RPAGF Chapter 286 Unique 1 and 2
Chapter 286 Unique 1 and 2
After holding out in the valley for more than six hours, Zhang Fei led over 480 warriors out of the canyon, with more than ten men sacrificing their lives. Apart from Zhang Fei, who was unharmed, the others, even those who weren't injured by stones hitting their shields, had their voices extremely hoarse from shouting for six hours.
After six hours of living in fear and exhaustion, many soldiers returned to camp, threw down their shields, and collapsed to sleep without even changing their clothes.
After smashing the mountain for a full six hours, they finally drove the Chinese soldiers back. The Dayuan soldiers on the mountain cheered excitedly, making the Chinese soldiers in the distant organization below grit their teeth in hatred.
After a full day of rest, on the evening of March 5th, Zhang Fei led over 500 warriors into the valley again. This time, they were more cautious, advancing stealthily. About 300 meters into the canyon, after turning two corners, they were finally discovered by the observant Dayuan soldiers. While the others hid against the mountainside, Zhang Fei still stood arrogantly on the main road, provoking the enemy soldiers.
Today, a junior officer from the Dayuan garrison arrived from the west who understood Chinese. He was surprised to hear Zhang Fei shouting loudly on the mountain and told the garrison commander that the man down the mountain was Zhang Fei, the brigade commander of the Huazu Cavalry Brigade.
The garrison commander was taken aback and refused to believe it, so he asked the junior officer to examine the man closely. After another ten minutes or so, they heard Zhang Fei shout the same sentence over and over dozens of times. The officer then told the garrison commander with absolute certainty that, based on both the content of the shouts and the distinctive sound of his voice, this person was undoubtedly Zhang Fei.
Because no one else has been found in China whose voice can match Zhang Fei's. The raspy sound and high decibels are unique characteristics of Zhang Fei.
The garrison commander was overjoyed upon hearing this, knowing that Zhang Fei was extremely brave and had immense strength, and that he could not be injured by simply wielding a shield. So, they brainstormed and came up with a sneaky plan.
The enemy soldiers on the mountain gathered several hundred round stones on the cliff above Zhang Fei's head. They were not heavy, weighing only two or three pounds each, so that the soldiers could throw them to the ground near Zhang Fei.
At the commander's command, hundreds of stones flew up and landed in the canyon more than a hundred meters below without passing over the steep mountain walls.
Zhang Fei, after all, only had enough space for two feet. It was impossible for all the hundreds of stones to hit his shield and bounce off; most of them landed on the ground nearby. Thus, Zhang Fei, also known as Zhang Yide, met his tragic end.
Because they were so light, these stones bounced easily after landing. Although most bounced in different directions, and most of them didn't bounce very high.
However, out of hundreds of stones, a dozen or so still bounced to Zhang Fei's chest height or above. In the darkness, Zhang Fei's expression changed drastically. Relying on his warrior's instincts, he unleashed a flurry of spear shadows, his fine steel spear making the small area in front of him impenetrable and impenetrable.
However, all of these hundred-plus round stones were thrown down simultaneously on the orders of the enemy soldiers and their commanders on the mountain, and the dozen or so stones that bounced toward Zhang Fei were mostly thrown at the same speed.
Zhang Fei was incredibly strong, but he could only protect the area in front of him and to his sides. He managed to deflect more than a dozen stones. However, two stones struck him from behind, almost causing him to fall to the ground.
Imagine a 3-pound round stone falling from a height of over 100 meters, landing five or six meters behind you, bouncing off the uneven ground, and then striking you on the back with lightning speed...
Just thinking about it makes me sweat!
Only someone as tough and resilient as Zhang Fei would have died on the spot if it were anyone else.
Two stones struck Zhang Fei on the back, and he groaned, nearly falling to the ground. But he couldn't, because the enemy soldiers on the mountain were still throwing stones down. If he fell, there would be only one outcome—being buried alive by countless stones.
Therefore, Zhang Fei exerted all his strength, wielding his spear even more tightly, preventing any stone from getting close. Then he slowly retreated to the left side of the mountain wall, where a dozen or so soldiers were engaged in a defensive battle.
In the darkness, seeing that Zhang Fei had stopped shouting and provoking the enemy soldiers on the mountain and instead moved towards the mountain wall, the soldiers knew something was wrong. They rushed to Zhang Fei's side in a flash, braving the rain of stones and logs, and escorted him to a recessed part of the mountain wall.
In order to protect Zhang Fei, another soldier was hit in the calf, presumably with a fracture, and could not walk. His brothers had to drag him to the mountainside to hide.
A soldier who knew massage carefully removed Zhang Fei's armor, then made him lie face down, applied some medicinal wine, and gently massaged his wounds.
Despite the light pressure of the massage, Zhang Fei was still in so much pain that he broke out in a cold sweat. However, as a brigade commander, Zhang Fei couldn't shed tears in front of his soldiers, so he gritted his teeth as if they were about to break, finally enduring the excruciating pain that felt like his bones were about to crack.
The garrison commander on the mountain was overjoyed to see two waves of stones rain down, and indeed, the despicable Zhang Fei stopped his arrogant shouting and provocation of the guards. Zhang Fei, though not killed, was certainly seriously injured; otherwise, he wouldn't have fallen silent. In his delight, he rewarded the junior officer who had given him the idea with one hundred gold coins.
Three hours had passed, and it was already 2 a.m. Zhang Fei's injuries had gradually stabilized, and the pain was no longer so excruciating.
Zhang Fei stood up and stretched. Although he was in pain, he was unharmed. Looking through the gaps in the shield formation at the still-raining barrage of wood, stones, and arrows, he frowned and asked his commander, "What's going on? Didn't Cao Zhen say he could deplete all the enemy's arsenal in two days? It seems they haven't finished at all."
The soldier leader was quite clever. After thinking for a moment, he said to Zhang Fei, "I guess the road up the mountain below the canyon must be very flat. Then the Dayuan people captured many farmers and able-bodied men to help them move stones, wood, weapons, and supplies up the mountain. In this way, the enemy soldiers will never run out of supplies."
Zhang Fei listened to the soldiers' leader's words and felt they made a lot of sense; it seemed that Cao Zhen's plan had failed and aborted.
Two more hours passed, and the number of stones and logs thrown down by the soldiers on the mountain still hadn't decreased. Zhang Fei knew that what the soldiers' leader had said was probably true. The plan to deplete the enemy's reserves of weapons had failed. Under the close protection of the soldiers' company, Zhang Fei led several hundred other warriors out of the canyon.
Back at the camp, the first thing they did was find a medic to apply the most appropriate medicine to the wound on Zhang Fei's back, and then wrap it with bandages several times to ensure that the medicine residue wouldn't fall off.