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Chapter 273: Quality of Officers

Battle Royale of the Sinners

At the burnt supply depot, Yuan Shao inspected the place with trembling legs.

He remembered that they had stored 30,000 tons of provision here, which could support his army for at least half a year.

Also, the food price skyrocketed in the past few months as the drought became apparent to the locals. If Yuan Shao wanted to buy food from the local merchants, he would have to fork a large amount of gold for it.

It was impossible for them to regain back the provision unless they plunder the merchants and the civilians, which was not a wise decision for Yuan Shao who aimed to ascend the throne.

Tian Feng and others caught with their lord an hour later. Despite the losses, Tian Feng did not appear nervous.

"My Lord, this loss is nothing. We've only lost a tiny bit of our food storage, but our main supply base is still intact."

Tian Feng was speaking about their main provision base, which located in Guangchuan County, east of Anping County. At Guangchuan, Tian Feng had backed up with 200,000 tons of provision, just in case they had to attack other cities other than Julu.

Yuan Shao's face regained the color of blood.

"Right! I forgot! We prepared our spare foods. Losing this small base doesn't hurt us at all. HAHAHAHA!"

…

March 7th.

Because of the inconvenience and army morale issues, Yuan Shao ordered all troops to withdraw back to Guangchuan County to recuperate.

Tian Feng reorganized the army and read all the battle reports from yesterday, which he learned about the terror of the Yellow Turban Army.

Although the battle lasted only five hours, the casualties they suffered gave Tian Feng a chill running down his spine.

The fight took away 45,000 of their elites, leaving their army with 115,000 soldiers remaining.

Wen Chou and Yan Liang claimed that they could almost kill Lu Bu, but their injuries proved otherwise.

Qu Yi was captured. Chunyu Qiong and Sui Yuanjin were killed. Seven of their twelve elite 5000-man commanders were killed as well.

Yet, they failed to kill even one general of the Yellow Turban. There were reports that they had slain a few 1,000-man commanders, but those were insignificant compared to the discovery of Tong's talented generals in action.

Zhou Cang was a fierce fighter that took down two battalions by himself. He was like a mini-Lu Bu that dove into Tian Feng Army to mess with his rhythms.

Xu Huang was another dark-horse under Tong that gave Tian Feng a lot of troubles. His combat abilities alone took out six 5,000-man commanders, and Xu Huang could command both cavalries and infantries with proficient without the assistance of others. It was also him that knocked Qu Yi off his horse and captured him.

Lu Zhi was like an unmovable mountain that did not waver under pressure. All of his battalions countered all moves that Tian Feng sent to destroy Zhou Cang and Gao Shun. The combination of Jia Xu's command and Lu Zhi's execution caused Shen Pei and Guo Tu, who were commanding the assisting platoons, to vomit blood from anger.

Gao Shun also displayed how he was entitled with the nickname [Formation Crusher] as he destroyed all defensive formations of Gao Lan. Had it not because of their stolen repeating crossbows, Gao Shun would have destroyed their flank army.

Tian Feng bit his lower lips as he thought back of the events two years ago. If Feng Ji had not provoked Tong and his father, they would have been a powerful ally that could support the Yuan Family to the throne.

'I wonder if we can repair our relationship after this battle. Instead of making an enemy out of them, can we turn them into our ally? Since we haven't caused any major damage to Zhang Tong and his subordinates, I should prepare an exit plan to gain their favor.'

…

Meanwhile, Jia Xu also got his casualty reports. To his surprise, their loss was lower than his expectation.

10,000 Infantries and 5,000 heavy cavalries left their lives in the battle, compared to Jia Xu's estimation of 50,000 loss. However, over 30,000 soldiers were injured and required treatments.

After a thorough investigation, Jia Xu discovered the cause of their high survival rate. Among Jinyang horsemen, some of them wore chainmail under their thick armor. Though not all of them had this luxurious kind of armor, more than half of Jinyang units had it.

It was Li Feihong who invented the chainmail and implemented into their system. However, because of the limited number of blacksmiths and tinkerers, they could not forge enough armors for everybody in the army.

"You are a man of surprises, sir Li," Praised Jia Xu. This battle result was majorly contributed by Li Feihong's skills.

"It's nothing compared to Tong's absurd [Create Food]. I envy him sometimes," Laughed Li Feihong.

"True. As long as someone controls the food supply, that brat is pretty much holding all lives in his hands. Say, can you integrate those armor system with Julu? We need those armors, too."

"The problem is our iron ore supplies. Our ore mines can't produce enough ores to satisfy the demand."

"Can't we smelt the old unused iron instead?"

"We can, but it will take times. Let's go into the details after the war."

"Sure."

.

As Jia Xu and Li Feihong were chatting in their main tent, Lu Bu was being treated by physicians in the infirmary tent.

Lu Bu was sitting cross-legs without wearing any upper garment.

The wounds on Lu Bu's body piled up on top of his old scars. Combined with the shrapnel scars when Lu Bu fought with Tong, the marks on his torso did not leave any place with good skin.

Two army physicians pulled out the last piece of iron fragment out of Lu Bu's fresh before they sew the wounds with their needles.

Zhang Liao entered the infirmary tent, coming to update the latest movements the armies on both sides.

Sensing Zhang Liao's aura signature, Lu Bu, who had been sitting straight and cross-legs, opened his eyes.

"What is Yuan Shao's movement?"

"The last intel from this morning, they are moving east. I think they are retreating back to Guangchuan County."

"Are they still have more supplies there?"

"Positive. The depot that I burned should have about 20,000 to 30,000 stones of food. I don't think it's everything they have."

Lu Bu clicked his tongue, having a foul mood as he wanted revenge on Yuan Shao and his generals.

Yesterday, he was stopped by Wen Chou and Yan Liang, who ganged on him in the duel. Thanked the duo, he could not kill a single soldier in the previous battle. In addition, he suffered several injuries because of their bomb bags.

Zhang Liao continued his reports, "The captured prisoners have been transferred to Julu for Zhang Tong to decide their fate. As for our losses, we lost 5,000 of our men while Julu lost 10,000. The rest are injured."

Lu Bu exhaled, feeling relieved that most of Jinyang's elites were still alive. They were like his children that he personally raised. Losing so many of them still pained Lu Bu in the inside, but he never revealed it on his face.

"What about Yuan Shao's dead soldiers? How many have we killed?"

"Estimated from the corpses that we gathered, about 40,000 at least."

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Lu Bu's mouth for a second before his smile returned into his usual grumpy expression.

.

Xu Huang, the hand-picked general that Tong promoted in the Battle of Liyang, also meditated inside his private tent.

In his mind, he was reviewing the past battles he had. The experiences of leading ten thousands of soldiers boosted his confidence, but it was nerve-wracking at the same time.

However, he had his personal trick that could keep him motivated and clear his random thought in the difficult battle.

As Xu Huang closed his eyes, the picture of Tong overcoming all odds with everything he had was still imprinted in his mind. He had this image stuck on him ever since Tong dueled against Huang Zhong at Liyang, which made Xu Huang felt as if he witnessed a hero in a fairy tale fighting against his enemies.

In the battle yesterday, Tian Feng put Xu Huang in a tough spot a couple of times that he panicked. But after he thought of how Tong overcame all obstacles, his mind became clear, and he could see how he could exploit Tian Feng and Qu Yi's weaknesses.

As a result, he captured Qu Yi, killed six of their commanders, and routed their flank armies. By the time that Tian Feng retreated, Xu Huang finally realized that his platoons pressed into Yuan Shao's formation so deep that they almost reached the position of Yuan Shao main platoons.

After he returned to base, Jia Xu and others praised him for his deeds, but Xu Huang still doubted that he deserved it.

'I'm nothing compared to young master Zhang! I can see a total of 26 missed opportunities! If it were him, he could have done it better than me. He would have killed Yuan Shao before they retreated!'

'For the sake of saving more people, I must improve!'

Xu Huang got up from his bed and walked to the empty tea table. He placed several stones on it, thinking that they were Yuan Shao's battalions of soldiers. Xu Huang continued reviewing the battle until dusk.

.

While other generals had their own issues, Lu Zhi strolled in army camps, visiting injured soldiers.

He did not say much to the weakened men. He simply cupped his fist at them and said, "Thank you for protecting our citizens."

Several soldiers broke into tears hearing the words, which caused chain reaction between the soldiers as they felt like their injuries and the death of their comrades was not in vain.

While Lu Zhi was at it, he reaffirmed Tong's current policies of military personal welfare.

"All participants in this battle will receive a year worth of salary. All crippled will be paid 10 years of wages, and the families of the dead will be compensated by the government."

This boosted the morale of all soldiers despite the gloom atmosphere after the battle yesterday.

Any camp that Lu Zhi passed, liveliness returned to the men as cheers and laughter could be heard.

Jia Xu also took notice of this and nodded in approval.

'As expected of that brat's mentor. He's through with his management and psychologies. Heck, all soldiers will praise that brat even though he isn't even here! What a politician …'

'All of Tong's subordinates are exceptional, I see. Well, that's better than having to work with a bunch of buffoons like Dong Zhuo or He Jin. Come to think of it, how is the battle at Ye, Zhongshan, or Ji?'