Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1686: Chapter 1618: All Forced by Circumstance

After Chen Xi and Zhou Yu broke through the siege and retreated westward, Kun Wan gathered hundreds of thousands of miscellaneous Hun people and immediately ordered Ten Thousand Riders to lead the army in pursuit of Chen Xi.

As for Kun Wan, he initially stayed behind to gather the clansmen from the two routed camps of the Northern Huns. With over 400,000 affected, those who regrouped with him were already less than 200,000. Kun Wan could only escort these 200,000 clansmen to unite with those from the previous camp.

Following this battle, the most fundamental clansmen of the Northern Huns remained under 500,000. After confirming this situation, Kun Wan’s anger surged, and the clansmen of the Northern Huns were deeply grieved. In such anger and sorrow, many of the remaining Northern Hun warriors directly applied for battle.

Kun Wan, already consumed by anger, had long abandoned Huyan Chu’s orders. Ordinary Northern Hun warriors, provoked by the death of their clansmen, had already forgotten their tasks, driven solely by the thought of revenge.

Thus, the remaining 500,000 Northern Hun people forced out over 20,000 young and strong warriors, while the rest rushed northward with all the war horses, cattle, and sheep.

For the Northern Huns who had scoured almost the entire prairie during this period, supporting more warriors posed no difficulty. After this battle, in pursuit of revenge, the Northern Huns were willing to tighten their belts to support more warriors.

Furthermore, so many cattle and sheep were essentially costless transactions for the Northern Huns. If they could trade them for Han blood, they would be very willing.

Kun Wan’s own 20,000 troops, after gathering 5,000 routed fighters from the Uloran Clan, reached 25,000. Later, after squeezing out more than 20,000 young and strong warriors from the Northern Huns’ limited clansmen, Kun Wan’s force reached over 40,000, close to 50,000.

However, the proportion of young and strong warriors among the 500,000 Northern Huns at the rear dwindled to around one-fifteenth. Yet, whether it was Kun Wan or the ordinary Northern Hun clansmen, their eyes were already blinded by hatred, unable to see such a dangerous situation.

Kun Wan gathered all the young warriors, equipped them with leather armor, mounted war horses, and with tens of thousands gathered together, there was a slight semblance of the grandeur of the former Hun Empire. Since leaving the northern Great Prairie, the Northern Huns had not wielded such military might for a century.

Watching clansmen driving hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep northwards, Kun Wan ordered the remaining near-million of cattle and sheep to be driven southwards. These were the supplies Kun Wan prepared for this battle.

Clansmen driving cattle north and the young Northern Huns driving supplies south were completely unaware that this parting might mean they would never meet again in this lifetime.

Similarly, at the front line, Huyan Chu had no idea that everything he pursued began to collapse due to the tribesmen’s anger and thirst for revenge soon after he left the rear. To his helplessness, once the young warriors headed south, even Huyan Chu couldn’t direct them back.

Thus, Jia Xu’s ambition to accomplish everything in one strategic move had the potential to be realized. The hope of Huyan Chu, like Zichan during the Spring and Autumn Period, to solve the nation’s greatest internal conflict, even averting national destruction through strategic pain, had completely lost significance.

Of course, right now, Huyan Chu, rooted at the forefront, was gathering tens of thousands of Hu people, guarding the position, ready to fight the Han Dynasty with the full might of the Northern Barbarians. He was completely unaware of the changes occurring at his rear.

As for War Eagle sending a message, unfortunately, Right Virtuous King Kun Wan couldn’t muster the face to inform Huyan Chu about the turmoil at the rear. All Kun Wan could do was to lead 45,000 Northern Huns Elite Cavalry and 200,000 miscellaneous Hun southward to personally meet Huyan Chu, to explain everything, and seek to redeem himself in the Han and Huns battlefield.

As the Hun people left their northern settlements proceeding further north, Yuan Tan and others had successfully followed the path guided by Liu Yu heading north.

”Xuu You, have you thought it through?” Xun Shen asked with a questioning look. They had brought forth the last remaining assets of the Yuan Family of Hebei this time. Yet, that wasn’t crucial; Yuan Tan’s determination was, coupled with a new idealist emerging from the Yuan Clan.

As for the other members of the Hebei Yuan Clan, Yuan Tan had already sent them to Yuzhou, with Liu Bei’s side not obstructing at all, which already spoke volumes.

”It’s not that I’ve thought it through, more that I’ve understood Jia Wenhe’s way of thinking.” Xun Shen replied helplessly, ”Despite my self-confidence, only now have I grasped Jia Wenhe’s thinking process.”

”Enough, you haven’t yet confronted Jia Wenhe personally. Solely relying on the intelligence collected recently about Jia Wenhe makes understanding his thought process exceedingly difficult.” Xuu You retorted with some irritation.

Xun Shen didn’t reply to Xuu You’s remark, as what he wanted to convey was that Jia Wenhe’s intelligence far surpassed theirs; otherwise, relying on Xun Shen’s Spiritual Talent wouldn’t have taken so much time to resolve.

”Jia Wenhe aims to accomplish everything in one decisive move. This time heading south, we already understand that among the Northern Huns, there exist individuals skilled in intelligence. Their tactics diverge significantly from the previous brute force approach, thus leading to contradictions.” Xun Shen remarked while looking at Xuu You.

”I know that aspect too, within the Northern Huns resides individuals cunning in intelligence, and their tactics have vastly improved compared to before, sufficiently indicating someone within holds high authority among the Northern Huns. The flexibility in deploying these troops further illustrates that within this advancing force, lurks the individual we need to pinpoint.” Xuu You interrupted Xun Shen’s statement.