The Tyrant of the Great Qian Dynasty: Not only will I refuse to arrange a marriage alliance, but I w

The burning stinging sensation on his cheeks completely ignited the anger in Huyan Ba's chest.

As the Great Chanyu of the Northern Barbarians, the supreme king of the grasslands, how could he have ever suffered such humiliation?

Being nearly shot through the head with a crossbow bolt by a mere child on the city wall in front of an army of 400,000 was more painful than being killed outright.

He slowly reached out his hand, his fingertips stained with the bloodstain, the crimson color catching his eye.

He didn't wipe it away; instead, he let the bloodstain stand out starkly on his rugged face, becoming a mark of shame.

He turned his head and glanced at the wolf-head banner pinned to the ground by a crossbow bolt. The arrow fletching on the flagpole trembled and made a soft sound, mercilessly mocking his carelessness.

That violent aura originating from the overlord of the grasslands could no longer be suppressed.

He drew the golden-sheathed scimitar that symbolized power from his waist; the blade gleamed in the sunlight.

The tip of the knife pointed towards the towering city walls of the capital, and at the figure who had dared to provoke him not long ago.

"Awooo—!"

A roar that sounded neither human nor like that of a wounded beast burst forth from the depths of Huyan Ba's throat.

"All troops—attack the city!"

This command, imbued with boundless killing intent and rage, resounded throughout the entire battlefield.

The 400,000-strong Northern Barbarian army behind him seemed like a pack of wolves that understood him perfectly. Upon hearing the alpha wolf's command, they all let out bloodthirsty cries.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"Raze the capital to the ground! Blood must be paid for!"

The shouts of 400,000 people converged into a devastating roar that soared into the sky.

The deafening sound seemed to tear the clouds apart and shake the earth.

On the city wall, the morale that had just been surging because of Su Zhe's arrow began to waver again under the impact of this even more terrifying sound wave.

The color that had just appeared on the faces of many soldiers faded again.

The war horn finally sounded in the most tragic way.

To the surprise of the defenders on the city wall, the first wave of attackers was not the elite cavalry of the northern barbarians riding tall horses and wearing fine leather armor.

What came into their view were tens of thousands of people who were ragged and emaciated.

They had no proper weapons, only some makeshift ladders hastily made by binding tree trunks and vines together.

Their faces were filled with fear and despair.

These people were civilians who had been captured by the Northern Barbarians on the border of the Great Qian Dynasty, as well as slaves from some small tribes that had been conquered on the grasslands.

Behind them was a supervisory team composed of northern barbarians.

The soldiers in the supervisory team wore cruel smiles and brandished water-soaked whips and sharp knives.

"Quickly! Charge forward! Anyone who retreats dies!"

"Run faster, you bunch of two-legged sheep! It is your honor to dedicate yourselves to the cause of the Great Khan!"

The whips lashed at the cannon fodder, producing dull thuds and leaving streaks of blood.

If anyone slows down even a little, or shows any intention to escape, the executioner's blade will fall without hesitation, and a head will roll to the ground.

Under such bloody coercion, these tens of thousands of cannon fodder could only cry out and wail as they charged toward their former homeland, toward the towering walls of the capital.

On the city wall, the defenders saw the faces and clothes of the people rushing towards them, and they were all stunned.

"They are...the people of our Great Qian!"

"They're wearing clothes belonging to the people of Daqian!"

"Those damned barbarian bastards! They actually drove our own people to their deaths!"

Many young soldiers raised their bows and arrows, only to let them fall limply to the ground.

Their arrows could be aimed without hesitation at the brutal barbarians, but how could they be aimed at these compatriots with their faces filled with despair?

A young officer, his eyes red and swollen, rushed anxiously to Su Zhe's side, his voice trembling with tears: "Your Highness, these are our people! We can't shoot arrows at them!"

Su Zhe stood on the rampart, coldly overlooking the tragedy below the city, his face expressionless.

They viewed the tens of thousands of lives lost in the charge as a pile of moving logs.

His voice was colder than the wind blowing from the city wall.

"They are no longer our people."

"From the moment they were captured by the enemy and used as weapons on the front lines, they became the enemy's weapons."

"To be merciful to them is to be cruel to our families. In this city beneath your feet are your parents, your wife and children. Do you want barbarian soldiers to trample over their corpses before slaughtering them?"

Su Zhe's words were like a sharp blade cutting through the bloody reality of war.

The young officer was stunned. He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

Su Zhe didn't look at him again, but instead gave orders to the messenger beside him.

"Give the order to fire!"

The order was quickly relayed throughout the entire northern city wall via flag signals and shouts.

But many soldiers couldn't bear to do it.

Although they drew their bows, the arrows were shot at slightly off-center, or with much less force.

The rain of arrows that were fired became sparse and failed to effectively stop the charge of tens of thousands of people.

Chen Baipao, who was standing next to Su Zhe, saw all of this.

He didn't speak, but demonstrated his command through his actions.

"Clang!"

The Northern Liang sword was drawn, and a flash of silver light appeared.

An archer beside him, holding a bow and arrow, his arm trembling uncontrollably, hesitated to fire the fatal arrow. Before he could even utter a cry of alarm, his head was sent flying into the sky.

Warm blood spurted out and splashed onto the faces of several soldiers nearby.

Chen Baipao, holding a blood-dripping battle blade, coldly swept his gaze over all the hesitant soldiers and let out a roar:

"Execute the command!"

This bloody scene and those chilling voices sent a chill down the spines of all the hesitant soldiers.

They realized that in this life-or-death war, any womanly compassion would only lead to their own death, the death of their comrades, and the death of their families.

This is a battlefield, not a charity!

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

No one hesitated anymore.

Arrows rained down like dark clouds from the city walls, covering the driven cannon fodder.

Below the city walls, cries of agony, pleas, and screams of agony from those struck by arrows mingled together, creating a tragic symphony of hell.

Those cannon fodder fell in droves, but those behind them were still forced forward by the executioner's blades, stepping over the corpses of their comrades.

They wanted to stop, but they couldn't. They wanted to retreat, but their escape route was already blocked by death.

This is a brutal and inhumane war of attrition that consumes human lives.

Su Zhe's gaze passed over this hell on earth and landed on the perfectly aligned Northern Barbarian army behind him. His heart was as hard as iron.

He knew perfectly well that Huyan Ba's actions were aimed at using the lives of these cannon fodder to deplete the city's arrows and rolling stones.

Secondly, this cruel method was intended to demoralize the defending troops, causing them to collapse from guilt and reluctance.

This is an open conspiracy, a bloody open conspiracy.

When the corpses piled up thickly beneath the city walls and nearly half of the cannon fodder had been used up, new activity finally broke out in the ranks of the Northern Barbarian army.

Dozens of massive battering rams were propelled forward by hundreds of strong barbarian soldiers.

At the same time, hundreds of siege towers, each over ten feet tall, began to creak and groan as they slowly approached the city wall.

The main force of the siege has begun its advance.

These war machines were all made of the strongest, thickest wood and wrapped in layers upon layers of raw cowhide.

Ordinary arrows will only leave a white dot when they hit it. Even if a rolling stone falls, it will hardly cause any effective damage.

The soldiers guarding the city walls looked solemn when they saw these enormous creatures.

Su Zhe remained calm as he gave a new order to Chen Baipao behind him.

"Shenji Battalion, prepare!"

On the city wall, five hundred Great Snow Dragon Knights, who had been waiting for orders, quickly stepped forward.

They had taken off their silver armor and put on a more practical outfit for movement.

Each person held a crossbow that gleamed with metallic luster.

They ignored the cannon fodder still charging forward, and they didn't shoot at the ordinary barbarian soldiers pushing the machinery.

They have only one goal.

Those are the slow-moving but most threatening battering rams and siege towers.

Five hundred pairs of eyes locked onto five hundred different targets.

Chen Baipao raised the Northern Liang sword in his hand, its blade gleaming in the sunlight.

When the siege weapons entered within three hundred paces, he suddenly swung his sword down!

"put!"

At a command, five hundred specially made crossbow bolts, infused with the archer's inner strength, emitted a unified hum.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

The sound of the crossbow bolt hitting raw cowhide and thick wood was not a crisp "clang," but a dull thud.

Defenses that could withstand ordinary arrows were as thin as paper in the face of the Divine Arm Crossbow.

The crossbow bolts easily pierced through the cowhide and several-inch-thick wooden planks covering the barbarian soldier operating the equipment inside, killing him and his armor along with him!

Even worse, several crossbow bolts simultaneously struck a key support structure of a well ballast.

The wooden tower let out a mournful cry as it moved, its structure tilted, and it collapsed amidst gasps of alarm!

The heavy timber crashed down, crushing dozens of barbarian soldiers who had no time to dodge into a bloody pulp.

Just one volley!

On the battlefield, more than a dozen siege machines, either disabled or damaged, stood motionless, emitting black smoke.

The previously steady advance of the Northern Barbarians' siege was brought to a standstill.

Below the city, beside the commander's banner, Hu Yanba saw this scene, and the anger in his eyes was replaced by astonishment.

He anticipated that the garrison in the capital would have powerful crossbows, after all, this was the capital of the Great Qian Dynasty.

But he never expected that the enemy's crossbow would be so powerful!

Even the specially made siege equipment that he spent a lot of money to build specifically for conquering fortified cities could be destroyed so easily!

This is no longer a bow and arrow; this is a war monster capable of killing with a single blow!

The attack was thwarted, and the astonishment on Huyan Ba's face turned into an even colder, more sinister smile a moment later.

He turned to his adjutant beside him and gave the order in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Send the order to our 'friends' in the city, tell them it's time to make our move."

"Tell them to open the south gate at midnight."