Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1182 – Great Zhou Attacks
7th month, 18th day, Luoyang City.
Since midnight, the sky had started drizzling. As morning approached, the rain grew heavier and heavier, causing the entire Great Xia camp to become really muddy.
Within the central commander camp, Han Xin gathered the six Legion Generals and was having the usual morning meeting.
Seeing the curtain-like rain form outside of the camp and the water gathering up and forming a stream on the ground, Leopard Legion Corps 1st Legion General Wei Zhang asked, “Commander, looking at the situation, the rain will not stop in a short while, should we continue sieging?”
Based on the plan, the 1st legion was the vanguard for the siege.
Han Xin was worrying about that. After, thinking about it, he said, “The plan does not change. As we enter the 7th month, storms and rains are constant. For us to wait for the arrival of a sunny day would be really difficult. There is no time other than the present; let’s siege today. Although it’s bad for us, it is also bad for the enemy.” As he said that, Han Xin took a look at Wei Zhang and said, “Are there any problems?”
Wei Zhang was originally a little hesitant. After all, a storm was not good for a siege. However, the look from the marshal made him throw all the worries in his head away. He got up quickly, smacked his chest, and said, “Do not worry, marshal, the 1st legion is going to put us on the right foot.”
“Then go and prepare!”
“Yes, marshal!”
Apart from the 1st legion, the others were in charge of being on alert, and they would not all charge in together.
Such an arrangement was because the portion of the city wall that was blown apart was limited, and not many forces could charge up. If they swarmed up all at once, the enemy might use the chance to take them down wave after wave.
Secondly, they did not know what the situation was like within Luoyang City. The command headquarters could only understand roughly what was going on through the spies of the Shanhai Guards and not the actual situation.
As the geography was more complicated, an alley battle relied more on intel.
The Shanhai Guard spies were trying their best to scout for where the Han army had set up castles, where they had heavy troops at, and how the entire defense line was formed up.
Only when they had all this information would Han Xin give the final order to attack.
The attack from the 1st legion was a probe. At the same time, it was also a move to help them take down a starting point within the city to help the main force take down a sentry base. Thirdly, it was also to suppress the Han army.
As the responsibility was huge, Wei Zhang had hesitated. Seeing that he had already made the promise, no matter how difficult it was, he would have to fight a good first battle.
Since it was just a meetup, it naturally ended quickly. Looking out at the leaving Legion Generals, a look of worry flashed in Han Xin’s eyes; this weird weather worried him.
As they entered the 6th year of Gaia, the weather had never been normal.
The 4th month and the 5th month were the months when the seedlings needed water the most. However, there was no rain during this time. To get the water they needed for farming, farmers from different villages had to fight one another.
Luckily, Great Xia’s water irrigation facilities were well done and perfect, tiding them past that period. When they did not need any more water, the heavens did not care and kept having huge storms.
The moment there was rain, it often lasted for a week.
As they entered the 7th month, storms continued across the land, leading to disasters caused by floods.
The grain was about to ripen and was going to be harvested. If the weather did not turn for the better, grain that many months of hard work went into was going to spoil in the ground, granting them little yield.
There was basically no difference in the wheat in the north and the rice in the south.
Great Xia chose such a time to attack Great Han. Apart from Great Jin providing grain, they also took into account the harvest of the first grain season, which would allow them to get grain in Great Han land.
Who would have expected that after a few rare days of sun, the rain would fall once more?
Before this, the Great Xia cavalry managed to obtain grain from around the Great Han territory because the civilians all felt that the harvest was coming soon. As such, they happily handed over their grain.
If the storm did not stop, the crops would spoil in the dirt, and the outcome would be catastrophic.
“Let’s hope it turns sunny soon!”
For this attack on Luoyang, Han Xin was not afraid of the main battlefield. What he feared was the logistics.
…
9 AM in the morning, Leopard Legion Corps 1st legion camp.
After confirming the military order, the soldiers of the 1st legion got busy, braving the rain as they walked out of their tents. They lined up row by row outside.
The north city wall that collapsed yesterday had been cleaned out by the engineer soldiers, forming a 20 meter wide hole. Through the hole, one could roughly see defensive works formed by stacking sandbags.
Last night, Luoyang City was similarly sleepless.
Wei Zhang wore his Mingguang Armor. Riding on a black warhorse, he arrived at the front of the formation to motivate the troops, “Boys, the marshal has given the responsibility of the first battle to us, which shows his trust in us.”
“How do we repay him?” Wei Zhang hollered.
The rain drops around shook in the air, giving out ‘Balala!’ sounds.
“Victory!”
“Victory!”
70 thousand soldiers clanged their weapons and shouted out, not caring about the rain that was pelting on their heads.
“That’s right, victory!”
Wei Zhang waved his hand and held his machete forward, “Attack!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
70 thousand soldiers proceeded forward with a division as a unit.
At the same time, the 200 P2 Type Cannons were pushed out once more, entering a canon formation. Their goal was to provide cover fire for the 1st legion.
‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’
Just as the 1st legion pushed forward, the cannon fire broke out. They aimed at the city walls on the two sides of the breach, blowing up the cannons, arrow turrets, and defending soldiers there.
Under the attacks of such dense cannon fire, smoke bellowed on the city wall as it was hit time and time again.
When Wei Qing got the report, he sighed with emotion, “As expected from the soldier saint, he does not make any mistakes and does not give any chances. Send down my orders, let the defending soldiers retreat!”
“Yes, general!”
No one would have expected that the Great Xia Army would actually continue to siege even during such a weather, not giving the Han army anytime to prepare. If Great Xia did not siege today, the Han army would have enough time to perfect their defensive work.
Now, it seemed like they would not have a chance to do so.
As they spoke, the 1st division had arrived near the city protection river.
A night of heavy rain caused the river water to swell up.
“Engineer soldiers build the bridge; archers be on the alert!”
The Major General was really experienced, ordering his troops as he stared at the opposite shore of the river. After less than an hour, five wooden board floating bridges hung on the city protection river, going up and down along with the height of the water.
Throughout the process, the opposite shore was totally silent. It was obvious that the enemy had no plans to disturb the Great Xia army and were determined to hide behind their castle.
“Charge!”
The Major General did not hesitate. He sent the spearmen as the vanguard to cross the river first. After crossing the river and slightly organizing themselves, they crossed the messy breach and headed right into the city.
As the breach was huge, even if the Han army wanted to fill it up, they could not. They decided to use the bridge as the center, using the houses and streets as barriers to build the first line of defense.
The moment the Great Xia army entered, what they faced was a round of arrow rain.
“Archers cover fire; charge in for me!”
The Major General was really brave. He personally led his troops and braved the enemy arrow rain to charge at the formation in the streets. As long as they took down the street entrance, they would be able to occupy the entire street and complete the mission handed to them by the command headquarters.
When the Great Xia army got close, the Han army jumped out of the castle and fought against the Great Xia army. The moment they engaged, they went all out, showing signs of not stopping till they took the enemy down.
Both sides consisted entirely of first-class elites. When experts crossed swords, there was no such thing as warm up.
“It was either you die or I die!”
Very quickly, with the street entrance as the center, there were many deaths and kills. Fresh blood was washed away by the storm, flowing on the green stone floored streets. In less than an hour, the rainwater was dyed blood red.
The Great Xia army’s attacks were resolute, while the Han army’s defense was stubborn.
The two sides had fought for two hours over it, and the victor still could not be decided. A small street had actually blocked the advance of the Great Xia army.
Wei Zhang got anxious and scolded out, “Rubbish!” Holding his machete, he hollered, “Personal Guards, follow me!”
“Yes, general!”
Two thousand Personal Guards followed Wei Zhang over the city protection river and entered the city.
When the 1st division soldiers saw their Legion General charge in personally, they all felt really ashamed. The Major General even wanted to kill himself on the spot for his sins.
“Boys, let’s go all out. If we do not take it down, how will we have face to see the marshal?”
“Kill!”
The eyes of the surviving 1st division soldiers flushed red as they charged forward like wolves and tigers toward the enemy.
The Personal Guards led by Wei Zhang were like a sharp sword, stabbing right into the stomach of the enemy.
Facing such a clean and sharp attack, the Han army finally could not hold them off and were forced back. Seeing that, Wei Zhang grasped the opportunity to lead the troops over the fortress charged in further.
When the 1st division soldiers saw that, they quickly followed behind.
The moment a breach was opened, there was no way for them to defend anymore. After three full hours of intense killing, the Great Xia Army paid heavy sacrifices to finally take down the street entrance and build up their sentry camp.
The remaining soldiers all fell to the ground due to how intense the battle was, not bothering about the accumulating water on the ground. They laid on the sandbags, sitting on the ground to rest.
On their faces were joy and pride.
During this battle, they used the swords in their hand to protect the honor and glory of the 1st division.
The start was always the toughest. After taking down the first street entrance, the following attacks became much easier. The following divisions followed them into the city. By the time that night had almost arrived, they had already taken down an entire street region.
A breach had been taken down in the impregnable Luoyang City.
…
Night, Handan City.
People had been paying attention to the Battle of Luoyang City due to the presence of the communication compass and nothing could be hidden away. Di Chen had been paying attention to the Battle of Luoyang. More specifically, he focused on the intel from it.
After learning that the Great Xia army had made their way into the city, Di Chen finally made up his mind.
“Men, summon general Lianpo!”
“Yes, my king!”
Very quickly, Lianpo rushed into the Imperial Reading Room.
Di Chen did not beat around the push and directly said, “The time is right. Send troops to attack Great Jin tomorrow.”
“Yes, my king!”
Excitement flashed across Lianpo’s eyes.
This was the first time Great Zhou had gone on a conquest since their establishment of the dynasty. Moreover, their opponent was Great Jin, which made Lianpo really delighted.
…
7th month, 19th day, just as the Battle of Luoyang entered a stalemate, Great Zhou suddenly declared war on Great Jin.
The Palace Guards legion corps, Pill Sun legion corps, King legion corps, and Blood Red legion corps, apart from the forces left behind to defend against the beast caves, the four legion corps all headed out.
The Zhou army that covered the land surged for Great Jin like a wave.
