Watching the northwestern wall being swarmed by hundreds upon thousands of Liang troops, several hundred stronghold recruits had no choice but to hastily abandon the wall and flee toward the second line of defense within the city. Seeing even more Liang troops now completely uninhibited as they poured through the breach, Zhou Dan—now reduced to just over a hundred remaining soldiers at his side as he retreated to Han Qian’s position—was on the verge of tears but unable to cry.
Zhou Dan wiped away the blood covering his face and said, “Lord Han, I’ve done all I could!”
Although Zhou Dan held the positions of State Adjutant and Magistrate of Canglang County, emotionally he remained closer to Han Qian, who had personally recruited the stronghold forces from beginning to end.
Perhaps due to being isolated in the deep mountain forests for too long, the stronghold chieftains were heavily guarded against the outside world. But even Zhou Dan, in his thirties, actually had far less cunning and was far less calculating than men like Chai Jian, Shen He, and Li Chong.
Zhou Dan could still sense that many people held reservations toward them, but only Han Qian had consistently fought for their maximum interests.
Now forced to retreat to Han Qian’s side to regroup his remnants, Zhou Dan felt both heartache over his subordinates’ heavy casualties and extreme unwillingness to accept defeat.
“We haven’t lost this battle. As long as I’m here, Xichuan City won’t fall so easily. Adjutant Zhou, first reorganize the troops—we may still need to rely on you to retake the city wall!” Han Qian stretched his body with feigned ease.
Han Qian stood behind a moat dug east-west about two hundred paces from the north wall, watching the bloody battle at the northern wall. Over a thousand soldiers under Li Zhigao and Zhou Dan had been wounded or killed, and even his face twitched uncontrollably.
However, watching more Liang troops surge through the breach like a flood, the uncontrollable terror rising in his heart instead receded like the tide, bit by bit. His gaze grew increasingly cold and fierce as he fixed upon the bloodied blades and iron shields before him.
Behind the moat stood the Xuzhou Battalion’s formation. Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Xi Chang, and Zhao Wuji all wore battle armor, clustering around Han Qian.
Only Xi Ren wore light leather armor, vigilantly guarding Han Qian’s side, wary of expert archers among the Liang troops firing cold shots.
The front two rows of sword-and-shield soldiers blocked the constantly incoming arrows, their tips striking the iron shields with crisp, soul-startling clangs.
Although Han Qian had begun digging moats within the city from the moment he took charge of Xichuan City’s defenses, these moats were too narrow—at their widest no more than one zhang, mainly widened and deepened from existing drainage channels.
After all, the manpower and material resources Han Qian could mobilize were too limited, and time was too limited.
Even if these inner-city moats could check the enemy’s assault, their effect was limited. Slightly wider planks laid across could become attack routes.
Seeing the Liang army’s extremely determined offensive today, Zhou Dan couldn’t believe these narrow moats could truly hold them back for long.
At this moment, the enemy had already hauled the few remaining heavy crossbow beds onto the northeastern wall, the cranking of their bowstrings faintly audible amid the earth-shaking battle cries.
The penetrating power of crossbow beds was terrifying—they could pierce through inferior iron shields. As Zhou Dan was forced to retreat deeper into the formation with Han Qian and the others, he felt even more that victory in this battle was slim.
Although the Xuzhou Battalion also clustered a dozen or so sinew-cable crossbow beds to exchange fire with the Liang troops, now that the Liang army had transported heavy shields through the breach, their effect wasn’t as pronounced as in the first few volleys.
Yao Xishui, wearing leather armor, emerged from the Town Commandant’s Residence. Not knowing whom she was looking for, she saw Han Qian, Zhou Dan, and the others walking behind the Xuzhou Battalion’s formation and strode over, lowering her voice to ask, “My foster father sent me to ask you—how confident are you really of repelling the Liang troops this time? Don’t use the same words you just used to placate the Prince to put us off!”
Han Qian glanced at Yao Xishui but said nothing, only staring fixedly at the Liang soldiers surging through the breach like a locust swarm.
Zhou Dan now knew that the male-disguised Yao Xishui was the adopted daughter of Marquis Residence Supervisor Zhang Ping. He could guess that Zhang Ping’s sending Yao Xishui to ask meant he was prepared for the worst—if Xichuan City truly had no confidence of holding today, they should consider breaking out early.
Shen He, Yang En, Shen Yang, and even Zhang Ping all held higher positions and ranks than Han Qian, but Zhou Dan had long since observed that on crucial matters, the Prince still only heeded Han Qian’s opinions.
Zhou Dan also wanted to urge Han Qian to advise the Prince early to prepare for a breakout, secretly feeling that if Li Zhigao and Zheng Hui decisively abandoned the eastern and southern walls and exited through the west gate along the Xichuan River northward, perhaps they could still preserve one or two thousand elite troops to escort the Prince out through the chaos.
Just as Zhou Dan was about to speak, he suddenly heard the howling of wind. Turning to look behind, he saw from between the buildings south of the Town Commandant’s Residence clusters of scattered stone projectiles, like a locust swarm, being launched and whistling overhead…
Watching the scattered stone projectiles fly overhead, Zhou Dan was somewhat shocked.
Although blocked from view by the Town Commandant’s Residence, he knew that over twenty catapults built by the Left Division Artisan Battalion were positioned on the main street south of the Residence. But that location was less than three hundred paces from the south wall, yet a full six hundred paces from the north wall.
Even though some Liang troops had killed their way through the breach, even if they reached directly before the inner-city moat defended by the Xuzhou Battalion, they would still be over four hundred paces from the main street south of the Town Commandant’s Residence.
The large catapults built by the Liang army, simultaneously requiring over a hundred men to haul, could only barely attack targets four hundred paces distant!
Of course, the Liang army wasn’t incapable of building catapults with longer range, but such giant catapults were more complex to construct and required throwing arms of even higher material toughness.
Even if forcibly built, such a giant catapult required as many as three hundred people operating simultaneously to hurl stone projectiles six or seven hundred paces away.
At present, the Liang army felt no need to expend such great effort building this type of giant catapult—such giant catapults should properly be used in siege battles at the level of Xiangzhou City.
With their seven or eight zhang tall observation towers, the Liang army had long since observed their defensive deployments within the city clearly. They should have placed their attack focus on the north side these past two days precisely because they saw over a dozen catapults deployed on the southern side.
Zhou Dan thought to himself that if these scattered stone projectiles were hurled over three hundred paces and fell from midair, wouldn’t they smash the Xuzhou Battalion’s front formation to pieces?
Moreover, near the main street south of the Town Commandant’s Residence, only the Left Division Artisan Battalion’s three hundred-plus artisans guarded sixteen catapults. By headcount, this was far from sufficient to simultaneously operate over twenty large catapults!
Watching the stone projectiles pass overhead of the Xuzhou Battalion’s formation at this moment, Zhou Dan opened his mouth in shock. Seeing the projectiles further overshoot the Liang troops who had already entered the city and densely bombard the inner side of the collapsed wall breach, he was even more shocked beyond words.
The inner side of the breach, even if not six hundred paces from the catapult position south of the Town Commandant’s Residence, was nearly so.
Six hundred paces—Han Qian had built catapults with a range approaching six hundred paces?
Didn’t catapults of such range require two or three hundred people to operate a single one simultaneously?
At this moment, Zhou Dan doubted whether he was hallucinating, or had seriously miscalculated the distance from the south end of the Town Commandant’s Residence to the north wall?
Moreover, this volley of stone projectiles all fell on the inner side of the breach—clearly the impact points were precisely controlled!
What kind of training must hundreds of auxiliary soldiers undergo to operate catapults so precisely?
…
…
When the stone projectiles densely bombarded down, the Liang troops at the north wall breach were exceptionally concentrated, eager to charge into the city.
Therefore, in the first volley’s bombardment, nearly two hundred Liang troops were smashed with severed limbs, shattered bones, and splattered brain matter.
The Liang troops charging valiantly inward seemed to have been doused with ice water, hardly believing the stone projectiles were hurled from such a distant corner within the city.
They knew the defenders had deployed catapults within the city to guard against them approaching the wall, and the defenders’ remaining catapults were indeed all deployed near the south wall—but why could they attack the area near the north wall?
Moreover, the scattered stone projectiles weighing ten-odd to twenty-odd jin were abnormally dense—the first volley alone numbered seven or eight hundred.
This meant that besides the catapults deployed by the defenders south of the Town Commandant’s Residence having a range far exceeding their previous estimates, the weight of stone projectiles loaded in each catapult also far exceeded normal levels.
Wasn’t this something only the most advanced giant catapults the Liang army could currently build could achieve?
But such giant catapults required three hundred people hauling simultaneously to possibly send such heavy stone projectiles to a distance of six hundred paces!
How could the narrow street south of the Town Commandant’s Residence possibly accommodate five or six thousand auxiliary soldiers simultaneously operating over twenty giant catapults?
Regardless of how much shock and doubt filled the hearts of Liang soldiers who had already crossed the wall or were climbing it, having charged onto the ramparts, they could hardly abandon easily. Moreover, the war drums behind still beat frantically, urging them to attack into the city.
They also didn’t know whether the commander directing the battle in the rear hadn’t seen this scene, or thought this merely the defenders’ final death struggle. But the bloody courage honed through years of fierce battles made the proud Liang soldiers unwilling to retreat after the slightest setback, throwing themselves recklessly into the pocket formation the defenders had prepared for them.
The Liang generals outside the city perhaps hadn’t realized the problem’s severity. The earth-shaking war drums urged the Liang army to surge forward like a flood as before. But that scene just now fell completely into the defending soldiers’ eyes like a divine miracle, instantly firing up hearts and blood to boiling.
Yang En, Shen He, and Shen Yang accompanied the Third Prince atop the observation tower within the Town Commandant’s Residence. Watching the northern battlefield that had become white-hot, pocket-shaped, they too trembled with excitement in hands and feet. Han Qian had held out grimly until this moment before playing this final trump card in his hand, and it truly had such divine effect.
What excited them even more was that the Liang commander directing the battle outside the city still hadn’t realized that within the breach lay a pocket formation carefully laid by Han Qian—a veritable death trap.
Thinking about it, this was understandable. The battlefield killing was so fierce, relying mainly on flags and drums for information transmission. The observation towers and siege towers approaching the walls, even if not completely destroyed in the previous fierce battle, had been temporarily withdrawn along with the民夫 and auxiliary soldiers because they were easily destroyed, now that the Liang army completely occupied the wall.
The middle and lower-level Liang officers standing on the walls directly leading squad after squad of fierce soldiers in strong assault had their minds completely filled with bloody courage. At least until this largest-scale charge since the Xichuan campaign erupted half a month ago concluded, the Liang commander might not sober up.
However narrow the moat the Xuzhou Battalion and Guo Liang’s troops relied upon at the north wall, the Liang army still needed to use scaling ladders, planks, and such to build attack routes in the shortest time. But how wide could scaling ladders and long planks be, or even siege towers barely dragged through the breach into the city, when inverted over the moat to build attack routes?
Before such narrow attack routes, the Chu troops’ morale was also thoroughly fired up. At this moment, they too fought with exceptional valor, using iron shields, long spears, and simple yet practical shield carts to construct one impregnable natural barrier after another. Arrows flew crosswise, fire oil jars were hurled recklessly. Both sides’ formations were repeatedly scattered, repeatedly regathered.
However, no matter how valiantly the Liang troops who had entered the city fought, they were always sealed within a cramped space less than two hundred paces from the north wall breach, as if caught in a death trap pocket.
Then, the catapults south of the Town Commandant’s Residence fired again and again, steadily and resolutely, hurling stone millstones and scattered bricks obtained from dismantling houses precisely toward that area.
Though cloth curtains currently screened the catapult position’s surroundings, Yang En and the others standing atop the Town Commandant’s Residence observation tower could still see clearly.
The catapults built by the Left Division artisans differed little overall from contemporary catapults. The greatest difference was that the tail arm of the Left Division catapults no longer relied on over a hundred people hauling for power, but instead had suspended a massive, sturdy wooden box filled with earth and stone weighing over ten thousand jin, using the box’s sudden descent to drive the long throwing arm and hurl the stone projectiles.
Loading was also quite simple—thirty or forty people using the principle of long and short levers pulled down one end of the throwing arm, secured it with rope to load projectiles, cut the rope, and the tail box descended suddenly again, launching the stone projectiles. Efficiency was double that of traditional catapults.
And more accurate than imagined.
Especially since Han Qian had only had people fill and roll out the suspended boxes with sand and stone these past two days—previously Yang En hadn’t realized these catapults built by the Left Division differed from traditional catapults.
The Liang troops surging through the breach, compressed within the two-hundred-pace-radius pocket formation, were concentrated beyond imagination. Almost every volley of stone projectiles smashing down resulted in over a hundred Liang casualties.
“In matters of engineering, Han Qian possesses talent beyond mortal or ghostly reckoning. These catapults have existed for a thousand years, yet no one conceived of such modifications to multiply their power,” Yang En said with deep emotion.
Shen Yang also deeply felt Han Qian’s talent, but he worried more that Han Qian relied too heavily on unorthodox methods.
The Liang commander outside the city seemed completely unaware of the cruel slaughter within, only frantically beating war drums, urging more soldiers to kill their way through the breach.
They were like gamblers who’d lost their minds, feverishly believing that if they just persisted a bit longer, the defenders’ will would collapse in the next moment. As long as they seized final victory, all previous casualties would have meaning…