Chapter 297 Surrender without Killing
Unfortunately, no one responded to him.
This situation happened everywhere on the city wall. No one noticed it at first. It was not until the person on duty came over with a lantern that they realized something was wrong. When they wanted to shout, their heads flew into the air the next second. Their mouths were still opening and closing, but unfortunately they could no longer make any sound.
"Quick, send five hundred men to open the city gate!"
Nangong Min gave orders to a personal soldier who was close to him, and the man warned, "Young Master, please be careful!"
After saying that, he took people there.
The private soldiers of the Nangong family are good at martial arts and obey their master's words unconditionally.
Nangong Min brought hundreds of people to the city wall. Taking advantage of the night and the gap between shifts, he quietly eliminated the two shifts of 5,000 defenders on the city wall.
The personal guards brought five hundred people to the city gate, quickly dealt with dozens of soldiers in the gate tower, then removed several black iron bolts and slowly opened the heavy city gate.
The "clacking" sound of the city gate was particularly harsh in the dark night and could be heard from far away.
"Who opened the city gate?!"
Suddenly a patrol passed by and noticed something was wrong and was about to sound the alarm.
But before they could react, their throats and bodies were pierced by crossbow arrows. A patrol team of several hundred people fell to the ground. The personal guards quickly opened the city gate. Ji Huanan, who had been waiting at the gate, led his team to rush in. The personal guards waited until everyone entered and then closed the gate.
Nangong Min's five hundred personal soldiers were responsible for guarding the city gates and preventing the defenders outside the city from coming in to provide support.
In this way, they only need to deal with the 20,000 defenders in the city, and quickly capture Chizhou City before the defenders outside the city notice.
This plan is rather risky. To succeed, all parties involved must cooperate well with each other, and it must be done quickly.
If the defenders in the city were alerted before the city wall was taken, there would be a fierce battle.
Fortunately, the defenders in the city were not alarmed. All the defenders on the city wall were killed and quietly replaced by soldiers from the Great Zhou Dynasty. One hundred eight-ox crossbows were assembled with the arrow muzzles facing outwards, which were used to deal with the defenders outside the city.
More than 10,000 twenty-shot crossbows were strung and aimed at the city. If any defenders came out, they could be shot into hedgehogs immediately.
Only at this point did Nangong Min dare to breathe a sigh of relief, but his heart was still clenched, and he would not relax until he won a great victory.
"Now that the defenders won't come out, what should we do?"
Ji Huanan didn't expect that the garrison was so useless. There was only one team of patrol soldiers and no one else on patrol.
It would be disadvantageous for the defenders in the city if they did not leave their base.
"That's not that difficult. If they don't come out, we can just go find them!"
"Major General Nangong, no!"
Thinking that he was going to go deeper into the barracks, Ji Huanan hurriedly stopped him.
"Don't worry, I'm not that stupid. Tell me, if the barracks caught fire, would the people in the barracks come out to put out the fire?"
"Oh! You mean..."
"That's right. You guys stay on the tower and I'll take a few people to set the fire. We'll be back soon."
"Okay, go quickly and come back quickly!"
Nangong Min left with a few personal soldiers. Ji Huanan hurriedly checked every corner of the city wall, fearing that he would miss any and give someone a chance to take advantage.
After scouting the area during the day, Nangong Min arrived outside the barracks with ease.
There were only a few soldiers guarding the gate of the barracks at night. They quickly dispersed and set fires in several places.
Nangong Min threw several torches covered with tung oil into the barracks from a distance, and then several others shot flaming arrows at the barracks.
"Oh! There's a fire! Put out the fire!"
The soldiers were alert, but when they discovered the fire, it was already very large, with more than a dozen of them.
But they couldn't even put out one fire, not to mention that there were more than a dozen sources of fire. Soon the entire barracks became a sea of fire. The "clang clang" sound of knocking on the iron basin woke up the sleeping people. Those who reacted slowly became a burning man and rolled out of the barracks screaming.
Ji Huanan saw a fire in the north of the city and knew that Nangong Min had succeeded.
So he ordered, "Bai An, you take 7,000 men with bows and crossbows and immediately go to the barracks to support Major General Nangong. Jianguo, take 3,000 men to surround the government office and capture all the yamen runners."
The two men took the order and left. Ji Huanan led 5,000 people to defend the city wall. This was their position and they must hold it. Only then would they have a chance to win the battle.
While the people in the barracks were busy putting out the fire and rescuing people, Bai An and his men arrived.
Nangong Min immediately rushed in with them and fired a wave of crossbow arrows at the people in the barracks.
Thousands of arrows were fired at once, killing the unprepared people who were trying to put out the fire without any chance of resistance.
"Enemy attack! Quick, archers..."
The defending general Qu Bu reacted and wanted to shout to shoot arrows.
Thinking that there were still his own people in the field, it was not advisable to shoot arrows, so he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.
Before he could make any further arrangements, Nangong Min's sword was already in front of him.
"It's you! Nangong Min of Da Zhou?"
"Yes, that's me."
The two men had met before, and in the light of the rising flames, Qu Bu recognized the person at a glance.
Namgoong Min admitted it generously and launched an attack while speaking.
"Why did you, Great Zhou, come to attack our Simon?"
Very good, I asked the same question as Xiao Xiong.
"Why, you're allowed to raid our Great Zhou, and we should just accept it?"
Qu Bu had nothing to say. His Qu family had been a family of military generals for generations, and he had already sided with the King of Jin. He knew everything the King of Jin was doing.
Since they have come to you seeking justice, just fight them. There is no point in saying more.
The two men were equally powerful and the fight was difficult to determine the winner.
Over there, Bai An also fought with a deputy general, while the others continued to harvest heads in the barracks with crossbows.
During the fight, Nangong Min made a feint and withdrew from the battle. When Qu Bu thought he had been defeated and were about to pursue him, Nangong Min suddenly switched to a crossbow and shot twenty arrows at him. He only shot down a few of them with his knife, and was unable to avoid the rest. He was hit by an arrow in his thigh, shoulder and arm.
"You! So despicable!"
Nangong Min curled his lips and smiled, "I shot an arrow at you openly, and you couldn't avoid it. How can you say it's despicable?"
"You! You have no martial ethics! You actually used a bow and crossbow in a fight!"
Nangong Min smiled playfully and raised his crossbow to aim at him.
"Which country has a rule that prohibits the use of bows and crossbows in combat?"
Qu Bu stumbled and choked when he heard the words.
If you are not as skilled as others, you really can't blame others.
"Now, I'm going to use the crossbow again. Please, get ready!"
The extremely insulting reminder made Qu Bu extremely ashamed and angry. He raised his spear with his uninjured left hand and rushed towards Nangong Min, shouting, "I will kill you!"
“Puff, puff, puff…”
Another wave of twenty crossbow arrows shot out, and Qu Bu was shot into a hedgehog before he reached Nangong Min.
His eyes widened and he fell down unwillingly.
"Those who surrender will not be killed!"
Nangong Min remembered that Bai Li had told him that the most important thing to capture a new city was people. No matter if they were civilians or soldiers, as long as they surrendered to the Great Zhou, he would be spared.
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