fifteen 1
When Li Yunsheng was buried in Naksu City, Wang Chunshan had already left. As promised, Fu Cha Kang did not chase him, and he did not attack Fu Cha Kang. Liu Qingye and Cheng Anren stayed behind to go to Nalati City with the Qing soldiers to support Dan Ying. Li Ming was in a trance, silent, and just sat in silence all day.
Because of Li Yunsheng's last words, Fu Cha Tao returned to his original self, reading and patrolling the camp, and also accompanying Li Mingxin - when Li Yunsheng was buried, he wore mourning as a student and son-in-law - even Fu Cha Kang wore mourning, and the entire army sounded drums and horns that day to show their remembrance.
Soon, the front of Narat City reported that the Uighurs had successfully attacked and the Junggars in Narat City were all afraid of enemies, so they could be captured. Fu Chakang ordered his son to lead the troops to set off immediately, while he stayed in Naksu City.
Fu Chatao, Liu Qingye, and Cheng Anren assembled 30,000 troops and marched to Narat City. The three of them rode side by side, as if they were all generals of a large army. On ordinary days, Cheng Anren would have cursed, "Damn it, I've become the leader of the Tartars." However, he kept silent all the way - since Li Yun's death, he never mentioned the word "Tartar". Liu Qingye was also silent, just tying the red scarf of the Red Eagle around his neck, so that when he lowered his head, it was as if he saw the Red Eagle.
After marching for about two days, they arrived near the city of Narat. According to the original plan, the Uighurs should have come from the hills north of the city to join them. However, when they looked at the city of Narat from afar, they saw that the gates were closed, flags were flying on the city walls, the spears of the defenders were like trees piercing the sky, and the hills north of the city were covered with bushes, and there was not a single Uighur shadow to be seen.
Liu Qingye was immediately panicked, but he couldn't rush out rashly since he was in the army. Fu Chatao also felt that something had changed, so he immediately ordered the left second army to go to the hills north of the city to investigate, and he comforted Liu Qingye, saying, "Don't worry, we can always take Nalati City. Miss Dan Ying is smart and brave, and nothing will happen to her."
Although Liu Qingye heard him say this, he was still worried and kept looking towards the hills to the north. At that time, Fu Chatao's army arrived in front of Narat City and saw more than a thousand archers ambushed on the battlements, with bows drawn and arrows aimed at the city. Fu Chatao ordered the army to stop at the point where the crossbows were about to reach them and pushed the Western artillery to the front of the battlement.
Many of the Junggars on the city wall had escaped death in Naksu, and they all knew how powerful Western artillery was. Seeing Fu Chatao's army launch ten more cannons, they could not help but tremble with fear and started to grumble among themselves. However, the generals on the city wall shouted at everyone to stop making noise.
Fu Chatao commanded the Left First and Left Third Armies to encircle the city from the back, the Right First, Right Second and Right Third Armies climbed up the city from the south with ladders, and the Central First to Fourth Armies provided frontal artillery cover for the siege. They must capture Nalati City before dark that day to prevent any further complications and the arrival of Junggar reinforcements.
Cheng Anren had always been a brave warrior, so Fu Chatao assigned him to lead the right first to third routes. When he was about to ask Liu Qingye to lead the left first and left third routes, he saw that he was absent-minded and staring blankly at the hills in the north. Fu Chatao could only sigh and say, "Liu Qingye, you should go to the north hills."
Liu Qingye didn't need his orders. Seeing that the left first and left third roads turned north and east, clearing the way for him, he immediately spurred his horse and left.
When he got there, he saw a crowd of people in the bushes. It was the Second Left Army searching for the whereabouts of the Uyghurs. Not long after, he heard someone shouting in Uyghur, "Oh, they're finally here!" Liu Qingye looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was Korla from the Yugusa tribe. He was immediately delighted and urged his horse to gallop. When he got closer, he saw Korla and a group of people from his tribe emerging from a valley, covered in dust and looking very embarrassed.
Liu Qingye asked: "Uncle Korla, what's wrong with you?"
Korla said, "Well, don't mention it. We were ambushed by the Junggars in the city last night. We hid well and didn't show any signs of us during the day. We came out at night to scare them with flags and shouts under the cover of the bushes. Who would have thought that those Junggars would have the guts to come out of the city to cause trouble for us yesterday... Alas... If Dan Ying hadn't been alert and told everyone to separate and retreat and hide in the ravines, how could we have survived to see you?"
Liu Qingye felt a little relieved, but his brows were still furrowed as he asked, "Did everyone go to the ravine?"
Korla said, "Of course. We didn't know about the surprise attack by the Dzungars at that time. It was your hero Wang Chunshan who told us, so we separated and withdrew. There are so many ravines and valleys here, how could the Dzungars be found? Even if we were alone, it seems that Reiza and I went together, but I don't know which ravine he went to."
Uncle Wang came to Nalati? Liu Qingye was secretly surprised. He always thought that Wang Chunshan had returned to the Central Plains, but it turned out that he came to Nalati to help the Uyghurs. "But this is also good." He thought, "Han and Uyghur are brothers, this will never change, and Dan Ying should also know that my love for her will never change."
As they were talking, there was another commotion. Reiza and his men came up from another ditch, their faces covered in dust. They were extremely happy to see the Qing soldiers and said, "If only they had come earlier! We could have killed all the Junggars outside the city."
Korla said: "It will be the same when we kill later. We will use the cannons of our Qing friends to blow down the Nalati City! Damn it!" He learned a catchphrase from Cheng Anren, but felt that it did not satisfy his hatred, so he cursed again: "Damn it!" He always thought that if there was a "grandmother", there would be a "grandfather", and it was an accident that he learned this swear word without any instruction.
There were some Qing soldiers who were on good terms with Korla. When they heard him cursing in Chinese, they also echoed: "Yes! Yes! Let's destroy this city. Damn it! Damn it!" This made several Qing soldiers who were fluent in Chinese laugh out loud.
At this time, several tribes emerged from the gullies, including the Xiasak, Jiajimu, Wagmu, and Yugusa tribes. Some cursed the Junggars, some greeted the familiar Qing soldiers with joy, and some carried their weapons in silence, gathering together in exhausted groups. Liu Qingye counted them briefly and found that eleven of the thirteen tribes had been left, with the only ones missing being the Satamons, the Ale tribe, and the Kazakhs.
My heart, which had been gradually calming down, started to worry again: Where is Dan Ying? Where is he?
Reiza knew what he was thinking from his expression: "Don't worry, Dan Ying and Da Heya were the last to retreat. It was dark at that time. They went to the easternmost part. It will take a while for them to turn around."
Liu Qingye nodded and looked towards the red willows stretching eastward. At this moment, a deafening roar was heard in front of the city, with stone chips flying everywhere and the earth shaking. It was Fu Chatao who ordered the artillery to fire. The deputy general of the left second army came up and said, "Master Liu, the battle has started in front of the city. We should not stay here for long. We should go back and report to Master."
Liu Qingye was still looking at the bushes west of the hill, and waved his hand, saying, "You go first, I'll wait." As he spoke, several more cannon shots were heard. The northernmost cannon blew down a corner of Nalati City. Bricks and dust fell down, forming a net that covered the hill.
Liu Qingye stretched out his hand to clear his vision, still staring to the west - at this time he saw the bushes rustling, and a group of figures emerged, shouting: "Oh, it finally exploded." It was Daheya and his warriors of the Satamon tribe. A group of more than 200 people, waving their swords to clear the way, and strode towards this side.
When everyone came closer, Liu Qingye was disappointed to find that Dan Ying was still not among them, and Da Heya was also slightly surprised and said, "Oh, it turns out that Qing Chao's friends are here. I thought it was Dan Ying who did it!"
Liu Qingye was stunned for a moment and asked, "What is Dan Ying doing?"
Da Heya said, "Oh, during the final retreat yesterday, each of Dan Ying's men brought two cans of black spring water. Master Wang came up with a plan to use the black spring water to blow up Nalati City. So the Ale tribe and the Kazakhs followed Master Wang to bypass Nalati City and go to the south to try to blow up the city... When I heard the noise, I thought it was them who did it."
Reiza said, "There are so many noises, who knows who made which one? Maybe Dan Ying and the others have also taken action, let's go and take a look."
Liu Qingye thought that Wang Chunshan was a skilled martial artist, Dan Ying was very smart, and they had the Black Spring Water as a weapon. If they retreated to the south of the city, they would have met Cheng Anren by now, which would have been safe. However, he was still worried and had to go and see for himself, so he said, "Yes, let's go and take a look!" He and Reyiza turned back to the front of the city, intending to go around to the south of the city from there.
As they were talking, the artillery fire continued. Seeing that most of the Uighurs had gathered, the deputy general of the Left Second Army ordered them to return to the camp immediately. Braving the smoke and dust, they quickly retreated to the Fourth Army led by Fu Chatao in front of the city.
Liu Qingye, Reyiza and Daheya told Fu Chatao that Dan Ying and Wang Chunshan intended to use black spring water to blow up the city. Fu Chatao was delighted and said, "Oh? I just heard an explosion in the south of the city and sent someone to see it. It turned out to be the masterpiece of Dan Ying and Wang Daxia!" He smiled and said, "Black spring water... Well, oil is really powerful! No wonder Genghis Khan used it to attack Yulongjie Chicheng and conquered it in one fell swoop."
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly heard a gunner in front of him screaming. He looked over and saw that the gunner was on fire and rolling on the ground frantically. The gunners nearby were all stunned and stood there stupidly, not knowing what to do. Fu Chatao shouted loudly: "Quick! Push the cannon away! Move the ammunition!"
The gunner and soldiers finally reacted and rushed forward to move the gunpowder. However, just as they stretched out their hands, the burning gunner screamed and rolled into the gunpowder pile. There was a loud bang and flesh and blood flew everywhere. All the soldiers nearby were killed and even the cannon was blown into the sky.
There was a great chaos in the Qing army. Fu Chatao, Liu Qingye and others were covered in blood and mud, and broken arms and limbs were everywhere.
Korla wiped his face with his hand, still in shock, and said, "This is weird, this... this gunner was fine... why did he catch fire?"
As he was talking, suddenly two gunners in front of him screamed. It turned out that they saw a ball of fire jumping out of the ground, rising more than ten feet high, which was very scary. Fortunately, this time, everyone learned a lesson and quickly pushed the cannon away and removed the gunpowder, so as to avoid a tragedy.
The incident happened suddenly, which was really strange. In front of him, there was the rumbling of artillery fire and the smoke, so he couldn't see clearly what was going on. Fu Chatao said to himself, "Strange, could it be that the Junggars also have Western artillery?" He immediately raised his hand and ordered, "Gunners, retreat!"
The gunners didn't know what was going on, but they had no choice but to obey the orders and push the cannons back from the firing line. As soon as the cannons stopped firing, a thunderous "boom" suddenly appeared - at this time, it was clearly heard and seen that a fireball flew down from the top of the Nalati City and smashed down towards the Qing army camp. The Qing soldiers in front of the battle were horrified and hurriedly dispersed to both sides, pushing and shoving, unable to escape, and those who fell to the ground were trampled and injured countless times. But the fireball finally fell in front of the battle, exploded, and a ball of flames and billowing black smoke rose up.
