Chapter 50
Chapter 50 – Battle of Anping – Day Two
October 24th, Morning .
Yesterday, Guo Dian Army did not lay siege, but held a staring contest with the defending garrisons . However today, twenty trebuchets were being constructed .
Having learnt from Pan Feng"s defeat, they chose not to approach to gate directly . Guo Dian aimed to destroy the wooden walls with stones or range attacks from the safe distances .
However, the walls of the fortress were in strange shapes, and there were trenches surrounding the outer edges of the walls . They could not move the trebuchets into the right range, unless they crossed the trenches or moved into the V-Formation .
Hence, Guo Dian ordered his men to cross the trench fields to approach both corner edges .
Zhou Cang and Zhang Liang who had been overseeing the west walls reported the movements of Guo Dian back to Tong .
…
South Gate .
"They are planning to move trebuchets to the wings of the west walls . Lord Zhou Cang and Lord Zhang Liang had requested an advice from the great immortal . What should we do?"
The messenger cupped his hands as he reported the messages . Meanwhile, Tong was sitting on a chair, observing the movements in his radar map .
The southern troops of Pan Feng Army detached a unit eastward to surround his fort, while Guo Dian Army separated into two units and were approaching the corner-end of the two walls .
"Tell both of them to prepare the ballistae and aim at those trebuchets . Also have the Trench Squadrons stand by at the third lines . "
"As you commanded, great immortal . "
"Haven"t I taught you what you should address me?"
"Y-Yes, sir!! Aye aye, sir!!"
The messenger bowed and scrammed away in a hurry .
Seeing the unsightly action of his subordinate, Tong sighed .
His men stopped using "SIR" with him but started calling him "Great Immortal" because Tong had displayed too many miracles recently . He had already become a deity in the eyes of his men .
"Second Uncle . Pan Feng probably won"t attack us today . I"m going to the west gate to help third uncle, so please take care of this gate for me . "
"Huh? Okay . But how did you know that they won"t attack the south?" Zhang Bao questioned back .
"Pan Feng has just detached his force and it is moving to the east side . So the bad news is, he"s going to surround us . But the good news is, they lack troops to lay a proper siege so they won"t attack us for a while . "
"They want to surround us? What can they achieve from that? Starve us?"
"Most likely . Perhaps they are thinking we are short on provisions and didn"t know that I"ve just resupplied our stocks . "
Zhang Bao paused and fell into deep thought for a while, then he chuckled .
"Well, let"s pretending that we are short on provisions then . " Zhang Bao said in a mocking tone while he was holding his laugh .
Tong smiled and left his uncle with the troops, after which he dragged Hua s.h.i.+ along with him to the west gate .
"What"s your range now, zombie?"
"250 meters . "
"Have you maxed out your skill or what? I remember it was 150 yesterday . "
"It"s at LV . 4 right now . It increases by 50 for each level up . "
"Okay, then . I"m going to put you on the other side . Now, here"s the plan …"
…
West Gate .
Guo Dian trebuchets squads moved in closer to the edges of the walls . These trebuchets had the range of 200 to 300 meters while the walls was 500 meters away, so they had to get a bit closer .
These toys were not the standard medieval counterweight trebuchets, but ancient manned traction trebuchets that required at least six strong men to operate inside, and over a hundred men to shove a single of these siege engines forward . If one of the crew was missing inside, then the trebuchet firing range would fall short .
In front of them, the infantry that was escorting the trebuchets were busy laying planks and trying to cover the trenches to make paths .
Everything was going as planned . However, a thunderous sound came from the wall in front of them .
*BANG*
The infantry below was shocked by the sound, afterwards one of the eyes of their squad leader exploded then he fell down, lying dead .
At first, they thought he was. .h.i.t by an arrow, but …
*BANG*
*BANG*
Another two lighting sound was heard and two of their commanding officers dropped on the ground . When they inspected their bodies, they couldn"t find any arrow, but they found a hole on the head of the dead bodies .
*BANG*
*BANG*
The gun fire sound continued . One of their 100-man commanders fell each time they heard the sound . It was like the sound of a grim reaper coming to take their lives .
The soldiers of the leaderless teams became panic . They stopped pus.h.i.+ng the trebuchets forward and ran away .
Then …
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
Giant arrows were launched from both on top of the wall and the mysterious bunkers behind the trenches . These thick arrows flew and penetrated any man that stood in their paths, which caused gory and horror scenes .
Despite getting barraged by ballista arrows and Tong"s sniping, the trebuchets teams with the surviving squad leaders continued to move forward and put the planks on top of the trenches .
The trebuchets reached their ideal range and the crews were preparing to launch the stone and fire a.s.saults immediately . Then they saw something was moving within the trenches .
Hua s.h.i.+ and Tong"s soldiers were moving within the trenches in small squads . They sneaked in and got close to the trebuchets without them realizing it .
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
A drum signals came from within the fortress . The squadrons within the trenches raised their heads and their repeated crossbows up, then they fired their arrows . The wall of arrows turned the men in front of them into porcupines and fell .
Then a dozen bright arrows were shot to the sky from one of the trenches . The arrows curved in midair and left glowing trails behind . The arrows flew as if they had eyes as they swooped down and piece through the heads of trebuchets crews .
*BOOM*
One of the ballistae giant arrows. .h.i.t a trebuchets and destroyed it upon the impact . Then more giant arrows. .h.i.t the rest of the trebuchets .
Similar events also took place in the other edge of the wall . Although they did not have a sniper and the homing arrows, Zhang Liang soldiers in the trenches could still get the job done by destroying all trebuchets and its crews .
…
…
Guo Dian who was observing the battlefield on his watchtower was astonished and shocked . The fortress in front of him was definitely designed by a talent .
"Such complex stratagems . If I attack the gate, then men on the walls will kill me . If I attack the side walls, then I"ll be ambushed by the soldiers below . "
Guo Dian face turned ugly . This probing attack was costly and humiliating, but he learnt something from this sacrifices .
"Order the frontline to retreat . "
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Guo Dian Army hit the retreating drums and the remaining troops on the front rushed back from the death traps .
"Is there any updates on the reinforcements from the imperial capital?" Guo Dian asked his officers .
The officers didn"t speak . The news hadn"t arrived yet or there was no news, so none of them dared to speak up .
Guo Dian clicked his tongue, thinking that his men were all corrupted and incompetence . When the situation required them to be brave or when he needed them to help him, all of them would turtle themselves and never dared to express their opinions .
However, when it was the time to splitting the profits of the taxes, they always competed with each other to speak as if it was the last day of their live .
Guo Dian closed his eyes to calm himself to rethink of a plan .
"The spies said Pan Feng spread their troops to surround the fortress in the east . That means they change their tactics . Are they trying to starve Zhang Tong?"
"Give me a report . What"s the last report about Zhang Tong"s current grain provisions?"
"My lord, they have less than a hundred tons in the fortress . "
Guo Dian"s eyes brightened up . He understood Pan Feng"s intention now .
"Send messages to Julu County and ask them to dispatch more provision for us . We will prepare for a prolonged war . "
After sending down his order, Guo Dian looked at the fortress in front of him with determined eyes . He had confident that he could take it down within two months .
…
After Tong heard the retreating drums of Guo Dian Army, he also sounded his retreating drums .
In addition, he ordered his troops to make s.h.i.+fts and rested immediately as they could potentially get raided by night attacks .
Tong clicked his tongue in frustration . He was planning to use the chaos to sneak closer to Guo Dian main troops and snipe Guo Dian down from his watchtower . However, they were almost a kilometer away, which Tong did not have enough confident to kill Guo Dian within 1-2 shots from this distance . He did not want to spook Guo Dian that he could be sniped .
Tong turned around and found that Hua s.h.i.+ had come back from the frontline . He then told her .
"Zombie, go and rest . I"ll need you again tonight!"
"OH!! Are we dual-cultivating again?"
The eyes of Hua s.h.i.+ sparkled while her drools dripped down from the corner of her mouth .
Black lines appeared on Tong"s face . He had thought that this girl had learnt her lessons, but it seemed she was looking forward to it instead .
"No . I will put you on a night raiding team . "
"Aww, what a pity . Today is my safe day . "
"…"