Chapter 485 - Urban Battle in Hongnong
The city acquisition progress was not smooth. Soon, Liu Bei"s remnant soldiers noticed the uninvited guests inside the city.
"Over there!"
Finally, Bo Cai"s 5,000 men ran into a platoon of Liu Bei"s remaining men.
Bo Cai activated his wing force and enhanced his physical body. He led the charge and leaped into the group of soldiers.
*BOOM*
Ordinary humans were no match against a trained angel. Bo Cai"s long sword cleaved the oncoming cataphracts and Liu Bei"s footmen like tofu.
A hundred soldiers followed after Bo Cai"s lead, pus.h.i.+ng their spears into the flesh of the charging enemies.
However, not all soldiers could utilize their formation properly as the fighting ground was a narrow road.
The opponents were also smart. Liu Bei"s men began moving through other alleys and roads to flank Bo Cai"s men.
Still, Bo Cai came prepared.
Half of Bo Cai"s units climbed wooden buildings, standing on top of them while pointing their repeating crossbows at the moving enemies.
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
Rain of arrows poured on the running soldiers. Liu Bei"s footmen cried in pain the moment arrows lodged into their flesh.
Meanwhile, cataphracts ignored the arrows and mindlessly charged forward. The arrowheads could not penetrate their scale armors!
A thousand cataphracts rode on main roads, detouring the main combat zone where Bo Cai was fighting. When they reached a corner that they could turn and flank Bo Cai, they ran into a formation of s.h.i.+eld bearers and spearmen.
The road was too narrow for 10 hors.e.m.e.n to move in a single row. As such, they formed several rows of 7-8 riders and pushed forward.
*CLANK*
*CLANK*
The armored horses. .h.i.t the s.h.i.+elds, but they could not break through the ranks of s.h.i.+eldsmen"s formation. The following riders ran into their comrades and got stuck in traffic, losing the running momentum.
The s.h.i.+eld carriers did not do anything fancy but holding their s.h.i.+elds to protect their comrades. Five lines of soldiers pushed a hundred s.h.i.+elds to cover every place that a cataphract could attack their friends.
Spearmen mixed within their ranks. They pa.s.sed their spears to the s.h.i.+eldbearers.
As if they knew what the spearmen were up to, they accepted the spears and used it against the hors.e.m.e.n, stabbing horses and riders through the gaps of their s.h.i.+elds.
Meanwhile, the soldiers on the building rooftops rushed toward the scene, but they did not continue to shoot at the armored riders with their puny arrows. Instead, every soldier picked a sack hanging on their belt and looked for a torch.
The captain of each archer units lighted a torch and pa.s.sed it to their squad.
Everyone lit the fire with a rag cloth, making it a fuse. Then, one of the soldiers tossed a sack toward the group of hors.e.m.e.n.
*BOOM*
An explosion erupted the moment the content inside the sack touched the fire.
They were handmade bombs that Yuan Shao Army had, but Bo Cai took their recipe to use it for his men!
The explosive could barely harm the riders since their scale armors absorbed some of the impacts.
But not one bomb bag was thrown at them, a hundred bomb sacks flew at the hors.e.m.e.n.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
The road erupted. Pieces of red flesh, horses and their riders alike, flew in the air. Blood and innards scattered along with its owners.
The explosion scared Liu Bei"s men and the hiding civilians. Several of Liu Bei"s soldiers fled the scene to avoid the fighting upon seeing the destructive weaponry.
Still, more mindless cataphracts kept coming after the commotion. Ten thousand riders flooded the city and moved toward Bo Cai"s units.
*VHOOM*
One flying man flew from the west wall and landed before the approaching soldiers. An angel with 4-wings entered the battlefield. Coincidentally, he appeared before the rus.h.i.+ng hors.e.m.e.n.
Zhang Liao was holding two halberds, but the weapons were glowing in red light.
The light was Zhang Liao"s aura, which reinforced the weapons.
"I AM ZHANG LIAO!!"
Zhang Liao transformed into red light as he dashed into the ranks of cataphracts. Horse blood and fluid of the riders splashed as he went through.
Blood rain kept pouring along with red after images of Zhang Liao"s weapons. As if he were the embodiment of carnage, everywhere Zhang Liao went, fountains of blood followed after him.
Yet, the cataphracts knew no fear. They blindly rushed at Zhang Liao one after another.
The general grinned. Since the enemies were rus.h.i.+ng to their death, he would gladly send them on their way.
"I AM ZHANG LIAO!!"
.
.
.
Inside Hongnong treasury building, Liao Hua, a 5,000-man commander, a subordinate of Liu Bei, was searching for valuable items for his lord.
Unfortunately, Li Feihong had stored all of them in his inventory. Nothing remained in the building.
"f.u.c.k! This city is too poor! How the h.e.l.l did Zhang Tong manage this city without food and gold!?"
Liao Hua strode out of the building in a bad mood.
As soon as he stepped his feet outside, a fl.u.s.tered soldier knelt before him.
"Commander! The west units have encountered an ambus.h.!.+ We"ve found Zhang Liao and his men!"
Liao Hua frowned. The west region should have been under the control of Liu Bei and Ma Chao"s main forces, so their troops should have quashed these ambushers long ago.
"Where are Ma Chao"s units? Why haven"t they dealt with those fools!?"
The messenger looked distressed, "I-I don"t know, sir! We"ve lost contact with the main units!"
Liao Hua clicked his tongue, "Go and tell my platoon. Oh, bring 2 units of cataphracts with us. I"ll deal with this myself."
"Y-Yes, sir!"
Liao Hua, a former self-proclaimed yellow turban leader, had been serving as one of Liu Bei"s subordinates. As a bandit, who had raid many towns, he was also experienced in fighting within urban regions.
The commander took his own 5,000 footmen and 10,000 soulless riders toward the west area.
Soon, Liao Hua could see and hear the commotion from a distance. The group in front of him was fighting against a unit with [Bo] banners.
"Bo? Bo Cai?"
Liao Hua squinted his eyes. He knew this person, but the other did not know him. Since Liao Hua was a yellow-turban-wannabe, he studied about the founders and their members.
Bo Cai was a yellow turban elite, and he served under Zhang Jiao before the latter disbanded them. Liao Hua respected this general, but he was also disappointed in Bo Cai.
"A washed-up yellow turban as a general? Ha! I"ll show you that you don"t deserve to wear that yellow scarf!"
Liao Hua did not know that Bo Cai no longer wore yellow clothes. At the moment, the Monster Legion"s uniform"s main theme was black and blue. All soldiers wore blue outer garments while the commanders had black clothes.
The wannabe commander ordered his footmen to support the fighting troops. As for himself, he climbed a wooden building to observe the battle from afar.
"No matter how strong you are, you can"t last forever. Soon, you will get tired, and I will use the cavalry units to crush you!"
Liao Hua grinned and waited.
30 Minutes later…
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Bo Cai"s men were still fine, and the general had not retreated.
One hour later…
*BOOM*
Three hours later…
*BOOM*
"..."
The previous unit that Liao Hua sent entered the casualty list. Bo Cai broke through their defense line and was approaching Liao Hua"s horse units without fear.
"The heck!? All units, charge!!"
Liao Hua was in a panic when he discovered that Bo Cai"s men could still continue fighting within the cramped city area. Normally, soldiers would get tired after getting squeezed in a limited s.p.a.ce for a long time because they lacked air to breathe. Yet, Bo Cai"s breathing had not changed.
The cataphracts charged at Bo Cai, but the latter sneered.
"KILL!! HEAVEN IS DEAD!! LONG LIVE THE CHILD OF HEAVEN!!"
Again, this former yellow turban general led the charge and ma.s.sacred the cataphracts as if they were cows in a slaughterhouse.
When several pieces of cataphracts" innards and horse corpses started to fly, Liao Hua"s feet kicked the rooftop floor, running away from the battle.
*BOOM*
Liao Hua could hear another battle at a distance away, also a loud hoa.r.s.e voice of a man was audible.
"I AM ZHANG LIAO!!"
*BOOM*
"…"
Liao Hua stopped saying anything and ran away from the scene at full speed. However, he did not ignore his men.
As he encountered several colleagues along the way, he yelled, "RETREAT WITH ME!! TAKE ALL UNITS AND RUSH TOWARD THE EAST GATES!!"
A chain reaction occurred.
Cataphracts and surviving soldiers stopped rus.h.i.+ng toward the battle. They turned tail and followed after Liao Hua. When more soldiers saw their friends retreating, they also withdrew from the city, chasing after the fleeing units.
.
.
.
It took Zhang Liao and Bo Cai half a day to reclaim the city, but they could not kill or capture everyone.
Out of 100,000 soldiers inside the city, 60,000 of them escaped through the east gate and went toward the direction of Luoyang.
Liao Hua"s action did not escape Li Feihong"s observation monitors. Yet, he did not hinder them, only watching everything in his dimension with a hardened expression.
At the moment, Li Feihong was still sitting on his usual wooden chair, sipping tea from his teacup. Next to his right side, a small round table was placed there, so Li Feihong could rest his cup of tea on it.
The otherworlder glanced at another semi-transparent screen, which was broadcasting Zhou Cang"s unit.
Zhou Cang did well handling the civilians. Potential rioters had been arrested, and the injured people had been treated.
Still, Li Feihong could feel the killing intent within Zhou Cang"s heart, and it directed toward him.
"Haiz. I thought this won"t happen in this life, but it still exists."
Someone who Li Feihong could never get along finally appeared.
Moreover, Lu Lingqi seemed to hate him as well.
"Well, good riddance. I don"t want to marry anyone anyway. I don"t want to call Lu Bu [father-in-law]."
Li Feihong turned to a scholar, who was standing behind him.
Xu Shu observed the battle in earnest to learn Li Feihong"s tactic style and the capabilities of all generals in the Monster Legion.
This scholar had been set free as he agreed to join Tong"s forces. However, Liu Bei and Ma Chao were still tightly tied with ropes.
"Do you regret it after seeing our men at work?"
Xu Shu shook his head, "I don"t feel anything. Our loss is guaranteed from the very beginning. Our stupidity and ignorance made us fight the emperor."
"Very well. I"ll bring you and the two prisoners to Ye later. For now, help me pacify the Liang Province and the nearby regions."
"… As you will."