Sword Roaring in the Sky

Chapter 212 The Shadowless Marquis
Although the Far West had stolen the formula for gunpowder and used it in war, muskets and cannons had not yet been invented in this world. The Shadowless Marquis's method of siege was simply to send small boats ashore and have his pirates charge.

Sun Yan arrived in this world late. Although he had seen some military tactics, such as he had chased the Northern Yan horse bandits with Zhang Ji, Linghu Shao, and Ding Fenxiu, this was his first experience of being attacked by a city.

Fortunately, before setting out, he had kidnapped Qin Cheng and hundreds of veterans. Furthermore, the five-tiered structure he had established—gang, community, neighborhood, village, and team—made command very convenient. The vast majority of village heads and team leaders were either veterans brought by Qin Cheng or skilled Luojing knights. Facing the battlefield, they were much bolder than ordinary men and showed no signs of panic.

Sun Yanwan defended the city. Every time he repelled Wuyinghou's pirate army, he would send his fellow disciples of the Songyang School out to charge and fight for a while, causing more casualties. The two sides fought for five or six days, and more than 700 pirates were captured and countless were beheaded.

Although Wang Xuangui supported Sun Yanwan, it was impossible for him to send out the elite disciples of the Songyang Sect. For example, there were no promising disciples like Linghu Shao and Ding Fenxiu.

The disciples of the Songyang Sect who came to Black Dragon City with Wei Yingxiao this time were mostly Taoists over forty years old, with very few in their twenties or thirties. They had a solid foundation in martial arts, but their potential was exhausted. They were most suitable not to compete with others, nor to go to the battlefield, but to train new disciples and expand the Songyang Sect.

Therefore, Sun Yanwan did not use these fellow disciples to charge into battle, but only to harvest heads. These Songyang Taoists all had some light skills, so chasing and killing the retreating pirates was as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.

After a few days, Sun Yanwan became more and more pensive.

Wuying Hou landed and attacked the city repeatedly, but failed to gain any points and suffered heavy losses. However, he still refused to retreat. If it was just for some food, he would not have been so entangled.

He believed that Wuying Hou must have some ulterior motive, but he had no information and could not guess.

Sun Yanwan asked Cao Zhenzhen and also interrogated the pirates who were captured alive, but failed to obtain any useful information.

This means one thing: what Wuying Hou was going to do must have been concealed from most of his subordinates. Perhaps only a few knew about it, or even he was the only one who knew about it.

Thinking along this line of thought, Sun Yanwan realized that there were too many crossroads and she didn't dare to think about it any further, lest she end up getting herself into trouble.

One morning, when Sun Yanwan climbed the tower to watch the sea, he discovered that the pirate army had another large ship. The size of this ship was almost as big as the five-colored sail ship, and its shape was extremely gorgeous, with a bit of the ancient Persian flavor on Earth.

Recalling how Wuying Hou had tried to use Fiery Powder to assassinate Wei Yingxiao and Shi Si a few days ago, he secretly wondered, "Could it be that this person has already formed some kind of connection with the Western Bo Shi Kingdom?"

"It's a pity that I'm not yet an Xiantian. If I had been promoted to Xiantian, I would have sneaked onto Wuying Hou's ship to check the situation."

Sun Yanwan was not like that. He thought that after he was promoted to the innate level, he could defeat the grandmaster like his senior brother.

In fact, although he had killed a Xiantian before, it was also due to various coincidences. For example, the human demon had just been promoted to Xiantian and had not yet mastered the true meaning of martial arts. He was not much stronger than an ordinary first-grade cultivator, and he was also seriously injured.

If it was a life-and-death fight, or an open competition, Sun Yanwan thought to himself that he was definitely not afraid of the second-rank or first-rank, but not the innate.

However, he believed that after his promotion to Xiantian, the Qinggong skills powered by the Ruyi Qiankun Bag would surely rise to a new level, rivaling any of the world's best Qinggong skills. Even if he encountered the Shadowless Marquis, he would be able to escape with ease. Sun Yanwan was just pondering how to defeat the enemy when he saw a large ship appear on the sea. It had lowered a small boat, curved at both ends like a crescent moon, and was braving the wind and waves as it headed straight for the shore.

There was no one on the boat, only a fat man with gorgeous clothes and a big beard, but the boat was very fast and reached the shore in no time.

The portly man, richly dressed, shouted in a strangely accented Dalang dialect, "I am Xiximuli, a merchant from the Boshi Kingdom. There is no escape from this city. I urge you to abandon resistance, even if it means a dignified end. If my Boshi fleet arrives, you will all be enslaved and sold to the Black Continent, enslaved by the untied people."

Sun Yanwan was slightly surprised and thought to herself, "This fat guy can actually sail alone. He must be a master of spiritual magic!"

"However, can merchants from Boshi Kingdom actually participate in national policy? And why did the Boshi Kingdom's fleet come here?"

"As for the people with long hair from the Black Continent, I wonder where they are from?"

He took a deep breath and shouted, "Mr. Xiximuli, as a merchant, you should know that my Great Langyan is thousands of miles long, with countless people, millions of soldiers, and countless extraordinary people. Why do you dare to invade?"

Xixi Muli was startled and shouted, "Isn't this Beiyan?"

Sun Yanwan was too lazy to explain to him and shouted, "This place is the land of Dalang. Beiyan needs to go further north."

Xiximuli's expression suddenly became uncertain, and he felt as if he had been deceived.

He hesitated for a long time before finally shouting, "Our Boshi Nation must capture this city. If the city lord is willing to withdraw from the city and lend it to our Boshi Nation, we will offer our friendship."

Sun Yanwan smiled and said, "If Mr. Xixi Muli is willing to use a million gold beads to buy this city, I am willing to reduce the price. It is absolutely impossible to ask for the city with empty words."

"Just a hundred miles south of here, there are several large cities with populations of over 100,000, garrisoned by countless troops. If Black Dragon City is attacked, reinforcements will arrive in just a few days. I'm afraid you won't be able to return to Boshi Country."

Xiximuli had come from afar, so how could he know the geography of Dalang? Hearing that this place wasn't Tuwei City, but Black Dragon City, and that there was a large city a hundred miles away that could send reinforcements at any time, he hesitated. After a long pause, he shouted, "I see the city lord is a hospitable person. Could you please allow me to go ashore and have a chat?"

Sun Yanwan also wanted to know what kind of magic potion Wuying Hou was selling. He had already guessed that the Boshi Kingdom fleet Xixi Muli mentioned might really be attacking Black Dragon City. In all likelihood, they planned to raise a large army to attack from the rear and attack the coalition forces of Northern Yan and Southern Xia.

If he had an army of 100,000, he might really consider joining forces with the State of Boshi to first defeat the coalition forces of Northern Yan and Southern Xia, but he only had a few small cities. Although he tried his best to gather a population of tens of thousands, he could not recruit 5,000 soldiers even if he was aggressive. In such a war between big countries, trying to please both sides is tantamount to seeking death!
What's more, the people of Bo Shi Kingdom may not be telling the truth. What if they join forces with Bei Yan and Nan Xia and prepare to attack Dalang?

Sun Yanwan had never expected that he would encounter such a crisis when he was just planning to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land and develop his own small city. Monk Kongchan also hoped that he would go to the Western Regions to investigate the war situation between Northern Yan, Southern Xia and the big countries in the Western Regions, but he never thought that Black Dragon City was about to become the front line?
Sun Yanwan pondered for a moment and said, "If Mr. Xixi Muli wants to be my guest, I welcome him endlessly!"

(End of this chapter)