Durin's Diary

Chapter 992 The Journey is Complete

The veterans were right; these Chaos followers of Slaanesh really were a bunch of lazy dogs. Only after hanging hundreds of unfortunate souls did their work speed improve.

Even so, they would still try to cheat and shirk their duties. Dulin personally witnessed that it took the Chaos believers an average of four hours to cut down a tree. The veteran said that four hours for one tree meant that even without their squad leader cursing, their fathers would come over in their cars to beat their sons.

After all, Shanhaiguan is located in the far north, and almost everyone who comes here is from the north. A family might have fought, lived, and died here for more than ten generations. The grandson of a great general might have gone to the same school as the grandson of a common soldier, fought together for girls, and then fought together on this wall. They might have even saved each other's lives.

So if someone's child makes a fuss at home, the parents back home might find out within a day.

Moreover, even if the Chaos followers risked their lives to create a massive amount of siege equipment, the walls of Shanhaiguan had seven layers, each higher than the previous one, and the defensive crenellations only faced north. In other words, even if the Chaos followers managed to breach the walls, the defending troops behind them could fire at them from 300 meters away.

There are drawbridges on both sides of the city wall, making it easy for soldiers to retreat. Once the people on the front wall have run far away, they can simply cut the ropes and be done with it. The Chaos Guy has to come down the steps, carry the siege ladder, and then climb back up. The open space in front of the wall is full of various simple buildings, so there are no materials to dismantle, let alone materials for the Chaos Guy to build siege weapons. Transporting them in from the outer city gate is one way, but assembling them on the spot would only result in them being shot at by cannons on the rear wall, or simply getting hit by the Celestial Master's Fireball Burst.

I heard that the Chaos Warriors used to be able to reach the fourth or fifth floor, but as the equipment of the Changtang people has become better and better, it is now rare for them to even reach the second floor.

The veterans of Changtang used to run betting odds, and they could win and lose against each other, but they don't run them anymore—because in recent years, the bookmakers have often lost so much that they can barely afford to wear pants.

It really makes those who hear it sad and those who listen to it cry.

By the tenth day, the Chaos Demon Army's siege equipment had finally reached a certain scale.

They began to try to attack.

However, the siege towers could not withstand direct artillery fire. Every single exploding shell provided by Dulin could penetrate the ladders made of firewood in the towers and explode in the hiding space of the troops. Every now and then, a large number of fragments, accompanied by blood and gore, could be seen spraying out from behind the siege towers.

The artillery commander said that Dulin's shells were quite effective, and the Celestial Master commander thought so too—they could avoid wasting spells on the siege towers and instead use the same amount of spells to throw at the heads of the demons waiting to climb the walls, causing more damage.

This is the daily battle at Shanhaiguan. At the end of the day, not many unlucky guys die on the walls. More are the poor souls hit by arrows and Chaos Man's spells. The former can basically survive, but the latter depends on what spell hits.

Overall, the casualty figures were low. In the words of the general, the number of deaths and wounded in the first battle was 62% and 59% lower than the average of the previous three years, respectively.

The Dulin artillery units, positioned on the second and third layers of city walls, effectively prevented the deployment of troops to the siege towers. Today, only a few siege towers were able to deploy troops, and this amount of deployment was far from enough to put pressure on the defenders—a few rifle grenades or a single explosive charge could blast the Chaos soldiers preparing to charge onto the city walls into pieces.

With the pressure on the siege towers gone, the Celestial Masters can focus more on the crowded Chaos Demon Soldiers below the city walls. As more of them die, the pressure on the soldiers on the city walls will be greatly reduced.

As for the Chaos Warriors below the city walls who were responsible for delivering long-range attacks, they didn't fare any better—the artillery commanders used chain shot to strangle the archers standing together, or used exploding shells to precisely kill the Chaos Mages.

As for the Demon Army's high-end combat forces, none of them appeared today.

In the words of the general, for the first week or two, the Chaos Demon Army will use cannon fodder to deplete the ammunition of the defenders on the city walls.

So, it's normal for the Chaos Demon Army not to deploy high-end forces even on the eighth day, let alone the first day—they usually wait until the defenders are running out of ammunition before launching a fierce attack on the city walls with their elite troops. The idea is good, but unfortunately, with the development of the Changtang people and the introduction of trains, Shanhaiguan has never lacked ammunition. In order to make the Chaos people bleed more, the defenders have even deliberately abandoned the first layer of the city walls in the last ten years or so.

Give the Chaos Demon Army a little treat, so they'll keep feeding kills to their enemies.

This made Dulin realize that the North had its advantages too—look, you wouldn't dare do this in the South, because it's hot there, and Akar's Chaos bastards are much stronger than their Northern counterparts, and they don't need to wear heavy clothes to keep warm; they can climb walls naked.

In the north, the defenders abandoned the first line of defense, and the Chaos forces had to climb up, enduring the firepower of the second layer while preparing to attack the second line of defense.

But in the Southern Citadel, who would dare to do that?

Nobody dares to do that, you know? If you dare to play like that, the naked Chaos King will chase your soldiers everywhere.

The answer is simple—the weather is nice.

However, because of the hot weather in the south, there was a real abundance of equipment. At Shanhaiguan, having a hundred cannons was already considered a large-scale artillery bombardment.

In the South, however, only the simultaneous firing of five hundred cannons could be considered a large-scale operation.

This is caused by the different widths of the attack line.

To be honest, Chaos is quite disliked. Even the tree spirits in the wild forest don't like Chaos. After all, although they don't submit to the king's rule, the Changtang Forest Travelers have reached an agreement with them. In return, they help the Changtang people fight against Chaos, and the Changtang people will not cut down the trees in the wild forest. As for some medicinal materials, the amount is agreed upon.

Although the tree spirits in the wild forest also disliked the people of Changtang, since they were also driven out of Changtang by the Celestial Masters back then, it was ultimately a matter of natural selection for both sides, and they were just trying to survive.

The Chaos Guys were different; they came up with the intention of cutting a path through the wild forest.

This was the real life-or-death struggle, and from then on, the tree spirit and the Chaos Lord were irreconcilable enemies.

With the tree spirit taking the lead, the remaining monsters also felt that the Chaos Demon was more hateful than the Changtang people. The Changtang people killed monsters more because the monsters ate people, but the Chaos Demon was different. Not only was he so unpalatable, but he also wanted to eat monsters. How could the monsters bear this?

Dulin was quite saddened by this—because he discovered that in the north, the Chaos Demon Army didn't even organize night raids—at Zhennan Pass, if neither side launched a night raid one day, it must mean the sun had risen in the west.

However, in the north, the nights are too cold. For humans to launch a sneak attack on the Chaos Demon Army would be self-torture, while for the Chaos Demon Army to launch a sneak attack on the wall would be like an old man hanging himself because he was tired of living.

After all, it usually snows heavily at night, and the snow depth can reach up to one meter. In such an environment, a night raid really makes you feel like you have a long life ahead of you.

(End of this chapter)