Manga Discussion The Ravages of Time - Explanation of the Military tactics and Wars
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Hey guys, finally back, got a new laptop, so now I can continue this thread.
Next part I'm going to talk about is Pang Tong's introduction, one of the eight geniuses who had a pretty awesome introduction, almost exploring the full potential of the character there, Pang Tong is probably the best designed strategist in this Manhua, I really like his methods, even if he still lacks in some basic aspects.
But in general, what he did in his introduction was so brutal, so well written, I can't wait to write about it.
So, let's go for some Pang Tong greatness
Pang Tong is a very different advisor/strategist, he's not an expert in military formation like Jia Xu, nor a businessman like Sima Yi, the best way we can define his methods is: Ruthless pragmatism and utilitarianism. He calculates every aspect from the current scenario, and he uses everything that is possible according to his goals, not only that, but he builds his whole strategy from the most basic point to the most complex points, but in a very ruthless way that will cause as much destruction as possible.
In short, this man is probably the most terrifying strategist you can face, even if he's not the best strategist, his methods are quite brutal.
You'll see as soon as I explain his "duel" against Cao Cao.
Let's talk about the Sima Clan situation, Cao Cao was pressuring the clan to the point of almost breaking it, sucking up all the clan's wealth for his own purposes, with the Sima Clan crisis, a segment of the clan, the Assassins Handicapped Warriors, also disbanded, some of them remained to serve the clan, and the others traveled to other cities to continue their work as assassins, which was the case of Zhao Yun.
On the other hand, Cao Cao, now with the Child Emperor in his hands, marched with his army to the north of Jing Province, specifically to attack Zhang Ji's territories, which were among the territories loyal to Dong Zhuo's ideals, mainly administered by Zhang Xiu, Zhang Ji's nephew, since the former was already dead.
This is the northern part of Jing Province that we're going to talk about mostly. But I'll also talk about Xu County in Yu Province, once it's the place where Cao Cao's main base is.
Cao Cao split his forces, stabilizing half of his army in the Buffer Zone, a neutral land that is part of two territories, at Wuyin and the other half marching to Luyang. Cao Cao didn't expect a long war since Zhang Xiu had already surrendered to him, so the whole scenery was set up in a very peaceful way, but this is where Pang Tong makes his moves...
Let's talk about Pang Tong's plans, which were to kill Cao Cao and rally the entire Jing Province behind the Imperial Han.
0) First of all, Pang Tong served under Liu Chong of the Imperial Han Liu Clan, which has very powerful warlords like Liu Biao.
1) Considering how powerful Cao Cao was, Pang Tong needed to gather as many resources as possible, and this is where his main skill comes in, his persuasion skills. First of all, he was a teacher at his famous masters' schools, and there he gained the trust of many warlords, who gave him not only money, but also soldiers for his plans.
2) With enough resources, he would travel to Luyang to contact Zhao Yun, who is now the boss of an assassination organization, and hire him to kill Cao Cao. Zhao Yun, knowing that Cao Cao was the main reason for the SIma Clan's crisis, accepted the task, assuming that it would solve the problems his former boss, Sima Yi, had with Cao Cao.
The assassination attempt would worsen Cao Cao's relationship with Zhang Xiu, and it would put him in control of the entire Sima Clan, since he could threaten them into revealing that one of the clan's assassins was plotting to kill Cao Cao, which, if revealed, would lead to the destruction of the entire clan.
3) Take Jia Xu away from Zhang Xiu, because Jia Xu would ruin his plan to use Zhang Xiu as a tool.
4) Pang Tong, now an advisor to Zhang Xiu, secretly offered Zhang Xiu's aunt and one of Cao Cao's generals as hostages in the face of Cao Cao's assassination attempt, but in fact he never actually gave Zhang Xiu's aunt, but another assassin from the Sima Clan, who was mainly there to distract Cao Cao, also reported to Zhang Xiu that Cao Cao had forced them to give up the hostages, enraging Zhang Xiu enormously.
5) Zhang Xiu's general, who was sent there as a hostage on Pang Tong's orders, weakened Cao Cao's main camp force by reporting that there was an army on the outskirts of the main camp, probably seeking Cao Cao's life, by moving one of Cao Cao's generals, Xiaohun Dun, to the nearby forest, where he would set fire to them, isolate them from Cao Cao's main camp, and report to an enraged Zhang Xiu.
6) Burn the food and equipment in Cao Cao's camp with the help of the spies that he placed in Cao Cao's camp.'s camp.
7) Destroy Cao Cao's camp and kill Cao Cao. Now that Xiahou Dun has been lured out of the camp, it would be very easy for Zhang Xiu to take it.
8) With Xiahou trapped outside the Luyang Camp, his army would run out of rations, so he would have to contact Wuyin, and Wuyin would contact Xu County, who would contact the Sima Clan to send them rations. But as I said before, Pang Tong already had the Sima Clan under his control, and he would blackmail the Sima Clan to delay those rations. Besides, he would betray the Sima Clan anyway, since he thought that the Sima Clan would serve as a shield for his own purposes.
Later, the Cao clan became suspicious of the Sima clan's intentions, and caused one of the most brutal scenes in this Manhua, which was the near annihilation of the Sima clan, which is comparable to GoT's Red Wedding, where major characters are suddenly killed off, as you can see in this panel:
This incident was so brutal that it was the major point change of the protagonist Sima Yi, this incident is what caused the "Phoenix" to be awakened.
9) Next, using Cao Cao's uniforms from the main camp, Pang Tong ordered them to infiltrate Wuyin, assuming they were leftovers from the main camp, and also to inform that Cao Cao was alive and at a certain place, where an ambush would be set up that would wipe out the Wuyin forces sent there, and since Wuyin was weakened, they would take it with much less effort.
10) Pang Tong had already revealed part of his plans to Lu Bu earlier, and if Xu County tried to send soldiers to help either Wuying or the Luyang camp, Lu Bu would take the chance and gather a weakened Xu County to him, taking Cao Cao's main base.
11) Later, the Han imperial alliance, Liu Chong and Liu Biao, would move their army to take the whole Jing Province, expanding their territories in many percent, with Cao Cao weakened, they would also have the strength to take Cao Cao's territories, and eventually the whole world.
Pang Tong's strategy is almost perfect, he has covered almost every aspect of the current situation to use against Cao Cao, all three major areas couldn't move: Xiahou Dun could not do anything without the rations and was doomed to wither away, Wuyin was also doomed to be taken, and even if they saw through the trap, they could not move to help Xiahouy Dun as soon as it would make them vulnerable, Xu County could not help Wuyin either because Lu Bu was keeping them in check, he calculated every aspect of the current situation and no matter what the consequences, he chose the best path for his own purposes, even if it would cause a bloody massacre like Sima Clan.
Of course, his plan didn't work out, more so because of his lord's foolishness in inviting the Sima Clan to be his ally, which culminated in his death at the hands of the Sima Clan's assassins under Sima Yi's orders.
But before Liu Chong, his master, was killed, he managed to wipe out almost all of Cao Cao's forces in Jing Province with a much smaller army and without losing a single man, just by scheming and using the tools he had.
Pang Tong's introductory arc was really good, Chen Mou really killed it here.
This man isn't done yet, we'll see him later.
Next part I'm going to talk about is Pang Tong's introduction, one of the eight geniuses who had a pretty awesome introduction, almost exploring the full potential of the character there, Pang Tong is probably the best designed strategist in this Manhua, I really like his methods, even if he still lacks in some basic aspects.
But in general, what he did in his introduction was so brutal, so well written, I can't wait to write about it.
So, let's go for some Pang Tong greatness
In short, this man is probably the most terrifying strategist you can face, even if he's not the best strategist, his methods are quite brutal.
You'll see as soon as I explain his "duel" against Cao Cao.
Let's talk about the Sima Clan situation, Cao Cao was pressuring the clan to the point of almost breaking it, sucking up all the clan's wealth for his own purposes, with the Sima Clan crisis, a segment of the clan, the Assassins Handicapped Warriors, also disbanded, some of them remained to serve the clan, and the others traveled to other cities to continue their work as assassins, which was the case of Zhao Yun.
On the other hand, Cao Cao, now with the Child Emperor in his hands, marched with his army to the north of Jing Province, specifically to attack Zhang Ji's territories, which were among the territories loyal to Dong Zhuo's ideals, mainly administered by Zhang Xiu, Zhang Ji's nephew, since the former was already dead.
This is the northern part of Jing Province that we're going to talk about mostly. But I'll also talk about Xu County in Yu Province, once it's the place where Cao Cao's main base is.
Let's talk about Pang Tong's plans, which were to kill Cao Cao and rally the entire Jing Province behind the Imperial Han.
0) First of all, Pang Tong served under Liu Chong of the Imperial Han Liu Clan, which has very powerful warlords like Liu Biao.
1) Considering how powerful Cao Cao was, Pang Tong needed to gather as many resources as possible, and this is where his main skill comes in, his persuasion skills. First of all, he was a teacher at his famous masters' schools, and there he gained the trust of many warlords, who gave him not only money, but also soldiers for his plans.
The assassination attempt would worsen Cao Cao's relationship with Zhang Xiu, and it would put him in control of the entire Sima Clan, since he could threaten them into revealing that one of the clan's assassins was plotting to kill Cao Cao, which, if revealed, would lead to the destruction of the entire clan.
8) With Xiahou trapped outside the Luyang Camp, his army would run out of rations, so he would have to contact Wuyin, and Wuyin would contact Xu County, who would contact the Sima Clan to send them rations. But as I said before, Pang Tong already had the Sima Clan under his control, and he would blackmail the Sima Clan to delay those rations. Besides, he would betray the Sima Clan anyway, since he thought that the Sima Clan would serve as a shield for his own purposes.
Later, the Cao clan became suspicious of the Sima clan's intentions, and caused one of the most brutal scenes in this Manhua, which was the near annihilation of the Sima clan, which is comparable to GoT's Red Wedding, where major characters are suddenly killed off, as you can see in this panel:
9) Next, using Cao Cao's uniforms from the main camp, Pang Tong ordered them to infiltrate Wuyin, assuming they were leftovers from the main camp, and also to inform that Cao Cao was alive and at a certain place, where an ambush would be set up that would wipe out the Wuyin forces sent there, and since Wuyin was weakened, they would take it with much less effort.
10) Pang Tong had already revealed part of his plans to Lu Bu earlier, and if Xu County tried to send soldiers to help either Wuying or the Luyang camp, Lu Bu would take the chance and gather a weakened Xu County to him, taking Cao Cao's main base.
11) Later, the Han imperial alliance, Liu Chong and Liu Biao, would move their army to take the whole Jing Province, expanding their territories in many percent, with Cao Cao weakened, they would also have the strength to take Cao Cao's territories, and eventually the whole world.
Pang Tong's strategy is almost perfect, he has covered almost every aspect of the current situation to use against Cao Cao, all three major areas couldn't move: Xiahou Dun could not do anything without the rations and was doomed to wither away, Wuyin was also doomed to be taken, and even if they saw through the trap, they could not move to help Xiahouy Dun as soon as it would make them vulnerable, Xu County could not help Wuyin either because Lu Bu was keeping them in check, he calculated every aspect of the current situation and no matter what the consequences, he chose the best path for his own purposes, even if it would cause a bloody massacre like Sima Clan.
Of course, his plan didn't work out, more so because of his lord's foolishness in inviting the Sima Clan to be his ally, which culminated in his death at the hands of the Sima Clan's assassins under Sima Yi's orders.
But before Liu Chong, his master, was killed, he managed to wipe out almost all of Cao Cao's forces in Jing Province with a much smaller army and without losing a single man, just by scheming and using the tools he had.
Pang Tong's introductory arc was really good, Chen Mou really killed it here.
This man isn't done yet, we'll see him later.
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Let's get on with it, finally! Sorry for the absence, I don't have much time to write the summaries because of work and studies, so yeah...
But I will continue this thread whenever I find time to spend a day rereading the arcs and doing my research on them.
Before anything, let's explain the current context:
First, we have Cao Cao's Main enemy, Yuan Shao, residing at Yecheng from the Ji Province, he has also other 2 Provinces as his territories, the Bing Province and Qing Province.
He is also moving to expand his territories into the northern lands, where the You Province is located.
As for Cao Cao, he has the Yan and Yu provinces under his control, but he also has the Sili District, which is the Emperor's territory, but since the current Emperor is just a child who serves as a tool for Cao Cao's plans, we can say that this territory is his as well.
Lu Bu seized Xu Province from Liu Bei, making it his territory for his army.
Cao Cao's current main target is also the Xu Province.
Another target of Cao Cao is Yuan Shu's territory, which is a frame of the Yang Province.
Yuan Shu current situation is pretty bad, he was brutally beaten by Lu Bu when Yuan Shu tried to invade the Xu Province, and also lost a bunch of importan cities to Sun Ce, forcing him to call Yuan Shao's help, who is his brother, from the Yuan Clan.
There are two problems for Cao Cao:
Firstly, he can't allow Yuan Shao to help Yuan Shu, as this would interfere with his plans to take Yuan Shu's territory, but it would also spread Yuan Shao's influence beyond the northern lands.
Secondly, if Cao Cao attacked Xu Province, he would leave his main city in Yu Province vulnerable, and Yuan Shao would certainly invade it.
With these problems in mind, Cao Cao's political advisor, Xun Yu, went to Yecheng to talk to Yuan Shao for one reason:
Through the Emperor, Xun Yu would give the You Province to Yuan Shao, as it was a territory of Yuan Shao's desires, he would move his entire army to occupy the You Province, and while Yuan Shao was occupied with the You Province, Cao Cao would move his army to invade Xu Province and kill Lu Bu, so giving You Province to Yuan Shao would not only allow the invasion of Xu Province, but Yuan Shao would not be able to supply Yuan Shu, thus solving the two problems Cao Cao had.
The plan to distract Yuan Shao was quite successful, but one thing happened that caused many other problems for Cao Cao, which was the kidnapping of Xun Yu by Lu Bu, which Cao Cao side thought was an assassination by Yuan Shao.
An alliance between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao would make Lu Bu a target of both warlords, so he kidnapped Cao Cao's political advisor to make the two sides antagonise each other again. Then, on the brink of war with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao would be forced to move his troops from Nanyang in Jing Province to defend the Yan-Ji borders. Also, with Nanyang free of Cao Cao's army, Zhang Xiu would reclaim the city for himself and even pose a threat to Cao Cao, as Zhang Xiu could potentially attack Cao Cao's main city while Cao Cao was invading Xu Province.
Back in Cao Cao's camp, Sima Yi offered Liu Chong's head to Cao Cao, asking for Cao Cao's forgiveness for the clan's betrayal.
Cao Cao accepted, as Sima Yi's talents would be of use to him, and ordered him to help Guo Jia in the invasion of Xu Province.
Back in Nanyang, Jia Xu, now Cao Cao's military advisor, successfully persuaded Zhang Xiu to surrender, removing the threat of Zhang Xiu attacking Cao Cao's main city, and even recovering the Cao Cao's ration that were stuck at Nanyang with Sima Yi's help.
In the south of Xun Province, the battle between Cao Cao and Lu Bu forces finally begins, and on the way to Xiapi, Xiahou Dun's army is ambushed by one of Lu Bu's generals, Gao Shun.
Xiahou moves the archers to the front of the left flank to arrow down Gao Shun's cavalry.
Lu Bu's cavalry are highly skilled, as they are able to break through Xiahou Dun's archery lines and completely destroy Xiahou Dun's left flank.
With his left flank completely wiped out by Gao Shun's cavalry, Xiahou Dun moves his main cavalry to the left flank to engage Gao Shun's cavalry.
But Gao Shun surprisingly retreats as Xiahou Dun chases him out.
But as Xiahou Dun chases, his cavalry's left flank is ambushed by horse archers.
Horse archers, before crossbowmen and firearms, were probably the strongest and most efficient troop ever, there was no way to defeat them except with terrain, they were absolutely amazing.
It's speculated that Lu Bu had some sort of inheritance from the Mongol culture, because even though the Mongol Empire was established much later, Lu Bu was born in Jiuyuan, which is now Baotou in Inner Mongolia, and it's also commented that Han lost control of Jiuyuan several times, so the Jiuyuan culture was probably very centralised in the steppe culture, which could explain the amazing archery skills of Lu Bu on horseback.
Chen Mou even decided to give a whole troop of horse archers here, which is a pretty good reference.
With the arrival of the Horse Archery, Xiahou Dun cavalry is almost wiped out, as there's nothing he can do against them.
Xiahou Dun even tries to split his army, trying to force his enemy to split theirs too, but the Horse Archers just concentrate their arrows on the left side where Xiahou Dun is.
The idea here is to focus wherever Xiahou Dun is, as morale is everything is warfare, and morale passes mainly by the army's general, an army without a general is just a snake without its head.
Xiahou Dun is shot by an arrow on his eye.
Xiahou Dun eats his own eye after removing the arrow.
Xiahou Dun's entire left flank is wiped out, but he still manages to survive, and even kills the leader of the horse archers, as they have no arrows left.
With their leader killed and no arrows left, they retreat to Xiapi, and Xiahou Dun is saved by the remnants of his army.
Xiahou Yuan, not expecting that Xiahou Dun would lose to the Lu Bu's cavalry, also gets his army ambushed by Gao Shun.
Xiahou Yuan is forced to retreat.
Instead of pursuing Xiahou Yuan's army, Gao Shun chooses to attack Cao Cao's rear camp where the rations are stored, and it is also revealed that the forces of Mount Tai, previously allies of Cao Cao, have switched to the Lu Bu side and are blocking the main route for the rations,
Gao Shun is able to follow the tracks of the ration carts, and moves in at full speed to attack. Meanwhile, the forces of Mount Tai are now in pursuit of the Cao Cao scouts.
The carts, instead of carrying rations, are full of flammable materials that block the entire valley road, making it impossible for Gao Shun to continue.
In fact, it was all planned by Sima Yi, who had been suspicious of Gao Shun's confidence in fighting Xiahou's brothers from the start, and had already begun to move the rations back to Yu Jiin's camp south of Xu Province, where Cao Cao's main force is based, and had also made some back-up plans in case enemies pursued or blocked them, using the flammable carts to block Gao Shun's army, and the scouts to distract the Mount Tai rebels.
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In the Outer City of Xu Province, it is revealed that Sima Lang is a secret investor in the city, and that 3 of Lu Bu's officers, formerly Dong Zhuo's soldiers, are spying on Lu Bu to avenge their former master, hoping that the information will lead Cao Cao to kill Lu Bu.
One of them tells Sima Lang that Xun Yu is alive and is being held hostage in the city. They also say that they will help rescue Xun Yu as a kind of gift for the imminent death of Lu Bu.
As promised, they successfully rescue Xun Yu, but instead of just taking him away, they burn the place where Xun Yu was, and some of Gao Shun's rations too, to make them think it was someone from Cao Cao's army who secretly followed him after he retreated to the Outer City, which is quite reasonable.
Xun Yu explains all of Lu Bu's military information, as Lu Bu would occasionally use Xun Yu's military skills to get his advices.
After Xun Yu is rescued, Sima Yi shows his suspicion that Xun Yu's rescue is "too convenient", and orders the Chen family to keep tabs on a certain man in Xu Province.
Most people think the man he's talking about is Chen Gong, but I think he's actually talking about one of Dong Zhuo's three followers, Wei Xu, who planned the whole Xun Yu rescue.
It is revealed, that one of the Dong Zhuo followers, Wei Xu, is actually serving as a spy for the Lu Bu's military advisor, Chen Gong.
Actually, everything was planned by Chen Gong, from giving fake informations to Cao Cao, to even the rescue of Xun Yu, as the rescue of Xun Yu would make him blame Gao Shun for letting Xun Yu die/escape, and demote Gao Shun from his position as general, also giving the former position of Gao Shun to Wei Xu. With all the information about Lu Bu's army, and now that Gao Shun, the strongest Lu Bu general, had been demoted, Cao Cao would attack Lu Bu with all his forces, but in fact Gao Shun would never be demoted, just put away for a moment and make a comeback at the best time to deal a fatal blow to Cao Cao's army.
Cao Cao's attack starts with Yu Jin taking the front.
Convinced by Chen Gong's false information about the small number of archers on the Lu Bu side, they make a reckless frontal attack, but they are shot by a very large number of arrows, which brutally hit them.
Yu Jin is forced to retreat, but they are ambushed by Gao Shun, who they thought was away from the battlefield, dealing another fatal blow to Cao Cao's army.
Cao Cao is dealt two more fatal blows, as both his generals Han Hao and Xu Huang are brutally defeated by the forces of Mount Tai.
Since it's impossible for Cao Cao's army to normally defeat Lu Bu's cavalry, they start digging pitfalls around the battlefield, as it would trap their cavalry.
Only 1 day after Cao Cao began to attack the Xu Province with all his forces, many of his generals lost to the insanely strong cavalry of Gao Shun, and he even lost a camp of rations. After these brutal losses, both the Mount Tai and Zhang Liao armies march towards the Xiao Pass, which is Cao Cao's buffer zone and where he is now.
The Xiao Pass is probably the most important place for Cao Cao, as it's the place where he can transport his rations from the Yu Province, if Lu Bu takes it, we can say it's pretty much over for Cao Cao, as he is taking a lot of Ls, and losing his buffer zone would be RIP.
But I will continue this thread whenever I find time to spend a day rereading the arcs and doing my research on them.
Before anything, let's explain the current context:
First, we have Cao Cao's Main enemy, Yuan Shao, residing at Yecheng from the Ji Province, he has also other 2 Provinces as his territories, the Bing Province and Qing Province.
He is also moving to expand his territories into the northern lands, where the You Province is located.
As for Cao Cao, he has the Yan and Yu provinces under his control, but he also has the Sili District, which is the Emperor's territory, but since the current Emperor is just a child who serves as a tool for Cao Cao's plans, we can say that this territory is his as well.
Lu Bu seized Xu Province from Liu Bei, making it his territory for his army.
Cao Cao's current main target is also the Xu Province.
Another target of Cao Cao is Yuan Shu's territory, which is a frame of the Yang Province.
Yuan Shu current situation is pretty bad, he was brutally beaten by Lu Bu when Yuan Shu tried to invade the Xu Province, and also lost a bunch of importan cities to Sun Ce, forcing him to call Yuan Shao's help, who is his brother, from the Yuan Clan.
There are two problems for Cao Cao:
Firstly, he can't allow Yuan Shao to help Yuan Shu, as this would interfere with his plans to take Yuan Shu's territory, but it would also spread Yuan Shao's influence beyond the northern lands.
Secondly, if Cao Cao attacked Xu Province, he would leave his main city in Yu Province vulnerable, and Yuan Shao would certainly invade it.
With these problems in mind, Cao Cao's political advisor, Xun Yu, went to Yecheng to talk to Yuan Shao for one reason:
Through the Emperor, Xun Yu would give the You Province to Yuan Shao, as it was a territory of Yuan Shao's desires, he would move his entire army to occupy the You Province, and while Yuan Shao was occupied with the You Province, Cao Cao would move his army to invade Xu Province and kill Lu Bu, so giving You Province to Yuan Shao would not only allow the invasion of Xu Province, but Yuan Shao would not be able to supply Yuan Shu, thus solving the two problems Cao Cao had.
The plan to distract Yuan Shao was quite successful, but one thing happened that caused many other problems for Cao Cao, which was the kidnapping of Xun Yu by Lu Bu, which Cao Cao side thought was an assassination by Yuan Shao.
An alliance between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao would make Lu Bu a target of both warlords, so he kidnapped Cao Cao's political advisor to make the two sides antagonise each other again. Then, on the brink of war with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao would be forced to move his troops from Nanyang in Jing Province to defend the Yan-Ji borders. Also, with Nanyang free of Cao Cao's army, Zhang Xiu would reclaim the city for himself and even pose a threat to Cao Cao, as Zhang Xiu could potentially attack Cao Cao's main city while Cao Cao was invading Xu Province.
Back in Cao Cao's camp, Sima Yi offered Liu Chong's head to Cao Cao, asking for Cao Cao's forgiveness for the clan's betrayal.
Cao Cao accepted, as Sima Yi's talents would be of use to him, and ordered him to help Guo Jia in the invasion of Xu Province.
Back in Nanyang, Jia Xu, now Cao Cao's military advisor, successfully persuaded Zhang Xiu to surrender, removing the threat of Zhang Xiu attacking Cao Cao's main city, and even recovering the Cao Cao's ration that were stuck at Nanyang with Sima Yi's help.
In the south of Xun Province, the battle between Cao Cao and Lu Bu forces finally begins, and on the way to Xiapi, Xiahou Dun's army is ambushed by one of Lu Bu's generals, Gao Shun.
Xiahou moves the archers to the front of the left flank to arrow down Gao Shun's cavalry.
Lu Bu's cavalry are highly skilled, as they are able to break through Xiahou Dun's archery lines and completely destroy Xiahou Dun's left flank.
With his left flank completely wiped out by Gao Shun's cavalry, Xiahou Dun moves his main cavalry to the left flank to engage Gao Shun's cavalry.
But Gao Shun surprisingly retreats as Xiahou Dun chases him out.
But as Xiahou Dun chases, his cavalry's left flank is ambushed by horse archers.
Horse archers, before crossbowmen and firearms, were probably the strongest and most efficient troop ever, there was no way to defeat them except with terrain, they were absolutely amazing.
It's speculated that Lu Bu had some sort of inheritance from the Mongol culture, because even though the Mongol Empire was established much later, Lu Bu was born in Jiuyuan, which is now Baotou in Inner Mongolia, and it's also commented that Han lost control of Jiuyuan several times, so the Jiuyuan culture was probably very centralised in the steppe culture, which could explain the amazing archery skills of Lu Bu on horseback.
Chen Mou even decided to give a whole troop of horse archers here, which is a pretty good reference.
With the arrival of the Horse Archery, Xiahou Dun cavalry is almost wiped out, as there's nothing he can do against them.
Xiahou Dun even tries to split his army, trying to force his enemy to split theirs too, but the Horse Archers just concentrate their arrows on the left side where Xiahou Dun is.
The idea here is to focus wherever Xiahou Dun is, as morale is everything is warfare, and morale passes mainly by the army's general, an army without a general is just a snake without its head.
Xiahou Dun is shot by an arrow on his eye.
Xiahou Dun eats his own eye after removing the arrow.
Xiahou Dun's entire left flank is wiped out, but he still manages to survive, and even kills the leader of the horse archers, as they have no arrows left.
With their leader killed and no arrows left, they retreat to Xiapi, and Xiahou Dun is saved by the remnants of his army.
Xiahou Yuan, not expecting that Xiahou Dun would lose to the Lu Bu's cavalry, also gets his army ambushed by Gao Shun.
Xiahou Yuan is forced to retreat.
Instead of pursuing Xiahou Yuan's army, Gao Shun chooses to attack Cao Cao's rear camp where the rations are stored, and it is also revealed that the forces of Mount Tai, previously allies of Cao Cao, have switched to the Lu Bu side and are blocking the main route for the rations,
Gao Shun is able to follow the tracks of the ration carts, and moves in at full speed to attack. Meanwhile, the forces of Mount Tai are now in pursuit of the Cao Cao scouts.
The carts, instead of carrying rations, are full of flammable materials that block the entire valley road, making it impossible for Gao Shun to continue.
In fact, it was all planned by Sima Yi, who had been suspicious of Gao Shun's confidence in fighting Xiahou's brothers from the start, and had already begun to move the rations back to Yu Jiin's camp south of Xu Province, where Cao Cao's main force is based, and had also made some back-up plans in case enemies pursued or blocked them, using the flammable carts to block Gao Shun's army, and the scouts to distract the Mount Tai rebels.
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In the Outer City of Xu Province, it is revealed that Sima Lang is a secret investor in the city, and that 3 of Lu Bu's officers, formerly Dong Zhuo's soldiers, are spying on Lu Bu to avenge their former master, hoping that the information will lead Cao Cao to kill Lu Bu.
One of them tells Sima Lang that Xun Yu is alive and is being held hostage in the city. They also say that they will help rescue Xun Yu as a kind of gift for the imminent death of Lu Bu.
As promised, they successfully rescue Xun Yu, but instead of just taking him away, they burn the place where Xun Yu was, and some of Gao Shun's rations too, to make them think it was someone from Cao Cao's army who secretly followed him after he retreated to the Outer City, which is quite reasonable.
Xun Yu explains all of Lu Bu's military information, as Lu Bu would occasionally use Xun Yu's military skills to get his advices.
After Xun Yu is rescued, Sima Yi shows his suspicion that Xun Yu's rescue is "too convenient", and orders the Chen family to keep tabs on a certain man in Xu Province.
Most people think the man he's talking about is Chen Gong, but I think he's actually talking about one of Dong Zhuo's three followers, Wei Xu, who planned the whole Xun Yu rescue.
It is revealed, that one of the Dong Zhuo followers, Wei Xu, is actually serving as a spy for the Lu Bu's military advisor, Chen Gong.
Actually, everything was planned by Chen Gong, from giving fake informations to Cao Cao, to even the rescue of Xun Yu, as the rescue of Xun Yu would make him blame Gao Shun for letting Xun Yu die/escape, and demote Gao Shun from his position as general, also giving the former position of Gao Shun to Wei Xu. With all the information about Lu Bu's army, and now that Gao Shun, the strongest Lu Bu general, had been demoted, Cao Cao would attack Lu Bu with all his forces, but in fact Gao Shun would never be demoted, just put away for a moment and make a comeback at the best time to deal a fatal blow to Cao Cao's army.
Cao Cao's attack starts with Yu Jin taking the front.
Convinced by Chen Gong's false information about the small number of archers on the Lu Bu side, they make a reckless frontal attack, but they are shot by a very large number of arrows, which brutally hit them.
Yu Jin is forced to retreat, but they are ambushed by Gao Shun, who they thought was away from the battlefield, dealing another fatal blow to Cao Cao's army.
Cao Cao is dealt two more fatal blows, as both his generals Han Hao and Xu Huang are brutally defeated by the forces of Mount Tai.
Since it's impossible for Cao Cao's army to normally defeat Lu Bu's cavalry, they start digging pitfalls around the battlefield, as it would trap their cavalry.
Only 1 day after Cao Cao began to attack the Xu Province with all his forces, many of his generals lost to the insanely strong cavalry of Gao Shun, and he even lost a camp of rations. After these brutal losses, both the Mount Tai and Zhang Liao armies march towards the Xiao Pass, which is Cao Cao's buffer zone and where he is now.
The Xiao Pass is probably the most important place for Cao Cao, as it's the place where he can transport his rations from the Yu Province, if Lu Bu takes it, we can say it's pretty much over for Cao Cao, as he is taking a lot of Ls, and losing his buffer zone would be RIP.
The Zhang Liao's army coming from the east is trapped by the Guo Jia's pitfalls
Zhang Liao realises that it's impossible to move his cavalry across such terrible terrain, so he moves most of his army to south to help the Mount Tai forces take the Xiao Pass, leaving the rest to help the victims of thepitfall.
Xu Chu successfully defeats all 4 Mount Tain generals with some difficulty, as they have challenged the Cao Cao generals to a duel.
Having lost all four of their generals, Mount Tai's forces are pretty much disorganised, so Zhang Liao asks that all of Lu Bu's forces withdraw, as it would be too risky to fight Cao Cao in such condition.
Sima Yi reunites with Lu Bu in Xiapi, acting as someone who will help Lu Bu kill Cao Cao to avenge his clan.
Zhang Liao asks why Sima Yi would ally himself with Cao Cao after all he has done.
Sima Yi replies metaphorically with something like "raising a tiger to court a disaster", which is sort of what Dong Zhuo did with Lu Bu, as Lu Bu was acting as a loyal follower of Dong Zhuo, but ge was actually planning to kill Dong Zhuo.
Sima Yi argues that he has some saving to help Lu Bu defeat, and also explain the Cao Cao's next steps, telling that Cao Cao already took many Ls and with the rainy season starting soon, it will be very hard for him to sustain this wae, so he is planning to make a full retreat southward.
Lu Bu seems suspicious of Sima Yi and says that it could be a trap set by Guo Jia to ambush him.
However, Gao Shun suddenly appears behind Sima Yi and tells Lu Bu that he has already received a map from Sima Yi showing all of Guo Jia's traps, and has checked all the locations on the map, which turns out to be true.
The pitfalls are currently the most problematic issue for Lu Bu's cavalry, and with the map it will be much easier to avoid being ambushed by Guo Jia.
When Lu Bu sees that Sima Yi isn't trying to trap them, he says that he was only being cautious as an excuse.
Sima Yi replies that it's also his fault for being too eager to avenge his clan.
Sima Yi then tells Lu Bu that he will return to Yan Province and, with the help of his allies, make Cao Cao's retreat difficult.
Meanwhile, as Cao Cao retreats, the Xiao Pass will be weakened to the point where it will be possible for Lu Bu to take it if he uses all his forces to fight there.
As I said earlier, the Xiao Pass is extremely important to Cao Cao, and if Lu Bu takes it, Cao Cao will have no buffer zones to supply the war in the south of Xu Province, and Lu Bu will easily defeat them, even with the possibility of expanding his territories.
Lu Bu agrees with Sima Yi, as there are no obvious flaws in his plans, and follows his plan. However, instead of simply leaving the south of Xu Province without any troops, he uses his recent alliance with Yuan Shu to mobilise some Yuan Shu troops to deal with the war in the south of Xu Province.
He also orders Zhang Liao to hide the fact that Sima Yi is alive from Xiao Meng, who was a very close friend and assassin of the Sima clan, but since Cao Cao killed almost the entire clan, Xiao Meng thinks that Sima Yi is dead and has a very deep hatred for what Cao Cao has done to the Sima clan.
At the Xiao Pass, Jia Xu, who is currently in charge of the war there, abruptly tells Yu Jin after the rainy season begins that their work in Xu Province is done, even when they are losing it extremely badly, but the way he speaks makes it sound like they are winning.
This is where Cao Cao's master plan begins, the pitfalls were nothing more than a ruse, a ruse to lure the Lu Bu's army into thinking they were for his cavalry, but instead they were dug according to a pattern to be near Xiapi, as the rainy season was about to begin, the pitfalls would serve as a sort of path for the Si River to flood the entire city. Xiapi is the city where all the Lu Bu's resources are, if you isolate it from the Lu Bu army, it's pretty much over, because without food, they'd be doomed to lose. However, there was a problem, Chen Gong had deployed the Gao Shun troops near the Si River, disrupting the plan, so Guo Jia had Sima Yi convince Lu Bu to use all his forces to take the Xiao Pass, which meant even moving the Gao Shun troops away from the river so they could dig there to connect the Si River with the pitfalls once the rainy season started
With Xiapi surrounded by water, and all of the Lu Bu's resources trapped there, this is where the real Lu Bu's downfall begins...
Upon receiving Lu Bu's order, Chen Gong realises that this is all a trap and tells Lu Bu.
Lu Bu, upon hearing Chen Gong's words, also realises the trap he has fallen into and orders a full retreat to Xiapi, as it would be a waste of time to fight Cao Cao without the resources from Xiapi, so the only thing he can do is retreat to where his resources are.
Chen Gong travels to where the Yuan Shu troops are, hoping to have a backup plan against Cao Cao, but is surprised to find the Yuan Shu troops retreating to Shouchun, and it's revealed that Xun Yu has convinced Yuan Shu to break their alliance with Lu Bu, as Lu Bu is about to lose everything, and that he plans to use his troops as a shield for Lu Bu's army to retreat, and both Cao Cao and Yuan even ended up making a non-aggression treaty. With Yuan Shu on Cao's side, they cleverly covered all possible escape routes for Lu Bu, making him a... Trapped Beast.
Back in Xiaopei, Sima Yi cleverly held Lu Bu's Wei Xu, which is now Lu Bu's brother-in-law, and a very trusted ally of Cheng Gong, as a hostage for Sima Yi's future plans.
Well, this is where the deepest and heaviest part of the arc begins, with gore, child murder and a full explanation of Lu Bu's psyche, so if any of those things trigger you, I really recommend you stop here, as just follow the next post with the premise that Cao Cao successfully killed Lu Bu and Chen Gong, while Zhang Liao was converted to Liu Bei's side.
Back to Xiapi, Chen Gong tells to Lu Bu that there might be a chance to bring back Yuan Shu to their side again, explaining that the treaty that Yuan Shu did was only with Cao, but not with Han.
Ever since Yuan Shu began his plans to become emperor, he has been disliked by the Han emperor, and if Xun Yu convinces the current Han emperor to attack Yuan Shu, the treaty between Cao Cao and Yuan Shu would not be broken, as it was the Han who ordered Cao Cao to attack Yuan Shu, not Cao Cao himself.
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And now every single Lu Bu's forces outside of Xiapi has fell under Sima Yi hands, making Yuan Shu the only way for them to possibly win this war.
Lu Bu's daughter cries as she embraces Xiao Meng, unable to help her father because she was born as a woman and unable to fight on the battlefield, even though her surname is Lu, she is a tiger born on a small puppy body, making her a contradiction.
As the situation get's worse, Lu Bu couldn't wait for Chen Gong anymore, so he prepares to go to Shouchun, to meet Yuan Shu there, in hope to fix his alliance with him, now even proposin a marrying treaty between the Lu Bu's daughter and the Yuan Shu's son, that's why he's bringing his daughter with him.
As Lu Bu is leaving the Xiapi region, he's already ambushed by Cao Cao's troops.
Lu Bu's daughter sees the upcoming battle and says that she doesn't hate him because she is a Lu, and all she ever wanted was to share the same battlefield with her father.
Lu Bu vs. 3 Cao Cao's generals
As Lu Bu faces the three generals, a fourth, Xu Chu, appears and strikes at Lu Bu's back, but instead of hitting him, he cuts his daughter in half.
Lu Bu's reaction when his daughter is killed
Even after being cut in half, her last words to Lu Bu are "It doesn't hurt".
When she's suddenly stomped on by Cao Cao's men horses, and dies.
The "doesn't hurt" comes from a memory she has of her father, when he was being treated by a doctor, and she asks if it doesn't hurt, and Lu Bu answers that it's just flesh wounds, so even when she was cut in half, she says "it doesn't hurt" because that's the way of the Lu!
Lu Bu's rage finally begins!
Lu Bu vs Five Cao Cao's generals
"Who the hell Am I?"
The legendary RED HARE!
Lu Bu of Men!
Zhang Liao realises that it's impossible to move his cavalry across such terrible terrain, so he moves most of his army to south to help the Mount Tai forces take the Xiao Pass, leaving the rest to help the victims of thepitfall.
Xu Chu successfully defeats all 4 Mount Tain generals with some difficulty, as they have challenged the Cao Cao generals to a duel.
Having lost all four of their generals, Mount Tai's forces are pretty much disorganised, so Zhang Liao asks that all of Lu Bu's forces withdraw, as it would be too risky to fight Cao Cao in such condition.
Sima Yi reunites with Lu Bu in Xiapi, acting as someone who will help Lu Bu kill Cao Cao to avenge his clan.
Zhang Liao asks why Sima Yi would ally himself with Cao Cao after all he has done.
Sima Yi replies metaphorically with something like "raising a tiger to court a disaster", which is sort of what Dong Zhuo did with Lu Bu, as Lu Bu was acting as a loyal follower of Dong Zhuo, but ge was actually planning to kill Dong Zhuo.
Sima Yi argues that he has some saving to help Lu Bu defeat, and also explain the Cao Cao's next steps, telling that Cao Cao already took many Ls and with the rainy season starting soon, it will be very hard for him to sustain this wae, so he is planning to make a full retreat southward.
Lu Bu seems suspicious of Sima Yi and says that it could be a trap set by Guo Jia to ambush him.
However, Gao Shun suddenly appears behind Sima Yi and tells Lu Bu that he has already received a map from Sima Yi showing all of Guo Jia's traps, and has checked all the locations on the map, which turns out to be true.
The pitfalls are currently the most problematic issue for Lu Bu's cavalry, and with the map it will be much easier to avoid being ambushed by Guo Jia.
When Lu Bu sees that Sima Yi isn't trying to trap them, he says that he was only being cautious as an excuse.
Sima Yi replies that it's also his fault for being too eager to avenge his clan.
Sima Yi then tells Lu Bu that he will return to Yan Province and, with the help of his allies, make Cao Cao's retreat difficult.
Meanwhile, as Cao Cao retreats, the Xiao Pass will be weakened to the point where it will be possible for Lu Bu to take it if he uses all his forces to fight there.
As I said earlier, the Xiao Pass is extremely important to Cao Cao, and if Lu Bu takes it, Cao Cao will have no buffer zones to supply the war in the south of Xu Province, and Lu Bu will easily defeat them, even with the possibility of expanding his territories.
Lu Bu agrees with Sima Yi, as there are no obvious flaws in his plans, and follows his plan. However, instead of simply leaving the south of Xu Province without any troops, he uses his recent alliance with Yuan Shu to mobilise some Yuan Shu troops to deal with the war in the south of Xu Province.
He also orders Zhang Liao to hide the fact that Sima Yi is alive from Xiao Meng, who was a very close friend and assassin of the Sima clan, but since Cao Cao killed almost the entire clan, Xiao Meng thinks that Sima Yi is dead and has a very deep hatred for what Cao Cao has done to the Sima clan.
At the Xiao Pass, Jia Xu, who is currently in charge of the war there, abruptly tells Yu Jin after the rainy season begins that their work in Xu Province is done, even when they are losing it extremely badly, but the way he speaks makes it sound like they are winning.
This is where Cao Cao's master plan begins, the pitfalls were nothing more than a ruse, a ruse to lure the Lu Bu's army into thinking they were for his cavalry, but instead they were dug according to a pattern to be near Xiapi, as the rainy season was about to begin, the pitfalls would serve as a sort of path for the Si River to flood the entire city. Xiapi is the city where all the Lu Bu's resources are, if you isolate it from the Lu Bu army, it's pretty much over, because without food, they'd be doomed to lose. However, there was a problem, Chen Gong had deployed the Gao Shun troops near the Si River, disrupting the plan, so Guo Jia had Sima Yi convince Lu Bu to use all his forces to take the Xiao Pass, which meant even moving the Gao Shun troops away from the river so they could dig there to connect the Si River with the pitfalls once the rainy season started
With Xiapi surrounded by water, and all of the Lu Bu's resources trapped there, this is where the real Lu Bu's downfall begins...
Upon receiving Lu Bu's order, Chen Gong realises that this is all a trap and tells Lu Bu.
Lu Bu, upon hearing Chen Gong's words, also realises the trap he has fallen into and orders a full retreat to Xiapi, as it would be a waste of time to fight Cao Cao without the resources from Xiapi, so the only thing he can do is retreat to where his resources are.
Chen Gong travels to where the Yuan Shu troops are, hoping to have a backup plan against Cao Cao, but is surprised to find the Yuan Shu troops retreating to Shouchun, and it's revealed that Xun Yu has convinced Yuan Shu to break their alliance with Lu Bu, as Lu Bu is about to lose everything, and that he plans to use his troops as a shield for Lu Bu's army to retreat, and both Cao Cao and Yuan even ended up making a non-aggression treaty. With Yuan Shu on Cao's side, they cleverly covered all possible escape routes for Lu Bu, making him a... Trapped Beast.
Back in Xiaopei, Sima Yi cleverly held Lu Bu's Wei Xu, which is now Lu Bu's brother-in-law, and a very trusted ally of Cheng Gong, as a hostage for Sima Yi's future plans.
Well, this is where the deepest and heaviest part of the arc begins, with gore, child murder and a full explanation of Lu Bu's psyche, so if any of those things trigger you, I really recommend you stop here, as just follow the next post with the premise that Cao Cao successfully killed Lu Bu and Chen Gong, while Zhang Liao was converted to Liu Bei's side.
Back to Xiapi, Chen Gong tells to Lu Bu that there might be a chance to bring back Yuan Shu to their side again, explaining that the treaty that Yuan Shu did was only with Cao, but not with Han.
Ever since Yuan Shu began his plans to become emperor, he has been disliked by the Han emperor, and if Xun Yu convinces the current Han emperor to attack Yuan Shu, the treaty between Cao Cao and Yuan Shu would not be broken, as it was the Han who ordered Cao Cao to attack Yuan Shu, not Cao Cao himself.
[automerge]1727879506[/automerge]
And now every single Lu Bu's forces outside of Xiapi has fell under Sima Yi hands, making Yuan Shu the only way for them to possibly win this war.
Lu Bu's daughter cries as she embraces Xiao Meng, unable to help her father because she was born as a woman and unable to fight on the battlefield, even though her surname is Lu, she is a tiger born on a small puppy body, making her a contradiction.
As the situation get's worse, Lu Bu couldn't wait for Chen Gong anymore, so he prepares to go to Shouchun, to meet Yuan Shu there, in hope to fix his alliance with him, now even proposin a marrying treaty between the Lu Bu's daughter and the Yuan Shu's son, that's why he's bringing his daughter with him.
As Lu Bu is leaving the Xiapi region, he's already ambushed by Cao Cao's troops.
Lu Bu's daughter sees the upcoming battle and says that she doesn't hate him because she is a Lu, and all she ever wanted was to share the same battlefield with her father.
Lu Bu vs. 3 Cao Cao's generals
As Lu Bu faces the three generals, a fourth, Xu Chu, appears and strikes at Lu Bu's back, but instead of hitting him, he cuts his daughter in half.
Lu Bu's reaction when his daughter is killed
Even after being cut in half, her last words to Lu Bu are "It doesn't hurt".
When she's suddenly stomped on by Cao Cao's men horses, and dies.
The "doesn't hurt" comes from a memory she has of her father, when he was being treated by a doctor, and she asks if it doesn't hurt, and Lu Bu answers that it's just flesh wounds, so even when she was cut in half, she says "it doesn't hurt" because that's the way of the Lu!
Lu Bu's rage finally begins!
Lu Bu vs Five Cao Cao's generals
"Who the hell Am I?"
The legendary RED HARE!
Lu Bu of Men!
Chen Gong's final trump card is to attack Cao Cao's main camp while all of Cao Cao's forces are focused on killing Lu Bu, but with the water level too high, they couldn't bring their horses, making them considerably weaker.
But Chen Gong's plans are foreseen by Jia Xu, and he ambushes Gao Shun in their camp. But even though he knows he's going to die, Gao Shun shows his loyalty to Lu Bu and runs to attack Cao Cao, even though he has an entire troop of archers aiming at him.
Lu Bu arrives at the main camp and prevents Gao Shun from dying.
As they retreat, Lu Bu finally succumbs to his wounds and can barely move.
The end of the God of War era!
In Xiapi, the Lu Bu's morale is down, and his followers begin to flee.
Chen Gong talks to Wei Xu, who returned to Xiapi.
Lu Bu is being treated, but he looks finished.
Wei Xu is actually acting as a spy for Sima Yi, as Sima Yi wants to use Wei Xu to go there and bring some mercenaries to help Lu Bu fight Cao Cao, but these mercenaries would actually revolt against Lu Bu and make it easier for Cao Cao's army to invade Xiapi.
With Yuan Shao about to finish his campaign to conquer the north of You Province, Cao Cao has less than a month to finish off Lu Bu, so he is in a hurry here.
Even though Sima Yi was the main reason for Cao Cao's victory, Guo Jia was still suspicious of him, so he moved 2 bodyguards to monitor everything Sima Yi does, and also moved the Sima clan to the Xu clan's place, so Sima Yi is pretty much completely blocked from doing anything that would harm Cao Cao.
The Mercenaries start to attack the Lu Bu's men.
Wei Xu gets Cheng Gong.
Lu Bu is caught while he was sleeping.
Gao Shun tries to save Lu Bu, but he is killed by a very powerful mercenary.
Cao Cao delayed Lu Bu's execution because he wanted to see who would defend Lu Bu at the imperial court so he could get rid of them.
Sima Yi learns that Xiao Meng is still alive.
Sima Yi realises that Xiao Meng may not know that he is still alive, and will surely try to kill Cao Cao.
Xiao Meng tries to kill Cao Cao, but he's hit by Xiahou Dun's lance.
They identify Xiao Meng as a eunuch, which is probably the worst thing that could happen, as after the Ten Eunuchs incident, eunuchs were hated and brutally killed at the end of the Han dynasty.
Cao Cao reveals that he knew Xiao Meng would attack him, and that it was Sima Yi who warned him.
Xiao Meng sees Jia Kui, an assassin from the Sima clan, and now realises that Sima Yi is still alive and surely plotting revenge against Cao Cao.
Realising that he has almost ruined the Sima Yi's plans to avenge his clan, Xiao Meng calls himself an idiot.
Xiao Meng's last words are that he's sorry for causing Sima Yi trouble.
He is then impaled by countless lances.
On the day of the Lu Bu's execution, Chen Gong is killed after Cao Cao fails to bring him to his side as he accepts his death.
The Lu Bu execution starts, as he beggs for his life:
Here we have a clear explanation of Lu Bu's psyche, he may beg for his life, he may humiliate himself in front of everyone, but that is because he is not more afraid of shame than he is of death, and death means that he would be incapable of achieving anything, that he would be just another character in history, slowly forgotten, so he will do anything to live, anything that might allow him to still achieve his dream, that is Lu Bu.
The death of Lu Bu, the God of War.
The Phoenix he sees at the end is definitely Sima Yi!
But Chen Gong's plans are foreseen by Jia Xu, and he ambushes Gao Shun in their camp. But even though he knows he's going to die, Gao Shun shows his loyalty to Lu Bu and runs to attack Cao Cao, even though he has an entire troop of archers aiming at him.
Lu Bu arrives at the main camp and prevents Gao Shun from dying.
As they retreat, Lu Bu finally succumbs to his wounds and can barely move.
The end of the God of War era!
In Xiapi, the Lu Bu's morale is down, and his followers begin to flee.
Chen Gong talks to Wei Xu, who returned to Xiapi.
Lu Bu is being treated, but he looks finished.
Wei Xu is actually acting as a spy for Sima Yi, as Sima Yi wants to use Wei Xu to go there and bring some mercenaries to help Lu Bu fight Cao Cao, but these mercenaries would actually revolt against Lu Bu and make it easier for Cao Cao's army to invade Xiapi.
With Yuan Shao about to finish his campaign to conquer the north of You Province, Cao Cao has less than a month to finish off Lu Bu, so he is in a hurry here.
Even though Sima Yi was the main reason for Cao Cao's victory, Guo Jia was still suspicious of him, so he moved 2 bodyguards to monitor everything Sima Yi does, and also moved the Sima clan to the Xu clan's place, so Sima Yi is pretty much completely blocked from doing anything that would harm Cao Cao.
The Mercenaries start to attack the Lu Bu's men.
Wei Xu gets Cheng Gong.
Lu Bu is caught while he was sleeping.
Gao Shun tries to save Lu Bu, but he is killed by a very powerful mercenary.
Cao Cao delayed Lu Bu's execution because he wanted to see who would defend Lu Bu at the imperial court so he could get rid of them.
Sima Yi learns that Xiao Meng is still alive.
Sima Yi realises that Xiao Meng may not know that he is still alive, and will surely try to kill Cao Cao.
Xiao Meng tries to kill Cao Cao, but he's hit by Xiahou Dun's lance.
They identify Xiao Meng as a eunuch, which is probably the worst thing that could happen, as after the Ten Eunuchs incident, eunuchs were hated and brutally killed at the end of the Han dynasty.
Cao Cao reveals that he knew Xiao Meng would attack him, and that it was Sima Yi who warned him.
Xiao Meng sees Jia Kui, an assassin from the Sima clan, and now realises that Sima Yi is still alive and surely plotting revenge against Cao Cao.
Realising that he has almost ruined the Sima Yi's plans to avenge his clan, Xiao Meng calls himself an idiot.
Xiao Meng's last words are that he's sorry for causing Sima Yi trouble.
He is then impaled by countless lances.
On the day of the Lu Bu's execution, Chen Gong is killed after Cao Cao fails to bring him to his side as he accepts his death.
The Lu Bu execution starts, as he beggs for his life:
Here we have a clear explanation of Lu Bu's psyche, he may beg for his life, he may humiliate himself in front of everyone, but that is because he is not more afraid of shame than he is of death, and death means that he would be incapable of achieving anything, that he would be just another character in history, slowly forgotten, so he will do anything to live, anything that might allow him to still achieve his dream, that is Lu Bu.
The death of Lu Bu, the God of War.
The Phoenix he sees at the end is definitely Sima Yi!
Thank you for this. Hopefully we get the next one soon.
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where are you GOAT. waiting for your explanation for the next arc
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Chen Gong's final trump card is to attack Cao Cao's main camp while all of Cao Cao's forces are focused on killing Lu Bu, but with the water level too high, they couldn't bring their horses, making them considerably weaker.
But Chen Gong's plans are foreseen by Jia Xu, and he ambushes Gao Shun in their camp. But even though he knows he's going to die, Gao Shun shows his loyalty to Lu Bu and runs to attack Cao Cao, even though he has an entire troop of archers aiming at him.
Lu Bu arrives at the main camp and prevents Gao Shun from dying.
As they retreat, Lu Bu finally succumbs to his wounds and can barely move.
The end of the God of War era!
In Xiapi, the Lu Bu's morale is down, and his followers begin to flee.
Chen Gong talks to Wei Xu, who returned to Xiapi.
Lu Bu is being treated, but he looks finished.
Wei Xu is actually acting as a spy for Sima Yi, as Sima Yi wants to use Wei Xu to go there and bring some mercenaries to help Lu Bu fight Cao Cao, but these mercenaries would actually revolt against Lu Bu and make it easier for Cao Cao's army to invade Xiapi.
With Yuan Shao about to finish his campaign to conquer the north of You Province, Cao Cao has less than a month to finish off Lu Bu, so he is in a hurry here.
Even though Sima Yi was the main reason for Cao Cao's victory, Guo Jia was still suspicious of him, so he moved 2 bodyguards to monitor everything Sima Yi does, and also moved the Sima clan to the Xu clan's place, so Sima Yi is pretty much completely blocked from doing anything that would harm Cao Cao.
The Mercenaries start to attack the Lu Bu's men.
Wei Xu gets Cheng Gong.
Lu Bu is caught while he was sleeping.
Gao Shun tries to save Lu Bu, but he is killed by a very powerful mercenary.
Cao Cao delayed Lu Bu's execution because he wanted to see who would defend Lu Bu at the imperial court so he could get rid of them.
Sima Yi learns that Xiao Meng is still alive.
Sima Yi realises that Xiao Meng may not know that he is still alive, and will surely try to kill Cao Cao.
Xiao Meng tries to kill Cao Cao, but he's hit by Xiahou Dun's lance.
They identify Xiao Meng as a eunuch, which is probably the worst thing that could happen, as after the Ten Eunuchs incident, eunuchs were hated and brutally killed at the end of the Han dynasty.
Cao Cao reveals that he knew Xiao Meng would attack him, and that it was Sima Yi who warned him.
Xiao Meng sees Jia Kui, an assassin from the Sima clan, and now realises that Sima Yi is still alive and surely plotting revenge against Cao Cao.
Realising that he has almost ruined the Sima Yi's plans to avenge his clan, Xiao Meng calls himself an idiot.
Xiao Meng's last words are that he's sorry for causing Sima Yi trouble.
He is then impaled by countless lances.
On the day of the Lu Bu's execution, Chen Gong is killed after Cao Cao fails to bring him to his side as he accepts his death.
The Lu Bu execution starts, as he beggs for his life:
Here we have a clear explanation of Lu Bu's psyche, he may beg for his life, he may humiliate himself in front of everyone, but that is because he is not more afraid of shame than he is of death, and death means that he would be incapable of achieving anything, that he would be just another character in history, slowly forgotten, so he will do anything to live, anything that might allow him to still achieve his dream, that is Lu Bu.
The death of Lu Bu, the God of War.
The Phoenix he sees at the end is definitely Sima Yi!
But Chen Gong's plans are foreseen by Jia Xu, and he ambushes Gao Shun in their camp. But even though he knows he's going to die, Gao Shun shows his loyalty to Lu Bu and runs to attack Cao Cao, even though he has an entire troop of archers aiming at him.
Lu Bu arrives at the main camp and prevents Gao Shun from dying.
As they retreat, Lu Bu finally succumbs to his wounds and can barely move.
The end of the God of War era!
In Xiapi, the Lu Bu's morale is down, and his followers begin to flee.
Chen Gong talks to Wei Xu, who returned to Xiapi.
Lu Bu is being treated, but he looks finished.
Wei Xu is actually acting as a spy for Sima Yi, as Sima Yi wants to use Wei Xu to go there and bring some mercenaries to help Lu Bu fight Cao Cao, but these mercenaries would actually revolt against Lu Bu and make it easier for Cao Cao's army to invade Xiapi.
With Yuan Shao about to finish his campaign to conquer the north of You Province, Cao Cao has less than a month to finish off Lu Bu, so he is in a hurry here.
Even though Sima Yi was the main reason for Cao Cao's victory, Guo Jia was still suspicious of him, so he moved 2 bodyguards to monitor everything Sima Yi does, and also moved the Sima clan to the Xu clan's place, so Sima Yi is pretty much completely blocked from doing anything that would harm Cao Cao.
The Mercenaries start to attack the Lu Bu's men.
Wei Xu gets Cheng Gong.
Lu Bu is caught while he was sleeping.
Gao Shun tries to save Lu Bu, but he is killed by a very powerful mercenary.
Cao Cao delayed Lu Bu's execution because he wanted to see who would defend Lu Bu at the imperial court so he could get rid of them.
Sima Yi learns that Xiao Meng is still alive.
Sima Yi realises that Xiao Meng may not know that he is still alive, and will surely try to kill Cao Cao.
Xiao Meng tries to kill Cao Cao, but he's hit by Xiahou Dun's lance.
They identify Xiao Meng as a eunuch, which is probably the worst thing that could happen, as after the Ten Eunuchs incident, eunuchs were hated and brutally killed at the end of the Han dynasty.
Cao Cao reveals that he knew Xiao Meng would attack him, and that it was Sima Yi who warned him.
Xiao Meng sees Jia Kui, an assassin from the Sima clan, and now realises that Sima Yi is still alive and surely plotting revenge against Cao Cao.
Realising that he has almost ruined the Sima Yi's plans to avenge his clan, Xiao Meng calls himself an idiot.
Xiao Meng's last words are that he's sorry for causing Sima Yi trouble.
He is then impaled by countless lances.
On the day of the Lu Bu's execution, Chen Gong is killed after Cao Cao fails to bring him to his side as he accepts his death.
The Lu Bu execution starts, as he beggs for his life:
Here we have a clear explanation of Lu Bu's psyche, he may beg for his life, he may humiliate himself in front of everyone, but that is because he is not more afraid of shame than he is of death, and death means that he would be incapable of achieving anything, that he would be just another character in history, slowly forgotten, so he will do anything to live, anything that might allow him to still achieve his dream, that is Lu Bu.
The death of Lu Bu, the God of War.
The Phoenix he sees at the end is definitely Sima Yi!
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So, the next one I am going to talk about is Cao Cao's campaign against Xuzhou, which is probably one of the most brutal wars in Chinese history, because of the huge amount of innocent people that were killed during this war.
It will be divided into two parts, the first will be an introduction and the siege of Tanxian, and the second part will be about the battle in the mountains.
First, Cao Cao needed a reason to attack Xuzhou, and one of the Eight Geniuses, Guo Jia, suggested that Cao Cao use his father's death as a reason, accusing Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou, of killing his father and stealing his wealth.
Cao Cao's campaign against Tao Qian began when his army, under the command of Guo Jia, destroyed Sishui, one of Tao Qian's cities, killing more than ten thousand civilians.
In addition to the massacre, Guo Jia burned all of Xuzhou's farmland and blocked the flow of the Si River, severely limiting the supply of food and water to the cities. Guo Jia deliberately spread the false rumor of killing more than one hundred thousand civilians and soldiers to other cities of Tao Qian, causing a very chaotic scenario of civilians from other cities fleeing to Xuzhou's capital, Pengcheng. Guo Jia, seeing the chaos, ordered Cao Cao's army to stop attacking Pengcheng and retreat for 3 months, which was a very wise move because Pengcheng would be very loaded with refugees, reducing the amount of food and water supply to nothing. And within 3 months, Guo Jia not only conquered Pengcheng, but also 10 other cities without any casualties.
"Destroy one city to scare ten into submission, a dark tactic"
One of Tao Qian's cities that was still fighting Cao Cao's army was Tan County, a very important city. It was under the command of Chen Deng, but the man who controlled the military strategy was no one else:
Zhao Yun, the leader of the Handicapped Warriors, under the orders of Sima Yi.
Even though Cao Cao was an ally of the Sima clan, the Simas had a very deep business relationship with Xuzhou, which forced them to fight against Cao Cao.
Zhao Yun's strategy was to loosen the wall's defenses a bit to lure the siege towers and the enemy general to the walls of the city, not only to kill one of their generals, but also:
To trap them, using catapults to destroy not only the siege towers, but also many soldiers attracted to the catapult's range.
Also, since there were many debris and corpses piled up in front of the walls, it would not be possible to break through Tan's walls with siege towers, considering that Tan County is surrounded by unstable terrain, so it would only be possible to enter through the front gate where the debris and corpses were piled up.
As for the next battle, we need to understand where Tan County is:
Guo Jia used a Long Snake Formation to invade Tan County at night.
For Kingdom readers, this formation is similar to Ri Haku's snake formation:
It's a formation that literally simulates a snake; if you attack the tail, the head will bite you, if you attack the head, the tail will attack you, if you attack the middle, both the tail and the head will attack you.
Ri Haku surrounded Mou Bu's army with this formation, but since Ri Haku is a very weak and brainless general, he still managed to lose to Mou Bu's usual drill brainless formation.
Anyway, back to RoT, Guo Jia's snake formation is conceptually different from Ri Haku's, as he uses it not for battle, but for high maneuverability, focusing almost entirely on getting close to the Tan County front gate walls as quickly as possible, using the darkness of the night as an advantage.
And it worked quite well, because by the time Zhao Yun realized Guo Jia's strategy of attacking at night, they were already out of range of the catapult and archer, very close to the walls, and started another battle.
Zhao Yun couldn't stay in Tan County for too long because he had received the news that Xiaopei was sending rations to Tan County through the mountain route, and considering how important the rations were, Zhao Yun and the 2nd Regiment of the Tan County Army left Tan County through the East Gate to secure the rations route from Guo Jia's army.
However, Guo Jia already knew this route and used a false messenger to trick the Xiaopei army into thinking that Zhao Yun and the 2nd Regiment were the enemies attacking the rations, causing them to attack their own allies.
As for Guo Jia's checkmate, he surrounded all the other 3 gates of Tan County with fire, not only the fire, but Guo Jia calculated in which time the wind would blow more strongly towards Tan County, making the smoke from the fire envelop the entire Tan County, forcing them to choose either to die of suffocation or try to escape, but the only way to escape was through the front gate where Guo Jia's army was attacking, so it's either die or die.
As for the 2nd part, we will finally have Lu Bu making a move, moving to attack Cao Cao's territory, taking advantage of this moment of fragility where Cao Cao's main forces were in Xuzhou, and also Liu Bei finally making a move as well, supplying Xuzhou against Cao Cao's army.
The key point of this war will be the mountains behind Tan County, as it's a perfect strategic location to camp, supply with ration and even deploy an army, so whoever takes this mountain will be with the most advantage to either attack or defend Tan County.
The 2nd part is the most complex and confusing part of this war, so it'll take a while to explain everything.
It will be divided into two parts, the first will be an introduction and the siege of Tanxian, and the second part will be about the battle in the mountains.
First, Cao Cao needed a reason to attack Xuzhou, and one of the Eight Geniuses, Guo Jia, suggested that Cao Cao use his father's death as a reason, accusing Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou, of killing his father and stealing his wealth.
Cao Cao's campaign against Tao Qian began when his army, under the command of Guo Jia, destroyed Sishui, one of Tao Qian's cities, killing more than ten thousand civilians.
In addition to the massacre, Guo Jia burned all of Xuzhou's farmland and blocked the flow of the Si River, severely limiting the supply of food and water to the cities. Guo Jia deliberately spread the false rumor of killing more than one hundred thousand civilians and soldiers to other cities of Tao Qian, causing a very chaotic scenario of civilians from other cities fleeing to Xuzhou's capital, Pengcheng. Guo Jia, seeing the chaos, ordered Cao Cao's army to stop attacking Pengcheng and retreat for 3 months, which was a very wise move because Pengcheng would be very loaded with refugees, reducing the amount of food and water supply to nothing. And within 3 months, Guo Jia not only conquered Pengcheng, but also 10 other cities without any casualties.
"Destroy one city to scare ten into submission, a dark tactic"
One of Tao Qian's cities that was still fighting Cao Cao's army was Tan County, a very important city. It was under the command of Chen Deng, but the man who controlled the military strategy was no one else:
Zhao Yun, the leader of the Handicapped Warriors, under the orders of Sima Yi.
Even though Cao Cao was an ally of the Sima clan, the Simas had a very deep business relationship with Xuzhou, which forced them to fight against Cao Cao.
Zhao Yun's strategy was to loosen the wall's defenses a bit to lure the siege towers and the enemy general to the walls of the city, not only to kill one of their generals, but also:
To trap them, using catapults to destroy not only the siege towers, but also many soldiers attracted to the catapult's range.
Also, since there were many debris and corpses piled up in front of the walls, it would not be possible to break through Tan's walls with siege towers, considering that Tan County is surrounded by unstable terrain, so it would only be possible to enter through the front gate where the debris and corpses were piled up.
As for the next battle, we need to understand where Tan County is:
Guo Jia used a Long Snake Formation to invade Tan County at night.
For Kingdom readers, this formation is similar to Ri Haku's snake formation:
It's a formation that literally simulates a snake; if you attack the tail, the head will bite you, if you attack the head, the tail will attack you, if you attack the middle, both the tail and the head will attack you.
Ri Haku surrounded Mou Bu's army with this formation, but since Ri Haku is a very weak and brainless general, he still managed to lose to Mou Bu's usual drill brainless formation.
Anyway, back to RoT, Guo Jia's snake formation is conceptually different from Ri Haku's, as he uses it not for battle, but for high maneuverability, focusing almost entirely on getting close to the Tan County front gate walls as quickly as possible, using the darkness of the night as an advantage.
And it worked quite well, because by the time Zhao Yun realized Guo Jia's strategy of attacking at night, they were already out of range of the catapult and archer, very close to the walls, and started another battle.
Zhao Yun couldn't stay in Tan County for too long because he had received the news that Xiaopei was sending rations to Tan County through the mountain route, and considering how important the rations were, Zhao Yun and the 2nd Regiment of the Tan County Army left Tan County through the East Gate to secure the rations route from Guo Jia's army.
However, Guo Jia already knew this route and used a false messenger to trick the Xiaopei army into thinking that Zhao Yun and the 2nd Regiment were the enemies attacking the rations, causing them to attack their own allies.
As for Guo Jia's checkmate, he surrounded all the other 3 gates of Tan County with fire, not only the fire, but Guo Jia calculated in which time the wind would blow more strongly towards Tan County, making the smoke from the fire envelop the entire Tan County, forcing them to choose either to die of suffocation or try to escape, but the only way to escape was through the front gate where Guo Jia's army was attacking, so it's either die or die.
As for the 2nd part, we will finally have Lu Bu making a move, moving to attack Cao Cao's territory, taking advantage of this moment of fragility where Cao Cao's main forces were in Xuzhou, and also Liu Bei finally making a move as well, supplying Xuzhou against Cao Cao's army.
The key point of this war will be the mountains behind Tan County, as it's a perfect strategic location to camp, supply with ration and even deploy an army, so whoever takes this mountain will be with the most advantage to either attack or defend Tan County.
The 2nd part is the most complex and confusing part of this war, so it'll take a while to explain everything.