When the bombardment finally ceased, the walls of the pass fortress were stripped bare, as clean as if licked by a dog. Every cannon the Zhao army had brought had been destroyed. Wei Yuan cast his gaze across the ramparts, satisfied to find not a single one had slipped through the net.
The officer in command of the artillery for this battle was Deputy General Lu Yu. Flying up beside Wei Yuan, he reported, "The enemy must be sheltering beneath the inner face of the pass walls—that is our blind spot. We can begin by shelling the interior of the pass to drive them against the walls for cover. Then we can advance our artillery batteries, adjust the cannons two li from the walls, and use high-angle lobbing fire to strike the enemy behind them.
"They will never see it coming and are bound to suffer catastrophic losses."
Wei Yuan gazed into the distance at Hanyang Pass. "No saturation bombardment. Fire a few rounds at the garrison commander's office in the fortress—just sporadic shelling to rattle them."
"A saturation bombardment would kill Zhao troops in vast numbers, though," Lu Yu countered.
Wei Yuan replied, "And it would kill even more mortals. Do not forget, there are hundreds of thousands of civilians in that city."
Lu Yu pressed the matter no further. Immediately carrying out the order, he directed the artillery to fire a dozen shells, every one slamming squarely into the garrison commander's office.
"Send up the psychological warfare squad," Wei Yuan waved a hand. Several dozen Dao Foundation cultivators stepped to the front of the formation, laid out an array diagram, and took their seats according to their assigned positions.
Presently, a scholar with a ringing, clear voice sat down at the center of the array. Glancing at the sheet in his hand, he called out loudly, "Hear this, people of Zhao! If you want to fight, march out and form ranks for an honorable battle! If you have no stomach for fighting, lay down your weapons and scurry back to Zhao! We do not slaughter unarmored folk, and we keep our word!
"What kind of pathetic display is this? You won't fight and you won't show your faces—are you tortoises pulling in your heads? All you know is hiding under a woman's skirts day after day! Can your knees even hold you upright anymore—assuming you have knees at all?!"
Amplified by the array, the scholar's voice turned into rolling thunder, booming across all of Hanyang Pass. The longer he spoke, the nastier and more venomous he became. His barbs grew steadily more scandalous, gradually insinuating things about the sheer number of the Princess's male and female intimates—all without uttering a single curse word.
Suddenly, a blazing torrent of fire shot into the sky from within the city, accompanied by a voice laced with biting chill: "Wei Yuan, you court death!"
The scholar glanced at Wei Yuan, who gave a nod. The scholar promptly shouted back, "My lord says he is courting death—so why don't you come and hit him? Come on over, if you dare!"
Laughter erupted through the Qingming Army. The plume of fire flared even brighter; the woman was clearly seething. Before she could speak again, another salvo of cannon fire slammed into the garrison commander's office, drowning out her voice in explosions.
The scholar shouted insults for a while longer, but seeing no further movement from the city, Wei Yuan frowned slightly. "It seems the Zhao forces are dead set on fighting to the bitter end. So be it. Activate the formations and advance! Move the heavy cannons forward five li and prepare to storm the city!"
With the arrival of fifty thousand infantry, Wei Yuan now had a total of one hundred and ten thousand troops under his command. Leaving ten thousand to guard the camp and keeping forty thousand in reserve, he had the rest don siege gear and begin closing in on Hanyang Pass.
Leading the assault were twenty thousand heavily armored elites, all armed with massive shields and fire guns loaded with buckshot.
The pass gate had long since been blown open by artillery fire. Packed behind the gateway stood Zhao soldiers in tight ranks, braced for battle. But the Qingming Army defied expectations; instead of charging, they brought up infantry guns and unleashed a fierce barrage right through the gateway. The Zhao troops arrayed inside suffered heavy casualties and were forced to fall back into the civilian houses behind them.
Yet ordinary houses could hardly withstand cannon shells. Qingming continued its bombardment, mowing down another wave of Zhao soldiers before the heavily armored troops finally marched into the city.
Inside the fortress, the female general gritted her teeth and commanded, "Full retreat into the houses! Disperse! Once the enemy enters, look for opportunities to engage them in close quarters!"
One general hastily protested, "That will harm innocent civilians! Wouldn't it be better to negotiate with Wei Yuan? It should still be in time. If we yield the two commanderies and withdraw to Zhao territory on the condition that he does not pursue or take spoils, he might agree!"
"We haven't even fought a real battle yet—negotiate what?!" she snapped. "Things have already come to this; what could we possibly gain from talks? If we can't win on the battlefield, negotiating is useless!"
None of the generals dared argue further. They could only lead their respective units to their assigned sectors and take up defensive positions using the houses.
Seeing that the Zhao army's military qi was rising rather than falling, Wei Yuan's expression chilled. "It seems the Zhao people truly refuse to see reason! Fine, let's give them a lesson in urban warfare!"
War drums thundered across the battlefield. Their rhythm had been specially calibrated to align with the circulation of human blood and qi, and when amplified by arrays, it reverberated through the entire field. Hearing the drums, the Qingming soldiers felt their blood surge. The heavily armored warriors marched in lockstep to the beat, every stride causing the earth to tremble.
With every drumbeat, they advanced a step, a deluge of steel surging into Hanyang Pass.
Having finally found a chance for close combat, the Zhao soldiers charged out from the houses where they had been hiding—only to discover that these Qingming heavy infantry were like walking slabs of steel. Leaving barely any gaps between their shields, they presented not a single vulnerable spot to strike!
Steel sabers proved utterly useless against heavy armor. Veteran Zhao soldiers discarded their blades at once; some raised fire guns to shoot, while others grabbed blunt weapons like war hammers and melon maces.
Bullets struck the massive shields with showers of sparks, but failed to pierce them. Then came Qingming's counterattack. Peeking their gun barrels through the embrasures at the sides of their great shields, the armored soldiers pulled their triggers. Faint smoke billowed in an instant, and deafening blasts nearly burst the Zhao soldiers' eardrums. Countless finger-sized steel balls slammed into them, blossoming into sprays of blood.
Every blast sent a spray of buckshot. Any Zhao soldier in the front rank hit squarely was knocked flying through the air—a testament to its terrifying power!
The Qingming heavy infantry began to advance methodically. The fire guns they bore were not only lethal against men but also devastating tools for demolishing structures. A single shot could punch through three or four wooden houses, and against stone walls of modest thickness, one blast tore a gaping hole right through. The Zhao soldiers sheltering inside had nowhere to hide; many were blasted apart along with the walls.
Twenty thousand heavy infantry flowed through the city like a tide of steel. Large numbers of light cuirassier infantry entered in their wake, swiftly seizing the ramparts. Dao Foundation cultivators carried infantry guns up onto the walls, mounted them, and began pounding the city interior.
Wei Yuan and his commanders flew above the pass fortress. Watching the battle unfold below, his face darkened, whatever shred of goodwill he had felt toward Zhao's Sixth Princess entirely gone.
With a wave of his hand, the scholar beside him swapped to a sheet of red paper and bellowed at the top of his lungs, reading from it, "Using civilians as human shields—are you too bankrupt to afford your own lives? Have you lost all sense of shame? 'Invincible in battle'—is this how you Zhao people win your battles? I hear there's some princess among you. How about this: let her—"
Wei Yuan abruptly silenced the scholar.
He had acted in the heat of anger; only now did he remember that the Zhao Li family had immortals of their own. If this princess was a Dao seed or the like, insulting her would be tantamount to making another arch-enemy for the Palace of Grand Beginning. And if an immortal from the Zhao Li family made a move against him, Lu Changhe and Xu Wangu certainly wouldn't lift a hand to help—Wei Yuan would be lucky if they didn't stab him in the back instead.
Wei Yuan drew a deep breath and declared, "Full assault!"
This time, he made no mention of the civilians. In the blink of an eye, the order was relayed to all units. With all restraint lifted, the heavy infantry at the front crashed forward with their shields, leveling one house after another and leaving those inside with nowhere to hide. They no longer held their fire, blasting at any moving shadow. While civilian casualties were inevitable, the Zhao casualties spiked sharply, forcing them back step by step.
The pace of the assault accelerated dramatically. Wei Yuan pointed to either flank, and a contingent of elite troops pushed forward along each wall. Meanwhile, the main body of Qingming troops atop the ramparts advanced along the walls as well, preparing to box the hundred-plus thousand Zhao soldiers completely inside Hanyang Pass.
Chapter 772