webnovelfull Chapter 696 Sima Yi's Glorious Moment
Chapter 696 Sima Yi's Glorious Moment
Han Long abandoned all the goods and calmly left with the caravan members who were no longer burdened by cargo. About half an hour later, someone entered Kebineng's tent and discovered the body, and then the camp was in an uproar.
Countless Xianbei cavalrymen roared as they charged out of the camp gates and headed south, determined to capture Han Long and tear him to pieces.
The reason why the generals of each tribe were fighting so hard was not simply to avenge Kebineng, but more importantly, to enhance their own prestige under the guise of revenge and prepare for the next battle for tribal leadership.
With Kebineng dead, the position of leader became vacant. With such a good opportunity, which of his sons and generals wouldn't want to fight for it?
Little did they know that Han Long had not gone south to Cao Wei but had gone to Yanshan, so naturally they could not catch up with him.
The tribal leaders, who had chased after Kebineng until nightfall without success, had no choice but to retreat. At the same time, they summoned the tribal leaders stationed elsewhere to attend Kebineng's funeral, intending to use the occasion to elect a new leader.
Little did they know that Sima Yi had already entered Yanshan and was about to arrive. At this time, recalling the other leaders would be tantamount to creating an opportunity for Sima Yi to capture them all in one fell swoop.
While the leaders of the various Xianbei tribes were actively making arrangements for Kebineng's funeral, Hanlong had also arrived at the edge of the Yanshan Mountains and settled down in caves and wild animal dens.
Afterwards, Han Long rested at night and disguised himself as a hunter to patrol the mountains during the day. After waiting for more than ten days, he finally encountered the scout sent by Sima Yi. After revealing his identity, he followed the scout and turned into the mountains. After walking for two days, he finally met Sima Yi, who was struggling to travel through the mountains and was freezing like a grandson.
Han Long immediately stepped forward and bowed, saying, "This humble general Han Long greets General Sima. I have successfully assassinated Ke Bineng, and I can assure you, General, that I have checked him and he is beyond dead."
Sima Yi exclaimed excitedly, "Excellent! With Kebineng's sudden death, the leaders of all the tribes will surely come to his funeral and compete for the leadership position. This is a great opportunity for us to wipe them all out. If we succeed, the borders will be safe for decades to come."
If all the tribal leaders under Kebineng were wiped out, the Eastern Xianbei would be completely destroyed.
It's important to understand that the nomadic peoples of the steppes did not practice a centralized system like the Central Plains dynasties, but rather a tribal alliance system. For example, if Kebineng were to allocate a certain pasture to his son and his confidants, then the military, personnel, and finances within that pasture would belong to that confidant. The confidant would essentially become a regional lord, and in turn, the confidant would divide the pastures under his jurisdiction among his own confidants, forming smaller lords. This is similar to the Western model of "my vassal's vassal is not my vassal."
This model is highly dependent on its leader. It can only grow strong with a leader like Kebineng who can keep the situation in check. If a leader is replaced by a weak and incompetent one, internal strife will break out in no time.
Now that Kebineng is dead, if Sima Yi takes advantage of the funeral to wipe out the leaders and lords under his command, the eastern Xianbei will be in complete chaos and will no longer pose a threat to Cao Wei in the short term.
Thinking this, Sima Yi shouted, "Tell the brothers to give it their all! We're about to reap the rewards!"
The attack itself wasn't difficult; the challenge lay in crossing the Yanshan Mountains. Once that formidable barrier was overcome, the rest would be easy.
Three days later, the army finally emerged from the Yanshan Mountains and was only half a day's journey away from Kebineng's camp. Sima Yi looked at the snow-covered grassland and muttered to himself, "We're finally out. It's finally my turn, Sima Zhongda, to make a name for myself. Everyone, eat and rest, feed the warhorses soybeans, and set off immediately after dark. Let's try to destroy the Xianbei before dawn."
As darkness fell and people and animals began to rest, Sima Yi led tens of thousands of cavalrymen on foot, trudging through the snow. From 9 PM to 3 AM, after five hours of arduous travel, they finally arrived five miles away from the Xianbei tribe.
Sima Yi immediately ordered his men to mount their horses, whipped them with their whips, and charged toward the Xianbei tribe at top speed.
The five-mile distance was covered in the blink of an eye. It was deep winter and the hour of Yin in the night. The Xianbei people in the tribe had already gone to bed and did not hear the sound of horses' hooves. Even if they did, it would take motivation to get up in such cold weather. Without knowing that an enemy was attacking, no one was willing to brave the freezing cold to get up and check.
Therefore, Sima Yi easily rushed into the camp, and immediately ordered upon entering: "Kill everyone, regardless of age or gender."
As soon as the order was given, the soldiers quickly dispersed and rode into the tents, launching a frenzied massacre against the Hu people inside. They even rode directly onto the beds and trampled the sleeping Hu people. Soon, the camp was filled with heart-wrenching screams.
The loud screams and shouts of battle finally woke up the Xianbei people in the other tents. They immediately drew their swords and rushed out to fight back, but they had just gotten up, had no horses and no unified command, so how could they be a match for the elite Wei army led by Sima Yi?
The Wei army was invincible wherever they went, and soon the battlefield was littered with corpses and rivers of blood.
Under the threat of the Wei army's fierce fighting, some soldiers finally rallied and charged forward. However, before they could even get close, the Wei soldiers raised their crossbows and pulled the triggers, unleashing a barrage of arrows that easily shattered the enemy's formation.
These crossbows didn't belong to the Wei army; they were Zhuge repeating crossbows, which Sima Yi seized from Xiangping City and which were supplied to Gongsun Yuan by the pseudo-Han regime. There were two thousand of them, and they were incredibly effective at close-range shooting at the newly formed Xianbei army formation.
Under the onslaught of Zhuge's repeating crossbows, the Xianbei people were unable to form any resistance formation and could only watch helplessly as Sima Yi slaughtered them at will.
This situation continued until around 9 a.m., when the Xianbei people, unable to withstand the pressure, finally began to scatter and flee. Sima Yi, however, was still unwilling to let them go and decisively ordered, "Split up and pursue them. Return immediately after nightfall."
Upon hearing this, the Wei army began to break into smaller groups and pursue them with all their might. Relying on their good horses, they easily caught up with the fleeing Xianbei and cut them down.
The Xianbei horses could not outrun the Wei army's warhorses, not because the Xianbei horses were of inferior breed, but because their feed was inferior.
The Xianbei horses had nothing to eat in winter and could only survive on dry grass and rely on the fat they had accumulated in autumn. After a few days, they would lose a lot of weight. In contrast, the Wei army's warhorses ate fine feed and cooked soybeans. They were so well-nourished that they never experienced hunger.
With such a huge difference in food supplies between the two sides, even if the Xianbei people rode ordinary warhorses, let alone Red Hare horses, they still couldn't outrun the Wei army.
Therefore, before nightfall, the fleeing Xianbei were caught up and cut down, with only a few lucky ones managing to escape.
Around 5 PM, the pursuing Wei troops returned to their camps. Meanwhile, Sima Yi, who had not participated in the pursuit, was cleaning up the camp and taking stock of the battle results.
This was Kebineng's camp, the largest camp of the Eastern Xianbei, with a permanent population of 100,000, more than 50,000 warhorses, and countless cattle and sheep, but now all of these belong to Sima Yi.
Looking at the cattle, sheep and horses filling the camp, Sima Yi couldn't stop smiling. After the army that had pursued the deserters returned, he immediately held a grand banquet, using the casserole dishes brought by Han Long to roast and cook meat, so that the soldiers could have their first hot meal since leaving Liaodong.
Afterwards, he stayed in the camp for two more days to handle all the aftermath before Sima Yi led the spoils and escorted over a hundred prisoners back to Youzhou.
These prisoners were all high-ranking Xianbei officials and close confidants of Kebineng. Among them were even Kebineng's wife and children. These people could not be killed, but were to be escorted to the capital to be presented as prisoners to Cao Pi.
With Sima Yi's return to the capital, the Eastern Xianbei, which was in a period of rapid growth, was wiped out. As for those small tribes that had been scattered elsewhere, it would take at least twenty years for them to develop into a behemoth like Kebineng.