I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 333 I love you stubborn folks!
Seeing that the Xianbei people were beginning to remove the barricades, Lian Da immediately ordered the crossbowmen to begin firing. They adjusted their firing positions and angles, and then…

The sharp arrows soared into the air, flew over the city wall, and drew a beautiful arc. Just like in the previous rehearsals, they landed precisely in the designated area, bringing annihilation to the Xianbei people who were excitedly removing the barricades.

They seemed to have made no preparations for the Han army's attack from the city walls, or perhaps they thought the Han army's bows and arrows couldn't shoot that far, so they confidently and recklessly destroyed the barricades, completely unaware that the Han army's crossbows inside the city were their true trump card.

Caught off guard, the Xianbei soldiers were bombarded with arrows, and many died on the battlefield. Many were hit in the neck or chest and were pinned to the ground. Some were unlucky enough to survive but were hit in the arm or thigh and were left to groan pitifully on the ground.

The Xianbei commanders, including Hulanji, were startled, realizing that the Han army in the city was well-equipped, and even had powerful crossbows.

This is not good.

Hulanji's trusted subordinate, Ma Keduo, immediately offered him advice.

"My lord, something's not right with the Han troops in this city. They have so many powerful crossbows, which has never been seen before. Could it be that some elite Han troops have been stationed here? Let's leave. If we continue, we'll likely suffer heavy losses."

Hulanji thought for a moment and then shook his head.

"For so many years, the Han people have never stationed a large force here. And if they were truly elite troops, why would they be hiding in this turtle shell? I think it's just a bluff! The Han people are cunning; they will deceive you even if they don't have something, making you think you do. You must never trust them!"

Hulanji immediately ordered his soldiers to continue the attack and remove the barricades, but to be on the safe side, they began to send soldiers equipped with shields forward to provide cover.

So the Xianbei soldiers continued to remove the barricades, and the Han army continued to attack with arrows. The Xianbei shields were not of good quality and they did not have many. Although they were not wiped out in large numbers as before, they still suffered continuous damage.

However, the first layer of barricades was quickly cleared, and the Xianbei people continued to advance. As a result, many of them accidentally fell into pits and were pierced through the heart by wooden spikes and iron thorns.

Hulanji watched helplessly as many Xianbei soldiers disappeared before his eyes, falling into the caves. Only then did he realize that the Han army had dug many pits around the area, which were well concealed and difficult to guard against.

This made him even angrier.

"Cunning Han Chinese! Tell everyone to be careful and not to advance so hastily, but to proceed slowly!"

The Xianbei soldiers advanced more slowly, and many traps were discovered in advance. Occasionally, someone would fall into a trap, but it was no longer enough to cause much damage. However, the Han army's arrow rain continued, and many Xianbei soldiers were still unable to dodge and were killed on the spot by the arrow rain.

Many shields were even pierced, resulting in a high attrition rate, which greatly angered Hulanji. He simply ordered his soldiers to carry the dead bodies and use them as shields, in order to avoid too many casualties here.

Having finally broken through the first layer of traps, the Xianbei were met with a second layer of barricades. They continued to remove the barricades using the same old method, and then used corpses and shields as protection. As a result, they were met with an even denser rain of arrows.

This time, it was a combined firing of the crossbow and the powerful crossbow. They adjusted the firing angle, making the rain of arrows fall more densely on the heads of the Xianbei people, greatly increasing the killing power when the Xianbei people were unable to move quickly.

Seeing a large number of soldiers die under the arrows of the Han army, Ma Keduo strongly advised Hulanji not to continue and to arrange a withdrawal, or to go south to plunder other places. He did not believe that all cities were as heavily guarded as Qiangyin County.

But Hulanji, like a gambler who had gone mad, said that they could not retreat, because if they did, the people who died would have died in vain.

He brought so many people to rob, but not only did he fail to steal anything, he also lost several hundred brave men. He could not explain this to his clansmen, nor could he explain it to Tan Shihuai. If he returned empty-handed, his position would be in jeopardy.

For now, we have no choice but to bite the bullet and keep pushing forward.

Since we already know about the barricades and pitfalls, the only downside is that we'll be slower and more vulnerable to arrow rain. But as long as we can withstand the arrow rain, nothing else matters.

Moreover, once they get closer to the city, they can also use bows and arrows to fight back against the Han army.

That's what they said, but the Xianbei people were really slow in removing the barricades, and the Han army's arrow rain was quite sharp. Every time it came down, there were always some people who couldn't protect themselves and were taken away by the arrow rain. The number of dead and wounded gradually increased.

Seeing the Xianbei people being killed by the Han army's arrows as if they were possessed, but not retreating, Lian Da on the city wall found it strange.

He felt there was something wrong with this group of Xianbei people.

I originally thought they would back down when faced with such a tough defense, and that they would simply detour south instead of launching a full-scale attack. I assumed that Yuan Shu's army would deal with them from behind. But I never expected that they would choose to fight to the death in the county town.

What benefit would this bring them?
Lian Da couldn't understand it.

Moreover, in that brief exchange, Lian Da discovered that these Xianbei people were very different from the Xianbei people he had imagined.

In his mind, the Xianbei people were all grassland warriors who drank milk and ate meat, rode horses and practiced archery every day. They should be tall and strong, and having plundered so much wealth, they should be very rich. If not all of them wore iron armor, they should at least have leather armor, and their weapons and equipment should be quite good.

It was this elite cavalry force that repeatedly raided the borders of the Han Empire, keeping the empire in turmoil.

But the Xianbei cavalry that appeared before him did not look like cavalry at all. Not to mention iron armor, there were hardly any leather armors. Many of the riders were dressed in tattered clothes like beggars, and they were not strong at all. At first glance, they were all thin and dark-skinned.

There was no discernible tactical understanding, nor any sense of formation. Their marching and charging lacked any order or discipline, resembling a group of Han Chinese recruits who rushed forward and scattered in disarray. They seemed like mere recruits who knew how to ride horses, or slackers, who, apart from being able to ride horses, were no different from ordinary Han Chinese civilians.

As for weapons...

In any case, Lian Da didn't see them draw their bows and arrows to retaliate at that distance. Perhaps their range was insufficient.

These are not qualified soldiers or a qualified army at all; they are nothing but bandits and robbers!
However, Lian Da noticed that these situations were similar to what Xia Wei had told him. At first, Lian Da did not believe what Xia Wei said and thought that Xia Wei was worried that he would run away, so he deliberately made the Xianbei people sound weak in order to strengthen his confidence.

As it turns out, Xia Wei was right. The Xianbei people did not seem to be very good at fighting. Their equipment and physique were not very good. Apart from having a large number of warhorses, which gave them an advantage in speed, they were not good in any other aspects.

In his view, these Xianbei soldiers were no match for the Han soldiers he had trained; he felt he could easily overpower three of them on his own.

Is this really the Xianbei cavalry, a major threat that has been harassing the border for over a decade and still cannot be eliminated?

Lian Da was somewhat confused.

He sensed that the Xianbei cavalry outside the city were indeed numerous, numbering at least ten thousand, while he only had a thousand cavalry. Yet, for some reason, Lian Da even had an impulse to lead those thousand cavalry out of the city and charge to see if they could carve a bloody path through...

He suppressed this inexplicable impulse and instead chose to continue defending the city and the rooms, in order to kill off the Xianbei's manpower.

Despite suffering heavy casualties under a hail of arrows, the Xianbei people finally destroyed the second line of chevaux-de-frise, crossed the second line of traps, and reached the final line of chevaux-de-frise.

Upon reaching this position, their horse bows, which had a shorter range than those of the Han army, could finally be put to use. Hulanji hurriedly ordered the Xianbei soldiers to begin firing at the Han army in the city.

The Xianbei soldiers did indeed raise their bows and arrows to shoot at the city walls, but the Han army on the city walls used ample shields, wooden planks and other defensive facilities to build a solid defensive line, rendering most of the Xianbei arrows ineffective.

However, the Han army's archers could still fire from inside the city to outside, while the Han soldiers on the city walls could also use the cover of their defenses to fire down from the city walls, making full use of their superior position.

The Xianbei soldiers suffered further losses, their heads riddled with arrows from the Han army, many dead and wounded, in a miserable state, making it impossible for them to effectively suppress the city walls.

Hulanji panicked and almost ordered the attack to be intensified, with more soldiers surrounding the Han army on the city walls to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.

Fortunately, his subordinates stopped him, and Ma Keduo's desperate persuasion brought him back to his senses. He then ordered the cavalry to ride around the city and shoot at the city walls with mounted archery, using high-speed movement to offset the lack of defense.

This method is still effective. In open field battles, when facing the Han army's tight formation, the steppe cavalry often used this method to wear down the Han soldiers' physical strength and morale, trying to break the Han army's formation. However, now that the formation has become a city wall, it can exist without expending physical strength.

As a result, the Xianbei cavalry's mounted archery tactics became less effective.

However, it did have some effect; at least they changed from fixed targets to moving targets, and the effect of stationary shooting was not as good.

So Lian Da simply ordered free firing. Since there were plenty of arrows, he didn't care about anything else and just fired directly outside the city, using the area of ​​impact instead of the point of impact, which would surely make the Xianbei people suffer.

The Xianbei people did indeed suffer, because shooting from horseback while using a shield was an impossible task, and they were not equipped with crossbows.

The Xianbei cavalry did make full use of their advantages in mounted archery, but they were still no match for the Han army on the high ground.

Cavalrymen were constantly being shot off their horses, and warhorses were constantly being shot dead and falling to the ground, which triggered a series of chain reactions, causing the Xianbei cavalry to suffer even greater losses. Hulanji's eyes turned red and he was almost spitting fire, but he still couldn't do anything about the city.

Fortunately, the last layer of barricades was also removed, and the defensive facilities outside Qiangyin County were destroyed by the Xianbei soldiers despite heavy casualties. Hulanji was overjoyed and immediately ordered his soldiers to take the remaining dozen or so siege ladders and begin the attack on the city.

Don't say the Xianbei people couldn't attack cities; they just didn't have the equipment to manufacture siege weapons. If they did, they could attack cities just as well.

While they were skilled at attacking cities, the Han army was even better at defending them. When they began to fire arrows while simultaneously covering their soldiers' assault on the city walls, Lian Da was genuinely pleasantly surprised.

These Xianbei people must have some serious illness, because they actually ignored their advantage and insisted on using their disadvantage to counter the Han army's advantage!

Good guy!
I love you guys who are so stubborn!

At Lian Da's command, arrows, logs, and stones rained down, smashing the Xianbei who were besieging the city, leaving them bloodied and their bodies strewn across the field.

What's even more terrifying is yet to come.

The molten gold, heated to the point of steaming and bubbling and emitting a destructive aura, was also transported to the top of the city wall. The soldiers on the wall, suppressing their nausea, poured the molten gold down below the wall. Along with the destructive aura, there were even more pitiful cries from the Xianbei soldiers below the wall.

Burns combined with bacteria mean that even if they aren't completely hit, just a small burn can be fatal, and their lives are practically over.

There's nothing we can do; without antibiotics, who can save them?
Even with the aid of modern medicine, if someone were to be injured by the golden juice, their chances of survival would be slim.

Therefore, from any perspective, this wave of golden juice attack brought extremely terrifying damage to the Xianbei people, even greater than the damage caused by the previous arrow attack.

Even if they don't die now, they will definitely die if the wound gets infected later.

Arrow wounds might be treatable, but wounds from molten metal are irreversible.

(End of this chapter)