knife

Chapter 703 Fierce Battle at Yangguan

Lu You, his face covered in soot, crawled out from under a pile of rubble. He spat out a few mouthfuls of reddish-black saliva, looked around, grabbed a long piece of wood with one hand, and scrambled up the slope. Flames were still burning at the other ends of the two pieces of wood.

He scrambled up the city wall, glanced down at the armored men of the Cui family climbing up below, roared, raised the wooden beam in his hand high, and slammed it down hard.

A scream immediately erupted from below.

A whistling arrow flew up and pierced Lü You's right chest with a thud, breaking through his armor and embedding itself in his flesh. Lü You gasped, grabbed the arrow, and pulled it out with a hiss. He cursed in pain, ignoring the gushing blood from his wound. He bent down, picked up a large rock, aimed at the guy who had fired the arrow, and hurled it at him.

However, the guy who shot the arrow, after hitting the target, jumped and dodged to the side.

These guys were all quite skilled in martial arts, and they mingled in the siege force to ambush the officers on the city walls.

This arrow was aimed at Lü You, who, besides being clad in armor, was also covered in fat. Anyone else would probably have been rendered incapacitated immediately.

Lu You was having a bad day. A group of armored men had stormed the city wall, and Lu You ran into a guy who was at least at the eighth level of the Xuan Yuan realm. The two fought all the way from the city wall to the city. In the end, Lu You took a heavy punch from the guy and then gave him an axe.

Although that guy's martial arts cultivation was higher than Lü You's, his experience in fighting on the battlefield was far inferior to Lü You's, who had been struggling to survive on the battlefield all along.

Having struggled back from the brink of death countless times, Lü You used his rich experience to exchange injury for his opponent's life.

This is a microcosm of the Battle of Yangguan.

The besieging coalition forces were larger in number, but the troops inside the city were all veterans who had fought countless battles. After years of fighting against the Yuan Dynasty and participating in the destruction of the Northern Yuan and countless local forces and bandits outside the pass, their fighting power was at its peak.

The armored warriors are superior to them in terms of equipment and personal skills, but these alone are not enough on the battlefield; experience is more important in such battles.

After fighting for many days, Ma Dacheng and his men even began to deliberately leave some openings in certain places, allowing the armored men to attack, and then sealing the openings to kill the armored men who had been trapped inside.

A single cut here kills dozens; a slash there kills dozens more. In just a few days, the main force of the armored men had been wiped out by over a thousand.

Of course, there are times when things go wrong, like today with Lü You. But fortunately, Lü You is experienced and has a detailed plan for the city, so he can quickly turn the tide after encountering danger.

Ma Liang pulled the furious Lü You down to sit, pointed to his right chest, and said, "He's still bleeding!"

He ripped off his breastplate, pulled a medicine bottle from his pocket, uncorked it, and poured some onto the wound. In a moment, the bleeding stopped.

"This is good stuff!" Lu You felt the coolness from his wound and said, "This isn't the standard medicine issued to the army; it's a special medicine obtained from Changchun Valley?"

Ma Liang nodded: "I got these from Fu Cheng. They were just developed, but that old bastard ripped me off. They're too expensive. He only gave one bottle to each of my personal guards! It cost me a full three thousand taels of silver. See this little red pill? If you're seriously injured, swallowing this little red pill can save your life!"

Examining the small bottle, Lü You sighed: "You have a hundred personal guards, which works out to thirty taels each, not expensive, but this kind of medicine isn't officially sold yet. You can't buy it even if you have money, and you also have to save face! I went to Fu Cheng, but he wouldn't even give me a second glance!"

"Let Ding Ergou go!" Ma Liang laughed.

“That’s true. Let’s go find Ding Ergou, or have your sister-in-law go find Fu Cheng!” Lu You nodded. “This medicine is really good. We need to get some to save our lives. We can’t afford more, but like you, if you give me fifty guards, one bottle each, I can afford it!”

"The clinic has plenty of good stuff!" Ma Liang laughed. "For those of us who are going to risk our lives on the battlefield, it's good to have some of these things on hand; they might just save our lives!"

"Yes!" Lü Youshen agreed.

As the two were talking, a whistling sound came from the sky. Looking up, they saw stone projectiles wrapped in nets flying across the sky and falling towards the battlefield. At that moment, the catapults in the city were in full swing.

These stones, wrapped in nets, would break free of the ropes in mid-air due to their immense force, scattering to attack the opponent. A single ball of these stones could cover an area of ​​several meters. Larger stones were used to attack siege engines, battering rams, towers, and so on, while these were purely designed to target people.

"Why are there still sparks?" Lu You asked.

"The wind is just right today!" Ma Liang chuckled. "The top doctors from the Grand Medical Center stationed at Yangguan said they've got some good stuff to give to the enemy." "They can even kill the enemy?"

Ma Liang lowered his voice and said, "Let me tell you, I've heard the Protector say that those guys at the Great Medical Hall are much more ruthless than us when it comes to killing. We can kill with a single, clean slash, but sometimes they kill people so badly that they wish they were dead!"

Two people poked their heads out from behind the battlements and looked down.

The stones landed with a loud thud, followed by plumes of thick smoke rising from their impact points. Due to the wind direction, the smoke drifted towards the rear of the Allied forces; there were only about ten such plumes.

Strangely, the thick smoke began to slowly dissipate due to the wind, but stopped rising when it reached a certain height.

Then, as could be seen with the naked eye, chaos began to break out on the Allied side.

One by one, the Allied soldiers who had been full of energy just moments before collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony and writhing in agony after the thick smoke cleared. In a short time, hundreds had fallen.

Lu You looked at Ma Liang beside him in shock and found that the other man's eyes were also wide open.

"Poison!" the two exclaimed in unison.

"Damn it! Are they that powerful?" Lu You gasped. "After arriving in Yangguan, I had them treat my injuries several times. Thinking about it now, I'm actually a little scared!"

"A good doctor can save lives, but he can also kill them!" Ma Liang looked up and saw more than a dozen such stone projectiles flying past, while the Allied soldiers below were already retreating rapidly.

The wind suddenly picked up, and the smoke struggled in the wind for a while before gradually fading away and finally disappearing.

The soldiers who had been struggling and screaming were now completely silent.

Cheers erupted from the city walls.

What is honey to me is poison to my enemy.

Ma Dacheng and An Xuan exchanged a glance and burst into laughter, having weathered another wave of trouble.

"I'm thinking that this guy surnamed Cui might have to take action himself next. General An, then it'll be up to you!"

"My guards and I are ready!" An Xuan nodded and said, "Even if we can't defeat him, we can at least hold him off!"

"Tu Jiaojiao said that City Lord Zhou is on his way and could arrive at any time!"

"Where did the city lord and the others go the other day?"

Do you still remember Phagpa of the Northern Yuan?

"Of course!"

"It is said that this fellow suddenly had an epiphany during his travels, so he invited City Lord Zhou and the others to go and consult with him. That's why City Lord Zhou, Master Chang, and Daoist Yiming all went. No one expected that the war would break out at this time!" Ma Dacheng shook his head and said.

"Hold on a bit. Even if they don't come, the Protector-General should be back by now!" An Xuan said.

Ma Dacheng nodded.

A clear eagle cry came from the sky. The two looked up and saw a large eagle circling in the air for a moment. As a whistle rang out from inside the pass, the eagle plummeted down like an arrow.

"The news has arrived that it's either Tiger Roar Plain or Volcano Fortress!" Ma Dacheng's face lit up with joy.

(End of this chapter)