Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1110 Death
Ma Chao's army watched helplessly as their former fellow tribesmen were tied up on the city walls and tortured. Their screams were incessant. The sharp knives pierced between their muscles and skin, but very little blood came out, which greatly delayed their death.

The soldiers of Ma Chao's army discovered that behind the executioner stood a military doctor who kept giving instructions. It seemed that the doctor had a deep understanding of the human body and was specifically there to assist in the execution.

Seeing this, they all started to curse loudly: "You are beasts, beasts!"

"You are not worthy of being called doctors or strong soldiers!"

"Aren't you afraid of retribution for doing these things?"

The executioner on the top of the city heard this, walked to the edge of the city wall, and shouted: "When you slaughtered the people of Jizhou and cut off their limbs, did you ever think that this day would come?"

"Pooh!"

The soldiers carrying out the execution had sneers on their faces, and paid no attention to the noise from below the city. They just cut down with their swords firmly. The person being tortured kept screaming and begging for mercy, twisting his body and struggling like a fish being slaughtered. The soldiers of Ma Chao's army below were terrified by the sight.

They are really scared, because this kind of fate is very likely to happen to them!

From a very early time, the Liangzhou army was famous for its ferocity and cruelty among the three states of Youzhou, Bingzhou and Liangzhou in the north, which led to their dominance over the Youzhou and Bingzhou cavalry in both looting and fighting.

On the battlefield, whoever is more ruthless has a greater chance of survival. During the past twenty years, the Xiliang Army first followed Dong Zhuo, then followed Li Jue and Guo Si, then Ma Teng and Han Sui, and now Ma Chao. They have always been at the center of the vortex of the world's ups and downs, and relying on their extremely fierce style, they have earned a reputation that makes the world tremble.

This is also the pride and confidence of the Xiliang Army. They thought so before they followed Ma Chao to Jizhou. When they were traveling across Guanzhong, they successively defeated powerful enemies such as the Guandong Coalition Forces. Who else in the world could be their opponent?

Their subsequent series of actions in Jizhou were similar to their looting of the three prefectures of Guanzhong, and things went very smoothly, which made them think for a time that Jizhou would succumb to their iron hoof.

However, it was not until this moment that they realized that they had hit a hard nail, and it was a very hard and deep one!

Yuan Xi once pondered a question: how to stop soldiers from torturing the defeated and powerless civilians in an era when soldiers and bandits were one family and massacres were commonplace.

At this time, any education, any restoration of the rule of law after peace has been restored, are all too far away, and distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.

It was also very helpless, but also natural that he chose a path, and the only path, that the Xiliang soldiers could understand.

Use violence to control violence.

As for making them feel pain, the pain must be so severe that they turn from beasts into human beings again, only then can this act of slaughtering the people be stopped.

The executioner shouted to the people below the city: "The King of Jin has issued an order, you all listen carefully!"

"You beasts are guilty of the ten unforgivable crimes. Returning to Liangzhou now is your last chance to survive!"

"Otherwise, all the crimes you committed in Jizhou will be punished one by one, and then you will not be able to leave even if you want to!"

"I'll give you one day to leave Jizhou. Otherwise, if I catch you, I'll cut you into pieces and make you regret coming into this world!"

Pang De could no longer bear it and shouted loudly: "Bullshit!"

"What are you Jizhou Army?"

"The King of Jin is nothing but a sick tiger. Once the general has conquered Jizhou and entered Youzhou, I will definitely tear out his tendons and skin him alive, and torture all his family members to death!"

Yuan Xi had a very high prestige in the army. When Pang De cursed, the soldiers on the city wall immediately cursed back loudly. The executioner waved his hand, and dozens of archers shot arrows at Pang De.

Pang De used the handle of his knife to deflect the arrows. Seeing that the enemy was constantly shooting arrows, he had to retreat out of the arrow range. When the Xiliang soldiers saw this, they also rushed forward to shoot back. The two sides immediately started fighting back and forth, and the scene was in chaos.

At this moment, with a whoosh, a sharp arrow shot towards the executioner at an extremely fast speed. The soldier had been paying attention to the situation outside the city. Seeing this, he turned his body. The arrow flew past his cheek and shot into the heart of the Xiliang soldier who was being executed behind him.

The Xiliang soldier was killed with a cry. The executioner looked down at the city wall in dismay, only to find that it was Ma Chao who shot the arrow himself. Ma Chao put down his bow and shouted, "Listen carefully!"

"What you did today, I will repay you a hundredfold tomorrow!"

"If you fall into my hands, I guarantee that the pain you will suffer will be a hundred times worse than this!"

The executioner sneered and said, "You bastards, I'm waiting for you. Come here!"

"King Jin asked me to tell you that if you still insist on not changing your ways, you will regret it for the rest of your life!"

Ma Chao laughed and said, "Does he have the ability to do that?" "I'll wait!"

The two sides exchanged fire for a while, and finally Ma Chao's army suffered too much loss under the city and had to retreat. Yuan Xi's army on the top of the city did not delay and dragged out several Xiliang prisoners for execution. For a while, screams once again filled the eardrums of the Xiliang army under the city.

When the Western Liang army saw this, they all felt uneasy and their morale was obviously low. Ma Chao saw this and knew that it was useless to stay here, so he immediately waved his hand and led Pang De and others away.

After Ma Chao returned to the tent, he felt more and more aggrieved. He roared, kicked the table in front of him away, and shouted: "This damn fierce tiger has no aristocratic demeanor at all, and acts like a Xiliang person!"

Pang De's face froze, and he thought to himself, isn't this scolding me?
He said, "If this continues, the morale of the army will definitely be unstable. What can we do?"

Ma Chao roared: "What else can I do? Can this thing scare me?"

"From today on, 20,000 cavalrymen will take turns to attack day and night. No matter if they encounter soldiers or civilians, they will all be killed. No one will be spared!"

After hearing this, Pang De quickly accepted the order, his eyes flashing with excitement and cruelty. In his opinion, people like him who grew up on horseback were hunters. How many people were there in the Jizhou army? Could they protect millions of people in Jizhou?
On that day, the first wave of Xiliang soldiers set out, bypassing Yuan Xi's army's defense line and invading the hinterland, marking the beginning of a protracted pursuit and battle.

Zhuge Liang had rushed from Jicheng to Anping to take charge. When he learned of the large-scale and frequent mobilization of the Western Liang army, he knew that the other side had taken the bait.

If the Xiliang Army attacks in a small-scale and low-frequency manner, it will be difficult to defend against here. But if the Xiliang Army speeds up the number of attacks, the pattern of its routes will become traceable!
He immediately issued a military order, and several cavalry units that had rushed to Anping from Youzhou also set out. Within a few days, the two sides encountered each other several times and extremely brutal battles broke out.

At the beginning, Ma Chao's army was caught off guard and suffered a great loss because they had less intelligence than Yuan Xi's army. When Ma Chao learned about it, he was furious and led his troops into battle himself. At the same time, he ordered generals such as Pang De to attack from other routes, and they killed everyone wherever they went.

Under the leadership of Ma Chao, Pang De and several other highly skilled generals, Yuan Xi's cavalry gradually fell into a disadvantage. Just when Ma Chao was feeling proud, the generals of Yuan Xi's army who were actually lying in ambush in the rear took action.

With a bang, Ma Chao parried the spear that was stabbing at his face. At the same time, he turned the spear head and stabbed it straight into the opponent's heart, but the opponent managed to parry it with great force.

Ma Chao fired several shots in a row, but they were all blocked by the opponent. He couldn't help feeling anxious, but he could only endure and fight with the opponent because the opponent was Zhang He.

Both sides were young and strong, and at their prime, so neither of them gave in. After fighting for hundreds of moves, Zhang He gradually felt exhausted.

He sighed inwardly. Although Ma Chao on the opposite side was not a good-for-nothing, his martial arts were indeed impeccable. No wonder he was not at a disadvantage against Zhao Yun. His own martial arts were slightly inferior, so it would naturally be difficult for him to win.

Zhang He knew that Ma Chao's physical strength was also being consumed, but his tactics were not as good as his opponent's. If he continued like this, he would definitely run out of strength before his opponent. Thinking of this, he patiently took a defensive stance and waited for reinforcements to arrive.

Ma Chao knew what was going on when he saw Zhang He's expression. He immediately used his spear to trap Zhang He in the middle. The two sides fought back and forth in a life-and-death battle.

Pang De roared and chopped down with his sword. Gao Lan, who was opposite him, tilted his spear and tried to push the sword away, but he didn't expect that Pang De's sword was so heavy that the spear tip was bounced away.

Gao Lan suddenly felt a dull pain in his chest and abdomen. He gritted his teeth and drew back his spear to block Pang De's knife. Then another wave of pain came over him.

Gao Lan smiled bitterly in his heart. He had never fully recovered from the injuries he had sustained in the battle of Jizhou a few years ago. Although he had been taking good care of himself in the following years and his body was recovering, he had never returned to his peak and had some underlying health problems.

This caused him to drop down a level from a first-rate general. Although he was capable of dealing with ordinary Cao army generals, he was powerless when facing a Liang Province general like Pang De, who was not much inferior to Ma Chao and was in his prime.

Pang De also saw through Gao Lan's strength. He immediately gathered up his strength and swung his broadsword like the wind, aiming at Gao Lan's vital points. Gao Lan had no way of avoiding it and could only block the broadsword head-on. He knew that Pang De wanted to compete with him in strength and exhaust himself. The spear had no advantage in a head-on fight against the long sword. Gao Lan gradually fell into a disadvantage and was forced to fight head-on, which consumed his strength even faster.

Pang De saw that he had completely suppressed the opponent's offensive and could only occasionally counterattack except for defense. He took advantage of the situation and chopped at Gao Lan with his big knife without caring about his life.

Seeing that the reinforcements had not arrived yet, Gao Lan's eyes rolled and a plan came to his mind. He said, "Pang De, if you don't believe the King of Jin, you will regret it sooner or later!"

Pang De was not fooled and cursed: "Don't believe your mother's bullshit!"

"Wait until I reach Jicheng, trample the fierce tiger under my feet, and abuse his women in front of him, and see if he dares to brag again!"

Gao Lan sneered, "It's true that the Yellow River never gives up. Pang De, let me put it this way, your family members may be experiencing the same fate now!"

"When you were abusing the people of Jizhou, you probably didn't expect that one day your wife and children would be treated like this, right?"

Pang De was startled, and his hands unconsciously slowed down. He then came to his senses, swung out with a fierce knife, and shouted angrily: "Fuck you, you dare to lie to me!"

Gao Lan avoided the question and smiled: "Why, you don't believe it?"

"I want to see your expression when their heads are delivered!"

(End of this chapter)