Chapter 65 Yuan Shao's Death
In Yecheng, the sky gradually brightens.

Yuan Shang sat cross-legged in front of Yuan Shao's bed, waiting quietly.

He has been coughing up blood since midnight and has lost the ability to speak.

As Yuan Shao's favorite son, Yuan Shang felt extremely distressed.

"Ho ho..."

Yuan Shao struggled to get up, and his wife Liu hurried to support him. Yuan Shao looked at Yuan Shang who came to him and ignored the other children behind him.

Since he conquered Hebei, Yuan Shao took in many concubines who were from powerful families in Hebei and had many children with them.

Even though he was in a bad mood since his defeat in Kuangting last year, he still managed to make three concubines pregnant.

He held Yuan Shang's hand tightly, his eyes filled with relief and a hint of pleading.

Yuan Shao only knew that the old ministers from Yingchuan around him had all disappeared, and Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi had only been sent letters and official documents, and he had never seen them again.

Fortunately, my nephew came to visit me half a month ago, and I learned that Gao Gan and Yuan Tan had exchanged residences.

This move was very clever. It disintegrated Yuan Tan's followers and made Yuan Tan lose the confidence to compete with Yuan Shang.

However, the Hebei people's purge of the Yingchuan people was too harsh, and Yuan Shao was worried that the killing would be difficult to control and would affect the Yuan family.

He held Yuan Shang's hand tightly, and he felt the pain clearly with every breath.

The wound in his throat burst open, and the airflow from his breathing felt like it was being cut by a knife.

Blood began to seep from his tightly pursed lips. Yuan Shao endured the pain, his eyes and expression changed, leaving only deep pleading.

Yuan Shang finally couldn't help himself and nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, father. I will take good care of my two elder brothers and sisters!"

Yuan Shao then turned to look at Liu. Liu looked sad, but shook her head slightly.

"puff!"

Yuan Shao could no longer hold back and spit out a mouthful of blood. He became dazed and hung his head. Then he heard the sad cries of more than a dozen concubines and the crying of many children.

Liu stood up, took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the blood off Yuan Shang's face, her voice trembling, "My son, go see Mr. Zhengnan."

"Mother, please be patient for a few more days."

Yuan Shang advised in a low voice. He knew very well how much hatred his mother had for those concubines.

Seeing that Liu was silent, he asked, "If it were now, wouldn't we have to be buried with our father?"

"Just do as I say."

Liu immediately gave in. Yuan Shang glanced at Yuan Shao, who was glaring at him on the bed, and turned and walked out.

Outside, more than 50 people from the generals' offices, including Shen Pei, Ju Hu, and Qian Zhao, lined up in a row. Seeing Yuan Shang walk out with a sad face, Shen Pei shed two lines of tears: "Hebei cannot be without a master for a day. Please carry on the general's will, fight against the traitors and support the Han Dynasty!"

After saying this, Shen Pei knelt on his knees, and the rest of the people knelt on the ground one after another, shouting in unison: "Sir, please carry on the general's legacy! Punish the traitors! Support the Han Dynasty!"

If the name is not right, the words will not flow. Black Bear’s previous suggestion of keeping the death a secret... is simply unrealistic.

He inherited the title of general early, and with a clear status, people's hearts were at peace.

Yuan Shang did not refuse and sat in the main seat woodenly: "The traitor Cao Cao has invaded my Liyang, and this year is also a severe drought. My father's funeral should not be grand, and it should be simple and quick."

He sat on the couch with his back straightened, feeling at ease, and looked around at the kneeling ministers, his eyes fixed on the tall Cavalry Commander Cui Yan: "Remove Cui Yan from the position of Cavalry Commander and appoint him as the governor of Hedong County."

"I accept your order."

Cui Yan stood up and kowtowed solemnly. Immediately, a clerk brought the engraved silver seal of the Hedong County Governor. Cui Yan took off his ribbon bag and handed over the seal of the Cavalry Commandant.

Yuan Shang's eyes fell on another person: "Appoint Linghu Shao as the warehouse official and the governor of Hongnong County."

"I accept your order."

Linghu Shao from Taiyuan also stood up and kowtowed, handed over the bronze seal and received the silver seal.

Yuan Shang continued to look around, feeling embarrassed.

Yuan Tan had already gone to Taiyuan, but Yuan Tan alone could not serve as both the governor of Bingzhou and the Inspector of the Imperial Guards.

Now there is not even a suitable candidate to take over as the governor of Bingzhou. With the current territory of the Yuan family, there is no shortage of middle and low-level officials, but there is a shortage of people in key and pivotal positions.

My younger brother Yuan Mai is too young, and even if the others have fame, qualifications and abilities, they lack the most important loyalty.

Without loyalty, the greater the ability and the higher the reputation, the greater the harm caused.

As a last resort, Yuan Shang continued to appoint officials as planned: "Except recruiting military commanders, he was transferred to Bingzhou as governor, and he was ordered to supervise the Southern Xiongnu and Wuhuan tribes to help my brother to attack the traitorous officials in Guanzhong."

"I accept your order!"

Qian Zhao, wearing armor, stood up from behind the train and kowtowed again.

After completing the arrangements for the three western battlefields, Yuan Shang looked at the clerk at the edge and said, "I will entrust the funeral affairs to my uncle. I will also appoint Li Fu as the chief clerk of the shogunate to be in charge of confidential matters."

"I accept your order."

Yuan Xu and Li Fu stepped out to salute and then bowed down.

Yuan Shang then said, "Other than this, your duties will remain the same. After my father's funeral is over, I will go to Liyang in person to resist the enemy."

"Here."

Shen Pei led everyone to bow again. The external environment did not allow them to argue or be distracted.

Three days ago, Cao Cao had sent Xu Huang, Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu to cross the river and attack Liyang, and the second-line Cao army would follow suit.

Even if they do not participate in the front-line combat, they will follow up in order and be stationed near the Liyang battlefield.

After the failures in the Battles of Guandu and Kuangting, Hebei lacked a general who could take charge of the situation.

At this time, instead of selecting a new general, it is better to let Yuan Shang command at the front line.

On the other side, Wankou Ye County.

After marching all night, Liu Bei's troops arrived more than ten miles south of Ye County in the early morning.

Nearly four thousand people camped by the Lishui River in the north, the officers and soldiers cut down trees, and Liu Bei led more than ten cavalrymen to scout the surrounding area.

The Lishui River is a tributary of the Rushui River. It dried up in late May and only a shallow layer of water remained.

It is estimated that after the water was diverted to the downstream canal, the Lishui River was temporarily cut off. It is not uncommon for tributaries of the Central Plains water system to temporarily dry up and be cut off.

Even in such a dry and hot Central Plains, the morale of Liu Bei's troops was still greatly boosted.

The way home is right in front of them, and even if they can't go home, they are still happy.

It is difficult for many people to realize that this time the troops marched out of Wankou, it was the closest they had ever been to their hometown!
After a brief investigation between Ye County and Kunyang, Liu Bei returned to the camp and saw Jian Yong handing him a wooden tablet.

The wooden tablet is composed of two pieces, one large and one small. The large piece is with the black bear, and the small piece is with Liu Bei.

When the two pieces are put together and the wood grain matches, it means it is a genuine friendly military intelligence report.

Liu Bei examined the wooden tablet and said, "As expected, it is so." He then handed it to Guan Yu beside him and said, "Yun Chang, the Yuan family really has an insider in Duyang."

Guan Yu was reading the wooden slip and turned his head to look at the side. Sure enough, there was a head there. It was the head of Yin Cai, the magistrate of Duyang County.

Yin Cai was from Yin County, Nanxiang County. Both the Yin and Deng families were Nanyang surnames.

Zhang Fei also came over to read the contents of the wooden slip and saw that Black Bear once again stated that he would take the Jackdaw Road to attack Luyang.

He asked, "Second brother, do you think this kid dares to go?"

Guan Yu simply gave the wooden tablet to Zhang Fei and asked, "Yide, do you think he dares to go?"

Zhang Fei frowned and said, "If we don't trust him, will he trust us? If we withdraw our troops, he will take the Jackdaw Road to Luyang, and then we will have no way to retreat."

Luyang and Ye County are both fulcrums of Wankou. Luyang is located on the Wanluo Chi Road, and Ye County is on the Jingyu Chi Road.

If any intersection is lost, the other army will be in danger of being pinched or surrounded.

Zhang Fei looked at Liu Bei who was also in deep thought and said: "Brother, you don't really want to fight Cao's army here, do you?"

The army only brought half a month's worth of rations, but there was no additional food and fodder transport team.

If we are surrounded or entangled by Cao's army and find it difficult to escape, we will be in trouble.

Precisely because of the small amount of supplies, Liu Bei's troops are now known for their mobility.

Xu Shu, who was standing by, felt something was wrong when he saw this. Liu Bei was good in every way except that he had a very strong temper.

If Black Bear insisted on and really sent troops to attack Luyang via Jackdaw Road as planned, Liu Bei would definitely not be willing to retreat easily.

Xu Shu said immediately: "My lord, we don't know the strength of Duyang now, so why not ask Mr. Gongyou to go to Duyang. If there is enough food and fodder, and we can hold out against Cao's army, we can make some plans. In addition, if the Black Captain's troops help us, we can succeed in luring the enemy."

"That's how it should be."

Liu Bei looked at Sun Qian who was holding a branch to keep cool. "Please ask Gongyou to go to Duyang and tell Captain Hei about our plan to lure the enemy. If he agrees, he can retreat from Jackdaw Road to Wancheng to avoid Cao's army. When I lead a large group of Cao's troops to Duyang, I will ask him to set up an ambush near Duyang when the opportunity arises. It would be best if we can cut off Cao's retreat in one fell swoop!"

"Here!"

Sun Qian obeyed the order and immediately led two escort knights and rode back to Duyang.

When he arrived in Duyang City, large-scale shaving of hair was taking place.

It cannot be said to be a shave, but rather a cutting of the hair. A dozen experienced sergeants used the newly made Wang Mazi scissors to cut it quickly and randomly.

The defenders who were willing to follow could keep everything, but those who refused would have their hair cut off.

For civilian households and tenants, it was nothing more than moving to another place to cultivate crops. Jingzhou had no shortage of manpower to serve as soldiers, so the civilian settlements were truly civilian settlements.

Lu Chang sat dejectedly in the corner. All the officials in the city had their hair cut off, and Lu Chang was the first one to have his hair cut off in public.

As a military commander and the county magistrate of Zhi County, Lu Chang had good personal hygiene.

Even so, the cut hair is still thick with grease and scalp.

The situation is similar for officials below him, and the situation for ordinary people is even more indescribable.

Regardless of gender, one's hair should not be fully exposed to others; this also leads to many people living by rivers rarely washing their hair.

The refreshing young hero with a ponytail... doesn't exist.

Only the truly wealthy and well-off families have the spare time every day to clean their hair and beards and tidy up their appearance.

Ordinary manual laborers such as clerks, soldiers, farmers, and craftsmen had very poor hair hygiene.

The cut hair was packed into baskets and transported to the fire where it was immediately burned. The smell of burnt hair filled the air.

Sun Qian looked at this incredible phenomenon, raised his sleeves to cover his mouth and nose, and went to the city gate to see the black bear.

Very puzzled: "Captain, why is this happening?"

"Set the rules."

Black Bear was counting the equipment, bronze objects and cloth looted from the city. These things were piled together and loaded onto trucks one after another after the count.

Black Bear led Sun Qian aside and said, "I don't have the hobby of massacring the city, nor do I have the habit of plundering the people, and I don't have the idea of ​​digging up graves to get gold and silver. It's just that raising an army and starting an uprising will cost a lot of money for people and horses."

Sun Qian also agreed with this, saying that maintaining an army was too costly.

Liu Bei's army had not expanded in more than a year, so it was already remarkable that he was able to maintain its previous size.

Seeing that Sun Qian did not refute the difficulty of maintaining an army, Black Bear continued, "So I made a rule that any captives captured in a field battle who refused to serve me, I would shave their heads and send them back. If I captured them again, I would kill them."

"And if the city is destroyed, those who are willing to serve me will keep their families, and those who are unwilling to serve me will all have their heads shaved."

With this calculation, compared with Cao's army who would massacre people and chop off heads at will, this was a rare benevolent policy.

Sun Qian thought about it, skipped over such trivial matters, and said: "My master sent me here to inquire about the food and fodder stored in Duyang. In addition, my master wants to cooperate with the captain to fight and annihilate the invading Cao army."

He was about to speak when Black Bear raised his hand to stop him, drew his sword and drew the map of Jingyuchi Road and Jackdaw Road on the ground, which looked like the character "Y".

Duyang is located at the center of this Y-shaped character, and the two extending points are Luyang and Ye County.

He pointed his sword at the vicinity of Duyang and Bowang and said, "But are we going to lure the enemy here and then ambush and defeat them?"

"How did the captain know that?"

Sun Qian was surprised, but then he calmed down and figured it out. The more than 700 Hebei officials under Liu Bei should have guessed it and leaked the secret to Black Bear.

Seeing that Sun Qian was calm, Black Bear no longer wanted to tease him, so he said, "Cao's army is arrogant and has not suffered a defeat in two years. Now they are defeated at noon, so they should suffer a loss."

"I still say the same thing. If Liu Yuzhou fights Liu Yuzhou, I will fight mine. After relocating the people of Duyang, I will leave some food. If there is no suitable opportunity to fight in Luyang, I will withdraw my troops and wait for an opportunity to cooperate with Liu Yuzhou in the battle."

(End of this chapter)