Chapter 241
Chapter 241 – Encounter in a Forest
February 1st, 183 A . D .
Zhongshan City .
A total of 20,000 Yellow Turban men gathered in front of the north wall, getting ready to sortie . Half of them wore blue clothes while the rest still had yellow clothes on . Tong, who also had yellow clothes, was part of the group, which he was organizing the logistic troops that would handle their supplies .
On top of the wall, 5,000 local garrison troops of Zhen Yi stood on top of the wall to send them off .
'In the end, Zhang Tong didn't take any daughter of the nobles . '
Zhen Yi stood there and pondered how he could bind this young lord with his family . He attempted to seduce Tong with his first and second daughter, but they failed .
A messenger rushed to Zhen Yi and knelt, "My lord, we've finished gathering information about young master Zhang Tong . "
Zhen Yi turned to the spy . He had ordered his men to gather the records about Tong after the day he had declined his daughters .
The old fox took the scroll and read . Within the report, there were details about Tong's wife and concubines . It had the details about Hua Shi, Dong Bai, Xiao Wu, and He Xing .
As Zhen Yi continued reading, he was astonished by the details . Dong Bai's age was the same as Tong had told him, a six-year-old little girl . However, Tong also had a wife and two other concubines, which one of the concubines was actually the former Empress!
'Dong Bai was the granddaughter of Dong Zhuo . This little girl should have been given to Zhang Tong as a political marriage . Hua Shi should be his first wife, and Xiao Wu is Hua Shi's disguised bodyguard . But how has Her Majesty entered his family!? Did Zhang Tong force her?'
Zhen Yi read the report thrice . Still confused, he turned and asked the spy, "Do you know how He Xing becomes Zhang Tong's concubine?"
"Reporting, it seems a minister in Zhang Jiao's ranks wanted to refuge Her Majesty from the political strife, so he put her under Zhang Tong's wings . "
"How is their nightlife? Has he done anything to her?"
"This … we don't know . Please forgive me . "
"Never mind . You can go . "
"Yes, my lord . "
After the spy left, Zhen Yi sighed .
'My judgment wasn't wrong to join this force . The real ruler of this Yellow Turban is Zhang Tong, and he's a clever young fox at that . He's good in all fields, and he's matured enough not to fall for the simple seduction or a political trap . '
'He has a peculiar taste, or should I say, standard . Hua Shi and Xiao Wu are talented in battles, while Dong Bai and Her Majesty are aristocrats . All of his women are either talented or have a high social status . Does that mean my status is not worthy enough to get his attention?'
'Then, I'll have to make my daughters talented in different fields . '
The eyes of Zhen Yi glinted with ambition . To raise his family status in Tong's force, he would do anything .
'No, that won't work . Trying to get all grown daughters to learn something will be hard . I'll bet everything on Zhen Fu instead . '
Last month, his wife gave birth to a girl . Strangely, on the day that she was born, there was a falling star . His wife also had a dream that a dragon blessed her and her daughter with fortune and intelligence, which she was so happy that she told each of her neighbors about it .
With this promising omen, Zhen Yi had high hope on this girl .
…
If Tong heard about his youngest daughter's name, he might have realized why he was familiar with the Zhen surnames because this girl had a great future ahead of her .
In 196, at the age of 13, Zhen Fu was married to Yuan Xi, the second son of Yuan Shao . As Yuan Shao was a dominant figure during the time, Zhen Yi had no problem giving his under-aged daughter to a son of the ruler .
Later in the year 204, Cao Cao Army had occupied Ye City, which led by Cao Pi . He met Zhen Fu by chance and was impressed by her humbleness and her beauty . Thus, Cao Pi took her in as his wife .
After Cao Pi took over the throne and established the Kingdom of Wei, Zhen Fu became the Empress of Wei, after which she was called by the other name .
This youngest daughter of Zhen Yi, Zhen Fu, had another name in the historical records in Tong's world .
Zhen Shi .
…
…
Zhang Bao, Bo Cai, Tong, and their 20,000 elites departed from Zhongshan and headed north, moving toward the Ji City of Liu Yan .
Zhang Liang and 5,000 garrison force stayed behind to monitor Zhen Yi and his clan as Tong had not 100% trusted this old fox yet .
Zhang Bao and Bo Cai troops consisted of 5,000 men each, and they wore blue uniforms that Tong told them . On the other hand, the 10,000 soldiers under Tong were still wearing the old yellow uniform . In addition, only Tong's legion had a cavalry unit as he was not confident in Zhang Bao and Bo Cai's ability to lead horsemen .
One thousand light horsemen separated into one hundred groups as they were used as scouts . A team of ten men would travel ahead of the main army and report back what they could discover .
Between Ji City and Zhongshan City, a dense forest blocked their path, but there was a forest road that connected both cities . Though not many people used this road anymore, Tong decided to use this as a short-cut while they gathered woods for resources .
Using many too many horsemen in a scout team would not be efficient in this situation . As the forest was filled with bushes, obstacles, and bumpy tree roots, having a thousand horsemen galloping in this forest would do harm more than good .
Thus, a team of ten horsemen was sent to secure the road while the other teams slowly cleared the path on the side road, making rooms for the infantries .
The path toward the north was still partly covered in snow as it was in the season change period . The warm weather of spring had not completely arrived yet . The melted snow turned the soil into muddy swamps which made this journey harder than the usual .
Unlike the time when Tong forced-march to Ye, Tong Army took their time, slowly moving toward north while they were clearing the pathway .
Marching into the dense forest had a high risk of contracting unknown diseases, but Tong was undaunted . Water and food supplies were not their issues, and each soldier also carried anti-biotic medicines from Hua Shi with them, so they had necessary protection .
'Living without the system HUD map is inconvenient, but I have to overcome this . Bear with it for one more year, and I'll get them all back in a year or two . '
…
February 17th, 183 A . D .
The slow journey continued .
Despite the fact that the distance between cities were 150 to 160 kilometers, which could have taken them two days to travel on a clear road, Tong Army traveled only four to five kilometer a day as his men built several camps along the way, creating many check-points .
Today, the scouts finally detected Liu Yan Army .
"Report! We found Liu Yan camps 6 li north of here . They are cutting the forest to make a path toward us . Their number is roughly 20,000 men!"
Tong chuckled when he heard the report .
"Thank you . You can leave . "
"Yes, sir!"
Tong had always faced overwhelming numbered enemies, but this time, they were fighting a force with the roughly same number . In addition, Liu Yan had no other promising general except Zou Jing, so the next fight would be a lot easier than the past .
Laughing in his heart for a minute, Tong reeled in his excitement as he remembered a troubling thing he might encounter in this force .
Liu Bei
Zhang Fei
Guan Yu
The three sworn brothers!
'I shouldn't look down on Liu Yan . The three troublemakers probably appear here earlier than the recorded history, so I have to prepare to face these three in the next battles . '
'There's also the missing number of Liu Yan troops . The previous Jia Xu's reports said that they have at least 50,000 men, but only 20,000 shows up here . An ambush or a trap is also possible . '
'Well, I won't underestimate them . I'll be careful . '
Tong turned to the boxes behind his back . Inside, handgun bullets were stored there . After the battle at Liyang and the accumulated bullets Tong had created each day, 150 bullets remained . The other 300 rounds had been stored in his [Inventory], but because Lilim disabled the skill, he could not use them .
'Ten magazines, that's not enough for sure . But I have [Homing Arrow], so I can do the hit-and-run by myself . '
'Welp! Assassin mode, here I go again . '
…
Nightfall .
Tong dressed in a black cloth and left the camp by himself . He carried a standard bow, quivers of arrows, his handgun, and a steel blade, but he only wore leather armor as he wanted mobility over the protection .
It was half-moon and cloudless sky that night, which the moonlight was enough for Tong to travel in this dark forest .
Moreover, Tong's demonic instinct heightened at night . He could faintly feel the surrounding while he was running northward . His red eyes glowed, and his vision had a tinge of green color which he could see clearer in the dark .
One hour later, Tong reached Liu Yan army campsite . As soon as he had reached the camp, he had to crouch down and hid behind a bush to observe the fortified camp .
As Tong had expected, the fortification of this camp was thorough . Three long lines of trenches had been dug, and a double-line of wooden fences covered the entire camps . Watchtowers had been built close to each other that there was a tower every ten meters .
Patrolling sentries were also plenty . A team of ten men with torches walked around the edge of the camp, and their eyes kept glancing at the darkness of the forest .
Tong peeked inside the trenches . Sure enough, there were several groups of soldiers sitting inside them .
'Are they copying my trench tactic from Anping?'
Tong pondered . It appeared that Liu Yan Army also used a similar strategy as Tong by digging through the forest while fortifying their camps . Furthermore, they should have detected Tong Army from the south as well . Had not they discovered Tong, they would not have been on a full-alert like this .
'This is Zou Jing's works . He is wary of me . '
'Ha! But if that's all he can do, then he'll fail miserably!'
Tong crawled back and kept the distance from the camp . He took the bow from his back and nocked an arrow, aiming at a guard on a watchtower .
*WOOSH*
*POEK*
An arrow penetrated the guard's forehead, and he collapsed without making a sound .
Tong did not use the magic arrow as the light arrow was too flashy . With his [Bow Mastery] and his hellish training experience with Medusa, he had no problem sniping someone with a normal bow .
