Chapter 382: Tiger Entering Sheepfold

For a thousand years, Hanyang Pass had been one of the famous passes in the world. The war in the Broken Realm lasted for years, and in the end, it was Hanyang Pass that blocked the eastward military edge of the Shaman tribe's large army.

The greatest killing weapon of Hanyang Pass was the eight giant crossbows that could shoot ten thousand zhang. After special blessing, the maximum range of the giant crossbows could be increased to three times. It was just that one strike would consume the entire magic power of a Dharma Form cultivator.

Although the consumption was huge, after the blessing, the two hundred miles around Hanyang Pass were all within the coverage of the giant crossbows, and if necessary, this open area several hundred miles wide could be completely blocked.

It was also by relying on Hanyang Pass that the Xu family was able to cut off east-west traffic and not let a single flying boat pass the pass. This time, Little Wei Yuan returned to the Azure Void, and to prevent accidents, he also had to take a detour through the Zhao State, flying an extra two hundred thousand miles.

For some time, more and more refugees wanted to pass the pass. The refugees were not well-informed, only hearing that the Western Realm was stable now and that there was porridge being distributed along the way, so they flocked here. The matter of the Great Karmic Curse was not widely spread, and even if the refugees heard it, they wouldn't understand.

Now, tens of thousands of refugees were always staying in Hanyang Pass. In the early morning, many people lined up in long queues at the city gate, waiting to pass the pass. But for the past few days, I don't know what happened, the inspection for passing the pass suddenly became stricter, and only a few hundred people were released to pass the pass in a whole day. If the refugees made a slight clamor, they would be severely whipped by the garrison

The garrison was shocked to discover that those charging up the pass towers were not knights, but heavy-armored infantry!

They held large shields and fire-lances, switching to sabers upon closing in, while over a hundred Dao Foundation cultivators charged at the front, shattering the garrison's defenses in the blink of an eye.

Amidst creaking sounds, the heavy gates were thrown open, and a large force swarmed into Hanyang Pass.

The surrendering soldiers on the pass towers suddenly realized that the Military Governor's elite troops were mixed in with the fierce bandits of the Heaven-Slaying Gang; with their armor and gear shifting, they could not tell for a moment who were soldiers and who were bandits.

As the army entered the city, Little Wei Yuan immediately led the Dragon-Soaring and Dragon-Wing armies to charge toward the three military camps. He first used two small detachments to seal off two of the camps, then personally led the main force into the third, capturing all the officers, disarming the soldiers, and locking them inside the camp before leaving a small squad to guard them and rushing toward the second camp.

The garrison soldiers were one thing, but the officers had all heard how miserably the previous two attacks on Azure Void had failed. Some officers had just spent thousands of immortal silver to redeem themselves, nearly bankrupting their families; now, seeing Little Wei Yuan appear again with a multitude of fierce troops, how could they have any heart left to resist?

Thus, in the blink of an eye, the three camps fell one after another. Little Wei Yuan ordered the officers to be taken away and held in a quiet, isolated place, while the soldiers were left in the camps.

Although Little Wei Yuan left very few guards, the soldiers had no armor and wore only cloth tunics, making them lambs for the slaughter before these heavy-armored warriors. They naturally understood this, so no one dared to resist. Moreover, Little Wei Yuan was still flying the banner of the Military Governor, which meant they were imperial government troops; these small soldiers could not figure out the situation for the moment, so they all stayed obediently in the camps, waiting to be dealt with.

The Hanyang Pass garrison originally had fifty thousand elite veterans and one hundred thousand militia, but when the prefecture was established, Yue Jinshan came and transferred away twenty thousand elites, never returning them since. During the two great battles of Azure Void, the Xu family also drafted tens of thousands from the garrison as the main force for invading the realm.

Therefore, although the military force stationed in the pass city was still close to fifty thousand, only a few thousand of the veterans from the beginning of the year remained; the majority were new recruits promoted from the militia. These new soldiers had limited combat power and no will to fight.

Each of the three large camps inside the pass city had ten thousand garrison troops. After taking them, Little Wei Yuan swept the pass towers in the order of the East Gate, North Gate, and Ximen. Finally, only the eight thousand garrison troops at the Ximen remained.

The commander of the Ximen was tough, refusing to surrender no matter what.

Little Wei Yuan immediately pointed at him and said, "This man is clearly an accomplice of the horse bandits. Men, take him down!"

The military Qi of the dismounted Dragon-Soaring and Dragon-Wing armies instantly overwhelmed the gate tower garrison, and hundreds of Dao Foundation cultivators flew onto the city walls, slaughtering them.

The pass gates originally had protective arrays, but the arrays were connected to the city's grand defensive array, and since Little Wei Yuan occupied the city, he directly shut down the gate tower's defensive array.

The Dragon-Soaring army had heavy shields in front, fire-lances mounted on the shields, and fired in steady advances; the gate garrison was mowed down in swathes like weeds.

The commander refused to yield even in death, ultimately falling in battle under the siege of several Dao Foundation cultivators, and his thirty personal guards died with him.

With the main commander dead and over a thousand casualties, the remaining several thousand garrison troops lost all fighting spirit and surrendered one after another. It was mainly because Little Wei Yuan's troops kept shouting during the attack that they had colluded with horse bandits and deserved to have their clans exterminated, then promised to spare those who knelt and surrendered. In this way, the government troops could not figure out the situation and had no will to fight. The Dragon-Soaring and Dragon-Wing armies immediately made all surrendered soldiers remove their armor and gather under the city walls wearing only their undergarments. They searched the gate towers and ended up finding a large amount of gold and silver, several masks, and several letters of secret correspondence with the Heaven-Slaying Gang from the commander's residence.

Little Wei Yuan ordered these to be shown to the surrendered pass troops, then followed the usual practice of taking the officers away separately, while the soldiers were driven outside the pass, leaving behind a small squad of soldiers to guard them.

Before the main force returned to the pass, Cui Yu said to these thousands of captives, "Your identity papers are now in our hands. Anyone who dares to escape will be treated as a deserter once counted, and it will implicate your families! Think about it carefully yourselves!"

The soldiers were terrified into silence, squatting obediently in place. Although only a dozen cavalrymen were guarding these thousands of people, none of the captives dared to move in the slightest.

Inside the city, Little Wei Yuan did not stop for a moment, directly spreading out his troops to take over key locations, then splitting half his men into over a dozen small squads, following the roster in his hand to arrive in front of various large mansions in the city.

"Open the door!!" A Dao Foundation officer pounded hard on the vermilion gate in front of him, very roughly, with a squad of a hundred Dragon-Soaring soldiers behind him.

After pounding several times, the vermilion gate opened a small crack, revealing the butler's face inside, looking suspiciously at the officer before him. The officer's armor was unfamiliar; he had never seen it before.

The butler asked, "What business does this military gentleman have?"

The officer said, "Someone saw the Heaven-Slaying Gang horse bandits flee into your house! I am under orders to come and search."

The butler gave a cold laugh and said, "Are you blind? Don't you see whose mansion this is! Our Master Lin is the own nephew of the Sixteenth Elder! You blind thing, why don't you get out with your men!"

The officer sneered, "You won't let us search? Then it seems you really have colluded with the horse bandits!"

!.

Without waiting for the butler to answer, the officer drew his saber, killed the butler with one strike, and then kicked the vermilion gate down with a heavy foot, and the large force of heavy-armored warriors filed in.

A roar erupted inside the mansion, and a burly Dao Foundation cultivator appeared, leading a group of retainers to charge up. The officer just sneered and drew his saber to meet him; both were Dao Foundation, but the officer was protected by heavy armor and already had the upper hand. Behind him, Dragon-Soaring soldiers mounted their fire-lances and blasted the Dao Foundation guard to death with a volley of shots.

Immediately, the soldiers were like tigers entering a sheepfold, turning the mansion upside down and searching out a great deal of immortal silver, antiques, medicinal herbs, and treasures used to bribe bandits and aid the enemy; these were all evidence.

The jewelry and ornaments of the wife, concubines, and daughters were stolen goods, and in the end, even Master Lin's jade-inlaid belt was stripped off. Master Lin held up his trousers with both hands, watching the pack of wolves ravaging his home, so angry he nearly fainted.

Fortunately, these government troops did not molest the female family members and did not kill as long as there was no resistance. After they left, Master Lin took stock of his home and found he had only lost some wealth, which was not entirely unacceptable.

Such scenes were being played out everywhere in the pass city. There were also some wealthy families who were already trembling with fear, but then discovered that these government troops passed by their own gates without entering, charging straight at their neighbors instead, treating their own even taller and more luxurious mansions as if they were air.

The remaining Dragon-Soaring and Dragon-Wing warriors occupied the four gates and began to dismantle the eight giant crossbows on the city walls.

(End of chapter)