Ronghua Nu’s sudden raising of her head startled Yun Ye. That originally deathly pale face was filled with boundless hatred. However, she only glanced at Yun Ye once before lowering her head again.
“Gao Jianwu is no fool. Suwen has no reason whatsoever to help Tang. His home, his ancestors are all in Goguryeo. He won’t betray them. As the only person who has dealt with you, they will only cast all the sins upon you. Goguryeo historians will also record: Yun Ye burned Beisha City.”
“Everything you’re saying is hypothetical. Let’s wait until Gae Suwen escapes this calamity before discussing it. With high winds and rough waves, jumping off the ship on such a night offers little hope of survival. Prepare yourself for the fact that he may have already disappeared.”
Without Gae Suwen present, Yun Ye lost interest in conversing with this woman. Fighting the current battle well was the key. Dan Ying, Gou Zi, and Ren Xiong should all be in Cangyan City by now. According to Xiao Ying’s temperament, with Gou Zi’s help, he would definitely create chaos. He just didn’t know to what degree the chaos would be.
Cangyan City was in chaos, extreme chaos. This three-li city with only four gates was now conducting large-scale searches. Last night’s bloodbath in the inner city had everyone in the entire city trembling with fear. Gao Huizhen was dead. After the fire was extinguished, they discovered that all seventeen military officers in the building had perished in the flames. The one now commanding Cangyan City was Gao Huizhen’s eldest son, Gao Yulong. The first order he issued was to close the city walls and conduct a thorough search behind closed doors.
A three-li city would certainly have seven-li outer walls. Those living in the inner city were all Goguryeo people. Only those living in the outer walls were the suspicious population. He forgot that money always possesses tremendous power. Not everyone living in the inner city was Goguryeo people—there were also many wealthy merchants of status. For instance, Old Fang was one of them. Cui Huan was a famous wealthy merchant in Goguryeo. To facilitate business, he employed many Tang people. Old Fang, as Cui Huan’s chief manager, naturally had a status above ordinary people.
Gao Yulong gained nothing in the outer walls, so he turned his gaze to the inner city. At this point, Gao Yulong no longer believed this was the enemy’s doing—it very likely came from an internal traitor.
This way the nature of things would change. Under the grinding of power, much darkness unknown to others would be born. Someone wants my family’s hereditary authority to govern the border city?
Those Tang people hired by Goguryeo wealthy merchants could be ignored, because the border city’s power inheritance had no relation to them whatsoever. Those fools who only knew to single-mindedly make money for others weren’t worth expending too much effort on.
Gou Zi lay on the haystack in the courtyard, chewing a wheat stalk and asking Dan Ying: “Xiao Ying, we two brothers did the deed, so why do those Goguryeo people keep troubling others?”
Dan Ying was brushing his warhorse’s coat. Hearing Gou Zi’s question, he tossed down the brush and said: “You still have the face to ask? If you had killed that woman with one knife that day, there would be no trouble. You actually kissed her. If this continues, you’ll become a flower-picking thief. I think it’s very necessary to turn you into your master’s likeness to eliminate the root of the problem.”
“That won’t do. I plan to find two beautiful wives and have many kids. I’ll keep some for my family, and have one more to carry on my master’s surname. You can’t cut off my root—my master will fight you to the death.”
While the two were speaking nonsense, Old Fang walked in, closed the main gate, and said quietly to them both: “The Marquis’s main army has arrived. They’re now in the Liao River fifty li away. The army has already made preparations. Tell me, how should we coordinate with the main army to open the city gates?”
After Dan Ying heard Old Fang’s words, he returned to his own room and took out a small notebook. Pointing at the shop names one by one, he said: “These are all our Great Tang merchants—twenty-one in total. We can gather at least two hundred people. We don’t need to worry about the outer walls. The Marquis will definitely breach them easily. This inner city depends on us. Uncle Fang, you go contact them and have them all make preparations. Their family heads should have given them instructions. If anyone disobeys orders, execute them on the spot. Ren Xiong and the others should also be in the city—have them coordinate with you.”
“Don’t worry about obedience. As long as they’re Great Tang people, if they disobey orders, not only will they not survive going back, even their main families will be disgraced everywhere. This is a matter of life and death—no one dares be careless.”
Old Fang took the small notebook and carefully looked through it several times. A smile appeared on his face. These were all shops they dealt with closely on ordinary days. Everyone in Goguryeo—no one dared speak the truth. Now looking at it, they were all Great Tang people. No wonder conducting business at these establishments was extremely convenient. With this reason behind it, no wonder.
Pirates killing their way inland was extremely rare, but not unprecedented. Wherever there were waterways, the appearance of a few sea pirates or river pirates wasn’t unusual. Those Goguryeo farmers living outside the city suddenly discovered a dense mass of pirates appearing on the horizon. Except for very few horses, they were all on foot. A huge skull flag fluttered in the wind. These very disciplined pirates swept past them like the wind, directly charging toward Cangyan City. Only then did the frightened Goguryeo farmers come to their senses, running home to drag their wives and children before disappearing into the wilderness.
The war came abruptly. When Gao Yulong heard pirates were attacking, he stood in the courtyard laughing heartily. These foolish pirates who didn’t know life from death thought that killing the city’s defending general would allow them to breach Cangyan City and plunder at will? They forgot that Cangyan City was Gao family territory. As long as one Gao family member remained alive, they wouldn’t scatter. Only by defeating these detestable pirates in field battle could he elevate the Gao family’s prestige to a new height.
These bastards should all be skinned and have their tendons pulled, impaled on sharp stakes as a warning to others. Having made up his mind, he assembled three thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, preparing to exit the city and engage the enemy. In his view, dealing with such a ragtag mob, he was already being overly cautious.
Liu Fang looked at the flags on the city wall and said to Yun Ye: “Your luck is very good. They’re preparing to exit the city for battle. You see they’ve raised the commander’s flag, and five flying horse flags. Including the commander’s personal guards, there won’t be fewer than six thousand men. This old man is prepared to watch how you annihilate the enemy within sight, maintaining zero casualties.”
“Shouldn’t we arrange ourselves in some formation and assign left wing, right wing, and such? We’re just lined up in a few rows, waiting for the enemy to charge at us?”
Yun Ye looked at the troops continuously pouring out from inside the city. They too had bright helmets and armor, strict military formations. Unlike his own troops—simply arranged in a straight line formation, no cover, no strategy, not as substantial as their military formation. No matter how he looked at it, they looked like a ragtag mob.
“What is war, boy? Learn something. It’s using your strongest point to attack the enemy’s weakest point. Your army’s strongest point is crossbows and inexhaustible crossbow bolts. Even better, our range is much farther than the Goguryeo people’s bow and arrow range. This old man really wants to see how the Goguryeo people will charge up this small hill we’re currently positioned on under impenetrable crossbow fire. I wonder how many corpses the Goguryeo people plan to use to fill this river ditch.”
“That’s not how Tian Ji’s horse racing worked. It seems the losing side was the one who did that.” Yun Ye asked Liu Fang uneasily, but the old fellow had already walked elsewhere. He didn’t want to be angered to death by Yun Ye.
Gao Yulong stood on the city wall and saw those damned pirates. Fewer than ten thousand men dared to have designs on his Cangyan City—they truly didn’t know life from death. Seeing the pirates’ chaotic formation again, he already felt victory was assured. If he didn’t personally kill a few pirates in this battle, how could he face his father’s spirit in heaven?
Since his youth, he knew his father was a great hero. He had always worked hard to measure up to his father. Now he finally had a good opportunity. Taking a deep breath, he fastened his helmet and descended from the city.
Yun Ye had thought a great general would definitely stand forth, pointing at the opposition and shouting: “Grandpa is here, who dares come forth and die!” But disappointingly, the Goguryeo people were even less particular than him. The central army didn’t move—the cavalry on both wings came charging with whooshing sounds. Fortunately Liu Fang was very experienced. Both ends were positioned with the army troops most experienced at killing enemies—one end was Lai Chuanfeng, one end was Gou Feng. The Yang brothers were not far in front of him. Looking back again to see Wang Cai right behind him, only then did he relax. If the battle reached a point where it truly couldn’t be sustained, fleeing would be faster. Yun Ye never had any notion of fighting to the death for Great Tang as a martyr.
Wu She today unprecedentedly donned armor. Black armor and white hair—he looked extremely manly, grasping an iron spear, currently closing his eyes to rest. Liu Fang, this old fellow, kept licking his lips. The horizontal blade hanging on his armor had been unconsciously drawn halfway out by him. The old fellow wasn’t afraid at all—this appearance was completely because he’d been away from the battlefield too long. Today resuming his old profession, he must have myriad thoughts. Not wanting to disturb the old man’s mood, watching the cavalry charging with whooshing sounds, Yun Ye quietly moved closer to Wang Cai.
Lai Chuanfeng gulped down water from his gourd. His eyes slowly turned red. At his side was an eight-ox crossbow with three signal arrows placed on it. Only when his signal arrows sounded on the battlefield would his left side unleash ten thousand arrows simultaneously.
The Goguryeo people were already very close. Those cavalrymen’s twisted, ghost-like faces could be seen clearly. When they leveled the long spears in their hands, Lai Chuanfeng laughed loudly and slammed down the mechanism. At such close distance, the eight-ox crossbow was invincible.
Sharp whistles simultaneously sounded from the left and right sides of the formation. Gou Feng also launched simultaneously.
Previously, Yun Ye had a misconception about eight-ox crossbows, always thinking they weren’t as formidable as modern firearms. But now watching those arrows penetrate the first cavalryman, then string the second and third people together and fly backward, he realized how ridiculously wrong he’d been. Because the one-and-a-half meter long arrows, under tremendous propulsive force, were completely like venomous dragons. After three arrows passed through, the area facing that eight-ox crossbow was empty.
After the eight-ox crossbows finished shooting their arrows, the soldiers standing behind stepped forward a few paces. According to their prior training, regardless of whether there were people in front, they pressed the mechanism, then without even looking whether they’d hit anything, retreated again. Another group advanced. After three groups of crossbowmen finished shooting, the eight-ox crossbows were once again loaded with black siege chisels.