Chapter 561

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“That’s right, since the Prince of Wei is determined to destroy our fief, we must quickly conquer Wei’s territory and retaliate.”

“I second the motion.”

After discussion, the monarch and his two ministers in the main hall reached a consensus.

With the matter settled, Zhan Xingchang and Pang Yukun departed. Zhan Xingchang needed to prepare for his diplomatic mission to Yan and Chang’an, after all, this mission was extremely perilous.

Although it was said that envoys were not to be executed during wartime, encountering an unreasonable person could lead to trouble.

However, for this mission, he was not at ease entrusting it to someone else. After all, Zhan Xingchang was nimble-minded and good at adapting, so he might be able to resolve the danger.

But for the mission, he was beyond his reach. The only thing he could do now, as Pang Yukun said, was to act quickly and decisively, completely taking control of Wei’s territory.

Thinking of this, he once again issued an order to Yue Yun, instructing him to lead the fleet to capture Tongzhou, then proceed up the Yangtze River to bombard Jinling City. At the same time, he was to search for suitable landing sites along the river.

As the saying goes, “to catch the bandit, first catch the king.” Since that was the case, once he was ready, he would directly attack Jinling City, thereby launching a pincer attack from north and south.

The next day, Zhan Xingchang, accompanied by his retinue, departed from Qingzhou for Yan’s territory.

On the same day, Yue Yun led the naval cadets to Dengzhou. After half a month of practical training in Dengzhou, Yue Yun departed with twenty-four warships and twelve thousand Dengzhou troops towards Tongzhou.

Four days later, Tongzhou City appeared before him.

Just a month ago, this port was still providing supplies for warships, but now it was heavily guarded by soldiers, and any Qingzhou merchant ships were refused permission to dock here.

Even some merchant ships were maliciously seized, and merchants were arrested as Qingzhou spies.

Yue Yun was quite angry when he received this news. The Prince of Wei’s ambition and unwillingness to ally with Qingzhou were well-known throughout the world. This was not only a disregard for the imperial bloodline but also a blatant betrayal.

Therefore, the soldiers had long been dissatisfied with the Prince of Wei. Now that Xiao Ming ordered the capture of Tongzhou, it seemed the soldiers had found a way to vent their anger.

At Tongzhou pier, seeing twenty warships appear on the sea, the soldiers guarding the pier showed expressions of fear. They had never seen so many warships appear at Tongzhou pier at once.

Now that Tongzhou pier had explicitly refused any Qingzhou ships from docking, the presence of so many warships here could only mean one thing: war.

“Quickly report to the General! A large number of Qingzhou warships have appeared at sea!” The Tongzhou army commander guarding the pier shouted.

A soldier nodded and immediately galloped into the city.

At this moment, the warships on the sea began to adjust their formation, lining up in a single file. After the formation was complete, a thunderous roar, like an earthquake, suddenly erupted. White smoke and flames billowed from the sea, and black solid shots rained down on Tongzhou pier.

The Tongzhou soldiers were shocked. They had never seen such a hellish scene. Soldiers who were hit fell directly into pools of blood, dying tragically. Everything on the pier hit by cannonballs shattered into pieces. In a very short time, Tongzhou pier became a wreck.

Under the dense volley of cannonballs, the Tongzhou soldiers frantically searched for cover, but soldiers were constantly hit, emitting a final, dying wail.

At this moment, the pier was a living hell.

Yue Yun observed the situation at Tongzhou pier through his telescope. He had a deep understanding of war. War was always brutal, but for the unification of Great Yu Empire, and for Great Yu Empire to unitedly face foreign enemies, the war had to continue.

Great benevolence is ruthless. He learned this principle from Xiao Ming. If he were merciful to the Prince of Wei, Great Yu Empire would never see a day of great unification. If he did not wage a thorough war, the powerful families of Great Yu Empire would never be eradicated.

Perhaps one day history would cast Xiao Ming as the cruelest tyrant of all time, but he would not regret his actions today, for without destruction, there is no rebirth.

“Commander Ye, now it’s your turn.” Yue Yun said to the general standing beside him. This person was none other than Ye Qingyun, the Governor of Dengzhou.

Putting away his telescope, Ye Qingyun nodded, “Finally, it’s our Dengzhou Army’s turn to fight! Soldiers, fight to the death and do not retreat! We must show the soldiers of the Qingzhou Army that our Dengzhou Army is not just for show!”

“Yes, General!” The soldiers roared in unison.

Yue Yun nodded with a smile. At this point, he ordered the soldiers to lower the small boats from the warships. The Dengzhou Army descended the rope ladders into the small boats and rowed towards Tongzhou pier.

At this time, the warships’ cannon did not cease, continuing to cover the Dengzhou Army’s landing. When over a hundred small boats reached the pier, the thousand soldiers on board immediately seized important roads on the pier.

Only when the soldiers had completely secured the pier did the warships at sea begin to approach the pier. This was to prevent the warships from being damaged by the enemy.

When the warships reached the pier, the remaining soldiers began to disembark, and at the same time, field cannons were hoisted down from the warships.

Ye Qingyun also arrived at the pier at this time. The pier was now littered with the bodies of Tongzhou army soldiers, and more Tongzhou army soldiers had fled to Tongzhou City under the fierce firepower of the warships.

Before the siege, Ye Qingyun had received intelligence that there were as many as forty thousand soldiers in Tongzhou City, all due to the coastal Japanese pirate problem.

However, he was not afraid of an enemy four times his size. He had also received news that Pengzhou City had been captured by Lu Fei. For him, he did not want to lose to that madman Lu.

Quickly assembling his soldiers, Ye Qingyun left a portion of his soldiers to guard the pier, while the rest all advanced towards Tongzhou City. He did this to prevent his retreat from being cut off.

Compared to Pengzhou City, Tongzhou City was a flat area, and Tongzhou pier was only a few li from Tongzhou City. After walking less than half an hour along the main road, Ye Qingyun arrived at the foot of Tongzhou City.

Outside Tongzhou City was a large open field. Ye Qingyun quickly had the soldiers line up in a linear formation. At this moment, he looked at the Tongzhou wall and, to his surprise, he actually saw cannons.

“This Prince of Wei doesn’t place cannons in Pengzhou City, but he places them in Tongzhou City. Isn’t he deliberately trying to make things difficult for me? That madman Lu really got lucky.”

However, despite his complaints, he still had to think about how to solve this problem. According to his observations, there were a total of ten cannons on the front of Tongzhou City, and his scouts reported that all four city walls were defended by ten cannons each.

This meant his idea of attacking a city wall without cannons had fallen through.

Just as he was worrying, the artillery commander of the Dengzhou Army said, “Governor, don’t forget, the cannons His Highness sold to the Prince of Wei were the worst kind. Some cannons didn’t even have a range of four hundred meters, while our field cannons can fire up to three li. Our artillerymen can just directly eliminate their cannons.”