Chapter 86: The City Breached
Chapter 86: The City Breached
Yang Xin had long been aware of this point.
He was bound to be envied.
This was almost inevitable. Countless elite soldiers and fierce generals across Liaodong had fought for years, achieving nothing but crushing defeats. Beheading one or two hundred enemies was considered a great victory, and killing a Niru Ezhen was regarded as an extraordinary feat. Then he arrived, first taking E Yi Dou’s head. If that could still be considered assassination, the Fan River field battle, where he pounded Wild Boar Skin’s son to death with his bare fists, was a direct slap in the face to all the armies in Liaodong. His little fists hammered into Abatai’s chest and also struck the faces of all the Liaodong generals. The heads displayed in various cities clearly mocked those commanders…
You are all just a bunch of useless fools!
This included someone like Zhao Shuaijiao, who had escaped from the Sarhu battlefield.
Look here!
This was the kind of trash that Yang Xin beat to death with his fists, yet they had utterly defeated you! You couldn’t even defeat this kind of trash! A whole group of you, esteemed Regional Military Commanders and generals combined, couldn’t even match the achievements of a single Commoner!
Then jealousy breeding hatred was inevitable.
But this wasn’t the key point. After all, Yang Xin’s performance clearly wasn’t that of a normal person. What truly made these civil and military officials erupt was probably Xiong Tingbi. They had reached their limit with Xiong Tingbi. As soon as Old Xiong arrived, he executed several generals for desertion. Similarly, he imposed strict military discipline on the rest, verified the actual number of troops under the commanders’ control—making it difficult for them to pocket pay for nonexistent soldiers—and cracked down on local magnates, prohibiting smuggling.
He also forced civil officials into action. Yan Mingtai was compelled to come to Shenyang but returned from Hupi Post in tears. Could he hold no resentment towards Xiong Tingbi in his heart? And then there were people like Wang Huazhen. Furthermore, these people might have submitted to Yang Gao’s authority because Yang Gao’s seniority was undeniable. But Xiong Tingbi was merely a seventh-rank official just a few months ago, yet now he lorded over these Assistant Administration Commissioners and Surveillance Vice Commissioners who were originally fourth or fifth rank.
How could they accept this?
More importantly…
Military Commissioner Xiong didn’t know how to bake the cake!
Military Commissioner Xiong was not Teacher Sun. Teacher Sun could increase the troops in Liaodong by twenty thousand, costing two million a year. But Military Commissioner Xiong could only foolishly tell Wanli: Give me 180,000 soldiers and 90,000 horses, and I will completely solve the Wild Boar Skin problem for you.
If you laid everything out so clearly, how were the civil and military officials, from top to bottom, supposed to get their share of the cake?
You can’t make things this clear!
Yang Xin was merely their excuse to make trouble.
“This is our Great Ming Dynasty!”
Chen Yujie sighed with emotion.
“Never mind their petty scheming. We’ll leave Shenyang once we’re done fighting here. Anyway, I come and go as I please. My previous achievements are sufficient. Wild Boar Skin won’t recover from this battle for at least two years. He originally had so few people; losing even one is hard to replace. This time at Yehe City, he lost at least two to three thousand. More than three thousand died by our hands. Adding the wounded, his casualties are close to ten thousand. He’s almost crippled!”
Yang Xin said.
Indeed, Wild Boar Skin’s losses were enough to ensure there would be no offensive next year.
Moreover, the grain in Kaiyuan was all looted by the Mongols. How he would survive the coming winter was still uncertain! Since that was the case, why bother engaging in petty intrigues with these people here? Ultimately, the real battlefield wasn’t here. The Capital City next year would be the true place where storms would gather and heroes meet.
Three emperors in one year!
“Winter has arrived!”
Chen Yujie lifted his head and looked at the sky.
The dark night sky showed no starlight, but the cold wind blowing towards them carried the chill of winter.
It was almost the tenth month now. According to the Western calendar, it should be mid-November. It was actually early winter. Especially since Liaodong was naturally cold. Even the soldiers sleeping on the city walls were wrapped in quilts…
“Get up! Who told you to sleep?”
Yang Xin roared angrily.
The two of them were actually inspecting the city walls. They were standing on the gate tower of Yongchang Gate, the West Gate. Wild Boar Skin had never attacked this side before, only stationing Cavalry to patrol outside the city. Clearly, this had made the soldiers on guard here extremely lax. Even the sentries dared to sleep. The several sleeping soldiers immediately jolted awake and scrambled to their feet in confusion. A sleeping officer nearby was startled awake and hurried forward with an ingratiating smile. Although Yang Xin was theoretically a Commoner with no authority over them, Chen Yujie was the Army Supervisor.
“Take them all into custody!”
Chen Yujie said without any courtesy.
“Army Supervisor Chen, nothing happened. Why go that far?”
The Brigade General following behind them pleaded.
“If something happened, it would be too late. Take them first. They’ll get a whipping tomorrow!”
Yang Xin said very bluntly.
The Capital Garrison soldiers following them immediately stepped forward and quickly tied up the men. The Brigade General watched with a gloomy expression as they were escorted off the city wall…
“Army Supervisor Chen, this humble general still has military affairs to attend to. I beg your pardon for not accompanying you further!”
He then cupped his hands and said.
After saying this, his face dark, he walked along the city wall with several of his Personal Guards.
“Look! This is a Liaozhen general!”
Chen Yujie said contemptuously.
The Brigade General clearly heard it but didn’t turn his head. Instead, he raised his head and answered with a haughty, proud back.
At that very moment, Yang Xin’s expression suddenly changed.
“Get down!”
As he spoke, he shoved Chen Yujie to the ground.
Almost simultaneously, the Brigade General’s figure suddenly rose upwards. He instinctively looked down. The next moment, the city wall beneath his feet was like a volcanic crater before an eruption, shattering into pieces in an instant while violently bulging upward. Accompanied by a muffled thunderous roar, flames flashed beneath his feet. Then he disappeared into the dust. A violent tremor spread across the city wall at tremendous speed. The soldiers screamed in terror, watching as their city wall arched upward like a snake’s back before suddenly collapsing…
From the darkness outside the city came the battle cries of thousands upon thousands of troops.
“Quick, go and stabilize the other sections!”
Amidst the violent tremors coming from beneath their feet, Yang Xin roared at Chen Yujie.
“What?”
The latter shouted back.
Clearly, he hadn’t recovered from the shock of the explosion.
Meanwhile, the entire city wall was in chaos. Because this section had never been attacked, it was manned by miscellaneous troops. The only real elite soldiers were five hundred, dispersed among the gate tower and two corner towers. Most people had just awoken from sleep. Seeing the collapsed breach in the wall and the sudden appearance of the vast enemy force outside, some instinctively began to scream and flee.
“Go and stabilize the other sections!”
Yang Xin shouted at Chen Yujie.
The latter finally came to his senses and rushed down the wall at top speed to mount his horse.
“Calm down! With Yang here, what is there to fear?”
Yang Xin then roared.
The fleeing soldiers immediately calmed down.
By now, the vanguard of the Jiannu Cavalry had reached the edge of the Moat. However, the Moat below had silted up over the years and was even mostly filled in. Previously, due to harassment by Jiannu Cavalry outside, they couldn’t leave the city to dredge it. Clearly, Wild Boar Skin had taken advantage of this special terrain, digging a tunnel to avoid water seepage and placing gunpowder directly beneath the city wall. This work must have started when they first arrived. The attacks on the other sections in the previous days were just a deception, tricking the defenders into neglecting this side and covering up the underground digging.
Less than two hundred meters away was a patch of woods that should have been cleared but hadn’t been in time.
The digging must have started from there.
“Dammit, Wild Boar Skin has talented people under him!”
He cursed silently to himself.
This engineering project wasn’t that simple. It required accurate direction and precise distance measurement to finally dig right under the city wall.
This wasn’t like that time at Yehe City.
That time, they dug directly into the city wall; no calculation was needed. But this required real calculation.
Wild Boar Skin didn’t have that level of knowledge.
Of course, studying this now was unimportant. In fact, in warfare beyond the passes, until they learned to use the Red Barbarian Cannon, tunnel digging for siege was a primary tactic of the Jiannu.
Hong Taiji tried to do this when he couldn’t take Songshan.
Now, the Jiannu Cavalry began crossing the Moat.
The soldiers on the city walls on either side looked helplessly at Yang Xin.
However, several elite soldiers on the gate tower quickly opened fire. Grapeshot from the Frankish Cannons instantly felled the Cavalry at the front.
Yang Xin looked at those panicked faces. With a contemptuous smile, he reached out to the side. Huang Zhen and a trusted subordinate immediately carried the large blade they had just unloaded from a horse to his side. This large blade was an important tool for Yang Xin to stabilize morale. He carried it wherever he went. Just seeing this blade, even those militiamen with no fighting spirit would feel a surge of morale.
Yang Xin casually picked up the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
The previously helpless soldiers on both sides immediately calmed down, grabbing their respective weapons.
“Hold the walls! Watch how I kill the enemy!”
Yang Xin said with satisfaction.
After saying this, he let out a roar and charged straight towards the breach.
The first wave of arriving Jiannu Cavalry were crowding their way upward. Their explosive force was insufficient; they had only managed to collapse a section of the wall, and that was partly because this section was dilapidated, with much of the outer brick facing having peeled off. It was already somewhat prone to collapse. The explosion finally created a pile of ruins less than ten feet high, making a breach over twenty feet wide in the city wall. Of course, this was enough. Four Jiannu Cavalry soldiers charged onto the ruins in the blink of an eye. But at that very moment, a roar suddenly came from above them. Yang Xin, holding the Green Dragon Crescent Blade high, descended from the air, slashing down.
Or perhaps one could say, smashing down.
The Green Dragon Crescent Blade, weighing one hundred and twenty jin and nearly three meters long, smashed onto the heads of three Jiannu Cavalry soldiers in an instant.
The next moment, flesh and blood flew.
The three Jiannu Cavalry soldiers had no chance to resist. They, along with their horses, were smashed dramatically downward. As their flesh and blood flew, the three warhorses whinnied in misery and knelt. As for the remaining one, Yang Xin’s behind smashed into his face…
With his armor, he weighed no less than two hundred jin!
The force of the descent from the air was tremendous.
Poor Jiannu Cavalry soldier never imagined he would be killed by someone’s behind. He looked up blankly. Before he could understand what was happening, his vision was completely engulfed by Yang Xin’s iron-armored rear. The next moment, his head was smashed by that terrifying impact force, bending back at a bizarre angle. His whole body fell onto the horse’s back, and the warhorse also whinnied miserably and knelt…