Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 224: Acala (Additional chapter, please give me a guaranteed monthly ticket at the beginning of the month)
"Harvesting autumn crops after the peace agreement?"

"He had a good idea."

Inside the yamen, when Liu Jilian learned that Tuoba Huaiguang was trying to negotiate peace, he couldn't help but sneer on his face.

He did feel sorry for the soldiers who died in battle, but some battles had to be fought.

Tuoba Huaiguang humiliated Longyou. If he could get away with it just by surrendering, how would others view Longyou?
What's more, Tuoba Huaiguang is the chicken that he kills to scare the monkey. If he doesn't kill him, how can he intimidate the monkey Shang Bibi?
He was also determined to obtain the grain from the more than 200,000 acres of cultivated fields in Shanzhou.

"Don't pay any attention to this guy, continue attacking the city!"

"Yes!"

Liu Jilian issued a military order, and Zhang Chang and others bowed in support.

However, while supporting him, Li Ji tried to speak: "General, although we should kill this guy, Shancheng is located in Niuxinchuan, and it is very easy for him to escape to Tuyuhun."

"If we fail to complete the task in one go and let this fellow escape to Tuyuhun, there will inevitably be external threats."

It is very easy to escape from Shancheng. After all, it is stuck between multiple valleys and there are too many escape routes.

Li Ji's reminder was not without reason, and Liu Jilong naturally had his own arrangements.

"The pass has already seen a lot of collapse. Gather three thousand elite cavalry tomorrow. Once the front army uses shield carts and gunpowder to blow up the pass, the elite cavalry will immediately set out to pursue them."

"Even if he wants to run, let's see if he can get away!"

Liu Jilong mentioned gunpowder, which cheered everyone up.

Zhang Chang immediately bowed and said, "General, how much gunpowder should be used to blow up the stone wall?"

"Use 100 kilograms first. If 100 kilograms doesn't work, use 200 kilograms, 500 kilograms, or 1,000 kilograms!"

When Liu Jilong finished speaking, everyone bowed and said, "Yes!"

After everyone agreed, the camp that stretched for more than ten miles began to become restless.

Three thousand elite cavalry were assembled behind the front army infantry, and two thousand front army infantry also assembled. Among them, more than a hundred blasting armored soldiers who were in charge of gunpowder were studying how to blow up the city wall.

They were all veterans who had been sent to the mining area by Liu Jilong to blow up many mines, but this was their first time to blow up a city wall.

Although the power of the first version of black gunpowder is not great, if dozens or hundreds of kilograms of it are put together and exploded, the power is incredible.

At the same time, Tuoba Huaiguang, who had not received any news for a long time, guessed that Liu Jilong did not want to let him go.

After learning the result, he couldn't help but get angry and said, "If you want to fight me, then fight me. Do you think I'm afraid of him?!"

Having said that, he had already shown his weakness yesterday, and all the generals knew it.

If the war goes badly, they can only retreat to Huangshui, or even Shancheng and Tuyuhun areas.

Early the next morning, before daybreak, heavy "shield carts" were pushed out of the Longyou army camp.

The shield cart is a chariot used by the Longyou Army for siege and blasting. The vehicle is one person tall, has six wheels, and can accommodate a group of people inside to push the shield cart.

The top of the shield car is covered with a gable-shaped roof covered with cowhide, which can prevent the asphalt from burning through the roof in a short period of time, giving the soldiers inside the car time to do earthwork.

As the ten shield carts moved forward in unison, the foreign soldiers on the horse road at the pass immediately blew their wooden whistles.

"Beep--"

"Battery attack!"

They mistook the shield carts for battering rams, and a large number of foreign soldiers tried to get onto the horse path, but the catapults of the Longyou Army did not stop.

"Boom bang bang-"

"The trebuchets are still firing, retreat!"

The heavy stones smashed into the crowd, deforming the iron helmets and sending red and white objects flying everywhere, scaring the surrounding foreign soldiers into retreating back into the pass.

Jie'er, who was guarding the pass, told Tuoba Huaiguang the news that the Longyou army had launched a general attack, and he had just woken up from his sleep.

"Why panic... the pass can still hold out for at least three to five days."

"When their battering rams get close to the city wall, their trebuchets will naturally be afraid to use their weapons and will have to stop."

"Take advantage of this opportunity and burn me hard with the stone fat!!"

Tuoba Huaiguang calmly arranged his tactics, and Jie'er followed his tactics and released the shield carts of the Longyou Army.

Sure enough, as the shield carts approached the city wall, the catapults of the Longyou Army stopped one after another.

"Prepare torches and asphalt, and burn hard!!"

Jie'er gave orders excitedly, and hundreds of foreign soldiers rushed onto the horse road, and the shield carts also hit the pass at this time.

The foreign soldiers who had been prepared began to pour asphalt and throw torches, and the fire ignited the top of the shield car.

Despite the protection of wet cowhide, the temperature inside the car inevitably rose.

"Cough cough cough..."

"Ugh... cough cough..."

The shield carts had already reached the city wall, and the thick smoke made everyone cough uncontrollably, and some even retched.

In such a harsh environment, the two armored soldiers in the front position were wielding pickaxes and digging out the holes that had been smashed by stones in the past few days.

They stuffed the gunpowder bag into the hole, left the fuse and began to backfill.

After doing all this, the leader in the car took out a wooden whistle and blew it hard.

"Beep--"

"Beep……"

Because the shield vehicles arrived almost at the same time, all the whistles sounded one after another.

The brigade commander who led them to the explosion calculated the time well, and when he heard the whistle of the last group, he immediately took out the horn and blew it.

"Uuuuuu——"

The dull sound of the horn made everyone nervous. They lit the three-foot-long fuse with a tinderbox and then ran out from the rear of the shield car.

All the armored soldiers fled to their main camp at all costs. Jie'er, who was guarding the city wall, fired several arrows and knocked down several armored soldiers from Longyou, but these soldiers were dragged away by the soldiers beside them.

"Haha! Qiliben was right, these Han slaves escaped!"

Jie'er was still laughing loudly, not knowing that danger was getting closer and closer to him.

When the armored soldiers from Longyou ran forty or fifty steps away, a faint flash suddenly broke out in the dim pass, followed by a deafening roar.

"Boom——"

The sound reached their ears first. When Zhang Chang and others reacted and looked towards the pass, they saw that the pass of more than 20 feet was covered with dust and rubble was falling like a heavy rain.

The dust spread in all directions and soon reached them, covering more than 2,000 armored soldiers in the front army.

"Cough cough..."

Fortunately, the dust was not very powerful and did not cause any substantial harm except making people cough a few times.

But the deafening roar frightened and caused the horses of the three thousand elite cavalry to become agitated, and the elite cavalry and armored soldiers had to take time to calm them down.

When the dust cleared, a smell of sulfur was circulating in the air, and the pass blocking the Longyou army had mostly disappeared.

A hole about five or six feet wide was blown in it, through which one could clearly see the valley and mountains behind the pass!

"Uuuuuu——"

The horn sounded, and the small number of elite cavalry who had just calmed their horses began to charge, and the other elite cavalry followed suit after being calmed.

"what happened?!"

Tuoba Huaiguang only felt a deafening roar, followed by the ground shaking.

When he rushed out of his wooden house, he saw that one third of the pass had disappeared out of thin air, and stones of various sizes were scattered within a hundred steps.

The elite cavalry of the Longyou Army launched a charge at this time, and Tuoba Huaiguang also quickly jumped on his horse and said: "Retreat! Retreat to Huangshui!! "

Because the pass "disappeared" suddenly, many elite cavalrymen were not wearing armor.

In their view, it was only a matter of time before the pass was breached, but this time would still take three to five days.

Even if the pass was suddenly breached, they would have time to put on armor instead of having an entire section of it suddenly disappear, which was like the arrival of a ghost.

"Elephant King! The Elephant King has the help of the gods!"

"The gods have taken action! I just saw it!"

"The gods used their power to destroy the pass, thus opening a path for the elephant king's army!"

"We're fucked……"

Many elite cavalry and armored soldiers have gone insane and kept claiming that they had seen miracles.

In the past, they scoffed at some people calling Liu Jilian the Ming King or the Xiang King, but now they actively believe in such claims.

Some people simply gave up fleeing and crawled on the ground waiting for surrender. Only hundreds of foreign soldiers followed Tuoba Huaiguang and fled to Huangshui County.

"Buzz rumbling..."

The dull sound of horse hooves could be heard as a large number of elite cavalry rushed through the gap and chased in the direction of Huangshui County.

With a change of identities, Li Ji, who was in charge of the rear army, became the front army, while Zhang Chang, who was in charge of the front army, became the rear army.

"Drop your weapons and surrender! Anyone who dares to move will die!"

Zhang Chang led more than 2,000 armored soldiers and followed the elite cavalry, rushed into the plain behind the pass, and persuaded the crawling foreign soldiers to surrender.

But without him saying anything, these people had already decided to surrender.

The pass was easily captured, and more than 500 elite cavalry and armored soldiers under Tuoba Huaiguang were captured.

Upon hearing the news, Liu Jilian also led the central army to break camp and cross the pass.

"Ugh..." When walking through the gap in the pass, the corpses that were blown to pieces made Cao Mao feel uncomfortable.

It’s not that he had never seen a dead person before, but this was the first time he had seen someone die in such a miserable way.

Not only him, but many new soldiers and civilians were the same.

For a moment, vomit was everywhere. This was the result of not eating breakfast. If I had eaten breakfast, I would probably vomit more.

"General Ji... you don't need to take these armors, right?"

Director Zheng had an unsightly expression. Although he had been through many battles, he had never seen such a disgusting scene.

He tried to persuade Liu Jilong not to collect these armors anymore, but Liu Jilong chuckled and said:
"It's disgusting, but the armor still has to be collected. It can save a lot of effort."

"Yes..." Director Zheng agreed reluctantly, and then began to ask the laborers and new soldiers to collect the armor buried in the rocks.

This action caused a group of people to appear around the pass, vomiting and searching at the same time.

After experiencing one way of dying, they always see another, more disgusting way of dying.

If possible, they would rather dig out feces than collect armor from a pile of rotten meat.

"General, we captured 652 people and killed at least 200 people."

Liu Jilong had just dismounted and walked into Tuoba Huaiguang's wooden house. He saw a lot of maps that he had not been able to take away, and then he heard Zhang Chang's triumphant shouting.

"Put these away."

He explained this to Cao Mao and Chen Ying. They both looked pale, obviously having vomited a lot.

While the two were collecting information, Liu Jilong also walked out of the wooden house and saw Zhang Chang coming over.

"How much black powder was used?"

"Three hundred pounds!"

Zhang Chang said, and hurriedly explained: "This is the result of their discussion of the 'siege brigade', not my random arrangement."

The siege brigade was the one hundred people responsible for the blasting. They had blown up so many mines and were very experienced, so they knew how much black powder to use.

It turns out there was nothing wrong with the quantity they chose.

Three hundred kilograms of gunpowder did blow up the pass that was unable to bear the heavy load, but this also showed that the black gunpowder in Liu Jilian's hand was not powerful enough.

You know, the pass had been under attack by catapults for ten days, and even under such circumstances, it took 300 kilograms of gunpowder to completely blow up the pass.

Although Liu Jilian did not know how much gunpowder Yang Xingmi used when attacking Huainan and Yuzhang, it seemed that the power of the gunpowder on both sides was similar.

"This black powder must be used with caution..."

Liu Jilong was in deep thought. He was not worried about the power affecting his own side, but he was worried about the news leaking out and the Tang court knowing that he had such a thing in his hands.

The "Fuhuoyan method" for making gunpowder had already existed in the Tang Dynasty, but it was not used in people's livelihood or military affairs. Instead, it was used by Taoists to blast caves for practice or for folk entertainment.

If black gunpowder was used on the battlefield, then given the size of the Tang court, even if the gunpowder they produced was not as good as the gunpowder they had in their hands, they would still be able to kill themselves with their size.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong temporarily decided not to use gunpowder on battlefields outside the western border of Longyou.

However, after he completed the plan of migrating people from Xichuan to Longyou, his size was sufficient to defend Longyou.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong looked towards the west and said: "The army is moving out to Huangshui. I want to be stationed in Huangshui County before dark!"

Since we have already used gunpowder against Tuoba Huaiguang, we must kill him while he is weak.

Soon, the Longyou army set out towards Huangshui, while Tuoba Huaiguang retreated towards Huangshui County with less than 600 elite cavalry and armored soldiers.

"drive!"

"Buzz rumbling..."

Li Ji's three thousand elite cavalry were still chasing, which made Tuoba Huaiguang dare not stop.

The two sides were only a few miles apart, and if they relaxed even a little, Li Ji would catch up with them.

As a result, many of the armored soldiers' draft horses were left behind in the team.

As time went on, the horses they were riding became exhausted and began to foam at the mouth.

In this situation, escape was impossible, so they all reined in their horses and stopped.

"Surrender and avoid death!"

"I surrender!"

Faced with the elite cavalry from Longyou who were chasing them, they chose to dismount and surrender without hesitation.

Li Ji had no intention of accepting their surrender. After saying hello, he continued to chase Tuoba Huaiguang.

Seeing that the distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, Tuoba Huaiguang could only keep his head down and run.

The distance from the pass to Huangshui County was only forty miles, so before noon they saw Huangshui County in the distance.

"Come on! Just charge into the city!"

Tuoba Huaiguang encouraged his men, but the number of foreign soldiers following him was less than 500.

There were 1,400 men stationed at the pass, but now only 500 are left, which makes Tuoba Huaiguang very sad.

"Qiliben! Quick!!"

At the suspension bridge at the east gate of Huangshui County, a guard was shouting and urging them to move forward. Tuoba Huaiguang and others also sprinted with all their might.

After they rushed across the suspension bridge, Jie'er ordered people to pull up the suspension bridge, but the speed was still slow.

Li Ji led a group of elite cavalry, nearly a hundred of them, with their horses' tails linked together, closely following the troops of Tuoba Huaiguang and others, and rushed onto the suspension bridge with them.

"kill!!"

More than a hundred elite cavalrymen, without Li Ji's command, directly attacked and killed the surrounding foreign soldiers.

"Wade across the river!"

Li Ji, who was blocked on the other side of the moat, gave orders and did not miss this good opportunity.

The moat of Huangshui County is not wide, only about ten feet.

As a large number of cavalrymen urged their horses down the river, the horses began to carry them across the river. Seeing this, Tuoba Huaiguang also ordered: "Don't fight to the end, retreat into the city!"

Under his command, hundreds of armored soldiers armed with spears formed a battle array to cover the 500 defeated soldiers entering the city, and the more than 100 elite cavalry from Longyou who crossed the river first also suffered dozens of casualties in the battle.

Fortunately, they disrupted the deployment of the foreign troops, and Li Ji also led the cavalry across the moat.

The soldiers closed the city gates. Li Ji immediately ordered, "Close the city gates and don't let them escape!"

"Yes!"

Less than 3,000 elite cavalrymen began to block the city gates, and after Tuoba Huaiguang led his men into Huangshui County, he looked at the empty Huangshui County and ordered:

"Gather all the horses, we will break out through the west gate!"

"Ah?" Jie'er was surprised: "We are not going to defend Huangshui anymore?"

"We can't hold it!" Tuoba Huaiguang recalled the scene of the pass being blown up, and trembled as he said, "Withdraw now, and don't worry about the people who can't withdraw!"

"Yes……"

Jie'er didn't know what had happened, but to make Tuoba Huaiguang lose his composure like that, something big must have happened.

Tuoba Huaiguang took less than 500 remaining soldiers to exchange horses, and the 800 armored soldiers stationed in Huangshui also untied the draft horses that were prepared to be used to relocate the people from the carriages and used them as their own horses.

After they were busy and opened the west gate completely, the elite cavalry from Longyou who had been waiting there early targeted them.

"Tuoba Huaiguang!"

Li Ji shouted at Tuoba Huaiguang's banner, "Dismount and surrender now, and my commander will still let you live!"

"The soldiers dismounted and formed a battle array. I wonder if they dare to use their bodies to crash into the formation!"

Tuoba Huaiguang gave a stern order and eight hundred armored soldiers began to line up. Although Li Ji shouted at Tuoba Huaiguang to surrender, he did not actually rush forward.

He would not do such a thing as exchanging the elite cavalry from Longyou for the foreign soldiers from Shanzhou, which would be a loss-making thing.

Anyway, the distance from Huangshui to Shanzhou was more than ninety miles, and he didn't believe that Tuoba Huaiguang could keep fighting in formation.

If he really did this, he would be a lamb to be slaughtered when Zhang Chang and Zheng Chu led their infantry to catch up with him.

Because of this, Li Ji watched them lower the drawbridge and walk to the other side of the moat.

After they walked away, Li Ji followed them with his elite cavalry, not giving them a chance to relax.

The elite cavalrymen from Longyou each have two horses, and they have enough horsepower to consume Tuoba Huaiguang's men.

After marching for more than ten miles, the soldiers under Tuoba Huaiguang were exhausted and their formation began to become disordered.

"rush!"

Li Ji seized this opportunity and launched a charge immediately.

When Tuoba Huaiguang saw himself being trapped, his ferocity was immediately aroused.

"Han dog! I'm going to kill you!"

He led more than 400 elite cavalrymen who had finally regained some morale to launch a charge, but some of them escaped halfway.

Before he could get angry, he collided with the elite cavalry from Longyou.

For a moment, the elite cavalry collided like a torrent.

Tuoba Huaiguang and his men were almost overwhelmed, but the Longyou army easily broke through them and rushed towards the Shanzhou armored soldiers who were unstable.

"Bam—"

(End of this chapter)