Chapter 31: Fury Sets the Prairie Ablaze (6)

  A Mu Tai has indeed come back.

  A massive explosion occurred in the Chinese military camp, not only making him anxious and worried, but also causing many Jurchen, Khitan, Xi and Bohai soldiers who were besieging the Han army camp with him to be shocked and uncertain about what had happened.

  But one thing is certain, their main camp was attacked. And judging from the commotion, it's likely that only a small number of troops were stationed in the central army camp, which should be enough to overwhelm them.

  At this time, Amu Tai had basically controlled the situation. The Han army camp had more than a thousand soldiers, and those who died were dead, those who escaped were escaped, and those who were captured were captured. The extermination was almost over. Amu Tai couldn't wait to completely clean up the remnants. He left only three Mohe Qidan soldiers behind, then led all his Jurchen soldiers, plus four Mohe Qidan soldiers, a total of five Mohe with more than 500 horses, and hastily killed their way back to the main camp.

  From the military camp to the central camp, it's only three or four miles away. At the speed of cavalry, it would take no more than a cup of tea to get there. However, when Amutai led his army to the east of the village gate moat, the scene in front of him was strange and made him anxious.

  The suspension bridge has been lowered into the ditch, and the gate of the village is wide open (in fact, this gate has been repeatedly bombed and is already in a state of disrepair, it can't be closed even if one wants to). Inside, everything is dark and nothing can be seen clearly. The air is filled with a strong smell of blood and human waste, mixed with the acrid smell of sulfur and gunpowder...

  However, Amute soon lost interest in distinguishing the flavors in the air, replaced by shock, anxiety and a hint of fear - because on the crossbeam at the gate of the stockade, a bloody head was hanging. Although the deceased's facial features were somewhat distorted, he still recognized it at a glance, this head being his deputy, the vice-captain of the Mergen Temur's personal guard: Huri Puji.

  Huri, who had always stayed by Mang Anbo's side, was now beheaded and his head hung at the gate. So what about Mang Anbo?

  At this moment, Amu Tai's eyes turned red. If something happened to Gu Xin, he would not mind dying, but his family was innocent and would also be implicated. His wife and two concubines were still young, and his son had not yet grown up!

  Ah Mu Tai pointed his long whip forward, and the whole army charged forward! No need to scout, no need to discuss, no need to formulate tactics... Must use the fastest time to defeat the enemy, absolutely cannot let Manganbuhe fall into enemy hands. Otherwise, it will not only be oneself and family members who are finished, but also the greatest shame for the Great Jin Dynasty since its founding!

  A Mu Tai's move seems reckless, but it also has its own reason. Along the way, after some old hands in the Jin army carefully observed and concluded that no large enemy troops were found, which means that the enemy only had small troops.

  If the enemy who came to commit a crime had only a little over 100 people, no matter how elite the soldiers were or how advanced their equipment was. Amutai had the confidence to annihilate them all with absolute superiority. This is based on his strong faith in his own army. Therefore, he dared to launch a desperate attack to gain time when the enemy's situation was unclear.

  More than 500 Jin soldiers swarmed in, but due to the narrow suspension bridge, they could not pass more cavalry at once. Amutai ordered the excess war horses to be pushed into the moat, using their flesh and blood to fill out several paths, speeding up the passage of the cavalry.

  When the first batch of Jinbing rushed into the village, they were about to gallop with a loud whinny, only to find that there was still another roadblock - row upon row of dense vehicles blocking their way.

  These vehicles are also familiar to Amutei - aren't they the ones that carried those Song Dynasty women, who got drenched and stranded due to the heavy rain last night? These damaged carriages were originally piled up behind the stockade wall for defense, which was a way of utilizing discarded materials. Now, it's indeed being utilized as waste, only this time by the enemy against themselves...

  Ah Mu Tai sneered, thinking that just a few dozen broken carts could block the momentum of my great army, how naive. With his order, the Jin soldiers threw out their lassos, three or four ropes entwining a cart, then drove their horses to use their strength to pull the carts apart.

  Just in front of the Dongzhai Gate, the Jin army was surging forward, crowded and piled up, making a loud noise. A hundred steps away from the gate, on top of the high watchtower, Di Lie was leisurely lighting his pipe.

  Under Di Lie's feet, two large bundles of spears were placed, and a dozen or so crossbows with strings already drawn and arrows loaded were arranged. Upon closer inspection, there were as many as twenty of them. These crossbows were originally precision-made long-range weapons of the Great Song Dynasty, which had played a crucial role in the two battles defending Bianjing and the defense of Taiyuan, inflicting heavy casualties on the Jin army. However, after the fall of the Great Song Dynasty, all the weapons in the imperial armory were plundered, and the Jin army, having suffered greatly at the hands of such formidable weapons, would certainly not let them go to waste.

  Di Lie found a large number of weapons in the hidden barracks within the stockade walls, including many of these divine arm bows. The hidden barracks were originally temporary wooden houses for the Jin army guarding the stockade to rest, treat wounds, repair and replace damaged weapons during wartime. Inside, there were a large number of weapons and armor, mostly captured from the Song Dynasty. The Jurchen cavalry preferred to use knives and bows rather than guns and crossbows, so many wooden guns and crossbows were idle among them.

  This divine arm is called "bow", actually a kind of crossbow, with a copper ring at the front end, which can be opened by foot force to shoot terrifying chisel arrows (a kind of shovel-shaped steel arrowhead). The maximum range can reach an astonishing 350 steps, and within the effective range of 250 steps, it can penetrate shields and armor, and those who are hit will die instantly.

  Di Lie chose the Divine Arm Bow because he liked the look of the Chisel Arrows, which seemed very powerful. He strung all twenty crossbows and put them in a state of readiness, so that once used, they could be fired in rapid succession, producing a kind of continuous shooting effect.

  However, the divine arm bow's power was indeed great, but drawing the string was very laborious. The newly-minted "Golden Traitor" Ah Shi, who was assisting Di Lie, used all his might, sweating profusely and exhausting himself, to draw only ten bows. Meanwhile, Di Lie drew the remaining ten bows with a single hand, his face unchanged.

  After being tongue-tied, the sense of surrender and guilt in his heart also faded a lot. The Jurchen people worship the strong, and it is an honor to follow the brave warriors. Di Lie's strength inadvertently eliminated the wavering intention in Ah Tu's heart.

  Of course, in addition to the armor and weapons, there is another defensive instrument in the arsenal: fire oil. Whether it was the Song army or the Liao army of the past, this was an indispensable part of their defensive equipment. At that time, the Jin Dynasty was at its peak, and no country or force dared to attack its cities and strongholds, but this did not prevent the Jin army from using this fuel as a reserve defense weapon.

  Di Lie has already used up more than half of the nearly one-ton heavy fire oil, now it's time to inspect the results.

  As the lighter popped out a flame, a cloth ball wrapped in stones burst into flames. Di Lie held a two-meter-long rope in one hand, spinning it around his hand several times, aiming at the landing point, and then released it.

  The ball of cloth, well, it should be called a fireball now, flew over 70 or 80 paces and landed right on one of the covered carts. In an instant, the cart was engulfed in flames, and these flames seemed to spread like a contagion, with one cart after another catching fire.

  Looking down from the top of the slope, only the fire snakes seemed to have a life of their own, extending continuously to both sides. Not only did all the tents catch fire, but the fire snakes even crossed over the stockade and burned all the way to the moat, forming an irregular flat circle. In this nearly circular sea of flames, more than 500 Jin soldiers were divided into two segments. Over 300 people, including Amutai and nearly 100 Jurchen Jin soldiers, were surrounded by raging flames in a small circle of less than 30 zhang (a unit of length), with people crowded together and horses packed tightly. Those inside the circle tried to squeeze out with all their might, while those on the outside were scorched by the flames that licked at them, causing their hair and beards to be singed, and they too desperately squeezed inward. The scene was chaotic, with many Jin soldiers being pushed and trampled to death or injury.

  Nearly two hundred cavalrymen behind were completely blocked by the big fire outside the trenches and could neither advance nor retreat for a time.

  Ah Mu Tai scolded loudly, but it was unclear whether he was scolding the enemy for being cunning or his subordinates for being stupid. However, under his command, the Jin soldiers replaced the cowhide ropes and tied them to the burning cart's axle, using force to pull the cart apart in both directions. Many sharp-eyed Jin soldiers discovered that the source of the fireballs was from dozens of steps away on top of the watchtower, and they quickly drew their bows and shot arrows at the roof of the watchtower.

  Unfortunately, the distance was a bit too far. The fireball could be thrown down from above, but the arrows had to be shot upwards, and gravity made it impossible to pass this test. Most of the arrows fell to the ground, and only a few with great force and strong bow power managed to hit the shield of the catapult, piercing through three inches of wood. But what use were these few scattered arrows?

  Di Lie Man stood carelessly on the top of the cabin, his toes lifted, and with a flick of his foot, he sent the second 10-kilogram explosive package flying into the air. He caught it with one hand. After estimating the distance, he cut off an excess length of fuse with his dagger, lit it with a snap, and then tied the explosive package to a strip of cloth on the rope bundle. With a few swift circles above his head, he hurled it out.

  "Amutai, I'm giving you a big gift! Enjoy it well!"

  This time, Di Lie didn't need to aim for a specific landing point, as long as the explosive pack landed within the ring of fire it would be fine, preferably close to the central position.

  Just as the Jin soldiers were cursing that boring guy for throwing useless fireballs, the air seemed to suddenly quiet down, and then a fierce fireball burst out from the ground, flames and smoke soaring into the sky. Within a radius of thirty zhang, a small tornado suddenly swept across the flat land. And that circle of burning carts was further fueled by the flames, which were blown up three feet high by the strong wind, as if cheering on this giant fireball.

  That dry thunder-like huge explosion sound knocked Ah Su to the ground from eighty steps away, and this sound seemed to remind him of his previous experience. His whole body trembled and he couldn't get up. But it wasn't over yet, and a slippery intestine flew in from somewhere and hit him right in the face. The strong smell made Ah Su lean against the railing and vomit nonstop.

  As this was a four-sided fierce fire, the center opened in bloom, and the explosion effect seemed to be quite good. At least from Di Lie's high vantage point, amidst the blazing flames, there didn't seem to be many moving silhouettes left, except for the pitiful neighs of some war horses running wildly about, and even wails and moans were hardly audible.

  In fact, these war horses that were startled by the explosion were the most deadly killers. Surrounded by flames and unable to escape, nearly a hundred horses that had been startled by the fire, shockwaves, and injuries ran back and forth, trampling everything in their path. The Jin soldiers who fell to the ground, whether dead or alive, were all trampled into mud.

  Those two hundred Khitan soldiers who were isolated from the fierce fire and escaped with their lives were clearly frightened. Many people were shocked by the sudden explosion and fell off their horses, and were trampled by the hooves of frightened horses. The horses ran wildly in all directions, while their owners had no way to comfort them, because they themselves needed comfort...

  A massive explosion that had never been seen before, causing heavy casualties in an instant, completely shattered the psychological bottom line of the Khitan army. Most of the Khitan soldiers fled on horseback, while a small number of officers and their personal soldiers were hesitant and wavering, unsure whether such a rout would be pursued by the Jin people. As a result, a terrible rain of arrows came, and more than ten people fell down instantly.

  "It's a divine arm bow, run fast!" The Khitan people were greatly shocked, and it was actually the arrowhead of the Zhongren's crossbow, which obviously must have been shot from a divine arm bow. Moreover, judging from the number and speed of the arrows fired, there were clearly no less than dozens of enemies, possibly even hundreds of people, all holding divine arm bows... Just thinking about it makes one's scalp numb. Now is the time to run as fast as possible, as for the punishment of the Jin people, let them go to hell..."

  "You're quite fast, I still have a big gift pack that hasn't been sent out yet." Di Lie threw away the empty divine arm bow and stretched his waist, "Shouldn't be anyone else who comes to make trouble with their eyes closed, right?"

  Just then, a series of familiar rumbles came from a certain direction in the distance, and then returned to silence.

  Di Lie leaned on the railing, gazing far away with a faint smile: "It seems they've also completed their mission." He raised his hand to glance at his luminous watch; the hour hand pointed to 4:25. This long night was finally about to pass.