Chapter 65: 64 Chapters of Battle Achievements and Captures Chapter 65: 64 Chapters of Battle Achievements and Captures Outside Fushan City.
The eastern army under Zhang Shouwang had already approached the city, with the troops encamped ten miles south of the city.
In the main tent of the army, Zhang Shouwang and several Assistant Generals sat with grave expressions, while the faces of Guerrilla Generals like Zhou Lan also looked extremely troubled.
Ever since the army had moved towards Fushan City, their supply lines had been continuously harassed by Northern barbarian cavalry.
To date, several Supply Teams had suffered heavy casualties and all the food and fodder they were transporting had been either seized or burned.
“Great General, we can’t wait any longer. If we do, the soldiers will have to go into battle on empty stomachs!” the anxious Assistant General from the Left Camp of the Chongshan Town’s Northern Guangning Vanguard, Liu Nanbo, blurted out.
The two Supply Teams under his command had nearly been completely wiped out and all the food and fodder they were carrying had been lost. If there were no additional supplies, in at most ten days, all the soldiers under his command would be starving.
Furthermore, the lack of food and fodder could also impact morale; with not enough food to eat, how could they continue the fight?
“Yes, Great General, we must first ensure the security of our supply line. If we cannot ensure its safety, we only have one path here, and that is death!” Wang Bin, the Assistant General of the Songzhou Guard, said.
Without food and fodder reinforcements, it would be difficult for them to continue to fight, and it would also take more than a day or two to conquer Fushan City.
Although Fushan City was small, it was indeed a strong fortress, and even if they exerted all their might, it was estimated that it would take a month to conquer.
Standing behind Zhang Shouwang, Zhou Lan’s eyes were full of concern; she naturally knew that Yang Zhenshan was transporting supplies. She was worried about Yang Zhenshan, but even more worried about the supplies he was transporting.
If Yang Zhenshan also lost the supplies, then their Left Camp might have an even harder time than other units.
Because their Left Camp consisted of Cavalry, which consumed two to three times more forage than other units due to both men and horses feeding.
Zhang Shouwang was naturally also aware of the importance of the supply lines, but he had not anticipated that the East Sea Hu Clan would be so cunning; not only did they choose to avoid a frontal battle, but they also continuously harassed their rear.
The land beyond the pass was vast and sparsely populated, with plenty of hills where small forces could easily conceal their movements.
Finding and eliminating all the Northern barbarian cavalry who were harassing them everywhere was not an easy task.
Thinking of this, Zhang Shouwang suddenly recalled the previous incursion by the Hu cavalry.
Likewise, they carried out small-scale raids and avoided a direct confrontation with them.
Such tactics were clearly from the hand of one person.
It seemed they had always been led by the nose by the opponent.
A flash of worry crossed Zhang Shouwang’s eyes, but he still ordered, “Zhou Lan, Tang Feihu!”
“Your subordinates are here!”
“You two will lead the Left and Right Camps of our base, protect the supply line, and eliminate the harassing Northern barbarian cavalry!” Zhang Shouwang commanded.
“Your subordinates obey!”
Zhou Lan and Tang Feihu exchanged a glance and bowed to accept the order.
…
Along the Songyuan River.
The battle lasted for a quarter of an hour before coming to an end. All two hundred plus attacking Northern barbarian cavalry were annihilated, not a single one escaped.
Yang Zhenshan, riding on Red Cloud, circled the battlefield cutting down all Northern barbarian cavalry attempting to flee; on his own, he killed dozens of the enemy, even he was not immune to fatigue.
He was panting heavily, and Red Cloud was also breathing heavily.
Seeing no standing enemies left on the battlefield, Yang Zhenshan finally dismounted from Red Cloud.
He pulled out his water bag, tipped his head back, and took several gulps of Spiritual Spring Water, then cupped the water to feed a few mouthfuls to Red Cloud as well.
Thus, some of the exhaustion on his body dissipated.
Slowly walking back to the battlefield, the soldiers had already started cleaning up the battlefield. Regardless of whether an enemy was breathing or not, they would deliver an additional stab to avoid anyone feigning death to later ambush them.
“Dad! You’re not injured, are you?”
Yang Mingzhi approached clutching his chest, examining Yang Zhenshan with some concern. Seeing that Yang Zhenshan was behaving normally, he finally felt relieved.
“I’m fine. How about you? Where are you injured?” Yang Zhenshan asked.
Yang Mingzhi moved his hand away, revealing a bloody wound on his chest, and said, “It’s alright, the wound is quite shallow. A few days of rest should do it. I’m just a bit drained of strength!”
Yang Zhenshan stepped forward to check his wound, nodded slightly, and said, “You go and rest first. Leave the rest to Ming Wu.”
After that, Yang Zhenshan also began to clean up the battlefield.
The casualties in this battle were not small, but mainly among the peasant conscripts; over a hundred were killed, more than eighty were severely wounded, and as many as three hundred sustained minor injuries.
By comparison, only one of Linguan Castle’s soldiers died, two were severely injured, and among Zhao Desheng’s two units of soldiers, only three died.
The reason for such disparities in casualties was due to whether or not they wore cotton armor.
With a volley of arrows, if a conscript was hit, it would mean grave injuries or death. But for a soldier clad in cotton armor, unless they were hit in the neck, at most they would only suffer minor injuries.
The conscripts’ losses mainly came from the initial rain of arrows from the Hu Cavalry, while the soldiers’ casualties mainly occurred in the latter parts of the chaotic melee.
This is the importance of armor.
After tallying the casualties, Yang Zhenshan hurriedly mixed several bowls of Spiritual Spring Water into just boiled river water, allowing all the wounded to take a few sips.
Spiritual Spring Water could not defy fate, but it was the best medicine available for injuries at the moment. As long as the injuries were not too fatal, after drinking the diluted Spiritual Spring Water, the severity of the wounds would be alleviated.
“My Lord, the cleanup has been completed!” Yang Mingwu approached Yang Zhenshan and reported.
“Give me the details!”
Yang Zhenshan squatted by the river, removed his cotton armor, and washed the bloodstains from his body.
“In this battle, we beheaded two hundred and eighty-three enemies, captured one hundred and ninety-six horses, found one hundred and forty-two horse carcasses, one hundred and forty-two sets of worn leather armor, two hundred and forty-eight longbows, and two hundred and eighty-three swords. We found approximately fifty-eight taels of Silver Coin!” Yang Mingwu reported item by item.
“Fifty-eight taels of Silver Coin? That poor?” Yang Zhenshan was a bit disappointed.
“Uh, they didn’t bring much Silver Coin on them!” Yang Mingwu explained helplessly.
Yang Zhenshan thought about it and understood the situation.
The Hu Cavalry they had killed behind the mountain of Yang Family Village were there for looting, naturally carrying a lot of Silver Coin with them.
But these Hu Cavalry were out for battle, hence it was natural they didn’t carry much Silver Coin.
Not much Silver Coin, but plenty of horses!
One hundred and ninety-six war horses, if brought back and sold, could fetch at least three to five thousand taels of Silver.
However, it seemed he couldn’t deal with these war horses himself. Although they were their spoils of war, they belonged to the Left Camp of Chongshan Town and he would need Zhou Lan’s approval to deal with them.
Yang Zhenshan looked up at the sky; it was already afternoon, probably less than two hours until dusk.
“Let’s move ten miles north first, then rest and reorganise.”
The area was permeated with the smell of blood and there were a lot of corpses; it was not good to stay here overnight. It would be better to find a clean place to spend the night.
Everyone packed up and hurriedly headed north.
Fortunately, they had captured a large number of war horses. Even with over a hundred severely wounded, they could still continue marching. Otherwise, they would have been forced to abandon some of the severely injured.
