Chapter 57

The Gluttonous Army of Guangzong County showed up for work but did no work.

Their delays and perfunctory efforts were all seen by Shi Hu.

This Heavenly King did not reprimand or punish them, but watched with cold eyes from the sidelines.

They were merely cannon fodder to attract attention, used to cover the digging of the tunnel.

The tunnel digging over there progressed smoothly, so this side could be considered to have completed its task.

When the great battle ends and the city is taken, there will be time to deal with them then.

Fu Hong's tunnel digging progress was indeed very smooth.

Even smooth to the point that Fu Hong felt some trepidation.

Reasonably speaking, such a large project with so much movement, even if dug very deep, the defending troops should not have had zero reaction.

Previously the Gluttonous Army inside the city fought so fiercely, repeatedly defeating multiple assaults on the city.

Reasonably speaking they should have been extremely vigilant.

But things were just this smooth; the Gluttonous Army actually did not detect it at all.

The dug-through tunnel's end was a spacious courtyard near the palace complex, empty of any people inside.

Mansions near the Imperial Palace all belong to powerful nobles; the courtyards inside are extremely large.

Aided by the cover of night, the Di people courageous warriors who quietly emerged from the tunnel carefully observed outward.

Nearby, apart from occasional passing patrol soldiers, it was truly empty of any people.

On both sides of the spacious street outside were the deep mansions of Later Zhao's powerful nobles.

One after another, magnificent to behold.

These mansions' grey-blue outer walls were fully a zhang or more in height.

Fu Hong always felt something was off.

But by now the tunnel was already dug through; the arrow is on the string, it must be released.

He arranged his youngest son Fu Xiong to lead fully over a thousand Di people courageous warriors, taking advantage of the night to burst into the city through the tunnel.

His third son Fu Jian was arranged to have subsequent soldiers enter the tunnel to provide support.

Fu Jian, the founding Emperor of Former Qin.

Fu Xiong, Former Qin imperial clan member, founding meritorious subject.

Fu Xiong has a very famous son, written into an idiom.

His son's name is Fu Jian.

Known for the saying 'a million whips breaking the river's flow', clashing passionately with Xie Xuan at Baguashan, resulting in his death and his nation's destruction, that Fu Jian.

At this time Fu Jian was still a half-grown youth, playing hostage in the Ye City mansion.

His father Fu Xiong, meanwhile, was leading the Di people's courageous warriors, filing into the tunnel one after another.

Armor leaves clanging, large batches of Di people emerged from the city's tunnel mouth, and before long they packed the courtyard full.

Fu Xiong, holding a knife, pushed open the courtyard gate and looked outward.

On the bluestone-paved street outside, there was a stretch of silent stillness.

"It really succeeded?" Fu Xiong could hardly believe it.

The defending troops fought so fiercely before, all the Hu peoples' battle spirit was beaten out of them.

Yet now they entered the city so smoothly; Fu Xiong felt the empty silent street outside was like a fierce beast choosing someone to devour.

But by now they had already entered the city; overthinking was useless.

He waved his hand forcefully, and large batches of Di people courageous warriors filed out and surged onto the street.

More and more Di people occupied the originally spacious street; footsteps on the bluestone slabs were dense as falling rain.

The Di people courageous warriors without night blindness ran forward along the street at a quick pace.

*Hum~~~*

A faint, slightly familiar humming sound rang out, attracting Fu Xiong's attention.

The sound was very light, but he indeed heard it.

In his mind he suddenly recalled the legend about the Fei Luan.

Fu Xiong panicked and raised his head; sure enough, in the night sky, he saw a suspended Fei Luan.

In an instant, his heart and gallbladder split apart!

In the distance, on the vermilion steps before Jian De Hall, Lin Dao controlling the drone turned his head and instructed Jin Lian nearby, "Light it."

Jin Lian, holding a burning incense stick in hand, pressed the incense tip onto the firework 'Chrysanthemum Bloom''s fuse.

With a dull sound, the firework dragging a long strange whistling sound shot into the sky.

The firework ascended to mid-air and bloomed, like a blooming chrysanthemum, colorful and dazzling.

The next moment, on both sides of the street packed with Di people, rooftops and wall tops bristled with large batches of Gluttonous Army soldiers.

They held strong bows and crossbows, shooting arrows like rain.

Even more, Gluttonous Army soldiers with extraordinary arm strength threw ignited clay pots toward the main street with all their might.

Amidst continuous booming sounds were mixed miserable howling cries.

Driven by gunpowder kinetic energy, countless flying steel balls possessed powerful penetrating force.

Whether wearing leather armor or iron armor, the result was the same — shot into sieves by steel balls.

Watching his clansmen courageous warriors fall piece by piece into pools of blood, howling miserably.

Fu Xiong's eyes split with rage; these were all their Di people's elite able-bodied men!

Every single one was a clan warrior!

"Charge out!"

Fu Xiong, brandishing his waist blade, shouted fiercely, "Don't get trapped in the street!"

The Di People warriors in front desperately charged outward, but at the street end they ran into dozens of long iron coils, tangled and twisted.

The iron coils swayed unsteadily, looking as if they posed no threat; the warriors simply leapt in, jumping straight into them.

The next moment, amid screams, a whole stretch collapsed.

The barbs on the iron wire net pierced into their bodies; the more they struggled, the tighter the entanglement became.

Those behind surged forward, pressing in, and shoved the ones in front completely into the iron wire net's coils.

The swaying iron wire net tore at flesh and skin, drawing continuous, shrill screams, eerie as night owls.

Rows of Gluttonous Army soldiers appeared at the intersection, their seamless steel pipe long spears thrusting out one after another, piercing deep wounds into the Di People.

On the front end of the seamless steel pipes were screwed three-edged spearheads with blood grooves.

This was truly one thrust, one blood hole — the kind that spurts blood outward.

The panicked Di People helped each other, straining to climb the high walls on both sides of the street.

But when they scrambled over the wall tops, what they saw were dense ranks of Gluttonous Army soldiers inside the courtyard.

The soldiers' seamless steel pipe long spears stood like a forest, constantly thrusting upward at a slant.

For the Di People who climbed the wall, it was a dead end, every one of them.

Fu Xiong, eyes blood-red, was forcibly dragged away by the bodyguards at his side.

They carried him back to the tunnel entrance inside the mansion.

The surprise attack on the city had already failed; at this moment they had to escort the noble to escape.

All of Fu Xiong's bodyguards desperately swung their blades, killing.

They cut down the soldiers rushing from all sides who wanted to seize positions and dive into the tunnel, escorting Fu Xiong out of the city.

At the street entrance, the iron wire net tied with ropes was dragged away.

Large batches of soldiers poured into the street.

Inside they wore silk lining, outside chain mail armor, and over that warm cotton armor.

On the very outside, there was even a set of plate armor made of two concave stamped plates bolted together.

These several layers added up to dozens of jin in weight.

If not for the fact that recently they could eat their fill every day, building up their bodies and strength.

Among the Gluttonous Army, there truly wouldn't be found so many military households able to afford such heavy armor.

The mansion gates on both sides of the street were thrown open, and the Gluttonous Army previously lying in ambush within also charged out.

Heavy footsteps and the sound of armor leaves clashing rang through the street soaked in fresh blood.

The soldiers held riot shields, wielding various hammers, bone maces, battle axes, and threaded steel sawed to one-meter lengths, clearing the battlefield.

Encountering wounded but not yet dead Di People, they directly swung and smashed down.

Seeing Di People trembling, kneeling and surrendering.

Same treatment — a small hammer knocked them prone, then they took the ring-pommel saber from their waist and directly cut off the head.

Then they used nylon cable ties through the head's hair, tying it at their waist.

Behind the soldiers, civilian laborers followed to clean up, carrying knives to take the Di People's heads.

Clerks holding paper and brush followed to supervise and record.

Those shot dead by bow and crossbow, blown up by thunderclap, stabbed dead by seamless steel pipe, etc., were categorized separately and tallied for merit.

Then more rows of civilian laborers came forward, using hooks in their hands to catch the Di People's corpses, dragging them straight out of the street, loading them onto large carts to be hauled away and burned.

Then another large batch of civilian laborers carrying water buckets followed onto the street.

First they used the water in the buckets to wash the bluestones on the street covered in bloodstains.

Then they used brooms to sweep and tidy the ground.

Before long, this spacious Marquis street gradually became clean.

Qin Lang, who had killed his way to the tunnel exit, glanced at the pitch-black tunnel interior, and raised the walkie-talkie in his hand.

"Lang Zhu, can you hear me? Over."

"I hear you, speak."

"This side is already cleaned up, over."

"Good, I'm coming over now."

Lin Dao rode a three-wheeled vehicle, chug-chug-chugging along the wet bluestone road.

On both sides were all escort soldiers jogging along behind.

Since the last assassination attempt, the guard force around him had obviously gone up a level.

In Wang Meng's words: "The Gluttonous Army's lives and deaths depend entirely on the Lang Zhu. The Lang Zhu's importance weighs heavier than Mount Tai!"

To put it bluntly: our livelihoods and lives all rely on the Lang Zhu.

If the Lang Zhu suffers any mishap, we'll either starve to death or die under the barbarian slaves' blades.

No matter how much we emphasize your safety, it's never excessive~"

Lin Dao had nothing to say, could only accept being surrounded by guards.

The three-wheeled vehicle with several large oil drums in its bed arrived and stopped outside the courtyard.

Lin Dao got off the carriage and walked into the courtyard; what met his eyes was a tunnel exit over a zhang wide.

He didn't waste words, instructing Liu Hu who had followed all the way: "The oil drums on the vehicle, push them all over."

Several large drums of gasoline, all poured into the tunnel.

He called everyone to retreat out of the courtyard, took out a lighter and ignited the rocket on the bowstring of the divine archer beside him.

The rocket shot out, tracing a parabolic trajectory, landing precisely on the exit.

In an instant, searing flames shot up into the sky.

Watching the bright firelight in the courtyard, Lin Dao picked up the drone controller.

A drone carrying large incendiary rounds buzzed into the air, heading straight for the camp at the tunnel entrance outside the city.

The large Molotov cocktails landed precisely on the giant tent blocking the entrance.

Roaring flames devoured the tent, and soon figures ablaze ran out, stumbling.

Someone came with a bucket to put out the fire, only to make the blaze worse.

No one dared to fight the fire anymore.

"Sixth Lord~ Sixth Lord~~~"

Gazing at the tunnel entrance devoured by the great fire, Fu Hong wailed in grief, his cries piercing.

His youngest son Fu Xiong, and over a thousand elite Di warriors, were still underground~~~

The great fire couldn't actually kill many people; just stay far away.

What was truly life-threatening was that the burning flames drained the oxygen in the tunnel, which wasn't very spacious to begin with.

The elite vanguard who fled into the tunnel, plus the reinforcements who entered afterward to support, numbered over a thousand, and were all suffocated alive in the narrow tunnel.

Some Di people simply couldn't bear it and charged out against the fire.

As a result, they were naturally set ablaze into human torches.

Fu Xiong in the tunnel clutched his throat, desperately struggling to breathe.

But every breath was extremely difficult.

His brain lacked oxygen, causing his consciousness to gradually blur.

In a daze, he seemed to hear A Ye calling him again and again.

Wanting to call back, but his throat, having inhaled smoke and fire, could make no sound.

Fu Xiong stumbled forward a few steps, finally collapsing to the ground, struggling and twitching.

Not long after, this father of Former Qin's heroic ruler Fu Jian, completely fell silent.

End of Chapter