10 AM, Lin’an South city gate.
In a short one hour of sieging, the Mongol soldiers had already attacked for three consecutive waves. The south city wall was dyed in fresh blood, but it still stood strong.
This short hour was a total catastrophe for the Mongol warriors. Some were squashed by stone, some were burned by boiling hot vegetable oil, and some were sniped by crossbows.
Their methods of death varied, but they still died in the end.
As time went on, the siege battles did not have any progress. Zhang Hongfan’s face became more and more solemn, and the sweat on his hand dripped onto the ground. No matter how he wiped it, it could not be wiped off.
Although Kublai Khan did not say anything, he emitted an invisible pressure that could crush Zhang Hongfan.
Zhang Hongfan had no choice. He could only grit his teeth, sending wave after wave of warriors up to try and breakthrough.
The stubbornness of the South Song army and the sharpness of their defenses had totally exceeded his expectations.
“How did this happen?”
As the top deputy under Bayan, Zhang Hongfan had followed Bayan to take down south Song. If not 30, he had taken down at least 20 cities, and he had never faced such stubborn resistance.
“Are these the weak Song people?”
Standing on the command tower, looking out at the fearless South Song newbies, Zhang Hongfan could not believe his eyes.
It was like in one night, someone had cast magic on Lin’an City.
All of the city’s civilians were pumped up. They swept out all the weakness from before, and they were now filled with killing intent, becoming wolves to have a good fight with the Mongols.
“What a special race.”
Zhang Hongfan muttered, his expression was not good, as the number of trump cards in his hand were getting lesser and lesser. Once he used all of them up, if he did not achieve a good result, what awaited him was merciless treatment.
Appointments and ranks were all just a dream.
At this very moment, a messenger walked up to the command tower. It was a Personal Guard of Kublai Khan, “General, his majesty has orders. He wants you to lead the frontlines.”
When Zhang Hongfan heard that, his legs turn into jelly. He was thinking that the king was totally disappointed in him and was ready to execute him.
Fear swept at Zhang Hongfan like a flood. In that instance, Zhang Hongfan was even thinking about jumping off the command tower.
“General?”
Seeing that Zhang Hongfan was uncertain, the messenger reminded him.
“Oh, good, good. I’ll go now.”
Zhang Hongfan suddenly awakened and felt ashamed about his thoughts. He was a general and could not be so afraid.
Even if he wanted to die, he had to die like a man.
In the end, it was the successive failures during this period of time that affected Zhang Hongfan’s confidence.
…
Under the leadership of the messenger, Zhang Hongfan saw Kublai Khan soon.
Kublai Khan sat on the throne. Currently, his expression was not as relaxed as before, but it was not solemn. As a mighty lord of a generation, Kublai Khan had seen all types of situations.
“Minister Zhang, I want to know how long it will take before we take down Lin’an City.” Since he had a bunch of Han officials around him, Kublai Khan was becoming more familiar with how a Han race emperor acted.
Zhang Hongfan opened his mouth but could not utter a word. Obviously, he wanted to beat his chest and say that he could take it down in half a day, but he did not dare to.
When Kublai Khan saw that, he emotionally said, “Minister Zhang, I am really disappointed.”
When Zhang Hongfan heard that, he subconsciously knelt down and kowtowed, “I’ve failed you, I deserve to die!”
As he said that, he kowtowed, doing it so hard that his head started to bleed.
Looking at the ‘performance’ of his general, Kublai Khan said, “Get up. I’ll give you another 100 thousand troops. If you cannot take down Lin’an City, give me your head.”
Zhang Hongfan was alert, and he did not nod right away. Instead, he showed his loyalty to Kublai Khan once more and said, “I would not dare.”
“Why not, are you afraid of South Song?” Killing intent rose up from Kublai Khan’s body like a wolf king in the grasslands that was ready to tear the enemy to shreds.
Kublai Khan could not allow a cowardly general to lead his troops.
“I’m not afraid. I’m only worried about your safety. The enemy has 200 thousand troops in the north. If we take 100 thousand men to attack, they might take the initiative to strike us,” Zhang Hongfan explained.
Kublai Khan’s expression relaxed, and the killing intent disappeared, “You do not need to worry about this. I have 300 thousand troops defending, not to mention South Song not daring to attack, even if they dare, I’ll not let them return.”
Kublai Khan had not seen the ability of the player forces. As such, he was really confident in the Mongol cavalry. These men had followed him to conquer the south and had never lost.
He still did not believe that there were a group of soldiers even stronger than his. The defeat previously was definitely because of the losers trying to deflect responsibility. As a result, they made the enemy out to seem so strong.
He did not believe it.
There was a sentence that was really apt to describe this, ‘Experience can help one, but it can also kill someone.
Kublai Khan was making such a mistake, using his past experience to judge his current opponents. How would he know that outside of this Battle Map, there was an even larger main map?
Although Zhang Hongfan did not agree with this conclusion, he did not oppose. These 100 thousand reinforcements were his last hope. Obviously, he needed to grab this chance to save his own life.
The matter was settled just like that.
Very quickly, 100 thousand Mongol troops left the north barracks and went toward the east and west sides.
…
Lin’an City, north city wall.
As the main general of the 200 thousand troops, Guo Ziyi did not appear on the main battlefield and instead stayed here. He looked down from above, paying attention to the movements of the enemy. He was ready to strike out at any moment.
To fight head on against the South Song troops, the Mongol army walked out of the north barracks and formed up in front of their camp. The Mongol army used ten thousand men as a unit and had a total of 40 cavalry formations, making one’s hair stand on its end.
Such a shocking battle scene could only appear in the game world.
Kublai Khan’s imperial chariot also appeared on the battlefield. However, it was in a more central position. 40 formations formed 40 lines, and he was on the 4th and 5th line of the formation.
At this very moment, five ten thousand men units moved towards the two wings. Obviously, Kublai Khan had ordered them to assist the east and west gate troops.
Even so, the entire cavalry formation was endless, so it was no wonder he was so confident.
Guo Ziyi gave out a smile, “They have finally acted. I was afraid they would not!” At the start of the battle, the Grand Council had evaluated Jia Xu’s plan.
With the strength of the 150 thousand cavalry forces, they could defend against 350 thousand Mongol cavalry forces at most. Anything exceeding that would be too much, and they would have to give up.
Hence, Wuqi had to bring out most of the defending numbers to attract the enemy to throw more men onto the frontlines.
As expected, Kublai Khan fell for it and sent in 100 thousand more troops.
With that, the situation became much better for the South Song camp.
Once the 100 thousand cavalry had slowly passed, Guo Ziyi started moving.
“Send my order, get ready!”
The moment the flag on the city wall was waved, the troops immediately got the signal, and like a wave, they swiftly and accurately spread the message layer by layer. When they got the order, all the soldiers were jolted awake and used the shortest amount of time possible to check their equipment and ensure that they were at their best battle conditions.
A huge battle was about to start.
“Strike!”
Guo Ziyi was really decisive and did not hesitate at all.
‘Hong! Hong! Honghong!’
The war drums sounded, and the flag was waved.
On the left wing, Er’Lai, who had gotten a lot of credit for killing Bayan, suddenly opened his sleepy eyes. Underneath him, Luoshan shook its body awake.
“My boys, kill together with me!”
Er’Lai did not say anything and lightly jolted Luosha. Like an arrow, he led the charge toward the Mongol army. The 50 thousand elite cavalry forces were like one body as they charged out, dust bellowing.
Weirdly, they did not charge straight. Instead, they followed Er’Lai and went from left to right, making a huge curve.
At the same time, Zhao Zhuang at the right set off too.
Similar to the left wing, the right wing also made a curve. If nothing went wrong, the two groups of troops would meet at the center of the enemy.
During this entire process, the 50 thousand cavalry in the middle did not move and did not show any intentions of charging.
What a weird charge.
The Mongol army noticed the weird situation with the players and reported it to Kublai Khan, “They really dare to come. Good. Let’s have a good battle.”
Although he became the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, his body still flowed with the blood of the golden family of the grasslands. He was a warrior and a general that had slain many.
Kublai Khan had never been afraid of war.
On the contrary, the provocation by the players ignited the will to fight in him. He could not curb his boiling blood and decided to fight.
‘Hula! Hula!’
The Mongol cavalry around him were all elites. Naturally, they too feared nothing. With the military order given, they all turned into wolves that yearned to tear up the enemy.
At basically the same time, the Mongol cavalry army started moving. First, it was the first row, then the second, and then the third.
Throughout the entire process, only the core of the formation where Kublai Khan was at did not move. Loyal soldiers guarded around him, and they were the last line of defense for their emperor.
The wind was howling, the horses were neighing, and the earth was roaring.
At 11 AM, a sudden cavalry versus cavalry war broke out on the north outskirts of Lin’an City.
Since there were too many cavalry involved, the dust that rose because of the charging cavalry was pretty much going to swallow the entire battlefield.
Among the rumbling smoke and dust, the player middle troops started to move!
