flstandardbreds Chapter 163 Breaking Di
Chapter 163 Breaking Di
Three days later, at the Baideng Pass, the hot wind felt like a sharp blade, mercilessly cutting through every inch of skin.
Liu Shan, dressed in a black outfit, lay tightly against the scorching rock wall. The intense heat burned his body through his clothes, but his gaze was fixed like that of a hawk on the campfire at the Northern Di granary ten miles away.
Jiang Ruolan gracefully crouched beside him, the silver bell on her wrist wrapped with oil-soaked hemp rope to prevent it from making a sound.
With keen eyes, she carefully observed the movements around the granary, then whispered in Liu Shan's ear, "The twelfth guard post in the southeast corner will be rotated every half an incense stick's time."
"That's enough," Liu Shan replied in a low voice, then decisively bit off the grass stem in his mouth. The bitter juice and sand in the grass stem were crushed between his teeth, and his eyes showed determination.
By this time, the three hundred light cavalry were already ready. Their leather armor was covered with dry grass, and their horses' hooves were carefully wrapped in sheepskin. The whole group was like a group of silent and agile sand foxes, silently sliding down the steep slope.
When the first rocket pierced the cowhide tent like a meteor, the dry camel hair tent was instantly ignited, and a raging pillar of fire shot into the sky. The intense flames illuminated the entire night sky and the spirited faces of the Longxiang Army soldiers.
"May Heaven bless Great Xia!" Lü Ding's voice boomed like a bell, ringing out loudly amidst the raging fire.
He wielded the bronze cauldron, fiercely smashing down the panicked Northern Di garrison.
In the firelight, his half-missing ear stood out conspicuously, a mark of bravery left by past battles.
At this moment, the unique cured horse meat of the Northern Di people emitted a charred aroma in the fire, mixed with the pungent smell of human oil, which quickly swept across the entire Gobi Desert with the hot wind.
The fire was so powerful that the flames could be clearly seen from thirty miles away. The golden wolf banner, which the Left Wise King of the Northern Barbarians was so proud of, was instantly reduced to ashes in the fierce fire, symbolizing that the morale of the Northern Barbarians had suffered a heavy blow.
The next day, at dawn, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Jiang Ruolan rode her snow-white steed, rushing into the Northern Di camp like a bolt of lightning through the morning dew.
She deliberately made the silver bell on her wrist ring out crisply in the quiet camp, and the sudden sound instantly broke the tranquility of the camp.
The Left Wise King of the Northern Barbarians was fast asleep in his tent when the bell startled him so much that he jerked over the concubine beside him and rushed out of the tent in a panic.
This tyrant, who had a penchant for massacring cities, was now in a terrible state, his eyes filled with terror.
He was only wearing his underpants, and the wolf head tattoo on his chest, a symbol of his identity, was still dripping with alcohol, looking particularly ferocious in the morning light.
"State your name!" The Left Wise King brandished his scimitar and roared, attempting to mask his inner panic.
However, before he could finish speaking, Jiang Ruolan's longsword had already swiftly extended forward like a serpent.
A flash of cold light appeared, and before the Left Wise King could even react, his head was lifted high by Jiang Ruolan.
At this moment, the moonlight poured down like water, illuminating his glaring single eye. Surprisingly, this single eye bore a striking resemblance to the beauty mark under Jiang Ruolan's left eye.
"Tell you about the new Chanyu." Jiang Ruolan said expressionlessly, deftly flicking the blood off her knife, and softly chanted a nursery rhyme in the ancient Northern Di language, "Princess Silver Moon has returned to collect her debts."
Her voice echoed through the silent camp, seemingly carrying endless resentment and majesty, stirring a nameless fear in the hearts of the Northern Di soldiers.
……
In his mansion in the capital, Fang Mingzhe crushed the secret report sent by his spies with a sinister expression.
His gaze was gloomy as he slowly drew talismans on the sandalwood table with wine in his hand, saying viciously, "Have those 'vagrants' smear the corpse poison on the rivets of the supply wagons. Remember to cry about the drought in their hometown, the more tears the better."
Three days later, just as Fang Mingzhe had planned, a dozen or so disheveled "disaster victims" appeared in the rear camp of the Longxiang Army.
The soldiers responsible for the inspection cautiously stepped forward.
As he crouched down to examine the festering soles of these men's feet, one of them suddenly clung to his leg like a hungry wolf, crying out pitifully, "Please, sir, give me some food!"
The pus and blood seeped into the sand from the tattered clothes, emitting a nauseating stench; the scene was chaotic and tragic.
The epidemic spread quietly, and soldiers fell ill one after another, with cries of pain echoing throughout the camp.
"General! The plague has spread to the vanguard camp!" Cui Yan rushed into the tent in a panic, covering his mouth and nose.
However, he was surprised to find Liu Shanzheng calmly sketching on the map, seemingly unconcerned about the sudden outbreak.
A blackened finger was soaking in a glass cup on the table; it was left by the assassin last night, and it looked particularly eerie in the candlelight.
"Order that the patients be gathered at Eagle's Beak Gorge." Liu Shan wrote the military order with a calm expression, his hand still wet with the poisoned blood. "Prepare plenty of mugwort and lime, and tell them that I will personally oversee the treatment."
That night, the Northern Barbarian vanguard charged into the canyon under the cover of darkness, fully expecting to seize the opportunity, unaware that what awaited them was a sky full of burning oil and collapsing rocks.
In an instant, screams echoed through the canyon, the piercing cries continuing until dawn.
As dawn broke, vultures circled in the sky, pecking at the mountains of corpses piled on the ground, forming a gruesome human pyramid. The Northern Barbarian vanguard suffered a devastating blow here.
Several days later, at the foot of Langjuxu Mountain, the once calm quicksand suddenly began to swirl strangely, as if a mysterious force was controlling everything.
Liu Shan stood tall and straight on the altar, waving a command flag in his hand.
The soldiers of the Longxiang Army were well-trained and quickly rotated in an orderly manner according to the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) formation. Their shield formations tightened, resembling a hard tortoise shell, while their spears flickered like the tongues of nimble snakes, gleaming coldly in the sunlight.
The Northern Di cavalry lost their way in this mysterious Bagua maze; their warhorses were startled, and the soldiers trampled each other in panic.
The scorching sun beat down mercilessly, turning their armor into scorching hot irons, exacerbating their pain and confusion.
"Water enters the Kan position!" Liu Shan slashed the command flag and shouted the order.
In an instant, the pre-buried ceramic pipes burst, and the stored drinking water split into eight streams like a raging torrent.
In this dry season, water is more deadly than swords.
Driven mad by thirst, the Northern Di soldiers lost their minds and began to frantically kill their comrades, just to drink a mouthful of muddy water to relieve their thirst.
In the chaos, the yak-felt tent of the Chanyu's golden tent was also set ablaze, and the fire spread rapidly, plunging the entire Northern Di camp into a sea of fire and chaos.
……
On the eve of the victory celebration, Liu Shan was alone in his tent, gently stroking the inscription on the monument commemorating his achievements.
Suddenly, his gaze sharpened as he discovered that the Fang clan emblem was hidden beneath the inscription of "Yonghe Third Year".
He was startled and quickly pried open the loose stone slab, where a parchment scroll lay quietly beneath it.