Chapter 538

Liu Dadao steadily pushed forward at the rate of one fence a day. He was able to pull out one fence a day not because he had meticulous calculations but because these fences were set up in extremely dangerous places. The paths were only a few feet wide. The soldiers could not make use of their advantage in numbers and the defending army could not arrange for more people.

At the same time, the defending army had never thought that they would be able to hold on to these temporary fences. They only wanted to use them to delay the Ming army and break their spirit. So they used a large number of strong men as cannon fodder. These people had limited combat abilities.

So Liu Dadao only needed to be ruthless and use the lives to push forward, pull out one fence a day, and advance steadily.

On this day, the army of the court finally reached Loushan Pass. Loushan Pass was built against a valley, with cliffs as walls on both sides. There was a sturdy and thick pass in the middle. While the camp in front of the pass was much wider than the previous fences, it could not accommodate too many troops. One had to look up to see the pass. Behind the pass, there were tens of thousands of peaks that pierced the clouds. It truly gave off an impregnable feeling.

Liu Dadao did not change his expression. He set up camp in front of the pass and immediately sent for Ye Xiaotian.

These days, it was Liu Dadao's main force that carried out the assault. On one hand, this was because Ye Xiaotian had put in a lot of effort in the early stages and had suffered many casualties. They needed to rest and reorganize. On the other hand, according to their plan, this most dangerous pass would depend on Ye Xiaotian to break through. This knife had to be used on the edge of the knife, so he naturally needed to rest and reorganize.

Ye Xiaotian led his troops and followed at the back. He had nothing to do all this time. But he had not been idle. Usually, only a very aggressive man would rack his brains to pester a beautiful woman when he coveted her. Ye Xiaotian was enjoying the treatment of a beautiful woman and was constantly teased by Tian Xiufeng.

Zhan Ning 'er was like a tigress protecting her food and kept a close watch. Tian Xiufeng did not know martial arts and Zhan Ning 'er could not beat her in a verbal argument. It was not her style to use force against a weak woman. She could only vent all the frustration she had received from Tian Xiufeng on Ye Xiaotian. Her method was to squeeze him dry!

In order to achieve this, she used many of the postures and movements that she usually found embarrassing and refused to submit to Ye Xiaotian. It made Ye Xiaotian seem like a licentious king, enjoying the blessings of women. As for Tian Xiufeng, the foxy charmer had never tasted anything, but there was something special about her. However, it was quite troublesome when the two women clashed verbally.

Ye Xiaotian knew that it was time for him to make a move when the army arrived at Loushan Pass. His expression immediately turned serious. Tian Xiufeng and Zhan Ning 'er also stopped fighting at the same time and looked at him with deep meaning in their eyes.

Zhan Ning 'er knew that whether they could overcome this barrier or not would be crucial to the Crouching Ox Ridge.

If the army of Bozhou suffered a great loss when they entered Sichuan, it was very likely that they would use Loushan pass as a point of defense and switch from offense to defense. They would shift their target to the east, to the Sinan manor. By then, the first to bear the brunt would be Crouching Ox Ridge. Ye Xiaotian would have to bear the tremendous pressure alone.

Tian Xiufeng also understood what the gains and losses of Loushan pass meant to Yang Yinglong and her lifelong dream. Originally, she was completely confident in Loushan pass, but what Ye Xiaotian had said earlier had cast a shadow over her heart. Now that they had already arrived at Loushan pass, it was pointless for her to seduce Ye Xiaotian and wait for an opportunity to escape. The only thing she could do now was wait … and pray.

… …

When the Ming army arrived at the city walls, before they had even set up camp, the bamboo tube that had been hidden for half a month was silently taken out. The stopper was removed and tossed into the mountain spring.

What was hidden in the bamboo tube was not poison, but gu. The mountain spring was flowing water. If it was poisoned, probably hundreds or even thousands of vials of poison would have to be tossed in endlessly to poison the soldiers drinking water. Even if all the soldiers in the city were blind, Dai Yunxi would not have been able to create so much poison.

However, this gu was different. This gu was a new type of gu poison that Dai Yunxi had developed after studying the Thousand Year Gu of her cult after becoming an elder. The Thousand Year Gu was just too difficult to create, but Dai Yunxi had used its principles to create another type of gu poison.

Its destructive power was not even a hundredth of the Thousand Year Gu. It could only make people suffer from diarrhea and feel powerless. However, it could reproduce itself. Actually, from a modern point of view, it was a biochemical virus.

The virus in the bamboo tube poured into the mountain spring. Because it was a living organism and could reproduce rapidly, its effects would not be reduced because of running water. Instead, it would expand the range of infection.

The guards in the city gates were all native soldiers. At that time, few people had the habit of boiling water to drink. The conditions did not allow it, so the gu poison silently entered the stomachs of many people. The people that Ye Xiaotian had sent into the city had long stored a gourd of drinking water. Even if they did not store water, they would temporarily endure their thirst and not drink a mouthful of stream water.

That night, people gradually developed symptoms. At first, it did not attract enough attention. It was thought that some people had eaten unclean food. But by the second watch, more and more people had diarrhea. Also, some people kept relieving themselves and were exhausted.

Loushan Pass did not have such good sanitary conditions. These native soldiers usually defecated anywhere. Now that they were extremely unwell, they did not care about the location. For a time, Loushan Pass stank to the heavens.

At this time, the local officials finally attracted attention. They found a doctor to examine them. But because their symptoms and the large scale of the outbreak were too similar to cholera, the doctor concluded that it was a plague outbreak. For a time, the people in the pass were panicked.

The army of the imperial court might not be able to break through Loushan Pass, but a plague could definitely destroy a city. Just as the entire city was in a panic, Liu Dadao launched another attack outside the city.

Advancing step by step had its advantages. At least the craftsmen he had left behind at the twelfth stockade to make the large-scale siege equipment, which had been made from local materials, had arrived at the gate just in time. The local officials in the city forced the native soldiers who had not yet been infected to go up the walls to defend. But often, less than a tenth of the soldiers that had been assigned together were still alive. They needed to replace the native soldiers who were not familiar with each other. This greatly reduced their combat power.

At this time, fires suddenly broke out everywhere in the pass. Ye Xiaotian had already sent spies to set fires everywhere. The houses in the pass were all made of wood and had thatched roofs. There were also many trees. For a moment, the fire raged and it was unknown how many houses had been set on fire.

At the same time, people were constantly shouting that the soldiers had entered the city.

There was a fierce battle at the top of the city wall. The native soldiers who had hurried up the city were in a hurry. The "cholera" had broken out in the city and the stench was overwhelming. Many native soldiers were still holding up their pants to find a place to stand. Fires were everywhere. In the darkness of the night, it was unknown whether the soldiers had entered the city or how many people had entered.

At this time, Ye Xiaotian led his native soldiers, who were used to climbing rocks and trees, to the side of Loushan Pass. Taking advantage of the chaos in the pass and the battle in front of the pass attracting the attention of the defenders, he quietly climbed up the cliff behind the pass.

The pass had not yet been broken, but the defense of the defenders in the pass had been broken.