Thief Emperor

Chapter 458 The key to victory!

Although General Zhou's style is somewhat cautious, once he makes a decision, he will act decisively and there will be no room for change.

This is why, although he was a lustful and lustful second-generation governor, he was able to fully control the entire Pinglu Army.

Even though he lay on a woman's belly every day, the senior generals of the Pinglu Army were still obedient to him.

From this aspect alone, General Zhou's personal ability is far superior to that of his son.

Seeing that the negotiations with Li Yun failed, the Pinglu Army simply launched an attack the next day.

The attack was quite fierce.

The next morning, five thousand people, equipped with various siege weapons, attacked the east gate of Chuzhou City.

During this siege, even Li Yun had no way of staying in the city and pretending to be deaf and dumb. He personally led the team and defended on the city wall.

In one morning, the Pinglu Army climbed up the Chuzhou city wall seven times. However, because there were sufficient number of defenders in the city, they were beaten down from the city wall again and again.

In just one morning, hundreds of corpses were lying under the wall of the east gate of Chuzhou City, and there were also quite a few corpses on the city wall. Li Yun, dressed in armor, stood on the city wall with an expressionless face, directing his subordinates to move the corpses down from the city wall and then rearrange the city defense.

"Your Majesty."

Su Sheng, who was also covered in blood, strode to meet Li Yun and whispered, "The city gate can't hold out for much longer. Should we seal the east gate with stones?"

The gates of big cities like Jinling and Yangzhou are made of iron-clad wood and are extremely heavy. Under normal circumstances, it takes several people to push them open. Even if the battering ram outside the city is fierce, it will not be a problem if it hits for ten days or half a month.

But the city gate of Chuzhou was obviously not that strong.

In just one morning, the city gate of Chuzhou had been displaced by the crazy ramming of the city.

Li Yun went down the city wall and looked at the city gate below the city wall.

I saw that the city gate was propped up by wooden stakes, but the gate as a whole was already a little crooked. It was obvious that if it continued to be hit like this, it would probably not be able to hold out for too long.

Su Sheng stood behind Li Yun, looking at him, lowered his eyebrows and said, "Sir, it is obvious that these Pinglu troops are not ordinary Pinglu troops. Most of them are the elite among the Pinglu troops. They attacked the city in a very methodical way."

"Besides, they are all very brave."

Su Sheng looked at the crooked city gate in front of him and continued, "If they continue like this, if we don't seal the city gate with stones, even if we can hold on to the city wall, the city gate will be knocked open in two days at most."

This morning, Li Yun participated in the entire process of defending the city. He naturally knew that Su Sheng was not lying. Although there were rolling stones, boiling oil, and gold juice on the city walls, these Pinglu troops attacking the city were quite well-trained.

When the defenders on the city wall poured boiling oil and gold down, they would hold up their shields to block the hot oil, boiling gold, and falling rocks, and to protect their comrades who were using the battering ram to hit the city gate.

These shield bearers were all tall and strong men. Even the stones thrown down from the city wall could hardly break the large shields they were holding.

Some people even hold up a big umbrella to block the falling golden juice and boiling oil.

"No need to block the city gates."

Li Yun looked at the city gate, then turned to look at Su Sheng and said slowly: "Brother Su, follow me."

Su Sheng was startled, then followed Li Yun. Li Yun took him to a private house very close to the city gate. He opened the door of the house and saw some large jars piled inside. Each jar was half a person's height and filled with some black-gray powder.

"This is a little gadget I made when I was in Jinling. When I took Yangzhou last time, I used this thing as a trick and was lucky enough to take Yangzhou."

Su Sheng was stunned, then scratched his head and asked, "Master, how do I use this thing?"

This question made Li Yun sigh.

To be honest, this is also his biggest concern now.

Regarding the powerful cheat code that almost every modern person can remember and easily make, gunpowder is powerful, but not as powerful as imagined.

According to the experience of countless predecessors, the best way is to put it in a clay pot, and then find a way to seal the pot, leaving only a fuse exposed, light the fuse, detonate the gunpowder inside, blow up the pot, and use the shock wave and pottery fragments to injure the enemy.

Li Yun has already tried this method.

When he was in Jinling, he had people make some narrow-mouthed pottery jars and tried to seal them with things like isinglass. It must be said that it was somewhat useful, but the efficiency was too low.

Moreover, the ratio of his gunpowder was not quite right, and the power of the gunpowder was not as great as expected.

Therefore, when taking Yangzhou last time, although Li Yun brought a batch of gunpowder with the army, he could only put them in a cloth bag. After lighting it, he would make a noise and rely on the sound to delay the enemy, but he could not use it to kill the enemy directly.

Now, it is the same problem.

This thing has not yet been fully weaponized.

However, Li Yun also figured out how to use it. In the past few days, he had people prepare a lot of cloth bags. He filled two layers of cloth bags with gunpowder, stuffed some iron sheets or pottery pieces into them, tightened the bag openings, and then connected the fuse from the cloth bags.

After being ignited, it will explode successfully, and the effect is quite good.

Li took Su Sheng to another room, where one or two hundred cloth bags had been prepared, each with a long fuse connected to it.

Li Yun pointed at the cloth bags and said slowly, "The city gate will not last until tomorrow. Once the city gate is broken tomorrow and the Pinglu Army outside rushes in, Brother Su, you lead the people on the city wall to point the lines outside the cloth bags."

"And then throw it into the crowd." Su Sheng blinked, not understanding.

Li Yun was very patient and explained: "This thing...will explode."

"It can hurt people, but more importantly, it can scare people."

Li Yun said this, took a deep breath, and said slowly: "After throwing away the cloth bag, leave the rest to me."

Su Sheng had followed Li Yun for a long time, so he naturally understood Li Yun's thoughts. Li Yun's meaning was very simple. Once these bags exploded, he would lead his men to rush out while the enemy might be in chaos, and catch the Pinglu army outside the city off guard.

Su Sheng looked at Li Yun and whispered, "Envoy, you stay on the tower to guard the city, I will lead the troops to charge!"

Li Yun smiled and said, "Can you beat me, brother?"

Su Sheng frowned and said, "The battlefield is not a battlefield for one or two people. No matter how good you are at fighting, it will be useless."

Li Yun still looked calm: "I'm not bad at commanding in battle."

"All right."

Li Yun stopped Su Sheng from saying anything and said, "I will go out of the city in armor, accompanied by a guard. Unless there is a sharpshooter holding a heavy bow within twenty steps of me, no one in the world can kill me."

"Not many people hurt me."

"Don't worry about me, brother."

Su Sheng looked at the cloth bags and frowned, "The envoy said before that the key to victory in the battle of Jiangbei is these things?"

"Yes and no."

Su Sheng said thoughtfully: "Sir, can I order one to see what it looks like? This way I will have an idea tomorrow."

Li Yun hesitated for a moment, but nodded and said, "Of course you can, but you have to stay away from the city gate, so that the Pinglu Army won't get suspicious."

Li Yun had used gunpowder when he was in Yangzhou.

In fact, after that incident, some people had been looking into what this thing was. Maybe someone would find it in a Taoist book.

So as to be prepared in advance.

Su Sheng heard this and hesitated for a moment, but still said in a deep voice: "Then I won't try it. I believe in you, Lord!"

He looked at Li Yun and said, "Tomorrow, I will try it on the battlefield!"

…………

The next day.

After being rammed for two days, the Chuzhou city gate finally began to crumble.

Several strong men carried battering rams and hit the city gate. After a fierce collision, the Chuzhou city gate was finally knocked open by them. The city gate was completely displaced and out of its original position!

These strong men were overjoyed and immediately hit the city gates a few more times, knocking one of the two gates to the ground!
"The gates are open, the gates are open!"

Outside the city, someone shouted in surprise.

Soon, a captain of the Pinglu Army who was commanding the front line shouted loudly: "The city gate is open, the city gate is open!"

"Enter the city, enter the city, seize the city gate!"

Farther away, General Zhou also saw the situation at the city gate. He said without hesitation: "Send more troops to block the other three gates, block the other three gates!"

"Prevent the Jiangnan soldiers from abandoning the city and fleeing!"

Soon, the entire Pinglu Army was in action.

A battalion of more than a thousand soldiers from a duwei battalion rushed towards the city gate of Chuzhou like crazy.

On the city wall, Su Sheng had already lit one of the cloth bags. He looked down at the city, then looked to the left and right and shouted.

"Light it up and throw it down!"

"Throw them all down!"

After saying that, he reached out and threw the burning cloth bag in his hand into the crowd of people under the city.

With a loud bang, the gunpowder tightly wrapped in the cloth bag exploded!
Li Yun in the city clenched his spear at this time, looking at the first batch of Pinglu troops pouring in from outside the city, with a grim smile on his face.

He held the spear level and spoke in an icy voice.

"Kill the enemy!"

ps: Let’s talk about the issue of gunpowder.

In historical novels, how to arrange gunpowder is a headache. It is not good not to write about it, but if you write about it, it will be overwritten. Gunpowder is inevitable in this book, but it will not play a particularly important role. I hope you understand! (This paragraph is free of charge!)
(End of this chapter)