Guarding the City (2)

  (Author's note: Starting this week, three updates a day, at 0:00, 12:00 and 19:00 every day. Please give me more flowers, clicks and collections for support!)

  Li Wenhao and Beigong Boyu's fight was still ongoing, the snow on the ground had also been swept away by Li Wenhao's leg in a large area. Although there were still snowflakes floating in the sky, it played a huge role for the upcoming city defense battle.

  Another moment passed, and Li Wenhou suddenly let out a loud cry, switching from defense to offense. His horse sword danced in the wind as he attacked, showing mercy to Beigong Boyu but still managing to wound his arm in an instant. He then kicked Beigong Boyu away with a flying kick.

  Li Wenhou felt that his mission was already accomplished and did not dare to fight again, so he immediately ran back into the city.

  In front of the rebel army, Han Sui's eyes were so sharp that they penetrated everything on the battlefield. As soon as he saw Li Wenhou trying to escape, two rays of light shot out from his eyes and he loudly shouted to Bian Zhang beside him: "It's now, charge over!"

  Bian Zhang had already grown impatient, and upon hearing Han Sui's loud shout, he stretched out his long arm towards the rear and beckoned, then led a group of cavalrymen in a swift charge towards Chen Cang City.

  On the top of Chen Cang City, Gao Fei had already noticed this change. With the bow and crossbowmen ready to go in the fight between Li Wenhou and Beigong Boyu, he looked at the ground ahead and saw that Bian Zhang was about to charge past the marker with his cavalry. He shouted loudly to Zhou Cang beside him: "Zhou Cang, 300 paces bow, start shooting!"

  At the sound of the order, one thousand archers on the city wall stood in three rows and quickly shot out the arrows in their hands. Just as the rebel cavalry entered the mark, the arrows fell from the sky with dark clouds and snowflakes. Still, ten archers shot at one target, and instantly dozens of war horses and cavalrymen were hit by arrows, with their bodies full of arrows.

  The fallen cavalry did not stop the subsequent cavalry from continuing to charge, and on the narrow mountain path, only human heads and horse heads were seen swaying together. The arrows in the sky also fell with them, and this time the arrows were shot by Liao Hua's 250 infantry archers. Zhou Cang led his 300 infantry archers to quickly turn around the city wall of the earthen castle and continue shooting at the mountain path. Immediately after, Zhou Cang's troops descended from the city wall of the earthen castle, retreated to the side of the city gate, and shot arrows upwards, while Liao Hua led his archers to retreat towards the earthen castle along Zhou Cang's route.

  Guan Hai and Lu Heng's troops also acted in accordance with this rule, and finally only Lu Heng's short-range crossbowmen stood on the first line of city walls to shoot. Zhou Cang, Liao Hua, and Guan Hai led their respective archers to stand in front of and behind the walled city, shooting arrows into the sky, which flew over the front wall and fell rapidly from the sky onto the rebel cavalry that was constantly charging forward.

  Like arrows falling like rain, the flying arrows were like dense raindrops, shooting down the first wave of over a thousand cavalrymen in front of Han Shui and Gao Fei on the mountain path within two hundred meters. The bodies piled up like mountains, blocking the entire passage, and the fresh blood stained that place crimson. The snow was melted by the hot blood, mixed into bloody water.

  The rebel cavalry halted their advance, and the hail of arrows from the Han army also ceased. Gao Fei gazed through the mountain of corpses at Han Sui, five hundred meters away, a faint smile playing on his lips.

  "Marquis Hou's method is truly good, in just a short moment, so many rebel soldiers were shot dead, such a dense rain of arrows, I'm afraid the rebels will not dare to attack again." Pang De looked at it with his eyes wide open, for him who had some opinions on measuring the shooting range yesterday, the shocking degree was absolutely beyond his imagination, let alone the large-scale defensive weapons in the city that had not been used yet.

  Zhoa Yun smiled, patted Pang De's shoulder and said softly: "Ling Ming younger brother, watch carefully, the battles later on will be even more wonderful, this is our Lord Hou's true strength."

  Gao Fei did not speak, he had just shot and killed about a thousand rebels, according to his estimate, there were at least fifty thousand more behind them, otherwise it would not have caused the entire Chen Cang's ground to shake.

  Li Wenhou came to the city gate tower, bowed to Gao Fei and said: "Your Lordship, I was unable to behead Bei Gong Bo Yu, please forgive me!"

  "You are a meritorious person, what crime do you have? If I were to take action against my own brother, perhaps I would also hesitate. I don't blame you, instead I should thank you for clearing the snow on the ground and revealing the mark." Gao Fei said.

  Li Wenhou said, "As soon as I followed Master Hou up here, I heard Master Hou mention the matter of the marker being submerged. Coincidentally, Beigong Boyu was besieged, and I thought of this plan."

  Gao Fei laughed and said: "Your brain is quite agile, now you go to the catapult with Pang De and Xiahou Lan, follow my command flag, launch from far to near."

  "Yes!" Li Wenhao, Pang De and Xiahou Lan replied in unison.

  Zhao Yun stood alone behind Gao Fei, just about to speak, when he saw the pile of corpses at the foot of the city slowly stirring. Suddenly, a person sprang out from the pile of corpses, covered in blood, with several arrows still stuck in his chest. With a single leap, he jumped out and it was none other than Bian Zhang, the leader of the rebel army.

  Gao Fei and Zhao Yun looked at each other in surprise, never expecting that Bian Zhang was still alive. They truly admired his tenacious vitality from the bottom of their hearts.

  In the rebel camp, Han Sui saw this scene and was even more shocked. He moved his lips, wanting to say something but couldn't get the words out. He stared at Bian Zhang with wide, terrified eyes as he quickly ran back, thinking: "This guy Bian Zhang has a big life, he can't die like this. It seems I have to think of another way."

  Bian Zhang returned, and was quickly received by Bei Gong Bo Yu. The two of them arrived at Han Shui's side together, but heard Bian Zhang shout: "The Han army's arrow formation is really formidable! I unfortunately got hit by five arrows. If it weren't for the iron armor, I'm afraid I would have been pierced through by the arrows. General Han, we need to think of a plan."

  Han Sui hastily dismounted and hypocritically said, "General Bian has suffered, Chen Cang is a strategic location, I had expected it earlier. There's a way out, but General Bian should not participate in the battle since he's heavily injured. Beigong Boyu, help General Bian to the back for treatment, this place will be taken care of by me."

  Bei Gong Bo Yu nodded and responded with a "yes" before walking off towards the back of the formation, supporting Bian Zhang.

  Han's sharp eyes flashed with a hint of murderous intent as he watched Beigong Boyu and Bian Zhang leave, his heart slowly saying: "One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. I didn't expect your life to be so big, it seems that getting rid of you will require another method."

  Mounting his horse, Han Jin rode forward a few steps and shouted at the top of Chen Cang City: "Below is Jin Cheng Han Jin, the general of this righteous army. I request that Gao Fei, the Marquis of Du Xiang, come out to speak!"

  Gao Feng heard Han's voice and replied: "I am Gao Feng, I don't know what advice General Han has?"

  Han Sui said: "Duke Gao, you and I are both from Liangzhou. Now the eunuchs in the Han court hold power, and the Ten Attendants are a disaster for the country and the people. My uprising army in Liangzhou only wants to march to Luoyang, kill the Ten Attendants, and achieve the goal of clearing the emperor's side. Now that we're passing by Chencang, I ask you, Duke Gao, to open the city gate and let me pass. Otherwise, my 100,000-strong army is not to be trifled with. Once we break through Chencang, all the places we pass will surely be slaughtered. Considering our shared origin from Liangzhou, I implore you, Duke Gao, to think thrice!"

  "Ptoo! Traitors are just traitors, what's the talk about righteous army? Your troops are all frequent rebels of Qiang and Hu, you're also a renowned Han citizen, now leading these foreign tribes to invade the Three Auxiliaries is nothing but to occupy Guanzhong and claim kingship over the world. What's this nonsense about clearing the palace? If you want to fight, then fight! A sparrow may be small, but it has all its vital organs intact; Chen Cang may be small, but it can still withstand your army of 100,000. I advise you to retreat early and disperse the rebel troops, otherwise, once the great Han heavenly army arrives, they will surely sweep away you Hu barbarians!" Gao Fei scolded with eloquence.

  Han Ji heard this echo, his face turned red with rage, he immediately shouted: "Gao Ziyu, you will definitely regret it! I don't believe that my 100,000-strong army can't take down your small Chen Cang? On the day the city is broken, don't blame me for not warning you!"

  "Come on and fight if you want to, what's with all the nonsense? I'm waiting for you right here in Chen Cang City, come and attack me if you dare!"

  Han Sui was enraged, but seeing the mountain of corpses in front of him, he also felt a bit worried. It's not just that attacking is difficult, even if you want to cross this mountain of corpses, it's very hard. This time, in order to attack the three auxiliary cities, he brought with him an army of 100,000 men, thinking that the great army would be able to scare the Han army guarding Chen Cang into fleeing in all directions, but he never thought that he would encounter such stubborn resistance.

  He reacted quickly after being promoted as the leader from Jincheng, relying on the powerful mobility of the Qiang Hu cavalry, and conquered most of Liangzhou in just half a month. Except for the Western Region's Wu Ji school lieutenant leading his troops to defend Dunhuang, all other counties were captured, and wherever he went, people surrendered at the news of his arrival. Unexpectedly, today he encountered an obstacle in this small place called Chen Cang. However, he was not afraid, and to be on the safe side, he brought siege engines with him this time.

  He turned his horse's head around, a sly smile spreading across his face as he ordered: "Full retreat!"

  The rebels retreated slowly under Han Sui's order, gradually moving away from Chen Cang City.

  On top of Chen Cang city tower, Zhao Yun saw the rebel army retreating and happily said to Gao Fei: "General, the rebel army has temporarily retreated."

  Gao Fei nodded and said, "Pass the order down. Open the city gate and find out the corpses of those horses. Eating horse meat at this time is not a bad choice. Also, clean up the battlefield and collect the weapons and arrows. As for the corpses of those rebels, pull them to the mountain forest east of the city and bury them."

  Zhoa Yun gave a "yes" and immediately passed down the order. Over a thousand Han soldiers began clearing the battlefield.

  Gao Fei knew clearly in his heart that Han Xi would not retreat at this point, no matter whether he brought a large army of 100,000 or not. He firmly believed that this defensive battle was bound to be a protracted war that might last for a long time. Turning back, he saw the Han army on the east side of the city coming one after another under the leadership of Fu Shuo and Ge Xun, blocking the small eastern gate of Chen Cang like a burst dam.

  "With 5,000 troops, the others can temporarily stay behind to nurse their strength." After descending from the city tower, Gao Fei arrived in front of Fu Jue and Ge Xun, saying slowly.

  Fu Xie and Gai Xun were slightly surprised, they had just brought their troops here, the battle was already over, this was too fast. The two of them had to follow Gao Fei's orders, and again dispatched the main army back, and from the military, a team of military doctors and 300 rescue personnel were left in the city, and another 1,000 reserve troops were also left behind to supplement the insufficient troops in Chen Cang City at any time.

  Gao Ping saw it with his own eyes and remembered it in his heart, and he felt that Fu Shuo and Gai Xun's role in logistics was becoming more and more important. He associated this with Jia Xu, and wondered what had happened to him since almost all of Liangzhou had fallen. He didn't plan to send out any more scouts, as those who were sent out would only be sending themselves to their deaths. So he simply stayed put, defending Chen Cang, and waited quietly for the arrival of Huangfu Song's army.