Chapter 3

Just half an hour later, more than twelve thousand soldiers under Gong Du's command were either dead or injured, with only a few managing to escape. The conscripted civilian laborers were almost all killed in the chaos.

Cao's cavalry seized part of the supplies, and burned the rest. Six thousand cavalrymen turned south, heading towards Ancheng.

By this time, it was already dark. The vast wilderness was filled with the stench of blood, and packs of wild dogs appeared, gnawing on the corpses. It was crucial to stay far from the battlefield.

Liu Jian ran for over twenty miles in one breath. He was smart; after entering the forest, he made a large circle and headed northwest, the direction from which the cavalry had come, to avoid them.

He entered a low, gentle hill, where the trees were lush. Here, he was no longer in danger. He found a large rock to sit on, catching his breath. The few civilian laborers who had fled with him had scattered, leaving him alone.

Liu Jian sighed. He had been in this era for three days, and only now could he calm down to think about some issues.

In fact, he had already guessed the time. He was familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Hearing the civilian laborers mention Runan Commandery, and connecting the dots with "Runan Commandery, Cao's army, and the Yellow Turbans," he began to understand.

This should be when Liu Bei, after leaving Yuan Shao, took over the remnants of the Yellow Turban forces led by Liu Pi and Gong Du in Runan, preparing to attack Xuchang, but was counterattacked by Cao Cao.

Right! It's the sixth year of the Jian'an era. Liu Jian suddenly remembered that the next step for Liu Bei would be to seek refuge with Liu Biao in Jingzhou.

So, what should he do? Should he seek refuge with Liu Biao, or... seek refuge with Cao Cao? Of course, he should seek refuge with Cao Cao, but what could he rely on?

Liu Jian's mind was in turmoil, and he couldn't make up his mind.

At this moment, his stomach growled loudly. He reached into his chest and unexpectedly found half a pancake, probably left over from lunch. He was overjoyed; this half a pancake would be enough to sustain him until the next morning.

Liu Jian took a few bites of the pancake. In the Han dynasty, they didn't know how to ferment dough, so the pancakes were solid and hard to bite, dry and difficult to swallow. These pancakes were called "water-drawn pancakes" and had to be broken into pieces and soaked in water to eat.

The pancake was hard to swallow, and his throat was dry and burning. Liu Jian stood up and looked around; he needed to find a stream.

This was a low, gentle hill, only slightly higher than the plain, but it spanned over ten miles. The entire hill was covered with dense forests, and in the middle of the forest, there was an east-west road, a necessary route to Jingzhou.

The forest at night was filled with strange sounds, and the eerie cries of night owls made one's hair stand on end. Without any means of self-defense, he didn't dare to walk in the forest.

War had broken out in Runan Commandery, and the bodies of the dead were scattered everywhere. Packs of wild dogs roamed the wilderness, and if he encountered them, he would surely die.

Liu Jian followed the road westward. After walking about two or three miles, he noticed a fork in the road. Listening carefully, he heard the sound of flowing water from the direction of the fork.

Liu Jian was overjoyed and ran towards the fork. After about a hundred steps, he saw a small river, about ten feet wide, winding through the forest. The moonlight filtered through the treetops, casting a mysterious, half-lit, half-dark glow on the river.

But Liu Jian suddenly stopped running about ten steps away, his eyes fixed on a bush...

Behind the bush was a overturned ox cart, with a large wooden wheel sticking up. Several bodies lay around it. An old man lay under the wheel, his body mangled with blood. The cart driver was hanging from the cart shaft, with several arrows in his back. Not far away, a man in white lay on the ground.

There was another body in the cart, a young boy, about fifteen or sixteen years old, roughly the same age as Liu Jian, a bit shorter, but tall. He had been stabbed multiple times and was covered in blood.

Liu Jian sighed. In times of chaos, people were worse off than dogs. These people seemed to have some status, but what good was it? In times of chaos, one had to know how to run and hide to survive.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed that the man in white seemed to move. Liu Jian was stunned; was this man still alive?

He quickly approached. It was a middle-aged man, with a bloody wound on the back of his head. There didn't seem to be any other injuries. Liu Jian felt his nose; he was still breathing, seemingly just unconscious.

He tore off a piece of the man's robe, dipped it in the river, and slowly squeezed it into the man's mouth, then wiped his forehead.

Perhaps the water helped, as the man slowly opened his eyes. He looked at Liu Jian dazedly and whispered, "We encountered... Cao's cavalry. Tell Liu the Governor... "

Just as he finished speaking, he fainted again. Liu Jian scratched his head, feeling a headache. Which Liu the Governor? He didn't specify. Was it Liu Bei, the Governor of Yuzhou, Liu Biao, the Governor of Jingzhou, or Liu Zhang, the Governor of Yizhou? All three seemed to be Liu the Governor.

Liu Jian put the man down and searched the ox cart. Apart from some broken and scattered bamboo slips, there was nothing else, which disappointed him. Even a knife would have been useful!

He looked around again, trying to see as far as possible. Suddenly, he noticed something in a patch of grass about ten steps away.

Liu Jian quickly approached and found a leather bag in the grass. The bag was heavy, making him very happy. Why was it left in the grass?

He quickly opened the bag, and a short sword caught his eye. The scabbard was richly decorated with gold and silver threads and inlaid with several gemstones. He drew the sword, and the blade was white and extremely sharp, clearly a valuable weapon.

At that moment, if he had been alert, he would have felt a sense of danger, a survival instinct honed through countless hunts. This instinct made him involuntarily roll to the left, moving a yard away.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Two arrows whizzed through the air, hitting the spot where he had been.

Liu Jian then noticed that two Cao army soldiers had appeared, one in front and one behind, silently surrounding him.

These were two Cao army cavalrymen. The leather bag in the grass was their hiding place. When they quietly returned to retrieve it, they found it had been taken, which enraged them.

"Boy, put it down!" one soldier growled.

Liu Jian put down the leather bag but drew the short sword, his eyes fixed on the soldiers. They had blocked his escape route; they must be planning to kill him.

He was determined. Even if he died, he would take one with him.

"Boy, do you really want to die?"

One soldier threw down his bow and charged forward, thrusting his spear at Liu Jian. These two soldiers were scouts from Xiahou Yuan's cavalry, originally from Qingzhou, well-trained and skilled in combat, but with lax discipline. They often killed and looted during the chaos.

If not for the fear of the sound of hooves alerting Liu Jian and allowing him to escape, they would have ridden in to kill him. Even without horses, they were still extremely fierce.

Liu Jian dodged the spear thrust, rolled forward, and swiftly approached the soldier, slashing at his calf with the sword.

His mind was from the future, but his body was that of a young hunter, with rich hunting experience. This experience was deeply ingrained in his subconscious, and it naturally emerged in dangerous situations.

He immediately recognized that these two were cavalrymen with bowed legs, making them less agile. He remembered this was a common weakness among cavalrymen.

The soldier was caught off guard by his speed. More importantly, they had underestimated him as a young boy.

A sharp cry rang out as the soldier's right calf was severed. Even Liu Jian was surprised by the sharpness of the short sword. His shock was brief, and he pounced like a tiger, knocking the soldier to the ground and plunging the sword into his chest.

He turned sharply, staring at the other soldier like a leopard, wiping the blood from his face. This was his experience in hunting wild animals; after killing a prey, one must not linger, or they would die to another predator.

The other soldier, about ten steps away, had also reacted. He realized it was too late to save his comrade. Liu Jian had killed too quickly, giving him no chance.

The two men faced off, their eyes fixed on each other, neither daring to make a move. The Cao army soldier had drawn his sword, holding a spear in one hand and a sword in the other, ready for both long and short-range combat.

Liu Jian suddenly bent down to pick up the dead soldier's spear. The two men were like taut strings; any slight movement would trigger an attack.

The soldier roared and thrust his spear at Liu Jian, then lunged forward, swinging his sword.

Liu Jian's move to pick up the spear was a feint, designed to provoke the soldier into attacking first. He pretended to pick up the spear but rolled forward, dodging the spear and leaping to stab the soldier's thigh from the side.

This Cao army soldier was a squad leader, standing eight feet tall, with a broad back and a bear-like chest, much stronger than the soldier Liu Jian had just killed. He realized the danger as soon as his sword swing missed.

However, he didn't panic. The sword flashed, and he swung it horizontally, hitting Liu Jian's short sword and sending it flying. But Liu Jian tackled him to the ground.

Liu Jian pinned him down, pressing his knee on one of his hands, grabbing his ear, and pressing his head into the grass. The two men's other hands struggled in the air.

Time passed, and Liu Jian faintly heard the sound of a horse neighing in the distance. He was alarmed and noticed that the man in white had sat up and was staring at them from about twenty steps away.

"You idiot, come and help me!" Liu Jian shouted in panic.

In that moment of distraction, the Cao army squad leader roared and grabbed his neck with a powerful grip, almost suffocating him.

At the same time, Liu Jian grabbed an arrow from the ground and plunged it into the squad leader's face. The squad leader screamed, trying to strangle him, and the two men were in a life-or-death struggle.

Liu Jian, in a frenzy, repeatedly stabbed the squad leader's eyes and forehead. The squad leader choked, his grip gradually loosening. At that moment, someone shouted from about fifty steps away, "There!"

Liu Jian leaped off the squad leader, grabbed the leather bag, and picked up the short sword, stumbling forward a few steps, and jumped into the river, swimming to the other side and fleeing into the depths of the forest.

The man in white, frightened, also got up and followed, shouting, "Young master, wait for me!"

......