Chapter 60: Sun Quan: Mere Eight Hundred Cavalry Tormented Me to Tears?

"My lord, it is Zhang Liao!"

"He intends to take advantage of our army's recent landing before we have secured our footing, and strike our central division first!"

Lü Meng reacted with lightning speed, instantly piercing through Zhang Liao's intent.

Sun Quan's gaze shifted slightly as he hastily raised his eyes to scrutinize the surging Cao cavalry rolling toward them. He had originally thought that with Zhang Liao's meager forces, the man would cower within Hefei and refuse to emerge.

Never had he expected that Zhang Liao would make a bold and unexpected move, actively charging out to meet them.

This greatly astonished Sun Quan.

However, when he clearly perceived the number of incoming horsemen—merely slightly over eight hundred—Sun Quan's expression quickly turned disdainful.

"A mere eight hundred horsemen! Of our army's landed troops, my central division alone numbers over six thousand."

"Six thousand against eight hundred, the advantage is entirely ours. What is there for me to fear?"

"Zhang Liao is arrogant indeed to dare seek battle on his own initiative. This is precisely what I have been hoping for!"

A domineering aura flared within Sun Quan as he brandished his riding crop and shouted:

"Pass down the order! Command all units to immediately rally toward me and form ranks to repel the enemy."

"Order the left and right wings as well to flank them instantly! I shall make that Zhang Liao pay with a one-way trip!"

Witnessing Sun Quan's underestimation of the enemy and hearing these deployments, Lü Meng felt his heart instantly plunge halfway into ice.

"My lord truly knows nothing of military command..."

Lü Meng let out a silent sigh in his heart.

His young lord clearly lacked any appreciation for the terrifying might of cavalry, mistakenly believing that because his central division possessed six thousand men, he could afford to disregard a mere eight hundred enemy horsemen.

As for the order commanding all units to rally toward the center and form battle lines to meet the enemy, it was even more naive.

Did he not understand the military system of the Jiangdong army?

In Cao's army, soldiers belonged to the state; regardless of who the appointed officers were, everyone obeyed commands without question. Therefore, once a command was issued from above, it could be executed immediately from top to bottom without the slightest hesitation.

In contrast, within their Jiangdong army, soldiers were bound to individual commanders. For every officer there was, there were just as many distinct agendas.

Such a military system naturally dictated that when the Jiangdong army executed orders from above, it would inevitably be sluggish, dilatory, and inefficient.

Zhang Liao's cavalry moved like the rushing wind. By the time Sun Quan's orders were relayed down layer by layer, those iron horsemen would undoubtedly have already charged straight into their faces.

Though Lü Meng knew Sun Quan's countermeasures were fundamentally flawed, he dared not point it out publicly, and could only bite the bullet and pass down the lord's commands.

Thus, battalion after battalion of the Jiangdong army began the slow and sluggish process of converging toward the center.

Up ahead.

Eight hundred armored horsemen thundered wildly across the terrain.

A muscular martial general with a resolute and stern visage wielded a long blade, galloping fiercely at the vanguard of the charging cavalry.

"Sun Jian and Sun Ce were both tiger generals of their era, yet I never imagined this Sun Quan would be utterly ignorant of military strategy."

"Very well, Sun Quan! Today, I, Zhang Liao, shall personally teach you how a proper battle ought to be fought!"

A trace of contempt curled the corners of Zhang Liao's mouth, and he suddenly pointed his long blade forward:

"Brothers! Follow me and shatter Sun Quan's central division in a single stroke! Show these Jiangdong folk the peerless might of our Bingzhou wolf cavalry!"

The eight hundred armored horsemen roared toward the skies in unison.

In the blink of an eye, the iron cavalry had closed to within seventy paces.

At this moment, Sun Quan's six thousand central troops had yet to complete their formation.

As for the left and right wings, the forces of Xu Sheng and He Qi—the closest to his central division—were still over forty paces away, slowly and sluggishly dragging themselves into position.

The confidence vanished from Sun Quan's face, and a flicker of panic finally emerged between his brows.

"Why are the various battalions moving so slowly? Order them to hasten their convergence at once!"

"What are the archers doing? Loose your arrows immediately to obstruct the enemy cavalry!"

Sun Quan whipped his horse and hastily issued a sharp, stern command.

The command flags fluttered frantically in the wind, relaying fresh directives.

The archers, who had yet to complete their defensive formations, hurriedly and hastily notched their arrows, unleashing a chaotic volley blindly toward the oncoming Cao cavalry.

Zhang Liao was already intimately familiar with this particular tactical response from the Jiangdong army.

The eight hundred charging horsemen immediately veered off, sweeping around in a flanking maneuver toward the left wing of the Jiangdong center.

Arrows fell like rain, yet all struck empty space.

Sun Quan's expression shifted once more, and he frantically ordered the archers to continue firing.

Over a thousand archers hurriedly pivoted, loosing two consecutive waves of arrow volleys.

Yet these Jiangdong archers evidently lacked experience in confronting cavalry and were entirely incapable of accurately calculating the necessary lead distance based on the speed of the charging horsemen.

After two rounds of arrow rain, only a meager handful of riders among the eight hundred iron horsemen were hit, leaving the force virtually unscathed.

In the heat of battle, an engagement allows for no more than three volleys.

Yet after these three rounds of arrows, Zhang Liao and his iron cavalry had already closed to within a dozen paces of the Jiangdong army's left flank.

"Protect the left flank! Block the enemy cavalry! Hold them off at all costs—"

Sun Quan's composure finally shattered completely. Flailing his riding crop wildly, he roared out his commands with a trembling voice.

It was already too late.

The breakthrough point chosen by Zhang Liao was precisely the weakest link in the Jiangdong army's formation.

Before the Jiangdong troops on the left wing could even manage to shift their alignment to face the threat, the eight hundred armored horsemen had already crashed into them with the force of an avalanche.

The earth split and mountains shattered!

The iron cavalry functioned like an indestructible giant blade, instantly cleaving open a massive breach in the Jiangdong ranks with the destructive force of a hot knife through butter.

Zhang Liao spearheaded the charge at the very front, his long blade flashing wildly to the left and right, cutting down panicked Jiangdong soldiers like blades of grass.

Behind him, the eight hundred iron horsemen poured through the breach like a breached embankment.

In the blink of an eye, the left wing of the Jiangdong army was torn wide open.

A battle line stretching across dozens of paces shattered like a pane of glass; once the initial point was broken, the entire line dissolved into ruin within moments.

The left wing collapsed!

Pressing forward with unstoppable momentum, Zhang Liao led his iron cavalry in a relentless charge.

Wherever they passed, the Jiangdong soldiers along the route were swept aside like autumn leaves scattering before the gale, shrieking in terror as ghost-like panic took hold.

A total collapse.

The entire six thousand-strong Jiangdong central division crumbled completely, the soldiers fleeing before the wind toward the riverbank behind them like frightened birds startled by a mere twang of a bowstring.

Beneath the central command banner.

Sun Quan's posture had stiffened entirely, his face frozen in an expression of gaping, blank-eyed astonishment.

"Why?"

"My six thousand men clearly held the absolute advantage, so how could they be routed in the blink of an eye by a mere eight hundred cavalry?"

"How... how can this be..."

Sun Quan was reduced to incoherent stuttering, utterly plunged into an abyss of endless bewilderment and confusion.

"My lord! I have heard that Lü布 excelled at breaking formations with shock cavalry, and his Bingzhou wolf cavalry once used a mere thousand horsemen to shatter tens of thousands of Black Mountain bandits!"

"Zhang Liao is a former subordinate of Lü Bu; he is employing Lü Bu's shock cavalry tactics to break our formation!"

Only then did Lü Meng cry out in warning, hurriedly advising him:

"Our army is already in disarray, and Zhang Liao is clearly targeting you personally, my lord. Please immediately retreat to the shoreline and board the vessels to withdraw onto the river!"

"If we delay a moment longer, once Zhang Liao charges close, you will no longer be able to escape, my lord!"

Sun Quan shuddered violently.

Gone were the grandiose vows of conquering Hefei, the visions of achieving a glorious victory to establish his prestige, and the imposing dignity of the Lord of Jiangdong...

At this very moment, Lü Meng's words had frightened every single thought into vanishing without a trace.

"Retreat! Quickly escort me back to the Feishui River—"

Screaming at the top of his lungs, Sun Quan whipped his horse around and bolted wildly toward the shoreline in frantic flight.

Lü Meng rallied the personal guards, tightly flanking Sun Quan on all sides as they escorted him in a desperate escape toward Xiaoyaojin.

The command banner bearing the character "Sun" was soon chopped down and trampled into the mud.

With the collapse of the central command and the downfall of Sun Quan's banner, the psychological morale of the Jiangdong army suffered a fatal blow.

The tens of thousands of Jiangdong troops who had already landed turned about-face one after another, retreating in utter disarray toward the shore.

Zhang Liao commanded the eight hundred iron horsemen like tigers entering a flock of sheep, galloping back and forth to slaughter the retreating Jiangdong soldiers.

Within the city of Hefei, Li Dian also led five thousand infantrymen charging out to press the attack and exploit the victory.

The forty-thousand-strong Jiangdong army suffered a crushing defeat and fled in disarray.

As the setting sun dipped below the mountains, the Jiangdong army, having left behind thousands of corpses, finally managed to withdraw across the Feishui River.

Supported by Lü Meng, Sun Quan stood upon the deck with lingering terror still gripping his heart, gazing out across the water at the Cao cavalry on the far shore who were flaunting their might and mocking them with impunity.

The surrounding Jiangdong soldiers were all crestfallen and completely demoralized.

Sun Quan knew that this crushing defeat meant the loss of far more than just a few thousand soldiers; their entire martial spirit and morale had been utterly extinguished.

With morale completely shattered, how could they ever hope to attack Hefei again?

The campaign to conquer Hefei, personally commanded by him, had ended in a disastrous rout just as it had barely begun.

"Boom!"

Sun Quan slammed his fist heavily against the ship's railing, gnashing his teeth as he muttered:

"Why could Liu Begin crush Cao Cao, yet I, Sun Quan, am defeated at the hands of a mere Zhang Liao? I cannot understand this! I simply cannot understand it!"