Chapter 2: The Divine Archer

  Listening to the short-bearded archer's words, Zhang Zheng also turned his head and took a look at the short-bearded archer's hands. Indeed, his hands still showed a slight tremble, perhaps the strong wine was taking effect, and the amplitude of the tremble was slowly decreasing. Zhang Zheng was also a "veteran", he naturally knew that this was a psychological problem, this short-bearded archer although kept saying that he had been on the battlefield for too long, but definitely only fought a few battles, and hadn't fully adapted to the killing on the battlefield! This phenomenon, in later generations, has a unified term called "battlefield syndrome"!

  Like a short-bearded archer, this symptom is only the beginning, and her method of suppressing it with strong wine is only a superficial solution that will worsen the symptoms! Zhang Zheng didn't say anything, but turned his head back to gaze at the night sky above, where the bright moon inexplicably calmed the turmoil in his heart.

  Zhang Zheng's indifference did not make the short-bearded archer feel embarrassed, but instead he smiled and drank a whole bottle of strong liquor from his leather pouch. As his cheeks flushed slightly due to the alcohol, his hands also completely regained their calmness. The short-bearded archer clenched his fists tightly, then laughed and said to Zhang Zheng beside him: "Today you saved my life, this life I will return to you! Remember, my name is Cao Xing!" After finishing speaking, he stood up directly, patted his buttocks, turned around and left.

  After Cao Xing left, Zhang Zheng slowly lowered his head and looked at Cao Xing with the corner of his eye, who was resting in another corner, his eyes flashing brightly. Cao Xing! If it weren't for the same name and surname, wouldn't he be the culprit who made Xiahou Dun become a one-eyed general in history? Adding to what he had seen of his archery skills in the past few days, Zhang Zheng could confirm that this Cao Xing was indeed the famous divine shooter of the Three Kingdoms period!

  But even if he had guessed it, Zhang Zheng still didn't have the intention to talk to this future Lü Bu. Lü Bu? A mere brute! With such great power, yet ending up with nothing accomplished, and ultimately being hanged at the White Gate Tower! Such a person with developed limbs but a simple mind, Zhang Zheng didn't even have the thought of getting acquainted with him! Not to mention trying to get in touch with Lü Bu through Cao Zhen.

  Soon, Zhang Zheng threw this matter aside and looked out of the city through a hole specially carved in the city wall. Outside the city, about tens of miles away, the Huns' army was resting and camping, with countless torches illuminating the area! Just by estimation, it can be confirmed that this Huns' army has at least no less than 10,000 people, while there are only less than 3,000 soldiers in the city! If the Huns didn't lack the knowledge of siege warfare and siege equipment, relying solely on the broken city wall of Ling Shi City, it would be impossible to withstand these Huns who are skilled in archery!

  However, after the three-day battle, Zhang Zheng became more and more at ease, because the Hu people came south to plunder resources, it is impossible to stay inside, let alone spend too much time in one place! I believe that as long as we can continue to hold on, these Hu people will definitely retreat! And I believe this time won't be too long! What Zhang Zheng needs to consider is where he should go after driving away the Hu people.

  Time slowly passed, as the night grew darker, the simple soldiers who had eaten dry rations all fell into a deep sleep. Tomorrow, there was another even more arduous battle waiting for them, they must conserve their energy well! Even Zhang Zheng slowly lowered his head, and his eyes gradually closed.

  Before long, two more hours had passed and the night was deepening. The entire city wall was quiet except for the crackling sound of torches. At this moment, Zhang Zheng suddenly lifted his head, which had been hanging low all along. In the darkness, Zhang Zheng's eyes gleamed with a piercing cold light, just like a wild beast hiding in the dark!

  Zhang Zheng's eyes scanned the surroundings, then quickly narrowed into two slits. He himself moved extremely slowly towards the corner with a very slight movement. Now on the city wall, there were corpses everywhere, and no one came to collect them. Zhang Zheng's body slowly crawled, soon mingling with the surrounding corpses.

  Not long after, a rope suddenly appeared in the distance from Zhang Zheng's position, and then it was tied to the protruding part of the female wall. As the rope was tied tightly on the female wall, it became tight and started swinging left and right! Not long after, a dark head slowly rose up along the rope from the outside of the city wall! Soon, a person's shadow nimbly climbed over the city wall. This person wore a fur-lined coat unique to the Hu people, with a felt hat on his head, an arched knife in his mouth, and most strangely, there were dozens of long, thin things hanging from his buttocks, like tails!

  After the figure climbed up to the city wall, he carefully looked around and made sure that no one was disturbed. Then, with both hands on his waist, he fiddled with something. Soon, more than a dozen ropes were pulled out. It turned out that those "tails" were ropes tied to his waist, and the other end of the rope was still hanging outside the city wall! As if knowing that the place where he was standing was very dangerous, the figure immediately untied the ropes one by one and tied them to the city wall. Every time a rope was tied, he would grasp it tightly and shake it vigorously!

  Soon, the figure had tied up over ten ropes on the city wall, and the last one was walked towards the place where Zhang Zheng was hiding!

  Hiding in the corpse, Zhang Zheng looked at the figure getting closer and closer to him, and he simply held his breath. One hand was already moving extremely slowly towards the dagger at his waist. But Zhang Zheng himself was holding back his breath, even controlling his heartbeat to slow down! At this time, even if someone leaned against Zhang Zheng's side, as long as they didn't check his pulse with their hands, it would be impossible to tell whether Zhang Zheng was still alive or not!

  But that figure naturally didn't know that a killing god was hiding not far from him! He was stealthily walking quickly towards this side, even with his back to Zhang Zheng's position, starting to tie the rope to the female wall! And just at this moment, a cold light flashed in the black night behind him, and the figure suddenly lifted his entire body up high, stiffening straight up! After a while, he slowly softened down, directly falling forward against the city wall outside! Just as the figure was about to fall out of the city wall, a hand appeared mysteriously from behind, pulling him back!

  Zhang Zheng gently placed the corpse on the ground, then wiped clean the bloodstains on his dagger. He continued to cover the blade's edge with his clothes and quietly walked to the wall, sticking out half of his head to gaze outside. Unbeknownst to him, the Huren iron cavalry had reappeared outside the city! At least a hundred people were climbing up the rope that had just been thrown down, rapidly ascending the city walls! The fastest climber had already reached over halfway up the wall!

  Zhang Zheng's eyes were still narrowed to a slit, lest the light in his eyes be too dazzling and be detected by the enemy! At this moment, Zhang Zheng quietly walked to the rope tied to the city wall, which was also the fastest to climb and had the most people. The dagger in his hand flashed out again, directly stretching to the side of the rope, and with a forceful slash, it instantly cut off that rope! And just as he took action, Zhang Zheng also shouted loudly: "Enemy attack! There is an enemy attack!"

  He kept shouting in his mouth, but his feet didn't stop for a moment. In the blink of an eye, five or six ropes were cut off by Zhang Zheng with his dagger! Those enemies climbing on the cut ropes all fell from the city wall with a scream! As for whether they could survive, that would depend on heaven's will!

  "What enemy raid? Where is the enemy raid?" On the battlefield, there were only a few people whose sleep was very dead, especially on the battlefield that had been killing for three days. Hearing Zhang Zheng's shout, all the living soldiers on the city wall woke up in the first time, picked up the weapons by their side, and rushed to the front of the city wall instinctively! And after seeing the scene outside the city, all the soldiers couldn't help but inhale a cold breath, and the last bit of sleepiness was also scared awake! Everyone couldn't help but shout: "Enemy raid! There is an enemy raid!"

  Outside the city, seeing that the sneak attack was unsuccessful, those barbarians also launched an attack on the city wall! However, all the ropes that had been laboriously set up on the city head were broken, and the plan to climb up the city head relying on these ropes also failed! The barbarians outside the city did not have a better way, so they could only use the horse archery method that had been used all day to suppress the city head, while sending many people to rush to the foot of the city wall, preparing to climb up again.

  "Shoot downwards! Shoot downwards! Don't let them climb up!" On the city wall, those slightly higher-ranking military officers also shouted out, directing the archers on the city wall to shift their targets to the Hu people who were climbing up the city wall like geckos! However, despite many Hu people being hit by arrows and falling down, more and more Hu people bit their curved knives and continued to climb up the city wall with all fours!

  This is also because the city wall of Ling Stone City was too damaged, and no new layer of mud was applied to the outside of the city wall, so the green bricks that protruded and recessed provided a good foothold for those climbing barbarians!