Chapter 864: Chapter 516: Annihilation of the Clan!
If the silver mine is destroyed, even if Taicang City is defended, as the Magistrate, he should die to apologize.
"Kill—"
At this moment, an opening suddenly appeared in the enemy’s military formation below the city, and dozens of soldiers as big as hills carried an "Siege Hammer" made of a giant tree wrapped in iron, shouting battle cries, under the cover of a large group of shield-wielding soldiers, advancing towards the tightly closed city gates.
The defenders on the city walls, everyone’s expression changed.
Xue Shence, with his eyes tightly shut, had veins bulging on the back of his right hand as he angrily hurled the Fangtian Halberd!
"Woo!"
The dark long halberd, like an oversized arrow, charged with invisible force, thundered out, blasting a deep pit on the flat ground outside the city gates, with the nearby soldiers being thrown away by the shockwave, toppling in a heap.
The rebel army stared in horror at the Great Halberd deeply lodged at the bottom of the pit, retreating like a tide.
Xue Shence looked to the sky, a trace of worry showing through the slits of his eyelids: if reinforcements do not arrive soon, Taicang might not be able to hold out for long.
...
...
The Taicang Silver Mine is located on the outskirts of the Prefecture, a massive deep pit, with deep and interconnected mine tunnels inside.
Zhao Douan led the light cavalry, galloping all the way, arriving at the edge of the huge pit following his memory, his eyelids twitching wildly as he saw many scattered corpses on the ground below.
Replacing them was a new group of soldiers, forcing a group of mining villagers to carry white bags into the mine tunnels.
"It’s gunpowder. They want to blow up the mine!" Zhao Douan’s face changed from afar.
Due to a lack of corresponding technology, the court was very cautious in using gunpowder for mining, especially at the Taicang Silver Mine. Once detonated in specific locations, the pit could be buried, and cleaning it up for reuse would be a major project.
"Governor, I am willing to take down the thieves!" Behind him, Young Master Tang Ping was furious, loudly requesting permission.
At this moment, behind Zhao Douan, besides the experts around him, there were also light cavalry dispatched by the Divine Mechanism Camp, with Tang Ping as their leader.
"Alright, this place is crucial, indeed someone needs to guard it." Zhao Douan pondered briefly, easily nodded, then looked at Yu Xiu: "Can the priest help me? Point out the enemy’s direction?"
As he looked, there were not many rebels in the silver mine.
Yu Xiu sat straight on horseback, knitting her brows, about to refuse, but then heard Zhao Douan earnestly say: "The priest only needs to help me find if there are suspicious cultivators nearby, Zhang... The Heavenly Master has said, if it involves Evil Mages, monks from the Divine Dragon Temple, it doesn’t count as breaking the rules."
Yu Xiu hesitated for a moment, but still nodded, brought her two fingers together with her right hand, and wiped them across her eyes. Her eyes filled with clear light as she looked down at the mine pit, scanned around, performed a hand gesture, returned her gaze to normal, and shook her head: "There are no practitioners above the level of the Divine Chapter nearby, nor see anyone deep in the mine pit."
Not here? Could it be that the "expert" Bai Sun spoke of doesn’t exist? But even so, it’s impossible for the rebels to delegate so few people here for such big trouble...
There must be others elsewhere, but it seems Yu Xiu’s Heavenly Vision is limited by distance and cannot see too far... As Zhao Douan pondered, his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of the glaring firelight.
In broad daylight, where did the firelight come from?
Zhao Douan suddenly turned his head, shocked to see the fire rising in the direction of "Song Family Manor," accompanied by billowing smoke.
"Follow me." He immediately spurred his horse, leading the remaining subordinates in pursuit, and as they rounded this mountain pass, the closer they got to the Song Family Manor, the more firelight and white smoke rose, with many flames coming from the fields, it turned out that someone was setting fire to the fields!
And the fiercest and brightest flames were precisely at the farmhouse where Zhao Douan had once helped Commandery Princess Xu Junling investigate the case and visited.
...
At Song Family Manor, the entire village was sealed off by soldiers in black armor, rebels lighting torches, splashing tung oil, setting fire to mansion courtyards one by one.
On the ground, there were corpses lying in pools of blood in the courtyards, accompanied by wailing sounds from everywhere.
Inside the Song family ancestral hall, hundreds of clan members gathered in the ancestral hall, with men, women, young and old, each either eyeing furiously, or hopeless and sad, or stunned and bewildered.
The leading Protector, "Coach Xie," supplied by the Song Family, who had once sparred with Zhao Douan, had a broken arm and leaned against the ancestral hall wall with the help of several Protectors.
An old man in his fifties, wearing a Confucian crown, his face flushed, blocked a group of clan members behind him, earnestly tidied his clothes and crown, straightened his waist and back, with suppressed anger in his eyes, loudly hailed towards the ancestral hall entrance, at a group surrounded by soldiers, dressed in strange white attire:
"I am a direct disciple under Mr. Zhengyang of Yunfu, also the Clan Leader of Song Family Manor, since you serve Mu Prince, you should know the relationship between my master Zhengyang and Prince Mu is very close, you destroy my Song Family Manor, are you not afraid of the Royal Mansion’s punishment?! Hurry and retreat! I consider you unaware beforehand and will not hold you accountable..."
The elderly man was Scholar Song, who had once followed Mr. Zhengyang into the capital, and with his Senior Brother, witnessed the complete debate over old studies versus New Study between Zhao Douan and Zhengyang at Bailu Academy.
Later, Mr. Zhengyang, revered as "Yu Country’s First Hermit," publicly admitted defeat and honored Zhao Douan as his teacher, leading his disciples back.
Scholar Song didn’t follow his master and Senior Brother back to Yunfu, on his way to Taicang, he returned to his clan, devoted himself to studying New Study.
Unexpectedly struck by calamity today.
The white-clothed men blocking the ancestral hall door exchanged glances, suddenly burst into laughter together.
There were five of them in total, evidently not soldiers, but each dressed in uniformly white Warlock Robe, wearing pointed white hats, holding Mourning Sticks with white ribbons tied, and hanging palm-sized, dimly colored small coffins on their waists.