I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 372 The Locked Back Garden

This was indeed the case, because the Xianbei people had never fought against the upgraded Bingzhou defense system before, so they were initially somewhat weakened by Bingzhou's scorched-earth policy.

Apart from cities and farms, they couldn't find any trace of Han Chinese along the way. They couldn't even plunder them. As they advanced rapidly, they couldn't sustain themselves through war and could only eat the rations they had brought with them, which made the Xianbei people somewhat unhappy.

After much difficulty, they discovered four settlements of Han Chinese: one city and three farms, each of which was already prepared for defense.

The city had city walls, and the farm had surrounding walls, all covered with Han army battle flags and filled with Han archers using bows and crossbows, making them look quite formidable.

Yu Jian was genuinely surprised.

If Tan Shihuai hadn't foreseen this beforehand and assigned him two thousand auxiliary troops capable of attacking cities, he really wouldn't have been able to deal with these cities and farms for a while.

Even with these two thousand auxiliary troops capable of attacking cities, he still found it somewhat troublesome, because the scale of defenses in these cities and farms seemed completely different from what he had previously understood.

Like Tan Shihuai, he hadn't been south to Bingzhou for more than three years, and for a while, these cities and farms were quite unfamiliar to him. They felt completely different from the Bingzhou he used to know; they were like two different places.

Where in Bingzhou were there such high city walls in the past?
Where can you find a farm with such comprehensive security measures?

The situation is not good.

Because of the crushing defeat three years ago, Yu Jian doesn't dare to act recklessly now. Seeing that the city wall has become much higher, he feels that the city wall is not easy to mess with, so he decides to start by attacking the farm.

The farm's walls don't look very high; these auxiliary troops should be able to handle it, right?

Yu Jian then ordered two thousand Buyeo and Goguryeo auxiliary troops to launch an attack on a farm north of Woye County with siege equipment.

It's true that these auxiliary troops were forced to fight far from their homes. Anyone would be unhappy to be brought to these places to fight from Liaodong, thousands of miles away.

However, the problem was that Tan Shihuai treated these auxiliary troops quite well, providing them with a decent amount of food on a daily basis, at least ensuring they wouldn't go hungry.

Moreover, as long as one dares to fight and is willing to fight, Tan Shihuai is very generous in rewarding those who do.

He was happy to distribute the spoils of war won by these auxiliary troops, and in accordance with Xianbei tradition, the distribution was quite fair.

Compared to Tan Shihuai, the original rulers of Buyeo and Goguryeo were even less human, making Tan Shihuai seem more human. Since they were all treated like cattle and horses anyway, it's better to treat them like cattle and horses if they are more human.

Therefore, these auxiliary troops were willing to fight and generally did not shirk their duties or fear battle.

Faced with these large but not very high walls, the auxiliary troops felt that the attack would not be difficult, so they carried shields and pushed battering rams, siege towers and other weapons forward.

The Xianbei people, skilled in using bows and crossbows, dismounted and fired arrows into the farm to support the advance of these auxiliary troops. The cooperation between the two sides, as requested by Tan Shihuai, was quite impressive.

However, the small number of Tianxiong Army soldiers and the large number of young and strong men from the defense force in the farm were not to be underestimated.

Not to mention the well-trained Tianxiong Army soldiers, the young men in this defense force had been receiving military training for more than three years. They were skilled in archery, spears, and ring-pommel swords, and their tactical skills were definitely not weak.

Faced with the arrows from the Xianbei and the onslaught of their auxiliary troops, the Han army also had corresponding methods.

The first step was to erect wooden shields for arrow defense, allowing friendly archers to fire under the protection of the shields, thus attacking the approaching auxiliary troops.

Soldiers who could use crossbows and crossbows would hide further back and fire arrows, because of the greater range, they could even hit the Xianbei people who were firing arrows, causing some damage to the Xianbei people.

They even had an even more powerful weapon—the catapult.

As we all know, catapults are siege weapons, but they can also play a good role in defense. Moreover, catapults are a unique weapon of the Han army. Yuan Shu manufactured them on a large scale in Bingzhou and equipped each farm with a number of them.

Faced with the overwhelming offensive of the auxiliary army, the catapults in the farm launched a resolute counterattack.

Where had the Xianbei people ever seen such a weapon?
Huge stones shot into the sky, flying everywhere, and then crashed down on them, something neither the Xianbei nor their auxiliary troops had anticipated.

Stones fell to the ground, blood splattered everywhere, and the perfectly good attack formation was instantly smashed into a mess. Some siege weapons were hit by the stones and shattered into pieces with a loud crash, causing casualties among the surrounding auxiliary soldiers.

Stones mixed with arrows rained down, killing and wounding many of the attacking Xianbei and their vassal troops, without achieving any results.

Before long, the first attack launched by the auxiliary army was defeated. They fled in a panic before they even reached the edge of the farm wall.

Of course, the Xianbei archers were no exception; they couldn't hold out and ran faster and farther than the auxiliary army, still in shock even after running for quite some time.

Actually, the catapult wasn't very accurate; it didn't kill many people or destroy many siege weapons. But the problem was the sheer scale of it, the sheer size of the boulders falling from the sky—it was terrifying and frightening.

Moreover, some unlucky souls were hit squarely by this boulder, and before they knew it, they were turned into a bloody mess. The sticky, gooey appearance and the nauseating smell were indeed unbearable for most people.

So they simply retreated. During the retreat, many were killed or wounded by arrows. After Yu Jian had the casualties tallied, he was dismayed to find that in such a short time, more than a hundred people had died and more than four hundred had been wounded.

This is hardly a sheep pen.

That's clearly a hedgehog!
How come this Han Chinese farm, which doesn't look as high or as difficult to deal with as a city, is so destructive?
Is there a large-scale troop deployment?

Are there many regular Han troops stationed here?
Are there new weapons?

Yu Jian felt that he might have been unlucky and had run into a tough opponent. Adhering to the principle of "if you fall, you fall down," he decisively chose to give up and led his team to another farm to prepare for a different target.

He simply didn't believe that the Han army could station so many troops and weapons in every farm, or that the Han people in every farm were so capable of fighting!

He doesn't believe it!

Then he was hit on the head and bled again.

As the flying rocks hurtled towards him, he realized that he seemed to have made another mistake.

So he abandoned ninety-seven more corpses and led his men to another farm.

He still didn't believe it. He couldn't believe that a person could be so unlucky, nor could he believe that the Han people could really station so many troops and weapons in every farm!
Unless the entire Han Chinese population becomes soldiers!

That's impossible! Han people still need to farm! Where would they get so many brave and skilled warriors and archers?
So he left 136 corpses by the wall of the third farm and fled in panic.

This is terrible! How did Bingzhou become so strange? How can we possibly live like this?
Every farm has skilled soldiers, all bearing Han army battle flags, as well as archers and crossbowmen. They even have stones that can fly through the air. All the farms are heavily guarded. When he arrives, there are smoke signals during the day and beacon fires at night. He has nowhere to hide and can be marked wherever he goes!

And you can't get any advantage no matter where you go!

Finally, Yu Jian became increasingly annoyed and angry. He felt that he had never been so frustrated in his more than 30 years of life. He was beaten bloody wherever he went. If his colleagues found out, how could he save face?

He has a sense of shame!

Thinking this way, anger rose in his heart and evil thoughts arose in his mind. He gritted his teeth and stomped his foot!
I'm going all out!

We have a lot of men! Nearly ten thousand, and we can't even take down one of your farms?
I want all of this: food, people, weapons, and armaments!
So Yu Jian ordered the entire army to move to the first farm and launch a four-sided encirclement and attack, sparing no effort to launch a fierce assault on that farm, regardless of anything else! Regardless of bows, crossbows, or catapults!

Get them! Take them down!
The Xianbei and their allied forces then launched a full-scale attack.

The Han army and defense forces within the farm also began full-scale defensive operations.

All the crossbows and catapults were used, and all the soldiers took up spears and ring-pommel swords and went to the front line. As soon as any auxiliary troops or Xianbei people climbed up the wall, they rushed up and fought fiercely.

One day, two days, three days.

Yu Jian and his men launched eleven fierce attacks, but each time they were repelled, defeated, and forced to retreat in panic, without achieving any valuable results.

More than 500 people died and nearly 1,500 were injured, but the farm remained unmoved and could not be taken down.

The battering ram was hit, and the siege towers were pushed forward to exchange fire with the Han army, but they still couldn't break through.

This is nothing.

On the third night, Lian Da, the governor of Shuofang, led a cavalry force of 500 men to raid the "military ration camp" that Yu Jian's troops were carrying, which was the place where cattle, sheep and dried meat were kept.

He killed many people, set a huge fire that frightened the cattle and sheep into fleeing, burned most of the dried meat, and then took advantage of the chaos to leave.

The food rations that were originally enough to last a month were suddenly reduced to less than half, and they couldn't even last for half a month.

Yu Jian's troops were in a state of panic and their morale was low. On the fourth night, some soldiers deserted.

Yu Jian and his soldiers were immediately at a stalemate.

Yu Jian couldn't understand how he, with his 8,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry, with such a strong numerical advantage, could be powerless against the Han people's farms.

Am I too useless, or are the Han people too strong?

its not right!
It wasn't like this more than three years ago!
Back then, these border areas were practically their backyard!

Who locked up my backyard?
(End of this chapter)