Magical Water Margin: They all call me brother

Page 90

However, now that Liu Hong has demonstrated his strength in front of everyone in Song Jiang's faction, everyone is filled with awe and respect for him. Yan Shun also silently stopped fighting.

"Alright, so what if we were ambushed? Were the casualties a bit high? But we drove Luan Tingyu back! This battle is a victory for our brothers and sisters!"

Seeing that the six battalions were somewhat demoralized and their morale was low, Liu Hong also gave a speech to encourage the troops.

"Build a camp immediately! Set up camp here and trap all the troops from Zhu Family Village and Hu Family Village here! Once the camp is built, we will launch a general offensive! We will raze Zhu Family Village to the ground, capture Luan Tingyu alive, and avenge our fallen brothers and sisters!"

Liu Hong raised his arm and shouted, pointing his dragon-patterned staff in the direction of Zhu Family Village.

"After conquering the Zhu Family Village, I, Liu Hong, will not take a single coin! All the wealth, all the gold and silver treasures inside, will belong to all my brothers!!!"

"Take over the Zhu Family Village! Capture Luan Tingyu alive!!!"

In an instant, the soldiers of the Six Battalions roared in response to Liu Hong's call. Everyone held their breath and seized the time to build camps and raze Zhu Family Village to the ground.

Chapter 232: Liu Hongchu's Inducement of Third Sister to Surrender

After defeating Luan Tingyu and boosting the morale of Song Jiang's six battalions, Liu Hong grabbed Yi Zhangqing's belt and flew back to his own camp. Just in case, Liu Hong threw the beautiful woman into his tent, tied her up, and personally guarded her.

Only now did Hu Sanniang, nicknamed "One-Zhang-Qing," slowly awaken from the excruciating pain of her severe injuries and the haze of the sleeping potion.

The moment she regained consciousness, she felt a bone-chilling cold and an overwhelming sense of humiliation. The cold, rough ground pressed against the back of her knees, and her armor was nowhere to be seen. A searing pain emanated from the abrasions and bruises all over her body inflicted by the meteor shower, especially the dull throbbing pain from a blunt force injury near her shoulder blade. However, none of this paled in comparison to the icy touch against her skin and the deadly weight that horrified her.

She discovered her armor was completely shattered, leaving her only in a thin, light blue inner robe! The silk clung tightly to her sweat-dampened skin, outlining breathtaking curves in the air. Her full breasts heaved with each rapid breath, the rosy peaks peeking through the soaked silk, taut and alluring with every inhale. Her slender yet strong waist, flat stomach, and even the faint shadow of her groin were all laid bare beneath the wet silk.

That wasn't the worst part. To her horror, she discovered that her slender, swan-like neck was being held firmly in place by a huge and heavy wooden cangue. This cangue was a standard Song Dynasty cangue for death row inmates, weighing a full 100 jin (50 kg). Keep in mind that Hu Sanniang herself only weighed a little over 100 jin (50 kg), and this thing weighed the same as her!

Moreover, the structure of this hundred-plus-pound death row shackle was exceptionally vicious. In the middle, there was a small but heavy round hole reinforced with iron hoops, which tightly constricted her long, fair neck, making even a normal swallowing motion feel like death.

Two heavy, crescent-shaped shackles extended from either side, tightly binding her two pale wrists just inches from her neck! The heavy shackles not only pressed against her throat, making every breath and swallow extremely difficult, but also forced her to kneel on the ground like a dog, painfully bending her alluring and tender waist, raising her two proud buttocks high, as if offering them as a sacrifice to the cold air, only then could she feel a little more comfortable.

Her pair of beautiful, rounded breasts sagged downwards with this movement, like two jade shoots. Through the blue gauze dress, as she struggled and writhed, ripples of sensual, fleshy flesh rippled in the air.

Yi Zhangqing tried to move her feet, only to find that her snow-white ankles were also bound in a humiliating position by cold iron chains. Blood seeped from the abrasions on her slender calves, winding down and adding a few sinister bloodstains to her fair skin. She tried to stand up, but found that she could not budge the hundred-pound wooden shackles even an inch. It was as if her head and hands were stuck in a wall of copper and iron, unable to move.

"Gulp—kill me."

Yi Zhangqing glared fiercely at Liu Hong. Her usually heroic face was now filled with pain, confusion, and a hint of shame and indignation. Her neatly combed long blue hair was also unusually messy, and a few strands of hair were stuck to her forehead with sweat, making her look even more disheveled.

Her arms, bound by shackles, twitched slightly, only causing the wooden shackles to creak heavily. This inevitably caused her body to rise and fall, making her round breasts bounce even more breathtakingly under the thin gauze.

The torchlight danced on the stone wall, illuminating her confined yet curvaceous figure in exquisite detail. Shadows outlined the alluring contours of the most sensitive and soft spot on the inner thigh.

"Why should I kill you?"

Liu Hong glanced at Hu Sanniang with a puzzled look, and began to plan the next step in the siege of Zhu Family Village.

"I, I absolutely refuse to fall into the hands of you bandits! Great Sage Evil, it is widely rumored in the martial world that you are a hero who robs the rich to help the poor and punishes the strong to eliminate the weak. If you are really like that, then don't humiliate me. Give me a quick death!"

Yi Zhangqing was now truly terrified, her entire body trembling with fear. Having received a good education since childhood, she naturally understood the humiliation and torment a woman would suffer in the hands of the enemy. Especially a brave and skilled woman who had given the enemy a hard time before being captured.

"You're right, but why do you, Hu Sanniang, consider yourself poor and weak?!"

Liu Hong glanced at the struggling, writhing Hu Sanniang with surprise, calculating how much use and value this hostage could play. He roughly stroked her forced-up chin with his right hand, his nails scraping across her tender skin, leaving red marks, and the fear in her pupils slowly intensified.

"Your Hu Family Village occupies thousands of acres of land, has tens of thousands of servants, and has been seizing land and oppressing the villagers. Tens of thousands of people have been bullied by your family and can only barely survive. The money they earn from a year's hard work is barely enough to make ends meet. Do you think you deserve to live a life of luxury since you were a child, and that you have servants following you wherever you go and people kneeling before you? I bully people like you every day!"

After Liu Hong finished speaking, his fingers slid down her long neck, feeling the curve of her full chest rising and falling with shock and anger. Ignoring her angry glare and the angry sobs escaping her throat, his rough fingers, through the almost non-existent, soaked fabric, roughly kneaded the protrusion at the peak of her breast. The sudden sting and intense humiliation made Hu Sanniang tremble all over, letting out a suppressed cry of sorrow.

"Gulp—you, you shameless!"

Hu Sanniang let out a mournful cry. The weight of the wooden shackles prevented her from dodging. She could only turn her face to the side, close her eyes tightly, and her long eyelashes trembled violently with fear and anger. Her pearly teeth dug deep into her lower lip, and a drop of bright red blood slid down the corner of her mouth, forming a shocking contrast with her pale cheeks flushed with humiliation.

The almost transparent, wet robe clung to her exquisite curves, the sweat, blood, and water stains left from her struggles mingling like a beautiful glaze. Painted on those alluring curves, it made her appear even more captivating.

"Don't worry, like my sister Wu Song, I will not bully the weak. These fists are only used against the strong."

Liu Hong stopped teasing her and looked directly into Hu Sanniang's eyes with a very serious expression.

“You still have time. I’ll give you two choices: either stay here obediently, say nothing, do nothing, and wait for my Liangshan army to flatten the Zhu Family Village, burn down the Hu Family Village, liberate the people here, and watch the locals publicly try your father, your brother, and your entire family.”

"Either write a letter and try to persuade your brother and father to withdraw from the war against Zhu Family Village. I promise that as long as you can persuade your father and brother to withdraw from the war before the fall of Zhu Family Village, and release all the slaves and distribute the surplus land to the people, my Liangshan army will not touch a single needle or thread of your Hu Family Village."

Chapter 233: Song Jiang's Second Battle at Zhu Family Village

Hu Sanniang was stunned when she heard the conditions. Liu Hong knew she couldn't understand immediately, so he ignored her for the time being and continued to direct the army to set up camp. They dug a row of pits half a meter deep in the ground, drove thick wooden stakes into them, filled them with soil, tamped them down, and fixed them in a row with ropes to form a fairly sturdy wooden wall. Finally, they coated the surface with a layer of mud so that the wooden walls would not be afraid of fire.

After Luan Tingyu's surprise attack failed and Yi Zhangqing surrendered, Liu Hong and Song Jiang spent three days building two very sturdy wooden fortifications at the only two exits of the Zhu Family Village, completely cutting off the village's exits. They also built some simple siege weapons.

Over the next three days, Luan Tingyu led her elite cavalry in several raids, but with little success. After being ambushed once, Song Jiang became extremely vigilant, not giving Luan Tingyu another chance to launch a surprise attack. In addition, Song Jiang also repaired many defensive wooden walls and barricades during these three days, which greatly limited the cavalry's mobility, maneuverability, and ability to charge into battle, preventing Luan Tingyu from achieving the same results as on the first day.

Moreover, as long as Luan Tingyu attacks Song Jiang at the front gate, Liu Hong at the back gate will definitely start causing trouble, giving Luan Tingyu no time at all.

Having no other option, Luan Tingyu tried to ambush Liu Hong at the back gate again, only to find that it was better to attack Song Jiang at the front gate!

Liu Hong was extremely cunning and treacherous. He first spread a layer of caltrops between 300 and 200 meters from the camp, and then dug a large number of small pits, only a dozen centimeters in size, in the area between 200 and 100 meters, making the ground in this area uneven and pitted, like a pockmarked face.

Finally, Liu Hong ordered his soldiers to place a large number of deer antlers and barricades at a distance of 100 meters from the foot of the camp wall.

Luan Tingyu's cavalry had only charged two hundred meters when they were slowed down by the caltrops. One horse, galloping at full speed, stepped on one of the caltrops, immediately lost its balance, twisted its ankle, and fell heavily to the ground with its rider. More caltrops pierced the horses and riders, leaving them bloodied and gruesome, their screams echoing. This immediately attracted the attention of Liangshan, and a hundred arquebusiers rushed onto the city wall, ready to fire!

When they crossed the barbed wire, they entered a pitfall zone. As soon as the horses' hooves stepped into the pits, they were immediately caught, and the horses and riders were thrown around, feeling dizzy and disoriented.

Even more terrifying, the Liangshan musketeers opened fire on the wooden wall! Accompanied by a deafening roar, countless scorching lead bullets suddenly burst forth, like a hailstorm violently pouring down in the dead of winter, coldly plunging into the dense ranks of Zhu Family Village cavalry.

In an instant, dazzling smoke obscured half the sky. Where the deadly hailstorm struck, the might of the iron cavalry vanished without a trace; the entire army, starting with Luan Tingyu, was thrown to the ground, men and horses alike falling! The sturdy warhorses neighed and crashed to the ground, the crisp sound of bones shattering drowned out by even louder howls; the fierce knights' bodies convulsed like broken puppets, falling to the dust, blood gushing out in torrents, blooming into a brief but terrifying crimson mist in the air.

Severed limbs, broken armor plates, and shattered saddles flew through the whistling hail of bullets, as if brutally torn apart by an invisible giant hand. Blood quickly soaked the dry earth; the horses' hooves trampled it, stirring up not dust, but a thick, sticky, gushing pool of blood and mud! With just one volley, the arrogant cavalry's arrows seemed to have been cleaved in two by a scorching iron plow, leaving a scarlet chasm!

Luan Tingyu calmly analyzed the current situation. The ground was too difficult to traverse, with caltrops, pitfalls, and a stag antler area ahead, making it difficult for the cavalry to advance quickly.

Moreover, Liangshan possesses such strange long-range weapons that can tear flesh apart and shatter iron armor from 200 meters away. Even if the cavalry could withstand so many adverse factors and charge through, the losses would be too heavy.

With no other option, Luan Tingyu had to abandon the forty or fifty cavalry corpses and hastily retreat, no longer harboring any intention to attack. He simply stayed behind the triple walls of Zhu Family Village, quietly waiting for Liangshan to launch a general offensive.

On the fourth day, the apricot-yellow banner of Liangshan Marsh proclaiming "Acting on Behalf of Heaven" fluttered in the wind. The military band organized by Iron Flute Immortal Ma Lin began to play. Amidst the war drums and suonas playing a stirring battle song, the siege of Zhu Family Village began.

At the front gate, Song Jiang cautiously dispatched the vanguard. The musketeers stopped two hundred meters away, formed three lines, and began firing at three sections of the Zhu Family Village's city wall. The dense and continuous rain of bullets kept the archers on the city wall from raising their heads.

Under the cover of the musketeers, Li Kui led the first batch of daredevils in an attempt to scale the city wall! They first smashed down ladders with wooden planks in the middle and handrails on both sides, using them as pontoon bridges across the cliff face, and then began to cross the cliff.

Under the cover of terrifying firepower, the first group of men quickly rushed to the hilltop of Zhujiazhuang, cut the ropes, lowered the drawbridge, allowing more soldiers to cross the cliff, and leaned the ladders against the city wall of Zhujiazhuang. Large numbers of soldiers swarmed the city like ants.

"Crash!!!"

Just then, a bucket of boiling molten gold was poured down from the first layer of the wall, precisely onto a group of Liangshan soldiers who were charging up the newly erected ladders. A piercing, inhuman scream erupted instantly, drowning out all the sounds of drums, horns, and swords! Several men were instantly scalded beyond recognition, rolling and writhing wildly on the cold, bluestone ground until they were charred and curled up. Many more emanated terrifying white smoke and a burnt stench, their skin torn and flesh gaping open, convulsing in agony like shelled shrimp and crabs. The intense smell of burnt fat mingled with the stench of blood, so thick it was almost suffocating.

"Hold the line! Musketeers! Archers, suppress the crenellations! Don't let them show themselves!"

Hua Rong's voice was hoarse, his battle robe stained with blood. His elite archers fired in rapid succession, suppressing every crenellation of the city wall. Arrows rained down like rain, and bullets swarmed like locusts, clanging and shattering against the hard stone wall, scattering dense sparks. Some soldiers from the Zhu Family Village were instantly killed as soon as they showed their faces, but there were still those who could pour boiling molten gold onto the ladders, killing seven or eight Liangshan soldiers climbing the ladders at once.

Almost simultaneously, from another section of the wall, a heavy, ear-piercing sound of wood being crushed echoed: a log-like weapon, covered in iron spikes and sharp stones, was being lowered from the high wall by dozens of strong laborers shouting commands. Driven by inertia, this thing tore through the entire wall like the Grim Reaper's scythe, whistling through a destructive arc, smashing three siege ladders in half! Dozens of Liangshan soldiers were struck head-on by this thing, instantly turning into minced meat, their bodies crushed and flattened along with the siege ladders beneath them.

Blood and gore splattered everywhere, instantly creating a nauseating red and white stain on the walls and floor. The heavy wolf-tooth mace didn't stop, continuing to rumble down the wall with freshly stained blood and bone fragments, sweeping down and crushing soldiers who had just climbed halfway up. The trail of blood that rolled down was as clear as the strokes of hell.

"Get out of the way! Rocks!!!"

Li Kui screamed. Several massive, sharply angled boulders, each weighing over a hundred pounds, hurtled down from the higher part of the second wall like destructive hammers hurled by a god. They leaped and tumbled mercilessly among the charging Liangshan troops, leaving limbs and severed bodies in their wake. One soldier, unable to dodge in time, had half his head severed; his headless body continued to lunge forward a few steps before crashing to the ground. The ground was littered with bits of flesh, entrails, broken weapons, and snapped bones; every step he took was into a slippery, sticky bloody mud.

Meanwhile, Song Jiang, who was directing the army's attack on the city from afar, was dumbfounded. He began to doubt whether the military manual that the woman in the blue robe, whose figure was unpredictable and who called herself "Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden" had taught him that night was really reliable. "I was deploying troops and commanding the battle according to what was written in it, so how come the casualties are so exaggerated?"

Chapter 234: Li Kui's Bloodbath at the Zhu Family Village (Bonus Chapter for 3100 Monthly Tickets!)

Song Jiang gritted his teeth. The war had already begun, so victory was the only option! Therefore, he rallied his soldiers to launch another attack, this time with all their elite troops! The three generals, Flaming Lion Deng Fei, Leopard Yang Lin, and Tiger Yan Shun, personally led three hundred elite bandits as the spearhead of the attack. Everyone carried a shield on their backs and held swords and shields as they advanced.

Behind them, Hua Rong led a battalion of 500 elite archers and a battalion of 500 elite musketeers, unleashing a barrage of arrows that blotted out the sky, to cover the 300 elite troops as they charged forward to join Li Kui's vanguard and capture the city wall!

Meanwhile, Ou Peng also took flight, using his excellent flying skills to overlook the entire battlefield from a high vantage point, taking in all the intelligence about the Zhu Family Village. He then reported it all to Song Jiang, allowing the battlefield commander to make a better judgment.

Song Jiang held his breath and, after assessing the battlefield intelligence, pulled off a feint attack, abandoning the offensive on the eastern city wall and ordering Li Kui and the three reinforcements to launch a fierce attack on the eastern city wall. Li Kui then slung two giant axes on his back and personally climbed the ladder. Some sharpshooters from the Zhu Family Village recognized the dark-skinned man and immediately came to snipe him!

Seeing Li Kui in danger, Hua Rong personally took to the field, drawing her bow and arrow. She seemed to have the ability to foresee the future, and her speed was ridiculously fast. She clearly did not know the location of these sharpshooters, but as long as they dared to show their faces on the battlements and draw their bows at Li Kui, they would be swiftly killed by Hua Rong before they could even pull the arrows. In just a few seconds, Zhu Long was surprised to find that more than a dozen of his skilled men had been instantly killed by Hua Rong, who was 500 meters away, as soon as they showed their faces. Every arrow hit its mark.

These unidentified archers were deadly as soon as they showed their heads. The soldiers directly above Li Kui climbing the ladder fared even worse. Many of them were carrying logs and stones, and often only half of their heads were exposed before they were shot in the forehead by an arrow. Not even a stone or a bucket of molten gold could be poured down.

Fearing for Li Kui's safety, Hua Rong launched an enchanted arrow, sending a crimson arrow crashing down on the city wall where Li Kui was about to land. The explosion instantly ignited a terrifying fiery blast, turning half of the wall into a burning cloud of flames. This prevented the Zhu Family Village soldiers from getting close, effectively using long-range bombardment to allow Li Kui to reach the city wall first!

"A blood sacrifice for Liangshan! A head offered to my sister!!!"

After finally scaling the treacherous city wall, Li Kui let out a long sigh of relief. This journey had been so frustrating! Now he could finally kill properly!

Her eyes widened, her body radiating a murderous aura. The giant axe she gripped seemed to sense her ferocity, humming and emitting a low, trembling sound. In the next instant, the axe transformed into a deadly gust of wind and flew out of her hand! It did not fly straight, but spun at high speed, accompanied by a shrill shriek that tore through the air, and brutally crashed into the dense formation of soldiers.

*Pfft! Pfft! Pfft—!*

In an instant, the sounds of steel slicing through flesh echoed everywhere. The spinning axe blades, like reaping scythes from hell, mercilessly plowed through human bodies. The soldiers in the front row, bearing heavy shields, were the first to be hit. The axe blades easily spun open the wooden and iron shields, tearing through flesh and bone as if slicing through rotten mud, and scalding crimson blood sprayed out like splashed ink!

The dense crowd did not slow it down in the slightest. The bloodthirsty weapon, accompanied by the screams and shattered pieces of the victims, continued its deadly trajectory with a roar. The seven or eight soldiers huddled together in the middle had no time to react. Some had their throats slashed by the sharp axe blades, their necks spitting blood; others had their arms smashed by the brutal back of the axe, broken bones protruding; and many more were swept across the waist by the terrifying spinning force, their bellies ripped open, colorful intestines mixed with large amounts of blood and foam exploding and splattering onto the horrified faces and bodies of their companions around them.

In an instant, a bloody path, composed of extinguished lives, splattered organs, gushing blood, and desperate screams, appeared in the dense crowd, like the deathly tail trail left by a meteor blood axe in the air.

The strong, pungent smell of blood instantly overwhelmed the stench of sweat and dust, and the murder weapon that had caused this human tragedy drew a deadly arc in mid-air, carrying mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and spun back to Li Kui's side without missing a beat!

Li Kui reached out and firmly grasped the still-trembling axe handle. Without even glancing at the haphazardly scattered corpses at her feet, she hurled the blood-soaked, flesh-covered axe with her left hand once more, carving a second spiral of death across the city wall. She herself wielded her right axe, leaping into the crowd with a slash, unleashing a storm of blood and carnage, leaving behind a mountain of corpses! Ordinary soldiers before her melted instantly, like snow under the sun, before falling dead.

In a short time, thanks to Hua Rong's long-range explosive fire and Li Kui's terrifying blood storm, Song Jiang's troops successfully cleared a no-man's land on the city wall, allowing a large number of elite soldiers to climb the first layer of the city wall and begin to compete with the Zhu family soldiers for control of the city wall.

Seeing Liang Shan's bravery, Luan Tingyu, surrounded by storms and thunder, once again revealed his Thunder General form. The triple stone walls of Zhu Family Village looked like miniature toys in front of the ten-meter-tall Thunder God's true form. The entire sky was once again covered by dark clouds, and bolts of lightning, also five hundred meters away, struck directly at Hua Rong, finally stopping the little Li Guang's crazy output.

Even so, Hua Rong calmly drew his bow and nocked an arrow, and one after another, the demon-infused arrows struck Lei Jiang's body like meteors, putting immense pressure on Luan Tingyu. This forced her to focus entirely on fighting Hua Rong from a distance, with one firing arrows like rain and the other unleashing world-destroying thunder, leaving them no time to spare for anything else.

At this moment, Deng Fei, Yang Lin, and Yan Shun also climbed the city wall, leading three hundred elite troops to fight alongside Li Kui.

Meanwhile, the three brothers Zhu Long, Zhu Hu, and Zhu Biao from Zhu Family Village also emerged, leading several hundred elite troops, and fought a bloody battle against the four Liangshan generals!

The soldiers on both sides fought fiercely for every inch of the city wall, resulting in piles of corpses and rivers of blood, with the battle lines intertwined like jagged teeth.

Just as both sides had committed almost all their elite troops to the struggle for ownership of the eastern city wall, Song Jiang seized the opportunity and waved his command flag again. A hellfire meteor, blotting out the sky, roared and tore through the heavens, crashing heavily onto the western city wall! The shockwave from the explosion hurled fragments of the wall and molten, eerie green lava into the sky dozens of meters high! A hellfire, dozens of meters tall, rose up from the shattered wall, its infernal flames turning the sky above Zhu Family Village a terrifying, eerie green.

At this moment, the western city wall of Zhu Family Village was completely empty, with almost all the experts tied up and no one able to stop Qin Ming.

"retreat!!!"

Luan Tingyu abandoned the first city wall without hesitation. In an instant, a large number of archers appeared on the third city wall and engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with Hua Rong's archers and musketeers, suppressing the enemy with firepower.

At this moment, hundreds of fresh troops appeared on the second city wall and unleashed a barrage of arrows, crossbows, and even javelins at Li Kui's troops on the first city wall, providing cover for the fighting troops to retreat inward through the towers, allowing the Liangshan army to capture the first city wall.

Then the nightmare began. The three walls of Zhujiazhuang were firing at them in a terrifying manner. The first wall was four meters high, the second was eight meters high, and the third was twelve meters high, arranged in a stepped pattern. At this moment, the Liangshan vanguard troops were all crowded on the first wall, which was four meters high, with nowhere to hide and nowhere to avoid.

After everyone had retreated, the Zhu family soldiers on the second city wall threw oil and torches, turning the first city wall into a raging inferno! The Liangshan vanguard troops screamed and howled in agony, and some even jumped off the city wall to escape the inferno, only to be smashed into a burning mess!

Subsequently, more logs and stones were thrown down from the second city wall, crashing down on the vanguard troops and catching Liangshan off guard.

Beneath the city walls, corpses had piled up into a chilling mound. Fresh bodies were layered upon dark red, swollen, and foul-smelling corpses. The cries of the wounded, the groans of the dying, and the desperate shouts mingled with the sounds of war drums, horns, and deafening battle cries, creating a hellish cacophony. Crows had already gathered in flocks, circling low overhead, their sharp eyes fixed on this endless feast, yet too afraid to land and peck at the carnage caused by the intense fighting.

Song Jiang gazed at the battlefield from afar, his fingernails digging deeply into his palms. The three-tiered fortifications of the Zhu Family Village, like three cold stone beasts, silently chewed on the surging flesh and blood of the Liangshan warriors. Every charge resulted in broken heads and bloodshed, every retreat left behind layers of bones. Unable to advance, unwilling to retreat, the immense casualties were like an invisible noose, slowly tightening the reins of the Liangshan forces. The brutal tug-of-war relentlessly crushed lives every moment, turning the Zhu Family Village, inside and out, into a veritable millstone of flesh and blood.

There was no other way. The casualties were too great, and the first wall had been burned into a wall of fire. Apart from Thunderbolt Qin Ming and Cloud-Piercing Golden-Winged Ou Peng, no one could get through. Even if the two of them went through, it would be useless. Luan Tingyu and some soldiers could hold them off, forcing Song Jiang to retreat.

Chapter 235: The Great Sage of Chaos's Celestial Offensive (Bonus Chapter for 3150 Monthly Tickets!)

While Song Jiang was wreaking havoc and suffering heavy casualties on his side, Liu Hong was enjoying peace and tranquility. Suo Chao, Lin Chong, and others all volunteered to fight, but Liu Hong suppressed them all—these people did not know the power of the Zhu Family Manor, while Liu Hong knew it all too well.

Looking at the three stone walls clinging to the cliff face, all his desire to attack vanished. Liu Hong simply couldn't understand what kind of turtle this Zhu family lord was. The last person to build three sections of walls was Constantinople, but that was for defending the imperial capital, and the area within the walls was vast. Why would a small manor like yours build such a terrifying defense? What, do you have the Imperial Seal of the State hidden in your house?

Therefore, Liu Hong simply ordered the musketeers to keep firing at the walls of Zhujiazhuang from a distance of 200 meters. The rain of bullets caused bricks to crack and dust to fly from the walls of Zhujiazhuang. Hundreds of soldiers were pinned down and could not even lift their heads. They could only hide behind the battlements and tremble in fear.

Some suicide squads were originally prepared to fight back under heavy fire, but upon closer inspection, it seemed that no one from Liangshan was charging up, so they decided to let them keep firing since no one was charging.

However, after several rounds of firing, the Zhu Family Village suddenly realized something was wrong: the most senior and experienced musketeers of Liangshan were practicing musket launching. With their extremely rich experience, they had barely grasped some patterns in the previous shots. At this moment, the muzzles of these five hundred men were pointed at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. In one volley, five hundred bullets drew five hundred terrifying parabolas in the air, directly crossing the city wall, piercing the enemy's face at an angle, even hitting their shoulders, tearing through an entire arm before shooting out from the palm, killing the enemy and causing rivers of blood to flow.

These five hundred elite musketeers actually fired a volley of curved shots using matchlock muskets.

Liu Hong was not idle at the moment either. Mo Yun Jin Chi Ou Peng could also fly, but his strength was just so-so. He dared not get close, but only dared to observe the situation from a distance and pass on intelligence.

Liu Hong, however, was quite stubborn. Relying on the black-gold scales blessed by the Dragon King of Jidu, he charged into the Zhu Family Village despite the rain of arrows! As long as he flew high enough and fast enough, and wasn't targeted by too many archers, especially the crossbowmen, he wasn't too afraid of the arrow rain. Even if he was hit by a few arrows, he could just heal himself with his star power. With the advantage of the sky, he looked down at the Zhu Family Village from above and saw everything clearly.

It wasn't like the Zhu Family Village didn't lack people who could fly; Zhu Long and Hu Cheng were among them. However, neither of them dared to fly into the sky to fight Liu Hong one-on-one, so they could only let him do as he pleased.

After flying around once, Liu Hongfei returned to the camp and then entered Zhu Family Village for the second time. This time, he was carrying something. The golden figure tore through the thunderclouds and appeared above the Zhu Family Village warehouse, throwing down two bags.

The soldiers on the ground looked up and could only see two small dots at first, but a few seconds later, they were surprised to find that the thing was actually two sacks bigger than a person, which had accurately smashed the roof of the warehouse in Zhujiazhuang. The violent impact instantly shattered the roof tiles and sent them flying like rain.

At the same time, a series of teeth-grinding cracking sounds continued! The intense, almost pungent, and thick, aroma of liquor burst forth like a beast from the sack, instantly spreading out.

Under the moonlight, the crystalline liquid surged forth like a burst dam, rapidly flowing, seeping, and soaking through the broken tiles and beams. The specially brewed strong liquor from Liangshan instantly coated large sections of the roof and beams with a gleaming, deadly sheen. The aroma was so rich and intoxicating, greedily filling the nostrils of every soldier, yet it brought no intoxication, only a chilling cold.

At the same time, the second sack crashed down, the burlap ripping with a desperate tearing sound amidst the broken tiles and rafters. The next moment, countless grains of black powder, like a black torrent bursting forth from a breach, like a black sandstorm, scattered and mercilessly covered the damp, wine-scented roof. Much of the powder landed in the glistening liquid, greedily absorbing and dissolving, forming countless viscous, black patches reeking of saltpeter and sulfur.

More of it piled up among the broken rubble and deep in the gaps between the beams, forming a deadly, ever-explosive black shadow.