Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1245 Eradication
Yan Rou was furious and started cursing, but he was not stupid. He only brought two or three thousand people with him, and there were probably more than ten thousand cavalrymen on the opposite side. It would be too disadvantageous for him to start a war at this time, so he immediately uttered a few harsh words and retreated.

But as expected, Suonu would not let him leave at all, and immediately surrounded Yan Rou. Yan Rou was extremely aggrieved, but still suppressed his anger and turned around to retreat, wanting to return to Jicheng to make plans.

As a result, after two days of travel, when he returned to Jicheng, he found that the fighting had been going on outside the city for several days.

Previously, Zhang Liao led his troops out of the city and took a lot of effort to rescue Qubei. Faced with the absolute number of Xianbei cavalry, the two had to return to the city in embarrassment.

Afterwards, the Xianbei cavalry showed off their strength and provoked them outside the city. The two men were indignant and went out of the city several times to fight. Although both of them had high positions in the Jin army, Qubei was good at government affairs and his martial arts could only be considered second-rate, while Zhang Liao's injuries had not yet healed and he could not withstand a long fight, so they did not gain any advantage.

When Yan Rou arrived, he ran into the Xianbei army head-on. With the help of Zhang Liao, he returned to the city with great effort. He told Ju Su about being deceived by Suo Nu and finally said, "There are so many Xianbei people coming, they will definitely not give up!"

Zhang Liao said, "Yes, the news outside the city these days says that they have been looting and killing people in the area of ​​hundreds of miles around Jicheng. It is conservatively estimated that tens of thousands of people have been killed, many houses have been destroyed, and food has been looted. In addition, they are also destroying paddy field facilities. Many water wheels, canals and bridges have been destroyed by them."

The four of them looked extremely unhappy. Yuan Xi invested a huge amount of manpower and material resources in the water conservancy facilities around Jicheng, and it took him seven or eight years to build a water conservancy system for irrigating grain. However, he suffered heavy losses due to the destruction of the Xianbei people. If Yuan Xi came back, how would they explain themselves?

Ju Su was depressed and said, "This is really a ghost story. The dense rivers and ditches around Jicheng were originally built to defend against the invading cavalry from outside the pass. If it were spring, summer, or autumn, we only needed a small number of infantry to establish strongholds at the key roads and bridges to stop a large number of cavalry."

"But because of the battle in Jizhou, most of the infantry went to Jizhou. In addition, it was very cold this year, and the water in the rivers and ditches froze, allowing the Xianbei cavalry to pass through directly. This defense system temporarily lost its effectiveness, and then the Xianbei cavalry just happened to seize this opportunity!"

"Besides, we were too optimistic before. We didn't expect the Xianbei to be so determined to enter the pass and plunder in winter. If they fail, they won't even have a chance to return alive. This is obviously a gamble. The leader of the Xianbei is very courageous."

Yan Rou said, "It's probably Kobe Neng."

"In the past few years when I was at the frontier, stories about Kobineng's deeds began to spread widely, and were exaggerated to the point of being miraculous. Even many Hu people inside the border were attracted by him and regarded him as a god from their own tribe."

"If this continues, it will inevitably have a negative impact and impact on Youzhou."

"And Kobineng is indeed a powerful man. He has acted fairly over the years and has won the support of the various tribes in the Central Xianbei. His reputation has risen rapidly. Moreover, he is also very strategic. This time, he saw the opportunity of the Jizhou War and took the opportunity to launch a large-scale operation. So far, it has indeed hit our weak spot."

Everyone was silent. At this moment, a guard said that Yuan Yin, the deputy governor of Youzhou, had arrived. Upon hearing this, Ju Su hurriedly asked someone to let Liu He in.

Yuan Yin was transferred here by Yuan Xi before the war. When he came in and met everyone, he got straight to the point: "The roads leading out of the city are now full of Xianbei cavalry. Dozens of transportation roads connecting Jicheng have been almost completely cut off."

"Especially the trade route leading to Piaoyuyi Wharf, which is now occupied by Xianbei cavalry. It is said that several merchant caravans were unable to escape and were killed, and their goods were also looted."

"Moreover, the Xianbei cavalry has a tendency to attack the docks. Now most of the workshops in the city have stopped production due to lack of materials, and the finished products cannot be shipped out. If this continues, Jicheng's role as a cargo transit center for Youzhou will be completely destroyed."

“So I wanted to come over and ask, how should we deal with it afterwards?”

Ju Su sighed, "The Xianbei cavalry is very troublesome this time. Their tactics are quite similar to the guerrilla warfare that the lord used before. They dispersed their troops in twos and threes. Each team has more than a hundred people, and they move around like the wind, so it is difficult to find their exact whereabouts."

"It would be easier if there were fewer people, but now there are tens of thousands of Xianbei people, hundreds of teams, and they are spreading throughout Youzhou. It's not easy to catch a few of them, let alone so many people?"

Qu Bei said in a deep voice: "The most troublesome thing is that these cavalrymen have no moral standards. They rely on looting for food, and some even eat humans. Ordinary civilians have no power to resist them."

"I don't think they have any intention of returning. I'm afraid they are planning to plunder Youzhou for a long time. If they continue to cause trouble like this, the situation in Youzhou will be ruined in less than half a year!"

Zhang Liao also said, "I'm afraid they are just sending troops ahead to test us. If we don't have a plan to control these tens of thousands of people, there will be tens or even hundreds of thousands of people coming south."

"By then, it will not only be Youzhou that will suffer, but Jizhou and Qingzhou as well, and they will not be able to escape."

A thought flashed through everyone's mind, possibly even the entire Central Plains!

Zhang Liao said bitterly: "Sun Quan of Wu State took this opportunity to invade Jianghuai, causing most of the navy to go to the Yangtze River. If there were more warships in Piaoyuyi, we wouldn't be in such a passive situation."

Ju Shou said, "Warships are not easy to move in winter. I heard that although Tian Yu has pacified most of the territory of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, it is too cold to fight in winter. In addition, there is a lack of supplies and equipment, so he can't get back in time."

"We are in a bit of a shame now, and we have to rely on the lord to break the predicament." "If it's fast, it's estimated that the lord will arrive in seven or eight days."

Yan Rou smiled bitterly and said, "My lord has been wanting to rest and recuperate for the past few years, but he has not been able to do so so far. He has been traveling back and forth to fight all over the world. This time, the Xianbei went south and forced my lord to return, so I can't rest."

Ju Su said, "Then we will hold the city for the time being and decide the direction after the lord returns."

Yuan Yin said: "Then at the lord's house..."

Everyone was silent for a moment, and finally Ju Su sighed and said, "Everything will be decided when the lord comes back."

As the days passed, more and more Xianbei cavalry gathered around Jicheng. Some of them even hung the heads of civilians in front of their horses and came to the city to provoke.

Zhang Liao and others on the city wall saw that some cavalrymen even had several heads on their necks, including the old and the young, women and children. They gritted their teeth and asked Ju Shou to fight.

Ju Su said: "Counting the days, the lord will be here soon."

"I asked all the generals to have a good rest these few days so that we can cooperate with the lord and inflict the greatest damage on the enemy by surprise."

"If we leave the city now, we will be outnumbered and it will be difficult to defeat the enemy. We have suddenly lost our fighting spirit, so I hope you will be patient."

After hearing this, the generals had to suppress their temper and stand by on the city walls day and night.

The next morning, when Zhang Liao and others were watching from the top of the city wall facing the morning light, they saw rockets rising one after another in the distance. They were overjoyed. It was Yuan Xi who was back!
They immediately reported to Ju Su, mobilized almost all the soldiers in the city, and then rushed out of the city and attacked the Xianbei cavalry camp outside.

At that time, most of the Xianbei cavalry were setting up tents outside the city. The Jin army had been staying indoors for days, which had already made them slack. Moreover, with the arrival of more and more Xianbei cavalry, the number of Xianbei soldiers around Jicheng had exceeded 30,000. In their eyes, the more than 10,000 defenders in the city would not dare to leave the city no matter what.

As a result, at dawn, when most of them were soundly sleeping, the Jin army suddenly attacked the city, catching them off guard. Tents were constantly set on fire by the Jin army, and the Xianbei cavalry were stabbed to death by the Jin army as soon as they escaped from the camp. There were screams of agony everywhere.

The quick-reacting Xianbei cavalry had already found their horses and were about to counterattack, but at this moment they saw the signal of a rocket exploding in the sky behind them. They were unable to react for a moment. What was this?
They soon realized that an overwhelming number of cavalry and infantry rushed up, completely blocking the retreat of the Xianbei cavalry in this large gathering area.

Fireballs hurled by catapults continued to fall into the Xianbei camp, and the exploding cans splashed burning kerosene, which stained the clothes of the surrounding Xianbei people and set them on fire.

The Xianbei cavalry screamed and rolled and thrashed in the snow. They finally put out the fire, but they had already lost their fighting power. At this time, the Jin infantry had already rushed over.

These were the reinforcements brought by Yuan Xi. They traveled day and night in animal-drawn carts, so they were full of energy when they entered the battlefield. They all wore heavy armor and used long weapons such as spears and ring-handled swords, while the Xianbei cavalry mostly used daggers and short swords, and had no power to resist at all.

Many people never understood until their death how the Jin army arrived behind them so quietly?
Yuan Xi stood on a hill in the distance, looking towards the Xianbei cavalry camp with a gloomy face. On his way here, he had heard about the practices of the Xianbei cavalry. He thought that these people were uncivilized and he did not have the time and energy to educate them, so he could only ask them to die.

Only when they feel they can kneel down and listen to reason can we live in peace.

He said to Sun Lizhang who was beside him, "You guys go up too, don't hold back, kill them all."

"Pass my order, no surrender will be accepted."

The two men immediately obeyed the order, knowing that the dozens of villages that were looted and slaughtered along the way had completely angered Yuan Xi. His behavior was even worse than that of the Western Liang Army during the Battle of Jizhou. There was no need to reason with these people.

In fact, this phenomenon was common in the north during the hundreds of years of the Han Dynasty. Both sides would not hold back in order to compete for living space. Therefore, the Han people were unwilling to go to Youzhou as long as they could survive in the Central Plains. The Han people in Youzhou would be forced to flee south if they could not survive.

But the Xianbei people had no way to retreat. The environment to the north was even worse, so they kept moving south and driving the Han people away. The two hundred years of the Eastern Han Dynasty gave them many opportunities, and the accumulated contradictions broke out at this time.

Now both sides have seen the cruelty of the future in advance. In the face of survival, all reason is pale and powerless. What both sides have to do now is to dig up the other side and completely eradicate it.

(End of this chapter)