Li Yuanxiang was envisioning his kingdom, while Yun Ye had no choice but to wage an arduous and outstanding struggle against the suddenly arriving new situation.
When the camels all wailed mournfully and knelt on the ground, burying their heads under their thick camel fur, Tian Yuanyi reported to Yun Ye the news that a black storm was about to arrive.
In fact, Tian Yuanyi didn’t need to say much. When a black wall of earth appeared on the horizon pushing toward them, everyone knew this was a black storm coming.
The wind force of the black storm was not strong, and the camel city could completely withstand it. What was terrifying was the dense sand and dust. In such weather conditions, visibility was extremely low, which was very unfavorable for Yun Ye’s army, who were determined to defend the camel city.
Lu Dongzan was an expert at military campaigns. How could he easily let such a heaven-sent opportunity pass? The fierce Tubo people were already standing at the edge of the trench, excitedly preparing to charge.
The Turks stood at the upwind position. Their faces were covered with black cloth, and more than a dozen small bridges had already been quickly constructed over the trench. As soon as the black storm arrived, they would launch the most fierce attack.
“Use gunpowder bombs against the Turks at the upwind position, and use fire oil bombs against the Tubo people at the downwind position. Have the barbed wire ready. In this kind of weather, preventing the enemy from approaching the camel city is our primary task.”
“Cheng Chumo, stand by at all times. The black storm cannot last too long. Once the black storm ends, I need you to attack immediately. The focus of this strike will be the Tubo people.”
“There’s nothing else to say. Just continue doing what we’ve rehearsed before. The camel city has finally welcomed its first cruel war.”
The destructive power of a mudslide is greater than that of a flood. By the same logic, a black storm carrying sand and dust is a hundred times more violent than wind of the same magnitude. Entering the oasis from the distant desert, it only slowed down slightly. As time passed, it still covered the camel city tightly with all kinds of strange howling sounds.
The Turkic cavalry also crossed the small bridges at the first moment. This time was very different. The wolf riders in red clothes turned a blind eye to the constantly exploding ground, whipping their warhorses desperately, wanting to accelerate to maximum speed. Only by traveling the most distance in the shortest time could they reduce the damage from the gunpowder buried in the ground.
Under the embrace of the black storm, the warhorses were as fast as lightning. The soldiers in the bunkers didn’t even have time to react before seeing warhorses leaping over their heads one after another.
They shot the crossbow bolts in their hands at the fastest speed, lit the gunpowder, then returned to the camel city along the pre-dug trenches. As they walked, they knocked over the fire oil barrels in the trenches. By the time they entered the camel city, the Turkic red-clothed cavalry had already pursued them to the edge of the camel city.
They couldn’t see people clearly, only some shadowy black figures. Plus, facing into the wind, even the powerful eight-ox crossbows had already deviated from their original trajectory after flying several dozen zhang.
Countless flying claws hooked onto the tops of the giant shields. The Turks wanted to pull the giant shields open, so that cavalry could enter the camel city to fight. Deploying warhorses in such weather was essentially a desperate gamble. After this battle, the warhorses would basically be ruined. Due to inhaling too much dust, they would die very painfully.
The sky suddenly darkened. Yun Ye wore a pig snout on his mouth, glasses over his eyes, and after putting on his armor, his whole person looked extremely bizarre. He constantly walked back and forth on the grid of the camel city’s main citadel. Only after hearing a huge explosion did he feel relieved. The fire oil in that trench should be able to divide the Turkic attacking formation into two parts, right?
Tu Shi was in the main force, commanding soldiers to charge toward the camel city again and again. Three layers of barbed wire constituted three barriers of death. When warhorses crashed into them, they would be tightly entangled. After struggling with all their might, the skin all over their bodies would be cut open by the barbs…
Tu Shi saw the fire oil in the trench and wanted to shout loudly. As soon as he opened his mouth, sand poured into his throat. He could only quickly dodge to the side. Orange-red flames leaped into the air, blown far away by the strong wind. The three-chi-wide trench became a sea of fire.
With this red background, the crossbow bolts from the camel city began to become well-aimed. At a distance of a hundred-plus paces, the strong wind had almost no effect on the eight-ox crossbow bolts. When Tu Shi used sand to extinguish the flames, the other part of the attackers separated by the fire had become corpses on the ground. Tu Shi thought of Lu Dongzan’s grief-stricken face, gritted his teeth, and continued to order a fierce attack. This time, countless fire arrows were shot toward the camel city with the strong wind.
In such weather, there was no way to advance while holding large shields. Before long, fires were burning everywhere on the camel city, and even the camels under the grid became somewhat restless…
Chen Shu covered the fire arrows with a blanket. After smothering them for a while and finding the flames extinguished, he began to deal with the next fire arrow. Guo Ping held two small shields in his hands, constantly helping Chen Shu deflect the fire arrows. These arrows had already been blown erratically by the wind. It didn’t matter if they hit the armor; it was just that the fire oil on them was very annoying.
Many others were doing the same thing at the same time. Even Tian Yuanyi was wearing armor and holding a blanket to put out fires. He wasn’t worried about these fire arrows—the camel city had long had countermeasures for this. He was only worried about the black storm’s effect on the livestock. The camels were fine; they could close their nostrils themselves and weren’t worried about sand getting in. But these mares were a big problem. He didn’t know whether tying silk over the warhorses’ mouths would work or not. In this hellish weather, after staying in the wind for just a while, a person looked like they had crawled out of an earthen pit.
Although the strong wind was very beneficial to Tu Shi’s attack, it would likewise cause him damage. Large siege equipment simply couldn’t be brought over in such weather. When ladders were placed against the camel city, long spears would thrust out from behind the giant shields, easily killing the brave warriors climbing up. No matter how valiant a warrior he was, there wasn’t much room to dodge on the ladder.
The lower skirt of the camel city could be lifted. When some Turkic warriors thought they had found the path to victory, Tu Shi discovered that those who entered below the wooden grid seemed to never climb back out. No matter how many people went in, it was as if they had stepped into hell—never to be seen returning again.
Tu Shi’s horizontal blade heavily chopped at the camel city’s armor. Sparks flew, but there wasn’t much damage. Dark black hooked chains were woven into a huge chain mail—this was the camel city’s defense.
A long spear shot out like a poisonous snake from a hidden opening, heading straight for Tu Shi’s chest. Tu Shi roared, threw away the horizontal blade in his hand, grabbed the long spear, and pulled it out forcefully. The long spear was seized, but something else came with it—crossbow bolts shot out from the hidden opening. Tu Shi barely dodged his vital areas, but that crossbow bolt still drilled into his right shoulder, with the arrowhead protruding from the back of his arm.
For the commander to personally go into battle was already a major military taboo. Tu Shi just wanted to carefully examine the camel city at close range, never expecting to nearly lose his life beneath it. His personal guards desperately protected Tu Shi as he withdrew. Tu Shi looked at his subordinates frantically attacking the camel city with blades, hammers, flails, and long spears. His heart was filled with mixed feelings. Ever since the Tang people had this explosive weapon, the bravery of warriors seemed to have become insignificant. Especially when he saw countless iron lumps fly out of the camel city and produce brilliant sparks, a sense of powerlessness finally spread throughout his entire body.
If Tu Shi could still assault beneath the camel city at one point, then Lu Dongzan, positioned at the headwind location, felt like he was living in hell. Fire oil sprayed along with the wind—as soon as it encountered sparks, even the air would burn. Watching as the peak of the black storm was about to pass, the sky color changing from dark to murky yellow, his attack still had not made half a bit of progress.
Sharp crossbow bolts easily pierced through the Tubo people’s leather armor. Once the three-edged cone penetrated, after being pulled out, it would become a blood hole constantly spurting blood. Lu Dongzan had seen such crossbow bolts before. When Yun Ye shot and killed his subordinates in Chang’an, he had used exactly these crossbow bolts.
Tubo was too poor. Lu Dongzan believed that if the Tang army’s equipment were given to the Tubo people, the Tubo people would certainly be invincible under heaven. Their learning couldn’t catch up, their knowledge couldn’t keep pace. One step missed, every step missed. When he was in Chang’an, he had tried every method hoping to visit Yushan Academy. Even though he had obtained Li Er’s edict, that detestable Li Gang had mercilessly refused his desire to visit and forbade him from approaching the Yushan Academy area.
The failure of that day caused today’s helplessness on the battlefield. The Tang people’s fire oil seemed endlessly abundant. As soon as the Tubo people rushed into the burning zone, dozens of water dragon carts would spray fire oil for a while, and immediately fire arrows would follow to ignite the fire oil. Those Tubo people in the burning zone could only throw themselves on the ground and frantically extinguish the flames on their bodies.
The stratagem was simple yet effective. Lu Dongzan wanted to stop this meaningless way of dying before his eyes, but military orders couldn’t be transmitted. While constantly dodging fire oil, he suddenly discovered that the Tubo people had unknowingly been divided into four independent zones.
Lu Dongzan desperately turned his gaze toward the city head. In the flickering light and darkness, he saw countless catapults had already been erected. Lu Dongzan didn’t even think—he turned his horse’s head and ran back frantically. His personal guards were stunned for a moment. This was Lu Dongzan’s first time fleeing before battle.
When densely packed fire oil bombs were thrown overhead by the catapults, they finally understood why Lu Dongzan had fled before battle. Today with a favorable wind, and the fire oil bombs being light, the catapults’ power was fully twenty percent greater than usual.
Explosive sounds rang out. Yun Ye only saw a huge fireball being scattered in all directions by the violent wind. He didn’t know what this fireball meant. Only Fan Hong understood clearly. He instructed his subordinates in a muffled voice: “Write this down. Large-scale use of fire oil produces an effect similar to gunpowder explosion.”
Saying this, he raised his head to look at that large pit four hundred paces away and said: “Or perhaps even more violent.”