At 100 years old, he joined the army in place of his granddaughter, and became a national war god.

In front of Zhenhai Pass, on the sea.

One after another, the warships of the Eastern Barbarians emerged from the sea fog.

The bow of the boat cut through the waves, and the white spray that followed rolled along both sides of the hull.

Dozens of warships were lined up in two horizontal rows, like soldiers in formation, imposing and full of pressure.

On the city wall of Zhenhai Pass, Xu Cheng and Qin Hao stood side by side, their eyes fixed on the approaching black ship shadow.

Xu Cheng's hand rested on the edge of the battlement, his nerves taut and extremely tense.

"These guys are really serious this time."

Qin Hao saw that the sailboats had stopped and were in formation, and his heart sank. He had a premonition that something was wrong.

"The fact that their formation is so dense shows that they never intended to approach slowly from the beginning."

"They wanted to use firepower to directly break through the entrance to Zhenhaiguan, first attacking Zhenhaiguan from a distance, and then launching a land attack when we suffered heavy casualties."

Upon hearing this, Xu Cheng turned to look at Qin Hao and asked in surprise, "What should we do then?"

"All the siege catapults and repeating crossbows have been burned. We have nothing to fight back from such a distance."

"way?"

"The only option now is to hold out to the death." Qin Hao frowned, his expression extremely grave. "We must block the entrance completely."

This time, he felt more passive than ever before.

"The entrance to the waters of Zhenhaiguan is a natural narrow passage with shallows and reefs on both sides. Only the middle waterway can accommodate large ships."

"If the ships of the Eastern Yi want to break through Zhenhai Pass, they must enter from there."

"As long as we block the entrance, their big ships won't be able to get in."

Xu Cheng nodded and said, "Okay, I'll send more people over there right away."

……

On the sea, Murakami Heiji stood at the bow of the ship, his eyes fixed on the customs gate of the town.

This was also his first time visiting Zhenhaiguan.

The pass was narrower than he had imagined, which gave him quite a headache, but he figured that with the capabilities of the Eastern Barbarian warships, they could easily and quickly pass through.

At this moment, Murakami Heiji's lieutenant walked to the bow of the ship, cupped his hands, and said, "General, we are now within firing range. Shall we begin the attack?"

Murakami Heiji shifted his gaze from the pass to the figures moving above the city wall.

He said coldly, "Begin the attack."

"First, smash oil drums into the pass to push down the garrison on the battlements."

"Use the giant crossbows to block the passages in the city wall, sealing off the firing arc and passages before they can fill the gap from the front."

"I want them to hide inside the prison and be beaten to death."

The lieutenant bowed and accepted the order, then turned and waved to the messenger.

The messenger climbed up the crossbar in the middle of the mast, pulled out a horn from his waist, and blew the horn to signal the attack.

The sound of horns echoed across the sea, and the ships at the front began to adjust their angles. Ropes tightened around the catapults at the stern, and wooden barrels were lifted onto the catapults, their mouths stuffed with grease-soaked strips of cloth.

Someone held a torch close to the edge of the cloth strip, and the flames spread along the cloth strip to the barrel, leaving a scorch mark that was widening on the surface of the barrel. Then the arm of the catapult was loosened, and the wooden barrel was thrown out, drawing a scorching arc in the air and landing on the city wall of Zhenhaiguan with a burning trail.

For Zhenhaiguan, this landing was like a cannonball crashing heavily onto the city wall.

A loud "bang"!

The first fire barrel exploded in the middle of the city wall.

The barrel shattered, fuel splattered onto the wall, and the fire spread between the brick seams and the battlements.

The fire ignited the ropes along the edge of the battlements and a bundle of arrows that hadn't yet been put away. Flames climbed up the brickwork and spread to the soldiers defending the city.

The soldiers on the city wall crouched low behind the crenellations, the flames passing overhead being deflected by the sea breeze, but the fuel that had splashed onto the ground continued to burn.

Then came the second wave, the third wave...

The fire buckets landed in different places on the city wall, some hitting the edge of the crenellations and knocking the soldiers guarding behind them to the ground.

Some of the fire landed on the city wall passageway, and the burning fuel flowed along the brick seams, causing the fire to spread rapidly in all directions.

Thick smoke billowed upwards along the edge of the city wall, obscuring the sky above it.

At the same time, the first batch of giant crossbow bolts followed.

The soldiers had just withdrawn from the edge of the fire line when they were hit head-on by arrows, falling backward and sliding to the ground against the battlements behind them.

Xu Cheng crouched behind the cover inside the city wall, staring at the passage blocked by the fire line, and turned to Qin Hao, saying:

"What a vicious attack."

"In just one round, Zhenhaiguan was turned into a sea of ​​fire."

Qin Hao held his breath and said, "Hold on, wait until they get closer, until our arrows can reach them, then we'll make our move."

Xu Cheng nodded: "Okay!"

At the bow of the ship, the lieutenant stood beside Murakami Heiji, looking at the thick smoke billowing from the Zhenhai Pass city wall, and said smugly, "General, the Daqian people's arrows can't reach us at all. They can only stand on the city wall and take the beating."

"Look at the ships in their port. They dare call those warships warships? They'd probably fall apart if they went out to sea."

"Hahaha!"

"General, our army will surely win this battle."

A burst of laughter erupted on the deck.

At this moment, the Dongyi sailors became excited and showed a smug look on their faces.

Some people patted the side of the ship, while others spat in the direction of the town's customs office.

A sailor standing on the ship's railing grinned and shouted towards the city wall, "Hey! You big, shrewish dog on the city wall! Where's your centenarian war god? Why don't you even dare to show your face?"

"Where are your warships?"

"Hurry up and bring them out to meet our Dongyi warships."

"Let's see whose warship is more powerful."

Another sailor chimed in, cupping his mouth with both hands and shouting, "I heard your Great Qian is also building warships? How's it going?"

"In my opinion, let's not waste our time."

"A thing that can be burned with a single fire is just a death sentence no matter how many of them come."

The lieutenant listened to the shouts but did not stop them; instead, he smiled and shook his head.

He turned his head to look at Murakami Heiji and asked, "General, do you think that centenarian is really too afraid to come?"

Murakami Heiji kept his eyes fixed on Zhenhai Pass, and replied with a cold snort, "It's best that you've come. Let my warships raze Zhenhai Pass to the ground, take his head, and avenge my brother."

The lieutenant nodded with a smile: "General, you are truly mighty. What trouble could a centenarian possibly cause?"

"What hundreds of thousands of troops? They are no match for the Eastern Barbarian navy."

"And what kind of good warships could they possibly build with their technology?"

The laughter on deck continued.

Heiji Murakami ignored the laughter and turned to give orders: "Prepare for the second attack. I want to turn Zhenhaiguan into a sea of ​​fire."

"Let their soldiers' bodies be riddled with holes."

"Wait until the fire is completely burned before going ashore, then rush in and kill them all, leave no one alive."

The lieutenant nodded and turned to relay the order.

The fire was still burning on the city wall of Zhenhai Pass.

Smoke rose from between the battlements and the city tower, turning the sky above the city walls a grayish-yellow hue.

The soldiers retreated a few steps along the passageway in the city wall, while others circled around from both sides, attempting to extinguish the fire that was spreading inwards from the side.

But they were forced back by the terrifying flames.

Xu Cheng stood behind the bunker inside the city wall, glanced at a soldier beside him who was piling sand toward the edge of the firing line, and then looked up at the sea.

Those guys are preparing to attack again.