This was a war that had suddenly erupted at the wrong time. Unless someone made a grave error in judgment, a war like this could produce no victor.
Provoked into a rage, Gongsun Zan brazenly launched an attack, playing straight into Yuan Shao's hands.
Although Yuan Shao had no intention of crushing Gongsun Zan in this one battle, inflicting substantial losses on him and then thoroughly sickening him once more would be just as satisfying.
Gongsun Zan rode a white horse as the White Horse Volunteer Cavalry thundered past on either flank, like clouds following a dragon. He had intended for them to shield the infantry's wings and let the foot soldiers charge forward, but something went wrong with his orders, and the White Horse Volunteer Cavalry attacked outright.
What greeted them was a surging hail of arrows, swift and fierce. Almost instantly, men and horses tumbled to the ground, crimson blood staining the horses' white bodies.
Fortunately, the White Horse Volunteer Cavalry were all elite soldiers. They had sensed something amiss upon receiving their superiors' orders, and attacked using their customary harassment tactics, sweeping past the flanks in successive layers.
Their losses were not particularly heavy. The white horses were extraordinarily fast, and their riders loosed a volley of arrows of their own before withdrawing along either side of Yuan Shao's Army. Their movements were so nimble that it was almost impossible to imagine they were on horseback. This was nothing short of the legendary man-and-horse unity realm.
Gongsun Zan's heart bled as he gazed at the white horses lying on the ground. The White Horse Volunteer Cavalry were his life, his very spirit. It was precisely because Zhang Jue had scattered them last time that he had become so utterly lost and despondent.
Only after the White Horse