Chapter 535 - Sun Quan Army VS Undead Army (2)
After Huang Gai"s soldiers got back to safety, they cut off the wooden bridge pa.s.sages, so no zombie could use it to get to their position.
The second line of defense was a mud wall with a height of 5 meters. However, the width of this moat was 200 meters and two kilometers long, which was many times larger than the first trench. This trap was also placed 50 meters away from the mud wall, which was made by using the dirt, mud, and soil of the two combined moats.
50,000 Archers and Lu Xun were in charge of protecting this area. Also, the soldiers had prepared more toys to play with the berserking zombies and skeletons. On the bottom of the moat, sacks of black powder piled in groups. Archers on the wall also covered their arrowhead with crude-oil-soaked clothes. Several soldiers also carried torches, getting ready to light their friends" oiled arrows.
Fire arrows and gunpowder in the ditch were another preparation.
Behind the mud wall, a hundred trebuchets were arranged in a line formation. A thousand barrels carrying crude oil were also nearby.
An artillery unit was in place, and they were ready to shoot at any moment.
*BOOM*
70,000 Surviving zombies climbed up from the first moat. Some of them climbed the watchtowers while the others bypa.s.sed the structures and charged at the mud wall.
As the wooden bridge was cut off, the zombies on the watchtowers couldn"t chase after Huang Gai"s soldiers. They jumped down from the towers and dashed forward, heading toward the mud wall as well.
Both groups of zombies soon fell into the second moat with gunpowder.
Lu Xun was overseeing this line of defense. Seeing that the zombies fell into their trap, he rechecked the battlefield.
10,000 of surviving zombies were struggling below the wall, but more goons were rus.h.i.+ng and falling into the moat.
"Light the arrows. Do not fire yet."
Lu Xun stopped his soldiers from shooting. He waited for more zombies to fall into the moat.
However, the nervous archers on the wall were sweating, being intimidated by the noise of a ma.s.sive group of crazy undead monsters.
A minute pa.s.sed. 30,000 zombies almost filled the long moat, but some of them had already stepped over their colleagues and got out of the trap hole.
Lu Xun"s archers got more nervous as they glanced at their general. Their hands and arms were shaking, and their teeth were clattering.
The general darted his eyes around, checking the entire battlefield once more.
"Fire."
An order finally arrived. All soldiers released their fire arrows.
Not all arrows. .h.i.t the gunpowder bags. Some of them hit the zombies in the pit, but a few managed to find their targets.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Explosions erupted from inside the moat. Arms, legs, torso, innards, and pieces of human flesh scattered.
But that was not enough to kill all zombies in the moat. Only 20% of the gunpowder bags detonated.
Lu Xun shook his head, disappointed by his mistake. He overestimated his archers a bit.
Still, he had a backup plan, which he regretted that he should have done this first.
"Trebuchet squads, fire at will."
Sergeants relayed Lu Xun"s order by shouting at the units behind the wall. The trebuchet crews loaded the oil barrels and operated their machines.
A hundred barrels were hurled over the wall.
As Lu Xun had calculated his trebuchet firing range distance beforehand, he knew that these barrels would go into the moat.
And the oil barrels indeed landed onto the zombies that survived the prior explosion.
"Second fire arrows, get ready."
Lu Xun didn"t bother waiting for the oil to leak and contact the fire arrows in the moat. His soldiers reloaded their bows with prepared arrows with flaming clothes.
5,000 Zombies managed to cross the moat, but the rest of the group was still stuck inside the hole.
At this point, most zombies in the moat were soaked with crude oil. Some of them had been hit by flaming arrows, and they were engulfed in h.e.l.lfire.
"FIRE!! EVERYONE, GET DOWN!!"
As soon as the archers released their arrows, they jumped off from the top of the wall and ducked.
The second volley arrived. This time, everything in the moat erupted. The combination of crude oil and gunpowder created a ma.s.sive fire explosion and the thunderous noise.
*BOOOOOOMM*
Corpses of zombies, dirt, shrapnel, and stones flew everywhere. The explosive shockwave destroyed the eardrums and body balance of 5,000 zombies that had crossed the moat. All of them collapsed on the ground as their legs failed to maintain their balance senses.
h.e.l.lfire devoured all zombies in the moat. Some of them braced the flame and tried to climb the dirt trench, but their brains were cooked before they could get out.
Out of 70,000 surviving zombies from the first line of defense, Lu Xun instantly dropped them to less than 10,000 within a few minutes!
The mud-wall took the impact of the shockwave of the explosion. It cracked and almost fell apart. Fortunately, Lu Xun and the troops made it thick enough that not all parts of the wall collapsed from the shockwave.
Soldiers were frightened by the explosion. They covered their ears in pain as the loud noise almost broke their eardrums.
*PA*
*PA*
*PU*
Blood and body parts of zombies rained down upon them.
"WTF!!?"
"AAAAHHH!!"
Despite being grown-up macho soldiers, they were shocked upon the sight of raining human corpses.
Lu Xun climbed back to the top of the mud wall, which was partly destroyed by the explosion. He rechecked the situation and the battlefield.
Upon seeing that some of them were still alive, he pa.s.sed down another order.
"Archers! Get back on the wall! Bring those barrels with you. We"ll toss them to the remaining monsters!"
Archers climbed back on top of the half-wrecked wall. Some of them carried barrels behind the trebuchets with them.
They leaned forward to see the result of the explosion. When they saw the aftermath and the raging flame in the moat, they cheered as if they had won the battle.
"DON"T CELEBRATE!! WE HAVEN"T WON YET!!"
Lu Xun shouted. He spread his wings and flew 100 meters above the ground to scout the entire battlefield.
At a distance away, Sun Shangxiang was still busy shooting the skeletons with her homing arrows. The skeleton army, however, ignored her existence and slowly marched forward, crossing the first moat with their newly crafted weapons.
Sun Shangxiang"s killing rate was only 175 per second, but the skeleton army had 150,000 soldiers strong. She would run out of her lifespan before she could kill every single of them.
Oddly enough, the skeletons seemed to be aware of Sun Shangxiang"s shortcomings. They didn"t care about her even after she had killed 20,000 of them already.
On the contrary, a group of skeletons was collecting bone parts from their fallen friends to craft more bone weaponry. Something was not right about this group.
"MY LADY, DON"T PUSH YOURSELF!!"
Sun Shangxiang didn"t listen to Lu Xun. She continued firing at the skeletons.
Lu Xun sighed and gave up persuading the princess. He turned his attention to the zombies.
Most of the zombies were slain, but a few of them were still crawling.
"Pour the oil on them. Don"t light them on fire just yet. Make sure the entire field is covered!"
The archers poured crude oil onto the crawling zombies below the wall. Some soldiers opened the lids and tossed the entire barrels at them.
The prepared oil barrels behind the trebuchets were used up within a few minutes as over 10,000 archers coordinated and carried them to the frontline.
After pouring everything to the zombies and the field below the wall, Lu Xun sent another order.
"Retreat to the fort! Evacuate everybody here and leave the trebuchets!"
Lu Xun lighted a torch and flew above the defensive wall, watching his men retreating back to the last line of defense.
10 Minutes later, all soldiers got back to the fort, where Sun Quan and others were protecting. Lu Xun tossed down the torch in his hand.
The oiled land was ignited. Crawling zombies screamed and howled as if they were in pain before their brain was fried to crisp.
The army of zombies was wiped out easily. Even Lu Xun was somewhat disappointed.
He regretted that he overestimated this army when he first had heard about them.
"Next… Those monsters."
Lu Xun squinted his eyes and glared at the approaching skeleton army.
Sun Shangxiang now stopped shooting at them as she was low on lifespan. She ignored Lu Xun and flew back to Sun Quan"s fort.
However, her effort was not in vain. From 150,000 skeleton soldiers, she decreased them to 50,000. This feat alone was already praiseworthy.
However, the skeleton army got more resources to build more weapons. Some of them even crafted bone armors for their comrades.
These skeleton soldiers started with only basic weaponry when they had first arrived. Now, they were fully equipped with sinister-looking bone armors and bone spears.
Lu Xun returned to the fort and reported the status to the army.
…
"About 50,000 left? That"s good!"
"Well done!"
Sun Quan, Cheng Pu, Lu Meng, and Han Dang rejoiced that Lu Xun, Huang Gai, and Sun Shangxiang almost wiped out the undead army.
Yet, Sun Shangxiang"s face gloomed. She had spent the majority of her lifespan to kill 100,000 skeletons. Now, she was left with less than 100,000 years.
"My 5 million years," Hua s.h.i.+ cried, "My five million years of f.u.c.king!! Five million years to make Tong"s babies! GIVE IT BACK!! WAAAA!!"
Everybody sweated, speechless. The scene of an 8-year-old little girl wanting to have a baby was so wrong and twisted to the point that everyone wanted to rebuke out loud.
Yet, n.o.body dared to mess with Sun Shangxiang. This little devil"s true status in the court was too high. They were afraid that Tong might kill them if someone offended the girl.
Lu Meng coughed, "Well, we have only 50,000 monsters to deal with. What"s the next plan?"
Huang Gai smacked his chest, "We should ride out and fight those fools! We have the number advantage now!!"
Lu Xun disagreed, "No. We have our preparation ready, so we can use it to our advantage. Your highness, I need all cultivators with me. I need them for the next task."
…
50,000 Skeleton soldiers slowly climbed over the first barricades. Then, they stopped at the second moat, where the fire was still raging.
They stared at the fire wall at first, but a group of 10 skeletons suddenly tossed all its equipment away and walked into the flame.
Their action baffled Lu Xun, Lu Meng, Sun Quan, and everyone else, who had prepared to defend at their main fort with 140,000 soldiers and advance weaponry.
But the puzzled look on their face turned into a shocked one later. The skeletons who had jumped into the fire climbed up and crossed the moat without suffering any damage.
The fire couldn"t kill them! Instead, the fireb.a.l.l.s in their eye sockets flared.
It clattered their jaws as if it was laughing. They glanced at humans inside the fortress, sneering at them.