Chapter 37 - Casualties of the Cao Army (2)
Original by Bro Got a Gun, Translated by James
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“Cao Chun! Humph!” Lu Bu suddenly started charging toward Cao Chun. On the White Gate Tower, he failed to kill both Cao Cao and Xiahou Yuan and had since been in a very bad mood. “Cao Mende took my Xu Province and uprooted my foundation! Today, I shall have you taste the pain of losing your loved general!”
Lu Bu didn’t know who Cao Chun was. However, he knew that the Ferocious Cavalry was Old Cao’s precious treasure - only these few thousands of them in the whole Yan Province. For this Cao Chun to be the commander of the Ferocious Cavalry, he is most definitely one of Cao Cao’s great general!
What Lu Bu wanted was to slay this Cao Chun to give Cao Cao heartaches.
“Die for me!” Lu Bu’s entire murderous aura was fixed onto Cao Chun. On the battlefield, anyone that Lu Bu wants to kill will certainly die. No one could stop him, not even gods!
“This cannot be! How can I die?! I cannot die!” Cao Chun did not knew of the prowess that Lu Bu possess before, he even dared to belittle him earlier. He had viewed Lu Bu to be just a brute, the slave of three surnames, a traitor who put petty personal love affairs over everything else, a person who cannot possibly accomplish much. Cao Chun had always viewed of slaying Lu Bu as a stepping stone in his meritorious contributions.
When his Ferocious Cavalry was called to the front of the battlefield, Cao Chun was immensely happy. He had viewed Lu Bu as a fish on the chopping block. He wanted to kill Lu Bu and prove to the world that he, Cao Chun, was the greatest general; that he, Cao Chun, was the real God of War.
However now Cao Chun was in a panic. He was a general. Thus, his sensitivity toward dangers was much stronger compared to regular people!
He had only heard from others of Lu Bu’s frightening prowess before. And now, he genuinely experienced it. He genuinely experienced the frightening man known who was known as the God of War, this man who was the Wolf God of the Prairie!
“Fast! Too fast!” Cao Chun saw the golden trident’s shadow. Before he was able to react, he already felt a cold wind. This was the feeling of trident about to penetrate his body. “Abominable!” Cao Chun wanted to evade but he found out that there’s nowhere for him to evade to. The trident had already block all leeways.
Forward! Only going forward using the horse’s galloping strength would he be able to escape!
Worthy of being one of Cao Cao’s great general, a general that Cao Cao had faith in, Cao Chun firmly decided to cut loss quickly and not to guard against Lu Bu. Instead, he took out his long blade and slashed his war horse’s buttocks.
“Poof!” Piping hot blood was spraying from the war horse’s buttocks. Under the immense pain, the war horse immediately started accelerating. In a blink’s time, it had flew past Lu Bu and a several horses distance away.
[TL: horse distance…. imagine placing a couple horses between Lu Bu’s horse and Cao Chun’s horse? Blame the author for making up length...]
“Cutting loose via self injury?!” Lu Bu didn’t expect that Cao Chun would’ve injure his horse. For a general, a good war horse was a comrade in arms, one’s second life. Generally, cavalries would treat their horses as a companion. They would love them dearly. Should their horse fall ill, they would be grow very anxious. And now, Cao Chun actually injured his horse to escape. Although his blade had caused the war horse to quickly accelerate, it cannot persist for a long period of time. This battle, no…. perhaps in a moment’s time the war horse would fall and die.
Lu Bu could also tell that Cao Chun’s war horse wasn’t some ordinary horse. Although it could not compare to some famous horses like the Red Hare that he once had, it was still a rare and good horse.
“You want to compare horse strength?!” Lu Bu sneered. If he still had the Red Hare, he would’ve already reached Cao Chun and killed him with his trident. However he doesn’t have the Red Hare now. It wasn’t that his current horse was bad. Rather, it was that he wasn’t familiar with the horse that he have now. Nevertheless, this didn’t obstruct Lu Bu’s pursuit.
“Let’s see if my Ferghana horse is faster or if your war horse is faster!” Lu Bu slapped his war horse and his already fast war horse suddenly accelerated. It was accelerating like it was sprinting. Lu Bu felt as if that the wind that past by him had turned a bit prickling.
[TL: Lu Bu’s mistakened the type of horse Liu Mang brought back? Blood-sweating horse was used to refer to Ferghana horse. It is also what Lu Bu literally called it. Apparently Ferghana horse was heavenly horses back in Han dynasty. They sweat blood when worked because of parasites.]
Arabian war horse! Although this type of horse might be common in modern days and were easily obtained via breeding, in the Eastern Han dynasty, they were genuine treasured horses! There existed three kinds of pure blooded horses: the Ferghana horse, the British horse and the Arabian war horse. Although the Arabian war horses does not have the superior quality of the Ferghana horse, they were pretty up there. Actually, the Arabian war horses was also a kind of Ferghana horse. Lu Bu didn’t know of what Arabian war horse, he only knew it to be a Ferghana horse as it had the characteristics of a Ferghana horse.
Throughout the whole Han dynasty and even the history of China, every single Ferghana horse was rare to come by. Lu Bu never would’ve expected that Liu Mang would bring to him a total of two thousand and fifty of such Ferghana horses!
“How could this be?!” Cao Chun turned pale with fright. Although his war horse wasn’t top notch, it was still very good. In the whole world, there were only a couple famous horses that was able to overtake his horse. Lu Bu’s Red Hare might’ve been able to do that, however Red Hare is now in Xiapi! Where did Lu Bu find another such precious horse?!
“Where do you think you’re escaping?!” Lu Bu had once again catch up to Cao Chun. His murderous aura had once again drew near.
“I absolutely cannot die!” Cao Chun bite his teeth. He saw that in front of him was the Ferocious Cavalry that was still galloping under his orders. I’m sorry brothers! Cao Chun suddenly lifted his blade up and brandished it. The direction where he attacked was not toward Lu Bu who was behind him but rather toward those who were ahead of him, those Ferocious Cavalry soldiers, his fellow soldiers.
“Poof! Poof!” Two blood flowers blossomed. Two heads flew toward the sky. The war horses that lost their masters suddenly stagnated and began to slow down. In moment’s time, Cao Chun ran past those horses and two corpses fell behind him blocking the path. Lu Bu was obstructed. If he continued then he would’ve crashed into the horses.
“This would baffle me?!” Lu Bu looked at the two warhorses that had lost their master and had a hint of admiration toward Cao Chun. This was his fellow soldiers than he killed! It was his brothers! To kill them just like that! To kill them just to save his own life! Not a hint of hesitation at all! As expected of a Cao clansman, he was exactly like Cao Cao!
Lu Bu did not slow down at all. Instead, his war horse’s speed increased. Right when his war horse was about to crash into the two aimless Ferocious Cavalry war horses, Lu Bu violently pulled on the rope and, with his legs, grabbed onto the horse’s stomach. Immediately, his horse leaped over the two aimless war horses and started pursuing Cao Chun again.
“Not good!” Cao Chun saw that the two warhorses were unable to stop Lu Bu at all. He bite his teeth and was about to attack again.
The two Ferocious Cavalry by his side had already seen Cao Chun’s movements and their heart was trembling with fear. Without Cao Chun saying anything, they held their hand toward him and said “General, we shall go first!” Immediately, the two turned around and stroke their horses.
“He who blocks me dies!” Lu Bu’s trident impaled the two’s body. However, he really was blocked by the two Ferocious Cavalry soldiers this time around, unable to catch up to Cao Chun anymore.
“Lu Bu, this Cao Chun will certainly have his vengeance for today!” Seeing that Lu Bu was stopped, Cao Chun loosened himself and started cursing at Lu Bu.
“Vengeance?!” Lu Bu said coldly. “I fear that you won’t have such an opportunity! There have yet to be anyone that I, Lu Bu, wanted to kill on the battlefield to not die!” Lu Bu raised up the spear that was attached to his horse. Every single war horses had this kind of cavalry spear, otherwise they’ll be hard to set formations with.
Lu Bu raised his spear. His eyes filled with murderous aura. His hands were like a vise firmly clamping the spear. His veins were exposed on his arms. His whole body was in a explosive state.
“Fly!” Lu Bu’s hands have the strength of a thousand jun. And now, his thousand jun strength had all be placed onto the spear.
“Poosh!” A blood flower blossomed. Cao Chun had his eyes wide open unable to believe what had just happened.
“Poof!” On the viewing platform, Cao Cao also surpt out a mouthful of blood. “Zihe! My great general!” Cao Cao fainted.
[TL: Zihe is Cao Chun’s courtesy name]
“My lord! My lord!” Panic burst through the viewing platform.
On the Ferocious Cavalry’s path of breakthrough, one horse and one man was pinned to the ground by a spear. As the spear pierced through from above, the earth was dyed red with blood.
Ferocious Cavalry. Cao Chun. Cao Zihe. Dead!