Chapter 43

"Whew! Whew! Whew!..."

"Too incredible! Is this even a human? He actually used a knife to block bullets!" Zhao Futu ran for about four or five li before he finally sat down to catch his breath. The shock from Bao Xin was immense.

He finally understood why the scroll guiding newbies said that the trial missions were just the simplest tasks. Compared to this historical warrior, those wolfmen were simply too weak!

After resting for a while, Zhao Futu, having recovered a bit of his strength, hurried to catch up with the Yellow Turban soldiers who had followed him out of the battle. On the way, he thought to himself, "Is this battlefield space really from Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Could it be the Dynasty Warriors game I used to play?"

"Too terrifying!"

The strength of the warrior Bao Xin was so great that Zhao Futu found it hard to estimate his attributes. However, from Bao Xin, Zhao Futu got a sense of the power of the historical warriors in this battlefield space. Even a few of them would likely be capable of taking on a hundred enemies at least!

As for the top-tier historical figures, he couldn't even guess.

"If those warriors are really that strong, no matter how many Yellow Turbans there are, they will ultimately fail. It seems that the main goal of this battlefield mission should be to stay alive, and not to think about other things." Zhao Futu quickly made up his mind.

While catching up with the fleeing Yellow Turbans, Zhao Futu first pulled out a dagger to remove the arrowhead, then applied some medicine to the wound. As a corporal, he could receive a free medical kit every month, which contained drugs for stopping bleeding and treating wounds, but their effects were not as good as some direct recovery potions.

The medical kit could also be purchased additionally. With his rank, he could buy two more after each mission for 300 survival points, which could be accumulated.

There was also a high-protein special injection that could directly restore 100 health points, but it was too expensive, costing 2000 survival points, and required a large soul fragment. The purchase limit was one per mission.

"I wonder how much I've gained?" Taking advantage of a moment of respite, Zhao Futu began to tally his earnings from the battle.

He had killed four or five soldiers, two squad leaders, and one company leader, the latter of whom he had killed with the help of a Yellow Turban warrior, and he didn't get any items from that. The survival points gained from this battle were 863, averaging over 100 survival points per kill. The Han soldiers dropped some miscellaneous white items, and he only took light items like currency and jade, which could be exchanged for over 200 survival points.

In addition, there were the white keys dropped from the two squad leaders he killed alone!

The white key is the lowest level key, which can open white items and has a certain chance of obtaining light blue or higher equipment. In the battlefield mission, the drop rate of such white keys is relatively high. The first key opened yielded a white piece of equipment, a thirty-refined ring knife, a standard Han Dynasty weapon made from refined steel. White items do not have additional attributes, just like the Desert Eagle in his hand, which only shows attack power. This thirty-refined ring knife could be exchanged for 500 survival points, but Zhao Futu, lacking weapons, did not immediately sell it to the space.

The equipment recognized by the space can also be damaged, but there is no durability display, and it relies on the contractors to judge.

If the item is damaged, it must be repaired after returning to the space. Cold weapons have a high damage rate, and after a few battles with the company leader, a notch appeared on the fine steel long sword in Zhao Futu's hand. He was very doubtful that his weapon could last until the end of the battlefield mission. Therefore, he needed to prepare some backup weapons.

The other white key opened something quite strange, a steaming bun emitting a light blue glow!

The attributes of the bun are as follows:

"Steaming Bun." (Condition: Good.)

"Origin: Wancheng, East Gate Street Bun Shop."

"Rarity: Light Blue."

"Material: Dough, Filling, Meat."

"Weight: 200 grams."

"Effect: Consuming it immediately restores 50 health points and treats minor injuries!"

"Rating: This is a large and substantial bun. You need to eat it before it expires, remaining time 7 days. You can sell it to the space for 800 survival points, or give it to a character in the story!"

...

Looking at the items in his hand, Zhao Futu thought to himself, "The rewards from the battlefield mission are really high!"

In just one night, he had gained over a thousand survival points and two items. This was almost as much as half of the rewards from the trial main mission. The only trouble was that in the battlefield space, even a low-level officer had attributes comparable to his own, which were boosted by 50%.

Zhao Futu gritted his teeth and put the bun into his private space, saying, "There's risk, but there's also reward!"

The battlefield mission had no main storyline, it was just a platform for contractors to act freely. How much they could gain and whether they lived or died depended entirely on their own abilities.

By dawn, Zhao Futu finally caught up with the fleeing Yellow Turbans. Over a thousand people had escaped, but they had already dispersed. About a hundred Yellow Turbans had followed his lead and were heading east. They were afraid of the pursuing soldiers and had not stopped, so when Zhao Futu caught up, it was already slightly light.

When Zhao Futu caught up with them, he found that in addition to the Yellow Turbans who had followed him out, there was another group of scattered Yellow Turbans. These Yellow Turbans were not from the camp he had been in, but had fled from another direction and eventually joined up with them.

At the beginning of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Zhang Jiao divided the believers from the eight provinces of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Yu into 36 groups. Large groups had over ten thousand people, and smaller groups had six to seven thousand. Each group had a leader, and he unified their command to prepare for a large-scale uprising. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the rebel army grew rapidly, expanding to hundreds of thousands, even millions!

This can be seen from the aftermath of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, as a famous figure, Zhang Yan of the Black Mountain Bandits, claimed to have a million followers.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion, although a rebellion by the lower-class peasants, ultimately had to be borne by them. At the beginning of the uprising, the Yellow Turbans were led by the disciples of the Great Virtuous Teacher, divided into 36 groups, each with a leader. However, after the uprising, many people simply tied a yellow scarf around their heads and joined the Yellow Turbans.

Then, they began to openly plunder villages, attack county towns, and rob the wealthy.

A significant drawback of the Yellow Turbans was the lack of a complete command system. Even the Great Virtuous Teacher Zhang Jiao could only command his own Yellow Turban forces. More importantly, as a Taoist, who used talismans and water to help the sick and poor, Zhang Jiao knew very little about politics and military affairs!

He initiated the massive Yellow Turban Rebellion but could not fully command the scattered Yellow Turban groups.

At the beginning, the Great Virtuous Teacher, with his high prestige and noble ideals, not only gained a large number of followers among the lower-class people but also attracted many gentry and wealthy families who sold all their possessions to join him! In such an era, this was almost an impossible feat, and many people were influenced by Zhang Jiao's personal charisma!

However, what no one, including the Great Virtuous Teacher Zhang Jiao, expected was that after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the response from all over the Central Plains led to a result! All the bandits, robbers, horse thieves, pirates, and rebels in the Central Plains, after tying a yellow scarf around their heads, joined the Yellow Turban ranks. They began to plunder villages, attack county towns, and rob the people, even forming large groups to attack county towns, leaving no one, rich or poor, unharmed.

This directly led to the suffering of the lower-class people, and the gentry and wealthy families who had been attracted by Zhang Jiao's prestige and charisma also realized the harm of the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

Subsequently, the Yellow Turbans, led by Zhang Jiao, completely lost the support of the gentry and wealthy families! Even their prestige among the lower-class people began to wane!

The Yellow Turbans were a mixed group, and after capturing cities, they plundered and looted, and even the leaders could not control them.

Moreover, if Zhang Jiao, as a Taoist, had the same reservations as Zhuge Liang, it could explain why he died so early in the Yellow Turban Rebellion. After Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo seven times and burned the藤甲兵 (Vine Armor Soldiers), he felt his life was coming to an end. The Great Virtuous Teacher Zhang Jiao initiated the Yellow Turban Rebellion, perhaps to achieve a peaceful era, but now, indirectly, millions of people had died or lost their homes because of him!

As a Taoist, Zhao Futu was very clear about this.

Perhaps, at this moment, the Great Virtuous Teacher Zhang Jiao also felt the retribution of fate and knew he was not far from death.

...

The reason for mentioning these details is that the Yellow Turbans Zhao Futu encountered were actually bandits who had tied yellow scarves around their heads! After their defeat, these bandits were now surrounding the Yellow Turbans who had followed Zhao Futu, forcing them to hand over their food and weapons! They had also been defeated by the government forces, but their numbers were much larger. These bandits, who were originally robbers, saw no problem in robbing other Yellow Turbans!

Moreover, they had just received news that in the Battle of Wancheng, the governor of Nanyang, Qin Jie, had killed the Yellow Turban leader Zhang Mancheng, whom they had intended to join!

These people were beginning to feel that the Yellow Turban Rebellion was about to be suppressed by the Han Dynasty.

Even during their flight, their leader was already considering whether to do one last big job and then return to the mountains to be bandits again.