Chapter 516: Extermination of the clan!
Zhao Duan never expected that he would encounter a battle as soon as he arrived at the western front.
The Yunfu rebels attacked the city head-on, using the civilians in the city to hold down the imperial commander Xue Shence, while the enemy's light cavalry quietly crossed the defense line and headed towards the Taicang silver mine.
There are still three things a new official needs to do when he takes office. General Zhao immediately led the Shenji Camp musketeer cavalry, following the map in his mind, and rushed to the destination by the shortest route.
Outside Taicang City, a battle is taking place.
The city gates were tightly closed, a heavy atmosphere hung over the sky, and the loud, noisy shouts of killing could be heard through the thick city walls.
On the high top of the city wall, Xue Shence stood in the most conspicuous position to watch the battle. He was wearing chain mail, with a fluttering scarlet cloak behind him, and a Fang Tian Hua Ji stood beside him.
Standing there, he is like a magic needle that stabilizes the sea.
The shouts of the army below the city were deafening, the drums were beating like thunder, and the rebels were like ants, enduring the rain of arrows, setting up ladders, and trying to climb to the top of the city.
The defenders on the city wall tried their best to block the attack with rolling logs and falling rocks, but their defense line was almost torn apart several times.
The disparity in military strength between the two sides is too great.
But as long as the soldiers on the imperial side turned their heads and looked back, and caught a glimpse of the figure surrounded by flags on the high top of the city wall, they would feel strong confidence and high morale to fight.
The title of "God of War" of the Yu State was fully demonstrated at this moment.
"Envoy Xue, how is the battle going?" On the parapet, Taicang prefect Sun Xiaozhun came running over breathlessly.
After not seeing him for a year, he had become even thinner, with strands of half-white hair sticking out from under the brim of his black hat.
Xue Shence turned back, his eyes calm:
"The prefect only needs to appease the people in the city. With this commander-in-chief, Taicang City is impregnable."
His normal tone brought a sense of reassurance to everyone's ears.
Sun Xiaozhun nodded with gratitude in his eyes. As the prefect of Taicang, facing the aggressive rebels that day, Sun Xiaozhun had prepared a scorched earth strategy, defending the prefectural city and intending to sacrifice himself for the emperor's grace.
Fortunately, Xue Shence arrived with his troops. During this period, Xue Shence integrated local forces and took action repeatedly, successfully curbing the offensive of the Yunfu army.
If the military strength was not so stretched, Xue Shence would have left a large number of troops on the eastern front to defend Prince Jing. The soldiers he brought were really limited. With his military command ability, he might have launched a counterattack and recovered the lost territory.
However, today the enemy seemed to sense the urgency and suddenly launched an attack on Taicang.
This siege is now in its third round.
Seeing that no rebels were attacking from the top of the city wall, Sun Xiaozhun felt relieved and said bitterly:
"Privy Councilor, the enemy has been retreating for the past few days. Why are they acting so fiercely today?"
Xue Shence glanced at the city below and said in a deep voice:
"That Su Dan is even crazier than I imagined. They must have known that Commander Zhao is leading reinforcements to the western front. These villains know full well that I am currently being attacked passively due to insufficient manpower. Once the reinforcements arrive, the offensive and defensive situation will be completely different.
Therefore, they wanted to make some extra gains before Zhao Duan arrived. "Prefect Sun, don't worry. Don't be fooled by the large number of rebels under you. But from my observation, they haven't given it their all. Their goal isn't to capture the city, but to destroy it."
On the table behind him that was moved to the top of the city wall, a map of Taicang Prefecture was spread out.
Several areas are marked and circled.
Xue Shence did not intercept any intelligence and made his judgment based on experience.
Therefore, when the enemy army approached the city, he ordered his capable generals to lead the cavalry and rush out of the city through the east and west gates to rush to several granaries for support.
In order to prevent the army's food supplies from being cut off, which would also cause the soldiers in the city to be in a state of emergency, he had to personally supervise the battle on the city wall and rely on the city walls to resist.
"Unfortunately, I have too few troops at my disposal. I must leave enough men to defend the city to prevent it from being breached. There are also some key locations where I cannot deploy troops to defend!"
Xue Shence clenched his fists and pursed his lips.
Sun Xiaozhun comforted:
"The Privy Councilor is a master of military strategy, but how can he cope with the enemy's superior numbers and our inferior numbers?
Prince Mu not only instigated a rebellion in the southwestern border army, with Zhao Shixiong as his vanguard, but also lavishly drafted civilians into service. It is said that in Yunfu, every household drafted one man. Prince Mu hid in the Huai River and received strong support from many nobles..."
"Report—"
Suddenly, a messenger with a red flag stuck behind his neck crawled up to the top of the city wall, almost exhausted:
"General, scouts from the west are reporting that a large group of rebel cavalry have broken through the defenses and appear to be heading towards Taicang... the Taicang Silver Mine!"
Silver mine!
Su Dan's target wasn't the granary, but the silver mine? Could it be...
Sun Xiaozhun's face suddenly changed. Although the silver mines were not as urgent as military rations, in the long run, wars were fought with money and food. Once there was a problem with the silver mines, the treasury of the court, which had been temporarily relieved by the new policies, would fall into trouble again.
"No wonder the Yunfu rebels continued their fierce attack even after news of His Majesty's return to the palace spread. Their goal was to seize the silver mine! Now that they've failed to seize it, they've decided to destroy it!"
Sun Xiaozhun was very anxious and looked at Xue Shence.
The latter's face was as gloomy as water, but he did not show any panic. He just said calmly: "I know."
Just...know?
The messenger and Magistrate Sun were both stunned.
Xue Shence closed his eyes slightly and remained silent.
As a general, the worst thing to do is to be indecisive and greedy. Even if you immediately order the troops guarding the granary to rush to Taicang, it will be too late.
Besides, who can be sure that this is not a ploy to lure the tiger away from the mountain?
Sun Xiaozhun understood what he meant. His knees went weak and he almost fell. He hurriedly held onto the wall with his hands. He shook his head bitterly and took off his black hat, revealing his hair that had turned half white in just one month.
If the silver mine is destroyed, even if Taicang City is defended, he, as the prefect, should die to atone for his crime.
"kill--"
At this time, a gap suddenly appeared in the enemy's army formation below the city. Dozens of soldiers as big as flesh mountains held a "battering ram" made of a giant tree wrapped in iron sheets, shouted slogans, and attacked the closed city gate under the cover of a large group of shield-holding soldiers.
The defenders on the city walls were all terrified.
Xue Shence had his eyes closed, the veins on the back of his right hand bulged, and he threw the Fang Tian Hua Ji in his hand angrily!
“Woo!!”
The dark halberd was like an oversized arrow, gathering power through invisible hinges, and rumbled out, blasting a deep pit on the ground outside the city gate. The nearest soldiers were blown away by the shock wave and fell to the ground.
The rebels watched in horror as the halberd, buried deep in the pit, receded like the tide.
Xue Shence looked up at the sky, a trace of worry visible between his eyelids: if the reinforcements don't arrive soon, Taicang may not be able to hold on for too long.
…
…
The Taicang Silver Mine is located on the outskirts of the city. It is a huge deep pit with deep mine caves that extend in all directions.
Zhao Duan led the light cavalry and galloped all the way. When he arrived at the edge of the huge mine following his memory, his eyelids twitched wildly and he saw many corpses scattered on the ground below.
Instead, a new team of soldiers forced a group of miners to carry white cloth bags into the mine.
"It's gunpowder. They want to blow up the mine!" Zhao Duan's face changed from a distance.
Due to the lack of corresponding technology, the imperial court was very cautious about the use of gunpowder in mining, especially in the Taicang silver mine.
Once the explosion is detonated at a specific location, the mine will be buried, and it will be a huge project to clean it up and put it back into use.
"Commander-in-chief, I am willing to go and capture the thief!" Behind him, the young master Tang Ping was furious and requested loudly.
At this moment, behind Zhao Duan, in addition to the masters around him, there are the light cavalry transferred from the Shenji Camp, with Tang Ping as their leader.
"Okay, this place is crucial and does need someone to watch over it."
Zhao Duan thought for a moment, nodded in agreement, and then looked at Yuxiu:
"Priest, could you please do me a favor? Point out the enemy's direction?"
At a glance, he saw that there were not many rebels in the silver mine.
Yuxiu sat upright on the horse, frowned, and was about to refuse, but heard Zhao Duan say seriously:
"The priest just needs to help me find out if there are any suspicious monks nearby. Old Zhang... The Heavenly Master said that if it involves evil sorcerers or monks from the Shenlong Temple, it won't be considered a bad rule."
Yuxiu hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded.
She put two fingers of her right hand together and placed them horizontally in front of her eyes. Her eyes were filled with clear light. She looked down at the mine and scanned it. She pinched her jade sleeves and her eyes returned to normal. She shook her head and said,
"There are no cultivators above the Divine Chapter level nearby, and no one is seen in the depths of the mine."
Not here? Could it be that the "expert" Bai Falcon mentioned didn't exist? Even so, the rebels couldn't possibly have gone to such great lengths to send in just such a small number of people...
There must be someone else somewhere else, but it seems that Yuxiu's clairvoyance cannot see too far due to the distance... While Zhao Duan was thinking, he suddenly caught a glimpse of dazzling fire from the corner of his eye.
It's broad daylight, where does the fire come from?
Zhao Duan suddenly turned his head and was shocked to see flames rising in the direction of "Songjiazhuang" accompanied by billowing smoke.
"Follow me." He immediately urged his horse and led the rest of his men in pursuit.
As we turned around the mountain pass and got closer to Songjiazhuang, we saw more flames and white smoke. Many of the flames came from the fields. It turned out that someone was setting fire to the fields!
The place where the flames were the most fierce and brightest was the farm where Zhao Duan had once visited with Princess Xu Junling while investigating a case.
…
Songjiazhuang.
At this moment, the entire village was blocked by black-armored soldiers. The rebels lit torches, poured tung oil, and set fire to houses and yards.
On the ground and in the courtyard, there were corpses lying in pools of blood from time to time, accompanied by wailing coming from everywhere.
Inside the Song family ancestral hall, hundreds of clan members gathered inside, including men, women, young and old, all with eyes wide open, some in despair and sorrow, and some in a daze.
"Coach Xie", the head guard supported by the Song family and who had fought with Zhao Du'an before, had one arm broken. With the help of several guards, he sat against the wall of the ancestral hall.
A fifty-year-old man, wearing a Confucian cap and with a flushed face, blocked a group of tribesmen behind him.
He carefully straightened his clothes, his back straight, his eyes filled with suppressed anger, and shouted towards the entrance of the ancestral hall, where a group of people wearing strange white clothes, surrounded by soldiers, said:
"I am a disciple of Master Yunfu Zhengyang, and also the patriarch of Songjiazhuang. Since you serve Prince Mu, you should know that my master Zhengyang and Prince Mu have a close friendship. You have destroyed Songjiazhuang, aren't you afraid of being punished by the prince's palace?! Why don't you retreat immediately? I will not pursue the matter because you didn't know about it beforehand..."
The old man was none other than Mr. Song.
In the past, he followed Mr. Zhengyang to Beijing and witnessed with his senior brother the entire process of Zhao Duan and Zhengyang debating the old and new schools of thought at Bailu Academy.
Later, Mr. Zhengyang, who was respected as "the first hermit of Yu State", admitted defeat in public, respected Zhao Duan as his teacher, and led his disciples back.
Mr. Song did not follow his teacher and senior brother back to Yunfu. When passing through Taicang, he returned to his clan and devoted himself to studying new knowledge.
I didn't expect to encounter such a disaster today.
The men in white blocking the gate of the ancestral hall looked at each other and suddenly laughed together.
There were five of them in total, and they were obviously not soldiers. Instead, they were all wearing uniform white sorcerer robes, conical white hats on their heads, holding a "mourning stick" tied with white silk, and a small, dark-colored coffin the size of a palm hanging around their waists.
It turned out to be a member of the "White Clothes Gate", an organization of evil sorcerers in the underworld.
"Zhengyang? That old corrupt scholar?" The leading sorcerer in white robes laughed sarcastically.
"Let's not talk about it, we are not under the command of Prince Mu's Mansion. Even if we take a step back, you old man still naively believe that Zhengyang is still a guest of honor in the palace?
Oh, this immortal master doesn’t understand much about the new learning, but Zhengyang was worshipped by the prince and was willing to serve Zhao Duan as his teacher. Since he returned to Yunfu last year, he has started to promote the new learning... If he didn’t have some reputation, he would have been buried alive in the prince’s palace.
It's ridiculous that you, old man, are so naive and cute, yet you still don't realize it. You think that you can have a relationship with Prince Mu's Mansion by relying on Zhengyang's disciples? Little do you know that the closer you get to that old dog Zhengyang, the faster you will die.
Mr. Song's body trembled, his face suddenly flushed, and he said angrily:
"How dare you, a demon from the Jianghu, insult my master?!"
The White-robed Warlock laughed and said:
"So what if I insult your teacher? We will also insult your ancestors. Come, tear down this ancestral hall. Haha, the Song family may be small, but we have a century of incense. Destroying the ancestral hall and digging up the ancestral tombs will barely be enough to offer sacrifices to the gods of death."
A black-armored officer beside him was quite apprehensive about this group of monsters and was extremely flattering. He said "yes", stood up, and waved with a stern face:
"dismantle!"
A group of rebels rushed into the ancestral hall like wolves and tigers and began to demolish it.
The Song clan members' eyes suddenly turned red, and they all rushed to stop it like crazy:
“It can’t be demolished!”
An old man threw himself on the ancestral tablet and tried to protect it, but was hacked to death by a soldier. He screamed and fell to the ground, but still held the tablet tightly, his eyes wide open and refused to let go.
But how could a group of tribesmen stop the soldiers? Someone threw a torch, and the mourning hall suddenly caught fire.
The white-robed sorcerer laughed and said, "Everyone's crying is an eyesore. Kill them all."
The old scholar, who stood up straight and would rather die than bow his head in the face of swords and knives, was stunned.
Seeing the soldiers drawing their swords and walking towards the young tribesmen hiding under the altar, the anger on the face of the fifty-year-old man suddenly subsided. Instead, he put on a flattering smile, knelt down, and pleaded with the white-robed sorcerer:
"I said something wrong and angered the Immortal Master. I beg you to spare my life."
As he spoke, he slapped himself in the face. Seeing the man in white smiling without saying anything, he turned around and cursed at the top of his voice:
"Stop it, everyone! If the Immortal Master wants to tear it down, then tear it down for his own good! What's the point of keeping a bunch of wooden tablets? Human beings...human life is more important than anything else!"
The Song clan members were stunned and looked at the clan leader in disbelief.
But Mr. Song was cursing and crying, his nails pierced his palm and blood flowed everywhere.
The white-robed sorcerers watched this scene with a smile and praised, "Good crying."
Then his face turned cold:
"Kill them all, a bunch of sacrifices, and you still want to escape? If we weren't attracted by your family's foundation, we wouldn't even be here."
Mr. Song was startled, and suddenly he pounced on the nearest soldier who was taking a step, hugged his legs, and shouted:
"Xiaowu, run!"
Xiaowu was one of the teenagers hiding under the table, and was once beaten by Zhao Duan.
At this moment, the boy, who was originally rebellious and unruly, was stunned.
"You old bastard, you're looking for death!"
The soldier whose legs were held had a fierce look in his eyes and stabbed downwards with a knife, but his eyes blurred and one of his arms was broken out of thin air.
Coach Xie, who had been lying at the foot of the wall, suddenly rushed over. He held a knife in one arm, a mad look on his face.
"Replacing one arm is enough! Old Master, I, Old Xie, have been supported by your Song family for ten years. Today, I can't protect the Song family. The only thing I can do is to pay with my life! Kill!"
Behind him, the remaining dozen or so wounded guards of the clan rushed up like mad dogs.
"Xiao Wu, hurry up and go to the capital city to ask for help!"
A tribesman pushed the young men under the altar out of the back door of the ancestral hall, then slammed the door shut, blocked it with tables and chairs, picked up an iron rod, and rushed towards the rebels.
(End of this chapter)
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