Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1141 Dirty
Areas with well-developed water systems are often not suitable for cavalry because these areas are often full of rivers and swamps, making it difficult for cavalry to perform.

Moreover, after a long-distance raid, the cavalry had to rest for a while before they could be deployed to the battlefield, even if they had spare horses. Therefore, although Xuzhou was a flat plain, due to the complex water network, infantry was still the main force most of the time.

However, Yuan Xi completely broke this rule by using a fast and maneuverable fleet. The fleet was equipped with cabins specifically for transporting war horses. As long as the ship docked, the cavalry could immediately go ashore and engage in combat.

Earlier, Yuan Xi's subordinates left the city and had already informed the friendly forces who had been lying in ambush outside. Now, seeing the rockets rising from the city, the cavalry who had been ready for action for a long time rushed to the city gate in an instant.

The scattered soldiers guarding the city gates didn't even have time to react before a large number of cavalry rushed into the city. The defenders watched in amazement as the cavalry poured into the city before they reacted and raised the alarm. However, they had just run a few steps when they were knocked to the ground by several cavalrymen who came from behind.

The guard leader who had interrogated Yuan Xi earlier was pinned to the ground and watched the golden beans in his arms roll away. Just as he was about to open his mouth to say something, he was pinned on the back of his head and swallowed a mouthful of dust.

The cavalrymen of Yuan Xi's army teased, "The soldiers of Xuzhou are really useless. With such a reaction speed, they will die on the battlefield. No wonder the lord has so few soldiers of Xuzhou under his command."

Another person laughed and scolded: "I am also from Xuzhou, you are pointing at my nose and scolding me."

The man said: "You are from Langya. I still admire Northern Xuzhou, but it's different in the south. Look at how cowardly these people are. They dare not resist even when they are pinned down."

The leader of the city gate whined and felt aggrieved. Guangling had been peaceful for a long time and was located in the rear. Who knew where those people came from?

Moreover, the way these people were dressed, it was obvious that they were soldiers from You and Bing. Aren't they the same as us, belonging to the State of Jin? Why would they fight against their own people?

The torrent of cavalry continued to pour in. Led by Yuan Xi's subordinates from the Great Wall, they rushed towards the direction where the rockets rose. After running through several street corners, the cavalry arrived at the battle site.

At this time, thousands of slaves from the Xuzhou gentry were fiercely besieging the Bu family mansion. Seeing that more than a hundred of their own guards were guarding the door tightly, the situation was precarious. The leading cavalry general shouted decisively and launched a charge at the crowd from the rear!
At that time, the servants of several large families were besieging the mansion with red eyes for the rewards promised by their masters. They did not notice that the sharp butcher knives behind them were raised high. With angry shouts, the Jin cavalry rushed into the crowd violently.

After all, the slaves were not soldiers and could not deal with this unexpected situation at all. While their brains were still confused, the Jin cavalry raised their spears and halberds and charged forward.

This was no longer a battle, but a one-sided massacre. The bodies of the slaves were cut open by long spears, blood mixed with internal organs spurted out, and then they were trampled into meat paste by countless horses' hooves.

The Xuzhou gentry had a strong foundation. In places like Guangling, their power was so great that even the emperor could not catch up. Their servants were also domineering and arrogant on a daily basis. They did not care about ordinary people. Many civilians were even raped and killed by them in the name of their masters, and then their bodies were thrown into the river to destroy the evidence.

This kind of thing is so common in troubled times that it is extremely difficult to track down. Even if it is discovered, the person will be protected by the host family and will not even receive any punishment.

Yuan Xi had heard about the chaos in southern Xuzhou a long time ago, but because he was busy fighting wars, he had never found the time to go to Xuzhou to solve this stubborn problem. However, by chance, this wish came true in another unexpected form.

Now retribution has come, these slaves who took advantage of the power of others are turned into dust and die on the ground, just like the innocent people they insulted and harmed.

Several family heads were dreaming of a bright future one moment, but their dreams were completely shattered by iron fists the next moment. The miserable wails of the slaves around them made them completely panic. The other side had no intention of giving them a way to survive!

There was one patriarch who was still hoping for the best. Facing the aggressive imperial guards, he quickly raised his hands and shouted, "I am Yin De, the patriarch of the Yin Family. I surrender!"

The other family heads cursed inwardly, thinking that this old fellow was quick to react and surrendered as soon as he saw that the situation was hopeless. He was really cunning!
The leading cavalryman looked in the direction of Yuan Xi and found that Yuan Xi did not say anything. He immediately understood and swung his spear horizontally, hitting Yin De hard in the chest, knocking him away.

Yin De spat out a mouthful of blood in the air, rolled a few times and fell heavily to the ground. He lay on the ground, his teeth sticking out and howling heart-wrenchingly.

"It's unjust. A noble family head is actually treated like this. Doesn't the King of Jin care about the dignity of the scholars in the world?"

"Does the King of Jin want to kill us all?"

Seeing this, the other family heads also knelt down and shouted to the sky: "There is no justice, no law!"

"Cao Cao massacred Xuzhou twice in the past. Does the King of Jin want to massacre Xuzhou again this time?"

"Cao Cao only attacked his enemies, but the King of Jin attacked his own people. Is there such a thing as this in the world?"

Their words were extremely inspiring, and the slaves around them also started to make noises, shouting: "The King of Jin is slaughtering Xuzhou!"

"The King of Jin attacked his own people!"

When the Jin army soldiers saw this, they all looked towards Yuan Xi who had been standing at the gate of the Bu family's residence. Yuan Xi slowly stepped forward and said, "You guys started a rebellion and wanted to take my head, and now you dare to bully me with words. You have such a big face!"

"I already know the evil things you did in Xuzhou. You have poisoned the people of Xuzhou, and you still have the nerve to say you are innocent!"

"I will settle all these sins one by one. Now I will count to three. If anyone still holds a weapon, kill them without mercy!"

"one!"

Before he finished speaking, the remaining slaves had completely lost the courage to resist. They threw away their weapons and knelt down to surrender. After all, they thought they had not done much evil and had many chances to survive. If they continued to resist, they would surely die! The soldiers of the Jin army took the slaves away one by one, and several family heads were tied up and strung together. Yin De shouted, "I don't accept it!"

"I come from a family of officials, how can you treat me like this!"

Yuan Xi waved his hand and said, "The next time I meet you, it will be on the top of the city wall. I hope you can think of a good excuse by then."

"Take it down!"

All the family heads had pale faces and collapsed to the ground, being dragged away by the soldiers like dead dogs.

The long street in front of the Bu family was filled with piles of corpses of the slaves. Including those of the Zhao family, there were probably more than a thousand of them. The people hiding in the houses around saw it through the cracks in the door and were terrified. How long had it been since something like this happened in Xuzhou?
Lu Lingqi shook off the blood on the short spear, licked her lips and said, "It's just like killing a pig. It's not fun at all."

The girl from the Bu family felt a mixture of blood and stench coming towards her, making her feel nauseous. She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeves, her face pale. What she had seen before were all the romantic interactions between the nobles, but never saw such iron-blooded killing.
Soon, the follow-up reinforcements of Yuan Xi's fleet arrived in the city, blocked the four gates, and began a large-scale manhunt, thoroughly investigating the families that had previously harbored ill intentions and opposed Chen Deng and Buzhi, and had taken advantage of the chaos to fish in troubled waters.

As each of the noble and powerful families had their homes searched and their properties confiscated, the truth about many of their previously covered-up evil deeds gradually surfaced.

Yuan Xi was sitting in the hall, Lu Lingqi was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, Bu Zhi was sitting on the side holding up bamboo slips, reading the collected evidence one by one, a girl from the Bu family was serving tea on the side, listening to Bu Zhi's words, she couldn't help but be shocked, it turned out that the Xuzhou gentry had so many dirty things going on in private!

When Tao Qian was in power, Zuo Rong, who was the prime minister of Xia Pi, rebelled and fled with the tax revenue of three counties. When he passed through Guangling, he killed Zhao Yu, the prefect of Guangling, and looted a lot of money from the Zhao family before fleeing to Jiangdong.

This Guangling prefect Zhao Yu is the eldest brother of the Zhao family patriarch who was killed today. He was in charge of the Zhao family at that time, and it was only after his death that the current Zhao family patriarch was able to take the position.

The head of the Zhao family should have hated Zuo Rong very much for killing his brother, but instead of taking revenge, he took Zuo Rong's subordinate Zuo He as his son-in-law.

This matter didn't seem right no matter how you looked at it. There were some rumors in Guangling City, but no one had any concrete evidence, so the matter was left unresolved.

However, now that the head of the Zhao family has been killed and the Zhao family's property has been ransacked, extremely surprising hard evidence has been unearthed from the secret vault.

It turned out that the head of the Zhao family secretly colluded with Zuo Rong and used him to kill his elder brother and thus became the head of the family!

This is also the reason why he wanted to recruit Zuo He as his son-in-law. This was originally a deal between two parties. Zuo Rong needed a retreat in Guangling, and the head of the Zhao family needed Zuo Rong's power to do some dirty work for him. The two sides hit it off immediately.

These evidences were also verified after the interrogation of Zuo He. From the beginning to the end, it was a farce written and directed by the head of the Zhao family. Although his methods were despicable, he acted very cleverly and did not let anyone catch him. From this point of view, he was better than Yuan Tan in dealing with Yuan Shang.

However, what the head of the Zhao family never expected was that before the truth was revealed, Yuan Xi asked Sun Li to chop off his head.

Hearing this, Lu Lingqi couldn't help but laugh: "She planned everything, but in the end she was killed by her husband like this. It was actually a good thing for her."

Yuan Xi said, "I was so angry, but they just kept rushing into my trap."

"This matter is not over yet. We can take this opportunity to completely eradicate these cancers."

"I'm not saying that Yuanlong did a bad job. On the contrary, he was able to appease these aristocratic families within his ability while ensuring Xuzhou's tax revenue. This is already commendable."

"But Yuanlong's actions are already the bottom line of my tolerance. These families still want to touch this line. I can only say that they are courting death."

"Has Yuan Long's whereabouts not been found yet?"

Bu Zhi said quickly: "I heard that he was imprisoned somewhere by the Zhao family, and people have been sent to look for him."

Yuan Xi stood up and said, "No need to wait any longer. I'll take someone to check out the Zhao family."

"I heard that the Zhao family has imprisoned many of the women they robbed. I want to see for myself before deciding how to kill them."

Lu Lingqi stood up, and the Bu family girl whispered, "Madam is leaving now?"

Lu Lingqi smiled and said, "Why, do you want to go with your husband?"

The girl from the Bu family panicked and shook her head quickly. Lu Lingqi laughed and followed Yuan Xi out. Bu Zhi hurried to see her off.

When the girl from the Bu family saw Yuan Xi leave as soon as he said he would and disappeared in a flash, the hall suddenly became deserted and she felt an inexplicable feeling in her heart.

(End of this chapter)