Great Han Empire

Chapter 61 Yanzhao Fengyun
Xiong Ba was shocked when he received the news.

"What did Master Murong say?"

"My lord thinks that the enemy's reinforcements are three to 4000 people, and they are led by Lulongsai's leopards. They are extremely threatening, so I plan to send Lord Wumeng from the coyote tribe to stop them and delay their time to cross the river."

"Your family is still continuing to attack the city?" Xiong Ba asked.

"Yes. The west side of the city wall has been captured by us many times today, and it is a matter of time to break the city. My lord hopes that the attack at the east city gate will be more violent, and Tian Kai will be firmly restrained to cover the main force. Open a gap at the south gate and successfully break through Yuyang City."

Xiong Ba groaned silently, lowered his head, and circled around the horse.

"Tell your lord, when the city is about to be breached, it is not appropriate to disperse the troops on the main battlefield, but to concentrate all forces to launch a fierce attack on it, and strive to accomplish it overnight. I should send someone to Baoqiu River to stop it. Baoqiu River It is a very good defensive position in itself, as long as you stand on the other side, you don't need too many troops to achieve the purpose of delaying the enemy from crossing the river." Xiong Ba thought for a long time, stopped, and said slowly to Murong Lin.

Murong Lin was overjoyed, he cupped his hands to salute Xiong Ba, and flew away on his horse.

At noon, Goubang hurried to Baoqiu River with a thousand soldiers.Xiong Ba asked them to bring enough arrows. Once the reinforcements of the Han people crossed the river, they would use long arrows to seal the river. Try not to start a frontal conflict with the enemy as much as possible to avoid unnecessary losses.Xiong Ba repeatedly warned Ji Bang, beware of leopards, and never underestimate him.He is no longer the idiot he was when he just lost his memory.

Liu Yu dressed in a commoner coat and stood on the tower of Yuyang City.

In the afternoon, the enemy's offensive became more and more fierce, and the Han army was gradually unable to resist.He was distraught and eagerly awaited reinforcements.It has been five or six days since I rushed to Yuyang City with reinforcements, and I haven't seen any other reinforcements yet.

The situation in Youzhou has suddenly deteriorated since the Yellow Turban riots last year.Although the Lulongsai victory at the end of last year helped them temporarily get rid of the unfavorable situation of being invaded by the Hu people, it did not help them obtain a lot of money and food, nor did it help the poor people in Youzhou to survive the long and severe winter .

The Yellow Turban Rebellion, which spread throughout the Central Plains of the Great Han Kingdom, gradually calmed down with the deaths of the Yellow Turban mob leaders Brother Zhang Jiao, Zhang Mancheng and others before the end of last year, but its violence and madness severely damaged the already weak Great Han Kingdom. , Its political economy and culture have suffered unprecedented blows.The building of the Great Han Kingdom is about to collapse, and the empire is already on the verge of crumbling.There are not a few court officials who are soberly aware of the crisis of the empire.Liu Yu is one of them.

Liu Yu is a native of Donghai Tan (now Tancheng County, Shandong Province), Xuzhou, and the sixth grandson of Liu Qiang, King Gong of the East China Sea.When I was young, due to the turbulent times, my family was in decline. Although I belonged to the clan, I was no different from ordinary people.When Liu Yu was young, he served as a small official of household Cao in Tan County, and gradually rose to be the governor of Youzhou.Liu Yu was an honest, fair and benevolent official who won the hearts of the people and achieved remarkable achievements.However, Liu Yu's kind and modest character created a bad hidden danger. The prefects of several major counties, the Prime Minister of the State, did not sell Liu Yu's account very much.When they asked for money, they all ran to complain, but when they asked for help, they hid faster than rabbits.

This time the Xianbei invaded Yuyang, and Liu Yu happened to be in Zhuojun.He hurried to Yuyang City with two thousand state soldiers from Zhuojun County day and night.But the reinforcements from Guangyang County, which is next door to Yuyang, have not arrived yet.Although Liu Yu sent Xian Yufu to Guangyang County to urge him to do so, there has been no news so far.The news from Lulongsai said that Chen Bing from Xianbei was outside the pass, so reinforcements from Youbeiping County were even more out of reach.

Liu Yu looked at the fewer and fewer Han soldiers on the tower, feeling heavy in his heart.

Since the morning, the western city wall has become the focus of enemy attacks.Regardless of the heavy casualties, the Xianbei soldiers attacked tenaciously and stubbornly.They organized assault centurions again and again, took turns to attack tirelessly, tried every means to climb the city wall, and fought desperately with Han soldiers, endlessly.The Xianbei people exchanged a few lives for the life of a soldier on the defensive side, which dealt a heavy blow to the Han army, and there was a danger on the defensive side of the west city wall.The soldiers of the Han army were killed by the Xianbei at their own defensive points, and there have been several times when individual defensive areas have been occupied by the Xianbei.

The soldiers on both sides opened their blood-red eyes, chopping with knives and axes, picking up spears and stabbing, using all means, even biting their mouths and pinching their hands, anyway, they used all the means that could make the other party die.

The reserve troops of the Han army blocked the holes of the guns and pulled out the nails again and again. They fought brutal hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.The battle on the city wall was unprecedentedly brutal.

In the afternoon, the Xianbei people suddenly stopped attacking.Amidst the low and loud blaring of horns, the soldiers quickly retreated from the city to a safe place.But they did not retreat to the barracks to rest, but assembled the whole army again, as if they were preparing for the next round of more violent attacks.

The city wall was densely packed with corpses, blood was overflowing, and the strong smell of blood floated in the air, filling the sky above the entire city.

Liu Yu walked slowly on the city wall, his withered and thin face lacked a trace of blood, looking old and sad.He looked at the remains of soldiers lying on the city wall in various postures, and at the wounded soldiers moaning loudly against the wall. His heart was so painful that he could not express his sadness and pain in words. He hated The flames were burning fiercely.

He has always insisted on adopting a soft policy towards the Hu people, and he hopes to live in peace with the Hu people outside the Great Wall.With his sincere heart, he moved and comforted countless Hu nobles and ordinary people.He resisted all opinions and opened many markets in Shanggu County, allowing Huns, Xianbei, Karasuma, Fuyu, and Hu people of other ethnic groups to trade with Han people here, barter and communicate with each other. With or without, to improve the living standards of Hu people and Han people.He moved a large number of Karasuma people to Daijun, Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and Liaodong, helped them build houses, taught them to cultivate land and raise silkworms, and tried every means to make them gradually give up their nomadic life and get rid of their generations. generational poverty.He tried his best to establish a good relationship with the tribal leaders, and provided food and money to the Hu tribes who were in urgent need of help even when the treasury of Youzhou was extremely scarce.He didn't understand that he had done so many good things, including releasing Wu Yan and several tribal chiefs who were captured in Lulongsai so generously, why these barbarians not only didn't appreciate Dade, but even intensified their efforts to invade, to come Robbery, why?
Could it be that these barbarians are really jackals by nature, a wolf that can never get enough to feed?
Liu Yu thought of Gongsun Zan, the chief historian who served in the Liaodong vassal state.He once raised objections to his approach to appease the Hu people.He believes that the barbarians should be killed and robbed, until they are so heartbroken that they are as gentle as dogs in the yard: they have nothing left when they are robbed. .In this way, they will not have greedy desires.Without desire, they would not be as they are now, sending troops to invade the land of the Han Dynasty, wantonly killing and looting the people of the Han Dynasty.

Could it be that the cruel and bloodthirsty Gongsun Zan was right?Liu Yu was confused and in pain.Why do two nations have to hate each other, conquer each other, enslave each other, can't they live together in friendship?

Liu Yu thought of his good friend Yu Fuluo, the left wise king of the Huns.After the Xiongnu split into northern and southern parts, the southern Xiongnu, with the permission of the emperor of the Han Dynasty, moved south to Yunzhong and Shuofang in the northern border of Bingzhou. Didn’t the people of the two countries get along well for decades?After the Karasuma people moved south into the territory of the Han Dynasty to live and graze, didn't most of the tribes get along very well with the Han people?Why did the Xianbei people have to attack the Great Han Kingdom in an attempt to occupy the territory of the Great Han Kingdom?Since Tan Shihuai unified the Xianbei people, the two countries have never stopped fighting, but who has benefited from both sides?What else is there besides piles of dead bones, profuse blood, tears of countless orphans and widowed mothers?
But the bloody battlefield in front of him almost made the old man lose his sanity.

If the city is broken, what will be the fate of the people in the city?Burning and looting.Men would be killed, and women and children would be slaves to the Xianbei.The houses will be burned, and the food and everything that can be exchanged for things will be moved back to Xianbei by these brutal barbarians.Therefore, Yuyang City must not be breached by the enemy.

Liu Yu saw Sima Yusui, the army commander he had brought over from Zhuojun.Yu Sui was a muscular middle-aged man with a flat face and shrewd eyes.He was wounded, and a thick layer of cloth was wrapped around his waist, and the blood had already stained the cloth red.

"My lord, there are only [-] soldiers left on the west wall. Do you want to send some troops from the east wall, otherwise the defense on this side may be very dangerous." Seeing Liu Yu, Yu Sui hurried over .

Liu Yu sighed and remained silent.

The people in the city were organized and divided into several villages for logistics services.Now it was during the interval between battles, they ran out of their hiding places one after another, consciously doing the work they should do.Some people ran up the city wall to carry corpses and transport wounded soldiers.Some people gathered their weapons on the city wall and gathered the long arrows scattered everywhere.More people carried stones, raging wood, bundles of long arrows, brand new swords and spears to the city wall.People came and went on the city wall for a while, and the shouts became one piece.

"If we draw troops from the east wall, their defensive strength will be weakened, which is meaningless for the defense of the south gate." Li Hong said in a low voice.

"My lord, I don't know what's going on at the east gate?"

"The situation must be very bad. He only has 500 people there, and it is indeed difficult to deal with Xianbei's 5000-strong army. Xiong Ba is a famous general of the Xianbei people. He is both wise and brave. He attacked all day yesterday, and Tian Duwei's troops fell More than 300 people were lost, and it is estimated that the loss today will not be lower than this number."

"My lord, the reinforcements have not been seen for a long time, and we don't know when they will arrive. If we continue to wear down at this rate, in two or three days, the soldiers will be wiped out. Without soldiers, how can we defend the western city wall?" live?"

"Of course." Liu Yu said confidently.

He pointed his finger at the crowd and said: "Look at the people of Yuyang City, they are our last reserve team, the last line of defense. They are the same as us, they are closely related to Yuyang City, and share life and death. So no one will give up Yuyang City. As long as Yuyang City is defended, everyone will have a way out."

Yu Sui didn't speak, he glanced at Liu Yu with great respect and admiration, then bowed and bowed to leave.

Below the city, the sound of a huge bull horn sounded again, and the enemy's attack began.

(End of this chapter)