Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

"Greetings to the Retired Emperor! Greetings to the Deputy Commander!"

Fang Xuanling's son, Fang Yi'ai, and Li Jing's son, Li Dejian, were dressed in the new military uniform of the Bingzhou New Army.

Already exuding youthful vigor and resembling young generals, they have, after undergoing the tempering and training of the new army, now possess the composure and ruthlessness befitting a commander.

Upon seeing the approaching group, he immediately stood at attention and gave a military salute.

Li Jing stood behind Li Yuan, looking at his son who seemed to have undergone a complete transformation.

A look of relief and surprise flashed deep in his eyes.

Although he had not yet witnessed the new army's performance on the battlefield, he could already tell from Li Dejian's demeanor that the Bingzhou new army, which His Highness the Crown Prince had treasured, was indeed formidable.

It is bound to be extraordinary.

He coughed softly.

"The Emperor Emeritus is personally leading this expedition, so he is not addressed as Emperor Emeritus in the army; you should call him Commander-in-Chief!"

Fang Yi'ai and Li Dejian immediately saluted again.

"Greetings, Commander-in-Chief! Greetings, Vice Commander-in-Chief!"

"Hehe, good, good...you are all fine sons of my Great Tang." Li Yuan encouraged them with a smile, but his gaze couldn't help but wander to the rows of black iron pipes behind them.

He swallowed hard.

"Commander Fang, is your artillery battalion ready?"

He looked at the Bingzhou New Army artillerymen who were standing in front of the cannons, like javelins, and his eyes were filled with fervor.

He had witnessed the power of these black iron pipes at a military factory in Taiyuan.

With each deafening roar, the target's location was blasted to smithereens.

Even the reinforced city walls and brickwork were all destroyed.

Fang Yi'ai nodded immediately.

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, the First Artillery Battalion of the New Army, with a total of 800 Shenwei cannons, is fully prepared!"

"We can fire at any time!"

"Good! Hahaha!" A blush immediately appeared on Li Yuan's old face.

Looking into the distance, the city of Dongzhen, Gaochang, still exudes the aura of the Gaochang Kingdom atop the city walls.

A cruel, excited smirk involuntarily crept onto his lips.

Pei Ji spoke softly from the side.

"General...it would be best to minimize the losses as much as possible. If the city wall collapses, we'll have to arrange for repairs, and Dongzhen City will soon be ours..."

however.

Before he could finish speaking, Li Yuan's eyes widened instantly.

"Nonsense! This battle is the first one I personally led. Since I ascended the throne, I, the retired emperor, have rarely taken action against foreign powers. It has always been my second son, that rebellious son, who has a great reputation."

"In this world today, who still knows me?"

"I myself was a warrior who rose from the battlefield, licking blood from the edge of a knife, and crawling out of piles of corpses!"

He waved his hand, directly stopping Pei Ji, who looked conflicted and wanted to say something.

"I haven't forgotten what Chengqian said about the 300,000 strings of cash a month, but in this battle, I'm going to use the heads of those fools in Gaochang to teach those idiots in the Western Turks a lesson!"

"Li Yuan, who needed their help to maintain his position in Chang'an back then, was forced by circumstances!"

"Now the roles have reversed! The dignity I lost back then, and the infamy of letting the Turkic barbarians into the pass, I will repay with their blood!"

"It's washed very clean!"

"Fang Yiai!"

"Here!" Fang Yi'ai immediately straightened his back.

With an excited blush on his face, Li Yuan suddenly drew his marshal's sword from his waist.

Pointing in the direction of Dongzhen City, he gave a stern order.

"Bomb them hard! Smash their walls, crush their soldiers! Let these barbarians from the Western Regions, who know nothing of imperial might, know nothing of the wrath of the Great Tang!"

"Yes!"

Fang Yi'ai immediately turned around and began to give orders. On the artillery position, each artillery squad and platoon began to take turns loading ammunition.

Li Yuan then immediately gave an order to Li Jing, who was standing to the side.

"Go, send a cavalry unit over there and tell me that any of these bastards guarding the city of Gaochang who dare to surrender will suffer a fate worse than death!"

Li Jing shook his head helplessly.

This old man has truly let himself go, relying on the terrifying support His Highness the Crown Prince has provided.

However, as the first battle of the Tang Dynasty's western expedition, if we can win it decisively...

That was also very effective in boosting the morale of the army and in deterring the states of Gaochang and the Western Turks.

......

"Da da da......"

The galloping hooves kicked up clouds of dust, and the Tang cavalrymen on board shouted a few words. At that moment, the Gaochang Kingdom's defenders and generals on the city wall stared blankly at them.

Go ahead and go.

"Is it because I've misspoken Tang dialect?"

"Did that cavalryman just shout something to tell us to surrender, or that we were not allowed to surrender?"

Qu Yijie looked completely bewildered.

Beside him, his two deputy soldiers looked at each other, somewhat unsure.

"This...it sounds like they're saying we're not allowed to surrender..."

"Hiss... General Gao also heard that surrender is forbidden? I heard that too. He even said that if we surrender, we will be torn to pieces..."

Even Qu Yijie couldn't help but show a look of panic.

At this moment, from their city walls, they could see the direction of the Tang army.

A hundred thousand soldiers stood in formation.

The cold iron armor, the rows of sharp spears and lances reaching for the sky, the neatly arranged heavy cavalry seemingly encased in armor, and the Turkic wolf cavalry that had once cast a long shadow over their Gaochang Kingdom...

Such a terrifying military force, let alone 100,000.

Even ten thousand is not something their small Dongzhen City can afford!

"General, what should we do? Even with the three thousand reinforcements sent from the capital, we still don't have fifteen thousand men in total. This..."

The second-in-command wanted to ask, "How do we fight this?"

But when he noticed Qu Yijie's gloomy eyes, he silently shut his mouth.

Qu Yijie is from the Qu clan, the current king of Gaochang.

If the Kingdom of Gaochang were to perish, people like him would surely suffer the most tragic fate.

And it was precisely because of this that the King of Gaochang sent him to Dongzhen City to serve as its garrison commander.

And it's not just this Dongzhen City.

Further west are the border towns of Liupo, Dujin, and Yancheng.

The garrison commanders of the three cities were all from the Qu clan.

"The Tang army has not divided its forces to attack other cities. Quickly send messengers to the surrounding cities to request reinforcements!" Qu Yijie said.

suddenly.

The general beside him suddenly changed his expression, pointed in the direction of the Tang army's formation, and exclaimed in surprise.

"General! It looks like the Tang army is about to attack the city!"

Qu Yijie was startled.

Turning his head, he was shocked to see that in front of the Tang army formation, the Tang soldiers, who had been standing in neat rows in front of rows of black pipes, were now motionless.

Suddenly, under the orders of the surrounding officers, they all began to get busy.

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

I couldn't see clearly what was happening on the other side. I just saw the soldiers, in groups of several, some holding torches, others carrying something, stuffing it into the pipe from the front.

Others used sticks to poke inside the tubes after the soldiers had already stuffed the contents in.

"what are they doing?"

Qu Yijie looked at the Tang army formation, which showed no intention of advancing, but his unease grew exponentially.

Next to the artillery position.

Li Yuan was dressed in a rather noble and eye-catching bright armor, like a pay-to-win player, and wore a dragon-patterned cloak.

Fang Yi'ai's side reported that preparations were complete.

Suddenly, he pointed his sword toward the direction of Dongzhen City.

"Artillery battalion! Bomb them!"

Fang Yi'ai immediately gave the order in a loud voice.

"Artillery battalion, three-stage continuous salvo! Fire!"

"Sizzle sizzle..."

The torch was lit on the heavy cannon fuse, and then burned out.

"Boom boom boom!!!"

A series of rumbling sounds seemed like the sky was collapsing.

Patches of black shadows, like shooting stars.

Before Qu Yijie and the others could figure out why the Tang army was making such a big commotion, a sharp whistling sound came from the sky.

And the shadowy figure kept getting bigger in my line of sight.

This caused everyone's expression to change instantly.

Qu Yijie's pupils contracted: "Dodge!!!"

"Boom!!!"

"Boom!!!"

"Boom!!!"

The city wall beneath our feet seemed to tremble.

Qu Yijie roared hysterically, ordering the surrounding city guards to take cover.

Behind the parapet not far away, several soldiers who had also received training from Qu Yijie during this period were hiding behind it with practiced movements. Before Qu Yijie could turn his head to look in other directions...

suddenly.

"Boom~"

It was as if something suddenly slammed down from the sky with a force that seemed capable of shattering everything.

It slammed hard against the parapet in an instant.

The parapet, which had been specially reinforced by Qu Yijie and was even strong enough to withstand some catapult attacks, vanished instantly.

At the massive breach, bricks and dust flew everywhere.

A wave of red, damp sensation washed over him, causing Qu Yijie's expression to freeze instantly.

"Ahhhh!"

The piercing screams, accompanied by the ringing in his ears, made Qu Yijie turn his head blankly towards the section behind the parapet.

Broken brick fragments, mixed with nauseating chunks of flesh and blood gradually covered in dust.

He had gone to great lengths to finally manage to piece together some relatively intact suits of armor, which were now completely shattered, with pieces of corpses rising with the stench of blood and heat.

Qu Yijie was completely stunned.

The piercing wail made him stiffly turn his head and look around.

What met their eyes was a scene of human devastation.

On the city walls that he had ordered to be reinforced, there were various rolling stones and logs prepared to hinder the Tang army's attack.

They're scattered everywhere now.

The defenses in front of the city wall remain dilapidated.

Even from within the city walls, cries of agony could be heard. He turned to look down.

The roofs of the houses he had assigned as first aid facilities for wounded soldiers and kitchens were riddled with large holes.

"General! General!"

Qu Yijie: "......."

He stared blankly at his deputy, who was covered in blood and looked utterly terrified.

"General, we can't hold out! The Tang Dynasty has sorcery! They have sorcery!"

"Let us surrender!"

In the past, when he heard these two words, his first thought would have been that these guys harbored rebellious intentions towards their Qu clan royal family.

However, at this moment, his brain had already lost the ability to think.

"Woooooooo..."

"Ah! Help me! Help me!"

The pitiful cries of the surrounding soldiers left him momentarily at a loss.

"Quickly, get people up to the city wall! The Tang army is going to attack the city, they're definitely going to attack..." He shouted orders with eyes wide with rage and despair.

however.

The surrounding wails only added to his confusion and disarray.

"Save him! Quickly get the people below the city to come up and carry him out! Hurry!"

"Archers! How many archers are left?!"

He tried his best to calm himself down, but the trembling voice when he gave the order, and the chaos around him, all indicated that the town of Zhendong was doomed to perish today.

"Boom boom boom..."

Outside the city, in the direction of the Tang army's formation.

Then, another series of booming sounds, so powerful they sent shivers down the spines of all the soldiers and generals of Gaochang, suddenly rang out...