Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 230 Broken City
'Woo~~~'

The crane arm rotated, and the enormous potential energy propelled the iron ball, sending it hurtling towards the gate tower of Dingdingmen.

'Thump~~~'

The enormous iron ball smashed through the wooden frame, walls, beams, doors, and windows of the city gate tower with overwhelming force.

With just one strike, half of the city gate tower collapsed.

Flying wood chips tumbled and slammed into the heads, shoulders, and backs of Wang Shichong and his men as they fled, causing them to stumble and fall in a disheveled state.

Wang Shichong, gritting his teeth and trembling with rage, shouted, "Attack! Destroy this behemoth!"

In places of ignorance, those who are uninformed or have been brainwashed are likely to choose to worship.

The Central Plains are different.

This region experienced a burst of intellectual development and became very knowledgeable a thousand years ago.

In times of chaos, the soldiers on the city walls were mostly veterans who had faced life and death on the battlefield.

After a brief moment of shock, they used all available resources to retaliate.

Their primary weapon was the bow and crossbow.

A dense barrage of crossbow bolts flew over, clanging as they struck the blender.

The spiked mace, studded with iron nails, was raised high and then crashed down, striking the rotating crane arm and breaking instantly.

They threw over piles of rock and logs for free.

The gray bottle fell and shattered, scattering lime powder everywhere, leaving a gray haze.

A large ladle of boiling golden broth was poured over, the stench of a biochemical attack so strong it made people want to vomit.

Aside from the golden liquid, which is somewhat useful for odor attacks, it is basically useless otherwise.

The only thing that could pose even a slight threat was the patterned crossbow on the crossbow platform.

The crossbow with patterned crossbows is also called the eight-ox crossbow.

The powerful crossbow, weighing up to twelve stones, has a three-foot-five-inch long and five-inch thick crossbow bolt with an iron fletching placed on its path.

An arrow was shot, and the crossbow bolt, carrying enormous kinetic energy, struck the steel plate with a hum.

Lin Dao immediately drove his car along the city wall.

The rotating boom swung the iron ball, which then slammed it into the crossbow platform.

These ballistae were very heavy and primarily used for defending cities, making them difficult to move.

They could only watch helplessly as the iron ball came hurtling towards them, and could only run away.

The iron ball smashed through the battlements, then struck the ballista platform, sending the ballista flying and disintegrating in mid-air.

After making one trip back and forth, destroying the crossbow platforms on both sides, Lin Dao began to focus on ramming the city gate.

Across the moat, the iron ball rammed against the city wall again and again.

The rammed earth city wall continued to collapse and sink, developing large cracks, until it completely crumbled and collapsed.

Beneath the collapsed city wall, a slope more than ten zhang wide and forty or fifty degrees in degree was formed.

The collapsed city walls even buried more than half of the moat.

The breaker moved to the side, continuing to swing the iron ball along the gap, widening it and causing collapse after collapse.

Li Erfeng, who had been watching this area closely, drew her sword.

"rush!"

The first to arrive were a large number of laborers.

Most of the laborers were shirtless, wearing hemp trousers and cow-ear hemp shoes.

Carrying sacks filled with mud and gravel, they rushed over with their heads covered.

Arriving at the moat, he threw the cloth bag on his shoulder into the water.

Then he turned and ran, using all his strength to sprint back.

Once you receive a wooden stick, you've completed the task and will receive a reward.

This process would normally have been met with fierce resistance from the defending forces, resulting in heavy casualties.

But Lin Dao was covering for him from the side.

When the guards fired arrows, he would rotate the crane arm and swing the iron ball over.

The iron ball sparked as it rubbed against the city wall, knocking down and sending Wang Shichong's archers flying as it crashed into the ground.

This thing is used to dismantle reinforced concrete structures. Its strength is so great that even an elephant couldn't withstand it, let alone a human.

Lin Dao, inside the cockpit, witnessed a soldier on the city wall bracing his shield against the wall with his shoulder.

As a result, both the shield and the man were crushed, and the iron ball carried them along until they flew high into the air and out of the city wall.

‘Pah! ’

Lin Dao laughed and said, "You're really brave."

Even if Li Yuanba came, he wouldn't be able to hold out.

The moat was filled in, forming a slope along the collapsed city wall.

Li Erfeng swung her knife again.

"rush!"

Heavy infantrymen, lined up and advanced.

Stepping on the sacks and the ruins of the collapsed city wall, it was like a surging wave, crossing the highest point.

'Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~~'

On one side of the collapsed ruins inside the city, the archers of the defending army fired a dense barrage of arrows, which struck the heavy shields of the Tang army with muffled thuds.

The Tang army charged down and engaged the defending troops in a fierce battle.

"rush!"

Li Erfeng gave the order for the third time.

This time, he rode forward on horseback, personally leading the Xuanjia cavalry.

As I rode my horse over the ruins and slope, I glanced back at the massive, now motionless object not far away.

Inside the cockpit, Lin Dao opened a bottle of Yibao (a popular Chinese herbal tea brand) to replenish his water.

Holding his phone, he opened the calculator to do some calculations.

“In the Tang Dynasty, one jin was about 600 grams.”

"100,000 jin is 60,000 kilograms, or 60 tons."

"On the international market, one ton of raw silk costs about 500,000 yuan including tax."

"The total price is thirty million."

Lin Dao breathed a sigh of relief after exiting the calculator.

"I made enough money to buy a special engineering vehicle."

Lin Dao needed specially customized engineering vehicles, all of which were large machines with high-powered engines and enormous sizes.

In terms of price, it is naturally quite expensive.

It's a good thing that someone is paying for it.

Lin Dao lowered the air conditioning temperature in the cockpit by two degrees, leaned back in his chair, and started playing a single-player Dou Dizhu game.

Li Erfeng led her Xuanjia Iron Cavalry into the Heavenly Street. High walls lined both sides of the street.

He took the lead, charging forward on horseback.

They routed and killed the pursuing defenders all the way to the Tianjin Bridge on the banks of the Luo River.

At this time, the Tianjin Bridge was not the tortoise-back stone pillar bridge that was later modified, but a pontoon bridge built by connecting ships with iron chains.

On the other side of the pontoon bridge is the Duanmen Gate of the Imperial City.

This area was originally a key defensive zone for the garrison.

However, the city fell too quickly, and the influx of the Tang army caused the morale of the defenders to plummet.

The defenders at Tianjin Bridge offered only a brief resistance before scattering in disarray.

The Xuanjia Army crossed the Tianjin Bridge and arrived at the gates of the Imperial Palace.

Looking at the towering palace walls, Li Erfeng turned to look back at the path she had taken.

"To break through the city, we still need Brother Zihou to take action."

"King Qin!" Luo Shixin, who was beside Li Erfeng, shouted and pointed towards the palace gate, "The gate is open!"

The heavy palace gates were opened, and a group of soldiers, their armor stained with blood and weapons in hand, rushed out and saluted Li Erfeng.

"We are all under the command of the Grand Master of the Capital (Dugu Ji), the Chief Steward of Dugu (Dugu Wudu), the Chief Steward of Liu (Liu Xiaoyuan), and the Left Assistant General (Pei Xingyan)."

"Welcome the Tang army and destroy the traitors!"

The Dugu brothers, along with Liu Xiaoyuan, Pei Xingyan, and others, attempted to kill Wang Shichong after he declared himself emperor, but were instead killed by him.

Although the person died, their entire family was exterminated.

But their followers are still here.

With so many followers, even if Wang Shichong were mad, he couldn't possibly kill them all, especially since most of his followers were warriors.

The original intention was to gradually digest and deal with the situation, but the Tang army arrived too quickly.

When these troops saw the Tang army enter the city, they even fought their way to the outside of the palace.

After discussing the matter, they all felt that Wang Shichong's situation was hopeless, so they opened the gates and surrendered.

"it is good!"

Li Erfeng nodded heavily. "You have rendered meritorious service, and I will reward you handsomely."

"Do you know where the false emperor is?"

The other side hurriedly replied, "The false emperor has not returned to the palace; he must be hiding in the market."

Upon learning that Wang Shichong was not in the palace, Li Erfeng immediately instructed, "Cheng Zhijie, take men into the palace to search and inventory the valuables and supplies."

He himself turned his horse around and used the Tianjin Bridge to mobilize troops to search for Wang Shichong's whereabouts in each market town.

In the early Tang Dynasty, after hundreds of years of war in the Central Plains, the primary function of most cities was military.

Like Chang'an, Luoyang had many wards and markets.

These markets all had tall outer walls and were equipped with all kinds of defensive facilities.

They are miniature military fortresses.

Both Luoyang and Chang'an were essentially military cities.

The Tianjie Street in Luoyang and the Zhuque Avenue in Chang'an were built so wide and straight, originally intended for the rapid transport of troops and military supplies.

"Wang Shichong, you can't escape!"

There's no escaping it.

All city gates were sealed off, but patrols were still on duty.

Important roads were heavily guarded long ago.

Want to run?

It's not that easy.

In ancient times, when cities were breached and cities were massacred, very few people were able to escape because the escape routes had long been blocked.

Those who survived either hid so well that no one could find them, or they played dead to escape.

The defending troops collapsed and had no intention of fighting again.

Li Erfeng declared that those who surrendered would not be killed, and the vast majority surrendered.

The army continued to march into the city, searching each and every market town.

Wang Shichong's key ministers and generals, such as Yang Wang, Yang Gongqing, Guo Shiheng, Dong Jun, and Zhang Tongren, were successively arrested and killed.

Even Lin Daodian's list of Zhu Can was arrested, but Wang Shichong was nowhere to be found.

The next day, Li Erfeng took the initiative to find Lin Dao and asked for help.

“He’s in the sky, Wang Shichong definitely can’t fly away.”

Lin Dao immediately pointed out, "We've searched the ground, but we didn't find it."

"Then only underground remains."

Upon hearing this, Li Erfeng immediately looked enlightened.

Both Luoyang and Chang'an cities had underground pipe networks.

Although it cannot be compared with the modern world, it is already unprecedentedly advanced for this era.

It seems that Wang Shichong has hidden in the underground pipes.

Li Erfeng turned around and was about to arrange for people to go underground and pursue Wang Shichong.

Lin Dao called out to him.

"Have you caught Zhu Can?"

"give it to me."

"By the way, help me catch some wild beasts."

Zhu Can, the cannibalistic demon king, has a penchant for eating people.

Let him experience firsthand the terror and despair of being eaten.

"What a pity, if only there were a portal to the zombie world."

"Throw him into the zombie world and feed him to the zombies."

Luoyang City had a forbidden garden, which was essentially a zoo.

Inside were all sorts of animals, including strange animals sent from foreign lands.

However, Dou Jiande had previously captured Yinzhou, and in addition to massacring the city's inhabitants, he also burned down Wang Shichong's main granaries, leading to a food shortage in Luoyang.

All the animals in the forbidden park had long been eaten.

No matter how ferocious a beast is, it is food in the face of hungry humans.

It took the Tang army two days to finally pull Wang Shichong and his son out of the sewers.

Wang Shichong, who was covered in a foul stench, encountered a troop of Tang soldiers on his way to be escorted, carrying numerous wild beasts and venomous snakes kept in cages.

He was also puzzled by this.

"What is this doing?"

"Eating wild game?"

(End of this chapter)