Chapter 111: Cannons

Zhang Chao led the Divine Machine Battalion's Thousand-man Unit, marching along a path trampled with foul excrement while smelling the stench that assaulted their faces; every soldier of the Divine Machine Battalion was miserable, and they all hated the rebels of Luolong County to the bone.

An hour later, the men of the Divine Machine Battalion finally saw the Blue Stone city walls of Luolong County.

The east gate of Luolong County was tightly shut, with twenty or thirty soldiers holding weapons standing on the city wall, and four Shenwu Great General Cannons placed atop the gate tower.

Upon seeing the arrival of the Divine Machine Battalion's main force, the soldiers on the wall seemed very panicked; some were shouting and running about, while others were clumsily fumbling with the Shenwu Great General Cannons, aiming the muzzles toward the direction of the Divine Machine Battalion.

There were also some who actually raised white flags and waved them desperately, appearing to want to surrender to the Divine Machine Battalion.

The top of the wall was in total chaos, with them even splitting into two factions and fighting; the battle situation looked very intense, which left Zhang Chao and the soldiers of the Divine Machine Battalion completely bewildered.

What on earth were they doing up on the wall? Were they abandoning darkness for light, staging an uprising on the spot, or turning their weapons against their own? If so, did that mean the rebels of Luolong County would be finished off without us even needing to fire our cannons?

"Lord Zhang, it is said that there are only thirty or forty Qingshui River hunters among the rebels inside the city. They certainly don't have enough manpower to guard all four gates of Luolong County, so they must have recruited some people after they rebelled."

"But after all, the time has been short. These newly joined rebels, seeing our Divine Machine Battalion's main force pressing in, must be terrified, so many of them have decided not to follow the rebels anymore and want to surrender to us, perhaps even hoping to atone for their crimes by helping us take the wall," said the Divine Machine Battalion's deputy, Vice Thousand-man Commander Wang Zhanbiao, speaking with great conviction.

Zhang Chao frowned, carefully observing the battle on the wall, and found that both sides were trading blows quite intensely, yet Zhang Chao always felt that something was not right.

It was mainly because along the way, the rebels' fake and real excrement bombs had given Zhang Chao a massive headache, forcing them to blast their way through the whole time to carve out a safe passage.

Zhang Chao knew there must be a fox-like cunning fellow among those rebels; with that opponent's intelligence, they shouldn't be making such a low-level mistake—knowing the new recruits were unreliable, yet still letting them guard the wall?

Could it really be that there were too few core rebel personnel, and the leader simply couldn't control the situation in Luolong County?

Then what was the point of them burying gunpowder barrels and excrement along the way to delay the Divine Machine Battalion's advance? If they truly felt they were no match, shouldn't they have fled early? Why do these thankless tasks?

"Lord Zhang, look, those rebels on the wall who wanted to surrender have been suppressed. Now there are only eight or nine rebels left on the wall. We only need one round of cannon fire to blast them into smithereens. My Lord, opportunity knocks but once, let's attack, lest the rebels from other areas come to support them later," Wang Zhanbiao urged.

Zhang Chao still felt something was wrong, but he was not an indecisive man; the Divine Machine Battalion had already reached the vicinity of Luolong County, and no matter what, they had to attack the city.

Regardless of what schemes the enemy was plotting, Zhang Chao decided to meet all changes with constancy; just like dealing with those real and fake landmines, he would use cannons to clear the way and push straight through.

In the face of absolute strength, any scheme or trick was just a joke.

"Wang Zhanbiao, hear my order: you lead four hundred men forward, deploy in formation five hundred meters outside the city, and fire with everything you've got. Blast the entire front east wall to the ground for me. I want to see what kind of tricks these rebels can pull in the face of absolute strength," Zhang Chao commanded.

"Lord Zhang, just watch and see, I guarantee the mission will be accomplished." Wang Zhanbiao accepted the order, then led four hundred Divine Machine Battalion soldiers, pushing forty-five cannons as they marched forward.

At a distance of five hundred meters from the city wall, the forty-five Shenwu Great General Cannons carried by Wang Zhanbiao were lined up, their pitch-black muzzles aimed at the top of the wall.

The soldiers skillfully secured the gun carriages, adjusted the angles of the cannons, and prepared to blast the city wall.

Seeing this scene, the rebels on the wall were so frightened they were in a flurry; some ran about like headless flies, some were perhaps scared and threw away their weapons to run down the wall, and a few others were fumbling with a Shenwu Great General Cannon.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, an iron ball was fired from the wall, but it landed more than a hundred meters in front of the Divine Machine Battalion's formation.

The iron ball smashed a large pit into the ground, rolled a few times, and finally stopped without even touching the edge of the Divine Machine Battalion soldiers.

"A bunch of rabble. Brothers, later we will teach the rebels inside the city how to properly use a Shenwu Great General Cannon."

Wang Zhanbiao laughed heartily, completely disregarding the rebels inside the city; any soldier from the Divine Machine Battalion, picked at random, could crush the gunners on the wall.

"Ready!" Wang Zhanbiao raised his command sword, and the four hundred Divine Machine Battalion soldiers took their positions, ready to light the fuses at any moment.

"Ignite! Fire!" Wang Zhanbiao slashed his command sword down fiercely, and the fuses of the forty-five Shenwu Great General Cannons were lit.

Wang Zhanbiao believed that a single volley from these forty-five cannons would be enough to blast the east gate of Luolong County into ruins.

At this critical, hair-trigger moment, one hundred meters away from the Divine Machine Battalion's artillery position, layers of cover boards suddenly flipped up from the ground, revealing the soldiers who had been hiding there for a long time, along with rows of Elm Cannons placed along the edge of a trench.

Meng Yifan's soldiers, united in purpose, had dug crisscrossing trenches twenty minutes before the Divine Machine Battalion arrived, covered them with boards, and hidden silently underneath, just waiting for the Divine Machine Battalion to come and die.

Meng Yifan was also hiding in the trench, staring at the movements of the Divine Machine Battalion through an observation hole.

Meng Yifan had arranged for Meng Yitong to put on a show on the wall specifically to make the Divine Machine Battalion complacent, hoping they would all move in close, so that Meng Yifan would have the confidence to severely damage the entire Divine Machine Battalion Thousand-man Unit in one go.

But Zhang Chao was cautious by nature; even seeing the chaos on the wall, he was only willing to send four hundred men to attack.

"There's an ambush!" Wang Zhanbiao was shocked and wanted to turn the cannons to blast the enemies in the trenches, but it was already too late.

Meng Yifan's soldiers, hiding in the trenches, had already lit the fuses of the Elm Cannons in advance, so the moment the cover boards flipped open, one hundred and twenty Elm Cannons roared almost simultaneously.

Fire splashed everywhere, and one hundred and twenty shells whistled through the air with a shrill sound, smashing toward the dumbfounded Divine Machine Battalion soldiers.

Meng Yifan's soldiers had only trained for five days, so their marksmanship was very average; therefore, Meng Yifan had the soldiers aim two or three Elm Cannons at each Shenwu Great General Cannon.

If the accuracy wasn't enough, they would make up for it with quantity.

The one hundred and twenty Elm Cannons were all firing Explosive Shells, which exploded upon impact; the firepower was intense, enough to completely cover the position of those four hundred Divine Machine Battalion soldiers.