Chapter 84: Jiashen Lingguan

On the other side, a great battle broke out in Jiuju City in Yishi County.

The fierce battle turned Jiuju City into almost complete ruins.

This kind of ruins was not caused by arson after the war, but was destroyed by artillery.

Qingwei Zhenren did not like to use artillery groups separately. Since it was a "group", it had to be concentrated, just like the volley tactics of fire guns, using dense formations to increase the hit rate and form all-round suppression, so that the enemies in various bunkers could not raise their heads at all, let alone fight back.

Therefore, the more than a thousand artillery brought by the Taoist sect were placed outside Jiuju City.

More than 20 crane boats swooped down and dropped "Phoenix Eye Jialiu" into Jiuju City, igniting a raging fire, and 800 heavy artillery turned the front battlefield on the east side of Jiuju City, which was nearly 50 miles wide, into a sea of ​​fire.

The roar was endless. Many people lost their hearing in the continuous and uninterrupted loud noise. They had to shout loudly to make themselves or people nearby barely hear what they were saying. The air was filled with a strong and pungent smell of gunpowder. The glass windows were shattered by the strong sound waves, and the glass fragments poured down. Even if the wooden houses were lucky enough not to be ignited, they were still shaking. The beams and pillars creaked, as if they were about to collapse at any time. The overwhelming smoke made the sun and the moon dim.

The Jiashen Lingguan, who was in charge of commanding the battlefield here, raised the telescope. The scene of the fierce battle appeared in the telescope. He didn't look away. There was no violence or anger in his eyes, only calmness like water.

There was thunder in his chest and a face like a calm lake, so he could be worshipped as a general.

In fact, the first-rank Lingguan was the general of Taoism, but the civil officials ruled the country. The Taoist priests who existed as civil officials held the power, and the Lingguans could only be subordinates.

However, this does not affect the transcendent status of the first-grade spiritual officer. In the specific command of the war, the Taoist priests do not intervene too much, and more of it is handed over to the high-grade spiritual officers who specialize in the art.

The twelve first-grade spiritual officers are divided into six Ding and six Jia. The six six Ding spiritual officers are responsible for defense, sitting in various places and acting as gatekeepers. For example, Ding Wei Lingguan is in charge of Fenglinzhou Daofu, so she also participated in this war as a defensive spiritual officer.

The six six Jia spiritual officers are responsible for attacking. In the past thirty years, there have been three records of dispatching first-grade spiritual officers. The most recent one was a first-grade innocent Taoist priest and two first-grade spiritual officers who attacked Wu Luo's kingdom of God.

Jiashen Lingguan is a veteran of the battlefield. The war in the Western Regions not long ago was led by Jiashen Lingguan. This time he was ordered to lead troops into Fenglinzhou to fight.

Such high-grade spiritual officers do not belong to the three paths, but to Zixiao Palace. Like the lineage of the Grand Master who is independent of the three paths, they only obey the orders of the Grand Master. This is also the key to the three paths competing for the position of the Grand Master. Now that the position of the Grand Master is vacant, they will obey the dispatch and orders of Jinque.

Jiashen Lingguan turned a blind eye to the artillery fire that was like a landslide and a large amount of death and blood in the telescope, with a cold smile on his lips.

In his opinion, such a war was quite boring, like an adult bullying an underage child.

At the beginning, the city's wandering warriors organized an attack and rushed up like a tide, but under the cover of fierce artillery fire, they quickly retreated, leaving only a bloody corpse and a dying person who was wriggling and wailing.

After that, the wandering warriors never dared to show their heads again.

This gave Jiashen Lingguan even a bold idea to break the city without casualties and give these Japanese a little shock to the Taoist sect.

Soon, the continuous artillery sound came to an end and the artillery began to cool down.

Then it was the turn of the Taoist camp to appear. More than 300 Taoists formed a formation and began to cast spells together.

A huge thundercloud appeared in the sky above Jiuju City, covering the sky and the sun, and completely covering the entire Jiuju City. Then countless thunders fell from the thundercloud. From a distance, it looked like a blue-purple forest composed of thunder and lightning. After landing, it looked like a huge thorn bush that wrapped the entire city.

Thunder snakes wandered and electric sparks flew.

Compared with artillery, thunder and lightning are more pervasive. Many wanderers hiding in underground bunkers were not killed or shocked by artillery, but turned into a charred corpse by the wandering thunder and lightning.

Jiashen Lingguan's face was still expressionless.

Kindness does not command the army.

It does not mean to be a murderous demon.

It means that after arriving on the battlefield, both the enemy and us are just a number.

A general should be indifferent to life and death. For a general, life and death on the battlefield is just a number, without any emotion. It is a cost that the general considers when commanding. Apart from that, there is no other meaning.

A general should be calm to the point of being almost ruthless.

As for how to compensate and resettle the casualties, how to deal with the prisoners, and whether it is humane, it is not within the scope of consideration for commanding the battle. It is the business of the entire Taoist sect, or in other words, it is the business of the civil officials.

Li Zhuyu was standing next to the Jiashen Lingguan at this time, looking at his focused profile.

In Li Zhuyu's view, this first-class Lingguan who came out of the sea of ​​blood and corpses, his demeanor is definitely different from those young men who have risen to high positions by relying on nepotism. The calmness and confidence built up by long-term experience in the battlefield is incomparable to young people like Li Changge and Qi Xuansu. This has nothing to do with talent or family background, but a kind of experience.

Jiashen Lingguan ignored the adopted daughter of the military commander, but silently calculated the consumption of ammunition, issued instructions with the "sound transmission array", readjusted the configuration of heavy firearms, coordinated the cooperation between the "crane boat" and the artillery, rearranged the coverage direction of the artillery group, and the cooperation between the black armor heavy cavalry and the infantry squad, and then waited until the alchemist camp finished casting the spell before ordering an attack. ..

A new round of air bombing and heavy artillery bombardment began again, as if to completely blow up the entire Jiuju City. The city wall had long been turned into ruins under the "earthquake" spell of the alchemist camp, and was now submerged in flames and thick smoke.

More than 50 black armor heavy cavalry marched forward with heavy steps at a leisurely pace. Behind the heavy cavalry was a large group of infantry, wearing light armor and holding muskets.

At this time, the entire Jiuju City burst into a bright light.

It was as if a blazing sun was rising.

The dazzling white light drowned everything.

Even the Jiashen Lingguan was temporarily blinded.

After a moment, the white light slowly dissipated.

Everything disappeared, including the black armored heavy cavalry and the black-clothed men who were responsible for the attack, as if they had never existed.

The sword-like eyebrows of the Jiashen Lingguan slightly raised.

The priests of the Ise Shrine finally went into battle, and more than 50 of his black armored heavy cavalry were reimbursed at once. This was a big loss, and it also completely frustrated his idea of ​​breaking the city without any injuries.

It was at this time that Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu came to the command post of the Jiashen Lingguan.

Li Zhuyu had already received the news - in fact, the reason why she appeared here was because she served as a temporary liaison officer. The Qingwei Zhenren, who was in charge of the central command, had to establish the most direct contact with each general who led the army alone. Qingwei Zhenren would not easily interfere with the command, but he had to know the most real situation on the front line.

Li Zhuyu quietly left the command post and came outside to meet Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu. After a brief greeting, he led the two to see the Jiashen Lingguan.

Jiashen Lingguan finally put down the telescope in his hand and turned to look at the two people: "I have heard of your great names for a long time. Are you here to gild your fighting skills this time?"

This was quite impolite, even a little provocative.

However, Qi Xuansu has become a bit sophisticated after years of experience. After hearing this, he just raised his eyebrows and said, "If you say so, then it is."

Zhang Yuelu was calm and unperturbed by praise or criticism.

Although Li Zhuyu admired Jiashen Lingguan, he still expressed some dissatisfaction at the right time: "This is the decision of the military commander."

"Since it is the decision of the military commander, I have nothing to say." Jiashen Lingguan said, "I don't care whether you two are here to get some merits or to get gilded, or if you really want to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, I will not take special care of you."

Zhang Yuelu said calmly: "No need to take special care of you."

Jiashen Lingguan nodded: "Very good, now there is a problem that needs to be solved urgently. Jiuju City has been destroyed. I can be sure that more than half of the wandering warriors in it have been killed or injured. However, there is also a priest group of Ise Shrine in the city. I don't want to use the lives of soldiers to consume the divine power of the priest group. That's too uneconomical. We are already few in number, and we are fighting in a different place, so it is not easy to make large-scale exchanges. So can you two help me get rid of this priest group hiding in Jiuju City?"

Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu looked at each other.

This was actually within the two's expectations. The reason why Qingwei Zhenren sent the two here was definitely not to let them die. The incident with Zhang Juquan just now forced Li Changge to stay away from the Fenglinzhou battlefield. This should have been a great opportunity for Li Changge to make achievements. It was equivalent to sacrificing Li Changge's career progress to calm the matter down.

If Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu were involved, it would force the Zhang and Li families to go to war. After all, the successors were gone and the future was bleak. What's the big picture? Don't you take advantage of the Li family being trapped in the Fenglinzhou battlefield and the Zhang family's elders are still alive to fight? Do you have to wait until the Li family withdraws from the Fenglinzhou battlefield and the Zhang family is in a period of transition before fighting?

Of course, Qingwei Zhenren didn't let the two of them command and dispatch. Both of them are Taoists. If they are in charge of one side, they will naturally be taught by many teachers and have a lot of experience. But when it comes to leading the army to fight, they are complete laymen. Therefore, Qingwei Zhenren was attracted by the two people's realm and cultivation. In addition, the two of them had a magical item, so they could almost be used as gods in the stage of creation, which could have the effect of a surprise force.

Zhang Yuelu nodded and said, "Okay, but we need to know the general situation in the city."