After Xishe Ying submitted, not only did he escape punishment, but on the foundation of his former position as Chenyang County Magistrate he advanced further, gaining appointment as Chenzhou Military Commissioner and Military Commissioner to recruit tribal soldiers and establish a tribal battalion. However, the price was serving as the first wave of death warriors attacking Yuanling City.

Xishe Ying was conscious of this. He clearly understood in his heart—if the tribal battalion didn’t lead the desperate assault on the city, how could Zheng Hui, Zhang Ping, and Han Qian believe his submission wasn’t a ruse?

On the morning of the eighth day of the second month, light rain began falling from the sky. However, the Wuling Army’s planned siege strategy would not change because of this. Six hundred-man squads formed cone-shaped arrays, clustering around large numbers of covered wagons, tunnel carts, shield carts, and spike carts, charging out from the Tieyanpo encampment on the south side. They crossed the valley fields south of Yuanling City, advancing toward the southern city wall. They stopped approximately five hundred paces from the southern wall, contracting to form six dense formations, guarding against the enemy opening city gates to counterattack.

Teams of supply soldiers followed, carrying shovels and spades, advancing further through the middle of the six defensive formations. At approximately four hundred paces from the city wall, they began excavating trenches in sections.

When enemy forces sortied from the city to harass them, the supply soldiers quickly withdrew while the six armored soldier formations in front blocked the enemy’s assault. After repeated cycles, they dug six segments of trenches five feet deep and over a zhang wide before the city. The excavated earth was piled on the outer side of the trenches to form half-body-height rammed earth protective walls. This not only suppressed the enemy’s rapid counterattacks but also sheltered frontline officers and soldiers, blocking enemy arrows and crossbow fire.

Afterward, four tower carts over six zhang tall were pushed toward the front lines. The bed crossbows positioned on the tower carts could not only suppress enemy forces on the city walls but also provide a commanding view to clearly observe defensive deployments inside the city.

Han Qian was responsible for logistics and supply matters. He had personally supervised construction of all this siege equipment. At this time, he also stood with Zheng Hui and Zhang Ping on the front cliff of Tieyanpo, gazing toward the battlefield ahead.

Through his telescope, Han Qian saw scouts on the tower carts anxiously communicating something to Tian Cheng, who was supervising battle at the front lines. He adjusted the tube’s length, aimed at the city wall, and through gaps in the battlements saw several short pole ends protruding slightly behind the city wall.

Whirlwind trebuchets!

Han Qian had been the first to manufacture whirlwind trebuchets and popularize them throughout the Chu army. Even seeing only a small corner of a whirlwind trebuchet through gaps in the battlements, he could clearly recognize it.

The scouts standing on the tower carts must have seen from their elevated position that enemy forces had deployed whirlwind trebuchets immediately behind the city wall—that’s why they were so anxiously reporting to Tian Cheng, who commanded the frontline battlefield.

“Ma Rong has also manufactured whirlwind trebuchets inside the city, deployed right behind the city walls. Tian Cheng should lead the front formation’s armored soldiers to withdraw two hundred paces…” Han Qian said to Zheng Hui with a grave expression.

Seeing the Wuling Army’s front formation armored soldiers suddenly withdraw, the enemy naturally realized their whirlwind trebuchets had been clearly observed by scouts in the tower carts. “Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh”—immediately over ten stone projectiles were launched from behind the city wall.

The trebuchets’ projectile range was around five hundred paces. But because the ground before the city was flat, the two or three hundred jin stone projectiles the size of millstones, after striking the ground, continued rolling forward thirty or forty meters due to inertia before stopping.

During this process, over ten armored soldiers failed to dodge in time and were struck with broken limbs and shattered bones, screaming in agony continuously.

This was the cruelty of war.

The Wuling Army adjusted its deployment. The front formation armored soldiers withdrew to six hundred paces to form arrays, while supply soldiers risked advancing forward to excavate trenches in sections at five hundred paces on the southern side of the city wall.

Five hundred paces was approximately the extreme range limit of the large whirlwind trebuchets manufactured by the Wuling Army. But after landing there would be some rolling distance. Excavating trenches and building low protective walls at this position not only restricted enemy counterattacks but more importantly prevented enemy-launched large stone projectiles from rolling and injuring people.

Regardless of how cruel it was, their side had to push whirlwind trebuchets to the front lines to bombard and smash Yuanling Army’s city walls.

Otherwise, having the tribal battalion attack the city at this time—no amount of lives would be enough to fill in.

Whirlwind trebuchets launching scattered stone projectiles covering a large area had shorter range—unable to reach five hundred paces. So deploying large whirlwind trebuchets at five hundred paces from the city wall meant no need to worry about enemy forces covering them with scattered stone projectiles. But facing large stone projectiles thrown by enemy forces, they could only endure it.

Fortunately, the number of large stone projectiles thrown at once was limited, the throwing frequency slower. If personnel paid attention to dodging, casualties wouldn’t be too severe. After all, one huge advantage whirlwind trebuchets had over traditional catapults was that one large whirlwind trebuchet required only a few people for rapid operation.

What would suffer greater losses next were those cumbersome whirlwind trebuchets that, once pushed to the front lines, could not be moved at will.

Of course, Yuanling’s city walls—over three zhang high and covered with bricks—were a much easier target for the Wuling Army’s whirlwind trebuchets to attack.

Seeing that Ma Rong’s defending forces had also mastered whirlwind trebuchet manufacturing technology, Zheng Hui looked at Han Qian with considerable emotion: “This battle still cannot allow Master Han to slack off!”

“Merely continuously manufacturing new whirlwind trebuchets to send to the front lines—it can’t be considered very arduous!” Han Qian smiled slightly and said, “However, using whirlwind trebuchets alone to suppress enemy forces on the city walls is still insufficient. Once enemy forces on the walls are suppressed, we still need to send people pushing scorpion ballistae to the city front to strike enemy artillery behind the walls!”

Scorpion ballistae currently still primarily used wood to manufacture bow arms, only able to attack enemy forces two hundred paces away by launching stone projectiles or fire oil jars. But Han Qian manufactured wheeled scorpion ballistae that infantry could drag to move rapidly before enemy formations.

The tactics Han Qian formulated involved using whirlwind trebuchets to duel with enemy trebuchets, using whirlwind trebuchets to drive enemy officers and soldiers down from the city walls, then having infantry endure enemy trebuchet scattered stone projectile attacks to drag wheeled scorpion ballistae to the city walls to attack enemy whirlwind trebuchets deployed behind the city walls. Only this way could they relatively quickly take Yuanling City.

To minimize casualties meant purely dueling with whirlwind trebuchets.

As long as they could first smash and collapse the southern face of Yuanling City’s wall, making enemy whirlwind trebuchets lose the wall’s concealment, enemy losses would be greater than their side’s.

However, Yuanling City’s interior walls were built with rammed earth, the exterior wrapped with bricks laid using glutinous rice mortar. The walls were three or four zhang thick, extraordinarily solid. Smashing open several breaches wasn’t difficult, but wanting to collapse entire sections—especially with Ma Rong having prepared abundant materials inside the city for emergency wall repairs—Han Qian suspected even three months might not guarantee successfully storming Yuanling City.

As someone who personally experienced the Xichuan City defense battle, Zheng Hui naturally understood various whirlwind trebuchet tactics. He sent someone to invite Xishe Ying over and had him select troops from the tribal battalion to follow Han Qian’s commands and receive training in operating scorpion ballistae.

Temporarily not using tribal battalion officers and soldiers to assault the city, but to first prove the tribal battalion’s loyalty and usefulness, they would first use them to drag scorpion ballistae under enemy arrows and stones to approach the city and attack enemy forces and whirlwind trebuchets hidden behind the walls!

Zheng Hui did not conceal the danger of near-city combat. He also told Xishe Ying he would deploy as many tunnel carts and covered wagons as possible for the tribal battalion’s use to shield against scattered stone projectile bombardment beneath the city walls.

Seeing Han Qian’s sinister expression, Xishe Ying learned this idea came from him. But in his heart he also knew this was the sacrifice the tribal battalion had to make.

If at this time he still preserved his strength, even if Zheng Hui and Han Qian could restrain themselves from moving against them now, after capturing Tanzhou, the court would very likely go back on its word and settle accounts with the clan forces in Yizhou.

Xishe Ying agreed to have the tribal battalion deploy troops to operate scorpion ballistae to the city front to attack the enemy. Han Qian then assembled all the tribal battalion’s officers to explain in detail the key points of this tactic. He also had craftsmen first deliver several scorpion ballistae to the tribal battalion encampment to guide tribal soldiers in practicing operations. Meanwhile, over ten whirlwind trebuchets were pushed to the front lines to begin bombarding enemy forces.

Ma Rong was a veteran general who employed troops extremely steadily, difficult to deceive with stratagems. They could only methodically extract this thorn.

Han Qian directly transferred materials, craftsmen, and artisans over, continuously constructing new whirlwind trebuchets to replace those smashed and destroyed. He transferred several hundred stonemasons over to quarry stone directly on the southern side of the encampment, cutting spherical stone projectiles. Or they demolished buildings and walls of nearby stone fortresses, or collected nearby stone steles and millstones—all to hurl at Yuanling’s southern city wall.

Although at such a distance they could only duel with large stone projectiles that had slow throwing frequency and launched few projectiles at once, people would still fail to dodge in time.

Being struck by stone projectiles weighing one hundred jin or even two to three hundred jin basically meant no hope of survival.

As the siege battle commenced, after four or five days, nearly two hundred people from the supply battalion had been horrifically crushed to death on the whirlwind trebuchet battlefield. The whirlwind trebuchets smashed open numbered nearly one hundred.

Abundant material reserves were always the most direct manifestation of military strength.

Even though nearly one hundred whirlwind trebuchets had been destroyed in just four or five days, the whirlwind trebuchets arrayed before Yuanling City increased to thirty. The solid southern wall of Yuanling—its exterior bricks had nearly all been knocked off, exposing the rammed wall inside, covered with terrifying cracks. Although breaches hadn’t yet been opened, the battlements on the wall had been almost entirely destroyed.

At this time, after four or five days of training, once tribal battalion officers and soldiers saw enemy forces on the city walls suppressed, they pushed wheeled scorpion ballistae to approach the city walls, launching fire oil jars filled with tung oil and ignited one after another toward enemy formations behind the city walls. The most fierce and warlike tribal soldiers even held fire oil jars and charged directly to the wall’s base to throw fire oil jars over the city wall.

Facing scattered stone projectiles thrown by enemy forces from behind the city walls, even though tribal soldiers had tunnel carts and covered wagons for protection, casualties were still extremely heavy.

Especially since enemy forces couldn’t throw large stone projectiles farther away, they could hurl even heavier stone projectiles toward nearby positions two or three hundred paces away.

Once a tunnel cart was struck by a stone projectile weighing three or four hundred jin, it would immediately be smashed apart. The tribal soldiers hidden inside howled like ghosts and wolves—dead and wounded everywhere.

Only then did the battle truly become tragic. The tribal battalion’s daily casualties reached over two hundred.

Xishe Ying brought three sons to battle this time. They took turns leading troops in near-city combat. Each time they endured tremendous casualties or after scorpion ballistae were destroyed by scattered stone projectiles, they withdrew to reorganize formations. Facing such tragic casualties, their hearts ached and burned with hatred. The ferocious eyes they fixed on Han Qian and Zheng Hui wished they could devour them alive.

Although Tanzhou had also mastered whirlwind trebuchet manufacturing technology, the skilled craftsmen accompanying Ma Rong into Yuanling City were few. After all, Tanzhou’s defensive priorities were at Yuezhou, and even defenses in northern Langzhou against Jingzhou and northern Hengzhou against Yuanzhou were more important than the southwestern direction. How could limited skilled craftsmen capable of manufacturing whirlwind trebuchets possibly be dispatched in large numbers to Yuanling?

After the first batch of whirlwind trebuchets behind the city walls was destroyed, enemy forces could only manufacture three to five new whirlwind trebuchets daily to fill in. At this time, the bombardment intensity suddenly dropped sharply.

While the tribal battalion conducted near-city combat, Zheng Hui also ordered the First and Second Battalions’ armored soldiers to successively attempt adjacent-city combat from both flanks, scaling Yuanling’s battered southern walls to engage in bloody hand-to-hand combat with Tanzhou soldiers.

Enemy forces were subsequently forced to deploy newly manufactured whirlwind trebuchets behind newly dug trenches inside the city, in order to lure Wuling Army armored soldiers onto the southern city walls before delivering suppressive strikes.

Zheng Hui decisively used First Battalion, Second Battalion, and tribal battalion armored soldiers to hold the city walls. He ordered over thirty whirlwind trebuchets moved forward to deploy directly adjacent to the wall base to suppress whirlwind trebuchets inside the city. This effectively made Yuanling City’s southern wall the Wuling Army’s front line, advancing the offensive-defensive battle to its second stage.

As one of Tanzhou’s few veteran generals, Ma Rong led five thousand armored soldiers defending until the end of the second month before being unable to hold out. Leading fewer than two thousand remnant troops, he hastily boarded naval warships anchored at Baihe estuary through the northern city gate that had not yet fallen, fleeing in panic toward Wuling County in Langzhou territory.