After a round of fierce fighting, the Xiongnu bandits were completely annihilated. Yuan Xi and Zhao Yun began to count the heads.
In the end, the numbers on both sides were almost the same, but this was actually the result that everyone could most accept.
Because after fighting side by side, coupled with Yuan Xi's last words, the two armies developed a sense of mutual appreciation.
Just as Zhao Yun was planning to end things peacefully, he saw the Xiongnu chieftain who had been knocked down by Yuan Xi and was barely clinging to life.
When he saw the ornament on the Xiongnu chieftain's waist, his heart skipped a beat. He brought his men over and, together with Qu Yi, verified the man's identity.
After searching all the items on the man's body, Zhao Yun, holding a silk scroll, and Ju Yi finally confirmed that this man was not the chieftain of some small tribe at all.
But the son of Yu Fuluo, the Southern Xiongnu Chanyu, Liu Bao!
Yu Fuluo, historically recorded as the son of Qiangqu, the Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu, who led troops to the Central Plains during the Zhongping era of the Eastern Han Dynasty, allied with the Baibo Army, and plundered in Taiyuan, Hedong and other places. He successively allied with Yuan Shao, Zhang Yang, Yuan Shu and others, and fought against Cao Cao twice, but was defeated both times.
His son, Liu Bao, was the father of Liu Yuan, the Han Guangwen Emperor who established the Han-Zhao regime during the Sixteen Kingdoms period!
When the soldiers learned of this, they all gathered around with complex expressions.
This was a big figure!
Yuan Xi was even more shocked than the others. He looked at Liu Bao, who was dying on the ground, and could not have imagined that he had just defeated a key figure who initiated the era of the Five Barbarians invasion of China.
Zhao Yun repeatedly examined the tokens on Liu Bao's body, and finally sighed and said, "Zhao has lost."
"This man is the son of the Chanyu, and a hundred Xiongnu heads are not worth as much as him alone."
"I see that he still has breath. If we take him back for treatment and notify the Southern Xiongnu, they will definitely send someone to redeem him with a large sum of money."
"It is fortunate that he is not dead. If he had died here, I am afraid that the Southern Xiongnu would send a large army to retaliate."
The disfigured woman, who was sitting in the rain clutching her shoulder wound, looked gloomy when she heard this.
Along the way, many of her sisters had suffered from Liu Bao's cruelty. Was he now going to have his life spared again?
Yuan Xi smiled suddenly when he heard this.
"Brother Zilong, are you afraid of the Xiongnu's revenge?"
Zhao Yun was stunned, then retorted angrily, "I am advising you out of goodwill, just afraid that you will bring trouble upon yourself."
"How could I be afraid of the Southern Xiongnu, a mere foreign bandit!"
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Then that's all!"
He raised the ring-pommel saber in his hand and stabbed down!
With a soft thud, the ring-pommel saber stabbed fiercely into Liu Bao's throat, piercing his neck and pinning him to the ground.
Liu Bao let out a low roar, his body twitched a few times, and then he died.
Yuan Xi pulled out the blood-stained long saber, raised it high, and shouted loudly.
"Those who offend the Han shall be killed!"
"I, Yuan Xianyi of Runan, have killed Liu Bao, the son of the Chanyu!"
Zhao Yun and Ju Yi did not expect Yuan Xi to act so decisively and kill Liu Bao so cleanly!
Then Yuan Xi's words echoed through the valley.
"Those who offend the Han shall be killed!"
The soldiers on both sides, hearing this, immediately roared along.
"Those who offend the Han shall be killed!"
At this time, the Han women who had fled and scattered, hiding in various parts of the hillside, finally dared to come out, and unconsciously shouted along.
The autumn rain hit their faces, mixed with the rain and flowing down, but their faces showed a long-lost joy.
The disfigured woman was excited when she saw this scene, and felt as if a stone had been lifted from her heart.
With this sudden relaxation, she felt all her strength was lost and fainted.
In the end, Zhao Yun rejected Yuan Xi's proposal to divide the spoils equally, directly conceded defeat and left, only taking away the bodies of his own soldiers, without taking any of the Xiongnu's wealth.
In fact, not counting Liu Bao, Zhao Yun's side had won a few more heads.
Zhao Yun was indeed honorable and upright, but Yuan Xi always felt that Zhao Yun was somewhat moved.
However, Yuan Xi was not a good person either. Since Zhao Yun did not want it, he naturally accepted it with a smile.
Clean up the battlefield.
Scattered weapons were collected in bundles, Xiongnu armor was stripped from the corpses, and carts loaded with wealth were pulled away.
The fallen subordinates were all taken back for burial, and the hundreds of women who had been abducted were also taken back for temporary resettlement.
It was already night when they returned to Beixin City. Yuan Xi found a place to resettle the women on the one hand, and found doctors to treat the wounded on the other.
Thinking that the disfigured woman had saved his life, Yuan Xi thought for a while and ordered a few servants to settle her in his own residence.
After finishing everything, it was already late at night. Yuan Xi was extremely tired after a day of work, and it took him most of the night to recover slightly.
When he got up in the morning, he invited Dong Zhao and Ju Yi to have breakfast and discuss matters.
Yesterday's result was undoubtedly extremely ideal, far beyond his expectations.
Yuan Xi placed a small table in front of him, with several bowls on it.
One bowl contained porridge, one bowl contained some wild vegetables, a small bowl contained sauce, and the remaining bowl actually contained a few pieces of well-cooked mutton.
Dong Zhao and Ju Yi sat below, with the same food on the small tables in front of them.
Ju Yi picked up a piece of mutton, chewed it twice and swallowed it, and said with a smile, "These Xiongnu people actually brought sheep with them, but it has benefited us."
Dong Zhao put the mutton in his mouth, tasted it carefully, and swallowed it after a long time, sighing, "Dezhou, you are wasting God's gift."
"When I was a staff officer under Yuan Gong, I couldn't eat mutton a few times a year. This is a rare thing."
At that time, according to the strict Han system, only ministers and scholar-officials could eat beef and mutton. Even though Jizhou, where Yuan Shao was located, had abundant local products, mutton was not something that could be eaten at will.
Especially in the past few years, wars have been frequent, and people everywhere have been struggling to survive. Food is extremely scarce. Even the Han Emperor had to fill his stomach with rotten cow bones.
Even the emperor can't get enough to eat, let alone the officials below. Ordinary people don't even need to mention it. No one can remember when their last full meal was years ago.
"However, this meal is all thanks to the hard work and death battles of the young master and Dezhou. I will use tea instead of wine to offer you both a toast."
Yuan Xi picked up the teacup, Ju Yi picked up the wine pot, and the three of them finished drinking.
Among the three, only Ju Yi drank alcohol.
Although the Han system did not allow private drinking, now that the rites and music have collapsed, not many people abide by it. The reason why they can't drink is still because of insufficient food. They can't even get enough to eat, so where is there extra food to brew wine?
Therefore, the few wines in Beixin City were all snatched from the hands of nearby plundered foreign tribes, and most of them were given to Ju Yi.
Although he survived the ambush, his wound has not healed and his whole body is in constant pain, so he can only drink alcohol to relieve it.
Yuan Xi was busy all night last night, and he was also hungry this morning. He picked up a chopstick of wild vegetables, dipped it in the sauce and stuffed it into his mouth, and then swallowed a spoonful of millet porridge, and a sense of satisfaction arose from within.
He picked up the teacup and said with a smile, "I am just taking advantage of Brother Qu. The heroes of this battle, both of you have made indispensable contributions, and I should respect you."
Dong Zhao shook his head and said, "I am ashamed to receive it."
"I didn't expect Zhao Yun to take his troops back like this, and he is not afraid of being questioned by Gongsun Zan. It is really beyond my expectation."
"However, I was even more surprised that the young master let him go back like that yesterday."