Chapter 621: Skirmish Line

These skirmishers moved forward in groups of three, forming triangles.

Nine people formed an even larger triangle.

However, they walked very sparsely, with one person often separated from another by more than five meters.

Even with three hundred men, the entire battlefield appeared to be filled with soldiers.

Pingyuan North City Wall.

Han Qi and Shicun Dahe immediately noticed the anomaly.

They looked at the three hundred straggling soldiers, both completely bewildered.

"What are they trying to do?" Han Qi asked.

Shicun Dahe shook his head; he had never seen this kind of tactic either.

These soldiers were not carrying Scaling Ladders, nor were they gathering together; they seemed to pose no threat to the city wall.

Just thinking of this, he became very suspicious.

If it truly had no effect, why would the Yanzhou generals do this?

"Bring the Artillery over," Han Qi said at this moment.

Shicun Dahe shook his head, "You are essentially using Artillery to hit mosquitoes; ten or twenty Cannonballs might not even hit a single soldier. It is better to save them for defending the city."

He knew very well that the power of Artillery lay in bombarding soldiers arranged in tight formations, not in hitting these scattered soldiers; otherwise, it would only be a waste of Cannonballs.

"Then let's try Grape Shot," the Qi Artilleryman could not help but say.

He had been watching the Yanzhou soldiers constantly approaching the city wall; soon, these soldiers would enter within two hundred meters of the wall.

"Even worse. If we expose the Grape Shot now, they will be prepared when the Yan Prince Army truly attacks the city," Shicun Dahe rebuked angrily.

Han Qi also glared at this officer.

His thoughts were the same as Shicun Dahe's; the Grape Shot had to be saved for a critical moment.

"It is a pity that I have blocked all four city gates; otherwise, I could just send out a unit of Cavalry to kill all three hundred of these people."

"Right, let's just see what they want to do first," Han Qi said.

After speaking, he hid behind a battlement, exposing only his eyes to stare at the Yan Prince soldiers constantly approaching the city wall.

He saw these soldiers advancing slowly, stopping at a distance of one hundred and fifty meters from Pingyuan City, and then aiming at the Qi soldiers on the city wall.

"Bang, bang, bang..." Suddenly, a burst of crisp gunfire rang out, and white smoke and flashes emerged from the muzzles of these soldiers' guns.

Then, he heard several screams coming from the wall.

"It really is true." The pupils of Han Qi and Shicun Dahe shrank at the same time.

The soldiers they had sent out last time to probe Yanzhou had not lied.

"Have everyone on the wall get down," Han Qi issued the order.

Upon receiving his command, the Qi soldiers hid one after another beneath the battlements.

For a time, not a single Qi soldier could be seen on the entire city wall.

Outside the city, the Wangfu Army soldiers remained calm and composed.

With no figures on the city wall,

they moved from the front wall toward the side walls, their eyes fixed on the city wall; once they spotted a Qi soldier popping their head up, they would fire.

Over the following days, the skirmishers continued to harass Pingyuan City in this manner, and while harassing Pingyuan City, the foundation was poured, and one pillar after another stood up from the ground.

Han Qi and Shicun Dahe both noticed these pillars.

Although they had an ominous premonition, they did not know what these things were used for.

They did not dare to leave the city to take the initiative and destroy these things.

In the end, they could only curse the cunning Yanzhou army in resentment.

Jinling.

During the standoff at Pingyuan City, the activities of Qi became increasingly intense, and the first batch of envoys sent by Han Zheng arrived here first.

"Is this the Flintlock? Truly a divine weapon!"

In the Imperial Palace, after seeing the Qi envoy demonstrate the Flintlock with his own eyes, Xie Duan let out a sigh of admiration.

Taking it from the hands of the Qi people, he stroked the Flintlock fondly and asked, "What is Minister Han's intention?"

Upon hearing this, the Qi envoy said with dissatisfaction, "Lord Xie, this time His Majesty ordered me to come specifically to recognize the First Prince as the Emperor of Great Song, so please do not refer to His Majesty as Minister anymore."

Xie Duan was stunned for a moment, his eyes darting around, and he suddenly burst into loud laughter, "That is right, that is right, it was my oversight."

After the chaos in Jinling, he did not recognize the Southern Liang of the Dou Family, nor did he recognize Qi, nor did he recognize Wu.

The other three countries also did not recognize the status of the First Prince.

Since Han Zheng now recognized the First Prince as the Emperor of Great Song, he might as well give Han Zheng some face and address him as His Majesty; it was not out of the question.

After all, the Great Song controlled by his Xie Family was no longer the Great Song of the past.

The Qi envoy's mood stabilized somewhat, and he then said, "Does Lord Xie want Flintlocks, or even the forging techniques for Flintlocks?"

"Of course I do; who doesn't like treasures?" Xie Duan blurted out, then he said, "However, for your Majesty to suddenly send such a generous gift, I fear you have some requirements of my Xie Family?"

"A request is not quite the word, it is merely mutual cooperation," the Qi envoy said.

Among the current powerful clans, the Xie Family had the least power, and their Qi did not hold them in high regard.

If it were not for dealing with the Yan Wang, their Qi would have originally annexed the Xie Family first.

Thinking of this, he felt a wave of contempt for Xie Duan in his heart, but he did not show it on the outside; after all, he had his own mission in coming to Jinling this time.

So he said, "His Majesty is willing to use the Flintlock as a bond to let the powerful clans bury the hatchet and twist into a single rope to deal with the Yan Wang; after all, our internal fighting among the powerful clans is nothing, the Yan Wang is the true mortal enemy."

Upon hearing this, the hand Xie Duan used to hold the Flintlock trembled.

He nodded slowly.