Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1244 Deception
On the top of Jicheng, Zhang Liao stood behind Ju Su and said, "Should I go out of the city to help Qu Bei?"

Ju Su said: "The general's injuries have not yet fully healed, you should rest for a few days before we talk."

"There aren't many Xianbei bandits outside the city right now. They just gathered temporarily to plunder. The Xiongnu soldiers under Qubei are enough to deal with them."

"Moreover, the Xianbei are all light cavalry. Even if they have siege equipment, I'm afraid it won't be delivered in the near future. They can't attack the city with the people they have now."

Zhang Liao said depressedly: "I know they can't take the city, but the civilians outside the city who didn't have time to escape in the past few days have almost all suffered."

"The food being taken away is secondary. Many people lost their lives and women were also abducted. If the lord comes back and sees this scene, I'm afraid the military advisor and I will have a hard time explaining it."

Ju Su felt helpless when he heard this. After receiving the news, he rushed back to Jicheng day and night. With the premise of defending Jicheng, he also made many defensive measures.

However, most of the defenders in Youzhou went to Jizhou to participate in the war, so it was impossible for them to defend everything. Therefore, except for a few small towns with garrisons around Jicheng, other villages were not well defended.

Ju Su's solution was to allow as many people as possible to enter the city, and those who could not enter the city should evacuate on the spot and flee to Yijing. However, this method was okay in other seasons. As long as the weather was not cold, the refugees could survive for a month or so even if they slept on the streets after entering the city. But now it was winter, and the weather was freezing. If there were no houses, people would freeze to death in half a day.

The same is true for migration and escape. Without the help of animal power, most households would not be able to escape more than a hundred miles even with enough food. Especially in severe cold weather, people would probably start dying after walking only a few dozen miles.

Therefore, many people outside the city did not want to flee, but they did not have the ability to escape, and there was nowhere to hide. They could only hide in their houses with a fluke mentality. As a result, half a month ago, they encountered the Xianbei cavalry who entered the pass and burned, killed and looted, and many people died as a result.

Ju Su was also depressed because due to the Eastern Han Dynasty's two hundred years of control policy, the northern Great Wall had fallen into disrepair and was damaged in many places, allowing the Xianbei outside the Great Wall to easily enter through the gaps.

After entering the Pass, the road was flat, especially around Jicheng, which was all plains with no strategic locations to defend. The Xianbei cavalry wanted to find the richest places to plunder, so they naturally set their sights on the most prosperous Jicheng.

The first wave of Xiongnu cavalry that gathered numbered more than 10,000 people. Although they were called cavalry, most of them were young and strong Xianbei herdsmen. Many of them did not even have swords, but only carried a wooden bow and a dozen arrows.

But the unarmed people of Jicheng had no ability to resist them. In just a few days, more than a dozen village heads were looted and burned, and thousands of people were killed.

When Ju Shou learned about this, he sent out cavalry to pursue, but the Xianbei cavalry was extremely flexible and would kill, rob, and then leave. At the same time, because most of the cavalry had gone to Jizhou, they were not at an advantage in numbers. Ju Shou was afraid of an ambush, so he could only protect the area of ​​20 to 30 miles around Jizhou. If he went beyond that, he would be unable to do so.

As news of villages being robbed came in, Ju Shou and Zhang Liao in the city became increasingly anxious. Unfortunately, Zhang Liao had also been hit by a stray arrow on the night of the Battle of Yecheng, and his wound had not yet healed. He could not sit still on his horse and could only worry.

He was also extremely aggrieved, and punched the bricks on the top of the city wall fiercely, "These Xianbei people are really brave. They invaded twice in recent years and were killed by the lord. Now they are even worse!"

Ju Shou sighed, "It's not that they don't know how ruthless our revenge is, but if they don't have food to eat, they can't stop us even if it means losing our heads."

"This year, the area outside the Great Wall encountered an unexpected cold wave, which caught the Xianbei herders off guard and caused a large number of livestock to die."

"If they don't enter the pass to plunder, they won't survive until next spring. In this case, what else do they care about?"

"But fortunately, the lord had already made plans. He sent a letter to Qubei several months in advance, asking him to lead his troops to Jicheng to assist in the defense before winter. Now it seems that the lord is indeed a god in foresight."

Zhang Liao said, "My lord is indeed very capable. The Southern Xiongnu, who were a scourge to the Central Plains ten years ago, are now being used to deal with the Xianbei outside the Great Wall."

"But what I'm worried about is that, in this case, Bingzhou's defenses will be empty. Although Budugen is attached to the lord, he has also suffered a disaster this time, and there must be a shortage of food. Will he unite with Kobe and betray the lord?"

Ju Su's face was solemn. "It is possible, and the possibility is not small."

"We raised this issue when we were discussing it before, and we also reported it to the king."

"My lord, you should be well aware of this. I believe you will have a plan to deal with it."

"We can't make decisions on our own right now. We can only wait until the Lord returns to Jicheng."

After hearing this, Zhang Liao unconsciously turned his head and cast his gaze towards Yuan Xi's mansion.

Qu Bei, who was outside the city, was leading thousands of Xiongnu archers to search for the roaming Xianbei cavalry. They were all equipped with leather armor and iron ring linings, and the longbows they held were also high-standard standard equipment. Naturally, they were suppressing the Xianbei cavalry.

After suffering several heavy losses, the Xianbei decided not to engage in a head-on battle with the Southern Xiongnu cavalry, but instead split up into dozens of small groups to loot everywhere, leaving Qubei helpless. He was worried about an ambush by the Xianbei, so he could not divide his forces and could only patrol and sweep the area in circles.

The reason for this is that most of the Jin State's intelligence reconnaissance and transmission system personnel had gone to Jizhou before, and without enough balloons to help, it was naturally difficult to find the traces of the Xianbei cavalry.

In fact, this situation is the norm in this era. When encountering the enemy, you need to ambush in advance and accurately guess the enemy's marching route. In winter, prediction is the most difficult. If you can rely on water sources as a criterion in other seasons, the snow in winter is the water source. At this time, the marching routes of both sides appear random and chaotic. If you want to intercept the enemy, you can only rely on blind cats catching dead mice.

Qu Bei was riding on his horse, thinking that since he left Yuan Xi, he seemed to have not been able to fight very well in the past two years. The same was true when he followed Gao Gan to fight Sili this year. The Jin army had already taken over the entire Jizhou, and he and Gao Gan paid such a huge price and took advantage of the Wei army's weakness to capture Huaicheng. Moreover, the Wei army was already badly damaged and had to reorganize the army.

However, he did follow Yuan Xi's order and returned to Jicheng on time, so that he could save some face in front of Yuan Xi in the future.

A shrill horn sounded, pulling Qubei's thoughts back to reality. He listened attentively, and his face suddenly changed. He shouted, "Enemy attack!"

"The enemy is numerous, maintain formation and prepare to meet them!"

Gradually, Xianbei cavalry appeared from all directions. They surrounded them from more than a dozen directions with great momentum, ready to completely encircle and kill the thousands of Xianbei cavalry.

After hearing the spy's report, Qu Bei knew that he had been ambushed. As for how the news was leaked, whether it was a traitor or his movements were guessed, he had no time to think about it. He could only give orders loudly, asking the soldiers to prepare to engage the enemy.

Soon, a large number of Xianbei cavalry formed a battle line and then charged towards Qubei's main camp. Seeing that the opposite side was within shooting range, Qubei gave an order and the Xiongnu cavalry began to draw bows and shoot arrows. The Xianbei cavalry immediately fought back, and the two sides gradually approached each other, but both remained within the range of bows and arrows.

After fighting for half an hour, Qu Bei found that he could not hold on any longer. The reason was not the soldiers, after all, most of them had armor and blocked a lot of damage; the key was the horses.

The damage caused by arrows to horses is the same as that to humans. Once a horse is hit by an arrow, it loses its combat effectiveness. If the warhorse dies, the man can only dismount and fight on foot.

However, infantry combat is a shortcoming for the Southern Xiongnu cavalry. Unlike the Youzhou Iron Cavalry and the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry equipped with iron armor, they can maintain a fairly high combat effectiveness even when dismounting and fighting. But it is different for the Southern Xiongnu light cavalry. They are not good at infantry combat weapons, and their combat effectiveness is greatly reduced after dismounting.

Qu Bei looked at the reinforcements of the Xianbei cavalry and realized that the other side came prepared and was targeting his war horses from the beginning!
Seeing that the number of Xianbei cavalry was increasing, conservatively estimated to be over ten thousand, he ordered his soldiers to retreat to the nearby hills while sending out a rocket for help.

Ju Su and Zhang Liao on the top of the city saw the rockets explode in the air at the same time. Zhang Liao said, "The Qubei have been ambushed. The Xianbei cavalry are increasing in number. I will lead the troops to rescue them."

Ju Su said, "But the general's cavalry is also resting. There are only about 2,000 of them now. Besides, the Xianbei cavalry may be planning to surround the enemy and attack the reinforcements."

Zhang Liao said, "You can't just stand by and watch someone die without helping, right?"

Ju Su thought for a moment, pointed to the hills in the distance and said, "General, if you really want to rescue them, you can break in from that direction."

"After meeting up with Qubei, we will use the hills as a springboard to retreat."

"This way, even if we are surrounded, we can keep our position high and attack low, preventing the Xiongnu cavalry from deploying an attack formation."

"Also, try to bring as many explosive bamboo tubes as possible. They are very effective against enemies in low places."

Zhang Liao agreed and immediately led his troops out of the city. Ju Su was worried, thinking that it would be fine if these were the only enemy troops on the battlefield, but if the other side sent more troops, it would be troublesome.

As Ju Su had expected, less than an hour after Zhang Liao left, the number of Xianbei cavalrymen who arrived continued to increase, and there were even several thousand cavalrymen who had spared no effort to block the city gates. It was obvious that they had nothing to fear and were sure to defeat the Jin army outside the city.

Upon seeing this, Ju Su ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows to stop the enemy while looking towards the north. He thought that the Xianbei might have planned this in advance and Yan Rou, who went to negotiate with them, might have been deceived.

The Xianbei are now openly sending troops to besiege Jicheng, which may be disadvantageous to Yan Rou. Nothing will happen to Yan Rou, right?

As Ju Su expected, more than 50 miles north of Jicheng, thousands of cavalry led by Yan Rou had already started fighting with the Xianbei generals who came to negotiate.

He roared, "Sonu, you are negotiating in the name of negotiation, but in reality you are dishonest. You are truly shameless!"

This Zonu is a general under Kobinen, and the commander of the vanguard of this invasion.

After Yan Rou and Zhang Liao returned to Jicheng together, they realized that the number of Xianbei people this time was too large and Youzhou could not hastily gather enough soldiers to fight against them. Seeing this, Yan Rou volunteered to negotiate with the Xianbei.

Ju Shou understood that this was a delaying tactic, but he had no troops at the moment, so he could only agree with Yan Rou's suggestion and try to delay time and wait for Yuan Xi to come back.

Yan Rou went north to the border and met Suonu, so he sent someone to communicate with him. To his surprise, Suonu agreed. The two sides began to pretend to negotiate, but in fact they both knew that after fighting to this point, how could they possibly end it peacefully?
However, Yan Rou did not expect the other party to turn against him so quickly. Seeing a large number of Xianbei cavalry rushing towards Jicheng, he knew that he had been deceived. He immediately led his troops to confront Suonu, trying to stop the subsequent troops from passing.

Suo Nu laughed and said, "Yan Rou, we all know what's going on. Don't pretend. Whoever has more soldiers has the final say!"

(End of this chapter)