Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 741: Chapter 574 Scare Them a Bit!_2

Duan Qirui still somewhat underestimated the Wuliang Royal Court; he believed that Beiyuan Town could withstand the full onslaught of the Wuliang Royal Court, but he overlooked one fact: the severe shortage of soldiers in Beiyuan Town.

At this moment, Wu Tuo had already mustered a massive army of three hundred thousand. He drafted young and strong men from various clans, hundreds from small clans, one to two thousand from medium-sized clans, five to six thousand from large clans, and twenty to thirty thousand from clans of vassal kings.

Such a draft of the young and able would not even impact the agricultural and pastoral work of these clans.

In contrast, Beiyuan Town only had one hundred and twenty thousand Camp Soldiers, which included the Town and Rescue Camps, and besides the Camp Soldiers, Beiyuan Town supposedly had over three hundred thousand military households capable of providing the same number of soldiers.

But what about the reality? Out of Beiyuan Town’s one hundred and twenty thousand Camp Soldiers, only sixty thousand from the Town Camp could truly be considered elite, while the remaining sixty thousand from the Rescue Camp had less than sixty percent actual soldier count.

As for drawing soldiers from the military households, that was even more far-fetched. Beiyuan Town had serious issues with military household desertions, and the garrison soldiers amounted to less than forty percent. Don’t assume that Wang Bin’s Iron Origin Guard was just impoverished; in reality, all garrisons of Beiyuan Town were similar to Iron Origin Guard, and many were even worse.

At least Wang Bin did not encroach upon the military households’ allocated farmland or forcibly requisition their grain during his years in Iron Origin Guard, and he certainly did not treat soldiers like slaves.

Therefore, for the military households of Iron Origin Guard, Wang Bin was actually a good official.

In fact, Chongshan Town in the past wasn’t much different from the present Beiyuan Town. When Yang Zhenshan first entered Chongshan Town, the military households were also severely understaffed, and the fighting capability of both the Town and Rescue Camps was quite poor, which was why Zhang Shouwang led a large army to attack Fushan City and was soundly defeated.

However, later on, Lu Chongde and Liang Chu took charge of Chongshan Town. They secured a lot of money, grain, armaments, and warhorses for Chongshan Town, and through years of dedicated development, they managed to enhance the combat effectiveness of both the Town and Rescue Camps, and thus eventually eradicated the East Sea Hu Clan.

After that, Ji Feiyu took over as the General of Chongshan Town. Ji Feiyu wanted to rebel, so naturally, he tried every means to increase Chongshan Town’s power; plus, with Lu Chongde still around, the strength of Chongshan Town didn’t decline during that time; rather, it was slowly improving.

Subsequently, Ji Feiyu’s rebellion ensued, resulting in heavy losses for Chongshan Town, but then Yang Zhenshan took the reins of Chongshan Town.

It’s been eight years since Yang Zhenshan took over Chongshan Town, and only now does it possess such formidable strength.

While Duan Qifeng had been managing Beiyuan Town for over twenty years, in reality, he did not curb the decline of Beiyuan Town; he only slightly delayed it.

Now, faced with the invading Wuliang forces, the various Rescue Camps initially had exchanges of blows, but as the house servants of the different Assistant Generals were depleted, what remained was a ragtag group.

The longer the war dragged on, the more apparent Beiyuan Town’s defeat became.

Now, although Duan Qifeng could still hold Lin Yuan City, the various Assistant Generals had already crumbled, leaving him somewhat isolated within Lin Yuan City.

Under such circumstances, if Beiyuan Town couldn’t even withstand the Wuliang forces, how could they have the strength to penetrate deep into the hinterlands of the Wuliang Royal Court?

”Send orders to Tang Wuxi to immediately dispatch troops to surround and annihilate the enemy forces that have crossed Menghe Mountain!” Wu Tuo ordered coldly.

Agoucher hesitated for a moment, but then said, ”Great King, I fear Tang Wuxi may not dare to dispatch troops at will, after all, he still needs to guard Menghe Mountain Pass!”

Upon hearing this, Wu Tuo’s anxious heart immediately calmed down.

Indeed, compared to Menghe Mountain Pass, those enemy forces that infiltrated deep into the Royal Court territory were not the most critical.

A mere small path would not allow tens of thousands of troops to penetrate deeply, at most a few thousand enemy forces could infiltrate.

But if Menghe Mountain Pass were lost, the army of Chongshan Town would continuously flow into the hinterlands of the Royal Court.

”Then give orders to the Wanggu Tribe and Tatar Tribe to call up another thirty thousand young men to encircle and annihilate the enemies from Chongshan Town!” Wu Tuo ordered again.

”Aye!”

Agoucher complied.

Though the Wanggu Tribe and Tatar Tribe were the main force attacking Beiyuan Town from the south this time, they still had the capability to mobilize another thirty thousand young men for battle.

Wu Tuo’s reasoning wasn’t wrong, allowing the Chi Ci Clan to continue guarding Menghe Mountain Pass and ordering the Wanggu Tribe and Tatar Tribe to draft young men and encircle the forces of Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze.

However, he overlooked one thing: Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze would not obediently wait in place for the encirclement.

The information he received was already five days old, and now Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze had already entered the territory of the Wanggu Tribe, and even slaughtered four clans there, now heading west towards the Kerelie Tribe.

The orders Yang Zhenshan gave to Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze were to ravage freely, to keep attacking the clans of the Wuliang Royal Court, with the sole requirement being not to approach Yemi City.

The reason for such an order was to prevent Yemi City from entering a defensive state too early, shutting its gates, and making it impossible for Yang Zhenshan to launch a surprise attack.

In the northeastern part of the Kerelie Tribe’s territory, there is a clan named only as Zierjin.

Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze are leading soldiers in cleaning up the battlefield.

This clan, known as Zierjin, is a large one with a population of thirty thousand. Although five or six thousand able-bodied men had been conscripted, there were still several thousand young and strong men left in the clan.

But these thousands of young and strong men were almost like paper in front of the soldiers from the left and right camps; in just two hours, over half of the clan had been slaughtered by the soldiers of the left and right camps.

”Where are we going next?”

Yang Mingzhen sat in front of a felt tent, with three bodies behind him, and even more corpses laid out before him.

Grasping a water bag, Yang Chengze took a sip and said, ”Now we have to race against time. The Marquis only gave us two months, and within these two months, we also have to make it to the north of Menghe Mountain.”

”We’ve already spent more than twenty days!”

Yang Mingzhen asked, ”So what now?”

Yang Chengze pulled out a map and pointed to a location, saying, ”Attacking these small clans is meaningless to us!”

Looking at the map, Yang Mingzhen’s eyes brightened, ”Are you thinking of targeting the Kerelie Tribe’s flagship territory?”

Yang Chengze shook his head, ”No, the flagship territory of the Kerelie Tribe is a fortified city. We only have cavalry and can’t lay siege to it!”

”Our goal is not to attack the Kerelie Tribe’s flagship territory but to intimidate them!”

He grinned, his eyes filled with mischief.

Rubbing his chin, Yang Mingzhen thought for a moment, ”Perhaps we could try. If we are fast enough, we could reach the Kerelie Tribe’s flagship territory before those fleeing young and strong men do!”

They had just arrived in the Kerelie Tribe’s territory yesterday, and today they had just attacked the Zierjin clan. Although they tried their best to encircle and kill, many of the young and strong men from Zierjin still escaped.

If they were fast enough, they had a chance to reach the Kerelie Tribe before the news reached them.

Yang Chengze shook his head, ”No, don’t forget, the Kerelie Tribe might have Innate Martial Artists. Even if there aren’t any Innate Martial Artists, just a Half-step Innate Martial Artist is not something we can handle.”

”Once we encounter a martial artist we can’t deal with, there will be a large number of casualties among the soldiers. Then, our losses will be heavy!”

Along the way, they had actually suffered minimal losses: fewer than three hundred soldiers had died, and fewer than five hundred had been seriously injured.

Now, every time they attack a camp, they need to leave behind a thousand soldiers to take care of the wounded and the horses.

”We’ll just make a round at the flagship territory of the Kerelie Tribe and then kill our way to the Alaman Tribe in the west.”

”Perhaps by then the Marquis will have already made his move on Yemi City, and we may even be able to converge with the Marquis!”

Yang Chengze explained his plan.

After some thought, Yang Mingzhen agreed, ”Hmm, then let’s execute your plan. Just make a round at the flagship territory of the Kerelie Tribe and leave!”

After the two had agreed, they began ordering the soldiers to bury a pot for cooking. After lunch, they would head for the flagship territory of the Kerelie Tribe.

Although they were not in a rush for time, they still urged their horses on rapidly.

Their warhorses had already been replaced once. The ones they brought from Chongshan Town were either dead or had collapsed from exhaustion.

They had slaughtered all the horses that had collapsed, not leaving any for the East Sea Hu Clan.

The warhorses they were riding now had been seized from those clans.

It’s just that these horses’ constitution was not very good, not comparable to the ones they had before.