Chapter 685: Seizing the Pass

"Father, I have returned!" Ma Jin's blood stained the hem of Ma Han's long robe.

Looking at the incredibly familiar city before him, a hot tear dripped from the corner of Ma Han's eye.

Dian Zhang and the other Ma Family generals were moved, their hearts equally stirred.

The deep sense of guilt over losing Qinzhou and Yongzhou all these years had kept them from eating or sleeping in peace.

Now, their hearts were finally at rest.

He ordered someone to hang Ma Jin's corpse at the East Gate of Xian City to be displayed to the public.

Ma Han and the generals returned to the residence that had once belonged to him.

Taking a deep breath, he gradually calmed down from the thrill of revenge.

Times had changed; even though he had retaken Xian City, this city was no longer the private property of his Ma Family, but belonged to the Imperial Court.

His goal was no longer to expand the Ma Family's power or to claim Qinzhou and Yongzhou for himself.

Instead, it was to execute the orders of Yan Wang, stir up the northwest of Da Song, coordinate with the Prince's Personal Army to cause trouble for the Anti-Yan Coalition, and disrupt their cooperation.

Therefore, he could not stop here; next, he had to continue executing the plan.

After pondering for a moment, he asked, "In this ambush, how many Northern Di cavalry were killed or captured?"

Ma Lan said, "Reporting to Head of the Family, after counting, there were over thirty-three thousand Northern Di cavalry casualties, and the remaining Northern Di cavalry have all fled in defeat."

Ma Han nodded, and he said to Dian Zhang, "The remaining Northern Di cavalry are not to be feared. I will give you twenty thousand troops to attack Yongcheng; the remaining troops will come with me, traveling day and night to take Xiao Pass."

"Yes, Head of the Family." Dian Zhang nodded.

Having decided this, Ma Han ordered the soldiers to rest for a day.

The next day, he left three thousand soldiers in Xian City to garrison the city and led over seventy-five thousand men to march toward Xiao Pass.

Dian Zhang, meanwhile, commanded twenty thousand men and headed north.

To guard against the Ma Family Army in Sizhou, the Northern Di had concentrated their main forces in the two cities of Rang City and Xian City during this period.

The other cities in Qinzhou only had a few hundred or a thousand men guarding them, merely to maintain order within the cities.

Ma Han did not take these cities one by one, but rather took the cities he encountered along the way to Xiao Pass.

After all, speed was of the essence, and they had to take advantage of the fact that the Northern Di and Southern Liang had not yet reacted to seize Xiao Pass.

After four days of forced marching, he arrived at the foot of Xiao Pass.

"This is bad." Looking at the Ma Family soldiers who had suddenly appeared at the foot of the city, the expression of the Northern Di commander guarding Xiao Pass was extremely ugly.

Because Ma Han's speed of advance was too fast, it had been less than ten days from breaking through Rang City to reaching Xian City, and finally arriving at Xiao Pass.

Moreover, the Northern Di cavalry who had fled from Xian City had only brought him the news of Xian City's fall two days ago.

The scouts he had sent to Wuwei had likely only just arrived.

What was most fatal was that, since Qinzhou and Yongzhou currently belonged to Northern Di territory,

Xiao Pass was merely an interior pass to the Northern Di; they had not stationed heavy troops there at all, and usually, there were only fifteen thousand men on guard.

Even adding the portion of Northern Di cavalry who had fled there from Xian City, there were only over thirty thousand men.

"Attack the city."

Compared to the panic of the Northern Di general, Ma Han was full of confidence.

Having fought all the way here, he was full of confidence in his soldiers.

After losing Qinzhou and Yongzhou, the Ma Family's morale had once been very low.

But now, starting from leaving Qin Pass and taking Rang City, the Ma Family soldiers' morale was getting higher and higher, each of them seeming to have inexhaustible energy.

Therefore, after letting the soldiers rest for a short half-hour, he issued the order.

Before entering Qinzhou, the Four Courts had provided them with the troop deployments for Qinzhou and Yongzhou.

Therefore, he was very clear that the number of Northern Di soldiers inside Xiao Pass was not large.

This was also the reason why he dared to split his forces into two paths, one to take Yongzhou and one to take Xiao Pass.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Under his command, the mortars and field artillery launched a bombardment against the city walls.

At the same time, he ordered the soldiers to aim at the Northern Di soldiers on the city walls, firing whenever a Northern Di soldier showed their head.

The solid shot from the field artillery struck the battlements, the immense power smashing the battlements to pieces.

The explosive shells from the mortars bloomed into clusters of flames on the city walls.

The lime bombs further shrouded the city walls in white dust.

Under the fierce bombardment, the Northern Di artillerymen were suppressed by the ferocious firepower, falling into chaos with heavy casualties.

Only a small number of Northern Di artillery were still firing at the skirmishers below the city walls.

But their artillery could usually only fire one cannonball per minute.

Such bombardment was basically unable to hinder the advance of the skirmishers.

The skirmishers ran in irregular curves while moving.

Each of them had hand grenades hanging around their waists.

Thousands of skirmishers, spaced about a meter apart, advanced in a staggered formation.

Upon reaching the foot of the city wall, they threw the hand grenades up.

The power of the mortars and field artillery was indeed great, but because of their small numbers, they were actually less effective in terms of kill radius than the dense hand grenades.

"Boom, boom, boom..." With a burst of explosions, almost every position on the front of the city wall was covered in flames.

After the first round of throwing, the artillery fire on the city walls ceased.

Some surviving Northern Di archers had fierce expressions as they leaned out to look down at the foot of the city.

Seeing the Ma Family soldiers below preparing to throw those stick-like things at them again, they drew their curved bows and arrows, firing at the soldiers throwing the hand grenades.

However, the moment they leaned out, the soldiers who had been watching the city walls pulled the triggers and fired at them.

The Northern Di Archers were shot dead one after another.

Yet a small number of Archers still managed to loose their arrows, and casualties appeared among the soldiers throwing Hand Grenades.

Seeing this, Ma Han immediately sent out soldiers to drag the wounded soldiers back, and ordered the reserve team to fill the positions of the wounded soldiers.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The explosions sounded again, followed by the third, fourth, fifth, sixth time...

Ma Han narrowed his eyes and looked toward the walls of Xiao Pass; compared to Ma Jin's soldiers, the resistance of the Northern Di soldiers was indeed more ferocious.

But their ferocity had no meaning.

At most, it would just require throwing a few more rounds of Hand Grenades.

To him, the gap in firearms could no longer be compensated for by the individual bravery of soldiers.

After a continuous half-hour of frenzied bombardment on the city walls, until no more Northern Di soldiers rushed onto the walls, he immediately issued the order to storm the city.

At this moment, the long-waiting Ladder Team carried the Scaling Ladders and rushed toward the city walls.

The Ma Family soldiers followed behind the Ladder Team.

The moment the Scaling Ladders leaned against the city walls, they used both hands and feet to quickly climb onto the walls.

At this moment, the city walls were covered with the corpses of Northern Di soldiers; they didn't even have a place to set foot.

They could only step on the corpses of the Northern Di people to rush toward the stairs, preparing to seize the city gate.

The moment they climbed onto the city walls, a sound of breaking air came.

Northern Di soldiers hiding under the city walls fired arrows at them, and soldiers were immediately wounded and fell to the ground.

"Sons of bitches," the wounded soldier cursed, unhooked the Hand Grenade from his waist, pulled the ignition cord, and threw it at the Northern Di soldiers near the city walls.

The sound of an explosion rang out, and immediately the screams of Northern Di soldiers followed.

Other soldiers also threw Hand Grenades at the Northern Di soldiers one after another, and for a time, explosions erupted everywhere.

As more soldiers climbed onto the city walls, more explosions rang out.

At the same time, dense gunfire rang out, and the Northern Di soldiers who were putting up a desperate struggle fell one after another into pools of blood.

Under the cover of other soldiers, a Colonel led his five hundred soldiers to charge toward the city gate.

More than thirty Northern Di soldiers hid in the gate tunnel to resist, but were immediately dealt with by Hand Grenades thrown over.

The Ma Family soldiers took the opportunity to open the city gate.