Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1106 Massacre
Pang De ordered his soldiers to set fire to the huts in the village. Flames rose up, spewing out billowing black smoke, swirling upward and covering the sky.

A strong burnt smell spread, slightly masking the strong smell of blood in the air.

The source of the bloody smell came from the corpses of old, young, and strong that were scattered all over the ground, almost covering the entire ground.

This is a small village of a thousand people in the heart of Anping County. It is located close to Hejian and Qingzhou, hundreds of miles away from the battle with Cao's army, so people are not sensitive to the coming of the war.

Although Yuan Xi's subordinates in the nearby city had warned them to prepare to dig hiding places and find escape routes, the villagers did not take it seriously and continued to work from sunrise to sunset.

Especially as the summer harvest is approaching and the crops are about to mature, everyone is preparing to join the village. At this critical moment of harvesting crops, who would give up this year's food rations because of news that they don't know whether it is true or not?

This mentality of relying on luck eventually became their death warrant. More than a thousand cavalrymen led by Pound traveled light in the dark after sunset, bypassing the scouts along the way, marched hundreds of miles at night, and arrived here at dawn.

In the face of the brutal Xiliang soldiers, the hundreds of young and strong men who hurriedly took out their farm tools to resist were no match at all and were killed in a very short time.

Among them were some who resisted fiercely. The Xiliang soldiers were still not satisfied after killing them, so they nailed them to the wall, cut open their stomachs, removed their hearts and livers in order to scare others.

The deceased's wife was holding her young son, crying and trying to rush over, but was stopped by the Xiliang soldier who was laughing. The soldier snatched the child from her arms and threw him to the ground.

The child died on the spot. The Xiliang soldier stepped on the corpse several times. Then the woman knocked the child unconscious with a punch and carried the child on her shoulders and left.

Such scenes occurred everywhere in the village. The old people and children, who were useless in the eyes of the Xiliang soldiers, were all killed. After the massacre, only a hundred or so women were left, all of whom were kidnapped and abducted by the brave Xiliang soldiers.

The fire mixed with black smoke and blood in the air made everyone feel sick. However, the Xiliang soldiers were already accustomed to this smell. They stepped over the corpses of the old and young people on the ground, carrying women crying in pain on their shoulders, saying threatening words, and throwing the women onto their horses and tying them up as tightly as if they were piglets.

The Xiliang soldiers laughed and giggled. Female people were the most valuable to them. Not only could they use them to work after they were robbed, but they could also sell them when they got tired of playing with them.

And most importantly, tying women behind horses was like a shield. They found that when being chased by the Jizhou army, the horses with women tied behind them were less likely to be hit by arrows from the enemy. Subconsciously, the enemy cavalry preferred to attack the lone Xiliang soldiers.

Ever since the Xiliang soldiers found out about this, they have been scrambling to snatch the women as a way to protect themselves. For a time, they even fought each other with swords.

However, this trend was soon stopped by Pang De, who was very strict in military discipline. After he severely punished several soldiers who robbed their companions of their female spoils of war, the Xiliang soldiers then behaved themselves and each robbed their own spoils.

The village was completely destroyed, with no one surviving except the women. The situation was even worse than during the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

In times of chaos, war and banditry are the biggest and most direct causes of death among civilians. Soldiers and bandits are difficult to distinguish and the two can switch roles at any time. Civilians are powerless to fight back against such people and can only be bullied.

Of course, there were some women who resisted desperately and refused to obey. One of them even tried desperately to escape. The Xiliang soldier saw that she was struggling fiercely and was unable to subdue her for a while. He immediately became angry and kicked her in the abdomen, knocking her to the ground.

The woman fell to the ground and tried to struggle to get up. When she looked up, what she saw was half of the body of her child who had been dead for a long time. She jumped up from the ground with a howl and bit the hand of the Xiliang soldier who wanted to grab her hair.

The Xiliang soldier screamed in pain, and he drew his knife and cut the woman's neck.

A large amount of blood spurted out from the woman's neck. She fell straight to the ground and died, her eyes still open, staring at the murderer.

The Xiliang soldier was frightened and shouted angrily, then stabbed the woman's eyes twice, leaving two bloody holes.

He was still not satisfied, so he took out his spear and pierced the woman from bottom to top, then jumped on his horse and lifted the woman's body high up.

He rode his horse around the field several times, proudly shouting and challenging his companions, who all laughed and praised his strength.

Some of the captured women were trembling with fear, some were screaming in terror, and some were cursing. The Xiliang soldiers nearby heard this and punched one of them hard in the face, knocking out several of her teeth.

Pang De saw it all, but he didn't care. He looked up at the sun and shouted to everyone, "The Jizhou army is coming soon. Get on your horses and leave immediately. Be ready for battle at any time!"

The soldiers shouted and obeyed the order, jumped on their horses, and under the leadership of Pang De, galloped towards another road to avoid pursuit by the Jizhou army.

When they walked outside the village, they saw wheat that was about to be harvested. Pound's guards held the reins, stepped on the stirrups, leaned sideways, pulled up a few ears of wheat, and put them in their mouths to chew.

He ground his teeth and found that the wheat ears were filling with grain. He spit it out with regret and said to Pound, "What a pity. It will take another half a month before the harvest."

"What to do now?"

Pang De thought for a moment and said, "They are all trampled!"

After receiving the order, more than a thousand soldiers shouted and laughed as they galloped through the wheat field, then disappeared into the distance, leaving only a field of trampled wheat. Half a day later, the nearby city got the news of the village being massacred. After alerting the neighboring city, a team of dozens of people was sent to the village to investigate the situation.

When these soldiers arrived at the village, they were immediately stunned by the scene before them. Many of them couldn't help but kneel on the ground and vomit.

The leading captain (a military rank in the Han Dynasty, with a team of fifty people) was a young man in his early twenties. When he saw this, his face only changed slightly, as if he was accustomed to it. He sent people to count the number of bodies while also sending people to look for survivors.

A soldier came over and asked what to do with the bodies. The captain thought for a moment and said, "First, pile the bodies as high as possible to avoid damaging the water source and causing the surrounding villages to drink poisonous water."

The soldiers obeyed the order one after another. Looking at the broken limbs and arms all over the ground, they couldn't help feeling nauseous and lay on the ground retching.

The captain came over and personally bent down to carry the two bodies, not caring about the blood staining his clothes. He said as he walked, "Hurry up. When the bodies rot in the hot weather, they will spread the disease. If we don't hurry now, it will be too late later."

After hearing this, the soldiers had no choice but to drag or pull the corpse behind the captain.

A soldier at the end of the team whispered to his companions: "Our captain is young, but he has a heart of stone. No wonder he can climb over our heads."

His companion knew the inside story and whispered, "You may not know this, but our leader has been in the army for at least seven or eight years, much older than you and me."

"He has earned his military merits bit by bit, and the number of people appointed to his posts is not necessarily less than the total number of people in our team."

The man from before was surprised and asked, "Seven or eight years ago?"

"Doesn't that mean he joined the army at the age of ten?"

"how is this possible?"

His companion whispered, "I heard that the boss's family was originally from Xuzhou. Cao Cao massacred Xuzhou twice, and the entire village died, but he was the only one who escaped."

"Later, he fled to Qingzhou for refuge and was tricked into guarding the city. Your Majesty was still the governor of Xuzhou at the time. When he attacked Qingzhou, his leader almost died. Later, after many twists and turns, he somehow joined the Jizhou army and fought in several major battles in Jianghuai and Qingzhou. He rose to the top by relying on his kills."

"So he has seen more deaths than us. He is probably used to seeing scenes like today."

The man said in amazement: "No wonder, we only participated in two small battles in Jizhou, and we are no match for these veterans."

His companion sighed, "So we should learn from them, so that we can live longer. Look at the people being killed all over the ground. We are probably facing beasts who kill people without hesitation. If we are timid, we will only lose our lives."

The man who had heard this was still frightened and nodded quickly.

Hearing the faint and timid whispers coming from the soldiers behind, the captain in front had a blank expression, as if he had already been accustomed to it. This also gave his men a great sense of security.

But in fact, his stomach was also churning. So many years had passed, he had been to countless battlefields, seen thousands of dead bodies, but he still wasn't used to it.

The bodies of the soldiers were fine, but every time he saw the bodies of civilians, he would be reminded of the scene when his entire village was killed when Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou for the second time.

At that time, his whole family hid in the cellar, but they were discovered by Cao Bing. His parents sacrificed their lives in exchange for his escape.

Later, he was confused and lost his direction. After running to Qingzhou, he was deceived into guarding the city. By chance, he encountered Yuan's attack on Qingzhou. After a battle, the coalition forces of Tian Kai, Tao Qian and Liu Bei were defeated by Yuan Xi and Yuan Tan, but he saved his life and survived.

Later, an old soldier who had defended the city with him adopted him and taught him some basic martial arts. He had a high level of comprehension and started to climb up the ladder. Later, the old soldier died in battle, and he became a sergeant in Yuan Tan's army. However, he found it difficult to accept that Yuan Tan and Cao Cao joined forces.

Because his purpose in life is to take revenge on Cao Cao. Whoever joins forces with Cao Cao is his enemy, and whoever is an enemy of Cao Cao will be the one he will turn to.

So during the battle between the two Yuans, he turned around and joined Yuan Xi's army. He soon made great contributions and was promoted to captain. Later, he became a garrison officer stationed in Jizhou.

Today's events brought back memories that he didn't want to recall. Looking at the bodies of the elderly, children, women and children scattered all over the ground, endless anger surged in his heart.

Living in this world is already difficult, especially for the lower class people who have to dig for food on the land. Those Xiliang soldiers also mostly come from poor backgrounds and have similar experiences, so why don't they give the people a way to live?
Don’t they also have parents and children?

Why could they do this?

(End of this chapter)