“Quick! Rocks! Rocks! Fire oil! Hurry!” Xiliang soldiers shouted.
Fortunately, Sa’er Khan had some foresight. When the city was besieged, he had people prepare and move all usable defensive materials to the walls.
However, with shields angled over several men’s heads, they not only blocked arrows from the walls, but even stones thrown from the city walls couldn’t harm them in the slightest. The stones could only knock the shields down two or three inches before getting caught on the rivets embedded in the wall crevices, then rolling off the shield’s slanted surface.
The Shuoyang army soldiers from Niujiao Mountain coordinated seamlessly. Their upward momentum wasn’t fierce, but it was steady.
Xiliang soldiers poured down burning oil. The flaming oil fell through shield gaps onto the soldiers below. Some soldiers caught fire and fell from great heights before they could extinguish the flames on their bodies. Some had their protective ropes burned through by the flowing fire. But this couldn’t stop the Great Zhou soldiers from climbing the city walls. Instead, it made them climb faster, gritting their teeth and roaring as they rushed up to fight these Xiliang and Tianfeng armies to the death.
Bai Jinzhi, mounted at the front, saw soldiers sprouting like bamboo shoots after rain from the base of the city walls, climbing higher and higher, already densely covering half the wall. She bit her teeth tight, raised high the red-tasseled spear in her hand, her eyes blazing red, her voice resounding and deafening: “Great Zhou soldiers! Our Shuoyang army brothers have cleared the path for us. In this battle, we must take Pingdu City within half an hour! Kill!”
As soon as Bai Jinzhi finished speaking, she charged out first.
The soldiers raised their swords and sabers with killing cries that shook the heavens.
The first batch of Shuoyang army soldiers from Niujiao Mountain had already rushed onto the city walls, engaging in fierce combat with Xiliang and Tianfeng armies, then threw down rope ladders for the charging soldiers to climb the city.
Scaling ladders were also pushed against the city walls. More and more Great Zhou soldiers killed their way into the city.
Bai Jinzhi’s valiant and selfless act of leading the charge up the city walls greatly inspired the soldiers.
Bai Jinzhi clearly understood that the more giant elephants she killed here, the easier it would be for Fifth Brother later. She ordered the soldiers to kill their way into the city, occupy the high ground on the walls, and open the city gates!
In the places that had been trampled smooth and polished by soldiers until they were too slippery to stand on, she had prepared a great gift for Tianfeng’s elephant army. So what they needed to do after killing their way onto the walls was to occupy the high ground and force those giant elephants to scatter outside the city.
Sa’er Khan hadn’t expected Great Zhou’s siege speed to be so fast, so fast they didn’t even have time to prepare.
The speed and strange method by which Shuoyang army soldiers climbed the walls was something Tianfeng and Xiliang had never seen before. They were greatly shocked and inevitably felt the urge to retreat.
But seeing how Shuoyang army soldiers climbed the city steadily and systematically, in an extremely rapid manner that minimized casualties, and seeing their Great Zhou High Justice’s valor, every Great Zhou soldier seemed to have drunk chicken blood, becoming extraordinarily brave. They killed their way onto the walls, sparing no cost to fight desperately with Tianfeng and Xiliang soldiers, killing until they were covered in blood… their eyes red with killing!
Just as their emperor had said, all of them… had no retreat. Behind them were tens of thousands of Great Zhou people! Their relatives, wives, and children!
If they didn’t want war to spread to Great Zhou’s territory, they had to annihilate the enemy forces on Xiliang’s soil!
When comrades beside them fell, they picked up their comrades’ swords and crossbows to continue fighting, carrying their fallen comrades’ share as well, only hoping to kill a few more enemies before death, so that in the future, fewer Great Zhou people would die!
They were the Great Zhou’s elite soldiers. When facing danger, they should bravely stand at the forefront of the Great Zhou’s people, using their lives to protect the Great Zhou people’s safety, no matter what kind of powerful enemies or giant beasts they faced!
They ignited the fire oil prepared by Tianfeng and splashed it onto those giant elephants. Crossbow soldiers desperately used fire arrows to shoot and kill the elephant army. Giant elephants with their entire bodies ablaze shrieked and crashed wildly around, knocking down houses and awnings on the long streets, spreading flames everywhere. Tianfeng and Xiliang soldiers were affected, rolling around everywhere. Wherever the flames touched… that place would ignite. The fires within Pingdu City grew larger and larger.
Some giant elephants with flames on their bodies went mad and crashed toward the city gate, immediately smashing open Pingdu City’s heavy gates. With their entire bodies on fire, they roared and charged out of the city gates, then slipped and rolled all over the snowy ground.
Though Pingdu City was large, because giant elephants feared the cold, Tianfeng had brought all these precious elephant armies into the city to shelter from wind and snow, making the city extremely crowded.
This was also because Tianfeng had been unmatched for a hundred years. In the land where Tianfeng was located, there was no winter… and no one had ever dared to actively attack cities with elephant armies present. So they had never considered what would happen if all elephant armies were brought into a city and encountered a siege – the elephants would crowd toward the city gates in a swarm, and not one could get out. Even the city walls shook from their collisions.
Bone whistles that could command these elephant armies sounded, but giant elephants with large areas of their bodies wrapped in flames and crackling from burns were completely uncontrollable. Only elephant armies that hadn’t yet been doused with fire oil, or… whose flames had already been extinguished, obeyed the bone whistle commands, following the whistle sounds to form ranks heading toward Pingdu City’s south gate.
The Great Zhou soldiers only seized the city walls and didn’t charge down into the city to fight. They frantically used crossbows to shoot at the elephant army. The stones and fire oil that Sa’er Khan had previously ordered transported to the walls to resist attacks… instead became weapons for Great Zhou soldiers who had already occupied the walls to use against Xiliang and Tianfeng armies forced down from the walls, and even against elephant armies not yet ready to retreat.
Sa’er Khan was greatly surprised. This was an enemy Tianfeng had never encountered before. He had heard that the Great Zhou had special forces that could climb city walls extremely quickly and weren’t afraid of stones and crossbow attacks. He had originally wanted to go see for himself, but was pulled by the great shaman’s disciple to mount a giant elephant…
Tianfeng’s retreat route was on the south side of the Danshui River, so now Tianfeng could only charge out through the south gate.
The north gate… had already been breached by the Great Zhou!
At the south gate, Tianfeng had sent out elephant armies to engage in fierce combat with Yan armies guarding Pingdu City’s south gate, vowing to kill their way out through a bloody path.
Sitting atop a giant elephant, ready to break through the south gate at any moment, Sa’er Khan clenched his fists tightly. The humiliation… the anger had never been this intense.
He looked up at the darkest night sky with fine snowflakes drifting down, really wanting to ask the heavenly god why he treated Tianfeng this way, when Tianfeng was his most loyal worshipper.
He wanted to order right now to turn and attack Pingyang City instead, capture Bai Qingyan alive, force her to reveal the jade cicadas’ whereabouts, then kill all Great Zhou lowlifes in front of Bai Qingyan!
But he didn’t dare…
Tianfeng people’s fear and reverence for the heavenly god had been ingrained in their bones since ancient times. Especially… since the heavenly god sent down punishment making the desert swallow Tianfeng’s lands, Tianfeng people’s awe and terror of the heavenly god reached its peak.