Inside the city lord's mansion, Sun Li was holding a wooden staff, learning spear techniques from Zhao Yun.
He gripped the end of the wooden staff tightly and with a "Ha!" thrust the tip straight at Zhao Yun's chest, only to have Zhao Yun gently deflect it with his own staff, causing Sun Li's staff to veer off course and his body to spin around halfway.
Sun Li tried to regain his balance, but Zhao Yun's staff had already struck his shoulder.
Zhao Yun retracted his staff and said calmly, "You grip the staff too tightly with both hands, causing the staff to move, and your body follows, breaking your posture."
Sun Li scratched his head and said, "But if I don't grip it tightly, wouldn't it be knocked away by Brother Zhao's force, like just now?"
Zhao Yun nodded. "Indeed, so using a spear relies entirely on the hands' reaction."
"As long as you sense the opponent's force and react faster than them, you can respond in time and be invincible."
Sun Li listened, seeming to understand but not quite, and said dejectedly, "So troublesome, it's really not as satisfying as archery."
Zhao Yun smiled and said, "Indeed, on the battlefield, the majority of casualties are caused by arrows; those injured in actual close combat are relatively few."
"You are still young and lack experience; specializing in archery first is not a bad thing."
Sun Li was delighted to hear this. "Brother Zhao always knows what to say; Brother Qu is always mocking me!"
Hearing the word "brother," Zhao Yun was reminded of the way Liu, Guan, and Zhang addressed each other when they were under Gongsun Zan, and asked curiously, "You call General Yuan and General Qu 'brother'; have you sworn an oath of brotherhood?"
Sun Li quickly waved his hand. "Who am I? How could I swear an oath of brotherhood with a noble like Young Master Yuan!"
"The reason I call them that is because my mother told me to. Brother Yuan initially disagreed, but in the end, he couldn't refuse my mother."
Just then, Wu Zhao walked over, and with a thought, said, "General Yuan knows your mother?"
Sun Li saw her and quickly stood up. "Greetings, Sister Wu Zhao."
He knew that Wu Zhao had been helping Yuan Xi with his affairs recently and was becoming increasingly important, so he said, "More than a year ago, my family lived in a village in Rongcheng. My mother was a widow, weaving cloth for a living."
"It just so happened that at that time, Gongsun Zan, that scoundrel, indulged his subordinates, who led troops to plunder the village."
Wu Zhao was stunned. "Isn't Rongcheng Gongsun Zan's territory?"
Sun Li said angrily, "That's right, but they often came to our village to steal food!"
Zhao Yun's face also fell, and he sighed, "Since Gongsun Zan retreated into Yijing, he has hardly restrained his subordinates anymore; military discipline has deteriorated day by day; such things happen often."
Sun Li said indignantly, "At that time, more than a dozen cavalrymen came to the village and robbed it clean. Some bastards saw that my mother was beautiful and wanted to forcibly abduct her."
Hearing this, anger appeared on the faces of both Wu Zhao and Zhao Yun.
As the local officials, instead of thinking about protecting the people, they acted like foreigners. If Gongsun Zan continued like this, he would be destroyed sooner or later!
Sun Li said, "I went up to stop them, but was almost hacked to death. It was my mother who held them back, allowing me to escape."
"Although I escaped, I had nowhere to go. Just as I was in despair, a troop of soldiers arrived, led by Brother Yuan and Brother Qu."
"At that time, I thought they were also subordinates of Gongsun Zan, that scoundrel. Seeing that I couldn't escape, I went up and cursed them."
"Unexpectedly, Brother Yuan listened and led Brother Qu and others to rush into the village, kill those dozen people, and rescue the village and my mother."
"After this incident, we couldn't stay in the village anymore. The people of our entire village were afraid of being retaliated against, so we followed them to Beixin City."
"My mother told me to always remember Brother Yuan's life-saving grace. Calling Brother Yuan that way is to regard him as an elder brother. Once Brother Yuan is in trouble, I should repay him with my life."
Zhao Yun understood the whole story after listening. He also thought of how Liu, Guan, and Zhang were true sworn brothers, sharing the same carriage when traveling and the same mat when sleeping, with extremely good feelings, making Zhao Yun feel a little envious.
Sun Li scratched his head and chuckled, "Although I call Brother Yuan that way, I don't dare to recognize him as my brother. I'm just a poor boy; how dare I try to build a relationship with Brother Yuan."
"But I see that Brother Zhao is quite favored by Brother Yuan and is much stronger than me, so you are very likely to become Brother Yuan's brother in the future."
Wu Zhao was thinking about something else. She casually said, "You usually live in the city lord's mansion, and your mother is in the city. It's not easy to meet every day, right?"
Sun Li said strangely, "My mother also lives in the city lord's mansion."
"The last time you were rescued, it was my mother who helped bandage your wounds. You should have seen her."
Wu Zhao's heart skipped a beat. So that woman was Sun Li's mother?
She thought that the woman was only in her early twenties at most, but she didn't expect her to be Sun Li's mother!
Thinking about it, Sun Li was only fourteen or fifteen years old. At that time, there were many women who gave birth at the age of twelve or thirteen. Sun Li's mother was less than thirty years old and looked young and beautiful, so it was no wonder that she had misunderstood.
No wonder that Young Master Yuan Xi looked so upright, but he didn't have a single concubine or maid by his side. As a son of a prominent family, that was too abnormal.
So he liked married women?
No wonder that young servant woman had extraordinary conversation; she probably had a lot of contact with Young Master Yuan on weekdays.
In fact, Wu Zhao's guess was not entirely wrong. The women who married in this world were too young, which obviously did not meet Yuan Xi's later aesthetic standards.
Wu Zhao was lost in thought when footsteps sounded behind her. Yuan Xi and Qu Yi walked over and, seeing Wu Zhao and the others gathered together, smiled and said, "This is rare. Brother Zhao, please come out of the city with me."
Sun Li grumbled when he heard this, "Aren't you taking me?"
Yuan Xi smiled and patted Sun Li's head. "Go help your mother. Many people will be coming to the mansion today."
Wu Zhao stood up quickly when she heard this. "I'll go to the kitchen too. How many people are coming?"
Yuan Xi sighed. "A lot."
"My eldest brother has brought troops."
"According to the returning scouts, there are as many as a thousand soldiers and horses."
Hearing this, everyone's expression changed slightly.
Outside Beixin City, Yuan Tan looked at the layers of deer antlers and chevaux-de-frise outside the city walls and said to Xun Chen with a smile, "My brother's city defense is quite well-organized."
Xun Chen nodded and said, "But only defending and not attacking will make it difficult to open up the situation in Youzhou."
Gao Lan also nodded in agreement. "What the master said is very true. Long-term city defense will only make morale increasingly low."
Yuan Tan thought, do you think I don't know?
But his father only gave Yuan Xi a few hundred soldiers. In the past three years, other than barely providing food and supplies, there have been no other reinforcements.
A clever woman cannot cook without rice. If it were him, guarding Beixin City with a few hundred soldiers would be good enough. What else could he do?
Even if he brought these thousand soldiers and horses, it would only be a drop in the bucket. Yuan Tan himself had not fully understood what his father wanted him to do.
If he really wanted to seize his second brother's Beixin City, a single general would be enough. Why would he need to bring troops over in person?
The city gate opened, and Yuan Xi led several people out of the city on horseback to greet them.
Although Yuan Tan had not seen Yuan Xi for three years, he still recognized him at a glance. He quickly rode his horse up and called out, "Second Brother!"
Yuan Xi also called out when he saw him, "Eldest Brother!"
Although he and Yuan Tan were not born from the same mother, their relationship was actually good, at least better than with Yuan Shang, because Yuan Shao favored Yuan Shang, leading to both Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi being fellow sufferers.
Qu Yi, who was on the side, couldn't help but want to laugh when he heard Yuan Xi call him eldest brother, thinking that Yuan Xi didn't know how many eldest brothers he had called in the past few years.
Yuan Tan turned his head and was startled by Qu Yi's terrifying face, and said, "This is?"
Qu Yi blurted out, "Qu Rumu."