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Volume 2 Set Sail Chapter 174 Devil's Sweat Beads

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    Chapter 174 The Devil¡¯s Sweat Beads

    Fire, fire is everywhere.

    The north gate of Ctesiphon quickly turned into a sea of ??flames. The oil tank shells falling from the sky spread the fire further into the city. The ballistas hidden under the city wall were the first to suffer. The flowing sea of ??fire first swept the gunners in, and then swept them away.  Mobile artillery carriages arranged in a phalanx were ignited.  The main parts of these ballistas are made of wood. In order to be waterproof, they are also coated with oil, and they burn quickly when ignited.

    The Sassanids howled and pushed each other to escape. Some people subconsciously fell to the ground and rolled around, but they regretted it as soon as they fell. The ground was full of flowing oil, and it burned even more violently, but they never stopped.  With the opportunity to correct their mistakes, the companions from behind swarmed in, and countless feet trampled them to the ground. They struggled hard, tripping more people, and screamed and wailed in the fire, with a strong burning smell.  Mixed with the choking smell of oil, it makes people nauseous.

    The gate of the city became a veritable purgatory, and countless Sasanian warriors were suffering in purgatory.

    Ardashir ran fast and was held hostage by the guards. He escaped from the fire along the wall leading to the palace. He looked at the wildly dancing flames in front of him and the thick smoke that covered the sky.  My heart sank to the bottom.  He could estimate that not only were the ballistas deployed at the city gate unable to be moved in time, but what was even worse was that the soldiers in the two urn cities had no way to escape. This fire burned at least five to six thousand people to death, and the entire  The north gate will be burned to rubble.

    The only thing that reassured Ardashir was that with such a huge fire blocking it, even though the city was in chaos and there was no possibility of any resistance, the Han people could only watch from the outside. Even if the fire was extinguished,  The burning ground was too hot to stand on, and the Han people would not be able to enter Ctesiphon from here, at least for one day.

    It¡¯s not that the Sasanians didn¡¯t understand fire attacks. They were very familiar with the sticky grease produced in these deserts. They called it the devil¡¯s sweat. They not only used this grease as medicine and paved roads, but also divided the grease into two parts.  Generally speaking, the white ones are used for lighting, which have less oil smoke, while the black ones are usually not used at home because the black smoke is too big, but they are often used when defending the city.  Ardashir prepared a large amount of this grease, preparing to pour it down when the opponent used ladders to attack the city, and burn those enemies who climbed the city to death.  This kind of grease is very adhesive and difficult to remove once it is stained. It is very lethal.

    However, Ardashir did not expect that the opponent would also use this grease as an offensive weapon. He even more creatively packed the grease in clay pots, fired it as a ballista stone, and then used rockets to ignite it remotely.  Aldashir had always been proud of the fact that he had fortified the wall and cleared the field, leaving the opponent with no enough cannon stones to use. However, he did not expect that the opponent would actually come up with such a vicious idea, causing more damage than the cannon stones.

    A cannon stone can kill at most three or four people, but a can of oil is enough to burn ten people. As long as it is touched by a little fire, the skin will peel off even if it is not dead. The countless soldiers screaming in pain in front of them are proof.

    ¡°Did Ahura really abandon me?  The other party not only solved the problem of insufficient cannon stones, but also used the sweat of the devil to invent such a vicious weapon?  How did they know what these oils were for?  The Romans, the Romans must have told them.

    Ardashir was so angry that he screamed, spit out a mouthful of blood, and fainted to the ground.

    The Romans and Kushans were also stunned.  Sun Feng gave them most of the few cannon stones, enough for them to fire for two days. He left forty crossbows, but only a few cannon stones. If forty crossbows  If all the cannons are deployed, his cannon stones will only be enough for two hours at most.  Quintus and Bo Diao initially thought that Sun Shao was just a feint, and that they would soon launch a strong attack after a short bombardment. Therefore, their mission was mainly to contain the opponent, not to attack the city.  Based on this guess, they used all their strength from the beginning, asking the gunners to fire as fast as possible to attract the attention of the city.

    They never expected that Sun Feng would hide such a trick. The fire burned very suddenly and violently. Not only was Ardashir unprepared, but Quintus and Bo Diao were also unprepared. They looked at the fire that covered the entire sky.  In the black smoke, almost everyone is thinking that the Han people are the virtues of fire, and the Yue people are the fire in the fire. They are indeed the proud ones favored by the God of Light. They use fire attacks so superbly that they are impossible to guard against.  It turns out that fire can not only be used to burn people who climb the city when defending the city, nor can it be used to burn the city gates when attacking the city. It can also be fired as a cannon stone to attack the enemy from a long distance, and it is more lethal.  .

    Quintus hesitated for a moment, and immediately sent people to Sun Feng's general platform and asked for oil bombs. They also wanted to use these oil bombs to attack the city wall.  Unexpectedly, Sun Feng refused.  He said that the attack with fire was just to warn Ardashir and prove to him that I, Sun Feng, was the one who protected Ahura, not to burn down the entire city of Ctesiphon.  As a historical city, Taixi FengchengThis long-standing ancient city has served as the capital of Parthia and Sassanid successively and has a history of more than 400 years. How could I bear to burn this famous city down?  What's more, there are more than 100,000 people in the city. These people are Ahura's people. I once promised Ahura to treat them well. How could I go back on my promise and push them all into the purgatory of death.

    Quintus was speechless. He also remembered the voice from the sky when the miracle happened last night. Ahura really wanted Sun Feng to treat his people well, otherwise he would abandon Sun Feng like he abandoned Ardashir.  .  Although he felt that Sun Feng was hiding something, he had seen these with his own eyes, so it was not easy to force Sun Feng to share them.

    ¡°Besides, if he had such a sharp weapon, he would probably find some excuse to keep it for himself.

    After burning the north gate into a sea of ??flames, Sun ordered to stop the attack and sent people to stand on the top of the siege vehicle to shout to the city, hoping that Ardashir would see the situation clearly, not to resist stubbornly, and give peace to the people and soldiers in the city.  Bring unnecessary sacrifices.

    The person shouting the message stood proudly on the siege truck. He no longer had to be as embarrassed as Cao Zhi just now. The city walls within the range of the ballista attack were already in flames. There was no need to worry about someone shooting arrows or launching a ballista in the fire.

    Cao Zhi and Li Yan boarded the siege vehicle with their guards and admired their battle results up close.  Because Cao Zhi discovered the large-scale gathering of enemies in time, replaced the artillery stones, and gave the defenders a head-on attack, bringing the war into a favorable situation in advance.  Although he has not yet climbed into the city, Cao Zhi has already made his first success.  He was in a very good mood now, even smelling the stench, he felt very happy.  The only regret was that the black oil burned too much, and when it fell from the sky, it quickly dyed his snow-white cloak into flowers. Even the Mingguang Armor given by his father, Cao Cao, was stained with a lot of black oil.  It is completely inconsistent with his image of a romantic scholar and a Confucian general.

    "Zijian, don't you want to recite a poem about this situation?" Li Yan shouted loudly across the three siege engines.  Encouraged by the huge victory, seeing that the closure of Taixi was within easy reach, he, who had always been rigid, couldn't help but joke with Cao Zhi.

    "Hahaha" Cao Zhi looked up to the sky and laughed: "Brother Zhengfang, I only have murderous intent now, no poetry. I am waiting for Prince Sun to give the order to ascend first. Brother Zhengfang, don't argue with me then."

    "When it comes to making poems, I won't argue with you. When it comes to climbing the city, I will do my part." Li Yan stroked his beard and laughed and said: "Zijian, you have already done one meritorious service, so don't fight for the second meritorious service.  ?¡±

    "That won't work." Cao Zhi waved his hand, "How can we have fun if we don't commit suicide on the top of the city in person?"

    "In this case, let's not be polite and let each of us rely on our abilities." Li Yan laughed loudly: "I'm afraid that Ardashir will give in when he is burned by the fire and open the door to surrender. By that time, we will not be able to  We have to fight.¡±

    "No." Cao Zhi said with confidence: "That old dog is a man and will not surrender so easily. I think Prince Sun is a little too whimsical."

    Li Yan smiled and did not answer his words.  This Cao Zijian was indeed a madman, and he actually criticized Sun Feng in front of so many soldiers.  Although these soldiers are either from Wei or Shu, and none of them are from Yue, Sun Feng is the chief general after all, and he has just burned Ardashir to a pulp with a fire. It is very likely that in the short term  He captured the impregnable Taixi Fengcheng within a short period of time. This alone is enough for him to be worshiped by all the soldiers and admired by countless young heroes. How can you criticize him for being whimsical at this time?

    There was deathly silence at the top of the city.  The Sasanians on the walls on both sides of the city gate were silent as they looked at the city tower that was burned to ashes. The people under the city stopped attacking, and they also stopped fighting back. They just looked at the changed city tower, and most of them remembered yesterday.  Miracles seen at night.

    Ahura has appeared, and the Han people are really the fire in the fire.  He stopped attacking now, not because he had no ability to continue attacking, but because he had fulfilled his promise to Ahura, and he wanted to treat Ahura's people well.

    The city of Cessifeng fell into an eerie silence, as everyone was waiting for Ardashir's reply.

    The palace was in chaos.

    Ardashir was lying on the brocade couch, his jaw clenched, and he didn¡¯t react to the commotion around him. Except for his chest, which was still rising and falling, he looked like a dead person.  A war that had been prepared for several months ended like this on the first day, which caught everyone by surprise and caused chaos.  Ardashir's sudden collapse pushed this chaos to the brink of collapse.

    High Priest Aquila and a dozen priests knelt in front of the altar in the palace, chanting prayers over and over again. There was an indescribable anxiety in the rapid chanting.

    Several sons of Ardashir and a dozen trusted generals surrounded the brocade couch, with different expressions on their faces. A dozen women looked at the motionless Ardashir from a distance.??Crying secretly.  Ardashir has always been the undefeated God of War in their minds. They never thought that Ardashir would become like this one day. A fierce battle had just begun, and while both sides were still warming up, they actually ate  After suffering such a big loss, they just got into a duel with the two sides. Before they could move their bodies, they were beaten dizzy by a sap from the opponent. Their morale plummeted, and these people's confidence in Aldashir also increased.  Shaken.

    Did Ahura really abandon the Sasanian family?

    Many generals are thinking about this issue. Although they dare not say it in front of the Ardashir family, the dissociation in their eyes reveals their thoughts, and they exchange glances with each other from time to time.

    After praying, Aquila saw these looks in her eyes and was anxious in her heart. The only people who came to the palace were Aldashir's trusted generals. Although they had suspicions, they would not betray Aldashir immediately.  Because everything they had was given by Aldashir, even if they turned to Sun Feng, they might not be able to get more benefits.  In the face of interests, even if your faith is shaken, it will not collapse immediately.  But what about everyone else?  Driven by their faith, will they surrender the city and welcome Ahura's favored new king into Ctesiphon?

    As a high priest, Aquila has a far clearer understanding of the truth about religious beliefs than ordinary people. What is a miracle?  As the high priest, he had countless conversations with the gods in a trance, but the miracles displayed in front of the people were all directed by him.  Of course he didn't believe that the miracle last night was really Ahura's will, but he couldn't say it, and no one would believe it. If people thought they had been talking before, the result would be worse.

    The only way now is to insist that it is not Ahura, but Ahriman, Ahura¡¯s enemy. Anyway, no one knows the difference between Ahura and Ahriman.

    "Everyone, Ahriman, through the hands of our enemies, burned our city with sinful fire and burned our people to death. Ahura is very angry. He has sent down a divine decree and will perform miracles to punish Ahriman and those who  Devils from the east. You go back and prepare first. I will use the elixir Ahura has just given to revive his favored Sasanian king, and he will lead you to defeat Ahriman and his slaves."

    Everyone looked at each other and took a step back, but did not leave.  The general of the Praetorian Guard bowed and saluted: "Great High Priest, we dare not disobey Ahura's will, but we are also concerned about the body of the Sassanid King. Please allow us to see him wake up, so that we can save him."  Good news to the terrified soldiers."

    Aquila thought for a moment, nodded, and without saying much, walked up to Aldashir, held it flat with her left hand, raised her right hand up in front of her chest, held the flaming handprint, and softly recited a few lines.  He then used his left hand to caress Ardashir's chest a few words, and chanted loudly: "Ahura's favorite king, wake up quickly, follow Ahura's teachings, and defeat Ahriman and Ahura.  His shameful slave. Arise and save your people, save Ctesiphon, save Sassanid¡ª"

    With the last long sound, Ardashir on the brocade couch suddenly moved, opened his eyes suddenly, and shouted: "Great Ahura, I will definitely obey your call without any hesitation -  ¡ª¡±

    Everyone was stunned, and then looked at each other happily. The frustration on their faces was swept away, and the sunshine returned to their hearts.  They rushed over and looked at Ardashir who had just woken up.  Ardashir's face miraculously returned to its usual rosiness, and his eyes were piercing. He sat up, separated from the people surrounding him, knelt down in front of Aquila, and kissed his shoes: "I will definitely  Follow your teachings, defeat Ahriman and the hateful devils of the East, defend Ctesiphon, defend my people, and defend Sassanid, even if it means sacrificing my life."

    "My king, if you listen to Ahura's teachings, you will be victorious. If you listen to Ahura's teachings, you will have eternal life. Use your courage and loyalty to fight. You will be invincible. No one can stop your blade.  And horseshoes"

    The generals knelt down one after another and chanted scriptures praising Ahura loudly. The masculine chanting sounded in the palace, and the gloom just now was swept away.  The concubines who were hiding in the distance cried with joy, closed their eyes one after another, and started chanting along.  After the generals finished chanting, they kissed Ardashir's hand one by one, and then respectfully withdrew.  They immediately announced the process of Ardashir's miraculous awakening to the whole city, and told all the soldiers and people that Ahura had not given up on Ardashir. He had just used his divine power to revive the unconscious Ardashir and wanted to lead them.  Achieve victory.

    The dreary atmosphere in the closed city of Taixi finally restored some confidence.

    Ardashir breathed a sigh of relief and sat feebly on the large throne. He frowned and looked at Aquila opposite him: "Is there anything else I can do?"?¡±

    "I have sent people to arrange it in the city, and some miracles will appear soon, but" Aquila smiled bitterly: "I still can't think of any illusion that can show miracles at such a high altitude.  , I¡¯m afraid the effect will not be ideal.¡±

    "Do as much as you can." Ardashir waved his hand: "The Han people are too cunning. Not only do they surpass us in creating miracles, but they are also beyond our reach in siege technology. Although I have not prepared enough,  "Young devil's sweat, I also prepared tactics to defend against fire attacks, but" He sighed in frustration: "I didn't think of such a simple method, which gave them an advantage in vain and caused so many casualties.  Soldiers, they also burned down the city gate."

    "The enemy is cunning, and we must be more cunning than them to win this victory." Aquila comforted: "What are you going to do next?"

    "I still have a lot of ballistae. If he can do it, we can do it too." Ardashir rested his forehead with one hand and looked at the void in front of his seat with a frown: "I'm just thinking about how to make this  Victory comes greater, more like Ahura's will than just imitating our enemies."

    Aquila frowned and thought for a while, then suddenly said: "How about using the ambush outside the city to burn their camp? As long as their storage is burned, our chance of winning will be greater. If we can destroy  Those oil tanks they have, that¡¯s perfect.¡±

    Ardashir rolled his eyes, pondered for a while, and nodded slowly: "Yes, this is indeed a good idea, and we can do better."

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