Chapter 168: 168
Chapter 168 – Liyang City
September 21st, 182 A . D .
Six thousand soldiers departed from Ye City along with 5,000 logistic reserved troops, drafted from the surrendered n.o.bles" private troops . Among the 60,000 soldiers, five thousand of them was light cavalry, ten thousand heavy cavalries, and the rest were footmen .
Fortunately, they had stolen the warhorses from Bao Xin, so they had to luxury of having more cavalry troops .
Meanwhile, Ju Shou and Zhang He would depart a week later as they had to sneak away from the territory undetected . They had to use Tong and his men as a decoy to divert Huangfu Song and the other"s attention first before they could leave the city .
The remaining n.o.bles had 15,000 private troops in the Ye, which Jia Xu planned to use them as a garrison force to deter the merchants and opportunist individuals . He also planned to enlist the unemployed mercenaries from the dead n.o.bles, which Tong had to fork out 300,000 gold from his inventory for the additional city budget .
He still had 1,800,000 taels of gold in his pocket inventory . Julu also profited from the food trade every month, and Hua s.h.i.+ still had 2,500,000 gold with her . Splurging a bit in Ye City to develop the domestic stability would not hurt .
Tong, who was leading the troops, turned around and gazed at the city wall of Ye one more time .
Jia Xu did not even bother sending them off . He was busy running the city in full steam .
"Will it be 60,000 against 240,000? Or will it be 160,000 against 140,000?"
"Dong Zhuo, you"d better be a backstabbing b.i.a.t.c.h or I"ll kill you instead of Lu Bu!"
"Dammit! Who would have thought that I will have to rely on Dong Zhuo of all people!?"
Tong turned to look at the 60,000 marching men . It was his first-time solo-commanding this ma.s.sive troops . Because of the abrupt departure from Julu, he did not take any other officers with him . Zhang Xiu and Zhang Ji still stationed in Julu, acting as temporary guardians in the case Liu Yan, Yuan Shao, or Sun Jian were to make a move on his home turf .
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September 28th, 182 A . D .
Tong and his troops arrived at Liyang County . With his recent experiences, a two-hour-forced-march order was issued to his army, making them rush one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to hasten the march .
As a result, they managed to move 20km a day, instead of 15 to 17, with all supply convoys tagging along, which covered the distanced of 140km on the seventh day of the march .
They made it to Liyang three days ahead of the schedule!
Tong was elated as he gazed upon the city wall of Liyang Region Capital City in front of him .
"It"s all mathematics and the well-planned schedules . "
The smile on Tong"s face did not last for long . He hesitated if he should siege on this small city, or should he negotiate with the Prefect of this city . By now, they should have noticed his arrival . The army flags inside the small city kept increasing the longer Tong looked at it .
Tong approached the wall, carrying a white flag and acted as a messenger .
"I am Zhang Tong of Ye Army! Please open the gate and let us in! We have come in peace!"
It did not take long to get his reply from the soldiers on the wall .
"BULLSH*T! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A TRAITOR!"
"COMING IN PEACE!? PTUT!"
"SCRAM!"
"GET LOST!"
Several arrows flew and pieced the ground in front of Tong . These people made their stance, declaring themselves as his enemies .
"Wait! I meant no harm! We"ve brought food for the citizens!"
"WE DON"T BELIEVE YOU!"
"GO HOME!"
"BE GONE!"
Tong gulped as he tried to calm himself . Being chased away like a stray dog was not a pleasant feeling for anyone . Since the situation escalated this far, Tong had no choice . He had to be aggressive and threatening now .
"You have one day to surrender! After the sunset and the gate is still closed, we will siege the city!" Tong shouted .
Instead of getting panic, the well-dressed Prefect of this city stepped forward and shouted back .
"We shall fight to the death! We will not surrender to the rebels!"
With the brave prefect"s declaration, his soldiers also roared .
"That"s right! We are fighting to the death!"
"Get lost, traitors!"
Seeing their reaction, Tong retreated . Sullen expression showed on his face as he galloped his horse back to his men .
"Liu Ping"s edict should have reached this city already . They"re brainwashed!"
Persuading people in this era depended on the information manipulating abilities and the credibilities of the manipulator . This time, Liu Ping was faster and more efficient .
"Should I avoid the fight? But his city is the strategic point . "
"If my soldiers can rest behind the tall wall, their morale will be high . "
"What should I do?"
While Tong was pondering and looking back at the wall, his brain activated the overclock mode by accident, causing everything around him to become a slow-motion movie .
He snapped back to his sense and canceled the spider-sense mode .
"I"ve forgotten again . I have a new toy, haven"t I?"
"Let"s test it tonight! My favorite way of doing things . "
"Sometimes I wonder if I was a cop or I was an a.s.sa.s.sin in my previous life . "
The eyes of Tong turned red again . It happened every time he leaked out his killing intent .
"They will pay for their insolence . "
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Tong"s heart shook as if he had a heart attack . His vision darkened for five seconds before he came back to his sense .
In a panic, he touched all over his torso to see if he was still being in control of his body . Realizing that he could still freely move his body, Tong sighed in relief .
"Good gracious . I"m still the owner of my body . "
"That was dangerous . I thought I was a goner . "
"But d.a.m.n! I have to do something with my [Pride]!"
During his five seconds of the blackout, messages had shown in front of him, but they were deleted by the system G.o.ddess . They were the logs of the battles between [Sloth] and [Pride] .
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September 28th, 2 A . M .
Sixty thousand men crept through the night . They stopped at 300m away from the wall while a task force of 100 men rushed under the wall .
The force took a detour and picked the east wall where the guards were lightest as the attention of the city garrisons were on the north gate .
The east gate was lightly guarded by ten men . On the other hand, two hundred men were stationed on the north gate . From the data on Tong"s radar map, it was not hard for him to tell where he should strike .
The stone wall surface was uneven and b.u.mpy, which was a perfect footing for climbing . A hundred strongmen carried their swords on their back and climbed the wall .
Within the hundred men, Tong was part of the group, leading the squad .
As Tong and his men were climbing, they made light noises from the stones inside the wall . The sharp patrolling guard walked over with a torch to see what happened . He took a peek down below .
*SOEK*
A knife stabbed into his throat, cutting off his voice and ability to speak . He lost his leg strength in an instant as his nerves were severed .
Tong grabbed the face of the patrolling guard and pulled him over, throwing him off the wall and making him flying toward the ground .
With the noisy pest gone, Tong raised his head to peek .
On his left, it was pitch black . On his right, only a few torches were still on and the three guards on duty were sleeping on the pathway .
Tong rechecked with his radar map again . The left wall did not have any guard and there were only the three soldiers to the right .
The patrolling duty was lax in this city . It seemed they thought that Tong would siege the city tomorrow, so they only left a few patrolling guards while the rest of the soldiers rested .
Tong climbed on top of the wall and signaled his men that the coast was clear . The rest of the hundred men slowly crept onto the top of the wall one by one .
While the squad was securing the position, Tong approached the sleeping guards and sliced their neck, one after another . He did not forget to toss these dead bodies down the wall outside, so no other patrol could notice their traces .
As soon as the one hundred men got on the wall, Tong waved his hand, gesturing them to follow him . His destination was the east gate where the rest of his army was waiting outside in secret .
Under the shelter on top of the gate, four guards sat in a circle as they were drinking and eating on duty while the other two men were soundly asleep .
Tong checked the distance between them and his squad .
"Take everyone downstairs and unlock the gate . Ten of you, load your crossbows . We"ll take care of these men . "
Ninety men crept down the stairs toward to lower ground . Tong and his ten men snuck in the shadow . The moment everyone got into the position, Tong waved his hand again .
*SWOOSH*
*SWOOSH*
*SWOOSH*
Ten crossbow arrows pierced the four drinking men . As soon as the arrows touched the men, Tong activated his overclocked sense and rushed in . It was a good time to test it in the real battle .
As his hyper sense was activated, it felt similar to his [Time Stop] skill, but everything was still moving in slow motion . In addition, he had more times to act than the skill .
Within a span of 2 seconds, Tong reached the men and slashed down his sword, aiming at their throat to silence them . It took Tong another two seconds to swing his sword four times to kill them all .
He deactivated his bullet-time, breathing out his tension and stress . In his nose, a small blood vessel busted open and a trail of blood dripped down .
Smelling the iron in his blood, Tong swiped his nose and pondered .
"It doesn"t consume my lifespan, but it hurts my brain . I shouldn"t use it recklessly or I"ll have to waste my daily regen skill before I get the real injury . "
Tong made a mental note to himself and darted his eyes toward the sleeping men .
Ten soldiers watched Tong in action with awe and astonishment . To Tong, the speed was ordinary, but to the normal people, Tong left an afterimage each time he moved or swung his sword . They had a new tale to tell their friends and their families now .
Tong and the ten soldiers did not know, his true ability was halved because [Sloth] was weakened . If he was in a complete condition, his movement speed should have been double .