Chapter 178
Chapter 178 – Battle of Liyang – Part 8
October 13th .
East of the "New River . "
During the past three days, Tong and his entire army constructed this 10-kilometers-long wall using the Minecraft-soil-blocks to stack on each other in a bricked-wall formation . The wall was three meters in height and 4 meters thick . The top of the wall was wide enough to station the archers for the siege warfare .
Unlike the unfinished river, the mud wall that Tong built covered from the southern original Yellow River to the edge of Taihang Mountain Range . It was similar to the Historical Gates and Passes that was created with bricks and stones, but with a weaker foundation of mud and soil .
But this wall had a disadvantage, there was neither gate nor passage that could cross . It was made for the sole purpose of delaying the Imperial Army movements .
This afternoon, Tong detected the incoming troops from the west . The leading army suddenly stopped moving and drew back to make camp, which went according to Tong's initial plan .
'That's good, but it's odd . Are they bracing for the winter? Don't they want the city before the cold wind arrives?'
It did not take long for Tong to realize his shortcoming . In the night of the same day, the red dots in Tong's radar map, which indicated the Imperial soldiers highlighted, began crossing the Yellow River to the south .
'They're moving south? Wait, aren't they trying to get to Liyang?'
'Wait, wait, wait! They can march along the river by the south bank!'
'Dammit! I haven't thought of this before!'
Tong smacked his forehead in frustration . The Imperial generals were not stupid enough to headbutt Tong's barricaded formation . These armies had chosen to take a detour to avoid fighting in a disadvantageous position .
'I fOOked up again . But it's salvageable . '
'The transportation is somewhat slow . Only a couple thousand men can cross the river at a time . '
New ideas to sabotage the Imperial Army kept coming inside Tong's mind as he had many weapons to deal with these crossing soldiers . He did not act right away because he was choosing which method would be the most efficient in this situation .
After 30 minutes of deep consideration, Tong made his decision .
'Water tactic and fire tactic is too wasteful of resources . The fire attack last time didn't give me lifespans for the kills . I have to farm a bit this time . '
'… I can ambush this, but I have to move alone . I won't waste my soldiers here . '
Tong dressed up in black clothes again and packed several swords, arrows, spears, repeating crossbows, and a set of his iron armor into his inventory . In his [Inventory] slots, one of the slots carried Yellow River water . Another one had boiling cooking oil . And the other one had multiple cubic blocks of stones .
With all preparation done, Tong left his camp and headed toward the southern river .
'I wonder . How far can I jump with all of my passive buffs . '
Tong stood two hundred meters away from the river bank, taking a deep breath . He equipped a sword from his inventory to get his [Sword Mastery]'s 10x status boost . Stacking with his 15x [Demonic Body] passive buff, he thought that he should have 25x of his status attributes now .
All of these attributes should allow him to jump across the 500-meter river . Even if he failed he should land into the middle of the water, he thought .
Tong gritted his teeth, held his breath for a second before he started dashing toward the river . His sprint speed burst went from zero to 100km/h in a second .
'Crap! It's too fast! Bullet time!'
The speed of his full power running shocked Tong to the point that he had to overclock his brain to adjust the change . Because of the sudden burst of speed and the 10 G-Force, Tong could not breathe . His brain and his vision went blank for a second before he crashed directly into the river water .
*SPLASH*
The cold river of the Yellow River woke Tong up from his sudden loss of consciousness . He swam back to the shore and reflected from his failed attempt .
'I remember that I handled my speed just fine when I was in a fight …'
'Maybe I didn't use my full speed at that time?'
'I want to train some more . Haiz, so many things to do . So little time . '
'If I use a bullet time before I run, can I overcome the G-Force?'
'I lacked training . All I did was strength and stamina training . I've never practiced running using my full strength . '
Tong sighed . This mistake was another rare setback for him because he did not train enough . If his attributes were still on the level of ordinary human, he would have been in perfect condition . But since his attribute status kept getting boosted from the system skills, he had yet to master controlling them .
Realized that he could not handle the sudden burst of speed yet, Tong changed his method .
'Screw it, I'll just swim through the river normally . I don't want to risk jumping too high and get myself killed by the gravity!'
He walked straight to the river, returned the sword in his hand into his inventory, threw away his wet clothes, and started swimming .
In a few minutes, he already reached across the river . Tong put on new dry clothes and armor set, getting ready for action .
…
Huangfu Song and several of his elites boarded the ships and crossed the river . A total of three thousand men landed on the shore, while the boats returned to the other side to fetch another batch of soldiers .
The scout that escaped the other day reunited with the group and told everything that happened that day to Huangfu Song . Alas, he did not witness how Tong created the rapid stream, so he missed the crucial information .
The general looked at his surroundings with a bright smile . There were plenty of trees and resources he could take on this side of the river . He could use these woods to make more rafts or ships to transport their supplies or soldiers, or he could build siege weapons, such as battering rams or siege towers for the upcoming battle at Liyang City .
All landed soldiers did not idle around . They rushed over to secure a suitable ground to make another camp on this side . Some of them carried torches for their friends while the others without a light were busy cutting woods to clear out the spaces .
A dozen other free men were hammering stakes into knots of several long ropes, which the other edges of the ropes connected with the other side of the river . They attempted to make multiple rope bridges so the rafts and boats could get to the other side faster .
Because of the urgency of the incoming winter, Huangfu Song rushed his troops to cross the river, and he wanted his entire 65,000 men to get on this side before the sunrise .
He wanted to play a mind game with the rebel force . If his army showed up on this side tomorrow, the rebels would be in a panic and would think that the Imperial force had reinforcement from Puyang Commandery, which was the south of here . None of them would have believed that he crossed the river overnight .
By harming their army's morale this way, Zhu Jun on the other side could find a chance to exploit it or siege the wall if needed be . As for Dong Zhuo, Huangfu Song saw him as an excess army that could be used as cannon fodders or a diversion to get the rebels' attention .
"Three thousand men a trip … This can take a while . "
Watching the ships docking on the other side, Huangfu Song calculated the times he had to take to transport all of them .
Suddenly,
*SPLASH*
The night in this world was usually silent unless ones were in the middle of a noisy camp . If there was something unusual or a sound, they could hear it from a distance away .
'That's a big splash . Someone jumped into the river?' Thought Huangfu Song .
'The sound came from the other side to my right . Isn't that direction from the rebel's camp? Is someone jumping into the water to swim at this time?'
From his logic, fishermen would not loiter around these areas as the rebel force was here . The only explanation was they were trying to cross the river as well .
'They probably noticed us from our torches, so they sent a careless scout across the river?'
'Ha! Fool! It doesn't matter if you know we're here or not . We'll kill all of you sooner or later!'
Huangfu Song shouted, "Men! Get ready for combat! I detected a group of spies coming from the rebel camp! They are trying to cross the river at the moment . Get ready!"
The Imperial troops looked at his direction with burning eyes . They were looking forward to a fight for many days since they had been stranded by the forest fire .
The lumberjack soldiers stopped what they were doing and took out their weapons . Everyone formed ranks without the direction from their general as they got used to fighting without a direct order . The torch holders took turns and threw their torches forward to the empty ground to get better visibility up front .
"Over there! I saw a shadow!"
One of the soldiers who had good eyesight spotted a silhouette of a man . That person had just gotten out of the water and was sorting his equipment .
"Approach quietly and use night arrow! I don't want to burn the surrounding forest!" Commanded Huangfu Song . "Don't bother saving your arrows! You can fire at will!"
The archers of Huangfu Song crept upon the shadow . Once they got into the range, they nocked their bows with their arrows and fired without waiting for another order .
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
The arrows flew passed the spot where the shadow had been located, but they got no reaction sound of a hit target or a man's cry .
"Target missed! Raise the torches!" The archer captain shouted .
Everyone with the torches raised them up high and pointed them forward . The ones without a bow lighted another torch and threw it forward .
"Be careful not to hit the trees! We don't want another forest fire!" The captain turned around to reprimand the torch thrower .
While he was looking away, the shadow jumped at the captain .
*SHUA*
A blade slashed through the captain's neck with great force, sending his head flying .
The torch illuminated the figure of the shadow . The real shape of a young man in iron armor appeared .
"To think that I can really role-play a Dynasty W*****r game in real life today . I'm thrilled . "
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"And the price of forcing me to increase my [Sin] … IS DEATH!"
"GIVE ME YOUR REMAINING LIFESPAN!"
Tong did not stop after killing the archer captain, he leaped to the nearby archer and slashed horizontally without aiming .
The blade hit his body armor, yet the impact force and the speed overcome the durability of his body armor . The blade cut through his armor and cut down into his abdomen . Tong's blade got stuck after the blade hit the other side of his armor .
Tong let go of the blade and took another sword from his inventory . He charged to another archer .
'I'm not strong enough to cut them through armors . Maybe I should try polearms next?'
He thought as he swept through the archers in the line formation down one after another . </your>
