Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

With a massive army pressing in, dark clouds gathered over the area outside Xiangzhou City.

woo-

The dull yet stirring bugle call sounded outside the city, instantly bringing a strong sense of oppression to the defending troops.

"Look! It's a golden man! The golden man is coming..."

Suddenly, a junior officer pointed ahead in disbelief.

All the officers and soldiers of the garrison looked in the direction the colonel pointed.

From within the Jin army ranks, a dozen prisoners, covered in blood and with their eyes and noses gouged out, were dragged out.

Their limbs were fixed with iron nails as thick as thumbs, and their shoulders were pierced with collarbones. One by one, they were brutally forced to kneel in front of the battle lines by the Jin soldiers.

A sharp-eyed soldier immediately recognized that the prisoners were disciples of the Shushan Sword Sect.

Fear, like a poisonous weed, gradually spread in everyone's heart.

Wanyan Qingzong rode out of the ranks, a sinister smile on his face as he looked towards the city tower.

Suddenly, he raised the iron spear in his hand and pointed it at the prisoners.

"Is this what your Great Song Dynasty relies on? Is this what you call your confidence?"

"Then I will turn your confidence into fear and return it all to you!"

At Wanyan Qingzong's command, a group of executioners suddenly stepped out from behind the Sword Sect disciples, raising their broadswords and pointing them at their necks.

The Sword Sect disciples, oblivious to their impending doom, remained numbly kneeling on the ground, swaying precariously.

"cut!"

Pfft, pfft—

The moment the broadsword fell, more than a dozen heads, along with splattered blood, landed on the dusty yellow earth.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch—"

A deafening roar erupted from the Jin army's ranks.

The soldiers guarding the city walls of Xiangzhou trembled uncontrollably at the sight.

Only now did they realize how naive and ridiculous their previous ideas had been.

Give it back to them!

At Wanyan Qingzong's command, ten catapults were immediately launched from the formation.

Then, including the martial artist killed in the sneak attack last night, a total of 127 heads were tied together with hemp rope and placed inside the ammunition compartment.

"put!"

Pat, pat—

The sound of the catapult's wooden axle striking the ground rang out, and heads flew into the sky above Xiangzhou City, landing precisely on the city walls.

"Oh my god! Isn't that Zhao Jianxian? He's at the half-step Innate Realm!"

"Why are there so many cuts on his head? It looks like a beehive, it's so cool!"

"Isn't that Li Jiansheng? He said his sword could overturn mountains and rivers and make the world lose its color, but now his skull is gone!"

"Run! Even the martial artists have been wiped out. How can we possibly defeat them? Let's escape for our lives!"

The moment the severed head flew into the city, driven by extreme fear, the morale of the defenders collapsed. They dropped their weapons and ran frantically towards the city walls.

For a time, the scene of people crowding the city wall was repeated again and again. Many soldiers were accidentally pushed onto the city wall and died on the spot.

"a ha ha ha--"

Wanyan Qingzong, who witnessed this scene through a telescope, couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Once he confirmed that the defenders on the city wall had collapsed, he immediately turned his horse around and went to Wanyan Loushi to ask for permission to launch the main attack.

At this moment, Wanyan Loushi sat in the center of the formation with a livid expression.

Three Gatling gunners from the musketeers were kneeling before him.

Judging from the fresh whip marks on their bodies, they had clearly just been subjected to torture.

"How many times have I told you to conserve ammunition? Conserve ammunition! Do you know how many bullets you wasted yesterday?"

"Just one magazine of over two hundred bullets, gone in the blink of an eye. You're all satisfied, but what about me? How am I supposed to explain this to the King?"

"What you're wasting is all money, the hard-earned money of my Great Jin Kingdom! Alas!"

After saying this, Wanyan Loushi sighed helplessly.

Upon hearing this, the three machine gunners immediately begged for mercy.

"General, I know I was wrong, and I promise I will never do it again."

"General, please give me another chance."

"General, the enemy is a martial artist. This is our first time using firearms against them."

I hadn't known it was so powerful before; I was just worried about a possible enemy counterattack, which is why I got so hooked on it.

"General, you've never seen anything like it! This Gatling gun is so powerful to use, you just can't stop using it!"

"Shut up, all of you!"

Wanyan Loushi roared and turned his back, clenching his fists.

The firearms were indeed more powerful than he had expected. Last night, he ambushed the martial artists in Xiangzhou City on the way and annihilated them all in one fell swoop.

However, while firearms were good, they were really too expensive.

The ammunition consumption, in particular, seems to be free.

Ten rifle bullets cost more than one tael and two mace of silver, a single man-portable mortar shell cost one tael of gold, and a standard 75mm grenade required twenty-two taels of gold.

A rough estimate suggests that the ammunition fired in yesterday's battle alone exceeded five thousand taels of gold.

Expensive, damn expensive!

Neither rifle bullets nor artillery shells could be mass-produced by the Jin Dynasty's technological level, and they didn't even understand the optimal ratio of ammunition.

Bullets and shells are finite resources; once they're fired, they're gone. If we want more, we'll have to buy them from the State of Chu. How much would that cost after a war?

Just as Wanyan Loushi was feeling extremely distressed about this, Wanyan Qingzong came with a smile and reported: "General, the garrison of Xiangzhou City has collapsed."

Wanyan Loushi turned to look at Wanyan Qingzong, his brows furrowed.

Wanyan Qingzong laughed and said, "The Song army is still the same Song army, just as vulnerable. General, let's take advantage of this moment and have the men attack the city quickly, and take back Xiangzhou City in one fell swoop!"

Wanyan Loushi nodded: "Order the entire army to prepare to attack the city."

"Yes!"

Wanyan Qingzong loudly accepted the order, but as he was about to leave, he discovered that the musketeers were kneeling on the ground.

"General, what are they doing...?"

Wanyan Loushi was usually a man of few words in the army, but this time, perhaps because he was feeling uneasy, he made an exception and spoke to Wanyan Qingzong when Wanyan asked him about it.

Do you know how much ammunition that army of martial artists used to ambush us yesterday?

"I don't know."

"Five thousand taels of gold!"

"Hey, how much did I ask for? Only five thousand... What? How much? Five thousand taels? And gold!"

Now, Wanyan Qingzong was also unsettled.

He spread his five fingers, his face full of disbelief: "Just a few quick thuds, a few more sounds, and five thousand taels of gold are gone just like that?"

Seeing that someone was even more shocked than he was, Wanyan Loushi seemed to feel a little better.

He nodded: "This ambush and surprise attack alone cost five thousand taels of gold worth of ammunition. You do the math, and imagine how much it would cost in a head-on confrontation."

After saying that, he pointed to the machine gunners and said, "These guys were wasting time yesterday. Do you think they should be punished?"

Upon hearing this, Wanyan Qingzong immediately stepped forward and kicked one of the machine gunners to the ground without saying a word.

"You bastard, you don't even know how to be careful with your money. In just a little while, you've emptied half of my savings. I'll teach you to waste money, I'll teach you to waste money..."

He knew his own resources were enough to sustain two or three battles of the scale last night. Thinking of this, Wanyan Qingzong was instantly enraged.

Seeing that the time was right, Wanyan Loushi immediately said, "Alright, we can't blame them. After all, this is the first real battle since the musketeers were established, so mistakes are inevitable."

"Hmph, you're getting off easy."

Wanyan Qingzong then stopped and bowed to Wanyan Loushi, saying, "General, after the city falls, I will dig three feet into the ground to make up for the losses."

Wanyan Loushi's cheek twitched: "To talk about losses, it's just some ammunition. At least none of my Great Jin warriors were injured or killed in yesterday's battle."

I have a feeling that future battlefields will be dominated by firearms, and traditional hand-to-hand combat will be completely abandoned.

Cavalry may be losing its dominant position on the battlefield.