Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1349 Internal Response
Kobe had previously learned from spies that Youzhou was the place where the State of Jin was experimenting with grain varieties, and that crops were planted earlier than usual in many places. At this time, farmers would come out to work, and their movements were easy to detect, so it was a great opportunity for the Xianbei to plunder.

In addition, last year Youzhou sent troops to the western Sili area to attack the Wei State, so Youzhou must have been relatively empty. Therefore, Kirby was able to order some tribes to migrate hundreds of miles south to the north of the Yanshan Mountains, and prepare for border violations at any time.

Of course, the Xianbei horses had just survived the winter and were not in the best condition, but the same was true for the Jin army on the opposite side. So Kirby was able to quickly send thousands of people into the interior of the country and began to plunder in order to test the strength of Youzhou.

When the State of Jin learned the news, it ordered all villages and towns to defend themselves behind barriers and sent infantry reinforcements. These troops were all elite troops from Youzhou and everyone wore armor. With their defense, the cavalry sent by the Xianbei could not penetrate the camp that had been reinforced long ago.

What was even more troublesome was that as the ice and snow melted in the spring, the water systems around the villages resumed flowing. The intricate ditches made it difficult for the Xianbei cavalry to find a route for their raid. Often, the horses would get stuck in the paddy fields after running for a short time, and it took a lot of effort to get out.

Under such circumstances, the Xianbei cavalry, as the vanguard, were unable to make any progress and could only vent their anger by destroying fertile farmland, until one day they found that they could no longer obtain food.

After discussion, these people had to temporarily return to the tribe to the north to prepare to get food needed for the next attack and then choose another day to attack.

Then when they returned to the tribe hundreds of miles north, the scene they saw left them stunned.

Dead cattle and sheep were scattered all over the ground. The only people left in each tent were old and young. The women and older children who could work were nowhere to be seen.

After finding the remaining tribesmen and asking them about the situation, the Xianbei cavalry became even more anxious and almost vomited blood. It turned out that not long after they left, the Youzhou cavalry of the Jin army raided the Xianbei tribe from somewhere.

The Jin army killed the few young and strong Xianbei people who stayed behind with almost no effort. While the remaining Xianbei people were waiting to die, the Jin army did not kill them, but took away all the women and older children!

The Jin army did not even take away the extra horses, cattle and sheep, but killed them all and then quickly left with the captives. The whole process happened extremely quickly, in less than half a day. And it seemed that they had also been to other tribes, and their purpose was very clear, which was to rob people.

After hearing this, the Xianbei cavalry looked at the old and young people in the camp and couldn't help cursing. Some of them had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter, but they were quick to ask questions: "What should we do in the future?"

"Without women, how can the tribe continue?"

Someone heard this and said nonchalantly, "They are just some girls. We can go to other tribes to marry them. There are so many tribes on the grassland, are we still short of a few girls?"

The person in front asked again: "Now only the old and the young are left, and there are no cattle or sheep for food. How can we survive?"

This is a big problem. After discussing for a long time, they still couldn't come up with a clue. Finally, the leader who went out made a decision and said, "Let's go to other tribes to seek help and ask them to give us women and food."

"If they can agree, we will definitely give something in return in the future."

Someone doubted: "If it were us, would we do such a thing?"

The leader said in a deep voice: "At worst, we can merge into their tribe. We should first seek help from the small tribes so that they can't refuse us."

Some people still questioned, "Small tribe? With so many of us, they will be even less likely to agree, right?"

A fierce light flashed in the leader's eyes, "If they don't want to, they will cut off our chance of survival. Don't blame us for being rude!"

"Besides, there are many tribes that have grudges against us. We can just use this as an excuse to retaliate. Anyway, our main young and strong men are all here, so there is nothing to be afraid of!"

Someone worriedly asked, "Will Lord Kobinen blame us if we do this?"

"Do you want to ask Lord Kirby for help?"

The leader said coldly: "What happened here must have happened in other tribes. Can he make the Jin army retreat and let all of us have enough food?"

"Besides, he was defeated by the Jin army before, but now he wants us to explore the way. Can we still trust him?"

Kobineng originally had a high prestige in the Xianbei tribe, but since the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of Xianbei troops, his reputation has been severely damaged. Although this is a helpless act of cutting off one's own arm, all the tribes do not want to be the one to be cut off, so the tribal leaders began to secretly guard against their own tribes to prevent them from being abandoned.

After everyone heard this, they were all speechless. Finally, someone asked, "What about the old and young left here?" "The cattle and sheep are all dead, and there are no extra horses. Should they follow us or wait here?"

The leader said gloomily: "We have run out of food. Let them stay here. No one can predict what will happen in the future. As long as we are here, we can keep the tribe going. As for the rest, we can't control it now."

Everyone felt a tightness in their hearts, knowing that in all likelihood, they would have to abandon these burdensome people.

In the silence and depression, everyone cut off the rotting meat from the dead cattle and sheep and smoked it as their personal rations. Although they knew that eating this kind of meat might cause problems, it was the only solution at the moment.

The next morning, the horse team set off for other tribes amid the wailing of the tribesmen, young and old. No one knew what would happen in the future, but now they could only move forward and could not look back.

This situation occurred frequently among the tribes north of Yanshan Mountain. It is unknown how many tribes were raided. Compared with the Eastern Han Dynasty when the Han soldiers went on an expedition deep into the desert and ruthlessly massacred the Xiongnu tribes, the Jin army did not do anything extreme this time. However, the consequences would not become apparent until several months or even half a year later.

The assault team led by Qian Zhao, Yan Rou and others, with sufficient intelligence support, swept through the Xianbei tribes near the pass at an extremely fast speed. After their success, they quickly returned to the border, and when they met the supporting convoy, they handed over the people they had captured, and then returned to the grassland to carry out the next step of action.

The convoys that received the captives would rush to the nearest dock, then load the women onto ships bound for Jiangdong, and load the almost-adult men onto ships bound for the Wa Islands to go mining.

This was something Yuan Xi had planned long ago, and he did not feel any psychological pressure about it. The Xianbei were a huge threat to the Han people's future destruction of their nation and race, so if he held back at this time, that would be a real mistake.

After this series of actions continued for several months, fewer and fewer Xianbei cavalry entered the interior of the country. At the same time, large-scale disputes began to arise among the tribes on the grassland.

Due to the lack of livestock, the grassland tribes were in great turmoil. Many tribes asked other tribes for help. Although a few were satisfied, the vast majority faced a huge survival crisis.

Driven by hunger and other factors, conflict inevitably broke out. Annexation, killing, and looting occurred. The two originally friendly tribes turned against each other overnight. Both sides killed the young and strong men on the other side, abducted the women on the other side, robbed the food on the other side, and slaughtered the old and young burdens of the tribe. The scene of the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China in later generations was quietly staged on the grassland in advance.

Kobe did not realize the seriousness of the matter so quickly at the beginning. In addition, the royal tent was still quite a distance away from Yanshan, so it was more than two months later when the news of the first tribal conflict reached him.

When he learned the news, he immediately realized that this was not a good thing, so he immediately sent his elite troops to quell the unrest and appease the tribe.

But when the people he sent arrived in the south, they saw the tragic scene of dead bodies everywhere. Many tribes had gone blood-thirsty. They tried their best but were unable to completely stop the disputes. After all, they could not conjure food from the sky.

After the mediation failed, they had to return to the king's tent, but they were ambushed by Jin cavalry on the way, suffering heavy casualties. When those who escaped reported, it was already summer. After hearing the remnants report what happened in the south, Kirby felt something was wrong. He wanted to test the opponent to find the flaw, but he didn't expect to provoke such a ruthless counterattack!
Ko Bineng was indeed a wise leader of the Xianbei, but even though he was a genius, his knowledge could not be compared with Yuan Xi, who had the knowledge of later generations, or the Jin strategists who had the experience of the time. Now he was falling into the Jin State's ambush step by step. Ko Bineng finally realized that without the help of outsiders, he would not be able to shake the Jin State at all!
So, in desperation, he once again thought of Sun Quan, Marquis of Lecheng, whom he had not valued at the beginning.

Kobe Neng had known about Sun Quan's affairs for a long time, so when Sun Quan sent someone to negotiate with Kobe Neng, Kobe Neng was very contemptuous. He felt that such a treacherous person who was defeated repeatedly in battles was of no value to the Xianbei, so he used an excuse that the other party could not do at all to refuse.

However, now that the situation has changed, Kobe can find that without the help of the Han people who understand Jin, he can't pose an effective threat to Jin. Although Sun Quan has been defeated by Jin many times, he still caused a lot of trouble to it. Maybe Sun Quan has some advice, and he can find a way to deal with the fierce tiger.

So, with the idea of ​​trying everything possible, Kirby sent people to sneak into the Hetao Plain, find Sun Quan, and ask him to help him.

After Sun Quan received the letter, he knew that Ke Bineng had finally been fooled, but he himself could not leave, so he turned to Sun Shao, Yan Jun, Jia Xu and others and asked, "Who of you wants to go?"

Jia Xu shook his head and thought to himself that he would be a fool to go there. He was just a person responsible for giving advice, so why would he run over there and die?

Finally, Yan Jun said, "If Mr. Wenhe's plan is to be carried out, we three need to go together."

Jia Xu almost vomited blood after hearing this. He gritted his teeth and said, "I am already old and cannot stand the long journey. I will leave the chance to make achievements to you."

Sun Shao smiled and said, "That won't do. If you don't go, how can you manage the situation and respond to changes?"

Jia Xu cursed in his heart, thinking that these bad guys from Jiangdong wanted to eat him to death.

(End of this chapter)