Chapter 1706 - 540: Xia Army’s Defensive Strategy, Siege Tactics and Coordination
Chapter 1706: Chapter 540: Xia Army’s Defensive Strategy, Siege Tactics and Coordination
"Front troops raise shields, rear troops shoot arrows!"
At the south gate of Jinyang City, Lin Kai stood in the air, giving cold orders.
On the eight-meter-wide city wall, five thousand troops were spread out horizontally. Following the command of the commander Lin Kai, the front one thousand gathered in the parapet area, raising shields to block the army’s arrow formation below, while the rear four thousand shot arrows madly downward through the shield gaps from the parapet.
Swish, swish, swish, swish......
The overwhelming rain of arrows descended upon the bottom of the city, clashing fiercely with the arrow rain shot by the allied forces of the two towns below, instantly stirring up a gale and resounding all around.
The two-town allied forces were also equipped with bows. Although they charged fiercely, they were not without tactics. When they reached within two hundred meters of the city wall, tens of thousands of rear troops had already set up longbows, frantically shooting at the city wall defenders.
The Cold Resistance Level force is at least 1 pony, and the development of Wuchuan and Jinshan in the past two years is evidently good as well. All the soldiers are equipped with strong bows with a pull of over 1 pony. With tens of thousands of arrows raining down simultaneously, although the Xia Army has the advantage of being up high, their arrow rain is simply too small in scale, and upon contact, it was overwhelmed.
Clang, clang, clang......
The arrows shot out by the Cold Resistance Level are extremely powerful, coupled with the strong thrust added by the bowstrings, the impact force is incredibly terrifying.
Although the defenders of the Great Xia were hiding around the parapet and had shields blocking the front troops, the power of the arrow rain was too ferocious and vast. After several rounds of arrow rain, many shield-holding soldiers in the front troops were forced to retreat backward frantically by the arrow curtain.
"Swap out and step up, it’s just an arrow formation. Wuchuan and Jinshan are both routed troops, only five thousand strong. They don’t have many arrows, just withstand this onslaught!"
Lin Kai was originally one of the six battle formation order flags, responsible for the intelligence transmission on this northern expedition battlefield of the Xia Army, but after Yuwen Dao led the right route army out of Jinyang to attack Jinshan Town, he temporarily assumed the role of commander of the Jinyang defenders.
Originally, the main purpose of the Jinyang defenders was to guard against the large army led by Cai Qiu that could move south from Bone-Eroding Path at any time. The ten thousand Cold Resistance Level troops in the city were stationed around Bone-Eroding Path, but with Moao Ping bringing news of the battle at Aikou City, and learning that the allied forces from Jinshan and Wuchuan were heading to Yinhe Valley, Lin Kai immediately redeployed the defenders back into the city.
An hour earlier, Lin Kai had dispatched a large number of scouts out of the city to investigate the allied forces. Before the allied forces had even left Hanqiong, the scouts had already relayed the message back.
The allied forces had just experienced a major defeat at Aikou, and the arrows on the soldiers were not full at all. It was easy to see from so close that the arrow quivers behind them were at most only half full.
The arrow quiver regulations on the southern slope are fifty arrows per, and half means only twenty arrows, how many shots is that enough for?
So when Lin Kai saw the defenders on the wall being forced aside by the arrow rain, he showed no sign of panic, ordering others to step up and continue the shootout with the forces below.
"Originally thought it was a hundred thousand strong army, turns out half of them ran away, and it’s at most only fifty thousand. They dare to siege the city with this many people, it’s as if Cai Qiu doesn’t even consider the soldiers of the two towns as humans?"
At this moment, it was not only Lin Kai standing in the air but also five other people: Zou Yuankai, Li Longkai, Ying Yi, Bai Wuting, and Lu Sheng.
These five were all members of the earliest batch of the Great Xia’s Hunting Team. Although each had their roles, all five had broken through to the Xianyang Level, and naturally were drawn to the battlefield.
Upon hearing Zou Yuankai’s words, Lin Kai glanced at the approaching allied forces below, his eyes flashed with a strange light, and he smiled: "Never considered them as people in the first place. Knowing it couldn’t be breached but still wanting them to attack, it’s just hoping to try their luck. Capturing Jinyang would be a big gain, failing that, depleting Xia Army’s strength would still be a small gain for them."
Zou Yuankai and the others’ faces darkened, a feeling of frustration swelling within.
In essence, Cai Qiu profits no matter win or lose, only differing between a big and small profit.
"Compared to Moao River, my Southern Slope is inherently weak. It’s normal to suffer losses against a formidable neighbor, but if Cai Qiu thinks that these remnants and defeated troops can deplete Xia Army’s strength, he is being quite fanciful!"
Lin Kai, however, saw things very clearly, and after speaking, gave a cold laugh before looking at the army below that was less than fifty meters from the city gate and ordered sharply: "Abandon bows, ignite coal fire to repel the enemy!"
Upon his order, the soldiers around the parapet on the city wall immediately picked up torches from the ground, ignited them, and forcefully threw them down toward the front row of the enemy below.
Above the city gate, there were hundreds of parapets, each surrounded by three to five torches to be thrown down, which in total amounted to thousands of fire sources.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...
A little over ten meters away from the south city wall, the previously ordinary-looking ground started making sizzling sounds upon contact with the firelight, indicating something flammable was buried underneath.
Boom......
Moments later, the firelight soared high into the sky, abruptly shooting up over ten meters.
The flammable material buried in the ground was laid along the outer perimeter of the south city wall, spanning seven to eight kilometers. With the fire surging up, it formed an enormous flame wall of seven to eight kilometers in length, forcibly separating the allied forces of the two towns.
"This......"
"The firelight, why is it so intense?"
"They dug trenches in the ground and buried a lot of wood."
"What wood, wood can’t flare up like this in an instant? It’s coal dust, these pieces of wood are covered with a lot of coal dust, igniting upon contact with fire."
"Not just coal dust, there’s also a lot of coal stones laid underneath, this fire won’t be extinguishing anytime soon!"
.........
The allied forces weren’t fools. As the front row stopped, some braved the rain of arrows from the city to get close to the firelight for a better look, and they quickly understood the origin of the firelight.