Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 560: Divine Soldiers Descend from the Sky
"The demons of the Tianshi Dao want to sacrifice the blood of innocent followers. Let's fight them!"
"The mighty general is here! Zhang Lu has escaped!"
"The Xiliang army is entering the city, the Xiliang army is entering the city..."
"How dare you spread rumors about the Heavenly Master!"
"Thunder God, help me... help me... ahem... you will be punished by the ghosts and gods!"
After half a night of chaos, Nanzheng was breached "without any warning".
Or to be more precise, it was a collaboration between inside and outside!
In recent days, rumors have been spreading in the city - it is said that Zhang Lu wanted to sacrifice the blood of believers, so he ordered his brother Zhang Wei to build an altar in the south of the city.
When Zhang Lu heard about it, he was also very angry!
His grandfather, Zhang Daoling, was famous for suppressing the evil cult in Badi. Who doesn't know that the Heavenly Master Dao and the evil cult are mortal enemies? Even if he was accused of robbing a man from the people, he would not be as angry as he is now.
So Zhang Lu ordered his most trusted man Yang Song to quell the rumors in Nanzheng City and investigate the source...
Who would have thought that after a few days, the rumors would become more and more intense, and some people even went to South City to attack the sacrificial site that Zhang Wei was responsible for arranging.
Because Zhang Wei did not build an altar at all, but was secretly digging a tunnel, he was under strict supervision, which led to a conflict with the already paranoid followers. As a result, some people were injured and others were arrested by Yang Song...
After another day of fermentation, the situation in the city became increasingly urgent, and Ma Chao outside the city "unfortunately" suddenly attacked the city tonight. As a result, Yang Bai at the city gate directly surrendered to the enemy. Before Zhang Lu could go to the city gate to boost morale and add buffs to the ghost soldiers, Ma Chao had already rushed in!
Fortunately, the Tianshi Dao still had many loyal soldiers, especially in Nanzheng, there were many "ghost soldiers" who fought with Ma Chao's Qiang army in the inner city in time and temporarily delayed the fall of the inner city.
Zhang Wei saw this and rushed to Zhang Lu: "Brother! The city gate has been lost, and the city wall is in chaos... Let's retreat through the tunnel first! Yang Bai, Yang Song, those bastards, don't know about our tunnel yet!"
"Go first...when you pass by Yan Mansion , see if Yan Pu is there." Zhang Lu also realized at this time that Yan Pu was the reliable person.
When he arrived outside Yan's mansion with his personal soldiers, he saw that... Yan Pu had already packed his simple luggage, and he was also bringing his family, his own warhorse, and was waiting obediently!
"Did Lord Yan...have anticipated this?" Zhang Wei said with some concern upon seeing this.
"Of course I have some guesses." Yan Pu said with a stern face.
Zhang Lu immediately said, "Brother, don't be rude! Mr. Yan, I trusted the traitor before, but now I know Mr. Yan's good advice. Once we are in a safe place, I will listen to Mr. Yan's advice!"
Yan Pu had even packed his luggage and made arrangements for his wife and children. It was obvious that he was ready to go with Zhang Lu, which moved Zhang Lu very much.
Of course, there were two main reasons why Yan Pu wanted to leave instead of staying in the city...
Firstly, he had not gotten along with Yang Song before, and he did not know Ma Chao well. He could guess that when Yang Bai left the city, he had talked to Ma Chao on behalf of the Yang family, but he was not sure about the specific conditions. Therefore, he was worried that if he stayed rashly, he might be harmed by Yang Song. After all, if Ma Chao really relied on Yang Song to subdue the Tianshi Dao, he would refer to his opinions when dealing with the old ministers of Nanzheng, and Yang Song's character was not trustworthy. Even if Yang Song wanted to harm him, Ma Chao would not need to take the blame. It could be said that he had no safety at all.
Second, Yan Pu was more optimistic about the State of Chu. Since it would be dangerous to stay, Yan Pu would rather evacuate with Zhang Lu - Yan Pu could probably guess something about what happened in Nancheng.
Later, Yan Pu still had a chance to persuade Zhang Lu to go to Badong to surrender to the State of Chu. After all, even if Zhang Lu lost all of Hanzhong, the influence of Tianshi Dao would not disappear in the short term and its value was still great!
…
On the same night, Sun Ce led the navy through Xicheng and entered Chenggu area, which was close to Nanzheng!
In fact, along the way, when they were near Xicheng, some civilians and even Qiang people had already discovered the warships, but the Qiang people had no way to intercept them.
Moreover, the speed of this small steam warship reached 160 miles per hour, which is equivalent to about 20 knots in later generations.
Even in the upstream state, because the water flow is not urgent after passing the West City, it can still maintain a distance of 100 miles per hour. In one hour, it can travel the same distance as an ordinary Qiang cavalryman can normally march in one day. Even if the march is very fast, it is only equivalent to the distance of three hours of the Zhenqi boat at most.
Moreover... the waterway is flat and smooth, but there are road issues to consider on land, and warships can sail all day long. Even for the strong among the Qiang people, it is difficult to report in time!
After all, the Qiang people’s system is not a battle armor, and the threshold for flying is higher.
By daybreak, Ma Chao had already cleared out the demon soldiers in the city wall. Even when some people surrendered and the army was joined by internal and external forces, the army of the Tianshi Mansion still showed its resilience and fought all night before finally quelling the street fighting in the city wall.
At this time, the Qiang people led by Ma Chao began to stabilize the situation in the inner city of Nanzheng and prepared to take over. Since Ma Chao was also there, naturally no Qiang people dared to act presumptuously, and no casualties were caused in the inner city.
But at this moment, the Qiang people came to report that a large number of enemy troops appeared in the south of the city...
"South of the city? A large number? Are the flags of these troops from Tianshi Mansion?" Ma Chao frowned and was unable to react for a moment. What kind of army would appear at this time?
After all, it was totally unreasonable .
"No, I don't know, General Tian, I can't read." The Qiang man said shyly.
Ma Chao: ...
Ma Chao didn't have to wait long, as Ma Xiu came to report, "Brother! Not good... There are Chu troops outside the city! They are coming upstream from the Mian River and are landing south of the city!"
"What? The Chu army? How many people?" Even Ma Chao was a little confused when he heard the news .
It’s not that I’m scared, but... I don’t understand the current situation!
Ma Chao had long wanted to fight with the great general of Chu, but going against the Mian River was a bit too weird.
Mian River is another name for the upper reaches of Han River.
At this moment, all the investment in the Hanshui Dam has been worth it, and all the water conservancy benefits that will follow can be considered "pure profit"!
Although the construction of the Han River Dam consumed countless manpower and material resources, and even made the Chu State feel burdened at one point and dared not start a war, but... Wushang had already recovered the cost by sending two divisions of troops into Hanzhong.
After all, if we were to launch a head-on attack, the casualties and consumption of military supplies would be even more painful than the construction of the Han River Dam!
"Brother, I didn't look closely." Ma Xiu said embarrassedly.
Ma Chao: ...
Fortunately, Ma Chao didn't have to wait any longer. His third brother Ma Tie, who was originally at the city gate, rushed over and reported in person: "Brother! The Chu army has arrived. There are probably 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers. Judging from the flags... they are the navy of Jiangling! They are flying the flag with the word 'Sun' on it!"
"Sun? Sun Ce..." Ma Chao muttered, with excitement in his eyes.
