Mixed with salted fish in Hongwudang

Chapter 657 A new army emerges!

Chang Sheng didn't even think about attacking the city today. He just fired a few cannons to tell the defenders in the city that he was coming.

Therefore, after two rounds of artillery salvos, Chang Sheng immediately ordered the entire army to eat. After eating and drinking, only those who were standing guard were left behind, and ordered everyone to rest.

The soldier saw that it was still early and it was not time to go to bed at all, so he thought about gambling for a few games before going to sleep.Unexpectedly, Chang Sheng, who was on patrol, found out and confiscated their gambling equipment on the spot, kicked and beat them and drove them back to the tent!

"Let us all have a good sleep, but don't sleep too hard. The kids in the city may come out to steal the camp at night!"

"what?"

Xiao Bing, who was a little unconvinced just now, immediately stuck his head out after hearing these words.

"General, since you, the old man, knew that they were going to steal the camp, why did you still let us go to bed?"

Chang Sheng said impatiently after hearing this.

"nonsense!"

"If I don't let you rest, how can you find the strength to beat them?"

"Let us all lie back and sleep peacefully. They won't dare to come out until midnight!"

"promise!"

With Chang Sheng's guarantee, the soldiers finally ran back to sleep.

Although Chang Sheng drove all the soldiers into the tent to sleep, he himself did not sleep. He kept listening to what was going on outside with his ears bent.

This is not the first time he has led troops. He has led troops on many missions at the border over the years and has long been a qualified battlefield veteran.

But it was his first time to carry out such an important mission, serving as the commander-in-chief of an army of [-] men, and shouldering the heavy responsibility of avenging his nephew.

Therefore, he not only had to win this battle, but he also had to fight it beautifully!

In the middle of the night, Chang Sheng suddenly heard a "crash". He stood up reflexively and looked around. He saw the soldier guarding the door accidentally kicking down the jar, which alerted him.

Chang Sheng, who was disturbed, was a little angry when he saw this.

"You can't even look at the door. What a bunch of losers!"

When Xiao Bing heard this, he pursed his lips and said nothing, silently straightening the jar.

"What time is it?"

"Back to General, it's past Haishi now."

"Hai Shi?"

Chang Sheng panicked on the spot when he heard this and shouted to the soldiers outside the door.

"Quickly, send the order quickly and ask the soldiers to get up. If you can't wipe your face with ice water, cheer up!"

"But be careful, don't make any noise, get up from the bed quietly..."

"promise!"

On the other side, Khalil stayed up until midnight with difficulty, woke up the soldiers half an hour early, and stuffed a wooden stick into each of their mouths.

"No one is allowed to make a sound, and no torches are allowed!"

"Everyone holds the clothes of the person in front. Let's get over there in the dark and catch them off guard!"

"Eh……"

Khalil's strategy was not unscrupulous, and the timing of his stolen camp was also very clever, just in the middle of the night when people were sleeping soundly.

Before opening the door, Khalil ordered people to pour pockmark oil on the door shaft of the city gate. After doing this, he slowly pushed the door open.

The place where Chang Sheng camped was very close to Mulu City, less than two miles away.

This distance is beyond the reach of bows and arrows, but it is the optimal range for artillery.

Khalil had suffered a lot during the day, and now his teeth were itching when he saw Chang Sheng's camp being touched.

Just when Khalil was secretly furious and was about to rush into the enemy camp and kill them, he suddenly felt his eyes light up, and tens of thousands of torches suddenly lit up around him.

Khalil looked around and saw that at some point, his group of sneak attackers were surrounded by others!
"Khalil, surrender without killing!"

When Khalil heard this, he realized on the spot that he had been tricked. Chang Sheng must have expected that he would make a sneak attack, so he arranged everything in advance and waited for him to arrive.

But it is absolutely impossible for him to surrender!
Khalil drew his sword and shouted to the soldiers around him.

"kill!"

"Kill these Ming dogs!"

Chang Sheng heard this and ordered the shooting without hesitation.

Amidst bursts of crackling sounds like fried beans, the 5000 people brought out by Khalil were slaughtered in the blink of an eye.

Chang Sheng did not send anyone to clean up the battlefield, but immediately ordered an siege after dealing with these people.

Two hundred artillery pieces fired another salvo, and the city head and the city were ablaze.

Amidst the cannon fire all over the sky, the Ming army opened the city gate and rushed in from all directions.

"General, the vanguard battalion asked you what to do with the people in the city?"

Chang Sheng was a little confused and said.

"Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy!"

"promise!"

There were not many residents in Mulu City. The only more than 1 people were almost all the most loyal and brave soldiers of the Timur Empire.

The vanguard battalion rushed into the city, and in order to reduce their own casualties, they used a large number of rocket launchers, palm mines and other weapons to clear the way.

When the sun rose the next day, the Ming Dynasty's military flag finally flew over Mulu City.

Chang Sheng climbed up to the city gate tower, looked at the corpses on and below the city, and smiled rather self-deprecatingly.

"I didn't expect that I, Chang Sheng, actually slaughtered an entire city?"

"General, I can't blame you for this. The resistance in the city is really too strong. We can't capture it quickly if we don't do this!"

Chang Sheng shook his head indifferently after hearing this.

"fine!"

"I, Chang Sheng, just do what I do, so I don't think so much."

"Send the order, anyone who dares to resist from now on will be massacred!"

Chang Sheng was ready to fight all the way, but to his surprise, the news of his massacre spread to other places. The officers and soldiers guarding the city elsewhere took the gold and silver treasures in advance before he could lead his troops to attack. Came to bribe him.

"The young one is the lord of Mowa City. I heard that the general is passing through Mowa City, so I brought some local specialties to reward the general!"

"Reward?"

Hearing this, Chang Sheng looked at the visitor coldly, and then at the gold and silver jewelry piled in boxes.

"can!"

"As long as you open the city gate, I won't kill anyone!"

When the visitor heard this, he fell to his knees with a plop.

"General Renyi!"

"One hundred thousand people in the small city of Daimowa thank the general for not killing him!"

After Chang Sheng entered Mowa City, he kept his promise very strictly. Not only did he not kill anyone, he even purchased military supplies at market prices.

Chang Sheng's benevolent act not only gained him a lot of good reputation, but even his evil deeds of massacre of the city were washed away a lot.

"How could a man as kind and righteous as General Chang massacre the city?"

"The defenders must have gone too far, which made General Chang anxious!"

"that's right!"

"General Chang always gives money when he buys things. There are not many good people like him nowadays!"

Chang Sheng led an army of [-] people and effortlessly fought his way to the city of Yazid, which was less than a hundred miles away from Isfahan.

Although the lord of Yazid City was also a close confidant of Timur, after knowing that this was the general who massacred the city, he immediately surrendered the city when the army arrived.

When the Lord of Yazid knelt on the ground and respectfully welcomed General Chang Sheng to lead the team to take over Yazid City, the Lord of Yezid prayed for himself silently in his heart.

Pearl, this is not because I am cowardly, but because His Majesty’s reinforcements have been delayed, I was forced to surrender...

After entering Yazid City, Chang Sheng did not rush to attack Isfahan, but took a short rest.During the rest period, he reported the progress to Zhu Yunxi while waiting for the arrival of the other two armies.

Zhu Yunxi looked at the information passed back from the front line and couldn't help but cursed in the military aircraft office.

"These bastards!"

"If you don't be cruel to them, they really don't take us seriously!"

Lan Yu couldn't help but tease after hearing Zhu Yunxi's complaints.

"Wei Chen has told you a long time ago that these barbarians are afraid of power and have no morals. Your majesty's previous gentle policy will only be considered weak and can be bullied by them!"

"To deal with them, we should use thunderous force to plow the court and clear out the holes."

"Kill a few of his cities and see who dares to resist us!"

"And the people here have long been accustomed to slaughtering cities. Back then, they just killed one of Genghis Khan's sons-in-law, and then they were massacred by Genghis Khan's army."

"The person they are assassinating now is His Majesty the Ming Emperor. If they don't kill him by the millions, how can they be worthy of the blood His Majesty shed?"

Zhu Yunxi listened to Lan Yu's words and was secretly glad that he didn't let this guy out.

If Lan Yu is allowed to go to war, there will probably not be a few people left alive after the Western Region is over.

"Okay, okay, you always have something to say."

"Please analyze for me, how long will it take for us to capture Isfahan?"

Lan Yu smiled jokingly upon hearing this.

"Your Majesty, the time it takes for us to capture Isfahan depends on how fast Lan Yu and the other two armies march."

"If they can arrive within ten days, then we will hear the news of the destruction of Isfahan within ten days."

"This……"

Seeing that Zhu Yunxi didn't believe it, Lan Yu hurriedly explained to him.

"Your Majesty, you cannot judge these people from the Western Regions by the conduct of our Ming Dynasty soldiers. They don't have much sense of family and country. For them, Timur is a conqueror, and we are also conquerors."

"Since they can surrender to Timur, they can naturally surrender to us!"

"Therefore, once we exchange fire with Timur, with our fierce firepower, Timur's army will not be able to stop it for an hour, and the city's destruction is inevitable."

"But when can Timur surrender and occupy the entire Timur region, it will not be easy."

"Even if we kill Timur, there are still several Timur sons in Timur's empire. They all have heavy troops and occupy very rich land."

"It's okay if they come to attack, but if they don't come, we have to travel across mountains and rivers to fight them..."

While the two were chatting, Qitai ran over in a hurry, shouting as he ran.

"Your Majesty, we win!"

"General Chang Sheng called and said that they have captured Isfahan and hung our Ming flag on the city wall!"

"what!"

Zhu Yunxi stood up from his seat excitedly, grabbed the telegram and read it carefully. However, before he could read the two lines of text, he heard Lan Yu ask a sinister question.

"Didn't you catch Tamerlane?"

"what?"

Zhu Yunxi read on and saw that there was indeed no mention of Timur in the telegram.

"Go and ask how Tamerlane is doing!"

"promise!"

After Qitai walked out, Lan Yu sighed helplessly.

"Your Majesty, the war has just begun!"

"Uncle, what do you mean by this?"

Lan Yu smiled bitterly after hearing this.

"For the countries in the Western Regions, land is not valuable, but human life is very valuable."

"As long as Timur doesn't die, even if he takes over a hundred cities, it's useless. That old guy can still come back at any time."

"Timur used to stay in Isfahan. At least we know where he is."

"Now Timur has abandoned the city and left. The world is so big and the sea of ​​people is huge. Where can we catch him?"

"This……"

Zhu Yunxi said unwillingly.

"What if Tamerlane dies in battle?"

Lan Yu shook her head when she heard this.

"impossible!"

"Based on Wei Chen's understanding of that old thing, he can die of old age or illness, but he cannot die in battle!"

"That old guy cherished his life very much. He was almost caught by Wei Chen many times, but he ran away in the end."

"This……"

While the two were chatting, Qitai returned.

"Your Majesty, General Chang Sheng said that Timur ran away, the day before they attacked the city..."

"Now it is said that they are recruiting troops in the Hamadan area..."

When Zhu Yunxi heard this and looked at Lan Yu who was worried, his mood couldn't help but become depressed.

"Uncle, what should we do next?"

Lan Yu shook her head when she heard this.

"Your Majesty, you know, it's okay for me to fight, but it's not okay for me to govern the place."

"To deal with Timur now, military strikes alone are useless. His space must be gradually reduced."

"Therefore, when we capture a place, we must be able to hold it. Otherwise, if we are not careful, that old thing can take advantage of our loopholes."

"When Wei Chen was idle at home, didn't His Majesty tell Wei Chen about a guerrilla tactic?"

"If Timur uses this tactic to deal with us, even if we have an army of millions, we can't defeat him!"

Zhu Yunxi thought seriously after hearing this.

"What my uncle said makes sense, but if this happens, our army will not be enough."

Qitai listened to the conversation between the two and basically understood what it meant.

"Your Majesty, I think Liang Guogong's words are reasonable."

"When the First Emperor sent Wang Jian to destroy Chu, he once said that if he wanted to defeat Chu, 20 would be enough. If he wanted to destroy Chu, at least 60 would be needed."

"Compared to the Chu State, the Timur Empire is now dozens of times larger in terms of land and population."

"If you want to destroy Timur in one fell swoop, you will need at least millions, if not millions of people..."

"million……"

Zhu Yunxi was silent again for a long time after hearing this.

He does have millions in the Kangdu area, but there are 40 locally recruited servants here.

It's okay to let these people help defend the city or transport food and grass, but they may not be able to fight a tough battle.

Moreover, their loyalty is also in question.

If they were incited to rebel and launch a rebellion, they would have to send people back from the front line to suppress it.

Therefore, Zhu Yunxi has never been able to make up his mind whether to use these people or not.

However, he could not hesitate in the upcoming battle. After receiving the third telegram requesting reinforcements, Zhu Yunxi decisively activated the 40 naturalized army.

The reason why reinforcements are always needed on the front line is not because of how many people died on the front line, but because soldiers must be left to garrison any place before they are occupied.

Sometimes a road or a bridge has to be watched over by someone.Otherwise, there would be spies lurking in the occupied areas who would take advantage of the chaos to destroy bridges and roads.

Just after Zhu Yunxi sent out the last army, he unexpectedly received a tip saying that an army of 5 people was marching towards Kangdu...

(End of this chapter)