Three Kingdoms New Lü Bu

  Lü Bu thought for a night, and the next day he got up early to patrol the city. Wang Biao had already escaped from Shuofang overnight, so when Lü Bu saw that the county government was empty, he called someone to bring Yan Ni and Li Yu'er, and arranged for them to move into the county government. He himself brought a few guards to patrol. Along the way, they did see many people, Gao Shun and others were spreading military orders everywhere. From time to time, there were civilians who were terrified and wanted to resist the order and escape, but they were caught by Cheng Lian and beaten with a few lashes, so they didn't dare to disobey the order.

  Lü Bu led his troops to the south gate, but found that the south gate was in a state of commotion. As he rode closer on horseback, he saw Cao Xing arguing with an old man. Behind the old man were big and small carts, with over ten men, women, and children, all carrying large and small packages. Lü Bu took one look and understood the situation somewhat.

  Cao Xing saw Lü Bu coming and, as if seeing his master, hurried over to him with a flattering smile. He said: "General, this is the wealthy Wei family from the north of the city, also distant relatives of Wei Wen Sima. They insist on leaving the city, but I am trying to stop them. Your arrival is timely, please take charge."

  The old man saw Lü Bu coming, so he stepped forward and saluted: "General, are you well? I heard that the Xianbei were going to raid the northern border, so my whole family fled south. I hope General will make an exception and let us leave the city." After finishing speaking, he called someone to bring over a package, wanting to give it to Lü Bu.

  Lü Bu glanced at the bundle and ignored it, saying to the old man: "I have already issued a military order. This year, the Xianbei bandits invaded the northern border, I will die defending the northern border, not allowing the Xianbei to take away a single grain of food. All the old and young in the city must cooperate with the soldiers to defend the city, and are not allowed to abandon the city. You want to escape from the city, this is violating my military order. I will spare you because you are civilians in the city, unaware of the strict military law, and it's your first offense. You should return quickly. If you continue to entangle, I will enforce the military law."

  Wei's old family was not dead, and he said: "We are ordinary people, how can we be bound by military law? The military marquis wants to defend the city, and we admire him. But we are just ordinary people, in the past when Wang Xianzhi encountered the Xianbei bandits on the border, they all took the whole city's population to escape into the pass. How can the military marquis today want us ordinary people to resist those northern wolves with eggs hitting stones?

  Lü Bu's face turned red with rage. He shouted in a cold voice, "Shut up! If you continue to waver the army's morale like this, I'll make you regret it."

  Wei's old man still relied on his old age and said: "The army general has already led hundreds of soldiers to resist thousands of Xianbei wolves, this is a self-inflicted death. I advise the army general to lead the people to escape into the pass, which is the best plan. My family will leave the city today, and I hope the army general will let us go."

  Lü Bu's anger grew with each passing moment, and he roared in a stern voice: "You old bones, how dare you stir up my army!" As soon as he finished speaking, the ghostly halberd in his hand also made its move. With a "whooshing" sound, the old man was beheaded. The Wei family's old and young saw this and cried out in disarray. Lü Bu shouted: "Anyone who dares to speak of leaving the city will be beheaded!"

  Originally, there were some who had hoped to leave the city, but seeing this situation, they all gave up on the idea of leaving. At this time, Gao Shun was just finishing his task and came to report back to Lü Bu. Lü Bu happened to issue another order: "Issue an order throughout the city, immediately implement military control, mobilize grain and fodder, unify distribution, distribute rations according to population every day, and severely punish those who disobey military orders without exception."

  Gao Shun left again with his orders.

  Half a month later, the villagers of Zhufang Village gathered in the city of Zhufang, with a total of 3,210 people. There were 120 soldiers and more than 600 able-bodied men. More than 5,000 stones of grain were requisitioned. The soldiers ate their fill every day, the able-bodied men ate twice a day, and the women, children, and elderly each had one meal and one thin porridge per day. If they could save some more, they could eat for another year.

  Lü Bu ordered his men to dig a trench, over 30 zhang long, three zhang away from the north and south gates of Shouchun. He also had them make leather armor for the soldiers using cowhide and sheepskin, and set up wooden boards on the city walls as defensive structures. To prevent the Xianbei from using fire arrows, he stockpiled some cowhide and hung a large piece of stitched-together cowhide at the gate tower's watchtower slit to serve as a protective door cover. (The watchtower slit is located above the city gate, below the gate tower, and has a one-foot wide gap for observing the city gate. If an enemy charges into the city gate, hot oil can be poured down from the watchtower slit to scald them. In case of a fire attack, water can be splashed from this place to extinguish the flames.) He also had many wells dug within the city. All the old and young people in the city worked together to build defensive structures.

  Lü Bu's military law was very strict, and the soldiers did not dare to bully the civilians. Originally, many ordinary people could not eat their fill. Now Lü Bu distributed food equally, and they were able to eat more than before. Everyone supported him and worked hard with all their might. Although a few wealthy families were dissatisfied with Lü Bu's grain collection, war was imminent, and they did not dare say much, fearing that it would bring disaster upon themselves, so they could only cooperate.

  Before Lü Bu took in Li Yu'er, he had already taken in all the orphans and widows in Shouchun City to the county government, so that the county government had servants and lower officials, and also made the people of Shouchun praise and support him. Yan Ni didn't dare to be lazy either, every day she was busy with these orphans and widows, either sewing leather armor for the soldiers or cooking rice porridge for the people in the city. In just over a dozen days, everyone in Shouchun knew that Yan Ni was Lü Bu's wife, a beautiful military marquis's wife. Yan Ni had wanted to explain earlier, but unfortunately, she couldn't argue her way out of it, so she could only let them call her Military Marquis's Wife.

  The Mid-Autumn Festival is over. Lü Bu was busy directing the defensive work of Shouchun, but unfortunately, time waits for no man, and the preparations on the city wall had not yet reached Lü Bu's satisfaction. The bows, arrows, and weapons in the city were also not fully prepared, and the Xianbei cavalry had already arrived.

  Lü Bu was busy helping to pile up logs and rocks on the gate tower of the North Gate, when he heard a distant shout from below the city: "Enemy attack... Enemy attack... The Xianbei people have come..."

  Lü Bu listened and immediately grasped the Heaven-Shaking Halberd with one hand and held the Dragon-Tongue Bow tightly with the other, looking towards the north. In the distance, dust was swirling and flags were waving, a group of cavalrymen were rushing towards Shaoxing City. Several horses that had gone out to scout returned hastily to the city.

  Lü Bu shouted at the city gate: "No need to panic, quickly close the city gate and fill up the earth bags." Then he turned his head to look left and right, seeing the new recruits on the city wall with fear in their eyes. A loud shout came: "What are you afraid of? All hide under the shields, archers get ready!"

  The soldiers and civilians of Shuofang saw that Lü Bu had no fear, and they regained their composure. They all hid under the shields placed on the city wall.

  The Xianbei cavalry, led by a middle-aged Han man, rushed to the foot of Shuofang City. At first, they were surprised, but then burst out laughing, their faces showing surprise and delight. The Xianbei soldiers yelled like wolves: "Hoo... hoo... hoo!" Under the command of the middle-aged Han man, the Xianbei soldiers rushed towards the city gate one after another.

  Lü Bu leaned his ghostly halberd against the city wall, drew his bow with his left hand and grasped an arrow with his right. Seeing the Xianbei soldiers rushing into range, he shouted: "Aim and shoot!" As soon as he finished speaking, an arrow flew out and hit a Xianbei cavalryman who was running at the front. The cavalryman immediately fell to the ground, trampled by the horses behind him in the blink of an eye. The soldiers on the city wall also shot arrows at the Xianbei soldiers, who shot back at the city wall with crossbows. All that could be heard were the sounds of "zi la ba la", as the arrows shot by the Xianbei cavalry hit the shields, only a few passing through the gaps in the shields and hitting one or two Shuofang soldiers.

  Lü Bu was a divine archer, one arrow for one person, every arrow hit the enemy, and the more he shot, the more comfortable he felt. Then, he suddenly drew three arrows in succession, his bowstring ringing out three times, shooting three arrows in rapid succession, hitting three people, and in an instant, he shot down seven or eight Xianbei cavalrymen.

  The Xianbei cavalry came in waves, shooting arrows at the city gate. The soldiers on the walls of Shuofang also shot and killed the Xianbei cavalry one after another. Lü Bu's army had shields to protect themselves on the wall, although they were outnumbered, but their casualties were small. The Xianbei cavalry was shooting upwards from under the city wall without any cover, suffering heavy casualties. Moreover, some of them ran fast and got close to the city gate, but suddenly fell into the horse pit and died. The Xianbei suffered several times more casualties than Shuofang.

  The Xianbei first launched a fierce attack, but seeing that it was not effective, they divided their army and went around to the south gate. This way, the pressure on the north gate could be alleviated. Lü Bu saw that his soldiers were suffering heavy casualties, and there were few medicines left in the city. He urgently ordered Cheng Lian to lead a team to collect strong liquor from the wealthy households in the city to clean the wounds of the injured soldiers. On the other hand, he instructed the strong men to remove the arrow-filled shields, pull out the arrows, move them to the foot of the city wall, and let the craftsmen inside the city sort them out. Those that could be used were taken back to the top of the city wall for the soldiers to use, those that could be repaired were reworked and repaired, and those that could not be used had their arrowheads removed and collected to make new arrows. The women and children in the city also came to the workshop under Yan Ni's leadership to help sort out the arrows or bandage the wounded.

  The Xianbei troops attacked and shot for a while, leaving behind more than 100 corpses. They also killed or injured about a dozen strong porters from the Northern Dynasties who were transporting supplies, as well as several soldiers, but gained nothing else.

  Seeking gold medals, seeking collection, seeking likes, seeking comments, seeking red envelopes, seeking gifts, all kinds of seeking, whatever you want, just throw it over!