Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1188 Survival
Xiahou Yuan stood halfway up the mountain, looking down from his position. Intermittent circles of fire stretched in front of him like a moat, almost completely blocking the way down the mountain, reminding him of the city he had attacked before.

The difference is that at that time he was the attacker, but now he was blocked on the mountain by the moat formed by fire. If he wanted to break out, he had to break through this line of defense first and repel the enemies hiding in the dark behind him before he could find a way to survive.

But the question is, how many enemies are there in the darkness?
Xiahou Dun was certain that the Jin army that was targeting him was like a hungry wolf, and would not give up until it had devoured him completely. That unknown enemy might be not just one but many; not just one hungry wolf but a group!
They were waiting for themselves to break out and then seize the opportunity to attack all at once, but Xiahou Dun had no choice but to leave because the Jin army's rockets had already set the trees at the foot of the mountain on fire.

Although the mountains and fields in autumn are not as hot as in summer, there is much less precipitation. Now that the trees at the foot of the mountain have been set on fire, the rotten soil under the trees has also started to burn. Aided by the mountain wind, the fire has gradually spread to the mountain. Before long, the fire points will be connected in a line, turning the entire mountain into a furnace. By then, you won't be able to leave even if you want to!

Xiahou Yuan looked at the fire that was about to close and finally made up his mind. He shouted loudly: "Go down the mountain on the shady side of the mountain, each of you should find a path that is not on fire to break out, and then gather into an army after going down the mountain, and attack and kill the enemy!"

After hearing the order, the Wei soldiers looked for a way down the mountain in an orderly manner. Although they were a little flustered, their formation did not collapse. Xiahou Yuan watched and nodded secretly. They were worthy of being his direct soldiers who had followed him for several years and were much stronger than the Yizhou soldiers!
Thinking of the Yizhou soldiers at the foot of the mountain, Xiahou Yuan was filled with anger. The Jin army launched rockets so easily, were the Yizhou soldiers really trying their best to stop them?

But at this time Xiahou Yuan had no time to pursue these things. He had not counted on these Yizhou soldiers who could not fight. Since they were unreliable, he might as well do it himself!

Thinking of this, he took the lead and led everyone to where the horses were tied at the foot of the mountain. Before going up the mountain, he left hundreds of war horses there and left soldiers to guard it. As long as he could use the cavalry to open the way, there was still great hope of launching a counterattack!

He led his men all the way down the mountain. The fire circles in front of them were almost all connected. The fire was burning fiercely with a strange burnt smell. It was obvious that kerosene was used on the other side. The heat wave was overwhelming, and many people's hair and beards began to heat up and curl, and even sparks appeared.

When Xiahou Yuan saw this, he shouted, "Cover your head and face, and rush over with me!"

Under his leadership, everyone rushed through the burning woods at a desperate moment. Many people's clothes were on fire, and they were in a miserable state. Some even had large areas of burns on their skin, but fortunately, they made it out!

Some soldiers followed him and rushed through the fire circle, while others fell to the ground and could never get up again. But at this time, everyone no longer cared about others. They just followed Xiahou Yuan and ran wildly to where the horses were tied.

When Xiahou Yuan arrived at the place, he found that most of the horses were dead on the ground. After asking the guarding soldiers, he learned that some Jin army archers took advantage of the chaos to kill the horses. Although they were forced back by the guarding Wei army, many war horses were still shot dead.

Xiahou Yuan thought that although the situation was not as expected, it was at least not the worst. He immediately jumped on his horse and ordered his subordinates to raise the commander's flag and light torches. At the same time, he issued an order to the entire army, asking everyone to break out in the direction of the commander's flag.

This undoubtedly put him under the threat of the archers on the opposite side, but it was undoubtedly the most correct choice. After Xiahou Yuan galloped around the mountain for most of the way, he finally reunited the Wei army in chaos.

After seeing the commander's flag, many Yizhou soldiers who were fighting independently gathered together. Seeing that the scattered soldiers were being integrated together again, Xiahou Yuan seized the opportunity and began to break out to the north.

Lu Xun had been watching Xiahou Yuan's response through a telescope the whole time. He couldn't help but secretly admire that the other party, as a commander of an army, was indeed an extraordinary person. Although he had outsmarted the other party, he was far superior to him in terms of sophistication in dealing with adversity.

Lu Xun's initial plan was to see if he could use fire attack to burn all the main forces of the Wei army to death on the mountain, but now seeing that the Wei army was reorganized, he knew that he could not stop the enemy with his own army alone.

Although the enemy lost at least five or six thousand men in breaking through the fire, their main force was still there. Together with the Yizhou army, there were still 20,000 of them. If they encountered our side, they would fight to the death.

Thinking of this, Lu Xun changed his blocking to pursuit and made way for Xiahou Yuan. He thought that he had already made a great contribution in this battle and it would be bad to take all the credit for himself. He would leave the rest to Huang Zhong and Wen Pin.

The battle lasted all night until dawn. Thousands of Wei soldiers who were responsible for the rear guard were captured by Lu Xun. Seeing that there were too many prisoners and he had little energy to pursue, Lu Xun ordered the soldiers to clean up the battlefield and rest on the spot.

Over there, Xiahou Yuan had already fled for more than thirty miles of mountain roads overnight. The infantrymen behind him were exhausted, and people kept falling to the ground. He saw all of this, but he didn't dare to stop now. Who knew when the enemy would catch up?
At this time, Li Yan rode up and said to Xiahou Yuan, "General, if the soldiers are exhausted, if they continue to run like this, I'm afraid they will die of exhaustion before reaching Maicheng. I hope you can rest for half an hour."

Xiahou Yuan was already furious with the Yizhou army because of what happened last night. Seeing Li Yan talking, he said unhappily, "The most important thing now is to get to Maicheng as soon as possible. If the enemy catches up with us, can we still escape?"

Li Yan said in a deep voice: "Haste makes waste. If the enemy intercepts us in front, do you think we will still have the strength to fight?"

"Even if we don't rest, the direction of our march is too obvious. The enemy will obviously stop us in front. We might as well change direction."

Xiahou Yuan asked back: "Which direction?"

Li Yan said, "Towards Yiling."

"The enemy probably wouldn't have guessed we would go this way, so the enemy troops blocking Maicheng would have missed us. We should go east and then north, bypass the eastern passage of Maicheng, and then go towards Yuzhou. There should be a good chance we can escape."

Li Yan was helpless. Although he was dissatisfied with the Wei army, he and Xiahou Yuan were now in the same boat. How could the Jin army tell who was who when they were being chased?

So he was sincere in giving advice to Xiahou Yuan, but he saw that Xiahou Yuan seemed to be dismissive of his plan. He cursed in his heart, what time is it, and why is he still trying so hard to save face? Does he really not want to live?

Xiahou Yuan sighed and said to Li Yan: "I know your plan is a good one. If the enemy is not the Jin army, it might really succeed." "But the enemy is the Jin army, so all such plans will not work."

Li Yan was a little confused and asked, "Why?"

Xiahou Yuan raised his head, looked at the black spot in the distant sky, and said, "If you had fought against the Jin army, you would know."

"Nothing that happens on the ground can be hidden from them. There is almost no possibility of taking shortcuts. In the end, they can only fight head-on."

"Wherever direction we go, they will be waiting for us out front."

After hearing what Xiahou Yuan said, Li Yan was skeptical. Was Xiahou Yuan so scared that he exaggerated the capabilities of the Jin army?
What do they mean that nothing on earth can be hidden from them? Is the other party a god?
If this is the case, why fight? Why just surrender? Is Xiahou Yuan fooling me?
Seeing that Li Yan was skeptical, Xiahou Yuan pointed to the black spot in the sky and said, "That was made by the Jin army. There are people on it, and they can see the movements on the ground clearly."

Li Yan was incredulous when he heard this and asked in a lost voice, "How can a person fly to the sky?"

"Is that the sorcery of the Taiping Dao?"

Xiahou Yuan said in a deep voice: "I don't know, but Xionghu defeated Wu several times with this thing, and the King of Wei also suffered losses."

"I'm sure they already know where we are going. No matter which direction we go, there will definitely be enemies ahead."

"So it's impossible for us to take shortcuts now. We can only abandon all hope of luck and fight head-on."

"If you win, you live. If you lose, you die."

Li Yan was speechless in response, and at the same time felt puzzled. Xiahou Yuan was the commander-in-chief of an army, and he was a surrendered general from Yizhou. There was such a big difference in their status, why would he say such heartfelt words to him?
He was full of doubts and was about to speak hesitantly when the warning horn sounded in front. There was a brief confusion of words among the vanguard, followed by a series of shouts.

"Enemy attack!"

As the shouting was heard, a large group of Jin troops appeared in front, forming a battle array to block the way!

Xiahou Yuan sat up straight on his horse, reached out to tighten the strap of his helmet, then drew the long sword from his waist and raised it high.

"There is an enemy ahead, but it is also our way out!"

"Fight to the death and kill the enemy, only then can you survive!"

"Listen to my command, charge with me, kill the enemy and survive!"

The Wei army soldiers roared and rushed forward with Xiahou Yuan. Maicheng was just a few dozen miles ahead. They were almost there, but the Jin army refused to give them a chance to survive. They had to fight them to death!

The soldiers on both sides shouted and fought together. The Wei army's soldiers were like crazy and launched a series of fierce attacks on the Jin army.

The pressure now fell on Wen Pin, who was leading the troops. Caught off guard, his formation was almost broken in an instant.

Most of the troops he brought with him were captured soldiers from Jingzhou, mixed with a thousand veteran soldiers from the Jin army. Before Wen Pin set out, he felt that these thousand soldiers that Yuan Xi had forced upon him were of little significance, after all, the soldiers from Jingzhou were his direct descendants who had followed him for many years.

At that time, Yuan Xi said: "I admit that the soldiers of Jingzhou are very good at naval battles, but in land battles, the Wei army led by Xiahou Yuan is not weak."

"So at a critical moment, my army might be able to help."

Although Wen Pin agreed, he wondered in his heart, how strong is the Wei army really?
And this Jin army was led by Li Yi, a general under Lu Xun. Wasn't he here to monitor me?
As a result, as soon as the two armies met, Wen Pin learned a severe lesson. The center army and the right wing where his direct Jingzhou soldiers were located were in danger in less than half a moment. On the contrary, Li Yi on the left wing defended very calmly!
Wen Pin also knew that he had been too arrogant. Seeing the fierce attack from the opposite side, he could no longer hold back. He immediately mounted his horse, sword in hand, and led hundreds of cavalrymen to charge straight towards the front of the Wei army.

When Xiahou Yuan saw the enemy general coming out, he stopped his attack and let the archers shoot to stop the enemy. As the commander-in-chief, there was no reason for him to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy general.

(End of this chapter)