[Lightscreen]
[Eight hundred men, follow me! Today, we win glory!
Zhang Liao chose a battle tactic that his old townsman Guan Yu had already mastered to perfection.
One valiant general charges through the ranks, shatters the formation, and takes the enemy commander's head directly!]
"Wenyuan is truly decisive!" Guan Yu struck his palm in praise.
Many generals could analyze a battlefield and identify the key points, but after the analysis, the ability to act without hesitation and execute without wavering was something many armchair commanders truly did not possess.
It was exactly like when he slew Yan Liang himself. The chance had come and gone in an instant. Even a split second of hesitation would have rewritten the entire battle.
The others were just as stirred. Could it truly be done with only eight hundred men?
Then they remembered Guan Yu crashing through the formation to behead Yan Liang, and their hearts burned with excitement. Was this the true mark of an unmatched warrior?
[Lightscreen]
[Zhang Liao had already selected his dare-to-die men, so what about Sun Quan?
Sun Quan indeed was not prepared, but the rumors that he personally went to the walls of Hefei to watch the spectacle were clearly exaggerated.
First, Zhang Liao chose the perfect timing.
At dawn, Liao donned armor, held his halberd, and was the first to ascend and break the enemy formation.
The term dawn here referred to the time between three and five in the morning, right as the sky began to brighten.
The Biography of Pan Zhang also stated that Zhang Liao arrived by surprise and the generals were unprepared.
So the first advantage was timing, striking when the enemy least expected it.]
"At the Battle of Baima too, Wenyuan and I charged side by side to smash the enemy!"
Guan Yu spoke with a trace of nostalgia. "At that time, Cao Cao sent the two of us as the vanguard, with Xu Huang as reinforcement. Wenyuan likewise charged bravely into the enemy ranks, unmatched among ten thousand!"
"But the one who killed Yan Liang was still Second Brother!" Zhang Fei said sourly. "And at Baima, Yan Liang had elite troops from Hebei properly deployed. Second Brother charged in, took his head, and returned. This Zhang Liao at Hefei launched a surprise attack! And how could Jiangdong private troops compare to the elite soldiers of Hebei?"
Guan Yu laughed and patted Zhang Fei's arm. "None of it can compare to your fame at the Battle of Changban, Yide."
[Lightscreen]
[But what followed in the records showed the sheer difference in troop quality between the two sides.
Zhang Liao and Li Dian led their forces straight into the vanguard. Chen Wu, one of Jiangdong's Tiger Ministers, was slain on the spot, and the Sun Wu front line collapsed into chaos.
Seizing the opportunity, Zhang Liao followed the routed troops and broke into the central army.
Only when Sun Quan climbed onto a small hill did he realize how few men Zhang Liao actually had, and he immediately ordered an encirclement.
But the difference in troop quality was too great.
Zhang Liao broke out with no one able to stop him.
Even after breaking out, upon hearing that some of his personal guards were still trapped inside, he turned back, fought his way in again, rescued them, and returned to Hefei.
According to the Biography of Zhang Liao, this battle lasted from dawn until noon.
A small force moved freely within the Sun Wu army, and all the soldiers in Hefei were filled with admiration, while the Sun Wu camp was struck with terror to the core.]
"Such courage!" Guan Yu praised loudly, then slapped his thigh. "What a pity!"
"A pity that only one Chen Wu was slain!"
The generals all turned to look at him.
'Alright, alright, you are the Sage of War, General Guan. But let us be real. You are in a league of your own. You cannot compare everyone else to yourself. Eight hundred versus a hundred thousand, and still killing one of Jiangdong's Tiger Ministers? That is already outrageous.'
Charging into an enemy a hundred times stronger and still returning victorious was practically dreamlike. It was like ants shaking a great tree or a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
"Tch, obviously!" Zhang Fei grumbled. "Zhang Liao just didn't shout loud enough. If he had my voice, those front lines would've smashed right into their own main force, and Sun Quan would've been crushed to death in the confusion!"
Everyone imagined it, then shook their heads. If the ruler of Jiangdong died like that, it would be far too humiliating. Still, they all understood one thing clearly. That was impossible.
Huang Zhong said, "Sun Quan usually keeps a Tiger Guard unit at his side. They are elite veterans and the imperial guards of Jiangdong. With them protecting him, Zhang Liao could not easily reach Sun Quan."
Jiang Wan reminded him, "But the light screen has been mentioning Xiaoyao Ford."
[Lightscreen]
[From this point on, although the Wu army still surrounded Hefei, none of them had the will to fight.
After more than ten days of going through the motions, Sun Quan hastily withdrew.
As for the pursuit at Xiaoyao Ford, the Biography of Zhang Liao modestly stated only that Zhang Liao led the army in pursuit and nearly captured Quan.
To understand the full situation, one had to look at the Wu records.
After besieging Hefei for many days, disease broke out in the Wu camp, further lowering morale.
To prevent another surprise attack from Zhang Liao that might trigger a full camp collapse, Sun Quan made what he believed to be the correct decision.
The main army would withdraw first, while he himself remained behind with over a thousand Tiger Guards and a group of veteran Jiangdong officials as the rear guard.]
"Actually, this was the correct decision," the generals agreed. "If they had retreated using the standard front, center, and rear formation, and Hefei's garrison had charged out in full force, the entire camp could easily have fallen apart. The rear ranks would have panicked and trampled the whole army into a complete rout."
Then everyone sighed once more. Jiangdong's troops were truly disappointing. Against a formidable foe, they could not even keep their composure. Their morale collapsed and never recovered. After only a dozen days of siege, they withdrew hastily. Was this even war?
[Lightscreen]
[Zhang Liao's pursuit arrived in a flash.
He led his men straight at Sun Quan and shattered his confidence right then and there.
Back at Hefei, Sun Quan could still tell himself he had been caught off guard.
But this time? Both armies stood face to face, thousands of troops on each side. What was the outcome?
Even with Gan Ning, Jiang Qin, and Lu Meng all engaging Zhang Liao at once, Ling Tong was still badly wounded protecting Sun Quan, and all three hundred of his personal guards were cut down.
Jiangdong's elite Tiger Guards fought to the death, buying Sun Quan only the slimmest chance to escape.
At the critical moment, the bridge at Xiaoyao Ford was destroyed, leaving Sun Quan trapped.
Only thanks to his attendant Gu Li, who whipped the horse forward with all his strength, did the beast leap across the gap and carry Sun Quan to safety.
When he finally reached his command ship, ruler and ministers clung to each other and wept.
That eight-hundred-man charge had shattered the morale of the entire Wu army.
The battle at Xiaoyao Ford crushed the very confidence of Wu's leadership.
From that day on, Sun Quan attacked Hefei at least four more times. Every single time, he returned empty-handed.
Until the day he died, he never once laid eyes on Shouchun, just beyond Hefei's walls.]
The generals went completely speechless.
Zhang Fei let out a laugh. "Is Zhang Liao only bullying Jiangdong soldiers for being weak? If it were us leading one hundred thousand troops, and Zhang Wenyuan dared to pursue during our retreat, I, Old Zhang, would take his surname!"
Huang Zhong could not help but feel embarrassed.
He had stated that Sun Quan had elite Tiger Guards, yet in the blink of an eye, even the top troops of Jiangdong were proven to be mediocre.
"Old Huang need not mind," Guan Yu said thoughtfully. "Wenyuan's bravery is rare in this age. The Tiger Ministers of Jiangdong have not endured hard battles. They mostly fight mountain tribes and local clans, so naturally they cannot compare to Wenyuan's personal troops."
Huang Zhong cupped his hands without speaking, but inwardly resolved one thing.
'I must never let the Jingzhou troops under my command turn into soldiers like Jiangdong's. Can fighting mountain tribes even be called proper war? When facing northern armies like these... what was that phrase from the light screen again? A breeding ground for the strong. If you only take pride in putting down mountain tribes, then going up against opponents like this, a defeat as humiliating as Sun Quan's would be unavoidable. This must be remembered as a warning, always.'
[Lightscreen]
[Even today, Xiaoyao Ford has a site called Hidden Boat Cove.
The Essentials of Historical Geography recorded that when Zhang Liao resisted Sun Quan, he carved this place to conceal warships.
From this, it could be seen that the broken bridge at Xiaoyao Ford was in fact destroyed by Zhang Liao himself.
This force had already been lying in wait before Sun Quan even arrived.
This was a great general who, even when at a disadvantage, precisely grasped the situation, seized the single opportunity, and achieved a feat that would echo through the ages.
It was not only that Sun Quan had bad luck.
In this battle, whether in courage or strategy, Jiangdong lost completely.
The Weilue recorded that his might shook Jiangdong.
For years afterward, in the lands of Wu, when a child refused to stop crying, parents needed only whisper a single name to make the crying stop right away.]
[Server Chat Log]
[The_Executioner: Sun Quan asking himself why he can hear boss music playing at four in the morning.
Grandmaster_99: Zhang Liao's response: Spawn camping is a legitimate military strategy.
Record_Keeper: Chen Wu has permanently left the chat.
Cynical_Sword: Sun Quan's so-called Tiger Guards? Basically just really large house cats.
Blind_Storyteller_Jin: The narrator confirms: Zhang Liao didn't only shatter their formation. He shattered their will to fight.
Ghost_of_Xiaoyao_Ford: [Lion voice] I've been to hell and back, and back to hell... and back.]