Soon, the guards picked up the arrows with the letter from the city and delivered them to Niu Pingde.

He quickly unfolded the letter, swept the words on the paper with a glance and ten lines, his nervous mood instantly turned from weak, his anger turned into a rage, churning blood surging under his skin, and his cheeks turned red.

He originally thought that this was a declaration of war, or a letter of persuasion asking everyone in Broken Corner City to open the city gates, but the reality told Niu Pingde that he was wrong.

This is a letter that is ridiculous and absurd to the extreme.

A cattle slave has escaped from Rock City, and the pursuers follow the footprints left by the fugitive slave in the snow all the way south, all the evidence indicates that the slave escaped into Broken Horn City, give you an hour to think about it, you must hand it over.

"These damn bastards, who do they think they are? An omnipotent deity? ”

Niu Pingde was as irritable as thunder, he tore the letter in his hand fiercely, tore it to pieces in the most savage way, he roared hysterically, stomped his feet hard, gritted his teeth and stared at the army of cattle people approaching step by step outside the city.

They clearly wanted to go to war.

A runaway slave...... Yards, is there a more shameless, despicable excuse than this?

On the platform at the top of the tower, with Niu Pingde as the center, dozens of guards and guards looked at each other, they were shocked by the tens of thousands of Niu clan troops outside the city, and they did not dare to come out, and they all looked at the angry city lord with fear and complicated eyes, hoping that he would make a decision as soon as possible.

Niu Pingde put his hands on the wall, his broad shoulders were very apart, anger was anger, but he was not carried away by anger, and his mind remained calm enough.

"The whole army is on alert, if the Niu people attack the city, give me a hard beating, let them taste the power!"

Almost as soon as he issued the first order with a roar, Niu Pingde suddenly became hesitant. He thought for a few seconds, raised his right hand, and said uncertainly: "Let the people on the beacon extinguish the fire, come down first, and wait to see the situation." ”

The scale of the Niu army outside the city is extremely large, and Niu Pingde estimates that the other party has dispatched at least 100,000 people. With the addition of logistics and support forces, the total number will not be less than 150,000, and may even reach 200,000.

It is human instinct to survive, no one wants to die, fierce warriors are not afraid of death, but they will try to avoid death.

The absurd content of the letter made Niu Pingde have a trace of strange fantasies at this moment.

Maybe...... Just maybe, what the Niu people said in the letter was true?

Is it really just that one of the slaves ran away, so they went out into a big fight and sent out the army to hunt down?

This kind of thing is not impossible.

The concept of slaves is very broad, the inferior people who do heavy physical work are slaves, the people who lie in the master's bed at night to warm the bed are also slaves, and the "special talents" who are kept by the nobles as little wolf dogs, small milk dogs, small wild boars and little rabbits, are also slaves.

Commoners can never understand the thinking of the aristocracy, and they are willing to offer thousands of money as a bounty just to find the disobedient little boar who escapes without permission. It is said that the cute little animal likes to arch its nose on the owner's body, just like a real wild boar arching cabbage, satisfying each other and having fun.

Thinking of this, Niu Pingde hesitated again.

He raised his hand and called to the guards standing nearby, and whispered, "Order the whole army to be on alert." Also, look for no strangers who have been in town from the north in the last few days. If found, immediately arrest the person and send them out. ”

The guard's face showed a trace of embarrassment: "My lord, this is ...... The scope of the search is too large, and now is a special period, which may be ......"

Niu Pingde knew what he was going to say, and raised his hand to interrupt the guard's words: "The search time is tentatively set for half an hour...... Well, it's still forty minutes! You go with the guards at once, take my ring, and if anyone stops you, say it's my order, and those who resist will be killed. In short, find people out as soon as possible. ”

"Yes!" The guard bowed, and without hesitation for a second, turned to leave.

……

As long as you are a person with a normal brain, no one likes to fight.

This kind of thing is not as simple as talking about it, it will kill people, and there are many, hundreds, thousands, thousands.

It can't be said that Niu Pingde's way of thinking is wrong, and he wants to avoid war as much as possible.

As the city lord, Niu Pingde is not timid, but he really has a compelling reason.

The news of the death of the first king has already spread within the deer clan. The story of the death of the royal hunting party, which has been passed down through countless mouths, has now become unrecognizable, and it is no longer the original version.

"The first king misbehaved, and the queen ...... That is, his wife, and her real identity is actually his mother. The woman was very beautiful, and the former king coveted her from the beginning, and after his accession to the throne, he used a medicine to turn her into semi-dementia, and when he heard that she was married, she also hid it, and she wore a red hijab on her head, and the ministers could not see the queen's face, and the queen never showed her face in public. ”

"I have heard that the first king was killed by wolves because he blasphemed the gods. He did not offer sacrifices to the great deer god, did not sacrifice on time, and spat on the statues of the gods, which angered the gods and brought calamity. ”

"It's all nonsense, the real cause of the death of the former king was that he was poisoned. He fell in love with the second prince's wife and wanted to turn her into his own woman. But the identities of the father and son are there, and it is definitely not possible to make them public. So the first king discussed with the second prince and asked him to call the woman out, and in exchange, the first king promised to list the second prince as the first heir. But this was known to the eldest prince, and of course he did not want to, so he held a grudge and poisoned the breakfast of the former king on the day he went out hunting. As for the wolves...... Think about it, what is the concept of a guard of three hundred? I've never seen so many wolves when I'm so big anyway. I bet with my head that there were no wolves at all, and that the first king was poisoned. ”

All kinds of rumors spread throughout the territory of the Lu clan in a very short period of time, and coupled with the order of the new king Lu Qingxi's major branches to merge the population, the chaos within the clan was even worse. Faith collapsed overnight, and people suddenly discovered that the former king, whom they had worshiped and respected for many years, was actually an old mongrel who married a wicked mother, a blasphemer, and coveted his daughter-in-law with bad conduct...... The inner court of the royal palace is so deep that God knows how many filthy sins are buried deep in it.

The turmoil in people's hearts directly affects the internal stability of the clan, and the White Deer Department is no exception. Niu Pingde received a letter from White Deer City last week, in which the new patriarch claimed that he would inspect Broken Horn City next month.

It was a young man who had just taken the throne of the patriarch, only fourteen years old.

The previous king of the white deer was not happy in his married life, and in his early years, he had various daily disputes, coupled with all kinds of chaos, which caused his wife to hold a grudge, and she secretly fornicated with her own sorcerer, got some medicine, and mixed it with the food to serve to her husband, causing him to be permanently infertile...... Later, because the wizard took the initiative to expose the conspiracy, he could not change the fact that a man was deposed. It was from that time that the temperament of the King of the White Deer changed greatly, and he was unscrupulous, and unscrupulously brought all kinds of women back to the palace for the night...... As a result, there are many so-called "illegitimate children of His Royal Highness" among the people.

Niu Pingde had no interest in these bad things, but he had to pay attention to the young man's letter. According to the seniority, this young man who has just ascended to the position of patriarch should call himself "uncle", but between the lines there is only arrogance and a naked status and power hierarchy.

According to the clan rules, the patriarch has the right to order the dishonorable person to be beheaded in public.

Broken Corner is an isolated city, a fortress located on the northern border. Niu Pingde could not rely on his own strength to support it alone. If there is a lack of support from the rear ethnic groups, at most half a year, the entire fortress will completely collapse due to the lack of logistics and supply, and it will be chaotic without a fight.

If the tribe was as stable as before, Niu Pingde would not have taken this arrow letter seriously at all and directly ordered a war.

But now, he had to think about it all.

Since the Niu people said that they had escaped a slave, it must be true...... After all, this excuse is too absurd, if this is used as the reason for the declaration of war between the two clans, it can only be said that the current Majesty of the Bull King is a madman.

Wait a minute, Niu Pingde set himself a maximum of forty minutes for "searching for the cattle clan fugitive slaves". When the time comes, the battle will be fought. Since it is the arrangement of fate, as a man, whether there is an abyss behind him or a death trap full of knives, he can only move forward bravely.

Sadly, he didn't have to wait that long.

About twenty minutes later, when the Niu people pushed out more than a dozen strange-looking wooden carts from the depths of the dense military formation, Niu Pingde suddenly realized.

A heavy body made of logs, huge wheels, and a sturdy shelf with a thick metal pipe in front of Broken Corner City.

Niu Pingde's eyes widened, and the intense fear instantly choked his brain like a devil's claw, and even his thinking became solidified.

As the lord of the city, you must go to the Lock Dragon Pass to take turns.

Of course Niu Pingde knew what it was, he had seen it and even touched it with his own hands.

The artillery of the white Southerners!

Damn the cow people, how could they have such a thing?

Countless thoughts swirled at high speed in the depths of Niu Pingde's mind.

The cattle people are in the same league as the white people in the south?

Or did they get gunpowder?

Artillery manufacturing technology is not a secret, Suolongguan has captured a large number of guns through wars over the years, and craftsmen of various ethnic groups have long been aware of various technical parameters. If it weren't for the lack of sulfur and the inability to manufacture gunpowder in large quantities, muskets and artillery would have been mass-packed into armies of all ethnic groups.

There is also a possibility that there was a secret collusion between the Niu clan and the commander of Suolongguan to obtain a large amount of gunpowder captured from the battlefield and used as a strategic material reserve.

Niu Pingde trembled as he turned around as he turned and ran towards the steps leading to the bottom of the tower as fast as he could, warning the others at maximum volume.

"The cattle people are going to open fire, find cover."

"Let all the people in the city crouch down."

"Light the fire, send a beacon smoke signal, and call for help from the city in the rear!"

When the first shell hit, Niu Pingde had just descended to the third floor of the tower, and through the open window, he could see that the shell had accurately hit the east guard tower opposite. Powerful cannonballs splattered the sky with debris, countless scattered stones flew everywhere with dust, solid cannonballs shattered the core support of the tower, and the upper part of the building collapsed, falling from the air to the terrifying screams of countless people, and then skewed, causing even more casualties among the crowd below the tower who had no time to escape, blood, corpses, rotten flesh, cries, screams, screams mixed with mud and rubble, announcing that a cruel war had come.

A total of fifteen large-caliber artillery pieces were specially prepared by Tianhao for attacking large cities. Although Broken Corner City is a fortress with strong walls, it is far less protected than Suolong Pass, nor is it as well as Rock City with an intricate design.

In the first round of artillery fire, most of the walls facing north were already broken, and in some places even damaged the wall foundation, causing the walls to crumble in a small area.

The artillerymen quickly completed the second reload. Trained to work well with each other, the interval between the two shots was so short that the defenders of Broken Corner were unable to organize manpower to repair the broken walls.

At the end of the two rounds of shelling, the walls of Broken Corner City in this direction were completely destroyed, and from a distance, in the depths of the scattered dust, it seemed as if someone's neatly arranged teeth were missing two front teeth, mutilated.

As soon as Niu Pingde ran out of the tower, he heard a huge crash behind him, followed by a "squeak" cracking sound. He had no thought in his head, and he ran forward on instinct, running past the low houses opposite, around the corner of the street, and then stopped, his hands on his knees, bent over, and gasped for air.

The towers were so conspicuous that the superiority of the commanding heights in battle was self-evident, and immediately after the collapse of the walls, the targets of the shelling turned to the towers.

"Guards, everyone is in a team, the Niu people are going to be killed."

"Seal the gap in the wall to the north, and you must stop them at all costs."

"Why is there no ignition warning? Where is the man in charge of guarding the beacon? ”

None of these orders are wrong, but they are very difficult to execute. The guards around Niu Pingde ran away, and only one soldier followed him.

The young soldier raised his hand and pointed to the nearest beacon tower, and said in a trembling voice, "My lord, look over there...... There are spies in the city! ”

Following the direction he had guided, Niu Pingde saw a screaming man fall from a hundred-meter-high tower. He had a dagger in his abdomen, and he was a little far away, so he couldn't see the appearance of the deceased clearly, but judging from the clothing and armor, it should be the guards beside him.

It was the guard who had been sent to give the order to light the fire.

The top of the tower has not been ignited until now...... Everything indicates that it has been occupied by the enemy, there is no beacon smoke signal, and the rear deer cities do not know anything about what is happening here, and they will not be able to get reinforcements in a short time.

The Ox army outside the city began to attack.

Hordes of heavy infantry marched in neat steps, and soon turned into trots.