Chapter 15: The Heavenly Fire That Water Cannot Extinguish

The next day at noon, warm sunlight fell upon the earth.

Outside Lin Zhai, Qin Lang smelled the rice fragrance drifting from the courtyard, smiled, and stepped forward to knock on the door.

"Brother Zi Hou, I'm here~~~"

As the saying goes, coming early is not as good as coming at the right time.

Arriving at mealtime was definitely a stroke of luck.

"Qin Lang has come."

Lin Dao warmly greeted, "Come, come, come, sit down and eat together."

The women brought out clean bowls and chopsticks, serving rice and dishes to Qin Lang's guards.

A full bowl of snow-white rice, a plate of pickled vegetables, and a plate of potato stir-fried pork.

Lin Dao brought an iron pot, and also brought the technique of stir-frying to Yonghe Spacetime.

In this era, eating meant steaming, boiling, or eating raw.

Stir-frying would not become widespread until eight hundred years later.

The oily, large chunks of pork made Qin Lang and his guards' Adam's apples bob as they watched.

Lin Zhai's delicacies were famous throughout the settlement.

Even in Wushuai Mansion, the food was not as good as his.

Lin Dao and Qin Lang ate in the Main Room.

Jin Lian and Sun Rong placed the rice and dishes on the food table, and also poured out some leftover beer from yesterday.

"Brother Zi Hou." Holding chopsticks, Qin Lang looked at the snow-white rice in his bowl and sighed, "I have eaten rice for over twenty years, but only the refined rice you brought has no sand."

"Without mechanical screening, having sand in rice is normal."

Lin Dao said with a smile, "My rice is all finely processed."

Qin Lang did not understand, but he knew such refined rice must be a good thing.

He picked up a piece of pork, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed.

After swallowing, he raised his hand and slapped the table, "This pork, how is it made so delicious?"

Lin Dao raised his wine bowl, "The pork I brought was raised on feed. The pigs here are raised on dry latrine waste, so of course they are different."

Some say ancient pork tastes bad because there was no pig fattening.

Actually, as early as the Shang Dynasty, pig fattening techniques already existed.

The reason pork tastes bad lies in what the pigs eat, and the cooking technique.

"Feed?" Qin Lang asked doubtfully, "What kind of feed?"

"It's corn." Lin Dao said with a smile, "Among the grain I transported before, there was corn."

Upon hearing this, Qin Lang's face paled.

"Such top-grade grain, actually used to feed pigs?"

It was no wonder he could not accept it; he had eaten corn before.

Though it was a new grain he had never seen, the taste was unexpectedly good, and it could fill the stomach.

Such fine grain, actually used to feed pigs, Qin Lang said was hard to accept.

"This is the gap between the Industrial Era and the Agricultural Era."

Lin Dao looked at the bewildered Qin Lang and added, "An overwhelming gap."

After eating and drinking their fill, Qin Lang asked Lin Dao why he had summoned him.

"I have something that can help you destroy the Qianghu's siege engines."

Lin Dao took out a Molotov Cocktail and led the puzzled Qin Lang out.

A Molotov Cocktail cannot be experimented with inside a residence.

Once a fire breaks out, it cannot be put out by patting.

Finding a dead tree in the settlement, Lin Dao took out a lighter, "Watch the steps clearly, I will only perform once."

He inverted the Molotov Cocktail, and the gasoline inside quickly soaked the cloth strip.

After lighting it, he threw it hard toward the dead tree in the distance.

The wine bottle hitting the tree trunk shattered, and the somewhat viscous gasoline splashed everywhere.

The next moment, flames burst forth and quickly burned at an extremely fast speed.

Qin Lang was greatly shocked.

Even more shocking was that, after half an incense stick of time, the fire not only did not go out, but burned even more vigorously.

Indeed, the entire dead wood was ignited.

"Qin Lang." Lin Dao reached out and pointed at the dead wood, "Can the Qianghu's siege engines withstand such scorching?"

Qin Lang nodded repeatedly, "It is indeed excellent."

"But, the Qianghu will surely fetch water to put out the fire, and the troops sent out will have to hold on for a while longer."

Lin Dao smiled again, "Fetch water to put out the fire?"

He reached out and pointed to a few guards watching nearby, "Go fetch water."

After a short while, the guards returned carrying wooden buckets filled with water.

"Pour the water onto the fire." Lin Dao instructed, "Pour from a distance, be careful not to get any on yourself."

In Qin Lang and their common sense, water poured on flames would soon extinguish the fire.

But when the guards poured the water over, a scene that left them stunned appeared.

The burning fire not only did not go out, but roared and expanded, burning even more vigorously.

"This, could it be heavenly fire?" Qin Lang looked dumbfounded, "How can there be heavenly fire that water cannot extinguish?"

"When you take men to burn the Qianghu siege engines," Lin Dao patted his shoulder, "once you see them catch fire you can turn around and leave — no need to wait around for a fight."

Qin Lang stood there watching the fire burn the great trees, his eyes full of disbelief.

Flames that water cannot extinguish — to him they were completely incomprehensible.

Lin Dao turned his head to look at him. "What you need to do now is discuss an attack plan."

The muddled Qin Lang was taken away by the guards.

When dinnertime came, he showed up again.

Compared to the shock at noon, his spirit and energy had clearly returned to normal.

"Brother Zi Hou."

Qin Lang entered following the aroma of the food, smiling as he said, "Disturbing you again."

Lin Dao signaled to Jin Lian, "Prepare food for them."

The guards took the bowls and chopsticks, squatting contentedly on the courtyard ground, eating and chatting with Sun Dalang and the other guards.

Qin Lang, on the other hand, went inside, where a food table was set specially for him.

Dinner was rice porridge, pickled vegetables, white flour steamed buns.

Lin Dao himself did not eat, but everyone except him ate with relish.

In such a chaotic era, even a small-surname, cold-family household might not get to eat such things.

"Within the settlement, your household lives the best life."

Qin Lang, three mouthfuls per bun, lifted the rice porridge and slurped it down in one go. "Three meals a day, and every meal eaten well. Even the Settlement Commander eating three meals has to steal them secretly, not daring to let anyone know."

Holding the thermos, adding goji berries into it, Lin Dao's gaze swept over. "Did the Settlement Commander agree to you sending troops?"

Qin Lang, having eaten his second bun, nodded vigorously. "We have to send troops; we can't wait until those siege engines are built and the army is at the city walls."

Numerous large siege engines right in our faces — even the sturdiest city cannot hold.

Lightly shaking the thermos, Lin Dao blew a breath into it. "I have over a hundred Molotov cocktails — all for you."

"Brother Zi Hou." Qin Lang, eating his third bun, cupped his hands in salute. "Great favor — no need for thanks."

The ancients' reputation in this regard is still good.

They speak of repaying a favor, and basically they all will repay it.

Of course there are rare exceptions, but those too are spurned by the world.

Adding another handful of goji berries into the thermos, Lin Dao asked again, "Anything else? Just say the word."

Since he was deliberately making friends and winning him over, whatever help he could give, he naturally would not refuse.

Qin Lang, eating his fourth bun, immediately spoke. "Since it's like that, your younger brother won't stand on ceremony."

"This battle — soldiers fierce, war dangerous. Your younger brother wants to borrow a few sets of armor to save his life."

At the mention of armor, Lin Dao's face showed some embarrassment.

Last time he gave Qin Lang a set of artifact armor — the kind that looks good but is useless.

If one really wore it onto the battlefield, that would be harming people.

"Between you and me, what's this talk of borrowing or not borrowing."

Lin Dao waved his hand generously. "I'll give you fifty sets!"

Qin Lang, just eating his fifth bun, nearly choked.

His expression astonished, he blurted out, "You have fifty sets of armor?"

In the cold weapon era, armor is the most important military supply.

A household privately hiding one set is a capital crime.

Qin Lang originally thought Lin Dao only had those several sets from when he was on the city tower earlier, and planned to borrow them to save his life.

"When you leave later, just take them with you."

Lin Dao glanced at Qin Lang, who had picked up his sixth bun, and turned to instruct Jin Lian, "Pack a few baskets of buns, let Brother Qin take them back to eat."

Before leaving, Qin Lang deliberately inspected the armor once.

Unlike that previous set — though its appearance was stunning, it was paper-thin armor —

this time the fifty sets Lin Dao provided were each extremely thick; the armor leaves of the lamellar felt thicker than bamboo slips, heavy in the hand.

Qin Lang bowed deeply to Lin Dao.

Fifty sets of armor — in a small settlement, enough to become a king and hegemon.

This grace — he, Qin Lang, absolutely dare not forget!

Two days later, the Later Zhao Army's engineering devices were about to be completed.

Qin Lang led three hundred hand-picked armored cavalry, opened the settlement's main gate, lowered the drawbridge, and roared out.

Hooves trampled, dust flew.

The Later Zhao Army this side was long prepared.

First the flying cavalry attacked to block; the engineering devices' surroundings were even more densely packed with soldiers like a forest.

Lin Dao, observing the battle from the city tower, humbly asked, "Why did the Qianghu place these engineering devices so close to the city wall?"

The military chaplain in the army explained for him, "The devices are heavy; if they're too far away, movement is inconvenient."

"These things are not very sturdy to begin with."

"If it's a long journey, I fear they'd destroy themselves before even nearing the city."

Lin Dao realized.

This era's technical level is not high.

Large engineering devices are basically all single-use consumables.

If the distance is far, pushing them all the way to the city wall reduces their service life, and they might even collapse on the road themselves.

As they spoke, the armored cavalry Qin Lang led in the distance had already broken through the Shi Hu Imperial Guards' blockade, facing the arrow rain and crashing into the foot soldier formation.

At this moment, the Qi Huo Cavalry had clearly lost many.

Soon, clusters of flames bloomed on those large engineering devices.

On this side of the city tower, a wave of cheers rose, each louder than the last.

For the Qi Huo Army, even if every cavalryman who sallied forth died to the last man, it would still be a profit.

At this time, the nearby woods had almost all been cut down.

To rebuild them, they would have to be dragged from extremely far away; the time consumed going back and forth was incalculable.

With the army in the field, what is most feared is consuming time.

The Jie Hu side had long been prepared.

Large batches of conscripted civilian laborers accompanying the army, carrying water buckets, rushed toward those burning engineering devices.

The water in the buckets was splashed out.

But the next moment, the fire not only did not weaken, but instantly exploded, becoming even more vigorous.

Quite a few civilian laborers who had gotten too close were engulfed and swallowed by fire tongues.

Beyond saving.

When the Qi Huo Cavalry charged earlier, they charged with hearts resolved to die.

That was truly setting life and death aside.

Facing arrayed long weapons, they also spurred their horses and charged straight in, crashing open a gap, opening a road forward for the brothers behind.

But when the engineering devices were ignited, the will to survive surged tumultuously.

They hastily turned their horses' heads, desperately whipping their mounts to flee.

The military order has been accomplished; from now on it is each man seeking his own survival.

The Jie Hu Imperial Guards angrily blocked the way; in the end Qin Lang only brought back thirty-odd cavalry.

"Brother Zi Hou!"

Qin Lang, with several arrows still stuck in his armor, strode up to the city tower.

He bowed his head to the ground.

"That I could return alive relies entirely on Brother Zi Hou's grace!"

"If there is any task in the future, I dare not refuse to die for it!"

(End of Chapter)