Chapter 421: Rash Advancement

"Kill!"

Mounting his warhorse, An Xi charged toward the West Gate under the protection of his personal guards.

At the same time, the Main Generals left behind eight thousand soldiers to cover the retreat, leading twenty thousand troops to follow closely behind An Xi.

At this moment, the Ma Family troops had not yet arrived, so An Xi ordered the soldiers to open the city gates, lower the drawbridge, and led his troops in a charge out.

Not long after, three pillars of smoke rose within Weicheng; this was An Xi's order to the soldiers guarding the bridge.

Galloping along the official road of the West City, An Xi soon saw a patch of woods, and his pupils suddenly constricted.

Loosening the reins, he deliberately slowed the speed of the warhorse beneath him.

At the same time, he ordered the personal guards to protect him in the center.

Just as they entered the wooded area, they suddenly saw firelight erupting from the woods, followed by a booming sound.

The warhorse of a cavalryman in front seemed to be struck by a cannonball from the artillery, flying sideways instantly and turning into a mass of mangled flesh.

At the same time, the cavalry on both sides fell one after another.

Taking advantage of the gap while the Great Song soldiers were reloading, An Xi immediately urged his warhorse to gallop forward.

But wherever he went, the booming of artillery and the firelight from the Yan Wang soldiers' firearms, which were like burning sticks, kept appearing.

The Xiliang soldiers following behind him kept falling on the official road.

"Giddyap! Giddyap! Giddyap..." An Xi felt increasingly panicked.

But just at this moment, a cannonball suddenly landed in front of him and exploded.

In an instant, he saw countless black dots flying toward him.

Immediately after, he felt himself fly up, and finally, he fell into darkness.

Once An Xi died, the Xiliang soldiers fell into even greater chaos.

They were in a mess, fleeing for their lives.

Xiliang soldiers kept falling on the official road.

When the artillery and flintlocks ceased, seventy percent of the soldiers who had escaped from the West Gate had fallen on the official road.

Only thirty percent of the soldiers managed to flee in a sorry state beyond the firing range of the flintlocks.

Just then, hearing the neighing of warhorses, one thousand light cavalry charged out from the woods to hunt down the fleeing Xiliang soldiers.

They raised their cavalry sabers, and the Xiliang soldiers kept falling.

Only a few lucky Xiliang cavalrymen managed to escape, getting further and further away.

The surviving Xiliang cavalry galloped for a quarter of an hour when suddenly a troop of Xiliang cavalry came head-on.

After inquiring about the battle situation in Weicheng, the Xiliang cavalry immediately headed west with the remnants.

As the warhorses crossed Weiqiao, the cavalrymen issued the order to destroy the bridge to the Xiliang soldiers under it.

They could no longer care about the lives of the other Xiliang soldiers.

This was a last resort; after all, once the bridge was broken, it meant they would completely abandon the Xiliang soldiers in Weicheng.

At this moment, the Xiliang soldiers had already buried gunpowder barrels under the bridge.

Upon receiving the order, he lit the fuse.

"Boom, boom, boom..." Six consecutive loud bangs rang out, and the entire Weiqiao turned into powder; the wood scattered into the river and flowed northeast with the water.

Weicheng.

Zhao Xu looked toward the west; the six loud bangs were very clear.

This was different from the sound of artillery.

It was the sound of gunpowder barrels exploding.

Chang Wei first showed a look of confusion, then his expression suddenly turned ugly, "Your Highness, this is bad. That was the direction of Weiqiao; I fear the Xiliang people have destroyed the bridge."

Zhao Xu frowned deeply upon hearing this.

In ancient warfare, destroying bridges and digging river channels to flood the three armies were common occurrences.

However, this was indeed somewhat troublesome.

"Are there any other bridges nearby?" Zhao Xu asked.

After asking this question, he immediately shook his head, "Since the Xiliang have blown up Weiqiao, how could they possibly leave other bridges intact? They want to use the Wei River to delay our advance to Xian City."

Chang Wei nodded, "That is indeed troublesome; repairing the bridge will take at least ten days or half a month."

Zhao Xu looked toward Weicheng; the fighting inside the city was still ongoing.

Most of the Xiliang soldiers were still huddled inside the residential wards and would not come out.

He did not want his soldiers to charge in now and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Xiliang.

Doing so would undoubtedly fall into the Xiliang's trap and consume a large number of his soldiers.

But if he did not launch a strong attack, it would depend on how long the Xiliang soldiers in the residential wards could endure hunger.

So he said, "No matter, you immediately send people to investigate and find a way to build a simple bridge. The battle in Weicheng will likely take another five or six days."

Chang Wei acknowledged the order and left.

At this time, the eight thousand rearguard soldiers left behind by An Xi were gradually unable to hold on under the siege of the Ma Family soldiers.

Ma Han ordered the long spear soldiers to the front and the matchlock soldiers to the rear, beating these Xiliang soldiers into a steady retreat.

Although these matchlock soldiers were not as nimble as the Yan Wang's personal guards' flintlock infantry.

But the three-stage shooting was still performed quite effectively.

The Xiliang soldiers kept falling under the muzzles of the matchlocks.

And when the Xiliang soldiers tried to charge up, they would be pierced through by long spears.

Dian Zhang was not idle either; the front was taken over by the matchlock and long spear formation.

He led the heavy infantry to charge and kill from the flanks.

An hour later, only the corpses of Xiliang soldiers remained on the streets of the west city.

The other Xiliang soldiers had hidden themselves in the civilian quarters and refused to come out.

"We won!"

Only the Ma Family soldiers, excited from the slaughter, remained on the street.

The ground was covered with the corpses of Xiliang soldiers.

It was unclear which soldier had shouted.

"We won, we actually won!"

"Won."

"..."

Immediately, the Ma Family soldiers let out a cheer like a tsunami.

Ma Han looked at the Ma Family soldiers, his eye sockets slightly red.

Although he knew these were only the soldiers left behind by Xiliang to cover their retreat.

It was an insignificant, small victory.

But ever since Ma Jin rebelled, the Ma Family had been in dire need of a victory to boost morale.

At the same time, they also needed to test the power of the firearms given by Yan Wang, as well as their effectiveness in Battle Formation.

Although not as good as Yan Wang's Flintlock, it was clearly still very useful for dealing with Xiliang.

"Tell His Highness that we have successfully taken the Granary," Ma Han said.

"Yes," a general responded loudly and rode away.

The lingering gunpowder smoke from the Matchlock gradually dissipated, and Weicheng seemed to quiet down as well.

Ma Han led his troops to patrol the streets of the west city again, having the Ma Family soldiers surround all the civilian quarters.

At this time, Zhao Xu arrived at the west city from the east city.

Seeing Ma Han, he said, "Well done."

The Ma Family general told him about the Ma Family occupying the Granary.

This was worthy of praise.

"Many thanks, Your Highness," Ma Han was overjoyed.

This battle at least proved that his Ma Family were not just embroidered pillows.

It could also help Yan Wang.

After chatting for a few sentences, the two returned to the camp outside the city.

At this time, it was getting late.

The soldiers had been fighting for an entire day; he ordered the soldiers to take shifts to eat and continue to surround the Xiliang soldiers in the civilian quarters.

After all, from here on, they only needed to wait for them to be unable to hold out any longer and come out.

This could also reduce unnecessary sacrifices of soldiers.

In the evening, Chang Wei returned; besides bringing back the situation at Weiqiao, he also brought news from the scouts of the Central Army.

"The Wei River is fifty meters wide and deep, but not turbulent; repairing the bridge is not very difficult, but it will take at least half a month," Chang Wei said first. "During our patrol, we encountered scouts from the Central Army on the other side of the river. They asked about the battle situation in Weicheng, and this subordinate told them the truth."

Frowning, he added, "This subordinate also asked about their battle situation; it is said that the scouts claimed they had taken Weng City when they arrived."

"What!" Zhao Xu was startled.

He was able to take Weicheng so quickly because he had Mortar, Flintlock, and Lime Bomb.

Even so, he had not yet taken Weicheng and still had to continue grinding it out with the Xiliang soldiers.

The Central Army had taken Weng City in just a few days; this was simply inconceivable.

Suddenly recalling Xiliang's attempt to delay them with street fighting and the blowing up of Weiqiao, their intention to stall them was too obvious, and he suddenly felt a bit uneasy in his heart.

Thus he said, "You immediately find a boat, ferry a scout across the river, and tell General Yang that he must absolutely not advance rashly; I fear this is a Xiliang trap."

Chang Wei naturally did not trust the capabilities of the Central Army, so he hurried out.

At this moment.

The scout who learned of the Weicheng battle situation from Chang Wei headed toward the Southwest.

After more than a day, he arrived at Weng City and relayed the news to Zhao Heng.

"Yan Wang has broken the city, but there are still a large number of remnants inside; it will take five or six days to clear them out, and since Weiqiao has been severed, it will likely take half a month to repair," the scout said.

Zhao Heng nodded and let the scout leave.

The Second Prince smiled and said, "Father Emperor, this time Yan Wang is lagging far behind us; this son believes there is no need to wait any longer, we should take the first step."

Pausing, he continued, "Furthermore, Weng City and Weicheng were broken one after another, which is enough to show it is the merit of the Artillery, nothing else. Moreover, the one hundred thousand Xiliang soldiers in Weng City were wiped out, and another one hundred thousand Xiliang soldiers in Weicheng were wiped out; in the west, there is also the Xiao Family holding down one hundred thousand Xiliang soldiers. Currently, Xian City only has one hundred thousand Xiliang soldiers and one hundred thousand Ma Family soldiers. It is not impossible for our forty-thousand-strong army to take it alone. Why wait for Yan Wang, so that in the future people will say that taking Xian City was Yan Wang's merit?"

Zhao Heng heard this and could not help but be moved.

He was not jealous of Yan Wang.

Rather, this initial victory had caused his ambition to grow.

With such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he only wanted to claim the full merit of the Northern Expedition and manifest his imperial achievements.

Thinking of this, he nodded, "Since that is the case, let us march to Xian City!"

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