Great Wilderness Demon Lord

After the main force of the Wolf Rong went south, the remaining detachment, led by centurion Wugu, did not settle down and simply besiege the enemy as Xiao Yunlan had expected.

Wugu was a wolf-warrior general in his forties. The crisscrossing scars on his face showed his rich battlefield experience, and his narrow wolf eyes revealed cunning and patience.

Instead of setting up camp on the north bank far from the city, he advanced to the outside of the moat, only two hundred paces from the city wall, where he established a simple camp, erected a watchtower, and adopted a posture of being ready to pounce at any moment.

The next morning, the thin fog had not yet dissipated.

The defenders on the city wall discovered that about a hundred jackals, the elderly, women and children, had been driven to the edge of the moat.

These jackals, mostly females and cubs, were dressed in rags and shivered in the cold wind.

Several wolf-like soldiers sent by Wugu, who were fluent in the language of the jackals, shouted in hoarse voices toward the city wall.

The message was not an appeal for surrender, but rather a wailing and accusation punctuated by sobs.

"My jackal brothers on the city walls! Look at us! We are the 'Greytooth' family of the Black Claw tribe! Where is your chieftain, Greymane? Where are your sons, husbands, and fathers? Have they all been killed by these humans?"

"Did they lure you onto the city walls, promising you a way out? Don't believe them! Humans are the most cunning! Once they've used you, they'll kill you all, just like they killed us!"

"Wake up! The Wolf Rong army has already marched south, and Zhenhuang Pass will fall sooner or later! If you turn against us now and open the city gates, Lord Wugu has said that you will be forgiven for your past actions and will even be allowed to reunite with your families!"

"Look at these children! They haven't had anything decent to eat for three days! Your wives, daughters, and mothers are also suffering from cold and hunger here! Are you just going to stand by and watch?"

The piercing shouts echoed in the cold wind, accompanied by the suppressed weeping and wailing of the jackal women and children, like an invisible awl trying to chisel into the city wall.

On the city wall, the jackal prisoners who had been incorporated into the garrison showed obvious signs of agitation.

Their hands, gripping their crude weapons, trembled as they stared intently at the blurry figures on the other side of the trench, suppressed sobs escaping their throats.

Despite the presence of convicts and guards, and despite the vivid memory of the bloody punishments of the past few days, the pull of blood ties and the shock of the miserable state of their kin still caused many jackals to waver violently.

The scarred convict's face was grim. He leaned close to Xiao Yunlan and whispered, "Captain, things are going to get out of hand if this continues. Should we send the archers...?"

Xiao Yunlan waved his hand, calmly watching the performance below the city.

"Their psychological warfare tactics are somewhat methodical," he commented, then issued an order: "Issue the order: all jackal prisoners are to be immediately removed from the city walls and held in the camp. They are not to leave or enter without orders. The defense of the city walls will be entirely taken over by our soldiers."

The command was executed swiftly.

The jackal prisoners were forcibly driven off the city wall and taken back to the camp for strict guard.

The city walls were replaced with a defensive line composed entirely of human soldiers.

Wugu saw this scene from the opposite watchtower, his narrow eyes narrowed slightly, seemingly unsurprised.

He waved his hand, and the shouts and cries from below the city gradually subsided. The jackal women and children were also led back to the rear.

"It's just a test," Xiao Yunlan said to Zhao Meng beside him. "He wants to see if these prisoners are usable, and he also wants to test our reaction."

Sure enough, in the afternoon, Wugu launched a real probing attack.

He dispatched about two hundred jackals, under the supervision of fifty wolf-like cavalry, pushing three shield carts, to try again to fill in a section of the trench.

Meanwhile, another hundred or so wolf-like cavalrymen split into several groups and patrolled the flanks of the city wall, shooting arrows to keep the enemy at bay.

The defending troops remained calm and composed in their response.

The crossfire from the bastions and ramparts made it difficult for the jackals filling the moat to advance, and the wolf cavalry's guerrilla fire was also largely ineffective due to the clever design of the city walls.

The battle lasted for more than half an hour. The jackals left behind more than twenty corpses, covering less than ten feet, before retreating in disarray.

For the next three days, similar tests occurred once or twice each day.

Sometimes it was a feint attack on a section of the city wall, sometimes it was sending out a small group of elite troops to attempt a night raid, and sometimes it was just a bluff with drumming and shouting.

Wugu was clearly testing the weaknesses in Ice City's defenses, the garrison's reaction speed, and its supply reserves.

Xiao Yunlan always remained steadfast in the face of change.

He relied on the bastion defense system to repel every attack with minimal losses, while strictly ordering the garrison not to leave the city to pursue the enemy without authorization, thus giving them no opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

On the third night, inside the main tent.

Xiao Yunlan pondered for a long time while looking at the map, and finally made a decision.

"Zhao Meng, Tieshan," he summoned the two men, "starting tomorrow, seal off all the city gates."

Zhao Meng was taken aback: "Captain, seal the gate?"

"Yes." Xiao Yunlan pointed to the only entrance and exit of Ice City on the map—the small gate reinforced with iron, "Seal it completely from the inside with ice bricks, pour water on it to freeze it solid, and connect it to the city wall."

Tieshan frowned: "Captain, if we do this, we won't be able to get out either. What if..."

"There's no 'what if'," Xiao Yunlan interrupted him. "The main force of the Wolf Rong has already moved south, and the roads in the direction of Zhenhuang Pass will inevitably be blocked or monitored. We will no longer be able to obtain supplies from inside the pass."

Given that neither fighting outside the city nor needing to do so is possible, the existence of the city gates actually becomes a weakness.

He paused, then continued, "Wugu's probing these past few days, besides probing our strength, is probably also an attempt to find an opportunity for an inside attack. The city gates are the weakest link."

By sealing it off, all possibilities of collusion between insiders and outsiders were cut off, and Wugu was completely disillusioned with the idea of ​​working together from within.

From now on, we can focus solely on defending the walls and no longer need to worry about the city gates.

Zhao Meng and Tie Shan exchanged a glance. Although they felt that this move was too drastic, upon careful consideration, it was indeed the safest option.

Once the gates are closed, Harbin will truly become an isolated island, but at the same time, it will also become a seamless, unyielding rock.

"Yes, sir." The two men clasped their hands in obeisance and accepted the order.

The project began the following day.

The captured stonemasons and strong laborers were driven to stack large ice bricks, prepared in advance, on the inside of the city gate.

Icy river water is poured between the ice blocks, freezing rapidly in the frigid conditions and firmly bonding the blocks together.

In less than half a day, the ice wall, five feet thick, completely sealed the city gate, becoming an integral part of the city walls on both sides, and producing a dull, solid sound when struck.

When the news reached Wugu's ears, the cunning centurion was gnawing on a roasted animal leg.

He paused, put down the piece of meat, walked outside the tent, and gazed at the city gate of Ice City, which had been covered up so much that no trace of it was visible. His scar twitched slightly.

"Decisive indeed," he muttered to himself, his tone unreadable, neither praising nor annoyed. "Sealing off the family line, they're determined to hold out to the bitter end."

He returned to his tent and said to his personal guards, "Order the cessation of all probing attacks. Send in more scouts to completely blockade the area within ten miles of Ice City. I want not even a single bird to fly out of there."

"yes!"