The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 208 Attack the City (3)

Within Dengzhou City, Zhu Wen sat in the room and silently buried himself.

Moments later, a guard came in and reported, “General, all the general officers have arrived. They’re all waiting for you to host the military meeting.”

Zhu Wen waved his hand and said, “Let them wait!”

When the guard saw Zhu Wen’s bitter expression, he dared not say anything and quickly clasped his fist in his hand and backed off.

Zhu Wen’s expression was not exactly bad, but it sure wasn’t great. The battle to defend the city the past few days had, for a time, placed Dengzhou in crisis. They were almost breached by the imperial army. If it weren’t for his strategic dispatchment of his troops, sending the Xiao Yong Sect to block the gap, and the cultivator group composed of the Zhongnan Mountain Taoists to put the fire out everywhere, Dengzhou City would’ve had been breached by the imperial army. And he would not by sitting here safely now.

The strength of the imperial army was far beyond Zhu Wen’s expectations. He originally thought that no matter how well-trained the Pinglu army was, they hadn’t been in an actual war. So their battle strength and morale could not possibly be outstanding. Which meant their Military Formation would not have been tight, and they could not have fought in synergy.

That way during the siege, large and small battles would have revealed many flaws, and many opportunities would be lost and taken advantage of. Moreover, the siege war was the cruelest, and the pressure on the siege side was also the biggest. Imagine large stones and logs rolling down the city walls, wooden arrows poured down like iron rain. Most ordinary soldiers did not dare to charge.

It truly embodied that phrase, mountain of blades and sea of fire. Seeing your comrades fall from the ladder and splatter into meat patties would frighten anyone to tears. Some comrades would die before your eyes. You could even see their guts falling out.

However, what Zhu Wen saw in these last few days was the Pinglu’s soldiers charging forward with no regard for their life. They were not afraid to die in battle, nor were they afraid of their comrades dying.

Of course, as new pawns on the battlefield, they still had space for improvement. They had made a lot of mistakes, and their ability to seize opportunities was not yet strong enough. Otherwise, they would not have been driven off the city walls time and again.

But this group of soldiers had a fearless impulse that no matter how many enemies were in front of them, no matter what situation they were facing, they dared to charge forward. With their blood boiling, death was the last thing they were afraid of. That fearless attitude was more than enough to make up for their shortcomings, the Dengzhou Army elites were suffering in a bitter battle.

There was an eternal truth on the battlefield. The brave soldiers were afraid of the fearless soldiers and the fearless soldiers were afraid of the crazy soldiers.

How could you fight when facing a bunch of soldiers who were impervious to reason? They did not care about the result, and all they wanted to do was to charge at you and to take you off the city walls. It was fortunate that there were only a few like that, otherwise, the morale of the Dengzhou Army would shatter.

Zhu Wen kept on thinking about one thing the past few days. Why were these new Pinglu recruits so unafraid of death? Why were they so crazy? He thought for a long time and had no answer, because the obvious answer was one that Zhu Wen was not willing to admit. It was simply that Li Ye was such a good commander.

Zhu Wen no longer wanted to think about all this so he put aside these mixed thoughts and left his room for the meeting. In any case, he was not a person who admitted defeat easily. When he encountered a strong opponent, he would become stronger still.

However, before Zhu Wen left, a guard rushed in and reported that the imperial army began to attack again.

Zhu Wen was shocked, he looked up the night sky and thought, “It’s almost midnight.”

These couple of days, the imperial army did not care about when they attacked the city, be it day or night.

...

On the seventh day of the siege.

As dawn approached and the sunlight scattered inside and outside of Dengzhou City, the imperial army was assembled. Li Ye came to the Military Formation and watched over Dengzhou City.

After days of bloody battles, Dengzhou City had been destroyed beyond recognition. The female wall was already half-collapsed and damaged. There were traces of blood and fire everywhere. It seemed not a clean spot could be found. Cracks and gaps were everywhere. The city wall before Li Ye had been washed by the blood and turned dark brown.

The Dengzhou army generals stood at the head of the city wall, and their formation was fairly neat. However, in Li Ye’s opinion, those people were all fragile, and apparently, there wasn’t much fighting spirit left in them. Surrounded by the generals, Zhu Wen stood on the head of the opposite wall and looked toward at Li Ye’s side.

Li Ye kicked his horse’s belly and slowly trotted to the front of the tower. He looked at Zhu Wen, smiled and said, “General Zhu, in my humble opinion, Dengzhou City will be breached today, it will be better for you to surrender.”

His voice was not loud, but more than enough for people nearby to hear.

Zhu Wen answered calmly, “Prince An, in my opinion, you could never breach Dengzhou City. You have been attacking for six days and Dengzhou City is still safe and sound, isn’t it?”

Li Xiao smiled and pointed to the broken city wall, “General Zhu, you still dare to say that the city is safe and sound in this state?”

Zhu Wen’s face suddenly turned, he snorted and then forced himself to say, “As long as Prince An does not breach the city, then it is safe and sound.”

Li Ye replied with a smile, “If that is what General Zhu thinks, then I have no choice but to believe you. You know I do think that there is a bond between us. We’ve met once before the battle. To tell you the truth, I do admire you, general. I have been wanting to talk things over with you again. Today, this city will be taken down by our army. If the general does not retreat, I am afraid that there would be no such opportunity in the future. How about you come down and we’ll have a chat before I attack again?”

Zhu Wen’s expression had not changed at all. He then replied, “If Prince An insists on breaching the city, my attitude remains the same. Keep dreaming! As for the talk, truth be told, I too have great admiration for Prince An. So why not come up and we’ll set up a bench on the wall and let’s discuss everything. I’m sure it would be a great conversation, what say you Prince An?”

Li Ye laughed out loud, “I’ve heard that general’s bravery is widely known among the three forces. How come you don’t even have the courage to leave the city? I can assure you, general, we’ll just be talking, there will be no fighting.”

Zhu Wen replied, “If you have the guts, come up.”

Li Ye then replied, “If you aren’t afraid, come down.”

“You come up!”

“You come down!”

Li Wei and Zhu Wen both spat and snorted the word ‘coward’, and then stopped talking to each other.

Li Ye returned to the front line and looked around at the Pinglu troops. The soldiers looked determined and tenacity emanated from their eyes. Everyone exuded a strong fighting spirit. As their eyes fell on Li Ye, he felt a sense of heat.

Looking at these young men’s brave faces, Li Ye couldn’t help but be moved.

He spoke slowly, and his voice traveled far away, “Ever since the Huang rebels created chaos in the Central Plains seven years ago, the mountains and rivers have been in ruins. The never-ending smoke and fire have caused people to flee the land. It has been very unfortunate for our country, and the state has been sinking. Men, this is the time to leave your blood on the battlefield, kill the rebels and serve your country. This is the time to show your loyalty. You are all hot-blooded young men. Since you have joined the army, you’ve been training day and night without rest. Isn’t all of what you have been through for this moment? A real man should be yielding a three-foot sword to serve your country and your parents. Your names will be remembered for future generations! When this is all over, you shall marry and father children!”

Li Ye pulled out his horizontal blade out the sheath and yelled in a passionate tone, “If a man does not show his ambition, then he has wasted his eight-foot body! Now the rebels are in front of you, so is Dengzhou City. I want an answer from you. What do you say?”

Three thousand Wolf-tooth Troops replied in unison first and their voices resonated, “Kill the rebels to serve the country, kill the rebels to serve the country, kill the rebels to serve the country!”

Then the 100,000 Pinglu troops screamed in unison, “Kill the rebels to serve the country, kill the rebels to serve the country, kill the rebels to serve the country!”

Then the 160,000 imperial troops screamed in unison, “Kill the rebels to serve the country, kill the rebels to serve the country, kill the rebels to serve the country!”

The cries were like a storm wave amidst the imperial troops. Their voices reverberated outside the three walls of Dengzhou City.

At that moment, everything was silent, the sky had lost its color. All that was left were the hot-blooded soldiers’ determination to kill the rebels!

Seeing this situation, the defenders of the Dengzhou City wall looked at each other with horror. Some of them couldn’t help retreating a few steps and even lost their grips on the guns and spears in their hands. Even Zhu Wen and other generals showed fright in their eyes.

Li Ye turned his horse around to face the almost ruined Dengzhou City from the war fire, and yelled, “Today, I, Li Ye, will face the enemies with my fellow soldiers. And we will NOT retreat even if our blood is splattered all over the battlefield. There is no turning back today, the only direction is forward! If we all die today, then we’ll use the skin of our horses to wrap our bodies. If we live, we will take Chang’an together!”

He wielded his blade and pointed forward. Li Ye then screamed, “Pass on my command. SIEGE!”

“General’s orders are to siege! Copy!” The message-guard then galloped, and dust flared up around his horse.

“General’s orders, SIEGE!”

“General’s orders, SIEGE!”

The order was spread far and wide, and it reached each quarter quickly and accurately.

“Honk, honk!” The massive, heavy horn sounded.

“Pom, pom!” The stout drummer waved his drumsticks and slammed them on the drums heavily. The sound of the drums reached the depths of the soul.

The troops marched forward with the rhythm of the drums. The sea of solders had been divided into neat square-shaped formations. They headed straight for Dengzhou City from three directions.

Their marching steps coincided with the beat of the drums. It seemed that even their heartbeats were consistent with the drums. Hundreds of drums all sounded in unison, and it seemed the only sound left between heaven and the earth was the sound of drums.

With the soldiers every step, the sound of their armor rand. The grinding sound of their armor made the blood boil.

“Pom, pom, pom pom, pom pom, pom pom!” The sound of the Russian drums gradually became dense and concentrated. The troops also accelerated, and they sped up in formation.

“Pom, pom, pom, pom!” The drums started to sound like torrential rain, suddenly, soldiers from all three sides began shouting and screaming. Their formation surged into Dengzhou city in waves.

Earth and the mountains shook at that moment, even Dengzhou City seemed to tremble. It seemed the waves of iron armor could destroy the city and pull the village, even move mountains to fill the sea. There was just no stopping them, even if God had got in the way, they’d kill God and if Buddha was in the way, then he would be killed!

The two armies had been engaged in the war for several days, but the Dengzhou army generals atop the city wall had never been as scared as they were now. Seeing the armored imperial army charging this way in waves had made many of the archers on the wall tremble. They couldn’t even hold their bow properly. It did not matter how much the generals yelled at them, some soldiers just couldn’t stop trembling. Some couldn’t even control their fingers and accidentally released their arrows.

“Release the arrows!”

Seeing the tide of the imperial army reach the front of the city wall, the generals on top of the wall yelled out commands. And amid the dense sound of bow strings, iron arrows flew out, forming a dark cloud in the air and falling onto the imperial army formations.

When the arrows landed on shields, they made loud creaking sounds. Some directly bounced off and some got stuck on the shields. But more arrows shot into the ground. Some of the soldiers got shot in their armor, which stopped them for a moment, but then they continued charging.

Even the soldiers that were shot in critical areas and blood sprayed from their bodies. They just kept on running. It wasn’t before a few steps later when they screamed and eventually fell. Gaps and blanks began appearing in the military formation, but they were quickly filled by other soldiers. The waves of armored soldiers were still unstoppable, and smoke flared up from under their feet. But the smoke was quickly overwhelmed by the more soldiers, and this scene just kept on repeating.

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