Chapter 344 Taishi Ci vs Huang Zhong, Liu Pan withdraws his troops Taishi Ci didn't know Huang Zhong at first, and had never even heard of this fierce general from Nanyang. But since going north, Qin Zhen has been mentioning Huang Zhong's name in front of him whenever he has time. It is said that Liu Pan is actually not to be feared, and their biggest threat is Huang Zhong under his command, so Taishi Ci should not underestimate the enemy. It is true that there is no first in literature and no second in martial arts. Taishi Ci is also a fierce general, so he naturally felt a little dissatisfied when he heard it. In his opinion, there are no more powerful generals in the world than Lu, Guan, Zhang and Zhao. Among these four, Lu Bu is the only one he has not experienced. But when he heard that Lu Bu had the ability to shoot the halberd at the gate, he was convinced and thought he was inferior to Lu Bu! As for Guan, Zhang and Zhao, if he didn't use bows and arrows, he might not be their opponents, but if he used bows and arrows for a sneak attack, he might still be able to win. Apart from these people, Sun Ce is one, Gan Ning is one, and others like Wei Yan are no match for him. But Qin Zhen repeatedly boasted in front of him that Huang Zhong was the bravest of the three armies, which made him quite unhappy and he had long wanted to compete with him. Hearing Qin Zhen say that Liu Pan was coming, Taishi Ci became eager to fight and immediately took the order and left.

At the same time, on the other side, it is said that Liu Pan hurried back to the army after learning that Qin Zhen had stolen the house. But because he was located in Linxiang, and Huang Zhong and others were lying in ambush in the south, he could not withdraw his troops in a hurry even if he wanted to. So by the time he dismantled the camp and joined forces with Huang Zhong, it was already the next day. During this time, Qin Zhen had already captured Luo County and attacked the fleet stationed in Dongting Lake. As a result, Liu Pan received the news that Luo County had fallen when he was halfway through his journey, and his fleet was captured by Qin Zhen before he reached Luo County. Hearing these pieces of news, Liu Pan was like an ant on hot pot, wishing he could grow wings and chase after them. But unfortunately, not only did he not have wings, but now he even had no ship to transport his supplies! This directly reduced the marching speed of his troops, allowing Qin Zhen to easily seize Linyuan. Wuling County was not a big county. Although it had a large territory, its population was only 50,000 households and over 200,000 people. Among them, Linyuan, as the county seat, accounted for one-fifth and could be regarded as the largest city in Wuling. With the fall of Linyuan, Wuling County essentially fell into the hands of Qin Zhen. Therefore, after hearing the news, Pan Jun advised Liu Pan to withdraw his troops and head to Jiangxia by land. After all, their army has lost their ships and has no way to cross the Yangtze River! Similarly, the fall of Wuling County allowed Qin Zhen to threaten their food supply at any time. Instead of continuing to fight with Qin Zhen here, it is better to conserve strength and wait to resist Liu Bei's army. But Liu Pan was already a little too excited at this time. He thought that although Qin Zhen was good at using troops, he could only fight in a roundabout way! Now that Wuling has been seized from him through a treacherous scheme, he will not be able to give an explanation to Liu Biao if he retreats like this! Anyway, Qin Zhen has few soldiers under his command. If he can recapture Linyuan and defeat Qin Zhen, then he will have a chance to make a comeback. This mentality is somewhat similar to the situation in a game where your home is stolen by someone else and you feel extremely depressed. Even if you have lost, you still want to try again and win! With this mentality, Liu Pan led his troops towards Linyuan. Naturally, the news of their military mobilization could not be concealed from the spies under Qin Zhen's command. Seeing Liu Pan coming, Taishi Ci hurried over to Qin Zhen and suggested: "Now Liu Pan has become angry and embarrassed, so he must be acting rashly." "Why not let me lead a group of soldiers to challenge the enemy!"

"When I kill the enemy general, I will weaken their morale first, and then we can fight a big battle!" But when Qin Zhen heard the letter, he shook his head decisively, pretending to be a little regretful and said: "It would be good to challenge the enemy, but we don't have many soldiers." "I heard that the enemy general Huang Zhong is very brave, I am afraid that you will not be able to win, so this is not feasible!" "We should just wait here and defend the city!" When Taishi Ci heard this, he felt ashamed and angry, and hurriedly patted his chest and said: "Why do you underestimate me, the commander-in-chief? I have also been alone in the midst of thousands of troops. What is there to be afraid of as an old soldier?" What he was talking about was the siege of Beihai by the Yellow Turban bandit Guan Hai. He was ordered to go to Liu Bei and ask for help while surrounded by tens of thousands of troops. Taishi Ci came out alone, fought his way out of the encirclement, shooting arrows left and right, and no one could stop him. This was also one of the peak moments in his life and a masterpiece. But Qin Zhen seemed to have made up his mind not to let him fight, and just shook his head and said: "I used this to defeat the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou in the past. They were just a bunch of guerrillas!" "The enemy troops are all elite troops from Jingzhou. How can they be compared with them?" Taishi Ci had never been provoked by Qin Zhen before, and now he felt that he was being looked down upon, so he said in a deep voice: "As long as the governor agrees, I will lead the troops to the battle. If we cannot win, I am willing to be punished by military law!" After he finished speaking, Qin Zhen raised his head and said with a troubled look on his face: "Since the general is so sincere, I will not stop you and will give you three thousand soldiers! "If we win, I will count it as a credit to the general. If we lose, I will not blame the general." The more Qin Zhen acted like this, the more uncomfortable Taishi Ci felt, and he immediately took the order and left angrily. After Liu Pan decided to march into Linyuan, he led his troops westward. In this era, although the Yuan River was not as wide as it was in later generations, it was not a small river either. Because he was afraid that Qin Zhen would block his way with boats, he crossed the river first and then headed west. Unexpectedly, when I was walking along the road, I suddenly saw a man standing on the road, followed by dozens of riders. "I am Taishi Ci of Donglai. I heard that Huang Hansheng of Nanyang is invincible, so I came here to challenge him!" "I wonder if Huang Hansheng dares to come out and fight me to see who's the winner!" In this era, there were not many duels between generals, and even fewer generals would lead their men to the front of the army for a duel. Seeing this, Liu Pan was naturally confused, while Huang Zhong shouted: "May I ask if you are the Taishi Ziyi who rode alone to save Beihai in the past?" "Although I know your name, you are no match for me. How dare you block my troops' path?" Taishi Ci was even more furious at his mockery. He immediately shot down the flag of his army with an arrow and shouted: "You are just a common man, just go and fight me. Are you afraid of my reputation and avoid fighting?" Huang Zhong was shocked when he saw that his arrow broke the flag. He became furious when he heard his words and immediately asked for a fight.

Before Liu Pan could say anything, Pan Jun reminded him: "There may be an ambush behind us. Don't go into battle lightly. Beware of deception!" "Even if he has dozens of cavalrymen who dare to block the road, how can there be cavalrymen behind him?" When Huang Zhong saw this, he didn't take it seriously. He spurred his horse and went to meet Taishi Ci. When Taishi Ci saw this, he ordered his soldiers not to move and to charge forward to kill! The two men immediately engaged in battle, fighting back and forth. The two horses were seen crossing back and forth, the sound of golden cries was endless, and dozens of rounds passed in the blink of an eye. Seeing that Taishi Ci was not at a disadvantage in the battle with Huang Zhong, Liu Pan sighed: "Liu Xuande has so many brave generals under his command. I haven't seen Guan Yu and Zhang Fei yet. Taishi Ci is also a fierce general!" He knew that besides Taishi Ci, there were many other brave and capable generals under Liu Bei's command. But apart from Huang Zhong, no one under his command could defeat Taishi Ci. At that moment, he was afraid that Huang Zhong might be in danger, so he quickly sounded the horn to call back his troops, signaling Huang Zhong to return. Upon hearing this, Huang Zhong turned his horse and rode away without wanting to fight again. When Taishi Ci saw this, he began to curse him. Huang Zhong heard the curse and returned to the battle formation to ask the reason. He then said to Liu Pan: "Although this man is brave, I am not afraid of him. I will kill him with my sword-dragging trick!" The sword-dragging strategy is a common tactic used by military generals against the enemy, which involves pretending to be defeated first and then killing the enemy. Seeing this, Liu Pan had no choice but to agree and ordered Huang Zhong to fight Taishi Ci again. The two men fought for a while, and after a hundred or so rounds, Huang Zhong turned his horse and rode away, intending to draw his sword, but Taishi Ci did not fall for it and immediately drew his bow and arrow. There was a whooshing sound of wind, and Huang Zhong thought to himself that something was wrong. He quickly tilted his body and avoided the fatal arrow. When Taishi Ci saw that he dodged the arrow, he was shocked and shot again in a hurry. But Huang Zhong turned around and shot an arrow at him, and he quickly dodged it. The two men each shot an arrow, but both missed, so they turned their horses and attacked again. In addition to archery, Taishi Ci also has the skill of launching a surprise attack with a spear. Because he always carried two halberds on his back, when he was about to fight, if he was defeated, he would throw the halberds at his opponent. When Sun Ce challenged him in a duel, he almost died from his spear-throwing technique. Seeing that Huang Zhong was unlikely to win, he came up with a plan. While turning his horse to meet him, he quietly grabbed the hand halberd. When the two horses were close, he was about to lean over and throw his halberd, but suddenly he heard a horse neighing and saw Huang Zhong's horse stumble and fall off with a thud. Seeing this, Liu Pan was shocked and hurriedly led his troops forward to protect them. Seeing this, Taishi Ci looked at Huang Zhong with a complicated expression and said: "I will not take advantage of your inferior horse. I will change horses and fight you again tomorrow!" After saying this, he saw Liu Pan's troops approaching, so he immediately turned his horse and left. Looking at Taishi Ci's receding back, Huang Zhong was filled with admiration. When Liu Pan approached to ask questions, he said to Liu Pan with deep emotion: "I've long heard that Taishi Ziyi is a great hero of the time, and now I can see him for myself!"

Liu Pan was surprised to see that he was alright, so he asked hurriedly: "You were so close to each other just now, why didn't this man kill you?" "So this man saw that my horse was inferior, so he didn't want to take advantage of others' misfortune. He is truly a righteous man!" As Huang Zhong spoke, he told Liu Pan what had just happened. But Liu Pan frowned as he listened, thinking, who will be loyal to you on the battlefield? Huang Zhong’s current appearance is not a good sign! He was not as suspicious as Han Xuan, so he immediately advised: "Having said that, if Han Sheng encounters him in the future, he must not show mercy!" "Warfare is a treacherous art. You can't survive by just being loyal!" After some persuasion, he gave his good horse to Huang Zhong and immediately ordered his men to set up camp outside the city. Taishi Ci returned to the city, knowing that although he had won, he had not killed Huang Zhong and would be punished. Without waiting for Qin Zhen's order, he went to Qin Zhen's study to apologize. But after hearing his victory, Qin Zhen was not surprised at all and said: "We could have won today, but the general is just too loyal to kill him." "If we can win this time, we can win tomorrow as well. Let's count this mistake and make up for it tomorrow!" When Taishi Ci saw this, he was moved and left after expressing his gratitude. So on the next day, Liu Pan brought his troops to the outside of the city to challenge. Taishi Ci thanked Qin Zhen for his kindness and hurriedly asked for a fight, and Qin Zhen accepted it. Taishi Ci led his troops out of the city and fought another fierce battle with Huang Zhong. As this was the second battle between the two, they were extremely anxious as soon as the battle started, and both wanted to win. After more than fifty rounds of fighting, Huang Zhong pretended to be defeated and retreated, intending to draw his sword. Taishi Ci thought Huang Zhong was old, so he chased him on a light horse. Unexpectedly, Huang Zhong suddenly stopped and turned around and attacked, chopping off the head of Taishi Ci's horse with one stroke of his sword. Taishi Ci fell off his horse just like Huang Zhong did yesterday, but Huang Zhong raised his sword and said: "General, you forgave me yesterday, but I cannot bear to kill you today. General, please leave now!" After hearing this, Taishi Ci bowed to Huang Zhong, turned around and left. When Liu Pan saw this from a distance, he became furious and quickly led his troops to attack. But before he arrived, Taishi Ci had already been brought into the city. As soon as he approached, arrows rained down from the city walls. After several rounds of this and that, he became extremely angry and called Huang Zhong over, yelling at him: "You could have killed the enemy general just now, why didn't you do that, General, and let him escape?" Facing his angry roar, Huang Zhong had no choice but to lower his head and said in shame: "It's because he didn't take advantage of someone's misfortune yesterday, and I couldn't bear to harm him!"

Liu Pan listened and was furious, but at this moment, someone came to report that the camp was attacked. It turned out that when Taishi Ci led his troops last time, Qin Zhen asked Li Yi to change into the uniform of the Jingzhou army and ambush outside. Just when Liu Pan went out to fight, his troops took advantage of the situation to launch a surprise attack on Liu Pan's rear camp baggage, and a huge fire burned most of Liu Pan's food and baggage. Liu Pan was already at the end of his strength, and now that his food and supplies were burned, he naturally had no strength to fight again. The man glared at Huang Zhong and immediately ordered his troops to retreat. And because Wuling was difficult to capture, he had to send someone to inform Liu Biao. (End of this chapter)