Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Have We Taken Down Qingshi Town Already?_1
After making a decision,
Zhao Hong and Gao Qi led over two thousand robust young men armed with brand-new steel sabers from Black Tiger Fortress
in a mad rush towards the direction of Qingshi Town at the fastest speed possible.
All along the way, clouds of dust billowed.
The sound of footsteps rolled on like continuous thunder.
Although Zhao Hong’s recruits hadn’t been with Black Tiger Fortress for very long,
nourished by ample food and meat,
they might not have become strong as bulls, but they had gained flesh on their frames and a decent amount of strength.
At the very least, they were a notch stronger than the soldiers in Qingshi Town.
As time went by,
soon, noon arrived.
At that moment, the burning sun hung high in the sky, temporarily driving away the chill of early winter.
But it seemed that because of this, some individuals in Qingshi Town who had no worries about food and drink began to feel drowsy at noon.
“Qingshi Town is just ahead…”
Once they were sufficiently close, Zhao Hong, the second son of the Zhao Family, temporarily had the robust young men halt in their tracks.
At this point, he needed to discuss the situation thoroughly with Gao Qi by his side.
They had to figure out how to capture Qingshi Town with the least amount of time and loss, to fully occupy it.
“Gao Qi, what do you think we should do next?”
Having stopped and observed Qingshi Town for a moment,
Zhao Hong suddenly asked Gao Qi in a low voice.
“Attack the city directly!” Gao Qi answered calmly.
Zhao Hong: “Attack directly?”
He was a bit stunned, caught off-guard.
Hey, hey, hey, this was their first siege battle.
Was it really okay to be so direct?
Seemingly noticing the confusion on Zhao Hong’s face,
Gao Qi explained in a low voice, “Just yesterday, I had a rough look at the soldiers in Qingshi Town.”
“There seem to be no more than three hundred in total.”
“The vast majority of the soldiers are old, weak, or disabled; the ones fit for battle number less than a hundred.”
“Given this situation, a straightforward attack will do.”
“I estimate that in less than half an hour, Qingshi Town will fall into our hands.”
Gao Qi’s explanation was very detailed.
Although Zhao Hong still had some doubts,
he followed Gao Qi’s advice and led the more than two thousand strong young men with brand-new steel sabers to attack directly.
In fact, to prepare for the siege,
he made thorough preparations.
Things like siege ladders, he prepared at least fifty.
It seemed he was afraid of having too few ladders and thus wasting time and the opportunity to attack.
The soldiers within Qingshi City, although quite useless,
seeing the fearsome approach of the large force of over two thousand with steel sabers,
put all their strength into closing Qingshi Town’s not so sturdy city gates.
“Kill, I command you to kill!”
“Whoever is the first to scale the city wall will be rewarded with a hundred ounces of gold, a thousand ounces of silver!!!”
At the foot of Qingshi Town’s city walls,
Zhao Hong drew the blade, forged over a hundred times, from his waist.
Yelling at the top of his lungs, he called out to the robust young men behind him.
Amidst the chaos of the times, while food was most important,
gold and silver still held a terrifying allure for countless people.
Upon hearing that their leader was willing to offer such a reward,
the more than two thousand young men holding brand-new steel sabers had their eyes turn red.
Carrying siege ladders, they madly approached the city walls of Qingshi Town.
There were some mishaps along the way; for instance, a young man carrying a ladder tripped over something and fell to the ground.
Or a ladder-bearing young man was shot by an arrow from the defenders.
Crashing down right then and there, he died at the foot of the wall.
Yet those were just a small number.
Most of Zhao Hong’s strong young men bearing ladders managed to arrive at the city wall successfully.
And he clenched the steel blade in his mouth, quickly starting to climb up the siege ladder.
At first, it was not too bad, the government soldiers from Qingshi Town were able to put up some resistance.
But as time passed and the ranks of Black Tiger Fortress’s able-bodied fighters atop the walls grew more numerous,
the situation suddenly started to tilt overwhelmingly in their favor.
The vast majority of government soldiers promptly abandoned their weapons and ran down from the walls in utter disarray.
A small portion of the soldiers continued to contend with the young men of Black Tiger Fortress.
However, in the grand scheme of things, this was already futile.
“Qingshi Town, just like that, it has been taken?”
Atop the walls of Qingshi Town,
stood Zhao Hong, the second son of the Zhao Family, draped in dark red iron armor and with a sharp blade tied at his waist.
He walked silently along the ramparts, looking around in a somewhat stunned manner.
To be honest, Zhao Hong had not anticipated this turn of events at all.
He had thought that even if they could take down Qingshi Town,
it would cost them at least a hundred or two, perhaps even three hundred of their young fighters.
But now it seemed… the number of his fighters lost was pitifully less than even fifty.
“Maybe, even the heavens are on the side of my Zhao Family this time!!!”
After being bewildered for a long while, Zhao Hong let out a silent sigh.
He straightened his back once more.
The worrisome shadows in his eyes,
which had lingered persistently up to this moment, also dissipated without a trace.
“Issue the order, lock down Qingshi Town completely; no one shall enter or leave.”
“Also, take some men and seal all officials in their homes within Qingshi Town.”
“I do not wish for any officials to vanish within this town.”
“And the most important thing is…”
“Bring more men, and join me in encircling the residence of Town Chief Yue Jun.”
“Later, I want to have a nice long talk with that old Yue Jun about the matters regarding the control of Qingshi Town.”
Having said that, Zhao Hong waved his hand and fell silent.
Of course, besides these matters,
the Zhao Family had one more exceedingly important issue to deal with.
That was, to wipe out the Luo Family within Qingshi Town, to make an example out of them.
Then take over the Luo Family’s vein of Qingshi ore for the Zhao Family to own.
However, since the entirety of Qingshi Town had already fallen into the Zhao Family’s hands,
the Luo Family of Qingshi Town had become fish trapped in a secret pot.
Therefore, Zhao Hong was not in a rush to extinguish the Luo Family.
Compared to dealing with the Luo Family, Zhao Hong was more eager to first settle matters with that old Town Chief Yue Jun.
Following the dispatch of Zhao Hong’s orders,
outside a rather luxurious residence in the center of Qingshi Town,
in the blink of an eye, a large group of strong men wielding steel blades
had tightly surrounded the estate.
“What are you doing, what do you want?”
“Do you know where you are?”
“This is the residence of Yue Jun, the Chief of Qingshi Town.”
“Where did you get the audacity to encircle this estate?”
Outside the residence, two gatekeeping house servants seemed to still be unaware of the situation,
continuously shouting loudly at the men outside holding steel blades, who looked not easily trifled with.
[Psst…]
Under the midday sunlight, a glittering, cold blade flashed briefly,
and in an instant, two heads tumbled to the ground, rolling slowly.
Bright and steaming blood splattered all around.
A faint smell of blood began to permeate the air outside the gate of the residence.
“The residence of Old Yue Jun, is it?”
“Even if I have surrounded it, what can you do to me?”
Zhao Hong, who wielded the blood-stained blade, looked somewhat coldly at the house servants and servants inside the residence.
He lightly waved the blade in his hand,
shaking off the bloodstains on the blade completely.
Only then did he, with a group of men, begin to slowly step into the residence.