Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1480: Unwilling to be inferior to others
Attacking the Southern Barbarians in winter is actually a lose-lose move. After all, supplies are limited in the ice and snow. If you can't find the enemy or are defeated, you will be dead.

However, this approach with no way out instead aroused the Wei soldiers' desire to survive. Like wild beasts, they sniffed and searched all places where the southern barbarians might appear. Once they found any traces, they would pounce on them like hungry wolves and tear their prey to pieces.

As soon as a Nanman settlement was discovered, the Wei army would rush there as quickly as possible, launch a comprehensive attack and cleansing, plunder the food and young people stored for the winter, and then force them to join the army and continue to attack other tribes.

Of course, the people of the southern barbarians are not pushovers. Over the past thousands of years, the barbarians in the south of Yizhou have often invaded the people of northern and central Yizhou. Many southern barbarians even make a living by looting. The two sides have long since forged an irreconcilable hatred. Now that they are facing the invasion of the Wei army, naturally there are tribes that will rise up to resist and fight back.

However, Sima Yi accurately saw the biggest weakness of the Southern Barbarians, which was disunity.

At that time, there were hundreds or even thousands of tribes in the southern barbarians, and most of them existed in the form of primitive village tribes. There were periods of loose alliances among them, but most of the time, they fought each other due to insufficient survival resources.

At that time, productivity was low, and even the Han people, who mainly engaged in farming, suffered from famine repeatedly, not to mention the southern barbarian tribes who engaged in half farming and half hunting. In many years of famine when there was no food shortage, one of their means of finding food was to plunder nearby tribes.

Such behavior also led to extreme hostility and hatred between the tribes. The only time they could temporarily unite was when they gathered together and joined forces to plunder the people of Yizhou near Chengdu.

Sima Yi saw the hidden contradiction in this. Different from Zhuge Liang's later strategy of appeasement and surrender, Sima Yi adopted the most extreme approach, which was to drive the tigers to devour the wolves and divide and conquer them. However, it was only the Wei army that waved whips at the southern barbarians instead of driving the tigers and wolves to kill each other.

Naturally, some of the Southern Barbarians disobeyed orders and resisted. They were immediately beheaded in public, and their families were also punished. Now that the Wei soldiers were facing the destruction of their country, they vented all their fear and panic on the Southern Barbarians through violence.

This approach had an unexpected effect. Not only did it make the southern barbarian people feel unprecedented fear, it also aroused their brutality. However, they did not dare to show this brutality to the Wei soldiers, so they vented it on other weak tribes.

Driven by this crazy behavior, the State of Wei whipped up these tigers and wolves, spreading the killing and looting to the entire southern region of Yizhou. In the cold winter, the southern barbarians only wore thin clothes and even fought each other barefoot. One cave village after another was destroyed, and the Wei army occupied the area south of Nanzhong at a very fast speed.

The consequence of this was that within just over a month, more than 100,000 people died in the war, most of whom were from the southern barbarian tribes. In addition to the young and strong who participated in the war, there were also many old, young, women and children affected by the war.

When the Wei State first entered Nanzhong, it had less than 20,000 infantrymen, but in the process of continuously incorporating the southern barbarian tribes, this number quickly soared to more than 50,000.

Moreover, most of these 50,000 people were southern barbarian tribesmen who could be consumed or replenished at will. These southern barbarian soldiers had no concept of family, country or ethnicity, so they would chop anyone they saw with their swords, becoming more and more cruel and ruthless. Their bottom line was so low that even the Wei army could not compare to them.

As it is deep winter today, the Wei army has been forced to slow down its offensive, but in the past two months, the ground has been littered with corpses, and many villages have been uprooted, leaving no one alive.

However, the desire to kill in the Wei army did not decrease as the weather turned colder, but instead became more and more intense.

Especially the southern barbarian tribes, who were accustomed to killing anyone they saw, and were much more efficient than the Wei soldiers. Not only were they familiar with the local terrain and able to find prey at the fastest speed, but their style of behavior was similar to that of a slave society, and they had even less bottom line than the Wei soldiers, thus turning the entire Nanzhong into a huge Shura field.

At that time, Sima Yi led Du Xi and others and fought their way into the seven counties of Nanzhong. These places actually had cities built during the Qin and Han dynasties, but with the decline of the Han Dynasty at the end of the Han Dynasty, many cities were abandoned and became gathering places for many tribes.

This actually allowed the Wei army to find a clear target, and they fought all the way from Yuexi County to Zhuti County, and then through Jianning County to Yunnan County, which is near Kunming in later generations.

At that time, the villagers of the southern barbarians in these places were the only ones who could often go to the north to plunder because of the difficult roads. They never expected that they would be attacked from the north. After experiencing a massacre, they quickly surrendered to the Wei army and became its thugs to help them commit atrocities.

The size of the Wei army had expanded to 70,000 to 80,000 men. Du Xi said to Sima Yi, "Prime Minister, you are really smart to use war to support war."

"In this case, if we transfer these soldiers to Chengdu, can we repel the Jin army?"

Sima Yi sneered after hearing this and asked, "Why do you think they joined us?"

Du Xi said: "They fear our power but not our virtue. They are afraid that we will kill them, so they surrendered."

Sima Yi said calmly: "That's it. Do you think they still have the courage to go up against the Jin army's crossbow carts and catapults?"

"More people is not a good thing. Compared with the previous need to prepare several times more food and grass supplies, how can Wei State afford it now?"

"We have no shortage of food right now because we are constantly slaughtering and looting other tribes. When there are no more tribes left, the Wei army will immediately face a food shortage crisis."

Du Xi, the Khan, asked: "What should we do then?"

"Now that most of the seven counties in the south have fallen into the hands of the prime minister, there are fewer and fewer tribes that can be plundered. When the seven counties are almost plundered, the Wei army will sooner or later face the dilemma of food shortage."

Sima Yi said: "Since it has already started, we will not let it stop easily."

"Keep fighting in the southwest direction until you open up the Shu-Shendu Road. There's no need to follow the Jin army's example of building roads. Since the caravans can go, there's no reason why the Wei army can't go either." "Most of these places are rainforest swamps. As soon as spring comes, it enters the rainy season. Tigers, leopards, mosquitoes and insects are rampant, making it extremely difficult to travel. Winter is actually the safest time."

"Of course, many people will die during the winter march, but these slave soldiers from the Nanman tribe are a good choice for exploring the way. As long as we drive them towards Tianzhu and promise them the right to plunder, they will naturally rush forward, and we just need to follow behind."

"As long as this passage is opened, we can prepare to withdraw the court in Chengdu next year. After all, the Jin army will not wait any longer. Our chance to escape the encirclement of Yizhou also depends on this move."

"Of course, taking the southwest route is actually much more difficult than taking the western route. After all, the rainforest is much more terrifying than the Gobi Desert."

"But now that Wei has lost Hanzhong, it is impossible to reach the Hexi Corridor, let alone the Western Regions. In addition, Jin and Hannan have deployed heavy troops in the Jiangling area. The current choice is a helpless move with no other choice."

Although Du Xi had guessed Sima Yi's plan a long time ago, he was still shocked when Sima Yi said it himself. He couldn't help but ask, "Why did the Prime Minister think of such a life-or-death option with no way out?"

"If the Prime Minister surrenders to Jin, I'm afraid he will be treated well, right?"

Sima Yi was lost in thought after hearing this. He asked, "Yes, why?"

"I also know that if I want to surrender, Jin will certainly not make things difficult for me. I will just live out the rest of my life in peace. This is what I have always dreamed of."

"But I don't know when my thoughts started to change. Before I knew it, I suddenly realized that deep down, I was not willing to be manipulated by anyone."

"In that case, I will not go north any further. In the days ahead, I will keep heading south until I reach a place where the State of Jin can no longer catch up with me."

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"As for you, there is no need to take the risk of following me. When the Shu Road is opened, you can go back to Chengdu."

Du Xi had mixed feelings. He said, "Xi wants to accompany the Prime Minister till the end."

Sima Yi said, "Okay, spring is less than a month away. This is the most critical period. Get out all the axes and saws, cut down trees and pave the road. Just chop all the way to Tianzhu!"

Because it was difficult to collect intelligence throughout the winter, the details of the Wei army's actions did not reach Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun, and by the time they reached Yuan Xi in Jicheng, it was almost spring of the following year.

After reading the letter, Yuan Xi couldn't help but exclaim: "Sima Yi is really a ruthless man."

"Before this intelligence was sent, the Wei army had already reached Kunming. Now that a month has passed, I'm afraid they have already reached Dali."

Cao Jie, who was transcribing on the side, leaned over and read the handwriting on the letter. After finding several city locations on the map on the table and confirming the exact marching route of the Wei army, he began to copy on the bamboo slips and said, "I am very unfamiliar with these points. This is the first time I know there is such a secret road."

"The Wei army is moving faster than expected. Is it difficult for the Jin army to catch up with them?"

Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "After all, the seven counties in the south have been managed by China since the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Qin and Han Dynasties. Although they are occupied by the southern barbarians, there are still many places to go."

“But after Dali, everything is different.”

"From Chengdu to Dali, there are two roads, one is Lingguan Road and the other is Wuchi Road. The Wei army is now advancing on both roads, with the main one being the Wuchi Road that passes through Kunming."

"The two roads meet in Dali and split into two directions. One is to continue westward, via Bonan Road to Baoshan, and then via Yongchang Road to Tengchong to Myitkyina, Myanmar, and go to Assam, India. The other is to go directly from Ruili to Bhamo, Myanmar, and go to Assam, India via Myitkyina."

"Although the latter route is longer, it is also easier to travel. It is called the Southern Silk Road. It is very likely that the Jin army will take this route."

"These two roads have been connected since the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Although they have been abandoned for a long time after hundreds of years of war, it does not mean that no one has used them. As long as we can find a local native to lead the way, I believe that with Sima Yi's ability, we will be able to open this route again soon."

Cao Jie was puzzled and said, "I don't understand what he wants to do. The State of Wei is in such a state, isn't it better to surrender?"

Yuan Xi sighed: "He has his pride."

"But his extreme approach is much more efficient than that of the Jin State. If we follow the procedures, it may take ten years or even more to open this road. But now he has killed his way through. I don't know whether I should thank him or not."

"After all, the reopening of this road is of great significance to this area."

(End of this chapter)