freenovelworld Chapter 1111 The battle begins
Chapter 1111 The battle begins
Li Che's gaze swept briefly between Ma Zhong and Luo Yueniang, and after a moment's thought, he made his decision.
"Ma Zhong, this task is entrusted to you," he said in a deep voice.
Ma Zhong is bold yet meticulous, and possesses an almost mystical luck.
Blowing up a wall isn't about bravery and strategy, but about luck and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
I haven't had enough contact with Luo Yueniang, and I don't know her true abilities.
However, it seems that Luo Yueniang is more of a commander than a general, so it would be more prudent to entrust this matter to Ma Zhong.
Ma Zhong straightened his chest, clasped his hands in a fist and shouted in a low voice, "This humble general obeys the order and will certainly not fail Your Majesty's trust!"
Li Che looked at Luo Yueniang beside him and comforted her, "General Luo, don't be disappointed. When the time comes, you will join me in launching the general offensive. My safety is in your hands."
Luo Yueniang was not tactless; knowing that Li Che was giving her a way out, she immediately replied, "Yes, Your Majesty!"
With the selection made, the entire camp immediately began preparations.
Ma Zhong carefully selected five hundred alert and brave soldiers from various armies, whose physiques were also roughly similar to those of the Tibetans.
The more than one thousand sets of Tibetan armor captured were distributed and aged, stained with dust and blood, to mimic the disheveled appearance of a long and defeated army.
Another seven or eight veteran soldiers from the border army who were fluent in Tibetan were selected to play the roles of Tibetan generals and respond to the defending troops below the city.
At the same time, Li Che did not rush to send his troops out immediately.
He ordered Ma Zhong to take these 500 men out separately and have them practice repeatedly in the mountain valley: the formation when approaching the city wall, their reaction when being stopped, and how to deal with unexpected situations, etc.
Li Che personally observed from the side, occasionally stopping the soldiers to correct some details.
"You should appear as a defeated army, but not truly like a heap of loose sand. There should be order amidst the chaos, making the people on the city walls think that you are a retreating force, but you cannot completely lose the ability to resist."
"When questioned, those fluent in Tibetan should step forward to answer, while the others should lower their heads, feign exhaustion and fear, and provide cover for the brothers planting the gunpowder, naturally forming a shield..."
Although everyone stumbled along the way, after several rehearsals, they finally got the hang of it.
Li Che didn't expect them to completely convince the enemy; as long as the enemy had some doubts and dared not act rashly, that would be enough.
Meanwhile, the artisan battalion accompanying the army was also at work.
Using the gunpowder they carried, they began to make explosive packages according to the proportions described by Li Che.
These explosive charges were tightly bound with multiple layers of tarpaulin and leather, with time-delay fuses embedded inside. Their appearance was designed to be inconspicuous, resembling a tightly wrapped baggage.
But once it's detonated, it will be devastating. Not to mention the dilapidated walls of Tibet, even the walls of the capital city would tremble.
That night, the moon was dim and the stars were few, and the cold wind was biting.
Li Che, accompanied by Ma Zhong, Qiu Bai, and more than ten personal guards, once again stealthily approached Chuimacheng.
They lay prone in the withered grass a mile from the city wall, gazing at the distant wall.
Using a sliver of light, Li Che sketched the outline of the city wall on the ground with a sharpened twig, highlighting the three key locations he had observed during the day.
“Here,” he pointed to the outermost point, “the base of the wall is the darkest, with visible cracks, and the soil underneath should be loose.”
“Here and here.” Li Che pointed to two adjacent points. “These should be the fulcrums. You must remember that the burial does not need to be completely flush with the wall. Choose a spot three steps outside the wall base and dig down two feet to bury it.”
"All three locations must be detonated simultaneously to achieve the maximum effect of collapse."
As a seasoned explorer, Li Che knew a little about blasting and related matters.
Especially after the Qing army adopted firearms, Li Che crammed on some knowledge so that he, as the inventor, wouldn't fall behind in the development.
Ma Zhong stared wide-eyed, using the dim light of day to repeatedly memorize the locations of the city wall crenellations and corner towers in his mind.
Li Che patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't be nervous. These tasks will be assigned to the soldiers. Just make sure you have a general understanding of them."
Ma Zhong nodded.
This was also the first time he had undertaken such an important and challenging task, and he was afraid that he would fail to live up to the emperor's favor.
But Li Che completely trusted him.
It wasn't just because of his incredible luck, but also because of his decisive character when faced with important matters.
After the on-site inspection, all preparations were completed.
. . . . . .
The next morning, the sky was overcast with low-hanging leaden clouds, as if it were about to snow.
This is weather suitable for combat, allowing the main cavalry force to remain well concealed in the rear.
The atmosphere in the valley camp was heavy.
Five hundred Qing soldiers, dressed in Tibetan armor, had assembled. Their faces were covered with dust and a little ochre pigment to conceal their skin color.
The usual sharpness in everyone's eyes faded, replaced by a deliberate display of fatigue.
This step is the most difficult; it's hard for non-professional actors to convincingly portray fatigue.
Li Che told them to imagine themselves on vacation, going home to see their wives, and not leaving the house for three days and three nights.
The crowd blushed and laughed a few times, then immediately understood.
Ma Zhong stood at the front of the team and did a final check on the equipment carried by the soldiers.
The weapons had been concealed, consisting mainly of short weapons, while the specially made bundles were mixed in with the troops.
Li Che walked up to Ma Zhong, patted him on the shoulder, and said nothing more: "Follow the plan, act according to the circumstances, and I await your signal."
Ma Zhong nodded emphatically, mounted his horse, looked at the disguised troops behind him, and roared, "Let's go!"
Without war drums or horns, this 500-strong defeated Tibetan army, in a slightly disordered formation, dragging their tattered flags, slowly made its way out of the valley.
Then, he fled in panic toward the west gate of Chuimacheng, which was ten miles away.
Li Che quickly donned his armor and followed the group of five hundred men from a distance.
The real test has begun.
. . . . . .
On the walls of Chuimacheng, the Tibetan garrison was on high alert.
The Qing army has made too much noise these past few days, so the city has naturally raised its guard.
Although the Tibetan army did not believe that the Qing army would dare to attack Chuima City, Chuima City, as a strategic hub, needed to be prepared to provide assistance at any time.
Five hundred routed soldiers hurriedly approached the west gate of Chuimacheng, while warning messages were already frequently being sent from the city walls.
The guards drew their swords and nocked their bows, the cold arrowheads gleaming in the gloomy light.
The city gates were tightly closed, and the drawbridge hung high in the air.
Ma Zhong reined in his somewhat uneasy warhorse, squinted at the distance to the city wall, and felt a sinking feeling in his heart.
The distance was too far for the installation team to reach the base of the wall.
He turned his head to look at Duan Rui, who was also dressed in Tibetan attire, and whispered, "Old Duan, how are you feeling?"
As a human radar, Ma Zhong had become accustomed to Duan Rui's role and would ask him questions before every battle.
Duan Rui licked his slightly chapped lips and said with a wry smile, "General, this humble general feels that this city gate is like the mouth of a beast waiting to devour people."
"However... General, you are blessed by the heavens. With your help, the brothers will surely find a way out."
Ma Zhong grinned, said nothing more, and then winked at the group.
On the city wall, the defending general Dorje Tsering, with a stern expression, waved his hand in a gesture of command.
A loud-voiced Tibetan officer leaned out of the crenellation and shouted in Tibetan, "Halt! State your tribe and the name of your chieftain!"
"Don't come any closer to the city gate! Anyone who dares to approach will be shot down with arrows!"
Behind Ma Zhong, an old soldier who was fluent in Tibetan immediately urged his horse forward half a step.
But then he yelled back angrily in slightly accented Tibetan, "Are you blind?! Didn't you see the flag?"
"We are from the Rhonda family. We just retreated from the east, and the Qing people are pursuing us!"
"Open the city gates immediately! If you delay and my young master suffers, I'll skin you alive!"
Dorje Tsering frowned. The Langda family was a powerful clan in the eastern region, and their influence in Tibet was indeed considerable.
Look at this group of people below; their armor is tattered, but their banners are still faintly discernible. Their expressions of panic don't seem feigned.
He was filled with doubt and unease. In recent days, there had been constant news of attacks in various places, and it was not surprising that some defeated soldiers had fled.
But... opening the door like this is definitely not an option; we need to at least verify the other person's identity.
"The Langda family?" Dorje Tsering gestured for his men to calm down, then personally bowed and called out, "Since you are warriors from the Langda family, may I ask which distinguished guest is leading this group?"
"Why not take the official road to the northeast and instead detour here?"
Following his prepared statement, the old soldier shouted impatiently, "Nonsense! The official road has been blocked by the Qing people. We came to help them day and night on General Dorje's order to send reinforcements!"
"Open the door now! Hesitation will result in court-martial!"
He deliberately brought up the name of the commander-in-chief, Dorje, who was very famous in the Northwest and had clashed with the Northwest Army many times.
He was probably the Tibetan general that the Northwest Army knew best; mentioning his name was the right thing to do.
These words deepened Dorje Tsering's doubts.
The Rhonda family and Dorje's faction have a long-standing feud. Although they have not publicly broken ties, there is absolutely no way they would grant Dorje's request for help.
They were either ordered by someone in a higher position, or these people were lying.
He remained calm and continued to probe: "I see. How has your esteemed Langda family head been these days?"
This was a tricky question, and the old soldier's heart tightened. He braced himself and feigned rage: "You scoundrel! How dare you ask about my patriarch like that?"
"Open the city gates immediately! If you keep arguing, once we're inside, we'll definitely have to explain things to the family head!"
At the same time, Ma Zhong noticed that the guards on the city wall were distracted by the conversation, and that there were still narrow blind spots between the edge of the moat and the base of the city wall. He decisively made several concealed hand gestures behind him.
The dozens of burrowers mixed in with the crowd immediately pretended to be exhausted and flustered, and as they were 'pushed' forward by the crowd, they cleverly moved into the blind spots on both sides of the city wall.
Once they reached the shadow of the wall, the men immediately used their bodies for cover, unloaded their short-handled entrenching tools from behind, and began frantically digging into the frozen soil.
On the city wall, Dorje Tsering's doubts had reached their peak.
The other party avoided answering questions about the family head's recent situation, and their words were evasive.
Although the accents are similar, some of the vocabulary sounds a bit stiff.
He stared at the face of the Rhonda nobleman below, which was flushed with anger, and his mind raced.
Suddenly, he remembered something, and his expression changed drastically.