Chapter 305 The Battle of Yangshan Pass (Part 2)

This battle, which had been a stalemate for nearly two months in its early stages, was finally about to begin in earnest.

Although both sides had massive armies, the narrow mountain roads and the small scale of the fortress meant that very few soldiers could actually be committed to the battle.

Only two catapults could be deployed, and each could only throw two stones weighing a dozen catties at a time. Their lethality was very limited, serving more as a form of intimidation.

In such narrow siege warfare, the large-scale engineering equipment designed by Gao Yuan was not necessarily useful; instead, these crude wooden ladders proved far more flexible.

Both sides possessed heavy infantry, so exchanging arrows was nothing more than a waste of energy and ammunition, serving no real purpose.

But Zhu Song did not know this. He still followed the textbook military strategies, first dispatching catapults and archers to provide suppressive fire to cover the advance of other soldiers.

On the city walls, the excited Nanyue Army soldiers took down the wooden boards bristling with arrows. Those behind them immediately set to work pulling out the arrows, handing them over to the civilian laborers to be sorted, packed, and sent to the warehouse.

Just like that, Zhu Song had gifted the Nanyue Army thousands of arrows for free.

Once the long-range "bombardment" ended, over a thousand Qian Army soldiers shouldered wooden ladders and charged toward the fortress, shouting battle cries.

Before they set out, Zhu Song had offered a bounty:

"A reward of 100,000 coins for killing one enemy. For beheading an enemy general, a reward of 20 mu of fertile land and one beauty. Anyone who scales the wall first will be promoted one rank, rewarded with 20 mu of fertile land and one beauty, and the entire army will revel for three days after entering the city."

Zhu Song firmly believed that heavy rewards would produce brave men; if he could not do it himself, he could let those who could do it for him.

Facts proved his strategy successful, as the soldiers could be said to have charged forward with great courage.

However, Xian Xing on the other side was no pushover; he led his men in dealing a heavy blow to the Qian Army using stones and rolling logs.

In just one hour, there were hundreds of casualties, and the corpses even piled up into a small mound beneath the city walls.

Looking at this scene, Zhu Song even thought to himself that they might as well use the corpses to pile up a staircase for the siege.

But these were just passing thoughts; not to mention the daily fighting, there was also the matter of cleaning up the battlefield afterward.

Just thinking about those city walls, which were over three zhang high, how many corpses would it take to pile up to that height?

On the first day of the siege, not a single Qian Army soldier managed to climb the city walls, and morale inevitably dipped.

Early the next morning, Zhu Song increased the rewards again:

"Anyone who scales the wall first will be promoted one rank, rewarded with 20 mu of fertile land, one plow ox, and one beauty."

That day, someone finally managed to climb the city walls, only to be quickly slaughtered by Xian Xing and his men.

The third day, the fourth day, and for nearly half a month afterward, although there was some progress in the siege, breaking through the city seemed to be a distant prospect.

The Qian Army's casualties had already exceeded 8,000, and Zhu Song found himself in a difficult position, like riding a tiger and unable to get off.

However, at this moment, a piece of news arrived that caused his fragile little heart to suddenly shatter.

Right behind them, at the other end of the Qitianling mountain pass, a fully armed Cavalry appeared within Chenzhou territory.

Two patrols and one supply convoy had already met their doom.

The provincial inspector of Chenzhou organized troops to counterattack, but not only did they fail to capture them, they were ambushed while retreating.

A Zhechong commandant from Chenzhou was killed in battle, and the Chenzhou garrison suffered losses of over 2,000 men.

These losses were still acceptable, but the biggest problem was that the supply route had been blocked.

Only after becoming the commander-in-chief did Zhu Song finally understand the hardships of running an army; provisions were a major headache.

With nearly 100,000 men including the civilian laborers, they needed nearly 2,000 shi of grain every day for men and horses.

Transporting provisions resulted in a loss of nearly 20% on the road, and when counting the consumption for the return trip, only 70% could actually reach the front line.

This meant that for one day of consumption by the army at the front, the rear had to cough up nearly 2,500 shi of grain.

This level of consumption was staggering, so a healthy and unobstructed supply line was the lifeblood of the army.

Zhu Song immediately realized the crisis and slammed the table as he stood up:

"What a sinister scheme, what a ruthless Gao Yuan!"

Everyone was shocked and hurriedly asked Zhu Song for clarification.

Seeing their confusion, Zhu Song did not hide anything and voiced his concerns:

"When General Jiang Huaizhen led the army to attack Bo Prefecture, they were also nearly wiped out after their supply route was cut off; in the end, it took a huge price from the imperial court to allow those tens of thousands of elite soldiers to escape with their lives."

"Does the Commander mean that Gao Yuan intends to do the same and use that tactic against us?"

Zhu Song handed the recently compiled battle reports to everyone:

"In my opinion, it is nine out of ten. I suspect that Gao Yuan intends to starve us to death and then extort a huge compensation from the imperial court."

After reading the battle reports, everyone broke out in a cold sweat.

Having spent many years in the military, they knew all too well how fragile an army with cut-off supplies was.

"Commander, what do you mean?"

"Retreat, retreat immediately. If we hesitate at all, we will be left with nowhere to die."

Zhu Song's attitude was very firm, and others trusted him quite a bit, so the Qian Army's retreat was very decisive.

Even though Gao Yuan blocked the front with continuous attacks and Xian Xing led his men to harass them from behind, Zhu Song still resolutely chose to retreat, retreating at all costs.

Faced with Zhu Song's such determined retreat, Gao Yuan could only take a bite out of them before reluctantly leaving.

After retreating to Pingyang County, Zhu Song and the other officers broke out in a cold sweat.

Because when they returned and took stock, the entire army had completely run out of food.

And after the provincial inspector of Chenzhou had his food shipments blocked several times, he had long since lost the desire to continue transporting supplies.

This meant that if Zhu Song had not decisively retreated, this army of tens of thousands would have faced a desperate situation of starvation beneath the walls of Yangshan Pass.

In this battle, the Nanyue Army wiped out a total of over 15,000 enemy troops, including over 3,000 prisoners.

They captured over 2,000 sets of iron armor, over 4,000 sets of leather armor, and a large quantity of other military supplies such as swords and arrows.

With minimal casualties of their own, this battle could be considered a great victory.

It was just a pity that Gao Yuan was very dissatisfied with this result; he had been eyeing those tens of thousands of sets of armor.

However, he did not expect that Zhu Song would have grown so quickly and that his mind could be so calm.

If this guy had lingered at Yangshan Pass for even three or five more days, they would have faced total annihilation.

It is a pity that there are no "ifs" in this world; everything could only remain in Gao Yuan's imagination.

Returning to Chenzhou, Zhu Song immediately wrote a memorial to inform the court of the reasons for his retreat.

In fact, he felt that this imperial expedition could not be considered a complete failure.

At the very least, these tens of thousands of new recruits had been trained and were now usable.

It was just that when he heard the news that all those spoiled brats had become prisoners, he almost vomited blood on the spot.

What was originally a minor loss had now suddenly turned into a devastating one.

Those Powerful Families could not watch their clan members become prisoners, so they had no choice but to grit their teeth and pay the ransom.

Sure enough, news soon came from the Capital City, and Gao Yuan had indeed opened his bloody maw:

Gao Yuan wanted the families of the captured soldiers, and in addition, demanded the imperial court compensate with 5,000 sets of iron armor, 300,000 shi of grain, 5,000 plow oxen, and 500 beauties.

This price was naturally Gao Yuan's opening bid, waiting for the court officials to bargain.

Soon, the imperial court sent the Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Zhang Hong, as a representative to Chenzhou.

Gao Yuan also correspondingly sent Wu Guiyi to engage in detailed bargaining with Zhang Hong.

This matter dragged on for nearly half a month before both sides finally reached an agreement:

Eighteen young noblemen were exchanged for all the families of the captured soldiers, and the imperial court issued an edict conferring the title of King of Yue upon Zhao Xiyao, rewarding her with 5,000 catties of silver and 200 beauties.