle with Ma Chao.
Ding~ding~ding~
The two horses crossed each other, weapons flew up and down, and there were bursts of sounds of metal clashing.
The two horses separated, and Ma Chao's face was filled with shock. His hands were numb from the shock, and he couldn't even hold the tiger-head spear in his hand steadily.
"Hahaha, Ma'er, you want to teach me a lesson with your strength!" Sun Ce laughed wildly. He was not beaten in vain. The strength of his internal energy leaving his body was the best reward for him.
Guo Hao scratched his head on the city wall. His internal energy was leaving his body. It seemed that Ma Chao was unable to defeat Sun Ce. He even forgot that Sun Ce had gone out with him and was already one step ahead of Ma Chao.
The vanguard of the coalition forces beat drums loudly, and when the soldiers saw that Sun Ce had the upper hand, they couldn't help but cheer.
Fighting generals always affects the morale of soldiers on both sides.
Ma Chao was beaten so badly by Sun Ce that he couldn't even raise his head. There is only one step between internal Qi leaving the body and pseudo internal Qi leaving the body, but this step is the gap between Ma Chao and Sun Ce.
Ma Chao's helmet was knocked off by Sun Ce, his hair was disheveled, and he looked in a state of disgrace.
Ma Chao gritted his teeth and raised his tiger-head spear. He refused to accept the result. How could a mere Sun Bofu be so powerful?
It's impossible, absolutely impossible. Sun Ce can let his internal energy leave his body, so can I, Ma Mengqi.
break!
Ma Chao burned his internal energy like crazy, and the bottleneck of internal energy leaving the body, which was originally a little distance away, was broken at once.
puff!
Blood began to spurt out of Ma Chao's body. A violent breakthrough would not care whether your body would be damaged or not.
Ma Chao, who was beaten violently by Sun Ce, broke through violently to the point where his internal energy left his body, and his strength increased greatly.
After the breakthrough, his body began to recover slowly, but Ma Chao ignored it. Being beaten by Sun Ce was a fact that he could not accept at all.
Ma Chao roared and rushed towards Sun Ce. The light blue internal energy flashed with arcs of electricity. Ma Chao turned into a flash of lightning, and the tiger-head spear hit Sun Ce directly.
Sun Ce was caught off guard and was hit directly by Ma Chao's attack.
Sun Ce was knocked several meters away, then adjusted his angle in the air and landed on the divine horse again, his face looking equally ugly.
He thought he was ahead of Ma Chao, but unexpectedly Ma Chao caught up with him in the blink of an eye.
Just think about it, how much he suffered in order to break through. He was knocked unconscious by Dian Wei countless times, and his neck has not yet fully healed. How can a mere Ma Chao break through just because he wants to?
The two simply abandoned their war horses and crashed into each other fiercely, wrestling with each other using hammers and using each other as sandbags.
The two men were having a great time fighting, but the spectators were looking at each other in bewilderment. The sight of the two men twisting and turning on the ground was truly an eye-opener.
It was like two happy Huskies destroying the house together. The ground was full of potholes and both of them had bruises on their faces, but they still refused to let each other go.
"Someone pull these two disgraceful things apart!"
Guo Hao covered his face, not wanting to watch the battle below. The two were fighting like shrews pulling each other's hair. If the fighting continued like this, the style of the war would be distorted.
"I'll go!" Zhao Yun sighed. He couldn't stand it any longer. Both of them were young talents, but if this continued, the term "young talent" would change its meaning.
As an eighteen-year-old boy like Sun Ce and Ma Chao, Zhao Yun really doesn't want to become a synonym for weirdness.
Zhao Yun jumped down from the city wall at a very fast speed. Even though he fell at such a fast speed, the ground did not break. The force of his fall spread perfectly over the ground. The two people who were fighting with each other did not even feel the ground shaking.
Zhao Yun showed off his skills on purpose in order to restore the image of the term "young hero".
Sun Jian and Yuwen Chengdu in the coalition army both frowned. They had never seen Zhao Yun in action, but this move of Zhao Yun made them understand that Zhao Yun was definitely not an easy opponent. Not everyone can have the ability to do things with ease.
Zhao Yun came to Ma Chao and Sun Ce, and separated them with one hand each. He threw one back to Hulao Pass and threw the other directly at Sun Jian.
During the whole process, Ma Chao and Sun Ce did not have any resistance at all. They returned to their own camps in shock, but their eyes were filled with horror.
I originally thought that I was the best among the younger generation, but I didn't expect that a pretty boy would suddenly appear and could easily beat me.
Lu Bu also squinted at Zhao Yun. He had a feeling that this Zhao Yun might be about to break through, but he didn't know what kind of breakthrough it was.
"Gao Shun, Hua Xiong, quickly drive back the troops under the city. Let's stop here today!"
Guo Hao quickly sent two of his three most powerful legions into battle. The battle between Ma Chao and Sun Ce dealt a heavy blow to the morale of both sides. Without a good ending, the morale would never be restored.
Gao Shun and Hua Xiong clasped their fists and accepted the order, then prepared to set off with their troops.
The two military soul legions had been on standby for a long time. Hua Xiong blew a whistle and led Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou, and Zhang Ji, commanding three thousand flying bears to jump down from Hulao Pass.
For the flying bears who have mastered gravity, terrain is not a problem at all. As long as they want, attacking the city on horseback is not a problem.
On the other side, Gao Shun also prepared 3,000 Xianzhen troops, and directly recruited soldiers from the elite legion, which made the Xianzhen troops expand rapidly. Although half of them were new recruits, their elite foundation meant that they were not too bad. After fighting a few battles, they could become qualified soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp.
The Xianzhen Camp changed their equipment, mounted their horses, and followed Feixiong out of Hulao Pass.
The Xianzhen soldiers are not infantry. How can the soldiers selected from the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry be infantry?
Before, it was because Gao Shun and his men were too poor, and dismounting in the battle formation only reduced their strength by 20%, so the freed horses could be used to continue recruiting Bingzhou Wolf Riders.
All the soldiers in the Xianzhen formation dismounted Lu Bu had an additional 1,500 elite Bingzhou Wolf Riders under his command.
But now Guo Hao has no shortage of supplies. He spends a lot of money and the trap array is immediately expanded to its limit. No matter how many more Gao Shun has, he can no longer control it perfectly.
Sun Jian and Ding Yuan brought nearly 10,000 cavalrymen, all of whom were elite soldiers. As the vanguard of the coalition forces, it was naturally impossible for them to allow regular soldiers and militia to make up the numbers.
The princes are greedy but not fools. If 10,000 regular soldiers can capture Hulao Pass, why would they form an alliance? Why not just rush into Luoyang and snatch the princess?
Under the shocked eyes of Sun Jian and Ding Yuan, Fei Xiong and Xian Zhen beat them like adults beating children and made them unable to fight back.
Fei Xiong dealt with Sun Jian, while Xian Zhen fought Ding Yuan. They each divided the work and did not interfere with each other. There was even a sense of racing in the process.
"Retreat, retreat, retreat!" Ding Yuan started to order his men to retreat without saying a word. He was also a veteran general on the frontier, and Gao Shunde's immediate superior. How could he not know how powerful Gao Shunde's vanguard formation was? He even felt that the vanguard formation was stronger than the previous Yulin Guards. How could he fight them?
“Dang~”
"Tell me your name! I will not kill nameless people with my sword." Sun Jian used his sword to block Hua Xiong's attack. He knew Hua Xiong, but he only knew that he was Dong Zhuo's subordinate. As for his real name, he had no idea.
"Sun Wentai, stop bragging. I am Hua Zijian. Remember my name. You are my loser!"
Hua Xiong replied disdainfully that if he didn't have troops, he might not be able to defeat Sun Jian. Unfortunately, he had the military spirit, so defeating Sun Jian was too easy for him.
"Father, go!" Sun Ce's roar woke Sun Jian up. Only then did he realize that nearly 30% of his troops had been killed, while only a few were killed on the opposite side. The gap between the two sides had become unreasonably large.
"Retreat! Retreat quickly!" Sun Jian forced Hua Xiong to retreat and quickly sounded the horn to call back his troops.
Looking at the messy battlefield, Guo Hao nodded with satisfaction. He was very satisfied with the combat effectiveness of Xianzhen and Feixiong. They were worthy of being the Military Soul Corps.
"Let the Qiang auxiliary soldiers clean up the battlefield, and then give the two legions an equal reward!"
"Xu Rong will defend the city, and the rest of us will hold a banquet tonight to celebrate our success!"
Unlike the laughter and joy at Hulao Pass, the coalition forces seemed a little depressed.
The vanguard troops returned in defeat, causing the atmosphere in the tents of the twenty-eight princes to become somewhat depressing.
Ding Yuan ran fast and only lost a few hundred people, but Sun Jian lost two thousand people, especially when he was surrounded by the enemy from behind, he lost a lot of people.
The entire army was almost wiped out. If it weren't for the fact that they were all cavalry from the coalition forces, Sun Jian would have suffered a huge loss.
At this time, Sun Jian could only be thankful that Jiangdong had many archers and sailors but not many cavalry, otherwise he would have lost all his money in this battle.
Sun Jian blamed all the reasons for the defeat on Ding Yuan: "If it weren't for you, Ding Jianyang, deserting the battlefield, how could my men have suffered so many casualties!"
There is some truth in Sun Jian's taking the blame. If Ding Yuan hadn't run so fast, although they would still have been defeated, the losses would not have been so great.
"Sun Wentai, stop spitting blood. I warned you when I was retreating. It was you who was obsessed with killing and didn't want to retreat. How can you blame me?"
How could Ding Yuan be willing to take over this blame? He rolled his eyes and threw it directly on Yuan Shu.
"If it weren't for Yuan Shu's thief who withheld food and fodder, how could we have lost? This battle is all thanks to Yuan Shu's thief!"
Sun Jian also changed his mind and realized that it would not sound good to admit that they could not win, and Ding Yuan's excuse was not bad.
"Yuan Shu, why did you cut off our food supplies? If not for this, why would the two of us have been in such a hurry to fight? Otherwise, how could we have suffered the loss today!"
Yuan Shu's face turned cold, with a ruthless look in the corners of his eyes. "You, Sun Jian and Ding Yuan, just opened your mouth and said something. There are so many people guarding the food and grass. He is not a fool. How could he tamper with the food and grass?"
Yuan Shu shouted loudly: "Sun Jian, Ding Yuan, stop talking nonsense. How could I withhold your food and fodder in front of everyone? It's obviously you two who are not doing well in the battle, how can you blame me!"
The three of them quarreled endlessly in the big tent, and Yuan Shao could only ask his men to investigate and suppress the matter temporarily.
But after a while, the tent was suddenly opened, and two soldiers pushed a man into the tent, clasped their fists and shouted, "Alliance leader, this man embezzled military rations and was discovered by us. Please punish him."
The person being pinned down was Yuan Shu's military grain officer. For a moment, Yuan Shu felt the pain in his face from being hit. He never expected that the blame would really be put on him.
Yuan Shu was filled with shame and anger. He drew the sword from his waist and beheaded his men.
"How dare you, villain, ruin our coalition's plan!"
He was filled with anger. The ration officer under him was a student of the Yuan family. How could he do such a thing? Even if he really withheld rations, he would have committed suicide after being caught. How could he go to the big tent to identify him? Of course, the only person who could do all this was his good brother.
After everything was settled, Yuan Shu flicked his sleeves, glared at Yuan Shao and left the tent. In his opinion, it was clearly Yuan Shao who instigated the frame-up against him, and everything that followed was deliberately made up by Yuan Shao.
Every injustice has its perpetrator and every debt has its creditor, and you, Yuan Shao, are that creditor.
You, Yuan Shao, are unkind and unjust, so don't blame me, Yuan Shu, for being cruel!
