Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1246 Returning Home
A brutal battle immediately broke out within a radius of dozens of miles around Jicheng. After receiving the order, the Jin army soldiers began to ruthlessly deploy an encirclement and strangle every Xianbei enemy caught in the encirclement.

The Xianbei people did not take it seriously at first. This time their commander was Ke Bineng's younger brother, Ju Luohou. When he first saw the number of Jin troops, he did not take it seriously and felt that they could not pose any threat to him at all.

The intelligence he got was that there were only 10,000 defenders in the city, and the number of reinforcements coming was less than 10,000, so the total number would not exceed 20,000. He had more than 30,000 cavalrymen on the scene. Even if he couldn't win, could he not escape?

However, the ferocity of the Jin army's offensive was obviously beyond Zhu Luohou's expectations. It was winter now, and the north was extremely cold, with several inches of snow on the ground. This situation made it extremely difficult for the infantry to fight, but the cavalry was less affected.

Although fighting in winter is extremely harmful to war horses, and the number of casualties and injuries may increase significantly next year, if the Xianbei do not take over part of Youzhou this winter and allow the elderly, children, women and children of the Xianbei tribe to move here, at least half of these weak people will die in the severe cold of the blizzard outside the Great Wall.

Now, the Xianbei family members and clansmen will arrive in the next few days, so the Xianbei have no way out. If they cannot take this life passage, many Xianbei tribes will be wiped out. This is a battle of life and death, and there is no possibility of any concession at all.

Therefore, Marquis Zhuluo became furious and immediately issued an order, asking all the cavalry to ignore the attacked camp area and mobilize everyone to fight the Jin army on their own.

For a moment, on the battlefield in front of Jicheng, tens of thousands of people were fighting in a chaotic manner. Soldiers and horses kept falling in the ice and snow, their bodies soaked with blood, and blood flowers appeared in the vast snow.

Zhu Luohou squinted his eyes and counted the number of soldiers who fell on both sides of the field. After half an hour, he began to realize that something was wrong.

The majority of the soldiers who fell to the ground and died were dressed in the uniforms of Xianbei herdsmen. Although it was a melee, the Jin army was able to maneuver everywhere, preparing to divide and surround the Xianbei cavalry. It was obvious that they had enough time to maneuver, which showed that they had been carrying out their original intention in fighting and had not suffered a major blow.

Zhu Luohou was an extremely cautious person, and a considerable number of the vanguards sent by Kobineng this time were secretly flirting with Budugen and Suli of the Eastern and Western Xianbei. Kobineng's intention was to let this group of people explore the way and send away a group, so as to consolidate his own position in the Central Xianbei.

So Kobineng sent his most capable subordinate, Ju Luohou, who was Kobineng's younger brother. Since he had come, the other tribes had no reason to refuse, so they had to follow Kobineng's order and send the young and strong men in the tribe to fight.

These Xianbei cavalrymen had been killing in Youzhou for a month. Previously, Ju Shou had not sent out soldiers to fight to the death in order to defend Jicheng. Now, seeing Yuan Xi coming, the Jin soldiers inside and outside the city finally launched an all-out attack, showing a killing attitude that the Xianbei cavalry had never seen before.

Under the attack from both sides, the Xianbei cavalry, who were fighting on their own, soon failed to form an effective offensive formation, and their defense was even weaker. Once they fell into a disadvantage, chaos immediately occurred, and people kept fleeing the battlefield.

When Zhu Luohou saw that five or six thousand cavalrymen had been killed or injured in just half an hour, he knew that it was useless to persist, so he blew the horn immediately and ordered all the Xianbei cavalry to break out to the north.

He had already received news that the 20,000 men led by Ben Zonu were stationed more than 50 miles north of Jicheng. As long as he joined forces with him, he would be able to form a military advantage again and deal a heavy blow to the Jin army.

Under his leadership, the Xianbei cavalry began to bypass Jicheng and head north. After hearing the intelligence from the spies, Yuan Xi issued an order that all cavalry should be the vanguard to pursue the enemy, and the infantry should follow in animal-powered carts to drive the Xianbei cavalry out of the pass! "

All the Jin army soldiers immediately took action and chased northward. Zhao Yun, who was accompanying them, advised Yuan Xi to return to Jicheng first. Yuan Xi said, "If I don't take charge in person this time, the soldiers will not be able to see my determination."

"Besides, it's hard to maintain morale in winter. If I enjoy myself in Jicheng, the soldiers will inevitably have some thoughts in their minds."

"No matter what happens this time, I must defeat this vanguard and make the Xianbei army behind us fearful. Otherwise, we will not be able to gain the upper hand in the next battle."

Zhao Yun knew that Yuan Xi had made up his mind, so he led his troops to chase him. Zhang Liao and Yan Rou came to see Yuan Xi and told him about the situation in the city. They also advised him, "My lord, why don't you go into the city first and meet with Ju Shijun to discuss it?"

"It's icy and snowy, and we are taking risks ourselves. If we run into a small group of Xianbei troops, we can't afford to make any mistakes."

Seeing the two men trying to persuade him, Yuan Xi thought for a moment and said, "First, defeat the Suonu tribe fifty miles to the north, and then we can think of the rest."

After hearing this, the two generals realized that they could not persuade Yuan Xi, so they had to guard the two wings respectively and head straight north.

The Jin army chased for a day and a night and encountered the Xianbei cavalry again. This time, Zhu Luohou and Suonu had joined forces. The two sides immediately engaged in a bloody battle that lasted for two days and two nights. The Xianbei cavalry left behind nearly 10,000 corpses before retreating towards the Yanshan Mountains.

After learning that the Xianbei cavalry had retreated, Yuan Xi ordered all the soldiers present to quickly clean up the battlefield, taking away not only their own soldiers, but even the horses and bodies of the enemy soldiers.

Zhao Yun and the others were puzzled at first, but after Yuan Xi explained, they finally understood. Zhao Yun said, "There are many animal-drawn carts now. If we take them all back, it will only take two or three more days. However, we can bury the bodies of our soldiers, but I'm afraid the soldiers will not be willing to bury the bodies of the enemy soldiers."

Yuan Xi said calmly: "No need to bury them, just take them five or six miles outside Yecheng and pile them up to make a memorial."

"Nowadays, the world is cold, and corpses will not rot even if they are not buried, so there is no need to worry about the spread of disease."

"The Xianbei cavalry will definitely not give up and will definitely return to Jicheng later. Let them look at the corpses and make their own decision."

Zhang Liao asked, "Should we continue to pursue them?" Yuan Xi replied, "No, we should seize the opportunity to clean up the battlefield and return to Jicheng to rest."

"After you return, hurry to the villages and towns around Jicheng and relocate the surviving civilians to the various large cities. At the same time, arrange for officials in each city to vacate their houses for the civilians to live in, with official residences and officials' homes being given priority."

Yan Rou said, "Even if many people have fled and are hiding, their food has been looted. The food reserves in the cities are not enough to supply these victims. Do we need to transfer food from other places?"

Yuan Xi said, "I will have Qingzhou and Xuzhou transport grain by water."

"Before that, we can use the 20,000 horses of the Xianbei cavalry to hold on for half a month."

The Xianbei cavalry lost more than 10,000 people in these two battles, leaving behind nearly 20,000 horses, which was equivalent to ready-made food. The Xianbei people were reluctant to kill their horses, but the Jin army had no pressure in killing them.

At that moment, everyone began to clean up the battlefield in a hurry. They let the living Xianbei war horses carry the dead horses and corpses back. After transporting them to Jicheng, they returned and made another trip. It took three days to finally clean up the entire battlefield.

During this period, Yuan Xi had asked Zhao Yun to patrol the surrounding area to prevent the Xianbei cavalry from turning back, but after three days, there was still no sign of the enemy in the north. Seeing that the battlefield was almost cleaned up, he got on the carriage and took the remaining people back to Jicheng.

It was two days later when he returned to Jicheng. Only when he saw the outline of Jicheng from afar did Yuan Xi relax. His whole body seemed to have lost all strength and he leaned on Lu Lingqi beside him.

Lu Lingqi was startled, and quickly helped Yuan Xi lie down. She touched Yuan Xi's forehead and found it was a little hot. She said, "My husband may have caught a cold. I will go to the city to find a doctor as soon as possible."

Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "It's okay. I'm not that precious. But I've been traveling for more than 20 days. Ten years ago, nothing should have happened to me, but now I can see that my health is not as good as before."

Lu Lingqi comforted him, "Everyone has had some minor illness. My husband just relaxed suddenly. Besides, all the ladies in the city are looking forward to seeing my husband."

Yuan Xi smiled bitterly and said, "It's been more than a year since I last saw them. I went back to Jicheng a few times, and before I knew it, seven or eight years had passed. Time flies."

The convoy gradually approached Jicheng. When it was still seven or eight miles away from the south gate, it saw a small hill of more than ten meters in the distance. After getting a few miles closer, everyone realized that it was a pile of corpses of Xianbei cavalry.

The sight of tens of thousands of corpses piled up one after another seemed extremely shocking, but Yuan Xi also understood that the deterrent effect of such actions had been greatly reduced nowadays, and most of them were just to vent one's anger.

Now the Xianbei outside the Great Wall have no way to retreat. It is so cold outside the Great Wall that most livestock cannot survive the winter, so many tribes slaughter cattle and sheep in advance as military rations, allowing the young and strong in the tribe to fight to the death and create a way of survival for the old, young, women and children in the tribe.

In this case, having a few more Jingguans would just be better than having none.

The convoy entered Jicheng, and Ju Shou was already waiting at the city gate to greet them. He got into the car and saw Yuan Xi's appearance, and was immediately shocked, "My lord is injured?"

Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "No, I just have a fever. It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Sir, tell me about the current situation in the city."

Ju Shou said that Zhang Liao and Yan Rou, who had rushed back earlier, had already gone to various cities to resettle the victims, and Jicheng had also sent people to bring the nearby victims into the city. Then he talked about some political affairs. Yuan Xi was pleased to hear that Ju Shou had arranged everything in an orderly manner, and said, "Thank you for your hard work, sir."

"If there is any urgent business, I will go to the official residence first."

Ju Su hurriedly advised: "All matters have been handled according to the Lord's orders."

"My lord, please go back home and take care of your health. If your health is not good, the Jin State will be in chaos. I hope you will think twice after learning from Cao Cao's previous experience."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi said, "Well, I will go back home to rest for half a day and come back to see you tomorrow."

Ju Su had no choice but to get off the car and say goodbye. Before leaving, he thought of what happened in Yuan Xi's mansion and wanted to remind him, but after thinking about it, he swallowed his words.

Yuan Xi took a carriage and rushed all the way to his own mansion, only to see the gate open. Zhen Mi and the other ladies were waiting at the door. Yuan Xi saw them from afar and couldn't help but smile.

But then his smile froze, because he saw white flags hanging on both sides outside the mansion, swaying slightly in the cold winter wind.

(End of this chapter)