Planning the Counterattack

In less than a week, Yun defended Yangren from the remaining attackers that failed to take the city the first time.

He lost two handfuls of men as the barricade on the left flank didn't survive the second attack but they were successful in pushing the enemy back.

Yun was looking at the retreating enemy when Sun Ce seemed to ride his horse out of the city to chase after them when Yun stops him by placing himself in front of him and his man.

"What are you doing? This is the best moment to attack them and finish this battle," says Sun Ce not understanding anything about what he was about to do since it was his first campaign in which he had more freedom to act with his men.

"Right now you will return behind those walls and sit your arse down before I pull you down from your horse," says Yun seriously as he pointed his spear at Sun Ce.

"But-" says Sun Ce when Yun radiated killing intent as his body was drenched in blood.

"No buts, if you don't return immediately I will make sure that you will," says Yun seriously since they aren't playing house here.

Cheng Pu arrived while saying, "General Zhao, I am sorry about the behavior of my young master."

"Take him inside before I lose myself and begin to use Martial Law for disobeying someone higher in command," says Yun as Cheng Pu nods before telling everyone to retreat.

"Coward," says Sun Ce quietly but Yun heard him and threw his spear past Sun Ce's horse scaring the animal which surprised Sun Ce before he was thrown off his horse.

"A coward you say. I am looking out that nobody uses too much energy because we have no supplies and your father still hasn't returned with rations. If you want to fight then go but don't expect me or my men to save your ass for engaging the enemy with starved horses that haven't eaten anything since yesterday," says Yun as he walked toward his spear before he looked down upon Sun Ce.

"You aren't fit to lead people if you can't assess your situation. You will just lead them all to their deaths," says Yun picking up his spear before he returned to the town.

On the other side of the field, the General leading Dong Zhuo's army was looking at Yangren from a safe distance seeing his men retreat.

"General Xu Rong, they push-," says one of his commanders as Xu Rong interrupts him.

"I could see that myself. They seem to have taken Yangren before the winter began as they have reinforced its defenses to this extend. How did we not notice that?" says Xu Rong as he looked at Yangren when he sees a man stopping the cavalry from chasing after the enemy.

"Something is wrong," says Xu Rong as his commanders looked at him to elaborate what he meant with that.

"They seem to know that the men we sent were just a decoy," says Xu Rong not knowing that Yun had his spy seeing and hearing everything in plain sight without them noticing.

It was Shadow who was sitting on a three listening to everything before she would report to Yun all she heard the enemy say.

"If we can't lure them out we will have to siege them. We still have the supplies that we gained from winning over Sun Jian when he wanted to take Liangdong," says Xu Rong as he looked at Yangren.

"They will have to leave the town someday to get supplies going by how small this town is I suspect that they are running out of food," says Xu Rong when he noticed something strange.

"What are they doing there?" asks Xu Rong his commanders seeing that the troops were carrying the corpses of the fallen soldiers into the town while they buried fifteen soldiers.

"It seems they are carrying the corpses inside. But why would they do that?" asks one of his commanders when only one picture came to their mind.

"They have run out of supplies and are using our dead comrades as rations. That General is crazier than Lu Bu," says Xu Rong as he was walking circles on the same spot thinking about what to do in this situation.

He supplied the enemy with enough to survive for a month going by the corpses they carried into the city. They would hold out longer than them since they only have enough supplies to lay siege for two weeks.

"We either retreat or attack immediately while they are starving," says Xu Rong as he looked at his commanders for their opinion.

"If they are mad enough to eat human flesh then they might attack us once they came to the taste of it for more. I would vote for an immediate retreat," says one of his commanders fearing to be the next on their table.

"I think they are trying to intimidate us to not attack them. I don't think the people inside the town are that desperate to eat human flesh yet," says another one giving Xu Rong two choices.

The first would be to retreat and tell what happened with Sun Jian being holed up in Yangren to Dong Zhuo who will most likely reward him for hindering Sun Jian from taking Liangdong or lay siege hoping that they are bluffing on using human flesh to feed everyone inside the town and take the town through it.

"We will stay one more day. Let us keep an eye peeled on the sky over the city. I hope that they really are bluffing," says Xu Rong as they return to their camp while Shadow waited until they left before she flew into the sky towards Yangren.

Once in Yangren, she could see that the corpses were piled up beside the gate making it clear that her master was bluffing on using the human flesh to feed everyone in the city for now.

She was searching for her master when she founds him near the storage. She lands on his shoulder and sees that the storage was completely empty when Yun pets her belly with his index finger.

"What have you found out, Shadow?" asks Yun as Shadow jumped down and began to write in English what Xu Rong said before Yun removed it.

"It might be a good chance to ambush them while we pretend to be cooking the corpses on an open fire tonight," says Yun as he looks at Shadow and asks, "You know where the camp is?"

Shadow began to draw roughly the geography of where it was for Yun who saw that they were camping having the mountain on their back when Yun smiled seeing that.

"I love you very much, Shadow. Thanks to you I might not have to feed everyone with human flesh," says Yun as he removed the map Shadow draw for him.

"We will have to use Caesar's first tactic against them," says Yun excited as Shadow looked at him confused when he says, "A Pincher Attack which he suggested to Crassus so they could kill Spartacus and his slave army."

Yun went to gather his commanders as he told them about it when Pang Tong says, "If what Shadow said is true we will win this battle without much effort if we split our Infantry in four and attack from all sides at the same time while they are sleeping. They won't even know what hit them and we will have enough supplies to survive until Sun Jian returns with more."

"I agree with Pang Tong. We should only use the Infantry since horses would easily give us away and Archers could hit our own men while we are engaging them," says Huang Zhong as Hua and Taishi Ci agreed to what Huang Zhong said.

They and their division would be a border in this battle since horses are difficult to maneuver in a forest and archers rely on their range which can be blocked by a tree.

"Then it is decided, we are going to attack tonight while we burn the corpse to distract them. I want everyone outside the city to think that we are having a feast tonight," says Yun to the people staying behind.

"The leader of the first group will be Gan Ning, Dian Wei will lead the second, the third group is led by Tang Shi and the last group by Pang Tong. Huang Zhong will be in command of you four while I go for the head of their General," says Yun as everyone looked at him worried except for Taishi Ci and Tang Shi who have seen Yun fight against many people alone before without even sweating.

"My Lord, please rethink this. If you fall everything will be over," says Huang Zhong worried about Yun who only smiled.

"Don't worry, I have faced more difficult odds before. But I thank you for worrying about me," says Yun knowing his limits.

He wouldn't have suggested it if he wasn't certain that he would survive this. Pang Tong then began to explain their attack plan while Hua and Taishi Ci began to prepare for the distraction they needed to perform.

They waited for the sun to go down before they opened the gate as the night seemed to favor them as the sky was dark making it difficult for the enemy to see them but they could see that the inside of the city was well-lit while cheers could be heard from inside.

The Sun Army was confused about what was going on seeing the Zhao Army burn the corpses they collected before while pretending to be celebrating something big.

"What is going on outside. I can't sleep like that," says Sun Ce when he began to smell burning meat.

"It seems they are burning the corpses of the enemy but the people seem to pretend to be happy. But something is weird about this situation," says Cheng Pu as he was following the event from afar.

"What is weird that they have gone mad from not eating anything!" says Sun Ce as he entered the house he was staying in again while Cheng Pu only sighs while Sun Quan seemed to wait for Cheng Pu to finish.

"It seems the young master is interested in what I have to say," says Cheng Pu with a smile while Sun Quan nods when he says, "It seems that General Zhao and some of his trusted men are missing its almost as if the ground swallowed them completely without leaving any trace."

"Couldn't they just have left the town?" asks Sun Quan innocently since it was the most logical thing to him since they weren't inside the walls.

"Now that you say that. General Zhao is known for his Night Attacks since the Yellow Turban Rebellion. He could be using all this charade to distract the enemy," says Cheng Pu as he petted Sun Quan's head while saying, "You will be a wise person when you grow up Sun Quan. Your father would be proud of you if he heard you."