Chapter 159 – Rampage (1)
Translated by Bloodfalcon, Edited by Krayto
“COUGH, COUGH!!!” Sun Ce half-knelt on the ground. His Conqueror Spears are located on his hand, trying to support his body. The blue stone under his foot is already crushed, his arm is shivering and Sun Ce’s face is pale due to blood loss. His armor is broken and his right-side also bleeding profusely along with his right shoulder. Just a little more, his right arm will be lost forever like Jiang Qin with his left-hand.
Changing pinnacle of super-class to hyper class. So 3rd class, 2nd class, 1st class, super-class, hyper-class generals.
He lost this battle!!! He who had reached the hyper-class lost because his opponent was too strong.
“HAHAHAHA!!!”Sun Ce laughed wholeheartedly. That laugh was not a forced chuckle or sneer, but a genuine happy laughter because he met someone who is more powerful than him. A military commander has two things that can make him most happy in battlefield. First one is flawless victory, second one is to find a worthy adversary.
So, even in defeat, Sun Ce found huge excitement.
“Prepare to die, Sun Ce!!!”Huang Zhong exclaimed. He is also very tired, when he fought Jiang Qin earlier, even though he tore up Jiang Qin, that still required extreme concentration and it wore him down a lot. After that due to his carelessness, he was besieged by three generals, facing the same predicament like Lu Bu in Hulao Gate. Even after doing a very grueling battle like that, he still needed to battle in order to pacify each gates.
On Huang Zhong’s curved dao, there is a clean hole on the center, also on his chest his armor was destroyed by Sun Ce’s ultimate move, “Country Destroyer”.
“Country Destroyer” is the ultimate move of Western Chu Conqueror Xiang Yu, he is first do this move when he was invading Qin Dynasty’s capital in Xianyang and helped to crumble the dynasty. But it is a pity that the “Country Destroyer” move was lost when Xiang Yu commit suicide in Wu River but due to sheer genius of Sun Ce, he was able to recall back that move and execute it on Huang Zhong.
Huang Zhong’s eyes are locked-on Sun Ce. This person is truly a genius among genius and will be a big threat in the future. He is able to breakthrough to become a hyper-class general just by being severely wounded in battle and even used Huang Zhong in order to temper his strength. Huang Zhong himself needed to build up and refine his strength slowly in order to reach this level. If this boy did not die now, the next time he did sortie, he will be very hard to kill.
“Die?” Sun Ce sneered “Yes, I lost, but I refuse to die here!!!” He quickly moved his hand in order to support his body with Conqueror Spear.
But today Sun Ce saw genuine Tu Long Shu unexpectedly. Huang Zhong’s earlier technique was called “Dragon Slayer”. “Is that really the Dragon Slayer technique?” Sun Ce pondered in his heart while looking at that hollow hole of golden curved dao. Sun Jian, The Tiger of Jiangdong and also Sun Ce’s father was an expert in using curved dao and have told Sun Ce that there is another skill that can only be used by someone whose skill in curved dao is already reached pinnacle of curved dao skill, that skill is called “Dragon Slayer”. His father said, when he managed to get the skill “Dragon Slayer”, he will pronounce himself to the land that he had already evolved to the Dragon of Jiangdong, when Sun Ce heard Sun Jian’s proclamation, he just smiled and treated it as a joke.
TL: Dragon Killer, just like the wuxia novel Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre. Indonesian readers might remember it as Golok Pembunuh Naga dan Pedang Langit Tandingannya” The famed To Liong To with Thio Bukie as the protagonist
The terms of “Dragon Slayer” harked from Zhuangzi and Lie Yukou anecdote. The anecdote told that one man from Zhu country wanted to study the “Dragon Slayer” technique. He sold all of his properties, closed his stores and gave all of his money to the people, then went to a mountain where he met a hermit who could teach him “Dragon Slayer”.
After three years, he learned the “Dragon Slayer” technique and went down from the mountain but due to peace times, he was unable to find work and can only work as a coolie in a rice shop. When Zhuangzi and Lie Yukou wrote that anecdote, they also provided another information that the person from Zhu truly managed to learn “Dragon Slayer” technique and that his skill in wushu is unmatchable but due to peace times and “Dragon Slayer” technique was no longer used, so it disappeared from history, but today Sun Ce truly saw the “Dragon Slayer” technique with his own eyes.
TL: Zhuangzi and Lie Yukou: both of them are pre-Qin Taoist Scholars
Looking at Sun Ce wanting to stand up, Huang Zhong exclaimed “Oh, you want to do a last stand, eh?!” Huang Zhong is very shocked due to his “Dragon Slayer” being unable to kill Sun Ce, but Sun Ce is already severely wounded and will die in two bouts with Huang Zhong. As long as Sun Ce dies, the battle is decided.
“Last stand? Hahaha, you could not afford to kill me!!!” Sun Ce knows that he is not Huang Zhong’s match but the situation has rendered himself to be un-killable.
“Are you saying that I am unable to kill you, huh?! Earlier it is because our skills the Dragon Slayer and Country Destroyer are matched up in damage, but now you die!!!” Huang Zhong’s eyes quickly flashed dangerously and gripped his golden curved dao to kill Sun Ce.
In Huang Zhong the hand the gold knife brandished again got up to overrun toward Sun Ce.
Sun Ce quickly made a stance to avoid it, although he himself already evolved from strong to mighty, his life is at bigger risk compared to Huang Zhong’s.
But, Huang Zhong’s golden curved dao is unavoidable and Sun Ce can only defend, but when he tried to parry Huang Zhong’s slash, he was unable to withstand the momentum and vomited black blood and said “So, it is not a lie, when you said you are able to kill me in two bouts!!!”
Huang Zhong then exclaimed “Oh, since you know you cannot fight back, then give me your life!!! I will make sure your last moment is painless!!!” Huang Zhong also really admired Sun Ce. At this age, he is already a warlord commanding 100,000 troops and able to become a hyper-class general. Although Huang Zhong himself is already a hyper-class general, his achievement is miniscule compared to Sun Ce’s.
Huang Zhong was really envious of this Sun Ce. Sun Jian really had a good son. If Sun Jian was still alive, then the Sun's danger will be threefold and perhaps his lord Lu Bu must withdraw and attack Jing Province.
Fortunately he died under Huang Zu and Cai Mao's arrows, at this very moment, Huang Zhong felt thankful to Huang Zu.
“Cough, cough!!!” Sun Ce coughed out a lot of blood. He is truly tired. This battle really took the toll for him as well giving him lots of experiences and insights. This loss actually is not so bad, as Sun Ce able to gain a lot experience from battling Huang Zhong. But all in all, this is battle where people kill each other, so Huang Zhong right now wanted to kill Sun Ce and make him the same like those of ordinary soldiers who died here.
“I know that I will die in two bouts, but before that, I will have some people to accompany me!!!” Said Sun Ce while smiling, Huang Zhong really admired that Sun Ce can smile in his dying moments.
“Oh, want to take me with you, huh?!” An executor is usually anxious when wanted to execute a hapless man, but this did not happen to Huang Zhong. He is already old, and being old brings calmness to one heart.
“Oh, not you!!! It is your little lord who will come with me!!! Our respected His Highness Prince of Shu!!!” Sun Ce pointed his Conqueror Spear toward Liu Mang's direction.
“Um?!” Huang Zhong's brow wrinkled. He quickly turn his head and panicked. His little lord Prince of Shu was besieged by two generals Chen Wu and Dong Xi and more and more of the Danyang soldiers are climbing the city wall. Now the amount of Danyang soldier’s personnel already matched with the Urban Army.
Although in two bouts, Huang Zhong can kill Sun Ce but the time will take too long. Those two commanders will tear apart Urban Army. Huang Zhong will never let any harm happen to Liu Mang out of life debt to Liu Mang for healing his son and Liu Mang is his little lord.
“Humph!!!” Huang Zhong humphed coldly and he prepared to leave Sun Ce's location and goes to Liu Mang.
“Stop him!!!” Sun Ce said it while coughing. His order is very decisive and no hesitation at all.
“Yes, sir!!” Danyang soldiers of Zuo quickly attacked Huang Zhong. They could not disobey Sun Ce's orders and their brothers also have been killed by Huang Zhong.
“Sun Ce, do not force my hand even further!!!” Huang Zhong's eyes is flashing killing intent. This Danyang soldiers of Zuo will perish shortly by Huang Zhong.
“Hahaha, I really do not care anymore!!! All I need to do is to halt you here!!!” Sun Ce knows that Huang Zhong wants to rush toward Liu Mang and will ignore him. Sun Ce really took fancy on this Huang Zhong, but unfortunately he will not be able on his side forever. “That Lu Bu Lu Fengxian and Liu Mang Liu Hanyang, what good do they have for having a loyalty of such a valiant general? That Goddamned Slave of Three Surnames and Fake Prince of Shu, damn you both!!!” Though Sun Ce.
Danyang soldiers are gathering up one by one. Danyang soldiers feared death, but once you killed one of their people, more and more hatred gathered up turning into a craze. As we have said before, Danyang soldiers come from one town where the town only had one surname, so every single of the Danyang soldiers killed is a brother, an uncle or a father is killed.
So, Sun Ce's strategy now is to halt Huang Zhong until he managed to breakthrough Wancheng city. After that, Huang Zhong only had two options which are to surrender or continue to fight. If he surrendered then good, he will certainly hold a very high position in Jiangdong's army and may possibly lead 100,000 soldiers under him.
However Sun Ce had misjudged the situation because all of a sudden Huang Zhong said “Oh, why should I go there? As long as I have you as a hostage, it is the same as helping my little lord!!!” Huang Zhong quickly redirect his feet toward Sun Ce.
“The hell?!” Sun Ce also stunned. He really did not think that this Huang Zhong is charging toward him again now. Huang Zhong only need two bouts in order to get him as a hostage and these Danyang soldiers will not be able to stop him.
Although Danyang soldiers are strong, they only serve as elite soldiers and they are not commanders, naturally cannot know the terror of a general.
Exchanging Sun Ce with Prince of Shu? Truly this Huang Zhong is very courageous and quick thinker.
Sun Ce was already unable to fight anymore and can only support his body. Sun Ce actually did not want to lose these Danyang soldiers, but they already emitted big killing intent and Huang Zhong has killed at least 10 Danyang soldiers, so they will not miss this chance to kill him.
Also, this can be a big gamble to hold off Huang Zhong for Chen Wu and Dong Xi to grab Prince of Shu Liu Mang and let Wancheng city collapsed by itself.
Lu Bu, with Bing Province Heavy Cavalry and Formation Breaker, is the king of land warfare. Sun Ce, although he is also pretty confident himself, knows that fighting these two elites will be a very narrow win with unrecoverable damage from each sides. From 100,000 troops he maybe only left with 10,000 troops and maybe they will not win the fight. So, now, they need to conquer Wancheng city again. After Wancheng city returned to their hand, Sun Ce’s army can cut Lu Bu army's supply lines and be on defense all the time along with their natural defenses that Lu Kang and Liu Xun has built.
This Wancheng city had been besieged by Sun Ce two years ago when he was under Yuan Shu's rule. He besieged Lu Kang for a whole two years without any result rather than just cutting off Lu Kang's communication and supply routes to outside world and let them starve themselves to death.
Two years of meaningless battle. Sun Ce thought “In just two years, I can destroy Jiangxia. In just two years Yuan Shao and Cao Cao start to duke it out in Guandu!!! But I am stuck on that meaningless battle with a prolonged blockade just because the city has a natural defensive advantage!!! No more will I suffer like that!!!”
So Sun Ce roared “Fight to the death!!!” All of Danyang soldiers also bellowed “Fight to the death!!!” They must kill Huang Zhong for 10 of their uncles and relatives who died earlier.
Sun Ce and Liu Mang is fighting a bitter battle to the death.
“One general equals to a thousand men” Liu Mang finally knows what this idiom means. One of the reasons of the demise of Shu Country besides Liu Shan's stupidity is the lack of mighty generals because at the end of Three Kingdoms period, only Wei Yan is capable enough to fight and he is killed due to treason. Regarding Wei, the reason that Cao Cao unable to unify China is also because the lack of mighty general, like Lu Bu. He had Cao Ren, Xiahou Dun as his valiant generals and advisors like Guo Jia, Xun Yu and Xun You, Jia Xu and Cheng Yu, he also had the Ferocious Cavalry but he was still unable to take Wu Country and Shu Country.
As an example, historically when Zhang Fei is the only one who guarded Chang Ban Bridge. He bellowed his challenge and even killed Xiahou Jie because he is too afraid to face Zhang Fei. Zhang Fei at this timeline is still first-class general, but when they reached Chang Ban Bridge, it can be said, at that time, he already become a hyper-class general and can stand toe-to-toe with the current Lu Bu and Huang Zhong.
With such a person bellowing a challenge and with an aura to oppress people who is able to kill anyone who tried to get close to them, even Xiahou Yuan and Xiahou Dun will not approach him. Inside Cao army's massive numbers, there was only two generals who are able to fight toe-on-toe with them, and those people are Dian Wei and Xu Chu. And with Dian Wei gone, Cao Cao got more paranoid and made Xu Chu his personal bodyguard, unable to leave Cao Cao's side even for a second..
At the hand of Liu Bei, not only did they have Zhang Fei but he also had Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and Chen Dao as Zhang Fei's peers.
Zhao Yun was most famous when he alone charge 7 times while carrying baby Liu Shan in Changban. Even though he was confronted with many generals and soldiers, he still managed to get out of there alive.
Currently Liu Mang does not have those kind of generals in his hand, if only Cheng Yu or Gan Ning were here, he might stand a better chance.
“Bump!!!” Another Urban Army soldier is flying, struck by Dong Xi.
“Whiz, whiz, whiz!!!” Huang Xu is also shooting those soldiers without even stopping for a breath. All of his shots managed to kill the enemies, but every time he killed one enemy, 10 will come and replace him. The 2,000 reserve squad of the Urban Army also joined the battle. Sun Ce’s army is really all out in this battle as if they are on their last legs. They really think that they can take Wancheng city this day.
Dusk is approaching but Sun Ce’s army shows no sign of retreating at all, instead they kept piling up and charging toward them.
Reinforcements, if only they have reinforcements.
Liu Mang right now can only defend. The Danyang soldiers that Chen Wu and Dong Xi led, one by one was cut down by Urban Army, but the Urban Army also got a very big casualties now. Basically they have the same amount of loss.
Danyang soldiers actually can still afford to take losses, but the Urban Army already unable afford anymore. From 3,000, the Urban Army were spread to four gates. In Liu Mang's hand there are only 300 troops, but the Danyang soldiers got at least 2 divisions here.
The Liu clan's private soldiers were cut down from 5,000 to 2,000. From those 2,000, the numbers were cut down to more than a half of it, to separate the severely wounded, but alive with the one who is still alive and able to fight which was less than 1,000 troops.
The Urban Army who are fighting in the city wall from started 3,000 troops now had only less than 2,000 troops.
Chen Wu then exclaimed “Your Highness Prince of Shu, SURRENDER!!!” Right after saying that Chen Wu pounded the Liu clan private soldiers, killing him, and it made a sickening sound. Chen Wu really did not care about anything anymore as this is the battlefield which one must slaughter the others in order to survive.
“Surrender?! Hahaha, are you still spouting nonsense until now?” Liu Mang retorted back while glaring at Chen Wu and Dong Xi. Both of them are the ones who killed most of his Urban Army now. The Danyang soldiers are still fighting fiercely against the Urban Army, the Danyang soldiers are currently no match with coordinated attacks from the Urban Army.
“No surrender, then die!!!” Chen Wu's said it with regret. Capturing alive is better than killing, but if one does not surrender, then why bother?
“Wu, do not bother persuading him. I want to eat his body!!!” Dong Xi licked his lips.
“No, whatever you do, you can only kill him, not eat him!!!” Chen Wu disagreed. This Liu Mang is the Prince of Shu and one of the Han royalties. Although the Han Dynasty is already crumbling, but people still revere the Han. He can be killed but cannot be eaten, because it meant you ate your sovereign. Eating him will also give Cao Cao a righteous cause to destroy you.
They discussed it as if Liu Mang had already become a fish on the chopping block.
They know that Lu Bu's army had no reinforcements, even if they came, these two already know that Wancheng city will become their lord's possessions once again.
“Want this Liu Mang or this Wancheng city, go fuck yourself and die!!!” Liu Mang gritted his teeth. He is very tired. Liu Mang has been battling Sun Ce’s army from noon until now for almost 6 hours but for whatever reason, Wancheng city had not fallen.
“In that case, die for me!!!” Chen Wu also got crazy, he already wasted too much time and exclaimed “Dong Xi, attack together!!”
“Hahaha, Chen Wu, finally you go crazy too!!!” Dong Xi smiled, because Chen Wu finally had gotten enraged. Chen Wu then exclaimed “In half an hour, this Wancheng city will fall to us!!!”
Chen Wu and Dong Xi are second-class generals. Although Dong Xi had great strength, he is an untrained brute, if he met with a master like Jiang Qin, he will not win. But Jiang Qin will not easily provoke Dong Xi, as he likes to eat people and when doing battle, Chen Wu will quickly aid Dong Xi, forming tag team. Both of them are so coordinated that when battling them, it is just like fighting Taishi Ci.
“SHAAAA!!!!” Dong Xi began to charge. Dong Xi's body is huge and he is able to sweep the enemy in front easily but if he is alone, he will be very careful as in front of him there was a spear forest that Urban Army formed, but this is where Chen Wu comes in. Chen Wu with his pair of iron rod can deflect the spear wall while Dong Xi charges toward them.
The defensive formation was crumbling in front of these two’s tag-team attack!!! Each time their step made the earth tremble, they threw the balance of all Urban Army
“Easy, easy, hahahaha!!!” Dong Xi laughed. The Urban Army who managed to hit Dong Xi were not able to bring any damage to him and only brought damage to themselves, several of them were already vomiting blood, but due to great shield that they wore, it is only considered minor damage. But the same thing, cannot be said to Liu clan's private soldiers as they are currently stuck on Dong Xi's hammer like candy. Their armor is thin like paper and unable to withstand that kind of assault. Dong Xi quickly drunk their blood and exclaimed “Delicious, delicious!!!”
