The gunpowder in the bamboo tube was mixed with some gravel to increase its power...
Within a one-meter radius of each exploding arrow, the casualties are either dead or severely injured…
Soldiers of this era had never witnessed such a horrific scene; combat with cold weapons was bloody and brutal…
But the scene of these firearms was completely unreasonable—spectacular, dusty, and breathtaking…
When facing melee weapons, you can dodge, you can defend...
But when faced with firearms, there's nowhere to hide; you have to bear the brunt of the explosion with your own flesh and blood…
After a volley of fire, the Jin soldiers were stunned. Many stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do. They had never seen such a scene before…
The chaotic thoughts in their minds made them seem like soulless zombies...
Was that my brother who flew up? Was that body with the missing leg the comrade-in-arms I drank with yesterday?
Is this Er Gou? How come there's such a big hole in his chest?
Unlike the Jin soldiers, the archers on the city wall could not imagine that all of this was the result of their actions; their small bamboo tubes could actually kill several people at once…
This reinforced their belief that this was not a power that humans should possess; it was divine punishment!
They are the Heavenly Punishment Army, wielding divine punishment; they are the embodiment of justice; they are here to punish the enemy…
Then came the second volley, and the Jin soldiers, watching the rain of arrows, their eyes filled with fear and despair…
"Divine punishment!"
The archers on the city walls roared repeatedly, and the Jin soldiers below heard them clearly. They too felt this was divine retribution…
So some people started kneeling and praying, begging for God's forgiveness...
Zhu Yougui stood there, utterly dejected. He couldn't believe it. Thirty thousand troops against ten thousand, five thousand of whom were remnants of the defeated army—yet, with such a significant advantage, they hadn't even seen the enemy before being defeated…
This was an unimaginable blow to Zhu Yougui; the unknown force was truly overwhelming…
Explosions littered the mountains and fields, and cries of agony filled the air. This was a scene unlike anything he had ever witnessed in previous battles. Under such shock, he even forgot to give the order to retreat…
As soon as Wang Yanzhang returned to the city wall, he witnessed Zhao Feng leading his archers in a rain of arrows. When the explosions echoed throughout the battlefield, he was so shocked he couldn't close his mouth...
The explosions almost covered the entire opposite hilltop, especially the arrows fired by Zhao Feng, which seemed to be guided by precision, specifically targeting the Jin soldiers' generals...
When the arrow pierces the enemy's body, the next moment is a scene of blood and flesh flying everywhere...
Armor is as fragile as paper in the face of gunpowder; a single arrow can tear a living person to shreds. Even Wang Yanzhang, who had emerged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, could not watch such a scene with equanimity…
Recalling the scene of Zhao Feng shooting the arrow at him, a certain part of his body involuntarily tensed up. If Zhao Feng had used such an arrow back then, he wouldn't just be a pile of dung; he couldn't imagine what the consequences would have been...
He was now a little frightened, completely terrified by what he had just witnessed. He thought he still needed to reconcile with Zhao Feng later, otherwise, if she used those kinds of arrows against him, he wouldn't even know how he died...
With this thought in mind, the hostility in his eyes towards Zhao Feng lessened considerably…
"Report..."
Suddenly a messenger ran over, knelt on one knee, and said...
"Your Highness, Qicheng is under attack by an unknown enemy, and the situation is critical..."
Upon hearing this news, Li Zhu did not panic. Instead, he sneered. After seeing Zhu Zhen's intelligence report, he knew that Zhu Yougui would definitely have a backup plan...
Because Zhu Zhen revealed a secret about Zhu Yougui: he had close ties with Yang Shihou, the leader of the Yang family's private army...
The Battle of Luoyang disrupted the Zhu family's plans and deprived them of their advantage in the city. However, the Yang family's private soldiers also joined the Zhu family in causing chaos in Luoyang at that time...
The Zhu family was completely wiped out in that battle, but Yang Shihou disappeared without a trace…
Today, after seeing Zhu Zhen's intelligence, he learned that Yang Shihou was leading his remaining troops to hide deep in the mountains, with Zhu Yougui covering all expenses and secretly supporting Yang Shihou's expansion...
The garrison in Qicheng was actually temporarily transferred from Pingyao, and its numbers were not large. Sending Yang Shihou to attack Pingyao was itself a feint; regardless of whether it succeeded or not, it would immediately disrupt Li Zhu's mindset, making Zhu Yougui's siege easier...
Li Zhu thought to himself, if it weren't for his trump card of gunpowder, the other side would probably have really succeeded...
The entire siege plan was a series of interconnected steps. First, it used the forces within Qin City as a breakthrough point to create chaos within the city. Then, it employed the forces attacking the city, and this single step was enough to breach Qin City's defenses...
However, just to be on the safe side, they even resorted to a covert tactic: using Qicheng to disrupt Li Zhu's army's morale...
However, now that the main storyline has failed, there's no point in continuing the subplot...
Soon, Yang Shihou, outside Qicheng, received news of Zhu Yougui's crushing defeat outside Qincheng...
At first, he thought the news was fake. A surprise attack by 30,000 men on a small town with only 10,000 defenders should have been a piece of cake. But the result was completely different from what he expected...
This intensified his hatred for Li Zhu, because it was Li Zhu's sudden emergence that caused his and Zhu Wen's plans to fail in the Battle of Luoyang, and his sister, Yang Guifei, was imprisoned in the palace...
He always felt that the massacre of the Yang family was inextricably linked to Li Zhu, but he was troubled by a lack of evidence. This forced him to hide in the deep mountains, hoping to make a comeback...
"Withdraw troops..."
"General, Qicheng is poorly defended, which is a good opportunity to take it in one fell swoop. At that time, we will be able to develop and grow rapidly with Qicheng as our base. Why should we withdraw our troops?"
The strategist asked with a puzzled look, feeling confused about Yang Shihou's order!
"We've already lost the main battlefield. Even if we capture Qicheng, we can't hold it; in fact, we risk annihilation. It's better to retreat into the mountains. That way, we'll have room to maneuver whether we advance or retreat..."
Yang Shihou said helplessly, "The intelligence says that Zhu Yougui's 30,000 elite troops didn't even see the Qincheng garrison before countless of them were killed by a weapon called 'Heavenly Punishment,' forcing them to retreat to Dongwoyi..."
Qincheng!
Li Zhu looked at the intelligence report in his hand, and as expected, Yang Shihou had chosen to retreat...
Seeing the corpses abandoned by Zhu Yougui outside the city, Li Zhu, out of humanitarian considerations, buried them on the spot. This could be considered a proper burial. War is cruel, so what he needed to do was to bring peace and stability to the entire Central Plains...
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