The two rebel guards at the forefront were cleaved into four pieces, armor and all.
Gu Debai was terrified. He rolled three times in the mud, but his left ear was still sliced off in half by the wind of the blade. He covered his bleeding ear and crawled into the dog hole next to him. The remaining rebel archers on the roof scattered like birds when they saw their commander fleeing.
" Pu Yunshan, leave one hundred men to search the dog cave and capture them alive. The rest of you, come with me to the Bell Tower!"
Gu Moran leaped down from the rooftop and landed steadily on the back of his warhorse, spurring it forward and galloping out of the street.
The view ahead suddenly opened up, revealing the Bell Tower Plaza, the very center of Hanseong.
In the center of the square, 20,000 ragged Goryeo people were tightly confined by wooden fences under the clock tower, their cries shaking the heavens and the earth.
A trench about half a foot wide was dug around the outside of the wooden fence, and it was filled with black, flammable oil. Dozens of oil barrels were piled up among the people.
Inukami Jusaburo stood atop the high stone steps of the bell tower, threw the blazing torch in his hand onto the ditch fuse, and burst into wild laughter in a hoarse voice:
Gu Moran! You're too late!
The fuse is laced with your own Great Yan's white phosphorus powder. In less than ten breaths, these 20,000 Goryeo swine will be buried with my army!
Sizzle--!
Blue and white flames shot wildly toward the wooden fence, following the gunpowder fuse in the ditch.
Several guards picked up basins of water to pour on him, Gu Moran shouted:
"Don't pour water on it! White phosphorus burns even faster when it comes into contact with water and wind. Cover it with soil!"
But the square was full of solid bluestone slabs, and not even a handful of loose soil could be dug out.
The flames were less than 30 feet away from the oil drum, and even the sulfurous smell in the air was pungent.
Get out of the way!
Pu Yunshan leaped off his horse, drew his sword, and with one stroke severed the thick iron chain on the hitching post at the edge of the square.
He threw away his sword, gripped the bottom of a 300-pound bluestone trough used to feed horses with both hands, the veins on his neck bulging like earthworms, and the muscles in his arms straining against the iron armor, making it creak and groan.
"Get up, you son of a bitch!"
Pu Yunshan roared a muffled thunderous sound, forcefully lifting the 300-pound bluestone water trough off the ground. He strode to the middle of the fuse groove, raised it above his head, and slammed it down hard.
boom!
The 300-pound bluestone water trough landed solidly on the bluestone floor.
The three-inch-thick bluestone slab collapsed and shattered on the spot, and the moist yellow mud underneath surged up.
The bluestone trough fit perfectly into the ditch, and the thick soil it churned up abruptly cut off the streak of blue-white phosphorescent flame halfway through its path.
The flame flickered twice outside the bluestone trough before going out completely.
Inukami Jusaburo on the steps, his swollen, peach-like eyes fixed on the blue stone trough.
Didn't it explode?
His last trump card for turning the tide was just destroyed by a reckless man smashing it with a stone?
"Impossible... I could never lose!"
Inukami Jusaburo let out a wild howl, drew his broken sword from his waist, and charged down the stone steps like a madman, heading straight for Gu Moran's horse's head.
" Gu Moran! I was prepared to die with you!"
Gu Moran didn't even raise his sword; he simply turned his head and glanced at the street corner behind him.
Just as a modified four-wheeled war chariot sped out of the street corner, Zhen Meili leaned halfway out from the roof of the chariot, chewing on a piece of dried meat, and steadily holding a fine iron crossbow fitted with double bowstrings in her hand:
"You piece of junk, how dare you even touch the hem of my lord's robe?"
She pulled the lever three times in a row.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Three short, thick, armor-piercing iron arrows flew in a straight line, covering a distance of twenty paces, and all struck the right knee of Inukami Jusaburo.
Click!
The crisp sound of the kneecap shattering was particularly clear in the square.
Inukami Jusaburo's right leg bent at an odd ninety-degree angle, causing him to fall forward, his chin hitting the bluestone slab, and sliding all the way to Gu Moran's horse's hoof.
"Ah--!"
He had just opened his mouth to scream when Pu Yunshan strode over, swung his iron spear, and delivered a horizontal slap to his mouth.
Snap!
A dozen or so bloody, yellow teeth flew a long way.
Inukami Jusaburo coughed up blood and couldn't utter a single word.
Pu Yunshan untied a thick pig-binding rope from his waist, stepped on the man's back, and quickly bound him into a tight knot. The end of the rope was then tied directly to the tail of his warhorse.
At the same time, on the north side of Hanseong.
Tuoba Mang swung two heavy iron hammers, each weighing sixty pounds, and smashed the red-lacquered wooden door of the main hall into a shower of wood chips.
Before the two black-clad assassins guarding the door could even see who it was, Lin Qingdai's cunning sword slit their throats, and they collapsed against the threshold, clutching their throats.
Kim Seon-a, carrying the blood-dripping White Tiger Sword, stepped over the corpse and, following the directions her father, Kim Tae-heung, had given her before he fell unconscious, cleaved open the mechanical copper lock under the offering table with a single strike.
Rumble.
The blue brick floor behind the offering table slid open to both sides, revealing a stone staircase leading directly underground. A strong, sweet and pungent smell mixed with a putrid stench rose up from below.
"Walk!"
Kim Seon-a took the lead and rushed down the stone steps, followed closely by Lin Qingdai and Tuoba Mang.
At the end of the secret passage was a half-open, large iron gate.
Tuoba Mang kicked open the iron gate, and the scene inside made all three of them stop in their tracks.
Inside the spacious underground grotto.
The surrounding stone walls were covered with hundreds of pale white candles, illuminating the cellar as if it were daytime.
In the very center of the cellar was a blood pool, about three zhang in diameter, surrounded by dozens of large wooden cages filled with hundreds of Goryeo children, no more than seven or eight years old.
At the very top of the blood pool, in front of the grand master's chair, stood Choi Seong-min, the Grand Protector of Goryeo and Kim Seon-a's maternal uncle, with an imposing air.
He wasn't wearing the purple robe of the Grand Protector at all, but rather a crimson-gold nine-patterned royal robe that only the king of Goryeo could wear!
Several Goryeo shamans dressed in black robes were holding wooden bowls, prying open the mouths of several children, and forcibly pouring foul-smelling blood water crawling with dark red insect eggs into them.
Kim Seon-a- ah's longsword trembled slightly, and cold sweat trickled down her soaked temples.
"Uncle?! There was an urgent report from Busan saying that you led three thousand Imperial Guard in a desperate battle and died for your country..."
What are you doing here?
What are you wearing?!