| Three Heroes Swear Brotherhood...: |
At that time Zhang Jue's one hundred fifty thousand troops and Lu Zhi's fifty thousand troops were facing each other. Neither had had any success.
Lu Zhi said to Liu Bei, "I am able to surround these rebels here. But the other two brothers, Zhang Ba and Zhang Lian, are strongly entrenched opposite Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun at Yingchuan. I will give you a thousand more troops, and with these you can go to find out what is happening, and we can then settle the moment for concerted attack."
So Liu Bei set off and marched as quickly as possible to Yingchuan. At that time the imperial troops were attacking with success, and the rebels had retired upon Changshe. They had encamped among the thick grass.
Seeing this, Huangfu Song said to Zhu Jun, "The rebels are camping in the field. We can attack them by fire."
So the Imperial Commanders bade every man cut a bundle of dry grass and laid an ambush. That night the wind blew a gale, and at the second watch they started a blaze. At the same time Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun's troops attacked the rebels and set their camp on fire. The flames rose to the very heaven. The rebels were thrown into great confusion. There was no time to saddle horses or don armor: They fled in all directions. The battle continued until dawn. Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao, with a group of flying rebels, found a way of escape. |
