Han Ji

When news of Yuan Tan's death reached Ye City, Liu Bei was in his study reviewing the grain inventory records of the Ye City Ever-Normal Granary, which Jian Yong had sent. A personal guard handed him an urgent report from Qian Zhao in Qingzhou, which read: "Xiahou Dun has breached the Pingyuan Fortress; Yuan Tan refused to surrender and died in the army."

Liu Bei stared at the words for a long time before placing the bamboo slips on the table. It said that of Yuan Shao's sons, two had fled to the Wuhuan, and one had died. Yuan Tan, while at Cangting, had secretly gone into battle and fallen into an ambush.

Later, he returned to Ye City and clashed with Yuan Shang. Then he fled to Bohai, then to Hejian, and then to Pingyuan. He kept running, but in the end, he couldn't escape.

Jia Xu stood to the side, holding the chess piece in his hand. "If he had surrendered earlier, he wouldn't have died. Yuan Tan refused to bow his head until his death." Liu Bei stood up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, on the streets of Ye City, people were queuing to receive porridge, the porridge buckets steaming. "He refused to bow his head because he was Yuan Shao's son. But in this world, even Yuan Shao's son has to bow his head."

After escaping from Youzhou, Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang crossed the White Wolf Mountain and arrived at the Wuhuan.

They stayed in Wuhuan for more than half a year. During that time, Tadun Chanyu's attitude kept changing. Sometimes he said he was willing to lend troops, and other times he said that the various tribes were not ready yet.

Yuan Xi waited in his tent every day, but the news he received was worse with each passing day. First, he heard that Liu Bei had occupied Youzhou, then Bingzhou, and then Zhang Yan of the Black Mountain Army had also surrendered.

Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang sat facing each other, drinking until late at night. Yuan Shang said, "Second brother, is it possible that we can never go back?" Yuan Xi didn't answer, but poured the remaining wine from his bowl onto the ground.

In the autumn of the thirteenth year of Xingping, Tadun summoned the Yuan brothers to his main tent. Inside the tent, a cow dung fire was burning, and Tadun sat on a tiger-skin cushion, with several tribal leaders sitting around him on either side.

Tadun said, "There are three commanderies in Liaoxi: Liaodong Dependent State, Liaoxi Commandery, and Youbeiping. I will lend these three commanderies to you. These three commanderies are nominally still within the territory of the Han Dynasty, but the Han officials in Youzhou have long since fled, and now they are occupied by my Wuhuan troops."

You can raise troops, stockpile provisions, and recruit your old subordinates there. When the time is right, I will lead my cavalry south and help you retake Hebei.

Yuan Xi knelt down and kowtowed. Yuan Shang followed suit. Tadun had mare's milk wine brought up, and the three bowls were clinked together. They tilted their heads back and drank it.

The Yuan brothers emerged from the Wuhuan camp, leading several hundred servants and a small number of old, weak, and livestock assigned to them by Tadun, and headed towards Liaoxi. They stopped at Lingzhi City in Liaoxi Commandery and began to gather the former Yuan clan members who had fled from Youzhou and Jizhou.

Defeated soldiers, refugees, and powerful clans dissatisfied with Liu Bei gradually gathered towards Lingzhi. Yuan Xi put Yuan Shang in charge of recruiting soldiers, while he himself was in charge of storing grain. The wasteland outside Lingzhi City was reclaimed and planted with millet, with the field ridges made of gravel from the Heihe River.

By winter, the Yuan brothers had gathered over a thousand men, and with the old and weak lent to them by the Wuhuan, they barely had two or three thousand men.

Qian Zhao's special operations battalion reported all the information back to Ye City. Qian Zhao personally traveled back and forth along the Liaoxi Corridor several times, observing the Yuan army's grain collection and training outside Lingzhi City, and then following the valley to the edge of the Wuhuan grasslands to record the signs of troop movements.

In his secret report, he said that although Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang had not obtained the main force of the Wuhuan, Tadun had shown signs of probing southwards. The three commanderies of Liaoxi were assigned to the Yuan family as outposts, and thirty mu of millet fields were cleared outside the city.

In the autumn, a small group of Wuhuan herdsmen from western Liaoning sent cavalry into the territory of Youbeiping. They only raided the border once before retreating without going deep, but their intention was clear.

When Qian Zhao's secret report arrived in Ye City, Liu Bei was taking a nap. A personal guard pushed open the door, carrying a bamboo tube. Liu Bei sat up, took the tube, opened it, and looked at it for a long time.

He kept the secret report by his pillow. The Wuhuan. Yuan Shao had colluded with the Wuhuan while he was alive, and Tadun had even helped Yuan Shao harass his western front during the Battle of Guandu. Now, the remnants of the Yuan family had all fled to the Wuhuan, and his two sons were still dreaming of restoring their kingdom.

He stood up and walked to the jujube tree in the courtyard. The jujubes were already green, not yet red, hanging stiffly on the branches. Back in Zhuojun, Gongsun Zan had ridden him out of the city and taught him how to fight the Xiongnu. Gongsun Zan said, "These people don't value loyalty; they only recognize might. If your fist is strong, they'll fear you. If you back down once, they'll remember it for ten years."

He turned around and said to his personal guards, "Send word to summon Yunchang, Yide, Zilong, Junyi, and Wenhe."

By the time everyone had arrived, it was already dark. Oil lamps were lit in the main hall of the governor's mansion, and a map of the northern border hung on the wall. North of Youzhou, the Great Wall was drawn, and beyond the Great Wall lay the vast desert beyond the Great Wall.

The Wuhuan's sphere of influence stretched from western Liaoning all the way to the grasslands north of Dai Commandery. Tadun's main camp was at Bailang Mountain, with approximately 30,000 cavalry. Including other Wuhuan tribes in western Liaoning, their mobilizable force in times of war was around 50,000.

Zhang Fei spoke first. "Attack. If they dare to run so fast, we'll fight them all the way back to their hometown."

Guan Yu said, "Yide is right. If the Wuhuan dare to invade the border, they will be punished. But fighting the Wuhuan is different from fighting the Yuan family. It's a battle beyond the Great Wall, the terrain is unfamiliar, and supplies are even more difficult to transport. We need to be fully prepared and cannot rush things."

Zhao Yun stood to the side, remaining silent. He stared at the blank area north of the Great Wall on the map, an area marked with no cities, only a few blurry mountain symbols.

He was thinking that back when he served under Gongsun Zan, the White Horse Cavalry fought against the Wuhuan. Now Gongsun Zan was dead, but the Wuhuan were still alive.

Jia Xu spoke last. He placed the chess piece on the map, at the location of White Wolf Mountain.

"My lord, the matter of the Wuhuan will proceed in two steps. First, we must push the outposts of the Qianzhao Special Forces Battalion further forward to closely monitor all movements of Tadun and Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang. We must keep an eye on them, but we cannot let them realize that we are already watching them. Second, we must prepare for the northern expedition. We will not rush in all at once; we must prepare for a sufficient period of time. We must resolve the Wuhuan issue in one battle. The purpose of this battle is not to drive them away, but to ensure that this tribe will never again be a threat to our borders."

Jia Xu paused. "It will take at least two years. In these two years, in addition to collecting grain, storing fodder, and stockpiling bows and arrows, we also need to thoroughly investigate the water sources and pastures of the Liaoxi Corridor. We will not draw our swords unless we are absolutely certain of victory, and once we do, we will plunge them into the heart."

Guan Yu said he was willing to lead the vanguard and take the opportunity to train troops in Youzhou. Zhao Yun said the cavalry needed more cold-resistant warhorses and requested permission to transfer horses from Liangzhou and Bingzhou, so that the existing cavalry could undergo winter training in Youzhou in stages. Zhang He said the Jizhou camp could provide logistical support, and the grain route from Yecheng to Jixian could be divided into sections with transfer stations.

Zhang Fei said, "I'll ask him when he's going to make his move." Liu Bei said, "No rush. Go back and prepare yourselves."

After the meeting, Liu Bei stood alone in front of the map. His finger pointed to the location of White Wolf Mountain. Tadun. Yuan Xi. Yuan Shang. Yuan Shao's son. Gongsun Zan's enemy. His fingers pressed white on the paper.

The jujube trees outside the window rustled in the wind. The night in Jizhou was quiet, but the wind from beyond the Great Wall had already begun to blow.