Chapter 516: Genocide!
Chapter 516: Genocide!
Zhao Duan had never expected that he would encounter a battle as soon as he arrived at the western front.
The Yunfu rebels attacked the city head-on, using the civilians in the city to hold down the imperial commander Xue Shence, while the enemy's light cavalry quietly crossed the defense line and headed towards the Taicang Silver Mine.
There are three things a new official has to do when he takes office. General Zhao immediately led the Shenjiying musketeer cavalry and followed the map in his mind to rush to the destination by the shortest route.
Outside Taicang City, a fight is taking place.
The city gates were closed, a heavy atmosphere hung in the sky, and the huge, noisy shouts of killing could be heard through the thick city walls.
On the top of the high city wall, Xue Shence stood in the most conspicuous position to watch the battle. He was wearing chain mail, with a fluttering scarlet cloak behind him, and a Fang Tian Hua Ji stood beside him.
Standing there, he was like a magic needle that stabilized the sea.
The shouts of the army below the city were deafening, the drums were beating like thunder, and the rebels were like ants, enduring the rain of arrows, setting up ladders, and trying to climb to the top of the city.
The defenders on the city walls tried their best to block the attack with rolling logs and falling rocks, but their defense line was almost broken several times.
The military strength of the two sides is too disparate.
But as long as the soldiers of the imperial court turned their heads and looked back, and caught a glimpse of the figure surrounded by flags on the high top of the city wall, they would feel strong confidence and high morale to fight.
The title of "God of War" of the Yu State was fully demonstrated at this moment.
"Envoy Xue, how is the battle going?" On the parapet, Taicang prefect Sun Xiaozheng came running over breathlessly.
After not seeing him for a year, he had become even thinner, with strands of half-white hair sticking out from under the brim of his black hat.
Xue Shence turned back, his eyes calm:
"The prefect just needs to appease the people in the city. With this commander in chief, Taicang City is as solid as a rock."
His normal tone brought a sense of reassurance to everyone's ears.
Sun Xiaozhun nodded with a look of gratitude. As the prefect of Taicang, facing the aggressive rebels that day, Sun Xiaozhun had prepared a scorched earth strategy and planned to defend the city in order to sacrifice himself for the emperor's grace.
Fortunately, Xue Shence arrived with his troops. During this period of time, Xue Shence integrated the local forces, took action repeatedly, and successfully curbed the offensive of the Yunfu army.
If the military force was not so stretched, Xue Shence would have left a large number of troops on the eastern front to defend Prince Jing. The soldiers he brought were really limited. With his military command ability, he might have launched a counterattack and recovered the lost territory.
However, today the enemy seemed to sense the urgency and suddenly launched an attack on Taicang.
This siege is now in its third round.
Seeing that there were no rebels attacking from the top of the city wall for the time being, Sun Xiaozhun felt relieved and said bitterly:
"Privy Councilor, the enemy has been retreating for the past few days. Why are they acting so fiercely today?"
Xue Shence looked down at the city and said in a deep voice:
"That Su Dan is crazier than I thought. The other party must have known the information that Governor Zhao led reinforcements to the western front. These villains know very well that I am now passively beaten because of insufficient troops. Once the reinforcements arrive, the offensive and defensive situation will be different.
Therefore, they wanted to get a little more before Zhao Duan arrived. Prefect Sun, don't worry. Don't look at the large number of rebels under you, but from my observation, they are not doing their best. Their goal is not to capture the city, but to destroy it. "
On a table behind him that was moved to the top of the city wall, a map of Taicang Prefecture was spread out.
Several areas are marked with circles.
Xue Shence did not intercept any intelligence and made his judgment based on experience.
Therefore, when the enemy approached the city, he ordered his capable generals to lead the cavalry to quickly leave the city through the east and west gates and rush to several granaries for support.
In order to prevent the army's food supplies from being cut off, which would also cause the soldiers in the city to be in urgent need of support, he had to personally supervise the battle on the top of the city wall and rely on the city walls to resist.
"Unfortunately, I have too few troops at my disposal. I must leave enough men to defend the city to prevent it from being breached. There are also some key locations where I cannot deploy troops to defend!"
Xue Shence clenched his fists and pursed his lips.
Sun Xiaozhun comforted him:
"The Privy Councilor is a master at using troops, but how can he deal with the enemy's superior numbers and our inferior numbers?
Prince Mu not only instigated a rebellion in the southwestern border army, with Zhao Shixiong as his vanguard, but also extensively recruited civilians as soldiers. It is said that in Yunfu, every household recruited one man. Prince Mu hid in the Huai River and received great help from many noble families..."
"Report——"
Suddenly, a messenger with a red flag on his neck came running up to the top of the city wall, almost exhausted:
"General, the scouts on the west reported that a large group of rebel cavalry broke through the defense line and seemed to be heading towards Taicang...Taicang Silver Mine!"
Silver mine!
Su Dan's target was not the granary, but the silver mine? Could it be...
Sun Xiaozheng's face changed suddenly. Although the silver mines were not as urgent as military rations, in the long run, wars were fought with money and food. Once there was a problem with the silver mines, the treasury of the court, which had been temporarily relieved by the new policy, would fall into trouble again.
"No wonder the Yunfu rebels are still attacking fiercely even though the news of His Majesty's return to the palace has spread. Their purpose is to rob the silver mine! Now that they have failed to rob it, they have given up the idea!"
Sun Xiaozhun was very anxious and looked at Xue Shence.
The latter's face was as gloomy as water, but he didn't seem flustered. He just said calmly: "I know."
Just...know?
The messenger and Magistrate Sun were both stunned.
Xue Shence closed his eyes slightly and remained silent.
As a general, the worst thing to do is to be indecisive and greedy. Even if you immediately order the troops guarding the granary to rush to Taicang, it will be too late.
Besides, who can be sure that this is not a strategy to lure the tiger away from the mountain?
Sun Xiaozhun understood what he meant. His knees went weak and he almost fell. He hurriedly held onto the wall with his hands. He shook his head bitterly and took off his black hat, revealing his hair that had turned half white in just one month.
If the silver mine is destroyed, even if Taicang City is defended, he, as the prefect, should die to atone for his crime.
"kill--"
At this time, a gap suddenly appeared in the enemy's army formation below the city. Dozens of soldiers as big as flesh mountains held a "battery ram" made of a giant tree wrapped in iron sheets, shouted slogans, and attacked the closed city gate under the cover of a large group of shield-holding soldiers.
The soldiers guarding the city walls were all terrified.
Xue Shence had his eyes closed and veins bulged on the back of his right hand, and he threw the Fang Tian Hua Ji in his hand angrily!
"Woo!!"
The dark halberd was like an oversized arrow. It accumulated power through invisible hinges and rumbled out, blasting a deep pit on the ground outside the city gate. The nearest soldiers were blown away by the shock wave and fell to the ground.
The rebels looked in horror at the halberd that was stuck deep in the pit and was receding like a tide.
Xue Shence looked up at the sky, a trace of worry visible between his eyelids: if reinforcements don't arrive, Taicang may not be able to hold out for too long.
……
……
The Taicang Silver Mine is located on the outskirts of the city. It is a huge deep pit with deep mine caves that extend in all directions.
Zhao Duan led the light cavalry and galloped all the way. When he arrived at the edge of the huge mine pit according to his memory, his eyelids twitched wildly and he saw many corpses scattered on the ground below.
Instead, a new team of soldiers forced a group of miners to carry white cloth bags into the mine.
"It's gunpowder. They want to blow up the mine!" Zhao Duan's face changed from a distance.
Due to the lack of corresponding technology, the imperial court was very cautious about the use of gunpowder in mining, especially in the Taicang Silver Mine.
Once the explosion is detonated at a specific location and the mine is buried, it will be a huge project to clean it up and put it back into use.
"Commander-in-chief, I am willing to go and capture the thief!" Behind him, the young master Tang Ping was furious and requested loudly.
Behind Zhao Duan at this moment, in addition to the experts around him, there were the light cavalry transferred from the Shenji Camp, with Tang Ping as their leader. "Okay, this place is critical and does need someone to look after it."
Zhao Duan thought for a moment, nodded in agreement, and then looked at Yu Xiu:
"Priest, can you do me a favor? Point out the direction of the enemy?"
At a glance, he saw that there were not many rebels in the silver mine.
Yuxiu sat upright on the horse, frowned, and was about to refuse, but heard Zhao Duan said seriously:
"The priest just needs to help me find out if there are any suspicious monks nearby. Old Zhang... the Heavenly Master said that if it involves evil sorcerers and monks from the Shenlong Temple, it is not considered a bad rule."
Yuxiu hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded.
She put two fingers of her right hand together and placed them in front of her eyes. Her eyes were filled with clear light. She looked down at the mine and scanned it. She pinched her jade sleeves and her eyes returned to normal. She shook her head and said,
"There are no monks above the Divine Chapter nearby, and no one is seen in the depths of the mine."
Not here? Could it be that the "expert" Bai Falcon mentioned does not exist? But even if so, the rebels went to so much trouble to send only such a small number of people in...
There must be someone else somewhere else, but it seems that Yuxiu's clairvoyance cannot see too far due to the distance... While Zhao Duan was thinking, he suddenly caught a glimpse of dazzling fire from the corner of his eye.
Where did the fire come from in broad daylight?
Zhao Duan suddenly turned his head and was surprised to see flames rising in the direction of "Songjiazhuang" accompanied by billowing smoke.
"Follow me." He immediately spurred his horse and led the rest of his men to chase after him.
As we turned the corner of the mountain and got closer to Songjiazhuang, we saw more flames and white smoke. Many of the flames came from the fields. It turned out that someone was setting fire to the fields!
The place with the fiercest and brightest flames was the farm where Zhao Duan had once visited while investigating a case with Princess Xu Junling.
……
Songjiazhuang.
At this moment, the entire village was blocked by black-armored soldiers. The rebels lit torches, poured tung oil, and set fire to houses and yards.
On the ground and in the courtyard, there were corpses lying in pools of blood from time to time, accompanied by wailing coming from everywhere.
Inside the Song Family Ancestral Hall, hundreds of clan members gathered inside, including men, women, old and young, each with eyes full of tears, some in despair and sorrow, and some in a daze.
"Coach Xie", the leader of the guards supported by the Song family who had fought with Zhao Duan before, had one arm broken. With the help of several guards, he sat against the wall of the ancestral hall.
A fifty-year-old man, wearing a Confucian cap and with a flushed face, blocked a group of tribesmen behind him.
He carefully straightened his clothes, with his back straight and a look of suppressed anger in his eyes. He looked at the entrance of the ancestral hall and heard a group of people wearing strange white clothes surrounded by soldiers, and shouted:
"I am a disciple of Mr. Yunfu Zhengyang, and also the patriarch of Songjiazhuang. Since you are working for Prince Mu, you should know that my teacher Zhengyang and Prince Mu have a close relationship. You destroyed Songjiazhuang, aren't you afraid of being punished by the palace?! Why don't you leave quickly? I will not pursue the matter because you didn't know about it beforehand..."
The old man was none other than Mr. Song.
In the past, I followed Mr. Zhengyang to Beijing and witnessed with my senior brother the entire process of the debate between Zhao Duan and Zhengyang on the old and new studies in Bailu Academy.
Later, Mr. Zhengyang, who was revered as "the first hermit of the State of Yu", admitted defeat in public, respected Zhao Duan as his teacher, and led his disciples back.
Mr. Song did not follow his teacher and senior brother back to Yunfu. When passing through Taicang, he returned to his clan and devoted himself to studying new knowledge.
I didn't expect to encounter such a disaster today.
The men in white who were blocking the gate of the ancestral hall looked at each other and suddenly laughed together.
There were five of them in total, and they were obviously not soldiers. Instead, they were all dressed in uniform white sorcerer robes, wearing conical white hats, holding a "crying stick" tied with white silk, and a small, dark-colored coffin the size of a palm hung around their waists.
They were actually members of the "White Clothes Sect", an organization of evil sorcerers.
"Zhengyang? That old corrupt scholar?" The leading sorcerer in white robes laughed sarcastically:
"Let's not talk about it. We are not under the command of Prince Mu's Palace. Even if we take a step back, do you, old man, still naively think that Zhengyang is still a guest of honor in the palace?
Oh, this immortal master doesn’t know much about the new learning, but Zhengyang was worshipped by the prince and was willing to take Zhao Duan as his teacher. Since he returned to Yunfu last year, he has started to promote the new learning... If he didn’t have some reputation, he would have been buried alive in the palace.
It's ridiculous that you, an old man, are so naive and cute, yet you still don't realize it. You think that you can have a relationship with Prince Mu's Mansion by relying on Zhengyang's disciples? Little do you know that the closer you get to that old dog Zhengyang, the faster you will die. "
Mr. Song's body trembled, his face suddenly flushed, he was furious and said angrily:
"How dare you, a demon from the martial arts world, insult my master?!"
The White-robed Sect sorcerer laughed and said:
"So what if I insult your teacher? We will also insult your ancestors. Come on, tear down this ancestral hall. Haha, although the Song family is small, it has been around for a hundred years. Destroying the ancestral hall and digging up the ancestral tombs will barely be enough to offer sacrifices to the gods."
A black-armored officer beside him was quite timid and flattering in the face of this group of monsters. He said yes, stood up, and waved his hand with a stern face:
"dismantle!"
A group of rebels rushed into the ancestral hall like wolves and tigers and began to demolish it.
The Song clan members' eyes suddenly turned red, and they all went crazy to stop it:
“It can’t be demolished!”
An old man threw himself on the ancestral tablet and tried to protect it, but was hacked to death by a soldier. He screamed and fell to the ground, but still held the tablet tightly with his eyes wide open, refusing to let go.
But how could a group of tribesmen stop the soldiers? Someone threw a torch, and the mourning hall suddenly caught fire.
The white-robed sorcerer laughed and said, "They are crying and annoying. Kill them all."
The old scholar, who stood straight and would rather die than bow his head in the face of swords and knives, was stunned.
Seeing the soldiers drawing their swords and walking towards the young tribesmen hiding under the altar, the anger on the face of the fifty-year-old man suddenly died down. Instead, he put on a flattering smile, knelt down suddenly, and pleaded with the white-robed sorcerer:
"I said something wrong and angered the Immortal Master. I beg you to spare my life."
As he spoke, he slapped himself in the face. Seeing the man in white smiling without saying anything, he turned around and cursed at the top of his voice:
"Stop it now! If the Immortal Master wants to tear it down, then tear it down to please him! What's the point of keeping a bunch of wooden tablets? People... people's lives are more important than anything else!"
The Song clan members were stunned and looked at the clan leader in disbelief.
But Mr. Song was cursing and crying, his nails pierced his palm and blood flowed.
The white-robed sorcerers watched this scene with a smile and praised, "Good crying."
Then his face turned cold:
"Kill them all, a bunch of sacrifices, and you still want to escape? If we hadn't taken a fancy to your family's foundation, we wouldn't have come here."
Mr. Song was startled, and suddenly rushed towards the nearest soldier, hugged his legs, and shouted:
"Xiaowu, run!"
Xiaowu was one of the teenagers hiding under the table, and was once beaten up by Zhao Duan.
At this moment, the boy, who had been rebellious and unruly, was stunned.
"The old bastard is looking for death!"
The soldier whose legs were held had a fierce look in his eyes and stabbed downwards with a knife, but his eyes blurred and one of his arms was broken out of thin air.
Coach Xie, who was lying at the foot of the wall, rushed over at some point. He held a knife in one arm, with a mad look on his face:
"It's enough to exchange for an arm! Old Master, I, Old Xie, have been supported by your Song family for ten years. Today, I can't protect the Song family. The only thing I can do is to pay with my life! Kill!"
Behind him, the remaining dozen or so wounded guards of the clan rushed up like mad dogs.
"Xiao Wu, hurry up! Go to the city and ask for help!"
A tribesman pushed the young men under the altar out of the back door of the ancestral hall, then slammed the door shut, blocked it with tables and chairs, picked up an iron rod, and rushed towards the rebels.
(End of this chapter)