Gao Shun vs Xu Chu

The very next day, Yun and his men left again for Xuchang. They took their time as they arrived at Xuchang after two weeks of marching when they were awaited by Li Qian who rode out to meet Yun.

"General Zhao, it is good to see that you returned after leaving that abruptly without informing anyone," says Li Qian suspicious of Yun as he was riding beside him.

"I needed to return immediately to Puyang since my youngest son fell ill and everyone knows that a newborn can die easily from an illness," says Yun seriously not letting Li Qian read him.

"Is he alright now?" asks Li Qian in a worried tone as he looked at Yun.

"He should be better after some days but he was critical before I looked at him," says Yun seriously as they approached the gates of Xuchang.

"I am happy to hear that. But hearing that he was critical until you arrived makes me wonder if you are a healer or something like that," says Li Qian curious now as they passed the gates.

"It seems that my youngest had a problem with his Dantian making it difficult for his Qi to flow normally through his body. I had taken every man which could help with me to Xuchang. It could have left him harmed for life if not treated immediately after showing up," says Yun seriously as he turned to Li Qian looking him in the eyes.

"He was lucky that I wasn't summoned to become part of the Vanguard or I would have lost him because of the war," says Yun making sure that Li Qian finally got the memo to not ask about it again since it wasn't a pleasant conversation for Yun.

"Of course, I won't say anything to the Lord about it since you returned right after treating your son. I will keep this secret but I need a favor from you," says Li Qian wanting to take some advantage out of this situation.

"And that would be?" asks Yun as it would be good to do a favor for Li Qian for keeping his disappearance a secret.

"I want you to train my son and nephew in Qi. They are quite talented but I can't teach them more and you seem to be the perfect teacher for this since you seem more talented than anyone else I have seen so far," says Li Qian trying to get Yun to train his son and nephew for his silence.

"Send them to the training field. They will learn it the hard way or my way but they will learn from me until Cao Cao returns," says Yun making Li Qian grin for a moment.

"Put them through some hardship they both are too soft for this world," says Li Qian as Yun only nods before they separated.

In the meantime in the east, Cao Cao was winning against Tao Qian leaving his camp with only him and Xu Chu to protect him with two thousand men thinking that nobody would attack him from behind.

Cao Cao was sitting at a table drinking wine celebrating his imminent victory when the guards saw black banners coming from the northeast displaying the name Lu on them.

Moments before spotting the banners, Lu Bu looks down upon Cao Cao's camp and looks at Chen Gong who says, "It seems General Zhao planned everything for you before we even arrived."

"Yun is someone that looks into the future and plans according to it. He must have seen something in Puyang that he didn't see in the other cities to claim it from Cao Cao. And he must have seen Tao Qian lose to Cao Cao which would make the main camp weaker since Cao Cao would throw his soldiers at Tao Qian to finish everything quicker," says Lu Bu seriously as the number of Cao Cao's troops were lower than his making this an easy fight.

"We should use our numbers to defeat Cao Cao. It will make us look good in the Xu Province as the one driving back Cao Cao," says Chen Gong seeing the present Yun gave them as Lu Bu nods.

"Gao Shun, you will be the Vanguard. Zhang Liao, I want you to flank the enemy to cut them off from regrouping with the frontline. We will make sure that they will retreat to the west," says Chen Gong as the two Generals looked at Lu Bu for confirmation.

"You heard our strategist. We will be attacking head-on while Zhang Liao flanks them," says Lu Bu confirming that they will be using Chen Gong's strategy.

They gave a slight bow before leaving when Chen Gong says, "They don't seem to trust me."

"That's because Yun gave you to me," says Lu Bu understanding his men's suspicion on Chen Gong.

"I would be the same if I didn't know Yun better since nobody would let go of a talented individual easily. But once you have proven yourself they will acknowledge you," says Lu Bu as he tells Chen Gong how to win the approval of his men.

Back to the present, Cao Cao gets news about Lu Bu appearing at their rear and looks at Xu Chu and Xun Yu when Xun Yu says, "My Lord, we should retreat for now and inform the frontline about it. We can't fight Tao Qian in the west and Lu Bu in the north. They will defeat us since Tao Qian received reinforcements from Liu Bei and his brothers."

"We could call for reinforcements but they won't arrive until a month pass since they are in Xuchang defending the Province," says Xu Chu as Xun Yu looks at him angrily.

"Lu Bu is already at our doorstep! We can't wait for a month until our reinforcements from Xuchang arrive here! We will be dead before they arrive," says Xun Yu raising his voice as Cao Cao stops both.

"Xun Yu is right, we are sitting ducks we need to leave immediately," says Cao Cao when a soldier enters the tent.

"My Lord we are under att-" says the soldier before he falls into the tent.

The three inside the tent see an arrow in the back of the soldier and Xu Chu picks up his mace which is a long rod with a big mace attached to it before he says, "I will buy you time. Xun Yu take the Lord out of here. I will join you as soon as possible."

"Xu Chu, don't get yourself killed and return safe to my side," says Cao Cao seriously as Xu Chu nods.

"I will try my best my Lord," says Xu Chu as he sends Cao Cao and Xun Yu out through the rear entrance of the tent while he leaves using the entrance the soldier used.

He stepped outside and an arrow strives his left shoulder while another arrow just hits his armor before falling to the ground. Xu Chu wasn't faced at all as he looked in the direction the arrows came from and sees a man on a night bluish horse with a bit of red holding a bow.

The man was tall and was wearing a black armor with a demon face on the torso. Xu Chu knew at that moment that it is Lu Bu that shot at him.

"Everyone on me!" shouts Xu Chu gathering his men which are Cao Cao's personal guards.

They got fast into position but their number was quite low compared to Lu Bu's who was outnumbering him by at least six times.

But Xu Chu's men are experienced heavy infantry which comes close to Yun's first line when it comes to their defensive ability.

"We need to buy time for our Lord and for the vanguard to return to the main camp!" shouts Xu Chu informing his men about their objective.

The enemy approaches them and a brown aura seems to surround Xu Chu as he smashes his mace against an enemy squashing him into the ground.

Blood and the intestines were scattered around the ground where the mace was before Xu Chu lifted his mace up again before swinging it horizontally killing more than five soldiers with the mace.

Blood and intestines were hanging from the mace head scaring the soldiers when Gao Shun and his unit moved towards Xu Chu. Gao Shun was holding a long curved blade in his hand which is quite thick for a normal blade.

Gao Shun's hands were engulfed in a red aura that didn't spread further. He attacks Xu Chu head-on thinking that he had the advantage since he could produce the same aura as Lu Bu only to find out that his Fire Qi was weak against Xu Chu's Earth Qi.

Gao Shun was pushed back by Xu Chu as their duel began while Gao Shun's Camp Crushers broke through Xu Chu's unit's formation.

Xu Chu was having the upper hand against Gao Shun who still didn't know why he was slowly being pushed back by Xu Chu who was overpowering Gao Shun when Xu Chu hears one of his soldiers shout, "They are flanking us!"

Xu Chu then swings his mace diagonally down from the left to the right pushing Gao Shun back before shouting, "Everyone retreat twenty steps back and back into formation to anticipate the approaching enemy!"

Everyone does as said and retreats for twenty steps when Zhang Liao and his unit find Gao Shun's and Xu Chu's units fighting each other.

He rushes in as fast as possible thinking that Cao Cao might still be in the main camp only to find an arrow land before his feet.

He looks up and sees Lu Bu was the archer before he notices that Lu Bu was pointing towards the east in which dust clouds could be seen. Slowly Zhang Liao could feel a giant army marching towards them and Zhang Liao nods before pulling his men out.

They passed Gao Shun to inform him of the incoming threat and they retreated leaving Xu Chu with less than five hundred men that survived this attack while Lu Bu only lost around a hundred men in this skirmish.

"We will meet again soon!" shouts Gao Shun at Xu Zhu not accepting his defeat against Xu Chu.

They retreat knowing that they couldn't win against Cao Cao's Vanguard for now since they would be outnumbered at least ten to one.

Lu Bu was sitting on his horse as he smiles down upon Xu Chu with excitement which made Xu Chu feel shivers run down his spine since the grin showed him that Lu Bu wanted to fight him personally.

But Lu Bu left with his men before the Vanguard arrived at the main camp finding only the utter destruction of the main camp and corpses of Xu Chu's men and the men of an unknown army.