…
As night fell, the bombardment that lasted all day finally came to an end...
Xu Zongyan came to Liu Ce with a frustrated face and reported: "Your Majesty, during the day, nine 18-pound cannons, thirteen 12-pound cannons, and sixty-six eight-pound cannons cost a total of 3,633 large and small cannons. hair,
Seven of the eight-pounder guns were overloaded and their internal tires were severely deformed due to overheating. Two of the 12-pounder guns had tires that had cracks and needed to be repaired and replaced with liners, making them temporarily unusable. "
After one day of shelling, the results were not as expected. Instead, the artillery was damaged to varying degrees, making Xu Zongyan unable to hold his head high in front of Liu Ce.
But Liu Ce did not mean to blame Xu Zongyan: "You have tried your best. I will not blame you. After all, I did not expect Qinling to be able to build the camp so strong.
You don't have to blame yourself. Let the artillery battalion brothers maintain the artillery first. The damaged artillery will be handed over to the supply battalion for repair. Shen Yingxing will take over.
You should go back and rest first, and wait for my order before taking action tomorrow. "
"Here!"
After Xu Zongyan left, Wu Sidao said to Liu Ce: "Your Majesty, I don't understand, since the artillery has little effect, why should we waste cannon powder?
In my opinion, the army can completely bypass the Tashan military camp and enter the hinterland of Bohe to threaten the chieftain nobles from other places. Doesn't it make sense to stay here and confront Lun Qinling? "
Liu Ce shook his head: "Mr. Wu, Bohe is different from me in the Central Plains. Although it is also a farming civilization, it is essentially serf-dominated.
They will not care about the destruction of the economy within their own territory, because strictly speaking they have no economy at all.
Even if we destroy all the tribes and towns in Bohe, I bet that the nobles in Bohe will still not feel heartache.
After all, those who died were just some serfs. As long as the noble power exists, the lost serfs can be captured from various countries in Southeast Asia.
Countries such as Tianzhu, Dabolu and Xiaobolu, and even Nepal and Siam can provide them with a steady stream of manpower and material resources.
So threatening their normal towns is useless. "
Wu Sidao nodded and asked, "What does your Majesty mean?"
Liu Ce: "This time I originally planned to lead the army to attack the noble areas on the plateau and eliminate the biggest hidden danger that threatens our Han Dynasty's southwest border.
But now I have changed my mind, because the time is not yet ripe, and even if I capture the city of Sala, I am afraid I will not be able to conquer this land.
So my idea is to do everything possible to consume the manpower of the Bohe Empire..."
Wu Si said: "In this case, our Han army should take a detour to attack the other tribes and towns in Bohe..."
Liu Ce: "Mr. Wu, you are wrong again. You don't know much about Bohe's military deployment.
Just killing the civilian serfs will have no effect. If you want to destroy them, you must destroy their army.
Because in the Bohe military system, those who join the army must be Bohe people. This is also a common problem of serfdom. They know that they exploit slaves too harshly.
They didn't dare to give them the opportunity to serve in the army, and there were even strict restrictions on the use of iron tools.
It is better to kill one Bohe soldier than to kill one hundred serfs. There seem to be five to six million people on the entire plateau. In fact, the real Bohe soldiers are only 13,400,000.
Only by weakening Bohe's military power step by step can we eliminate the Bohe people's influence on the plateau.
Let me ask, when the number of Bohe supervisors guarding the slaves changed from ten to one or two, would those slaves who worked all day have other thoughts? "
Wu Sidao suddenly realized: "So that's it. Your Majesty has such far-sighted plans, and I feel ashamed of myself."
Liu Ce replied calmly: "So, as for Qin Ling's army, I must eat him. This is the elite force of Bohe's top brass.
Once they are all wiped out here, it will definitely cause shock to the top brass in Bohe. By then, our goal will be accomplished, and it will be time to negotiate terms. "
"Conditions?" Wu Sidao frowned.
Liu Ce rolled his eyes at him: "Since I started the army, when have I fought a losing battle? This time, the military expenses, food losses, and soldiers' pension bonuses must be paid by the Bohe people."
Wu Si said: "I'm just afraid that the Bohe people won't agree."
"No? Huh..."
When Liu Ce heard this, he smiled and shook his head.
He knew the thoughts of these nobles very well. When his own life was threatened, he was willing to pay to eliminate the disaster.
Moreover, the Bohe Empire has relied on plundering Southeast Asian countries and territories for more than a hundred years. There may not be anything else, but it is very rich in gold and silver, probably no less than in the Central Plains.
As long as they are forced to do so, the military expenses will definitely come to hand.
At this moment, Jiao Luo came to report: "Your Majesty, the wind direction has changed!"
Liu Ce's eyes turned cold, and he immediately stood up and came outside the tent.
Sure enough, the military flag in front of the tent under the night sky began to wave in the direction of the enemy camp.
"Okay, the enemy will be defeated tonight. The Guards will assemble and send the order to Wei Dian!"
…
In the Tashan camp, the Bohe soldiers who had withstood a day of shelling were still in shock. They gathered listlessly in front of the campfire, and some of them ate fried rice and refined wheat without a bite.
Many people have experienced tinnitus and deafness, and even their eyes were red and swollen from gunpowder smoke.
The shock that the shelling brought to this army was unprecedented.
Lun Qinling, who was in the main tent, did not touch the food brought by the slaves. Instead, he urged officers at all levels to strengthen the barracks to prevent Han troops from sneak attacks at night.
In fact, Qinling was most worried about the Han army's night attack, because the night blindness rate of Bohe soldiers was as high as more than 70% at night. If there is not enough lighting equipment, once they are attacked by the enemy, the consequences will be very disastrous.
After arranging the night inspection work, Lun Qinling still felt a little uneasy, so he went to the camp to inspect it himself.
However, just when he stepped onto the newly repaired wooden wall tread and was about to test whether it was strong and reliable, he heard a defender nearby shouting: "Look, there are lights in the sky, like stars!"
After hearing this, Lun Qinling looked in the direction pointed by the guard, and his pupils suddenly shrank.
I saw hundreds of huge spheres with flames rising from the sky above the Han army camp.
And these spheres were all pressing towards the Tashan camp.
This is definitely not an accident, but a premeditated action, targeting his own military camp.
"The entire army is listening to the order and preparing to defend against the enemy!"
Lun Qinling gave an order, followed by the ringing of bells and the sound of trumpets throughout the camp.
Countless archers were already in position, waiting to shoot them down as soon as the sphere came close.
But what they didn't expect was that the sphere rose very high, reaching a height of three to four hundred meters, which was already beyond the range of the crossbow.
What's more, shooting arrows at an angle is not enough threatening.
Lun Qinling stared at the spheres slowly approaching, and finally arrived in front of the camp.
After seeing these hot air balloons at close range, Lun Qinling and other defenders were shocked.
"Fire the arrow!"
Whistle--
After a brief shock, Lun Qinling ordered the arrows to be fired back.
However, because the hot air balloon was too high from the ground, the arrows could not hit the target at all. After thousands of wolf fangs were fired, they all failed, and they could only watch the hot air balloon flying into the sky above their camp.
The next moment, countless burning oil bottles were suddenly dropped from the hot air balloon. The moment one of them hit the ground, it burst into flames.
In an instant, the entire camp was covered in flames and surrounded. Countless Bohe soldiers were on fire, roaring and rolling back and forth on the ground.
Immediately afterwards, two hundred more bodies carrying "small balloons" jumped out of the hot air balloon and slowly fell into the Tashan camp along the designated route.
"Bang~"
An iron tower-like body fell from mid-air and hit a Bohe guard directly. Under the light of the fire, Wei Dian's ferocious face was clearly visible.
The moment the parachute was about to cover his body, Wei Dian cut off the ropes tied to his sides and waist, then took out the two iron halberds from his back, pointed them at a Bohe officer and pounced directly.
"Look at me, one against ten thousand!"
