Chapter 174 Arson Night Attack

Qu Yi, seeing that most of the Black Mountain Army wore only hemp clothing and animal skins, noticed that the two charging cavalry generals were fully armored and wielded horse spears. He knew they held high positions in the army, so he roused his spirits and charged forward with his spear.

The three horse spears intertwined, clashing several times in an instant. Finding they couldn't overcome their opponent immediately, they separated.

One of the Black Mountain generals, Bai Rao, shouted, "I am Bai Rao, a general of the Black Mountain Army! Who is the enemy general?"

Qu Yi laughed loudly, "A bunch of worms like you aren't worthy to know my name!"

Bai Rao was enraged and exchanged a look with the other general. This general had large eyes and, understanding Bai Rao's signal, charged forward, "I am Li Da-mu, a general of the Black Mountain Army, here to learn from you!"

"Annotations to the Biography of Zhang Yan in the Book of Wei of the History of the Three Kingdoms" quoted "Dian Lue": "The leaders of the Black Mountain and Yellow Turban bandits were not originally nobles. They gave themselves nicknames. Those who rode white horses were called Zhang Bai-qi, those who were nimble were called Zhang Fei-yan, those with loud voices were called Zhang Lei-gong, those with abundant beards called themselves Yu Di-gen, and those with large eyes called themselves Li Da-mu."

Qu Yi didn't reply, engaging Li Da-mu in battle. They fought fiercely for dozens of rounds, and Li Da-mu gradually faltered.

At that moment, an arrow whistled through the air. It was Bai Rao launching a sneak attack. Qu Yi, prepared for this, dodged to the side. Bai Rao relentlessly continued to fire arrows, forcing Qu Yi to fight and evade, gradually becoming passive.

Qu Yi's anger flared, but he had already expended most of his strength. Now, he was gradually exhausted and wanted to withdraw, but Li Da-mu stubbornly held him back.

He had no choice but to fight and retreat, signaling his cavalry to flee. At that moment, another rider charged out from the enemy ranks, riding a white horse, wearing silver armor and wielding a silver spear, charging towards Qu Yi.

He shouted, "I am Zhang Bai-qi! The bandit general shall die!"

Seeing this, Li Da-mu held Qu Yi tightly, waiting to coordinate with Zhang Bai-qi to kill Qu Yi.

However, as he thrust his spear, Qu Yi dodged and prepared to flee. Li Da-mu, seeing this, shouted, "He's trying to escape!"

But Qu Yi turned his horse around and charged directly towards Zhang Bai-qi!

Bai Rao and Li Da-mu were shocked and quickly approached Qu Yi, but it was too late. Qu Yi and Zhang Bai-qi crossed paths. Zhang Bai-qi hastily thrust his spear towards Qu Yi's face, but Qu Yi roared and dodged, hooking with his spear!

Zhang Bai-qi was no ordinary fighter and quickly shook his spear, counter-attacking Qu Yi's shoulder. But Qu Yi didn't dodge or evade, allowing Zhang Bai-qi's spear to pierce his shoulder armor!

The spear pierced through the outer layer of iron armor and became stuck in the inner leather lining. Zhang Bai-qi couldn't pull his spear out quickly, and Qu Yi's spear hooked and slashed Zhang Bai-qi's neck!

Blood spurted everywhere, and Zhang Bai-qi clutched his neck, falling from his horse.

Qu Yi held his spear horizontally, blood flowing from the opening in his shoulder armor. He raised his spear, pointed at Zhang Bai-qi's corpse, and laughed, "Someone like you dares to ride a white horse!"

The defending soldiers on the city wall saw this and shouted in unison, their morale greatly boosted.

Qu Yi knew his own suffering. He had traded an injury for a life, and his arm would be useless for a while.

Seeing Bai Rao and Li Da-mu chasing after him, he quickly spurred his horse and led his cavalry back towards the city.

Under the cover of the defending soldiers on the city wall, Qu Yi led the remaining cavalry back into the city. Bai Rao and the others tried to approach, but a rain of arrows from the city wall forced them to retreat temporarily.

Qu Yi had someone bandage his wound and climbed onto the city wall. He saw a dense mass of heads below, most of them elderly, women, and children.

Qu Yi knew the details of the Black Mountain Army. It contained at least dozens of forces of varying sizes, with Zhang Yan of Black Mountain being the largest.

Besides Black Mountain, there were also Bai Bo, Huang Long, Zuo Xiao, Niu Jiao, Wu Lu, Di Gen, Ku Qiu, Liu Shi, Ping Han, Da Hong, Si Li, Yuan Cheng, Luo Shi, Lei Gong, Fu Yun, Fei Yan, Bai Jue, Yang Feng, Yu Du, Zuo Xiao, Guo Da-xian, Zuo Zi Zhang-ba, Da Ji, Li Da-mu, and others.

Bai Rao was directly under Zhang Yan, while Li Da-mu and the killed Zhang Bai-qi were leaders of two smaller forces.

Under the command of Zhang Yan or his direct subordinates, these smaller forces had split into three large armies, heading straight for Yi Jing.

The one coming to Beixin City was the northernmost of the three, probably the smallest force, led by Bai Rao with the leaders of several smaller forces.

What the Black Mountain Army didn't know was that Yuan Shao, stationed in Yi Jing, had sent his three sons to deal with the three routes.

Yuan Shang defended Ye City on the lower route, Yuan Tan blocked the middle route, and Yuan Xi returned to defend Beixin City on the upper route.

Of course, Qu Yi didn't know if there would be reinforcements. He could only wait.

He had transferred almost all the soldiers from the three cities to Beixin City. His worry was that if Bai Rao split his forces, with some surrounding him here and others launching a surprise attack on Rong City to the east, which was almost undefended, what should he do?

He ordered the city gates to be closed tightly and climbed onto the city wall. The defending soldiers stood up one after another, looking at him with reverence.

As a result, Qu Yi roared, "Are you stupid? Standing there to be shot?"

"Quickly, squat down!"

The soldiers, hearing this, quickly lay down behind the city wall.

They muttered to themselves, "Aren't you standing, General?"

Qu Yi seemed to know what they were thinking and sneered, "Of course, I'm different from you!"

"Look at your cowardly looks from the past few days!"

"I also started as a soldier like you to get where I am today. Do you know why I'm stronger than you?"

"Because I'm not afraid to die, that's how I can find ways to survive!"

"They're just a mob, what are you afraid of!"

The soldiers looked ashamed.

Qu Yi added, "But the last wave of arrows wasn't bad, it had some form!"

"As long as you listen to me, these bandits under the city will be slaughtered sooner or later!"

The soldiers, hearing this, shouted in unison, "Yes!"

Qu Yi nodded, sighing inwardly. These new recruits were really difficult to lead.

He began to miss his Vanguard of the Dead.

Only in situations where survival was almost impossible could strong soldiers and fierce generals be forged.

Bai Rao, hearing the cheers of the soldiers of Beixin City on the city wall, his face darkened.

He was considered someone of importance, but three of them fought one, and they still let the man kill Zhang Bai-qi!

The city only had tens of thousands of people, not even as many as the soldiers he brought. He refused to believe he couldn't take this city!

He turned and instructed his soldiers, "Shout all night, feigning an attack. I'll make sure they can't sleep. I refuse to believe I can't take it down in three days!"

At this point, Bai Rao had lost his mind. Originally, his mission was to rush to Yi Jing as quickly as possible, but now his goal had become to conquer and slaughter Beixin City!

After the soldiers captured from Beixin City returned a few days ago, rumors began to spread in his territory. Bai Rao killed several ringleaders, but even more people fled.

Therefore, he was reprimanded by Zhang Yan. So this time, Bai Rao was holding back a bellyful of fire, even if it meant delaying the march for a few days, he would turn Beixin City into a wasteland!

However, things turned out contrary to his expectations. The opponent had a fierce general defending the city, and they hadn't taken it down after fighting for several days. This time, he couldn't afford to lose face no matter what!

As night fell, in the city lord's mansion, Cao Xian listened to the shouts coming from outside the city with worry. Wu Zhao, seeing this, comforted her, "It's okay, this is just harassment at night, to prevent the defending soldiers from resting."

"We've been fighting outside for a day now, and now that it's dark, it's almost impossible for the bandit army to attack the city at night."

Cao Xian slightly relaxed her furrowed brows and said softly, "I didn't expect Beixin City to be like this. As expected, the Young Master didn't lie to me."

Wu Zhao teased, "What, do you regret coming?"

Cao Xian said, "How could I!"

"It's just that before, I didn't know that the people in the north lived such lives."

Wu Zhao nodded, "Indeed, when I lived in Luoyang and Chang'an in those years, I didn't know that there would be so many terrible things in the world."

"We can live a good life in peace only because someone is blocking these disasters for us."

Cao Xian nodded lightly, "The Young Master has also been blocking disasters for us."

"I wonder how he's doing in Yi Jing."

Wu Zhao said softly, "We can't help the Young Master much, we can only hope that he will defeat the enemy and return safely soon."

Cao Xian looked at the distant horizon, and her sorrow seemed to cross the walls of Beixin City and fly into the sky.

Suddenly, a deafening shout came from outside the city, startling both women.

Cao Xian hurriedly stood up, at a loss, "What happened?"

Wu Zhao was also a little panicked. She saw the city wall beginning to light up, and thick smoke rising everywhere, soaring into the clouds.

The outside of the city was on fire!

When Qu Yi rushed to the city wall, he saw hundreds of cavalry galloping back and forth, setting fire to the enemy camp.

Most of the Black Mountain Army's tents were very simple. To call them tents was really just a few wooden sticks and a few bundles of thatch.

When camping, they would stick the wooden sticks into the ground, build a frame, cover it with thatch, and put some thatch on the ground, and people would lie on it to rest.

So the raiders lit the thatch with torches, and the fire spread, setting the adjacent continuous tents on fire.

Fortunately, when the shed caught fire, people could just run away. Countless Black Mountain soldiers scattered in panic, and the entire camp exploded at once.

Bai Rao, wearing his armor and mounting his horse, counted the lights of the torches, taking advantage of the darkness. He found that there were only a hundred or so enemies setting the fire!

He cursed and killed dozens of fleeing soldiers, but the situation had already collapsed. How could he stop them?

Seeing the fire growing bigger and bigger, he shouted angrily, "There are only a hundred or so people on the other side. If anyone runs away again, I'll kill all his family members in the Black Mountain when we get back!"

"In the name of the Celestial Master's troops, stand still now!"

This was effective, and the crowd gradually quieted down.

Yuan Xi, seeing this from the distant mountains, thought that Bai Rao was quite capable, still able to control the situation under these circumstances!

This time, he learned that Beixin City was surrounded, so he traveled light and fast. Zhao Yun and Tai Shi Ci went around the enemy's flanks in two directions, while he brought Sun Li and Tian Yu to harass them.

After traveling for five days and five nights, he arrived first with hundreds of cavalry, but the number of enemies was far beyond expectations.

Later, seeing the enemy's grass sheds all over the ground, Yuan Xi wanted to try a fire attack, and the other side was indeed thrown into chaos.

However, just as they were about to succeed, they were stopped by the enemy general.

Yuan Xi was a little depressed. Was this all he could do tonight?