Chapter 197: Breaking the City (1)
Wuzhou City has been captured by Dongqi Bo?
Lu Yi looked at the blue jaguars flag in a daze.
In the direction of Gaojing, whether it is the Guard Palace Guard or the General's Mansion, there is no such news in the intelligence sent by falcons?
Perhaps, these days, my marching speed has been getting faster and faster, and the intelligence is still on the way and could not be delivered in time!
No matter what, since the flag of Dongqi Bo has been raised in Wuzhou City, Lu Yi cannot ignore it.
A low horn sounded, and hundreds of scout teams left the main army and dispersed in all directions.
One hundred thousand heavy cavalrymen of the Yulin Army turned their horses around, formed into dozens of small square formations, and slowly pressed towards Wuzhou City.
The 300,000 Leopard Cavalry spread out to both wings, forming layers of guerrilla arrays, protecting the left and right wings of Lu Yi's central army and the rear army tightly.
Four hundred thousand troops may seem like a small number, but when four hundred thousand cavalrymen were arranged in formation, the mighty formation spread out for dozens of miles to the left and right and more than ten miles in depth, like a dark cloud, rushing towards Wuzhou City.
Outside Wuzhou City, there are large tracts of fertile farmland. Within dozens of miles of the city, there are more than a dozen villages and towns dotted around.
As soon as the army moved, the villages and towns were in chaos. The village elders walked out of the villages and towns with incense, candles, and tripods in fear and trepidation, and bowed down to the army at the intersection.
A military judge came forward and brought cavalry to expel the people from more than a dozen villages and towns. They set up a temporary camp and imprisoned tens of thousands of people inside.
The heavy horse hooves crushed the field ridges, crushed the rice seedlings, and trampled the fertile fields into pieces.
The heavily armored soldiers and their mounts knocked down and crushed the trees along the way, and slowly moved forward until they were six miles away from the city. The officers in the queue shouted loudly, and the cavalry in the front row pulled the reins and stopped.
As a provincial capital, the specifications of Wuzhou City's city walls are only slightly inferior to those of the imperial city.
The sixty-four-foot-high pale golden city wall is as smooth as a mirror, reflecting a faint light under the sunlight.
Lu Yi and others approached Wuzhou City from the east. On the city wall, countless archers wearing heavy armor appeared one after another, aiming their strong bows and crossbows at the army outside the city. Heavy crossbows were also exposed from behind the battlements of the city wall. The giant arrowheads that were nearly one foot long reflected a dazzling cold light.
Those ordinary crossbows were fine; they could shoot down from the city walls, and the range was no more than a mile.
However, according to the standards of Dayin’s military equipment, the maximum range of these heavy crossbows used for city defense on the 64-meter-high city wall is more than five miles.
Six miles away from the city, it is a relatively safe distance.
If he got any closer, he would most likely be hit by the heavy crossbows on the city wall. Even an ordinary Tuomai realm master would not be able to withstand the crossbow arrows fired from the 64-zhang-high city wall.
Ordinary soldiers, even those wearing heavy armor, would be injured or killed if they were touched.
Lu Yu narrowed his eyes, looked at the heavily armored soldiers on the city wall for a while, waved his hand forward, and muttered a few words in a low voice.
A captain in the army jumped off his horse and strode towards the city wall.
Six li... five li... four li... three li...
There was no movement on the city wall. The captain strode to a place less than a mile away from the city and shouted loudly, "In compliance with the order of the emperor, Duke Lu of Tianyang is leading the army to suppress the rebellion... You are..."
A light laugh came from the city wall.
With a loud 'bang', the three heavy crossbows shook suddenly, and nine heavy crossbow arrows, almost as thick as an adult's wrist and about ten feet long, shot towards the captain with a dull sound of breaking through the air.
The captain reacted very quickly. When he saw a flash of cold light on the city wall, he immediately fell to the side and rolled over, swiftly rolling seven or eight feet away.
Nine crossbow arrows almost grazed the captain's body and fell heavily to the ground.
The soft soil outside the city could not withstand the force of the crossbow arrow. The crossbow arrow, which was more than ten feet long, was almost completely submerged in the ground, leaving only a few inches of the pole exposed outside.
The horn of the central army sounded, and the captain who had escaped death stood up, faced the direction of the city wall, and quickly retreated towards the direction of the central army.
A civil servant in a purple robe and with a long beard leaned out from the city wall and looked towards the position of Lu Yi's central army.
Among Lu Yi's ceremonial processions, there was the Nine-Curved Azure Silk Umbrella bestowed by the emperor, and dozens of large banners fluttering in the wind. Just by looking at where the Azure Silk Umbrella was and where the large banners were most densely packed, one could accurately find the location of Lu Yi's central army.
The purple-robed civil servant looked around for a while and raised his voice: "The commander and the people outside the city? Duke Lu of Tianyang? Haha, I have never heard of this title. Among the dukes of Dayin, there is only the lineage of Duke Lai of the Jingyang Lu family. Where did another Duke Tianyang come from?"
The purple-robed official had great cultivation. Even though they were six miles apart, his voice floated and was carried by the wind, allowing Lu Yi and others to hear it clearly.
Beside Lu Yi, Yu Dianhu said angrily, "My Lord, this fellow is clearly insulting you... The fact that you and Lord Tian'en were conferred the title of Duke has long been known to the world by the court. It has been such a long time, but he pretends not to know."
Lu Yi waved his hand and said calmly: "He dared to collude with Dong Qibo to rebel, so what does it matter if he insults me?"
He slapped the Dark Cloud Beast's head hard. The Dark Cloud Beast raised its two front hooves, roared extremely happily, then suddenly lowered its head and accelerated, rushing towards Wuzhou City with a gust of wind.
Yu Dianhu exclaimed: "Sir... no way... we don't have any siege equipment, we can't attack this city!"
The punitive army led by Lu Yi was composed entirely of cavalry.
Anyone with a little military knowledge knows that it is extremely difficult for cavalry to attack a city.
The city wall of Wuzhou City is certainly not as high as that of Haojing, but it is impossible for ordinary soldiers to climb up the 64-meter-high wall without the help of giant siege equipment.
Even if there were enough siege equipment, facing such high walls, God knows how many casualties would be incurred before the city could be captured.
Yu Dianhu wanted to hold Lu Yi, but the Dark Cloud Beast was too fast. As soon as he stretched out his hand, the Dark Cloud Beast had already run several miles away, almost jumping over the moat that was hundreds of feet wide, and hit its head directly on the city wall.
Lu Yi finally managed to pull the reins. The Dark Cloud Beast snorted in dissatisfaction and stopped dangerously at the edge of the moat.
On the city wall, at least two hundred archers were so frightened by the speed of the Dark Cloud Beast that their hands trembled. With the sound of "whoosh", more than a hundred arrows fell , heading straight for Lu Yi and the Dark Cloud Beast.
Lu Yi flipped his left hand, and the image of the three-eyed god lit up slightly in his mind, and the wind dragon in his hand burst out with dazzling green light.
A strong wind suddenly arose beside Lu Yi, and with a "rustling" sound, more than a hundred arrows were blown askew by the wind, and flew more than ten feet away, densely sticking on the ground, without even a single arrow touching the hair of Lu Yi or the Dark Cloud Beast.
Lu Yi raised his head and looked at the purple-robed official on the city wall whose face suddenly changed. He said in a cold voice: "Now, you know who I am, right? I don't care why you defected to Dong Qi Bo, but it's not too late to stop... I'll give you one stick of incense to open the city gate and surrender."
"If you are stubborn and insist on going down this path... haha, don't blame me for my thunderous methods. You will all end up with your entire family being executed."
The purple-robed official narrowed his eyes and leaned most of his body out from the battlements of the city wall.
He looked down at Lu Yi and sneered, "Duke Tianyang... Lu Yi. Do you think this is Haojing, where you, the palace guard, act recklessly? I tell you, this is Wuzhou, where I..."
Lu Yi swung his right hand violently.
The Silver Dragon Sword jumped out from the Beiming Ring with a clang, and turned into a silver light several feet long that rose into the sky. In an instant, it arrived in front of the purple-robed official, circled around his neck, and blood splattered everywhere, and a head fell from the city wall.
With a thud, the head fell into the moat. A group of fish and turtles suddenly rushed out, scrambling frantically for the bloody head.
Lu Yi let out a long roar, and the Silver Dragon Sword, with a long silver light, swung along the city wall from south to north.
In just three breaths, there was a constant "hissing" sound coming from the city wall.
On the three-mile-long city wall, more than a thousand archers clinging to the battlements groaned one after another, dropped their weapons, and covered their necks tightly.
Blood kept gushing out from between their fingers. More than a thousand archers were confused and disbelieving. They staggered for a while and fell heavily on the city wall.
There was an uproar on the west wall of Wuzhou City. Countless soldiers were screaming and there were sounds of running footsteps.
Someone was shouting, "Wicked law, witched law... The governor is dead, the governor is dead!"
"Master Song is dead. Master Song was killed by someone using some evil magic."
"Run quickly, many of our brothers have been killed by the evil magic..."
The Silver Dragon Sword killed thousands of officers and soldiers, and its entire body was bright and clear, without a trace of blood. The silver light spun in the air and turned back directly. Lu Yi waved his left hand, opened his sleeves, and the Silver Dragon Sword flew into his sleeves like a bird flying into the forest.
Another purple-robed official appeared on the city wall. He jumped directly onto the parapet and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Silence, no chaos... All soldiers, stay in your positions. Anyone who dares to move, run around, or shout to shake the morale of the army will be killed without mercy!"
With a gloomy face, the purple-robed official looked down at Lu Yi and said coldly: "Lord Tianyang, what a good trick, I really didn't expect it... But, with your own strength, how dare you go against my Zhuge family?"
He pointed at Lu Yi and sneered, "You don't know how to overestimate yourself. This is like trying to stop a chariot with a mantis arm!"
Lu Yu looked up at him.
Beside the purple-robed official, dozens of swordsmen from the Haojian Palace, wearing white robes, with swords on their waists, appeared.
They looked down at Lu Yi from a high position, their faces full of arrogance and disdain for Lu Yi.
Lu Yi smiled: "Who are you? From the Zhuge family?"
The purple-robed official said coldly, "I am Zhuge Suiming, the expeditionary envoy of Wuzhou."
According to the Dayin official system, a state expeditionary envoy was in charge of the military affairs of a state and was nominally the supreme commander of a state. Whether it was the imperial garrison or the city defense force that emerged later, they were nominally under his command and mobilized.
The Wuzhou expeditionary envoy was a member of the Zhuge family, and judging from his name, he should be a brother of the same generation as Zhuge Mingming and Zhuge Duming.
It is conceivable how the city of Wuzhou came to surrender to Dongqi Bo.
