Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 564 - 456: One Shot Devastates Three Hundred Miles_1

Chapter 564: Chapter 456: One Shot Devastates Three Hundred Miles_1

At the bow of the Yunzhong warship, Zhang Guanlan looked at Nankou Pass with a detached and icy look, his eyes carrying a hint of mockery: "So, you not only missed the opportunity to kill Li Xuan but even allowed him to go to Nankou Pass to gather troops and prepare for war?"

"Master Zhang, your words are.." The man in black robes and a bamboo hat spoke wearily: "If I was completely sure, would I not act? It was unavoidable; our master and Khan wanted Juyong Pass to be unscathed. But if they both enter the city, who knows what might happen.

I didn’t even have confidence that I could kill them inside the city, wouldn’t that be counterproductive?"

Zhang Guanlan’s brow furrowed slightly: "Is that ’Tianji Dihe Yin-Yang Knife’ so fearsome? Even with the addition of Tianyuan, it isn’t enough?"

"You haven’t seen it with your own eyes, naturally, you don’t know how terrifying it is."

The man in black robes sighed: "Tianyuan not only inherited everything from Li Zhetian but even surpassed him. However, his strength does not lie in speed. I and Lama Luosang Zundanba have tried, even with the addition of a Qiongqi, but we saw the results.

The speed of his blade and evasion both aren’t that important, the key is that their intent is harmonized. Fighting them feels more exhausting than fighting three or four heavenly-level enemies.

However, it’s simple to break this kind of joint strike technique. The problem was during that time at Juyong Pass, I couldn’t resort to such methods."

Speaking to this point, he gave a light laugh: "A chance without confidence is not a chance. What’s more, is this important? It’s just a waste of some ammunition.

The small Nankou Pass and a disjointed crowd of ten to twenty thousand, can they stop our warships?"

Zhang Guanlan looked at him skeptically: "What if they are determined to resist and want to engage in street fight battles with us?"

"Then we’ll have a street fight." The man in black robes’ mouth corners slightly raised: "Let the Mongols lose some troops, isn’t that a good thing? Zhang Guanlan, are you still harboring feelings for your old master? Are you wholeheartedly plotting for the Mongols? Do you really think you and my master and the Mongols are close allies?

Ah, that’s right, your old master should be the Lord of Datan, Totaabuqa Khan right. Yexian of Vala, just a Dong Zhuo-type who seizes power by means of Emperor, is a traitor in your eyes, right?"

The so-called Datan consists of the Mongols who followed Totaabuqa Khan back to the grasslands after the fall of the Mongols.

The Vala, also known as the Oirats, were called the "forest people" who stayed on the grassland after Mongwu’s move into the Central Plains.

Now that the Vala are powerful, Yexian, the Lord of Vala, has unified the grasslands as the ’Mongolian Taishi’ and even Totaabuqa Khan is under his control.

Hearing this, Zhang Guanlan’s face turned slightly pale. He glared coldly at the man in black robes, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

The man in black robes didn’t care and continuously kept his hand on his knife, with a nonchalant smile on his face.

In the end, Zhang Guanlan snorted lightly, once again turning his gaze to Nankou Pass: "Our master requires that by tomorrow morning at the latest, the Mongol troops must reach the territory of Beijing. If you can’t do this, you’ll have to answer for it."

The man in black robes laughed out loud: "What does this have to do with me? The failure to kill Li Xuan was due to inaccurate intelligence. You guys underestimated him.

As for this Nankou Pass, if these seventy thousand horsemen, plus twenty-three thousand surrendering troops cannot capture a dilapidated city, that’s their incompetence..."

As he was speaking, he suddenly shifted his gaze downwards.

At this moment, the collapsed gate of Shangguan City had already raised a surrender flag and the battered city gate was slowly opening amidst the rumbling noise.

This caused an uproarious cheer from the tens of thousands of Mongol troops encamped in front of the city.

With a desolate horn sounding from the rear of the battlefield, the Mongolian cavalry moved forward towards the city gate in an organized manner.

"Juyong Pass has already opened as well."

The man in the black robes noticed that behind Shangguan City, not only had Juyong Pass already opened its city gate, but at the top, they had also raised a flag with the character "Yuan".

The man in black robe’s sword-like eyebrows raised slightly: "Congratulations Master Zhang, only Nankou Pass remains. Once we break through here, whether it’s Beijing ahead or the hundreds of thousands of troops under Yu Jie, or even the Tianshi Sect and its orthodoxy that you’ve been thinking about, will be within our grasp."

Zhang Guanlan was quite annoyed by the yin and yang tone of the man in the black robes, but when he saw Juyong Pass opening its city gate, he couldn’t help but feel invigorated and filled with emotion.

"Order all ships to move forward at full speed! Stop eighty miles from Nankou City."

Nankou Pass does not have the Sky Splitting Crossbow, and the two dozen or so Red General Cannons there, even with the assistance of arrays, only have a range of eighty miles.

So, when facing this city, Zhang Guanlan was not as cautious as before.

The only ones in this city who were worthy of his fear were those of heavenly level.

But even on the heavenly level today, they had the advantage.

Even if it came to street fighting, Zhang Guanlan wasn’t too worried.

He thought that by noon tomorrow at the latest, those Mongolian horsemen below would be camped under Beijing.

It was time to take back what he had lost three hundred years ago.

All the humiliations that the Jin royalty had subjected him to, he, Zhang Guanlan, would return them tenfold.

At this time, below this warship, the Little Prince of Vala, Ashitiemuer, was looking up at the five Yunzhong warships floating eighteen thousand feet above, his eyes filled with awe, envy, and apprehension: " Each time these warships fire, I am shocked. The genius of the Central Plains people is worthy of admiration. They were able to create such a devastating weapon."

An escort next to him, who understood his heart, reverently said: "Taiji, we only need to capture Beijing, and we will have countless silver coins and enough craftsmen to build our own Yunzhong warships. It is said that Khan has already obtained the blueprints from Zhang Guanlan."

Upon hearing this, Ashitiemuer laughed, then spurred his Earth Dragon to charge forward: "Let’s first meet the guy who killed my big brother, then let’s plant our Vala Khan flag in Beijing."

****

A little bit later, inside the town of Xuanfu, Yu Jie was looking at the map in front of him, his brows creased into the shape of a "川".

At this moment, in front of the grand hall, a Qianhu of the Xiuyiwei was earnestly reporting: "Sir, the golden arrow message was passed from the south, something has indeed happened to Juyongguan. When we received the message, the city gate of Juyongguan had already been opened."

A trail of blood couldn’t help but seep from the corner of Yu Jie’s mouth: "It’s my fault, I have recommended the wrong people. I, Yu Jie, am ashamed in front of the Emperor, and I have let down the world."

The Qianhu of the Xiuyiwei immediately interjected: "Sir, this matter is not your fault, we have found that the General of Juyongguan, Yuan Jun, did not defect. It was his deputy, Li Yan, who revolted suddenly three days ago, captured the General, and thus the unexpected happened."

However, Yu Jie shook his head, thinking, he as the Minister of War, and the General of Juyongguan failed to perceive the unusual behavior of their subordinates, which was the biggest negligence.

His gaze was solemn, fixated on the wolf’s mouth pass on the map: "Any new news about Nankou Pass and the Marquis of Jingan?"

"The left Dudu has led the Xiuyiwei and the inner chang with a total of 7,500 men to station at Nankou Pass. Besides, the left Dudu has temporarily conscripted 3,000 household soldiers from the nobles in the Capital City, increasing the total troops at Nankou Pass to 30,000."

The Qianhu gave a slight bow: "Moreover, they are reinforcing the walls at Nankou Pass."

"Reinforcing walls?" One of the officers listening in immediately furrowed his brows: "Why reinforce the walls at this time? Even if the walls are made stronger, could they be stronger than those at Shanhai Pass?"

Yu Jie was silent. He thought of the talisman paper Li Xuan sent him not long ago.

I have ordered a piece of military equipment at the Divine Artifact Gate a few days ago. I’m eighty percent confident that I can sink five Yunzhong warships in front of Juyongguan.

—This was Li Xuan’s original words in the talisman paper.

Now that Juyongguan has defected, Li Xuan can only retreat to Nankou Pass.

Can the Marquis of Jingan of the Jin Dynasty still fulfill the promise in his talisman?

He was deeply longing for a miracle, could it happen?

Almost at the same time, within a military camp in Tangshan, Emperor Jingtai was wiping a treasured knife in his hand with his sleeve: "It’s my fault, I have let down Minister Yu. Half a year ago, Minister Yu suggested a large-scale replacement of border military officers, but I, thinking about the upcoming exchange of the crown prince and prioritizing stability, rejected his advice. For personal interests, I have brought the world to this state of turmoil. I am ashamed to be an Emperor!"

Then the eunuch next to him turned pale and said, "Your Majesty, how can this be your fault? It is clear these lower-ranking officials are greedy and have black hearts.

Moreover, didn’t the Marquis of Jingan reply to your letter? He really is confident that he can sink those five Yunzhong warships. The Marquis of Jingan has never let you down."

Emperor Jingtai couldn’t help but give a bitter smile, he raised his head without uttering a word, looking towards the tent entrance.

The Marquis of Jingan indeed had assured him so, but he had also seen the might of those five Yunzhong warships with his own eyes, had witnessed the cannonball that had a range of one hundred and eighty miles and could split mountains and seas with its power.

How could he still have confidence after witnessing such a sight?

Previously, he agreed to the Marquis of Jingan’s request, only because he was hoping to snatch life from the jaws of death, clinging onto the last ray of hope.

What Emperor Jingtai didn’t know was that in the hills behind Nankou City, Leng Yurou, at this moment, had finally completed assembling her unique cannon.

At this time, the five Yunzhong warships were exactly two hundred and fifty miles away from Nankou Pass.

Li Xuan first estimated the distance, then glanced at the power storage array next to him, calculating that the power stored in this array should be enough for about three shots.

However, they still had a lot of Demon Stones in their hands, enough to support fifteen cannonballs.

Li Xuan no longer hesitated: "Let’s start, we’ll test fire one shot first!"

Leng Yurou turned her head and said, "Actually, we can get closer to shoot, it can annihilate all of them within two hundred and twenty miles."

Li Xuan shook his head, he took a leap, and landed behind the super electromagnetic cannon to control the array.

Leng Yurou had full confidence in this cannon, but since he had never seen a test fire of this thing, he still had to retain some space for allowance.

With Li Xuan forming hand seals, lightning and thunder flashed around the entire super electromagnetic cannon.

Including Zuo Daoxing and Yu Hongchang, many spectators around had their brows creased. Their eyes were filled with expectations and worries.

Only Jiang Yunqi looked calm, as he had learnt about the principle of electromagnetism from Li Xuan and thus had full confidence.

At this moment, a man in black armor and a bucket hat on one of the Yunzhong warships noticed the abnormality on the mountain behind Nankou Pass. An astonished look appeared on his face: "What are they doing? With the lightning and thunder, what are they trying to do?"

Zhang Guanlan also frowned and focused his gaze in that direction.

Yet just as the man in the black hat finished his sentence, a ray of light, almost too fast for the naked eye to follow, streaked from that direction, grazing past the Yunzhong warship at a distance of less than two hundred feet, the huge air wave it caused made the massive airship jolt violently, and a scorching temperature spread out.

The man in the black hat was stunned, what on earth was that just now? What flew past them?

It seemed to be a missile-shaped cannonball?

The man in the black hat quickly turned around to look in the direction where the cannonball disappeared, then an extremely incredulous look appeared in his eyes.

"Is it a cannon? The range is probably over three hundred and fifty miles. Zhang Guanlan, it seems like we have a problem."