I practiced magic in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 72 The Restless Southern Xiongnu [Edit]

"Captain, eight more people wanted to leave the city last night."

"What about people?"

"After they tortured and got the information out, they were all beheaded."

"Well, well done."

The soldiers of the Hu Cavalry Camp entered Puban at night, and then immediately took over the defense from the local militia and imposed a blockade on the entire city. The purpose was to prevent the spies of the Baibo Army in the city from passing on information.

This time, Zhang Liao planned to lure his opponent out of his hole.

"Captain, Liu Hui requests to see you."

"Bring it in."

"Yes."

A moment later, a middle-aged man with gorgeous clothes and a slightly plump figure appeared in the county government office. Although he looked gentle and elegant, he revealed a kind of pride in his bones.

"Meet the Huqi Captain."

"Are you the head of the Hedong Liu family?"

Zhang Liao was wearing precious armor and was surrounded by the aura of war. His brows were filled with murderous intent. Although Liu Hui had a good level of spiritual cultivation, he was still frightened by the aura of war. His heart trembled slightly, and he felt as if he was being stared at by a tiger. He felt suffocated.

The power of thought of Confucian celebrities is indeed stronger the more famous they are, but the people's morale is scattered, which is far less than the iron-like morale of the army. Therefore, even if Zhang Liao is less than half the age of Liu Hui, the blessing brought by the military evil spirit is enough to make him far stronger than Liu Hui.

At this time, Zhang Liao did not tell him to sit down, so Liu Hui could only stand.

Zhang Liao, instructed by Wang Jing, naturally did not look kindly upon these noble families and clans: "Why did I call you here from Jie County? I'm sure Patriarch Liu knows why, right?"

Liu Hui, who prided himself on being a famous scholar, was frightened by Zhang Liao's murderous words. With a bitter face, he explained to Zhang Liao in an earnest tone: "Captain of the Hu Cavalry, our Liu clan has completely severed ties with the Baibo Army. We had no choice but to do what we did before. Please understand!"

The fact that the aristocratic families secretly supplied food to the Baibo Army is not a big deal. After all, the refugees are rebelling. What if you don't pay them some protection money and they get angry and fight you to the death?
But if this kind of thing were weighed, even a thousand pounds wouldn't be enough.

If you really want to make a big fuss about it, this is definitely a case of colluding with traitors and intending to rebel.

Zhang Liao threw several secret letters in front of Liu Hui, and then said in a calm tone: "Collaborating with the rebels is a serious crime that will lead to the extermination of the family. I have found the evidence. Do you think you can get away with it with a few sophistry? The laws of the court are not to be trifled with."

These words made Liu Hui break out in a sweat, and there was no trace of the pride and contempt in his eyes anymore.

The Liu family is a famous family in Hedong. Historically, it reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty. Many celebrities have come from this family, such as the great poet Liu Zongyuan, and the fierce wife in the allusion "The Lion Roars in Hedong", both of whom are from the Liu family.

But at the moment, the Liu family has not yet become completely prosperous. At most, they are considered a famous family in Hedong. Although they have some power and connections, they are no match for Wang Jing, a fierce dragon that has crossed the river. They are not even a local snake. At most, they can be regarded as earthworms that can be crushed to death with ease.

Not to mention Wang Jing's background in the Taiyuan Wang family, the powerful combat effectiveness of the Eighth Battalion of the Northern Army alone is enough to easily crush the Liu family.

So in the face of Zhang Liao's undisguised threat, Liu Hui immediately chose to give in: "If the Northern Army General has any orders, the Liu family will definitely obey. Please be lenient, Captain. The Liu family has no intention of rebelling."

Seeing that Liu Hui was knowledgeable and interesting, Zhang Liao did not make things difficult for him. He nodded in satisfaction and continued, "The Liu family is a prominent family in Hedong. It is not easy to pass down the family for generations. As long as you are willing to serve my master, a few minor mistakes are not worth mentioning."

"Yes, yes, thank you very much, Captain Huqi, for your magnanimity. The Liu family will never forget this kindness."

Liu Hui wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief for escaping a disaster. Then he asked someone to present two generous gifts, one for Zhang Liao and the other for Zhang Liao to deliver to Wang Jing.

Isn't it strange that there are so many people?

In this world, the imperial dynasty is in turmoil and there are refugees everywhere. Liu feels very insecure, so when he sees that Wang Jing, a ruthless man, has emerged from the Wang family of Taiyuan in Bingzhou, he also wants to curry favor with him, intending to attach himself to the ruthless man and enjoy the shade under the big tree.

clang clang ~
Suddenly, alarm bells rang throughout the city, and several soldiers in cold iron armor walked in quickly, clasped their fists and reported to Zhang Liao: "Captain, there is an enemy attack!"

Zhang Liao's expression brightened when he heard this. He had long wanted to find a few rebels to show off his military merits, so he laughed heartily: "The coward finally came out of his shell? Come on, let's go kill some people together!"

After he finished speaking, he stood up suddenly, and the armor leaves collided with each other with a clanging sound.

Zhang Liao stepped onto the top of the city wall with the gait of a tiger and looked into the distance. As expected, he saw a cavalry of several hundred men, who were wandering outside the range of the archers in the city and provoking them. From time to time, they would put on a few equestrian performances, trying to use provocation to lure the defenders into a fight.

Because the entire city was blocked, these rebel soldiers did not know that their opponents had changed. They were no longer some untrained civilians and able-bodied men, but a group of well-trained and highly motivated cavalry.

Zhang Liao did not move his troops at this moment, but Li Le was arrogant and greedy. He thought that there were only a few hundred old and weak people in Puban City, and now that their food supply had been cut off, he naturally set his sights on the county town.

"Prepare for the attack. Once we take Puban, we will have money, food, and women. Brothers, you can spend a comfortable winter in the county this year!"

"He is handsome and mighty!"

Such a group of robbers who were used to looting, their eyes immediately lit up when they heard this. They imagined how they would vent their anger after breaking into the city, robbing to their heart's content, eating meat and drinking wine, and lying on warm bedding with their arms around women. Wouldn't that be much better than living in a mountain village that was leaky everywhere?
The more than 500 cavalrymen in front of him were all Li Le's assets. It was naturally impossible for him to use them to attack the city and fight a war of attrition.

Therefore, in addition to the cavalry, Li Le also brought more than 3,000 infantry this time, and looted the surrounding villages. He first threatened them with death, and then tempted them with the promise of looting at will after breaking into the city. By using this two-pronged approach, he successfully controlled tens of thousands of refugees.

They were simply thrown a dung fork and a hoe, and after threatening the lives of their wives and children, they were driven onto the battlefield, left to fill the line and consume the morale and supplies of the defenders.

Five hundred cavalrymen were in the rear, whipping the enemy with whips in their hands: "Forward! Forward! Anyone who dares to retreat will have his entire family executed!"

The refugees had no choice but to huddle together and numbly move towards the city gate.

"Drive the people to attack the city?"

Zhang Liao's eyes were cold and his heart was filled with murderous intent. Li Le's evil behavior of treating human life as worthless had touched his bottom line.

Immediately, the north gate of the county town opened, and a team of cavalry rushed out towards the north.

On the battle flag fluttering in the wind, the word "Zhang" was written in iron and silver strokes. The dragon-painted halberd in his hand flashed with cold light, and a fierce murderous aura overflowed with the military evil, as if a tiger showed its sharp claws and fangs, roaring to the sky.

There were only a hundred men, but the sound of horse hooves exploded in one's ears like thunder, and the force of the rushing force was comparable to a raging sea.

"kill!"

Zhang Liao led his troops to bypass the front and rushed to the enemy's flank in an arc at lightning speed. With a long spear in his hand like a dragon, he launched an attack on Li Le's troops with a roar that shook the sky.

"Array! Array!"

Li Le was startled and immediately ordered his spearmen to form a dense formation in an attempt to block this wave of charge.

However, the one hundred Hu cavalrymen led by Zhang Liao were all heavily armored and equipped with double-sided stirrups. How could a group of farmers armed with wooden spears stop them?

The hundred or so Hu cavalry were veterans of Bingzhou and had experienced hundreds of battles. Under the leadership of the fierce tiger Zhang Liao, they were able to fight against a hundred enemies at once and were unstoppable.

The heavily armored cavalrymen attacked like a mountain torrent. With just one charge, they tore through the extremely fragile defense line of the Baibo Army, which was like a crushing force.

Then they charged back and forth, breaking through the enemy's lines repeatedly, until the 3,000-man phalanx in the front army was killed and forced to collapse and flee.

In just a moment, Li Le saw his 3,000 infantrymen being defeated. His eyes widened with disbelief. "Iron cavalry charging? I have encountered cavalry from the government army before. How could they be so ridiculously strong that they couldn't even hold out for a quarter of an hour?"

Li Le was from Hedong after all, and was no stranger to cavalry tactics, but the scene before him still shattered his three views.

The cavalry actually attacked the organized infantry line head-on. Are the other side crazy?

What made Li Le feel even more incredible was that the other side was wearing heavy iron armor, so why did no one fall off the horse during the charge?
This makes no sense!
It's impossible that everyone is an excellent rider, right?

Li Le was screaming wildly in his heart. What was happening before his eyes made him unable to understand in every sense.

It's not his fault. In the Three Kingdoms period, there were no double-sided horse stools, so cavalrymen often had to rely on their legs to clamp the horse's belly, trying to maintain their balance in this way.

As a result, heavy cavalry could not be born on a large scale, and only a few elite soldiers could master the heavy cavalry charge tactics of attacking the infantry front. Not everyone has the ability to fight on horseback while wearing armor and wielding long weapons with both hands.

The Hu cavalry battalion, which was secretly equipped with double-sided stirrups, obviously broke Li Le's inherent cognition, and a few charges completely broke his defense.

"Commander Qu, retreat, our brothers can't hold us back!"

One of his generals fled to Li Le with a bloody face. He had barely managed to escape from the iron hooves of the Hu cavalry camp, and was now obviously frightened to death.

Li Le was not much better than him. Faced with such a powerful heavy cavalry tactics, even a martial arts master of the fourth level like him would have no way out in the face of the surging torrent of steel.

"Let's withdraw!"

However, if Li Le wanted to escape, how could Zhang Liao let go of this big fish that he had been waiting for for so long?

Zhang Liao had already arranged ambushes in several hiding places outside the city. Soon, a whistling arrow was shot into the sky, and then the sound of horse hooves as dense as raindrops came from the periphery of the battlefield.

Now that the prey has been caught, it is naturally time to close the net.

"General Qu, there are enemies in the east!"

"General Qu, there are enemies in the west!"

"General Qu, something terrible has happened. Our army's retreat has been cut off!"

The main force of the Hu Cavalry Camp was divided into three groups and surrounded them on three sides. Li Le and others then realized that they had no way to escape.

Zhang Liao rushed over wielding his painted dragon halberd, roaring to the sky: "Li Le, you bastard, leave your life for me!"

"The government troops are going too far. If you want to survive, fight your way out with me!"

Li Le was forced into a desperate situation, and his ruthlessness was instantly aroused. He took 500 cavalrymen and wanted to abandon the infantry and break out of the encirclement. He was quite confident in his martial arts. After all, he was a master who had entered the fourth realm of martial arts, and there was no way he would lose to a young general in his twenties.

Unfortunately, the young general he met was none other than Zhang Liao.

The Painted Dragon-lifting Spear cut through the sky, emitting a dragon's roar.

Not only is Zhang Liao a master of martial arts, he has also entered the fourth realm of martial arts at a young age. He is even three points stronger than Li Le, who is nearly forty years old.

In addition to his personal bravery, Zhang Liao was also proficient in the art of war. He developed the magical power of refining qi in the army and was able to control the evil spirits of the soldiers for his own use.

The first move Zhang Liao made when they met was the second move of "Golden Goose Across the Sky", the geese flying thousands of miles.

The wild geese fly high, their ambitions are to travel thousands of miles!
With the help of Bingsha, the weapon in Li Le's hand was tangled away by the Hualong Qingtian Ji after just one encounter. Then Zhang Liao struck back on horseback and knocked Li Le off his horse. Li Le was trampled into a pulp by the cavalry of the Huqi Camp who rushed over.

"Master Qu is dead!"

Seeing their chief general killed in battle, Li Le's troops were thrown into chaos and their morale plummeted.

However, among the 500 cavalrymen led by Li Le himself, more than 300 of them were wearing Hun costumes. They were indifferent to Li Le's death and continued to fight bravely. Finally, more than ten riders successfully broke through and fled to the north.

"Captain, do you want to give chase?"

"Forget it. We are all heavy cavalry. After several charges, our horses are already exhausted. I'm afraid we won't be able to catch up. Let's clean up the battlefield first."

Zhang Liao looked at the direction where the Hun cavalry fled, feeling inexplicably uneasy.

Why are there so many Hun warriors around Li Le?

The battle outside the city of Puban made Zhang Liao famous and fearless. He defeated thousands of rebel soldiers head-on with only a hundred cavalrymen and killed the rebel general Li Le in battle. Zhang Liao showed his strength and potential to everyone.

It was two days later when Wang Jing led his troops to Puban County.

Zhang Liao took Wang Jing to see the bodies of the Xiongnu cavalrymen and expressed his concerns: "My lord, I'm afraid Li Le is colluding with the Xiongnu."

Wang Jing frowned and asked, "Are there any survivors?"

Zhang Liao shook his head: "These are all Xiongnu warriors with extremely strong fighting spirit. Everyone is determined to fight to the death and not surrender. In the end, Liao had no choice but to order them all to be killed."

Wang Jing sneered when he heard this: "Several hundred brave Xiongnu warriors who are ready to die? Wenyuan, do you think a bandit like Li Le can afford to support such a group of loyal and unyielding warriors?"

"My Lord, do you mean that this matter is related to the Southern Xiongnu?"

"Isn't this obvious?"

Wang Jing took out a map and pointed to the Hetao area. "Since the Southern Xiongnu surrendered, they have never been obedient. They invade Bingzhou and Sili every year and have always made gains. They have also cleverly avoided the encirclement and capture of the government troops, especially in Hedong County. It's almost like they are in an empty land. Is it possible that there is no insider tipping off?"

Zhang Liao obviously thought so too, and nodded in agreement: "Li Le is a bandit to begin with, so placing people next to him will not easily arouse suspicion."

Wang Jing also sighed: "It seems that there are experts among the Xiongnu people, and their plans are far-reaching and their intentions are not small."

In history, the Southern Xiongnu used Hedong as a springboard to plunder Luoyang a few years after Dong Zhuo moved the capital. The famous talented woman Cai Zhaoji was abducted by Liu Bao, the Xiongnu's left wise king, at that time.

Liu Bao's son Liu Yuan personally destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty, established the Later Han regime, and started the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, bringing great suffering to countless Han people.

"In this case, I'm afraid that the Baibo Army is secretly colluding with the Huns. Once the war goes badly, they will definitely ask the Huns for help. We are in trouble."

Zhang Liao instantly understood the seriousness of the matter. He had long felt that it would not be so easy to quell the rebellion in Hedong, but he had never expected that the Southern Xiongnu were fanning the flames behind the scenes.

You should know that at that time, the Southern Xiongnu had a population of more than 250,000 and 60,000 soldiers.

Although it was nominally a vassal state, it was actually an independent kingdom entrenched in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, eyeing the Central Plains.

Two years ago, the Southern Xiongnu leader Qiangqu Chanyu was killed because he caused internal dissatisfaction because he sent troops to help the Han Dynasty quell a rebellion.

From then on, all the subsequent rulers of the Southern Xiongnu were ambitious war advocates.

In the current Yanhan Dynasty, Emperor Ling had just died. Yuan Wei and Dong Zhuo interfered in state affairs and fought with the ministers. Seeing that the dynasty was about to fall into the vortex of internal strife, the Southern Xiongnu naturally became restless and began to make moves, intending to gain some benefits from the rich and prosperous Central Plains.

Seeing Zhang Liao's serious expression, Wang Jing patted him on the shoulder and said, "We can only stop the enemy with our generals and block the water with our earth. Are you afraid, Wenyuan?"

After saying this, Wang Jing's eyes became fierce: "It's just over 200,000 people. We can kill them all slowly. What the Champion Marquis didn't finish back then, we will do this time."

These words were full of murderous intent, and even Zhang Liao was shocked. Then, his blood was ignited by Wang Jing's lofty ambitions: "My lord, what you said is very true. The merit of Fenglangjuxu was accomplished by the Champion Marquis. We should follow his example!"

Wang Jing laughed: "That's right, young people like you and me should have such courage and drive. Why should we be afraid of the Southern Xiongnu?"

As winter came to Hedong, the sky was covered with heavy snow and the situation began to ease.

Yang Feng, Han Xian and Li Le were killed one after another. Now only Guo Da and Hu Cai were left among the five leaders of the Baibo Army. This frightened them so much that they quickly stopped their march northward to attack Taiyuan and chose to stay outside the city of Jinyang, revealing their timid nature.

And in Taiyuan County, Bingzhou, outside the city of Jinyang.

A young man wearing a red short jacket with a straight collar stepped into the Baibo Army camp.

The top and trousers are very different from the clothing style of the people in the Central Plains. It can be known that this person is from the Xiongnu, and must be an aristocrat from the royal court of the Southern Xiongnu.

The scimitar at his waist was inlaid with gems, like the bright stars in the sky.

His sharp eyes were as ferocious and cruel as a vulture's, as if he was ready to tear the flesh and blood of his prey into pieces and devour it at any time.

His name was Huochuquan, a member of the Luanti family, the second son of Qiangqu Chanyu, and he also had the blood of Dayu, the monarch of the Xia Dynasty, flowing in his veins, making him extremely noble.

(End of this chapter)