That night, Pharmacist Guo organized a tentative siege.
The so-called tentativeness, to put it bluntly, is just a performance for Sergey to see.
Almost all the resentful troops were dispatched, the war drums were beating loudly, and the soldiers carried seven or eight ladders and rushed towards the ice city wall on the snow.
There was a burst of shouting.
There was silence on the city wall, and no movement could be seen.
When the resentful army erected the ladder to the top of the wall and began to climb up, more than ten black shadows appeared on the top of the wall and poured something like water down.
Pharmacist Guo and Zhen Wuchen, who were watching the battle, were confused. A trembling voice came from behind them, saying, "Heaven... Heavenly Fire Oil! That's Heavenly Fire Oil!"
The two men looked back and saw that Sai Ci had arrived without them noticing. He was sitting on a couch, carried in by his men.
"Heavenly Fire Oil, what is that?" Pharmacist Guo was confused.
"I was burned by this stuff," Saishi said, sniffing hard. "This strange smell, even if I die, I will never forget it."
Before he finished speaking, a few torches were thrown down from the top of the wall. With a few "puffs", a blaze of flames rose from the corner of the ice city wall, burning the resentful soldiers below and making them scream. Some soldiers whose clothes were burned rolled desperately in the snow, trying to put out the flames on their bodies, but they could not put out the flames.
Some of the resentful soldiers who were not burned picked up snow and tried to put out the fire on their bodies, but it was of no use. On the contrary, some people were also burned after being touched by the burning soldiers.
Looking at the tragic scene before him, Pharmacist Guo waved his hands helplessly, "Let them retreat first."
A burst of dense gong sounds rang out, and the resentful army retreated.
As for those burned resentful soldiers, they had no choice but to leave it to fate.
No one dared to help them, for fear that they would get burned too.
After these soldiers withdrew, Pharmacist Guo had someone check and found that the losses were not too great, with only twenty or thirty soldiers killed.
As for the ladders on the ice city wall, they had been burned to ashes.
Pharmacist Guo turned around and said to Sai Ci, "Sai Ci, this won't work. This Sky Fire Oil is too powerful. You've experienced Sky Fire before, so do you have any way to deal with it?"
Although Saici was a rough man, he was still frightened and turned pale when he saw the skyfire again.
"If I had a solution, why would I ask you?" Sai Ci looked at the flames still burning under the Ice City and said with lingering fear, "This thing can't be put out at all... Pharmacist Guo, let's retreat a little further. This place is not..."
Before he could finish his words, a round, black object flew out from Zhang Xiaozhuang and landed directly at where Pharmacist Guo and the others were. With a muffled "bang", the object exploded in mid-air, sending out countless flames.
"Run!" Saici screamed and jumped off the bed, holding his head and ran backwards.
Pharmacist Guo and Zhen Wuchen were a little slower, and flames also fell from their bodies.
Just as Zhen Wuchen was about to reach out and pat the fire off the leather armor, Pharmacist Guo quickly stopped him: "Don't pat it with your hands. Take off the leather armor and throw it away."
As he spoke, he took off his burning armor and threw it into the snow.
The burning leather armor burned on the snow for a while and finally went out.
Pharmacist Guo picked up his leather armor and saw that several large holes had been burned in the thick cowhide.
The two looked at each other in horror.
Looking up and around, the resentful soldiers were burned by the "heavenly fire" that fell from the sky and fled in panic. The unfortunate soldiers who were burned were lying on the snow, shouting miserably.
Guo Yaoshi and Zhen Wuchen took great pains to finally gather their frightened subordinates together.
"General, we can't continue this battle." Zhen Wuchen's face turned pale as he whispered to Pharmacist Guo, "The skyfire is too powerful. We can't handle it."
Pharmacist Guo glanced at the ice wall and sighed, "Let's go back to camp first. Even if we can't take Zhang Xiaozhuang, we have to hold on here, just for show. Otherwise, Wuli won't let us off so easily... Sigh! I've always known that Tianshi Zhang was extraordinary, but I didn't expect his magical powers to be so formidable."
He was really scared now, and even changed his address to Zhang Tianshi.
Zhen Wuchen said, "General, you've suffered at the hands of Master Zhang, so you shouldn't have taken on this arduous task."
Medicine Master Guo asked in return, "Five ministers, compared to following Wulibu to attack the capital, which one would you choose?"
Zhen Wuchen paused for a moment, then replied sadly, "If we follow the Jin army, they will definitely let us lead the attack on the city. It's better to choose this place."
The two men returned to the military camp and sat down in the tent to discuss their future actions. They decided to stay outside Zhang Xiaozhuang as long as they could.
In the next few days, Guo Yaoshi's troops did not take any other action except sending some cavalry to circle Zhang Xiaozhuang from a distance.
In Zhang Xiaozhuang, Zhang Shixun sat in the warm living room, with Li Shishi and Ding Dusai sitting on his left and right.
The three of them were drinking tea and chatting, and the atmosphere was relaxed and harmonious.
Ding Dusai picked up the teapot and refilled Zhang Shixun's tea while asking, "Sir, these bad guys outside the village are so annoying. They neither retreat nor attack the city. What are they trying to do?"
Zhang Shixun grinned, "They were frightened by the heavenly fire that night. Knowing they couldn't break through, they wisely chose to hide in their shells."
"If that's the case, why not just withdraw? Why waste time here? It's freezing and snowy, and camping in the wilderness is unbearable. Why bother?"
"They wouldn't dare." Zhang Shixun took a sip of tea. "Pharmacist Guo is very cunning. He knew he couldn't deal with me, but he still asked the Jurchens for this mission. His purpose was to escape the Jurchen army and avoid being used as cannon fodder."
Ding Dusai blinked and asked, "What is cannon fodder?"
"Cannon fodder is... well, the Jurchens don't consider Guo Yaoshi's resentful army their own. If they attack the city, they'll definitely let them lead the charge, which would result in heavy casualties for the resentful army. So, choosing the lesser of two evils, Guo Yaoshi is using the pretext of attacking Zhang Xiaozhuang to temporarily escape from Wulibu's control and hide for a while."
Li Shishi said, "Guo Yaoshi is a man of many talents. He first defected from Liao to Song, then defected again to Jin. No one likes such a traitor, and the Jurchens are no different. I suspect the Jurchens agreed to Guo Yaoshi's attack on Zhang Xiaozhuang in order to wear him down. After all, our Heavenly King Zhang possesses immense magical powers and is not someone to be trifled with. Anyone who attacks him will be met with failure."
As she spoke, she smiled.
Zhang Shixun also laughed, "You're right, that's what these people planned."
Ding Dusai asked, "Sir, are we going to continue to confront Pharmacist Guo?"
"Yes! Let's continue the confrontation."
"Then...if the snow stops and the weather warms up, our ice wall will melt. At that time, Zhang Xiaozhuang will..."
Zhang Shixun smiled mysteriously, "Don't worry, Saisai, they won't be able to wait until that time."
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