The Three Kingdoms: The Oath of the Peach Garden, the Rise of the Han Dynasty

Countless Han soldiers rushed out from the gaps in the ice wall and began hacking and slashing at the chaotic Xianbei people.

They knew every alleyway and every trap in the area.

Fight and run, never linger in battle.

By the time the Xianbei people realized what was happening, they had already disappeared around the corner of the ice wall.

Then, they attacked from another direction.

This was not a war at all, but a one-sided massacre.

What does it mean for one Han soldier to be worth five Hu soldiers? The Xianbei lost their cavalry mobility advantage, and the Han army, taking advantage of the terrain, could easily defeat ten enemies with one soldier!

The Xianbei people were disoriented in the maze, unable to find their enemy, yet they continued to fall.

Some were stabbed in the back, some fell into traps, and some were crushed to death by falling ice blocks.

Screams, cries, and curses mingled together in the ice wall maze.

The blood stained the ice surface red and quickly froze back into ice.

He Lian was outside and could only hear the screams coming from inside, but had no idea what was happening inside.

He kept sending troops in, but those who went in disappeared without a trace, never to come out again!

"What happened? What's going on inside?" He paced anxiously. "Why is there no news at all?"

"Chanyu! Something terrible has happened!" A soldier covered in blood rushed out, scrambling to his knees before Helian, crying out:

"It's full of traps! It's full of Han Chinese! Our men died as soon as they went in! More than a thousand have already died!"

"What?!" He Lian was struck dumb, staggering back a step.

More than a thousand people!

It's gone again?

We haven't even seen much of the enemy.

He stared intently at the labyrinth of ice walls, despair beginning to creep into his eyes.

Why were the Han army so strong and so difficult to defeat? How exactly did his father face these powerful Han armies back then?

"Withdraw...withdraw the troops." He Lian's voice trembled for the first time.

"Chanyu?" The nobles around him couldn't believe their ears.

"I said retreat!" He Lian roared. "Retreat immediately! Back to camp!"

Upon receiving the order, the surviving Xianbei people felt as if they had been granted a pardon and rushed out of the ice wall maze.

They fled back to their camp in disarray, abandoning their armor and weapons and even their wounded comrades.

On this day, the Xianbei people left behind nearly a thousand corpses at the foot of the old city of Dingxiang.

The remaining corpses and those that weren't quite dead were scattered across the battlefield by Han Hao, collected, and preserved in ice water.

The strategist said, "Mr. Cheng will have a great use for these!"

The Han army suffered fewer than a hundred casualties, and their bodies and nameplates were preserved.

As the sun set, it dyed the ice city blood red.

Xu Rong stood on the city wall, watching the Xianbei people retreat in disarray, his face still expressionless.

He simply gave the order:

"Pass down the order: continue watering tonight. Re-water all the ice they damaged today. Dig more traps."

"They'll come again tomorrow."

Looking at the Xianbei corpses scattered on the ground, and then at his brothers who were fighting with great enthusiasm, Han Hao sighed from the bottom of his heart:

"General Xu, the strategist's move was absolutely brilliant."

"Don't even think about setting foot in this old Dingxiang city, not even if there were 50,000 Xianbei, let alone 100,000."

Xu Rong looked up at the northern sky, where snowflakes began to fall again.

"Unfortunately, we can only use the ice wall trap to block the old Dingxiang city."

If they realize what's happening and continue to go around it, there's nothing we can do.

Then we'll have to pin our hopes on other generals.

……

In the camp, He Lian sat on the throne, saying nothing.

The tent was deathly silent.

Everyone was terrified by today's crushing defeat.

They had never fought such a frustrating battle before.

Despite having an army of 50,000, they couldn't even capture a dilapidated city defended by a few thousand men.

He Lian suddenly raised his head, his mind overwhelmed by a frenzied, irrational rage.

"I refuse to believe this ice city is made of iron!"

"Tonight! A night raid! A night raid at dawn!"

"I'll lead the team myself! I refuse to believe they don't sleep at night!"

……

At dawn.

The snow on the grassland is still falling so deep and so earnestly.

The cold wind lashed at the Xianbei people's faces, freezing them to the bone.

He Lian wrapped himself tightly in his fur coat and led 200 million elite Xianbei cavalrymen silently toward the old city of Dingxiang.

I spent the remaining 20,000+ on sleeping.

Everyone walked quietly and quickly, and the horses' hooves were wrapped tightly in cloth, making almost no sound.

"Once this ice city is breached, the gates of Liu Bei's defenses will be completely broken!"

He gritted his teeth:

"Tonight, I will make all Han Chinese pay the price for their arrogance!"

Soon, the army reached the front of the barricade.

By the faint moonlight, I gazed once more at the ice wall.

He and Lian took a closer look.

"Thump!"

He almost fell off his horse!

The ice barricades that they had smashed to pieces during the day were actually standing there again!

The icicles gleamed coldly in the moonlight, even thicker and sharper than yesterday!

The bamboo and wood chips are gone, but there are more bone spurs!

"ah!!!"

He Lian could no longer hold back and let out a heart-wrenching roar.

In a fit of rage, he flew into a rage!

"Liu Bei!!! I ************!!!"

His roar pierced the silent night sky, letting the soldiers guarding the city hear something.

"Chanyu! What should we do?" The nobles around him were also at a loss.

"What else can we do! Smash it! Keep smashing it!"

He Lian drew his curved sword, pointed it at the barricade, and roared:

"Even if we have to smash it until dawn, we'll break this ice!"

The 20,000 Xianbei cavalrymen immediately dismounted, picked up axes and hammers, and began to smash the ice barricades.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

The loud crash echoed far and wide in the quiet night.

On the city wall, the sentry suddenly awoke, now certain that the sound he had heard earlier was not a hallucination!

This immediately sounded the alarm.

Clang! Clang!

The urgent tolling of the bells echoed throughout the entire old city of Dingxiang.

The Han soldiers who were sleeping immediately got up, picked up their weapons, and rushed to their posts.

Xu Rong, clad in heavy armor, climbed to the top of the city wall and glanced at the area below by the moonlight. Unfortunately, most of the Xianbei people were wrapped in wool, making them difficult to observe.

"They must be here." Xu Rong firmly believed:

"Han Hao, take five hundred men to the Ice Maze and guard all the entrances. Don't launch any attacks; just prevent them from breaking in."

The rest of you rest, then take turns fighting!

"Your subordinate obeys!" Han Hao immediately led his men down.

At this moment, the Xianbei people had already broken through the first barricade and were advancing towards the second one.

They learned their lesson and no longer acted separately, but instead gathered several hundred people together to smash an ice wall.

Although the efficiency is much lower, it is safer and you generally won't fall into a trap.

"General, they probably have a lot of people this time. If they keep smashing things like this, they'll be able to break into the maze before dawn!" a garrison commander said anxiously.

Xu Rong nodded, his gaze sweeping over the neatly stacked "ice men" at the foot of the city wall.

Those were the corpses of Xianbei soldiers who had died in battle a few days earlier. The Han army had poured water on them, freezing them into ice blocks, each weighing several hundred pounds.