Burning a Sector of the City down

Yun and Taishi walked slowly towards the stairs to get down before the next shift arrives as Yun says, "Keep your eyes peeled for approaching enemies."

They arrived at the gate who was guarded by only one person since the enemy was camping on the west side as Yun takes him out. Yun then walks to the gate and removes the wooden shaft that blocked it.

Then they opened together one of the gate's doors as quietly as possible before Yun ignited a torch and shakes it around to signaling that the gate was open. Taishi was keeping his eyes on the walls and street so he could shot the enemy down if they see them.

Zou Jing sees the signal and commands, "Everyone move in quietly and slowly once inside you can go rampage."

The Infantry then moves in the shadow of the New Moon as they seemed invisible. Once inside Yun gives them the orders to attack the barracks while the enemy was sleeping by barricading the door and burning the barracks down.

The men understood while some thought it was cowardly to do but he was the highest-ranked officer in the city right now while Zou Jing was outside the city awaiting good news.

Yun then also commanded two groups to take the south and north gate as he and Taishi went with the other group to burn the barracks down.

By the barracks they find three men sitting outside keeping watch while playing some game to keep themselves awake when Yun looks at Taishi who nods knowing what Yun wanted from him.

Taishi pulled the string of his bow back as an arrow made of Metal Qi appeared on it before he released the string making the arrow fly through the air while Yun threw his spear in the same direction. The arrow killed one of the men while the spear killed the other two.

"We have to act fast," says Yun knowing that someone has to have heard them.

They rushed towards the barracks as Yun takes his spear out by pulling it through both corpses making it drink the blood it was covered in before putting the corpses to the side and Taishi with the help of another man put the table against the entrance of the barracks.

A group of men then throw some jugs full of oil against the barracks and Yun now knew that the people in the city must have heard them but it was too late as he throws the torch against the barrack making it catch fire.

"Prepare to engage the enemy. They might jump from the first floor to save their lives. Kill them all. I need one group to evacuate the civilians. This will cause a wildfire that will burn down some houses nearby," says Yun as the men received their order.

The group that threw the oil against the barracks were evacuating the civilians while the others were holding their spears pointing them at the entrance as they heard screams for help coming from inside the barracks until people jumped from the first floor as Yun predicted and they killed the enemy.

Soon the table fell as it burned down faster than the barracks but once the enemy tried to leave the barracks from the entrance they believed to have survived only to kill themselves by running into the spears of their enemy in their hysteria of escaping the fire.

There was no escape for the rebel nor was there an escape for the nearby buildings as they burned as well. The walls were cleared and Zou Jing could see from outside that the sky filled with orange light indicating that the city was burning, making it clear that Yun used Fire to deal with the rebels.

Civilians were running out of the city as they found refuge with the soldiers while Yun looked at the barracks that burned down completely before saying, "Let's put out the fire to save the houses that can be saved."

The Soldiers nod as they put their weapons away and took wooden buckets to extinguish the fire as they build a line to make it faster. Yun was using his Water Qi to fill the buckets since drawing from the well would take too much time.

They worked until the sun came up as the last house that could be saved was saved by them when Yun thinks, 'I think an eighth of the city burned down thanks to us but it should be rebuilt over time.'

The men were exhausted as they worked the whole night when Zou Jing entered the city with the Cavalry to see what happened. Zou Jing finds the men exhausted not from fighting the enemy but fighting the fire when he approaches Yun.

"Are they all dead?" asks Zou Jing as he looked at Yun

"I hope so. We don't really know how many people we burned and killed today but we haven't lost one man today. But we should still stay here to make sure that the rebels are completely done for," says Yun giving advice to Zou Jing as Zou Jing nods.

"Good we will stay here for a while. I will send a message to Luoyang to tell them of our exploits. Maybe you will be promoted again," says Zou Jing as he rode away again.

Yun sighs as he looked at Taishi and says, "Let's return to our camp and rest. The others must be worried about us."

They leave the city through the south gate as their camp. Once there they find the people sleeping except the night watch as they entered the camp Taishi went to his squad while Yun went for his tent. Thunder was waiting there for him as Yun petted his horse before Shadow landed on his shoulder.

"You did a good job, Shadow," says Yun as he petted her before entering his tent.

He wrote a letter that was saying, 'I will return in a month or two.'

He gave it to Shadow and says, "Bring it to Diao Chan. She will be happy when she reads it."

Shadow took the letter with her talons before taking off to fly towards Zhending. Yun then turned to his bed and just fell flat into it before falling asleep.

Zou Jing returned to his tent and wrote his report telling about the exploit his army made against the Yellow Turbans leaving out the part that Yun recruited some of them as a favor for Yun helping him in this task.

He then sent this report towards Luoyang before writing another letter to Lu Zhi for sending him Yun and Commander You as reinforcement with another messenger.

Tang Shi in the meantime let two men guard Yun's tent just in case one of their new recruits comes to some ideas while he was overwatching the training of the recruits since Yun was sleeping.

A week passes as the messenger arrived at Luoyang. He delivered the report to He Jin who was sitting behind a desk at the moment since he had to go over everything that happened in the provinces in which the Yellow Turbans were fought off with You being the last that still hasn't reported back.

"My Lord, I have the report from the North," says an Imperial Guard as he brought forth the report.

"Give it to me. Zou Jing was giving me some headaches lately as the Eunuchs were saying I was incompetent to solve the trouble in the North," says He Jin as he took the report from the guard.

He read it once before a smile appeared on his face before reading it another time. He looked at the guard and takes a pouch out which he puts in his hand.

"Give that to the messenger. He shall wait for someday in the capital. I need to talk to the Emperor," says He Jin as he stood up holding the report in his hand.

The guard nods and leaves the room after He Jin left it. The guard went outside and informed the messenger to stay in a nearby inn until he gets the message from the Marshall.

He Jin was on his way to meet his brother-in-law as he was thinking, 'That Zhao-boy is a gold mine. He helped to conquer the two cities the Yellow Turbans were holding. He lost some men in the first city but to lose none in the second shows some skills. We have to promote him. He will be useful against the Eunuchs.'

He Jin arrived at the Courtyard of the Emperor when he kneels in front of the Emperor and says, "I have good and great news, your Majesty. Which do you want to hear first?"

"We want to hear the good news," says the Emperor as He Jin smiles.

"The North has been pacified and the Yellow Turbans were defeated by Zou Jing's army," says He Jin with excitement that didn't escape the Emperor.

"And the great news is?" asks the Emperor as he wanted to know why He Jin was this excited.

"Your Majesty, do you still remember the boy you made a Commander of 500?" asks He Jin as the Emperor thought for a moment before he nods.

"We know, the boy that defeated Ding Yuan's son. What is with him?" asks the Emperor as he wanted to know what was going on.

"He was sent to the North to help Colonel Zou Jing in pacifying it with another Commander. In the report send by Zou Jing, the boy is praised for helping take the two key towns. In the first, he lost some men but in the second he lost not even one," says He Jin with a smile as the Emperor opened his eyes wide for a moment.

"So you want us to promote him to a higher rank," says the Emperor knowing what He Jin wanted from him as he smiled at He Jin.

"Alright, it seems he can lead people since he won some battles with some men that weren't even a year under his command. How many troops is Lu Bu leading at the moment?" says the Emperor as He Jin looks up.

"He has 2000 men under his banner. But we should give Zhao Yun more men," says He Jin looking at the Emperor.

"You have confidence in that boy that he can lead that many people," says the Emperor as He Jin nods.

"Yes, and he seemed to be humble about everything he does. Also, we can say that he is loyal to the Empire by going out and pacify not only the middle plains but also the north," says He Jin as the Emperor sighs.

"Fine, give him 5000 men and the title of General who Pacified the North. The Commander that followed him will be promoted as well to a commander of 3000 men and Zou Jing will be promoted to Governor of You until we find someone better," says the Emperor as he thought that this was good enough.

"I have another thing to report," says He Jin and the Emperor thought that everything was over.

"What is it?" asks the Emperor as He Jin takes a note out and hands it over.

The Emperor reads it and suddenly makes a fist crumbling the note in his hand while saying, "Is it truth what we just read. There is someone using our family name."

"We still need to investigate but he seems to want to help against the Yellow Turbans to make a name out of himself only to worsen the things in the North. What shall we do about him?" asks He Jin as he waited for an answer.

"We want you to investigate him. If he really is related to us we will make it official until then put him under the boy's command. At least he will learn some discipline under him. Also, send more stones of rice towards Zhending or the provisions we send will be used up before summer ends," says the Emperor as He Jin smiles.

"Good Choice, what do we do if it is found out that this Liu Bei isn't from your line?" asks He Jin as the Emperor looked at him seriously before he smiled.

"How about we leave that to the boy that way we will see if he really is loyal to the Imperial Family," says the Emperor as He Jin smiles.

"Of course, your Majesty. I will leave you alone again," says He Jin as he leaves the courtyard to write the message with the promotions towards the North.