The more Zhao Chengxiao shouted, the more anxious he became. Suddenly, he thought of an idea. He pulled Qiu Yizi to the side of the table, dipped his finger in the water on the table, and wrote a few crooked words: Wudingmen, bomb, look downstairs.
Although these words were simple, their meaning was expressed as clearly as possible. Qiu Yizi felt dizzy again when he saw them. After finally calming down, he walked to the bedside step by step, leaned on the railing with his hand and looked down.
But the inside of Wuding Gate was in a mess. Under the white, gray, and black smoke and dust, there were ruins and broken bricks. There were also countless broken limbs lying on the ground, emitting a disgusting smell of rotten feet. The soldiers who had just won the battle and were still lining up and gathering under the city were now torn apart. Some died, some were disabled, some cried loudly, and some were silent...
Although Qiu Yizi's mind was still confused, she had already guessed from the words "Wudingmen, explosion" written by Zhao Chengxiao and the tragic scene before her that the horrific scene must have been caused by the explosives that were passed down from the Western Regions by the Tianzun Sect.
However, in Qiu Yizhi's impression, although explosives are powerful, they are extremely inconvenient to use. Even if they are used to bombard fixed city walls, they still need careful preparation. How can they be detonated in a crowd? Even if they are pre-filled in jars and cans, it is extremely inconvenient to transport them. Even if they can be transported to the enemy crowd, the detonator will be turned into powder along with the explosives.
The harder Qiu Yizhi tried to think, the more his head hurt. But he knew that now was not the time to slowly recover, so he hardened his heart, raised his right hand, and slapped himself hard a few times.
It's true that these few heavy blows were quite effective. They drove away all the noise and vibrations that were crowding in Qiu Yizhi's mind. His ears gradually became able to hear sounds clearly. He only heard Zhao Chengxiao shouting at him in the midst of the noise: "My lord, the King of Lingnan has killed and injured many of our soldiers with explosives. Please decide how to deal with it!"
How to deal with it? How else can we deal with it
Qiu Yizi shook his head vigorously, which was about to explode with pain, thought carefully, and said: "The King of Lingnan is so powerful. This move not only severely damaged the main force of our army, but also greatly damaged the morale of our army. I believe he will launch the next round of attack immediately..." This is the only judgment he can make now.
However, predicting the enemy's next move is far from enough. Looking at Liu Qing, who was sitting stiffly like a wooden man with a confused look on his face, Qiu Yizi knew that unless he could come up with some feasible solution, it would be difficult to resist the King of Lingnan's massive attack on the city.
So he stood up and shook Lin Shuhan awake, while issuing orders word by word: "Zhao Chengxiao, use the name of the Jiangnan Road Jiedushi to ask the defenders under the city to count the casualties. Those who can fight must stay at their posts, and the wounded must be taken away for treatment immediately. As for the bodies of the dead, they can only be left alone for the time being."
Zhao Chengxiao agreed and was about to go down to pass the order, but Qiu Yizhi stopped him, took out the golden order arrow from his arms, and said: "The troops in the direction of Wuding Gate are not enough to resist the attack of the Lingnan Army. You use this again to tell the troops stationed at each gate to gather here and resist the enemy's attack."
Qiu Yizhi thought as he spoke, and then said, "As for the matter of passing the message, ask your trusted brothers to go and return early, and don't stay too long. Gather more than 200 elite soldiers under my command, I'm afraid they will also be involved in the battle later."
Qiu Yizhi's eighteen personal soldiers - now except for the "Iron Head Dragon" who was resting in Shanyin County, there were only seventeen people around him - and two hundred militias he recruited and trained personally, which were the foundation of his life. He would never use them easily unless it was absolutely necessary. Especially in pure attrition wars such as defending the city and fighting in chaos, Qiu Yizhi would never easily send his troops to the battlefield.
This kind of selfishness is human nature. Zhao Chengxiao was born a bandit, so he can certainly understand the difference between inside and outside. He also understands that Qiu Yizhi's consideration of investing these treasures is indeed a critical situation.
So Zhao Chengxiao nodded seriously, turned around, and walked quickly downstairs.
Seeing Zhao Chengxiao's steady steps, Qiu Yizhi felt relieved. Seeing Liu Qing still sitting in his seat in a daze, he stepped forward and said, "With such a sudden change, the morale of the soldiers will inevitably be greatly reduced. Only the commanders of the three armies can save the situation. General Liu, why don't you go downstairs with me to comfort the soldiers?"
Liu Qing's mind was blank now, he had no idea at all. After hearing what Qiu Yizi said, he stood up without thinking, and walked downstairs with a dull face like a puppet.
Upon seeing this, Qiu Yizi hurriedly helped up Lin Shuhan, who was still very weak, and followed him. Lin Shuhan was originally a weak scholar, and could not compare to people like Qiu Yizi and Liu Qing who came from a military background. Naturally, he could not withstand such a close-range explosion and was already weak all over.
The miserable situation of the Nanjing defenders, viewed from downstairs, was a hundred times more miserable than from upstairs.
The sticky substance made of smoke, dust, and blood covered the faces of almost every soldier, making them look like ghosts who had escaped from hell. These ghosts were confused by the sudden explosion of the Lingnan Army, and even though they had received the order issued by Qiu Yizhi on behalf of Liu Qing, they were still in a panic. Those who were in formation lost their comrades on the left and right, and didn't know where to stand; those who were carrying injured brothers didn't know where the doctors were, and asked around like headless flies.
Qiu Yizhi was extremely anxious when he saw this scene. He knew that if the King of Lingnan launched a massive attack, the army would be unable to resist it with the chaotic army. But when he saw the soldiers who suffered a sudden attack, he couldn't bear to reprimand or punish them. He had to pull a messenger under Liu Qing and ask him to urge the defenders in other places to come to support immediately.
But just as he gave the order, he heard shouts of killing outside the destroyed Wuding Gate. Looking out through the smoke-filled gate, he saw that the Lingnan army, which had just withdrawn from the city, was now re-entering the Jinling City - but they had already taken off the heavy armor they had just been wearing and changed into light clothes and armor, and were running towards the city with sharp blades in their hands.
It seemed that this was a tactic that the King of Lingnan had already prepared - he first used explosives to blow up the Wuding Gate, and then used a large army to attack the Wuding Gate and the city walls, at all costs, to gather the enemy troops in one place; then he used explosives again to kill and injure the enemy; finally, he used elite troops to assault, and in one fell swoop he was able to break through the impregnable defense of Jinling City.
The King of Lingnan's move was successful as he wished. Not only did he concentrate more than half of the defenders in Jinling City on the tiny area inside Wuding Gate, but the three waves of operations of withdrawal, detonation and assault were organized in an orderly and airtight manner. Even as an enemy, one had to admire his skillful use of troops, which was in no way inferior to that of the former King of Youyan and today's Emperor Zheng Rong!
However, although I admire him, I cannot surrender and wait to be killed.
When Qiu Yizi saw the enemy army charging over, he quickly ordered the defenders who were still there in the name of Liu Qing to immediately engage in battle and stop the Lingnan army at Wuding Gate as soon as possible.
But the King of Lingnan obviously wanted to achieve his goal in one battle. The soldiers who broke into the city wall from the destroyed Wuding Gate continued to pour into the city. The morale of these people was high, and they had the courage to fight ten against one against the imperial defenders who had just suffered a great loss. After a short while, they killed the government troops who were besieging them and forced them to retreat step by step.
Qiu Yizi, who was commanding the battle at close range, saw that the situation was critical. Also, he saw that the soldiers coming to support from various gates had not yet arrived. He could only grit his teeth and give up the defense of the city wall as if taking a gamble. He ordered the defenders on the city wall not to guard against the enemy's ladders to climb the city, and to go down to fight.
This was a risky move made out of desperation. If the enemy attacked the city wall at this time, there would be no defenders on the wall. The enemy could occupy the top of the wall without any casualties, and then launch an attack on the defenders below the city from a high position.
However, if the city gate was breached and Jinling City fell, occupying a section of the city wall would be meaningless.
Faced with two evils, Qiu Yi had no choice but to make this choice.
However, troops are still troops. The continuous flow of troops coming down from the city walls to support the troops on the ground immediately changed the balance of forces on the Wuding Gate battlefield. In the blink of an eye, the Lingnan Army that had almost occupied the Wuding Gate was compressed back.
At this time, other defenders of Jinling City also rushed to Wuding Gate from the east and west. They did not need to use swords or guns to kill, but just pushed and shoved, and finally drove back the Lingnan Army that had invaded the city.
Qiu Yizhi saw this situation behind the battle line and was relieved. He was about to discuss with Lin Shuhan, Zhao Chengxiao, Liu Qing and others how to block the Wuding Gate, but suddenly he remembered something and immediately shouted loudly: "Everyone, disperse quickly, be careful of the Lingnan Army..."
He wanted to say the word "explosives" but was afraid of revealing the court secrets in public, so he quickly changed his words and said, "Be careful of the Lingnan Army's... bows and crossbows!"
At this moment, the Lingnan army had not yet occupied the city wall and could not launch an attack from the top of the wall. And how many arrows could fly in through the narrow and deep doorway
The troops were all at a loss after hearing this order, not knowing what it was for. In addition, because of the chaos just now, the organization and command of the troops were disrupted, and this random order could not be executed at all. Among the defenders, only the more than 200 elite soldiers under Qiu Yizhi escaped from the mixed group of soldiers and horses.
At this moment, a dozen people suddenly rushed in from the doorway, each of them was half-naked in the cold wind of early spring, each holding a one-foot long dagger in their left and right hands, shouting some slogans indistinctly, and rushed into the crowd.
Qiu Yizi was behind the crowd and couldn't see what was happening in front of him. He only noticed that the soldiers in front of him were in chaos. He didn't know what was going on, so he hurriedly asked the "Black-necked Toad" behind him to find out the situation ahead.
The "Black-necked Toad" stretched his neck to look at the situation ahead, and said with difficulty: "Sir, I'm afraid it's not possible? With so many people, it's not easy to squeeze in, and it's even harder to squeeze out. What can we see?"
Qiu Yizi was so anxious that she didn't allow him to talk nonsense. She immediately scolded him: "Why do you have so much to say? You should go when I tell you to go. How can you know that you can't do it if you don't try it?"
After hearing Qiu Yizi's words, the "Black-necked Toad" left no room for negotiation, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and use his two extremely strong arms to forcefully separate the soldiers blocking the way in front of him, and tried his best to squeeze forward.