Chapter 1 "Good!"

"Good!" Zou Shuangwen also gave this praise after the buzzing in his ears subsided slightly. He was indeed using money to砸 (zha, smash) Xiangning City. This heavy battering ram alone cost forty-five thousand taels of silver to build. Moreover, the Blood Kirin Army only brought one this time. Because the parts were too many and too heavy, it had not been assembled. It was not until the attack on Xiangning City that everyone suggested that in order to be on the safe side and ensure a victory in the first battle, this monster was assembled. It was originally intended to be used if the siege was unsuccessful, but Zou Shuangwen used it regardless.

The huge explosion, the powerful and unparalleled explosive shock wave, the scorching airflow, and the scattered metal fragments caused permanent damage to Xiangning City. The city gate completely disappeared, the entire gatehouse collapsed, and the entire section of the city wall was burning violently. The kerosene that had not been burned in the explosion was exerting a powerful effect. If the kerosene was not limited, it could almost burn the entire section of the city wall to ashes.

"Are there any reserves for the heavy infantry?" Zou Shuangwen asked. But now the situation no longer required his instructions. Seeing the city gate of Xiangning City collapse into ruins, the front-line troops, who had also recovered from the shock, had reacted. Two heavy infantry squares had already gathered at the city gate, and the light infantry had begun to climb and assault the city gate, clearing obstacles to facilitate the heavy infantry assault. Heavy infantry is a very powerful type of soldier, but it is also very limited. The Blood Kirin Army has deeply ingrained the concept of reasonable deployment and matching of troop types.

Conversely, Xiangning City was in chaos. Many mid- and high-level military officers were concentrated on the city tower, and several gentry and celebrities in the city were cooperating with the officers to deploy the laborers remaining in the city to organize the work of carrying materials. Now, these people had no chance of survival, and Xiangning City, which had never encountered such a thing, saw its morale plummet. If they were facing only an army that was stronger than them, better trained than them, and better equipped than them, they would not be so afraid. After all, they were defending their homes and defending their homeland, and the concept was enough for them to explode with greater strength than usual. However, the current situation was completely different. The Blood Kirin Army not only surpassed the defenders of Xiangning City in military quality, but also led in weapons and equipment to a terrifying degree. The equipment of the Blood Kirin Army has been advanced by Ye Tao in the past few years to the top of the cold weapon era. Some equipment, such as the siege vehicle that collapsed the city tower just now, organically combines the concept of the hot weapon era with the combat mode of the cold weapon era. Without Ye Tao, these things might not have appeared in this time and space for decades or hundreds of years.

"Accept surrender in sections," the staff officer suggested. Zou Shuangwen nodded. The city guard of Xiangning City, Tan Yan, had already been killed in battle. Now, the highest-ranking military officer may be the battle generals who are responsible for the defense of each section of the city wall. Facing the Blood Kirin Army, an army they could not understand, he didn't believe that they all had the unparalleled courage to fight to the end.

Sure enough, the order to accept surrender was passed to the front line. When the Blood Kirin Army soldiers, who had originally been shouting and killing and occupying an absolute advantage, suddenly began to shout the order "Throw down your weapons, surrender and you will not be killed," a large number of terrified Northern Liao soldiers threw down their weapons and knelt on the ground. Dong Daqiu, who was in charge of the defense section on the left side of the city tower, immediately ordered all his subordinates to disarm.

In a short period of one shichen (approximately two hours), the combination of vigorously eliminating stubborn enemies and actively recruiting surrenderers allowed the Blood Kirin Army to control the entire city wall and part of the urban area near the city wall.

The ruins of the city gate had now become a slope for heavy infantry to pass through. The heavy infantry, who had originally been scattered to protect the light infantry approaching the city wall, were all concentrated together, ready to accept orders to advance towards the city center at any time. At this time, a message came from the front line: "The entire army should postpone its advance. The city is full of the smell of kerosene, which is very dangerous."

Deflagration… the word popped into Zou Shuangwen's mind again. He then noticed that the Heavy Ordnance Camp was still throwing kerosene bombs into the city. After breaking through the city gate just now, the staff officer should have suggested or directly notified the Heavy Ordnance Camp to stop the attack. Perhaps the Camp Commander of the Heavy Ordnance Camp should have come to ask for instructions himself. Zou Shuangwen glanced at the staff officer suspiciously, and when he saw the firmness, bloodthirst, cruelty, and determination in the staff officer's eyes, and heard him say lightly, "I forgot," Zou Shuangwen felt a chill in his heart. That was to tell him that he was not going to stop this attack, and that he was going to use merciless actions to teach the Northern Liao people a lesson.

"Don't act on your own," Zou Shuangwen sighed and ordered. "The Heavy Ordnance Camp will continue to fire. The airships will lower their altitude and shout to persuade surrender. Those who are willing to surrender should immediately approach the surrounding city walls and be taken in by us. No personal belongings are allowed. After a quarter of an hour, cause a deflagration at the north gate, and then continue to persuade surrender…"

"Yes." This order, which had never existed in the history of the Blood Kirin Army, was issued. However, this time, the entire Blood Kirin Army accepted the order very happily.

It was a bit difficult to get everyone in an entire city to surrender everything they owned. After a quarter of an hour, only more than 10,000 people ran to the city walls, were taken in by the Blood Kirin Army, and sent out of the city for centralized supervision. Together with the Northern Liao soldiers who had surrendered one after another, there were only a little less than 30,000 people, only a little more than a quarter of the population of Xiangning City. Zou Shuangwen unhesitatingly verified the order to trigger the deflagration. The airship quickly ascended, circled, accelerated… and then dropped a kerosene bomb suspended by a white parachute, and immediately accelerated away from the area.

The white parachute looked elegant and洒脱 (sa tuo, natural and unrestrained), but as the kerosene bomb approached the ground, the outer four-petal shell split open, revealing the silver-white metal structure inside. Four nozzles sprayed fine kerosene liquid droplets outward, and quickly ignited the droplets. The entire kerosene bomb exploded in the low air like a cloud of fire, and the area near the north gate roared.

The power of the deflagration was not really great, but as long as the concentration of oil and gas in the air was high enough, it would definitely make everyone in the explosion range have nowhere to hide. The dazzling momentum and gorgeous effect of the deflagration, as well as the power of the blast wave spreading in all directions, as if to blow everything away, made everyone, both those who understood deflagration and those who were unfamiliar with it, equally afraid.

"Observation report from the airship…" a messenger brought a document.

Zou Shuangwen took the document, pressed it on the table in front of him without looking at it, and said, "I don't need a report. Conduct the second round of surrender."

This time, no one doubted the Blood Kirin Army's determination to smash the entire city. After hesitating for a moment, the people hiding in the houses came out one after another, as well as the people hiding in various corners, and threw away the things in their hands and walked towards the nearest city wall. About one shichen (approximately two hours) later, several local gentry and participating mid- and high-level military officers finally stood in front of Zou Shuangwen and formally surrendered to the Blood Kirin Army.

Xiangning City had a lot of things stockpiled, including a large amount of grain, military equipment, and horse feed, which the Blood Kirin Army had begun to find in short supply. The strength of the Northern Liao warhorses was certainly due to the breed, but also benefited from the careful breeding of the Northern Liao military. The Northern Liao people really had a way to serve horses. Although the horse feed seemed rougher than the Blood Kirin Army's bean feed, it could be considered fine. The Blood Kirin Army left one battalion to guard the prisoners, and after the oil and gas dissipated, they let the residents return to the city in batches. Another battalion quickly cleaned up various supplies in Xiangning City and supplied the Blood Kirin Army's needs as soon as possible. Taking care of the wounded, cleaning up the bodies of the dead, and arranging funerals for the fallen soldiers of the Blood Kirin Army were also their jobs. Zou Shuangwen's troops almost immediately began to reorganize and repair, preparing to support Ye Tao's troops.

As early as before the battle was over, the cavalry units, scout units, and part of the Heavy Ordnance Camp began to move in the direction of Ye Tao's troops. Cavalry units and scout cavalry have always been extremely fast in movement. In addition, this battle had nothing to do with them at all, and they had always maintained relatively good physical strength. By the time the battle was over, they had almost run dozens of li (a Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters). The Heavy Ordnance Camp needed to rest in place for a while due to the high intensity of this operation, but they still took turns packing up all the crossbow cannons and loading the kerosene bombs onto the carriages. The team was also lined up according to the requirements of the marching configuration before resting. Basically, after two shichen (approximately four hours), they could stand up and leave. Zou Shuangwen himself handed over all the post-war affairs of Xiangning City to several of his subordinates, and set off first with his staff officer and the督军 (du jun, army supervising officer)'s guards. Whether from military affairs or from his personal friendship with Ye Tao, he could not allow anything to happen to Ye Tao.

The attack on Xiangning City was the most enthusiastic and domineering battle in the history of the Blood Kirin Army. The purpose was to win enough time to rescue Ye Tao's troops. However, although Ye Tao had a considerable distance from Zou Shuangwen and other veterans in the Blood Kirin Army in terms of specific tactical command, he was indeed a very good commander, and he was also a person who could utilize various advantages in a 天马行空 (tian ma xing kong, unbounded) manner. Although facing an unknown number of enemy troops, but at least several times his own, under Ye Tao's arrangement, the situation was not so tense.

When Gao Senqi led the vanguard cavalry close to the place where Ye Tao's troops were stationed, what he saw was a whole camp stationed on a small mountain by the river beach, and the defense system had some initial form. Xiao Yong did not choose the most convenient place to defend, but the place most suitable for Gao Senqi's troops to cross the river. If Gao Senqi had brought tens of thousands of people, and their combat power was similar to that of the Blood Kirin Army, he might have bypassed it. But now, he had gathered a large army of allegedly 300,000, but actually nearly 200,000, many of whom were elite troops from the West Route Army. Under such a disparity in military strength, if he still avoided the battle, how would he command the troops in the future? Moreover, the army did need such a place to cross the river. Choosing other places would waste more than a day or two.

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Many people may not like me releasing one or two chapters every now and then, but if I really don't update, I guess everyone will scold me… so friends who find it unpleasant to follow the updates can put it aside and not read it for now.

Probably now Heart of Time can barely maintain about one chapter a week, but anyway, The Dark Room will be finished in a month or two. When The Dark Room is finished, I will come back and seriously update Heart of Time. After Heart of Time is finished, I will write Digital (or if there is spare energy, I will probably write it together). Anyway, I will give everyone an explanation.