Zhao Xian nodded and said:
"It's better if they don't leave. Keep a close eye on the people in the restaurant and don't let anyone escape. If anyone comes to the restaurant to report a crime during this time, arrest them immediately."
“Okay, I’ll make the arrangements right away,” Prefect Jin said.
And so, everyone waited until the third watch of the night before Zhao Xian led his men to prepare to depart. Li Xue also wanted to go, but Zhao Xian did not agree.
He told Li Xue that tonight's situation was very special, the government office was severely undefended, and if Xiao Taiyuan's men attacked the government office, the consequences would be unimaginable. Li Xue should take her guards to protect the government office and Prefect Jin.
Li Xue thought Zhao Xian's words made sense, so she stayed.
Zhao Xian led a group of men out of the city quietly and soon arrived at the perimeter of the breeding farm.
Zhao Xian gathered the people involved in the operation together and gave each of them four incendiary bombs, which they were then instructed to place at pre-arranged locations.
Since these incendiary bombs will explode and burn within a predetermined time, they must be deployed within half an hour and then the crew must leave.
After Zhao Xian assigned the tasks, the people began to take action.
The Gobi Desert was extremely cold at this time, and the wind had picked up. Although it wasn't very strong, the piercing sound of the wind could be heard, which actually helped their actions.
Soon, they arrived at a wall far from the gate, with ladders set up on both sides, and quietly sneaked into the farm.
They had already familiarized themselves with the terrain and had some understanding of the situation inside. They quickly arrived at the haystacks and the military camp and began to lay ammunition.
The deployment of incendiary bombs went very smoothly, and in no time more than two hundred bombs were laid, in addition to a large number of incendiary bombs placed in the barracks and haystacks.
Incendiary bombs were also placed in other areas, such as the stables, armory, kitchen, and important entrances and exits.
After completing these tasks, they returned the way they came and gathered not far from the gate of the farm. Once a fire broke out inside, a large number of people would escape, and they would bomb them.
As time ticked by, those lying in ambush outside grew increasingly anxious. Would these incendiary bombs explode and start a fire? Could they really burn down the farm?
Let's ignore all that for now and just follow the orders. All they need to do now is wait patiently.
After a while, the wind seemed to have subsided a bit, and the whistling sound of the wind could no longer be heard.
Just then, the sound of the night watchman's drum came from Yuanxi City. It was already the fourth watch of the night. At this time, the incendiary bombs that had been placed in the breeding farm should have started to explode and burn.
Just as people were thinking about this, a series of muffled explosions came from the farm, and soon flames rose up everywhere. In the blink of an eye, the farm was a sea of fire.
Finally, the explosion and fire occurred, and people were overjoyed. At that moment, they seemed to hear the sounds of people and horses shouting in the farm, which was the sound they most wanted to hear.
Zhao Xian instructed them to hold the bombs in their hands and to throw them at anyone who tried to escape through the gate.
The fire at the farm grew larger and larger, with flames shooting into the sky, illuminating half of the Gobi Desert.
By this time, some people had already escaped from the inferno. At first, there weren't many, but soon hundreds of people could be seen pouring out of the gate.
Among the crowd surging out, some people's clothes were already on fire. After running out of the gate, they began to roll on the ground, trying to put out the flames on their bodies.
At this moment, Zhao Cheng roared:
"bomb."
After saying that, he threw out a bomb first, and the others, who were already impatient, threw their bombs at the crowd escaping through the gate.
Those who had just escaped were still in shock when bombs rained down from the sky, killing most of them. Even those who survived were no longer able to escape.
Since the area near the gate was not burned, some people were stuck there, unable to move forward or backward. They had just crawled out of bed, were not wearing many clothes, and had no weapons, so they had virtually no ability to resist.
"kill"
Zhao Cheng drew his sword and charged forward first. Seeing this, the others drew their weapons and rushed forward to slash and kill.
There were less than a hundred people gathered at the entrance, and since they had no power to fight back, they were quickly killed by more than sixty soldiers who rushed up.
In this way, the five or six hundred soldiers in the breeding farm were easily wiped out by these sixty-odd soldiers.
Seeing that the matter here had been resolved, Zhao Xian ordered Zhao Cheng to lead men to reinforce the mining area, while he and a few others stayed behind to clean up the battlefield.
Zhao Cheng was still a little uneasy about leaving Zhao Xian behind. He believed that what he needed to do was stay by Zhao Xian's side and protect his safety.
"Don't worry, I'll leave ten people behind. You can take the rest. There are still some bombs left. Leave a few for me, and take the rest with you."
Xiao Taiyuan's men here have all been wiped out. Even if he sends more men, I have a way to deal with him. You can go and reinforce them without worry. Remember, speed is of the essence in war.
At this point, Zhao Cheng no longer hesitated and immediately led his men to reinforce the mining area.
Seeing Zhao Cheng leave, Zhao Xian told the soldiers around him that once the fire in the breeding farm was extinguished, they should go in and check the situation. If they found any survivors, they should tie them up, as these were witnesses and evidence of Xiao Taiyuan's rebellion.
Everyone nodded in agreement, hoping the fire inside would be extinguished so they could go in and see just how badly it had burned.
Currently, they can only search the area near the entrance, and they actually managed to find a few survivors. These people were hiding in a pile of corpses pretending to be dead, but they still managed to find them.
The people who were found were immediately tied up. To prevent them from freezing to death, Zhao Xian placed them in a sheltered area, as long as they didn't freeze to death.
The fire in the farm gradually subsided and eventually went out. Zhao Xian had torches lit and used their light to search inside.
The situation inside was horrific; it is estimated that more than half of the people were burned to death before they could escape.
Because incendiary bombs produce large amounts of smoke when they explode and burn, and this smoke is highly toxic, it is estimated that many people were burned to death after being overcome by the smoke.
Although the fire had been extinguished for some time, it continued to produce toxic gases. Fortunately, there was a breeze that quickly dispersed the gases, so they did not cause any harm to them.
After searching for a long time, they found no survivors. Later, they came to the cowshed and found that many yaks had also died. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that the yaks had not been burned to death, but had been suffocated by the smoke.
When the incendiary bombs burned, they produced a lot of smoke, which drifted into the cattle shed and killed some of the yaks.
The cows were all suffocated by the smoke, let alone the people, so it's normal that there isn't a single survivor here.
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