Chapter 247
Chapter 247 – The Wall is on Fire
Jiang Man went to the city hall alone, but he was stopped by the guards .
"Please tell Lord Zou Jing that I"m a scholar from Ganling . I wish to give my opinion about this battle with the Yellow Turbans!" Shouted Jiang Man .
The guards still blocked his path .
"The general said he would not see anyone under any circ.u.mstance! Leave!"
Stunned by the rejection, Jiang Man glared at the guards, "If you don"t want the Yellow Turban to raid the city, go tell the general, now!"
One of the guards walked in front of Jiang Man and slapped him .
*PA*
The sound was loud and clear .
"Get lost, or I"ll arrest you!"
"You …" Jiang Man gritted his teeth . Had his skills not disabled, he would have killed these guards and Zou Jing already .
Swallowing his pride, Jiang Man returned to Liu Bei .
"Where have you been?" Liu Bei asked .
"I tried to visit the general, but the guards didn"t allow me . "
Liu Bei sighed . He thought that their status was too low as they had no achievement or an official t.i.tle .
"Don"t worry about it, little Jiang . We"ll raise our status soon enough . "
…
At the end of the day, Tong did not siege the city, and Zou Jing did not show up at on top of the wall .
Tong ordered his men to make a camp to rest, but he ensured that his men arranged several s.h.i.+fts at night to monitor all gates around the city .
Meanwhile, the commander of n.o.ble"s armies gathered for a meeting .
"Where is the general?"
"What happened to him?"
The questions that none of them could find an answer unless Zou Jing explained it, which he was never there .
"We should get out of the city and attack their force . "
"Right, we have the advantage number . "
"No, we can"t move without permission from the general . "
"Agreed . Without authority, moving on our own is risky . If we fail, we"ll be prosecuted for treason . "
"d.a.m.n it . "
The n.o.bles were sullen and depressed by the absence of the commander . They had no choice but to wait for Zou Jing tomorrow .
…
March 2nd .
Tong did not bother forming ranks to stare the men on the wall . He organized his men to craft trebuchets and other siege weapons in peace .
Tong could use his homing arrows to wither the number of the garrison force, but he wanted to keep this as his hidden card for the last moment . Since Zou Jing hid for an entire day inside the city, displaying the skill would have scared him too much that he might sneak away from the city, which Tong would have a hard time locating Zou Jing in this case .
"Patience is a virtue …" Tong sighed .
…
March 3rd .
Zou Jing still hid inside his city hall with his guards .
Meanwhile, the Yellow Turban finished crafting 30 counter-weight trebuchets and empty barrels .
As usual, Tong filled the barrels with crude oil, covered the lit, and put in pieces of dry clothes as fuses .
"Young master, will it be alright? Will the townsmen be alright with this?"
The soldiers worried about the citizens of Ji as they knew what they could do with the crude oil barrel and trebuchet combination .
"Aim at the middle section of the wall . Don"t aim at the top where their soldiers were at, or some of our barrels will fly into the city . "
The Yellow Turban men sighed a relief, "Yes, sir!"
All trebuchets and 3,700 men moved forward in a siege formation, which alerted the defenders .
"They"re going to attack!"
"Do we have trebuchets? Are we going to stay here like this?"
"Where is the general!?"
*WHOOSH*
*BOOM*
Thirty trebuchets launched their flaming barrels at the wall, which none of them landed beyond the battlements .
Seeing that the Yellow Turbans missed the targets, the n.o.bles mocked Tong and his men .
"Hahaha! Did they waste their precious lamp oil for this? What a bunch of barbarian bandits . "
"Ha! Bandits are always bandits . They are stupid . "
The second barrage arrived . Again, all of the barrels landed below the wall . After the second barrage, Tong ordered all trebuchets crews to withdraw . All sieging units stepped back to their initial 500-meter distance .
The n.o.bles and the garrison force laughed and jeered at the attacking force for a few minutes before they realized what Tong had aimed .
The black smoke rose from the burning oil and the temperature on the south wall was rising . The fume from the black smoke burnt their nostrils, which thousands of the defending troops began to tear and cough .
"The smoke! Someone, get us some water!"
"Hurry, douse the fire!"
The commotion and the chaotic attempts to extinguish to fire lasted for the entire day . There were places where the water could not extinguish the fire, but it caused an explosion instead . The heat and the smoke tortured the men on top of the wall while Tong stood back and watched the carnage .
As soon as the dusk arrived, Tong withdrew his force back to his camp .
Unlike the organized men of the Yellow Turbans, the garrison force was in a messy stat as they choke from the smell and the particles of the black smoke . They managed to extinguish the fire with difficulty, but their overall health took a hit from the hara.s.sment tactic .
Fortunately for them, the wind was blowing west while the fire attack hit the south wall, so there was no damage to the citizens inside the city .
Liu Bei and his men took the roles of water-boys . They brought water buckets from the city wells and pa.s.sed them to the soldiers on the wall . However, none of them had touched the stone floor of the wall in this battle yet .
Jiang Man had an unsightly expression on his face in this entire day .
"We"ll lose if this keeps up!"
Thinking about the future, Jiang Man asked Liu Bei, "Xuande bro, why don"t we exit the city from another gate so we can ambush the Yellow Turbans while they are sieging the city tomorrow?"
Unfortunately, Liu Bei shook his head .
"We"ll wait for the general to give us an order . Acting on our own will be our downfall . "
"Correct . The n.o.bles are crooked people . They will blame their losses to us if we move," Guan Yu agreed with Liu Bei .
Feeling helpless, Jiang Man prayed that Zou Jing could come to his sense soon .
…
March 5th .
Tong returned with trebuchets and burning barrels again for the third day . Like the other two days, the trebuchets only launched two barrages and retreated in an orderly fas.h.i.+on while the defenders were busy dousing the fire .
Today, the garrison forces had to face a crisis . They ran out of the water!
"This well is dry already!"
"This one, too!"
"There should be several rivers outside the city! Open the gate and get the water!"
The garrison force opened the north, the west, and the east gate to scour for water for the civilians and for themselves . All their movements had been seen by Tong"s scouts .
The relayed reports reached Tong"s ears half a day later .
"How is the water in the river? Are they plenty?" Tong asked the scouts .
"No, sir . They"re almost dried . The drought from last year probably reaches here . "
Tong nodded, "Ignore the water scavengers . There might be civilians in it so we won"t harm them . "
"Yes, sir . "
Tong turned toward his subordinates, "We"ll increase our attack intensity . Tell the others to build more trebuchets . "
…
March 6th .
The garrison force faced a nightmare of endless fire today .
On the attacking side, Tong sent ten volleys of flaming oil barrels at the wall, which the fire intensity could not be extinguished with water anymore .
The top of the wall became a frying pan as the temperature below the wall went over 300 degrees Celsius . All water which was poured onto the fire created explosion instead of extinguis.h.i.+ng it .
After sending enough burning barrels, Tong sent his order, "Let"s move . We"ll abandon the south gate . We"re attacking their west gate next . "
Listening to Tong"s command, the Yellow Turban was panicked . The wind was blowing from the east to west . They would face the downwind if they siege the west gate, and they would not be able to use the fire tactic .
"I know what you are thinking, and I know what we"re about to go through . Do as I said, and you won"t be harmed by the smoke and the fire . "
.
Late afternoon that day .
Liu Bei and his volunteer force exited the city from the east gate and stationed at the nearest eastern river .
Facing the endless fire attack from the Yellow Turban, Liu Bei decided to use the excuse of being an errand army to evacuate from Ji City . Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Jiang Man agreed with this move as they could not do anything to help the others .
"Don"t you think it"s strange?" Guan Yu wondered .
"Strange?"
"Yes, the rebel force can fire those burning barrels at a great distance, yet none of them hit the inner city or cross over the wall . "
Everyone widened their eyes as they realized the abnormality .
"Are they avoiding harming the citizens?" Jiang Man was surprised .
Liu Bei, on the other hand, had a bitter smile on his face .
"I knew he cares for the people . Master already told me so . But I can"t trust a guy who ma.s.sacred the entire city! I won"t work with him, ever! He and I cannot live in the same world!"
Without realizing himself, envy blinded Liu Bei"s judgment .
"It"s just the crash of interest . They probably want to clean their names so they can tame the civilians in the city . It"s the common ploy that all n.o.bles use in wars," Liu Bei explained .
Guan Yu gazed at Liu Bei with a frown, but he nodded .
"You"re right . I forgot about the façade of these crooks . "
Jiang Man shook his head as he knew about the ambition of Liu Bei, yet he kept his mouth shut . As long as Liu Bei and Tong could not be on the same page, it would be beneficial to him as he could manipulate his [Sworn Brothers] into killing Tong .
…
March 7th .
Casualties of the repeated fire attacks were noticed by the n.o.ble forces . A thousand of their men died by a cardiac arrest or a heart attack because they breathed in the black smoke for too long . Even though they kept their distance and hardly came into contact with the fire, the acc.u.mulation of the dust particles were enough to damage their lungs and circulatory system .
The fire at the south gate continued to burn and increased the surrounding temperature . The wall on this side was a no-man zone, which could not be fortified or taken by Tong .
As if the Yellow Turban knew about it, they formed ranks at their west gate, which astonished the defenders .
"Are they stupid? They are downwind . "
"It"s good for us . They probably won"t use the fire attack anymore . "
*WHOOSH*
*BOOM*
Betraying their expectation, the Yellow Turbans hurled the burning barrels at the west gate . This time, they did not aim at the middle section of the wall, they aimed directly at the bronze gate .
The intense fire blocked the gate, which made the soldiers behind the gate retreated as they could not stand the heat .
"They"re aiming at one spot . That"s easy for us . Men, throw water at the gate!"
The soldiers shook their head, "Sir, the gate caves in under the wall, we can"t reach the burning parts from the top!"
"What!?"
Several barrels of oil stacked on top of each other inside the caved wall, which the gate was placed inside, blocking the path .
While the garrison forces were in a panic, Tong and his men pulled the trebuchets away after they had finished delivering five sets of barrels .
"To the north gate . Let"s move before the wind carry the smoke over . "