The fierce stalemate between the three continued until Tuoba Yun broke every bone in Guo Tai's body, strangled Bai Bo, the war commander, in the most cruel and domineering way, and rushed to help.
Although he was able to fight two people alone before, Xu Huang was still struggling and had to use all his strength to avoid defeat. After seeing Tuoba Yun joining him, he was forced back into a corner and fought his last battle.
"Your Excellency is very capable! Very capable!"
Liu Zhuang also saw that the outcome was decided. Some of the people in the entire county government were dead or disabled, leaving only Xu Huang. He also began to admire his talent.
"I, Liu Zhuang, am the governor of Hedong. I have been here for five years. I work diligently and care for the people. I see that you are also from Hedong, not an outsider like Mrs. Guo. So why are you rebelling against me today? If I have done anything wrong to you, please speak up! I am in front of you now!!!"
"Master...Master, I am from Yang County in Hedong. I have been greatly favored by you. On behalf of the elders and fellow villagers of my hometown, I would like to thank you for your benevolent rule over the past five years."
Xu Huang leaned against the corner, looked at Liu Zhuang respectfully, and gasped for breath. He was on the verge of collapse, but he still endured the fatigue and maintained a fighting stance.
"But Lord Yang promoted me, a commoner, to be his minor official. He is my sponsor! It is only natural that I should be loyal to him."
"Who? Yang Feng?"
Liu Zhuang looked at the body killed by Zhao Yun. He had heard of the dual monarchy theory of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He also used this trick to make many children of noble families in Hedong regard him as the second lord and established many relationships.
"You are foolishly loyal! If Yang Feng was loyal to the court, your loyalty would be beyond reproach! But do you know that Yang Feng betrayed the court, colluded with the Hu people, and attempted to overthrow the Han Dynasty? Such a Han traitor is no longer worthy of your continued loyalty!"
Liu Zhuang ordered Zhao Yun and Tuoba Yun to put away their weapons and unfolded the secret letter seized a few days ago in front of Xu Huang. It was the letter in which Guo Tai and others colluded with King Xiutu, one of the Southern Xiongnu tribes.
"Xu Huang! King Xiutu of the Southern Xiongnu has already entered Bingzhou and is less than ten kilometers away from my defense zone!
In addition to the King Xiu Tu in front of him, there are Ma Teng and Han Sui in Liangzhou, Xianbei troops in Bingzhou, Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun in Youzhou, Zhang Yan in Heishan, and Yellow Turbans all over the country! Right now, the entire Han Dynasty is in danger, and the people are in dire straits! Now is the time to serve the country and realize your ambitions. "
"Xu Huang, I give you two choices. Do you want to continue to be loyal to your traitor Yang Feng, and be nailed to the pillar of shame with him, and be labeled as a traitor to the Han Dynasty who colluded with the Hu people?
Or do you want to join me in saving the common people from the dire straits? Support the Han Dynasty and go down in history??? "
Liu Zhuang was very familiar with the concept of loyalty of the Han people. He knew how much psychological and moral pressure Xu Huang would feel for betraying his sponsor, even though Yang Feng was now dead. Therefore, he directly attacked Yang Feng's reputation and described Xu Huang's surrender as a move from darkness to light.
Xu Huang's eyes widened in disbelief. His serious and beautiful face showed a look of struggle, and his lips were bleeding from biting his teeth.
Of course, he knew that Yang Feng was messing around. Guo Tai of Jizhou tried to persuade him, but he really rebelled. However, considering that he was his lord, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and join the Baibo Army.
However, he never expected that these two people would directly invite King Xiutu of the Southern Xiongnu to come south in order to win!
And now, Guo Tai, Yang Feng is dead, not only was I not liquidated, but I was recruited by the governor of Hedong, who has always been kind to us Hedong people... I abandoned a Han thief who has been beheaded and joined the governor who has always been very kind to us...
Thinking of this, Xu Huang stopped struggling, and finally threw away his axe and shield. His knees softened, and he fell to the ground, kowtowed to Liu Zhuang.
"I have been wandering for half my life and have never met a wise master. If you don't abandon me, I am willing to serve you and serve you like a dog and a horse!"
The author says:
Author's words: 2500 monthly tickets plus more~
Chapter 163: Special Warfare Boy
Seeing Xu Huang lower her serious and beautiful head and choose to surrender, Liu Zhuang was also very happy. He also put down his weapon, personally helped her up from the ground, and took off his robe and put it on her to protect her from the cold. In front of all his personal soldiers, he granted her the official position of Sima of the Separate Department, allowing her to command a battalion of soldiers, which made Xu Huang flattered.
Ah? I am just a minor official? Even though I participated in the Baibo Rebellion, Yang Feng only made me a Qujun Hou. Now the Lord of the Mansion directly made me a Sima of the Other Department? A direct promotion?
Xu Huang was deeply moved and knelt down immediately. He thought, "The moral standards of people in the Han Dynasty were generally very high. The Lord did not despise me for my humble birth and directly gave me such a high position. If I cannot repay him with merit, what difference would I make from an animal?"
Linfen was recaptured and the rebellion was put down in one night. Liu Zhuang spent another four days to restore order here. Two small local families were completely destroyed by the Baibo bandits and even exterminated by Yang Feng and Xu Huang. The originally powerful families had no combat capability under the influence of Xu Huang's magic source.
Half of their looted property was confiscated as spoils of war, and the other half was distributed to all the soldiers who participated in the battle.
Their land and population, about 5,000 households, were all taken back by Liu Zhuang and converted into a military-farming system as a punishment for these aristocratic families who were not good at governing the local area and actually forced the Yellow Turban Army to come out.
It also strengthened the idea of other noble families to treat serfs well after returning - life has become hard, and these people are really willing to rebel if they are forced into a corner. If I adjust the tax rate to the same as that of the Lord of the Mansion, or just a little higher, I will only lose 30% to 40% of the tax rate.
But if my servants also rebel like these Baibo bandits, I would lose the family property of several generations.
As for lowering the tax rate to a level lower than that of the governor and competing with the governor for population - how is that possible? The governor of Hedong has an entire county with million people and tens of thousands of troops as a base. He can carry out macro-control and dares to do so. If he lowers the tax rate again, he won't be able to live like this.
Liu Zhuang was very happy after suppressing the rebellion, recovering the land and population, and obtaining the brave general Xu Huang. Not only that, he also captured forty young Thunder Warriors and forty gene seeds. These people were all local children from Hedong. With a little education and training, the number of his own Thunder Warriors would increase again.
However, when Liu Zhuang put down the civil strife, he found that King Xiu Tu in the north had gone crazy: the Southern Xiongnu led by him, who had killed the Xihe governor Xing Ji on the front battlefield, were attacking Lishi, the seat of Xihe County. The destruction was imminent. In just half a month, Xihe County was almost completely occupied! It became another area in Bingzhou that fell.
In Bingzhou today, only Yanmen, Taiyuan and Shangdang counties are still in the hands of the Han Dynasty. The situation is only slightly better than that of Liangzhou, which was in rebellion all over the country, and worse than that of Youzhou.
The situation was urgent, and Bingzhou Governor Zhang Yi rushed out. King Xiu Tu was too good at choosing the time. He entered the Central Plains at the time of spring plowing, which made it impossible for Liu Zhuang, the governor of Hedong, and Zhang Yi, the governor of Bingzhou, to gather a large number of troops. Otherwise, you won't be able to grow crops this year? You won't be able to live like this?
We were able to gather troops on a large scale in the spring because we had the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty behind us. Even if we fought like crazy and the land was devastated, the other twelve states of the empire behind us could still provide support.
But now, the imperial court has made it clear that it has no extra money and food to support you, and you need assistance from other places as well. You have to grit your teeth and persevere in everything.
Therefore, Zhang Yi assembled only 6,000 peasant soldiers in the huge Taiyuan and Shangdang areas. He then selected two brave and combat-ready border army camps from the five border army camps in Yanmen County, and led more than 10,000 people to Xihe to fight against King Xiutu.
At this moment, Yanmen County, like Hedong County, was basically autonomous. The Beidi Camp and other five camps of Yanmen, which were unable to continue embezzling military funds from the national treasury, became the private soldiers of various captains. Ding Yuan and others naturally had to make great efforts to maintain them. Therefore, they changed their previous style of drawing empty salaries and restored the full staffing.
At the same time, he also wrote a letter to Liu Zhuang of Hedong: Although you are from Sili and not under the jurisdiction of Bingzhou, you are the closest to me now. For the sake of the empire, please help me, brother!
King Xiutu of the Southern Xiongnu and Zhang Yi, the governor of Bingzhou, did not leave many records about these two people in history, and Liu Zhuang did not know the specific events of this period.
But he knew that Ding Yuan became the governor of Bingzhou this year, and that in a few years, the next battle between the Southern Xiongnu recorded in history books would be when they drank from the Yellow River, invaded Henei, and then set their sights on Luoyang - this Zhang Yi was most likely sent to prison at that time.
Therefore, Liu Zhuang quickly wrote back to Zhang Yi.
"Zhuang has just put down a rebellion in Hedong County. He needs some time to gather his troops. Before I arrive, please do not go to the battle! When Zhuang arrives with his troops, we will fight against King Xiu Tu together."
After receiving the letter, Zhang Yi agreed with it deeply. He didn't know whether the 10,000 people under his command could defeat the Huns, so he ordered the entire army to set up camp on the spot after advancing to the vicinity of Lishi and wait for Liu Zhuang to arrive. Let's go together to rescue Lishi which is surrounded and defeat King Xiutu!
Zhang Yi led the Bingzhou army and left Jinyang, the seat of Taiyuan County, and began to move towards Xihe County. They packed up and started marching at dawn, stopped in the afternoon, and began to set up camp, spending the night under the protection of wooden walls, and steadily approaching the orcs.
After marching for three days, just as the army was about to arrive at Lishi, strange things happened in the camp. For example, some wooden boxes disappeared. Some Han soldiers swore that they saw some wooden barrels rolling around in the camp. Some wooden boxes were like statues, and they would not move if they were stared at. But if they were not watched, the wooden boxes hidden in the corners would disappear immediately. They searched nearby for a long time but could not find them at all.
When all the strange things were reported, Qu Junhou, who was in charge of the lower-level troops, thought that the soldiers were hallucinating due to exhaustion or that someone was embezzling - wooden boxes and barrels disappeared out of thin air? Your excuse for settling the accounts is too lame, isn't it?! I've memorized your army number. After this battle, I'll check the inventory with you.
More strange things were happening. Some Han cavalry scouts returned with blood stains on their weapons and armor, but there were also some prey they had killed on their belts, such as rabbits, birds and so on. The sentinels were a little confused, so they added additional secret codes to answer each other.
However, these returning scouts answered all the secret codes perfectly. The sentinels blinked their eyes, thinking they were overthinking it, so they let them in and withdrew their troops back to the camp. But they refused to enter the tents, and instead gathered in groups of three or five. The soldiers who had been with them day and night felt that these people were weird, but they couldn't tell what exactly was weird about them.
Hmm - they seem to be a lot stronger than usual? They even propped up their armor???
That night, wooden boxes and barrels moved quietly under the cover of darkness without making any sound, and gathered together with some unusually burly and tall Han soldiers.
Green-skinned orcs, two meters tall and with arm muscles thicker than the heads of Han people, crawled out of the narrow wooden boxes and barrels like magic. The unusually tall Han soldiers tore off the human skin masks on their faces, revealing a hideous orc face. Snow-white fangs stretched out from their thick dark green jaws, and the two longest fangs even stretched from their jaws to under their eyelids!
These people are the spy warfare elites among the Southern Xiongnu orcs. Their frontal combat capabilities are average, but they are extremely good at infiltration, ambush, eavesdropping, and infiltration. They are special warfare guys who are specialized in spy warfare among the green-skinned orcs.
At this moment, the number of special warfare guys who had sneaked into the 10,000 Han army had exceeded three digits. Under the moonlight, their hideous dark green faces showed malicious grins.
Chapter 164: Night Fire Spreads Across the Prairie
The conscription system of the Eastern Han Dynasty had long been gone, and the temporarily recruited peasant soldiers had never fought in a war in their lives. These farmers had to carry weapons and walk all day long. After being tired, they had to spend an hour or two building a temporary military camp and using wooden fences to protect the safety of the army. Afterwards, they had to set up tents and make beds, and only then could they hurriedly eat a few bites of dinner. After eating, they returned to the tent and fell asleep, too tired to say a word.
While they were in sweet dreams, they felt their bodies getting hotter and hotter. The air around them heated up rapidly. It was a little chilly in early March, but now it was as hot as a hot summer day. The light outside the tent became more and more dazzling at night, and even a few wisps of choking smoke floated in.
The temporarily conscripted peasant soldiers grumbled a few times in dissatisfaction. It was too hot, so they simply did not cover themselves with a quilt. Instead, they covered their eyes to block out the strong light outside, turned over and continued to sleep.
But after a while, a noisy sound came from outside the camp, which was getting increasingly dazzling and hot. Countless terrified screams, rapid war cries, and angry roars merged into a chaotic note, which made people unable to sleep. Several Han soldiers buried their heads tightly in the quilts, not wanting the noise outside to disturb their nap.
A few Han soldiers cursed and couldn't sleep anymore. When they opened their eyes, they were stunned.
Flames shot up into the sky, thick smoke billowed, figures swayed, screams were heard—the whole camp was on fire???
"Wake up! Don't sleep! Everyone get up! The camp is on fire!!!"
The first Han soldier who woke up immediately pushed and woke up the other compatriots in the squad. The other four cursed at first, but when they saw the raging fire, their anger from not being able to sleep well turned into endless shock.
What's going on? We've set up camp, haven't we? Why is there a fire inside the camp? ? ?
"WAAAGH!!!"
"WAAAAAAGH!!!"
At this time, the orcs' iconic war cries also rang out from every corner of the camp, rising one after another straight into the sky! A large number of special warfare boys also formed killing teams in units of one squad, and after burning the camp and granary and creating chaos, they began to charge into the Han army camp!
All the orc special forces boys were wearing black leather armor and black night clothes. They were wrapped tightly with only their eyes showing. They were dressed like the masked thieves in novels and stages and were extremely concealed in the dark.
Everyone held a leather-covered wooden shield in their left hand and carried four bags of heavy javelins, a total of twenty javelins, on their backs. They also had a big knife hanging around their waists as backup weapons. The special warfare guy who was best at shooting in each killing team was also equipped with a finely crafted Han army crossbow.
Seeing the Han army rushing out from a distance, a special warfare boy waved his arm, which was thicker than the Han man's head, and threw a javelin fiercely, piercing his chest accurately! After the Han man was pierced by the javelin, he flew up with the javelin, flew back two meters, and then fell heavily to the ground, with blood all over the ground.
"right!"
A special warfare boy gave a warning. The five people looked back and found that they were also a group of Han soldiers. The five people threw four rounds of javelins at the fastest speed at the same time. Before the Han soldiers even noticed the special warfare boy in black, they were shot by twenty javelins on their heads and the blood was flowing. The whole army was wiped out. The orcs immediately collected the javelins and waited for the next battle.
Once the Han army approached, these special warfare guys would block with their shields, and then use the heavy javelins as short spears one and a half meters long to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Han army. Once the Han army took out big things like three-meter infantry spears and kept their distance, these javelins could be used for throwing.
The spear throwing skills of these special warfare guys are so advanced and their strength is so terrifying that a spear thrown at a distance of three meters can first penetrate the chest of the first Han soldier and then shoot the second person to death on the spot!
Faced with the special warfare guys' burning offensive, the Han army was in a panic and unable to form an effective resistance. A large number of Han troops also united in the form of a squad and stayed in place, looking for nearby friendly forces and waiting for orders from their superiors.
However, only half of the special warfare guys appeared in the open. The other half were still hiding in wooden barrels and wooden boxes. They judged the situation through the huge chaos caused by the friendly forces, and found the commanders one by one in the chaotic army by observing the movements of the Han army and tracking the messengers in reverse.
If there are few people around him, then the elite shooters of these special forces guys will pull out the Han army crossbows to launch precise sneak attacks and sniper kills.
If there are many people around him, the five special warfare guys of the killing team will collectively throw out two rounds of javelins, and let the ten one-meter-and-a-half-meter-long javelins pierce the opponent's defense system. Then the four special warfare guys will rush forward waving shields and javelins, and the sharpshooter holding the finely forged Han crossbow will continue to wait for opportunities to assassinate in the chaos, and knock down grassroots officers such as the Han army's garrison commander and team leader one by one, and gradually collapse the entire Han army's grassroots structure.
The special warfare boy was very effective. After a short while, the five thousand Han army militia were in complete chaos.
However, the two Han border army camps that came from Yanmen to support from the south remained motionless. Their combat awareness, experience, weapons and equipment were much better than those of the other peasant soldiers. Only the first wave of special warfare guys sneaked in and achieved some results by taking advantage of being caught off guard. By the time these border army veterans reacted, the subsequent special warfare guys were basically killed one by one, and every group of them died.
A soldier from the Yanmen border army was left alone, and a group of special forces guys immediately attacked him. The orc sergeant in the lead shot him in the neck with a crossbow arrow. The young man from a noble family was safe and sound, and a jade pendant tied around his waist was shattered, saving its master's life.
The Qu Junhou, who was born into the Yangqu Guo family, was so frightened that he broke out in a sweat. He immediately cast a fireball in the direction where the crossbow arrow came from. Then, feeling that it was not safe, he cast two more, causing three fireballs to explode one after another. The dark blue fire that rose into the sky was even more brilliant than the orange-red flame ignited by the special warfare boy. When the other Yanmen border troops rushed forward, they only saw five green-skinned corpses that were burned to charcoal by the flames.
At this moment, the green-skinned orcs outside also arrived.
In the darkness, the number of Southern Xiongnu orc cavalrymen who could not be determined came roaring in. They rode on grassland horses with excellent endurance and war pigs with even more exaggerated endurance and charge! The first move was the standard grassland tactics, with rockets covering the sky and iron cavalry destroying the enemy. First, they frightened the enemy with a terrifying rain of arrows all over the mountains and plains, and then frightened and killed a large number of enemy troops with a rain of arrows covering the sun. Then, with the cooperation of the special warfare boy, they successfully broke through the Han army camp and launched a continuous charge like a tide!
In a short time, countless newly recruited Han soldiers were shot into sieves by rain of arrows, had their heads smashed and bleeding by war horses and war pigs, and had their chests pierced by countless orcs' long spears. Their corpses were scattered all over the ground and blood flowed like a river.
It only took one round of charge, just one round of charge, and under a series of standard night attack packages such as the green-skinned orcs setting fires, internal strife, and external attacks, the five thousand newly recruited Han troops were directly defeated. They cried, wailed, and screamed as they fled in all directions. In such a dark and chaotic night, there was only one result of fleeing: being surrounded and annihilated by the Hun cavalry that came and went like the wind.
However, to the north of the Han army camp, the two border troops of Beidi Camp and Beishu Camp remained unmoved under the command of Ding Yuan.
It was basically impossible for the special forces guys to sneak into their territory. If they entered, they would die. The experienced veterans also quickly dismantled the camp and cleared a barrier to prevent the fire from spreading to their side.
And when the mighty Southern Xiongnu cavalry rushed towards the two border army camps under the cover of night, they also crashed their heads into the iron walls and were bleeding.
They were first shot into hedgehogs by a round of powerful crossbow arrows. Countless Southern Xiongnu cavalrymen, like most of the soldiers, died on the way to the charge. After finally rushing to the front, a warhorse was trapped by three halberds in the second row, three infantry spears in the third row, and three battle spears in the fourth row! The force of the charge was shared by nine experienced Han soldiers.
However, the warhorse's head, chest, neck, and even the orc boy on its back were stabbed into a bloody mess by the nine weapons. The entire team stood still and could not charge forward at all.
Not only that, the Han army in the first row first threw a javelin, stabbed the Hun orc off his horse, and then drew out their ring-handled swords, and with the first sword they cut off his right hand that was used for defense, and with the second sword they cut off his neck, and then chopped off the orc's head with great energy and efficiency.
Seeing that these border troops were so difficult to deal with, the Xiongnu cavalry wanted to use intimidation tactics to make the morale of the two camps of border troops collapse, or at least to cause them to waver and riot. However, it was of no use. The two camps of Han troops under the command of Ding Yuan stood firm and just fought on the spot. Using cavalry to charge at such a heavy infantry phalanx would result in too great a loss. Often five Xiongnu cavalry would die to kill one Han army soldier, which made the orcs extremely annoyed.
No, you, the Han army, were suddenly attacked at night in the dark and had no way of judging the number of the enemy. In this situation, wouldn't you be afraid?
Ding Yuan laughed. How many troops do you have, King Xiu Tu? Don't you have any idea? Your Xiu Tu tribe has been registered as civilians. If I remember correctly, you only have 20,000 households, and you can only send out 20,000 orcs at most. What a bullshit!
It is spring now, and you Huns also need to graze. The number of orcs invading Bingzhou is at most 10,000. It would be great if we could have 5,000 of them attacking my camp tonight.
You scared those new recruits to death, can you scare me???
After several unsuccessful charges, the Huns had to return in disappointment. Never mind, at least they had defeated half of the Han army and burned their food and camps, so the strategic goal was achieved. As for the rest, they could just take their time, there was no rush, just play with them!
Ding Yuan was furious and immediately sent out the Yanmen cavalry, who caught the Xiongnu cavalry off guard and even killed several of them. However, in the end, it was too dark at night and the camp was too chaotic, so they were unable to communicate and command in time and did not dare to pursue them any further.
After a friendly exchange, the two brave and skilled cavalry units withdrew their troops from each other, leaving corpses all over the ground.
Chapter 165: Chinese Green Skin
The statistics of the night battle in Li Shi came out quickly. Judging from the corpses and wounded soldiers who could not run, the Han army suffered 3,600 casualties out of the 5,000 newly recruited soldiers in Taiyuan and Shangdang. Most of them died in the trampling after the camp roar, being trampled to death by their own people or choked to death by the smoke. The remaining 1,400 were not in the camp, but were scattered everywhere like rabbits, and no one knew where they had gone.
The two regular Han border army camps, Beidi Camp and Beirong Camp, suffered no more than 200 casualties, most of which were superficial injuries. The number of corpses left behind by the greenskin orcs was around 400, and some of them might have been packed up and taken away. After all, the Huns had a tradition since ancient times: only the greenskin who brought the bodies of their comrades back and buried them properly would be qualified to inherit his legacy.
Casualties are just a small matter, but this attack proves that Lishi has most likely fallen, and the orcs have already rushed towards them on a large scale, so rescuing Lishi is meaningless.
Not only that, the most troublesome thing is that Zhang Yi, the governor and governor of Bingzhou, does not trust his Yanmen border troops very much. He has also begun to make plans and wants to create his own private army. Therefore... um... last night he slept with the new recruits he recruited, and ate and slept with the new recruits.
However, these new recruits who had never fought in a war had to fight against the extremely powerful Southern Xiongnu King Xutu in their first battle, and they were also beaten by the orcs in a night attack...
Anyway, when Ding Yuan and others found Zhang Yi, they could only identify the body through the seal of the Bingzhou governor that was not burned on his body, rather than the identity of the lump of meat.
The bigger problem is that the two Han border army camps were indeed not destroyed in the night attack yesterday. However, under that situation, it was already very good that Ding Yuan could save the two camps of border troops. He really had no energy to take care of others, and the food and fodder accompanying the army were also burned to ashes.
Now the situation is very delicate. We have no food and must retreat immediately! Retreat to the Zi family managed by Liuzhuang to obtain sufficient food and grass supplies.
But an unknown number of Hun cavalrymen just burned our camp last night and are now nearby! How dare you march at will in this situation?
If they defended, they would starve to death; if they marched, they would be attacked. There was no other way. Ding Yuan first wrote an emergency letter to Zi's garrison commander, and then ordered all soldiers to wear armor and hold weapons. Under such a heavy burden, they maintained a battle formation and began to march. Generally speaking, armor cannot be worn during a march. The armor was loaded and transported on horse-drawn carriages. This thing was too heavy. Not only did it make people walk slowly after putting it on, but it also consumed a huge amount of physical strength.
