sovbooks Chapter 32 Using Hojo's Heaven-Shaking Thunder to Attack the Mountain Stronghold
Chapter 32 Using Hojo's Heaven-Shaking Thunder to Attack the Mountain Stronghold
"Alright, let's pack up and head to Black Dragon Mountain. By the next morning, we'll take over the stronghold and occupy the area!"
Just as Lu Xiong was still in a daze, Rock suddenly shouted to the cavalrymen around him, a hint of excitement flashing in his eyes.
There's no way around it; after all, opening the treasure chest after defeating the boss is always exciting. It's the same principle that he's taking over the bandits' loot after defeating them.
The rewards from the system were one thing, but the gold coins dropped by the bandits were another. He had already ordered his men to search the bandits, only to find that they didn't have much money on them at all.
Apart from a little spare change, his soldiers didn't find any extra money. The entire bandit group combined didn't even have enough to hire an extra Queen Dragon Rider.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. These bandits came down the mountain to plunder and kill, not to spend money.
In this situation, which bandit would carry a large sum of money on him? Just like which worker would carry a huge sum of money on him while at work?
Unfortunately, Rock didn't know how much wealth the bandits of Black Dragon Mountain actually possessed, because he had already wiped them all out in the battle just now.
The purple evil yang spell that was used earlier wiped out more than half of the bandits right away. The remaining bandits panicked and fled in all directions, only to be chased by their own cavalry.
More than 100 cavalrymen rushed up, and on average, one cavalryman was enough to take down one bandit. As a result, after they finished killing one bandit, there wasn't a single one left!
Thinking of this, Rock couldn't help but roll his eyes. If he had known that these bandits were so easy to kill, he should have given his cavalry a heads-up beforehand.
After camping outside the village for one night, Rock and his men set off for Black Dragon Mountain the next day.
Although all the bandits were dead, the villagers of Zhangjiatun still helped Luo Ke with the way. They were harassed by the bandits of Heilongshan on a daily basis, so they were quite familiar with the bandits of Heilongshan.
Expecting them to reveal exactly how much wealth the bandits of Black Dragon Mountain had looted is unrealistic, but if they were to help guide the way to Black Dragon Mountain and find the bandits' stronghold, that wouldn't be a problem.
In this instance, in addition to his own troops, Rock also brought along Hojo Shontenrai, who had been left in the mountain stronghold, as well as the militia he had recruited from various villages. He even brought along the militia from Zhangjiatun, essentially organizing a training exercise for them.
Although the cavalrymen beside Rock couldn't help but complain about the slow marching speed of these guys, even the infantrymen who had just been upgraded from guerrillas to French flintlock musketeers also felt that these guys were marching too slowly.
However, in Rock's view, their marching speed was actually quite good, considering that these villagers had not received any special training before and were generally malnourished and never had enough to eat.
Rock originally thought that after these villagers finally escaped to the border, they had large tracts of fertile land and no longer had to worry about land annexation. They should finally be able to have enough to eat, but that was not the case.
Although there was no land annexation or exploitation by landlords and powerful families in this place, there were still bandits. Although these bandits did not have the same elaborate methods as the landlords and powerful families, their exploitation was more straightforward.
As a result, even if most villages produced a lot of grain, they still had to hand over a considerable portion of it to bandits to ensure their safety.
Otherwise, if these bandits were to lead their troops into the village, the losses would be far more than just a little bit of food.
"That's the bandit stronghold of Black Dragon Mountain! It looks huge!"
Standing at the foot of the mountain, Rock looked up and soon saw the strategically important mountain stronghold.
Rather than calling it a simple bandit stronghold, Rock felt it was almost a small fortress, with various walls and trenches, and he even saw a building that looked like a turret.
"I mean, could there actually be cannons up there?"
Upon hearing Rock's question, the militiaman leading the way shook his head and smiled shyly, saying:
"You jest, Master Manager. How could they possibly have cannons? The imperial court has extremely tight control over cannons; where would they get the means to acquire them?"
That makes sense.
Rock nodded. There was no doubt that the imperial court had very strict control over firearms and artillery, especially artillery.
It's possible that some local strongmen might own a few muskets, since they're not that difficult to forge, and many villages even have people using homemade guns for hunting.
However, getting a cannon is a highly complex and secretive skill. Putting aside the question of whether the imperial court would allow it, the casting of a cannon is something that an ordinary craftsman could not possibly do with his own hands.
Moreover, if they actually acquired a cannon, the imperial court would certainly be uneasy. According to the Qing Dynasty's laws, private possession of cannons was no different from treason.
"If that's the case, then what exactly is this tower used for? It's not just for observation, is it?"
Looking at that platform built of stone piers, Rock couldn't believe it was a watchtower.
If this thing is really just a watchtower, then people can just build a small tower out of wood, put up a ladder to climb up, which is both convenient and practical.
"Heh heh, although there are no cannons up there, those bandits built a catapult themselves, capable of launching huge rocks weighing dozens of kilograms—it's incredibly powerful!"
"I heard that in the past, bandits from other places tried to attack Black Dragon Mountain, but they were killed by catapults throwing stones, and in the end they had to retreat in disgrace."
Damn it, catapults seem dangerous too!
Rock sighed, feeling that the bandits' weaponry was indeed beyond his imagination.
He didn't know if it was true that dozens of bandits were killed by catapults when they attacked this place in the past.
To be honest, he didn't quite believe it, because based on his understanding of these bandits, these people shouldn't have such high morale that they could charge forward and kill dozens of people before retreating.
But without a doubt, those catapults would be quite difficult to deal with.
Just as he was thinking this, a soldier wielding a thunderbolt suddenly ran up to him and whispered something to Rock:
"General, if you're worried about attacking that stronghold, don't worry, we can bombard it with thunderbolts a few times first!"
"Don't let the rugged mountain roads fool you; ordinary cannons are ineffective here. Our thunderbolts are perfect for this kind of terrain and will surely blast those catapults to smithereens!"
Yes, it's not that he doesn't have artillery, it's just that his artillery is rather rudimentary!
Rock patted the soldier on the shoulder and said excitedly:
"Very good, now it's up to you guys. I hope you can do well and not let me down!"
As soon as the soldier shouted to his comrades, a group of soldiers gathered together, slammed their thunderbolts into the ground, and then filled them with gunpowder and small bombs.
Immediately afterwards, they deftly snapped a piece of fuse, quickly lit it, and then used a tinderbox to ignite a piece of fuse beneath the thunderclap.
With a series of booming sounds, these thunderclaps were launched one after another, and small bombs were thrown 200 meters away, heading straight for the catapults and the mountain stronghold walls in the distance.
On the mountain stronghold's walls, the third leader of the Black Dragon Mountain bandits organized all the dozens of bandits left in the stronghold and distributed the remaining few bows and arrows and javelins.
There was nothing he could do. He did want to fire a musket, but when the chief led his men down the mountain to avenge his younger brother, all the firearms in their entire village had been gathered up. The huge village was left without a single firearm.
As a result, he can only rely on these more traditional tools, such as bows and arrows and javelins, to defend against the enemies below the mountain.
He is unaware that the leader is dead. If he knew, he would have already fled. How could he possibly be leading the remaining forces to resist in a place like this?
"Damn it, where did this bastard come from? Taking advantage of the fact that the chief led the brothers out, he actually dared to attack our stronghold at a time like this!"
"Brothers, grab your weapons and kill them!"
The remaining dozens of bandits also shouted in response. In their view, as long as they relied on the mountain stronghold's treacherous terrain to hold off these uninvited guests, and then let their leader bring back the lamas and the main force, they would definitely give these guys a good beating.
Furthermore, they didn't believe that the group could hit the bandits hiding behind the wall from such a distance with just muskets or something, so the bandits' morale was currently soaring.
It wasn't until a series of crackling sounds suddenly came from below the mountain stronghold, sounding like muskets but seemingly more muffled, that they vaguely sensed something was amiss.
With that barrage, the bandits watched helplessly as small, dark spheres were blasted from a great distance and landed right in their stronghold.
The next moment, as the fuses on these small spheres burned out, a series of explosions rang out one after another.
Forty small bombs exploded violently within the walls of the bandit stronghold, and the flying iron fragments and iron shot caused countless bandits to bleed profusely on the spot.
The bandits on that turret were also busy adjusting the catapult and moving large stones up there when suddenly several small bombs flew up!
Before they could figure out what it was, it exploded into a pile of debris.