Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1239 The End
The Battle of Yecheng was beyond everyone's expectations. It took only more than a day from the time the Jin army launched the general attack to its end.

Although it lasted for a short time, the intensity of the battle exceeded the casualties of a usual war of half a month or even a month because both sides invested all their forces regardless of losses.

There were nearly 200,000 people involved in the war, from soldiers to civilians digging fortifications. After the war, including the large number of civilian casualties caused by the fire in Yecheng, the number of corpses that could be found by the Jin army alone after the war reached 50,000.

The final estimated death toll was over 70,000, with many more injured. This number has already exceeded any major war in the world in the past decade.

Yuan Xi's advisers reviewed the situation afterwards and summarized several reasons why Yecheng was captured so quickly.

One of the reasons was that Cao's army gave up voluntarily. In order to use the strategy of fire attack, they gave up Yecheng in advance. When the Jin army entered the city, Cao's army still had half of its manpower left. If they fought to the death with the Jin army at all costs, the number of casualties on both sides might have doubled.

But Yuan Xi's advisers unanimously believed that this was only one point, and the most important and decisive factor was that before the battle, the Jin army had forced the Wei army into a desperate situation.

Although the Battle of Yecheng lasted only one day, in preparation for the Battle of Yecheng, the Jin army had been using high-intensity attacks to wear down the Wei army's manpower and fighting will in the two years before that.

Especially during this year, the casualties of Wei army soldiers and civilian workers exceeded 150,000. Nearly a hundred battles of varying sizes on several fronts had exhausted the Wei army, and the food supply had run out, forcing the entire army to retreat to Yecheng.

This action declared that the Wei army had lost confidence in winning before the war began. In other words, the outcome of the war was determined before it started, and the result afterwards was just a matter of time.

Of course, Yuan Xi's side was not perfect. Although they expected that Cao's army might burn down Yecheng and bury the people with it, they did not expect that they would be so cruel as to set fire to almost the entire city.

It was almost winter at that time, and every household had stored a lot of firewood. Cao's army requisitioned a lot of it in the name of keeping the soldiers warm, and then buried it in various places in the city and set it on fire. These huge amounts of firewood, which were originally used for the winter, were all burned in one night, turning Yecheng into a city of fire.

In this situation, ordinary people instinctively chose to flee, but they clashed and trampled on each other in the streets, resulting in many people falling in the fire. Among the 50,000 bodies counted afterwards, nearly half were wearing civilian clothes, most of whom were the elderly, children, women and children. It can be said that it was extremely tragic.

Including the missing and injured, after the battle, white flags were hung on the doors of every house in Yecheng, and the sound of crying could be heard all day long.

And the most troublesome thing is that the fire in Yecheng not only burned down the houses of the people, but also exhausted their firewood. In half a month, the severe cold will arrive from the northern border and go south to Jizhou.

Therefore, Yuan Xi had to slow down the pace of pursuing Cao's defeated troops, leaving most of the soldiers in Yecheng to rest, and helping the people rebuild their homes as much as possible.

In his opinion, there was little point in pursuing Cao's army at this time. The enemy was guarding Hangu Pass, and it would be difficult for his side to break through in winter, not to mention that the soldiers of the Jin army had reached their limit.

In this battle, both sides suffered heavy losses. Almost all the generals on Cao's side were injured. In addition to Le Jin, Xu Chu was also killed in battle.

He was ultimately unable to escape from Ye City, and his body was found very close to the west gate. The cause of death was a wound in his abdomen that had exploded, his intestines were all over the floor, and the ground around him was covered with fingerprints he had dug out before his death. As to why Cao's army failed to rescue him, it is unknown.

Dozens of other deputy generals of the Wei army were killed, many of whom were Cao's generals, and many generals were injured. When Cao Zhen was stabbing Tian Feng, Huang Zhong who came back to support him chopped off one of his arms.

At that time, Tian Feng was defending the city gate, but encountered Yu Jin and Cao Zhen attacking the city. He had no generals under his command, but Cao Zhen saw the opportunity and broke in and took Tian Feng directly.

Although Tian Feng tried his best to escape by climbing up the city wall, he was still pierced through the abdomen by a spear from Cao Zhen. When Cao Zhen was about to finish him off, Huang Zhong rushed over and shot an arrow at Cao Zhen's right hand, going straight through him.

Cao Zhen subconsciously turned around and ran away. Huang Zhong caught up with him and chopped him on the head with a knife. Cao Zhen subconsciously dodged, but his shoulder and arm were chopped off by the knife.

Yu Jin rushed to rescue him from behind, but was one step short of catching up. Seeing Huang Zhong swinging his sword at him again, Cao Zhen burst out with the strength to survive, rolled off his horse, and escaped among the chaotic army. In the end, he was rescued by Yu Jin at the risk of his life.

Seeing that Tian Feng was seriously injured, Huang Zhong quickly ordered a doctor to treat him, while he chased after him all the way. Finally, he caught up with Yu Jin near the west gate. Then he met Wei Yan, who had already chased him out of the city and outside the west gate. The two sides joined forces and surrounded Yu Jin and others.

Just when the two were about to surround and kill Yu Jin, Xiahou Shang and Ma Chao, who were attacking the east gate, rushed back. The two sides fought a fierce battle. After suffering considerable casualties, Ma Chao and others managed to rescue Cao Zhen and Yu Jin.

The reason why Ma Chao came so quickly was because their original purpose was to attack Yuan Xi's central army at the east gate. However, when they rushed to the east gate, they found that not only was Yuan Xi's central army not outside the city, but all of them had entered the city. The two men looked at the blazing fire in Yecheng and thought to themselves, entering the city at this time means they don't want to live?
They also did not expect that all the Jin troops had gone to put out the fire. After discussion, they felt that if they entered the city at this time, they would be ambushed by the Jin troops, and they would be in danger of death in the fire. So they hurried back and happened to encounter Cao Zhen and Yu Jin who were surrounded. After a fierce battle, Wei Yan and Huang Zhong were out of manpower and could only watch the Wei army escape after leaving thousands of corpses.

Tian Feng was seriously injured at the north gate, while Yan Rou and Xian Yu Fu were ambushed by Cao's main forces, Cao Hong and Cao Zhang, at the south gate.

Cao Hong and Cao Zhang hid in the woods near the west gate and caught Yan Rou, who was eager to make merit, off guard. There were archers on both sides, but Yan Rou and others were light cavalry. They had no advantage in dealing with the ambushed infantry archers, not to mention that it was difficult to avoid arrows in the dark. The light cavalry soon suffered considerable casualties.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Yan Rou and his companion turned around and retreated with the cavalry. At this time, a stray arrow hit Xianyu Fu's shoulder, causing him to fall off his high-speed galloping horse. When Yan Rou went to rescue him, he found that Xianyu Fu had broken his neck and was already dead.

Cao Hong and Cao Zhang rushed over, but were also wounded by stray arrows. The two sides fought in the dark until three o'clock in the morning. The west gate of the city was covered with corpses. In the end, the soldiers of both sides had reached their physical limit and had to stop fighting. After dawn, Yecheng was full of corpses inside and outside the city. There were flames from time to time in the city. Nearly half of the houses were destroyed by fire. It was the most tragic scene in recent years.

Yuan Xi stood on the top of the city wall, listening to Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun's talk about disaster relief. He turned his eyes to the bottom of the city, and all he saw was devastation.

The four lines of poetry emerged in his mind.

Bones are exposed in the wild, no roosters crow for a thousand miles, and there are only one in a hundred living people. The thought of it breaks one's heart.

What’s even more ironic is that the author of this poem, Cao Cao, was the instigator of this tragic scene.

The fight for the world is so cruel, and the common people are nothing more than bargaining chips in the struggle among the princes. It is said that it is to save the people from suffering, but before that, no one knows how many innocent people have lost their lives.

Yuan Xi took a deep breath. Only by understanding how heavy the price was could he empathize with the suffering of the people when he sat in the court. If the people could not live a good life, what was the point of changing dynasties?
He turned around and said, "Let the soldiers suspend their pursuit for now and help the victims first, then do other things."

Lu Xun's first thought at this time was that this was not a bad idea. It would be better to keep Cao Wei's wounded soldiers as a burden to them. Even if Cao's army fled to Guanzhong, there would not be enough food to support these remaining soldiers.

However, he immediately thought of what Yuan Xi had said to him before, and thought that his sworn brother might not really want to take a comprehensive rest, so he said, "Xun suggests that we send two troops to at least drive the remaining Cao Wei troops out of Jizhou. Otherwise, if they become bandits, it will only cause more trouble."

Zhuge Liang also agreed and said, "Bo Yan is right. The Wei army has poor discipline. If they are allowed to escape and harm the people, I am afraid that the people of Jizhou will suffer again."

Yuan Xi knew that he had not considered it carefully just now. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Among the generals, is there anyone who is not injured?"

Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun discussed it and said, "Zilong and Gongming are not injured, but the others are more or less injured."

Yuan Xi was silent. The intensity of the battle in Yecheng that night was far beyond his previous expectations. Moreover, many generals believed that this might be the last battle to pacify the world and destroy Cao Cao, so they all fought with all their might.

In order to protect Cao Cao's retreat, the generals of Cao's army also fought a desperate battle. The fight between the generals of both sides in the dark was extremely dangerous, and coupled with the invisible stray arrows, most of the generals were injured even though they were wearing armor.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi sighed and said, "Then let the two of them go and wipe out the bandits, and you two should quickly issue orders to mobilize the doctors in Jizhou to come and treat the injured soldiers and civilians as soon as possible."

The two immediately accepted the order, and Yuan Xi asked again: "How is Mr. Yuan Hao?"

Zhuge Liang said, "It's not good. His internal organs are ruptured in many places. Although the doctors have sutured him, he is old and I'm afraid he may not survive."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi felt even more depressed and said, "Let's go and take a look."

When Yuan Xi rushed to Tian Feng's room, he was lying quietly on the couch. The room was filled with the smell of blood and herbs. Yuan Xi walked to the couch and saw that Tian Feng's face was pale, so he stepped forward and said, "Sir, I'm sorry for you."

Tian Feng opened his eyes with difficulty. Seeing that it was Yuan Xi, he forced a smile and said with difficulty: "My lord, what are you talking about? This is Feng's own lack of ability. I can't blame others."

"Speaking of which, Feng should thank the Lord. Feng was ostracized under Lord Benchu ​​and achieved nothing. But the Lord gave Feng a second chance, which allowed Feng to show his strengths. All these years have been worth it."

"Mr. Benchu ​​had many faults. I didn't like him at first and scolded him a lot. Now that I think about it, having a son like you is the most successful thing he has done."

"Now that the Lord has surpassed Lord Benchu, we, the old ministers of Jizhou, have no regrets."

Yuan Xi said, "Sir, just rest and recover, everything will be fine."

Tian Feng shook his head and said, "I know what's going on. My Lord, there's no need to comfort me."

Yuan Xi whispered, "Sir, do you have any other wishes?"

Tian Feng was silent for a while. "I heard that Lord Benchu ​​was buried in Jicheng. After I die, my lord, please dig a hole next to the tomb and bury me."

(End of this chapter)