Chapter 201: Hell In The Royal Court, Western Liao Crown Prince Captured Alive
Before Xiao Hetu could finish speaking, a crimson-colored rift suddenly tore open in the sky.
A smoke-covered iron ball tore through the clouds, emitting a piercing shriek above the Royal Court Army’s formation.
“What sound is that?”
The generals of the Eastern Kara-Khanid Khanate looked up, their eyes fixed on the sky in terror, but could only see a black object flash by.
The next second, an iron ball fell from the sky.
It directly struck a Kara-Khanid cavalryman in the chest, instantly knocking him off his horse. His chest bones were all broken, and before he could even cry out in pain, his entire upper body was smashed into a pulp.
The iron ball, with its immense momentum, continued to roll forward, breaking the legs of two warhorses and terrifying the surrounding horses into a frenzy, causing complete chaos.
The generals of the Eastern Kara-Khanid Khanate who witnessed this scene were utterly stunned.
“Allah! What is this thing?”
“A devil, these are devil’s weapons.”
“Quickly control the horses, don’t let them run wild.”
The Royal Court Army in this area descended into chaos, with frightened shouts and noisy calls blending together.
At this moment, in front of the Jin Prefecture Army’s artillery position, Liu Zhong, the first chiliarch of the Divine Machine Camp, was looking towards the Royal Court Army with a telescope.
Confirming the landing spot of the iron ball, he immediately turned his head and shouted loudly to all the soldiers, “Fire in this direction, hurl all your cannonballs at them.”
“Kill them all~”
Liu Zhong pointed towards the direction of the Royal Court Army’s camp, his face contorted, and roared, “Fire cannon!”
“Fire cannon!”
Amidst the roars, the gunners lit the fuses with torches.
As the crackling sounds faded, the entire artillery position was suddenly torn apart by a rumbling sound like an earth dragon.
“BOOM!!”
The flames from the muzzles of the twenty giant cannons were over two feet long, and the scorching blast wave of sulfur and saltpeter pressed the surrounding weeds flat to the ground like a gale.
The land seemed to sink by several centimeters at that moment.
Twenty cannonballs soared into the sky, trailing invisible air currents as they landed within the Royal Court Army.
But the moment they landed, the fuses on the iron balls had just finished burning.
With another deafening roar, the twenty iron balls exploded simultaneously.
When the Divine Machine Camp began its formal bombardment, they were no longer firing solid iron shots, but explosive shells, the latest development from the Hexi Weaponry Shop.
These shells were immensely powerful and specifically designed to counter cavalry.
Upon detonation, the iron casing scattered hundreds of iron nails and shards, raining down into the throats, eye sockets, and chests of surrounding soldiers.
“Ahhh~”
“My eyes, I can’t see.”
“Help me, I don’t want to die.”
Countless tragic screams erupted from the Royal Court Army simultaneously; some writhed on the ground clutching their bellies, their intestines spilling out.
Some clutched their necks and covered their wounds, only able to emit gasping sounds, with blood bubbles gurgling from between their fingers.
Some ran around blindly with bleeding eyes, shouting wildly, but only a few breaths later, they collapsed to the ground.
The effective range of the explosive shells was about ten meters, forming vacuum zones around twenty impact points.
Witnessing this scene, the Kara-Khanid generals were horrified and shouted loudly, “Stop, don’t panic, don’t run.”
“We are slaves of Allah, Allah will protect us and make us impervious to blades and spears…”
But before his words had even finished, a piercing shriek echoed through the sky again, as the Jin Prefecture Army’s second round of bombardment followed closely.
“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM~”
The deafening roars exploded through the Royal Court Army once more, and this time one cannonball landed not far from this general.
“Ah—my leg! My leg is gone!”
After the explosion, the general screamed, clutching his right leg. The part below his knee had been ground into mince by iron nails, and the tendons at the broken femur were still twitching like dying earthworms.
He threw his head back and screamed, finally understanding that Allah would not make them impervious to blades and spears.
But his agony lasted only a few seconds, as another explosion sounded, and a piece of shrapnel diagonally sliced into his forehead.
It shot out the other side of his head, hitting the chest of a soldier behind him.
The general’s screams abruptly ceased, and his body fell heavily to the ground, followed by the screams of the soldier.
The entire Royal Court Army had been transformed into a living hell.
Seeing this, Yelü Zhixin’s pupils constricted, his face turned deathly pale, his lips trembled, and his body uncontrollably retreated, as if trying to flee from that terrifying demonic zone.
“Wh-what is that?”
“What in the hell is that thing?”
“Retreat, retreat quickly.”
The Jin Prefecture Army’s weapons were too terrifying; he didn’t want to be buried with the army.
After all, as a prince of the Great Liao, his life was far more precious than those lowly soldiers.
But just as Yelü Zhixin was preparing to flee with his men, his personal guard suddenly shouted in alarm.
“Your Highness, be careful.”
As the words fell, the guard leaped from his horse and threw himself onto Yelü Zhixin, pinning him to the ground.
Yelü Zhixin felt as if his bones were about to break from the fall. Before he could react, an iron ball rolled directly towards them.
“Ahhh~”
Warhorses neighed and roared, soldiers screamed.
Yelü Zhixin watched with his own eyes as his personal guards were cut down by the iron ball, soldiers and horses collapsing in a bloody swath.
The next second, with a deafening ‘boom’, the iron ball exploded, and the lead shot and iron fragments packed inside swept out in a fan shape, instantly piercing the bodies of soldiers and warhorses within a three-zhang radius.
At this moment, the guard on top of Yelü Zhixin was holding him firmly down.
“Your Highness, don’t move… Ah!”
But before he could finish speaking, his voice abruptly stopped. A piece of iron grazed the guard’s neck, and the shrapnel pierced his throat, spraying blood foam and broken teeth onto Yelü Zhixin’s cheek.
“Ahhh~”
Yelü Zhixin let out a tragic roar, but it wasn’t because of his guard’s blood, but because the iron fragment, after passing through his guard’s throat, had shot into his shoulder.
Blood instantly dyed the ground red, and Yelü Zhixin wailed in pain, but he was pinned by his guard’s corpse and could not move.
Meanwhile, Xiao Hetu, followed by his guards, hurried to retreat to the rear area, his expression terrified, his face completely bloodless, and he kept murmuring to himself.
“No, impossible! Absolutely impossible!”
“How can there be such a thing?”
“Gunpowder? Damn it!”
“How can gunpowder have such terrifying power?”
But a burnt smell mixed with a sweet, bloody odor assailed his nostrils – the smell of gunpowder burning human flesh, more pungent than the roast whole lamb they had eaten these past few days.
Even he, astute as he was, was greatly terrified after witnessing the power of the cannons.
Although firearms existed in this era, their power was very weak due to immature technology.
In terms of siege efficiency, they were even less effective than catapults.
Therefore, the mainstream of this era was the development of kinetic weapons. Although Xiao Hetu had seen gunpowder.
He had never even heard of such powerful firearms, let alone seen them.
This was mainly because the Jin Prefecture Army’s gunpowder had only appeared briefly in Kuyun-Ordu, and its true moment of brilliance was in the Jin Prefecture Army’s eastern expedition against the Naiman people.
However, news of that battle had not yet reached the Royal Court; they didn’t even know that the Naiman tribe had been annihilated by Li Xiao.
The subsequent bombardment arrived one after another. Twenty giant cannons on the Jin Prefecture Army’s formation raised their dark muzzles, and the word “Divine Might” engraved on the cannon barrels glowed red from the muzzle fire.
Li Xiao held a telescope, watching as the Royal Court Army’s abatis turned to dust under the iron balls. The shields made of three layers of cowhide, now resembled pierced hornet nests, with severed limbs still dripping blood from the holes.
Countless iron nails poured down like rain, piercing the dense cavalry formations.
Warhorses, blinded by iron nails, reared up, throwing their riders to the ground; some soldiers, impaled through the shoulder blades by iron nails, were pinned to their comrades’ saddles, tumbling together in the horse troop and being trampled to death by the maddened warhorses.
Seeing all this, Li Xiao knew that the morale of the Royal Court Army had collapsed and it was time to launch the final assault.
“Give the order, Divine Machine Camp cease bombardment!”
“Three Town Soldiers, full offensive.” Li Xiao’s low voice boomed.
With the sounding of horns, the roar of the Divine Machine Camp’s giant cannons abruptly ceased, and the Three Town Soldiers, who had been slowly approaching, began a full-speed charge.
“Cannons finish, cavalry charges,” this phrase had become a combat tradition of the Jin Prefecture Army.
“Kill~”
Leading the charge was naturally the Black Armored Army.
Fifteen hundred Black Armored soldiers advanced like an iron wall towards the front. Sweat-soaked, Zhang Xianfeng’s face could be seen through the gaps of his iron helmet.
He could see the shattered shields on the Royal Court Army’s formation – the giant shields made of camel hide and jujube wood by the Eastern Kara-Khanid Khanate artisans, now like crushed beetle shells embedded in the churned-up grassland.
“Crush them!”
Zhang Xianfeng roared loudly, brandishing his mace, and led the armored cavalry behind him in a ferocious charge.
A stray arrow whizzed past his helmet, leaving a white mark on the iron plate of his neck guard. He didn’t even flinch, continuing his advance.
On the other side, the infantry army of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, although already terrified to their core by the Jin Prefecture Army’s artillery fire, with countless shields shattered and soldiers fleeing in panic.
However, some generals managed to rally some shield-bearers, shouting tremulously in the Uyghur language, “Hold them back, or we will all die.”
Disorganized infantry were like live targets when facing cavalry, especially the charge of heavy cavalry, leaving them with no hope of survival.
Only by gathering together to form a military formation could they possibly preserve their lives.
Soon, some Kara-Khanid soldiers, with a desperate resolve, gathered together, erected giant shields, and from the gaps, spears were extended, making them look like hedgehogs from afar.
Faced with this situation, the Black Armored Army had long since undergone corresponding training.
“Iron Chain Formation, break through the shield wall!”
Zhang Xianfeng roared, swinging his mace.
The next moment, two shi hu units charged out. The soldiers in each shi hu were linked together by iron chains connecting their warhorses side by side.
Between the two shi hu, two longer and thicker iron chains were connected.
Twenty of the strongest heavy cavalry warhorses charged forward side by side. Under the immense impact, the iron chain in the middle swung directly in front of the shield formation.
The next second, with a deafening ‘boom’, the tightly fitted shield formation was directly pulled apart by the force of the iron chains.
Many shield-bearers were knocked flying and fell heavily to the ground.
The spearmen, unprotected by shields, were even more tragic; some were even split in half by the iron chains.
Screams and wails erupted one after another.
In the next instant, Zhang Xianfeng led the heavy cavalry charge, his mace swinging in an arc. A soldier who had just stood up had his shield explode, wooden fragments piercing his eye socket.
“Kill~”
Zhang Xianfeng roared loudly, swinging his mace again, and the head of another soldier burst open like a watermelon.
In a short moment, the last infantry defensive formation of the Eastern Kara-Khanid Khanate was completely torn apart by the Black Armored Army.
The fully armed heavy cavalry began a one-sided slaughter against these infantry.
Immediately after, the First Division army arrived, taking over from the Black Armored Army to continue expanding the victory.
However, the most enthusiastic in the charge were not the First Division garrison soldiers, but the Kuli Army war captives.
“I want women.”
“Lots and lots of women.”
A Naiman soldier named Boluoba, wielding a mace, charged at the forefront, his face filled with excitement and no fear of war or death.
In his eyes, these Royal Court soldiers were not enemies, but women, money, and status.
According to the Kuli Army’s regulations, killing just three enemies would allow him to shed his slave status and become a true garrison soldier, with all his benefits greatly increased.
In the previous war against the Kereit Tribe, Boluoba had only killed one Kereit soldier. Although he had received some material rewards, he remained a slave.
In contrast, his brother, who had incredible luck, killed three Kereit soldiers, had his slave status directly removed, and became a garrison soldier of the Jin Prefecture Army’s Second Division.
Not only was he rewarded with a lot of money and cattle and sheep, but he also received a young woman. It was worth noting that such young women were usually only enjoyed by Naiman nobles, and only given to commoners after they were tired of them.
Yet now, his brother, at such a young age, was living a noble life. What made him even more envious was that that bastard had even donned that red armor, and the shi hu leader had even given him a Han name: Zhang Dagou.
Boluoba admitted he was jealous.
He was afraid that his brother was suffering, and also afraid that his brother was having an easy time.
If they were all slaves, it would be one thing, but seeing his brother enjoy himself with women on both sides while he was still struggling alone.
Boluoba’s mentality exploded.
Fortunately, his brother told him that another shi hu leader had taken notice of his bravery, and as long as he killed enough enemies, the shi hu leader would directly transfer him to his command, and even had a Han name picked out for him.
Zhang Ergou.
One life, two brothers, never separated.
Therefore, Boluoba fought with exceptional effort in this campaign against the Royal Court.
Wielding a mace made of wood, he swung it with great force, charging forward and directly smashing the head of an Eastern Kara-Khanid soldier.
Compared to the brave and skilled Kereit soldiers, these Eastern Kara-Khanid soldiers were simply a bunch of weaklings. Their equipment was quite good, but they lacked the courage to fight to the death, and their methods of killing were also clumsy.
After all, the Eastern Kara-Khanid Khanate was located in Southern Xinjiang and lived a relatively peaceful life, not comparable to the brutal training of the grasslands.
Moreover, the Eastern Kara-Khanid Khanate army had fewer horses, mostly consisting of infantry.
If they could gather together and form a military formation, even light cavalry would not dare to charge rashly. However, at this moment, these Eastern Kara-Khanid soldiers had already been scared out of their wits by the Jin Prefecture Army’s continuous attacks.
They only knew to flee in panic, but how could two legs outrun four legs?
He took out the dagger given to him by Zhang Dagou, cut off two ears from the corpse, and then continued to pursue the fleeing Eastern Kara-Khanid soldiers.
In his opinion, these soldiers were like sheep being chased by wolves on the prairie, pitifully weak and not daring to resist.
Although fighting such enemies was not satisfying, it was truly comfortable.
Boluoba wanted to take this opportunity to kill a few more, to become Zhang Ergou as soon as possible, and also to exchange ears for military merit, for a lot of money and women.
Many war slaves held the same idea as Boluoba; they all wanted to shed their slave status as soon as possible and obtain more money and women.
Therefore, even though their equipment was simple, and some only had a broken spear, their ferocity was no less than that of the well-equipped garrison soldiers.
After this battle, a considerable number of war slaves would transform into Three Town garrison soldiers.
However, the reason these war slaves fought so bravely was mainly because the Divine Machine Camp and the Black Armored Army had already broken the toughest bones.
Fighting a battle on favorable terms, naturally, everyone was more capable.
But when it came to actual fighting, one had to look at the well-equipped Third Town troops.
…
The Third Town army, following Li Xiao’s orders, flanked the Royal Court Army from the battlefield’s side, aiming to annihilate them as much as possible, leaving no one alive.
Garrison soldiers in white cotton armor charged forward as the main force, and to their flanks followed some Kuli Army troops.
In this battle, the Kuli Army was not acting as an independent force.
Instead, they moved together with the main force of the Third Town.
Each unit brought Kuli Army troops of equivalent strength to serve as auxiliary soldiers and cannon fodder, a supervisory relationship detailed down to every squad leader.
As a Captain, Yang Shouzheng commanded thirty Kuli Army war slaves in addition to his thirty garrison soldiers.
This person was a slave who had been rescued by the Jin Prefecture Army in Dunhuang.
His father was a general of Western Xia who was framed by a treacherous minister, leading to his banishment to Dunhuang, after which Yang Shouzheng and his brother joined the Jin Prefecture Army.
He had now become a formal Captain, commanding fifty households and thirty war slaves.
Twenty garrison soldiers remained to guard Jin Prefecture.
At this moment, he was leading the remaining troops under his command as the vanguards, clearing the path for the Third Town army. Suddenly, about a hundred meters ahead, he spotted a small enemy force fleeing into the distance.
“There are definitely some fat sheep among them.”
Yang Shouzheng looked into the distance, his eyes instantly lighting up.
Fat sheep represented privileged individuals; even during a defeat, these were the ones who fled first.
Therefore, Yang Shouzheng immediately called over a garrison soldier: “Go tell the Centurion, I’m taking my men to pursue and kill the fat sheep.”
With that said, he led his men to charge into the distance.
On this chaotic battlefield, each unit’s general had a certain degree of autonomy and could make tactical adjustments based on the battlefield situation. In urgent moments, no prior request was needed, but a messenger had to be left to inform their superior to send someone to take over their mission.
The fleeing force in the distance was Xiao Hetu’s men.
There were over twenty of them, and taking advantage of Yelü Zhixin’s preoccupation in the chaos, they had escaped in another direction.
But shortly after leaving the Royal Court Army’s formation, a guard exclaimed, “Young Master, the Jin Prefecture Army is catching up.”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Hetu’s expression changed drastically. He turned to look, and indeed, hundreds of meters away, a cavalry force was pursuing them.
Leading the charge were soldiers clad in white armor, flanked by nomadic cavalry wearing worn sheepskin, their bodies dirty, with unkempt hair or shaved heads.
Although Xiao Hetu couldn’t identify the nomadic cavalry, the white-armored soldiers were legendary to him.
“White Armored Soldiers?”
“Damn it, how did they catch up?”
The White Armored Army was the elite of the Jin Prefecture Army. During the rebellion in the Northern Frontier, the White Armored Army roamed the Seven Rivers Grassland, making the local tribes tremble with fear, and in subsequent wars, they repeatedly defeated the main forces of the Royal Court.
Their combat strength was immense, and they were highly renowned in the Royal Court.
Although it was his first time seeing the White Armored Army in person, Xiao Hetu dared not test whether their sabers were sharp.
“Retreat, speed up, hurry and retreat,” Xiao Hetu shouted.
He only had over twenty guards with him, a clear disadvantage in numbers.
And he had clearly been identified by Yang Shouzheng as a fat sheep, who would not easily let go once he had latched on.
“Second Master~”
Yang Shouzheng roared, and without needing to say more, his younger brother Yang Shoujing understood his intention.
The sixty cavalrymen split into two, like a pair of scissors, flanking forward from both sides.
History had already proven this to be the most effective pursuit method.
This was because war horses could not run in an absolute straight line while galloping; they would involuntarily drift left and right.
Each drift would bring the pursuers closer by a small margin, until they were fully caught.
After twenty li, the stamina of both sides’ war horses grew weaker, and their speed slowed, but the Jin Prefecture pursuers were already less than a hundred meters away.
“Kill!”
Xiao Hetu left half his guards to block the Jin Prefecture Army, and Yang Shouzheng also detached half his men to continue the pursuit.
“Young Master, Chejian and the others are all dead,” one guard shouted in terror.
Xiao Hetu’s expression turned to shock upon hearing this: “What?”
He turned to look; the ten guards left behind to cover their retreat had indeed all been cut down from their horses.
These were elite warriors who had followed father and son in their exile to Khotan; years of fighting had given them combat strength far exceeding that of ordinary soldiers.
Yet, even so, they were killed by the Jin Prefecture Army in a short period.
This shock, in addition to the terror the Jin Prefecture Army inspired, ignited a sliver of fear in Xiao Hetu.
Could they, father and son, truly contend with such terrifying enemies?
But as Xiao Hetu panicked, the Jin Prefecture pursuers had already entered arrow range.
A whistling sound of arrows filled the air. Xiao Hetu heard his war horse let out a pained whinny, stumbled, and was directly thrown off by the horse.
“Pursue them and capture them.”
“If there is any resistance, shoot them directly.”
