Chapter 2: The Stormy Weather of Yan and Zhao Section 8

  The battle for the auxiliary wall has begun. Li Hong beheaded an enemy soldier who had just poked his head out with one slash of his sword. The other defending soldiers started throwing stones, rolling logs and shooting arrows. The enemy soldiers kept letting out mournful cries as they fell onto the slope or their own earth platform.

  After the initial contact, some Xianbei soldiers had already jumped onto the wall, and others had killed their way up to the city wall. The hand-to-hand combat was getting more and more intense. A hundred-man team led by Tun Zhang Huan was pinned down around Mei Lou by Xianbei archers and could not get down to provide support. Zhang Huan tried several times to lead his team in a charge, but suffered too many casualties and had to give up, only able to shoot arrows from the side to help alleviate some of the pressure on the defenders. The hundred-man team defending between the main city wall and the auxiliary wall was even more unable to stick their heads out due to being shot at by archers from higher ground. Now only Cheng Jie's sixty men were desperately blocking in the middle of the auxiliary wall.

  The siege battle in the direction of the main city wall has entered a white heat. Arrows are flying in the air, huge stones are being smashed down one by one, and rows of battering rams are rolling down quickly along the cloud ladders. The enemy's siege soldiers were either shot dead by long arrows or knocked flying by their massive impact force, with no exception, either severely injured or killed instantly. Soldiers hiding at the foot of the city wall were either scalded by boiling water or burned by hot oil. The corpses of enemy soldiers under the city wall were scattered all over the place. The wailing voices of wounded soldiers mixed with the killing sounds, making them particularly piercing to the ear.

  Wu Yan concentrated his main forces on the left side of the city wall, with 500 soldiers in a large team, taking turns to launch an impact on the fortress. The Han army on the right side of the city wall was subjected to intermittent attacks, forcing them to be unable to withdraw troops to support the left side.

  On the wall, more soldiers rushed to the top of the city. Li Hong had no way to deal with it and could only retreat a step, helping other comrades block the enemy soldiers. At this time, one person's ferocity was useless, he was surrounded by the enemy in the middle, although he fought hard, he couldn't stop the enemy from killing his own comrades. Cheng Jie's long arrow had already been cut off at the mouth, but he still roared and danced with the enemy. A Xianbei soldier stuck his head out of the city wall and saw that his comrade was killed by Cheng Jie's sword. In a rage, he jumped up onto the city wall, before Cheng Jie's long sword pierced into his chest, he shot out an arrow at Cheng Jie's throat. The Xianbei soldier took Cheng Jie's long sword and fell off the city wall, Cheng Jie opened his eyes wide, falling straight back on his face.

  Li Hong held off the enemy's blade, one leg kicked at the opponent's shin bone. The enemy let out a miserable howl and shouted loudly, but was immediately chopped down by Li Hong with an axe on his waist and flew out horizontally. Li Hong shouted towards the mountain where Mei Lou was located with all his might: "Support...!"

  Zhou Huan's heart was bleeding, if he didn't charge forward, the defensive line of the auxiliary wall would be unmanned, it had been almost completely breached by the enemy. He threw away the long shield in his hand, turned around and raised his sword to shout: "Brothers, let's go all out, even if we die, we must die with dignity."

  Zhou Heng suddenly rushed out of the Mei Building, shouting loudly: "Kill...!", he charged forward against the dense arrow rain, fearless and leading the charge. The soldiers behind him were inspired by Zhou Heng's bravery, roaring with anger, each rushing out of their hiding spots, closely following him, dashing down.

  The long arrow pierced through Zhou Hao's body. Zhou Hao's robust physique shook, but he still stubbornly ran forward, shouting loudly in his mouth. Following the second arrow, the third arrow, and the fourth arrow almost simultaneously shot through his body. Zhou Hao felt that his body suddenly became light, and he thought he was going to float up. He roared, and flew up. He saw more arrows shooting into his own body, but he had already flown up, and he no longer knew what his own body was.

  Li Hong was stunned. He saw Zhou Heng's chest full of arrows, but he still ran at high speed, bringing the soldiers who were roaring behind him to charge down.

  The hundred-man team on the Mei Building finally broke through the death line after losing more than thirty people and entered the intense hand-to-hand combat scene. The twenty or so Xianbei soldiers on the city wall were immediately wrapped up, and all of them were killed by the angry soldiers at the top of the city wall.

  Su Li stood on a distant mountain and shouted loudly: "Good fellow! Truly a hero! Second assault team, charge for me!"

  Tian Jing led the troops to finally repel the enemy's first fierce attack. The soldiers looked at the rapidly retreating Huren soldiers and let out a thunderous cheer. A soldier held up the great Han military flag on the city wall, running back and forth, shouting loudly to vent his joy.

  Wang Jin strode over, his armor covered in blood. Tian Jing rushed up to him and anxiously asked: "How is it? What are the casualties?"

  "Reporting to Your Excellency, fifty-four men were killed in action and twenty-seven were seriously injured."

  "How can there be so many?" Tian Jing was somewhat shocked. If casualties were this high, after a few days of fighting, people would almost be gone.

  "General, many of the soldiers are fighting for the first time and lack combat experience, resulting in unnecessary casualties. The next wave of attacks may need to be improved significantly." Wang Jin hastily comforted Tian Jing.

  Tian Jing nodded, "Tell the soldiers to use their weapons as sparingly as possible and not to waste them. If they all threw them down like a swarm of bees, how many would be left unused?"

  Wang Jin repeatedly agreed, bowed and hurriedly walked towards the left side of the city wall. He wanted to gather several military officers to quickly convey the adults' requirements.

  The enemy on the auxiliary wall increased again, and the battlefield was gradually expanded. The Xianbei archers who suppressed the Han army were afraid of hurting their own people, so they stopped shooting. Wu Fei, who had been holding back his anger for a long time, led a whole hundred-man team of soldiers to take advantage of this gap and rushed towards the defensive area in the middle section of the auxiliary wall at high speed. For a while, the enemy and our side were entangled together on the city wall, killing each other with blood flying everywhere.

  Li Hong's hands and feet had all gone soft. After parrying the enemy's blade with great difficulty, for the first time he felt himself unable to catch his breath, stumbling backward and leaning against the city wall, panting heavily. He saw his comrade fall before him, cut down by the enemy, but he didn't have the strength to raise his sword or rush over to save him. Tears of sorrow streamed down his face.

  The enemy's horn for attacking sounded again under the city of Lulong. Immediately afterwards, the earth-shaking war drum sound rushed straight to the sky above Lulong, shaking the clouds and fog.

  The second attack of the Hui coalition army has begun.

  The winter sun is pale and white, hiding behind thick clouds, as if frightened by the bloody battlefield in front of it, occasionally revealing half its face to take a peek, then shrinking back again. Unbeknownst to all, it has already hidden itself beyond the Lulong Pass, disappearing from view.

  Wu Yan's eyes were fixed and cold, staring at the bloody battlefield, without saying a word. This was already the fourth attack on Lulong Pass in the afternoon.

  He looked up at the gradually darkening sky and suddenly turned his head and said:

  "Pass the order, cease the attack and withdraw troops back to camp."

  The loud sound of the giant horn slowly echoed across the battlefield. The soldiers of the Huren coalition army quickly retreated from all corners of the battlefield like a tide.

  Xiong Ba squinted his eyes and gazed at the bloody battlefield, looking at the Han character banner fluttering in the sky above Ludong Pass, and suddenly said: "This Tian Jing is really good at commanding troops. In the past, we underestimated him."

  Wu Yan smiled casually and said: "What can he do about it? Can he conjure up troops?"

  Xiong Ba nodded in agreement: "The siege war is a war of attrition. Under the condition that both sides are equal, whoever has more soldiers will be the final winner. Although we don't have an absolute advantage in numbers, we can use local battles to consume a large number of enemy troops and gain an absolute advantage."

  "If we have 15,000 men, I guarantee that we can take down Lulong Pass in three days. Ten to one, we can exhaust Tian Jing to death."

  Tian Jing stood on the city wall, seeing off the Hu tribe's allied army as they slowly retreated back to their camp. The fierce battle this afternoon was completely within his expectations, but what was unexpected was that the enemy attacked Mei Lou, and the fighting there seemed extremely intense.

  He was worried in his heart and urgently wanted to know how many more soldiers were there.

  Li Hong sat on the city wall, gazing at the remains of his comrades lying on the city wall, tears streaming down uncontrollably. The entire scouting team had almost been wiped out. They were his compatriots, his comrades-in-arms, but now they had all become memories. The cruelty of war could not be summed up with just one word - bloodshed.

  Wu Fei gazed at Tian Jing's face, unable to hold back his tears, and lowered his head in silence.

  "How many soldiers are left?" Tian Jing asked softly.

  "Excluding the seriously wounded, there are sixty-two soldiers who can still fight."

  "A loss of over 200 in just one battle?" Tian Jing could hardly accept this fact. "What about tomorrow then?" He only had a reserve force of 200, and if he were to deploy all of them to defend Mei Lou tomorrow, once there was a breach in his defense line, he would have no troops left to reinforce it.

  "Tu Chang Zhou Huan, all three hundred men were killed in action." Wu Fei said lightly once again.

  Tian Jing's face was already very unsightly. Why did Wu Yan insist on attacking Mei Lou, taking the difficult path instead of the easy one? My losses were great, but weren't his even greater? Just in that small place, I lost over 200 soldiers, and I couldn't afford to lose any more.

  Tian Jing roughly understood Wuyan's intention. Wuyan was better off fighting the Han army at Meilou than at the main city wall. The main city wall had a large defensive surface, and the defenders could support each other, while the attackers were limited to passive attacks. After a day of battle, based on the casualty ratio, the attackers would naturally suffer heavy losses. However, in a small defensive area, the defenders had fewer soldiers, and the possibility of mutual support was almost non-existent. The attackers only needed to launch a fierce attack to gain an advantage. In this way, based on the casualty ratio, the attackers did not seem to be at a disadvantage. Wuyan probably intended to take advantage of his numerical superiority to wear down Tian Jing's forces in a side battle.

  But they couldn't give up Mei Lou. Mei Lou was controlled by the enemy, and the left side of the main city wall's defense was completely exposed to the enemy's arrows. What was originally a strong defensive position became a weakness after being attacked by the enemy, turning into a useless thing. The severe shortage of soldiers is currently the bottleneck of the defense.

  Tian Jing was extremely anxious, now he could only hope that reinforcements would arrive immediately.

  Li Hong was having dinner on the city wall when Wu Fei, a military officer, came to inform him that he had become the captain of the remaining 62 men. At night, all 200 soldiers from the reserve troops arrived and entered the defensive formation. He belonged to this troop and was under the command of Ji Ming, the leader of the troop.

  Su Li received unanimous praise from everyone, which made him very excited.

  "Tomorrow, I'll attack again and swallow Tian Jing's reserve troops." Su Li said with a complacent smile, shaking his big fat head.

  Xiong Ba smiled and said: "Tomorrow, if you can eliminate about two hundred people like today, the day when Lulong Pass is attacked will be just around the corner."

  "Don't worry, my troops have lost five or six hundred men, but I still have nearly two thousand men, which is more than enough. Just need to replenish a day's worth of arrows for me. This afternoon I shot out all the arrows."

  Xiong Ba looked at Wu Yan. Wu Yan immediately smiled and said, "I still have some preparations for this. I wish you a victorious start tomorrow, and we will enter the Lulong Pass as soon as possible."

  "Tomorrow, are we attacking for a whole day or just half a day?" Qiao Ji suddenly asked from beside him.

  "Soldiers are all very tired, and the supply of weapons also needs to be replenished. Why don't we attack for half a day? The key is still Soli's place, it must be fast, fierce, and ruthless, and his living forces must be annihilated. Once the goal is achieved, immediately withdraw from the battlefield."

  Su Li interrupted: "Didn't you say we're attacking for one day?"

  Xiong Ba laughed: "Your troops have been attacking since morning. We led the army to make a show of force under the city in the morning, and Tian Jing didn't dare to move."

  "What if I had taken down the Mei Lou this morning?" Su Li said suddenly with a serious expression.

  "If you take down Mei Lou, Tian Jing can only withdraw troops from the front defense line to support. That way, our attack on the main city wall in the afternoon will be easier. But your losses will definitely be very heavy. I still insist on taking Yun Lou when the Han army is lax in its defense. This will reduce the loss of troops and have a greater impact on the enemy's morale."

  "Will it break through the city?" Qiao Ji asked anxiously.

  Xiong Ba shook his head: "It's impossible. The Han army is now in high spirits, with sufficient supplies and enough troops to hold out for a while. Even if he lost the protection of both wings, he can still hold on. Lulong Pass is indeed difficult to attack, not easily taken down. We need to compete with them in terms of numbers, morale, supplies, and determination. Whoever lasts until the end will be the winner."

  "What if it snows?" Wu Yan asked.

  "Fall back." Yubao said firmly.

  Wu Yan, Que Ji, and Su Li looked at each other, almost speaking at the same time, but were preempted by Su Li, "Then we won't have worked in vain."

  "So we must unite as one, and take down Lulong Pass as soon as possible. We are all in the same boat, if one suffers, all suffer; if one is honored, all are honored. Once we take down Lulong Pass, our future wealth will be endless."