Longzang

Chapter 383 A Tiger Enters a Sheepfold
A military officer appeared on the city wall and shouted, "This is Hanyang Pass, not under the jurisdiction of the Dingxi Military Governor! Your actions of crossing the border to make arrests are already a serious crime! Leave immediately, or else..."

The general below the city suddenly raised his gun and aimed. With a loud bang, a large hole appeared in the chest of the adjutant on the city wall!
He was stunned as the body fell from the city wall.

Cui Yu shot and killed the gatekeeper with a single shot, shouting, "This man colluded with bandits and obstructed the government troops from suppressing them. He is guilty of the same crime as the bandits! Those who lay down their weapons on the city wall will not be killed; otherwise, they are all accomplices of the bandits!"

At his command, thousands of knights dismounted and charged toward the city wall. They leaped up and took only one step to reach the top of the wall. Hundreds of Dao Foundation cultivators even took to the air and flew to the city tower.

The guards at the gate were terrified, regretting that they had let these people get close to the city wall. Now, gunfire was also raging inside the city. The Zhan Tian Gang had rushed close to the gate tower and entered firing range, and began to return fire, making the soldiers on the gate tower afraid to show their heads.

The defenders were shocked to discover that the ones who had stormed the gate tower were not knights, but heavily armed cavalry and infantry!
They carried large shields and muskets, switching to swords as they approached, and hundreds of soldiers charged forward, quickly breaking through the defenders' defenses.

With a creak, the heavy gate opened, and a large group of people rushed in and stormed into Hanyang Pass.

The soldiers who surrendered on the gate tower suddenly discovered that the military governor's fierce army and the Zhan Tian Gang bandits were mixed together, their armor and clothing changing, and for a moment they could not tell who were soldiers and who were bandits.

As soon as the army entered the city, Wei Yuan immediately led the Longxiang and Longyi armies to attack the three military camps. He first used two small forces to block the two camps, and then personally led the main force to attack the third camp, capturing all the officers and disarming the soldiers, imprisoning them in the camp. He then left a small team to guard the camp, and the main army rushed towards the second camp.

The garrison troops were one thing, but the officers had all heard how badly they had failed in the previous two attacks on Qingming. Some officers had just spent several thousand taels of silver to redeem themselves, nearly bankrupting themselves. Now, seeing Wei Yuan appear again, leading a large and fierce army, where was their will to resist?
Thus, in the blink of an eye, the three military camps fell one after another. Wei Yuan ordered his men to take all the officers away and imprison them in a quiet place, while the soldiers remained in the military camps.

Although Wei Yuan left few guards, the soldiers, without armor and dressed only in cloth, were lambs to the slaughter in front of these heavily armored soldiers. They naturally understood this, so no one dared to resist. Moreover, Wei Yuan was acting under the banner of a military governor, which meant he was also a member of the imperial army. These soldiers, confused about the situation, obediently stayed in the camp, awaiting their fate.

The garrison at Hanyang Pass originally consisted of 50,000 elite veterans and 100,000 civilians, but when the prefecture was established, Yue Jinshan transferred 20,000 elite troops away, and they were never returned. During the two Qingming Wars, the Xu family also drew tens of thousands of troops from the garrison as the main force for attacking the border region.

Therefore, although the garrison in the fortress still numbers close to 50,000, only a few thousand of the veterans from the beginning of the year remain, with the majority being new recruits promoted from the militia. These new soldiers have limited combat strength and no will to fight.

Each of the three large camps inside the fortress had 10,000 garrison troops. After capturing Hou Yuan, they swept through the fortresses in the order of the east gate, north gate, and west gate. In the end, only the 8,000 garrison troops at the west gate remained.

The commander guarding the west gate was stubborn and refused to surrender no matter what.

Wei Yuan immediately pointed at him and said, "This man is clearly an accomplice of the bandits. Men, seize him!"

The Dragon Soaring and Dragon Wing armies dismounted, their military might instantly overwhelming the gatekeepers. Hundreds of Foundation Establishment cultivators flew onto the city wall and slaughtered the enemy.

The gate originally had a protective array, but it was connected to the city's main defensive array. Wei Yuan occupied the city and directly shut down the gate's defensive array.

The Longxiang Army advanced slowly, with heavy shields in front and muskets mounted on them. The gatekeepers were cut down in droves like weeds.

The defending general refused to surrender and was eventually killed in battle by several Dao Foundation cultivators. His thirty personal guards also died in the battle.

With their commander killed and over a thousand casualties, the remaining few thousand defenders lost all morale and surrendered en masse. This was mainly because Wei Yuan's troops, during the attack, had repeatedly claimed that the surrendered soldiers were colluding with bandits and deserved extermination; then they would say that those who knelt and surrendered would be pardoned. This confused the government troops, and the army lost all will to fight. The Long Xiang and Long Yi armies immediately ordered all surrendered soldiers to remove their armor, leaving them only in their undergarments, and assemble below the city walls. They searched the city walls and found a large amount of gold and silver, several masks, and numerous letters secretly exchanged with the Zhan Tian Gang in the defenders' quarters.

Wei Yuan ordered his men to show these things to the surrendered soldiers, and then, as was customary, he took the officers away separately, while the soldiers went to the outside of the pass, leaving a small squad of soldiers to guard them.

Before the main force returned to the pass, Cui Yu said to the thousands of prisoners of war: "Your identity documents are now in our hands. Anyone who dares to escape will be treated as a deserter after being counted, and their families will be implicated! Think about it carefully!"

The soldiers were terrified and remained obediently squatting in place. Although only a dozen or so cavalrymen were guarding these thousands of people, none of the prisoners dared to move an inch.

Wei Yuan, without stopping, immediately dispersed his troops to take over key locations. He then divided half of his men into more than a dozen small teams, who, according to the roster in his hands, went to the front of each mansion in the city.

"Open the door!!" A Daoji officer pounded violently on the vermilion gate in front of him, followed by a hundred Longxiang soldiers.

After a few bangs, the vermilion gate opened a crack, revealing the steward's face, who looked suspiciously at the officer before him. The officer's armor was unfamiliar; he had never seen him before.

The butler asked, "What brings you here, sir?"

The officer said, "Someone saw the Zhan Tian Gang bandits escape into your house! I have been ordered to come and search for them."

The butler sneered, "Are you blind? Don't you even know whose house this is? Our Master Lin is the Sixteenth Elder's nephew! You blind fool, get out of here with your men!"

The officer grinned maliciously: "You won't let us search? Then it seems you really have colluded with bandits!"

Before the steward could answer, the officer drew his sword and killed him with a single blow. Then he kicked down the vermilion gate, and a large group of heavily armed soldiers filed in.

A roar echoed from within the courtyard, and a burly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator appeared, leading a group of servants as they charged forward. The officer sneered, drawing his sword to meet the attack. Both were Dao Foundation Establishment cultivators, but the officer, heavily armored, already held the upper hand. Behind him, Longxiang Army soldiers set up muskets, unleashing a hail of bullets that slaughtered the Dao Foundation Establishment guard.

The soldiers then ransacked the mansion like tigers entering a sheepfold, turning it upside down and finding a lot of silver, antiques, medicinal herbs and treasures that had been used to collude with bandits and aid the enemy. These were all pieces of evidence.

The jewelry belonging to the wife, concubines, and daughters was stolen, and in the end, even Master Lin's jade-inlaid belt was stripped off. Master Lin, holding up his trousers with both hands, watched as a pack of wolves wreaked havoc in his home, and was so angry that he almost fainted.

Fortunately, these government troops did not harass the women, and as long as they did not resist, they would not kill them. After they left, Master Lin took stock of his household and found that he had only lost some money, which was not unacceptable.

Such scenes were playing out everywhere within the city walls. Some wealthy families, who were already trembling with fear, soon discovered that these government troops passed by their gates without entering, heading straight for their neighbors, treating their even grander and more luxurious mansions as if they didn't exist.

The remaining warriors of Longxiang and Longyi occupied the four gates and then began to dismantle the eight giant crossbows on the city wall.

(End of this chapter)