Dragon Canon

A staff general appeared at the gatehouse and bellowed, “This is Hanyang Pass, and it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Military Commissioner of Western Pacification! Your crossing of the border to make an arrest is already a grave crime; leave at once, and you may still—”

The general outside the walls suddenly raised his gun and took aim. There was a thunderous roar, and a large hole instantly appeared in the staff general’s chest!

Face frozen in shock, his body tumbled down the gatehouse.

Cui Yu, having killed the garrison general in one shot, bellowed, “This man is colluding with the horse bandits and obstructing the army’s campaign to wipe them out—he is as guilty as the horse bandits themselves! Those on the ramparts who lay down their weapons will not be killed. Otherwise, you are all accomplices of the horse bandits!”

At his command, thousands of horsemen dismounted and strode toward the city walls. They only needed to take one step on the wall to scale the ramparts and land at the top. Not only that, over 100 Dao Foundation stage cultivators floated into the sky and landed directly at the gatehouse.

The defenders of the gatehouse were understandably scared out of their wits, bitterly regretting having allowed these men to get close to the city walls at the beginning. At the same time, gunfire were ringing out from within the city—the Heaven Fighting Gang had already closed in on the gatehouse, entered the range of fire, and began shooting back at the defenders, forcing them to keep their heads down.

The defenders suddenly realized that the army storming the gatehouse wasn’t your ordinary riders. They were heavy cavalry and heavy infantry!

They wielded large shields and firearms in general and switched to cutting sabers when they got close. Combined with the charge of over 100 Dao Foundations, they shattered the defenders’ resistance in the blink of an eye.

With a creaking sound, the heavy gates swung open, and a vast army surged in, storming into Hanyang Pass.

At the gatehouse, the surrendered soldiers suddenly realized that the military commissioner’s elite troops had mingled with the Heaven Fighting Gang’s ruthless bandits. As their clothes and armor intermingled, they found themselves unable to tell which were soldiers and which were bandits.

After the army entered the city, Wei Yuan immediately led Dragon Wings and Dragon Run to storm the three military camps. He first deployed two small detachments to block off two of the camps, then personally led the main force to storm the third camp and capture all of the military officers. The soldiers were stripped of their armor and disarmed, then confined within the camp under the watch of a small guard detail, after which the main force turned its attention to the second camp.

The garrison troops were one thing, but the officers had all heard the devastating defeats the Xu Clan had suffered during the previous two attacks on Qingming. In fact, some of these officers had just spent thousands of immortal silver to buy their freedom, nearly bankrupting themselves in the process. Now, seeing Wei Yuan appearing once more and leading such a formidable force, how could they possibly have the will to resist?

In the blink of an eye, the three camps fell one after another. Wei Yuan ordered all the officers to be taken away and confined in a secluded place, while the soldiers were left behind in the camps.

Although Wei Yuan left very few guards behind, the soldiers—unarmored and clad only in cloth—were nothing more than lambs to the slaughter in the face of these heavily armored troops. They understood this as well, which was why no one dared to resist. Moreover, Wei Yuan was acting under the banner of a military commissioner, meaning he represented the royal court. These rank-and-file soldiers couldn’t quite make sense of the intricacies involved and so simply remained obediently within the camps, awaiting their fate.

The garrison at Hanyang Pass had originally consisted of 50,000 elite veteran soldiers and 100,000 civilian volunteers. However, when the commandery seat and the commandery itself were established, Yue Jinshan had come and redeployed 20,000 of the elite troops, never to return them. During the two great battles against Qingming, the Xu Clan had also drawn tens of thousands from the garrison to serve as the main force for the offensives.

Therefore, although the garrison inside the pass still numbered close to 50,000, only a few thousand of the veteran soldiers from the beginning of the year remained. Most of the rest were new recruits promoted from among the civilian volunteers. For obvious reasons, these new recruits boasted limited combat effectiveness and lacked the will to fight.

The three major military encampments inside the city boasted 10,000 defenders each. After capturing them, Wei Yuan proceeded to sweep through the gatehouses in order of the eastern gate, the northern gate, and the western gate. In the end, only the 8,000 defenders at the western gate remained.

The garrison general of the western gate had a spine at least. He was unyielding and refused to surrender under any circumstances.

Wei Yuan immediately pointed at him and ordered, “This man is clearly an accomplice of the horse bandits. Men, arrest him!”

Dragon Run and Dragon Wings dismounted, and their overwhelming army aura instantly crushed the gatehouse defenders. Several hundred Dao Foundations flew up the walls and started slaughtering their enemy without mercy.

The gate was originally protected by a defensive array, but since that array was connected to the city-wide defense array, and Wei Yuan had secured the interior of the city, he was able to shut down their defensive array directly.

The Dragon Run Army advanced slowly with heavy shields covering their fronts and firearms mounted on the shields. They fired as they marched in an orderly fashion, mowing down the gatehouse defenders in swaths like weeds.

However, the garrison general refused to surrender even in the face of death and ultimately fell in battle while under attack by several Dao Foundation stage cultivators. His thirty personal guards had also perished alongside him.

With their commanding general dead and casualties exceeding 1,000, the remaining several thousand defenders lost all will to fight and surrendered en masse. This was largely because Wei Yuan’s forces had repeatedly shouted during the assault that the defenders were colluding with horse bandits; a crime punishable by the extermination of their entire clan. At the same time, they also promised amnesty to those who bent the knee and surrendered. As a result, the royal troops were confused about the situation and lost all will to fight.

The two armies, Dragon Run and Dragon Wings, immediately ordered all surrendered soldiers to remove their armor and assemble at the foot of the city walls wearing only their undergarments. They then searched the gatehouse and discovered a large quantity of gold and silver, several masks, and a number of letters exchanged in secret with the Heaven Fighting Gang in the garrison general’s quarters.

Wei Yuan ordered these items to be displayed to the surrendered garrison troops. Then, following standard procedure, the officers were escorted away separately, while the rank-and-file soldiers were driven beyond the pass. Also, a small detachment stayed behind to keep watch.

Before the main force returned to the pass, Cui Yu addressed the several thousand prisoners. “Your identity documents are now in our possession. Anyone who dares to escape will be identified during the headcount and treated as a deserter, with the consequences extending to your families! So think carefully before you act!”

The soldiers fell as silent as winter cicadas, crouching obediently where they were. Although only a dozen or so cavalrymen were guarding these thousands of prisoners, not a single one dared to move.

Inside the city, Wei Yuan wasted no time. He immediately deployed his troops to secure various key locations, then divided half of his men into a dozen or so small squads. Following the name list in his hands, they began marching toward the gates of various grand estates throughout the city.

“Open the gates!!” A Dao Foundation stage officer pounded violently on the vermillion gate before him, his tone brutal and his fist even more so. Behind him stood a squad of 100 Dragon Run soldiers.

After several poundings, the vermillion gate opened a small crack, revealing the face of a housekeeper. He gave the officer before him a suspicious look. He had never seen the man, his armor or his uniform before.

The housekeeper asked, “What brings you here, officer?”

The officer replied, “Someone saw the bandits from the Heaven Fighting Gang fleeing into your residence, and I’ve been ordered to search the place!”

The housekeeper let out a cold laugh and said, ‘You must be blind as a bat? Can’t you see whose estate this is? Our master, Patriarch Lin, is the Sixteenth Elder’s own nephew! Get your men and get out of my sight already, you blind fool!”

The officer grinned savagely. “You won’t let us search? Then it seems you really are in cahoots with the horse bandits!”

Before the housekeeper could answer, the officer drew his saber and killed him in one slash. He then kicked the vermilion-lacquered gate open with a mighty kick, and a large contingent of heavily armed soldiers filed inside.

A furious roar echoed throughout the courtyard as a fat Dao Foundation stage cultivator appeared, leading a group of household guards in a charge. The officer merely sneered, drew his saber, and met them head-on. Though they shared the same cultivation level, the officer’s heavy armor gave him a distinct advantage from the get go. As if that wasn’t enough, the Dragon Run soldiers also raised their firearms and killed him where he stood.

After that, like tigers in a sheep pen, the soldiers turned the place upside down and seized a vast amount of immortal silver, antiques, medicinal herbs, and treasures—all evidence of their collusion with the horse bandits and aiding the enemy.

As for the jewelry and ornaments belonging to the wife, concubines, and daughter of the patriarch, they were deemed stolen goods and confiscated. In the end, they even stripped Patriarch Lin of his jade-inlaid sash. Holding up his trousers with both hands and watching impotently as this pack of tigers ran rampant throughout his home, Patriarch Lin was so enraged he nearly fainted.

Fortunately, these official troops did not molest any of the women of the household, and they only killed those who resisted. After they left, Patriarch Lin took stock of his household and realized that he had only lost some wealth, which was not entirely unbearable.

Scenes like this were playing out everywhere within the city.

Some wealthy families, who had initially been trembling with fear, soon realized that these official troops were passing right by their gates without entering, instead storming their neighbors’ homes. It was as if their larger and more luxurious residences did not exist.

Finally, the remaining soldiers of Dragon Run and Dragon Wings occupied the four city gates and began dismantling the eight giant crossbows mounted on the city walls.