Chapter 327: The Terms of Exchange

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Over a hundred pieces of Artillery spat out tongues of fire, and Cannonballs whistled as they flew toward the city walls of Tongguan.

Soldiers holding Flintlocks aimed at the Xiliang soldiers and pulled the Triggers.

In an instant, the Xiliang soldiers on the city walls were beaten down and could not even lift their heads.

At this moment, the Wangfu Army soldiers carried wooden barrels filled with Gunpowder and rushed toward the earthen holes in the city walls.

Qu Dan was hiding on the other side of the city wall.

Seeing this scene, he suddenly felt extremely uneasy.

But the firearms of the Yan King Army were too powerful; no matter how the commanders urged them, the Xiliang soldiers were now unwilling to counterattack near that position.

Under his helpless gaze, the Yan King Army soldiers carried the wooden barrels and quickly reached the foot of the city wall.

They stuffed the wooden barrels into the earthen holes in the city wall.

Because the earthen holes were small, they even took out the swords at their waists to dig at the city wall.

Watching this scene, Qu Dan became even more anxious.

He continuously ordered the Archers to fire arrows at that position.

However, the Yan King Army soldiers seemed to have been prepared for this.

The Shield-bearers holding shields raised them high, protecting the soldiers responsible for digging underneath.

The arrows could not cause them any harm.

Seeing this, Qu Dan's face turned ashen.

Half an hour later, the Yan King Army soldiers suddenly retreated from the foot of the city wall.

At this moment, he saw the burning fuse on the ground.

"It's over!"

A voice rang out in his heart.

Even if he were any stupider, he would know by now what the Yan King Army soldiers had buried in the earthen holes of the city wall.

"Boom!"

A heaven-shaking roar pierced the clouds.

Huge amounts of Gunpowder soared more than ten meters into the air.

Amidst the violent explosion, the earthen holes and the nearby city walls crumbled.

Dust and fragments of blue bricks flew into the sky like hail before falling back down.

The nearby Xiliang soldiers were pulverized directly in the explosion.

Many more Xiliang soldiers had their ears bleeding from the shock.

And when the smoke and dust dissipated, a gap four or five meters wide appeared in the city wall.

Chang Wei let out a long breath.

Although he had covered his ears in advance, he still felt his eardrums aching.

But what excited him was that it had worked; the Gunpowder Barrels had blown open the city wall.

"Follow me and kill, take Tongguan!" In his excitement, Chang Wei drew his sword and charged toward the gap, leading the way.

Guan Tong was startled and hurriedly shouted for the soldiers to follow.

At this time, the Xiliang soldiers on the city wall were left blank-minded for a while by the violent explosion.

When they reacted, they saw the Yan King Army troops rushing toward the gap like a tidal wave.

Because the Xiliang soldiers were evenly distributed along the three-hundred-meter city wall.

With the Yan King Army troops suddenly concentrating their charge, they simply could not mobilize enough troops in time.

The small number of Xiliang soldiers who appeared at the gap in the city wall were quickly scattered by the Heavy Infantry in front.

"Circular Formation!" Chang Wei shouted.

After killing and repelling the Xiliang soldiers at the gap, he immediately had the soldiers form a semi-circular formation in front of the gap.

In this way, the outer soldiers could prevent the Xiliang soldiers from rushing toward the gap, while also ensuring that the Wangfu Army soldiers could continuously enter the city from the gap.

"Occupy the city gate!" As more and more soldiers poured in from the gap, Guan Tong immediately led his soldiers to kill their way toward the city gate.

"What is that sound?"

Thirty miles outside of Tongguan, the Xiliang Cavalry were galloping like a tidal wave.

Suddenly, they faintly heard a sound like a thunderclap coming from the direction of Tongguan.

"It must be the Yan King's troops attacking Tongguan; that is the sound of Artillery," said the Langlu beside Tiemuta.

"No," said another Langlu, "listen closely."

It turned out that after the huge roar, there was still a faint "boom, boom, boom" sound echoing.

Tiemuta frowned, "I didn't expect the Yan King to take the first step!"

"Then what should we do? Are we just going to let the Yan King occupy Tongguan?" a Langlu asked angrily.

Tiemuta's eyes narrowed, "The Artillery is still firing, which proves that the Yan King has not yet broken through Yanguan; it is not certain that we have no hope..."

Before his words had finished, a team of Beidi Cavalry suddenly caught up from behind.

The leading cavalryman dismounted and saluted, "Great King, we captured a team of Xiliang Cavalry while they were chasing us. Among them is a person who claims to be the Crown Prince of Xiliang, and he says he has important matters to discuss with the Great King."

"Tuobawen?" Tiemuta frowned; he naturally knew the name of the Crown Prince of Xiliang.

Then he asked, "Is there a Xiliang army following them?"

"No, there are only five hundred people in their party," the cavalryman said.

"So, he is not here to fight us," Tiemuta muttered to himself.

He anticipated that with his sudden move south, Western Liang would be unable to organize a large-scale army immediately.

"Bring him over; let's see what he wants to say," Tiemuta said.

Western Liang sending the Crown Prince in person naturally meant they had significant designs.

He naturally had to interrogate him.

Before long, Tuobawen was escorted over.

"This is the eldest son of our great Khan, Tiemuta," the Cavalry said to Tuobawen.

Hearing this, Tuobawen suddenly understood.

The Beidi Khan had two sons.

Currently, they were the strongest contenders for the Khan throne in Beidi.

He was one of them, Tiemuta.

Thinking of this, he said, "Great King Tiemuta, I have come under the orders of my Imperial Father to request that Beidi withdraw the troops that have entered Western Liang."

"Hahaha..." As Tuobawen's words were spoken, the surrounding Beidi generals burst into mocking laughter.

Tiemuta's expression turned gloomy, "Your Emperor of Western Liang is truly a naive emperor. This time, our Beidi army moved south with no intention of leaving. This time, not only will we take back the territory your Western Liang once encroached upon, but we will also annihilate your Western Liang once and for all!"

Hearing Tiemuta speak this way, Tuobawen's expression changed drastically.

Clearly, the current situation was even worse than what the Western Liang court had estimated.

Beidi had not come merely for Tongguan; their true goal was to annihilate Western Liang.

Thinking of this, his legs could not help but go weak.

In the war against Yan Wang, Western Liang's 150,000 elite troops were wiped out, and its vitality was severely damaged.

The troops that could be mobilized now numbered at most 300,000.

And of these 300,000, only about 100,000 could fight a hard battle; the rest were merely conscripts who would scatter in the face of adversity, or Servant Soldiers.

If Beidi was determined to annihilate Western Liang, such military strength would not be able to hold out at all before the Beidi people.

Even if they exhausted the strength of the entire nation, they likely could not hold out for more than a few years.

"Great King, please calm your anger. That is not what I meant. I only meant to say that if Beidi is willing to withdraw its troops, we in Western Liang are willing to follow the Khan and serve as the Khan's servants," Tuobawen said urgently.

Tiemuta and the generals exchanged a look.

Everyone on the Grassland knew of Western Liang's lack of integrity.

How could they trust Western Liang again, give Western Liang a chance to catch its breath, and continue to threaten the belly of Beidi?

Tiemuta sneered, and just as he was about to rebuke him, a plan suddenly occurred to him.

His younger brother had brought back a Missionary capable of manufacturing Artillery, achieving a great merit.

He naturally had to win back a round, so he had to handle the Western Liang matter more brilliantly.

So he said, "Fine, but as a sign of sincerity, we in Beidi require Tongguan as a pledge!"

Tuobawen's eyes darted around, thinking to himself that Jinzhou had been seized by Yan Wang.

It would be better to lead Beidi to occupy Tongguan and let Yan Wang and Great Song fight it out with the Beidi people.

In this way, Western Liang could instead withdraw its troops to recuperate and build up strength.

Furthermore, he could not refuse, or the disaster of national annihilation was right before his eyes.

So he said, "My Imperial Father sent me here with exactly this intention. Please, Great King, head to Tongguan immediately; I shall order the garrison commander of Tongguan to open the city gates and welcome the Great King into the city."

Tiemuta revealed a smile, and the other Beidi generals nodded slightly, secretly praising him.

In this way, Tongguan would be easily obtained.