Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 1028 – Most Barbaric Siege
Since taking charge of the demolition work, Lu Xiufu had had his hands full.
People caring about their homes was to be as expected. Even during war time, to make them move away from the house that they had stayed in for their entire life was a really difficult matter.
After the meeting ended, Lu Xiufu sent out a notification about the demolition.
Many years of war had caused the people to shift away or suffer heavy casualties, and even the Capital City Lin’an had many empty houses. Hence, the civilians that moved away did not need to worry about not having a house to live in.
Even so, those that moved away friendlily were rare, which made Lu Xiufu really anxious.
The demolition and relocation was the first step to settling down the defending troops and needed to be done quickly. When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he immediately suggested two ideas to Lu Xiufu.
First, tell the civilians that lived near the city wall that the Mongol army brought large amounts of cannons that could directly shoot into the city walls. If one did not want to become collateral damage, they should just move away.
During the third Mongol west conquering mission, they brought back many eastern region artisans, and to a certain extent, this caused the Mongol weapon equipment to become renewed. The cannons were one of the few.
Western Cannon or the Xiangyang Cannon was a new kind of trebuchet.
Such a trebuchet was designed by the Hui people. Based on the foundations of the old trebuchet, it was improved and redesigned, causing its strength to increase.
In the Song Yuan Xiangyang battle, the Xiangyang Cannon showed its strength and broke apart the thick city walls of Xiangyang, helping the Mongol army to finally take down Xiangyang. This battle was how it got its name.
Secondly, he suggested they directly act upon the stubborn people and use the military to forcefully demolish the buildings, not showing any mercy at all.
At desperate times, one needed to take desperate measures. Lu Xiufu was a civil servant, and he liked to do things the civil servant way. On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo was a typical utilitarian. He would use whatever method was the most efficient.
As expected, upon hearing about the power of the Xiangyang Cannon, those civilians that stayed near the city walls ran faster than rabbits. Not only those within 500 meters, but even those further than that all fled.
This was the civilians’ group mentality.
After the civilians fled, a large-scale remodeling started, and it lasted for a few days. Weirdly, during these few days, the Mongol army was really quiet, and they did not make a sound.
Just as the troops got into place, Lin’an city had a rumor that was spreading.
It said that the Mongol army was really brutal and massacred civilians. For this, the jade emperor of the heavens sent soldiers from heaven to help the Imperial Court fight against the Mongol army.
Some civilians staying near the city west camp swore that on one day, the sky changed color, only to see a white light shine across and 400 thousand soldiers from heaven appeared.
As many people had seen this, naturally more and more people believed it. Even many soldiers in the barracks were discussing it and believed it with zero doubt.
Along with the recent changes to the defenses on all four sides, the civilians could easily see that they were wearing different armor from the Song Army, which made the civilians believe the rumors more.
Everyone slowly trusted the rumor of soldiers from heaven.
At this very moment, the Imperial Court sent a decree to give player Ouyang Shuo the title of Xia King and ordered him to fight against the Mongol Army.
Some people said that the Xia King sent by the jade emperor was a deity that could control the weather and summon ancient God Generals like Er’Lai and Xu Chu.
Er’Lai rode on Luosha and made a round around the city, attracting cheers from the people.
This time, the civilians had no reason not to believe it.
Taoism during the Song Dynasty had reached a new peak, and it was more prosperous than the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Stories of deities were really common, which was why such rumors were believed by the people and easily accepted.
The moment one accepted such a theory, naturally their confidence would multiply.
Although the Mongol army was terrifying, no matter how strong they were, how could they compare to soldiers from heaven? In just a short few days, the panicking people slowly calmed down.
All of this was naturally plotted by Ouyang Shuo.
When Xiong Ba got the news, he shook his head in amusement, “I did not expect it to be so easy!” In truth, many things that look really complicated were really simple to handle.
The difference was whether one would be able to think outside the box or not.
…
Battle Map, 6th day, morning.
The Mongol army did not make a sound for a consecutive few days, making Ouyang Shuo feel really uneasy. The troops on all four sides sent out scouts to try to investigate what the Mongol troops were doing.
Under the accompaniment of Guo Ziyi, Ouyang Shuo went up the north city wall, looking out into the distance.
Looking out, outside the city, there were closely packed Mongol tents. The white Mongol tents lined up one after another, and one could not see the end of it.
Moreover, these were just the vanguard forces of the Mongol army. The true main forces were not on the outskirts but in the city further away.
A million troops surrounded the city; this was the game, and in reality, something like this was impossible.
Not mentioning other reasons, but just the grain usage alone would cause the entire Jiangnan to be eaten up in half a year, not leaving anything behind and becoming truly ruins.
Obviously, Gaia skipped across all this for the Battle Map.
“General, what do you think the Mongols are planning?” Ouyang Shuo suddenly asked.
Guo Ziyi evidently jolted. During these past few days, he was busy building the north gate command center and working with the South Song Imperial Court. At the same time, he needed to ensure that the defenses were okay and that nothing was lacking. As such, he did not think about that problem.
Since Ouyang Shuo had asked, Guo Ziyi needed to give a good reply.
Thinking about it, he answered, “The enemy is not sieging yet maybe for two reasons. Either they have something happening internally, or there were some things that were not prepared.”
“Seeing the situation, there is a low chance of an internal dispute happening. The biggest possibility is that they are preparing some killing method,” Guo Ziyi voiced his conjecture.
“Then what killing blow would it be?”
Ouyang Shuo looked out at the Mongol camp in the distance. Who knows whether he was asking Guo Ziyi or himself.
“King, do not worry. I expect the scouts to return with news in a few days. When that happens, everything will be clear.”
“I can feel that in a further distance, there’s a huge feeling of vengeance gathering up. Who knows what despicable thing the Mongol army are doing.”
When Guo Ziyi heard that, he felt his heart shake. He learned from Lord Feng Qiuhuang that not only was the Xia King good at martial arts and administrative duties, but his personal cultivation was also shocking, and he was cultivating a top tier cultivation technique.
For him to have such a premonition, it was most probably going to be right.
Guo Ziyi cupped his fist, “Do not worry, king, I’ll ready the preparations.”
Ouyang Shuo nodded. As he walked down the city wall, he could feel that this was the last calm before the storm, and a huge bloody battle was about to begin.
…
One had to say that Ouyang Shuo’s prediction was really accurate.
On the 7th day of the Battle Map, the Mongol army finally acted.
On this day, just as the sky lit up, outside Lin’an city, hundreds of thousands of Chinese people rushed over from all directions. One could see that they were badly dressed, looking really thin and terrified. They were being herded like sheep toward Lin’an. They only stopped when they were right before the city wall.
On the south city wall, Zhang Shijie looked at the refugees who were outside of the city. His face was really ugly, “I knew these bastards would use such a method.”
Wen Tianxiang, who was standing beside him, looked really solemn. His fists were clenched tight, his eyes flaming. Looking at the situation, Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang seemed to know what the Mongols were going to do.
The Mongols did not start the siege yet because they were gathering up Chinese civilians, gathering them all up outside of Lin’an city.
The following scenes stunned Ouyang Shuo and the others.
The yellow, thin civilians held simple tools, digging the dirt under the supervision of the Mongol soldiers and using the dirt to build castles.
During the process, if anyone dared to slack off or hesitate, the whips of the supervising soldiers would mercilessly land. These supervising generals grew up on horseback and their whips were one more vicious than the next.
With one whip, not only did the shirt of the victim tear, but even their skin broke apart.
The expressions of the Mongol soldiers were even more infuriating. Looking at the situation, they did not treat these civilians as humans, relentlessly scolding them and even hitting them. They even let out perverted laughs, looking like they were enjoying it.
“A bunch of bastards!”
The Mongol people viewed the Chinese civilians as food, barbarically conquering civilizations, making one grit their teeth.
Seeing their brothers tortured like that, the city protection soldiers really could not bear to massacre them. If they were like that, how would they be different to animals?
Just like that, the Mongols smoothly used the civilians to build castles all around the city. Looking at them, they were even taller than the Lin’an city walls. Once they were built, they would become the frontline sentry of the Mongols, and it would be even more effective than arrow turrets.
The even more infuriating part was still to follow.
Those captured civilians were all hungry. While they built the castles for the Mongols, they could only eat bland porridge. Not mentioning being full, but they could not even fill their stomachs.
After having a meal, they would have to start work once more, regardless of how long they would be able to hold on. Since afternoon, there were many civilians who did not have enough energy and fainted on the ground.
How did the Mongol supervising soldiers deal with these fainted civilians?
Not to mention saving them, they did not even bother to whip them. They just chopped these civilians to death with their blades, throwing their bodies onto the castles that were being built up to act as building resources.
On the 2nd day, the actions of the Mongols exceeded what man would do.
The Mongols set up huge pots between the castles, confusing Ouyang Shuo and the others.
“What are they doing? Cooking?” Feng Qiuhuang did not understand.
Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as he did not know the answer to that question.
Luckily, the answer would be revealed really soon.
The Mongol soldiers threw one live civilian after another into the pot, burning them alive, obviously wanting to use them to make resin oil.
The screams of the civilians made one’s face turn ashen white.
‘Ou~~’
Seeing the Mongol soldiers collect oil from the pots, Feng Qiuhuang could not take it anymore and vomited on the spot.
Ouyang Shuo’s face was really ugly. Staring out at the Mongol soldiers outside of the city, he coldly said, “These bastards do not deserve to live.”
This was the first time he had hated a group of people so much.
