Chapter 58
Chapter 58 – Battle of Anping – Decisive Battle Part 1
October 28th . 8 AM .
Zou Jing and Guo Dian stood on top of their watchtower, observing their troops below . At the same time .
Yesterday, they took a big hit from Hua Shi and her ambush troops which ended 3,000 lives of their soldiers here in Anping . Her existence and her archery skill was now being aware by the two generals and their troops .
Everyone in their camp called her "Goddess of Death" .
Zou Jing gazed at the north gate of the fortress in solemn . He had never expected a tough fight against bandits like this before . The damage from the fortress formation was manageable, but Hua Shi herself was a nightmare . Furthermore, her light arrows never missed, which this rumor alone already terrified his troops and caused their moral to sink rock bottom .
This morning, he heard another two bad news . Zhang Tong, whom Zou Jing had thought he was abducted by the escaped prisoners, had returned .
Secondly, Xin Ping Army withdrew and headed back to Yie yesterday .
This meant that they had to deal with the bandits with their remaining forces . If they continued to suffer set back and couldn't handle Zhang Tong and Hua Shi with these remaining advantages, they would be a laughing stock of the entire China .
Guo Dian did not feel too well either as he had already lost almost of his troops . He only had 3,500 men left . Meanwhile, Zou Jing only lost 500 men of his initial 3,000 . The incompetence of his men shamed him, and put him in an awkward position in this alliance against Tong .
Today, they decided that they should end this fight by crushing the tricky fortress in front of them . They would launch an all-out assault and they would not stop until the fort in front of them was burned to ashes .
One hundred trebuchets had been lined up which were two times in numbers if they compared it with yesterday siege . They was being pushed to the frontline with all oil pots, stones, sharp irons and woods were being loaded into the trebuchet slings .
Because of the lack of troops, they had to reduce the number of trebuchet crews . As a result, the range of the trebuchets were shorten . But both Guo Dian and Zou Jing no longer cared as they had blood in their eyes and lost their logic sense .
. . .
10 AM .
All trebuchets were ready . Guo Dian and Zou Jing immediately sounded the war drums, and all of their troops march forward .
Shield bearers and heavy infantry were on the frontlines while archers and trebuchet crews were in the back . All light cavalry were in the third line, standing by for any change of situation .
They had learnt from their previous battles against Tong and Hua Shi . With the both wings of the walls was gone, they only need to worry about the trenches, archers and Hua Shi's archery . Thus, they put their meat shields in front, and prepared to storm the fortress before dusk .
*BANG*
The moment the frontline stepped into the range of 350 meters of the trenches, a thunder sound was heard and light arrows flew toward them .
Zou Jing felt something pierced through his left shoulder, and a finger-size hole appeared .
Zou Jing was shocked by the sudden event, he escaped down the watchtower without hesitation .
*BANG*
Another sound of bang arrived again, and Zou Jing's aide who was standing next to him a moment ago fell down from the watchtower .
Guo Dian who was beside him was panic . He hurried down the tower and hid behind his men .
. . .
In the trench, Tong clicked his tongue in annoyance . He shot at Guo Dian and Zou Jing once each, but he missed both killing shot as they were too far away .
Seeing that Guo Dian and Zou Jing were spook and hid themselves, Tong switched to his pistol and shot at the incoming troops instead .
After that moment, each time the invader troops heard a thunderous sound, one of the 100-man commanders would fall . At the same time, the light arrows with eyes continued to piece unlucky soldiers in the backline .
Afterwards, they reached the 200 meters range . Half of the trebuchets stopped moving, and their slings were rotated and swung forward . Countless of objects were throw to the trenches, and the light objects even flew higher and hit the walls . One of the stone hit the top of the wall along with the garrison soldiers, killing a few unlucky men .
The archers from the alliance force also followed through with their volleys toward the trenches, which caused more damaged to Tong Army .
At the same moment, rains of arrows were pouring from the trenches and the remaining pill boxes, showering the incoming meat shield infantries .
Death throes and screams vibrated in the battlefield as both sides exchanged their projectiles . However, majority of the sounds came from the invading side as the defending side had cover, and were grouping in small squads instead of staying still in large number .
The meat shield frontline did not stop moving . They charged forward at the trench squadrons in front of them with their spears .
The arrow barrages never stopped . The charging shield bearers dropped down one after another . However, more than half of them reached the first trench line, and they attacked the troops inside the trenches .
The trench squadrons would not roll and die by a simple attack from the front, they counter-attacked with their pikes and spears .
Both armies entered deadlock clashes as their frontlines collided with each other .
. . .
11 . 30 PM .
One burning oil pot was launched from a trebuchet . It slammed onto the wooden wall and the fire was lit! Flame spread through the wooden walls as if they were dry coal in a furnace .
The garrison soldiers inside were in panic as some of them attempted to extinguish the fire . Zhang Liang who was inside the fort managed to control the fire before it engulfed the entire fortress .
However, the burned parts of the walls became fragile from the flame . The robes that tied wooden logs and stakes together were burnt and severed . Within 10 minutes after the fire was doused, the burnt wall collapsed .
The wall had been breached!
Seeing the wall had been crushed and the inner fortress became visible, Zou Jing ordered his troops to focus attacking at the breached wall section .
Then two youths jumped up from the trench and ran directly toward the incoming troops . One of them was a bald youth carrying a giant blade, while the other one had a standard iron sword and a black strange object in his other hand .
Zhou Cang with his giant blade cleaved three of the incoming soldiers sideway in one swing, and he continued to repeat the same motion on the other incoming soldiers .
Tong used his sword in his right hand to chop down any soldier that came close to him, while his other hand aimed his pistol toward the others that were out of his sword range .
Within the first line of trench, all trench squadrons retreated back to the second line of defenses while they kept their head down to avoid all incoming rocks and arrows from the alliance army .
Tong and Zhou Cang stood their ground for little over five minutes before Tong shouted an order at Zhou Cang .
"Withdraw to the hole! Stop them there!"
Because two of them could not hold all enemies from crossing the firstline, they had to retreat .
Afterwards, both of them cleared up the enemies in front of them and dashed back to the second trench line, in front of the destroyed wall .
Zhou Cang jumped into the trench and disappeared from the sight of Zou Jing and Guo Dian troops . However, Tong stayed behind .
"You go no further . "
He turned around and resumed shooting his pistol at any soldier that came into his range .
"That's the enemy general! Kill him!"
The archers of Guo Dian saw this chance, they ignored their friends who were within the arrow range and launched a barrage of arrows at Tong's location .
Seeing the black rain of arrows coming toward him, Tong grabbed a nearby corpse and lift it up as if it was his shield and covered his head .
The arrow rain made contact with fleshes of the corpse and the soldiers in front of Tong . Five arrows slipped through his guard and penetrated into his arms and legs .
Tong gritted his teeth and glared at the incoming forces as he activated his regeneration skill . Light shone on his wounds and all arrows that were stuck on him were ejected with mysterious strong shockwave . His wounds closed itself and disappeared as he had never gotten any injury .
Blood got into Tong's eyes, his adrenaline rushed into his blood vessels . He forgot about his existence and all his thought . Killing any enemy in front of him was the only thing in his mind .
Hundreds of Guo Dian and Zou Jing troops rushed at Tong, but sword afterimages mowed down everyone that moved forward .
However, there were troops that bypassed Tong and attempted to rush into the hole in the wall . Zhou Cang who had retreated back reappeared in front of the collapsed wall with his infantry unit . He shouted to Tong .
"THE TROOPS ARE IN POSITION, SIR!!"
Hearing what Zhou Cang shouted, Tong snapped out of his zone and took a step back to withdraw from the front .
*SSIK*
But before he ran back another step, a spear was thrown and pierced through Tong's chest!
Tong shuddered from the shock of pain, then five more spear were stabbed into his chest by the nearby imperial soldiers of Zou Jing .
*SSIK* *SSIK* *SSIK* *SSIK* *SSIK*
Tong's vision turned yellowish from the lost of blood and pain from his cracked bones and pierced lung, yet he gritted his teeth and activated his regeneration skill once more .
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"
*WINK*
Light flashed from his body and released a circular shock-wave which pushed back all attacking soldiers . At the same time, his wounds disappeared again .
But more soldiers who wanted an achievement for killing the enemy general kept coming at Tong . They stabbed out their spears at him once more .
"TIME STOP!!"
A loud shouted came out from Tong, after which ten soldiers around him became headless as their head flew up the sky . Meanwhile, Tong reappeared at the surface behind the third line of defense, and he ran back to regroup with Zhou Cang .
Guo Dian and Zou Jing who observed from afar behind their men were shock at the sight .
"Monster …"
"Is he really an immortal?"
Those were the words they uttered before a scout rushed in and reported an urgent message .
Wen Chou troops were spotted on the east of this battlefield and they were heading this way . They estimated that they would arrive here at noon .
Zou Jing immediately looked at the position of the sun . They had roughly less than two hours before Tong's reinforcement arrived .
Guo Dian and Zou Jing ordered their light cavalry to sortie and head east to intercept the incoming Wen Chou Army . Three hundred horsemen of Guo Dian and a thousand horsemen of Zou Jing charged out .
While monitoring the invader and firing her arrows, Hua Shi saw this movement . She whistled and sent a relayed flag signal to Bo Cai who was hiding in the west three kilometer away with his 200 light cavalry .
Bo Cai saw a flag signal that was waved on top of a tree, he ordered his men to charge out . Their targets was the backline trebuchets and the archers .
After sending the signal, Hua Shi continued to display her archery skill and her light arrows, but two of the stray arrows flew toward her .
*THUD*
One of the two arrows pierce her shoulder!
*THUD*
The other one pierced her chest!
