Battle for Zhuo final part

The gate was closed and the men were on the wall holding the bows waiting for the enemy to arrive at their doorsteps.

Yun was overwatching everything when they finally see a giant shadow chased by another one bigger.

"Pull the string and wait for my command," says Yun as the enemy troops entered his range but he needed to wait a bit more since his people aren't trained Archers.

The enemy was close and you could hear them when Yun commands, "Fire!"

They release the arrows and the sky turned black for the enemy as it did for them before. The enemy troops were surprised by that attack since they thought that Zhuo was theirs.

Yun looked at his men as they continuously fired their arrows until they hadn't any more left when Yun noticed and says, "Everyone grab your sword and shield we are going down."

The men do as told. Some of them were already exhausted and Yun knew it but he couldn't afford to rest. They already knew that some of them would die today because of it or their carelessness.

They position themselves behind the gate as Yun looks at Liu Bei and says, "The battle will begin soon again. This will be the place you can show me if you are worthy of this Volunteer Army you have."

"What do I do?" asks Liu Bei as Yun pointed at the place beside his troops that was open.

"That's the place of your troops. I will open the gates the moment the Cavalry hits the enemy," says Yun as Liu Bei commanded his Volunteer Army into position.

They were beside Yun's men waiting when they felt the earth shake under them. Yun pierced the ground with his spear so he could remove the bar from the gate that would normally take ten men to move before he looked at the troops.

Yun nods as his men begin to move followed by the Volunteer Army when Yun opened the gate before he took his spear and shouted, "Charge!"

He picked up his spear as he rushed at the enemy when Thunder galloped beside him. Yun took the reign and mounted Thunder in a fluid motion making Thunder go even faster as they crashed into the already exhausted enemy.

This gave Yun hope that some of his exhausted men would survive today. He could see Commander You leading his cavalry.

Yun tried to lead both his and the Volunteer Army. He had quite a good view over the battlefield seeing his men effort to survive this battle.

Yun continued his onslaught over the enemy until they surrendered. Commander You and Yun looked at each other knowing that even if the enemy surrendered they would die today even if it wasn't by their blade.

Yun saw his men as they incircled the surrendered enemies that were stripped of their weapons. He could see that he lost some more men in this battle but he couldn't mourn for them yet.

"How many have we lost?" asks Yun to Tang Shi wanting to know how many of his men died.

"At least thirty more. Like said before it is hard to count them while we come out fresh of a battle," says Tang Shi as he looked at Taishi Ci who was in the distance.

"It seems that you recruited a good person out of all of us," says Tang Shi complimenting Yun's decision on recruiting Taishi Ci.

"Soon there will be two," says Yun as Tang Shi couldn't follow when Yun smiles, "My younger brother will entering this army sooner or later. And after some intense training, we might have more capable warriors beside us."

Yun dismounted Thunder again and petted it while saying, "You did well today."

Shadow suddenly landed on Yun's shoulder bearing a message. He took the message and it was a letter from Diao Chan sending him all the luck she could while speaking of Yun's family taking care of her.

Yun petted Shadow's belly with his index finger as she loves it before saying, "I will have to clean myself before I write back. Stay with Thunder for a while Shadow. I still need to check something out."

Yun then leaves to find Liu Bei. He finds him with his two brothers when he asks, "How many have you lost?"

"Too many," says Liu Bei as he lost almost half of the Volunteer Army that was under his command.

"I didn't see you on the battlefield. Where were you?" asks Yun wanting to know that when Guan Yu and Zhang Fei stood in front of Liu Bei trying to protect him.

"You can't shelter him forever or he won't learn a thing," says Yun looking at both as he left to meet with the Zou Jing.

"We took Zhuo with this we got one step closer to quelling this rebellion down," says Zou Jing as he was happy that the plan worked out for them.

"What do we do with the prisoners?" asks Yun knowing already their fate.

"We will execute them," says Zou Jing when Yun sighs.

"Can I still replenish my troops with some of them? They might not be useful right now but they might be after this rebellion is over," says Yun as Zou Jing was confused about Yun trying to recruit them.

"Fine by me but they can't stay in the city that means your men will be camping outside the wall," says Zou Jing since he couldn't allow the rebels to be inside the city with the other troops.

"I can understand that. They could try to assassinate the troops that are sleeping peacefully," says Yun knowing that Zou Jing was trying to protect his men.

"My question is, how will you make them fight for you?" asks Zou Jing as Yun smiles

"A person saved from the execution block can become a loyal man as long as he fears death and is grateful of you saving him," says Yun as Zou Jing was more skeptical about that.

"If you think so," says Zou Jing as Yun wanted to recruit only some of the rebels that would be a waste to be killed by the Executioner's Axe.

He went back to the prisoners and says, "You will all be executed because of your treason against the Emperor and the Empire. The good news I have for you is that I can save some of you by recruiting them into my force."

"Why would you do that?" asks one of the rebels.

"It would be a waste of human life to kill you all. That's why I want to recruit some of you and spare you of this fate," says Yun as he looked at them.

"I respect that you tried to fight for something you believed in but your leader died long ago. Soon the North will be pacified again be it with your help or not," says Yun as the rebels were confronted with a cold truth that they didn't want to believe before.

"The south has fallen and no reinforcements will come to help from there and Guangyang can't send troops because they would be defenseless. I can only give you an hour to decide if you want to live or die today," says Yun as he looked at them before leaving.

He wanted to give them time to think let all the information sink deep inside them to make the right decision.

Yun went to meet Tang Shi again who now had a better look at everything and says, "We have lost 74 men today. We will need to replace them before the next battle but it will be hard without relief soldiers around."

"We will use the prisoners to replenish our ranks. I just hope they decide to live instead of dying for nothing," says Yun as he thought it would be a waste to execute them all.

"Can we even trust them?" asks Tang Shi as Yun sighs.

"We can't but if we don't show them hostility we should find a way sooner or later," says Yun as he believed that he could trust them as long as they trust in him.

"But we shall see in the next moments," says Yun as Tang Shi nods.

"I hope you are right and we don't get killed while we sleep," says Tang Shi as he wasn't that confident in this matter.

"How is the Volunteer Army doing?" asks Yun as Tang Shi sighs.

"Their Commander seems to be heartbroken after losing that many men. I think that Liu Bei isn't made to fight in wars," says Tang Shi since he looked after them as well since they are under the Deathseekers' wings right now.

"I just hope I can stop his ambition before it starts because only bad things will follow him and his people," says Yun as he walked toward an abandoned house.

"Did you already clean your armor?" asks Tang Shi seeing no blood on it as Yun noticed it too.

"Yes, but I wanted to clean myself in that house so I don't reck like blood and gore," says Yun as he entered an abandoned house.

"I will call a soldier to bring you water to clean yourself," says Tang Shi as Yun nods.

He put his armor on the stand and looked at it while saying, "It really drinks all the blood."

Soon soldiers entered bringing some buckets of water as they see Yun with bloody hair and face. Yun washed himself to get the blood stench from him until another soldier enters.

"Commander, they came to a conclusion," says the soldier as Yun looked at him waiting for the answer.

"Roughly a hundred and fifty agreed to join us while the rest wants to be executed. We had to separate them since tension rose between the two groups," says the soldier when Yun nods.

"You did well. We will be camping outside the city tonight tell that to everybody so they don't open their tents in the city. Zou Jing doesn't want us near the other troops out of fear. Also, tell the troops to not be hostile towards the new troops. We need to pull from the same strang if we want to survive," says Yun as the soldier nods.

"Of course, Commander," says the soldier as Yun began to think about this situation.

'More than expected will follow me. I should make sure that the rebels blend in with my troops so the others don't notice that I have more people than I should,' thinks Yun as he finished cleaning himself before writing a letter for Diao Chan.

He pours water over the armor and impurity came off of it as well as the stench of blood that it still had before putting it back on and leaving the house go find Shadow.

"Bring it home and give her a hug from me," says Yun to Shadow as he placed the letter on Shadow's leg before joining his troops again.