Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 995 – Bloody Battle Chang An
Since the ascension, the player forces, especially the cavalry forces, continuously entered and exited the city gates. Who knows what they were doing. As time went on, everyone felt that it was normal, and they were not weirded out by it anymore.
This was only on the surface. Each time night fell, Chang An City was really solemn.
With the help of the officials and the generals, Ouyang Shuo used the Divine Martial Guards to cleanse the city, wiping out the An Lushan spies in Chang An City.
Helplessly, time was limited, and the Divine Martial Guards were not professionals at this. Furthermore, the ministers in the dynasty were all afraid, so the cleansing process did not go really smoothly.
There were definitely fishes that escaped the net.
Ouyang Shuo was helpless, and he could only order Shihu to increase the city gate defenses and cut off contact with the outside world.
…
4th day of the Battle Map, Baqiao.
Baqiao was located 10 miles away from Chang An City at the Ba River. It was the east gate of Chang An City, which connected the various cities in the east of Chang An.
Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo sneaked to Baqiao and sent off Feng Qiuhuang and her group.
The cavalry going in and out was mainly just to cover to main force moving away from the camp. There were only 20 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry in the city east camp led by Ma Xiu.
As for the remaining 100 thousand elites, with Ran Min as the main general and Ma Chao as the deputy, they would go up north toward Lingwu City to gather with Guo Ziyi’s troops.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to use Chang An City as a bait to attract the rebels to buy time for Guo Ziyi to destroy Shi Siming’s troops, and then proceed to attack An Lushan’s base Fanyang.
To end this fast, Ouyang Shuo had to take the risk and move 100 thousand elite cavalry up north to help.
With such elite forces helping, coupled with the ability of Guo Ziyi, he would be able to destroy the rebel base if officials were not monitoring him and other Jiedushi’s were not butting heads.
The prerequisite would be that Chang An City must be able to survive the attacks of the rebels.
The new emperor sent out the signal to wipe out the rebels as soon as he ascended. He sought the people’s help and showed a sign of wanting to survive together with Chang An. If Chang An was lost, everything would be over.
To defend Chang An city, apart from recruiting new troops, Ouyang Shuo also ordered Jiannan Jiedushi to lead 30 thousand troops up north to assist Chang An City.
Based on rough estimations, including the 30 thousand heavy armored mountain barbarians, 20 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry, 30 thousand Jiannan elite soldiers, and 60 thousand new troops, they had a total of 140 thousand soldiers.
As for the young people they recruited, they numbered around 100 thousand.
With such an army, Ouyang Shuo was confident about fighting the rebel army.
************
In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.
Chang An City’s battle preparations were nearing their end, and the rebel vanguard forces had appeared on the outskirts of Chang An. A day ago, the Jiannan Jiedushi led his 30 thousand troops and finally arrived in Chang An.
A huge war was about to begin.
On the 10th day of the Battle Map, the rebel army finally arrived outside of Chang An City.
During this expedition, the An Lushan camp, apart from the 300 thousand players, there were 150 thousand rebels led by An Lushan’s son, An Qingxu.
450 thousand elite troops were enough to swallow everything.
Apart from that, there was a group of special guests. They were dressed shabbily and looked terrified. They were normal people that were herded forward.
The army set up camp 10 miles outside of Chang An City. If they headed forward any further, they would be at the Ba River.
Di Chen and the others crossed the Ba Bridge and looked on at the towering Chang An City. Looking at the moats outside, Di Chen smiled, “I knew that the old fox would use this trick.”
During the Battle of Muye, Ouyang Shuo had made use of moats to win the clashes. Now, he was repeating the same trick.
“He is lacking in tricks.” Chun Shenjun laughed confidently.
After a while, they rode their horses and returned.
“Let’s return. We will siege tomorrow; let’s see what skills that old fox has.”
…
The next morning, the huge army crossed the Ba River and arrived right under the nose of the city wall.
The north side and the east side of Chang An City had a wide city protection river and moats that made it hard to attack. Hence, the rebels chose to siege from the west and the south.
The huge army went around the east and got ready.
To prevent chaos during the commanding, Di Chen and An Qingxu agreed that the 300 thousand player forces would attack the south while the 150 thousand rebels would attack the west.
Just getting the army into position used up two hours.
On the city wall, fear rose up in the eyes of the newly organized army troops when they saw the gigantic enemy troops. They had just learned how to form up, and they were already tossed onto the cruel battlefield.
To train the new troops, Ouyang Shuo evenly distributed the 60 thousand on the west and south gates. The 30 thousand Jiannan elites and the 30 thousand heavy armored barbarian infantry were both arranged on these two sides.
Apart from that, the barbarians also acted as monitors of the troops.
The true battle started at 10 AM, and many normal civilians were forced by troops to push siege chariots, trebuchets, and arrow turrets toward the city walls.
Bumping into the moats, they built temporary bridges.
These civilians were taken from around Tong Pass to be cannon fodder to reduce the casualties of the army.
“These bunch of beasts; they are crazy!”
When Shihu and the other generals saw that, they were shocked. However, this was a life and death battle, and they could not show any mercy.
“Fire!”
Following the order, the trebuchets on the city walls started to work.
A loud and sharp whistle broke through the sky, and many black dots appeared from above the city walls like numerous sparrows. The stones swiftly expanded in one’s vision and thousands of huge rocks pelted down from the skies into the sea of people. Thousands of innocent civilians fell into pools of blood, dyeing the earth underneath.
The cries and screams of the people before they died filled one with emotions. When the defending soldiers saw that, they could not take it, as these people were their brothers. However, military orders must be strictly obeyed, so they could only tear up as they launched the attacks.
Di Chen and the others showed no mercy. When one group died, they sent another.
“Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed.”
To the civilians, only by going forward would they have a chance at survival. They had no other choice, and they could only charge forward with their heads tucked.
In a chaotic world, life was worthless.
As there were no side effects carried over from the Battle Map to the main map, it was easy for one to show their dark side. Ouyang Shuo randomly used up the country’s treasury for resources for that reason, while Di Chen sacrificed people for the same reason.
With an army at hand, they could easily change the rules of the battle.
To the civilians of the Battle Map, whichever side it was, they were devils from another world.
As they engaged, a long-ranged battle ensued. The goal of the rebels was simple; they wanted to use the arrow turrets and trebuchets to suppress the enemy’s long-range fire and clear the obstacles for the infantry.
In less than an hour, ten thousand civilians died during the battle. Their bodies filled up the moats, completing their final mission.
Di Chen smiled in satisfaction, and he gave the order for the troops to go all out. He had to see the moment of the army breaking the walls, charging into the city, and capturing Ouyang Shuo.
He could see that victory was in sight.
“Kill!”
Elite divisions stepped onto the bodies of the civilians, braving the arrow rain and launching an assault on the city walls.
The enemy was like a flood. With their iron armor, good weapons, and great attacking aura, they terrified the defending soldiers.
Once the army was 500 meters away, the defending troops retaliated.
“Freely fire!”
The trebuchets were suppressed by the rebels, but the defending troops still had arrows.
Under the closely packed arrow rain, numerous deaths occurred and fear spread.
Without orders, even if it were a sea of flames in front of them, the rebel soldiers would not dare to take a step back. They stepped onto the blood on the ground in front of them and launched round after round of attacks.
Getting closer and closer to the city walls, the retaliation grew stronger and stronger. The arrows were like a huge storm, and stones were dropping on them like birds. Those huge stones were so heavy, causing the ground to shake.
When a stone fell into the enemy formation, it would break a huge hole in the group. The rebels were hit by the shrapnel and cried out.
The rebel soldiers only charged forward, not caring about death and injury.
At that moment, the area within 200 meters of the west and south city walls were hell. The hundreds of arcuballistas fired at the same time as arrows covered the sun. Blood and flesh splattered everywhere.
In this terrifying metal storm, humans were as weak as paper. The soldiers at the front could not even shout ‘help’ before they were instantly ripped to shreds.
Screams, cries, fresh blood, death, and panicking people. The arrow rain was like locusts flying over, and the sharp noises from the arrows as they flew across made it hard for one to breathe.
Arrows were shot, and rolling stones crashed down. The rebel army did not dare to raise their heads, and they did not dare to proceed forward. Some of them laid on the ground and acted like they were dead, but they were instantly stepped into mush by the following soldiers.
The soldiers screamed and shouted, pushing one another and stepping on one another. Some people dropped down to hide, but they were stepped on by war horses; this was not a battlefield. In fact, it was like a butcher shop.
The faces of Di Chen and the others were really serious.
Before the start of the battle, they would not have expected that the Chang An troops would defend so stubbornly.
“Didn’t the old fox bring cavalry? Where did he recruit defending troops?” Di Chen did not understand, and a sense of unease started to rise up in his heart for the first time.
The cannon fodder strategy was a good start, but it did not garner them much of an advantage.
The ones doing well were the 100 thousand young men recruited by Ouyang Shuo. In close combat, it was true that they were useless.
However, they could use arcuballistas, throw rocks, throw wood, and move resources. When their country was in danger, these people showed the courage of Tang men, and they were all fearless.
To protect their wives in the city, they were going to fight to the death.
Great Tang was filled with heroes.
