Chapter 50

Chapter 50 – Battle of Anping – Day Two

October 24th, Morning .

Yesterday, Guo Dian Army did not lay siege, but held a staring contest with the defending garrisons . However today, twenty trebuchets were being constructed .

Having learnt from Pan Feng's defeat, they chose not to approach to gate directly . Guo Dian aimed to destroy the wooden walls with stones or range attacks from the safe distances .

However, the walls of the fortress were in strange shapes, and there were trenches surrounding the outer edges of the walls . They could not move the trebuchets into the right range, unless they crossed the trenches or moved into the V-Formation .

Hence, Guo Dian ordered his men to cross the trench fields to approach both corner edges .

Zhou Cang and Zhang Liang who had been overseeing the west walls reported the movements of Guo Dian back to Tong .

…

South Gate .

"They are planning to move trebuchets to the wings of the west walls . Lord Zhou Cang and Lord Zhang Liang had requested an advice from the great immortal . What should we do?"

The messenger cupped his hands as he reported the messages . Meanwhile, Tong was sitting on a chair, observing the movements in his radar map .

The southern troops of Pan Feng Army detached a unit eastward to surround his fort, while Guo Dian Army separated into two units and were approaching the corner-end of the two walls .

"Tell both of them to prepare the ballistae and aim at those trebuchets . Also have the Trench Squadrons stand by at the third lines . "

"As you commanded, great immortal . "

"Haven't I taught you what you should address me?"

"Y-Yes, sir!! Aye aye, sir!!"

The messenger bowed and scrammed away in a hurry .

Seeing the unsightly action of his subordinate, Tong sighed .

His men stopped using "SIR" with him but started calling him "Great Immortal" because Tong had displayed too many miracles recently . He had already become a deity in the eyes of his men .

"Second Uncle . Pan Feng probably won't attack us today . I'm going to the west gate to help third uncle, so please take care of this gate for me . "

"Huh? Okay . But how did you know that they won't attack the south?" Zhang Bao questioned back .

"Pan Feng has just detached his force and it is moving to the east side . So the bad news is, he's going to surround us . But the good news is, they lack troops to lay a proper siege so they won't attack us for a while . "

"They want to surround us? What can they achieve from that? Starve us?"

"Most likely . Perhaps they are thinking we are short on provisions and didn't know that I've just resupplied our stocks . "

Zhang Bao paused and fell into deep thought for a while, then he chuckled .

"Well, let's pretending that we are short on provisions then . " Zhang Bao said in a mocking tone while he was holding his laugh .

Tong smiled and left his uncle with the troops, after which he dragged Hua Shi along with him to the west gate .

"What's your range now, zombie?"

"250 meters . "

"Have you maxed out your skill or what? I remember it was 150 yesterday . "

"It's at LV . 4 right now . It increases by 50 for each level up . "

"Okay, then . I'm going to put you on the other side . Now, here's the plan …"

…

West Gate .

Guo Dian trebuchets squads moved in closer to the edges of the walls . These trebuchets had the range of 200 to 300 meters while the walls was 500 meters away, so they had to get a bit closer .

These toys were not the standard medieval counterweight trebuchets, but ancient manned traction trebuchets that required at least six strong men to operate inside, and over a hundred men to shove a single of these siege engines forward . If one of the crew was missing inside, then the trebuchet firing range would fall short .

In front of them, the infantry that was escorting the trebuchets were busy laying planks and trying to cover the trenches to make paths .

Everything was going as planned . However, a thunderous sound came from the wall in front of them .

*BANG*

The infantry below was shocked by the sound, afterwards one of the eyes of their squad leader exploded then he fell down, lying dead .

At first, they thought he was hit by an arrow, but …

*BANG*

*BANG*

Another two lighting sound was heard and two of their commanding officers dropped on the ground . When they inspected their bodies, they couldn't find any arrow, but they found a hole on the head of the dead bodies .

*BANG*

*BANG*

The gun fire sound continued . One of their 100-man commanders fell each time they heard the sound . It was like the sound of a grim reaper coming to take their lives .

The soldiers of the leaderless teams became panic . They stopped pushing the trebuchets forward and ran away .

Then …

*WHOOSH*

*WHOOSH*

*WHOOSH*

Giant arrows were launched from both on top of the wall and the mysterious bunkers behind the trenches . These thick arrows flew and penetrated any man that stood in their paths, which caused gory and horror scenes .

Despite getting barraged by ballista arrows and Tong's sniping, the trebuchets teams with the surviving squad leaders continued to move forward and put the planks on top of the trenches .

The trebuchets reached their ideal range and the crews were preparing to launch the stone and fire assaults immediately . Then they saw something was moving within the trenches .

Hua Shi and Tong's soldiers were moving within the trenches in small squads . They sneaked in and got close to the trebuchets without them realizing it .

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

A drum signals came from within the fortress . The squadrons within the trenches raised their heads and their repeated crossbows up, then they fired their arrows . The wall of arrows turned the men in front of them into porcupines and fell .

Then a dozen bright arrows were shot to the sky from one of the trenches . The arrows curved in midair and left glowing trails behind . The arrows flew as if they had eyes as they swooped down and piece through the heads of trebuchets crews .

*BOOM*

One of the ballistae giant arrows hit a trebuchets and destroyed it upon the impact . Then more giant arrows hit the rest of the trebuchets .

Similar events also took place in the other edge of the wall . Although they did not have a sniper and the homing arrows, Zhang Liang soldiers in the trenches could still get the job done by destroying all trebuchets and its crews .

…

…

Guo Dian who was observing the battlefield on his watchtower was astonished and shocked . The fortress in front of him was definitely designed by a talent .

'Such complex stratagems . If I attack the gate, then men on the walls will kill me . If I attack the side walls, then I'll be ambushed by the soldiers below . '

Guo Dian face turned ugly . This probing attack was costly and humiliating, but he learnt something from this sacrifices .

"Order the frontline to retreat . "

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Guo Dian Army hit the retreating drums and the remaining troops on the front rushed back from the death traps .

"Is there any updates on the reinforcements from the imperial capital?" Guo Dian asked his officers .

The officers didn't speak . The news hadn't arrived yet or there was no news, so none of them dared to speak up .

Guo Dian clicked his tongue, thinking that his men were all corrupted and incompetence . When the situation required them to be brave or when he needed them to help him, all of them would turtle themselves and never dared to express their opinions .

However, when it was the time to splitting the profits of the taxes, they always competed with each other to speak as if it was the last day of their live .

Guo Dian closed his eyes to calm himself to rethink of a plan .

'The spies said Pan Feng spread their troops to surround the fortress in the east . That means they change their tactics . Are they trying to starve Zhang Tong?'

"Give me a report . What's the last report about Zhang Tong's current grain provisions?"

"My lord, they have less than a hundred tons in the fortress . "

Guo Dian's eyes brightened up . He understood Pan Feng's intention now .

"Send messages to Julu County and ask them to dispatch more provision for us . We will prepare for a prolonged war . "

After sending down his order, Guo Dian looked at the fortress in front of him with determined eyes . He had confident that he could take it down within two months .

…

After Tong heard the retreating drums of Guo Dian Army, he also sounded his retreating drums .

In addition, he ordered his troops to make shifts and rested immediately as they could potentially get raided by night attacks .

Tong clicked his tongue in frustration . He was planning to use the chaos to sneak closer to Guo Dian main troops and snipe Guo Dian down from his watchtower . However, they were almost a kilometer away, which Tong did not have enough confident to kill Guo Dian within 1-2 shots from this distance . He did not want to spook Guo Dian that he could be sniped .

Tong turned around and found that Hua Shi had come back from the frontline . He then told her .

"Zombie, go and rest . I'll need you again tonight!"

"OH!! Are we dual-cultivating again?"

The eyes of Hua Shi sparkled while her drools dripped down from the corner of her mouth .

Black lines appeared on Tong's face . He had thought that this girl had learnt her lessons, but it seemed she was looking forward to it instead .

"No . I will put you on a night raiding team . "

"Aww, what a pity . Today is my safe day . "

"…"

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