Zhao Yun's First Battle

Throughout Qingzhou, villages outside the cities basically ceased to exist, because a force of one or two thousand people simply couldn't survive in the wilderness without a government. They would be swallowed up at any moment by small bands of bandits looking to expand their ranks.

All of Qingzhou remained trapped in a cycle of bigger fish devouring smaller fish. Of course, the bigger fish could also fall apart into scattered bands at any time because of internal problems.

Under these circumstances, aside from the time needed to plant grain, everyone spent the rest of their time gathered together, guarding against one another.

As time passed, everyone gradually moved closer to the original cities. The reason was simple: when there were anywhere from five or six to as many as eight or ten forces around a city, there were simply too many of them. They became locked in a stalemate, and no one dared to launch a reckless attack. Even when conflicts arose, they merely tried to win each other over, dragged out arguments, and traded verbal blows.

That was how this strange phenomenon came about: after the chaos, the cities could actually support more people than they had during peacetime.

That was how Linzi City had become what it was now. It had two hundred thousand people, perhaps more, and thirteen forces of various sizes. The largest had over forty thousand people, while the smallest had fewer than ten thousand. They formed alliances and feuds with one another, creating utter chaos.

However, this also caused Zhao Yun tremendous trouble. Any move would affect the whole situation, making his previous plan of defeating them one by one impossible.

He couldn't exactly take the thousand cavalry under his command and charge into an army of two hundred thousand, could he? Well...