Chapter 69: Another Celestial Artifact Arrives
Bai Yuan, astride his mount, galloped up to the walled house, scanning left and right, momentarily bewildered. "Hmm? I've only been away for a few days, and it's changed again? The colorful city walls are gone, replaced by a formidable fortress! This wall must be ten meters high, at least!"
He was in the middle of expanding his own Bai Family Fortress, and had thought he was doing quite well. But one glance at Gao Family Village’s new stronghold, and he instantly felt his own Bai Family Fortress looked dilapidated and utterly unpresentable. Gao Chuwu caught up from behind. "The Heavenly Lord took the old walls back to the sky and bestowed a new fortress upon our village. Everyone has moved into new homes. I... I even have my own house now! I can finally get married, hehe." Bai Yuan rolled his eyes. He certainly didn't want to hear about something as trivial as getting a wife.
San Shier's head poked out from the top of the wall. Upon seeing Bai Yuan below, he immediately exclaimed with delight, "Master Bai is here! Master Bai is here! Quickly, open the iron gate and invite Master Bai in!"
The villagers cheered, seeing Bai Yuan as their pillar of strength. A group quickly rushed to open the gate, escorting Bai Yuan into the Gao Family Village walled house.
As Bai Yuan entered the massive walled compound, his focus entirely diverged from that of ordinary people. His gaze swept over its defensive capabilities. Looking around, he noticed four watchtowers in each corner of the compound. Defending these watchtowers and shooting arrows downwards would be exceptionally convenient.
Between the four watchtowers, patrol walkways connected them, allowing the defending soldiers to quickly move between the towers, providing mutual support.
Both the watchtowers and patrol walkways were designed with firing ports, enabling defenders to shoot outwards through these small openings, ensuring their own safety while striking at the enemy. "Brilliant!"
Bai Yuan couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. "This fortress is exceptionally well-designed. When I return, I must rebuild my Bai Family Fortress just like this."
San Shier stepped forward. "Master Bai, let's discuss the fortress construction later. First, you must consider how we will fight this battle. According to our informants, the bandits plan to stealthily climb the walls at night and attack from within." Bai Yuan rolled his eyes. "That's simple, isn't it? Just set up more lanterns and braziers on the walls, send out more sentries to patrol, and don't give the bandits any opportunity!"
"They hide in shadows, we stand in plain sight," Bai Yuan quickly stated. "If the bandits discover our defenses are tight, they won't attack. We would waste vast amounts of lamp oil, firewood, and sentry manpower every night. All the villagers would suffer from lack of rest, and if the bandit army doesn't attack, they will naturally grow exhausted. But if the bandits wait until we are fatigued and our defenses are lax, then launch a night raid, we'd be doomed!"
San Shier sighed. "Exactly. As the saying goes, 'One can be a thief for a thousand days, but one cannot guard against a thief for a thousand days.' It's truly impossible to guard against every contingency."
Bai Yuan's eyes darted around thoughtfully. He climbed onto the fortress wall again, surveying the entire layout of the walled house until he had grasped every detail. Then he chuckled. "Indeed, constantly guarding against bandits is not feasible. Therefore, we must lure the bandits out of their lair. We'll pretend not to know they're coming, display lax defenses, and draw all of them into the fortress. Then, using the terrain, we will trap and eliminate them within the stronghold. We must root them out completely so they won't constantly trouble us."
"This magnificent fortress bestowed by the Heavenly Lord possesses extremely powerful defensive capabilities, and it also features segmented defense arrangements. Look... this fortress is divided into nine halls and eighteen courtyards. This courtyard, this courtyard... and this one... they naturally form a defensive pattern. If we let the enemy into the fortress and lure them into these three courtyards, our people only need to block them here, here, and here, and we can trap and kill every bandit in those three courtyards. We can rain down stones from the rooftops on both sides, ensuring not a single bandit in the courtyards escapes."
The others didn't quite understand, but they feigned understanding, exclaiming, "Oh, so that's how it is!"
From his "high vantage point," Li Daoxuan looked down and saw everything clearly. Following the directions of Bai Yuan's pointing fingers, connecting the dots, it was indeed evident that this Hakka walled house was truly extraordinary. Its nine halls and eighteen courtyards formed layer upon layer of defenses. If the enemy breached one line of defense, they could retreat to the second; if the second was broken, they could fall back to the third, continuously wearing down the enemy's forces. Ultimately, the defenders could even retreat and defend the watchtower where Gao Yiye resided. This tower, resembling an ancient city gate tower, commanded a high position, easy to defend and hard to attack—it was the final stronghold. Tsk, tsk, one truly had to marvel at the wisdom of the Hakka people. Bai Yuan, having never before witnessed such an ingenious fortress, was inexplicably excited, rubbing his hands together. "Hahahaha, I have a plan in mind! All able-bodied men, come with me! We'll practice first! Gao Chuwu, you lead ten men and guard this passage!"
"Send another ten sturdy women to the rooftops on both sides, to throw stones down and assist Gao Chuwu."
"Zheng Daniu, you lead ten men and guard this passage."
"Send some sturdy women to the rooftops on both sides of that passage, responsible for dropping stones."
"Li Da, you take five men and come through this passage."
"Gao Yiyi, you take five men and ambush in this alley. When the bandit army passes through this passage, immediately emerge, close this door, and bolt it shut."
"Oh dear, this path... I truly have no one left to spare!" Bai Yuan hesitated. "This passage is the bandits' only escape route, but the village is short-handed. What should we do?"
Li Daoxuan glanced at the width of the passage and the courtyard behind it, then grinned. He had an idea. While Bai Yuan was still pondering, Gao Yiye suddenly spoke up: "Everyone, step back a little. The Heavenly Lord is about to lend us a celestial artifact."
Hearing this, everyone quickly retreated. Bai Yuan also swiftly bowed deeply towards the sky. A colossal bronze cannon slowly descended from the heavens, landing precisely in the courtyard at the end of the passage that Bai Yuan had struggled to defend. It settled gently, its barrel drooping forward, aimed directly at the passage. (See the image in the chapter comments.) The cannon, several meters long, didn't even tremor upon landing, showing how incredibly gentle the Heavenly Lord was, fearing it might harm everyone.
This massive cannon occupied an immense area, even filling one of the eighteen courtyards of the nine halls. It was shockingly massive.
The villagers had never seen a cannon before, so they didn't know what one was supposed to look like. But Bai Yuan and San Shier, having seen red-barreled cannons in large cities, recognized at once that this "celestial artifact" from the Heavenly Lord was indeed a cannon, except...
It was simply too enormous!
San Shier declared, "The Heavenly Lord always does things on a grand scale!"
Bai Yuan exclaimed, "Such a colossal cannon, how are we to use it? We can't even move the cannonballs! Moreover, when it fires, it will surely unleash cataclysmic power. The immense explosive force would be enough to kill us with the shockwave! Heavenly Lord, this is a divine object, we mere mortals cannot possibly use it!"
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