The thought had just flashed through his mind when another enormous “boom” sounded. The earth shook and mountains trembled. The palace swayed twice. Liu Yuan’s heart sank. He hurriedly supported himself on an attendant’s hand to stand, staggering outside.
The Pingyang City palace was on slightly elevated ground. Standing at the palace entrance, one could look toward the city gate. At this moment, the direction of the city gate was a sea of flames.
Before he could speak, another enormous sound rang out. Simultaneously, huge smoke and firelight soared up. Liu Yuan’s lips trembled as he asked, “What, what is that?”
At this moment, Chen Wu, Xie Shi, Ji Yuan, Ming Yu, and others also widened their eyes, watching the enormous iron balls exploding at the top and bottom of Pingyang’s city gate. With each explosion, their hearts trembled along.
If they felt this way, the soldiers felt even more so.
The soldiers of the three armies all surged with emotion, dumbstruck, looking at Fu Tinghan with both admiration and fear.
Only that fool Zhao Erlang excitedly circled around Fu Tinghan, following him as he walked to another catapult, watching him teach the soldiers to calibrate the catapult, then stepping aside.
Seeing the torch in the soldier’s hand, Zhao Erlang eagerly said, “Brother-in-law, let me light this one.”
Fu Tinghan thought for a moment and nodded. “Then you light it.”
The iron canisters were made by craftsmen commissioned by Qiu Wu specifically for transporting explosives. The iron canisters were also wrapped in an outer wooden barrel.
These past two days, Fu Tinghan had opened the iron canisters, modified the explosives inside, reconnected the fuse lines, and to prevent the fuse from contacting the explosives too early and to ensure the fuse wouldn’t go out during the throwing process, he’d added a circle of bamboo tubes outside.
Yesterday they’d tested the time needed for throwing at equivalent mass to calculate the required fuse length, ensuring the explosives would detonate within three seconds of landing after being thrown.
Zhao Erlang wasn’t at all like the nervous soldiers beside him. He immediately took the torch, and when Fu Tinghan ordered the lighting, he thrust out the torch to ignite the fuse.
The fuse hissed and sparked. A soldier beside him immediately cut the rope, the catapult suddenly flipped up, and the iron ball whooshed toward Pingyang City. This time the iron ball was more accurate, directly smashing onto the top of the city gate with a boom. It rolled down from the gate top, and before falling to the ground, it exploded with a boom.
After the smoke and dust cleared, a large hole had been blasted in the city gate entrance. The Xiongnu soldiers lying in ambush inside wailed continuously.
Chen Wu and the others felt their hearts tremble along with it. They turned to look at Fu Tinghan, but saw his eyes downcast, adjusting the angle of another catapult.
Sensing their gaze, he turned his head to look. The Minister Fu they considered gentle and kind nodded at them and said, “There’s one last one. I’ll try to blast open the city gate for you.”
Chen Wu and the others forced out smiles and nodded while trembling.
Fu Tinghan kept his word. This time he accurately threw it at the city gate entrance. After a huge explosion, Pingyang City’s gate was mostly blasted open, and people on and below the city wall were all terrified and panicked.
Zhao Hanzhang pointed with her long spear and shouted loudly, “Soldiers, Heaven blesses our Great Jin! Everyone, follow me to restore order and righteousness! Charge—”
The soldiers instantly came to their senses and roared along, “Charge—”
Zhao Hanzhang took the lead in charging out. All the soldiers immediately followed, rushing out and killing their way forward. Fu Tinghan stood in place, watching tens of thousands of soldiers run past him, charging straight out. He turned his head and said to the soldiers controlling the catapult, “Load stones, adjust the height. Target is the city wall.”
“Yes!”
The soldiers immediately moved stones, tied ropes, and launched…
When Zhao Hanzhang took the lead in killing her way into the city, Fu Tinghan and his team stopped, to avoid accidentally injuring their own people with falling stones.
Fu Tinghan still had a rear army behind him for support. They didn’t move at all.
As strategists, Ji Yuan and Ming Yu also didn’t move. The two stood in place, listening to the earth-shaking shouts and battle cries coming from inside Pingyang City. Before long, someone attacked the city wall. Only then did they move their somewhat stiff bodies and hurriedly take out telescopes to look.
They saw Zhao Erlang spear-flip one person, his other hand holding a saber. He chopped down the flag on the city wall with one slash. His personal guard brought over a banner, immediately unfurled and planted it.
The “Zhao” character banner unfurled with the wind, fluttering fiercely on the city gate.
Ji Yuan watched with great excitement, happily telling Fu Tinghan, “Young Master, we’ve taken Pingyang City’s wall.”
Ming Yu couldn’t help glancing at him, but still immediately caught up. “In this battle, Minister Fu deserves first merit.”
Ji Yuan was truly no ordinary person. Previously he’d always called him Master Fu or Minister Fu, but now he was calling him Young Master?
Fu Tinghan saw that Zhao’s army had successfully killed their way into Pingyang City with minimal losses, and he couldn’t help showing a slight smile. Using explosives had both drawbacks and benefits. Looking at it now, it wouldn’t necessarily cause many deaths.
He exhaled and nodded at Ji Yuan and Ming Yu. “Please lead troops to the north and east gates to defend and capture people, preventing the Liu imperial house from escaping.”
Ji Yuan and Ming Yu became serious and hurriedly agreed.
Ji Yuan said, “Don’t guard too strictly. Relax it slightly. Except for imperial house members, let others escape if they escape.”
Fu Tinghan nodded in agreement. “Don’t pursue a desperate enemy.”
Ji Yuan smiled and agreed. Seeing Ming Yu kept looking at him, he reached out and pulled him away, each taking a large army.
However, before leaving, Ji Yuan specially called Shi Hongtu and Lu Daxuan over and instructed, “Protect Young Master well.”
The two guards nodded with completely serious faces, extremely solemn.
Ming Yu was pulled out a long distance by him before withdrawing his hand, saying faintly, “Scholar Ji certainly knows how to read the winds.”
“What reading the winds? I’ve always respected Master Fu,” Ji Yuan said with a serious expression. “He is the secondary lord.”
“Is that so?” Ming Yu said, “I always thought Scholar Ji considered the Second General as secondary lord.”
Ji Yuan ignored this comment and looked around before asking, “Are you going to the north gate or east gate?”
Ming Yu said, “East.”
Ji Yuan pursed his lips. How impolite. His location was far from the north gate, and part of the way was still controlled by the Xiongnu. Zhao’s army hadn’t been able to catch all the Xiongnu forces outside Pingyang City in one net.
But Ji Yuan still went.
Zhao Hanzhang still wanted to use Xiongnu imperial house members to exchange for Zhao Zhongyu. She couldn’t let them escape.
Many soldiers knew Zhao Hanzhang intended to use Xiongnu imperial house members to exchange for hostages. Therefore, as soon as they rushed into the city, they desperately fought their way toward Pingyang City’s palace.
The Xiongnu forces inside Pingyang City were intimidated by their momentum, plus the several packages of explosives had pressed them breathless earlier. Now facing the fierce Qihuo Army and Zhao’s Army, they fell somewhat short.
Especially since the Qihuo Army excelled at urban warfare, Chen Wu took the lead, leading his Qihuo Army to fight their way out of the street in just a quarter hour and run straight toward the palace.
Zhao Erlang was still planting banners on the city wall. Xie Shi killed his way in and saw him, exasperated. He called to him, “Erlang, why aren’t you quickly leading men to the palace? The Governor has already gone!”
Zhao Hanzhang preferred to clear out enemies before continuing, so she lagged one step behind Chen Wu. By the time she reached the palace, Chen Wu had already engaged the palace’s Imperial Guards in battle. Xiongnu officials, palace maids, attendants, and others were fleeing outside in chaos. The scene was chaotic.
Seeing this, Zhao Hanzhang called to Zhao Erlang and had him attack from the left flank while she provided support from the right. “Everyone, regardless of status, surrender your weapons and you won’t be killed!”
—