Nahe Yanzhen’s attempt to counterattack and salvage the defeat was shattered by a single volley from light smoothbore cannons when two thousand cavalry and infantry charged out of Yang Wuyu, still over three hundred paces from Liang’s forward flank defenses. Left behind were over three hundred corpses of men and horses, including many wounded soldiers and horses destined more for death than survival.

Nahe Yanzhen no longer dared send troops out to counterattack. But relying on Yang Wuyu’s western defensive system, how long could they hold out under bombardment from seventy to eighty cannons of various sizes?

After calibration, heavy smoothbore cannons could accurately strike the main camp wall. As long as ricochets didn’t occur, one solid shot couldn’t kill many men and horses.

However, when cannonballs struck the main camp wall or even brick and stone houses behind the wall, they sent countless brick and stone fragments scattering. The power was no weaker than scatter stone shot hurled by whirlwind catapults, and they were more numerous and more densely packed. At close range they could even overturn and shatter heavy shields, making it unbearable for Mongol forces who had no choice but to descend from the camp walls to take cover.

At this time, Liang forces on the forward line took advantage of firing intervals to advance step by step, clearing a path approaching the camp wall.

“Yan Jiang is dead! We can’t hold Yang Wuyu—withdraw!” Nahe Yan Yun, wearing silver armor and wielding a war halberd and shield to guard against flying brick fragments, climbed onto the camp wall and grabbed the dazed Nahe Yanzhen, shouting.

“How did Yan Jiang die? Wasn’t he just in the headquarters tent?” Nahe Yanzhen snapped awake, his voice trembling and shrill as he asked.

“An iron projectile penetrated the wall. Yan Jiang was broken in two at the waist—too horrible to witness!” Nahe Yan Yun cried out in grief. “Liang forces have divine weapons to aid them. Heaven has abandoned the Wusu and Nahe clans. If we don’t leave now, we won’t be able to!”

Nahe Yanzhen was in a daze. Dragged down from the camp wall by Nahe Yan Yun, his bodyguards couldn’t care that their escape now would inevitably trigger a complete collapse of all forces in the camp. If they didn’t flee now, what else could they do?

Of the six thousand garrison troops in the camp, in less than half a shichen, over sixteen hundred soldiers had been killed or seriously wounded, while Liang forces remained completely unscathed. At this time, Liang’s forward troops, besides already clearing a path close to the camp wall, had even dragged several large iron tubes firing solid iron projectiles onto a low slope to the northwest, clearly intending to use the height advantage there to shoot down soldiers in the camp with even greater accuracy from their commanding position.

The camp was three to four hundred paces square but held over six thousand soldiers and roughly the same number of war horses. The density of men and horses was unimaginable—every iron projectile shot into the camp could potentially cause casualties.

The palisade walls and wooden shelters reinforced before the battle to guard against stone crossbows and fire catapults were now easily penetrated by solid iron projectiles, failing to produce their intended effect.

The garrison had nearly all collapsed and could barely be suppressed. If they didn’t leave, when Liang forces burst through the western camp wall, they would be unable to escape the tragic fate of complete annihilation. Fleeing now, perhaps they could preserve one last bit of vitality for the Nahe clan…

Seeing the commanding general Nahe Yanzhen actually be the first to flee east, the garrison’s last shred of resistance collapsed utterly at this moment. Thousands of men and horses immediately fell into chaos, scattering and howling as each fled for their lives.

Yang Wuyu had only two camp gates, east and west. Even fully opened, the eastern gate was less than two zhang wide—after all, this was a mountain village camp. The camp walls had only been reinforced by Li Yan’s troops after they garrisoned there, using over a month to conscript several thousand nearby laborers.

Four to five thousand Mongol troops plus large quantities of plundered goods and women all rushed to flee for their lives through such a narrow exit—one could imagine what chaos ensued!

Human shouts, horse neighs, north wind howling!

Battalion Commander Yang Yan held his saber in his teeth and climbed the scaling ladder onto the western camp wall. Seeing the eastern half of the camp in complete chaos, like black muddy tides blocked by a dam unable to drain away, his chest surged with hot blood. He wished he could be the first to wave his battle blade and charge eastward.

“Yang the Savage, don’t be reckless!” Commandant Shen Pingshan shouted from below the wall on horseback to remind Yang Yan.

Dozens of soldiers directly tumbled over, sliding down the slightly tilted, badly cracked stone wall into the camp. With blades rising and falling, they killed wounded enemy soldiers abandoned inside the camp walls along the way, rushing toward the camp gate.

To buy time for the eastward escape, enemy general Nahe Yanzhen had piled chevaux-de-frise, caltrop barriers and large quantities of firewood in the gate passage and set them ablaze. They now burned with roaring flames.

The dozens of soldiers who first tumbled into the camp had to first find ways to extinguish the fire, then clear away the obstacles before they could open the iron-plated camp gate and let their own soldiers rapidly enter the city.

In the haste there was no manpower to spare for capturing and guarding prisoners. Fearing these wounded soldiers might suddenly attack, nothing was safer than dead men. They straightforwardly finished them off with supplementary strikes. The remaining wounded soldiers fled east in terror—they didn’t pursue and kill them.

“Spread out! Don’t stand behind the camp gate!”

Four light smoothbore cannons were now dragged by mules and horses to the camp gate.

Seeing the waving military flags signaling them to move aside, Yang Yan had people shout loudly, directing soldiers who had first killed into the camp to leave from behind the gate. They also moved aside twenty to thirty paces.

The cannon barrels flashed with firelight, and earth-shaking trembling spread beneath their feet.

The power of light smoothbore cannons was somewhat weaker, but at fifty paces with four shots in volley, they still instantly blasted down the iron-plated thick wooden camp gate.

Several iron-plated war chariots waiting outside the gate, clustered by dozens of soldiers, directly pushed and charged through the blasted gate opening, disregarding the roaring flames, pushing and ramming fiercely into the gate passage, directly scattering the obstacles and firewood piled and ignited behind the gate.

Fire scattered in all directions. After over ten times, the large piles of blazing obstacles and firewood were scattered and sent flying, quickly extinguished. The passage into Yang Wuyu was completely opened.

Brigade Commander Li Yan and Commandant Shen Pingshan, wearing armor, entered the camp at the first opportunity to direct subsequent camp seizure operations.

As the assault vanguard, Yang Yan led over two hundred armored soldiers as the first troops to storm into the camp. But Li Yan did not have Yang Yan directly lead his troops along the stone-paved main street to pursue eastward. Instead, he had them spread out to both flanks of the main street.

“Still use the fire-subduing crossbows to blast the hell out of them?” Yang Yan lifted his saber and stepped forward, asking Brigade Commander Li Yan and Commandant Shen Pingshan.

With the western gate wide open, from the long street to the eastern gate was three hundred twenty paces, packed full of fleeing Mongol soldiers, with not a single building obstructing.

At this time, if they didn’t drag smoothbore cannons up to bombard from west to east, would they really use human lives to intercept the chaotic troops?

Countless men and horses crowded before the long street, desperately fighting to escape through the gate but blocked by the narrow camp gate. Four light smoothbore cannons firing directly—at such close range, one solid iron projectile could tear through ten to twenty men and horses before losing kinetic energy.

Complete and utter chaos—men and horses trampling, ghosts crying and wolves howling. Occasionally a few red-eyed Mongol troops wielding blades and shields tried to countercharge during the gap between smoothbore cannon firings. Yang Yan at this time led troops swarming forward to intercept these enemy soldiers. There were also armored soldiers taking advantage of the front-loading smoothbore firing gaps to enter the camp through the gate.

When smoothbore cannons finished loading, seeing military flags on the camp wall signal, Yang Yan and his men fought while retreating, withdrawing to both flanks, opening up the middle firing corridor.

“Fire!” The squad leader waved the command flag. A new round of eight light smoothbore cannons once again fired through the gate opening, along the long street eastward at a slight angle, with nearly flat trajectories in volley.

Chen Kun personally rushed to the forward formation at this time to supervise the battle. Mounted on horseback, he coldly watched the hellish scene in the camp. Each volley truly meant flesh and blood flying.

Only after the enemy’s will was completely destroyed did formations of cavalry and infantry file into the camp one after another.

East of Yang Wuyu, there were still two large Mongol camps, jointly garrisoning twelve thousand soldiers. Additionally, on the western side of Doucheng Ridge was another enemy camp garrisoning two thousand soldiers.

To successfully achieve the “seal the door” operational plan, they needed to at minimum rout the two enemy camps at Heishi’ao at the eastern foot of Elephant Trunk Ridge and Tianzigou on the western side of Doucheng Ridge before enemy main forces withdrew.

With eighty thousand Mongol main forces distributed across seventy to eighty li south of Changyuan Mountain, who knew when they would withdraw?

To completely control Yang Wuyu in the shortest time, then clear passages for cavalry and infantry clustering around the artillery battalion to deploy from Yang Wuyu, turning northeast toward the Heishi’ao enemy camp east of Elephant Trunk Ridge—the handling of routed and chaotic troops in the camp naturally could not contain half a bit of mercy.

Except for those enemy soldiers who laid down their weapons, prostrated with all five points touching the ground, lying on the ground completely abandoning resistance—those showing slight signs of resistance, or even hesitating about whether to lay down their weapons and surrender—were given no time to consider at all. Blades, spears, bows and crossbows all attacked directly.

Dead men were always the safest.

Before Li Xiu’s prohibitions reached into the camp, most of the routed troops in the camp had already died under blades, bows, spears and crossbows.

At noon, Sima De and Cao Zhe entered Yang Wuyu accompanied by Wen Ruilin. Looking at corpses of men and horses dragged to both sides, blood and flesh mangled, looking at large patches of blood, bits of flesh and armor fragments splattered on walls along the street—their faces were deathly pale.

At this time, the last batch of four heavy front-loading smoothbore cannons and four ammunition wagons, towed by over thirty military horses, passed through the long street, following troops that had already departed again, charging into the wilderness to the east.

What terrifying instruments of mass slaughter these were!

Sima De’s expression was somewhat better. The Sima clan had more or less decided to return to Luoyang’s embrace. In his heart he was just thinking about bargaining a bit. Seeing the scene before him, there was simply no room left for bargaining. Then they should obediently submit—could life really not go on?

Cao Zhe’s expression was rather ugly.

Liang and Shu belonged to two different states. Even though after Liang’s great victory at Zhiguan Pass, recovery of Guanzhong, and the great victory at Fanchuan River, Liang forces had already demonstrated absolute dominance, before Cao Zhe’s diplomatic mission to Luoyang, everyone in the Shu capital still thought about maintaining independence, at most paying tribute as vassals to Liang.

Half a shichen to completely crush the enemy’s will and intent to resist. One shichen to completely capture a military camp defended by six thousand elite soldiers.

In half a day, over thirty-five to thirty-six hundred enemy soldiers killed or wounded, over a thousand prisoners captured, with fewer than a thousand enemy soldiers escaping eastward. Yet Liang’s casualties, even counting generously, probably wouldn’t exceed one hundred men.

Even if they were six thousand pigs, killing them wouldn’t be this simple!

This was completely one-sided slaughter!

Before such instruments of mass slaughter, did the Shu state still have the qualifications to refuse unification under heaven and preserve feudal status?

—

“Liang’s new military equipment at first glance are just ordinary cast iron tubes. When firing, flames spray forth with thunder-like roars. Iron balls the size of fists or bowl mouths shoot out intensely. Brick and stone shatter instantly. Flesh and blood bodies cannot block them. Armor also shatters into pieces!”

Having Nahe Yan Yun lead remnant troops to withdraw north of Heishi’ao to reorganize, Nahe Yanzhen at noon brought several riders into Heishi’ao main camp, rushing to see the local commanding general Wusu Zongsu.

Speaking of the disastrous defeat suffered at Yang Wuyu, unwilling in his heart, his expression ferocious with eyes seeming about to split, but recalling the scene of volleys, he couldn’t suppress the trembling deep in his heart. When speaking, his hands and feet couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

As if it were a nightmare from which he had not yet awakened.

Zongsu frowned, his expression grave. Although several of his subordinate generals were quite contemptuous and disdainful of Nahe Yanzhen’s current performance, thinking Nahe Yanzhen was exaggerating too much, he knew Nahe Yanzhen was not someone who feared battle.

Six thousand elite troops holding险ous positions in defense, in less than half a day slaughtered to nearly complete annihilation by Liang forces!

Just how terrifying were these new weapons Liang forces used?

“How can we block them?” Zongsu’s face dark as a date, asked in a deep voice.

“Flesh and blood bodies cannot block them. Isolated camps even less defendable,” Nahe Yanzhen muttered. “You should immediately abandon this place and withdraw to the open wilderness and snow plains east of Jinquan Mountain. This kind of equipment is made of cast iron, quite cumbersome and heavy. Without using existing post roads, dragging them with military horses across snowy fields will necessarily be slow!”

“General Yanzhen, do you know that fleeing without fighting is a capital offense punishable by death?” Someone dissatisfied reminded him that having lost a battle, Nahe Yanzhen actually came here to urge them to abandon camp and flee north.

Zongsu glared at the subordinate who spoke out of turn and asked Nahe Yanzhen: “If we deploy troops outside the camp, can we fight Liang forces?”

“If cavalry cannot avoid the bombardment direction of Liang’s new military equipment, absolutely avoid dense formation charges!” Nahe Yanzhen forcefully suppressed his inner terror, recalling the various situations of bombardment suffered at Yang Wuyu. “Besides iron balls having the power to penetrate over ten men and horses, they can even bounce multiple times after hitting the ground. When formations are too dense and suffer bombardment, often a whole swath is devastated. Soldiers become fearful and cannot continue fighting…”

Must flank and attack, must avoid dense charges as much as possible…

Over ten thousand Liang troops were surging toward Heishi’ao. From Nahe Yanzhen’s still relatively coherent words, Wusu Zongsu rapidly summarized several key points for engaging Liang forces. He had all generals immediately transmit these, and immediately pulled four thousand cavalry out of the camp, deploying them in the open area east of Heishi’ao.

“Mongol commanders really are not bad—they actually haven’t been completely terrorized!”

Li Yan reined in his horse, standing shoulder to shoulder with Su Lie, gazing north at formations of Mongol cavalry units spreading out like gray dragons in the snow. Yang Wuyu’s six thousand garrison troops had been beaten to nearly complete annihilation by them in less than half a day, yet unexpectedly the enemy forces at Heishi’ao still had the courage to deploy from camp for battle.

Not only did the enemy general at Heishi’ao still have courage to deploy from camp for battle, but seeing their cavalry enter open areas after leaving camp and deploy in dispersed formations showed that in such a short time, they had already made preliminary experience summaries for dealing with smoothbore cannon bombardment.

It was said Mongol people were brave and skilled in battle—this moment left an even deeper impression.

“In these years Mongol people have never stopped campaigns north and south. Their military has extremely many experienced commanders and officers. The tribal people are also all brave and skilled in battle. However, after this battle, their will can be fundamentally destroyed!” Su Lie said calmly.

Su Lie could be said to come from old-style clan aristocracy. He had joined with Han Donghu to secretly recruit Red Mountain Army masses intending to launch an uprising based at Mount Fuyu, which was stopped by Han Qian. He had submitted to Xuzhou from then, and now it had already been thirteen years.

Over these thirteen years, he had also grown from a Red Mountain Society leader to a high-ranking Liang general at vice commandant level, cultivating absolute confidence through campaigns north and south.

Speaking of regrets, it was just that having relied on twin halberds in his early years, in recent years he no longer had opportunities to personally lead charges into battle formations. And when individual fire-subduing crossbows deployed in actual combat, individual martial prowess probably would no longer have opportunity for display on battlefields, would it?

He also acknowledged that Mongol military and civilians were extremely brave and skilled in battle, with extremely strong adaptability. But this could not salvage their destined tragic outcome of defeat.

Chen Kun sat on horseback, gazing far into the distance, watching nearly four thousand enemy cavalry divided into several units charge out from Heishi’ao enemy camp, while also occupying as much of the eastern wilderness as possible.

West of Heishi’ao, there was a small path that could pass through Elephant Trunk Ridge, connecting the east and west flanks of Elephant Trunk Ridge.

According to current circumstances, and also considering enemy cavalry’s mobility in open snowfields, Chen Kun thought they should abandon the notion of completely annihilating the enemy at Heishi’ao. Instead they should ensure first capturing the Heishi’ao enemy camp, then construct defenses extending eastward from Elephant Trunk Ridge, completely sealing off the roughly seventeen to eighteen li gap between Elephant Trunk Ridge and Doucheng Ridge.

Only thus could they completely annihilate the nearly two hundred thousand Mongol military and civilians within Zezhou territory, truly achieving the operational intent of thoroughly crushing the Mongol people in one battle.

Li Xiu remained at Yang Wuyu directing the overall northern battlefield. The forward troops advancing on Heishi’ao enemy camp were led by Su Lie, Chen Kun, and Li Yan.

Enemy cavalry in dispersed charging formations intended to flank and encircle, reducing cannon casualties on dense formations. But besides smoothbore cannons, Liang forces had elite cavalry and infantry coordinating in battle, with no fear of enemy cavalry flanking and assaulting in the open wilderness.

Su Lie, Chen Kun, Li Yan and others adjusted combat plans in timely fashion, deciding to disperse dense cavalry and infantry formations to flank security, covering the artillery brigade main force’s unwavering advance toward Heishi’ao enemy camp, ensuring destruction and capture of the Heishi’ao enemy camp defended by only two thousand remaining infantry before dark.

Though Heishi’ao enemy forces had decent fighting will and had pulled cavalry units out of the main camp in advance, their cavalry units numbered only over four thousand.

Before reinforcements arrived, even though Su Lie, Chen Kun, and Li Yan left two thousand elite troops southeast of Yang Wuyu’s eastern exit as flank guard troops to intercept possible enemy reinforcements advancing north from the eastern foot of Changyuan Mountain, they still simultaneously led a total of over twelve thousand cavalry and infantry plus artillery units, like a surging river advancing north along Elephant Trunk Ridge, unafraid if enemy cavalry dared entangle them in close combat.

Enemy cavalry frequently launched attacks from flanks, doing everything possible to impede them, greatly slowing the forward troops’ advance. But from Yang Wuyu’s eastern exit, advancing north along Elephant Trunk Ridge, the Heishi’ao enemy camp was only thirteen li away.

Two battalions of light and heavy front-loading cannons, thirty-six total, under escort of two thousand armored soldiers, reached predetermined positions at the second quarter of the hour of the Monkey, launching bombardment on the Heishi’ao enemy camp occupying higher terrain.

Even if Mongol reinforcement troops opened the southward passage to receive Jincheng’s military and civilians withdrawing north, in haste they could only use camps abandoned by Liang forces along the route to make camp and establish defenses, then simply strengthen defenses as they could.

These numerous camps were all extremely narrow. Because heavy whirlwind catapults were inconvenient to transfer—after all, heavy whirlwind catapults often three to four zhang high were very difficult to move as complete units. Even directly transporting components to assemble before enemy camps required first completely controlling the situation outside the camps.

Therefore for short-term stays, narrower camps were not a fatal weakness.

However, before smoothbore cannons, narrow camps garrisoning many troops were utterly deadly.

The enemy camps had absolutely no equipment that could counter-attack. Enemy forces before battle also completely lacked deployments to guard against solid shot bombardment—for example digging many trenches and holes where people could hide, piling thick earth on camp building roofs with interior wooden reinforcement, and also covering outer sides of camp walls as much as possible with thick clay to absorb cannonball impact and prevent brick and stone fragments from injuring people, etc. These all directly determined that Wusu Zongsu’s desperate resistance at Heishi’ao fundamentally could not hold out for much time.

Thirty-six light and heavy smoothbore cannons deployed in open areas twelve hundred to fifteen hundred paces before the enemy camp, with cavalry and infantry on left and right relying on heavy shields, war crossbows and over a hundred war chariots forming defensive arrays.

Every quarter ke there was a volley. Every four volleys paused for a period.

Half a shichen later, the southern stone-piled camp wall of Heishi’ao had been blasted with huge gaps. The vast majority of casualties among enemy soldiers on the camp wall were caused by stone fragments scattered when solid shot shattered them.

Enemy soldiers defending within the camp, having no experience guarding against or evading solid shot bombardment, with their vision also blocked by camp walls, suffered even more tragic casualties.

With Mongol military’s bravery and ferocity, if two thousand armored infantry in conventional close combat they were familiar with suffered four to five hundred casualties, perhaps they could still grit their teeth without morale collapsing.

However, under intensive artillery bombardment they were unfamiliar with, in such a short time, when most soldiers hadn’t even seen the faces of opposing Liang soldiers, losing over twenty percent of forces—how could this battle continue to be fought?

Their only fortune was probably that Heishi’ao camp faced mountains on one side, with passages north and east for fleeing, not ending up like Yang Wuyu where ultimately three to four thousand garrison troops were directly trapped in the camp and completely annihilated…