My Sims of the Eastern Jin Dynasty

The flash flood was just the prelude; what followed was the real clash of swords.

When Deng Jing and Han Yong led more than two thousand fresh troops out of the southern reef area, they were not faced with a well-prepared enemy, but a hellish place swallowed by floodwaters.

Everywhere you looked, there were people, all tangled together fighting in the mud and water.

"Shoot straight for the water fortress! Capture and kill Murong Yan!"

Han Yong's roar echoed through the wind and rain, reaching not only his own men but also the Han Chinese and other non-Han people. In response, the water fortress's defenses were breached in an instant, with the attackers shouting as they charged to capture and kill Murong Yan.

Han Yong was a little confused. He swung his knife and knocked down a dark figure that had rushed towards him. He didn't even see clearly whether it was Hu or Han before he shouted something that made such a big reaction.

Finally, he couldn't care less about anything else. He turned around and looked at the people behind him, shouting for them to maintain their formation and slowly advance in the general direction. The team was like a giant beast, killing everyone they faced with every step. This time, he wanted to gamble with Deng Jing on who would kill Murong Yan first.

Deng Jing's side was relatively calm. He led Liu Dan and Lu Da, and instead of rushing into the chaotic water fortress, he first cleared a foothold. Then, taking advantage of the lightning, he observed the surroundings. Every step was cleared by arrows, and he walked very steadily.

Soon, they encountered a Xianbei army that resisted far more fiercely than they had imagined. In particular, the vanguard soldiers of Murong Lie's army, which had been wiped out by the flash flood, spontaneously gathered into small resistance groups, causing considerable trouble for Deng Jing's troops.

The attack on the dock, initiated by Jiang Qianzhi and Tan Lin, was initially chaotic, but was met with a desperate counterattack from the Xianbei sailors who remained behind and some officers who had recovered. Fortunately, the surrendered Jin soldiers were quite capable, and with their overwhelming numerical advantage, they successfully occupied the dock.

But afterwards, wave after wave of Xianbei people tried to retake the dock, only to be repelled. Many did not die in battle, but were pushed and shoved into the sea, trampled to death, or swept away by the waves...

On the west side of the water fortress, Murong Lie, who had been forced back by the flash flood, led his remaining troops in an attempt to rush back to the water fortress, his eyes bloodshot from the fighting along the way.

"Kill! Kill them all! Kill all these Southerners! Kill all these traitorous slaves!"

He no longer restrained his subordinates, allowing them to vent their tyranny. Many auxiliary soldiers were indiscriminately slaughtered by these fanatical Xianbei remnants, further exacerbating the scale and chaos of the massacre.

This was a victory with no winners.

Deng Jing and Han Yong felt as if they were not defeating an army, but rather painstakingly slaughtering a frenzied forest of flesh and blood. Every time they cleared a small area, people from other places would immediately come in to fill it again.

Commands failed, tactics failed, leaving only the most instinctive slashing and survival.

The lakes on the mountain, which once belonged to the garrison, are now empty and desolate.

Murong Yan, protected by a small squad of absolutely loyal guards, fled here in a sorry state. He slid down to the ground against a remnant of the stockade wall, his face blank. The deafening sounds of fighting, screams, and wind and rain seemed to be a terrifying demonic sound drilling into his ears.

It's all over.

It wasn't a defeat on the battlefield, but rather a foreseen storm, a flood, and a madman who could calculate human nature to the extreme.

He didn't even have the strength to hate. Even when dawn broke and the rain stopped, he couldn't escape this island.

That person named Xiao Heng won't give him that chance.

The massacre at the foot of the mountain continued until dawn.

The torrential rain gradually subsided, turning into a cold drizzle, and the wind weakened, but it brought only an even stronger stench of blood. Deng Jing, his spear piercing Murong Lie's head, knelt on the ground, panting heavily, with five or six arrows embedded in his body.

Han Yong sat on a cart, his face slashed open, the flesh torn open, but he didn't bother to treat it. Among his men, fewer than 1,500 were still standing. The chaos and slaughter of the night had taken a toll that even more than a direct confrontation.

Jiang Qianzhi and Tan Lin walked from the direction of the dock, supporting each other, followed by dozens of equally disheveled men.

There were no cheers, no celebrations, only surrendered soldiers kneeling on the ground and corpses that refused to kneel.

Xiao Heng led Chen Da slowly from the southern mudflats, with less than half of the soldiers remaining behind them.

He trudged through the mud and corpses, his face expressionless, his gaze sweeping over the scene he had bought with the lives of countless others.

He quickly found Deng Jingmian, who was already unconscious. Seeing his injuries, he immediately ordered someone to go to Yuntai Temple to invite Master Xu.

He then found Han Yong, Liu Dan, Lu Da, and others one by one. Jiang Qianzhi was clutching the knife wound on his arm, while Tan Lin was covered in mud and leaning against a broken pillar. Fortunately, although these key members were all injured, they had all survived.

"Where is Murong Yan?"

Han Yong leaned against a dilapidated grain cart. When he saw Xiao Heng coming over, he didn't get up, but just spat out a word.

"I didn't see him when we stormed in; that old bastard ran faster than anyone else!"

Jiang Qian stepped forward and added, enduring the pain.

"My men have already searched the pier, even the fishing boats, but there's no trace of him. Now, the only places left to hide on the island are the mountain camps and the rocky reefs by the sea. He fled in such a hurry, he most likely went up the mountain to hide!"

Xiao Heng's eyes turned cold; he was determined not to let this last fish escape.

He raised his hand and pointed to the surrendered soldiers being guarded by the guards.

"Take these surrendered soldiers up to the mountains and search them! Anyone who tries to refuse will be killed on the spot!"

"promise!"

Han Yong and the others agreed in unison and immediately began making arrangements.

The search party stretched across the mountains, searching from dawn until afternoon. Han Yong and Liu Dan finally found Murong Yan's trail among the rocks on the north side of the sea.

He was tightly protected by a few surviving guards deep within the reef, staring blankly to the north, repeatedly muttering "the situation is hopeless," appearing as if he were in a daze.

Arrows pierced the air, and the guards fell to the ground one after another, causing the barrier protecting Murong Yan to collapse instantly.

Seeing that his path to survival was blocked, Murong Yan suddenly burst into a heart-wrenching cry, his cries filled with despair and resentment.

A moment later, he frantically broke free from the remaining guards' grasp and charged towards the surging sea, roaring...

On the third day, the sea breeze in the early morning finally eased the stench of blood on the road.

Near the north, on a newly turned plot of land, stand several huge mounds.

There was no tombstone, only a simple wooden plaque placed in front of the mound, with the words "Joint Tomb of Veterans of the Northern Army, and the People of Ganyu Rest Here" written in charcoal.

Further out at sea, small boats traveled back and forth for two days, carrying the Xianbei people and their unrecognizable corpses to the deeper waters to be dumped. Flocks of seabirds circled and followed, emitting sharp cries...

The atmosphere at the temporary drill ground in the center of the island was somber.

Nearly three thousand people were lined up in neat square formations. Most of them wore ill-fitting Qin army armor and carried a variety of weapons. Their faces still showed confusion.

These were the men Han Yong and his team selected from the surrendered soldiers after working day and night to identify the capable ones, excluding the old, weak, and those who were seriously injured or ill.

Xiao Heng stood on the simple wooden platform, his gaze slowly sweeping over these new faces.

They were once Murong Yan's auxiliary soldiers, laborers, and even some of his weaker soldiers; now, these are his bargaining chips.

Jiang Qianzhi stood half a step behind him and reported the compiled figures in a low voice.

"The total number of those killed or missing is over 870, and the number of wounded exceeds 1,000. Among them, about 300 are seriously wounded and unlikely to fight again. Of those who originally belonged to our army, over 1,900 are still able to fight. There are over 3,400 newly recruited soldiers. The remaining surrendered soldiers, numbering about 2,000, have been assigned to salt production and various other forms of labor."

Nearly a thousand were killed, but nearly three thousand more were gained. This was the price and the gain of this Pyrrhic victory.

"How's the choreography going?"

Xiao Heng asked, his voice low, just loud enough for Deng Jing to hear.

"Time was too short, so the original organization was only initially dismantled, and five battalions were formed, with veterans leading new recruits. All of them were composed of veteran soldiers, and there was also a former Jin army general who surrendered, Feng Chuang, and a former commander of the Huatai garrison..."

Xiao Heng was somewhat uneasy listening to these surrendered generals, but he still nodded.

"Food and supplies equipment?"

"The spoils were plentiful, especially the cargo on the surviving ships at the dock and the remaining supplies from the naval stronghold. However, with the population surging, the grain we have captured, if not replenished, will only last for half a month for the entire island. As for arrows, swords, spears, and armor, the usable ones will still have a surplus after replenishing our army's losses!"

Xiao Heng fell silent again. They had won the battle and gained more men, but they might face starvation sooner. That was the logic of chaotic times.

He stepped forward, his gaze returning to the more than three thousand new recruits below the stage.

The training ground fell silent, and all eyes were on him.

"I know what you're thinking."

"I want to live, I want to have food to eat, I want to stop being driven and slaughtered like pigs and dogs."

A slight commotion arose in the audience, and many people lowered their heads.

"The rules here are simple: obey orders, do your work, and you'll have food to eat. After the war, you might even get a piece of land to settle down on!"

"..."

There was no inspiring encouragement, only naked exchanges of interests and threats of death.

But for these people who have just crawled back from the brink of hell, this is more real and helps them know what to do.

Xiao Heng said no more and turned to leave the training ground.

Han Yong, Chen Da, and others then began to use the most brutal and effective method to mold these loose pieces into a shape.