As for the things that would follow, he planned to play it by ear.
In any case, in Li Hongyun’s view, everything was almost ready, he was just waiting for the war to begin.
The wind swept through the sky, and ti swiftly passed in the Trial Illusion.
The gates of Cen Bridge Inn had long been closed, and on the walls, the Qi Army’s garrison stared anxiously and apprehensively into the distance.
In recent days, a large number of refugees had fled south, coming to the surroundings of Cen Bridge Inn. Earlier, before the gates of Cen Bridge Inn were completely closed, it had also taken in so refugees.
The garrison at Cen Bridge Inn naturally inquired about the situation with the Jin soldiers, but these refugees knew nothing at all.
They had all run here upon hearing the news of the Jin soldiers moving south, without ever having seen a Jin soldier in person.
This was rather normal, as the refugees’ pace could hardly exceed that of an army, let alone if they had actually encountered the Jin soldiers, the likelihood of being killed or captured would far exceed the chances of escape.
Amid this panic, the Jin soldiers were described as bone-crushing, marrow-sucking demons, causing unease among the townspeople.
Of course, there were also many who felt this might be sowhat exaggerated, for the Jin soldiers were human too, how could they possibly crush bones and suck marrow?
However, the people in Cen Bridge Inn soon saw those "refugees who had seen the Jin soldiers" and understood that this demonization of the Jin soldiers was not re exaggeration but a ruthless prediction of reality.
Finally, a soldier on the walls of Cen Bridge Inn spotted a sar of gray on the distant horizon.
At first, people didn’t know what it was, but soon, the gray beca clearer in their vision.
They were countless refugees, scantly clothed, bodies sared with mud and dust, bound together with ropes!
Behind these refugees were Jin soldiers wielding whips and sharp knives.
Cavalry patrolled on both flanks, and if a refugee attempted to escape, they were quickly chased down and killed.
Under such herding, many of the refugees wore a dazed expression; they had lost all sense of pain, all soul, only moving forward toward the city walls, driven by whips and pulled by ropes.
Sotis, the heavily scarred, starving refugees would collapse into the roadside pits, but others would continue walking obliviously, dragging his disfigured corpse along the ground.
The closer they got to the city walls, the clearer this scene beca.
Even when these refugees reached the base of the walls and the shrill screams from being whipped and stabbed by the Jin soldiers’ knives piercingly penetrated everyone’s ears, many of the soldiers on the walls froze completely.
So lost their courage to fight after witnessing this dire scene, or their minds went blank, unsure of how to deal with these refugees.
The defenders had bows and arrows, rolling wood, but throwing these down at this mont would only kill their own people from the Qi Dynasty.
These refugees, perhaps just a few days ago, were farrs in a small village near Cen Bridge Inn, rising at sunrise and resting at sunset, or won weaving clothes at ho, but now, they had all been driven by the Jin soldiers, turned into sandbags for assaulting the city.
And many more refugees had already died in the first wave of southern advancent of the Jin soldiers, either from indiscriminate slaughter or unimaginable brutal tornt.
And only the remaining "survivors" were strung together with ropes, driven southward.
The garrison at Cen Bridge Inn was not exactly elite, perhaps so of the soldiers reacted, striking rcilessly, but the small city’s defenses ultimately had so oversights.
And the Jin soldiers were clearly prepared for this.
The mont they drove the refugees to the base of the city, the Jin soldiers began trying to scale the walls!
They set up ladders or threw grappling hooks, climbing recklessly upwards.
The siege capabilities of the Jin soldiers were not particularly strong; during the entire Jingping upheaval, they had never truly breached the capital. As for Taiyuan, the strong city attacked by the Western Army, it took nearly a year to fall due to depletion of food inside and lack of reinforcents.
Thus, during each siege, the Jin soldiers always set up camp outside the city, built siege engines, and then launched fierce attacks.
However, this lack of siege capability was mainly due to equipnt.
Not the will to fight.
At this ti, the Jin soldiers were all battle-hardened elites from the founding of their country, each soldier having fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Their will to fight, their combat skills, were unbelievably high. Not comparable to the Jin soldiers decades later who lived in luxury and whose combat abilities had declined.
And this trait was fully demonstrated when they attacked a small city like Cen Bridge Inn.
A defending soldier notched his bow and shot, hitting a Jin soldier climbing up. He fell straight from the ladder, crashing onto the Jin soldiers behind him.
Then, the defending soldier quickly shifted his gaze elsewhere to find another target.
However, the next second he ca to his senses, the Jin soldier he had shot had already climbed up the wall!
To this Qi Army defender, once hit by an arrow, one would definitely fall, possibly even knocking down others on the ladder, which is why he subconsciously looked elsewhere.
But this Jin soldier was different; although he fell after being shot, the Jin soldiers behind him actually managed to hold him up.
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