Chapter 372
Chapter 372 – Zhao Yun VS Budugen – Part 1
May 1st, 190 A . D .
Ji Commandery
Budugen received the report that Xu Huang had moved from Beiping to Xiangping . As Ji County located west of Beiping, this was their golden chance to attack Tong's cities!
Budugen had two targets .
One was Zhongshan, which was the territory of Zhen Yi . The other one was Beiping, which Xu Huang had just left .
At first, he wanted to seize Zhongshan as it was protected by only 10,000 garrisoned police officers . However, he was afraid of Julu, where Tong's father was residing . As Julu was Tong's secondary capital city, Budugen estimated that Tong might have hidden more forces there .
Budugen's deduction was accurate . Zhang Jiao, Sima Fang, and Te Langpu established a military academy there . Therefore, Julu was their military center which continued training soldiers and police officers for years .
Each year, at least 10,000 soldiers and policemen graduated from the school, and they would be transferred to Tong's affiliated cities . Elite students with good moral character were also enlisted into an advanced military academy in Ye Capital, which they would soon join the FBI agency .
Furthermore, Julu was also a headquarter of Tong's cannon factories . Each month, a bronze wheeled cannon was produced there .
In other words, had Budugen picked Zhongshan as his target, he would have faced a reinforcement of students from this academy and Zhang Jiao's followers, including their cannon battalion .
Now, Budugen aimed to take Beiping . Once the commandery was occupied, Xu Huang would be isolated within Gongsun Du's territory . Then, their massive army would destroy itself from the lack of supplies .
.
May 10th .
Budugen mobilized his 20,000 men-army to Beiping . His force consisted of only Xian Bei horse archers .
Budugen refused to conscript forces from the local . Instead, he called his tribesmen and his supporters from his homeland here, so he could share his wealth with them .
Furthermore, all able men in Ji Commandery had already migrated to Zhongshan, Nanpi, or Julu since they heard about Gongsun Zan's death . Only elders remained in this region . Thus, Budugen could not draft the local people .
This left Ji County unprotected . Budugen had to gamble, or he would not be able to defeat the strongest powerhouse like Tong .
.
May 17th .
Budugen's deployment news reached Zhongshan . Zhen Yi, the governor of Zhongshan, was alarmed .
Zhen Yi had attempted to seduce Tong with his daughters a few years ago . Currently, most of his daughters had already married, leaving only his youngest daughter, Zhen Fu (Zhenji) .
Zhen Yi finally joined Tong's clan chat this year, and he could make use of it at this moment .
The news relayed to Tong and everybody right away .
Zhao Yun: "I'm already at Beiping . I'll take care of this . "
Tong: "Zhen Yi, mobilize your soldiers and take over Ji County right now!"
Zhen Yi: "It shall be done, your majesty!"
Tong: "Wang Yun, deploy troops from Nanpi to support Beiping . "
Wang Yun: "Understood, my lord . "
Tong: "Zhao Yun, you're the commander of the defensive forces . "
Zhao Yun: "I won't let you down!"
A new temporary force was formed to protect Beiping .
Meanwhile, Tian Yu brought 10,000 police officers to Linyu County . Although they were not trained for war, they had experienced with defensive tactics, such as riot management and city battles . Thus, they entered the county and maintained the order of the local civilians .
The rest of Xu Huang's reserve troops in Linyu also helped . They had already fortified the county and got ready for any surprise attack from the barbarians .
Still, none of them detected an ambush party after Xu Huang had fortified a camp on the East Linyu .
The game of patience had begun since the beginning of the month, yet nobody was aware of this but Xu Huang and other high ranking officers in the main army .
.
May 20th .
Kebineng returned to Xiangping to report their battle result to Gongsun Du .
Upon hearing that Xu Huang retreated, Gongsun Du celebrated .
"Haha! Good job, brother Kebineng! You've proved your worth!"
"It's too early to celebrate . We haven't really defeated that Silver Axe Legion yet . "
"But a win is still a win . You forced them into a retreat, so that's an achievement . Come, toast with us! Cheers!"
"…"
Kebineng had a bad feeling about Xu Huang's action . He believed that the fortification was the start of something irreversible .
.
May 23rd .
Budugen reached Beiping City without an interception from Tong's forces . He began constructing siege ladders, hoping to attack the city the next day .
To intimidate the city defenders, he also set up his camp 500 meters away from the city wall!
Zhao Yun observed the barbarian soldiers from the top of the wall with his subordinates . All followers cursed at these invaders in anger as their action was a direct slap to their face .
However, Zhao Yun was unperturbed . As he faced many battles and experienced many failures, he learned from his mistakes .
His mind was as calm as still water . He gazed into the direction of his enemy camp as he formed a scheme to counter the barbarian's plan .
"How many of you can ride a horse?"
A sudden question of Zhao Yun shut his subordinates' mouth . They turned to their leader as they counted their men .
Several of these soldiers were the former soldiers of Gongsun Zan . After they integrated themselves into Tong's system, many of them joined Zhao Yun bodyguard battalion .
Currently, Zhao Yun was one of the exceptional people who had the right to own private troops . He had 3,000 soldiers under his command .
"More than half of us were from White Rider, so it's about two thousand, perhaps . "
"That's good enough . Tell those thousand men to rest . We'll raid them at night!"
"S-Sir, but they have over 10,000 soldiers!"
"Night raid doesn't require troop's number but swiftness . Go gather the troops and oil supply . "
"Y-Yes, sir!"
At night,
Zhao Yun led two thousand riders to the camp of Budugen, but he did not attack right away . He told the soldiers to search for the stables of these men first .
It took them an hour to locate a few of them, and they also found the constructed siege ladders .
Without further ado, Zhao Yun commanded them to start tossing oil jars at any random watch towers, tents, wall, or any barricade that they could . Afterward, all of them launched fire arrows into the camp .
The soldiers did not understand why Zhao Yun decided to provoke them after they scouted for the vital facilities, but they followed through his command anyway .
A thousand riders caused chaos as they ignited a fire at the outer area of the camp . This caused panic as all 20,000 soldiers woke up at night to help, extinguishing the fire .
The commotion also alerted Budugen .
Budugen roared, "Find the raiders and kill them! Don't let them get away!"
Zhao Yun commanded his thousand men to continue shooting fire arrows into the base as they retreated back into the city with their horses .
Budugen's cavalries were late . Those soldiers had to run to their stable, picked a horse, formed a battalion, and then charged at Zhao Yun . By the time they were ready to fight, Zhao Yun and his men already ran back to their city .
They could not pursue either as the guards on the wall shot arrows at the chasers .
The entire fight lasted for less than 30 minutes . 20 Minutes were spent preparing, and the other ten minutes were used to chase the night raiders .
The damages were neglectable as only a few watchtowers and 300 soldiers killed in the raid .
Although frustrated, Budugen told his men to douse the fire and reinforce their defenses . None of them had a proper sleep as they had to prepare for another possible night attack .
However, the night attack did not come again . Budugen and others woke up all night for nothing .
.
May 24th .
Budugen brought the siege towers forward along with the 19,700 soldiers, planning to attack the city today .
His soldiers lacked sleep last night . They blinked and shook their head to stay active, or else they would have dozed off .
Budugen noticed this after he had ordered a deployment . Although he felt bad for the men and it was against his strategy logics, he chose to pressure the city by using a feint attack .
"One battalion, push the siege ladders forward!"
A battalion of one thousand men gathered behind their five siege ladders . They pushed to wheeled ladders forward to the wall .
As the siege ladders moved closer to the wall, the garrison troops lighted their arrows on fire . Soon, a volley of fire arrows rained onto the five siege engines .
The fire caught the wooden siege ladders, but the attackers came prepared . They splashed their prepared water buckets onto the wooden wall of their siege ladder structure, extinguishing the fire .
No fire arrows managed to destroy the siege engines .
Soon, all five ladders got to the range of 50 meters from the wall .
Zhao Yun, who was on top of the wall, bellowed, "Toss the oil!"
Two jars of lamp oil clashed onto the surface of each siege ladders .
"Fire the arrows at those spots!"
Archers aimed at the doused target and released their bowstrings . As soon as the fire arrows hit the soaked wood, it was set aflame!
All five siege ladders turned into a giant bonfire with several humans inside .
Budugen's soldiers attempted to extinguish the fire . Unfortunately, the water caused the flame to expand and cause the fire to spread further .
Before all siege tower could reach the wall, all soldiers already abandoned the weaponry .
All garrison soldiers cheered as they watched the retreating invaders .
Budugen stared at his defeated battalion with a grimaced face . He turned around and ordered his subordinates .
"Detach five battalions and have them construct more siege ladders . Also, make me ballistae! I want those archers dead!"
He was about to withdraw and let these soldiers standing for the entire day to pressure the defenders . Then, he thought of something .
"Get ten battalions to withdraw from this battle . Allow them to rest to the end of the day . At night, we'll use them in a night assault!"
Meanwhile, Zhao Yun also had a similar idea .
"How many soldiers do we have in the city?"
"About 12,000 soldiers, including us, sir . "
"Separate 5,000 of them . Tell them to rest for today . We'll arrange a shifting rotation duty, so everybody can have a proper rest before their shift . "
The staring contest continued until the sunset .
Budugen had already left the troops to rest since noon . Since he did not get a night of proper sleep last night, he went back to get some rest along with his men .
His remaining troops were 5,000 soldiers, the five battalions of a thousand man each .
Everyone believed that they did not have to fight, and it would be their turn to rest soon . Therefore, everyone's tension was at the lowest .
When the retreating signal sounded from their signal drummers, they cheered and turned around, waiting for their commanders to issue an order .
At that moment,
*CREAK*
The city wall opened, revealing a group of horsemen .
Someone bellowed, "CHARGE!"
Two thousand horsemen charged out from the city . Their leader was a knight in a white surcoat, Zhao Yun!
