Chapter 314: Dramatic Siege, Open the Gates to Welcoming the Thieves
"Chirp..."
With a cry of an eagle in the sky, a large golden eagle swooped down and instantly landed in front of Cao Yongxiang, the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army.
"Whoosh!"
A figure jumped off Xiao Jin's back and landed lightly on the ground.
The person who came was none other than Hongmei.
After she had dealt with all matters at Desheng Fort yesterday, she ordered 10,000 soldiers of her royal guard to head straight for Yansui Town, while she herself went ahead to join Cao Yongxiang's army which had already arrived a hundred miles outside the Yansui Town City.
Desheng Fort is now renamed Desheng City.
After the joint efforts of tens of thousands of craftsmen, five thousand warrior recruits, thousands of firearms battalion soldiers, and ten thousand guards, the original fortress has been transformed into a large city.
"General Manager, I'm glad you're here."
"We are worrying about how to prevent all forces in the city from using the spirit birds to communicate with the outside world after the war breaks out."
Cao Yongxiang said to Hongmei who came to join the Western Route Army, "According to the report from the military intelligence personnel hiding in the city yesterday, the officials in the city knew nothing about our army's southward march, which shows that our previous action to blockade Desheng Fort was very effective."
"The You family army is stationed in the west city, while the Ma family army is stationed in the east city. The two forces are restraining each other, and the entire city has been in a mess recently."
"You Shilu and Ma Chengen, the two generals, are unwilling to submit to each other and have no time to care about things outside the city."
"It has to be said that the high-ranking officials in the court have become so incompatible with each other because of their factional struggles."
"Hong Chengchou represents the interests of the southern gentry, while Ma Chengen represents the interests of the northern gentry, forming an irreconcilable situation."
"The Ming Dynasty was once a prosperous dynasty, but it was messed up by these officials and gentry. They were all trying to gain the most benefits and did not care about the interests of the court at all."
"It's not uncommon for two generals to be in the same important border town, but apart from a few military towns in Liaodong, there are definitely not many."
It was not until Cao Yongxiang personally led his troops into the pass that he finally realized the chaos in the Ming officialdom, which had reached an irredeemable point.
No wonder the Later Jin Tartars fought all the way to the capital, rubbed the face of the Ming Dynasty on the ground, and then swaggered out of the border slowly, carrying a large number of looted young and strong people and huge amounts of wealth and materials, without worrying at all that the Ming army would come to intercept them.
The main reason was that the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty did not take the invasion of the Later Jin Tartars seriously at all.
Could the Tatar invasion be as important as their struggle for interests?
The Fuxing Army entered the pass with such a large fanfare, but it has not been noticed by local government until now. This is absolutely outrageous for generals like Cao Yongxiang.
This is an elite cavalryman who rides two horses!
With hundreds of thousands of spiritual beasts and war horses, a large number of treasure ships and carriages loaded with logistical supplies, and more than 200,000 soldiers, the action was extremely powerful.
Logically speaking, no matter how the soldiers of the Restoration Army tried to block the news, it would be impossible for it not to be known.
Both the Eastern and Western Army Groups had already made various plans for strong attacks, but the current situation was beyond the soldiers' expectations.
It was not until nearly five days after their army entered the pass and arrived near the Yansui Town from Desheng Fort that they were discovered by the government troops.
This would have been absolutely impossible more than two years ago when Hong Chengchou was the governor of Yansui Town.
It is estimated that the two armies of the Fuxing Army had already been discovered by a large number of scouts sent by Hong Chengchou before they officially entered the pass, and were thus prepared for battle.
If Hong Chengchou knew the current situation, he would probably be so angry that he would vomit blood!
I have only been away from Yansui Town for more than two years. It is unbelievable that Yansui Town, once one of the most powerful border towns in the Ming Dynasty, has declined to this extent.
"Well, I also thought of this, so I was anxious to go ahead and join the army."
After listening to what Cao Yongxiang said, Hongmei nodded and said, "The three Level 5 Black Hawks of the Military Intelligence Department, one will stay in the base camp outside the Great Wall, and Chang Liyun will stay to take charge."
"The remaining two Level 5 Black Hawks have to follow Wei Jinfan to deal with the many complex situations in the Military Intelligence Department, so they can't get away."
"Although our army has brought thousands of three-tailed iron-backed demon wolves, they can only complete the tasks of ground surveillance and concealing the news around the army."
"Speaking of which, the number of top-level spirit birds that our Renaissance Army possesses is too small."
"Unfortunately, the fertility of this kind of top-level spiritual bird is too low. The cycle of reproducing the next generation is very long, and it is difficult to expand the size of their population."
"I have reported this to the commander-in-chief. Please ask him to get some level 4 and 5 spirit birds for our Renaissance Army once he finds a suitable opportunity."
Hongmei is also somewhat helpless about the current shortcomings of the Fuxing Army.
In the past, there were six top-level spirit birds in the Renaissance Army, but they were only active outside the Great Wall and were barely enough for use, so no one felt there was anything wrong.
Now that the commander-in-chief has led his troops into the pass, he has spread his business too thin, and this obvious shortcoming has been immediately revealed.
Otherwise, Cao Yongxiang and his men would have arrived here yesterday and would not have still not taken any attack action against the Yansui Town Capital.
Unless you are absolutely helpless, asking Hongmei to bring the golden eagle to help is better than letting the various forces of the Ming Dynasty know your military intelligence immediately, even if it means wasting a day.
"In view of this matter, the commander-in-chief has replied that after the first round of our blitzkrieg, we have achieved the expected strategic goal of repelling the reinforcements sent by Hong Chengchou and stabilizing our territory. The commander-in-chief will take some time to go deep into the Qinling Mountains and try to subdue the group of colorful peacocks that have occupied a large spiritual land."
"That group of top-level spiritual birds, the peacocks, has more than a hundred of them. If we can recapture them, our Renaissance Army will never lack top-level spiritual birds to use again."
This was the decision Li Dingguo had just made. Even Hongmei was surprised after receiving the spiritual pigeon.
It's not right to say that the commander-in-chief is so bold that he even dares to attack such a large flock of spiritual birds.
But he seemed to be quite confident.
"This……"
Cao Yongxiang was stunned when he heard this, and said with some emotion, "If the commander-in-chief can succeed, our Fuxing Army will have a great advantage in the future."
But let’s ignore this matter since it has not yet happened. Let’s first capture Yansui Town, the most important target of this blitzkrieg, in one fell swoop.
Cao Yongxiang immediately discussed the next action plan with Hongmei, and then ordered the soldiers who had rested for a day on the banks of the Wuding River to begin intensive pre-war preparations.
An hour later, the western army continued to advance by land and water, and began a forced march along the Wuding River towards the Yansui Town Capital a hundred miles away.
For the large fleet and cavalry soldiers, a distance of just a hundred miles can be crossed in a quarter of an hour at most!
Hongmei flew to Xiaojin's back and sat on it. The man and the eagle flew over the Wuding River and headed towards the Yansui Town downstream.
In just a short while, Hongmei rode on the golden eagle and arrived at a height of thousands of feet above the Yansui town.
At such a high altitude, even a level 5 practitioner would find it difficult to see the golden eagle clearly. It was considered a safe distance.
It was almost exactly the same as Li Dingguo's previous arrangement in Jiazhou City. Hongmei was carefully looking down at the situation below while waiting for the arrival of the army.
The attack plan she agreed upon with Cao Yongxiang was the same as Li Dingguo's previous attack on Jiazhou City. Hongmei would ride a large golden eagle and launch a decapitation operation against the defenders in the city, and cooperate with the main army to attack the city in one fell swoop and first destroy the military command system of this prefectural city.
However, because there are nearly a hundred masters of the Qi Refining Realm in this city, Cao Yongxiang's army needs to form several military killing formations and rush into the city as quickly as possible to kill these enemy Qi Refining Realm generals.
There is no doubt that the defense of this city, which is heavily armed, is at least ten times stronger than that of Jiazhou City.
Even if we have the advantage of a surprise attack and are sure to break into the city by surprise, a major battle is inevitable.
This is the biggest difference between Yansui Town and Jiazhou City.
The strength of the government troops between the two cities was completely different. Especially the You Family Army, although it was now in a very poor state, it was still an elite army that had experienced hundreds of battles, and its combat effectiveness was more than 90% of the imperial army of the same size in the Ming Dynasty.
The reputation of the You family army was earned through life-and-death battles, not just boasting.
A quarter of an hour passed quickly, and on the river in front of the Yansui Town on the east bank of the Wuding River, a huge fleet appeared like lightning.
"Where did this large fleet come from?"
"Isn't the scale of this fleet too huge? I have never seen such a large fleet!"
"No way? Look at these treasure ships, big and small, they are all equipped with psychic cannons and psychic crossbow carts!"
"That's weird. Aren't only high-quality and top-quality treasure ships able to be equipped with psychic cannons? How come all the treasure ships in this large fleet have them?"
"Yes, yes! It looks like these psychic cannons are different from the ones we've seen before. Some are big, some are small, and some have wheels!"
"When did our Ming Dynasty create psychic cannons of this size?"
"Hush! Keep your voice down. There are too many soldiers in this fleet. I don't know which army of the imperial court has such a large fleet and so many soldiers!"
"These soldiers are all wearing black clothes and black armor, and their military appearance is too neat, which is different from the government troops we have seen before."
"No! Why are the cannons on these treasure ships aiming at us?"...
Just as the soldiers and civilians in this large town cried out in surprise, bursts of thunderous sounds rang out, and then the ground began to tremble!
From the end of the official road beside the river, suddenly there appeared a crowd of cavalrymen in black clothes and black armor, covering the sky and the earth!
Amid the rumbling sound of horse hooves, the cavalry that seemed to stretch to the end of the sky, without stopping for a moment, rushed directly towards the city gate where the city defense formation had not been activated!
"Whose army is this? Who in the Ming Dynasty has so many elite cavalry?"
"Isn't he a traitor?"
"No way! Where did such elite rebel cavalry come from? Not only are they dressed in uniform, but their war horses are so majestic. The dozens of war horses at the head, could they be the legendary dragon-scale horses?"
"They entered the city! They didn't hurt any passers-by, and they even picked up two elderly people who couldn't dodge in time and put them on the roadside ahead!"
"It's good that they are not enemies, but are there any government troops that are so reasonable? If it were any other government troops, they would definitely knock anyone who blocked their way away!"...
An extremely magical scene took place: the soldiers and civilians inside and outside the city did not realize that this was a large army of rebels. They hid on the roadside one by one and talked about it.
Even the officers and soldiers defending the city, seeing such a large cavalry rushing towards them, did not even have the thought of stopping and questioning them.
Instead, they hid aside in time and watched helplessly as this huge group of black-clad and black-armored cavalry charged into the city in broad daylight!
"This……"
"Commander, our Xuanwu Second Battalion doesn't need to fire artillery to attack the city now!"
"Hey! I was thinking of bombarding a city to see how it goes, but this is the result?"
"Our army's attack on the city this time is too outrageous. They actually marched straight into the city in broad daylight?"
"Are these government soldiers too cowardly? Won't they step forward to interrogate our troops' origins?"
"Hahaha... interrogation? If you were guarding the city gate and saw a massive cavalry rushing into the city, would you dare to go up and try to stop them?"...
The bizarre scene that took place at the city gate not only stunned the soldiers and civilians stationed at the city gate, but also the soldiers of the Second Xuanwu Battalion who were preparing to fire artillery to attack the city.
They originally thought that they would be able to use psychic cannons to launch a concentrated fire attack on the city and break it down, but not only did the enemy not respond, even the enemy soldiers guarding the city gates turned around and ran away.
They had not even realized that this huge force of elite cavalry that was marching into the city was actually a rebel army!
If you think about it carefully, this is not very strange: where did the rebel army get such sophisticated equipment? Where did they get such a large cavalry team?
Even if all the elite cavalry of the official army in the entire Qin area were added together, their scale would not be this large.
The soldiers of the Fuxing Army rode war horses that were at least mid-grade dragon-scale horses.
Such a large number of elite Han cavalry had not been seen in the northwest region of the Ming Dynasty for many years.
Because the Fusion Army arrived so suddenly, their troops were so neat and well-equipped, the enemy was truly confused.
As a hundred-man elite cavalry team led the way into the city and quickly took control of the north gate, teams of soldiers from the Azure Dragon Legion and the White Tiger Legion immediately rushed into this huge city on horseback like hungry tigers pouncing on their prey!
"Tang Guangqiang! I will go to the West City District to deal with the You family army! You lead the soldiers of the White Tiger Legion and head directly to the East City to destroy the Ma family army!"
"You have to be careful of Ma Chengen. The soldiers under him are not very good at fighting, but he himself is a level five master!"
Cao Yongxiang led a team of a thousand soldiers and rushed into the city first, but he did not relax at all. He shouted to Tang Guangqiang who was leading the soldiers of the White Tiger Legion and advancing at the same pace as him nearby.
In fact, he could also guess that Hongmei, who was always ready to attack, would most likely choose to carry out a decapitation operation against Ma Chengen.
So he gave Tang Guangqiang some instructions as usual, without any worries in his heart.
This was the arrangement in the plan previously agreed upon with Hongmei.
After all, Tang Guangqiang's current cultivation level is only at the peak of level four, and he has not yet broken through to level five. Once he faces Ma Chengen, who has the initial level five cultivation level, there is a high possibility of failure even with the assistance of the military killing formation.
"it is good!"
The current situation did not allow Tang Guangqiang, who was riding at full speed, to think too much. He agreed loudly and led the soldiers of the White Tiger Legion behind him to immediately turn into the eastward avenue in the city and galloped towards the east gate!
Behind him, countless White Tiger Legion soldiers were roaring towards him, and their numbers were increasing!
When the soldiers and civilians on the street saw this situation, they were all confused and quickly dodged to the side of the road to avoid being hit and killed by this huge cavalry.
In that case, death would be in vain.
"Chirp!"
At this time, an eagle cry was heard in the sky, and a big golden eagle descended from the sky and swooped down towards the East City Military Camp in the city!
There was no need to think about it, Cao Yongxiang and Tang Guangqiang, who both noticed this scene, already knew that Hongmei had discovered her target in the sky and commanded the golden eagle to land directly towards the target and launched a decapitation operation!
In this case, decapitation is undoubtedly the best operation.
Once Ma Chengen is successfully killed, the soldiers under his command will immediately become a group of scattered sand. How can they possibly stop the mass charge launched by the cavalry soldiers of the Fuxing Army!
If Hongmei and the Golden Eagle had better luck and killed more of the enemy's Qi Refining Realm generals, the Ma family army with 20,000 soldiers might not have collapsed.
This situation is quite likely.
After all, Ma Chengen has a criminal record of many times.
When he was leading troops in Xuanfu before, when he encountered most of the Tartar troops, he quickly slipped away with his troops.
This kind of army, which often collapses without fighting, has developed the habit of running away. Now that they see such a large and elite army approaching, they will probably run away quickly.
Once the habit of being afraid of death is formed, it will be difficult to change it in the future.
Hongmei, who was already thousands of feet high in the sky, saw her own army taking advantage of the opportunity and successfully attacking this huge city. When she breathed a sigh of relief, she saw more than a dozen Qi Refining Realm masters in the huge military camp of East City flying out from a large building in the camp and directly coming to the parade ground.
With Hongmei's rich war experience, she immediately guessed that among these enemy generals, there was a high chance that Ma Chengen himself would be one of them.
She immediately ordered the golden eagle to attack, and in the blink of an eye, it arrived above the head of its target!
A sudden decapitation operation was launched immediately...
(End of this chapter)
