The great war of the three kingdoms forty-sixth chapter: Guo Sheng loses his beloved wife, Han army confronts Tan Shi Huan.

  Emperor Liu Hong sent the servant Zhong Shuye with a golden seal and an edict to summon Lu Bu in Beidi. Zhong Shuye was a descendant of a famous family, the grandson of Shen Jun Xunshu, and the elder brother of Xun Yu. He had a mind to retire due to seeing eunuchs abusing power. Lu Bu knew that Zhong's family was extraordinary, so he treated him with great courtesy when he came to Beidi for the first time. This time, when he came to Beidi again, they became even more familiar and had many conversations. When Lu Bu learned that Zhong wanted to retire, he sighed in his heart that the imperial court could not accommodate people. He invited Zhong, saying that if he was dissatisfied, he could come to Youzhou to find him, and he would treat him generously. Zhong was grateful and later returned to Luoyang to report back.

  Lü Bu received the imperial edict, and arranged for his men to adjust their defenses. He had all those who were going with him to Youzhou bring their families to Maliang. Once the new governor of Beidi arrived and took over, they would leave. Everyone began to bustle about. From time to time, there were also people from Shuofang or Beidi who came to join Lü Bu after hearing that he was going to be transferred. Seeing the common people bringing their children and carrying large packages, coming from hundreds of miles away, Lü Bu refused to turn them away, and ordered Gao Shun to take care of them, and they would all leave together when the time came.

  Lü Bu was going to leave, and Cai Yong would naturally be taken away. Lü Bu was originally tyrannical, and although Cai's family had been imprisoned by the Emperor, since Lü Bu had already secretly settled them in Maliang, he didn't care about changing places either, so he also arranged for Cai's family to follow the army to Daijun.

  Soon, the newly appointed governor of Beidi, Huangfu Song, took office. Lü Bu left 4,000 Beidi soldiers for Huangfu Song. Although these Beidi cavalry had been with Lü Bu for a short time, they had often followed him in plundering the Left Wing Xiongnu and Hu Qiang, and had also pacified the rebellion of the Left Xiaowang. More importantly, Lü Bu's military law was strict, and for the declining Eastern Han court, this was already a rare and well-fought army. What Lü Bu did not expect was that it was this Beidi cavalry that later became Dong Zhuo's powerful army in Luoyang.

  Huangfu Song. Lü Bu also knew that he was one of the three generals who suppressed the Yellow Turbans, and he was a kind and cautious person who devoted himself to national affairs.

  The handover was quickly completed with Fu Huan's assistance. After the handover, Lü Bu said to Huangfu Song: "Although the northern soldiers who followed me were not with me for long, they had pacified the rebellious Left Wing Xiongnu and were well-trained in battle. I hope you will treat them kindly."

  Huangfu Song also knew that Lü Bu was fierce and brave, and had heard that his military discipline was strict. Seeing the soldiers in the camp with their heads held high, he had a lot of admiration in his heart. When entering the city, he saw that there were civilians pulling children and daughters, wanting to follow Lü Bu to Daijun, and even more admired Lü Bu. He said: "Fengxian can rest assured, let's work together for the country, Song will not dare to slack off."

  Lü Bu thought that this matter should also be reported to Huangfu Song, so he said: "I have a request. Cai Yong is indeed a prisoner, but he is my close relative. I have already arranged for him to go to Dai Prefecture, and I hope you can show some leniency in this matter."

  Huangfu Song also knew Cai Yong's great reputation, so he naturally didn't want to make things difficult for him. He smiled and said: "I've heard about the relationship between Gong Zixuan and Boji, but I don't know anything about this matter."

  Lü Bu saw Huangfu Song's strange smile, thinking that he also thought so, but Lü Bu wouldn't care about that. Since he pretended not to know, it was easy to handle.

  October 6th, Guangxu year.

  Lü Bu gathered six hundred elite cavalry, three hundred wolf riders, and two hundred of Gao Shun's orphan army, escorting the civilians to Dai Commandery. The total number of soldiers and civilians was around four to five thousand. Along the way, there were many difficulties, not only because the journey was long, but also because the weather was extremely cold, and from time to time, some weak people fell ill and died.

  Lü Bu wanted to cross the Yellow River from Pingzhou's Shangjun, enter Yanzheng, and then proceed to Daizhou. At this time, in October, it was cold winter, and those who were weak on the journey were prone to catching wind and cold. The troops entered Shangjun, just after crossing the Yellow River into the Lüliang Mountains, when it was announced that Gao Shun's wife, Lady Gao, had also caught a cold.

  Lü Bu and Yan Ni came from nearly two thousand years later, since birth they didn't know how many preventive injections they had received, naturally their immune system was super strong. Generally, a cold would heal itself after a few days without any medicine, which is normal. He didn't know that nowadays people can hardly get vaccines, let alone medicines for typhoid fever. Once infected with typhoid fever, death from illness was a common occurrence.

  So Gao Shun's wife, Lady Gao, contracted typhoid fever. Lü Bu didn't take it seriously, thinking it was just a minor cold. He asked Gao Shun if it was serious, and Gao Shun, being a strict person, told him not to worry about it. They couldn't delay their journey because of one person's illness, so the troops continued on their way. But after several days, Lady Gao unexpectedly passed away.

  Gao Shun's wife and child, Gao Shi, died of illness. Lü Bu was momentarily stunned and muttered to himself: "It's just a cold, how did it...".

  Yanni hugged Gao Shun's son Gao Hu and stood on one side.

  Gao Shun sighed and said: "My wife was unfortunate, she had been weak since childhood, and it was only natural that she died of illness."

  Although Gao Shun spoke of righteousness, he was secretly suffering a thousand torments. Originally taciturn and rarely speaking, from then on Gao Shun became even more uncommunicative, spending his days with the troops, transforming the orphan army into an elite vanguard, attacking without being defeated, winning every battle.

  In the sixth year of Guangwu, in November, Lü Bu arrived at Dai Commandery's Gaoliu County. The Xianbei were attacking the outer city of Baiyang outside the Longcheng Pass of Dai Commandery. Lü Bu immediately summoned the Administrator of the commandery, Yan Rou, the Commandant, Xianyu Fu, and the Military Marquises, Qi Zhou and Xianyu Yin to understand the military situation in Dai Commandery. Yan Rou had been a slave among the Xianbei when he was young and had some understanding of Xianbei affairs. Xianyu Fu and Xianyu Yin were brothers and descendants of the Southern Xiongnu.

  Lü Bu learned that the fifteen counties of Dai Commandery, including Sanggan, Gaoliu, Majun Pass, Dangcheng and Pingyu, had a border army of no more than 3,000 troops. Gaoliu only had 500 defending soldiers. At this time, the Xianbei army from Wuyuan to Huang River in the east to Shanggu Commandery had 200,000 to 300,000 cavalrymen. The territory outside the Great Wall of Dai Commandery was the main force of the Xianbei king Tanshihuai, with 5,000 cavalrymen, who were raiding and looting Baideng City.

  Lü Bu ordered Yan Rou to settle the refugees, while Xian Yu Fu and others led the vanguard to guard the passes of the Great Wall. He himself reorganized his palace guards and after a day's preparation, he wanted to meet with Tan Shi Huai.

  On the second day, Lü Bu's elite cavalry and Yang Feng's wolf cavalry merged with Xian Yu Huan's unit, totaling 1,000 horsemen. They left through the narrow pass of Changchengguan and headed towards Baideng. Xian Yu Huan and Yang Feng's wolf cavalry were not as strong as Lü Bu's elite guards, so they were assigned to the two flanks. The army marched north, and after scouting ten miles ahead, they reported back that Tan Chong had abandoned the city of Baideng and was leading 5,000 Xianbei horsemen to meet up with Lü Bu.

  Tan Shi Huai was quite intelligent and had strategies, although he raided the city of Baideng, he did not forget to send scouts to explore. Therefore, as soon as Lü Bu came out of the Ma Rong Pass, he was discovered by Tan Shi Huai. Lü Bu originally wanted to launch a surprise attack, but since it didn't work, he had no choice but to form an array for battle.

  After the scouts reported back, they immediately returned to the formation. Lü Bu gave a loud order and a thousand cavalrymen formed up in array to await the enemy. However, Xianyu Fu and Yang Feng were not very familiar with Lü Bu's cavalry formation, so they could only provide protection on both sides. Lü Bu rode his horse towards Tan Shi Huan at the center of the formation. The two armies met twenty miles north of Changchengguan and Majiakou.

  The two armies faced each other at a distance of five hundred paces. Lü Bu saw that the Xianbei cavalry was divided into two types: one type was archer soldiers who shot arrows from behind, and the other type was charging cavalry who wielded knives to slash and kill. This mixed formation of close combat and long-range shooting was very deadly, so Lü Bu did not dare to be careless. After all, Tan Chongyu was no ordinary person, and his military strength was five times that of his own. Now the best choice was to use momentum to crush the enemy, only then would there be a chance of victory. Otherwise, these thousand cavalry might have to meet their end here.

  Then Lü Bu did not say much, and with a loud shout: "Kill..." He charged forward on his horse, rushing towards the Xianbei army. His personal guards followed closely behind him, having fought many battles where they were outnumbered, it was nothing to them. Everyone considered Lü Bu a god of war, seeing him charge forward, they followed close behind. Yang Feng's wolf cavalry also knew how formidable Lü Bu was, and after the battle at Jiluo Fortress, they regarded him as their military soul, so they also charged forward with the imperial guards. Only Xian Yu's troops saw that the Xianbei forces were numerous, and it was inevitable that the army's morale would be unstable. But seeing that the troops had already charged into battle, he could only follow up.