Chapter 320

The giant net that blades and swords could not cut, he tore open just like that with his bare hands!

And the ropes around his feet were also forcibly snapped.

Having shaken off his restraints, Li Li Yuanba picked up his great hammers once more and lunged at the enemies rushing toward him.

As the great hammers danced, flesh and blood flew everywhere.

A thick, pungent scent of blood rapidly spread across the battlefield.

At this moment, the cannons on the city walls began to roar.

All the cannons fired at once.

Countless cannonballs poured down onto the earth again.

Only, these cannonballs all avoided the direction where Li Li Yuanba was.

In an instant, the cannonballs once again blasted Meng Tian’s army into disarray.

"It is Heaven's will; we are finished!"

Someone beside Meng Tian let out a mournful cry.

"Is it really impossible?" Meng Tian stared blankly ahead.

His army had absolutely no ability to fight back under the attack of the cannons.

Not to mention there was also that god of slaughter, Li Li Yuanba.

"Let us retreat!" someone shouted.

"Retreat? Retreat to where? To go home and wait for Ying Su to send people to kill us?"

Wei Pao shouted.

"But what else can we do if we don't retreat?" someone asked.

Wei Pao’s eyes were red, and he did not speak.

That’s right, what else could they do if they didn't retreat?

But what could they do if they did retreat?

Either way, it was death.

Unless...

A thought emerged in Wei Pao’s mind.

If all else failed, he would just submit to Ying Su!

The new Emperor could collect as much tax as he wanted!

But this thought only flashed by and was immediately rejected by Wei Pao.

He was unwilling, so unwilling.

To pay ninety percent in taxes and keep only ten percent.

It would be equivalent to just barely keeping the family alive, and they could forget about doing anything else.

How was this any different from a peasant without land?

Those lowly commoners worked for him, giving him the majority of the harvest, while they kept only a small amount of grain to fill their stomachs, just maintaining a state of not starving to death.

If he, Wei Pao, compromised with the new Emperor, wouldn't he be the same as those lowly commoners?

Giving the majority of his harvest to the new Emperor, with only a small amount of grain left for his family to eat.

At the mere thought of such an ending, Wei Pao felt it would be better to just die!

"No retreat, absolutely no retreat! If he wants to kill me, then let him kill me!"

Wei Pao had lost his reason by now; he grabbed his sword and charged forward.

The people beside him couldn't stop him even if they wanted to!

"Another one has gone mad," someone sighed in a low voice.

"General Meng, please make a decision quickly!" someone urged.

Everyone had lost their footing; they desperately needed someone to stand up and lead them now.

Whether it was a fight to the death or a retreat, either was fine, but they needed someone to take the lead.

Yet, they wanted Meng Tian to take the lead, not knowing that Meng Tian was just as flustered as they were at this moment.

The soldiers brought by the nobles were the same as them.

The nine-hundred-thousand-strong army had lost its backbone at this moment.

The sound of the cannons finally stopped.

Then, the city gates were seen swinging wide open, and a troop of cavalry charged out.

At the same time, bursts of drumbeats sounded from above the city walls.

This troop of cavalry charged into the enemy formation with an unstoppable momentum, immediately causing chaos in Meng Tian’s army.

And at this time, Li Li Yuanba was getting closer and closer to Meng Tian and the others.

"Retreat!" Meng Tian bit the bullet and issued the order to retreat.

No matter what, not retreating meant death.

As for whether they would die after retreating, that was a matter for later.

Soon, the drumbeats signaling a retreat rang out.

Hearing the drums, the soldiers immediately felt a sense of relief and turned to run.

Once a great army retreats, it is impossible to stop them again.

At such a time, even if Meng Tian issued an order to counterattack or stop the retreat, it would be useless.

When the formation was broken, every soldier had only one thought in their mind: escape!

171. Finally Retreating

"Prime Minister, I shall go in pursuit!" Li Xin requested instructions from Zhuge Liang.

"No need." Zhuge Liang shook his head: "Pass on my order for the cavalry and General Li to return."

"Why?" Li Xin was stunned for a moment.

Shouldn't they take advantage of the victory to pursue at a time like this?

They had cavalry, and their morale was high.

As long as they caught up to the enemy soldiers, killing them would be as simple as chopping melons and vegetables!

"They are all subjects of Great Qin, they are the army of Great Qin; spare them if you can." Zhuge Liang said indifferently.

Li Xin did not understand.

The others did not understand either.

Except for Ying Zheng.

Only Ying Zheng understood the meaning behind what Zhuge Liang said.

There were nearly a million troops following the nobles in rebellion.

If all these million troops were killed, Ying Su would only gain the submission of the nobles.

But if he didn't kill them, Ying Su might gain this million-strong army!

One must know that it was the nobles who opposed Ying Su, but how many people in this million-strong army were actually nobles?

As for the remaining common soldiers, as long as they were paid, whose orders were they not going to follow?

Therefore, by only eliminating these nobles who opposed Ying Su, one could gain nearly a million troops!

Of course, the difficulty of doing this was great, and the risk was also great.

If one thing went wrong, Ying Su would be pulled off his horse by this million-strong army.

But Zhuge Liang did this, so he must have received authorization from Ying Su.

Perhaps this idea even came from Ying Su himself!

At the thought of Ying Su having such courage, Ying Zheng felt both a sense of loss and a sense of gratification.

The loss was that his own chance of returning to the imperial throne was very slim now.

The gratification was that no matter how strong Ying Su was, wasn't he still his own son?

To be honest, if he had discovered Ying Su was so capable earlier, establishing him as the Crown Prince back then would have been a matter of course!

"Prime Minister, if we do not pursue now, we will inevitably be letting the tiger return to the mountain; when the time comes, if the Emperor blames us..."

Li Xin reminded him.

At this moment, he still did not understand Zhuge Liang’s approach.

"I am executing the Emperor’s order." Zhuge Liang smiled slightly.