Chương 584: Anything taller than a cartwheel shall be beheaded.

Ten thousand iron cavalrymen, like a black dagger, charged straight towards the unsuspecting Xianbei tribe.

The sound of horses' hooves shook the earth, and dust billowed up, obscuring the sky.

The sound grew closer and louder.

The Xianbei people never dreamed that the Han army could penetrate deep into the northern grasslands and reach their current homeland.

In their eyes, the Han army would only wander around the border or venture a little deeper, but dare not truly penetrate into the heart of the northern grasslands.

When the large black flag with the Chinese character "汉" (Han) in red characters appeared on the horizon, the entire tribe was stunned.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at the black tide surging in.

After a while, one of the sentries reacted and shouted shrilly:

"Enemy attack! The Han army is coming! The Han army is charging in! Run!"

In an instant, the entire tribe was thrown into chaos.

The men hurriedly grabbed bone spears and leather bows, some even rushing out shirtless, not even having time to put on armor.

The woman, clutching her child, screamed and ran around, knocking over tents and pots and pans, which clattered and rolled all over the ground.

The cattle and sheep were so frightened that they ran in all directions, trampling and injuring many people, with screams of agony echoing everywhere.

By the time they had finally managed to gather several thousand men and lined up with a jumble of weapons, the Han army's iron cavalry had already charged up to them, so close that they could see the beards on their faces.

"Release the arrows!"

At Li Wenzhong's command, ten thousand crossbow bolts shot out in unison, like a black rainstorm that blotted out the sky.

In an instant, the front ranks of the Xianbei were swept away, screams filled the air, and blood splattered everywhere.

The leather armor of the Xianbei people was as fragile as paper in front of the Han army's armor-piercing crossbow bolts; a single arrow could pierce through two people.

The crossbow bolt pierced through the leather armor, through the body, and was pinned to the ground.

Their bone arrows struck the Han army's iron armor with a series of clanging sounds, leaving not even a white mark; some even broke off directly.

Those bone arrows were made from ground cow bones; they were soft and brittle, and couldn't penetrate iron armor at all.

After a volley of fire, the Han soldiers put away their repeating crossbows, gripped their lances, and charged into the crowd.

This wasn't a battle at all; it was a one-sided massacre.

Han soldiers, riding tall horses and wielding spears, reaped the lives of the Xianbei people as easily as cutting melons and vegetables.

Wherever the lance went, blood and flesh flew, and heads fell to the ground.

The Xianbei's bone spears couldn't reach the Han army at all, and the arrows shot from their leather bows were so weak that they couldn't even hurt a horse.

Li Wenzhong took the lead, and wherever his spear went, men and horses fell.

His marksmanship was both fast and accurate; with each shot, an enemy fell, and no one could withstand a single blow from him.

Some were impaled, some were pierced, and some were swept off their horses.

His armor was splattered with blood, and his face was covered in blood, making him look like a demon who had crawled out of hell.

The battle was over in less than two hours.

The entire tribe was engulfed in flames; tents were set ablaze, and thick smoke billowed into the sky, visible from dozens of miles away.

The ground was littered with the corpses of Xianbei people, layer upon layer, their blood staining the river red, even turning the fish in the river red, their white bellies floating in the blood.

Wang Hu wiped the blood from his face, walked up to Li Wenzhong, and asked, panting:

"General, what about the remaining elderly, women, and children? There are probably more than 40, 000 people still squatting there, terrified."

Li Wenzhong glanced at the trembling Xianbei women and children in the corner, his eyes expressionless, and said calmly:

"Anything taller than a cartwheel shall be beheaded."

"Yes."

Wang Hu didn't say much, and turned around to make the arrangements.

Having followed Li Wenzhong for so long, he was already used to his style and didn't even flinch.

Half an hour later, Wang Hu returned to report: "General, all those taller than a cartwheel have been beheaded. More than 30, 000 heads have been chopped off; the blood has flowed like a river."

Li Wenzhong nodded, then a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth:

"Then lay the wheels flat and continue killing."

Wang Hu stared at Li Wenzhong in shock, his mouth opening and closing as if to say something, but ultimately he didn't utter a word.

He knew that once Li Wenzhong made a decision, no one could change it.

As the sun sets, the afterglow is like blood.

Li Wenzhong stood amidst the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, gazing at the distant grassland with an expressionless face.

The setting sun shone on him, turning his entire body red.

His Majesty said to eradicate the weeds at the root, so he eradicated them completely, leaving not a single weed behind.

...

For the next month, the northern grasslands were completely transformed into a living hell.

The five armies swept across the land, and wherever they went, the Xianbei tribes were wiped out.

However, the five routes have vastly different styles and each has its own set of tactics.

Chang Yuchun's policy was "kill those who surrender but not the old and young": anyone who dared to resist was killed; those who surrendered were also killed; the able-bodied men who were not killed were all conscripted into the Han army as cannon fodder, while the old and children were kept and taken back to the Central Plains as slaves.

He also had a particular fondness for seizing cattle and sheep. After each battle, his troops would be followed by tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, a vast and imposing sight, resembling a mobile ranch, and even their footsteps carried the smell of cattle and sheep.

Gongsun Zan's policy was "surrender and no one will be killed": as long as people laid down their weapons and surrendered, they would be spared regardless of whether they were young, strong, old, or children, and then all of them would be relocated to the interior and distributed to various prefectures and counties.

His White Horse Cavalry never killed civilians, only soldiers with weapons. They even had a certain "reputation" among the Xianbei people, and some tribes came specifically to surrender to him.

Yan Liang and Wen Chou were "looters who ran away": their greatest passion wasn't killing, but plundering. Each time they conquered a tribe, they would first seize all the gold, silver, cattle, sheep, and horses, even the silver hairpins women used for combing their hair. Then they would set fire to the tents, and as for the people, they would simply run away without being pursued. After all, the grasslands were so vast, they couldn't possibly catch them anyway.

Xu Da and Zhang Liao's main strategy was "pacification": they were primarily responsible for receiving surrendered tribes, providing them with food and shelter, and then relocating them to the interior. Only those who resisted stubbornly were sent out to be suppressed. Their troops were highly disciplined, never disturbing the people, and had a good reputation among the Xianbei people.

Only Li Wenzhong truly "left no one alive, not even chickens or dogs, wherever he went".

He led 10, 000 cavalrymen, deliberately venturing into the most remote and desolate places, taking paths others dared not take, going to places others dared not go, and searching for Xianbei tribes that others could not find.

Whether they resisted or surrendered, whether they were old or children, whether they were men or women, they were all killed.

The tents were burned, the cattle and sheep were slaughtered, even the wells were filled in, and the grass was burned away, leaving not a single blade of grass.

Wherever his troops went, the area turned into a desolate no-man's land.

Even birds dare not fly over it, and even wild beasts dare not approach it.

When the news reached Xu Da's camp, even the seasoned battlefield veteran Xu Da couldn't help but frown and said to Zhang Liao:

"Wenzhong is too ruthless. If this continues, the Xianbei people will really become extinct."

Zhang Liao sighed, a hint of helplessness in his voice:

"There was no other way. The Xianbei people were fickle; they might surrender today and rebel tomorrow. Emperor Wu of Han fought the Xiongnu in the same way. If you weren't ruthless, you simply couldn't control them."

Moreover, Wenzhong only killed those capable of fighting; he didn't spare the elderly or children either, but that's because he knew these children would grow up to be enemies. Besides, His Majesty hasn't said anything yet, which means His Majesty tacitly approves.