Chapter 173 Battle of Liyang - Part 3 (1/2)
Chapter 173 – Battle of Liyang - Part 3
The water fed the intensity of the fire and the oil in the barrel exploded the hell flame once more. The soldier was devoured by the explosion and died on the spot as the flame got into his lung and burnt all of his oxygen.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
More explosions roared out and killed anyone who tried to douse the flame on the pool of oil.
”What are you doing!? Extinguish the fire, not feeding them!”
One of the lieutenants complained and grabbed a bucket of water. He threw the water into the flame where there was an explosion.
*BOOM*
He was also devoured by the undying hellfire.
None of them knew about the concept of ”Grease Fire”.
The grease fire is a deadly fire that is categorized as the ”Class F Fire” or ”Class K Fire” in the modern world. The burning grease is hotter than 220 degrees Celsius or 450 degrees Fahrenheit, which is beyond the boiling point of water. Once someone pours water on it, the water will not douse the fire. It evaporates from the extreme heat, creates steam and expands the fire outward as if it explodes.
The people of this era did not know about the chemical extinguishers or a proper way to douse this kind of fire!
...
Huangfu Song watched the situation from afar in shock. Some part of the fire had been under controlled, but the original parts where the oil barrel landed could not be extinguished.
Soon, the temperature of the surrounding areas got higher. Sparkles of flame flew and landed on other parts where Tong and his troops had doused it with oil.
The fire expanded onto the outer fences in no time. The trail of fire managed to touch the pool of fat grease in the moat. It did not ignite the grease at first, but the grease temperature continued to rise from the surrounding flame.
Suddenly,
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM*
As if a napalm bomb had been dropped, the surrounding area in the radius of 300 meters around the moat had been engulfed in flame. The wall of fire rose up over a hundred meters to the air. Black smoke extended from the tip of the bright flame to the sky.
…
Tong and his one thousand men stopped galloping their horses and looked back at the explosion. They managed to get away from the blast radius with their horses. Their harassment tasks for today was completed.
Tong muttered to himself as he gazed at the firewall in admiration.
”The great Megumin once said …” Tong extended his hand toward the camp.
”EXPLOSION!”
*BOOM*
Another explosive sound could be heard from the direction of the camp after Tong muttered the word. Tong laughed hysterically in a high pitch voice as he satisfied his chuunibyou side.
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”Dammit!”
...
The grand explosion shockwave blasted away all imperial soldiers inside the camp, including Huangfu Song, making them flying backward and crashing onto the ground. The unlucky soldiers, who were near the northern and the eastern fences, got caught in the flame and died without knowing what had happened to them.
The heat shockwave of the explosion blew a stormwind, which carried the grease fire from the barrels over to the inner parts of the camp, expanding the sea of hellfire and the overwhelming heat.
The wind continued to blow southwest while the fire origin covered the entire northeastern zone of the camp. The hungry flame crept over toward the inner camp without stopping. The more the soldiers tried to put down the fire in the moat with water, the more explosion and the expansion of the red zone.
Huangfu Song was sweating profusely by the temperature. He made a difficult decision to save as many soldiers in his camp as possible.
”IGNORE THE FIRE! DO NOT APPROACH IT!”
”ALL UNITS, RETREAT WESTWARD!!”
”TAKE WHATEVER YOU CAN AND RUN WEST!! HURRY!!”
Black smoke, carried by the wind, enveloped the entire camp. Everyone began to cough and felt the burning in their eyes. One of the soldiers inhaled the black smoke, he choked and coughed. Then, he spasmed and stopped moving, died from a sudden heart attack.
The harm from the fire is not only from the flame itself, but it is the smoke. The black smoke contains small microscopic particles which could harm the lung of the person who has breathed in the smoke. Inhaling these particles could block the respiratory system of a human body, potentially could cause a cardiac arrest or a heart attack.
In the modern world, it is advisable to cover one's nose and mouth with a wet cloth to prevent inhaling the black smoke from the fire. However, these people of this era had not learned such practice.
The soldiers ran and coughed in a panic. The weak ones got exhausted quickly from the lack of oxygen, and they passed out one by one.
Because of the chaos and the sudden retreat order, nobody spent a glance on the fallen comrades. They scrammed away from the fire in a hurry as they wanted to live.
…
0.30 AM.
Zhu Jun and his 5,000 horsemen rode out of the camp from the south and headed eastward, searching for the raiders.
From the last attack, they guessed that it should have been Tong and his men from the northeast. Therefore, they galloped north-eastward and hoped that they could find the trace of the rebels.
It did not take long for them to find Tong because he and his one thousand soldiers had lined up in a formation 700 meters in front of them.
'An ambush? No, they're simply challenging us!' Zhu Jun thought while he pointed his torch forward to see Tong's horsemen formation.