Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 347 Prosperity and Withering Different Flame and Coolness (1)

All the artillery positions in Nanshan City fired at the fastest speed. The gunners loaded the ammunition, reset the artillery, fired, and repeated these actions mechanically over and over again.The battle in the thick smoke lasted for three quarters of an hour, and the Liao army that was besieging the city fell silent.

Zhao Xingde ordered the gunners to go to the city to be on guard, suspend the shelling, and wait for the smoke to gradually dissipate. Just under the city wall of Nanshan City, the real corpses piled up like a mountain. The closer to the city wall, the thicker the corpses of the Liao army piled up. Below the base of the wall, the dirt bags and layers of dead bodies were three or four feet high. The thick blood flowed down the terrain slowly and gradually froze. The sun shone through the smoke and shone on the blood-red ice surface. On it, a muddy and strange light was reflected.In this hell-like scene, the battle-tested old soldiers were also extremely shocked, and the slightly weaker Han soldiers immediately leaned against the city wall and vomited.

Zhao Xingde supported the city wall with both hands, looked down, and took a deep breath.A black shadow flew across the sky, his eyes saw it, but his body remained motionless. "General Zhao, be careful of stone bullets!" The Han soldiers around shouted one after another, but no one dared to come up to pull him, so they could only stand behind while shouting, watching the general's silent back.Many people will never forget this scene.

The stone bullets grazed the top of the city and flew over the heads of the crowd.But another stone bomb hit the city wall, and the place where everyone stood trembled violently.After the Liao army that attacked the city retreated, the artillery of the Liao Kingdom became fierce again, but no matter how you looked at it, it seemed to be clamoring in frustration.Zhao Xingde just looked at the distance in silence, the endless Liao army camps, the iron barrel guns spewing fire and smoke, and the stone bullets drew arcs in the sky, and below the sky, there were corpses all over the place. battlefield.

The rammed-earth city walls are covered with bomb craters, and the arrows shot by the Liao army filled the city walls. When the cold wind blows, the arrow shafts and tail feathers tremble and rattle, just like the breeze blowing through the bamboo forest. There was an awe-inspiring chill in the voice.

Zhao Xingde turned his head and said in a deep voice: "After this period of time, the morale of the enemy army is also exhausted. The artillery crew took turns to guard and take care of the injured brothers." His voice was not loud, but it was thick and warm, which made people feel warm.All the Han soldiers were sure, and hurriedly agreed.In this battle, the main casualties of the defenders were the gunners at the top of the city.Although the power of the artillery made it unnecessary for the Han army to shoot arrows at the top of the city with arrows and stones, there were always leaky fish who risked their lives to climb to the top of the city.The gunmen of the Han army shot from far and stabbed near, and proved themselves in battle, and also paid a lot of casualties.

In this offensive, the Liao army reported great hopes, the offensive was extremely fierce, and the casualties were extremely heavy.Five miles away from Nanshan City, [-] Liao army cavalry were stationed in four directions in front of the tents of the Chinese army in the camp to the south.Except for those who were seriously injured and unable to move, nearly ten thousand people stood upright in the cold wind.The generals of the Liao Army stood at the forefront of their respective phalanxes. Some of these generals were wounded, some of them were in disheveled armor, and they looked even more embarrassed in the north wind.

The tents of the Chinese military tent had been lifted up to both sides, and the tent was covered with carpets sewn from animal skins. On the carpets were more than a dozen low tables, and some fruits were simply displayed on the tables.A pile of charcoal fire was burning in the tent, and the roasted yellow sheep on the shelf was brown in color, exuding a tempting aroma.The generals of the camp in the south of the Liao Kingdom, from the right deputy commander Xiao Yixue to the right deputy commander Guo Baoyi and below, more than twenty generals sat on the left and right.Xiao Ta sat on the commander-in-chief's seat, not even looking at the defeated soldiers.In the north wind, the generals were ashamed, and the soldiers who had lost their armor and armor were trembling.Tens of thousands of people stood like this for more than half an hour, Xiao Tachi still didn't say a word, the generals didn't dare to make decisions on their own, and could only endure like this with the coach.

"Young nobles, even if you don't know how to advance or retreat," Guo Baoyi sighed secretly, "How can you act so perversely. If you were not His Majesty's son-in-law and Empress Xiao's beloved son-in-law, these arrogant warriors would have turned against you long ago." He thought so in his heart, but his face was calm.It is also common for young generals to be proud of their favor.Guo Baoyi has a little understanding of the face, and he believes that Xiao Tachi has the appearance of a eagle watching a wolf, and he should not be easily offended.However, Yelu Dashi and Empress Xiao really cherished him.It's none of his business, Guo Baoyi naturally wouldn't do it for others.

The generals of the Liao army beside him were also sitting on the ground in a daze. They had similar ideas with Guo Baoyi and didn't want to touch this bad luck.Since the governor Yelu Yanshan was injured and returned to Beijing to recuperate, Xiao Tachi took over the southern camp, at first some people thought he was young and easy to bully, but who knew that although he was young, he was extremely ruthless.After several battles, a few high-ranking generals were killed and wounded, and immediately no one dared to make a 'chaos'.

The entire school grounds were silent, only the whistling of the north wind was heard.Suddenly, a sound of horseshoes broke the silence, Xiao Tachi's eyes lit up, and he raised his head, but it was a group of tens of troops riding the palace tent, each carrying a big burden, galloped to the front of the tent, and got off the horse first , Fu Dibing said: "Master Dutong, our department was ordered to hunt down the deserters, and the head was 120 level [-]. Please check it." The heads are piled up like a hill.Many leaders had their eyes wide open, as if they were full of fear, and they seemed to be dying.They did not die under the artillery fire of the Han army, and fled from the battlefield, but died at the hands of their clansmen.

The deserter's head caused a commotion in the Liao army, but the expressions of the generals in the Chinese army's tent softened a little.Everyone has done the thing of beheading deserters once they have achieved success. "Xiao Tachi didn't mean to humiliate us, but he was waiting for these leaders to make an example to others." Thinking of this, the generals felt a little relieved.

Xiao Tachi praised: "Good job!" He ordered his soldiers to deliver a roasted lamb to the general who had delivered the order.He looked left and right at the generals in the tent, and then said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty is waiting for the good news that we will capture Nanshan City and capture and kill the traitors of the Han army. In today's battle, these people are not only cowards, but also want to Run away and be a traitor to Daliao, so if I don’t kill them, I will not be able to explain to His Majesty, nor will I be able to face your uncles with peace of mind.” His voice was a little hoarse, as if rubbed out of metal, every word Words seem to be drilled into people's ears.

Xiao Tachi's uncle was also a powerful general in the Liao army, and Urgon and these generals of the Liao army had an equal relationship, so Xiao Tachi honored most generals as uncles according to the rules on the grassland.But Dutong can be called that, and the generals in the tent dare not accept it, some humbly said: "Your Excellency Dutong is too serious." Some echoed: "These scum are really a disgrace to the Khitan people!" Others frowned No words, although Yelu Yanshan, the former commander of the Southern Expedition, has a bad temper, he treats the Khitan people like brothers and sisters, and treats the soldiers with the utmost affection. .Now it's Xiao Dutong, a powerful young man, but his behavior is completely opposite.

On the lower right side of the central army tent, Su Zhi General Yelubo's knuckles turned white on the wine glass, and cursed in a low voice: "This barbarian on the grassland, what right does he have to kill noble Khitan people?" Yelubo is from the royal family, He is arrogant by nature, he commands the Five Thousand Palace Tent Army, and he usually doesn't like Xiao Dutong's tent very much.Although Xiao Tachi couldn't move him, he bypassed Yelubo and directly commanded the subordinates of the palace tent army. If any generals disobeyed his orders, they would immediately follow the military law.In this way, Yelubo was emptied.

Although his voice was low, the lieutenant next to him, Xiao Ping, could hear him clearly.Xiao Ping hurriedly pressed Yelubo's hand, and said in a low voice: "He is His Majesty's son-in-law. Do you still want to go back to Beijing alive?"

Xiao Ping and Yelubo are close friends, after hearing what he said, Yelubo suppressed the anger in his heart, with a fierce look in his eyes, he raised his neck, drank the oil tea in the cup without saying a word.Seeing this, Xiao Ping shook his head secretly.At the beginning, he was still secretly dissatisfied with Yelubo, but later, after seeing Xiao Tachi's methods of punishing other generals, he realized that Xiao Tachi was showing mercy to Yelubo.

At this time, Xiao Tachi smiled slightly and said: "Today's battle, although there are cowards, there are also warriors. There is a centurion, which attacked the city twice, and persisted under Nanshan City until the end before withdrawing." In a low voice, he said in a deep voice: "Such warriors are the pride of my Daliao. Each will be rewarded with fifty sheep and fifteen slaves. From today onwards, this thousand-man team will be incorporated into the general's White Eagle Army." After finishing speaking, he waved his hands and asked the soldiers to carry the dried meat with wine and sent it out together with two roasted gazelle.

The centurion was rewarded, and there were thunderous cheers and shouts of thanks.Khitan's life is bold, after thanking him for the reward, he immediately took out the small knife from his waist, and sat on the ground in the big colonel, drinking and eating meat.It caused the Liao army next to them to swallow their salivation.And when they heard that this hundred-man team was included in the White Eagle Battalion, they were even more envious.The White Eagle Battalion is Xiao Tachi's personal soldiers, except for the Mierbo people, all of them are brave soldiers who have fought in previous battles.Moreover, the White Eagle Battalion often followed Xiao Tachi, and would not go out to fight until it was time to decide the outcome.The elite of the White Eagle Battalion will not be wasted in the war of attrition in the siege.

After appreciating the warriors who ascended the city, Xiao Tachi's smile turned cold, and he looked coldly at the three teams of thousands who survived the most.

"In this battle, there were warriors and cowards. In order to save their lives, the cowards turned around and fled without even reaching the edge of the Han city wall. Everyone said, how should we deal with them?" He asked in a deep voice, The generals of the Liao army all looked at each other in blank dismay. There were three thousand-man teams, counting the heads, and there were more than 2000 soldiers. They couldn't all be beheaded.But it seems that Xiao Dutong will not be satisfied with military methods such as tattooing and baton.

No one wants to be this villain. There was silence in the tent for a while, and Xiao Tachi said in a deep voice: "Cowards, they are just afraid of death. The thousand-man team who attacked the city today and reached the bottom of the city died in two battles." The cowards can’t be allowed to take advantage instead. Then, draw lots to decide that [-]% of these cowards should be executed to let them know that those who run away cannot survive. In addition, the next time the city is attacked, the three thousand The human team must rush to the front and use blood to wash away the shame!"