Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 186 The real reason

Just as Beijiwu was preparing to celebrate the New Year, bad news came from Liaodong.

The Jurchen tribe, unwilling to relocate their pastures, defeated over a thousand people from eastern Liaodong with only a hundred men, plundered the gifts they had sent, and captured over two hundred mountain farmers and Liaodong people.

The contents of the message sent by carrier pigeon gave Beijiwu a very absurd feeling.

"Are all the troops who surrendered to me a bunch of cowards? Did they all become weaker after encountering me?"

Beiji Wu didn't have time to be angry. He felt that it might be his own fault, but he also felt it was ridiculous. He was disappointed in his subordinates who had surrendered.

"Don't let any more soldiers surrender; they have no fighting power whatsoever."

Beijiwu sighed; he had no desire to go out and deal with such troublesome matters in the heavy snow.

"Send the message: Liaodong will handle this on its own. You may use all the warhorses and weapons in Liaodong. I will reward Liaodong with a thousand recurve bows and close all trade with the Jurchen tribes."

"Those who weren't captured this time, figure it out yourselves. Don't come back until you've wiped out the Jurchen tribe!"

"Those who are captured are no match for us! Those who surrender will have their entire families die!"

Previously, they were on guard against the Khitans, but now that the Khitans have submitted, the Jurchens are in chaos again.

Arctic Martial was unsure whether there was a misunderstanding or not, nor did he care who had bullied whom.

There's only one thing to deal with right now.

His subordinates have extremely low combat effectiveness!
Beijiwu became increasingly angry as he thought about it.

"A bunch of useless trash! You can't beat anyone! Whose men were you this time? Publish this in the newspaper! Revoke your military household registration! What use are you if you can't win battles?!"

"If you're not prepared to die on the battlefield, then go back to your hometown and farm. There are no cowardly wimps among the mountain farmers who are afraid of death!"

Half a day after Beijiwu got angry, Teng He carefully walked over to report the situation.

"Your Majesty, the one captured this time is Ai Dake, commander of the Kitahara clan."

Beijiwu frowned, gasped, and had a complex expression that seemed to hold a thousand words, but in the end, he couldn't utter a single curse.

"Who gave him the authority to lead the troops? Why would they send him out to negotiate with the Jurchens?"

Teng He said cautiously, "This servant doesn't know..."

Arctic Martial gritted his teeth, but quickly calmed down.

“I understand. Some people probably think this person is a mountain farmer, or maybe he thinks this mission is easy, just a matter of holding a meeting with the Khitans’ subordinates.”

Arctic Martial roughly understood the situation; the responsibility for this incident mostly lay with Ai Dake.

"Publish a newspaper article explaining Ai Dake's background: he is a Han Chinese from the south who surrendered to the authorities and sold his wife to a mountain farmer. Give me a piece of paper, and I'll write it down myself!"

Beijiwu calmly wrote down Ai Dake's resume clearly, determined not to let Ai Dake tarnish the honor of the mountain farmers.

Although there are no mountain farmers at all, there is now an important sense of collective consciousness.

For example, those who worked themselves to the bone farming and fought life-or-death battles were all mountain farmers.

Even if they are not from the Mountain Farmers, they all have a sense of belonging to the Mountain Farmers and believe that the Mountain Farmers are omnipotent and brave.

If someone who is considered a farmer by everyone reveals his cowardly side, it will shake the morale of the entire country's military and people.

Arctic Martial Arts decisively removed Ai Dake's place of origin, clearly writing down the resume of this commoner who had been captured and forced to serve as a submissive citizen.

This includes selling his wife and daughter to Beijiwu to pay off debts, and when Beijiwu was almost beaten up while helping him farm, this bastard hid in the crowd and stood by, not daring to come out. Later, when he helped solve the debt and got into a fight, he also stayed far away.

After Beijiwu conquered Beiyuanwei, he impersonated a mountain farmer, obtained a household registration, took over the mountain farmers' spoils of war, made a fortune, married a young wife, and abandoned his original wife and son after having a beautiful wife and children.

From corruption to this incident where he was defeated by a hundred people while trying to recruit the Jurchens from the mountains, he was completely crushed.

Arctic Martial Arts used a whole newspaper page to write about Ai Dake's affairs.

The next day, countless people who read the newspapers were filled with righteous indignation towards Ai Da Ke.

King Wu approved: When I fight, everyone is fearless and I believe that those who follow me will win. They don't care about the consequences of their own death. But when they fight with others, they are more likely to have wild thoughts.

I hereby guarantee that as long as everyone fights well and lives up to their salary, they are doing a great job, and I will treat every warrior kindly.

Whether Han or non-Han, as long as they fight for a common goal of victory, they are all mountain farmers!
Those who surrendered were executed, and their families were demoted to commoners; those who fought bravely and defeated the enemy had their families treated favorably.

Don't try to impersonate a Shandong Agricultural University student. The moment you fight bravely for your country and people, you are a Shandong Agricultural University student.

A newspaper is just a newspaper, not a military order.

The Arctic Army's orders reached the areas outside the Great Wall within two or three days.

The invention of gunpowder made construction much simpler, and the highways built in recent years have also accelerated the speed of information transmission.

Carrier pigeons are useless in areas with many birds of prey. Arctic warriors do not like birds of prey such as eagles and falcons, nor do they need the Jurchens to pay tribute with these things.

The attitude towards the Jurchens has always been to avoid trouble.

Now, Beijiwu no longer seeks the reason and has issued a personal military order to the garrison commander of Shanhaiguan.

Yang Xiangyun quickly sounded the alarm about the enemy's attack and summoned all the guards on duty and on leave.

Zhao Pengcheng, the governor of Pingyuan Province, quickly ran to the outer city wall of Shanhaiguan while wearing a hat.

"What's wrong? Who called?"

Yang Xiangyun did not speak; he had already put on his cotton-padded coat and armor.

Qianhu Niu Zhifu and Ma Weiming also walked over quickly.

"General, what has happened?"

Yang Xiangyun handed over an official document.

"His Majesty personally wrote a letter, ordering 5,000 men from Shanhaiguan to go out and conquer the Jurchen tribe, with only success allowed and no failure permitted."

Niu Zhifu didn't look, nor did he need to, and quickly replied: "The Jurchen part includes the 'cooked Jurchen' under the jurisdiction of eastern Liaoning, the slightly more distant 'raw Jurchen' of Changbai Mountain, and the even more distant 'wild Jurchen' who don't interact with this area."

"The total force will not exceed 20,000. The troublemakers this time are the Jurchens, who have at most 10,000 troops. Two hundred thousand people in total, we can fight them, but if we rush in, we might be ambushed because we have too many people."

Yang Xiangyun nodded and said, "I know, but that's the Emperor's order. He's raised us for five or six years, and we're bound to be put to use eventually."

Ma Weiming said directly, "We can fight. The Liaodong region and the Jurchens can act with us. Our soldiers train every day and can be mobilized at any time. Moreover, our bows are stronger than theirs, and we have sufficient armor, cotton clothing, and strong liquor. We also have plenty of cold-resistant warhorses."

"If we can't even beat some savages, we might as well commit suicide!"

Yang Xiangyun drew his longsword at the soldiers who were lined up in formation.

"Soldiers! We are now soldiers of the Mountain Farmer Kingdom, representing all the people of Mountain Farmer!! We are the people of Mountain Farmer!"

"We won! We're the Shandong Agricultural University team!!"

"We'd rather die on the battlefield than live a life of dishonor!!"

"kill!"

Arctic Martial Arts left them no way out, and Yang Xiangyun left no way out for anyone, including himself.

"Kill!" the soldiers shouted, raising their weapons. "Kill! Kill! Kill!!"

Everyone was prepared to die and chose to carry out Arctic Martial's death order.

Arctic Warfare has always allowed its generals to act independently and decide how to fight.

It has always maximized its autonomy.

Beijiwu believes he doesn't understand warfare; he thinks warfare is the business of generals, who are seasoned veterans and must have their own judgments and thoughts.

This incident involving Ai Dake infuriated Beiji Wu, especially since a couple hundred people from Liaodong were also sent away. The enraged Beiji Wu preferred that these people die in battle rather than see them lose face and waste food.

It doesn't matter if Shanhaiguan is lost; Beijiwu doesn't believe that the Jurchens and Liao people would dare to unite and die together.

Everyone overlooked one thing: this was an order from the Arctic Army, not from Yang Xiangyun and the other commanders.

This time there is no room for flexibility or independent decision-making; it's a fight to the death!

Even if the general leads the retreat, if you follow, you will also be sentenced to death. Military orders mean fighting to the death!

The 6,000 men were only given three days' worth of dried salted meat, and then set off on the same day on 10,000 horses, with supplies provided by the Liao tribes along the way.

Bow and arrows, long sword, quiver, wine bag, a few cooking utensils, and shield.

Everyone set off lightly equipped, heading towards the Jurchen tribe.

A month later, at the gates of the Jurchen tribe, more than 10,000 Jurchen cavalrymen roared and charged towards the Wu Dynasty army in front.

Before them stood a menacing subway cavalry unit.

When the two sides were 300 meters apart, the Shannong Legion had already drawn their bows and arrows.

When the two sides were 200 meters apart, the Jurchens on horseback also picked up their bows and arrows.

When the two sides were 150 meters apart, the first arrow was fired, and a dense rain of arrows shot down all the more than 100 people who were close by.

Each archer would quickly and gracefully turn around after firing their arrow, and then the archer behind them would stand up, raise their bow, and fire again.

After four volleys of fire in one minute, the Jurchens' wooden bows and arrows had just hit a spot twenty or thirty meters away.

Seeing that the archers were not confused at all, the Jurchens behind quickly scattered and fled to both sides.

Yang Xiangyun watched this scene indifferently, unmoved.

After several hundred Jurchens died, the Jurchens quickly dispatched three hundred of their main cavalry to charge the battle formation.

Yang Xiangyun looked at the iron armor these people were wearing. This iron armor was either obtained from eastern Liaoning or sent by Ai Dake's troops.

Three hundred cavalrymen can put a lot of pressure on many troops, but they are useless against the Mountain Farmers' Legion, which frequently comes into contact with cavalry units.

Everyone here is a warrior!

A thousand iron cavalrymen stepped out from behind the archers and charged swiftly towards the iron cavalry in front.

Both sides were wearing iron armor and had similar weapons, and they quickly clashed.

The first cavalry encounters quickly resulted in a decisive victory, with an almost one-sided crushing defeat.

For the first time, Yang Xiangyun showed a look of astonishment.

Niu Zhifu and Zhao Pengcheng, who were standing next to him, did the same.

Zhao Pengcheng immediately said, "Is this cheating?"

"It should be." Yang Xiangyun thought it was probably a decoy, since the Jurchens in his mind should be very brave and capable of taking on three, four, or five strong men at once.

Instead of the short, skinny monkey in front of him who fell off his horse with a single impact and was casually killed by the mountain farmer's army.

More than three hundred Jurchen cavalrymen were surrounded and killed by a thousand men in just a few minutes, falling to the ground like paper.

Just when Yang Xiangyun thought the remaining Jurchens would flee to lure him forward, he heard a cavalry scout return with news.

"General, Jurchen light cavalry are charging towards us from three miles away, surrounding us from three directions. There should be four or five thousand of them."

Yang Xiangyun found it unbelievable. If it was an encirclement, then those in front were the main force intending to break through their formation.
"Are the Jurchens really that weak?" Ma Weiming voiced everyone's doubts.

Yang Xiangyun immediately said, "Regardless of whether it's a trick or not, kill all the Jurchens who get close! Divide the troops into two groups and sweep them away, then surround them from the opposite direction using the ram's horn formation!"

"As ordered!"

Niu Zhifu and Ma Weiming's infantry quickly mounted their horses, put on their helmets, and launched a counter-encirclement campaign against the Jurchens.

Five thousand fully paid, fully equipped young soldiers, who had been working for the state for several years, quickly surrounded a group of fishing and hunting tribe members ranging from teenagers to their fifties.

From the military formations and the level of coordination between soldiers, to the winter clothing they wore and the weight of their warhorses, everything was vastly different.

A one-sided massacre quickly unfolded, and not only the Jurchen warriors, but also the surrendered prisoners and the Jurchen women and children who were unable to fight fell to the ground.

No need for spoils of war, no need for prisoners, no need to collect any financial reports.

Destroy all fishing and hunting tribes that can be found.

Leave no survivors, only corpses.

The Liao people, Jurchens, and Bohai people who came upon hearing the news collected and burned the corpses.

Having witnessed the might of the Northern Warriors, the leader of the Jurchen people sighed after following the trail of hundreds of thousands of corpses to the Mountain Farmers' Legion that was burning the village: "This time, the real Mountain Farmers have arrived."

Yelü Baocai nodded in agreement.

"Yes, I saw the newspaper from the mountain farmers. The one who led the troops here before was a Han Chinese. No wonder when we came together, he seemed to speak and act like a Han Chinese. It turns out he really is a Han Chinese!"

Yang Xiangyun and his men continued their killing spree until the New Year, also killing many unrelated wild Jurchens, causing most of them to flee to more remote and cold deep mountains.

After killing over 100,000 enemies, Yang Xiangyun and others finally regrouped their troops and returned to the city.

Those who were captured by the Jurchens were all killed, whether they were Liao or Han people, they could not possibly be mountain farmers.

After the five thousand people quietly returned to Shanhaiguan, Zhao Pengcheng led the people of Tiezhou to welcome them.

Yang Xiangyun breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Zhao Pengcheng.

Zhao Pengcheng took out a piece of yellow cloth and shouted loudly, "The Emperor's decree has arrived! Everyone, receive the decree!"

Yang Xiangyun and the others quickly dismounted and knelt on one knee to receive the imperial decree.

Zhao Pengcheng read aloud, "The number of enemies beheaded has been tallied and sent to me by carrier pigeon. You have done an excellent job!"

"The hereditary titles of Yang Xiangyun, Niu Zhifu, and Ma Weiming shall be revoked."

"Feng Niu Zhifu is appointed as a third-rank police superintendent, in charge of the security forces in the twenty-six prefectures of Pingyuan Province, and in charge of maintaining order and dealing with bandits and rebellions within the province!"

"Ma Weiming is appointed as a third-rank military officer major general in Pingyuan Province, commanding 10,000 troops to guard Shanhaiguan Pass and assist the eastern Liaodong region in conquering Goryeo. He is allowed to recruit and train soldiers locally."

"Feng Yang Xiangyun was appointed as a second-rank lieutenant general. After handling the Shanhaiguan matter, he was to return to Luoyang to report on his duties. Those who were brave were to be promoted."

"The rest of the people will be registered in the public household, and the mountain farmers will be registered in the rural household of Wuzhou. The descendants and relatives of the dead will be supported by King Wu and registered in the rural household of Wuzhou."

Hereditary succession abolished?
Did they really abolish hereditary succession so easily?
Yang Xiangyun didn't feel any difficulty in this expedition at all. It felt like he was going out to kill a group of short, savage savages who were starving and cold, and whose weak warhorses couldn't carry heavy loads.

"Thank you for your great favor, Your Majesty!!"

Everyone expressed their gratitude in unison, clearly indicating that the battle had satisfied King Wu.

However, Yang Xiangyun suddenly began to feel afraid, fearing that King Wu would be unhappy if he knew that the opponent was so weak this time.

After all, King Wu's attacks were one-sided, making it impossible to discern strength or weakness.

But this time, the Jurchens are really weak...

After the victory banquet, Yang Xiangyun honestly told King Wu about the comparison of the two sides' combat strength during the battle.

Inside the main hall of the Ming Palace in Luoyang, Beiji Wu and several other rotating commanders listened quietly to Yang Xiangyun's report.

Arctic Martial said with a serious expression, "I finally understand what mistakes I've made over the years, which has led me to feel like I have a lot of strength but can't use it."

"I was too considerate of you, always thinking that you knew what was more appropriate, and I left the matters of fighting to you yourselves."

"But you don't know how to fight a war at all, and you don't have a clear objective. As a result, you think that as long as you defend the city and don't let anyone in, everything will be fine. Once you go out, you can't make any decisions about how to fight, and you always prioritize stability."

"Even if you guys give the orders yourselves, your subordinates won't listen; they're always thinking about protecting themselves."

“This time, the Jurchens were indeed too weak. In fact, you have always been receiving the best treatment and equipment. When Emperor Wen was in power, your fighting strength was several times stronger than in previous years.”

"This is also my first time being emperor, and I overlooked this point. Sometimes I should give firm orders so that everyone will move towards the same goal and reduce internal friction."

"There is no need to doubt your strength. As long as you dare to fight and charge forward without losing your composure, you are a qualified army!"

"It's about time to fight in the Southwest. You need to know the true strength and resources of the Shan Nong Kingdom. Go to Tongzhou for a month of advanced training and get to know the true weapons of the Shan Nong Kingdom."

After realizing why he could never defeat others, Beiji Wu admitted his mistake and allowed his men to come into contact with guns and cannons, so that they would understand why he was not afraid of the Hu people's rebellion.

(End of this chapter)