"Hmm, it seems about time," Jia Xu said as he stood at the door of Li Ru’s house and glanced at the moon, then looked around to see no one. He then gave a low shout, "Zijian!"
No sooner had Jia Xu’s words fallen than Hua Xiong descended from the sky, "All set?"
"You just go in now, hoist Wen Youi on your back, and that’s it. I suppose you wouldn’t have any problems taking the two of us out, right?" Jia Xu pointed towards the main entrance of Li Ru’s house, signaling that Hua Xiong could go in.
Li Ru’s house was brightly lit, but there was not a single servant, so Hua Xiong boldly walked in. Indeed, he found Li Ru fast asleep on the desk, which greatly delighted Hua Xiong.
"Strategist, Strategist, Strategist?" After calling out several times and getting no response, Hua Xiong didn’t hesitate. He quickly hoisted Li Ru on his back, ready to leave Chang’an for some contraband delights before making offerings to the Emperor.
"Let’s go." After hoisting Li Ru, Hua Xiong gestured to Jia Xu and headed straight for his house. The city wall’s defenses were surprisingly tight that night. While Hua Xiong alone might have managed to sneak out, it would be much more difficult with two others in tow.
After one night, Hua Xiong had his troops ready and was leading Li Ru and Jia Xu rapidly northward. As they approached the outskirts of Chang’an, Hua Xiong’s keen hearing picked up the sounds of shouting and killing within Chang’an City. After traveling for another part, they only heard cheering.
"Master Jia, has Minister Dong become so unpopular?" Hua Xiong asked bitterly as he knelt before Jia Xu.
"It’s more than just unpopularity; many people would indeed like to eat his flesh and drink his blood. He’s not the Dong Zhongying from Xiliang anymore," Jia Xu said with a sigh, "Although I never admired Dong Zhongying from the beginning, I must admit that he was indeed a hero in Xiliang. Unfortunately, ever since he entered Luoyang, he’s been down and out. In the end, all of Wen Youi’s efforts have been wasted."
Hua Xiong fell silent, the cheers from Chang’an City reaching his ears, remembering how magnificent and heroic Dong Zhuo once was in Xiliang. People, after all, are not unchangeable.
"What are you going to do now? Your troops are not bad," Jia Xu said curiously, watching the soldiers outside. They were silent and steadfast, strictly following orders, each one fitting Jia Xu’s ideal of elite soldiers.
"I trained new troops at Mount Tai, these are them. As for what I’m doing now," Hua Xiong said with a sinister smile, "I’m engaging in a bit of tit-for-tat retaliation. Those Xiliang Soldiers who dared to sell horses have insulted our pride!"
"New troops?" Jia Xu was surprised. Their silent and resolute manner resembled Gao Shun’s Vanguard Camp. Such elites couldn’t be trained in just a short time.
"Yes, new troops, strong enough to challenge the Vanguard Camp. Changing Formation, four armies spearheaded, Sword and Shield upfront, Spearmen following, and Bows and Arrows in the rear!" As Hua Xiong spoke, he shouted loudly.
A surprising scene unfolded: the moving troops, without any hesitation, immediately changed formation as directed. Then, a mass of Cloud Qi in the sky swiftly dispersed toward the edges forming a brilliantly red halo over the perimeter soldiers, while the Qi at the tip of the spearhead directly created an illusory Bow and Arrow.
Seeing this, Hua Xiong was also stunned. It had actually appeared—the condition where Inner Qi emitted by everyone in the formation and the Qi of Heaven and Earth harmonized and then distributed where needed in the Formation. This was something every General Commander adored because under such conditions, the troop’s strength would see a significant leap.
Basically, when troops in such a state were seen in war, even a General Commander of Guan Yu’s caliber, leading a similarly equipped army, would have no choice but to face a dead end. In this situation, each portion of Inner Qi was being used where necessary, and every soldier’s strength was augmented by the force of his comrades and the Formation.
This situation could almost be described as the ultimate goal of every General Commander, but due to the difficulty, there were not many who could achieve this extent, among whom Hua Xiong had only seen a few.
After all, any military unit capable of absorbing the Inner Qi released by the troops as well as the Qi of Heaven and Earth to form Cloud Qi above their heads was considered commendable, but to think of someone like Gao Shun, who could disperse the Cloud Qi and evenly distribute its power to the necessary positions within a Formation, was rare. As for Hua Xiong himself, it was clearly an accident—after all, the requirements for formation cohesion and morale were so high, it was almost like a dream.
The Cloud Qi formed Sharp Arrows that augmented the edges of the army’s blades, each Sharp Arrow seeming as though part of a collective whole.
"Impressive…" Jia Xu stared at the scene before him, "I underestimated you before, to think you, Hua Zijian, would also be an expert in drilling soldiers."
"..." Hua Xiong remained silent, knowing his own affairs all too well. It was a clear fluke, something that might not happen even once in fifty attempts—to instantly form the General’s Formation into a cohesive whole, and to disperse Cloud Qi among the Sharp Blades. Though the blades had obviously not solidified completely, this already surpassed the vast majority of military units.
"March at a running pace, maintain formation, accelerate the entire army!" Hua Xiong roared, intending to take advantage and strike while their momentum was still strong, directly annihilating the scum who betrayed the title of Xiliang Iron Cavalry! Distance mattered little against such a high-level Formation.
Hua Xiong’s four thousand Infantry moved out, leading with an almost hundred-meter-long brilliant red Light Blade, directly cutting into the Xiliang Iron Cavalry’s makeshift camps setup for their eating and drinking. A swath of Light Blades, like mincing meat, slashed toward the area densest with Xiliang Soldiers, creating a massive pit in the earth from which not a single person crawled out.
After these series of actions, Hua Xiong turned pale, and his soldiers’ previously bright red Sharp Blades also began to fade, estimating that at most they could withstand one more attack of this intensity before the whole unit would collapse. They achieved a battle where in just thirty breaths, not a single ally died, but the enemy was entirely annihilated…
Mounting his horse, Hua Xiong rode over the mile-long tract that had been plowed through by the full force of his army. Under the dirt lay numerous bodies, and many more were those not dead but utterly terrified by the horrific attack, shivering in fear within the soil. Spitting disdainfully, Hua Xiong sneered, "Scum, trash!"
Solemnly marching his horse across that expanse, not a single buried Xiliang Soldier dared to charge at him, nor muster the courage to engage in battle; they could only watch as Hua Xiong, leading bandits, gathered all the horses and left. Mounting the horses, they turned and departed, leaving the survivors to climb out of the loose earth and sob in silent agony.
Hua Xiong’s face was filled with indignation. Where was the vigilance of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry? Their training standards? Their Formation? Their pride? It was acceptable to lose or be defeated, but what they absolutely could not lose was the resolve to fight—but now these figures hiding their heads in the dirt, were they really his former comrades?
Riding away, Hua Xiong’s expression was grim. The Xiliang Army was rotten to the core, thoroughly corrupt from top to bottom, beyond salvation. It could never again become the undefeated powerhouse that once dominated the world.
"You’re not doing too well yourself, Zijian." Li Ru sat up and spoke to Hua Xiong as he rode back, "I never expected to be outsmarted by Jia Wenhe, cough cough cough…"
"It was nothing but a surprise attack," Jia Xu said with a smile.
"The strategist has awakened!" Hua Xiong exclaimed joyously.
"Yes, take me to see Mount Tai. Let me witness this Liu Xuande who had the audacity to issue the Talent Recruitment Order. I already know everything that happened before, so there’s no need to explain it to me again. Although I can’t move my body, my mind is still clear," Li Ru waved his hand to indicate that Hua Xiong need not worry about him.
"Minister Dong must have fallen by now," Hua Xiong said with some sorrow.
"He brought it upon himself," Li Ru had come to terms with life and death, and once more became the composed and refined person he was once outside of Chang’an City, no longer seeking death.