Chapter Fifty-Four: The Situation Becomes Critical

  Chapter 3 is sent up, nothing more to say, the promise of lighting a cigarette has been fulfilled!

  Zhao Sheng narrowly escaped back to his own camp. After Governor Liu Dai inquired about the outcome, his gloomy face finally eased up, and even showed some rare joy. It seems that if the defenders of Chang'an were a bit luckier, they might actually be able to repel Lü Bu's attack, or even capture him. This would give them the capital to negotiate with He Jin, who could then send a great general to garrison Chang'an and nip in the bud the rising storm that is Ding Yuan, preventing him from soaring to great heights!

  Pressing on with victory is the ancestral teachings of Liu Dai's ancestors. Having already pursued and defeated the enemy, one must not seek fame by imitating Xiang Yu!

  In this third battle, Liu Dai decided to take the field himself. If he was lucky, there was a chance that he could defeat Lü Bu directly!

  In the third battle, General Liu Dai personally took to the field.

  Liu Dai's military strength is not high, but it also has a value of 50 points. His intelligence value is as high as 76 points, and his comprehensive strength is also quite good. Although he is still in the lower reaches among the many generals of the Three Kingdoms, this strength has absolutely surpassed that of many dragon suit generals, including Liu Jin, the first general under his command.

  Liu Dai's troops were exceptionally expensive, being a type of crossbowman. This type of soldier was the most unusual in the Three Kingdoms period. If directly recruited, they would be inferior to ordinary soldiers in both long-range and close combat, with only average abilities.

  However, if a large amount of money is spent, it is possible to create a formidable crossbowman who can overpower all types of troops. Even the shield-bearing soldiers with the strongest defensive capabilities will tremble under the might of specially crafted elite crossbowmen!

  The crossbowmen under Liu Dai's command, although not directly recruited, also consumed little money. As a result, their long-range power was comparable to that of the archers, and since the crossbowmen had a faster shooting speed, they even had an advantage over the archers in this regard.

  Pressing the victory, Liu Dai did not hesitate at all and did not want to let Lü Bu have a chance to breathe. He wanted to take advantage of Lü Bu's greatly reduced life value to eliminate the threat!

  On the battlefield, Lü Bu gazed at the opposing troops and felt a slight tremble in his heart. As a top-notch warrior who had fought in numerous battles without ever being defeated, Lü Bu had gradually developed a warrior's intuition. This feeling made him vaguely sense that Liu Dai's archer troops were not to be underestimated.

  The battle began, and Liu Dai didn't waste any words. He started to carefully control his troops, using the bowmen he had spent a lot of money to train. As for the formation, Liu Dai naturally chose the fish scale formation, which allowed him to flexibly command the advance and retreat of his front, middle, and rear armies. Although Liu Dai's abilities couldn't bring out the full power of this formation, it was still much better than what ordinary generals could do.

  The front, middle and rear armies' archers and crossbowmen immediately moved into action. They formed neat and orderly battle formations and began to advance forward in order to launch the most intense attack on Lü Bu!

  Lü Bu slightly sensed his physical condition, and what made him disappointed was that in this battle, the strong passive skill of recovering life value still did not trigger, and his life value was still sixty-five points, without any increase.

  "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

  The bow and crossbow troops finally arrived at a location that Liu Dai considered the best, he hastily issued military orders, and suddenly the three armies' bow and crossbow troops stopped immediately.

  "Attack in place!"

  Liu Dai calmly ordered, the crossbowmen who received the military order and were located right in front of Lü Bu immediately released the crossbow arrows in their hands and continued to shoot without any hesitation!

  "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  Suppressing the disappointment in his heart, Lü Bu shot down the arrows that came flying through the air with three consecutive hits, and then his eyes reignited with a fierce fighting spirit. He patted the belly of his horse, Sweat Blood Gem Horse, and charged straight at Liu Dai!

  However, Lü Bu felt that these crossbowmen were extraordinary, but he still underestimated them. The speed of the crossbowman's arrow was faster than Lü Bu had imagined. Suddenly, an arrow came and shot directly into Lü Bu's horse's abdomen.

  "Two points!"

  Suddenly, Lü Bu's health points dropped by more than two!

  "What's going on? The morale of these crossbowmen is clearly low!"

  Lü Bu was shocked in his heart and finally felt the difference of this crossbow team.

  However, Lü Bu was a man who had long anticipated that the upcoming battle would be extremely difficult. His heart was also well-prepared, so he didn't panic at all, but calmly led the attack with arrow after arrow!

  Seeing the crossbowmen hit Lu Bu with the information transmitted by Lu Bu, Liu Dai's face showed a joyful expression. This is a good start! The crossbowmen successfully dropped two points of Lu Bu's life value, leaving him with only 63 points left. Moreover, what's even more important is that Lu Bu's life value didn't recover at all, and the skill he was most worried about didn't appear!

  That was enough to give Liu Dai immense confidence!

  But at this moment, Lü Bu's sweat-blood horse finally rushed over and came into contact with the crossbowman who had brought injury to Lü Bu.

  "Hmph!"

  That archer directly let Lü Bu kill him with one halberd, but he also established a strange merit. At the time of his death, he successfully hit Lü Bu again.

  "61 points of life!"

  Lü Bu and Liu Dai were both thinking in their hearts at the same time.

  One side was furious at another reduction in his own life value, while the other was calculating the feasibility of repelling or even capturing Lü Bu!

  Lü Bu approached Liu Dai without hesitation, immediately issued a military order for the entire army to retreat, and then immediately issued another military order for the rear army to advance.

  As a result, the front and middle teams of crossbowmen immediately retreated, while the rear army actually did not retreat but advanced, rushing straight to Lü Bu!

  Sixty-five bowmen retreated, the most rear army, with thirty-four more bowmen advancing forward, and some soldiers took the opportunity to shoot a cold arrow, thinking of Lü Bu.

  The crossbowmen who had undergone financial training, although their morale was low, but this combat literacy was not comparable to ordinary recruited crossbowmen!

  "How despicable!"

  A cold arrow successfully hit Lü Bu, causing his life value to decrease by two points again. As a result, Lü Bu's life value was left with only fifty-nine points.

  "Opportunity!"

  Moreover, what made Lü Bu's face change color even more was that a surge of energy emerged from the body of Liu Dai, the commander opposite him, which was precisely the precursor to launching the Wu Jiang plan.

  Liu Dai was also extremely excited at this moment, because his martial general skill was the single-target attack "Single Bow Flight Shot"!

  This martial art consumes 18 points of internal energy and knocks down the enemy general's life value by 15 points, at this time it can finally show its power!

  What's more important is that this skill isn't like Zhao Sheng's flying knife technique, which can be dodged. Due to its special nature, it's usually possessed by intelligent martial generals. Therefore, even the most courageous generals can't avoid being hit by this move!

  Thus, Liu Dai was overjoyed to see that Lü Bu would be left with only 44 health points after finding death, and if he made a bit more effort, he could use the second general's plan again, which would greatly increase the chances of winning this battle and even capturing Lü Bu!

  The situation has reached an extremely critical moment!

  ;