Chapter 35: Wuhuan Withdrawal In Chu Village, people were packing their bags and preparing to flee to the surrounding mountains and forests. Tian Ze overestimated the speed of information dissemination in this era, and also overestimated the moral integrity of those officials and powerful people. Even though they were notified early on, they were only concerned with moving to the county town and Xiangping. By the time the people learned about this, a day had passed. Just as these powerful people were calculating how many people would die this time and how much fertile land they could seize, the Hu cavalry attacked every village. Most of the villagers were caught off guard, and only a few who evacuated decisively escaped. When Zhang He arrived, the village had become a living hell, with corpses everywhere and many women, children, the elderly and the weak dying in horrific ways. Zhang He was extremely angry. He suppressed his anger and asked, "How many people are there in this group of Hu cavalry?" After the scouts surveyed the surrounding traces and confirmed that the Hu cavalry was no more than about two hundred people, Zhang He, who was already familiar with the surrounding terrain, led the light cavalry without hesitation and galloped along a shortcut, arriving at a small hillside ahead of the Hu people. The Hu people were escorting a group of young Han people and women, preparing to take them back to the tribe as slaves, so they were not marching very fast. As they burned, killed and looted along the way, their vigilance was greatly reduced, and they did not expect that the Han army would ambush here.
After the arrival of the Hu people, Zhang He immediately pushed his talent of "clever change" to the extreme and led the cavalry to launch a charge. The talent bonus, coupled with the terrain advantage of the hillside, not only allowed Zhang He's army to avoid the sight of the Hu people and make them defenseless, but also took advantage of the high ground to increase the horse speed to the maximum in a very short time. In contrast, the Wuhuan army, which was hastily fighting, was unable to organize an effective resistance. As soon as the two sides came into contact, the Wuhuan army was defeated and fled. Zhang He, who knew that "kindness is not good for commanding troops", did not care about the Han people being escorted. He knew that the more concerns he had, the greater the casualties would be, so he directly slaughtered all the Hu people with a crushing force. Because this battle was all about speed, after Zhang He learned the information he needed from the captives, he killed all of them. After the war, looking at the dozens of surviving civilians, Zhang He left behind three lightly injured cavalrymen and evacuated these people towards Wen County, while he continued to lead his troops to move towards the surrounding villages. Just as Jia Xu and others expected, the county magistrate of Anshi County failed to organize an effective defense, and the reinforcements from Xiangping did not appear in time. The Hu people dispersed without any scruples and plundered the villages around Anshi County. Taking advantage of the Wuhuan people's carelessness, before they could react, Zhang He adopted blitzkrieg tactics and successively wiped out four teams of Wuhuan cavalry, killing more than 600 enemies. Because Zhang He planned and commanded properly, and with the bonus of his talent, he was able to use the terrain to hide his body and increase his charge speed. Every time the Hu people were caught off guard, the battle went very smoothly and his side suffered minimal losses. Even if we don't count the light cavalry sent back to resettle the civilians, Zhang He still has more than 230 cavalrymen around him. At this time, Su Puyan finally noticed Zhang He's presence. This decisive and tough fighting style immediately reminded him of the army in Wen County. He never expected that this Han army would appear like a ghost, causing his troops to lose another 10% of their strength. Su Puyan was filled with hatred, and the excitement of the wanton looting disappeared in an instant. He immediately ordered his troops to be withdrawn and to move in units of 500 cavalry to search for Zhang He's army. At the same time, retaliatory massacres were launched against the surrounding villages, with increasingly cruel and vicious methods. Zhang He knew that Su Puyan had set a trap and was waiting for him to take the bait. Although he was indignant at the cruel methods of the Wuhuan people, he knew that "kindness does not lead to good military power". No matter how the Wuhuan army threatened and lured him, he never showed up, but always wandered around the edge, harassing from a distance from time to time with the advantage of good horses. If he noticed anything unusual, he would evacuate immediately. One night, he used a surprise attack to annihilate a tired Hu cavalry, resulting in most of the 500 Hu cavalry being killed or wounded.
This steady but disgusting fighting style made Su Puyan miserable, so he had to shrink his troops again, to units of a thousand cavalry, and slow down the marching speed. Little did he know that this move was exactly what Zhang He wanted. At this time, Zhang He had less than two hundred cavalrymen under his command, and the previous night attack had caused him to lose more than thirty men. Even if Su Puyan did not take action, Zhang He would not dare to launch another night attack. In this way, Zhang He's goal was achieved. It was as if a sharp knife was always hanging over the heads of the Wuhuan people, delaying their looting activities and buying more time for the people to evacuate. After three full days, the army from Xiangping finally arrived. Looking at the mighty army from afar, Zhang He's eyes were full of disdain. It only takes one day to march from Xiangping to here, but it took the army three full days to arrive. The reason is self-evident. This prefect Liu was too afraid of death and had no intention of saving the people of Anshi County. Seeing that the main force of the Han army had arrived, Su Puyan had no choice but to retreat. Zhang He looked at the somewhat undisciplined Hu cavalry, and then looked at the Xiangping army crawling at a snail's pace behind him, but in the end he did not dare to take action. You must never expose yourself, and you must not trust these stupid teammates. After Liu Yin took over Anshi County, Tian Ze also arrived in time. He asked Zhang He to lead the troops to evacuate, while he himself took more than one hundred newly trained cavalrymen and hurriedly reported the victory to the prefect Liu. Liu Yin looked at Tian Ze, who was dressed as a scholar, and the more than one hundred cavalrymen with decent equipment behind him, and a trace of contempt flashed in his heart. After Tian Ze presented more than 200 left ears of Wuhuan people and a large amount of "trophies", Liu Yin smiled, patted Tian Ze on the shoulder, and called him "good nephew" all the time, appearing to be extremely affectionate. The Wuzhong Tian family had done great favors to the Liaoxi governor, so he did not want to be enemies with Tian Ze unless it was necessary. The two sides had a cordial and friendly exchange and finally reached a consensus. Liu Yin asked the court for credit, claiming that he had led his troops to defeat the invading Xianbei cavalry and killed thousands of enemies. The head of Wen County fought bravely and made great contributions in defending the territory. In addition, he governed well. The number of people in Wen County has exceeded 10,000, so it is recommended that he be promoted to county magistrate. When the emperor and the officials in the court learned of the great victory in Liaodong, they were all extremely happy. They rewarded Liu Yin generously and also promoted Tian Ze. At the same time, the Xianbei invasion entered a stalemate. The Han Dynasty had been tied down by the war in Xiliang and was unable to draw forth sufficient troops for support. The defenders in the northern border had an extremely difficult time resisting and were at one point on the verge of collapse. However, God still favored the Han Dynasty. At this critical moment, Tan Shihuai could not hold on and died. Under such circumstances, the Xianbei, which existed in the form of a tribal alliance, immediately exposed serious flaws, became chaotic, and retreated to the grassland one after another. Tan Shihuai's son He Lian succeeded him as leader, but was soon shot dead by northerners while attacking the north. The Xianbei, who had always been united in appearance but divided in spirit, became completely divided and began a long period of civil strife. The pressure on the Han army in Youzhou and Bingzhou was immediately relieved, and the Wuhuan people no longer dared to be arrogant and domineering and became honest. (End of this chapter)