It was D-Day for Zhao Yun as it was his first battle as a Commander and he was quite unlucky as he got the troublemakers with him since Zou Jing didn't want them to ruin the baiting by running in.
"Why are we not joining the others and are waiting here?" asks Zhang Fei as he felt no honor in ambushing the enemy when Yun turned to Zhang Fei.
"If you go against my orders your Commander will be punished by Military Law as well as you," says Yun as he couldn't afford to lose his men because the volunteer unit attached to him can't follow his commands.
"And what would be the punishment, not even Colonel Zou Jing dares to punish my elder brother," says Zhang Fei when Yun turned angry.
"I give a shit if he is a Liu or a Lu. If he puts my man in danger because of your recklessness he will die under my blade even if I get demoted to be a normal soldier again," says Yun angrily as his eyes made the point reached Zhang Fei not to mess with him.
"Commander," says Tang Shi as he saw the troops retreat towards the position where Commander You Xin was waiting to ambush the enemy with his cavalry.
"Alright, they passed us now we wait for a minute before we storm Zhuo," says Yun seeing the enemy pass their position without noticing them in the forest.
They waited until the last person passed them when Zhang Fei wanted to lead the Volunteer Army into the rear of the enemy troops only to find a spear coming out of nowhere pierced into the ground.
"You will not attack, so you understand!" demanded Yun as his eyes scared Zhang Fei for a moment before Yun picked his spear up again.
"Towards Zhuo, we need to take the city now before the enemy retreats to the city," says Yun as he led his men towards Zhuo.
Liu Bei followed with the volunteer army as they couldn't catch up with the five-hundred when Yun turned Thunder around before saying to Tang Shi, "Continue forward, I will catch up in a moment."
"Yes, sir," says Tang Shi taking control over the men as Yun went towards the Volunteer Army.
He stopped in front of them while saying, "You should return to the forest and stop playing war if you can't even follow our Rhythm. Just return to where you came from it will be easier for everyone."
"Why do you have to be so harsh to us?" asks Liu Bei with a smile when Yun looked seriously at him.
"War isn't a game. You and your brothers wasted many good people in the last few weeks because you didn't follow orders. Instead of reflecting you still haven't built some stamina," says Yun stating the trust when he turned Thunder around and says, "The only one I see worthy of my attention is the big guy beside you, but he won't be able to reach his full potential besides you. So you will waste him like all the people you lost in Guangling before."
He rode towards his men again as he saw them almost reaching the open gates of the city when Tang Shi seemed to coordinate everything as Yun would have planned it before entering the city.
They were about to enter the city when Yun got a bad feeling and he shouted "Shield Wall!"
The men did as ordered when suddenly the sky turned black with arrows falling upon them. The wooden shields saved their lives as the arrows rained down upon them until it stopped.
"Engage!" shouts Yun next as the five-hundred rushed into the city holding their shields that looked like a Hedgehog.
Yun was the first inside the city riding Thunder while holding his spear when he broke through the enemy line without trouble thanks to Thunder's thick-skin that blocked the weapons to hurt him.
His men followed him as they bashed into the enemy shield first before they pierce their swords into them. They soon found out who was fit for this and not as two out of fifty couldn't bring their enemy down but survived thanks to their companion they survived for now.
They continued when the Volunteer Army arrived quite exhausted for them to spectate how war is fought in reality. Liu Bei was watching the five-hundred plunge into the enemy when he notices the five-hundred raise their shield.
"Shield Wall!" shouted Yun as his words reached the ears of the Volunteer Army while the sky turned dark again.
Arrows rained down again and some of Yun's men didn't lift their shield fast enough making them get hit by stray arrows that went through the gap between the shields.
'We are losing men,' thinks Yun as he was seeing his men falling.
"Once the rain stop storm the wall! We need to take the Archers down and close the gate!" shouts Yun to his men as he was seeing the arrows were stopping falling.
Thunder rushed towards the stairs as Yun was holding his spear ready to kill the first person on the wall. Once on top of the wall, Yun pierced the first person in sight while Thunder trampled over three others making confusion spread on the wall.
Yun's men followed as the wall fell into chaos as it was quite narrow on it. Thunder rushed at the enemy line while Yun shouts, "Charge!"
His men grabbed their ridden spears and rushed at the enemy. Thunder broke the enemy line as some that were at the border of the wall fell towards the ground and died from the impact.
If they didn't die they would have to deal with the Volunteer Army that was still lacking behind. Once Thunder reached the other side of the enemy Yun jumped down from Thunder and rushed at the rear.
He swung his spear decimating the rear while his men were fighting against the front giving the enemy the choice to jump from the wall or die while fighting. Yun took no prisoner as his armor was sullied in the blood of the Rebels.
He could see his men already as behind him was only a trail of death. Blood and Gore everywhere but he seemed to feel mysteriously calm as if it was natural for him to fight those odds and still win.
He looked at his men and saw that some were injured while others were dead when Yun says, "We need to close the gate before the enemy arrives."
"Yes, sir," say the troops as they begin to move towards the stairs to go down and close the gate.
Yuan then turned to Tang Shi and asks, "How many have we lost?"
"I can't tell you the exact number but it should be around twenty to forty men that we lost today. Some are slightly injured and only two are gravely but we count them as dead since we could see their intestines out of their abdomen," says Tang Shi as Yun sighs in relief.
"Is everything alright?" asks Tang Shi seeing Yun sigh.
"No, I'm just happy that we didn't lose more than a hundred men as I was expecting," says Yun as he looked towards where the others should be fighting right now.
"You should clean yourself before you talk to the Volunteer Army," says Tang Shi as Yun smiles.
"I won't. They want to see what war is about and I will show them that with me as an example," says Yun as he began to walk towards the stairs with Tang Shi.
"We were lucky that they only left a small number of infantry behind or it would have ended badly for us fighting both infantry and archers at the same time," says Yun reflecting that the people he killed on the wall were only Archers.
"We were," says Tang Shi as he was slightly injured with some scratches on his face and armor.
"I will need to equip our men with better armor and weapons once we are in Zhending. But we are lucky we didn't have the equipment now or we would have lost more people," says Yun as he and Tang Shi walked down the stairs finding the Volunteer Army complaining about why they are closing the gate.
"Why are you closing the gate. The enemy won't be able to return!" shouts Zhang Fei at one of Yun's men when Taishi Ci came forward.
"Shut your mouth, idiot. We are following the plan as we are told. We will kill the trapped enemy with our arrows next," says Taishi Ci as he headbutted Zhang Fei who was surprised that one of Yun's men would do that.
"Bastard!" shouts Zhang Fei as he tried to grab Taishi Ci by the collar only to find himself in an armlock.
"What is going on?" asks Yun already knowing what was going on.
The Volunteer Army saw Yun completely drenched in blood as even his hair was red at the moment with only his eyes being sky blue that made them feel like Yun was looking through them.
"That idiot was asking why we were closing the gate and hindered us," says Taishi calmly as he released Zhang Fei.
He knew that Yun wouldn't punish him for defending their orders as it was critical for them to close the gate so they could hold the enemy outside.
"Is that true," says Yun looking at Zhang Fei as Zhang Fei felt fear for the first time seeing Yun's eyes on him like a predator would on his prey.
"Don't we get to fight too?" asks Zhang Fei as Yun ignored him.
"If you wanted to fight you should have arrived on time. We won't wait for the enemy to prepare against us just because you came too late," says Yun as he touched Taishi's shoulder.
"You did well defending your people. Now go and help the others close the gate," says Yun as Taishi nods proudly because he was praised by Yun.
Taishi leaves as Yun turned to Liu Bei and says, "If you want to make yourself useful collect the arrows that landed on the ground and shields that are on the ground. At the same time separate my men from the enemy. Tang Shi will help you with identifying my men."
Liu Bei was a bit scared seeing that Yun was drenched in blood but was still calm as if it was his everyday life. He had some skirmishes here and there but this war was his first.
"I will do so, but what do we do with the dead?" asks Liu Bei trying to be calm.
"Burn the corpses of the traitors after the battle is over, the smoke could alert the enemy outside. We will bring the bodies of my people back to their family so they can say their last goodbyes," says Yun as Guan Yu seemed conflicted with that decision.
"Why not take them to their family as well?" asks Guan Yu as he was a fugitive before.
"They rebelled against the Emperor. Don't you follow a Liu? Then do what is best for your brother and burn the corpses of the rebels. I can't show them any mercy after what they did," says Yun as he might have buried them but too many eyes were on him.