Chapter 230: Breaching the City

Whimper~~~

The crane arm rotated, the immense potential energy driving the iron ball as it whistled toward the Dingding Gate's City Gate Tower.

Boom~~~

The enormous iron ball, with the force of crushing the withered and smashing the rotten, shattered the wooden frame, mud walls, roof beams, doors, and windows of the City Gate Tower.

With just one strike, half of the City Gate Tower collapsed.

Flying fragments of wood tumbled down, smashing onto the heads, shoulders, and backs of Wang Shichong and the others fleeing, leaving them stumbling forward and backward in utter disarray.

Wang Shichong gritted his teeth, trembling with anger, shouting, "Attack! Destroy this giant thing!"

Those ignorant or brainwashed people in backward places would probably worship it as a superior being in such a situation.

Central Plains was different.

Here, a thousand years ago, there had already been an explosion of thought, and people were well-informed and knowledgeable.

Living in this Chaotic Era, most of the soldiers on the City tower had been born and died on the battlefield.

After a brief moment of shock, they mobilized all available strength to counterattack.

The main force was bows and crossbows.

Dense crossbow bolts flew over with a swish-swish-swish, clanging against the Breaching Vehicle.

The Wolf-Tooth Club studded with iron nails was raised high and smashed down, striking the rotating crane arm and snapping it instantly.

Thunder stones and rolling logs were thrown over without sparing any expense.

Ash Bottles fell and shattered, scattering lime powder into a gray haze.

Large ladles of boiling Gold Juice were poured over, the smell of a biochemical attack making people want to vomit.

Aside from Gold Juice, which had some use in odor attacks, everything else was basically useless.

What could actually pose some threat was the crossbow on the Crossbow Cart.

The crossbow on the Crossbow Cart was the Bed Crossbow, also called the Eight-Ox Crossbow.

A powerful crossbow of up to twelve stone, with a crossbow bolt three feet five inches long and five inches thick, fletched with iron leaves, mounted on the arrow path.

One arrow shot over, the crossbow bolt carrying immense kinetic energy striking the steel plate and humming.

Lin Dao immediately drove the vehicle, moving along the City wall.

The rotating crane arm swung the iron ball, smashing toward the Crossbow Cart.

These Bed Crossbows were extremely heavy, their main purpose being to defend the city, making them difficult to move.

Watching helplessly as the iron ball swung over, they were powerless and could only flee.

The iron ball shattered the Battlement, then struck the Crossbow Cart, launching the Bed Crossbow into the air where it disintegrated and scattered.

After one trip, smashing the Crossbow Carts on Both Sides, Lin Dao began focusing on striking the City gate.

Across the moat, the iron ball struck the City wall one blow after another.

The rammed-earth City wall kept collapsing and sinking, with large cracks appearing until it completely collapsed.

Under the collapsing City wall, a slope ten-plus zhang wide and forty-five degrees was formed.

The collapsing City wall even buried more than half of the moat.

The Breaching Vehicle moved to the side, continuing to swing the iron ball along the Que Kou to strike, expanding the Que Kou and triggering collapse after collapse.

Li Erfeng, who had been watching this side, drew his broadsword.

"Charge!"

The first to go up were a large batch of Civilian Laborers.

Most Civilian Laborers were bare-chested, wearing Hemp Cloth trousers, with ox-ear hemp shoes on their feet.

Carrying bag after bag of Cloth Bags filled with dirt and gravel, covering their heads, they rushed over.

Arriving by the moat, they threw the Cloth Bags from their shoulders into the water.

Then they turned and ran, sprinting back with all their might.

Receiving a wooden tally counted as completing the task, and they could receive a reward.

Originally, this process would encounter strong strikes from the defending army, causing cruel casualties.

But Lin Dao was covering from the side.

If defending soldiers shot arrows, he would rotate the crane arm and swing the iron ball over.

The iron ball sparked against the City wall, striking all the way and knocking the Wang Shichong Army soldiers shooting arrows flying and falling.

This thing was used to demolish reinforced concrete; its force was so strong that not to mention humans, even an elephant couldn't withstand it.

Lin Dao in the Cang Nei personally saw a armored soldier on the City wall actually using his shoulder to prop up a Shield and hard-resist.

As a result, naturally both the Shield and the person were smashed flat, carried along by the iron ball sliding all the way and finally flying high, flying outside the City wall.

Crack!

Lin Dao also smiled, "You really have guts."

"Even Li Yuanba coming couldn't withstand it."

The moat was filled in, forming a slope along the collapsed City wall.

Li Erfeng waved his blade again.

"Charge!"

Heavy Infantry armored soldiers formed ranks and advanced.

Stepping on Cloth Bags and the ruins of the collapsed City wall, like a surging wave, they crossed the highest point.

Swish-swish-swish~~~

On one side inside the collapsed ruins of the city, the defending army's archers and crossbowmen shot dense arrows, striking the Tang Army Heavy Infantry Shields with incessant muffled sounds.

The Tang Army Heavy Infantry charged down and fought the defending soldiers into a melee.

"Charge!"

Li Erfeng gave the order for the third time.

This time he rode his horse forward, personally leading the Xuanjia Cavalry ahead.

As he rode his horse across the ramp of ruins, he turned his head and glanced at the giant object not far away that was no longer moving.

Inside the driver's cabin, Lin Dao opened a bottle of Yibao to replenish fluids.

Holding his phone in hand, he opened the calculator to calculate.

"One Tang Dynasty jin is roughly six hundred grams."

"One hundred thousand jin would be, sixty thousand kilograms, sixty tons."

"On the international market, one ton of raw silk, tax included, is roughly five hundred thousand."

"The total price would be, thirty million."

Exiting the calculator, Lin Dao let out a breath.

"Earned the money for a special engineering vehicle."

A specially customized engineering vehicle; what Lin Dao wanted were all big fellows with high-power engines and gigantic frames.

Price-wise, naturally it was not cheap.

Someone helping him foot the bill — that was a good thing.

Lowering the air conditioner temperature in the driver's cabin by another two degrees, Lin Dao leaned back in his chair and started playing single-player Dou Dizhu.

Li Erfeng, leading the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry, charged onto the Tian Jie.

On both sides of the Tian Jie stood towering Fang walls.

He led from the front, spurring his horse forward.

All the way he routed and pursued the defending troops, charging to the Tianjin Bridge on the Luo River bank.

At this time the Tianjin Bridge was not yet the turtle-back stone-pillar bridge of later reconstruction, but a floating bridge erected by linking boats with iron chains.

The opposite shore of the floating bridge was the Imperial City's Duanmen Gate.

Originally this was the defending troops' key defense area.

But the city fell too fast; the Tang Army entering the city in force caused the defending troops' morale to plummet.

The Tianjin Bridge's defending troops merely put up slight resistance before scattering in a rout.

The Xuanjia Army crossed the Tianjin Bridge and advanced all the way to outside the Imperial Palace gates.

Gazing at the tall Imperial Palace walls, Li Erfeng turned his head to look back the way they had come.

"Breaching the city — still have to ask Brother Zi Hou to act."

"Prince of Qin!" Luo Shixin beside Li Erfeng shouted loudly, reaching out to point toward the palace gate. "The gate is open!"

The heavy palace gates were thrown open; a batch of soldiers, armor bloodied, holding weapons, rushed out and saluted Li Erfeng.

"We are all under the command of Sifu Dafu (Dugu Ji), Dugu Steward (Dugu Wudu), Liu Steward (Liu Xiaoyuan), Left Assistant General (Pei Hang Yan)."

"Welcome the Tang Army, exterminate the rebel traitors!"

The Dugu brothers and Liu Xiaoyuan, Pei Hang Yan and others, after Wang Shichong proclaimed himself emperor, tried to kill him but were instead killed by him.

Although the men died, even their three clans were exterminated.

But their followers remain.

Their followers are numerous; no matter how crazy Wang Shichong is, he cannot possibly kill them all, especially since these followers are basically all martial artists.

The original intention was to slowly digest and dispose of them, but the Tang Army came too fast.

These followers, seeing the Tang Army enter the city and even fight all the way to outside the Imperial City,

discussed among themselves, all feeling Wang Shichong's cause was lost, and so opened the gates to surrender.

"Good!"

Li Erfeng nodded heavily. "You have merit; I will naturally reward you heavily."

"Do you know where the false emperor is?"

The other side hurriedly replied, "The false emperor has not returned to the Imperial City; he must be hiding in the Fangshi."

Learning Wang Shichong was not in the Imperial Palace, Li Erfeng immediately instructed, "Cheng Zhijie, you take men into the palace to search and inventory the wealth and supplies."

He himself then turned his horse around, crossed the Tianjin Bridge to deploy troops, and went to search for Wang Shichong's traces in one Fangshi after another.

In the early Tang, the Central Plains had experienced hundreds of years of chaotic warfare; the primary function of most cities was military use.

Luoyang City, like Chang'an City, was built with many Fangshi.

These Fangshi all have tall outer walls and complete defensive facilities.

They are essentially miniaturized military fortresses.

And Luoyang City and Chang'an City are, in essence, both military cities.

Like Luoyang City's Tian Jie and Chang'an City's Zhuque Avenue, built so wide and straight — their original purpose was also for rapidly moving troops and transporting military rations.

"Wang Shichong, you can't escape!"

Indeed he cannot escape.

All city gates outside are blockaded, and there are still mounted scouts patrolling.

Important roads have long had heavy troops stationed.

Want to run?

How could it be that easy.

In ancient city sackings and massacres, extremely few people could escape; the root cause is that the escape routes were sealed off early on.

Those who survive are either hidden where no one can find them, or they feigned death to survive the calamity.

The defending troops collapsed, with no will to fight further.

Li Erfeng declared that those who surrendered would not be killed, and the vast majority surrendered.

The great army continuously entered the city, searching fangshi one after another.

Senior ministers and generals under Wang Shichong's command, such as Yang Wang, Yang Gongqing, Guo Shiheng, Dong Jun, Zhang Tongren, and others, were captured and killed one after another.

Even Zhu Can, whom Lin Dao had named, was captured, yet there was no trace of Wang Shichong.

On the next day, Li Erfeng took the initiative to find Lin Dao and request help.

"In the sky, he, Wang Shichong, definitely cannot fly away."

Lin Dao immediately pointed out, "The ground has been searched, but he wasn't found."

"Then only the underground remains."

Upon hearing this, Li Erfeng immediately showed a look of realization.

Both Luoyang City and Chang'an City were built with underground pipeline facilities.

Although they cannot be compared with the Modern World, for this era, they are already unprecedentedly advanced.

Presumably, Wang Shichong hid in the underground sewers.

Li Erfeng turned around to arrange manpower to pursue Wang Shichong underground.

Lin Dao, however, called him to a stop.

"Did you catch Zhu Can?"

"Leave him to me."

"By the way, help me catch some fierce beasts."

The man-eating demon king Zhu Can had a hobby of eating people.

Let him also feel how terrifying and despairing it is to be eaten.

"Unfortunately, if only there were a spacetime gate connecting to the Zombie World."

"Throw him into the Zombie World to feed the zombies."

Luoyang City has a Forbidden Garden, which is a zoo.

Inside are all kinds of animals, and even strange animals sent from foreign lands.

It's just that previously Dou Jiande attacked Yin State; besides massacring the city, he also burned Wang Shichong's main granary, causing Luoyang City to lack food.

The various animals in the Forbidden Garden had long been eaten up.

No matter how fierce a beast is, before starving humans, it is food.

The Tang Army spent two days and finally dragged Wang Shichong and his son and others out of the sewers.

Wang Shichong, reeking of stench, saw a Tang Army unit escorting numerous fierce beasts and poisonous snakes locked in cages while being transported.

He was also puzzled and confused about this.

"What is this for?"

"Eating wild game?"

End of Chapter