Chapter 30: Fury Sets the Prairie Ablaze (5)

  Gu Xin certainly did not hear Di Lie's challenge to him, but that loud explosion was heard clearly.

  He rushed out of the big tent and shouted at the guards: "What happened? Where did such a loud noise come from?"

  The guards were also startled by the explosion and were momentarily unclear about what had happened. Fortunately, after a while, patrolling Jin soldiers came to report: "It was the East Gate! It was the loud noise that came from the East Gate."

  He clenched his fist and swung it violently, only to feel a little inadequate now: one of the Puergin soldiers guarding the west gate was absolutely immobile; another Puergin soldier guarding Song's captives was already scarce and couldn't be moved; a Mouke soldier guarding supplies might be able to dispatch one Puergin to reinforce, plus the only mobile force on hand, a Puergin guard defending the central military tent. With this formation of Mouke forces, plus fifty golden soldiers from the east gate, such a strong force would be enough to defend the gate and repel them, even if the entire Five Horse Mountain bandit army were to come out.

  Gu Xin made a decisive decision and immediately ordered the execution. As for Huri, who was temporarily appointed as the commander of the vanguard, he only left four guards by his side, showing concern. Gu Xin waved his hand indifferently: "As long as you block and annihilate the enemy that comes to attack, it is safe here. Heh heh, even if a few fish slip through the net and sneak in, it's just right for me to practice my skills - even Talen may not necessarily win against me."

  Huri had originally intended to gather a hundred cavalrymen according to Genghis Khan's orders and go to the East Gate to provide support, but shortly after leaving the main tent, a wounded soldier who had gone to scout out the East Gate returned to report to him: "Our four horsemen had just reached within a hundred paces of the gate when we were suddenly attacked by arrows. The enemy seemed to be able to see us clearly in the dark, and no matter where we hid, we couldn't avoid their arrows... In the end, only I managed to return..." As the soldier spoke, he fell off his horse.

  "Huli grasped his collar and roared: 'What about the garrison at Dongzhai Gate? What are they doing?'"

  "That... didn't see..." His head drooped down.

  Huli's robust chest heaved violently as he suddenly let out a loud roar: "Except for the twenty people left to guard the supplies and the twenty people guarding the Song captives, all the rest of you, assemble and charge towards the East Gate!"

  One of the guards beside him reminded: "But the order given by Meng An is to mobilize only one Muqiu... Moreover, too many troops have been withdrawn, and there are really not enough people left to guard the supplies and Song captives..."

  "Hurry up and get out of the way, you Imperial Guards! This is a military emergency, I have to make decisions on the spot. Even if General Mu An was here, he would order me to do the same. As for those supplies and the Song captives... as long as we repel the enemy's attack, the supplies will naturally be safe; and as for the Song captives, those sheep-like men and women, even if there wasn't a single guard watching them, do you think they would dare to run?"

  He hastily nodded and led the way. Before long, Huri had assembled 160 Jurchen soldiers, a full quota, more than the original order by one "chuai". Then the whole army strung their bows, drew their swords, donned thick felt armor, each holding a torch, iron hooves rumbling, killing intent soaring, and charged straight at the East Gate.

  In Huri's imagination, the enemy forces that could completely suppress Dongzhai Gate would not be less than 500 or 600 people, and might even reach over a thousand. So his battle plan was - no plan! Utilizing the ferocity of the Golden Iron Cavalry's charge, he would crush the enemy in one go, then divide and annihilate them.

  In the past, when the Jin army clashed with the Song army, they often adopted this simple yet effective tactic, winning battle after battle. The Jin cavalry would charge forward, and under a hail of arrows, the Song army would collapse at the first touch, followed by repeated scenes of pursuit and slaughter. The so-called military strategies and tactics employed by the Central Plains dynasty were rendered completely useless in the face of such brute force, and the natural advantage of cavalry over infantry.

  But when Huri and over a hundred Jurchen soldiers arrived at the East Gate, the scene before them made them almost drop their eyes - it was quiet here, even dead silence. Yes, it was dead silence - because what lay before them were not a single living person, but corpses! And they were all corpses of female Jurchen warriors of the Great Jin Dynasty.

  About fifty paces inside the east gate, there was a wooden platform about ten feet high and thirty feet wide. This was a simple command platform for the officer in charge of defending the gate. Now, the officer in charge of the east gate and all his men lay dead on this platform. A large amount of dark red blood had stained the original wooden platform into a shocking "corpse platform".

  With a curved knife in his hand, Hu Li slashed at the empty air and let out a hoarse cry: "Where are the enemies? Where have they all hidden? Find them for me, I want to flay them alive!"

  One hundred and sixty Jin soldiers immediately divided into three groups, one group rushed to occupy the advantageous defensive position of the camp wall; one group broke through the gate, crossed the suspension bridge, and searched around; another group dismounted and ran up to the command platform to mourn their dead tribesmen.

  Just as the Jin soldiers were stepping on the wooden ladder in a hurry, moving the corpses, someone accidentally broke a thin rope that was tied horizontally across the ladder. The thin rope snapped, and a piece of bright red charcoal hidden under the wooden platform fell down with the tray, igniting a long fuse. The sizzling fuse, like a little devil urging death, blinked its bright red eyes, while above, just one board away, many Jin soldiers were busily transporting corpses, unaware of the great danger that was about to befall them...

  After a while, the Jin soldiers who went out to search and capture returned, and with them came some Khitan soldiers who had run over from the Khitan camp due to unknown circumstances. However, there were not many people, only less than one pu (a unit of measurement) of horses and men - this was already the last mobile force of the Khitan camp.

  Utterly defeated and gripped with inexplicable fear. This was the state of the two hundred Jin soldiers under Hulir's command at this moment.

  They couldn't figure out what had happened here. Why were there so many Jin soldiers dead? And where had the enemy who killed them gone?

  "Where are they? Where are those damned Southern cowards?" Huri was about to explode with rage, he wasn't afraid of fighting, nor was he afraid of fighting the Southerners, no matter how many there were. He dared to charge forward alone, armed with his curved sword. But now, he couldn't find a target to charge at, his whole body's courage and indignation had nowhere to vent.

  Just then, a Jin soldier on the wall seemed to have discovered something and hastily brought over a wooden sign: "Bo Ji, I found this."

  Huli snatched the wooden sign and borrowed the light of the torch behind him to take a look, his nose almost crooked.

  On this wooden board, a portrait of a person was painted with fresh blood. The portrait is none other than the founder of their Jin Dynasty - Taizu Wanyan Aguda. Although it's just a few strokes, it looks quite similar. At that time, the Jurchen people of the Jin army were extremely worshipful of Taizu and often carried a small wooden board with his portrait as an amulet. Now this large wooden board's portrait is clearly a temporary copy of some Jin soldier's amulet bearing Taizu's image.

  Although most of the talismans bearing portraits of Taizu do not actually resemble him, and some are even far removed from his true likeness, by convention everyone regards this bearded man in a golden crown as Taizu.

  And now, on this wooden plaque of Taizu's portrait, behind the collar is painted a wooden sign with a red cross, and also painted a large guillotine... This is an insult to Da Jin Guo Chi Guo Guo, it is a shame for all citizens of Da Jin Guo!

  Huri slammed the wooden board to the ground, raised his curved knife high, and with a belly full of unvented anger, slashed down.

  Boom! A deafening roar, unprecedented in its intensity, sent all the Jin soldiers tumbling to the ground. Some with better composure managed to stay upright, but their panicked warhorses would often send them toppling over as well.

  Dai Mokuyou was blown into the air by a blast of intense light, then disintegrated and shattered into countless sharp fragments with powerful piercing force...

  More than 50 Jin soldiers who were carrying the corpses on the command platform immediately followed their dead comrades, with severed limbs and flesh flying everywhere along with the wooden splinters. The more than 100 Jin soldiers gathered in front of the gate and on the wall were almost without exception "washed" by the sudden rainstorm-like wooden splinters, even heavy wooden blocks.

  After the explosion, among the mournful cries, less than half of the Jin soldiers were still standing. Hu Li was one of them, surrounded by many soldiers, his leather armor also pierced in multiple places, covered in blood, looking quite miserable, but actually just flesh wounds. The most severely injured was on his face, a two-finger-wide wooden splinter had pierced through his cheek, almost cutting off his tongue...

  But Huri didn't have time to congratulate himself on his narrow escape, as another series of smaller explosions erupted from the wall behind him. With each explosion, a row of Jin soldiers fell. After about five loud bangs, the number of Jin soldiers still standing, including Huri, could be counted on one hand... If Huri had known that this series of explosions was actually caused by his subordinate soldier pulling out the wooden sign, triggering a chain reaction of pre-set explosives, he would have chopped up the careless ghost before chopping up the wooden sign.

  At this moment, Huri saw that outside the dark stockade wall, arrows were shooting in from time to time, killing all the remaining Jin soldiers who were still standing.

  "Damn southerner, you've finally shown up......" Panting heavily, spitting out a mouthful of blood foam, gritting his teeth in agony, he raised his curved knife and stared fixedly at the gate.

  After a while, a black shadow indeed appeared at the entrance of the village - why is there only one black shadow? There should be many, many more...

  Huri didn't think much about it anymore, even if only one appeared, at least there would be an enemy to kill. He held his sword across his chest, forced himself to take a step forward, and with great force, he charged towards the black shadow with all his might.

  Huli wanted to engage in close combat with his opponent, but the other party didn't give him this opportunity, merely lightly raising his crossbow and pressing down on the trigger...

  "Despicable and shameless southern barbarians..." These were Huli's last thoughts before he fell.

  Di Lie used only one of the three giant explosive packs, plus five medium-sized thunderbolts, to overturn two hundred golden soldiers. However, whether it was a 10-kilogram explosive pack or a 2-kilogram thunderbolt, the power of black gunpowder was limited after all. Moreover, each golden soldier was fully armored and had good protection, and there were also horses blocking in between. Therefore, among the two hundred golden soldiers, less than half were actually blown to death on the spot. Most people were either injured by the shockwave produced by the explosion or wounded by wooden fragments with piercing power no less than arrows, thus losing their ability to fight again.

  Di Lie first used a crossbow to shoot and kill those who were not yet dead, then simply threw away the crossbow and picked up two curved knives. Like the god of death harvesting lives in the dark night, he beheaded all the heavily injured Jin soldiers. In the process of doing this, what flashed through his mind was the faces of the young and pale corpses in the giant tomb... Without a doubt, these Jin soldiers were the direct culprits behind this tragic case. For such scum that had automatically degraded themselves to become inferior creatures, any pity or humanitarianism would be superfluous...

  Di Lie Zheng was just about to kill the red-eyed man when a Jin soldier, who had been pretending to be dead on the ground, saw that it would soon be his turn and had no choice but to get up. He knocked his head like pounding garlic: "General spare my life, sir spare my life, I surrender, I surrender..."

  Di Lie's curved blade paused in mid-air, this was the first time he had seen a Jin soldier surrender voluntarily. It was rare for the arrogant and domineering Jurchen people to do so. Fortunately, this Jin soldier could even speak Han Chinese; otherwise, he might not have even had the chance to beg for mercy. It seems that a famous saying from later generations is indeed reasonable: mastering an additional foreign language is truly necessary.

  However, Di Lie didn't plan to let these scoundrels who had committed heinous crimes off the hook. He merely said with a sarcastic tone: "Now you know how to beg for mercy, but on that night when you were having so much fun, did you ever think you'd end up like this?"

  Na Jinbing's face was a picture of confusion: "Enjoyable last night? Last night I was on duty guarding the big tent, getting rained on and soaked to the bone, what enjoyment could be spoken of?"

  Di Lie slowly raised the golden soldier's collar: "What a coincidence? Last night you were on duty? Your buddies are having fun, but you're being blown by the wind and rain?"

  "Alas, I'm truly loyal and guarding the gate with all my might. What good things can a lowly person like me get? If I abandon my post, I'll lose my head! Heaven is above, if there's even half a word of falsehood, let Ah Su die after his soul cannot return to heaven."

  Di Lie slowly sheathed his curved knife, having gained some understanding of the Jurchen people's customs from Hou Fangjing. He knew that the Jurchens revered heaven, earth, and spirits, and if they swore an oath on Changshengtian, they would never speak falsely. Moreover, their souls would not be able to return to Changshengtian's embrace after death, making it a poisonous oath. It seemed that this Jin soldier named Ashu had indeed not participated in the Jurchens' "Unbridled Joy Assembly". Of course, this wasn't to say that Ashu was an unusual, self-disciplined individual; he simply had good luck and happened to be on night duty... Yes, just good luck...

  Di Lie thrust his curved blade into the ground: "Very well, Ah Su, in our words, you are a brilliant strategist who knows when to yield. I accept your surrender. Now, I need you to tell me everything about this central military camp."

  This guy is indeed a good candidate for being a "gold traitor", spilling all the beans he knows like dumping peas from a bamboo tube.

  When Di Lie found out that Gu Xin, the majestic and powerful general, had only four guards by his side, and the entire central camp had less than fifty Golden Soldiers left. He couldn't help but excitedly punch his palm, excellent, it's all settled!

  "But Amutei will definitely bring troops back." Ashu said cautiously.

  "Oh, why?"

  "The Taijin Military Law stipulates that if the main general is defeated, all his personal attendants and bodyguards will be beheaded, and their families will be confiscated. Amutai was the commander of Genghis Khan's personal guard, he would never let Temujin fall into danger."

  "Is that so." Diliemu rubbed his chin, which had grown a bit stubbly, and smiled slightly. "Alright, then I'll prepare a big gift to welcome Amutei!"

  ;