Chapter 2: The Stormy Weather of Yan and Zhao Section 10

  Su Li was very satisfied with the first attack. He immediately gathered five hundred people, plus one hundred archers, to prepare for a second attack. He now wanted to capture Mei Lou and thoroughly occupy it.

  Xiong Ba's intention is that he doesn't understand. But to make him give up the Mei Lou that has been attacking for two days, he is not willing. His men wouldn't have died in vain. So he decided to take it down, even if there are some losses, it doesn't matter. As long as Ludong Sai is taken down, relying on his own merits, in the future when distributing wealth, he will definitely get more than Queji. Because of this battle, his own Muxin tribe's property may not necessarily exceed Queji's Feima tribe, then the opportunity for himself to become the leader of the Eastern Xianbei is getting closer and closer.

  With Su Li's order, the second attack began.

  Upon hearing the war horns from Mei Mountain, Tian Jing turned around and loudly told the messenger: "Tell Military Commissioner Wang that he must seize the opportunity at the right moment, don't act too early."

  He immediately ordered Chai Tiao, who was standing beside him: "Tell the troops to get ready and prevent enemy attacks. Once the enemy on Mei Mountain occupies Meilou, Wu Yan may take advantage of it and launch an attack on the city immediately."

  Wang Jin stood behind the twenty giant crossbow machines. These giant crossbows had a range of five hundred paces and were usually only equipped with large fortresses like Lulong Castle. However, these crossbows had many drawbacks, resulting in an extremely low usage rate. The giant crossbows required a cart seat, otherwise, the center of gravity could not be controlled during movement and shooting, requiring five soldiers to operate simultaneously, with a very low hit rate. During this defense of Lulong Castle, Tian Jinglian didn't even think about it, thinking it was useless. Until Li Hong proposed the plan to burn Meishan, this giant object suddenly showed its importance. One hundred giant long arrows were neatly placed next to each crossbow machine on the ground. Each arrowhead was wrapped with thick oilcloth. Twenty fire basins were placed behind the crossbows.

  Wang Jin looked up at the giant banner on top of Lu Long Lou and chuckled to his entourage behind him, "Look, today's northwest wind is unusually strong, it seems even heaven itself is willing to lend a hand."

  The attendants behind him suddenly whispered: "Sir, the northwest wind is indeed helpful to the fire, and the big fire started from the enemy's back. The enemies on the mountain will definitely be annihilated. But the big fire will also burn down Meilou?"

  "Right. But have you thought that if the enemy occupies Mei Lou, we'll be in trouble. A fire can burn it down, no one will think of it, and no one will lose out. After the war is won, we can rebuild it, and it will still be the same."

  Wu Yan gazed at Mei Mountain and said to Xiong Ba beside him, "It seems that the fatty is unwilling to listen to you. He's mobilizing his troops for a fierce attack, and it's likely that he'll take down Mei Lou."

  Xiong Ba smiled wryly and said, "Su Li wants to compete for merit. Since he doesn't care about his own losses, let's just go along with him. I'm afraid that if he succeeds in attacking, he won't be able to hold on to it. Let's prepare to attack."

  "Now?"

  "No. Wait until fatty hangs the war flag on Mei Lou, then we start."

  Li Hong dragged a wounded soldier with one hand, fending off the enemy's attack with his sword as he retreated. On this section of the city wall from Mei Lou to the point where the enemy was attacking, there wasn't a single Han army soldier left.

  "Kill... kill..." Li Hong handed the injured soldier to his comrade behind him, grasped his knife with both hands and hacked an enemy to death. He was wounded in many places and could barely hold on. Ji Ming stood shoulder to shoulder with him, leading the last fifty or so soldiers in a heroic resistance, vowing not to retreat. Hundreds of people squeezed onto the narrow city wall, each one like a butcher who had gone mad with killing, hacking away mercilessly, flesh and blood flying everywhere, blood flowing like a river.

  Su Li was already standing under the city wall. The follow-up troops of more than a thousand soldiers also moved forward, approaching Mei Lou. His excited fat face trembled, shouting loudly: "Raise the war flag, raise the war flag..." More soldiers rushed up to the city wall. The hundred archers who followed the assault team had occupied Mei Lou. They cheered loudly, climbed to the top of the building, cut down the Great Han army flag, and raised their own tribe's wooden god war flag.

  Wuyan exerted his strength and waved his hand, and more than a dozen giant cow horns sounded behind him. The Hu tribe coalition army began to attack the main wall of Lulong Pass. The earth-shaking killing sound accompanied the surging crowd, and under the inspiration of the left-wing friendly forces winning the Mei Tower, the Wuman people, the Xianbei people, like a herd of wild cows on the grassland that had lost control, rushed madly onto the battlefield.

  The sky above Ludongze was filled with the sound of drums like thunder, and the soldiers shouted loudly. With Chai Ting's order, the first batch of long arrows flew out whistling.

  The soldiers next to the crossbow machine were all sweating, not because of the brazier beside them, but because they were anxious. Wang Jin's dark face was expressionless, his eyes fixed on the bloody battlefield on the auxiliary wall. He saw Ji Ming being kicked down by the enemy, saw a hundred-man team captain being pierced through the body by four battle knives, and saw Li Hong with his hair disheveled, devouring the enemy's life like a demon. Then he saw the Huren war flag raised on Mei Lou.

  Wang Jin suddenly became furious. The territory of the Great Han Empire would never tolerate the arrogance of the barbarians.

  "He let out a loud roar: 'Light the fire.' The soldiers, who had been waiting with bated breath and were drenched in sweat, hastily grabbed their long arrows and lit them on fire in the fire basin."

  "Up arrow..."

  "Whoosh..." Twenty giant long arrows let out a shocking and thrilling scream, "Boom" and flew out.

  "Fire... continuous fire!" Wang Jin almost hysterically shouted at the crossbowmen.

  Xiong Ba saw an extremely magnificent scene.

  Twenty blazing long arrows suddenly flew out from the city wall of Lulong, lined up in a row, like a giant dragon spewing fire, making a piercing sound, flying towards Meishan.

  Xiong Ba's heart was like being stabbed by a sword, the severe pain forced him to groan.

  He stared blankly, even forgetting to give the order to retreat.

  Early winter.

  The northwest wind was blowing on the top of Mei Mountain. The whole mountain was covered with bare trees, large areas of dry shrubs, and withered weeds all over the ground. With the addition of the fire oil that the Han soldiers had secretly sprinkled on the shrubs and the gunpowder on the weeds last night, a huge fire broke out in an instant.

  Above Ludong Mountain, the continuous fire dragon roared and whistled, flying towards every corner of Meishan. In the mountain forest 500 steps away from the Su Li army, the Han soldiers who had secretly ambushed here last night saw that the front mountain forest was already on fire, immediately ignited the bushes, and established a second firewall behind the first firewall. This way, even if the enemy escaped the first firewall, he would not escape this second firewall that burned more fiercely.

  Su Li was stunned. He didn't know how things had suddenly turned out this way. Victory had been firmly grasped in his hands, so how could it have suddenly slipped away again?

  After the first batch of rockets went up to the sky, Wu Fei personally struck the golden gong in his hand and ordered Ji Ming and his soldiers to retreat. Li Hong waved two knives, stayed behind, and fought while retreating.

  "Black, run quickly, the stone gate is closing!" Between the main city wall and the auxiliary wall, there was a stone gate one and a half meters high. This was also considered by the designer at the beginning, in case the auxiliary wall or the main city wall was breached, there would be an emergency stone gate to cut off contact between the two sides. Now this stone gate was descending.

  Wu Fei pointed at the archer beside him and said: "Kneel down and shoot for me, shoot..."

  Li Hong, with the help of the archer, got rid of the enemy's entanglement and rolled over to the stone gate just as it was about to close. He lay on the ground, panting heavily, unable to get up again.

  The rear troops of the Su Li army were the first to panic. They were frightened and scattered, fleeing down the mountain to escape with their lives. When they discovered that all the roads down the mountain had been completely blocked by the fire, everyone cried out in despair and ran back up the mountain, towards the walls of Mei Lou City. Su Li climbed onto the city wall at the very beginning when the fire started. More than a thousand soldiers from the rear troops risked their lives to climb up the ten cloud ladders to reach the top of the wall. In a very short time, the entire auxiliary wall was packed with soldiers, who had no way to escape the fire zone and could only watch helplessly as the flames swept in, covering the sky and earth.

  The Huihe troops were just about to counterattack after withstanding a fierce barrage of arrows from the Han army when they heard the retreat horn. They then saw that Meishan was already ablaze. By the time they retreated out of range of the Han army's bows, Meishan had become a huge fireball.

  The Hui army stood there, stunned and speechless, staring blankly at the burning Mei Mountain, watching the soldiers rushing around like wolves and pigs on the mountain, their mournful cries seeming to be right in their own ears, making one's heart and gallbladder shatter. The excitement and thrill of just now turned into fear and pain in an instant.

  The great fire on Mei Mountain was getting bigger and bigger, with fierce flames constantly rising into the sky, already dyeing half of the sky red. The temperature above Lulong Pass suddenly rose, even the air was scorching hot, the ash from the burned trees floated in the air with the wind, gently falling onto the bloody battlefield.

  Su Li was so furious that he almost killed the guard who reported to him.

  On the other side of the city wall, it was adjacent to a valley, about ten or so zhang deep. Not to mention putting up ladders, nothing could reach the bottom. Su Li gazed despairingly at the big fire on Mei Mountain, clenched his fists and let out a heaven-shaking roar. He had been heroic all his life, never expecting such an untimely demise.

  The big fire borrowed the wind, and the more it burned, the higher the temperature on the entire auxiliary wall became, just like a steamer, and it was already unbearable for people. Mei Lou finally couldn't bear the scorching of the big fire and started to ignite spontaneously, with black smoke mixed with increasingly fierce flames rising into the air.

  The soldiers squeezed at the edge of Mei Lou could not bear it anymore, and the fear of being burned alive was unbearable. First, a soldier jumped down into the valley, followed by more soldiers who jumped down regardless of their lives. The auxiliary wall was a one-way road to death. Those on top either resigned themselves to death or waited for the arrival of the god of death.

  The Han soldiers on the main wall were stunned, they did not expect this big fire to spread to such a scale in an instant. Gradually, they also could not bear the scorching heat and retreated dozens of steps away from the stone gate.

  On the other side of the stone gate, there were sounds of pounding on the door, shouting and cursing, begging for mercy, wailing and screaming, all sorts of noises that were unbearable to listen to. Some soldiers couldn't bear it and quietly moved further away.

  Wang Jin stood beside the crossbow machine, coldly saying: "Don't have any mercy. These ferocious barbarians, once they capture us, never leave anyone alive. They plunder our innocent Han civilians, harm our unarmed border people, did they ever have any mercy? Did they? If we don't kill all these barbarians, the Great Han Empire will never know peace."

  "Kill..." The soldiers shouted in unison.

  "Kill...!" More soldiers raised their arms and shouted.

  Li Hong sat alone at the foot of the city wall, unsure if what he had done was right or wrong. Thinking of his comrades who were brutally killed, he felt that what he did was not wrong. Hearing the mournful cries outside the stone gate, he thought himself too cruel. Burning to death over a thousand people was truly a grave sin.

  Why must everyone keep killing each other and harbor endless grudges?

  Wuyan, Xianbei and Queji stared at Su Li and his troops being engulfed by the great fire.

  They cannot accept this cruel fact. Under the almost one-sided absolute advantage, they were actually pierced by the Han army with such a big hole, burning Mei Mountain and wiping out the entire Su Li army in one pot, and it was still so ruthlessly annihilated. Xiong Ba was heartbroken and self-reproached. He felt that he should have thought of this problem, but was blinded by the advantage of his troops and the initial victory, ignoring the potential dangers that may exist in mountain warfare, underestimating his opponent.

  The blow to the Huihe coalition army was too great, especially in terms of morale. Seeing the raging flames on Mei Mountain, seeing soldiers struggling and dying miserably in the fierce blaze, no one was not terrified, no one was not afraid. The Luolong Pass, which was like a copper wall and iron fortress, gave soldiers not only an unbreakable myth but also a terrifying means of annihilating the enemy that was devoid of humanity.

  The destruction of the Su Li troops caused the Hu tribe coalition to lose its numerical advantage, and taking the city seemed like an unattainable task. Wu Yan's troops seemed to be too frightened, and they actually retreated their main camp three miles away, far avoiding the charred Meishan Mountain. They no longer attacked, they were waiting for Xiong Ba's return.

  That night, Xiong Ba took a dozen guards and hastily left the main camp. He still had an emergency plan. Leaving the main camp was to execute this emergency plan.

  The big fire burned until noon the next day, and then slowly went out. If it weren't for that city wall blocking the fire from continuing to spread, who knows where it would have burned to or how long it would have taken.

  The soldiers who jumped down the valley could not survive, and those who stayed on the auxiliary wall were either roasted by fire or smoked to death. On the third day, when the Han army opened the stone gate, they surprisingly found that there were still people who had not died. The several Xianbei soldiers who were pressed under the large number of corpses at the very bottom, close to the stone gate, were all alive, including Paozi Suli.

  Ludongze won his first battle, and the entire fortress was immersed in a joyful atmosphere.