Chapter 398

"I dare not; I did not think so much at the time. I only wanted to atone." Hou Yuan's face showed shame.

Now that I think about it, those nobles were truly not human.

Forcing farmers to be dragged over to die, just to protect their meager interests.

182. Wei Pao's Anger

"How is it ahead? Why is there no news?" Wei Pao stood on a small hill looking forward, finding no movement ahead.

Although the cannons fired twice, once the cannon fire ceased, there was no movement.

"Could two cannon shots have eliminated Hou Yuan and his men?" someone asked worriedly.

"Nonsense! It was only two shots; how could they kill twenty thousand? If there were such powerful weapons, we should all surrender!" Wei Pao said.

"Could it be that there were not many enemy troops ahead, and General Hou Yuan eliminated them directly?" another person said.

"Impossible! Zhuge Liang and the others are not that stupid!" Wei Pao shook his head: "Send scouts to go and take a look."

Soon, several horses galloped quickly toward the front.

These scouts ran for a while on the road but found no one.

When passing a relatively narrow road, several horse-tripping ropes suddenly appeared on the ground.

These scouts had no time to react and fell to the ground, men and horses together.

"Do not move!"

A group of soldiers ran from the roadside, controlling the scouts with long spears and short swords.

On the other side, Wei Pao and the others waited for a long time but the scouts did not return.

At this moment, they also felt something was wrong.

"Could Hou Yuan and his men have been wiped out?" Wei Pao frowned.

"This is impossible; they had twenty thousand men. Even if they were all killed, we should have heard the noise, right?" Young Master Lu said.

"Could they have fled?" someone asked.

"Where could they flee? If they could escape, then could not all of us so many people escape as well?" another person said.

"Could it be... they surrendered?" the person in front said.

Everyone hearing this was startled, all feeling the possibility of surrender was very high.

Because the troops Hou Yuan led were irregulars, and the soldiers inside were farmers just captured recently.

These people had poor discipline and weak combat power; once not strictly guarded, they might flee the battlefield!

"If they surrendered, that is a death penalty; I will not let a single one go!" Wei Pao's face turned iron green.

Then, Wei Pao sent another reconnaissance team to scout ahead.

This time, several hundred people were sent out, and they were ordered to keep a certain distance apart.

If the people in front met with trouble, the people behind would immediately return to report.

In a short while, a scout ran back, saying enemies were found ahead, and the scouts at the very front were either captured or killed.

Although Hou Yuan's army was not seen, it could basically be concluded that Hou Yuan had surrendered!

Because only surrender would appear so quiet.

If Hou Yuan and his men had all fought to the death, it would not only have made a huge noise, but there would also be very many corpses on the ground.

But according to the scouts' reconnaissance, there were no corpses or bloodstains on the road ahead, nor any traces of fighting.

"Hou Yuan, that son of a bitch, actually surrendered!" Wei Pao was half dead with anger: "I will definitely cut him into ten thousand pieces!"

"Let Hou Yuan's matter be discussed later; the key is what do we do now?" Young Master Lu asked.

"There is no retreat; order General Zheng to charge forward!"

Wei Pao made up his mind; this time, no matter what, they must break through.

Soon, General Zheng led one hundred thousand troops charging toward the front.

These one hundred thousand troops were elites; the soldiers among them had good equipment and were loyal, with very strong combat power.

Originally, the plan was to let Hou Yuan's twenty thousand irregular troops test the enemy's strength first before they acted.

But now Hou Yuan surrendered directly; they had no retreat either, so they could only charge forward.

The hundred thousand troops burst out from the forest; when they reached the main road, the cannon fire sounded.

Countless cannonballs fell from the sky, exploding among the crowd.

When the hundred thousand troops were squeezed together, every cannonball exerted its maximum killing effect.

One cannonball could kill or wound more than ten people.

For large-scale battles, being injured and being dead are not much different.

Unless it is a minor injury, there is still some combat power.

Once the injury is relatively severe, combat power is lost.

If soldiers lose combat power, they are no different from the dead.

Only when they win can some wounded soldiers survive.

But once defeated, those injured soldiers will most likely not survive.

No need for the enemy to finish them off; just ignoring them, they will die from wound infection themselves.

"Charge, charge for me, do not stop; those who violate the order will be beheaded!" Zheng Guan, leading the charge, shouted loudly.

Under the Yan Ling, the soldiers rushed forward like madmen.

The cannon fire sounded continuously; soldiers kept falling, and the ground was soon covered with corpses.

There were also some injured soldiers wailing loudly.

"General, we cannot break through; we have lost too many people!"

An adjutant said anxiously.

Such a gruesome scene was the first time he had ever witnessed.

They had been bombarded by cannons during the earlier siege of Xianyanggong, but the situation then was not as dire as this.

Back then, there was ample space outside Xianyanggong; the soldiers were not packed too closely together.

But now it was different. So many people were squeezed together, shoulder to shoulder; one cannon shot would kill and wound a huge swath!

He wanted to order the soldiers to spread out, but this road was narrow with hills on both sides; spreading out was impossible.

"This battle cannot be fought!" Zheng Guan stamped his feet in anger.

He had led troops in battle for so many years, yet never encountered such a situation.

In the past, both sides would charge together to engage in hand-to-hand combat, so soldiers packing into a cluster was no problem; they would even deliberately stand together.

But now, they had not even seen the enemy's shadow, yet their own side had already suffered heavy losses.

Seeing that forcing a charge forward would only cause more casualties, Zheng Guan had no choice but to issue the order to retreat.

Yet their retreat was not easy either; during the withdrawal, enemy cannonballs continued to fall constantly, killing many more soldiers.

By the time Zheng Guan led the survivors to a safe position, of the hundred thousand, only sixty thousand remained.

Of the remaining forty thousand, half were not dead, but they were wounded and unable to move, lying on the ground in despair, waiting to die. Soon, Wei Pao received news relayed from the front.

Upon learning they had lost forty thousand troops without even seeing the enemy, he felt a wave of despair.

To break through, they had to get past the cannons.

Unless the enemy had exhausted their ammunition, they could not hope to reach the enemy's front.

However, no one knew how many cannonballs Ying Su's army possessed.

They dared not gamble.

"It seems we can only place our hope on General Meng Tian," Wei Pao sighed.

He had already lost tens of thousands; he could not afford to lose more troops.

If Meng Tian could open a breach there, then he would prepare to lead the main force to break out in the direction where Meng Tian was located.

Just as he was about to send someone to scout Meng Tian's situation, the messenger sent by Meng Tian arrived first.

"My lord, General Meng has ordered me to see how your battle is progressing."

The messenger approached Wei Pao and bowed.

183. Putting in the effort without the result

"You have arrived at the perfect time. Tell me first, how is your side faring?" Wei Pao asked.

"When I left, General Meng was leading troops in combat with the enemy. I do not know the current situation," the man said.

"If you do not know the outcome, do you at least know the battle situation?" Wei Pao said.