Chapter 339 Test Fire

In the barracks of Great Xia, Wu Shenghou sat in the seat of honor and commanded, "Spread the order. Continue attacking the city tomorrow. Increase the power, use the scaling ladders, and attack the city in groups. Attack simultaneously with the strength of three barracks and maintain it. Don't let them have the opportunity to even breathe."
"Yes!" Immediately, a commander accepted the command to notify the rest.
"That Poison Warrior has already arrived in Liao City, right?" Wu Shenghou asked again.
"According to the description from the scouts, it should be him," a commander answered with his fists cupped. A few other officers appeared pretty uneasy when the Poison Warrior was mentioned.
After all, nobody would wish to meet someone like that on the battlefield. It would be too gloomy to be poisoned to death even before having the chance to unsheathe their blades.
Luckily, everyone was prepared this time.
"Has the pennisetum been distributed?" Wu Shenghou spoke in a dull tone.
"It has all been handed out as per the great general's orders," that commander immediately replied.
After over ten doctors in Great Xia had died, investigation showed that the remains of the poison in the Nine Pavilions, Mount Lianyin, and the Falling Moon Gorge were of the same type. They then discovered a remedy for it, which was pennisetum, a plant that was widely found in Great Xia. It was slightly poisonous, but it was just right to remediate that type of poison.
By simply putting some pennisetum in the mouth, it could counteract that type of poison. Even if the other party were to use poison in such open spaces, they wouldn't be able to cause much damage because of the pennisetum. As for the slight side effects that the pennisetum would cause, they could totally be disregarded.
In the morning after breakfast, the Great Xia army formed up into their battle formation and began the attack. Battle cries could be heard from all three directions.
Along with groups of rangers, there was also an increased number of scouts to the south of the city
However, people like the empress and Li Qianqiu didn't feel too pressured. In fact, they were all in high spirits as they watched Ren Baqian operate the drone.
After the drone took off, Li Qianqiu and the other commanders gasped in surprise again.
The drone finally landed half an hour later. According to the images, Ren Baqian roughly drew out the position of the enemy's barracks to the east of the city before comparing the details one by one.
The fence outside Great Xia's barracks was only three meters tall, but barbed wire was lined across the top of fence and specially placed to prevent the aboriginals from breaching the fence and attacking at night.
Furthermore, in each barracks, every entrance had four of the cannons that Ren Baqian had seen before, and they pointed directly outward.
The Great Xia army had spent quite a lot of effort in preventing the aboriginals from attacking at night.
Fortunately, Ren Baqian arrived early and before the aboriginals could attempt a night attack. Otherwise, they would have suffered some losses.
With the present map, everyone could immediately see and familiarize themselves with all the weak spots of the Great Xia barracks. They had also identified a few places where the rations were stored.
Flying two drones at a height of 600 meters, they were able to capture images of the Great Xia barracks at the east and north gate. While recharging the batteries for both drones, Ren Baqian glanced through the images that were taken of the Great Xia battle formation as well as the scene of their assault.
Every image was filled with austerity and was extremely mentally shocking.
Ren Baqian felt that any one of those images would qualify to be in the annual top ten photos if they were to be brought back to Earth.
In the afternoon, Ren Baqian carried the mortar and ascended the city wall. This entire stretch of wall was filled with many people and battle cries. Over 20 scaling ladders were put up against the wall, and Great Xia soldiers carried crossbows over their heads as they climbed up. They were slashed the moment they reached the top, and their wails could be heard as they fell off the wall.
Occasionally, there were leaders and captains who were stronger and tried to stand their ground when they reached the top. However, they too weren't able to last longer than a minute before falling off the wall.
The archers of Great Xia had already arrived ten0 meters from the city wall and were firing wave after wave of arrows toward the top.
"Hurry and bring some scarecrows over!" Ren Baqian subconsciously shouted as he witnessed this sight.
"Sir, what did you say?" Shi Hu asked as he struck down some arrows that were shot over.
"Bring some scarecrows here. Those arrowheads will dull after they hit the ground." Ren Baqian was full of resentment as he pointed to the arrows that had landed behind him on the stone structure.
Even so, these arrows were much better than the bone arrows that the aboriginals used. Besides, the arrows in the city were running low, so those metal arrows could be used to replenish the supply. However, if the arrowheads became blunt after hitting against the stone, the flight of the arrows would become unstable and, in turn, become useless.
After he was done talking, Ren Baqian extended his head outward and took a glance beneath the walls before immediately withdrawing. He then carried the mortar down the wall and shouted to Shi Hu, "Hurry, get Sir Li to prepare some scarecrows and place them on top of the wall. Also, gather some things like wood or hay and lay them behind the wall to collect and reuse those arrows!"
After yelling, Ren Baqian carefully placed the mortar on a piece of flat ground. He adjusted the angle based on the firing table and scope before stepping on the bottom of its frame with one leg.
"Come and support this!" he yelled at a bodyguard beside him.
After the bodyguard had properly supported the barrel, he dropped the mortar shell into the barrel and hurriedly covered his ears.
Following a light clank from when the shell hit the bottom of the barrel and activated the firing mechanism, the shell shot out from the barrel with a boom and a trail of smoke.
Bang! The artillery shell flew out of the barrel accompanied by smoke.
The sound was a little softer than what Ren Baqian had expected, something similar to the sound of popcorn popping on the street from when he was younger.
Ren Baqian dashed toward the wall once again. Just when he was halfway there, a loud bang could be heard from outside the city.
He ascended the city wall and hurriedly extended his head to look at where the mortar shell landed.
It was easy to locate because he only needed to find the spot where many people had fallen.
The blast had a 20 meter radius, which equated to an area of over 1,000 square meters.
The moment he extended his head, he saw a patch of land behind the archers where many people had fallen. At least 300 to 400 people had been killed, and many of them had their limbs blown off to an unknown location.
The steel bearings within the mortar shell shot out in all directions the moment the shell exploded and hit everyone within the proximity. These victims ended up looking like sieves.
Countless flaming bits burst out into the surroundings during the explosion and set quite a number of soldiers' clothes on fire. The entire region was in chaos.
A small number of lucky ones managed to escape the calamity and stood amongst the pile of corpses. Looking at the devastation and hearing the miserable cries around them, their faces were all filled with lifelessness.
The surrounding people were also shocked by this unforeseen event. Many of them felt at a loss and had completely no idea what just happened. They all appeared frightened as they looked at how devastated those people around them were.
To those soldiers, killing with blades and spears was an entirely different thing from the foreign and unknown type of attack that had just hit them.
Very quickly, at the urging of the troops behind them, they started charging toward the city wall again.
"It's off target!" Ren Baqian spat out a mouthful of saliva.
However, its power was much stronger than what he had anticipated.
One shot could kill over 300 people, ten shots could kill over 3,000 people. Firing 70 shots would then be able to kill over 20,000 people. Just by making two trips, he would be able to wipe out one third of the Great Xia army. If he were to run faster, in just a month's time, it could be possible for him to distress the entire Great Xia army that was outside the city and beat them into a tearful retreat.
However, these were just his thoughts. The Great Xia soldiers weren't fools, and he reckoned that they would probably find a way to reduce their casualties after a while. Besides, the damage wouldn't be as severe if they didn't crowd together.
"Sir Ren, this thing is indeed formidable!" a few bodyguards exclaimed repeatedly in admiration.
Ren Baqian couldn't be bothered to pay attention to them. This thing was already considered a piece of standard equipment in modern times. Naturally, these aboriginals would find it powerful.
Previously, when he wielded a taser, they had already regarded it as a magical object.
When Ren Baqian had confirmed the location, he ran down from the wall again, adjusted the angle of the mortar and fired another round.
Boom! A mortar shell suddenly landed behind the archers of Great Xia. Countless steel bearings shot rapidly throughout the surroundings like bullets, and a huge cluster of flames scattered all over.
The scattering steel bearings struck the archers in front and the shielded soldiers that were moving forward. As a result, they ended up looking like sieves too.
Ren Baqian climbed up the wall, extended his head, and carefully analyzed for quite some time before spitting out a mouthful of saliva again. "Damn it, off target again."
Once more, he went back down into the city, adjusted the angle, and released the shell into the barrel.
"Fire!"
Boom!
Ren Baqian ascended the walls once again, only to see that another region of death had been artificially created.
Everyone in the proximity became either corpses or casualties who lay wailing on the ground.
It was still a little off target, but the difference in distance this time could still be considered acceptable since it was only ten meters off.
To Ren Baqian, this was an acceptable range.
Finished with fighting, time to pack up.
Ren Baqian carried the mortar back to the city commander's residence. The empress, who was focused on watching a television series, asked, "I've heard that the results were not bad?"
"Not bad indeed!" Ren Baqian gave a thumbs-up.
"Are you going to use this for a night attack?" the empress asked again.
"Burn their rations and launch a night attack at the same time," Ren Baqian corrected her.
Li Qianqiu, who also heard of the news, came rushing over after a short while. He burst into loud laughter as soon as he met them. "Principal Ren, I've heard that you have something awesome. Let me have a try!"
"Wait for the night attack, and I'll let you have a taste of it." Ren Baqian waved his hand.
"Great!" Li Qianqiu felt exhilarated. With an up to date map of the Great Xia barracks and together with Ren Baqian's outstanding weapon, they could finally teach that bunch of Great Xia people a lesson.
...
Shortly after Ren Baqian left, Wu Shenghou tightly knitted his brows as he looked at a few fragmented shields. Before him, these pieces had numerous 3-millimeter-sized steel bearings embedded in them.
What sorcery was it this time around?
He suddenly realized that something was different about this battle.
Where did those barbarians obtain this weapon, which had such astonishing killing power?
Just the day before, the catapults at three locations had been destroyed, and now, thousands of soldiers had been killed after just three loud explosions.
Such a situation was completely unexpected.
If the other party were to continue using such weapons, how could Great Xia block these attacks?
Besides, there were already two types of never before seen weapons that had emerged. Did those barbarians have any more such armaments?
Furthermore, a number of commanders were looking ghastly below him. Their thoughts were identical to what Wu Shenghou was thinking.