Chương 221: Slaughter 1

"Bang!"

Liu Ce kicked open the door of the Mi family's large tent.

Inside the tent, Miga's wife, a Xianbei noblewoman in her thirties, was frantically grabbing her scimitar.

This woman was quite bold; she didn't run away.

"Han Chinese! My husband would..."

Before he could finish speaking, the Heavenly Dragon City-Breaking Halberd thrust out with lightning speed.

The noblewoman had just raised her scimitar when the halberd tip pierced her chest.

She stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the halberd shaft on her chest as it slowly fell to the ground.

Liu Ce drew his halberd, and blood splattered all over the ground.

"Your husband?" he sneered.

"He'll be sent down to keep you company soon."

At the same time, Dian Wei rushed into Que Ji's tent.

Queji's father, an old man in his sixties and an elder of the Xianbei tribe, was trembling behind the altar.

The altar was decorated with cow and sheep skulls and crude statues of gods.

"Come out!" Dian Wei said coldly.

The old man crawled out tremblingly, begging for mercy in broken Chinese: "General, spare my life... I surrender..."

Dian Wei grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, and said, "My elder brother said that the elders will not be spared."

Upon hearing this, the old man raised the statue: "The Eternal Heaven will punish you..."

"To hell with your Eternal Heaven!" Dian Wei cleaved the statue and the man in two with a single blow of his halberd.

Xu Chu was even more decisive. He rushed into the Suli family's tent area, where several elders were stubbornly resisting, holding curved swords and bone staffs, chanting incantations as if they were asking the gods for help.

"Summon the gods? I'll send you to meet the gods!" Xu Chu swung his broadsword, and an elder, along with his bone staff, was cleaved in two.

The others tried to escape, but were surrounded by the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun.

Eighteen curved blades flew up and down, and in the blink of an eye, several piles of minced meat appeared on the ground.

Luo Cheng and Taishi Ci were also busy cleaning up the families of the other minor leaders.

The entire operation was a swift in-and-out affair, taking less than fifteen minutes from storming into the camp to wiping out all the key figures.

Liu Ce rushed out of the tent, mounted his horse, and looked around—the camp was in complete chaos.

The Xianbei soldiers tried to organize a resistance, but under the crushing force of the Longxiang Battalion and the Jingse Iron Cavalry, they could not form a formation at all.

Cries, screams, and the neighing of horses blended together.

"Clear the area!" Liu Ce ordered.

The group turned their horses around and joined up with the Longxiang Camp and Jingsai Iron Cavalry on the outer perimeter, and began to clear out the remaining Xianbei soldiers.

It was called a cleanup, but it was actually a massacre.

The eastern Xianbei camps had become a living hell.

The tents were set ablaze, flames shooting into the sky; cattle and sheep scattered in panic; the ground was littered with corpses—soldiers', the elderly's, and even women's and children's.

Liu Ce gave a strict order: leave no survivors on the battlefield.

It wasn't that he was cruel, but that he had to be.

The battle lasted less than an hour.

It was still dark when it ended.

The eastern Xianbei camps had become a living hell.

The firelight illuminated half the sky, and the ground was littered with corpses. Tents were burned to skeletons, and not a single cow or sheep remained; only blood, blood everywhere.

Liu Ce reined in his horse and stopped in the center of the camp, looking at the scene before him with a blank expression.

"My lord, the cleanup is complete," Luo Cheng reported.

"Not a single survivor. We've captured..."

"Treasure and warhorses, take them. Cattle and sheep..." Liu Ce thought for a moment, "Choose the fattest ones, slaughter them, and roast them into jerky for military rations. The rest, burn them."

"yes!"

The soldiers began cleaning up the battlefield.

Some people cut off the heads of Xianbei people and piled them into small mountains—this is called "building a Jingguan," a common method used in ancient times to intimidate enemies.

Someone arranged the corpses into the shape of the characters—Liu Ce had specifically ordered it—to form the nine large characters: "Those who offend our mighty Han, though far away, shall be punished."

Although most Xianbei people couldn't read Chinese characters, the effect was achieved—other tribes passing by would be terrified at the sight.

Looking at the mountain of heads, Taishi Ci couldn't help but ask, "My lord, isn't this... a bit too cruel?"

Liu Ce turned to look at him: "Ziyi, do you think it's ruthless?"

"This humble general simply feels... what have women and children done to deserve this?"

"Women and children are innocent?" Liu Ce laughed, a cold laugh.

"When their husbands and sons raided the south, they cheered in the camps; when they looted grain and cloth, they enjoyed it; when they killed Han people, they celebrated. Tell me, are they innocent?"

Taishi Ci remained silent.

"In this era, there are no innocent people," Liu Ce patted him on the shoulder, "only enemies and foes. To be merciful to the enemy is to be cruel to our own people. The people of Youzhou are waiting for our protection."

After saying that, he turned his horse around: "We'll rest for an hour, then set off. Next stop: the Central Xianbei!"

For the next two weeks or so, a terrifying legend began to circulate on the grasslands: a Han Chinese cavalry force, clad in full armor and moving like the wind, targeted large Xianbei tribes, slaughtering the leaders' families and elders, piling up their heads into small mountains, and even writing words on their corpses.

Wherever they went, not a blade of grass remained—oh no, the grass remained, but not a single person was left behind.

The camp of the three Xianbei tribes in the central region: Kezui, Queju, and Murong.

The guards here are a bit tighter than in the east, with a few more squads of sentries and shallow trenches dug around the camp—but that's about it.

The main force went south, leaving behind fewer than 10, 000 people, who were scattered in various places.

Another midnight raid.

Liu Ce led his cavalry and charged straight in through the main gate—yes, the main gate.

The Xianbei soldiers guarding the gate had just drawn their bows when they were rammed by the Jingse cavalry, their bodies and the gate panels shattering on the ground.

"Enemy attack!!!"

The alarm went off, but it was too late.

The Longxiang Camp and the Jingsai Iron Cavalry charged through the camp like wolves among sheep.

Liu Ce led his core squad straight to the leader's tent.

Queju's mother—an old woman in her sixties—hearing that the Han army had arrived, not only did not hide, but instead stood in front of the main tent, leaning on her cane, and pointed at Liu Ce, shouting, "Han dog! My son will skin you alive when he returns!"

"The old lady is quite energetic." Liu Ce grinned and swung his Heavenly Dragon City-Breaking Halberd.

The old woman's cursing stopped abruptly as she was swept away by the halberd shaft, crashing into a tent pole and falling silent.

The elders of the Murong tribe were clever enough to try and escape on horseback amidst the chaos.

Unfortunately, no matter how good their riding skills were, they couldn't outrun the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun.

Eighteen men chased after them like ghosts, their curved blades flashing as heads rolled, leaving no chance for anyone to beg for mercy.

Ke Zui's family hid in a secret passage—a cellar dug under the tent. But the experienced soldiers of the Longxiang Camp quickly found the entrance and dragged everyone out one by one.

"No... don't kill us..." Ke Zui's wife pleaded, trembling.

The soldiers looked at Liu Ce.

Liu Ce shook his head and said, "I won't keep them."

A flash of light, and several more corpses appeared at the entrance of the secret passage.

Clean and efficient, leaving no hidden dangers.

The battles on the periphery are simpler.

More than 5, 000 Xianbei soldiers tried to resist, but they were no different from paper in front of the Mingguang armor and the horizontal sword.

The Jingse Iron Cavalry broke through the enemy's formation with a single charge; the Longxiang Battalion followed up with a swift and decisive attack.

An hour later, the central Xianbei camp had also been turned into an exhibition of mounds of corpses and bodies.

Liu Ce didn't even dismount. Looking at the burning camp, he waved his hand and said, "Let's go, Kebineng!"