novelhk Chapter 813 Gongzi Gao’s luck leads to his imminent death!
Chapter 813 Gongzi Gao’s luck leads to his imminent death!
What he had to face was an enemy that was hiding in a fortified city, had sufficient food and grass, had nearly 50,000 soldiers, and was determined to defend the city to the death!
"Attack the city!" Ying Bu's voice was like the clanging of metal, filled with suppressed anger and a hint of helplessness.
War drums beat, the Southern Frontier Army shifted formations, and the massive siege engines were slowly pushed forward. Most striking were the black muzzles of the guns—the black powder cannons Gao Yao had painstakingly crafted, powerful weapons for sieges.
boom! boom! boom!
The dull, resounding roar of cannonballs ripped through the air, accompanied by acrid smoke as heavy iron balls whistled against the walls of Rock City. Each hit was accompanied by the resounding crack of shattering bricks and the terrified cries of the defenders on the city walls. Several battlements collapsed, and a section of the wall was marked by a noticeable crack.
The effect was far less than expected. "General! We've used up nearly 30% of our black powder reserves!" the captain in charge of firearms reported anxiously. "And... it's not working! The defenders have been well prepared, reinforcing the inner walls with sandbags and huge logs! Our shells are unlikely to completely destroy the main structure!"
Even more daunting was the defenders' resolve. Arrows rained down from the walls, while scalding gold, massive pounding stones, and burning kerosene cans poured down like a deathly waterfall, inflicting heavy casualties on the Southern Border troops near the walls. Whenever the bombardment paused, the defenders would rush forward frantically, using sandbags, planks, and even human remains to patch up the breaches. They had clearly received a death order: as long as the city survived, the people lived; if it fell, the people perished!
Ying Bu's face turned pale. He understood Gao Yao's order: they wanted an intact city, a symbol of conquest, not a ruin that would require immense effort to rebuild! Unlimited artillery fire would not only limit the supply of gunpowder but would also completely destroy this strategic location, defeating the purpose. A forced assault? Using human lives to fill the towering walls and 50,000 defenders? That price was too high for his 35,000 men to bear.
Seven days passed. Against the backdrop of the frequent reports of victory from the other two routes, Ying Bu had only managed to capture three relatively weaker towns on the outskirts of Nanjun, each of which took considerable time to capture. On the city walls, Wu Can's banner fluttered in the smoke, a silent mockery.
Yingbulema looked back at the weary army behind him, then at the fortified city that loomed like a behemoth, his heart pounding with anxiety. Time wasn't entirely on his side. The potential for uncertainty in Xianyang, and Gao Yao's potential dissatisfaction with his "slow progress," lashed him like an invisible whip.
He needed a breakthrough, a fulcrum to pry open this tortoise shell! Should he continue his relentless assault? Or should he seek another strategy? Ying Bu's gaze roamed the battlefield map, his mind racing, searching for any overlooked opening. A stalemate, for the attacker, was a failure in itself.
After much deliberation, Ying Bu finally decided to take a risky tactic. He knew that storming the counties along the way, which were controlled by Wu Can like an iron barrel, would not only be time-consuming and labor-intensive, but would also cause a large number of casualties in the elite southern border troops on which he had built his fortune.
Rather than cutting flesh with a blunt knife, it's better to risk everything and strike straight at the heart! His plan was daring and deadly: bypass all the county towns and take Nanyang County City directly by the fastest and most secret route! If his lightning-fast force suddenly arrived at the city, Wu Can would be terrified. At that point, Wu Can's only hope of survival would be to urgently command the garrisons of all the surrounding county towns to rush out to support the county town.
This way, Ying Bu could wait for the enemy to tire themselves out, setting up a trap across the vast wilderness, waiting for the exhausted, self-sufficient reinforcements to crash in. Field warfare? This was Ying Bu's most familiar territory, the very foundation of his ability to fight his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood! Consuming the enemy's forces beneath a fortified city was a poor strategy; annihilating the enemy's main force in the wilderness was the true path for his Southern Border Army to achieve world dominance.
Almost at the same time that Ying Bu made this risky decision, another deadly ambush had already been quietly laid out on the throat of the road leading to Nanyang County.
Like ghosts blending into the night, the elite Qingyi Society members dispatched by Gao Yao had already sneaked several days in advance to their designated location, less than three miles outside Nanyang City. This location, a bend in the official road, was flanked by dense shrubs and half-man-high wormwood, a perfect ambush. Like the most patient hunters, they held their breath and lay dormant among the grass and brambles, enduring the bites of mosquitoes and the chill of the night dew, waiting for three full days and three nights.
Finally, when the horizon was dyed blood red by the setting sun, the team escorting Gongzi Gao slowly came into view in the billowing smoke and dust, and arrived at this carefully chosen place of death.
Deep in the brush on either side of the road, a dozen pairs of icy eyes instantly locked onto their target. A dozen powerful bows silently drew their weapons, their sharp arrows, poisoned or not, gleaming ominously in the setting sun. They steadily aimed at the exceptionally simple carriage in the center of the procession.
Inside the carriage, Young Master Gao looked haggard and listless. The bumpy ride had been a torture for this noble and noble man. He recalled how, despite being a puppet, he had been treated generously. He rode in a luxurious, meticulously dampened carriage, which offered a smooth ride and a spacious, comfortable cabin. He was attended by beautiful maids and guarded by a retinue. He could even sleep peacefully amidst the gentle rocking.
The food was exquisite, with delicacies and fine wines never lacking. Although he had no real power, his life was more comfortable and luxurious than when he was an ordinary prince during the reign of the First Emperor.
But after falling into Wu Can's hands, everything turned upside down. He was riding in the most ordinary, even a little shabby post carriage. Not to mention the "six-horse carriage" that symbolizes the majesty of the emperor, there was only a pitiful one horse pulling the carriage, barely a "one-horse carriage".
The wheels rolled over the bumpy road, each jolt threatening to shake his bones apart. Even more agonizing was his food. Clear river water quenched his thirst, while dry, rough, and inedible multi-grain flatbreads filled his stomach. Days of torture left him with cramps in his stomach, a dry throat, and body aches. He couldn't help but miss his life as a "prisoner" in Gao Yao's hands—at least back then, he could still live in luxury, like a true nobleman.
Of course, Gongzi Gao wasn't completely foolish. Throughout the torment he endured, he repeatedly pondered his predicament. Falling into Wu Shen's hands meant being imprisoned again, a puppet at his mercy. This was a fate already sealed.
But from another perspective, this might not be a bad way out. His status as a descendant of the First Emperor, the son of the previous emperor, was a powerful banner for Wu Can, a crucial chess piece. As long as Gao Yao was alive, in Wu Can's hands, he wouldn't dare to launch a reckless, all-out assault on Nanyang. Otherwise, the charge of "killing a member of the imperial clan" would make Gao Yao a target for all the princes in the world.