Chapter 540: Xia Army’s City Defense Strategy—Siege and Coordination |
"Front ranks raise shields, rear ranks loose arrows!"
At the south gate of Jinyang City, Lin Kai hovered in the air and issued the command coldly.
On the eight-meter-wide battlement, five thousand troops arrayed horizontally. At Lin Kai's order, a thousand men of the front ranks gathered around the crenelations, shields raised to block the enemy arrow volleys below. Four thousand men in the rear, taking advantage of gaps between shields, fired like mad down toward the base of the wall.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh........
A sky-covering rain of arrows slammed downward and collided fiercely with the volley the two-town allied army sent up from below. In an instant the winds howled, the noise shook the surrounding plain.
The allied army from the two towns also had bows. Though their charge was ferocious, they were not without method. When they closed to about two hundred meters from the walls, tens of thousands in their rear had already set up longbows and began hammering the defenders atop the wall.
Warmth Realm strength guaranteed at least 1 zong, and Wuchuan and Jinshan's development over the past two years had been clearly good. The soldiers were all equipped with strong bows rated above 1 zong draw force. With tens of thousands of arrows raining down, though the Great Xia defenders had the height advantage, the sheer scale of the enemy barrage was overwhelming. The moment it touched, the defenders were suppressed.
Clang clang clang........
Arrows fired by Warmth Realm cultivators carried terrifying force. Coupled with the tremendous thrust from their bowstrings, the impact was chillingly brutal.
"Swap out, hold the line. It's just an arrow formation. Wuchuan and Jinshan are routed troops — only fifty thousand. They don't have many arrows. If we hold this wave, we're fine!"
Lin Kai had originally been one of the six battlefield messenger-banner holders, responsible for transmitting intelligence on this northern offensive. But after Yuwen Tao led the right-route army out of Jinyang to attack Jinshan Town, Lin Kai temporarily took over as Jinyang's commanding officer.
The original purpose of Jinyang's garrison was to guard against Caiqiu's army that might head south from the Bone-Erosion Path at any time. The ten thousand Warmth Realm troops inside the city had been stationed around the Bone-Erosion Path perimeter. But when Murong Ping sent battle reports from the Pass City, indicating the Jinshan-Wuchuan allied force was heading to Yinhe Valley, Lin Kai immediately recalled those troops to the city.
An hour earlier Lin Kai had sent out many scouts to probe the allied army. Even before the allied army left Hanqiong, the scouts had already sent back news.
The allied force had just suffered a crushing defeat at the Pass and the soldiers were nowhere near fully supplied with arrows. From this distance it was easy to see: the quivers on their backs were at most half full.
South Foothills quiver standard: fifty arrows per bundle, so half meant maybe twenty arrows. How many volleys could so few arrows supply?
So when Lin Kai saw the defenders pressed back by the arrowstorm, there was not a trace of panic on his face. He directly ordered others to take their place and continue the exchange with the troops below.
"I thought it would be a hundred thousand, but half ran when the camp blew up. At most it's less than fifty thousand. So few dare to besiege the city — does Caiqiu not even regard the two towns' soldiers as people?"
Hovering in the air besides Lin Kai were five others: Zou Yuankai, Li Longkai, Ying Yi, Bai Wuting, and Lu Sheng.
These five were among Great Xia's earliest hunting team members. Though each held positions now, all five had broken through to Sun Manifestation Level, so they were naturally pulled onto the battlefield.
At Zou Yuankai's remark, Lin Kai watched the allied army closing in, a glint passing through his eyes. He smiled, "They never regarded them as people. Knowing they can't take the city but sending them anyway is just a gamble. If they capture Jinyang, they profit greatly. If not, they at least drain some of Great Xia's forces — still a small profit."
Zou Yuankai and the others' faces darkened; each felt a sting in their chest.
So win or lose, Caiqiu benefits — only a question of big or small profit.
"Compared to Mo'ao Chuan, our South Foothills are weak. When a strong neighbor attacks, suffering losses is normal. But if Caiqiu thinks a few broken troops can drain Great Xia's strength, they are wildly delusional!"
Lin Kai's thinking was clear. After saying this he sneered, then watched the allied army come within fifty meters of the gate and barked, "Discard bows, ignite coal fires to repel them!"
At his command, soldiers around the battlements immediately picked up torches from the ground, set them alight, and hurled them with force down the wall toward the enemy front lines.
There were hundreds of crenelations above the gate, and each had three to five torches tossed down. By rough count, thousands of flames were sent raining.
Sizzle sizzle……
A short distance outside the south wall, the previously unremarkable ground hissed when touched by flame. Evidently something flammable had been buried beneath.
Boom........
In an instant the fire leapt up, shooting ten-plus meters into the sky.
The combustible material buried along the wall's exterior had been laid for seven or eight kilometers. When it ignited it formed a wall of flame that long, instantly separating the two-town allied force from the walls.
"This......"
"The flames, why are they so fierce?"
"They dug trenches and buried a lot of wood."
"Wood burning this hot? It's coal dust. The wood is coated in coal powder, igniting at once."
"Not just coal dust, there's also a lot of coal stone laid out. This fire won't go out anytime soon!"
.........
The allied army were not fools. When the front line halted and some men braved the arrowstorm to inspect the flames, they quickly understood the cause.
The burning wood was clearly wrapped in a layer of black substance that gleamed under sunlight — pulverized coal stone crystal dust.
Coal stone used in warfare?
The allied commanders' expressions froze when they saw the fiery barrier. Then comprehension hit like a swinging door opening their minds to a new tactic.
"A mere fire wall, a petty trick, and they dare show it in front of us!"
The flames were intimidating for most troops, but to Caiqiu's men it seemed insufficient.
From among the many Sun Manifestation cultivators behind Cai Qiuhu, a tall middle-aged man burst out and, with a cold shout, dove down from the air to stand directly in front of the allied army, facing the wall of fire. He drew in a long breath.
That intake lasted at least ten breaths. His chest rose high and his cheeks flashed with an abnormal blue glow. Then he blew out suddenly toward the fire.
Whoosh………
A blue vortex rushed from his mouth, sweeping up hundreds of meters of cold and snow mist. A few meters forward it coalesced into a horizontal tornado that charged straight at the wall of flames.
"Lord Lin, use——"
Caiqiu had many trickery techniques. A single fire wall hardly stopped them. Just as that man began to inhale, Zou Yuankai turned to Lin Kai to request permission.
But Lin Kai gave no reply until the blue vortex was actually blown. He only shook his head and murmured, "No need. I never meant to use this fire wall to stop them permanently. It's too early; no rush."
Great Xia had many counters to deceptive techniques. Lin Kai simply didn't want to reveal everything so soon.
Boom........
While he denied Zou Yuankai's proposal, the blue vortex slammed right into the fire wall's center.
The trenches Great Xia had prepared were only three or four meters deep, used to bury coal stone and wood. Struck by the violent air cyclone, the ground was ripped open. The already-ignited coal stone and wood, plus lower-layer unignited coal stone and mixed coal dust, were hurled aside.
Luckily the vortex's power was concentrated in a central zone perhaps a hundred meters in diameter, so a gap of roughly a hundred meters appeared in the flame wall.
Of course, that hundred-meter gap was already wide enough for the allied force to surge through.
"Kill——"
The allied troops that had been stalled by the flames immediately charged through the gap.
They were only thirty to forty meters from the wall originally. Passing the flames and leaping the trench, they were almost right under the wall.
"Pour water! Do not let the enemy scale the wall. Longkai, go down and take men to hold the gate. If it fails…let them in!"
Hearing the last order, Li Longkai nodded and swiftly descended the wall.
"Tighten the chains, hold the gate."
"Hah!"
Five thousand behind the gate had already prepared the chains and stood ready. At Li Longkai's command they roared and wrapped the heavy chains around themselves, bracing and digging in to hold the gate.
Clatter........
Above on the battlements, Great Xia soldiers continued pouring live water from the crenelations.
Sizzle………
Given Ice Abyss's extreme cold, uninsulated water can't stay liquid long. The torrents poured down the wall froze almost before they fell, and previously rough stone smoothed into a slick, treacherous surface.
Hiss……
Among the allied troops were some powerful Warmth Realm cultivators. Though they carried small daggers or other tools to climb, they still needed purchase on the wall. Facing such slippery walls, not only could they not find traction, they could hardly keep their footing.
As they faltered, soldiers at the crenelations hurled giant stones and fired rockets. Under the triple threat of ice, fire-arrows, and falling boulders, the chances of scaling the wall collapsed.
Bang…………
Huge stones tumbled from the battlements. Though the soldiers throwing them were Warmth Realm cultivators with tough skin membranes and strong flesh, and thus unlikely to be killed by falling rocks, injuries were inevitable.
Wounds aside, their plan to climb the wall was essentially ruined.
"Water makes the wall too slippery. Can't climb. With rockets and boulders raining down, they must break the gate!"
The rockets targeted men, the boulders struck men, and the water was still flowing. Faced with this triple onslaught, the allied army's morale halved.
The smarter commanders realized they had to breach the gate — but they lacked breaching tools.
Assault ladders were Great Xia's innovation, something Jinshan and Wuchuan didn't have. They might have heavy ramming piles for breaking gates, but these fifty thousand were routed troops that had retreated from the Pass; they hadn't even carried all their arrows, let alone battering piles.
Without rams, they could only hope for...
"Everyone out of the way!"
Before the two-town commanders could act, hundreds of figures dove from the sky.
Leading them was a middle-aged man who landed beneath the gate, slicing through incoming arrows. His body glowed yellow as he plunged to the ground.
Thud………
His weight seemed suddenly immense, creating a huge dent on impact and shaking the surrounding area. With a single step he charged straight at the gate.
Bang!
He was only about 1.8 meters tall, not particularly large or muscular, almost slight in the Ice Abyss context. Yet that seemingly slight body struck the gate with such force the entire door rocked, the iron fittings on either side shifting several inches.
"More trickery. That strike had the force of seventy or eighty jun. You need to exert your whole body to unleash it. Truly, these feudatories have many tricks..."
Lin Kai, still hovering, glanced at the defenders clutching the chains behind the gate, who had been flustered by the impact, and couldn't help but sigh.
Fortunately, when Jinyang was built a lot of effort was put into the walls: the foundations were poured with large amounts of iron slurry, and the gate was forged from Ten-Thousand-Forged iron. It could withstand impacts up to a hundred jun. If it had been another city gate, it might not have held.
"Brothers, there are enemy heavy hitters behind the gate. Help me break it!"
But the man reacted quickly. Having realized Great Xia troops were directly behind the gate from the impact, he turned and shouted to the hundred or so Sun Manifestation cultivators behind him for assistance.
Caiqiu had over a hundred fifty Sun Manifestation cultivators in the South Foothills region; only a few were in Wuchuan Town City, the rest were gathered here. If one couldn't break the gate, all hands would.
"A Ten-Thousand-Forged gate dares block us!"
"Break it!"
"Brothers, show your strongest blows. Break it!"
.........
With Sun Manifestation power measured in jun, over a hundred acting together could do more than just deploy various trickery; even brute strength from so many could smash open most fortified gates.
One man produced a golden ring, pressed it to the gate and melted a circular hole, repeating to make several holes that opened into a small door.
Another released a swarm of flying insects from his sleeve that gnawed at the gate, rapidly eating away a section that extended through the previous circular holes.
Another pressed both palms to the gate and vibrated them at tremendous frequency; after a moment the wall began trembling, the shaking accelerating until the whole gate seemed poised to collapse backward.
.........
"Too slow, too slow. I'll take action!"
The trend of the gate collapsing was becoming obvious.
With a hundred-plus Sun Manifestation cultivators attacking simultaneously, the Jinyang garrison had almost no hope. The five Sun Manifestation cultivators of Great Xia atop the wall dared not reveal themselves, and the gate teetered on collapse.
Yet Cai Qiuyang still found it insufficiently fast and told Cai Qiuhu he wanted to personally make the final strike.
"If we could act, why would we have sent others down?" Cai Qiuhu shook his head, expression grave.
At these words the gathered men were momentarily stunned, puzzled.
Soon they understood.
"Cai Fangbo truly doesn't regard the people of our South Foothills as human!"
A voice of dismay came from above. Cai Qiuyang and six others' expressions changed; they looked up quickly.
The massive Black Iron Eagle descended from the sky again. Xia Hong stood at the eagle's head. Behind him, Li Xuanling held two children by the hand. The family of four made no attempt to hide, letting the eagle hover less than a hundred meters above Cai Qiuhu and his group.
Eight Tribulation Body cultivators looked up at Xia Hong's family. Seeing Xia Hong's high-handed stance, Cai Qiuhu and his men did not show displeasure. Instead their faces grew solemn, even fearful.
Unconsciously, they had already accepted Xia Hong's superiority — a fact they themselves had not noticed.
"After all, they're expendable. Qin Feng and Shangguan Yang wanted to join Caiqiu, so they should pay some sincerity. Letting our Fangbo see a bit of the Xia army's strength means they served a purpose."
Cai Qianshan also appeared.
Of course, he did not stand under the Black Iron Eagle like Xia Hong. He alighted to a position equal to Xia Hong's instead.
At that moment Cai Qiuyang understood.
From the start of the siege until now, Xia Hong had not acted, nor had he released a Beast Emperor-Level puppet. Thus Caiqiu's Tribulation Body cultivators had not been permitted to move.
This was the unspoken understanding between powerful forces.
You observe the rules, and I will too!