Chapter 770
by karlmaksA faint, dim afterglow from the western sky fell upon Yazhou City.
On the main street, musketeers, carrying their firearms, marched in neat steps towards Songzhou City. They had just finished an ambush against two barbarian ten-thousand-man units.
Now, they could not rest; they still had to continue pursuing the remaining three ten-thousand-man units.
At this time, the soldiers’ morale was high. Seeing that these invaders were about to be completely eliminated, they already felt the joy of victory in their hearts.
Luo Quan did not set off with Lu Fei and Qi Guangyi. He would be responsible for detaining the captives in Yazhou City. Today’s ambush outside the city was executed very well.
Besides the barbarian cavalry, 50,000 barbarian slave soldiers were captured. He would work with Di Ying to prevent these slaves from causing chaos in the rear.
He could have simply killed these people, just as they did with the barbarians in Songzhou City, but reason ultimately led him to keep these captives.
This time, Bashu was so severely damaged by these people. Keeping them as lifelong laborers to serve in Bashu would be better than simply killing them.
Of course, this was only for ordinary barbarian soldiers; none of the barbarian generals could escape the Great Yu Empire’s judgment.
Watching Lu Fei lead the soldiers away, Luo Quan said to Di Ying, “Escort Bodo’s corpse and all the remaining barbarian generals to Qingzhou Province, and await His Majesty’s imperial judgment.”
“Yes, General.”
Di Ying responded. He led the soldiers to drive all the barbarian generals into prisoner carts and dispatched soldiers to send these people to Yizhou, from where they would travel by boat to Qingzhou Province.
…
Songzhou City.
Facing the trenches before him, Achige’s brows were furrowed. Although he had lost many scouts, one team of scouts returned and told them about Yazhou City.
Learning that Yazhou City had been breached, Achige and even Bodo had no chance of survival. After reuniting with the remaining two ten-thousand-man units, they headed straight for Songzhou, which they believed to be lightly defended, preparing to return to the grasslands.
Achige had long been dissatisfied with Bodo’s greedy nature. All the plans made before setting off were completely disrupted by Bodo.
However, since Bodo was leading this time, they could only obey orders. But now that Bodo was either dead or captured, he could no longer care about him.
Winter was fast approaching. If they could not bring back the plundered grain to the grasslands this time, more of their people would die this winter.
Thinking of this, Achige’s eyes turned fierce. He shouted loudly, “Dismount! We must take Songzhou City!”
Now, he only had cavalry under his command, but cavalry could not assault cities. So, he had no choice but to order his soldiers to abandon their horses and attack the city on foot.
When he decided to come to Songzhou, he had judged that the defenses here would be few, because most of the forces were besieging Bodo in Yazhou.
Now, looking at the not-so-dense soldiers on the city wall, he couldn’t help but feel a little smug. Perhaps he could return to the grasslands this time.
However, he quickly noticed something amiss. After his soldiers launched their charge, layers of firearms suddenly emerged from the trenches in front of the city gate.
With a “bang, bang” of gunshots, charging barbarian soldiers fell in batches. At the same time, the soldiers on the city wall also fired from a long distance.
Bullets flew. The barbarian cavalry were like moths rushing to a flame. But no matter how fierce they were, they often fell on the charging path before even reaching the Great Yu Empire soldiers.
At this moment, the Conqueror Musket fully displayed its long-range advantage. The soldiers in the trenches and the soldiers on the city wall provided covering fire for each other. The barbarian soldiers suffered heavy losses for a time.
Achige was stunned. The first batch of four thousand charging soldiers fell completely before even reaching the trenches.
His body trembled. He then ordered the second batch of soldiers to charge. Now, he had no retreat. If Songzhou City was not breached, he would never be able to return to the grasslands.
However, the five thousand men in this charge once again repeated the fate of the first wave of soldiers. In the dense gunfire, these brave barbarian soldiers still fell into pools of blood.
In one hour, two consecutive attacks completely failed. Achige felt a chill throughout his body.
The Great Yu Empire army he encountered this time was clearly different from before. This advantage in weaponry left him with no way to achieve victory.
Staring silently at Songzhou City, Achige desperately glanced at the remaining barbarian cavalry. He then reined in his horse and headed in the direction of Chang’an.
The remaining barbarian cavalry followed closely.
One day after Achige left, Qi Guangyi led his cavalry to Songzhou City.
Looking at the corpses of barbarian soldiers in front of Songzhou City, he realized he had arrived too late.
“General, the hunter cavalry has been following the barbarians. They went in the direction of Chang’an,” a soldier reported to Qi Guangyi.
Upon hearing this, Qi Guangyi snorted angrily. He said, “They are seeking their own demise. Their horses have no fodder to eat. Let’s see how far they can go.”
With that, he led his troops in pursuit. After a setback in front of Songzhou City, the number of remaining barbarian cavalry was no longer a threat, which made Qi Guangyi even bolder.
While Qi Guangyi continued to encircle and suppress the barbarian cavalry, the commander of Songzhou City also sent this news to Yazhou City.
Learning that the remaining barbarian cavalry were still fleeing, he frowned. He then called a hunter cavalry general and said, “You are to immediately dispatch three teams of hunter cavalry. One team will go to Yizhou, informing the common people along the way that they can claim a bounty of five taels of silver at the various prefectural offices for barbarian soldiers’ heads. Another team will go to Chang’an, also spreading this news. The remaining team will go directly to Juyong Pass to inform Luo Hong, ordering him to dispatch cavalry to search for the remaining barbarian cavalry.”
“Yes, General,” the hunter cavalry general responded and walked out.
Luo Quan waved his hand, telling him to quickly relay the order.
He did this precisely to thoroughly eliminate the barbarian soldiers in Bashu. In yesterday’s battle, although they had captured many barbarian soldiers, a portion of them had escaped.
Bashu was vast, and these barbarian soldiers could be anywhere. Therefore, only by having the common people participate in the search for the barbarian cavalry could these scattered remnants be quickly wiped out in one fell swoop.
Going to Chang’an served the same purpose. There were more powerful families there, and they would be happy to use this opportunity to gain favor with the current Emperor.
Having given these instructions, Luo Quan prepared to rest for three days before returning to Qingzhou Province. The army outside had consumed greatly, and Bashu had suffered this calamity. He was unwilling to add further burden to the region.
At the same time, Lu Fei also found nothing outside Songzhou City. According to the predetermined plan, he continued to lead his troops northward. Depending on the situation, he would rest in Chang’an before returning to Jinling Province.
However, to prevent Tibet and the barbarians from attacking Songzhou again, he decided this time to have the musketeers led by Di Ying stationed in Songzhou City, waiting to be replaced after Yizhou Province trained a new batch of soldiers.
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