The Shu Lands stretched for thousands of miles. Mountains rose and fell, and there was one mountain ridge after another. They were like giant beasts sitting on the mountains, forming basin after basin.
The Shu Lands in the game were much more majestic than that of real life. The clouds and mist of the mountains lined up one after another, and the peaks stood alone with the cliffs hung all around. Rivers flowed between and around the mountains. They were like a dragon spitting water, unceasing and never stopping.
Between the clouds on top of the mountains, there were huge passes like giant war castles. They were like deities protecting the mountain paths. The mountain ridges were used to defend the hundreds of large and small basins.
Each basin was a city.
With the mountain ridges as the city walls and the pass as the city gate, the Shu Lands city planning was unique in the world. In the entire world, there definitely would not be another city with such huge city walls and such indestructible city gates.
More than half of the cities in the basins did not have city walls, and the entire basin was a mega city.
Swordsman City was the southeast basin.
Since the Dragon Legion Corps wanted to attack Jiangyang Prefecture, they needed to climb many mountains and cross numerous valleys. They needed to take down each and every pass that looked impossible to take down.
Along with the mountain paths being hard to traverse, it caused logistical nightmares. Using normal battle tactics, it would be very difficult for them to complete their quest of crushing Swordsman City.
Hence, the Dragon Legion Corps prepared four secret battle weapons, the mimicry flying device, the P2 Type Cannon, siege weapons that could be dismantled and assembled, as well as various sliropes for battle.
The mimicry flying device could disregard the geography of the battle, so they were the weakness of the Shu Lands. The 100 flying devices in the airport outside Steel City were gathered using all of the dynasty's ability. They would use these to try to take down all these passes.
The P2 Type Cannons were modified by the Industrialization Department. They were based on the P1 Cannon and designed for mountain battles. Its weight was only half of the previous model, which greatly reduced the transportation difficulties.
Of course, the P2 Type Cannon was really small, and its range and firepower were weakened by a bit. Although it was not enough to burst open the city walls of the pass, it was more than enough to blow open the gates.
The natural sciences college led by Mo Zi designed the siege chariots together with the Industrialization Department. The army could dismantle it into many parts, and then they could swiftly put them together at the battlefield.
Ouyang Shuo was impressed when he saw that.
The natural sciences college that was led by Mo Zi was undergoing a series of developments and changes on the siege weapons. Apart from the siege chariot, there was the arrow turret, the siege ram, and more.
Lastly, there were the special sliropes designed by the Industrialization Department themselves. With the help of the flying devices, the soldiers and items could easily fly over the mountains and cliffs.
These four secret weapons were what the Dragon Legion Corps were going to use to take down the Shu Lands.
9th month, 5th day, Hengshan Pass.
Hengshan Pass was located on the southeast corner of Jiangyang Prefecture, and it was the door to the southeast. The basin behind it was the governing area of Hengshan House-Hengshan City.
Inside the pass, there were five thousand elite troops that came from the 2nd legion of Swordsman City.
After three days of tough traveling, the right vanguard led by Luo Shixin finally reached the first important pass.
Along with them were four P2 Type Cannons, 10 siege chariots, 15 three bow arcuballistas, and 15 arrow turrets.
They took so long because they had to transport all these siege weapons.
Luo Shixin rode his horse to approach the pass, only to see the cliffs on both sides towering over him. In the middle, there was a narrow mountain path. A huge pass stood on the path and blocked his view of everything behind it.
On the pass, there were war flags set up and soldiers patrolling.
To make matters even more difficult, the mountain path was not straight. The higher one went, the steeper it got. The pass was like some place at the top of the hill, and it was around half the height of the mountain.
Due to the dangers of such geography, it made it easy to defend but hard to attack.
Hengshan Pass was not a lone pass. Hundreds of miles away, at the middle of mountain, there was a border sentry, forming a perfect defense system with the main pass.
Last night, the border sentry had noticed Luo Shixin and his men. Scouts from both sides had engaged, and each side had suffered casualties.
When Luo Shixin and his men came to Hengshan Pass, the border sentry troops along the way had already been wiped out.
Hence, Hengshan Pass was already lying in wait for them.
When Luo Shixin saw that, he did not rush. He simply ordered his troops to rest up. He ordered the construction troops that followed them to assemble the siege weapons.
As the vanguard force, to reduce the load and to quicken their speed, they used military grain pills to replace grain. As such, there was no need to cook, and it was really light and quick.
For this battle, the Combat Logistics Department had really put in a lot of gold. They took out all the military grain pills they had amassed for half a year to support the frontlines.
At 1 PM, the various siege weapons were already assembled well. However, he did not give the order to attack.
Luo Shixin was waiting.
Another half an hour passed, and a thunder-like rumbling spread out from the skies. 25 mimicry flying devices streaked across the blue skies above the Hengshan Pass.
The 100 flying devices were split 50-50 between the vanguard troops. To raise the efficiency, the 50 were split in half to take turns to attack.
On the city wall of Hengshan Pass, when the defending general saw the flying devices, his eyes turned serious, "They came as expected!"
Everyone was familiar with the Great Xia flying devices.
With the past mistake resulting in the fall of Steel City, SwordsmanCity had learned. They changed the materials from wood to stone to defend against the burning bombs thrown down.
Seeing the flying devices fly over, the defending general was not nervous. Smiling to his left and right, "Great Xia only has such ability, what a joke."
'Hahaha~~'
The surrounding soldiers all laughed along. With such a pass, why would they be worried? In the words of their general, "Troops that can take down Hengshan Pass are not even born yet."
Unfortunately, they were too arrogant.
As they had it, virtue is one foot tall, while the devil is ten foot. It takes constant vigilance to stave off evil.
The 25 mimicry flying devices formed up into a battle formation. Arriving at the skies above Hengshan Pass, they threw down bomb after bomb.
'Hong! Hong! Hong!'
Bomb after bomb exploded on the city walls. Instantly, blood and flesh flew around. The bombs thrown down this time were not the burning bombs but grenades.
Grenades were not something unique to modern warfare. During the Ming Dynasty, there were already basic grenades. However, its explosive strength was limited, and it was mainly used in defending. Hence, it was not used on a large scale in the military.
However, when the grenade was used together with the mimicry flying, it would give rise to an even greater effect.
For every one of mimicry flying devices, apart from the pilot, there was one soldier in charge of throwing grenades at the back. In the narrow cabin, apart from the seat for the two of them, the remaining space was left for carrying grenades.
Although the mimicry flying device could not compete with planes in terms of speed, flexibility, and fighting ability, they had a bug, which was its energy source.
One small magnetic ohlite could replace fuel, and it did not even have a fuel tank. The body of the plane itself used carving techniques, so it did not have any electrical systems, which saved a lot of space.
Hence, one flying device was able to carry around 100 grenades.
The trained grenadiers accurately threw down grenade after grenade, causing massive damage. All of a sudden, there were heavy casualties on the city wall of Hengshan Pass.
The sudden change ensured that the defending forces could not laugh anymore.
"Attack!"
The time had come, and Luo Shixin ordered all his troops to attack.
"Kill!"
The soldiers who were eager to go pushed their siege chariots, arrow turrets, three bow arcubalistas, and P2 Type Cannons toward the pass.
The arrow turrets acted as a cover, and the three bow arcubalistas fired out rows of step arrows while the P2 Type Cannons focused on blowing open the city gates.
The siege chariots got close to the city wall and locked onto it like an octopus.
Hundreds and thousands of soldiers walked out of the siege chariots. They were not using shields or ladders. They just stepped onto the step arrows and climbed fearlessly onto the walls.
In less than half an hour, the Dragon Legion Corps warriors were locked in an intense battle with the defending troops on the city wall.
With the aid of advanced equipment, a siege that seemed nearly impossible became so easy.
The Dragon Legion Corps warriors did not care about anything and focused solely on killing.
A capable soldier was just a soldier. However, a capable commander would bring out a team of capable soldiers. Under the lead of Commander Baiqi, they were like a pack of wolves, pouncing at everyone they saw.
The Hengshan Pass defending troops were forced back in defeat.
'Honglong!'
At this very moment, under the constant fire of the cannons, the gates were finally turned to ruins.
When Luo Shixin saw that, he ordered the final attack.
"All units attack!"
As he said that, he slapped his war horse and personally charged forward.
"Kill!"
Close to 10 thousand Dragon Legion Corps soldiers were like ferocious lions as they charged into the city and fought the enemy troops.
The following battle was simple. In less than two hours, two thousand of the defending troops died, while the rest surrendered.
After taking down Hengshan Pass, everything in front was theirs for the taking.
Luo Shixin did not stop, and he personally led the troops to enter Hengshan City.
Without a city wall, without a proper defense, Hengshan City stood no chance.
Before sunset, it totally fell, and it became a part of Great Xia's territory.
The following mimicry flying devices did not return. They just parked in Hengshan City.
On this day, Luo Shixin started off this historical battle with a beautiful first blood.