Big Ear Thief Selling Straw Sandals

Chapter 250 Fighting Meng Jin Again
The manned flight of a hot air balloon originated from an accident.

Because hot air balloons are a new thing, Zhao Yun and Zhang Mei couldn't watch them all the time, so an accident happened.

A tester forgot to hang up four leather ropes when taking off, causing the hot air balloon to break away from the wooden frame, rise into the air, and drift southward with the wind.

Fortunately, the guy calmed down. According to the principle explained by Zhang Mei, he turned off the fuel outlet and the hot air balloon gradually lowered.

Ma Chao led people on horseback to chase them all the way, and finally recovered the hot air balloon and the slightly injured tester in a barren mountain thirty miles away.

At this point, manned flight has become a key research topic for Zhang Mei, and he will experiment with it every now and then.

Today, Dong Zhuo instigated the Liangzhou Army to launch a coup, broke into the palace brazenly, and detained the Queen Mother He and the Emperor Liu Xie. Ma Chao realized that normal means could not rescue the siege, so he decided to take a risk, so he found Zuo Feng and told the Queen Mother He the hot air balloon plan.

Queen Mother He knew that taking off at night was very risky, but she still agreed to Ma Chao and escaped from the palace with Liu Xiebing in two ways.

The hot air balloon soared into the sky, and the Liangzhou army fired arrows in a hurry, but it didn't help. In the end, they watched the hot air balloon carry the Queen Mother and Ma Chao across the palace city, over the Dongdu city wall, and drifted south.

Dong Zhuo was pulled up from the palace maid by Li Ru. When he learned that the Queen Mother and the Emperor had escaped, the duck in his mouth could actually fly. Without any explanation, he drew his sword and beheaded the captain of the soldiers.

Still unable to understand his hatred, he returned to the lounge. There was a scream and exclamation inside, and there was silence for a moment.

Dong Zhuo vented his anger and calmed down. He felt that he would not be able to recover unless he caught the Queen Mother and the Emperor, so he asked Li Ru how to deal with it.

"Wenyou, what should we do now?"

According to the accounts of the captured eunuchs and maids in the Imperial Garden, there were only Queen Mother He and Yongzhou Army soldiers on the hot air balloon, and there was no Liu Xie.

Li Ru believes that Yongzhou Jinyiwei adopted a strategy of building a plank road in the open to secretly visit Chencang, and used Queen Mother He to cover up Liu Xie's whereabouts.

"It's not too late to send people to chase the hot air balloon, and at the same time trace the whereabouts of the little emperor. It's not too late to make amends. Moreover, the relocation must be accelerated."

Dong Zhuo knew the seriousness and immediately asked Li Que outside the city to divide his troops to chase Queen Mother He. At the same time, he carefully searched Liu Xie's whereabouts in the palace.

However, no matter whether the soldiers were in the province or the Beigong, they dug into the ground and searched every corner of every room, they still found no trace of Liu Xie.

It's exaggerated enough that the Queen Mother flies into the sky. Could this little emperor know how to dig a hole in the ground?

Finally, the private saying among Dong Zhuo's soldiers was that the Imperial Guards were as skilled as clouds, and it was easy for them to take the Queen Mother and the Emperor to the sky and escape.

Dong Zhuo ordered people to torture him severely. In addition to finding Liu Xie's whereabouts, he also wanted to steal food from these minions.

For example, a mouthful of teeth were chiseled out and thirteen fingers were smashed. The Marquis of Che, Zhao Zhongshi, couldn't bear it anymore, so he obediently offered his family fortune of more than a billion dollars.

Dong Zhuo spared no one of the nine permanent servants. After seeing Zhao Zhong's tragic experience, the eight permanent servants handed over a total of more than 30 billion in assets and were then put into a prison car and taken away.

Dong Zhuo, who had received real money and silver, was really full, and various vehicles continued to transport it to Chang'an.

Of course, in order to cut off the Jinyiwei's evil hand, Dong Zhuo gave Li Que an order to raze Liu Bei's other courtyard without leaving a single person alive.

Therefore, at dawn on November [-], [-] Liangzhou troops launched a large-scale attack on the northern suburbs.

More than a dozen artillery pieces splashed shells desperately, and soon the three bunkers were blown apart beyond recognition. Tens of thousands of soldiers coerced civilians and swarmed in through the gap.

The artillery positions in the annex immediately opened fire to stop the attack, firing explosive shells, solid shells, and even explosive bags buried underground.

After fighting fiercely for half an hour, the Liangzhou army suffered nearly half casualties and approached the courtyard wall.

There were dozens of sentry towers on the courtyard wall, and the crossbowmen were condescending to focus fire. By the time the enemy climbed up the courtyard wall, there were probably less than 3000 people left.

When they climbed into the yard, five rows of musketeers took turns lining up to shoot the invading Liangzhou Army officers and soldiers.

After fighting for a day, the front line was in danger. In the evening, Li Que gathered 5000 men to make up for it. The offensive force, which was on the verge of collapse, received fresh reinforcements and decisively carried out overnight operations.In the other courtyard, Zhao Yun, who commanded the Shenji Battalion, realized that Li Que was determined to win, and decisively moved to Mengjin Ferry.

The artillery suddenly opened fire on the enemy in the north. After ten rounds of bombardment, two hundred musketeers, one hundred sword and shield soldiers, and one hundred archers rushed to the position to clear out the remaining enemies. This sudden attack caught the defenders off guard.

"Hehe, the infantry and artillery coordination was well done!"

When Zhao Yun saw a red signal flag erected in front of him, he knew that the enemy position had been occupied and the retreat path was open, so he issued a retreat order.

500 people broke through the blockade and quickly rushed to Mengjin Ferry. When Li Que heard the news and pursued here, he looked at the gun emplacements on the hills from a distance and couldn't help feeling frightened.

Half a year ago, right here, Dong He's coalition forces were defeated.

If we fight again today, will we make the same mistake again?

"Send scouts to investigate first, be careful."

The Shenji Battalion has many plans, and how to safely evacuate across the river is also an important subject of regular training. Therefore, the Yongzhou Navy has three large boats on the river all year round. Together with the ferry's message, it can carry more than [-] people across at a time. First, each branch of the army would send a small team to cross the river to provide support. The remaining soldiers would conduct active defense and high-frequency bombing against the Liangzhou Army based on the favorable terrain.

"As soon as they come into range, blow up these sons of bitches for me!"

Therefore, with Mengjin Ferry as the center and a radius of 30 steps, it became a death zone. As long as the queue exceeded [-] people, it would be attacked by artillery fire.

Li Que watched the Shenji Battalion firing artillery for free. His [-] troops were difficult to approach, and he was so depressed that he almost vomited blood.

How much would these prodigal sons spend on such a bombardment?
By Shenshi, most of the Shenji Battalion successfully crossed the river, leaving only two hundred musketeers, two hundred artillerymen, and thirty Thunder God II artillery pieces.

"Dismantle ten cannons, bring half the basic ammunition, fifty spearmen, fifty artillerymen to cross the river, and the remaining ones will cross the river in the last wave."

According to normal circumstances, the troop ship returned three-quarters of an hour later, checked the ammunition, and Zhao Yun instructed the artillery to reasonably allocate the frequency of shelling.

"After all the shells are fired, take as much gunpowder as you have left. We don't need any cannons or carts."

The frequency of shelling on the hills was significantly reduced, and the scouts discovered that the Shenji Battalion was crossing the river, so Li Que decided to charge with a skirmish line.

Three to four thousand people dispersedly rushed towards the hills. The musketeers formed several groups to accurately attack the stragglers.

However, there were too many soldiers in Liangzhou and their guns were not very accurate. Therefore, the "skirmisher charge" broke through the artillery blockade at the minimum cost and surrounded them from three sides.

At this time, the shells had been fired, and the Liangzhou soldiers under the hill climbed up while dodging the bullets.

"Fix bayonets! Artillery prepare explosive charges!"

Zhao Yun took the lead in drawing out his bayonet and pressing it under the muzzle of his gun, then rushed down first.

150 musketeers uniformly mounted bayonets and charged with Zhao Yun.

The 150 artillerymen inserted fuses into the remaining fixed gunpowder, ignited it, and threw it downwards.

The Shenji Battalion are all selected elites from the Yongzhou Army. They are highly skilled in technical and tactical skills. The long spear with bayonet is six or seven feet long. It is also a murderous weapon.

The three-three combination assassination tactics were invincible. As the musketeers stabbed smoothly, explosive packets exploded one after another at the foot of the mountain.

The first wave of attacks by the Liangzhou Army was repelled.

But Li Que chopped off the heads of some retreaters and forced his men to charge again.

When more than a hundred Liangzhou soldiers rushed to the top of the mountain, Zhao Yun with his spearmen and artillery had already withdrawn to the river. At the same time, on the hillside, a fuse was smoking among the grass.

(End of this chapter)