When Yuan Xi led his men back to the main camp, Yuan Tan's army was already setting up camp and cleaning the battlefield.
Apart from sending out a few hundred cavalry to pursue Tian Kai, most of the men were too exhausted to move.
The soldiers stripped everything useful from the corpses on the battlefield: weapons, armor, clothing, straw sandals, food sacks, and even hair.
Looking at the scattered carts of supplies all over the ground, Yuan Xi thought that they wouldn't be short of food for the time being.
However, too many people had died this time.
In half a day of fighting, tens of thousands of soldiers had lost their lives here.
He rode his horse through the area, which was covered with overlapping corpses, and the pungent smell of blood lingered for a long time.
Yuan Xi entered the main tent, and Yuan Tan greeted him with a big laugh, "Second Brother, you've worked hard!"
This time, he had defeated Tian Kai, which meant that more than half of Qingzhou was already in his pocket, which was much better than he had expected!
Yuan Xi humbly said, "It's all thanks to your excellent command, Brother."
He saw Ju Shou was also present, so he went up to greet him with a bow. Ju Shou returned the greeting. Yuan Xi noticed that Ju Shou's armor was covered in blood again, and thought that Ju Shou really did fight in every battle.
After Yuan Tan arranged for the generals to appease the soldiers and other matters, he said, "I plan to let the soldiers rest for one night tonight, and meet the other two reinforcements tomorrow morning."
"I don't want those two reinforcements to join forces, otherwise it will turn into a war of attrition again."
"Among them, Kong Rong's army is about three thousand. I will transfer Zhang He's and Gao Lan's troops, plus Second Brother's own troops, totaling about four thousand men, to Second Brother."
"Tomorrow morning, Second Brother will go northeast and block Kong Rong's army."
"I will lead the remaining ten thousand troops, together with Yan Liang, Lü Kuang, Lü Xiang, and others, to intercept Liu Bei's five thousand men heading south. After I defeat and eliminate them, I will return to support Second Brother."
The generals all nodded in agreement, thinking the arrangement was reasonable.
Yuan Tan noticed that Yuan Xi looked hesitant and said, "What's wrong, Second Brother? Are you afraid that Tian Kai's routed troops will join forces with Kong Rong's army, making them difficult to deal with?"
"Tian Kai is already a stray dog and will definitely not join forces with Kong Rong, so Second Brother, don't worry."
"If Second Brother feels uneasy because you haven't led so many troops before, I can let Mr. Ju Shou assist you."
Yuan Xi raised his hand and said, "I'm not worried about my side, but I'm worried about your side, Brother."
"Liu Bei is not what he used to be. He is not the same as he was two years ago, especially his two generals, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, whose strength is said to have increased greatly. I'm afraid you might have an accident, Brother."
Yuan Tan didn't take it seriously, "Two years ago, Liu Bei and Tian Kai had more troops than our army, and I was still able to hold them back. If I have twice as many troops as him, what is there to fear?"
"Don't worry, Brother. Watch me defeat him in one fell swoop tomorrow!"
The generals all cheered and applauded.
Seeing that everyone was in high spirits, Yuan Xi didn't say anything more. Yuan Tan had indeed commanded well in the past few battles. Maybe he was just overthinking things?
Yuan Xi returned to his camp, where Zhao Yun had already arranged everything and was waiting. Zhang He and Gao Lan had also followed him.
Yuan Xi ordered people to find an iron pot, put it outside the tent to cook porridge, added some dried meat to it, and said to everyone, "We'll eat and talk while we march tomorrow."
He explained the situation to Zhao Yun and found that Zhao Yun had a relieved expression when he heard that he was going to fight Kong Rong's army, knowing that Zhao Yun was still hesitant about meeting Liu Bei on the battlefield.
But this was human nature. It would be frightening if Zhao Yun didn't even blink and went up to kill Liu Bei.
As the firewood under the pot burned, small bubbles appeared in the porridge in the iron pot, and a faint fragrance wafted out through the lid.
Yuan Xi counted the remaining troops and found that the losses were actually not small.
Zhang He's two thousand troops had suffered five or six hundred casualties, and half of the cavalry had been killed. Gao Lan's situation was similar.
Nearly a hundred of Yuan Xi's own hundreds of soldiers had died, and nearly ten of the thirty-odd knights had died, which made Yuan Xi feel even more distressed.
Moreover, the corpses on the battlefield were mixed together and could not be identified. They could only be buried together after returning from victory.
Counting it this way, there were only a little over three thousand uninjured soldiers with combat power, which was about the same as Kong Rong's army.
Gao Lan didn't take it seriously and said, "Second Young Master, don't worry. This trip should be easy. The Grand Young Master must have given it full consideration."
"Kong Rong's army doesn't know how to fight. The soldiers under his command can't even defeat the Yellow Turban Army. Moreover, we only need to block them, confront the two armies, and delay them."
"As long as the Grand Young Master defeats Liu Bei, he can join forces with us, and then none of Kong Rong's army will be able to escape."
Yuan Xi stared at the flames at the bottom of the pot, "Do you really think Liu Bei's army is so easy to deal with?"
Zhang He and Gao Lan simultaneously thought of the scene of fighting against Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei outside Fei County, and they fell silent.
They weren't sure either!
At this moment, a voice rang out, "Why does Second Young Master think that Liu Bei is not easy to deal with?"
Yuan Xi turned his head and quickly stood up with the generals and said, "Greetings, sir."
Ju Shou had arrived.
At this time, he had taken off his previous armor and changed into a linen robe. Seeing that everyone was cooking porridge, he squatted down, touching his stomach, "That's good, I'm also hungry, give me a bowl."
Yuan Xi smiled, lifted the lid of the pot, scooped out a wooden bowl of steaming porridge, and carefully handed it to Ju Shou.
Ju Shou blew on it a few times, waited for the porridge to cool down a little, and then put it to his mouth and took a big sip.
He smacked his lips, savoring the taste, and sighed, "My mouth is full of the smell of blood, and this has finally diluted it a bit."
The generals nodded one after another. So many people had died today. Apart from the previous few major battles, they had really never seen such a way of dying.
Seeing everyone standing, Ju Shou raised his hand and said, "What are you all standing for? Are you full just from watching me drink porridge?"
Only then did everyone squat down around the pot and take out their wooden bowls to scoop porridge.
Ju Shou took a few more sips and said to Yuan Xi, "It seems you are not very reassured by the Grand Young Master's arrangements?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "I am far inferior to my brother in fighting in battle. I'm just afraid that I'm overthinking things."
Ju Shou shook his head and said, "On the battlefield, it's about planning ahead. There is never such a thing as overthinking."
"But planning is not without basis. I came here to ask, on what basis does Second Young Master make this judgment?"
Yuan Xi said, "Captain Zhang feels the same way. He should be able to explain it better than me."
Hearing this, Zhang He quickly told about his encounter with Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei outside Fei County. At the end, he said, "This humble general believes that compared to two years ago, Liu Bei and others are not what they used to be and must be guarded against."
Ju Shou took another bowl and pondered, "So powerful?"
"In two years, you can go from being no match for the captain to steadily suppressing you?"
Zhang He sighed, "I am ashamed, that is indeed the case."
"Moreover, those people have not encountered any bottlenecks and are likely to become stronger!"
Ju Shou put down his bowl and fell into deep thought.
Yuan Tan is strong and aggressive, which is an advantage on the battlefield, but it is also easy to suffer losses, but this time his performance has been much stronger than before, which makes Ju Shou quite satisfied.
But Yuan Xi's performance this time greatly exceeded Ju Shou's expectations.
The bold idea of divide and conquer, the subtlety of attacking the mind, can only be understood by strategists like Ju Shou.
Yuan Xi can think of this kind of strategy on the spot, which shows that he is not as cowardly and incompetent as rumored!
Is he hiding his abilities, or has he grown in the past three years?
Ju Shou was a little worried. Yuan Tan is good at war, Yuan Shang is good at strategy, and if Yuan Xi intervenes again, the three sons of the Yuan family are afraid that there will be some infighting.
The lord has been hesitant to decide who should be the main one, but wants to let his sons lead each side, which is the way to invite disaster, and there will be trouble later.
He stood up and said, "I will bring these words of Second Young Master to the Grand Young Master and tell him to be careful."
"I owe Second Young Master a bowl of porridge, and I will pay you back when I return to Ye City."
Yuan Xi and others quickly stood up and sent Ju Shou back.
The next day, when Yuan Xi led his troops to set off, Ju Shou did not follow him, but stayed in Yuan Tan's camp. It was not known whether Ju Shou had listened to Yuan Xi's words and wanted to help Yuan Tan hold the fort, or whether he felt that Yuan Xi's side was sufficient to cope.
Yuan Xi didn't take it seriously. If Kong Rong's army was as he expected, the soldiers should be inferior to the Jizhou soldiers. Apart from that, there should only be one troublesome place.
After he led his troops northeast for a day, he finally encountered Kong Rong's army the next morning.
The good news was that Kong Rong's army had not joined forces with the defeated Tian Kai army. It seemed that Tian Kai had fled by sea on the day of his defeat.
The bad news was that the vanguard on the opposite side was really the person he had guessed.
It is said that this person is not a main general or a deputy general, but just a small vanguard leading hundreds of people, but in Yuan Xi's eyes, this person's value is higher than the three thousand people behind him.
Now that he had encountered him, he would not let him go at all costs.
He called Zhao Yun, Zhang He, and Gao Lan over and pointed to the vanguard on the opposite side, "When the battle starts later, don't worry about anything else. Just go up together and capture this person alive, and you will have accomplished a great feat."
Zhang He was shocked: "Gao Lan and I are considered to be people with some status. It's a bit unsportsmanlike for us to besiege him, isn't it?"
He had never fought against Zhao Yun, so he automatically ignored Zhao Yun.
Yuan Xi said, "This person... is very accurate with his arrows. If you fight him one-on-one, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get close to him."
Gao Lan looked at the vanguard, who was about thirty years old, and thought that he was older than himself. Logically speaking, this age is no longer his peak, how could the Young Master be so afraid of him?
He stared at the other party's appearance and suddenly remembered what Qu Yi had told him before.
Uses double halberds, and is only a little accurate with his arrows...
Damn it, Qu Yi, you dog, you set so many traps for me.
The people he tricked himself into facing, which one was easy to deal with?
At this time, the vanguard of Tao Qian's army had already ridden forward, with a long arm and a body, pulled out the longbow from his back, and said loudly: "Taishi Ci of Donglai, now is Kong Beihai's vanguard!"
"Generals of the Yuan family, is there anyone who dares to fight?"
Taishi Ci, a native of Huang County, Donglai, was favored by Kong Rong and once helped him borrow troops from Liu Bei, solving the Yellow Turban's siege of Beihai.
At this time, although Taishi Ci was nearly thirty years old, his reputation was not obvious and was not known by the generals of Jizhou.
Taishi Ci shouted, thinking that the other party might either ignore him or send a vanguard to fight him.
At that time, he was confident that with the hard bow in his hand, he would steadily suppress the other party, frustrate his spirit, and if he could kill him, Kong Rong's army would be greatly boosted and win this battle.
In this way, he would have repaid Kong Rong's kindness, and he could take his mother away.
Just as he was thinking this, he saw the other party's main general wave his hand, and three generals flashed out from the military formation and rushed towards him on horseback.
Taishi Ci was stunned.
What's the situation?
I'm just a small vanguard!