knife

Chapter 371 Fierce Battle in Yongfeng

A life-or-death struggle is unfolding in the small town of Tea Shop.

Linghu Shili, a general under Linghu Ye, led an army of over ten thousand to raid Yongfeng Warehouse.

Yongfeng Granary, with its geographical location and the vast amount of grain stored within, was of paramount importance to both sides. Losing Yongfeng Granary would be tantamount to the Linghu Group cutting off Chang'an's connections with Hedong County, Tongguan, and Luoyang, turning Chang'an into an isolated city.

But holding onto Yongfeng Warehouse is not so easy.

In order to coordinate with Linghu Ye's main force's attack on Chang'an, Li Guohua joined forces with the Chen family of Qi County and the Qin family of Donghai in Luoyang to form a coalition. Whether it was Zhang Quanyi in Luoyang or Wei Yi in Tongguan, they could only concentrate on dealing with the situation and had no time to pay attention to the Chang'an direction.

In Wei's view, no matter how important Yongfeng Granary was, it was not as important as Chang'an.

The main force and elite troops will naturally be concentrated around Chang'an to defend against Linghu's main force.

Therefore, Linghu Shili's raid on Yongfeng Warehouse was an open secret to everyone, yet it left you with no choice.

The inspection team was responsible for guarding Yongfeng Warehouse.

In Wei Zhengdao's view, even if Yongfeng Granary couldn't be defended, as long as Chang'an could hold out, there was still a chance to salvage the situation. After all, the inspection team wasn't his own; letting them go to Yongfeng Granary to fight Linghu Shili would be great if they could hold it, and if they couldn't, at least it would wear down and delay Linghu Shili's army, and also greatly weaken Li Dachui's power in Chang'an, thus making it easier for the Wei family to control Chang'an.

But for Li Dachui, Yongfeng Warehouse was something he had to hold onto as much as possible. Even if he couldn't hold it, he wanted to delay it for as long as possible, as it was related to their plan to withdraw troops from Chang'an.

The longer they can hold out, the more strength Shu can draw from Chang'an.

If Yongfeng Granary remains intact, it will also pose a threat to Chang Lei's troops who are advancing towards Chang'an.

Tea shop, Niukou, and Cangping are the three fortresses defending Yongfeng Granary. To directly threaten Yongfeng Granary, at least one of these three fortresses must be captured.

Linghu Shili chose the tea shop.

Niukou is by the water, and Cangping is backed by the mountain, both with natural defenses. Only the tea shop, built on a flat plain, is the easiest to attack, even though it has the most people stationed there.

The problems that Linghu Shili could think of, the entire inspection team could naturally think of as well. The two thousand elite soldiers led by Luo Liang and more than one thousand young and strong auxiliary soldiers were stationed at the tea shop.

For a small military town like Chadian, which is a little over a thousand paces long and a hundred paces wide, three thousand people is more than enough. It is also the maximum that this military town can accommodate.

The city had no shortage of food, and eight deep wells and reservoirs ensured a sufficient water supply.

Here, Luo Liang made thorough preparations to welcome the arrival of the enemy.

The thick snow was put to good use.

Thousands of soldiers in blue uniforms transported snow to a distance of several dozen feet below the city walls, forming a thick, sturdy slope. They then watered it, making it smooth, slippery, and reflective. From the city walls, it was clearly visible; arrows could easily cover the entire slope.

If the enemy wanted to attack the tea shop, they would first have to climb over this snow wall, or move it away. But moving a thick, frozen snow wall was no easy task, especially if it had to be done right under the enemy's nose.

Beyond the snow wall lay a trench more than ten feet wide between it and the city wall—a death trap. Without going down, you couldn't attack; going down was no different from offering your head to the enemy's blade.

Although Linghu Shili was not as quick-witted as Linghu Zhishu, he was extremely experienced in leading troops into battle. Even if he hadn't eaten pork, he had at least tasted pigs running; he had fought in the border regions for many years. He might not be able to come up with innovative formations, but he could still follow the established patterns.

He only glanced at the tea shop's condition and knew that a direct confrontation was out of the question.

But if you can use snow, why can't I?

So more snow was transported over, and they began building snow walls on the slope built by the garrison at the tea shop.

The defenders on the city walls were naturally not going to be polite, and volleys of arrows rained down on the area where the enemy had set up camp.

After paying the price of over a hundred casualties every day for more than ten consecutive days, Linghu Shili thickened the outer snow wall, then built steps on it, and finally, under the cover of rows of shield bearers, began to raise the snow wall.

This time, it was the tea shop's garrison that was unsettled.

Because if this continues, the outer snow wall will soon be higher than the city wall of the tea shop. Once that happens, the enemy will have a commanding advantage over the tea shop.

Fortunately, the area that could be built such a snow wall was limited, especially under the attack of the enemy. Although there was a lot of snow, the amount needed was too large and it was not easy to transport it over.

Therefore, the attacking side's constructed attack surface was only a couple hundred paces long. Soon, the two sides engaged in an extremely bloody battle within this short distance.

A bamboo plank, several dozen feet long, was carried up the snow wall and then, with a rumbling sound, it was placed directly on the city wall of the tea shop. Brave soldiers, carrying shields in one hand and swords in the other, charged over from the other side of the snow wall, howling.

On the city wall, arrows rained down like locusts, so dense that they collided with each other.

The defenders, wielding hook-and-sickle spears that were two or three zhang long, would pull on their opponents' legs and feet. Once hooked, a gentle tug would send half a person sprawling to the ground, where they would either fall into the trench below or be riddled with arrows.

Even so, squads of fierce soldiers still charged up the city walls and fought with the defenders.

Luo Liang pulled a straight sword from an enemy's chest and abdomen. Blood spurted out as the blade was pulled out, covering his armor and dripping onto the ground. The opponent's dying scream stunned Luo Liang for a moment.

The enemy was very young, probably only the age of his nephew, but his dying cry for his mother was delivered in a distinctly Manchurian accent.

Exactly the same as Luo Liang.

They were all once brave men from beyond the Great Wall, and they had all fought alongside the Yuan people. But now, they drew their swords and hacked at each other.

In that slight moment of distraction, a blade struck Luo Liang, colliding with the armor blade and sending sparks flying. The immense force caused Luo Liang to kneel on one knee, while the enemy who had attacked him was instantly impaled by four or five spears that emerged from around him, then lifted high and thrown off the city wall.

This ferocious man, on the verge of death, still spoke with a Northeastern accent in his dying curses.

"Head Luo, are you hurt?" came the greeting from his companion.

Luo Liang leaped up and rushed to the edge of the city wall. He jumped up with his toes, hurled a long spear, and plunged it into the ground, piercing an enemy on the plank. Then he shouted, "It's alright, kill them back!"

The soldiers inside the city roared and launched wave after wave of counterattacks, finally clearing out the planks and then pulling them all back into the city.

Panting heavily, Luo Liang bent down and looked at the moat between the snow wall and the city wall. The corpses piled up in it were already half the height of the city wall.

"Have the able-bodied men lift up the corpses," Luo Liang said, "and then return them to the enemy outside the city!"

"Why should we return them?" a captain said indignantly. "I think we should cut off their heads and hang them on the city wall to intimidate the enemy."

Luo Liang shook his head.

“You’re from Chang’an, you don’t quite understand the Western Army. The more you act this way, the fiercer they become, and the more it will ignite their fighting spirit! So there’s no need to make their morale even higher. On the contrary, returning the bodies of the fallen to them will give them a sense of camaraderie, and they won’t treat our fallen brothers so roughly in the future. Besides, don’t you think it will affect their will if they transport all these hundreds of corpses back to their camp at once?”

"Not even peeling off the leaflets?"

"The armor plates must be removed!" Luo Liang said. "Returning the bodies to them is a sign of respect for the soldiers, but removing the armor is to prevent the enemy from using these things to attack us again. Linghu Ye's troops don't produce a lot of armor; every one we take, they'll have one less! Remove the armor plates, wrap the bodies in linen, and return them to them through the west gate."

"Yes!"

"How many of our people have suffered casualties?"

"Not by much!" The captain lowered his head. "These bastards are incredibly fierce!"

"These are all elite soldiers who have fought against the Yuan people outside the Great Wall for many years. Of course they are fierce, but Linghu Zhili doesn't have many like them under his command. He wouldn't be willing to use such fierce soldiers to fight us to the death every time. If we don't win today's battle, things will definitely be much easier next time. Such fierce soldiers will only be mixed in with ordinary troops to play a backbone role."

The captain nodded silently. If the more than 10,000 men outside the city were all the same fierce soldiers who charged up the city walls today, this battle would truly be a difficult one to win.

"The officers and soldiers of the inspection brigade are actually stronger in individual combat than these people. What they lack is the courage and spirit of not valuing the lives of others or their own!" Luo Liang sighed, "They will get through it after a few battles."

"General, I heard that the troops outside the pass are also killing women and children?" the captain asked curiously.

Luo Liang glanced at the master and said indifferently, "If you had ever encountered a child who was not even as tall as a cartwheel suddenly shooting you with an arrow contaminated with poison, causing you to die in excruciating pain, you wouldn't have said anything about the old, weak, women and children! But that was a conflict between ethnic groups and nations. Such a thing should not happen here."

"Yes, yes, brothers quarrel within their own walls!" the captain laughed.

Luo Liang glanced at the other person again. This guy was the son of a wealthy merchant family in Chang'an. His family had hired experts to teach him martial arts since he was a child. He was very talented, but he obviously hadn't experienced any harsh reality.

It's alright, after a few more battles, he'll understand.

(End of this chapter)