Insufficient balance

  Ma Yue dodged the fatal kick with a sideways roll, but before he could get up, he heard another sharp whizzing sound behind his head. Ma Yue's gallbladder was about to burst, and with both arms exerting force, he slid forward like a giant lizard for several meters. During this process, he felt a chill in his crotch, turned his head back, and saw that the Xiliang cavalryman's horse-cutting knife had just split open his pants, narrowly missing his testicles by a hair's breadth.

  However, Ma Yue's good luck only went this far. The strenuous front slide just now had exhausted all his strength, and now his hands and feet were heavier than lead, unable to move a single bit.

  The Western Cool cavalry seemed to have seen Ma Yue's predicament, and slowly approached on horseback, with the horse-killing knife in his hand raised high again...

  Ma Yue sighed in his heart, is he going to die? It's really unwilling.

  "Big brother, I've come to save you."

  A tender voice came, Ma Yue turned his head to look back, but it was 16-year-old Chen Gan waving a wooden gun with both ends sharpened, rushing back fearlessly and recklessly trying to save Ma Yue. This kid didn't even think of running away himself, at such a young age, he's quite righteous.

  "Don't, Chen Da, run quickly!"

  Ma Yue was shocked. He had promised Chen Xu to take care of Chen Gan's two brothers, and he absolutely could not let him die in battle at the age of 16.

  The eyes of the Western Cool cavalry flashed with a beastly light, abandoning the dying horse and turning to ride towards Chen Gan.

  "Kill!"

  Chen Gan let out a loud, piercing cry with his tender voice, holding the wooden spear and thrusting it into the chest of the Western Liang cavalry. The Western Liang cavalry, however, seemed to ignore this attack, raising their sabers high once again. Ma Jue let out a sigh in his heart, thinking that Chen Gan couldn't escape even if he wanted to now. Rather than dying pitifully while running away, it was better to die in battle right now.

  But the Western Liang cavalry's blade never came down, and Chen Gan's wooden spear pierced his chest cavity with a loud thud.

  "Hmm... "

  The Western Xia cavalry let out a terrifying cry from the depths of their throats, and then one by one fell off their horses, the masterless warhorses whinnying in grief, circling around the dead cavalrymen, as if unable to bear leaving them behind alone.

  Chen Gan's hands, which had been gripping the wooden gun tightly, suddenly loosened like they had been electrocuted. When he saw that the Western Liang cavalryman was already lying on the ground convulsing, he finally let out a miserable cry and fell to the ground, dry retching violently.

  Ma Yue's mind was in a daze, and the feeling of being reborn after a disaster was just like this - everything felt too unreal.

  Chen Gan's reaction was not surprising to Ma Yue, who was even more unbearable than Chen Gan after his first kill. However, the Xiliang cavalryman was not killed by Chen Gan. Before Chen Gan's wooden spear pierced his chest, an arrow had already shot through his throat.

  A deafening shout came from the rear, Ma Jue turned back and saw countless Yellow Turbans rushing forward like a swarm of locusts, filling the entire mountain and field. At the forefront of the surging Yellow Turban army, a lone rider shot arrow after arrow, each one hitting its mark, another Western Liang cavalryman fell from his horse.

  What a fine archery! Ma Chao's face changed color.

  "Thank you for saving my life, may I know your name?"

  "What a wonderful day!"

  A burly man with a black face urged his horse on, its hooves pounding the ground like thunder. He had stowed away his bow and arrows and now held aloft a long cavalry sabre. Like a whirlwind sweeping away the last wisps of cloud, he galloped past the youth's side, the iron hooves missing his face by mere inches. The snow churned up by the horse's hooves splattered against his head and face.

  Dong Zhuo's face changed and became very unsightly as he was suddenly confronted with a large number of Yellow Turbans, which was indeed a troublesome matter for him. Although his thousand Western Liang Iron Cavalry had charged through the original few thousand Yellow Turbans, the situation had turned into a one-sided massacre, and Dong Zhuo believed that if he had just half an hour more, he would be able to thoroughly exterminate this group of Yellow Turbans.

  At this time, a large number of Yellow Turban bandit reinforcements arrived, and his Western Liang Iron Cavalry had already mixed with the fleeing Yellow Turbans, making the entire battlefield as chaotic as a pot of porridge. What's more, among the arriving Yellow Turban reinforcements were also cavalrymen, who had bypassed the chaotic battlefield and were now circling around from both sides to attack Dong Zhuo's rear formation.

  Xu Rong spurred his horse to ride up to Dong Zhuo and said urgently, "My lord, the enemy is too strong, quickly order the troops to retreat, otherwise not a single one of us will be able to return alive to Liangzhou."

  "How hateful!"

  Dong Zhuo swung his whip in hatred, and the cooked duck flew away again. How could he not hate it? But Xu Rong was right, if they didn't retreat now, once the large group of Yellow Turbans arrived, his thousand-strong Western Liang Iron Cavalry would likely be completely annihilated here. A lost battle can still be won back, but if the army is lost, then he would truly be finished.

  "Fall back!"

  Dong Zhuo shouted loudly, ordering the soldiers to sound the golden horn. The Western Liang Iron Cavalry, who had been killing with bloodshot eyes, suddenly stopped their pursuit upon hearing the horn and no longer entangled themselves with the Yellow Turbans, instead slowly retreating.

  Seeing the officers and soldiers advancing and retreating in an orderly manner, with strict discipline, Ma Chao couldn't help but shake his head and sigh. Turning back to look at the Yellow Turban bandits, the fleeing defeated soldiers not only blocked the way for the reinforcements to pursue, but also disrupted the formation of the reinforcements, causing a considerable commotion. If it weren't for Dong Zhuo's fear of the Yellow Turbans' military strength being too great and not daring to act rashly, or if Dong Zhuo had an additional thousand Western Liang Iron Cavalry in his hands, the consequences would be unthinkable.

  But in this battle, the Yellow Turbans were considered to have won after all.

  The Yellow Turbans symbolically chased for a while before retreating and stopping their pursuit. They each took stock of their losses.

  Liu Bi gathered the remaining soldiers and counted the seriously wounded, only to find that there were no more than 1,500 people left. This battle had lost nearly half of its troops, and the heroic spirit he originally had in his heart had long since dissipated.

  Liu Bei arranged for his soldiers to return to their camp to rest and tend to the wounded, while he himself came to thank Zhao Hong with a humble attitude.

  Zhao Hong was the leader of the Yellow Turban army that came to rescue, he and Liu Bi were both disciples of the so-called "Great Virtuous Teacher" Zhang Jiao. After the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, they each led a group of troops to respond to the call. Previously, Liu Bi had won several victories in a row, and his troops had grown to 5,000 people, but today's battle immediately reduced them back to their original shape, leaving only 1* behind.

  Under Zhao Hong's command were 50,000 people. In the entire Nanyang region, except for the great general Zhang Mancheng, it was Zhao Hong's power that was the greatest. At that time, Nanyang was the southern center of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and the main rebellious forces included Zhang Mancheng, Zhao Hong, Han Zhong, Sun Xia, Gong Dou, and Liu Bi, among others, with a total of 3 million people.

  But these Yellow Turbans were really not worth mentioning, in history, the last famous general of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhu Yue, after pacifying the Huangjin Yellow Turbans, only brought a few thousand government troops south, and with the assistance of local landlords and powerful families, they eliminated this powerful rebellious force.

  ……

  Liu's army camp was in low spirits, with a mournful atmosphere prevailing everywhere.

  Soldiers who had been lightly wounded huddled together in twos and threes, their eyes vacant, their expressions dull. The more seriously wounded were abandoned in the corners of the camp, left to wait for death as there was no other choice, and in fact, with the medical standards at that time, it was impossible to save them anyway. More soldiers had expressionless faces, turning a blind eye to all this, ah, human life is like grass in a chaotic world, who knows if they can see tomorrow's sun? Who still has the mood to care about others?

  Ma Yue stuffed half a bun into Chen Gan's hand and said calmly, "Eat."

  Chen swallowed his saliva and shook his head.

  Ma Yue let out a sigh and stuffed half a steamed bun into Chen Gan's hand. The food of the Yellow Turban bandits was tied to war, after winning a battle they would eat and drink well, sometimes even getting money, but if they lost, their treatment would plummet. Ma Yue, as a shield bearer, could still get half a steamed bun, while miscellaneous soldiers like Chen Gan could only go hungry.

  There were also many Han military officers among the Yellow Turbans, so they imitated the Han army and divided their troops into several levels.

  The worst are the miscellaneous soldiers, their weapons are all wooden or bamboo-made knives, swords and guns, with very low combat effectiveness. Like Chen Gan, during battles these miscellaneous soldiers often rush to the front line, serving as cannon fodder to consume the enemy's morale. Therefore, it was not easy for Ma Yue to survive and become a knife shield hand.

  A slightly better one is the knife shield hand, miscellaneous soldiers will automatically become a knife shield hand after killing more than ten officers and men. The weapons of the knife shield hand are generally pu dao and wooden shields.

  Even better is the long spearman, the long spearman's body is covered with light armor, although it may not be able to withstand arrows, but that is a symbol of status, so every knife shield hand wants to become a long spearman.

  Dagger shield hands and long gun soldiers are the mainstay of the Yellow Turbans, after the cannon fodder is consumed, it's their turn to take the stage.

  In the more powerful Yellow Turban army, there were also archers. Archers are considered to be the safest type of soldier in the Yellow Turbans. As long as they don't encounter cavalry like the Western Liang today, they can basically all survive.

  It's just elite troops now.

  Each Yellow Turban leader would select strong and robust soldiers from the army to form an elite force. These elite forces wore heavy armor, were well-equipped, and some even had war horses. They generally served as the leader's bodyguards and would not easily go into battle unless in specific circumstances.

  For example, in today's battle, Liu Bi fell into the trap of the government army and mistakenly believed that the elite Xiliang Iron Cavalry was just a miscellaneous army. He put his elite soldiers at the forefront, resulting in heavy casualties. On the contrary, the miscellaneous soldiers who were usually placed at the front to serve as cannon fodder had the least casualties this time.

  In fact, the chaotic world of ancient times was far more cruel than imagined, and not as simple as described. Even if Ma Chao possessed two thousand years of wisdom and could predict the future, it would still be difficult to stand out in this era of strict hierarchy and brutal bloodshed.

  In Ma's own words, it was already very difficult for him to have made it this far.

  Chen Gan smiled and stuffed half a bun into his mouth, actually he was already starving! Ma Yue closed his eyelids, actually he was also hungry, very hungry, but he had promised Chen Xu to take good care of his two sons.

  Bang!

  A whip cracked, followed by Chen Gan's pained grunt.

  Ma Yue suddenly opened his eyes, only to see Chen Gan covering his face and falling to the ground. The half piece of mantou also rolled to the ground, and a big foot ruthlessly stepped down, trampling it deep into the muddy ground.

  Ma Yue grabbed the steel knife and stood up, a fierce light had already flashed out of his eyes. More than a month of cruel experience made him deeply understand a truth, if you want to survive in a chaotic world, you must be ruthless, more ruthless than others, sheep are destined to be eaten by wolves.