Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1253 Tragedy
Not long after, a full-scale war broke out in the Jianghuai region. The State of Wu mobilized a large army, mobilizing the entire country and dividing the troops into two routes. One route went north to feint an attack on Ruxukou, while the other route focused its main force on attacking Changsha.

The foundation of Wu State has always been stronger than that of Liu Bei. This time, it sent out almost all of its troops at all costs. What's more, Liu Bei's main force is still in Jingzhou. The only generals stationed in Changsha are Zhang Fei and some newly defected Jingzhou generals. They had to hurriedly lead their troops to resist at the border.

But after all, the State of Wu gambled almost everything this time. From the military strength to the generals, their numbers were several times that of Zhang Fei's army, and they were advancing both by land and sea. Zhang Fei was a little overwhelmed for a while. He was too proud to support the situation and wanted to support it alone, but Xu Shu saw that the situation was not good and sent a letter to the State of Jin for help early.

After receiving the letter, Lu Xun, who arrived in Wancheng, immediately sent Huang Zhong and Wei Yan through Jiangxia to join forces with Huang She to intercept the Wu army's navy on the river. A battle between the two sides immediately broke out on a front of thousands of miles.

The reason why Lu Xun did this was that he was not confident in letting Lu Su and Jiang Qin take the initiative to attack the State of Wu. After all, he had an agreement with Yuan Xi before. However, it was still okay to let the two of them stationed at Ruxukou and pretend to defend.

Although the Wu and Jin states had already torn their relations apart in private, they pretended to be on good terms on the surface. After all, both sides had concerns.

Sun Quan was worried that if Jin State fully participated, he would not be able to resist the combined forces of Liu Bei and Yuan Xi, so he did not want the war to escalate.

Lu Xun's concern was that most of the supplies in Jianghuai had been transported to the north to support the war between Youzhou and Xianbei. At this time, there were not many troops available in Jianghuai. If Sun Quan had any backup plan and caused chaos in Jianghuai, he would have a hard time explaining to Yuan Xi.

So he thought of a compromise and asked Huang Zhong and Wei Yan to help Jiangxia. After all, Huang She, the prefect of Jiangxia, had a grudge against the State of Wu for killing his father. If Jiangxia sent troops at this time, it would be much more legitimate.

Lu Xun stood on the top of Wancheng City, thinking about the letter Lu Ji had written to him before, and felt very annoyed. Foreign invaders were invading, and at this time when everyone should be united in facing the outside world, but the people in the south were still fighting among themselves for a city or a place. It was simply laughable!

He looked towards the north and thought to himself that his sworn brother had been preparing for so many years, so there shouldn't be any mistakes, right?

At the same time, Yuan Xi was reviewing memorials in the house. He was wearing a thick fur coat and a cotton coat underneath, but it still couldn't cover up the chill that came in through the gaps in the windows.

The cold wind blew past the window, and Yuan Xi couldn't help but shiver. Da Qiao, who was grinding ink nearby, saw this and said, "My husband, don't be too hard on yourself. I still have a pound of charcoal in my room. Use it."

Yuan Xi raised his hand to stop Da Qiao and said, "No need. These are left by each household to prevent extreme weather. If there is no charcoal at that time, it will cost lives."

Da Qiao looked at Yuan Xi's trembling hands and said distressedly, "But my husband is still ill."

Yuan Xi said in a deep voice: "It's okay. If we hold on for one more day, our chances of winning will be better. If this is the case inside the city, you can imagine what is happening outside the city. The day of counterattack is not far away."

Yuan Xi's mansion had previously prepared a lot of heating equipment, including stoves and kangs, but now there is no fire for heating because firewood rationing is temporarily implemented in the city.

During this period, more and more Xianbei cavalry appeared around Jicheng. Because many logistical transportation routes were cut off, a lot of coal and charcoal could not be transported in, causing heating problems for many people in the city.

When Yuan Xi learned about this, he issued an order for wealthy families and other households with surplus firewood to donate it, and then redistributed the firewood in the city to give priority to meeting the needs of soldiers and civilians.

He naturally set an example by keeping a small amount of firewood in the mansion for emergencies, and at the same time advocated its economical use. The rest was delivered to the homes of the people.

Therefore, the women in each room now try not to light a fire. If they really can't stand it, they all gather in one room to keep warm.

Yuan Xi himself set an example. When the nobles in the city heard about it, they naturally did not dare to keep the firewood for themselves. They donated firewood one after another so that the soldiers and civilians in the city would not freeze to death and get through the difficult times.

The situation inside the city was so unbearable, not to mention outside the city. Now the Xianbei cavalry were like trapped beasts outside the city. They dismantled all objects that could make fire and started fires to keep warm, so that there was not even a single intact tree within a dozen miles outside Jicheng.

But after all, apart from dead branches, trees in winter are difficult to ignite. Coupled with the unexpectedly severe cold this winter, dead Xianbei people were everywhere outside the city. Most of them were Xianbei old and young, women and children who had traveled hundreds of miles and finally entered the pass from Yanshan.

They couldn't stand the cold in the north, and had thought that after entering the pass, they would be able to seize the houses in the towns of Youzhou with the young and strong men in the tribe, establish settlements, and spend the severe winter with the tribe. However, they didn't expect that after paying a heavy price to enter Youzhou, they found that it was not the case at all.

All the Hu and Han people in the border areas moved away in advance, not only taking their tents with them, but also almost all the villages and towns in Zhuojun Yuyang and other places were moved away!

When tens of thousands of Xianbei men, women, young and old arrived, they often saw a village full of broken walls and ruins, with only a few relatively intact mud houses standing alone. The rest had been completely destroyed.

The reason why these villages and towns are deserted is because Yuan Xi previously ordered the towns on the border of Youzhou to fortify their walls and clear the countryside, and all village populations were moved as far as possible towards Jizhou.

Although many people would inevitably die or be injured during the winter migration, Yuan Xi used a lot of livestock to help transport people and ordered each city on the border of Jizhou to receive and resettle refugees, so at least these people had a place to live.

In comparison, the Xianbei tribe suffered much more miserably. The severe cold and trekking they endured along the way were far worse than those of the Youzhou border residents who migrated south, not to mention that when they arrived at their destination, they were forced to stay in the open air.

When the villagers of Youzhou moved away, they knew that their homes would be occupied by the Hu people, so they decided to go all out and simply demolished their homes, taking away their food and firewood. The entire village was almost reduced to a wasteland.

When the Xianbei people arrived, they could only look at the empty, ruined villages and roar in anger. Then they had to face a harsh reality.

There were no houses, no firewood, no food, and the only thing that could fill their stomachs was the few livestock they brought with them. The north was extremely cold this winter, and a large number of livestock had already frozen to death before the Xianbei migrated, and another batch was lost on the way to the great migration. Now, on average, each household has less than a few livestock, and some families even have no more than one or two left. Even if there was no severe cold, they would not be able to survive the winter!

The leaders of the Xianbei tribes, both large and small, understood that this was a critical moment for their survival, so they all came to find the commander-in-chief, Zhu Luohou.

Zhu Luohou had already joined forces with General Suonu. The two were discussing matters when they heard that dozens of tribal leaders wanted to see them, so they had them brought into the tent.

When everyone came in, they saw that the brazier in the middle of the tent was burning a Han-made wooden stool. They knew that even Zhu Luohou would not be able to find much to keep warm. After hesitating for a moment, they told Zhu Luohou about the current miserable situation of the various ethnic groups.

An old leader burst into tears and said, "Before I led the tribe to set out, there were over a thousand young and strong men, and four to five thousand old, young, women and children. In less than two months, less than half of them are left!"

"If the hundreds of young and strong men who died had died in battle, it would have been a source of tribal honor, but most of them froze to death at night!"

"I have lived for so many years and have never seen such a tragic scene. If this continues, our tribe will be wiped out!"

"We trusted Master Kirby so much, thinking that he could make our tribe prosperous, but is this what we get in return?"

After hearing this, Zhu Luohou said in a deep voice: "Everyone is the same."

"You lost a lot of people. I feel the same way, but my men are also dying."

"We are facing the most troublesome opponent. I don't know who leaked the news of the migration to the south, causing the border residents of Youzhou to move away in advance. Otherwise, we wouldn't be in such a mess."

"What we need to do now is to find a way to capture Jicheng as soon as possible. If that doesn't work, we can go south to Jizhou and occupy the Han people's homeland. We will be able to survive this winter!"

The old leader shook his head and said, "It's still several hundred miles to Jizhou. My people can't even survive for a few days. There is no food or fire. Many of them are forced to lie in the snow and can't get up the next day!"

"I just want to ask you, sir, if you can't even make it through these few days, what's the point of talking about the future?"

"Did Lord Kirby lie to us? Where is he now?"

Zhu Luohou's face turned cold, he stood up and slowly walked forward and said, "You dare to question Lord Kobinen?"

The old leader knew he had said something wrong, but he forced himself to say, "Why, what's wrong with what I asked?"

"Has Lord Kirby led the troops into the pass personally?"

"Is he still in his tent, hugging his many concubines, burning piles of horse manure, drinking fine wine and milk tea, letting us explore the way and die, using our lives to test the terrible tiger?"

"We are about to be exterminated, what can we get in return?"

"In exchange for Master Kobe and the fierce tiger shaking hands and making peace in the future, will they abandon us completely?"

"How dare you!" Zhu Luohou drew out his knife and put it on the old leader's neck. "Master Kobineng has acted justly for so many years. Has he ever let down your tribe?"

"Now that we are facing a little difficulty, are we going to back down?"

The old patriarch was not afraid, he looked directly at Zhu Luohou and said: "You can kill me, sir, our tribe has no way to survive anyway!"

"I need firewood and food, and I want my people to survive!"

The others also started to make noises. Seeing this, Zhu Luohou had no choice but to put down his knife and said calmly: "I understand. Please go back. I will definitely give you an explanation today!"

Although everyone was skeptical, they also knew it was not a good idea to continue to provoke Zhu Luohou. After everyone left, Suo Nu came up and said, "Sir, we don't have enough food for five days. What should we do?"

Zhu Luohou said gloomily: "I really underestimated Xionghu's forbearance. He was able to hide in the city for half a month, just afraid that the soldiers would come out to attack. How despicable and shameless!"

"The most troublesome thing is that there are almost no people within a radius of 200 miles. If there is no change in Jicheng in the next two days, we will have to fight and go south to Jizhou to plunder."

"I just don't believe that Xionghu can hide the people of Jizhou!"

(End of this chapter)