Chapter 173

Good! Brothers! Pull yourselves together and send this pack of sons of bitches back to their hometowns.

After Zhou Yingyuan finished speaking, he nocked an arrow and shot down a Northern Yuan soldier who had charged into the gate.

The remaining Han troops also roused their remaining courage, some drawing bows, some wielding spears and swords to counterattack, and in a moment they killed or wounded hundreds of the Northern Yuan soldiers who had stormed the gate.

But at that moment, the Northern Yuan side's counterattack also began.

A volley of arrows like a swarm of locusts rose from outside the gate and shot toward the Han troops inside the doorway.

The Han troops gathered inside the doorway, lacking cover, were immediately shot dead, dozens of them.

Seeing this, Zhou Yingyuan also saw countless Northern Yuan soldiers climbing the city walls and continually flanking them from behind.

He instantly realized they could no longer stay in the doorway; it was a death trap caught between two attacks.

After nocking another arrow and shooting down a Northern Yuan soldier, Zhou Yingyuan seized the long spear at hand and shouted:

"Brothers, all charge out with me and let this pack of sons of bitches know how fierce our Han army is!"

As he spoke, he led the charge on horseback out of the gate, continually spearing and killing the Northern Yuan soldiers at the gate.

While slaughtering the enemy, he charged toward the Northern Yuan central command's banner not far outside the city, clearly intending to behead the enemy commander and seize a slim chance of survival.

"Brothers, follow General Zhou and fight to the death with these sons of bitches, the Northern Yuan barbarians!"

The thousands of Han soldiers inside the gate also reddened their eyes.

Regardless of whether they were wounded, they all took up their weapons and surged wildly out of the gate.

For these Han soldiers, rather than be shot to death by random arrows in the doorway,

it was better to rush out and clash with real blades and spears against the Northern Yuan soldiers; even if they died, they could inflict a bit more damage on the enemy.

The battle immediately entered a fever pitch, just after the first clash with the Northern Yuan forces.

The Han troops fell by several hundred, while the Northern Yuan forces suffered countless casualties.

The gate became like a meat grinder, blood flying everywhere; the Northern Yuan and Han armies were like two surging torrents.

They continually rolled toward each other; each time the waves collided, soldiers from both sides kept falling.

But the Han army had only a few thousand left.

Meanwhile, the Northern Yuan forces, aside from a few thousand troops left at other gates, had gathered their remaining main force of over fifty thousand at the south gate under Tuo Tuo Bu Hua.

As the Han numbers dwindled before their eyes, the Northern Yuan troops kept pouring in from the rear, growing ever more numerous.

"Damn sons of bitches, we can't win a war of attrition against them; the Northern Yuan have moved the main force of their four‑gate siege over here."

"It looks like we're going to die here today!"

After that Han officer speared a Northern Yuan soldier to death, he wiped the blood from his face and spoke in a mournful voice.

He wasn't afraid; he was thinking of his wife and children and parents inside the city, imagining their fate, and his heart filled with profound sorrow.

Originally, with their over ten thousand troops at Yu Lin Wei Cheng, they could have held the city completely.

Who would have thought that Ji An Marquis, that dog‑like creature, would steal and sell military grain, then suddenly abandon the city and flee, throwing the army into chaos and causing part of the Han troops to rout as well.

Now they face this dead‑end situation; just thinking about it makes one feel wretched.

Under the Northern Yuan central command's banner not far from the south gate.

Tuo Tuo Bu Hua and the Northern Yuan Crown Prince Borjigin Ba Ya'er gazed toward the gate where Zhou Yingyuan and others were fighting, their eyes flashing with soaring killing intent and cold ruthlessness.

"The Han army still has such a valiant commander; even in this desperate situation they refuse to surrender and dare to charge my banner!"

"This must be the Han army's Yu Lin Zhong Lang Jiang Zhou Yingyuan, who has caused our forces over ten thousand casualties in the past twenty days, right?"

"He is loyal and brave; it's a pity."

Borjigin Ba Ya'er shook his head in a pretended manner and sighed.

This was his first time participating in an external campaign as vice‑commander, aiming to leave a good impression on the Northern Yuan troops present.

These past few days he has been on the battlefield together with Tuo Tuo Bu Hua, commanding the central army, displaying composure and steadiness, worthy of note.

The Northern Yuan court is a highly lineage‑legitimized, relatively loose‑structured nomadic alliance where military and administrative powers are united.

Their supreme ruler is called the Great Khan, and must be a descendant of the Golden Family, the Borjigin clan.

The Great Khan's direct subjects are the core Khalkha tribe, while the other enfeoffed tribes are controlled by ten‑thousand‑household leaders and taiji.

The Great Khan holds only nominal supreme authority and can order them to provide troops in wartime.

The Northern Yuan's 80,000 troops dispatched against the Da Han mainly come from the Northern Yuan central authority's Wolf Mountain and the tribes under Tuo Tuo Bu Hua's control.

Thus, the commander of this Northern Yuan expedition is Tuo Tuo Bu Hua, and the vice‑commander is the Great Khan's own son, Borjigin Ba Ya'er.

Ba Ya'er is mainly here to gild his reputation; hearing that this campaign has a high chance of success, he asked his father for this assignment.

Tuo Tuo Bu Hua is the true decision‑maker of this war; he is not only the chief of the largest fiefdom granted by the Northern Yuan court and the Northern Yuan's military councilor, but also a famed Northern Yuan general and a staunch supporter of the Northern Yuan royal house.

Tuo Tuo Bu Hua has led the Northern Yuan to victory in multiple external campaigns and enjoys great prestige within their army.

Hearing the crown prince's lament, Tuo Tuo Bu Hua laughed and said:

"Indeed! The Han army has never lacked brave generals; under their Taizu and Chengzu emperors, mighty commanders were as numerous as clouds."

"It's a pity that the Han people love internal strife too much; many Han officials are skilled at infighting but inept at external warfare."

"If it weren't for the Ji An Marquis, Lu Heng, the main commander of Yu Lin, abandoning the city and fleeing, we would have had no chance to take Yu Lin Cheng this quickly."

"Of course, we also owe it to the intelligence from Manchuria telling us that Yu Lin Zhen was short of grain; otherwise we wouldn't have marched straight to Yu Lin Wei Cheng and suffered such heavy casualties in a prolonged siege."

"Still, it's all worth it; once Yu Lin Cheng falls, the Guanzhong region of the Han dynasty will be ours to roam at will."

Crown Prince Borjigin Ba Ya'er shook his head and gave a cold snort, saying:

"Manchuria suffered a crushing defeat in Liaodong last year; now that they've allied with us, they merely want to use our strength to wear down the Han!"

"Once we have looted enough wealth, iron, livestock, and population from the Han, we will return to the court; we must not let Manchuria profit for free!"

If it weren't for the Manchu side offering sufficient benefits and intelligence this time, how could the Northern Yuan court have agreed to join them in invading the Han!

But the Manchurians' idea of letting the Northern Yuan and the Da Han wear each other out so they can profit behind the scenes is a pipe dream.

"What the crown prince said is that the Han side is estimated to have already sent reinforcements, which should arrive after a while."

We'll fight fast and finish fast; once we've seized enough gains we'll pull back, letting the Manchu Qing and Hunye contend with the Great Han while our Great Yuan sits back and reaps the profits.

Tuo Tuo Bu Hua finished speaking, then he fiercely waved his hand and shouted at the Northern Yuan Army soldiers behind him:

The Han Army is few! Lads, kill them all! The riches and women of Yu Lin Cheng are still waiting for you!

At Tuo Tuo Bu Hua's command, the Northern Yuan Army behind him, like a flood, sounded the war drums and then dispatched five thousand men, their faces fierce, as they shouted.

Like a black torrent, like mountains overturning and seas overturning, they again surged toward the South City Gate to attack.