Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 108 The Strength of the Mountain Farmer

Seeing that he could do nothing about this high city, Borjigin had no choice but to give the order.

"Go! Kill everyone around here!! Kill their men and children right in front of them, and rape their women!"

Borjigin led more than 20,000 cavalrymen toward the nearby villages, intending to plunder them.

Lu Siming breathed a sigh of relief; it turned out that defending the city was so simple.

The villages outside were already deserted. The Beiyuan Army knew very well how dangerous it was outside when the market opened. Although they could not disobey the orders of Beiji Wu to move the villages outside the Great Wall in, they could take advantage of Beiji Wu's order to have people farm and work to move the people to the county.

Lu Siming didn't care about these people's lives, but their commander certainly did.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of the area would not leave people outside during such a dangerous time.

The route from the Inner Mongolian Plateau into the mountains of Kyushu is influenced by the terrain, but it is not completely blocked by mountains; there are multiple mountain passes.

There are some narrow mountain paths nearby that are only 2-3 meters wide, suitable for single riders to pass through.

Borjigin ordered his men, "Boshu, you lead your men to flank the city from the rear, and I will lead my men to capture the Han people. When the time comes, we will attack the city together on the sound of my horn!"

Boshu replied, "Yes, Khan!"

The two sides were quite a distance apart, and they couldn't hear each other's normal conversation.

Seeing the Mongol army begin to withdraw, Wang Xiang immediately said, "Open the gate, I'm taking my men out!"

Lu Siming frowned and pondered for two or three seconds, but quickly refused again, saying, "Master will be here soon, don't cause trouble."

Whether Wang Xiang went out to fight the enemy or to surrender, Lü Siming didn't care and had great confidence in the city's garrison.

A while ago, many people fled, but since the spring planting season, many have settled down.

There are now more than 10,000 garrison troops in the city. Even if the Mongols come in, they can actually fight their way out.

At this moment, Geng Zhong reminded him, "What if those Tartars come into the county through a side road?"

Lu Siming wasn't worried about that. "The narrowest point at Shishankou is 18 meters wide with a 15° slope. Changchengwei is 35 meters wide with a 12° slope. Although the rest of the area is wider, it's mostly winding, narrow paths that make it impossible for cavalry to charge."

"You can come in, but it will take at least half a day. Besides, both garrisons are guarded, so don't worry."

Yang Xiangyun and Gao Shimian are both veterans who have been defending the city for many years, so Lü Siming doesn't need to worry about them.

With its unique mountainous terrain and the few fertile plains of the Sanggan River Basin, Kyushu behind the mountains became the front line where agricultural and nomadic civilizations clashed.

Seeing that Lü Siming refused to open the gate, Wang Xiang led his thousand iron cavalry to guard the pass area, seeking an opportunity to make a name for himself.

The cavalry cannot fight alone; they must coordinate with the main force to create a suppressive force.

After discovering that there were not many people nearby, Borjigin stopped searching and quickly led his men away to raid other garrisons.

The resistance here is strong, and if this drags on, the main force will easily break out and launch a decisive battle. Borjigin can't fight like the Arctic Warriors, and he doesn't want all his men to die here.

Soon, the Börjigin, who bullied the weak and feared the strong, discovered that not only garrisons like Nongjiakou, but also thousand-household garrisons like Changchengtun and Shishankou had successfully defended against 20,000 to 30,000 cavalry.

Apart from a dozen or so unlucky souls who were killed by arrows shot from below the city, there were basically no casualties.

On the contrary, more than three thousand of the invaders died.

The Nongjiakou garrison was incredibly tough, so Borjigin immediately shifted his target.

"Go attack Tongzhouwei! They have a lot of people there, and a lot of cowards too! Go and scare them a bit, and they'll all surrender within a day!"

Borjigin was telling the truth. Tongzhouwei in the Nine Provinces behind the mountains surrendered the fastest, and was defeated by the Arctic Martial Arts in half a day.

The same group of people are still guarding Tongzhou Guard today.

Cen Tianrui, Niu Zhifu, Ma Weiming, and others continued to lead the same team in their jobs, but they were now under a new leader who didn't care about their work or promote them.

There wasn't even a supervisory or military oversight body, saving the need for censors and various other civil servants.

In Tongzhou City, matters are decided jointly by seven thousand households.

Originally, there were more than seven thousand households, but the Arctic Army killed so many that only seven remained.

The city was divided into seven districts, each managing its own affairs normally, only uniting when defending against enemies.

There is no one to enforce the law; everyone is enforcing the law and managing their own people.

At this moment, the seven commanders gathered at the city gate to discuss countermeasures.

Cen Tianrui said, "Smoke signals have been raised in the north, which must mean the Mongols have invaded. Now that the villagers outside the city have all entered Tongzhou City, who will be responsible for defending the city next?"

The seven people looked at each other.

Ma Weiming said, "I'm only good at leading troops into battle; I'm not very good at defending cities. How about we each defend our own cities?"

Cen Tianrui shook his head. "When defending the city, there are many people. In other places, there is also one commander. Otherwise, no matter how well the seven of us talk here, if our subordinates don't recognize each other, we will regret it when something happens."

Qin Hefu and the others all thought it made sense.

"Why don't we let the general take command? The six of us will just listen to the general. When it comes to fighting, someone should be the one to make the decisions."

“Yes! Lord Cen, you can do it. Anyway, we are no different from before. The clan chief is now a marquis, and you can still be a general.”

Ma Weiming said, "Yes, anyway, after the war we'll all go back to our own homes, and we'll still work together to defend the city in normal times." Ma Weiming's words made everyone else glance at him.

No one is afraid that Cen Tianrui will become too powerful and seize power, since all the current power was given to him by Beijiwu anyway.

Even though Cen Tianrui became a general, he was still only a commander of a thousand households, and no one was afraid that he would become too powerful.

Normally, they are reluctant to relinquish power, but when defending a city, it is impossible to act separately; there must be a commander-in-chief.

Cen Tianrui had no intention of seizing power, and said directly, "Alright, then let's start mobilizing troops. Let's gather all the archers together first."

"Send someone to notify all garrisons to hold their ground and not come out!"

Each garrison has a great deal of autonomy. These people are not good at fighting, but they are very good at defense. They will sell everything they own to protect their property.

Borjigin ran around for a day and found that this place was full of tough nuts to crack.

Not to mention Tongzhou Guard, the Borjigin forces couldn't even take down the Tongzhou Front Guard, which is located in front of Tongzhou, or a single thousand-household guard under the Gaoliu Guard.

If this attempt fails, Borjigin's personal prestige will plummet, and even the tribe may split apart.

Under logistical pressure, Borjigin's 20,000-strong army had to split up to find food.

There has been no rain for almost a year. Not only are the warhorses not getting good feed, but even the people are running out of food.

The wild animals that could be seen on the grasslands have long been killed off, and there is no green grass to be seen in the wild grass beyond the Great Wall; all that can be seen are barren mountains and steep cliffs.

There was not enough pasture, and they couldn't find food from nearby villages.

After several major battles, the areas beyond the Great Wall offered no way for ordinary people to survive, while the county had no shortage of places to live.

What's worse is that the slaves under Beijiwu's command all eat from communal pots, and their homes don't have much food, unlike ordinary people who store up food for more than a year to be stolen by rats.

The hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep had already eaten everything outside, so there was no way to save the twenty or thirty thousand warhorses.

If warhorses are not fed, their fighting ability will drop rapidly. They usually need to be fed every few hours during battle.

After running around all day, I'm exhausted.

While resting at night, Borjigin, sitting by the fire, looked at his equally listless subordinates and immediately shirked responsibility.

“It’s all the fault of those Han Chinese. Last year they said that this place was full of cowards, and this year tens of thousands of them have fled. There are only a little over a hundred people left in the city. As long as we come over, those Han Chinese will definitely open the gates and surrender.”

Borjigin's attack was motivated by the instigation of his subordinates, who believed it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The men had nothing to say; they had been riding horses all day and were exhausted.

A thousand men were left to keep watch at night, while the rest went to bed.

The warhorses were starving, and so were the people.

The grain they brought was given to the horses, while the people fed the horses that were in poor condition. Each horse weighed several hundred pounds, which was enough to feed them.

Not only did Borjigin ride his horse until his butt hurt on this day, but Beijiwu also rode the entire route until his butt hurt too.

"Damn it, I've been running all day, covering at least three or four hundred miles."

Beijiwu said angrily, "This is the last time. Although you all did a pretty good job guarding, I still have to say it! From now on, I will try my best to come within seven days. The rest is up to you. Don't keep thinking that I will rush over and make me clean up your messes!"

"If you're incompetent, you should step down and give way to someone more capable. If you can't be a commander of a thousand, be a commander of a hundred! If you can't be a commander of a hundred, be a soldier! If you can't do anything right, then die!"

Beijiwu spoke irresponsibly in front of five thousand cavalry and one thousand iron cavalry.

No one had any objections, not even Wokoji, Wang Xiang, or Xue Chonghu.

After hurling his insults, Beiji Wu led a group of his men out of the city and attacked the Mongol army's camp at five or six in the morning.

The more than 20,000 Hu cavalrymen quickly learned the power of high-end combat forces.

By 5:30 a.m., many things were already visible. When the young men, like lawnmowers, stormed into the military camp and killed one or two people with a wave of their hands, the camp quickly descended into chaos.

"I am the Arctic Warrior of the Mountain Farmer Clan! Surrender and you will not be killed! Those who resist will have their entire families killed!"

"kill!"

Wang Xiang and his men followed behind Arctic Martial, forming Arctic Martial's wings, and advanced directly forward.

The light cavalry were responsible for flanking the enemy, while the heavy cavalry followed the Arctic warriors to clear the way. Ten miles behind the main force, caravans of laborers had already come to collect the corpses.

No one thought Arctic Martial Arts would fail, and Arctic Martial Arts did not disappoint everyone's trust. They shouted once and then stopped, resolutely killing the enemy to vent their anger after running all day!
Anyone who gets close to the Arctic Warrior will die instantly; riding the fiercest warhorse, a road was cleared in five minutes.

Around 6 or 7 o'clock, they captured more than 30,000 warhorses and took 15,000 prisoners.

Arctic Warrior drove more than 10,000 prisoners into the trading market, where merchants and civilians watched from all sides.

Yelü Baocai and Yelü Poluo gained a correct understanding of the strength of Shannong County.

When the Arctic martial arts were not in use, the people here were like tortoises and hedgehogs, adept at defense.

Once Arctic Warrior arrives, he will transform into the most valiant warrior, daring to charge against Mongol cavalry that outnumber him tenfold.

(End of this chapter)