There were very few Northern Alliance players on White Horse Plains. Even before the war, there were very few players who would choose to station themselves on this map, and now, most of White Horse City"s players had moved to Poplar Valley to repel the enemies. This was probably the city"s weakest moment.
After our army of one million entered White Horse Plains, we traveled in a straight line toward White Horse City.
……
"Full speed ahead!"
I ordered lously, "All cavalry are to hit the city at top speed to catch the enemy by surprise! The infantry troops will stay behind to protect our mages and archers!"
Li Chengfeng and other mounted players immediately unsheathed their weapons and rushed forward like crazy.
As we rode forward, a shadowy, almost rundown city emerged from the horizon. The city was almost completely made of white bricks, and there was a white hill right in front of the city. The reason White Horse City was given its current name was due to the shape of the hill and the white, weathered rocks that made up the terrain.
Several thousand riders were gathering outside the city as if they just noticed our true objective. Unfortunately for them, their response was too late. There was no way a force this small could hinder our main army, not to mention that our heavy cavalry alone numbered almost 30000, and our ranged and engineer players almost 70000!
The Dragonlight Cavalry and Purple Dragon Cavalry were the fastest troops of our army, and we were almost at the walls in just the blink of an eye. I raised my weapon and ordered, "Kill all the players stationed outside the city! If possible, rush into the city and occupy the gates before they can react!"
"Mn!"
Lin Yixin"s Moonchaser Tiger was running not far away from me. She added, "Purple Marquis, take your men and go with the Dragonlight Cavalry, but don"t forget to watch out for the defending archers and mages on the walls!"
The Chinese cavalry rushed toward White Horse City in unstoppable fas.h.i.+on!
……
By now, the players inside White Horse City had received the news that they were under attack. Even if they hadn"t, the NPCs would"ve informed them about it. Large groups of players ran up the walls, and 50000 Northern Alliance riders appeared on the ground in front of the city walls in the blink of an eye. A Heroic Bannerman wielding a heavy hammer raged murderously, "Dammit, how the f.u.c.k did these people reach us this quickly? Our troops are few, our Famous Generals even fewer, and Vienna"s Sorrow isn"t here with us, so we cannot meet the enemy head-on! All troops, do not exit the city area and let our defenders and arrow towers do the defending for us! I will contact Hero City, Seven Star City, t.i.tan City and Eternal Love City now and tell them to dispatch reinforcements as soon as possible! Our goal is to hold the city for five hours until reinforcements arrive, understand!?"
I was astonished. The hammer-wielding guild leader was smarter than I thought. Instead of engaging us on this wide, open land, he chose to withdraw all his forces into the city and allow his arrow towers, archers and mages to wear us down. It was the only way to really threaten our army, and he was completely right.
The Northern Alliance"s cavalry spilled out of the gates and stood guard right beneath their walls, forbidding us from attacking the city directly. With this, our last chance to strike a blow to the defenders with minimal losses was gone.
"Halt!"
I raised my weapon and called for a temporary halt. We would suffer huge losses if we continued like this.
"What should we do?" Li Chengfeng asked.
Purple Marquis suggested, "Why don"t Ancient Sword players feign a frontal attack while I and the Purple Dragon Cavalry push down the side walls? It could work."
But Lin Yixin shook her head and rejected the suggestion, "No, it"s too risky. I heard that there are almost 4 million players garrisoned inside the city right now. They already outnumber us 4 to 1, if we split up our army further they might just be able to defeat us one by one. In my opinion, we should feign an attack from three sides and focus all elites on the southern gate! We"ll try to take down the structure in one go!"
I nodded. "Guild Leader Lin is correct. The best plan here is to focus all our strength and strike down the enemy in one go, and look, their southern gate is almost as rusty as a frying pan. It can"t be too durable, can it? Yes, we"ll send some of our subguilds to attack the other gates and draw away their firepower while we break down their southern gate via brute force!"
Li Chengfeng smiled. "I"ll get it down right away!"
Gui Guzi raised his spear and asked, "What should I do, Boss Broken Halberd?"
I pointed to the east and said, "Take the b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries with you and fake an attack on the eastern gate. If you discover that their troops are lacking, then feel free to occupy it!"
"Alright!"
Gui Guzi let out a laugh of excitement before raising his spear. "You heard the boss, b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries! Let"s take down the eastern gate together! Hmm, I want the ninth subguild, the tenth subguild and Hot and Sour Noodles" Greedy Wolf Cavalry too. Let"s see who can breach the city first, alright Boss Broken Halberd?"
"Haha, sure! Now go!"
"Yeah!"
The beacon of war was lit, and Gui Guzi left with a hundred thousand people to the east gate. The siege was soon to begin.
……
Beneath the walls, the hammer-wielding Northern Alliance commander laughed at us and said disdainfully, "What"s wrong? Are the wolves of the Center scared of little ol" White Horse City? You pathetic cowards, hahahaha! f.u.c.k off if you"re not going to attack, younglings! Don"t lower yourself before your grandpa any longer!"
It was at this moment Beiming Xue and Lin Xin rushed over to my side. My dark archer said calmly, "Big bro, he"s just trying to incite us into launching a frontal attack. Look, they have an incredible number of arrow towers. Even now, someone"s spending their money and buying more P2W arrow towers!"
I looked toward the city, and it was exactly as she said. I saw silvery arrow towers rising slowly inside the city, and I could even hear the faint, springy noises of siege engines such as catapults and ballistas being set up inside the city. The Northern Alliance"s people weren"t stupid; they had reacted on time and did practically everything they could do. In fact, I already heard that Poplar Valley"s main force was fighting their way back already. Luckily for us, our cunning Nation War commander, Hot and Sour Noodles, had blocked the exit with Righteousness and Warsky Alliance to buy us more time to take down the city. One way or another, the Northern Alliance wasn"t going to get away scot free!
High Fighting Spirits was a hot-tempered man, and so he couldn"t stop glaring at the enemy"s commander with rage. He started complaining, "What are we waiting for, Lu Chen? Why aren"t we teaching them a lesson already?"
I replied, "Give it twenty minutes."
"Twenty minutes? But why?" High Fighting Spirits sounded extremely displeased.
It was at this moment Li Chengfeng spoke up, "What do you think you"re doing, Fighting Spirits? Are you questioning the vice leader"s strategy? You know you"re a dumb person, so why are you confusing our commander with your dumb ideas? I believe in Lu Chen"s ability to command, and you should too! Trust me when I say that he"s the only man in the entire China server who gets to command me!"
I smiled placatingly at High Fighting Spirits before explaining, "Calm down, Fighting Spirits. You really should learn to rein in your recklessness already. The reason I"m delaying our advance is simple. If we rush them now, there"s a high chance we"ll all die by the time we reach the walls. Look, there are arrow towers, archers and mages all over their walls. Bad enough that their defenders outnumber us, it"s not like they"re all slouches either. Generally, when sieging a wall, the attacker must outnumber the defender 2 to 1 before they have a real chance to succeed. That is why I"m waiting 20 minutes; I"m waiting for our backline to catch up with us. Once we set up our catapults and ballistas, that fragile wall will crumble like a house of cards."
The berserker warrior scratched his head and laughed. "I"m… sorry, I wasn"t doing it on purpose. I just can"t keep it in when I see those grandsons ridicule us, you know?"
I nodded understandingly. "I know. You"ll have all the time in the world to teach them a lesson later. Okay?"
"Yeah!"
Lian Xin was staring at me while I was placating High Fighting Spirits. A while later, she moved closer to Beiming Xue and whispered, "Ohh, it"s only been a year or so, but it looks like Lu Chen has matured a lot since the last time I saw him. He actually looks like a proper guild leader now! Beiming, you"re his younger sister, right? Did you fall for his charm already?"
Beiming Xue shook her head. "No? He"s been my big bro since the beginning…"
Lian Xin chuckled sneakily. "No way, I"m one hundred percent sure that your love for him isn"t the love between siblings!"
Beiming turned bright red in an instant. She started fidgeting restlessly and playing with her bowstring. "Sister Lian Xin, what are you talking about? It"s not like that, really!"
Luckily for her, Lian Xin didn"t intend to poke fun at her any more than she already did. She simply smiled and said, "Fine. I"m returning to the country in a couple of days, so let"s love him together when that happens, okay?"
Beiming Xue stared at Lian Xin nervously like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she just pouted and kept quiet.
……
A while later, it looked like the enemy figured out what we were planning. The hammer-wielding guild leader said grimly, "Wolf Cavalry, show them a taste of our power!"
A hundred or so light cavalry immediately broke into a run. They were incredibly fast, and they were able to kill a dozen or so Blazing Hot Lips riders who strayed a bit too far from their formation.
It was clear that they were taunting us. They were trying to provoke us into a rash move or better, an immediate a.s.sault on their city. They had the time to measure our army size, and they most likely figured out that our army numbered less than one million. Right now, every soldier was a precious resource. If our numbers fell below two hundred thousand, sieging the city would become practically impossible.
"Ahhhhh…"
The Wolf Cavalry"s movement and attack speed was insanely high. Moreover, they didn"t hang around long enough for us to take potshots at them. After they killed a dozen or so Blazing Hot Lips riders, they turned around and escaped.
Stranger of Three Lifetimes wouldn"t stand for this provocation. She waved her scepter and yelled angrily, "They dare attack my men!? Chase them and give me their heads!"
"Wait!"
I hurriedly raised my hand and stopped her. "You shouldn"t go, Momo!"
At the same time, I glanced at one of my generals and ordered, "Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, take Heaven"s Rain with you!"
"h.e.l.l yeah!"
The rider laughed excitedly as he had been itching for a good fight since a while ago. Bringing Heaven"s Rain and nearly 200 Dragonlight Cavalrymen with him, he activated Flying General—a Famous General Skill that increased all riders" movement speed by 400%—and intercepted the escaping Wolf Cavalry in no time. Then, he pa.s.sed the party leader to Heaven"s Rain for Knight General and started beating up the poor wolves. The light cavalry was no match for heavy cavalry like ours, so they were annihilated in just a couple of minutes. After they picked up the dropped equipment, they leisurely made their way back to us.
……
I could see the enemy commander"s face twitching and darkening with displeasure. What had been a taunt had turned into a rout in the hands of our Flying General. It wasn"t a big loss, but it was a blow to the morale for sure.
A couple minutes later, Ling Xueshang came over with The Monarch Descends and said, "I received reliable intel that Grief of the Dark and t.i.tan G.o.d have rallied at least ten million troops from Hero City, Seven Star City and t.i.tan City to reinforce White Horse City. Vienna had also posted a rally thread in the US forums and requested all players to a.s.semble at White Horse Plains right away. They are clearly planning to smother us here."
I nodded. "Sure. By the time they make it over, we will have taken down White Horse City and escaped already. It"ll take them at least 5 hours to make it over from Hero City!"
"I know right…" Ling Xueshang laughed in a sinister manner. I was certain that she had thought of abandoning White Horse City as well.
"They"re here…"
It was at this moment Li Chengfeng spoke up while looking behind us. Just as he mentioned, our ranged damage dealers, supply and support players as well as countless engineers had finally shown up!