Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1385 Asking for help
Cheng Yi watched as the Jin cavalry rushed over like wolves, and wherever they went there were Xiliang soldiers who wanted to resist. They took out their bows and arrows, but before they could aim, several grenades thrown into the crowd by the Jin army exploded. The war horses were frightened and fled in all directions, and the Liangzhou army's formation collapsed instantly.

At this time, someone discovered that the Jin cavalry's horses had their ears plugged, so they were not afraid of the explosion, but even if they understood, it was too late to respond.

The Xiliang soldiers, whose strength in one-on-one combat was not weaker than that of the Jin army, could not withstand this highly targeted tactic. In addition, their leader was shot dead by a crossbow when they were besieging Zhao Yun. Without a leader, they had completely lost their fighting spirit.

Cheng Yi's heart bled as he watched. The thousands of cavalrymen present were the family heritage accumulated by the Cheng family over hundreds of years. These loyal private soldiers were only loyal to the Cheng family and would not even listen to the orders of the court. They were the backbone of the Cheng family's survival for a hundred years, but now they were like a group of lambs to be slaughtered!

Seeing his soldiers falling like sheaves of wheat, Cheng Yi let out an angry and unwilling roar, but his shout did not last long as Zhao Yun arrived with his spear in hand.

Seeing Zhao Yun shaking the tip of his spear and the cold light shining directly on his face, although Cheng Yi was frightened, he still gritted his teeth and rushed forward with his spear. Now he had no way to retreat and could only fight to the death!

However, Zhao Yun just shook the spear a few times, and the red tassel on the spear danced into a fiery red fan. The tip of the spear suddenly came out and pointed at Cheng Yi's forehead.

As the head of a wealthy family in Xiliang, Cheng Yi naturally has extraordinary martial arts skills and is also a long-established general in Xiliang. After all, Xiliang is a place that only recognizes martial arts. He immediately turned his head to avoid the spear tip and raised the spear in his hand, ready to rush into the middle while Zhao Yun was not putting away his spear.

Zhao Yun's spear missed the target, and he responded immediately the next moment. He held the end of the spear with his back hand and twisted it hard. The iron spear began to shake, and the vibration was transmitted from back to front through the spear shaft, and the spear head swung greatly in an instant.

There were two whirring sounds, and the gun tip trembled violently and swept horizontally half a foot, hitting the ear area of ​​Cheng Yi's helmet hard. The huge impact force made Cheng Yi dizzy instantly, his ears were buzzing, his vision became blurred, and his body shook.

Cheng Yi's head was dizzy, but he knew that it was a life-and-death moment, so he roared and raised his spear with all his strength to block the attack, but Zhao Yun's spear tip had arrived earlier, piercing into Cheng Yi's mouth and out from the back of his neck.

Cheng Yi fell off his horse and lost his breath. Seeing this, the guards around him fled in panic, but they were no match for the ferocious Jin cavalry and were soon wiped out in the pursuit.

Some who took advantage of the situation wanted to surrender when they saw that they could not escape, but they found that the Jin soldiers did not give them a chance to speak. The Jin army continuously fired crossbows at the crowd, killing all the Xiliang soldiers on the ground.

This was also what Yuan Xi meant. Yuan Xi had studied the composition of the Xiliang soldiers at the beginning, trying to find out why the Xiliang soldiers were so brutal in combat and so loyal to their superiors. Later, Yuan Xi discovered that this was all because the Xiliang families spared no effort to buy slave soldiers.

The powerful people in Xiliang can be said to be the most indulgent and tolerant force towards soldiers. In order to win the hearts of soldiers, they can do things without any bottom line, just like when Dong Zhuo allowed his soldiers to rob the market, kill men, and abduct women. In order to make the soldiers loyal, the powerful people in Xiliang can be said to have done everything they could.

As for the ordinary people who were robbed by them, no one cared. After all, in the border areas, being soft-hearted meant failure and loss of military morale.

So after careful consideration and evaluation, Yuan Xi believed that the bad habits of the Xiliang soldiers, who had a history of hundreds of years, were stubborn and difficult to change and assimilate. After all, they were veterans who had fought for decades and were accustomed to killing and robbing.

This kind of people are the most difficult to reform. They have been domestic slaves for decades, and their honor, disgrace, life and death have long been tied to those of their powerful masters. They have no empathy for the civilians they robbed. There were also such soldiers in Yuan Xi's military camp before. They were particularly stubborn and could not be taught no matter what.

Therefore, Zhao Yun's attack on Liangzhou this time and the exposure of the eight major families was in accordance with Yuan Xi's idea of ​​cutting the grass completely and catching all these powerful people and slaves in one fell swoop.

After all, labor education has not been very effective. The places that should be conquered and the places that can be reformed have almost been covered. The remaining places, from the southern barbarians to the northern Hu, from the Minyue to the Liangqiang people, are the most stubborn forces. These ethnic groups have formed a unique system of behavior over hundreds of years, and they cannot be reversed by simply letting them farm and work.

Therefore, Yuan Xi could only adopt the method of fighting violence with violence in these places. For the uncivilized tribes, the only language they could accept was strength. Now was the time for the Jin army to demonstrate its strength and pressure.

As for the subsequent transformation, it is to completely eliminate the Liangzhou nobles and slaves, and then slowly assimilate them into the Han language and traditions over a long period of time. This process will last for dozens or even hundreds of years and is no longer something we need to consider right now.

With Cheng Yi's death in battle, Zhao Yun led his troops to break through the Xiliang army's defense line between the ruined city walls and mountains, and killed most of the Xiliangzhou who were resisting stubbornly. The others saw that the situation was not good and had already fled without a trace.

Zhao Yun ordered the soldiers to clean up the battlefield and set up a camp at the gap. Not long after, news came that Zhang Liao on another team also broke through the gap and killed Yang Qiu and his men.

After the two sides joined forces, Zhang Liao heard about Zhao Yun's battle situation and couldn't help but laugh: "Now neither of us is considered a pure warrior, right?"

In order to break through quickly, Zhang Liao also used a large number of rocket grenades. Yang Qiu was hit by a flying rocket while commanding the battle and died on the spot. He was extremely unlucky.

Afterwards, Zhang Liao wiped out the remaining troops of Yang Qiu without any effort. At the same time, he felt a sense of emptiness in his heart. It seemed that now that the battle had come to this point, the martial arts of the generals didn't seem to be that important anymore?

Facing Zhang Liao's sigh, Zhao Yun thought for a moment and said, "During the time of Emperor Gaozu, it was said that knights who violated the law with force were the greatest thieves of the country."

"At that time, the knights-errant acted arbitrarily. They attached themselves to powerful people, called on their friends, and caused trouble in the village. They violated the law and discipline, and the local officials could not do anything about them."

"Several emperors of the Western Han Dynasty took various measures to deal with knights-errant, some of which were inappropriate and were later criticized as intangible cultural heritage." "You and I are warriors, and in fact, many of our martial arts were passed down by knights-errant, so our lineage naturally sympathizes with knights-errant, right?"

Zhang Liao nodded and said, "That's right. Even though we know that the actions of knights-errant are against the rule of law, all martial artists are of the same blood."

Zhao Yun spoke up: "But now we are standing in a different position, from a different perspective, we can also examine the actions of the Ranger more comprehensively."

"Just like the Liangzhou tyrants we killed, they were actually acting like knights, but they only gathered their cliques and made profits for themselves, while they harmed the livelihoods of the people in the countryside."

"Now, as ministers, we should stand in the perspective of His Majesty and even the people of the world and work to welcome peace to the world. The knights-errant raised by the powerful people in Liangzhou have become a cancer that hinders the progress of this world."

"So in order to deal with them, we put aside our military status and used the most powerful means. Although it may be unfair, I think the lives of the people are more important than our reputation."

Zhang Liao nodded and sighed, "I understand."

"In your majesty's new dynasty, no, no matter which new dynasty, we cannot tolerate those who commit crimes and violate the law with force."

"Perhaps a clean Liangzhou is more suitable for this world."

In the following days, the Jin army was unstoppable and soon entered Tianshui. The Ma Wan family that went out to fight was also wiped out by Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao. Upon learning of this, the five major families hurriedly found Han Sui and said, "Leader, we can't continue to fight each other like this!"

"It turns out that it is impossible for the three heads of the Yangqiu family to stop the Jin army alone. If we don't stick together, we will be defeated one by one by the Jin army!"

Han Sui frowned. He did not intend to break the taboo of dividing the troops, but the defense line was too long, so he could only let each force set up defenses in several fortresses.

His original idea was that if the vanguard was unable to defeat the enemy, he would exhaust the enemy's energy and then retreat to the rear to set up defenses, continuously blocking the Jin army until its momentum of advancement became weaker and weaker.

But ideals are beautiful and reality is cruel. What Han Sui did not expect was that the Jin army's surprise attack was extremely resolute. As soon as the Xiliang soldiers from several families came into contact with the enemy, they were defeated and did not even have time to escape.

Han Sui fell into deep thought. The Jin army was too powerful, so they had to join forces. However, the possibility of being wiped out by the enemy was also higher.

Although the remaining five family heads respected him as the leader of the alliance, it was still unknown how much they would contribute. Thinking of this, Han Sui made up his mind and said to the family heads: "It takes cooperation from many parties to stop the Jin army. Although we have lived in Liangzhou for a long time, our ability in fighting seems to be a little behind that of Zhao."

"So if we want to defeat Zhao Yun this time, we must rely on the power of Marquis Yanling."

The candidate said, "Marquis Yanling is arrogant and he is also the brother of Emperor Wei. Will he come to help us?"

Han Sui said: "I can persuade him, but on the other hand, we must be prepared to fight Zhao Yun to the death."

"If we don't fight with all our strength, I'm afraid Marquis Yanling won't make a move."

Everyone looked at each other, Cheng Yin gritted his teeth and said, "Then what do we do, leader?"

Han Sui thought for a moment, pointed to a certain spot on the map and said, "They will definitely take this road. When the time comes, our six families will gather elite troops to stop them here. When the morale of the Jin army is almost worn out by us, then Marquis Yanling will attack and put the final nail in the coffin."

Li Kan, Zhang Heng and others grumbled, "Isn't this just us contributing our manpower and letting the Marquis of Yanling reap the benefits?"

Han Sui sneered, "You want to pick peaches too?"

"The opponent is Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao. Do you think it is more likely for you to get their heads, or for them to get your heads more easily?"

Everyone stopped talking, and Liang Xing clapped his hands: "Good!"

"Since the leader says so, we will obey his orders and see how he leads us to defeat the Jin army!"

(End of this chapter)