Chapter 64: The Burning of Funiu Mountain
Just when the more than 100,000 Yellow Turban army was busy, a hundred sharpshooters lurking nearby quietly came to a place a hundred steps away from the Yellow Turban camp.
These marksmen are all carefully selected by Ao Lie, and the accuracy of archery is naturally not a problem, and these people are also good at hiding their tracks. That's why Ao Lie made them the first and most important wave of attackers. Just as Ao Lie thought, these hundred people did not disappoint Ao Lie, they were still well hidden until this moment, and none of the Yellow Turban Army found them. Of course, it is also due to the loose military discipline of the Yellow Turban Army.
A sharpshooter drew three arrows from his back quiver, then inserted them into the Zephyr's jar and soaked them for a while, then drew them out, and then lit the fire-starting object tied to the arrows with flint. The rest of the marksmen were doing the same.
Seeing that his companions were ready, the marksman bent his bow and arrows, and without even aiming, he shot three sharp arrows out of the way. This is also what Ao Lie has explained, he does not require accurate shooting, but only asks to shoot as many rockets as possible into the Yellow Turban Camp.
Hundreds of rockets with tail flames streaked across the sky, and under the reflection of the setting sun, it was like a meteor shower, falling towards the Yellow Turban camp. After these rockets landed, the arrows were inserted into the ground, and immediately ignited the crude oil that was buried in advance by the Wu Xi and Wu Qiong brothers, which were all crushed in advance by the Wu Xi brothers according to Ao Lie's instructions, and then stirred evenly with sulfur and nitrate, with extremely high flammability, and it can even be said that they caught fire when they saw it. Hundreds of rockets were triggered, and the entire camp immediately burst into flames, and black smoke filled the air.
After a rain of arrows was fired, a hundred archers immediately drew sharp arrows from their quivers and shot out again, some of whom were so skilled in archery that they even put six or seven sharp arrows on the bowstring at once without requiring accuracy, scattering them.
With the second wave of arrow rain, crude oil was ignited in many places. Ao Lie asked the Wu Xi brothers to dig a pit a thousand zhang long in advance, and within this thousand zhang radius, the ground was full of buried crude oil, and as long as a little spark splashed, it would immediately make the nearby area quickly burn.
After another rain of arrows, all the sharp arrows in the quiver pouches behind the sharpshooters had been shot, and the sharpshooters led by them shouted: "Rush! Then they threw away the longbow, picked up a wine jar in one hand, and rushed towards the Yellow Turban camp, and the rest of the people did the same, discarding the longbow one after another, and rushed out of the wine jar, until they were still thirty or forty paces away from the Yellow Turban camp, and then they stopped, and then threw the wine jar in their hands into the Yellow Turban camp with all their might. The wine jar drew a parabola in the air, and then fell on the ground in the Yellow Turban Camp, the wine jar was instantly shattered, and the Zephyr spirits in the altar spilled out. After throwing out of the wine jar, these sharpshooters quickly withdrew from the battlefield, their mission was completed, and the rest was up to the rest of the robes.
In the military tent in the Yellow Turban Battalion, Zhang Shao jumped like thunder: "Bastard! How did you survey the terrain? The Han army had laid an ambush in advance and didn't even notice it? Someone, kill the scouts! ”
Several lieutenants gathered around Zhang Shao and said, "Little Heavenly Master, now is not the time to hold you accountable, you should hurry up and put out the fire!" "Yes, this fire is really strange, and some sergeants reported that splashing water will not only not stop the fire, but will make the fire burn more vigorously!" "Little Heavenly Master, do you say that there are also capable people in the Han army who can call the wind and rain and summon the heavenly fire?"
"It's all fucking fart," Zhang Shao said angrily, "What the fuck is calling the wind and rain to summon thunder?" Even my father's great sage and mentor can't easily display such magical powers, how can the Han army have such a capable person? ”
Glancing at the surrounding generals, Zhang Shao shouted loudly again: "What kind of pestle is here?" Hurry up and gather my troops and put out the fire with sand! ”
The generals shrank their heads, and under Zhang Shao's scolding, they turned around and walked out of the Chinese military tent, gathered their subordinates, and used sand to extinguish the fire.
On the top of Funiu Mountain, Xu Huang saw that the Yellow Turban Camp suddenly burned out for no reason, and understood that it must be Ao Lie who let the black things buried by the sergeant play a role, although he didn't know what those things were, but this did not affect his trust in Ao Lie, Xu Huang firmly believed that where Ao Lie was there, there would be miracles.
"Quick! Throw all the dry wood down to so-and-so! Xu Huang quickly gave the order. The more than 1,000 sergeants who were ambushed on the top of the mountain have only slept for three hours in nearly 12 hours since they received the order last night, and the rest of the time they have spent their lives chopping wood, so the dry firewood accumulated now is almost piled up on the top of the mountain, which is enough for a family of five to use for half a year.
After hearing Xu Huang's order, the sergeants hurriedly pushed the dry firewood, and one after another bundles of dry firewood were pushed down the mountain, and the bundles of dry firewood slipped down the hillside, and with the help of the inertia of the slide, they rolled into the camp of the Yellow Turban Army, and were immediately ignited by the flames rising in the camp, and then under the inertia of the remaining momentum, they rolled into the camp tent of the Yellow Turban Army with flames, or rolled directly to the body of the Yellow Turban Army, and some even rolled to the vicinity of the Yellow Turban Army's grain and grass baggage, bringing the fire to the place where it rolled down, causing a new flame.
In a moment, more than 1,000 soldiers led by Xu Huang pushed countless dry firewood down the mountain. Except for a small part of this dry firewood, which was blocked by stones or tree trunks on Funiu Mountain, and did not roll down, the rest of the dry firewood rolled into the camp of the Yellow Turban Army, and the crude oil buried in the ground in advance ignited each other, causing a soaring flame for a while, turning the entire Yellow Turban Army camp into a huge sea of fire.
Perhaps God deliberately favored Ao Lie and deliberately wanted to help Ao Lie win the title of hussar general and champion marquis, but a breeze blew at this moment. If it is in normal times, the feeling of the breeze blowing is really comfortable, but at this moment, this warm breeze has simply become a talisman for more than 100,000 yellow turban troops! The fire took advantage of the wind, and the flames of the whole camp burned more cheerfully.
After throwing away all the dry firewood in reserve, Xu Huang looked down the mountain at the turbulent sea of fire, as if he was afraid that the fire would not burn vigorously enough, and gave an order in a deep voice: "Prepare the rocket, and within a quarter of an hour, release all the rockets to so-and-so!" The sergeants on the top of the roof agreed in unison, and they all bent their bows and arrows, and shot all the sharp arrows in the quiver as fast as they could.
At the same time, Zhao Yun, who was ambushed at the foot of Funiu Mountain, saw a fire in front of the mountain, and knew that it was Ao Lie's strategy that had come into play, and turned around and shouted to the two thousand people behind him: "Throw wine!" Five hundred of them quickly turned on their horses, and then took the West Wind from their fellow infantrymen and rode their horses towards the Yellow Turban camp. After the five hundred cavalry ran out of the Yellow Turban for a certain distance, Zhao Yun shouted loudly: "The rest of the people prepare their weapons and cut off the left wing of the Yellow Turban with a certain person!" After saying that, he rode his horse and galloped, leading his subordinates to intercept and kill the Yellow Turban Army who ran out of the camp.
On the other side of the Yellow Turban Army camp, Xu Chu was shouting excitedly: "Brothers! Seen it all, right? The lord has already set a strategy to break the enemy, and his achievements are today, so he will kill him! ”
"Kill! Kill!! Kill!!! ——" The two thousand sergeants shouted hoarsely, and then followed Xu Chu's guidance and slaughtered the right flank of the Yellow Turban Battalion.
In the camp of the Yellow Turban Army, a group of generals and colonels gathered troops under Zhang Shao's order to start extinguishing the fire. Crude oil has the property of burning more and more, and it is impossible to extinguish such a large fire with water, but only to fuel the fire even more. Zhang Shao was a knowledgeable person, and he knew that the fire was strange and could not be extinguished with water, so he decided to use sand to extinguish the fire.
If it was in a different place, Zhang Shao's decision could not be said to be incorrect, but at the foot of Funiu Mountain today, Zhang Shao's strategy was doomed to fail. Those blocks of crude oil that were originally buried less than a foot in the ground were dug up by the Yellow Turban Army, and there were very few people who knew crude oil in this era, almost to the point of rare. Therefore, most of the Yellow Turban Army thought that what they dug out was black soil, and under the deterrence of the ruthless sea of fire, they didn't have time to think about it, so they threw the black soil into the fire. Who would have thought that these black soil would catch fire when encountered, so that many unprepared Yellow Turban soldiers were burned in their clothes, and hurriedly rolled on the ground in an attempt to extinguish the flames on their bodies, but this roll, instead, drove more crude oil debris to their bodies, so the fire on their bodies gradually became bigger and bigger.
The Yellow Turbans who were burned were panicked and ran to their nearest comrades and begged for help, but those comrades who usually called them brothers and sisters looked at them as if they had seen evil spirits, and they were afraid of them like snakes and scorpions, and hurriedly scattered to avoid them, lest they catch fire.
When Zhang Shao came out of the tent of the Chinese army, he saw such a scene of lifting a stone and shooting himself in the foot.
Zhang Shao was stunned and mouthful, breathing hard, pungent smoke burrowed into his nose, choking him with a cough.
"Oh no, this is a heavenly fire, it can't be extinguished at all!"
"Is this God's punishment for us? I pray to God to spare me. ”
"I don't want to die, I still have my father and mother alive, and I still have a three-year-old baby"
"Run, if you don't run, you'll be burned alive!"
In the midst of the cacophony of shouts, the Yellow Turbans made a variety of sounds, different in content and thoughts, but one thing in common, their tones were full of fear. These people were originally just a group of farmers or hunters, and they had never seen any big scenes at all, so how could they not be frightened when they saw such a monstrous fire at this moment? In particular, this strange flame, which could not be extinguished with water or sand, only intensified their panic.
As a result, deserters appeared in the Yellow Turban Army, from one person or two at the beginning, to dozens, and then quickly intensified to tens of thousands, and in the face of the merciless fire, no one wanted to be burned alive. This is also the inferior nature of the Yellow Turban Army, which is easy to fight a good battle, and once the situation is lost, it will scatter and flee. However, after these people tried to escape from the Yellow Turban Army and ran out of the camp at the risk of being burned to death, they found that they were greeted not by the escape of Kangzhuang Road, but by Zhao Yun and Xu Chu.
A lieutenant ran to Zhang Shao, panting and said: "Little, little Heavenly Master, it's not good, the brothers are starting to rout and flee, this fire is really weird, according to me, let's hurry up and pack up the people and rush out." ”
Looking at the fire on all sides of the camp, Zhang Shao also knew that the general trend of the road had gone today, not to mention this strange fire, there must be an ambush of the Han army after the fire, and the best way at the moment is to gather more than 30,000 people and horses that he has trained for more than a year, and temporarily retreat, in order to make a comeback, as for the remaining more than 100,000 people, if they die, they will die. In Zhang Shao's eyes, he is the son of the great virtuous teacher Zhang Jiao, and he is a dignified little heavenly master, and the more than 100,000 people can be loyal to themselves, which is simply a blessing for them to cultivate.
After pondering for a while, Zhang Shao said: "Hurry up and assemble the trained soldiers, let's withdraw to Wancheng." ”
After hearing Zhang Shao's order, the captain asked hesitantly, "What about the rest of the brothers?" ”
Zhang Shao picked up the horsewhip and gave the lieutenant a whip, and shouted angrily: "When is it now, are you still in the mood to care about them?" Pass my military order, if you don't get it within a quarter of an hour, you don't care, just wait for a quarter of an hour! ”
The lieutenant didn't dare to say anything, and quickly turned around to gather the people.
A quarter of an hour passed quickly, and more than 30,000 people gathered around Zhang Shao, looking at the disgraced faces of the soldiers under his command, losing their armor and abandoning their armor, Zhang Shao felt bitter in his heart, but he also knew that now was not the time to reprimand the sergeants, so he waved his hand to the side of the fire that was not too vigorous, and said loudly: "You are all believers of so-and-so, you are a warrior of so-and-so, follow so-and-so and rush out of the sea of fire, there is a way to live, and the heroic spirit of the great sage and good teacher will protect us and pass through the sea of fire safely!" Come on! ”
After hearing Zhang Shao's encouragement, more than 30,000 people were shocked, and rushed towards the weak part of the fire at the edge of the camp with a howl. It's hard to say whether Zhang Jiao's soul is a heroic spirit or not, but he definitely can't bless these believers to rush out of the fire safe and sound, because Zhang Jiao is a human being, not a god, not to mention a person who has been dead for several years.
The relentless sea of fire devoured the lives of this group of Yellow Turban soldiers, and in the face of fire and water, human life seemed so fragile. Of the more than 30,000 warriors who managed to cross the fire, less than 20,000 were killed, and the rest either stopped in fear of the fire, or were eroded by the fire and drowned in the fire.
Zhang Shao, under the protection of a group of diehard guards, also successfully passed through the sea of fire, looking back at the fire that was burning more and more, Zhang Shao couldn't help but let out a long breath, although he was still a little afraid in his heart, but after all, he escaped from this deadly sea of fire.