In this realistic war game, only I understand the course of the battle.

The archer clutched his neck and collapsed to the ground, blood spurting from between his fingers.

Shen Du didn't stop, continuing to charge forward, his blade plunging into the waist of the second archer. As the blade was pulled out, the man's body went limp.

The third one. A spearman finally reacted, turned around and thrust his spear at Shen Du.

Shen Du sidestepped the spear tip, grabbed the spear shaft with his left hand and pulled it back, while his right hand slid the knife along the spear shaft and severed the spearman's finger.

The spearman screamed and released his grip, and Shen Du stabbed him in the chest with a backhand.

He killed three people in a row, and the whole process took no more than ten breaths.

The axe-wielding centurion finally heard the commotion behind him.

He turned around abruptly and saw that his spear-wielding hand had been stabbed through by Shen Du.

His eyes instantly turned red—not from anger, but because he realized he had been tricked.

Those axe-throwing soldiers in front were just feinting; their real killing move had already reached the base of the watchtower.

"Turn around!" he roared, pulling his battle axe from behind the shield wall and charging towards the tower.

Shen Du did not give him a chance to catch up.

A surge of heat coursed through his feet—continuing forward, the boost stacked—he leaped up the wooden ladder of the watchtower, taking two steps at a time, grabbing the handrails on the side of the ladder for leverage, his movements as swift as an ape.

The messenger at the top of the tower saw Shen Du rushing up and instinctively drew his sword.

He was the last person guarding the top of the tower. Before he could even swing his sword, Shen Du's goose-feather blade had already pierced his abdomen from beneath the blade.

The messenger's eyes widened, blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell backward against the flagpole, pinning the garrison's command flag beneath him.

Shen Du ignored the command flag.

He took out a gunpowder pack from his pocket, squatted down next to the flagpole base, and stuffed the gunpowder pack into the gap between the base and the wooden floor.

The base is the most critical part of the entire watchtower—the weight of the flagpole rests entirely on the base, and if the base breaks, the entire flag will fall.

But Shen Du didn't want the flag to fall; he wanted the entire tower to fall.

The fuse was only two feet long. Two feet long, and the burning time would not exceed twenty breaths.

Shen Du straightened the fuse and took out the flint. Sparks flew three times, and the fuse was ignited. The sparks hissed and crawled along the hemp thread, leaving a thin, charred line on the wooden floor.

Heavy footsteps echoed down the stairs.

The axe-wielding centurion had caught up, his battle axe trailing behind him, its blade carving a deep furrow in the wooden ladder.

Shen Du stood up and glanced at the four railings at the top of the tower.

The tower was about six zhang tall; jumping down would result in serious injury or death. The wooden ladders were blocked by the enemy, and there was no other way to get to the top.

Then he saw the flag on the flagpole.

The garrison's command flag was three feet wide and five feet long, made of sturdy, thick linen, and nailed to the flagpole with copper nails at the four corners.

Shen Du slashed the rope on the flagpole with one stroke, and the right half of the command flag fell down with a clatter.

He grabbed the corner of the flag, wrapped the flag around his right arm, and cut another rope to loosen the rest of the flag.

The entire command flag is now only nailed to the top of the flagpole at the very top, with the rest hanging down.

Shen Du gripped the burlap on the flag with both hands, stepped onto the railing with one foot, and hung on the flag as if clinging to a thick rope.

A roar came from the top of the wooden ladder.

The axe-wielding centurion finally reached the top of the tower, just in time to see Shen Du sliding down the flag. His battle axe swept across, the blade cutting through the hemp cloth half a foot above Shen Du's head, but Shen Du had already slid down.

The lead wire burned to the base.

The explosion of the gunpowder pack was not a loud bang, but a muffled rumble—with a boom, the base was shattered, and wood chips and scraps of iron flew in all directions.

The flagpole lost its foundation, slowly tilted to one side, and then fell down rapidly.

The structure at the top of the tower began to disintegrate after the flagpole lost its support.

Shen Du released his grip the moment the flagpole began to tilt. It was still three zhang off the ground, and the angle at which it fell was exactly the top of the granary on the side.

Shen Du adjusted his posture in mid-air, and rolled forward upon landing, his shoulder slamming into a pile of wood splinters, dissipating most of the impact. Wood chips punctured his shoulder armor, but no bones were broken.

Shen Du did not look back at the ruins behind him. His gaze was already fixed on the south, on the passage between Baojiaying and Chenjiaying that was being surrounded.

The dust and smoke from the collapsing tower rose behind him, like a giant gray pillar shooting straight into the sky.

Then Shen Du raised his head and looked into the distance.

His gaze passed over the south wall of Baojiaying, through the open space between Xiajiaying and Wangjiaying, and extended into the far reaches of the Twelve Linked Cities.

Then he saw something that made his heart skip a beat.

After Baojia Camp was captured, the areas around Xiajia Camp and Wangjia Camp fell silent.

There was no sign of reinforcements launching a counterattack, no torches being moved, and even most of the defenders on the wall had been withdrawn.

The trench connecting Xiajiaying on the south wall was as quiet as an abandoned waterway.

wrong.

The garrison of the Twelve Linked Cities still numbers at least 100,000.

Even if Baojia Camp has been breached, the other eleven camps shouldn't be so quiet.

They should be mobilizing, counterattacking, and using trenches to continuously send reinforcements over.

Unless they have no intention of retaliating at all.

The resistance at Baojiaying was too weak.

They pushed across the 600-step depth in almost one breath.

The entire process of breaching obstacles, filling trenches, blowing up doors, scaling walls, and seizing towers went even more smoothly than during the drills.

The defenders' artillery only returned fire a few rounds at the beginning, and then fell silent.

The number of garrison troops inside the village was also far less than expected. The elite troops under the watchtower were indeed capable, but a few dozen elite soldiers could not change the overall situation.

This doesn't seem like a tough battle; it's more like a carefully orchestrated trap.

Shen Du suddenly turned around, grabbed the stair railing, and rushed down the stairs.

"General Zhu Neng!" he shouted as he ran, "Where is General Zhu Neng? Immediately send someone to the central command to deliver a message—do not push deeper into enemy territory!"

But it was too late.

The vanguard cavalry of the Yan army had already poured into the depths of the Twelve Linked Cities through the opening opened at Baojia Camp.

Chen Heng led three thousand iron cavalry at the forefront. Their mission was to take advantage of the chaos caused by the breach of Baojia Camp to penetrate deeper into the enemy's territory and disrupt the entire defensive system.

Amidst the chaos, Shen Du spotted their banner in the distance—a black flag embroidered with gold edges, moving south at an extremely rapid pace.

Ahead of them lay the most central area of ​​the Twelve Linked Cities, the open space between the Central Camp and the Northern Camp.

The open space looked very spacious, making it ideal for a cavalry charge.

But Shen Du suddenly realized that, if he was not mistaken, there should be a dense array of cannons and crossbowmen on both sides of the open space, the east wall of the central camp, the west wall of the northern camp, and behind the crenellations.

Those weren't temporarily transferred in; they were ambushes that had been set up long ago.

Baojia Camp is a pocket, and the opening of the pocket has been opened; the vanguard of the Yan army is crawling into the bottom of the pocket.