Ma Rong abandoned over three thousand corpses inside Yuanling City and fled in panic. But this hard battle also inflicted extremely heavy casualties on the Wuling Army—including the tribal battalion and supply battalion laborers and craftsmen, casualties exceeded two thousand.
As Chenzhou’s prefectural seat, Yuanling was Chenzhou’s political, cultural, and economic center. Early on, the city had over a thousand households. When the clan forces united to resist the Han father and son, some great clans moved their clan relatives from Luxi, Lingling, and other counties into Yuanling to avoid the war chaos.
In their view, no matter how strong the Han father and son were, they absolutely could not easily capture Yuanling City.
When Ma Rong led Tanzhou forces to garrison Yuanling, the population gathered inside the city exceeded approximately twenty thousand.
No one anticipated that the tribal soldier main force they assembled on the southern front would be annihilated so easily, nor that Xishe Ying, disregarding his son-killing vendetta, would turn around and accept the court’s pacification.
After this, the clan forces remaining in Yuanling City naturally no longer received Ma Rong’s trust. After several hundred tribal soldiers had their weapons confiscated, the clan relatives and dependents were not only forbidden from leaving the city but were either placed under house arrest or driven to the city walls to assist in defense.
In the final stage of the siege battle, Tanzhou forces stubbornly resisted with no intention of easily relinquishing Yuanling City. They fought using the city’s intricate buildings and streets, attempting to drive the Wuling Army back out.
To reduce their own casualties, after occupying the city walls, the Wuling Army naturally used whirlwind trebuchets to bombard enemy-occupied strongpoints one after another. In this process, many were accidentally injured.
Although specific numbers had not yet been tallied, the civilian deaths inside the city plus Chenzhou clan relatives and dependents—due to these two main reasons—were estimated to be no fewer than two thousand.
For Yuanling City, only two li square with a population of just over ten thousand, this battle could truly be described as rivers of blood—virtually every household wearing mourning hemp and white.
Even so, being able to capture Yuanling City in such a short time left Xishe Ying with shock difficult to suppress in his heart. He found it hard to imagine—if at Datanzhai he hadn’t chosen to compromise and the Wuling Army applied such powerful offensive force against them, how many days could they have held out?
Three days?
Five days?
Half a month?
No, Xishe Ying could be quite certain they couldn’t have held out half a month.
Datanzhai’s fortifications were far less formidable than Yuanling City’s. The clans at Datanzhai could at most gather only two thousand tribal soldiers. When Ma Rong defended Yuanling, he employed defensive methods beyond Xishe Ying’s imagination without exposing any flaws he could detect. When Tanzhou finally withdrew with fewer than two thousand remnant troops, they hadn’t completely collapsed. What confidence did he have that defending Datanzhai could last longer than Ma Rong defending Yuanling?
Xishe Ying was small in stature, his face dark and thin. If not for currently wearing the dark green official robes of a sixth-rank Provincial Military Commissioner, thrown into a crowd he would look just like an ordinary elderly mountain Yue person. No one would connect him with the tribal fortress strongman whose rise in Chenzhou over the past decade had been swiftest and most renowned.
Yes, in just over ten years, the Chenzhou Xishe clan had expanded from a mid-sized tribal fortress of fewer than one thousand people to become Chenzhou’s greatest clan with twenty thousand subjects under their jurisdiction. His sons were all capable warriors—Xishe Ying’s heart had also been extremely proud.
Only now, after winning this battle, he appeared aged and desolate. Standing atop the ruined city gazing toward the Gengshi River flowing into the Yuan River, his mood was complex, the depression in his heart difficult to dispel—ultimately exhaled as a light sigh.
“This battle—the tribal battalion contributed greatly. General Zheng also said the tribal battalion should first conscript soldiers from Lingling, Luling, and other places to replenish combat strength. I thought Elder Xishe had already personally gone to Lingling to select able-bodied men. I didn’t expect to see Elder Xishe here lamenting spring and sighing over autumn! Is there some worry? Can Han Qian resolve it for Elder Xishe?”
Xishe Ying turned around to see Han Qian, wearing a scholar’s robe, walking up the city access road with a face full of spring breeze, smiling and speaking to him. Behind him was Lady Xi, who had abandoned Feng Changyu to follow Han Qian like a shadow.
Han Qian wore a kindly smile, as warm and gentle as spring wind. But Xishe Ying felt as if bitten by a venomous snake—his heart slightly palpitating. In this moment, he surprisingly lacked the courage to directly meet the eyes of this excessively young man before him.
Was he truly old?
Outsiders generally still thought the Han father and son could rise in Xuzhou due to his father Han Daoxun’s abilities. But when Xishe Xunqiao went to Datanzhai to advise him against rash action, he had clearly told him—if he didn’t want the Xishe clan annihilated, offending Han Qian was truly the height of foolishness.
Even though his three sons could be said to have died under Han Qian’s feint strategy, Xishe Ying at Datanzhai hadn’t taken Xishe Xunqiao’s warnings very seriously. But this battle attacking Yuanling—he finally truly understood some of Xishe Xunqiao’s words and reflected more deeply on the past.
Yes, if he hadn’t presumptuously assumed the Han father and son would absolutely never hand over the three thousand elite officers and soldiers they’d painstakingly cultivated to Zheng Hui, he wouldn’t have fallen for Han Qian’s feint strategy, running to garrison Datanzhai himself while entrusting the more strategically valuable Jimingzhai to Shehu’s defense.
Based on this alone, Xishe Ying realized he fell far, far short of this youth before him.
Moreover, the new trebuchet—the whirlwind trebuchet—had first been manufactured when Han Qian assisted the Third Prince in defending Xichuan City and had not appeared on battlefields before.
“This battle—tribal soldiers suffered tragic casualties. Xishe Ying stood on the city wall seeing corpses floating down the river, which stirred such sentiments.” After spacing out for a while, Xishe Ying remembered he hadn’t yet responded to Han Qian’s question and found an excuse to gloss over it.
After exchanging a few more idle words with Han Qian, Xishe Ying made excuses and descended the city wall.
“This battle clearly killed Tanzhou forces until blood flowed like rivers. Yet this Xishe Ying has become somewhat timid and fearful of you. Could it be he doesn’t even dare settle the account for his three sons’ deaths on your head?” Xi Ren gazed at Xishe Ying’s somewhat desolate retreating figure descending the city access road and sighed. “Looking at it this way, Emperor Tianyou’s desire to support indigenous clan forces’ power in Chenzhou to prevent you Han father and son from reaching too far—most likely will come to nothing!”
“You said before that Emperor Tianyou pacifying the tribal battalions couldn’t control developments here—you meant this?” Xi Ren asked.
Han Qian shrugged without answering Xi Ren’s question. Instead, he pulled her along to inspect the Medical Care Battalion.
The Medical Care Battalion was still located in a mountain hollow on the west side of Tieyanpo, not yet moved into the city.
Because this battle injured so many officers and soldiers, the Medical Care Battalion’s current scale appeared extremely large. Throughout the mountain hollow, nearly two hundred tents were distributed in orderly fashion.
At this time, injured civilians from inside the city were also being successively carried in for treatment.
Because the tribal battalion bore extremely heavy siege assault responsibilities, the number of injured tribal soldiers currently being treated in the camp even exceeded half.
These injured tribal soldiers mainly came from Chenzhou—meaning most of them had brothers or clansmen annihilated by the Wuling Army in the Laoya’ao ambush battle. But now seeing Han Qian enter the camp, even the most cold-hearted harbored a trace of gratitude in their eyes.
The vast majority of these tribal soldiers were veteran troops who understood very clearly what kind of treatment ordinary soldiers received after being wounded in the past.
The current era did have extremely fine wound medicines that could suppress wound infection with decent hemostatic effects. But the medicines used in such wound remedies were all very rare, produced in extremely limited quantities—only supplied to mid-to-high ranking officers.
When ordinary officers and soldiers were wounded, at most they could use plant ash to stop bleeding. Worse still, some smeared mud on wounds. Whether wounds could heal and scab over truly depended on fate. Most wounded soldiers couldn’t escape dying from excessive blood loss or bursting abscesses.
In cold weapon warfare, especially as the victorious side, the proportion of officers and soldiers who truly died directly on the battlefield wasn’t particularly high. More people died from excessive blood loss and wound infection.
In traditional army medical camps, because wound infection and suppuration among injured officers and soldiers was extremely common, even after thorough cleaning, the camps remained scenes of devastation, severely affecting the wounded soldiers’ morale.
Conventional medical camps typically had only one medical officer leading over ten physicians or apprentices—utterly unable to care for hundreds or thousands of wounded soldiers.
To avoid affecting other officers and soldiers, medical camps were always isolated from main encampments, which further reinforced the low morale of wounded soldiers feeling abandoned.
These phenomena did not exist in the Medical Care Battalion under Han Qian’s management.
Han Qian had previously promoted using alcohol and saline solution for wound debridement within the Left Bureau, also attempting wound suturing for hemostasis. But during the Jing-Xiang campaign, many matters he was still exploring, also constrained by many conditions. At that time, treatment of Longque Army wounded soldiers hadn’t yet shown prominence.
True high-purity alcohol preparation was only mastered after Han Qian reached Yandangji estate. Combined with the sea salt obtained during the Jingzhou campaign containing extremely high impurities, the previously implemented disinfection and debridement methods hadn’t been able to well suppress wound infection.
Of course, it simply hadn’t reached the standards Han Qian expected.
The current era already had bone-setting techniques for treating bone injuries. Plaster was even used as a medicine for clearing heat, reducing fire, and stopping bleeding—long employed by physicians. But no one yet realized plaster’s true function in bone-setting. However, these matters only received Han Qian’s time to contemplate after the Jing-Xiang campaign ended.
Alcohol and repeatedly steam-filtered saline solution for wound debridement, suturing wounds for hemostasis, using clean gauze, and applying plaster for bone-setting—Han Qian had only recently formed a preliminary complete set of battlefield emergency treatment methods.
Although people in this world had no concrete concepts of microorganisms, parasites, bacteria, or viruses, Han Qian extended the “water parasite pestilence” concept. Utilizing the mysterious impression parasitic poisons held in people’s minds over thousands of years, he infused concepts of microorganisms, parasites, bacteria, and viruses into “parasitic poison,” providing theoretical support for debridement and other methods. He taught this to the Du siblings and encouraged them to explore internal human body structure to continue perfecting trauma treatment.
Han Qian handed command authority to Zheng Hui to concentrate on logistics and supply matters, also immediately establishing a specialized Medical Care Battalion.
Besides Du Qiniang, Du Jiuniang, Du Yiming siblings, and over ten physicians and apprentices belonging to Xuzhou medical halls who possessed certain medical skills—whom Han Qian assembled—he also incorporated over one hundred women with nimble hands and feet and meticulous minds into the Medical Care Battalion. Only then did the new trauma treatment methods have a mature foundation for large-scale promotion.
Zhao Ting’er was specifically assigned by Han Qian to oversee the Medical Care Battalion.
Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang also voluntarily came to the Medical Care Battalion to help. They harbored other motives, but Han Qian didn’t refuse them at the door.
Although the newly established Medical Care Battalion had many matters still being explored, it had already played an enormous role in previous battlefield treatment.
In the Battle of Laoya’ao, the Wuling Army suffered over one thousand casualties. But besides over three hundred armored soldiers who died on the battlefield and over one hundred disabled, ultimately nearly six hundred officers and soldiers returned to the ranks.
In the battle attacking Yuanling, casualties exceeded two thousand. Fewer than five hundred died on the battlefield. More people were carried off the battlefield with varying degrees of light or heavy wounds, temporarily losing combat capability.
If using traditional methods of treating ordinary officers and soldiers, among these wounded soldiers, ultimately having two or three hundred people rely on their own immunity to become lively again would be the limit. But based on preliminary treatment results, Han Qian estimated at least one thousand could be completely cured.
Additionally, the pestilence and plague diseases that made people pale with fear on the Xiang-Qian battlefield—within the Wuling Army, even if officers and soldiers became infected, they could receive timely effective treatment.
With most wounded soldiers receiving effective and adequate treatment, the Medical Care Battalion’s conditions had improved vastly over traditional medical camps. The wounded soldiers’ emotions and morale were also quite stable.
Whether wounds improved, whether treatment was effective—the wounded soldiers themselves felt this most deeply and directly.
Han Qian visited the Medical Care Battalion diligently. Besides some methods still requiring him to further collect field data for deliberation, on the other hand, having such good opportunities to build reputation among tribal soldiers and other officers and soldiers—how could he possibly miss it?