Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 95 Admit
Inside the Daye Hall in Luoyang, the capital of the Wen Dynasty.

Emperor Wanye, the founding emperor of the Wen Dynasty, had a gloomy face like a ghost and had not uttered a word for three or four minutes.

The people kneeling in the hall dared not speak or raise their heads.

Starting at night, Wanye, who woke up in the middle of the night, tossed and turned and couldn't fall back asleep.

Li Laiyong, the first general to establish the Wen Dynasty, died in battle at Beiyuan. His 50,000-strong army was completely annihilated by the Beiyuan Guard, and countless soldiers surrendered.

Even the most crucial Wanzhou cavalry, most of whom surrendered to the Shannong people!

The scouts no longer described the mountain farmers as a ragtag group of one or two hundred, but as a combined force of mounted archers and spearmen from the Northern Plains Guard, and a border army with fortified cities!

Wanye looked at the civil and military officials in front of him. These were all people who had fought alongside him to establish the country and conquer the world. Now they were all old men with white hair in their twilight years.

“Li Laiyong is not a greedy and reckless person. This time it’s not his fault. It was those people from Tongzhou Guard who lied to me, saying there were only one or two hundred men. But when the main army arrived, we encountered twenty or thirty thousand men!”

"I will personally lead an army of 100,000 to annihilate this traitor!!"

Wan Ye, who conquered the world on horseback, was probably the most prestigious person in the army besides Li Laiyong; even Li Laiyong was not as prestigious as him.

Duke Huang Sheng of Zheng immediately said, "Your Majesty is of inestimable worth; how can you risk your life! This humble general is willing to lead troops to quell the rebellion and recover the Northern Plains!"

Duke Guo Ke of Qi quickly reassured him, "Your Majesty! The Shan Nong tribe has now surrendered tens of thousands of elite soldiers. If they march south, there will surely be another massacre, and the land of Ji in the east will also take advantage of the chaos. If Your Majesty personally leads the expedition at this time, there is a risk of turmoil in the south!"

"We humbly request Your Majesty to remain in Luoyang. We, your old ministers, are willing to defend the Northern Plains and serve Your Majesty with utmost loyalty!"

The Duke of Chu changed his approach, saying, “Your Majesty, the Northern Plains connects to the borderlands. The Northern Plains mountain farmers are able to advance and retreat at will. Why not contact the Turks and use the Hu people to deal with the Hu people? Moreover, the mountain farmers are extremely vicious. The most urgent task is to prevent the Northern Plains Guard and the three guards of Jizhou from engaging in petty scheming and colluding with each other.”

Wanye was also in a dilemma. He could now lead the Wanzhou Iron Cavalry and elite troops to the north to quell the rebellion, but the question was whether he could win.
If we can't win, the foundation we've built over the years will collapse.

They certainly wouldn't have taken the Mountain Farmers seriously before, but now that the enemy has annihilated the brilliant strategist Li Laiyong in open battle, directly crushed their elite cavalry and ace cavalry, and even their archer formation and spearman formation, which unleashed a barrage of arrows, have been broken.

The several garrisons were clearly no match for them; the impregnable passes and fortresses were as fragile as paper in front of the mountain farmers.

Without the advantage of impregnable city walls, they were no match for the mountain peasant army, who were skilled in archery and horsemanship and adept at traversing high mountains and steep ridges, in open field battles.

If the fighting continues, Tongzhouwei will definitely fall, and Jinzhou will also fall.

Just as Emperor Wanye was hesitating, a eunuch strode over.

"Your Majesty, an urgent report has arrived from Tongzhou Guard."

Wan Ye's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.

Has Tongzhouwei fallen?

It's normal that Tongzhou Guard fell, after all, the three guards of Beiyuan all fell in about a day.

It's normal that the Tongzhou Army was captured and taken over after their previous campaigns, and the Tongzhou Guard was also taken over. There's no need to have any expectations for that place.

How could someone who could kill Li Laiyong's 50,000-strong army not be able to take down a single Tongzhou garrison?

The imperial eunuch received the secret letter from the messenger eunuch, opened it, and looked at the hidden poison and its contents.

"Your Majesty, an urgent report has arrived from Tongzhou Guard. Beiji Wu, a mountain farmer from Beiyuan Guard, has released Prince Ning's heir, Wan Yong, returned the remains of the Duke, and submitted a letter of surrender seeking peace."

Emperor Wanye, who had prepared for the worst, was suddenly stunned.

Seeking peace?

Wan Ye had already planned out how to deal with the fall of Tongzhou Guard and how to deploy defenses after the Shan Nong Army marched south into Jinzhou.

Anxious, Wan Ye quickly grabbed the urgent report from Tongzhou Garrison.

There were three urgent reports in total: one was a letter from the Tongzhou Garrison, one was Wan Yong's explanation, and one was a surrender document written by Beiji Wu. Everyone below was waiting and breathed a sigh of relief.

Ten minutes later, after he felt that Wan Ye had finished reading the letter, Duke Huang Sheng of Zheng expressed his opinion.

"Your Majesty, although our army suffered a crushing defeat this time, the Mountain Farmers must have also suffered heavy losses and won by sheer luck. Their strength must be much weaker than before. We should take this opportunity to annihilate the Mountain Farmers and eliminate any future troubles!"

Wan Ye remained silent, frowning as he pondered the Duke of Zheng's opinion.

"Take a look first, then get up."

Wanye had the eunuchs hand over the three documents to several generals and ministers for review.

Scouts from Tongzhou Guard confirmed that the Shan Nong tribe now had more than 20,000 soldiers and nearly 30,000 warhorses at their disposal, and had taken over the light cavalry under Qin Jian's command and the Wanzhou Iron Cavalry under Li Jiren's command.

There was no mutiny in the entire Beiyuanwei army, and the surrendered soldiers did not flee or rebel on a large scale.

Kitaharawei suffered approximately 2,000 casualties, while at least 30,000 surrendered.

Wan Yong then recounted his own fighting spirit and the various orders given by Li Laiyong, explaining how the two sides fought at that time.

There were no surprise attacks. Apart from Beiji Wu taking over the empty city occupied by 10,000 logistics personnel with 100 men, which blocked their retreat, every move of Beiyuan Guard was within Li Laiyong's sight.

But they just couldn't catch up, and they couldn't beat them.

There was no way to escape, and no way to catch up. Two thousand cavalrymen were beaten bloody while chasing one man, and a thousand iron cavalrymen were killed in a counterattack when they surrounded and killed several hundred of them. The army formation was broken by Beijiwu and the fearless Beiyuan Guards who risked their lives to break through.

They couldn't possibly win with numbers against fewer opponents; the enemy wasn't a rabble, but thousands upon thousands of elite troops.

The surrender document written by Beiji Wu clearly stated that he was willing to submit and no longer wanted to continue fighting. It also explained that the reason for the uprising was that the Beiyuan general wanted to kill his entire clan and refused to provide food relief to the people in exchange for his release. Left with no other choice, he led a group of unloved soldiers to seize the city.

Although they possess the courage to fight ten thousand men, they do not want to continue the war, nor do they want to oppose the Wen Dynasty. As long as the Wen Dynasty agrees to let the Shan Nong tribe manage the current county, they are willing to guard the frontier in the future and prevent the northern nomads from moving south.

Because his parents died early and he had no children of his own, he sent his only brother, Beiji Yong, and his family as hostages to show his sincerity.

If you don't want to admit it, you don't have to. But if you want to continue fighting, then we will never propose peace again. We will immediately head south to plunder gold, silver, jewels, and women, and kill officials but not civilians.

Wanye looked at everyone and asked, "What do you think? Do you accept his surrender?"

No one else could find a problem. Now the mountain farmers only wanted a title and promised to occupy only one county and not invade other places.

They didn't mention paying compensation, nor did they ask for a title; they were willing to voluntarily submit in exchange for peace.

Generally speaking, they would definitely disagree; if they could kill these traitors, they wouldn't let them go.

But the main problem now is that we can't beat them.

If the other side is willing to cease hostilities, continuing the fighting here will cause problems with how to deploy the army and arrange border defenses.

As an emperor, he desperately needed to regain face after suffering defeats and loss of life.

Huang Sheng immediately said, "I think we should first appease the mountain peasants and, as he requested in his letter, appoint them as chieftains and generals. We can deal with this area after the Tongzhou Guard army is replenished or after we have dealt with the other border rebels."

Wanye also thinks so.

It must be eliminated, but since it can't be eliminated now, we can only wait and see.

"Issue Marquis Zhang Jian of the West to persuade the Shan Nong tribe to surrender, appoint the Shan Nong tribe chief Bei Jiwu as the general of the Bei Yuan Guard, and send him with 100,000 taels of silver to bring back the Wanzhou Iron Cavalry and the sons of the generals!"

Wanye needs to bring back some elite troops, such as the Iron Cavalry and disciples of aristocratic families. These people have been trained for several years, and Wenchao does not have that much time to train another batch of elites.

These are all supporters of Wanye, we must buy them back!

(End of this chapter)