knife

Chapter 644 Bloodbath in Tong'an

The large stones, the size of winnowing baskets, roared across hundreds of paces and crashed heavily onto the opposite city wall. Even the thick wall, covered with blue bricks, was battered by this blow, with bricks and stones flying everywhere. Some of the ten-foot-long wall piers disappeared completely, some collapsed, and in many other places, long cracks extended outwards, suggesting that it would not last long before it collapsed as well.

Arrows, accompanied by sharp whistling sounds, swarmed through the sky like locusts, so numerous that they sometimes collided in mid-air before falling to the ground.

Below the city, countless young men pushed carts and carried sacks towards the city wall. These people were all dressed in thin clothes. Some of them carried a shield, but most of them only carried a wooden plank to block arrows.

He rushed to the front, threw the sacks full of earth and stones into the moat, and then turned and ran.

Each person completed today's quota in three attempts.

If they live, they can receive 100 jin of rations from the army; if they die...
This is war.

Ordinary people are always the most unlucky.

They had no choice.

A kind heart cannot command an army.

Kang Zhen didn't even blink when he used these able-bodied men as the vanguard for the siege.

He certainly couldn't use his soldiers to do these tasks.

The soldiers' strength, of course, must be directly confronted in war.

These rough jobs are naturally done by ordinary people.

Living is luck, dying is fate!
This was the second day of the siege of Erdaoqiao County in Tongan Prefecture.

In just one day, the attackers created a terrifying long-range weapon capable of throwing stones weighing thousands of pounds hundreds of meters.

After Kang Zhen withdrew from Ruyin and arrived in Tongan County, he took over the command to annihilate the Chu army in Tongan County, and the first point of attack he chose was Erdaoqiao.

Xiang Ying constructed a central base in Tong'an County that connected four directions. If one side was in trouble, support could be launched from at least three directions, thus increasing the difficulty for attackers.

The plan appeared flawless on paper, but there was one problem: one side of the Second Bridge faced the river, which posed a challenge for the reinforcements coming from Qilita.

Because the enemy could come up the river at any time and deliver a heavy blow to the reinforcements.

This is a geographical problem. Apart from deploying more troops and stockpiling more military equipment and supplies at Erdaoqiao, Xiang Ying had no other options.

As expected, once the war began, the enemy immediately chose this place as their point of attack.

Both sides are well aware that with such a defense system, once one point is breached, the remaining points will not be able to hold out for long.

When they attacked Erdaoqiao, there were only two reinforcements coming from different places: Wangjiadian and Tongan County.

But now, the only place that can come to our aid is Tongan County.

The number of troops that Li Dachui and Jiang Qian transferred exceeded Xiang Ying's expectations.

Xiang Ying originally believed that Li Dachui and Jiang Qian would never give up Nanyang and would definitely fight with Li Guohua for Nanyang, which would tie up a considerable portion of their troops.

But to his utter surprise, Li Dachui decisively abandoned Nanyang, consolidated his forces, and retreated directly to Xiangyang. Utilizing the advantages of Xiangyang's city defenses and navy, he only needed a small force to stabilize the front line.

This change allows the opposing side to launch attacks on any two points in Tongan County, while simultaneously having sufficient troops to counter any potential reinforcements.

Moreover, you can't determine which of the two attack points is the opponent's main focus; at least Xiang Ying can't determine that right now.

Li Dachui started fighting in his teens. Although his talent on the battlefield was not as great as that of a genius like Xiao Changche, it was still beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Soon the moat and trenches were filled in one by one, and the able-bodied men retreated to the rear. They had completed their task, and the rest was up to the soldiers.

Amidst the thunderous sound of war drums, the soldiers charged toward the city walls.

The cavalry charged towards the city wall. The mounted officers brandished their weapons, scattering the rain of arrows. As they approached the wall, their horses naturally veered off course, while the mounted officers leaped into the air, charging straight towards the wall. These men were all at least at the Qi Control level or higher in martial arts. Suddenly, arrows pierced the air—a surprise attack launched by skilled archers within the city.

Some were struck by arrows and fell to the ground in despair; others deflected the arrows but exhausted their strength and fell helplessly to the foot of the city wall; still others landed easily on the city wall, their spears and swords attacking the guards on the city wall like a storm.

Officers from the defending troops on the city wall naturally came forward to meet them, and with the help of their soldiers, they launched a fierce attack. If they could not drive these people off the city wall within three or five moves, they would be in big trouble.

More attackers rushed in from below the city walls, carrying ladders with a clanging sound. The barbs attached to the ends of the ladders were firmly fastened to the city walls, and the soldiers swarmed up.

Many agile individuals can fly by simply bracing themselves against the ground with a bamboo pole.

The soldiers on the city wall lifted the boiling molten gold and, without thinking twice, poured it down.
Before the incoming soldiers even landed, swirling blades of light slashed down.

On and below the city walls, in an instant, countless people fell dead and countless others were injured.

The attackers were the Tiger Legion, meticulously built by Jiang Qian after she took power in the Chu Kingdom, while the defenders were the private soldiers carefully trained by the once-powerful families gathered by Xiang Ying. Both sides were top-notch in combat strength.

As for the able-bodied men inside the city, at such a time, standing on the city wall would be a burden, taking up everyone's space.

A dozen miles from Erdaoqiao, Fang Xiaomao leaned against his horse, with a thousand cavalrymen sitting cross-legged on the ground behind him, waiting for reinforcements from Tongan County.

Whether the reinforcements from Tongan County are heading to rescue Qilita or Erdaoqiao, this is the only way they can get there.

A soldier who had his ear to the ground suddenly jumped up.

"They're here! Five miles away!"

Fang Xiaomao laughed and mounted his horse. Behind him, a thousand cavalrymen stood up in unison, stretching their arms and legs and adjusting their armor and weapons.

With a clang, Fang Xiaomao drew his tiger-winged sword from his waist, and a thousand cavalrymen mounted their horses.

At this moment, the red phoenix flag of the Chu Kingdom appeared in everyone's sight.

Xiang Wu removed the holster from his spear, revealing a blade nearly two feet long.

The obstruction ahead was something he had expected.

The State of Chu was skilled in naval warfare, and cavalry was not their specialty. However, this cavalry force of over a thousand men was no less capable than the northern cavalry in terms of both their warhorses and the individual skills of the riders.

The private soldiers from various wealthy and powerful families are all top-notch in terms of both horsemanship and individual combat ability.

Looking at the Xiang flag, Fang Xiaomao licked his lips, a sinister smile appearing on his face.

He enjoyed cavalry battles.

Swift and decisive, life or death decided within a few moves.

Unlike infantry attacking fortified cities, where each city is like a tortoise shell and you might not be able to break through even after fighting for a long time.

"Little Cat, give me Xiang Wu!" Cao Hui, who was next to Fang Little Cat, said excitedly.

"Okay!" Fang Xiaomao said, "But that guy seems to be at the ninth rank of the Profound Origin Realm, so be careful!"

"It's not like we haven't killed ninth-rank cultivators before!" Cao Hui sneered. "Are these young masters' ninth-rank Xuan Yuan cultivators stronger than the eighth-rank cultivators we two fought our way up through the wilderness?"

"I don't know!" Fang Xiaomao shrugged.

"You'll know once you try it!"

The Tiger Wing Blade had just been raised and then swung forward when a thousand elite White Tiger soldiers roared and charged toward the opposite side.

(End of this chapter)