Your Majesty, please spare Diao Chan; your yang energy is too strong.

"Wait, there's no benefit to attacking now."

"After all, even if you hold me back, even if Ji Ling catches up, my entire army will be wiped out, and the warhorses will fall into Ji Ling's hands. You will gain nothing."

"If that's the case, why should we fight to the death and let others reap the benefits?"

"You can make other demands, as long as they're not too unreasonable, I'll agree to them."

At the critical moment.

Lu Bu quickly stopped him.

"General Lü, I don't think you've figured out the situation yet."

"Besides your warhorses, do you even have the right to talk to me anymore?"

Zhou Heng stopped his soldiers from charging and said calmly.

"you.........."

Lu Bu was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

"A tiger fallen into the plains is bullied by dogs"—this is his deepest feeling right now.

"I can give you warhorses if you want, but my troops are all cavalry, and I can't give them all to you. Otherwise, my army's fighting strength will be greatly reduced, and even if we reach Xuzhou, it will be of no use."

“My cavalrymen each have three horses. I can give you my two thousand spare warhorses, but I cannot give you my two thousand mounted warhorses.”

"And you also need to leave me two thousand horses for transfer."

"how?"

Lu Bu remained silent for a long time before speaking.

Four thousand is his bottom line.

The reason I said two thousand is just that I was asking for an exorbitant price, and I'm only going to try to bargain it down.

After all, he couldn't possibly give all the warhorses to Zhou Heng.

Because once all the warhorses were given to Zhou Heng...

That would greatly reduce the combat effectiveness of his cavalry.

Whether he will still be a match for Liu Bei at that time remains to be seen.

He absolutely would not allow such a thing to happen.

"You are not in a position to negotiate."

"I can do without your warhorses, but you must give me all four thousand spare warhorses."

"Otherwise, I might as well give up my warhorse and fight to the death."

“You, Lü Bu, were determined to kill me before, and I have already been very kind by not taking your life. What I am doing now is just repaying you in kind.”

Zhou Heng said coldly.

He naturally knew that Lü Bu wouldn't give him all the warhorses.

Otherwise, if I change my mind...

At that time, he will be like a lamb to the slaughter.

Without their horses, cavalrymen are no match for even ordinary infantrymen.

If Ji Ling were to pursue us, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Moreover, without a warhorse, how could he have reached Xuzhou so quickly?

Stop Liu Bei?

But four thousand should be his bottom line.

You're giving me two thousand to beggars?

"it is good."

Lu Bu's expression shifted, his heart bleeding.

He brought 5,000 cavalry with him this time, but lost more than half of them in the Battle of Guangling.

He didn't have many warhorses left.

If he were to give the other side another four thousand horses, his losses would be enormous this time.

Five thousand cavalrymen correspond to fifteen thousand warhorses?

This battle resulted in the direct loss of 13,000 of his warhorses.

How could this not break his heart?

This effectively rendered most of his elite Bingzhou cavalry useless.

Fortunately, there were still three thousand cavalrymen and nearly nine thousand warhorses in the city.

It can be considered a fallback plan.

So, after hesitating for a moment and considering his current situation, Lü Bu finally gritted his teeth and agreed.

Because he simply doesn't have time to drag this out now.

time is life.

"Alright, in that case, it's a pleasure to cooperate."

Soon, Liao Hua obtained four thousand warhorses from the enemy without losing a single soldier.

"Zhou Heng, I will remember what happened today. We will meet again someday."

"let's go."

Lu Bu glared at Zhou Heng with hatred, then led his soldiers away.

He was afraid that Zhou Heng would change his mind, and then Lu Bu would really lose both his wife and his army.

"My lord has struck it rich! He's struck it rich!"

As soon as Lü Bu left, Liao Hua was so excited he almost jumped up.

Four thousand warhorses! What does that even mean?

Even at its peak, the Yellow Turban Army didn't have this many warhorses.

Otherwise, Huangpu Song wouldn't have been able to defeat the Yellow Turban Army so easily.

There are no horse farms in the Central Plains.

Most of the warhorses were obtained from places like Bingzhou and Xiliang.

Even in the later stages of the Three Kingdoms period.

The Eastern Wu only had two thousand cavalrymen, so you can imagine how scarce warhorses were.

Even with a slightly smaller number of horses, Zhou Heng's four thousand warhorses, with two horses per person, would be enough to form a cavalry force of two thousand.

This is a super weapon of mass destruction on the battlefield.

How could this not excite him?

"Alright, this is nothing. There's still a warhorse in Xuzhou City waiting for us to take it over."

"Order the troops to rush to Xuzhou immediately."

Zhou Heng waved his hand.

The closer we are to victory, the more we must not let our guard down.

Joy is often the easiest time to make mistakes.

"Yes."

............

Meanwhile on the other side.

The battle in Xuzhou City has reached its climax.

Because it took Lü Bu a whole day to fight Ji Ling before he led his men to break through the encirclement.

As early as midnight last night, Liu Bei, with the help of the Mi family, launched a surprise attack on Xuzhou.

Therefore, the battle is not over yet.

Fortunately, due to Liu Bei's previous series of defeats, he now only had about 8,000 soldiers under his command.

Even if it's with the help of the Mi family, working together from the inside and outside.

Taking Xuzhou in a short period of time is not an easy task.

After all, the one defending the city was none other than Chen Gong.

Chen Gong's defining characteristic was his steadiness.

With Zhou Heng's tip-off, they were already on guard.

Therefore, they reacted immediately upon discovering Liu Bei's surprise attack on Xuzhou.

If it weren't for Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's exceptional martial prowess, who single-handedly tore open a breach, they wouldn't have succeeded.

Open the city gates.

I'm afraid Chen Gong really will have to kick him out.

Now, Liu Bei's army is all gathered in the outer city, while Chen Gong's army is leading the defense of the inner city.

For a while, no one could do anything to anyone.

"Brother, it seems that Chen Gong knew we would launch a surprise attack on Xuzhou all along and was prepared."

"Although we have successfully captured the outer city, the enemy is holding firm in the inner city, and we will not be able to take it down for the time being."

"If this drags on any longer, it probably won't be long before Lü Bu receives news from Xuzhou."

"Once Lü Bu returns, the consequences of being attacked from both inside and outside will be unimaginable."

Guan Yu walked over anxiously and said.

Xiapi was the capital of Xuzhou and its economic center. The city was well-fortified and consisted of an inner city and an outer city.

Historically, if it weren't for Cao Cao flooding Xiapi, causing widespread panic among Lü Bu's troops, it would have been a different story.

Betrayed by his subordinates.

Even for Cao Cao, whose army was more than ten times larger than Lü Bu's, taking down Lü Bu so easily would have been an extremely difficult task.

Moreover, Liu Bei, whose military strength was similar, was also comparable.

And that was Zhou Heng's goal.

The intention was to make them both suffer heavy losses.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have notified Chen Gong in advance.