Chapter 2177: A Hope for Breaking the Walls!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“These scoundrels still haven’t given up!”
Within the fortress, beneath the giant banner, Abusi slightly frowned.
w.a.n.g Chong looked ahead and coldly said, “They will not give up, nor can they give up. When rowing a boat upstream, you fall back if you stop moving forward. With the cold wave coming, they have nowhere to retreat!”
Ever since the forty thousand infantry had withdrawn into the fortress and the city a.s.sault had begun, the commanders had withdrawn into the fortress.
They were generals, so their most important duty was not to fight with the vanguard but to oversee the overall battlefield situation.
Now that the battle had begun, the two of them no longer needed to be at the front.
“w.a.n.g Chong, do you think that they can break through your defenses?” Abusi questioned.
After working together several times, he was extremely confident in w.a.n.g Chong’s abilities.
Each of w.a.n.g Chong’s defenses reaped more lives when they were triggered. For the alliance army to attack at this time was simply suicidal.
“We can’t get careless!”
w.a.n.g Chong shook his head and solemnly said, “Although Youzhou doesn’t have any renowned generals, they cannot be underestimated!”
w.a.n.g Chong had never underestimated any of his opponents. Even when killing chickens, he would use the bull knife.
The Youzhou commanders, whether it was Cui Qianyou, Tian Chengsi, Tian Qianzhen, Zhao Kan, Baizhen Tuoluo, or Gao Shang, were all basically unknown in the Great Tang and the wider world.
This was why Abusi had asked the question.
But w.a.n.g Chong knew that none of these people were mediocre.
A lack of reputation did not mean a lack of strength. In his last life, An Lushan had led these men in sweeping unstoppably through the world, bringing calamity to the people and breaking apart the Great Tang. If they had been lacking strength, they would have never been able to do this!
In truth, during the calamity, many Great Generals had failed to do anything to them, even died to them. This was proof enough of their power.
Cui Qianyou, Tian Qianzhen, and Tian Chengsi had another t.i.tle that they were known by: ‘demon stars’, ‘demon generals’!
Gao Shang, Cui Qianyou, Tian Chengsi, and Tian Qianzhen were the four demon generals of the apocalypse.
And Gao Shang, even though he was a scholar, was ranked above Cui Qianyou and the other generals.
Without this man, many things would not have taken place.
“If my guess is right, the Youzhou side has already found a solution!” w.a.n.g Chong said, but his face did not seem very perturbed.
While kerosene was very flammable, it was not impossible to deal with. As for the beehives, they were just a kind of weapon. Given the abilities on the Youzhou side, they would find a solution eventually.
w.a.n.g Chong was actually rather curious to see what their solution would be.
“Zhang Que, how long until Lord Zhangchou arrives?” w.a.n.g Chong suddenly said.
There was one other matter that w.a.n.g Chong was extremely concerned about.
“Your Highness, they will be here in another eight to ten hours!” Zhang Que said.
“And what is the progress on the ‘Storm Plan’?” w.a.n.g Chong said, placing his hands behind his back.
“Your Highness, Xue Qianjun has sent a letter that everything is ready and that they will arrive on time!
“In addition, the Lord Junior Guardian is also ready and is waiting for Your Highness’s order!”
Zhang Que lowered his head and bowed.
“Very good!”
w.a.n.g Chong gave a slight nod.
“Proceed according to the plan!”
During this brief conversation, the horns blared and drums boomed. The army once more began to approach, but at a much slower pace this time.
Seven thousand feet, six thousand feet, five thousand feet…
The distance rapidly shrank, and the alliance army once more entered the Great Tang’s attack range. At this moment…
Bang!
A thunderous boom came from overhead, and a completely frozen sheep plummeted from the sky like a boulder and smashed into the ground in front of the army.
The impact caused snow and kerosene to splash out, and the frozen sheep caused the force of the fire to somewhat diminish.
Boom! Boom! Boom! More and more frozen sheep hurtled out of the sky and smashed into the sea of fire.
Plus.h.!.+ Plus.h.!.+ Plus.h.!.+ Arrows howled out, but the interception of the arrows was not as useful this time. The frozen sheep did not crumble apart like the boulders, instead continuing their descent into the ground.
Sensing this, w.a.n.g Chong slightly frowned.
Not even w.a.n.g Chong had thought about using sheep to replace rocks.
If he recalled correctly, the alliance was facing a food shortage.
If his guess was right, this strange tactic was probably the work of Gao Shang!
“What a problem! I really should have killed him!”
As w.a.n.g Chong listened, he couldn’t help but sigh.
Meanwhile, frozen sheep continued to crash down, and the blazing flames continued to dwindle.
Bang!
The dense ranks of the alliance army erupted with cheers, their spirits rising.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, the soldiers began to charge across the bodies of the sheep.
The greatest obstacle to the a.s.sault on the city was the sea of fire. Once the flames were extinguished, not even those frightening beehives were much of an obstacle.
The countless soldiers bellowed as they charged out, and at this time, an order was sent from the rear.
A force of around eight thousand soldiers split off and began to dig trenches on the edge of the battlefield, and channels that would guide the black kerosene into the trenches.
As a liquid, kerosene had a certain fluidity to it. If they could divert the kerosene, they could suppress the Great Tang’s kerosene tactic!
More and more livestock continued to rain down, and with the channels guiding away the kerosene, the blazing fire outside the fortress finally showed signs of extinguis.h.i.+ng.
“Raise s.h.i.+elds!”
In front of the army was a large concentration of s.h.i.+eld soldiers.
In the distance, the siege towers had seemingly lost their apprehensions and were beginning to rumble forward.
Kaclack!
On the walls, gears clicked as the tens of thousands of beehives prepared to fire. With a deafening howl, a terrifying downpour of arrows descended upon the alliance army.
But the same attack had a completely different effect this time…
Swooshswooshswoos.h.!.+
Arrows pierced through heavy s.h.i.+elds, stabbing into the shoulders and chests of the alliance soldiers beneath them.
But these alliance soldiers simply roared and madly charged forward.
In the back, a Goguryeon soldier without any sort of cover kicked one of the sheep corpses on the ground into the air.
This sheep corpse failed to block the rain of arrows, but it did sharply reduce its speed. The Goguryeon soldier kicked up several more sheep and then continued his charge.
The reason Gao Shang had used the bodies of livestock in place of stone immediately became apparent.
The frozen livestock could not only suppress the flames, they could also serve as meats.h.i.+elds for the army.
Clangclangclang!
Many soldiers fell, but even more managed to successfully reach the walls. At the walls, these tens of thousands of soldiers threw up the ropes in their hands, the hooks howling through the air before latching onto the walls.
These soldiers swiftly began to scale the walls.
As these soldiers began to climb, above them, about thirty to forty meters from the ground, a ma.s.sive boom could be heard. A moment later, a giant ballista bolt shot out like a furious dragon toward one of the siege towers.
“Ah!”
Cries of alarms and screams rang out as a hole two to three meters in diameter was punched through the center of the siege tower, with several alliance soldiers being blasted out through the hole.
“Careful!”
“Hurry and repair the siege tower!”
Panicked voices came from the top of the siege tower.
Though the siege tower had avoided the fate of collapse, everyone knew that the siege tower would not be able to take another such attack.
Moreover, the structure of the siege tower had been badly damaged and the entire edifice was swaying. One alliance soldier even fell from the top.
“a.s.sault the city!”
A nearby siege tower sensed that it was in danger and preemptively ordered the a.s.sault.
Long, box-shaped mechanisms at the roof the siege tower activated, and two giant claws attached to ropes shot out and latched onto the top of the wall.
Alliance soldiers jumped out and began to move along the ropes toward the wall.
“Chaaarge!”
“Kiiill!”
All the soldiers seemed to go crazy as they bellowed. So many of them had died without reaching the wall before, but this time, they all saw daybreak, a faint sliver of hope.
No—this was not just a sliver of hope, but a real chance of overcoming the walls!
More and more soldiers charged, more and more men gathering beneath the walls.