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

On the third day of the siege of Huguan City, Guo Si, the Commandant of Shangdang County, stood on the city wall, looking at the dark mass of troops below, his hand gripping his sword trembling!

Is it too late to resign now?

The Black Mountain army lacked large siege equipment and had only average combat strength, but they had too many men!

Especially when they go out of the city to fight in the field, these Black Mountain bandits are like a completely different group of people once they get into the mountains!

His county soldiers were no match for him at all!

Four groups of scouts were sent to Taiyuan to request reinforcements, but only the last group returned alive.

"Taiyuan has also fallen." The scout, covered in blood, knelt before him. "The Southern Xiongnu have besieged Jinyang. Prefect Zang... Prefect Zang said that everyone should defend their own territory, and he doesn't have any spare troops."

Guo Si stood there, stunned.

He suddenly remembered the messenger Liu Bei sent in the twelfth lunar month, and how the governor of Yangmei threw the warning bamboo slip into the charcoal brazier!

He was there and even laughed!

I can't laugh anymore!

Meanwhile, Zhang Yan and the Black Mountain bandits were laughing hysterically!

the other side.

Beneath the walls of Jinyang, Chanyu Yufuluo stood on the bank of the Fen River, watching the panicked figures on the city walls.

He risked everything to reach the most dangerous Sparrow and Rat Valley in the Fen River Valley, only to find that no one was guarding it!

"That envoy impersonating someone from Shangdang, suspected to be from the Black Mountain Army, was right! Taiyuan was indeed unprepared!"

He took out the map he had unexpectedly obtained, turned to his deputy, and said:

"Order that we not attack the city tonight. First, wipe out the powerful clans outside the city, and take away their grain and women. Tomorrow morning, set up siege ladders and breach the city walls."

In recent years, the Han Dynasty has been plagued by internal strife and has frequently asked the Xiongnu to send troops to help, but they have not given much reward. The internal dissatisfaction has long been growing!

The Southern Xiongnu cavalry scattered and charged towards the unsuspecting villages. Before dawn, the cries of agony from both banks of the Fen River never ceased.

On the walls of Jinyang, Zang Min stood behind the battlements, showing absolutely no intention of going into battle.

He slowly turned around and said to his personal guards behind him, "Men, defend Jinyang City to the death!"

The guard hesitated for a moment: "Prefect, but what about the people outside the city..."

"Huh? You're teaching me how to do things?"

"Yes, sir!"

The guards rushed down from the city wall.

The news spread throughout the city.

Lu Bu was enraged when he learned the news from Ding Yuan's subordinates!

"Father! The Huns have invaded! Are we just supposed to hide here?!"

Lu Bu gripped his halberd so tightly that his large hand, capable of crushing a Xiongnu man, turned white as he clenched it, and he planted the halberd into the ground.

His eyes were bloodshot; he longed to fight those Huns!

"I only need fifty cavalrymen to cut off Juvro's head! Give me the soldiers!"

Ding Yuan sat behind his desk, his face ashen.

He wanted to break out even more than Lü Bu!

Having guarded the border for many years and fought countless battles with the Hu people, I have never suffered such humiliation.

Moreover, he also needs to prove that he can do better than Liu Bei, and that he is more suitable to be the General Who Crosses the Liao River and Governor of Hezhou!

But he is not even the first commander of Taiyuan County now. He only has a little over a thousand old, weak and disabled soldiers under his command, and he can't even leave the city gate!

Wang Kai, the First Commandant, was Zang Min's confidant and firmly controlled all the troops in Taiyuan. Without Zang Min's orders, not a single soldier could be mobilized!

"What can I do?" Ding Yuan slammed his fist on the table.

"Wang Kai has locked all the city gates! That old bastard Zang Min only cares about his own life; he doesn't care about the lives of the common people at all!"

"Then we'll go ourselves!" Lu Bu roared. "I'll take my personal guards! Even if it's only a few dozen men, we can fight our way in and out seven times!"

"No!" Ding Yuan grabbed him. "Wang Kai has ordered the four gates to be closed, and no one is allowed to go out to fight. Anyone who dares to lead troops out of the city without authorization will be punished as a traitor."

"Treason?!" Lü Bu laughed in fury, then slammed his halberd into a nearby pillar.

"To stand by and watch the barbarians kill our people and steal our grain—that is true treason! Wang Kai, that good-for-nothing, and Zang Min, that coward! They are unfit to defend Taiyuan!"

"Fengxian!" Ding Yuan caught up and grabbed his arm tightly. "Wait a little longer! Perhaps General Liu Bei has already received the news, and he will definitely come to rescue us!"

"Liu Bei?" Lü Bu paused. "He's far away at Yanmen. By the time he arrives, Taiyuan will have already been looted and burned by the Xiongnu!"

At this moment, Liu Bei, whom they had been longing for, was already on his way!

On the official road leading from Yanmen to Taiyuan, six thousand soldiers marched day and night.

They didn't even bring much food, but once they arrived in Taiyuan, food was naturally provided for them!

Liu Bei, clad in silver armor, sat on his horse, gazing at the billowing smoke rising to the south.

Upon receiving news that Taiyuan and Shangdang were besieged simultaneously, he immediately mustered his troops and set off.

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Xu Rong, seven generals, accompanied him.

Li Chang, Jia Xu, and Cheng Yu rode side by side behind Liu Bei.

Xun Chen and Yue Yin, along with Yue Yin's three or five close friends, were left to handle all the political and military affairs.

Fortunately, with more manpower, they don't need to stay up all night as much anymore.

Li, Jia, and Cheng exchanged glances, and the air around them seemed to grow even colder.

This battle is not only about defeating the Black Mountain Army and the Southern Xiongnu, but also about using the rebels to shatter the foundations of the powerful families in Taiyuan and Shangdang.

……

Only a few days later.

At the gates of Jinyang, the people that Jia Xu and Cheng Yu had arranged and bribed last year suddenly opened the gates, leading the Xiongnu people inside!

With coordinated attacks from within and without, the city of Jinyang was filled with the deafening sounds of battle cries.

The Southern Xiongnu cavalry surged into the outer city like a tide, directly targeting the residences of those powerful clans according to the map!

After all, how much grain do ordinary people have? It's the wealthy and powerful families who have more money and grain, and their women are more tender!

Burning, killing, looting.

Zang Min and Wang Kai were both dumbfounded. What was going on? How had they been infiltrated? Was there a traitor among them?

Left with no other choice, he immediately led the remaining few thousand county soldiers to hide in the governor's mansion in the inner city.

He dared not organize any resistance, hoping that the Southern Xiongnu would leave once they had looted enough.

But Wang Kai was halfway through his retreat when he suddenly realized something was wrong!

"Oh no, it's the Wang family!"

He hurriedly led his county soldiers to relieve the siege! As for the other families, he would have to save his own family first!

At the same time, inside Huguan City.

The men planted by Jia Xu and Cheng Yu opened the city gates, and the Black Mountain Army swarmed in.

A map marked with the name of the Shangdang family was also in Zhang Yan's possession.

Zhang Yan immediately ordered the attack on the prefectural governor's mansion to be abandoned, and instead head straight for the major aristocratic families.

The powerful families and clans of Bingzhou all became targets of the bandits!

But when they fought off the county soldiers and then went to fight these powerful families, they found that they were ten times more valiant than the county soldiers!

Wangjiawubao in Taiyuan.

Wang Rou, the head of the Wang family, stood on the high wall of the fortified village, looking down at the densely packed Southern Xiongnu cavalry below, his expression unchanged.

"Release the arrows!"

At a single command, thousands of royal private soldiers simultaneously unleashed their arrows, raining down arrows like locusts, instantly felling a group of Xiongnu cavalry.

The Xiongnu were completely unprepared!

They thought that after repelling the county soldiers, they could freely enter those families!

Only now do we realize that these private soldiers from powerful families are all well-equipped!

At first, there were bows and arrows and ordinary swords and spears. Later, it was discovered that bows and arrows and swords and spears were not effective, so crossbows and iron armor appeared!

They had already heard about what happened in Ji County, Liangzhou!

Clad in iron armor and wielding sharp blades, they were all servants born into the family!

Their combat strength is more than one level higher than that of the county soldiers under Zang Min!

The Southern Xiongnu cavalry charged three times in succession, but were driven back each time, suffering heavy casualties.

Yufuluo looked at the tall, sturdy fortified village and the densely packed archers on the walls, his face turning ashen.

"Damn it! How come these Han Chinese aristocratic families are even more capable than the Han army?"

On the other side, at the Shangdang Shijia Fortress, the Black Mountain Army attacked for a day and a night, but not only did they fail to break through the fortress, they also suffered more than 2,000 casualties.

Zhang Yan stared at the large "Guo" banner fluttering on the wall of the fortified village, gritting her teeth:

"I never imagined these powerful families harbored so many private soldiers! No wonder they weren't afraid of us at all!"

At this moment, a clever man suddenly appeared among the Black Mountain bandits and the Southern Xiongnu's men.

He suggested, "Why don't we besiege them without attacking first, temporarily depleting their morale and supplies? Then we can slowly concentrate our forces and launch a sudden attack, taking them out one by one?"