Chapter 1639 - 517: Breaching the City, First Over the Walls and Despair
Chapter 1639: Chapter 517: Breaching the City, First Over the Walls and Despair
In the twelfth year of Da Xia, December 29th, the final moments before dawn.
The east, south, and north city gates of Beishuo City began to suffer the first wave of frenzied, bombardment-like arrow rain from the Xia Army.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh......
"Block it, front row raise shields, just block it!"
"Everyone keep your heads down, crouch behind the city wall!"
"Don’t move, as long as they don’t come close, you don’t move."
"Rear ranks loose arrows, slow their charge, move move move!"
.........
Compared to the smaller south and north gates, the main east gate was undoubtedly taking the most terrifying attack at this moment. Atop the city wall, dozens of armored officers were moving along the inner side of the formation, constantly barking sharp orders.
Whether in bow-making or arrow-making, Great Xia’s level was above Beishuo’s. If there had still been some doubts about this before, then after the two great battles the day before yesterday at Zhongyang and last night at Baimu City, everyone in Beishuo, from top to bottom, had basically accepted this fact.
So, trying to match the Xia Army in arrow formations was definitely a no-go.
The Beishuo Garrison was clearly well aware of this, so the moment they saw the Xia Army’s arrow rain coming, the soldiers in the front row immediately raised their tall shields; the others either shrank down behind the wall or hid behind the shields. Only a very few people alternated between the gaps in the battlements, occasionally shooting cold arrows downward, trying to slow the Xia Army’s advance.
Clang... clang... clang......
The continuous arrow rain shot by the Xia Army either nailed into the city wall or struck the shields; the number that actually managed to hit the defending soldiers was almost negligible.
"Rear ranks keep shooting, front ranks set up ladders and rams, storm the city!"
However, the Xia Army never intended to rely on their arrow formations alone to take the city.
Liu Yuan, who was in midair, saw that the front-line soldiers were now less than fifty meters from the wall. After giving a loud order, he was the first to leap down, landing directly on top of the city wall.
Bang......
Liu Yuan had only broken through to Xianyang Level this year. With Golden Bone Talent and the added boost from his Holy Pattern, his strength was just under 6 jun. Placed among Xianyang-level cultivators, that might not count for much, but here on this stretch of wall, he was an invincible presence.
As he crashed down, he stomped out a powerful shockwave, blasting all the Beisuo Soldiers within more than ten meters around him flying.
"As expected, Lu Yang was right, there’s something off about Beishuo’s city walls..."
Yet after he had shaken away all those around him, no joy appeared on Liu Yuan’s face. Instead he looked down at the ground, his expression growing even more grave.
With strength over 5 jun, no matter how thick a regular cast-iron wall was, this stomp should at least have dented it a little. But this Beishuo wall hadn’t deformed in the slightest.
Bang......
"Most of this wall was poured with Hundred Forged Level Iron Slurry. To have a heritage of over a hundred years, Beishuo’s foundations really are astounding!"
After Liu Yuan, Yue Feng and Xiao Kangcheng also jumped down one after another. Yue Feng drew his blade and scraped along the ground. When he saw the silver forging patterns exposed inside—no fewer than a hundred lines—his tone couldn’t help but carry a trace of amazement.
In the entire Left Army, aside from the chief commander Xia Chuan, there were a total of ten Xianyang Level experts: Xu Ning, Liu Yuan, Yue Feng, Zhou Yuan, Meng Yi, Zhao Long, Hou Tong, Mu Longhe, Mu Qinghe, and Xiao Kangcheng.
Since they were attacking from three sides, naturally the personnel had to be evenly distributed. Before dawn, Xia Hong had already made his arrangements:
Liu Yuan, Yue Feng, and Xiao Kangcheng would lead twenty-two thousand elite Xia Army main forces to assault the main east gate, with Xia Hong personally supervising and commanding; Xia Chuan would bring Xu Ning, Zhou Yuan, and Meng Yi, leading the Left Army’s newly formed First, Second, and Third Camps—fifteen thousand men in total—to attack the North City Gate; Mu Longhe, with Zhao Long, Hou Tong, and Mu Qinghe, would lead the Left Army’s newly formed Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Camps—another fifteen thousand men—to attack the South City Gate.
The situation inside Beishuo City was perfectly clear to Great Xia.
There were a total of thirty-five thousand Cold Resistance Level defenders. Among them, ten thousand were elite Beishuo Army troops; the remaining twenty-five thousand included only eighteen thousand from the Defensive Army, while the other seven thousand had been hastily pulled from the Hunting Team and couldn’t really be considered a regular army.
Of course, there were also nearly two hundred thousand Earth Digging Realm cultivators inside the city. But it was already daytime now; even Great Xia, at its current stage, couldn’t send nearly two hundred thousand Earth-digging Realm cultivators out to fight in broad daylight, let alone Beishuo.
So those two hundred thousand Earth-digging Realm cultivators were bound to be of little use.
As for Xianyang Level, counting the heavily injured Yang Zhun, Beishuo’s side had a total of only twelve: six from Chen Cang, five from Beishuo. And it wasn’t just Yang Zhun who was badly wounded—Chu Xuan Kong, the leader from Chen Cang, had both arms crippled. Calculated like that, the Xianyang experts inside the city could only really be considered as ten.
Since Great Xia held an absolute advantage in both troop numbers and high-end combat strength, splitting their forces to assault from three directions at once was naturally the optimal choice.
Beishuo, on the other hand, was completely on the passive side. Each of the three Xia Army columns was large—fifteen thousand on the south and north sides, twenty thousand at the main east gate. If even one front was breached, the result would be catastrophic. If they wanted to hold the city, they could only split their own forces in response to the Xia Army, and they also had to ensure that all three city gates were held.
As soon as Yue Feng landed on the wall, he immediately saw that Beishuo had stationed fifteen thousand men at the main east gate, more than half of them elite Beishuo Army.
"They’ve got some sense, concentrating their heavy troops at the main gate. But if they think this few men can stop us, that’s far too naive..."
"Dongxin, come with me to hold them off. The rest of you keep shooting, douse the wall with water, don’t let the Xia Army climb up."
Yue Feng let out a cold laugh. Seeing the two Xianyang Level experts Mo Haiwen and Yu Dongxin charging toward him, he drew his blade and went up to meet them head-on.
Of course, he wasn’t alone; Xiao Kangcheng was right behind him.