Chương 591: Is this a weapon from the human world?

He hurriedly mounted his horse, losing one of his shoes in the process, and led his personal guards towards Wutu Valley.

When he arrived at the city, he saw from afar that Yuwen Chengdu's 10, 000 vanguard cavalry had almost surrounded Wutu Valley.

Countless Han cavalrymen galloped back and forth outside the city, their battle cries shaking the heavens and raising clouds of dust.

The soldiers guarding the city wall were terrified, their faces pale and their legs trembling.

"Quickly! Close the city gates! Summon all the troops!" Dero shouted, his voice hoarse.

But it was too late.

When Yuwen Chengdu saw Deluo return, he sneered, a smile so cold it could freeze a person to death.

Holding a phoenix-winged gilded cymbal, he spurred his warhorse, which, in pain, neighed and charged straight toward the city gate.

"kill!"

Yuwen Chengdu took the lead, his halberd tip gleaming coldly in the sunlight. Wherever he swung his phoenix-winged gilded halberd, the Cheshi soldiers blocking his way were swept away like scarecrows.

He smashed open the city gate, which hadn't been fully closed yet, cracking the wooden door, and led his cavalry into the city.

"Bang bang bang!"

The musketeers following behind began firing, and the sound of gunfire echoed throughout the city.

The Cheshi soldiers on the city wall fell in droves, some even tumbling down from the wall and landing on the ground with a dull thud.

Soon after, Su Lie and his group arrived...

Qu Yi led the "Vanguard Warriors" and stormed the city walls.

These people are all elites, selected from among the best, and each of them is highly skilled.

Each of them held a short-handled flintlock pistol and fired at close range, hitting every target with ease, one shot, one kill.

The Cheshi soldiers on the city wall were unable to resist and fled the city in droves. Some even jumped off the city wall and broke their legs.

Su Lie led the central army into the city and commanded the main force to wipe out the remaining enemy forces.

The Han soldiers searched in groups of three or five, moving from street to street and alley to alley, their coordination impeccable.

If resistance is encountered, fire directly with muskets, leaving no survivors.

Someone was hiding in the woodpile, but was found and tied up immediately.

In just one hour, Wutu Valley was completely breached.

Delu led two thousand remaining troops in an attempt to break through the north gate, but was overtaken by Yuwen Chengdu.

After exchanging blows, Yuwen Chengdu struck Deluo dead with a single blow, knocking him off his horse and dragging his body a long way away.

The Han army annihilated the rear forces of Cheshi, thus destroying Cheshi...

That evening, Su Lie convened a military conference in Wutu Valley.

The tent was brightly lit with candles, and the generals gathered around the map.

All the generals thought that the next step would be to attack Kucha, so they all volunteered for the battle, eager to be the vanguard.

Unexpectedly, Su Lie pointed to Chigu City on the map, placing his finger on the location of Wusun, and said:

"Gentlemen, the rear of the Cheshi army has been destroyed. We have no time to rest. Tonight at midnight, the entire army will set off, cross the Tianshan Mountains, and launch a surprise attack on the Wusun royal court, Chigu City!"

"What? Cross the Tianshan Mountains?" The generals were all taken aback, exchanging bewildered glances, thinking they had misheard.

A general stood up and said with a frown, "General, this is not right! It is already the end of April, and it has already started to rain and melt the snow in the Tianshan Mountains. The mountain roads are rugged, and there are also snowmelt floods and avalanches."

The army, carrying cannons and supplies, simply couldn't get through! The road was too narrow, and beside it was a bottomless abyss; if you fell in, you wouldn't even find your bones!

"It's precisely because the journey is difficult that the Wusun people are unprepared." Su Lie's voice remained calm, as if he were stating something quite ordinary.

"The Wusun split into the Greater and Lesser Kunmi tribes a hundred years ago. The Lesser Kunmi are currently in Chigu City. Let's take advantage of their inattention and attack the royal court in Chigu City directly for a decapitation strike."

He paused, then stood up and walked to the map:

"Although it has declined, it still has about 100, 000 archers within its ranks. If we wait for them to assemble their army, it will be a little more difficult for us to attack."

But as long as we take Chigu City and capture the leader alive, the entire Xiaokunmi will be leaderless...

The generals suddenly understood and nodded in agreement, their doubts turning into admiration.

That night, the army set off silently and began to cross the Tianshan Mountains.

Under the moonlight, the procession resembled a long, black serpent winding along the mountain path.

Deep in the Tianshan Mountains, the snow is pristine, the wind is biting, and the temperature is so low that even breathing produces white vapor.

The mountain path was rugged and difficult to traverse, with a bottomless abyss beside it. If you fell in, you wouldn't even be able to find your body, let alone hear an echo.

The artillery and supplies had to be disassembled into parts and carried forward by the soldiers.

A cannon is disassembled into three parts: the barrel, the carriage, and the wheels. Dozens of people take turns carrying it, and they have to switch people every few steps.

But not a single Han soldier retreated.

They gritted their teeth, their cheeks puffed out, and supported each other as they walked forward step by step.

When someone falls, those nearby immediately help them up; when someone can't walk anymore, their comrades take over their burden.

Many soldiers' hands and feet were frozen stiff, and their faces were cracked from the cold wind, with the blood freezing instantly.

His breath frosted over his eyebrows and beard, leaving a white, pristine layer.

But their eyes remained firm, fixed on the road ahead.

After a difficult march, the Han army finally crossed the Tianshan Mountains and appeared in the lush and fertile Ili River Valley.

When 60, 000 Han troops suddenly appeared at the foot of Chigu City, the entire Wusun was stunned.

The soldiers guarding the city wall were so frightened by the sight of the densely packed Han army below that they dropped their weapons on the ground.

The leader of the Lesser Kunmi is holding a grand banquet in Chigu City to celebrate his recent victory over the army of the Greater Kunmi Yizhimi and the capture of the most fertile land in the Ili River Valley.

Inside the royal palace, wine cups clinked, songs and dances filled the air, musicians played instruments and sang, and dancers spun like tops.

A guard rushed in, shouting, "Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened! The Han army is here! They're already outside the city! They're everywhere!"

Utu Midona laughed heartily, picked up his wine cup, and took a swig:

"What nonsense are you spouting? Even if the Han army came, they could only be in Cheshi, how could they possibly have gotten here? The Tianshan Mountains are in between, did they fly here? Are you drunk?"

"It's true! Your Majesty! You must go and see!" The guard was so anxious he was almost crying, and his voice had changed.

Wu Tu Midona was half-believing and half-doubting. He put down his wine cup and led his civil and military officials up the city wall.

When he saw the densely packed Han army outside the city and the dark muzzles of cannons, the smile on his face vanished instantly, turning ashen, and the wine cup in his hand clattered to the ground.

"Quickly! Quickly gather the army!" Utu Midona shouted as he fled in panic, his legs trembling.

"Send men to the surrounding areas for help! Quickly! Send men!"

But it was too late.

"fire!"

Su Lie gave the order, his voice echoing across the vast grassland.

Thousands of Tiger Crouching Cannons and hundreds of Divine Might General Cannons fired simultaneously, aiming at the walls of Chigu City, and cannonballs rained down on the city walls.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

This was not a salvo, but a natural disaster.

The fire from thousands of tiger-squatting cannons almost formed a burning horizon, turning the morning sky crimson.

The sharp firing sounds merged into a continuous, terrifying shriek that tore through silk, making eardrums ache and heads buzz.

Countless iron pellets soared into the air, forming a deathly cloud that curved in trajectory, carrying the whistle of death and blotting out the sun.

Above this shrill, dark cloud, there were hundreds of deeper, more majestic roars.

Those were hundreds of Divine Might General Cannons. The roar of these behemoths was no longer a sound of humanity, but a painful howl as the earth's entrails were torn apart.

The tiger-squat cannon's shrapnel first covered the entire city wall; it wasn't an attack, it was a scouring.

The iron pellets rained down like hailstones, crackling and popping.

The crenellations, parapets, corner towers, flags, figures... everything that protruded above the wall was instantly "washed" by this torrent of steel, as if swept away by a giant wave.

Gravel, sawdust, fragments of armor, and softer, indescribable substances mingled into a crimson dust that rose and spread in the first rays of sunlight.

Then, the real destruction came.

The iron hammers hurled by the Divine General's cannon have arrived.

They don't scatter like iron balls, but rather smash, embed, penetrate, and plow.

A bullet struck the city gate tower squarely. The majestic three-story wooden building, like a block being violently struck by an invisible hand of a giant, was terrifyingly dented and exploded in the middle.

The wooden beams snapped, tiles flew everywhere, and then the entire upper part slowly tilted and collapsed amidst the cracking sounds, raising clouds of dust and splintered wood that buried the defenders below alive.

Another bullet grazed the outer wall of the city, carving a deep trench wide enough for several people to walk side by side...

Broken rammed earth and bricks cascaded down like a waterfall, almost filling the base of the wall and kicking up a cloud of yellow smoke.

More often, they smashed into the main body of the city wall hard and deep.

Each hit caused the entire section of the city wall to tremble violently, and the dust on the wall fell down in a rush.

The huge crack spread outwards from the point of impact, extending like lightning in all directions, covering the wall like a spider web.

Some sections of the city wall, after being hit almost simultaneously by several such heavy bullets, finally groaned under the strain, and the entire wall collapsed inward, forming a huge, smoking gap, as if Chigu City had been forcibly torn open with a wound flowing with earth, stone and blood.

The air was thick with the pungent gunpowder of the Tiger Crouching Cannon, the heavy smoke of the Divine Might General Cannon, the bloody smell of dust, the burnt smell of wood and stone, and the sweet and terrifying odor of flesh and blood that evaporated in an instant... all mixed together to create a haze that belonged only to hell. One whiff of it made you want to vomit, and your throat felt like it was on fire.

The sound has lost its meaning.

It was a continuous, crushing roar, the lament of the physical world's structure under violence.

The will, courage, and even the instinct for survival of the defenders were easily crushed and reduced to dust in this destructive storm that defied all comprehension, just like their bodies.

This is not a siege.

This is a waterfall of steel and fire, washing over a section of city wall, erasing the outline of a city.

Under this overwhelming barrage of fire, Chigu City was no longer a military stronghold, but merely a pitiful ruin awaiting complete dismantling.

Wu Tu Midona, who had run to a distance, collapsed to the ground, watching the small mushroom cloud rising from the city walls, and muttered to himself, his voice trembling:

"My God, what are these things? How can they be so powerful? Are these weapons from the human world?"