Chapter 1 Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun's Worries

Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun were consumed with anxiety. When the first wave of attacks quickly led to defeat, Jiang Xujing had already dispatched messengers to inform them, urging them to find a way to speed up their march and join the battle directly upon arrival… and now, they were only half an hour away, a tiny distance. At this distance, they could already smell the distinctive burning, bloody odor of the battlefield carried on the wind.

"Sigui, I'll take the cavalry ahead first... The situation on the Grand Marshal's side is too critical." Finally, they encountered the second group of messengers from Jiang Xujing urging them to advance. The two men conferred, and Jia Qingyun suggested this.

Ni Sigui thought seriously for a moment and said, "Alright, let's do that. The sooner we get to the battlefield, the sooner we can be of help."

Just then, several black dots appeared in the sky, floating slowly towards them.

"What's that?" Jia Qingyun asked, looking at the sky with some surprise. The airships were not flying very high, and the entire outline of the airships could be clearly seen from the ground, as well as people moving around in the gondolas beneath the airships. When Jia Qingyun raised his telescope to get a better look, he could even see the excited expressions on the faces of the airship crew.

"Not good, it's the Yunzhou army," Ni Sigui realized.

But as in any era, when facing this kind of aerial threat for the first time, people's first reaction isn't to say, "Wow, people can fly," or "It's amazing," but rather a feeling of wanting to worship, wanting to pray, wanting to meet with the gods, an excitement mixed with panic. And the fire oil bombs raining down from the sky turned that panic directly into fear...

Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun only cared about the speed of their march. They set out from the military camp on the Guiyuan side, arrayed in a long, winding formation. Naturally, in this time, they didn't yet know what "air defense" meant.

Although the aiming device was really difficult to use, the fire oil bombs still exploded in the most densely packed areas. As soon as the first batch of fire oil bombs fell, the huge formation of tens of thousands of people fell into chaos. The neighing of men and horses was a given, and many soldiers threw down their weapons and fled in panic, some hiding under the carriages, clutching their heads tightly, wishing they could burrow into the ground, while others jumped directly into the fields beside the road, rolling headfirst in the mud... Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun didn't understand what was happening, and didn't issue any clear orders, let alone the ordinary soldiers, whose experience and knowledge were far less than theirs and who were more easily overwhelmed by this terrifying sight. The casualties from trampling were far greater than the deaths from being burned by the fire oil bombs... After all, in the end, these airships, evolved from "The Mummy," had a very limited carrying capacity.

"Don't panic, don't panic..." Finally, Jia Qingyun steeled himself and ran through the ranks with several personal guards, shouting words to boost morale while whipping the confused soldiers awake. Ni Sigui also quickly sent out his personal soldiers to help the officers quell the current chaos. Squads of soldiers, led by their officers, plunged into the small woods on both sides of the road, or ran towards open spaces. They ran into the farmland, towards the open spaces in front of the nearby village houses where various sundries were drying. The scattered soldiers left the airship unit attacking from the air somewhat at a loss. But the airship crew could only admire that Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun's reaction was really fast, so fast that they had already discovered the key to avoiding aerial attacks. But at this moment, the airship team didn't want to give up so easily, even if the number of fire oil bombs they carried was very small and not much was left after a few rounds of dropping.

After a series of exchanges of flag signals, the airship team lowered its altitude and swept over the Xiling army. The fire oil bombs were dropped more accurately into the crowd. Some of the bolder soldiers in the Xiling army began to fight back. There was no way for throwing spears to reach the height of the airships, but some archers and officers with amazing strength were able to draw their powerful bows to counterattack. Whenever such an attack occurred, in addition to posing a slight threat to the airship team, it also revealed the location of important figures. The small crossbows and ballistae mounted on the airships began to show their power. Shooting from a high position to the ground was much more powerful. But the arrows shot from the ground barely reached the height of the airships, and some even hit the hull of the airships, but were unable to cause further damage. What was even more demoralizing was that one of the airship crew members actually grabbed an arrow flying outside the airship gondola, which had almost no speed, and brandished it with a sinister smile. This situation made the Xiling soldiers even more desperate.

Finally, in a chaotic mess of ground activity, they identified Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun, who were working hard to reorganize the troops. After another round of flag and lantern signals, five airships broke away from the formation, formed a plum blossom shape, and swooped down with a whoosh. As they swept over the heads of the two commanding generals, they began to drop bombs intensively together, instantly turning that small open space into a sea of ​​fire.

"General!" The surrounding soldiers rushed forward to try to rescue the two generals, but screams and wails were heard incessantly in the chaos, and the burning and explosions caused a large number of horses and soldiers to flee in all directions. In addition, the billowing black smoke made it impossible to quickly understand what had happened.

At this moment, the remaining airships also completed their turn. Seeing that the Xiling soldiers were starting to gather densely here, the airships divided into two rows, front and rear, and launched another round of intensive bombing. After the current practice, the airship crew members finally understood that it wasn't necessarily that the simple airspeed sight was not easy to use. If there was no wind at all and they were hovering in the air, this thing was actually quite accurate, but the more complicated the situation, the more uncontrollable the bombing became. In a chaotic situation like this where they had to constantly move to find valuable targets, drop bombs, and then find the next target, not to mention being able to hit accurately, it was lucky if they didn't deviate too far and didn't hit open ground... Or, according to the saying that was starting to become popular among the Yunzhou upper class, it depended on whether their luck was strong. The so-called "coverage" attack, which had only been briefly explained during training and only tested once, might be the best way to ensure the elimination of certain important targets. If once didn't work, try twice, if twice didn't work, try three times... The first generation of aviators in this time had unparalleled confidence in this.

After carrying out two rounds of coverage attacks, the airships returned to their original altitude, shuttling back and forth, bombing until all the fire oil bombs were used up, and then reluctantly left. Their attack lasted for less than fifteen minutes in total, which was still because the airship team was not proficient in formation adjustments and target identification during combat... But they not only completely disrupted Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun's plan to arrive at the battlefield in time, but also brought an indelible psychological shadow to this unit of soldiers. What was that? No one on the Xiling side could answer this question. Even the most knowledgeable and experienced generals, soldiers, and non-commissioned officers could not say for sure, and rumors and panic spread throughout the army. ...That was a machine created by Ye Zhao with the power of the gods, a monster that was unmatched by human power, a legendary divine bird... When encountering something that no one could explain why humans could fly, relying on the mysterious and vast mythology system became inevitable.

Ni Sigui was killed in action. Jia Qingyun suffered extensive burns and broke his right hand when he fell from his horse... This was an even more fatal and frustrating situation for this army. Jia Qingyun was still a little dazed and had not yet recovered from the shock just now. Although the military doctor had simple medicines to treat burns, it could not alleviate Jia Qingyun's pain at all.

"Song Libo, Hang Mingchang! The two of you immediately gather the troops, leave a small force to treat the seriously injured on the spot, and the rest of the troops will continue marching immediately. Tang Yu, you lead the vanguard cavalry to accelerate and send scouts to explain the situation to the Grand Marshal, ordering you to arrive within forty minutes..." Enduring the pain, Jia Qingyun issued a series of orders in succession, but at this moment he also knew that now they could gather an army and put together an elite force of less than 10,000 men to continue marching to the battlefield, but to have the entire army arrive on time was out of the question. Just getting all the soldiers back on the road and restoring the tense and efficient march from just now would take a lot of time. And these frightened soldiers would not be able to fight well on the battlefield. It was very likely that they would collapse if the enemy threw a few more fire oil bombs at them... How many years had he been a general, and how many soldiers had he seen collapse under the weight of great fear?

However, even if a small army could rush to the battlefield and continue to fight bravely after being baptized by "thunder and fire," it would play an important role both for the current stalemated battlefield and for the current somewhat complicated tens of thousands of soldiers. And now, the more serious problem was that he was not sure that he had complete control over Ni Sigui's troops.

Jia Qingyun struggled to prop himself up, looking at Ni Sigui's body, which was surrounded by his subordinates, and tears streamed down his face. He and Ni Sigui were known as Jiang Xujing's two arms. Over the years, how many battles had they fought together? They had argued countless times about expeditions and guarding, about strong attacks or clever maneuvers, about the distribution of spoils, and about the treatment of soldiers, but it was undeniable that the two of them did indeed cooperate tacitly on the battlefield. Even now, the Xiling military's communication capabilities were not as good as Dongping's, and on the battlefield, they could sometimes rely only on the understanding and tacit understanding between generals. But now, Ni Sigui had gone...

Several of Ni Sigui's trusted generals saw Jia Qingyun, saw his expression, knelt forward, and cried loudly: "General Jia, you must avenge the General."

Jia Qingyun struggled to raise his left hand and placed it on a general's shoulder, and said: "Don't worry. You gather the troops now, and we will go to take revenge."