Chapter 204: Flying Over Hangu Pass, Stunning Both Armies!
“Hot air balloon?”
Yan Lingji and Hongliang repeated simultaneously.
Both of their big eyes blinked together.
Looking at the soft lump of cloth, it suddenly felt a bit ridiculous.
Yan Lingji pointed to the ground.
“Are you really planning to use this thing to fly us over?”
The lantern Li Mo made before could fly.
But… that’s because the lantern was light enough to float with a breath of air.
She turned around and counted.
One, two, three, four, five.
Five people.
Even huffing and puffing wouldn’t work on this!
Li Mo calmly explained, “A lantern flying is one aspect, and the other is the fire underneath it.”
Yan Lingji nodded uncertainly.
“You mean as long as there’s fire, it can fly?”
Li Mo shook the fabric laid out on the ground: “That’s what I mean.”
A hot air balloon uses the principle of hot air rising from expansion and contraction.
As long as the balloon is big enough and the fire doesn’t go out, lifting a few people is easy.
This piece of fabric is not easy to make.
It needs to have good quality and minimize stitching and patches.
As they discussed, Fei Yan looked back at them and sighed, “My husband’s thinking is really different. Once we’re in the air, even thousands of troops below can’t do anything to us.”
The range of a bow and arrow is just over a hundred meters.
But once a hot air balloon is in the air, its height is measured in kilometers.
Li Mo picked a blade of grass from the ground and held it up to feel the air.
A gentle spring breeze blew softly.
Qin State is to the west, and today the wind is blowing from the east.
Once the hot air balloon takes off, they can float right over Hangu Pass.
He threw away the grass in his hand and instructed Hongliang, “Princess, stop being stunned and come help.”
Hongliang was still in a daze.
Suddenly awakened by his voice.
“What? What?”
Li Mo lifted up the bag and pointed to the other side: “Open it like this.”
Hongliang followed his example.
They opened a man-sized gap in the large piece of fabric.
Then, Li Mo turned to Yan Lingji, “Come, light a fire, be careful not to burn the cloth.”
Yan Lingji upgraded from a lighter to a mobile propane tank.
A yellow array pattern appeared in front of her, and she blew fire into the bag.
Soon, the limp cloth bag started to inflate a bit.
Hongliang held one end of the bag, her eyes widening as it inflated.
After a while, the air-filled bag started to stand up slowly.
A huge oval-shaped balloon, five to six meters tall, stood upright before them.
Hongliang watched dumbfounded, lifting her head high.
Is this a magic trick?
Following Li Mo’s instructions, Yan Lingji controlled the fire standing in the basket.
Li Mo held the now-lifted basket and said to the stunned Hongliang, “Get in, what are you waiting for?”
Hongliang couldn’t wait any longer.
She climbed into the basket with hands and feet, looking around constantly once inside.
She kept muttering, “Can it really fly? Can it really fly? Can this thing take the princess to Xianyang?”
Li Mo pursed his lips: “Not that far, just over Hangu Pass is enough.
Hot air balloons have this problem; their direction depends on the wind.
And Xianyang is several days’ journey from here.
Fly over?
You want to exhaust Yan Lingji? She doesn’t have enough internal force to support us all the way to Xianyang!”
“Fei Yan, get in.”
Such a high hot air balloon would soon attract nearby scouts’ attention.
Fei Yan raised her hand, wrapped Bai Xianwu on the ground in a “dragon’s breath,” and threw her into the basket.
She turned to Li Mo: “Scouts are coming, husband, you go up first.”
Li Mo could feel the approaching scouts too.
He shook his head, “No need, we’ll just go our way.”
The hot air balloon rises quickly, and by the time they arrive, it’d be too high to reach.
“Yes, yes, hurry up, this princess is about to take off!”
Honglian’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
She couldn’t wait.
As Li Mo and Fei Yan climbed into the basket, a scout team appeared in their sight.
“Increase the firepower, let’s go.”
Li Mo patted Yan Lingji’s shoulder.
He spoke softly.
Yan Lingji glanced at him faintly.
The formation patterns between her hands suddenly expanded several times over.
With a whoosh, scorching flames burst out from it.
With this powerful heat, the massive hot air balloon immediately began to rise.
The scout team that had arrived was stunned at the sight of such a colossal object.
Their scalps tingled!
“W-what is this?”
“How can this thing fly?”
“Look quickly, there seems to be someone inside!”
“Immortal? Is this the mount of an immortal?”
Even if they were different people, no one could accept seeing such a thing flying.
The larger the object, the heavier it must be.
This enormous balloon was almost the size of a small hill.
How could it possibly fly into the sky?
The worldview of the scouts shattered instantly!
“Wow, it’s really flying!”
“Fly higher, higher! This princess wants to reach the heavens!”
Hongliang clung to the edge of the basket, shouting excitedly as the ground grew further away.
As a princess, she had seen many things.
But this was truly a first for her.
This was vastly different from when Li Mo had leaped with her in front of Han Fei’s residence.
That time, they ascended in a flash.
This time, they were slowly rising.
Watching the ground recede and the figures below shrink, the visual experience couldn’t compare to before.
Several shocked scouts below went pale when they heard Hongliang’s shout.
“It’s Princess Hongliang!”
“Oh no, the person inside is the State Preceptor of Qin. Quickly report to the generals!”
The Emperor of Han is searching nationwide for them, yet here they are at the border.
The scouts hurriedly returned to the camp without delay.
Hongliang blinked innocently at their diminishing figures.
“It’s over, they’re going back to inform the troops!”
Fei Yan glanced at her and said coldly, “At such a height, even an army of a million is useless.”
They could see but couldn’t reach; no matter how many people there were, they could only look on and sigh.
And once they passed Hangu Pass, they would be in Qin territory.
These people, even if they wanted to save Bai Xianwu, wouldn’t dare step into Qin’s territory arbitrarily.
After hearing Fei Yan’s words, Hongliang immediately discarded her previous worries.
CLinjing to the edge of the basket, she eagerly enjoyed the high-altitude journey.
As they went higher, the view below became more complete.
Not just Hongliang, even Fei Yan looked curiously downward.
Only Yan Lingji looked gloomy as she labored away.
Li Mo noticed her resentment and gently held her slim waist, comforting her, “Thank you for your hard work, my lady.”
Yan Lingji glared at him faintly.
“At least you have a conscience.”
Li Mo accompanying her made her feel much better.
Hongliang, eagerly surveying the surroundings, suddenly pointed downward and exclaimed, “Look, there are many ants moving on both sides of the mountain.”
Fei Yan glanced in the direction she pointed, speaking softly, “They’re not ants; those are the armies of Qin and Han.”
The mountain Hongliang referred to was naturally Hangu Pass.
At this moment, both Qin and Han armies were gathered on either side of the pass.
Separated by a single pass, they stared each other down.
It seemed that war could break out at any moment.
By now, the scouts had returned to their camp.
After recounting the situation, the leading general rushed out of the main tent.
At first, they didn’t believe it, but upon looking up, they were all dumbfounded!
An egg-like object was floating above them.
It crossed Hangu Pass and drifted slowly towards Qin territory.
The generals of Han panicked immediately.
They questioned the returning scouts, “Are you certain Princess Hongliang is up there?”
The scouts confirmed, “We heard and saw it ourselves; it is definitely Princess Hongliang.”
“There are four people in total, three women and one man. The man has a cloth covering his eyes; he is the State Preceptor of Qin!”
The general’s expression turned grim.
“Did you see General Bai?”
One scout hesitated, “It seems we didn’t see General Bai.”
When they arrived, Bai Xianwu had already been thrown into the basket by Fei Yan.
They could only see a few people standing in the basket.
Several generals exchanged glances.
“General Bai was captured by that Qin State’s national master, he must have subdued her.”
“That’s right, the general must be inside as well.”
“We can’t let them leave Han, or General Bai will be in danger!”
At this moment, a scout next to them suddenly pointed to the sky and said, “General, that egg is starting to fall.”
They looked up again and saw that the hot air balloon was indeed beginning to descend.
And its descent was heading straight for the Qin State’s military camp!
Looking at the egg that was slowly descending from the sky, the generals instantly made a decision.
“Order all the cavalry to charge the camp at full speed, and rescue General Bai and Her Highness the Princess!”
They didn’t care about Princess Honglian’s fate.
But they could not let Bai Xianwu fall into the hands of Qin State under any circumstances.
Originally, there were ten generals in the Hann army.
Later, Bai Xianwu took four away.
Among the six remaining, three were puppets she had refined, who prioritized her safety and commands at all times.
Even without her control, these instructions had long been ingrained in their consciousness.
The other three generals were steadfast members of the Bai faction.
Without any hesitation, three of the six generals led all the cavalry towards the descending hot air balloon!
On the Qin State’s side.
Meng Tian was contemplating various attack strategies in front of the sand table in the main tent.
He had an army of 100,000 here, and another 300,000 had been mobilized but had not yet arrived.
Li Si had sent back information from Han.
The Han Emperor asked for three days to consider, and only one day had passed.
If the Han Emperor didn’t agree, according to the plans of the Qin Emperor and the Empress Dowager, they would attack directly.
This time, the main commander was the veteran General Wang Jian.
And he was the vanguard army charging the formation.
The vanguard is the front-line troops responsible for reconnaissance, probing attacks, and disrupting the enemy formation.
In ancient warfare, formations were crucial, and if the vanguard could break the enemy formation, it would greatly boost their own morale.
Therefore, the vanguard was always the elite force of the army.
But it was also a highly dangerous unit.
It was Meng Tian’s first time as a vanguard, and he didn’t want his soldiers to die in vain, nor did he want to disappoint the expectations of the Qin Emperor and the Empress Dowager.
Moreover, he owed his chance to the national master.
Defeating the Hann army one day sooner would mean bringing him back one day sooner.
This first charge was critically important, and it must not fail!
Just as Meng Tian was pondering how to attack, the lieutenant hurriedly ran in from outside.
Meng Tian heard the clinking of armor and looked up, then continued studying tactics.
He asked, “What’s the matter? Why are you in such a rush?”
In the face of an impending battle, the most taboo thing was to disrupt the formation.
The lieutenant stopped and raised his hand, saying, “General Meng, a large egg suddenly floated over from Han, you should come out and see.”
Meng Tian looked up again.
His tiger-like eyes showed a hint of confusion.
“A big what? A big egg? How big?”
The lieutenant gestured wildly for a while, then said helplessly, “Very big, from what I can see, it’s not much smaller than this main tent.”
Meng Tian’s thick brows slowly furrowed.
Was there really such a big egg in the world?
And the key was that the egg could fly!
The lieutenant worriedly asked, “General Meng, could it be some kind of trick by the Hanns?”
Meng Tian’s eyes narrowed.
It wasn’t impossible!
Bai Xianwu even had those strange puppets in her army, so it wouldn’t be surprising if she had some other trick up her sleeve.
“Come with me and take a look!”
He put down the signal flags in his hand, picked up his halberd, and strode outside.
Outside, it was already boiling with activity.
All 100,000 soldiers were looking up at the sky, pointing and talking.
Voices of discussion rose and fell.
Meng Tian looked up and, even with his steady character, was momentarily stunned.
He saw an egg-shaped object slowly flying towards them.
There was a basket-like thing hanging below it.
About two hundred zhang above the ground.
The deputy, squinting his eyes and staring for a long while, asked, “General Meng, do you think that is an egg?”
Meng Tian glanced at him.
An egg that big in your house?
Visible from over two hundred zhang away, if it falls, it would be at least six or seven zhang tall.
Even a phoenix couldn’t lay an egg that big, right?
All one hundred thousand soldiers stared wide-eyed at the large egg floating in the air, slowly descending.
A hundred thousand people lifted their heads with their mouths open.
Like fledglings waiting to be fed.
The spectacle was truly magnificent.
“It seems to be coming our way.”
“Did anyone see where this thing came from?”
“I saw it; it floated over from Han.”
“Yes, yes, I saw it too.
“It flew over from Han, crossing Hangu Pass.”
“What exactly is this thing, why can it fly so high?”
“Could there be an immortal inside? My mother told me immortals can fly this high.”
“An immortal from your family is an egg?”
“Tsk, you’re dumb, this must be the immortal’s vehicle, like the Emperor’s dragon carriage.”
A hundred thousand people chattered, marveling at the sight below.
Observing the descending path of the large egg, Meng Tian’s frown deepened.
It really was coming toward their camp!
“Relay the order, full military alert!”
Meng Tian suddenly became serious and ordered the deputy.
This thing was of unknown origin and flew over from Han.
He feared it might be some spell left by Bai Xianwu!
“Yes, sir!”
The deputy realized the gravity of the situation.
Orders were quickly conveyed down the ranks.
In less than half a cup of tea’s time, one hundred thousand soldiers were on full alert.
The hot air balloon descended lower and lower, with two hundred thousand eyes watching it unblinkingly.
At this moment, the balloon’s descent rapidly accelerated.
Initially falling in an arc, it now almost plummeted straight down.
The deputy was stunned for a moment and then turned to ask, “General Meng, it looks like it’s falling ahead; should we send scouts to investigate?”
Meng Tian estimated the distance and then mounted a warhorse.
Shouting loudly, he ordered, “Assemble the vanguard, follow me to investigate!”
Thousands of vanguard troops quickly assembled and charged out in a mighty force.
A few miles away.
Inside the rapidly descending balloon, there was a shrill scream.
Hongliang clung tightly to the edge of the basket.
The more excited she had been earlier, the more terrified her screams were now.
Yan Lingji’s internal energy was exhausted, as if she had run out of gas.
Flames in the formation intermittently spurted out.
Without the supply of hot air, the speed of the balloon’s descent increased.
Below was a jagged rocky ground!
If it crashed, they would be smashed to pieces.
The basket swayed like a small boat in a storm, causing everyone to stagger.
Hongliang turned pale with fear and began to cry out again.
“I’m going to die!!!”
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