The land of Sichuan stretched out for thousands of miles. Mountains rose and fell, their peaks arranged in picturesque disorder. Mountain ridges stretched across the mountains like giant beasts, enclosing one basin after another.
The land of Sichuan in the game was even more majestic than it was in reality. Mountain ridges connected one after another, towering cliffs and ravines crisscrossing the land. Rivers flowed out of the mountain streams and around the mountains like dragons emerging from the water, flowing without end.
Between the mountain ridges were numerous impregnable checkpoints like fortresses, silently guarding the mountain paths and river valleys like mountain gods. Then, they used the mountain ridges to surround and protect the hundreds of basins of various sizes.
Each basin was a city.
With the mountain ridges as the city walls and checkpoints as the gates, the city planning of the land of Sichuan was unparalleled in the world. In the entire world, there were no such tall and imposing city walls, much less such impregnable gates.
More than half of the cities within the basins did not have any city walls. The entire basin was a giant city.
Swordsman City was the largest gate to the south of the basin.
The Dragon Stallion Army had set out from Sichuan to attack Jiangyang County precisely to cross countless mountains, traverse countless river valleys, and scale precipitous cliffs in order to take down those seemingly impossible checkpoints.
In addition, the mountain roads were rugged and there were sometimes insurmountable chasms, making it difficult to transport supplies. It would be very difficult for the Dragon Stallion Army to capture Swordsman City with just conventional methods.
For this reason, the Dragon Stallion Army had prepared four secret weapons: the Mimic Flying Device, the Model P2 Cannon, the Detachable Siege Vehicle, and the Special Combat Zipline.
The Mimic Flying Device could ignore terrain and was the bane of the land of Sichuan. The one hundred flying devices parked at the airport on the northern outskirts of Steel City had been assembled with all the power of the dynasty, and were the core weapons for the attack on the checkpoints.
The Model P2 Cannon was a light cannon that the Industry Department had developed based on the Model P1 Cannon. Its weight was only half that of the Model P1 Cannon, greatly reducing the difficulty of transportation.
Of course, the Model P2 Cannon was smaller, and its range and firepower had been reduced to a certain extent. Although it was not enough to blast through the walls of the checkpoints, it was more than enough to bombard the city gates.
The Detachable Siege Vehicle was a new type of siege weapon jointly developed by Mo Zi's Physics Department and the Combat Readiness Department. It could be disassembled into piles of parts during the march and quickly assembled on the battlefield.
Ouyang Shuo couldn't help but exclaim in admiration when he saw this.
Mo Zi was currently leading the Research Institute to upgrade a series of siege weapons. Other than siege vehicles, there were also mobile arrow towers, siege ridges, and other siege weapons that were being upgraded.
Finally, there was the special combat zipline developed by the Industry Department. It was specially designed for the terrain of Sichuan. With the help of the Mimicry Aircraft, the zipline could be set up to allow soldiers and supplies to easily cross the natural moat.
These four secret weapons were the Dragon Stallion Army's trump cards in attacking the Shu territory.
…
September 5th, Hengshan Pass.
Hengshan Pass was located in the southeast corner of Jiangyang County. It was the southeast gate of Jiangyang County. Behind the pass was the basin where the Hengshan Prefecture of Jiangyang County governed — Hengshan City.
Five thousand elite soldiers from the Swordsman City's Second Legion were stationed at the checkpoint.
After three days of arduous marching, right vanguard Luo Shixin led the vanguard of the Fourth Dragon Stallion Army to their first important checkpoint.
Along with the vanguard troops were four P2 Type Cannons, ten disassembled siege vehicles, fifteen Three Bow Eight Bull Bed Crossbows, and fifteen Mobile Arrow Towers.
It was precisely because they had to transport these siege weapons that they had been delayed for the past few days.
Luo Shixin rode his horse to the front of the pass. Steep cliffs stood on both sides of the pass, making it difficult for birds to fly. Only a narrow mountain path had been opened up in the middle. An impregnable pass lay in front of the mountain path, blocking off all sight.
War banners fluttered on the pass as soldiers patrolled back and forth.
Even more difficult was that the mountain path was not level. The higher one went, the higher the terrain became. It was like a steep mountain slope, and the pass was located at the very top, almost halfway up the mountain.
The terrain was so precarious that it was truly easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Hengshan Pass was not an isolated checkpoint. Sentry posts were set up along the hundred-some li of the mountain path and halfway up the mountain. Together with the main pass, they formed a complete defensive system.
As early as yesterday, the sentry posts set up in front of Hengshan Pass had discovered the whereabouts of Luo Shixin's troops. The scouts of the two armies had even exchanged blows several times, suffering casualties on both sides.
By the time Luo Shixin's troops arrived at Hengshan Pass, all the sentry posts along the way had been cleared.
Hengshan Pass had long since been prepared for battle.
Seeing this, Luo Shixin was not in a hurry. He ordered the troops to rest and reorganize where they were, and the accompanying engineers began to assemble the various equipment they had brought, setting them up one by one.
As the vanguard troops, in order to reduce the burden of supplies and increase the speed of the march, the rations were replaced with military rations pills. Therefore, the army did not need to light a fire to cook, and it was very convenient.
For this war, the Combat Readiness Division had put in a lot of effort. They had taken out all the military rations pills they had accumulated for half a year to support the frontlines.
At around one in the afternoon, all kinds of siege equipment had already been assembled, but Luo Shixin did not give the order to attack.
Luo Shixin was waiting.
After another half an hour, there was a sudden roar in the air. Twenty-five mimicry aircrafts streaked across the blue sky and flew over Hengshan Pass.
There were a hundred aircrafts parked at the airport in the northern suburbs of Steel City, and the left and right armies were each equipped with fifty aircrafts. In order to increase their combat endurance, the fifty aircrafts were split into two groups, taking turns to fight.
At the top of Hengshan Pass, looking at the aircrafts flying over from afar, the general guarding the pass narrowed his eyes. "They're here!"
Everyone was no longer unfamiliar with Great Xia's aircrafts.
With the precedent of the fall of Steel City, Swordsman City's checkpoints had long abandoned wooden structures and switched to brick construction. This was to guard against the incendiary bombs dropped by Great Xia's aircrafts.
Seeing that the aircrafts had arrived, the general guarding the pass was not very nervous. He deliberately smiled and said to the people around him, "Great Xia only has this kind of trick up their sleeves. They've exhausted all their tricks."
"Haha ~ ~ ~"
The surrounding officers and soldiers laughed impudently. With such an impregnable pass, they were not very worried. In the words of the general guarding the pass, "The troops that can take down Hengshan Pass have not been born yet!"
It was a pity that they had acted impudently a little too early.
As the saying went, "When the righteous are one foot tall, the evil is ten."
Twenty-five aircrafts formed a battle formation, arrived above Hengshan Pass, and dropped bombs one after another.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! "
The bombs exploded on the city wall, and flesh and blood flew everywhere. This time, the aircrafts were not dropping the incendiary bombs like in the past, but grenades.
Grenades were not unique to modern warfare. During the Ming Dynasty, grenades were manufactured using indigenous methods. However, because they were manufactured using indigenous methods, their explosive power was limited. Basically, they were only used to defend the city and were not used on a large scale in the military.
However, when the grenades collided with the aircraft, the effect of one plus one was greater than two.
Although the power of the grenades manufactured using indigenous methods was not comparable to the grenades used in modern warfare, it was definitely a lethal weapon in ancient battlefields where cold weapons were the main weapons.
Apart from the pilot of the aircraft, there was also a grenadier who was in charge of throwing grenades at the back of the aircraft. In the narrow cabin, other than the seats for two people, the rest of the space was used to load the grenades.
Although the speed, agility, and combat ability of the aircraft could not be compared to fighter aircrafts, there was a bug in the aircraft, and that was its energy system.
A small magnetic ore could replace the fuel, and there was no need for a fuel tank. Thus, it saved a lot of space. The body of the aircraft used engraving technology, and there was no electronic equipment, which further expanded the space.
In this way, a pseudo aircraft could carry more than a hundred grenades.
The specially trained grenadiers were able to accurately throw grenades down from the sky, causing massive damage. For a moment, the walls of Hengshan Pass were filled with casualties.
The sudden turn of events caused the troops guarding the pass to lose their composure, and they could no longer laugh.
"Attack!"
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Luo Shixin ordered the entire army to attack.
"Kill!"
Luo Shixin's troops, who had been waiting for this order, pushed the siege vehicles, the mobile arrow towers, the Three Bows Eight Oxen Ballistae, and the Type 2 Cannons toward Hengshan Pass.
The mobile arrow towers provided cover from high ground, the Three Bows Eight Oxen Ballistae fired rows of Stomping Arrows at the walls, and the Type 2 Cannons were responsible for bombarding the gates.
The siege vehicles took advantage of the air attack to smoothly approach the walls, locking onto them like an octopus.
Hundreds and thousands of soldiers walked out of the siege vehicles. They did not use shields, but climbed the ladders or stepped on the stepping arrows. Each and every one of them climbed up the city wall without fear of death.
In less than half an hour, the Dragon Stallion Army began to fight with the defenders on the walls.
With the help of these advanced weapons and equipment, the seemingly impossible task of sieging the walls had become so simple that it was truly shocking.
The soldiers of the Dragon Stallion Army did not care about such things, and they fought with more ferocity than anyone else.
As the saying went: a raging soldier is a raging general in a nest. The qualities of a general could often influence the qualities of the troops under their command. The Dragon Stallion Army led by Bai Qi was abnormally bloodthirsty, and they were like a pack of howling wolf cubs that bit anyone they saw!
The defenders of Hengshan Pass were forced to retreat again and again, their figures miserable.
"Boom!"
At this moment, the gates of Hengshan Pass finally collapsed under the constant bombardment of the cannons, revealing a giant hole.
Seeing this, Luo Shixin gave the order to attack.
"All soldiers, attack!"
As he spoke, Luo Shixin slapped his horse and personally charged out.
"Kill!"
The nearly ten thousand soldiers of the Dragon Stallion Army charged through the broken gates like fierce tigers, killing their way into the pass and clashing with the enemy.
There was no more suspense in the ensuing battle. In less than two hours, the five thousand defenders of Hengshan Pass had been routed. More than two thousand had died in battle, and the rest had all surrendered.
Once Hengshan Pass was taken, the front would be a vast expanse of flat land.
Luo Shixin did not linger. With a call, he personally led his troops into Hengshan Pass.
Without walls or a proper garrison, how could Hengshan Pass resist this army of tigers and wolves? Before sunset, it had completely fallen and become the territory of the Great Xia.
The accompanying Mimicry Flying Device did not return, but instead stopped at Hengshan Pass.
On this day, Luo Shixin's troops had made a beautiful start to this epic war.
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