I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 334 The Han Empire Suffering from Internal Strife

Golden liquid poured down from the city walls, and the Xianbei soldiers screamed and retreated. The entire siege collapsed instantly.

Countless soldiers fled back, disregarding shields and human cushions, so the Han archers continued to fire, inflicting another wave of casualties on them.

Hulanji, who was watching from behind, was dumbfounded. He witnessed the entire attack from start to finish and almost fell off his horse.

This is terrible! The losses are so huge and so serious, what should we do?
He had previously marched south several times, twice capturing Qiangyin County and plundering countless people, grain, and wealth. He regarded this city as his own safe, where he could freely reach out and take money. He never imagined that one day he would be harmed by his own safe.
He was completely stunned, his mind blank, like a statue, until the destructive smell drifted over with the cold wind, and the nauseating odor brought him back to his senses. He hurriedly ordered a retreat, planning to make further moves later.

The vast, dark Xianbei army quickly retreated in disarray, leaving behind a trail of corpses. The Han army was overjoyed at their first victory, and deafening cheers resounded throughout the city, greatly boosting morale.

When this sound reached the ears of the retreating Xianbei people, it evoked mixed feelings.

Hulanji, in particular, was filled with hatred. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the jubilant Han army on the city wall, wishing he could destroy the city instantly, then rush into it and massacre every single Han person.

However, some of his more rational subordinates earnestly advised him to stop the attack, arguing that the defensive capabilities of Qiangyin County exceeded their offensive capabilities, and that continuing the assault would be pointless.

That evening, the Xianbei people did a simple count and found that in just one day of attacks, 639 people died on the battlefield, 1,603 were wounded in the army, and the overall loss exceeded 2,000.

Moreover, many of the injured were seriously injured, especially a large number of people who were scalded by the molten gold. They were screaming in pain, but the authorities had no good medical means to help them and could only watch them writhe in agony.

As a result, the morale of the army was low.

Hulanji remained silent, only gnawing on the beef jerky that had been brought as military rations. His subordinates looked at each other helplessly.

Fortunately, Hulanji made the right decision in the end: abandon the siege of Qiangyin County, continue south, cross the Great Wall and attack the heart of Yanmen County, plunder there, and after obtaining enough people, wealth and food, return.

As for this loss, make a note of it, remember this grudge, and seek revenge on them sooner or later.

Anyway, once we break through this damned city, we will massacre the entire city, leaving no one alive. We will kill and eat even the chickens and dogs, and dig out the earthworms in the soil and cut them in half vertically!

So on the second day, November 28th, the Han army in Qiangyin County discovered that the Xianbei people had abandoned the county town and continued south. This meant that they had won this round of attack and defense, and the Xianbei people had no way to deal with their small town and had given up.

When Lian Da learned of this, he was initially pleased, but then became somewhat worried, fearing that this was a ploy by the Xianbei to show weakness. So he sent cavalry out of the city to gather information, and it was only a day later that it was confirmed that the Xianbei had indeed continued their southward march.

Lian Da was relieved and ordered the soldiers in the city to go out and rebuild the barricades and pit defenses, and to dig pits and burn the corpses left by the Xianbei people to prevent the spread of disease.

Before cremating the bodies, Lian Da went out of the city to check the corpses of the Xianbei people. He found that they were indeed thin and small. When they were stripped naked, many of them were skin and bones and did not look like they had strong fighting power.

In this battle, the Han army defending the city suffered very few losses. Only nine men were unlucky enough to be killed by Xianbei arrows, while all the others survived. At least five or six hundred Xianbei were killed on the battlefield. The Han army can be said to have won a great victory.

In Lian Da's view, this battle was not difficult at all; in fact, it could be described as an easy duel. As long as he made preparations beforehand and equipped himself with the necessary gear, dealing with these Xianbei people would be much simpler than dealing with other enemies.

Why then did the Xianbei people become a major threat to the border regions?
Lian Da sought out Xia Wei and poured out all his doubts.

"You told me before that the Xianbei people were not strong and their weapons and equipment were not very sophisticated. I had some doubts. Now that I see it, it is indeed true. Most of them are thin and weak, and their weapons and equipment are quite old. Apart from having a large number of warhorses, they are inferior to the Han in every way. Why can they become a threat to the border?"
As long as soldiers defend the border cities, deploying numerous crossbows, chevaux-de-frise, and pitfalls as defensive measures, and employing a scorched-earth policy, repeating this several times, the Xianbei will inevitably gain nothing and become increasingly weak. At that point, a large army can launch a northern expedition and achieve a swift victory. Why then has the border trouble remained unresolved for over a decade?

Looking at Lian Da's appearance, Xia Wei felt deeply moved. He sighed and slowly spoke.

"If a general were to lead three thousand Tianxiong soldiers to guard the city, there would be no need to worry about Qiangyin County being breached. But how many generals like this are there on the frontier? How many elite Tianxiong soldiers are there? And how many cities have enough to eat?"
It wasn't that the frontier soldiers weren't brave, nor that the Xianbei were too powerful; it was simply that they lacked food and clothing, weapons, and sufficiently courageous generals. That's why the Xianbei repeatedly succeeded. In the past, when the Xianbei attacked, no one came to their aid!

After hearing this, Lian Da remained silent.

He had come to realize that the Xianbei were not powerful at all, merely a minor threat. Compared to the vast size of the Han Empire, they were not a formidable enemy, and compared to the Xiongnu Empire that Liu Bang faced back then, they were nothing.

But why were they still able to wreak havoc on the border for more than ten years?
It was simply that the Han Empire was suffering from severe internal strife, leaving it with only a fraction of the resources available to fight external enemies. Most of these resources were used to aid the enemy, which is why the Xianbei people appeared so formidable.

How could a small tribe with a population of several hundred thousand become such a major threat?
Ugh!
If Yuan Shu had become the governor of Bingzhou earlier, perhaps there wouldn't have been so many years of border troubles?
This is what Lian Da envisioned.

At this moment, Yuan Shu did not have such direct thoughts. After receiving the message from Lian Da, he immediately made military arrangements.

First, he dispatched his elite Tianxiong Army troops to various counties.

He ordered the Tianxiong Army to advance in units of qu (a unit of military units) to the six counties north of Yinguan County. A total of twelve qu were mobilized, with an average of four hundred soldiers per county, to garrison the counties and immediately begin a scorched-earth tactic, relocating all the county residents to the county towns and holding their positions.

Because Yanmen Commandery had a sparse population, with a county often having only a few thousand people, the task of scorched earth was not difficult; it only required resolute execution and was not particularly challenging. However, Yuan Shu was worried that the officials in these areas were incompetent and ineffective, so he dispatched troops to carry out these tasks using military force, and then defend the cities.

Once these scorched-earth measures are completed, Yuan Shu will be able to deal with the invading Xianbei army.

He had 5,000 cavalrymen in his own force. He had previously given 1,000 to Lian Da, and still had 4,000 left. With these 4,000 elite cavalrymen as the main force, he would lead 8,000 men north to Yinguan County to prepare to fight the Xianbei.

Originally, Lu Zhi suggested that he lead the soldiers forward while Yuan Shu commanded the main force behind them. Yuan Shu refused and decided to lead the army forward himself, while Lu Zhi commanded another part of the army to garrison in Mayi County, in order to support Yuan Shu's troops in Yinguan County.

Whether for prestige, intelligence, or something else, he had to personally lead his troops into battle for this first engagement against the Xianbei.

Moreover, he did not believe he would lose to the Xianbei.

Two months prior, Yuan Shu had focused on repairing the military passages and supply depots from Jinyang to Yinguan County. These supplies came in handy at this time, allowing the army to quickly reach Yinguan and Mayi Counties, both of which had their own grain reserves, enough to sustain the fighting for a considerable period.

The Xianbei people lack the ability to fortify cities, and the cold weather is not conducive to a prolonged war. As long as the Han army can adopt a scorched-earth policy and hold the city, even with a small garrison, the Xianbei people will not dare to launch a large-scale attack.

If they were to launch a large-scale siege, Yuan Shu would be delighted. Once the Xianbei were exhausted, he could lead his well-rested Han cavalry to attack and wipe out the Xianbei in one fell swoop.

Yuan Shu wasn't worried about Lian Da's side. If more than three thousand people couldn't defend a small city, then he must have been blind to have misjudged Lian Da.

Having gained nothing in Qiangyin County, the Xianbei people would inevitably continue south. Once they reached the south, they would find that the other counties had also completed their scorched-earth policy, and they would find no easy targets. They would inevitably become frustrated and impatient, and might even launch a strong attack on a certain city. Otherwise, this southward expedition would be a pure expenditure with no income.

The Xianbei people were poor and poverty was the norm. Otherwise, they would not have frequently gone south to plunder and pillage. If they did not earn anything on a trip south, they might not even have enough food to take back, and they might not be able to get through the winter. Therefore, they would inevitably choose a certain place to attack and try to plunder something.

Once they stop, Yuan Shu will have a solution.

His cavalry lacked sufficiently mobile warhorses, unlike the Xianbei who had the advantage of two or even three horses per person. If they were to engage in mobile warfare, they would lose a large number of warhorses in just a few days, which would be a losing proposition.

Therefore, seizing the Xianbei people's location, launching a swift attack, and deciding the outcome in one battle is Yuan Shu's best choice at this moment.

Fortunately, the Xianbei people led by Hulanji had also lost their minds after their defeat in Qiangyin County and were facing a situation of no harvest and no money. They were restless and wanted to find a place to ruthlessly harvest the lives and wealth of the local Han people in order to stop their losses.

As they marched south, they couldn't find a suitable target. Where they used to be able to find traces of Han people, they couldn't find any. Now, the places where they could find Han people were all cities—cities garrisoned by Han troops.

At Yuan Shu's request, the various Han troops acted swiftly, doing everything in their power to bring all the Han people they could find into the city. They then held the city, built fortifications, and waited for the Xianbei to arrive.

Because they had received Yuan Shu's orders, the counties had no choice but to accept the control of the Tianxiong Army's soldiers and officers. All the officials below the county magistrate became subordinates of the Tianxiong Army officers, and under his demands, they were busy settling the county residents who had entered the city and resolving various conflicts. They were exhausted.

However, it must be said that the effect was not bad.

Yuan Shu had made relatively thorough war preparations beforehand, transporting a batch of grain to various counties in Yanmen County. This grain guaranteed the soldiers' food needs and the needs of the people in the city. Combined with the original grain reserves in the city, it would not be a problem to last for one or two months.

Moreover, the Tianxiong Army officers in charge of city defense are often members of the Yixin Army, with rich experience in dealing with city defense. They are experts in how to organize the city's residents and maximize the city's defense capabilities, and they are always right.

For example, Wang Kui, the Marquis of Qujun, who cooperated with Cao Cao to defend Wangtao County, was an expert in city defense. He participated in many battles to defend Maoling County with Yuan Shu and accumulated rich experience in city defense.

Cao Cao joined later and didn't know much about these things, nor did he have time to learn these skills, but Wang Kui did.

So Wang Kui showed off his skills in front of Cao Cao.

He handled the affairs of settling the city's residents, appeasing the people, and organizing them to participate in the city's defense work in an orderly manner, leaving Cao Cao completely astonished.

The fearful residents quickly calmed down under his reassurance and were then assigned to city defense work in batches. He arranged for special personnel to be in charge of everything from the front line to logistics, from weapons to soldiers' clothing.

Originally, there were only a little over a hundred armed men under the control of the county government in the city. Wang Kui also urgently mobilized six hundred young men to join the city's defense army system, and managed to organize a defensive force of more than a thousand men for a small county town.

He mobilized all the residents of the city to work together to rebuild and strengthen the originally low and dilapidated city walls, and they were greatly improved in just a few days.

Outside the city, he set up barricades and dug pitfalls. On the city walls, he stationed numerous archers and crossbowmen. Large quantities of defensive materials, such as logs and stones, were transported up the walls. He also dispatched a team to collect the excrement and urine of the people inside the city, preparing to make "golden juice" to defend the city.

He made the most of a small city.

(End of this chapter)