Chapter 37: Crisis in Xiangping Two days later, in Xiangping City, Liu Yin was attacked by a Wuhuan man in full view of everyone while on his way to a banquet. This Wuhuan assassin was extremely brave. After killing more than ten guards in succession, he beheaded Liu Yin with one sword. However, he was outnumbered and besieged by the surrounding soldiers, and eventually died of exhaustion. Almost at the same time, the Wuhuan tribe of Liaodong, a vassal state, rose up in rebellion. Su Puyan led 5,000 Wuhuan cavalry and joined forces with 7,000 Xianbei cavalry under Suli, one of the eastern Xianbei leaders, and marched to the city of Xiangping. For a time, the situation in Liaodong was precarious and there was a danger of collapse. The urgent battle report was quickly sent to Luoyang. Recommended by He Jin, the then Yin of Henan, Tian Ze, who had previously made great contributions in defeating the Wuhuan, was appointed as the prefect of Liaodong. The ministers in the court had no objection to this. Liaodong is located in a remote area with a bitterly cold climate. It is surrounded by foreign enemies and is frost-ridden. No one is willing to set foot in this dangerous place. What's more, He Jin and his sister were in the emperor's favor, and it was not wise to go against them for a mere position of prefect. Although the court documents were issued extremely quickly with the help of the relationship with the relatives by marriage, due to the long distance to Liaodong, even if the horse was galloping, the appointment documents took nearly half a month to deliver.
Tian Ze, who had been well prepared, immediately took the two generals Guan Yu and Ma Teng and the military advisor Cheng Yu, assembled more than 2,000 elite cavalry, and headed straight for Xiangping. Han Dang, Zhang He and other generals will follow closely behind, each with their own arrangements. Due to two years of severe drought, the life of the Wuhuan people in Liaodong's vassal state was also extremely difficult. In the past, they could barely make ends meet with the help from the Han Dynasty, but now that the threat from the Xianbei has been lifted, the Han Dynasty no longer pays as much attention to the Wuhuan as before and is unwilling to invest too much energy in them. The Protector of Wuhuan, who was in charge of managing the Wuhuan, was located in Shanggu. In his eyes, the Wuhuan tribe of Liaodong's vassal state was not only remotely located but also weak in strength, far inferior to the Wuhuan in Shanggu County and Liaoxi County, and naturally was not taken seriously. Life became increasingly difficult for the Wuhuan, a vassal state of Liaodong, led by Su Puyan. If they wanted to survive, they had no choice but to go out and plunder. However, in the past two years, because he was beaten by Tian Ze and the Han army under Liu Yin was also quite brave, Su Puyan's looting was small in scale each time and he deliberately avoided Wen County and Xiangping. But the difficulty lies in the fact that in the past winter, a terrible white disaster occurred around Liaodong, and the shepherds of the Wuhuan tribes suffered heavy losses in cattle and sheep. If they want to lead their people to survive, they must do something big. The situation of the Xianbei was the same. Although they had a stronger foundation, they could not hold out for long and lived in extreme poverty. As a result, the Xianbei and Wuhuan hit it off and decided to plunder Liaodong together. Since most of the counties and villages around Liaodong had suffered extremely serious damage due to drought and disasters, the people had little food and grass, and it was difficult to gain anything by looting. Instead, it would easily provoke the desperate people to rise up in resistance, which would not be worth the cost. Su Puyan and Suli decided to attack Xiangping directly, where food and grass were relatively sufficient. After learning that Liu Yin had been killed, the two were overjoyed, thinking that it was the Eternal Heaven that was protecting them. They led their cavalry at a gallop and surrounded Xiangping City. The twelve thousand Hu cavalry were like a dark cloud pressing down on the city, making people tremble with fear. At this time, Xiangping City was leaderless, but fortunately the city walls were tall and strong, and there were 3,000 standing guards. Ji Fang, a military official, was also a good general familiar with military affairs. In an emergency, he controlled the defenders in the city and quickly organized a defense. Otherwise, with people in panic, they would probably fall as soon as they came into contact with it. The Hu people were not good at attacking cities, and faced with the towering city walls, they could not even exert half of their strength. But Su Puyan had no way out and was determined to attack Xiangping City. While he kept persuading Suli, he sent his tribesmen to speed up the construction of siege equipment and launched a strong attack with the Xianbei from the south and north. After all, Xiangping City was short of troops and the people were in panic. Under the threat of Su Puyan and Suli, the situation was extremely critical.
...The south city wall was covered in blood after days of fierce fighting. After repelling the attack of Wuhuan once again, Ji Fang was exhausted both physically and mentally as he looked at the blood-red setting sun. There are too few troops. In the past half month, they have suffered no less than ten strong attacks. More than a thousand of the three thousand defenders have been killed, and the rest are all injured and exhausted. I am afraid that Xiangping City will not be able to hold out for much longer. There are only about 500 soldiers on each of the north and south walls. Although no one is attacking the east and west walls, 200 soldiers are deployed to prevent sneak attacks from the enemy. The only 300 remaining reserve troops were also seriously injured, and had to be on guard against trouble in the city at all times. "Hurry, carry the wounded down, clean the walls, prepare food, and replace the damaged swords and guns." As soon as the battle stopped, Tian Chong, wearing leather armor, rushed to the city wall with the guards of the caravan and cleaned up the battlefield in an orderly manner. When Ji Fang saw this scene, he felt a little relieved. The person in front of him is the shopkeeper of Yuelai Trading Company. Although he is just a businessman, he has a strong sense of justice and is doing his best to help in this time of crisis. Not only did they provide a lot of cloth and medicine, they also organized people to assist with logistics work. In contrast, those powerful families in the city who not only did not help but also caused trouble were truly outrageous. In fact, at the beginning, he was still wary of Tian Chong. He was worried that he was a spy from Wuhuan, Xianbei or other forces, so he did not allow him to participate in the war, but only tentatively asked him to help with logistics. But after this month, he has completely trusted this person. If it weren't for Tian Chong, the casualties of his soldiers would have increased by at least half, and Xiangping City would have fallen long ago. "Ji Caoyuan, your injury..." After quickly arranging the guard mission, Tian Chong rushed over and saw Ji Fang with a broken arrow stuck in his shoulder, his eyes full of worry. "It's okay, it's just a flesh wound." Ji Fang pulled out the arrow casually, took off his armor with the help of his personal guards, took out the ointment that Tian Chong had given him from his arms, and applied it on the wound. "Ji Caoyuan, can you still hold on? Do you need..." Tian Chong asked again. "The Wuhuan people suffered a lot of casualties when they attacked the city. We can still hold out for some time. As long as the reinforcements arrive, we will be fine." Ji Fang shook his head. Although Tian Chong had 500 guards, he had no idea about their combat effectiveness. Moreover, defending the city required cooperation among soldiers, and he was afraid that they would not be able to help but cause trouble instead. Tian Chong was not angry after hearing this. As Tian Ze's backup in Xiangping, he only had to ensure that Xiangping did not fall. During this period, he had fully gained Ji Fang's trust and was allowed to serve as a reserve force under the city wall during battles, ready to provide support at any time. As for the reinforcements that Ji Fang mentioned, they were probably only the Wen County Army led by his lord. The powerful people in the city were all concerned with protecting themselves and were unwilling to send anyone to help. Many of them even secretly colluded with the Wuhuan and tried to open the city gates at night, but he secretly dealt with them all. It was a problem for the county soldiers in various places to protect themselves. Moreover, given the combat effectiveness of these county soldiers, even if they came to help, they would only send prisoners to Wuhuan. The reinforcements from western Liaoning could not arrive in a short period of time, and they also had to guard against the local Wuhuan and Xianbei. Judging from the time, the lord should be here soon. (End of this chapter)
