At 9:00 AM the following day, Yu Shida led his 5,000-strong army into action.
Yunye had the two thousand new recruits he had enlisted last year line up in formation, while two hundred hidden guards were waiting in the shadows to provide support.
"All archers, prepare for battle!"
Upon seeing this, Yu Shida on the opposite side immediately ordered his thousand archers to form a battle formation and prepare to attack.
"Shield defense!" Yun Yi ordered the soldiers holding shields to defend at the front.
Upon seeing this, Yu Shida hurriedly waved for his soldiers to fire arrows.
As a hail of arrows rained down, the soldiers on the Longtan side were completely protected by their shields.
After firing a volley of arrows, Yu Shida and his soldiers were still wondering why no sound had come out.
They heard curses coming from the other side.
"Damn! Big Dog, you've got an arrow stuck in your hair!"
"Damn it, they nailed a hole in my new shoe. Luckily, I was born with one less toe."
"Huh, this arrow isn't very good quality!"
"..."
As the shield-bearing soldiers withdrew, the Longtan soldiers were hit by arrows in all sorts of strange ways, the most serious being arrows in the shoulder or buttocks.
Just then, Yun Yi waved the flag in his hand, and it was the turn of the five hundred archers from Longtan who were holding bows and crossbows to fire.
Yu Shida also ordered his soldiers to carry shields for defense.
Just when he thought his soldiers would be as unharmed as the soldiers of Longtan, shrill screams rang out one after another.
He was suddenly startled. Looking closely, he saw that the arrows shot from the dragon pool could actually penetrate the shields held by the soldiers.
"Retreat! Retreat now!"
To minimize casualties, Yu Shida hastily ordered a retreat in an attempt to get out of the enemy's firing range as quickly as possible.
But it was too late; he had greatly underestimated the power of the enemy's arrows.
Before they could even retreat out of the range of the arrow rain, many soldiers had already fallen to the ground.
This is an absolutely devastating blow.
Once out of firing range, the Longtan soldiers stopped on their own and stared warily at Yu Shida and his men on the other side.
Looking at the soldiers around him who were filled with fear, Yu Shida knew that he could not retreat at this moment.
He suddenly drew his sword from his waist, shouting, "For our wounded brothers, charge!"
Hearing the cries of the wounded, Yu Shida's shout did indeed ignite the fighting spirit of many soldiers.
"Charge! Kill these bastards and avenge our brothers!"
The two sides immediately engaged in battle.
After a round of fighting, both sides reached a consensus and agreed to a temporary truce.
After the ceasefire, both sides sent out a small contingent of soldiers to clean up the battlefield.
Yu Shida's team suffered heavy casualties. The team first carried the wounded soldiers back to the camp, and then buried the bodies of the dead soldiers. Only after they finished dealing with these matters did they discover that all their wounded warhorses had been dragged away by the soldiers of Longtan.
The casualties at Longtan were still high, with many wounded and dozens of dead soldiers, almost all of whom were killed by enemy soldiers.
War always results in death; casualties are inevitable on the battlefield, especially in this era of cold weapons, where they cannot be avoided and will inevitably draw blood.
These were all soldiers newly recruited last year. Yunye instructed the chief clerk, "Make a list of the deceased and submit it to the city lord later."
He then went to the wounded soldiers' camp to check on the situation, where Yun Wu, Doctor Lü, and four or five military doctors were bandaging and treating the wounded soldiers.
New recruits are bound to be a little scared when they see blood for the first time in combat, and this is a problem that needs to be overcome.
After a night's rest, we arrived early the next morning.
Yunye summoned all the soldiers to assemble in the square, where the bodies of several fallen soldiers were covered with white cloth.
Looking at his comrade-in-arms, with whom he used to eat, sleep, and train, now turned into a cold corpse in the blink of an eye, separated by life and death.
Before long, low sobs could be heard coming from the square.
Yunye gripped the sword at his waist, his gaze sweeping over everyone with a cold, hard look.
"Those who want to withdraw, step forward now!" he said sharply.
The square fell silent instantly, and everyone looked up at Yunye.
Half an hour later, Yunye, who had walked around the ranks a few times, spoke up, "Half of the people lying here died by their own hands. Who isn't afraid to die in battle? If you cower in the face of the enemy, you'll die. The enemy won't show you any mercy..."
His words made everyone lower their heads.
"Since no one has chosen to leave, you will now fight to survive. In a close contest, the brave will prevail!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The soldiers shouted in unison, their voices echoing in the air for a long time.
After burying their comrades, the soldiers threw themselves into even more rigorous training, with the guards sharing their years of combat experience.
Undeterred by his first defeat, Yu Shida rested for five days, rallied his troops, and launched another attack on the Xihe Iron Mine.
This time, the Longtan soldiers applied what they had learned to actual combat, constantly changing formations, cooperating with multiple people, and fighting in small groups, while taking care of enemies attacking from the front, rear, left, and right. Yu Shida's troops quickly showed signs of defeat.
Yu Shida hurriedly ordered a retreat, thus avoiding even greater casualties.
The soldiers of Longtan have made rapid progress this time, truly deserving of being the elite troops carefully selected by Yunmo.
Apart from a few who succumbed to excessive bleeding, the number of wounded soldiers was more than half that of the first battle, and most of them suffered only superficial injuries.
Yu Shida, who was determined to reclaim the iron mine in Xihe, was seriously wounded by Yunye after his eighth attack and finally ordered a retreat.
At that time, because Yunye was determined to eliminate the threat completely, Yu Shida had no choice but to flee in panic with less than two thousand men, not even caring about the wounded soldiers in the camp.
According to statistics from people in the Yun area, there were more than a thousand wounded soldiers left behind.
Manager Ma rubbed his hands together, grinning from ear to ear.
"That's good. Curing them will require a lot of labor, but it's a pity that it consumes a lot of food. Second Master Yun, how about we just give them one meal a day like the Japanese pirates?"
It must be said that Steward Ma is a rare talent who is conscientious and responsible and always considers the needs of his master.
Yunye glanced at him sideways, "Can they be compared to the Japanese pirates?"
"Aren't they all enemies?" Manager Ma said weakly.
"Two meals of dry rice a day, one meal less for those who disobey and cause trouble."
Yunye had other plans for these people. It would be best if they could be recruited, but if not, they could be used as strong laborers, since they were short of manpower anyway.
Longtan, the county government office building.
Lin Yinan was extremely busy during this period, as she had to both recruit returning migrants and refugees and organize spring plowing.
To grow and thrive, we must continue to cultivate crops according to the seasons and strive to develop handicraft production, in accordance with people's needs.
Lin Yinan understood that everything they were doing now was just like the ancient concept of the "big field economy".
At this moment, she is organizing and recording the planting methods for terraced fields that she found online.
Chian County has such a large area of land resources; it would be a waste not to make good use of them.
Just then, there was a knock on the door, and the guard who had been given permission pushed the door open and came in to report.
"Lord City Lord, there's a disturbance caused by refugees outside the city gates. Dong Ge recognized some people you know inside, and he hopes you can come over and see how to handle it."
Lin Yinan put down her pen, rubbed her sore eyes, stood up and walked out.
"I'll go take a look."
As we approached the city gate, we heard a hysterical female voice.
"Get away! Don't grab me! You've mistaken me for someone else. I don't know you, and I'm not your daughter-in-law."
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