The Quzhao soldiers entered the barbican, only to see over a dozen corpses. They looked at each other in dismay, not understanding where all the men who entered before them had gone. Had they all broken into the city?
Just as they were wondering, they heard the retreat horn. Military orders were like mountains. The soldiers did not linger. Just as they were about to retreat, they heard the heavy thuds of three portcullises dropping almost simultaneously.
They were trapped inside the barbican!
Almost at the same time, a vibration came from beneath their feet. They finally knew where the previous men had gone, because they saw it.
Pfft.
Their bodies were similarly and mercilessly pierced through...
As the city gates closed, the soldiers who had entered the gates but had not yet reached the barbican were shot and killed by the Jinyang Army standing on the inner city tower...
Qu Chou watched the gates of Gefeng close; not a single soldier who had entered the city returned.
He ground his back teeth, a flash of fury crossing his face. He had underestimated these Han people.
In this siege of Gefeng, he had been utterly defeated.
Looking at the few defeated and ragged soldiers who managed to return, he knew the momentum was lost. Taking the city today was impossible.
Suppressing the unwillingness in his eyes, he ordered, "Retreat!"
Seeing the Quzhao army retreating in a miserable state, the soldiers on the city tower cheered. This was their first real battle, and their first time clashing head-on with the Quzhao people. They had won!
Hearing the cheers, Jiang Jin and a few other high-ranking officials showed no joy on their faces. They all knew that the real battle had just begun.
This time, the Quzhao people were simply here to test the waters. They had also underestimated them, coming unprepared and with relatively few men.
Next time, they would face a larger, stronger, and much better-prepared Quzhao army.
Jiang Jin's voice was stern and cold: "Clear the battlefield and tally the casualties."
The news of the Jinyang Army's victory quickly spread throughout the city. The commoners were thrilled, and many shed tears of excitement.
"Our Lord is wise."
"The Jinyang Army is divinely mighty; Heaven protects us Han people."
"I want to enlist too. I wonder if the Jinyang Army is still recruiting?"
"I don't know, maybe we should ask another day?"
"I'll go too!"
Listening to the discussions of the city's commoners, Yun Ci sighed, "It's a pity the city's population is still too small."
"Otherwise, with the Jinyang Army's current prestige, we could recruit many more soldiers and expand our forces."
A young servant also looked yearning, "The Jinyang Army is truly amazing. I even saw them running and climbing mountains with heavy weights before."
"Yeah, they eat well too. I heard they get to eat meat every day."
That was a bit of an exaggeration. Gefeng City's livestock farming had only just begun, so eating meat every day was impossible.
However, because Yun Chengxuan often went up the mountain and hunted a lot of wild game, they could basically have a meat dish every few days.
It was just that there were so many people, the soldiers only got some minced meat scraps, but this was still countless times better than what the commoners in the city had.
Underground in the barbican, inside the tunnels, the soldiers opened doors one by one, and dark, thick, bloody water immediately seeped out from the bottom of the pits.
Inside were the already cold corpses of Quzhao soldiers skewered together. The crowd looked excited, without a trace of fear, only feeling vindicated and thrilled.
In their hearts, they marveled at their Lord's brilliance and capability. This barbican was invincible; it could kill as many as entered, though cleaning it up was a bit troublesome.
Yao Ji ordered, "Look sharp and move all the corpses out. Clean up the bloodstains. Keep using the wooden spikes that are still intact, and replace the broken ones with new ones."
"Yes, sir!" The crowd's morale was high as they responded loudly.
When it came to moving corpses out of the pit, two people had to be mentioned. One was Yun Chengxuan, who grabbed one corpse in his left hand and another in his right, tossing them like throwing little chicks.
The dozen or so soldiers outside the door couldn't keep up. Before one corpse was moved away, another flew over. Soon, a pile of corpses formed at the tunnel entrance.
Shuangjiang was the same. Although her strength wasn't as exaggerated as Yun Chengxuan's, it was not to be underestimated. She grabbed the clothes of a corpse with both hands and gave it a gentle toss.
Bang, the corpse flew out of the pit and landed in the tunnel in a bizarre posture. The female soldiers worked in pairs, nimbly dragging the bodies out by their feet or hands.
On the city tower.
Watching the swift corpse-tossing duo, Jiang Jin couldn't help but sigh. Having great strength was certainly nice. For the other pits, dozens of soldiers had to go in and work together to lift people out. These two, however, were each worth dozens of men.
She turned and issued orders to Zhou Sui and the others: "Pick a spot, have the construction team come over to dig a pit together, and bury the corpses as soon as possible."
"Push the scaling ladders, trench bridges, siege rams, and weapons back into the city as quickly as possible and inventory them."
"Once the corpses in the barbican are dealt with, have the craftsmen come over to continue construction..."
The orders were issued one by one and executed at high speed.
Not long after Jiang Jin returned to the county office, Yao Ji brought the casualty report to her.
This time, a total of 1,945 enemies were annihilated.
The Jinyang Army suffered 4 dead, 2 severely wounded, and 53 lightly wounded.
It could be said that because of the barbican strategy, the Quzhao people practically didn't even assault the city; they all just ran into the barbican.
The casualties in the Jinyang Army were all caused by the Quzhao people's arrows, which rained down like scattered flowers.
Even though they all had shields, mistakes were inevitable. There is no such thing as a war without casualties.
Jiang Jin sighed and whispered, "An inch of land, an inch of blood. It's really true."
This was the first time she had soldiers die under her command. Although such a mortality rate was incredibly low for a siege battle of this scale, she knew very well that this was only the beginning!
Fearing she would feel burdened, after all, the princess was still young, Yao Ji softly comforted her.
"My Lord, we have heavily damaged the Quzhao army at the smallest possible cost. You need not blame yourself. War is like this; there are bound to be casualties."
Jiang Jin naturally understood this principle and didn't grieve for long: "Choose a good spot on Mount Gesi to give the fallen soldiers a proper burial."
"It's best if the location is higher up, so they can watch how our Gefeng kills the Quzhao people and the barbarians, and see our commoners living better and better lives."
"These are all things they bought for the people with their lives, and we will remember them forever."
Yao Ji felt his throat tighten. "Alright, I will have someone carefully select a place."
Jiang Jin: "Yes. From now on, that place will be our Gefeng's Martyrs' Cemetery."
Yao Ji had never heard of a Martyrs' Cemetery, but he understood the meaning behind it: "Yes, sir!"
"Make sure to distribute pensions to those with families. The families of the martyrs will enjoy various preferential treatments," Jiang Jin instructed.
It wasn't until evening that the battlefield was finally cleaned up.
Dong Si was the most excited. He watched the soldiers loot the corpses and collected over 100 strings of coins in total. All this money was registered by him and put into the treasury.
Jiang Jin convened another military meeting. The content of the meeting was to discuss how to defend against the Quzhao people's next attack.
"I think we can set up an outpost on Mount Dajin. The mountain is high there, so we can spot the enemy's situation in advance and report back early, giving us more time to prepare," Yao Ji suggested.
Mount Dajin was a steep little hill over ten miles away from Gefeng City. Despite being small, it was quite tall.
Jiang Jin thought it was feasible: "That works."
Yun Yu: "My Lord, should we set up obstacles in front of the city gates?"
In battles of this era, setting up obstacles on the enemy's inevitable path or in front of the city was standard practice, such as scattering caltrops, setting up abatis, chevaux-de-frise, and digging horse traps.
