Chapter 030: I’m your grandfather! Long Tian!
After the fall of the first Emperor, two men fought for the empire: Xiang Yu and Liu Bang.
A General and a Commoner.
Xiang Yu was a man of noble birth. honorable but short-sighted and arrogant.
In contrast, Liu Bang was a commoner who was willing to play dirty.
He wasn’t a great warrior, but was willing to listen to his advisors.
To have a strategist like Fan Zeng and refuse to use him was the height of folly.
Even if Fan Zeng had a foul temper, his mind was brilliant. Yet Xiang Yu, arrogant and suspicious, eventually drove him away.
In the end, Xiang Yu was cornered at the Wu River.
Although a boat was waiting to carry him to safety, the weight of his shame was too heavy.
He slit his own throat rather than flee.
If one lacked the capacity to tolerate others, how could they ever hope to be a King?
Furthermore, Xiang Yu’s lack of a stable foundation was a cold reality.
The Chu state was internally fractured.
Xiang Yu, although of noble birth was no royalty, and lacked the status to command awe among commoners and old clans.
Only the Jiangdong region offered him genuine support.
Without strategic depth, he was left with no room to maneuver.
“I will not become Xiang Yu.” A gleam of determination flashed in Long Tian’s eyes.
At this moment, he resolved to fight with everything he had, to seize position, authority, and rank!
“My Lord will surely achieve great things.”
Jia Xu said with a slight nod. For now, his lord’s state of mind was excellent.
The merit of following a rising dragon surpassed all else.
While others couldn’t see the future, Jia Xu saw it vividly.
Many rebellions over the time had drained the Han dynasty’s foundations dry.
The rise of rival warlords was no trivial matter.
Once power consolidated over time, once the Han lost the people’s hearts, then the Mandate of Heaven would change hands, and the divine symbol would find a new master.
At that point, everything would seem only natural.
When a scout returned, Jia Xu’s heart stirred.
“General, now is the moment to strike and rescue!”
“Elder! Rest here. I’ll be back shortly. These worthless dogs and chickens are no threat!”
Long Tian said coldly as he leaped onto his horse.
“Full force, attack!”
Three thousand men against nearly eighty thousand rebels.
This wasn’t madness, it was sheer stupidity!
Even if it were eighty thousand pigs lined up to be slaughtered, it would take days and nights!
Galloping forward, Long Tian led his trusted men into the charge.
He activated the battlefield map. Instantly, the deployment of both friendly and enemy forces appeared in his mind.
Mountains, forests, rivers, plains, and rocky terrain all came into sharp focus.
He could clearly see the location of the rebel leader.
“Xu Rong, lead your men to support Minister Zhang. I’m going to capture the rebel leader.”
“As you command, my Lord.”
Xu Rong’s lips twitched. He knew persuasion was futile.
The most critical task now was to rescue Zhang Wen.
But launching an attack? Three thousand against eighty thousand? That sounded like a joke.
A joke?
Three thousand against eighty thousand was indeed outrageous.
But if one said it was impossible, then Sun “Shiwan” would have something to say about that.
[Sun “Shiwan”: A mocking nickname for Sun Quan, referring to the Battle of Hefei, where his 100,000 troops were defeated… by just 800, and he was nearly captured too. (Sun Shiwan literally means “Sun One Hundred Thousand”).]
Defeating many with few came down to strategy: divide and conquer, capture the leader first.
Only by eliminating the leader could the rebels be thrown into immediate chaos.
The rebel forces were organized into smaller units.
Each general led his own divisions, consisting of private soldiers as the core supplemented by common soldiers.
Eighty thousand men were divided into eight groups, and those eight groups were further divided into five or six smaller groups.
It was impossible to concentrate all their forces. Therefore, as long as the route was right, a breakthrough to the leader’s position would be possible.
Without a battlefield map, Long Tian would never have attempted this.
Blindly charging ahead isn’t courage. It’s courting death!
Now, seeing that only ten thousand men stood between him and the leader, with a gap still wide open for him to slip through, how could he miss this opportunity?
A general’s success is built on the sacrifices of thousands of men.
If he could capture the rebel leader Bian Zhang, combined with his role in rescuing Zhang Wen, it would be enough to propel him to the next rank!
Oh, and he’d need to prepare some money for gifts to reach even higher positions!
This achievement would prove invaluable when recruiting generals and strategists in the future.
<<<•>>>
Zhang Wen was heartbroken.
Although he had bribed the Ten Eunuchs with money, at his core he was still a scholar who wanted to accomplish something.
Without some ability, he wouldn’t have achieved this position.
Why had he insisted on coming here? Was it simply because this was an opportunity for promotion?
If he hadn’t insisted on leaving the city, might things have turned out better?
Watching his soldiers fall one by one, even the fiercest of his Generals, the Jiangdong Tiger, was now covered in wounds.
Now surrounded by layers upon layers of enemy forces, how incredibly difficult would it be to break through?
<<<•>>>
Meanwhile, Bian Zhang was laughing wildly.
He had finally seized his chance.
Rumor had it, this was the commander sent by the imperial court to suppress the rebels, someone called Zhang Wen.
Now, he could kill this so-called supreme commander.
With his head in hand, he could bargain with the imperial court and suppress his rivals.
Maybe… he could even crown himself emperor here?
Lost in his beautiful fantasy, watching his soldiers fight ahead, Bian Zhang felt the intoxicating madness of absolute power, as if the world itself lay in his grasp.
“Haha, once we take Luoyang, I’ll let you plunder to your heart’s content! Every man shall be promoted and rewarded!”
He hadn’t even secured Xiliang yet, and he was already dreaming of Luoyang.
The immediate obstacles before him remained insurmountable, let alone the Western Capital Chang’an still standing in his path.
To dream of attacking Luoyang was nothing but a fool’s dream.
Suddenly, a commotion erupted ahead.
A young warrior, spear in hand and mounted on a steed, charged forward.
Wherever he passed, men and horses fell, none able to withstand even a single blow from him.
Still laughing madly, Bian Zhang hadn’t yet realized the severity of the situation.
Only when the young warrior suddenly appeared before him did he snap to attention.
Even then, his expression remained contemptuous. He even had the leisure to mock him.
“Oh? It seems the Han army isn’t entirely useless and incompetent. Who are you?”
“I’m your grandfather! Long Tian!”
With a furious roar, Long Tian clamped his legs together, and the warhorse beneath him charged.
He began to swing his spear rapidly, twirling it with both hands.
An invisible force deflected an incoming spear, sending it piercing into the flanking commander at an impossible angle.
Puchi!
Long Tian’s strikes were swift, accurate, and ruthless.
The spearhead flickered, thrust, and stabbed.
It struck the unprotected throat, shattering Adam’s apple and severing the artery, sending blood spurting all over the ground.
“Kill him! Attack! Kill him quickly!”
Bian Zhang finally snapped out of his daze.
He had no idea how this killing god had managed to break through his dense encirclement and protective shield and reach him.
His expression was as surprised as Sun Quan’s in Hefei!
When the troops pressed forward, their formation loosened, revealing a gap.
Seizing the opportunity decisively, Long Tian broke through, splitting them in two, front and rear unable to support each other.
“Die!” Long Tian wasted no words.
After piercing through his opponent with brutal efficiency, he impaled Bian Zhang on his spear and lifted him up.
The terrifying force sent shivers down spines.
“Bian Zhang is dead! Surrender and you won’t be killed!”
His personal guards also shouted at the top of their lungs.
“Bian Zhang is dead! Surrender and you won’t be killed!”
“Bian Zhang is dead! Surrender and you won’t be killed!”
The unsuspecting rebels glanced over to see Bian Zhang’s corpse dangling from the spear.
Unaware of the truth, the clever ones looked turned to their squad leaders.
The terror etched on their superiors’ faces instantly revealed the truth: their boss had been decapitated… and they were fucked.
