Chapter 1606: The Battle of Fuyuan

About five hundred li east from Aolai City along the Yazi River lies Fuyuan City, originally the seat of Pouali, one of the Five Tribes established by the Liao, and also the last tribe pacified during Ma Renyu's eastward campaign; after taking the city, it was renamed Fuyuan City.

Fuyuan City counts as the most remote town under the jurisdiction of the Andong Protectorate, and it is a military stronghold with very few civilians — even fewer than Aolai City — yet it maintains a standing garrison of three thousand soldiers.

Though remote, its strategic position is the most critical, and the conditions of the surrounding tribes are the most complex. Apart from the Pouali tribe, which was nearly exterminated by the Han army, it is essentially surrounded by Jurchen tribes.

Unlike the civilized Jurchen who were relocated to Liaodong by the Khitan, countless wild Jurchen survive among these White Mountains and Black Waters — primitive, fierce, and savage — and the various wild Jurchen tribes range from a thousand households for the smallest to several thousand for the largest, making them difficult to conquer.

East of Fuyuan lie the Wunü Jurchen and the Donghai Jurchen; to the north are the Wure tribe and the Alimei tribe; to the west is a remnant of the Heishui Mohe, the Bigude tribe, formerly one of the Khitan's subject tribes.

It can be said that the eastern region of Andong centered on Fuyuan City is the most turbulent area under Andong's governance. In the campaigns against the various barbarian tribes, large-scale sorties from Fuyuan have been launched three times, yet they have never been able to fully pacify the region.

Forced by the special circumstances here, a heavy garrison was stationed, and besides the three thousand registered Han soldiers, there are also a thousand auxiliary troops.

In early autumn this year, given the unceasing disturbances and deteriorating situation in the Fuyuan region, the Protectorate decided to conduct another purge against the surrounding Jurchen tribes to awe the various barbarians. The target chosen was the Wure tribe to the north.

Patrol Inspector Tian Qinzuo personally led the army on campaign. The northward advance went smoothly — how could the Wure tribe be a match for the Han army? They had no strength to resist in force. After a few small skirmishes, they fled in panic, giving the Han army a tally of three hundred decapitated heads and over a thousand captives. Along the way, even the neighboring Alimei tribe kept far away, hiding deep in the mountains. Some Alimei people even swam across the sea, crossing the strait, and fled to Sakhalin Island.

However, this Han army campaign was still a failed military operation — the gains were small, the Wure tribe was not eliminated, and most critically, trouble broke out in their own backyard.

With the Han army on campaign, Fuyuan City was inevitably left vulnerable. This was, after all, not Aolai City — even with five hundred soldiers left behind, it was hard to guarantee complete safety. But as luck would have it, the Donghai Jurchen grew bold beyond reason, united their tribes, gathered nearly ten thousand able-bodied tribesmen to come out of the mountains, and attacked Fuyuan City.

These wild Jurchen had poor organization, poor training, poor weapons, and not even a single decent suit of armor, but many ants can kill an elephant — the defenders were after all outnumbered twenty to one, and casualties were unavoidable.

Fuyuan City could not be taken, of course. Though the walls were low, they were sufficient to rely upon, and the Han army had crossbows, fire arrows, and other sharp weapons to assist. No matter how fearless the Jurchen were, they could not break through by brute courage alone.

But the settlements and villages outside Fuyuan City suffered disaster. Even with timely warnings from the authorities, there were always those who could not evacuate in time — they were nearly looted clean, fields burned, houses destroyed, with over a hundred dead and wounded.

Tian Qinzuo, who was fighting the Wure people at the front, heard of the trouble in the rear and was both shocked and furious, both ashamed and enraged. He hated his own overconfidence for causing this chaos, and he hated those Donghai Jurchen — he, Patrol Inspector Tian, had killed so many barbarian natives in Andong, and yet there were still those who dared to defy his tiger's might so recklessly.

So, disregarding the pursuit of the scattered Wure people, Tian Qinzuo directly withdrew his army and rushed back to relieve Fuyuan City. When the Jurchen below the city learned that the Han army was returning, having suffered enough losses in their encounters with the Han army over the past few years, they unhesitatingly chose to retreat, preparing to flee back to their lairs.

But though they wanted to leave, the Han army at Fuyuan was unwilling to let them go. Having rarely suffered losses, they decisively sallied out under the leadership of Commandery Duke Ma Huaiyu of Fufeng, pursuing and harassing, delaying their march, refusing to let them retreat easily.

Previously they had not engaged in field battles to ensure the city's safety and to await reinforcements, avoiding unnecessary casualties in open combat — but this did not mean the Han army dared not fight in the field.

In fact, even in open-field engagements, the fully equipped Han army could still fight one against ten against these poorly armed Jurchen. Ma Huaiyu, in his years at Andong, had participated in many campaigns against barbarian natives, accumulating considerable military experience — the man was thoroughly tempered by it. Bold as well, he took only two hundred cavalry out of the city, flexibly maneuvering against them, stubbornly holding the Jurchen in place — the more they hurried to retreat, the less he let them have their way.

Ma Huaiyu's actions were valuable — he held on until Tian Qinzuo arrived with the main force, delivering the fatal blow and achieving victory in the Battle of Fuyuan.

Though the battle is named the "Battle of Fuyuan," the actual site of engagement was before Xihe Ridge, a hundred li southeast of Fuyuan. Both sides were in poor condition. The Han army had marched back and forth several hundred li and fought against the Wure people, leaving them exhausted. The Jurchen were not much better — having lingered too long before Fuyuan City, suffered casualties from the defenders' attacks, and been harassed endlessly by Ma Huaiyu's guerrilla tactics while desperately trying to retreat, their only advantage was greater numbers.

But no matter how one compared, the gap in absolute strength between the two sides was significant. After a fierce battle, the Donghai Jurchen collapsed and fled in utter defeat, scattering without any organization into the mountains and forests.

In this battle, the Han army achieved a complete victory — two thousand decapitated heads, over three thousand captives. The Donghai Jurchen had come with over ten thousand men in a clamor, and fewer than half escaped.

However, the Han army also suffered considerable losses. Even armed to the teeth, casualties are unavoidable in cold-weapon combat, especially since the Han troops in Andong were mostly light cavalry and light infantry.

Of course, their greatest advantage lay in their cavalry — a great killing instrument against the savage Jurchen, galloping across the battlefield, coming and going like the wind, supporting the infantry's fighting, leaving the Jurchen with no means to counter.

But even so, in the Battle of Fuyuan, Han casualties exceeded three hundred men. For the Han army, this was already a considerable loss. In past pacification operations in Andong, over several years, the Han army's total dead numbered only about a thousand, with most casualties occurring among the auxiliary tribal troops not counted in the losses — actual Han army dead and wounded were few. But this time, it was a breakthrough.

Therefore, even though he had won the counterattack against the Donghai Jurchen, Tian Qinzuo's first act after the battle, besides reporting the results to the Andong Protectorate, was to write a self-accusation memorial to the court in his personal capacity.

Especially after seeing the devastated Fuyuan City, Patrol Inspector Tian was completely broken. When had he ever suffered such a loss, especially at the hands of these native barbarians? More importantly, it was the feeling of being violated.

On the other hand, Fuyuan, being a remote military town, developed and built at a naturally slow pace — its environment was even more primitive than Aolai City, and Han civilians were even scarcer than Han soldiers.

And yet, the meager fruits of several years of development were destroyed completely by the Jurchen. Tian Qinzuo had lost tremendous face this time. Even with a great victory over the enemy, killing thousands, could those barbarian natives compare with the lives and property of Han soldiers and civilians?

Under these circumstances, Prince of Qin Liu Xu, accompanied by his staff and attendants, arrived at Fuyuan City for an inspection. In fact, there was hardly anything to see in Fuyuan City at present — at most, he could console the Han civilians who had suffered from the native invasion and reward the garrison troops who had labored hard in the campaign against the bandits.