Chapter 52: Opening the Treasure Chest, the Red-Clad Cannon!

"Patriarch!"

"Patriarch..."

Agunu threw himself onto the headless corpse of Aha Chu, wailing loudly.

The entire clan estate was shrouded in grief.

"Why did you not protect the Patriarch?"

Agunu looked at the kneeling guards with bloodshot eyes.

"General."

"The Ming army raided our camp. We only had a few thousand troops, and they... they charged the camp with ten thousand warhorses. We simply could not hold them back," a surviving Thousand-man Commander said in terror.

"Ten thousand warhorses charging the camp?"

Agunu's expression darkened even further.

Those warhorses had originally belonged to his clan. All ten thousand cavalry had been annihilated by Zhu Ying's army, and the horses had been seized by him.

"Zhu Ying."

"You deserve to die."

"Our clan will fight you to the death!"

Looking at the Patriarch's corpse before him, Agunu roared toward the sky, his voice filled with hatred.

"General."

"The Patriarch is dead."

"What should our clan do?" a general asked respectfully.

"Our clan cannot function without a leader."

"Go to the White Flag Tribe immediately and find the First Prince, Shijianu. Invite him to succeed the Patriarch and lead our clan," Agunu commanded instantly.

"Yes!" a general took the order immediately.

There was no doubt about it.

From this day forward, the Jianzhou Tartars would suffer heavy losses.

The clan estate was devastated.

The Patriarch had been slain.

At this moment, they had completely lost the qualification to oppose the Great Ming.

...

To the east, dozens of miles away from the Tartar clan estate.

Zhu Ying had led his army on a two-hour rapid pursuit, putting them completely out of reach.

Even if the Tartars wanted to pursue, they would not be able to catch up.

"Halt."

Zhu Ying raised his hand.

The soldiers behind him pulled on their reins to stop.

They also halted the accompanying warhorses.

"Count the men," Zhu Ying commanded loudly.

"First Thousand-man Battalion, no casualties!"

"Second Thousand-man Battalion, no casualties!"

"Fourth Thousand-man Battalion, no casualties!"

"Fifth Thousand-man Battalion, no casualties!"

Three Thousand-man Commanders and one Acting Commander replied loudly.

"Rest in place for two hours."

"Those who are injured, treat your wounds; those who are uninjured, rest," Zhu Ying shouted.

"Understood!" the soldiers shouted in unison.

Afterward, Zhu Ying dismounted and found a place to sit.

"Status Panel," Zhu Ying thought.

Host: Zhu Ying Age: 14 Internal Breath: 898 Strength: 1985 Speed: 1723 Constitution: 1582 Endurance: 1552 Spirit: 1593 Lifespan: 112 years, 3212 days Storage Space: 19 cubic meters Cultivation Technique: Hardened Body Technique (Henglian Gong)

...

"Not bad."

"The increase in Internal Breath is the greatest; this charge was not in vain."

"It was better that Aha Chu provided 200 points to all attributes."

"And I even received a Tier 1 Treasure Chest," Zhu Ying smiled with great satisfaction.

"Open the chest," Zhu Ying commanded immediately.

"Opening Tier 1 Treasure Chest..."

"Obtained: Complete Blueprint for Yellow-grade Mid-tier [Red-Coat Cannon]," the panel prompted.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Even the Red-Coat Cannons have appeared."

"It's useless for me to have them right now."

Seeing what the chest had yielded, Zhu Ying felt somewhat helpless.

Whether it was martial arts, cultivation techniques, divine weapons, or pills, anything would have worked. Opening this thing was truly useless for him at this stage.

After all, he was currently living under someone else's roof.

He had to rely on the Great Ming to strengthen himself.

Developing technology was something for the future, once he had fully grown his own wings and departed from the Great Ming.

Once he possessed sufficient strength and foundation, Zhu Ying would not remain a subject forever.

The world was vast.

Zhu Ying had his own plans for the future.

"It's fine."

"If the Great Ming falls into chaos in the future, I can go south to establish my own nation, build my strength, and perhaps one day swallow the Central Plains."

"The cannons are the key," Zhu Ying thought. He extracted the chest reward and placed it into his storage space for safekeeping.

"Commander!"

"The battle reports have been organized."

"Can we send the carrier pigeons now?"

Liu Lei approached with an excited expression.

The other Thousand-man Commanders also looked on with fervor.

This time, Zhu Ying had led the army to raid the Tartar clan estate and even slain their Patriarch. His military merit was immense.

The previous orders from above were to stall the Tartars so they could not invade the Great Ming or reinforce the Yuan court.

But how were the current results?

Not only had Zhu Ying pinned down the Jianzhou Tartars, but he had also dealt them a heavy blow, leaving them with no strength to invade the Great Ming. With their Patriarch dead, their clan would surely fall into chaos, let alone reinforce the Yuan court.

Furthermore, raiding their tribes and clan estate meant they would need significant time just to rebuild.

"Send them," Zhu Ying nodded.

"Yes!" Liu Lei responded excitedly.

Once this battle report reached the Great Ming, it would surely cause a massive sensation.

They would receive unimaginable praise.

To reach such a level as a soldier of the Great Ming would make them absolute role models.

After this, the name of their Guard Battalion would spread throughout the Great Ming.

"Tell the brothers."

"The Tartars have been slaughtered by us; they will have no chance to offend our Great Ming again."

"After resting today..."

"I will take you all home," Zhu Ying said, looking at the Thousand-man Commanders beside him.

"Yes!"

The commanders all showed expressions of anticipation.

They had been marching and fighting in this Northern Frontier for over a month.

Finally, they were going home.

...

Liaodong!

Under the control of the Northern Yuan, Kaiyuan City!

This city was the gateway to Liaodong.

It was also the gateway bordering the Great Ming and the Great Ning.

Naha Chu occupied the lands of Liaodong with hundreds of thousands of armored troops. Acting on the decree of the Northern Yuan Emperor, he was stationed in Liaodong to wait for an opportunity to counterattack the Central Plains and destroy the Great Ming.

Kaiyuan City served as a barrier and the hub for Naha Chu's invasions of the Great Ming.

However, although Naha Chu had received news of the Great Ming's troop movements and had struck first, he had ultimately underestimated the ferocity of the Great Ming soldiers defending their homeland. Having failed to break through the border cities of Great Ning, he could only retreat as the main Ming army arrived.

At this moment!

In front of Kaiyuan City.

Hundreds of cannons stood in a row, three hundred paces from the city walls.

"Fire!"

The officer in charge of the artillery shouted loudly.

Instantly, hundreds of Ming soldiers holding torches lit the fuses.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

A series of deafening roars echoed through the air.

Hundreds of cannonballs hurtled toward the interior of Kaiyuan City.

When the cannonballs landed, there were no explosions as one might imagine.

Instead, many Yuan soldiers were simply pierced through or crushed to death by the impact.

This was because these were solid shot projectiles.

In this era, explosive shells had not yet appeared.

If they did, it would represent a truly epoch-making advancement with much greater destructive power. These solid shots could only be used for suppression or to batter down city gates.

Currently, these cannons could only serve to suppress and intimidate the enemy.

...

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(End of Chapter)