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The Yellow Turbans were the first to charge, but Sun Jian’s militia
dispersed the Turban infantry with ease. The Yellow Turbans then started to
fire on the Han lines with arrows, but they had few trained archers, so many of
the arrows fell short of their targets. Huang Gai and Han Dang then made their
first charge, following Cheng Pu’s suggestion that the Turban lines should be
attacked where they were thinnest. The Turbans reeled as men resorted to
instinct and failed to help others if it avoided risking their own survival;
their captains ordered the lines to remain as formed as possible, but once the
second Han attack on the weak points began, the chance of maintaining order
collapsed completely.
“Do we retreat?”
Huang Shao asked of the silent, mortified Liu Pi.
Sun Jian’s infantry burrowed deep into the Yellow Turban lines, and
without an array being used to trap those infiltrators, the Yellow Turban
forces were doomed to collapse.
“Do we retreat???” Huang Shao
shrieked, but Liu Pi could not find the words to respond. Some of his more
devout followers had started to chant again, but many of the people that had
joined the cause out of frustration - and there were more of them than there
were true acolytes - were surrendering or fleeing as the situation worsened for
them.
“…RETREAT!” Huang Shao
ordered, and the order was gratefully obeyed.
“Another ‘victory’,” the gore-covered Sun Jian said half-heartedly.
“More fled than died this time,” Cheng Pu suggested. “We-”
“All the same, corpses are corpses,” Sun Jian retorted. “Every one of
them, ours or theirs, is a life wasted. And where are our friends?”
“I’m sure that they’re fine,” Cheng Pu said.
“Ayah! Look at you,
Brother-in-law!” Wu Jing cried as he rode toward the two leaders. “You sent me to do worthless business so you
could endanger your life again! I should have known that-!”
“Ah, here are Huang Gongfu and
Han Yigong!” Sun Jian said as he saw Huang Gai and Han Dang approaching on
horseback. “It’s good to see that they
are unscathed.”
“And here is Zu Mao,” Cheng Pu announced as he looked in another
direction.
The six allies met and exchanged respectful bows from atop their horses.
Han Dang laughed gratefully, gestured toward Huang Gai, and said, “This
man here saved me from an early grave. His next jar of wine is on me.”
The ensemble laughed cheerfully.
“Your ideas were sound, Cheng Demou,” Huang Gai said politely.
“Thanks, Gongfu,” Cheng Pu replied awkwardly. “I was worried that I
might be wrong… if they’d been feigning the disorganisation, then-”
“They weren’t, which you
guessed correctly,” Han Dang said reassuringly.
“Quite right,” Sun Jian said as he urged his horse to begin a journey
back to the camp. “For now, let’s rest… we’ve done a lot today.”
“Yes, and you nearly got
yourself killed, as usual!” Wu Jing scolded as he rode after Sun Jian. “Look at the
state of you! What would my sister say if-”
“Does she even need to know?” Sun Jian countered.
“Does she even need to be told???”
Wu Jing retorted. “I warned her that it would be pointless! You were never
going to listen to me!”
Sun Jian sighed wearily, while his friends laughed at his demeanour.