Chapter 83: Bones Exposed in the Wild

Yuan Xi had been marching continuously for several days when he unexpectedly encountered a severe reduction in his ranks.

Half of the mules had collapsed.

Firstly, they were rushing to get to their destination, and secondly, they had drunk unclean water, which, combined with pre-existing illnesses, had caused them to fall ill.

Now, the sick mules were unusable and had to be released on the spot. Along with them, a hundred or so soldiers were lying on the mule carts, clutching their stomachs and groaning.

The reason for this could be traced back to the previous day when, as evening approached, they had set up camp by the river to rest, make a fire, and cook. The soldiers led the mules and horses to the river to drink.

At that time, there was not much firewood available for cooking, and although Yuan Xi had people boil several large pots of water to drink, most of the soldiers were still accustomed to drinking raw water directly from the river.

As a result, while everyone was eating, they saw countless corpses floating down the river from upstream.

Judging by their faces and clothing, most of them were civilians, with a few soldiers among them, all bearing weapon wounds on their bodies.

At that time, most of the soldiers did not wear armor, nor could they afford it. Most of them were lucky to have a helmet. Yuan Xi, with the strength of the entire city, could only afford to equip a hundred or so fully armored soldiers.

At this moment, he could distinguish the soldiers from the civilians because they were wearing uniforms of the same color, which were very easy to recognize.

As for ordinary civilians, they didn't even have such neat clothes.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Cui Shi"— "Wuyuan is suitable for growing hemp, but the locals do not know how to weave. The people have no clothes in the winter months and sleep in piles of fine grass. When they see officials, they wear grass and come out."

This describes how the land in Lü Bu's hometown was barren, and the people were poor. The civilians didn't even have clothes and could only lie naked in piles of grass to keep warm in winter. When they saw officials, they would wrap themselves in straw to come out.

The suffering of the people at that time was generally like this.

And this situation was not an isolated case in successive dynasties; it lasted for nearly two thousand years.

Seeing the corpses floating down from upstream, the soldiers were used to this sight. They continued to eat their meals with their heads down, while calmly drinking water from the river.

Yuan Xi felt uneasy and quickly ordered everyone to stop drinking water from the river and find spring water to drink instead.

However, it was too late. The next day, most of the mules and people began to suffer from diarrhea.

The soldiers could still lie on the carts and rest, but the mules with diarrhea had to be abandoned.

With this back and forth, out of five hundred people, only about three hundred were temporarily able to fight. Yuan Xi was a little worried. Out of these three hundred people, only a few dozen cavalrymen had iron armor. The rest were infantry, wearing only helmets and the worst kind of cloth armor, with a few pieces of iron under their cloth clothes, far inferior to Yuan Xi's own fully armored soldiers.

But even such cloth-armored soldiers were already considered well-equipped in these few provinces!

At that time, armor was the privilege of the cavalry. Infantry was considered expendable. Cao Cao's Qingzhou soldiers were known as elite troops, but that was only in terms of being relatively strong and sturdy. It was almost impossible to equip them with armor.

Infantry with armor was a great weapon in this era.

"Record of Heroes"— (Gao Shun) led more than seven hundred soldiers, called a thousand men. Their armor and fighting equipment were all refined and complete. Every attack they made was successful, and they were called the "Camp Breakers."

Gao Shun gained fame throughout the world with seven hundred armored infantry, because compared to other unarmored infantry, it was already a dimensional strike.

Yuan Xi pondered in his heart.

Now, at best, the combat power here was three hundred infantry and dozens of cavalry.

If Qu Yi and Gao Lan set off on time, they should bring dozens of armored cavalry, which was his key trump card.

But the key variable was still on the opposite side.

Everyone's target was Cao Song's family of fifty or so people, along with a hundred or so large carts.

The first force was Zhang Kai's hundreds of cavalry.

The second force was the reinforcements sent by Ying Shao, the governor of Mount Tai.

The third force was the reinforcements that Cao Cao might send, which should be in the same group as Ying Shao.

The fourth force was the Liu Bei force that they might encounter.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi wanted to slap himself. He had initially thought of Liu Bei as a spare piece to play safe, but now he might become his biggest obstacle.

If Guan Yu and Zhang Fei also came, how could Zhang He alone stop them?

Probably not, right?

No way!

At this point in time, Liu, Guan, and Zhang never separated. When they really encountered them, they would probably all appear together!

Yuan Xi's headache became even worse.

He said to Zhang He: "Brother Junyi, we still need to speed up and travel light."

"Throw away unnecessary supplies, leave the sick soldiers and mules behind, let them rest and march slowly."

Zhang He praised: "The young master is wise, I also wanted to say that."

"These sick soldiers are already very weak. After the bumps and fatigue, they will not be able to fight even if they reach the destination. They are of no use at all. It is better to leave them behind to slowly respond."

"However, while I was still hesitating, the young master had already made a decision, truly remarkable!"

Yuan Xi didn't know whether Zhang He really thought he was remarkable or was just flattering him, so he quickly said: "Where, Brother Junyi has been in battle for a long time. I just said it casually. When the time comes, it will still be up to you to make the decisions."

The two praised each other. Zhang He left the sick soldiers behind, and the group continued marching. After entering Taishan County, the scenery along the way gradually became tragic.

Villages were burned down, corpses were everywhere, and there was no sound of chickens or dogs. Yuan Xi sat on his horse and saw dead old people, young children, and women lying everywhere on the side of the road. He thought that even cities could not stop the slaughter, let alone villages without protection.

Bandits are like combs, soldiers are like rakes. Government soldiers harm the people even more than bandits.

The world is so big, but there is no place for the people to live.

Perhaps only when the world is at peace, the rivers clear, and the seas calm, can the people live and work in peace?

But how many years can this peace last?

Because the Five Barbarians Rebellion hundreds of years later will be countless times more tragic than the scene before them.

In 451 AD, the Song-Wei War. "Zizhi Tongjian · Song Ji" recorded: "The Wei people broke through the six states of Southern Yan, Xu, Yan, Yu, Qing, and Ji, and the killings and looting were countless. The strong were beheaded, and babies were strung on spears and danced as a game. The counties they passed through were left with nothing but red earth. When the spring swallows returned, they nested in the woods..."

Spring swallows make their nests on the eaves of houses, but they were nesting in the woods, indicating that there were no more houses.

This chaos will continue for several hundred years. Living a peaceful life has become the most unrealistic fantasy for the people.

The stench of scorching and decay filled his nostrils. Yuan Xi rode his horse past the corpse of a baby that was only half left. He glanced at the empty eyes that seemed to be staring at him and couldn't help but roar.

Zhang He looked over in surprise.

After another two days, the team finally arrived between Hua and Fei.

At that time, there were refugees from all over the place, blocking the road, some heading towards Xuzhou, some towards Jizhou, and some towards Qingzhou.

As for what they would encounter on the road and whether they would survive, no one knew.

Before Yuan Xi and his party could walk in, the people on the road exploded and fled to the forests on both sides. Women abandoned their carts and fled with their children, leaving behind a mess of clothes and excrement.

Yuan Xi smiled bitterly in his heart. He was flying the Yuan Shao military flag, which was in the same group as Cao Cao. The people were not wrong.

He said to Zhang He: "Time is short, we must find them quickly. Cao Song's family should be carrying a large convoy, with hundreds of carts, which will be difficult to hide."

Zhang He listened and immediately ordered the cavalry to disperse as scouts and search in all directions.