Liu Hong’s army behind him cleared a path, and the three thousand armored soldiers Bai Qingyan had brought swiftly advanced. At Zhao Ran’s command, the Niujiao Mountain soldiers shouted as they changed formations – six men per team, with four carrying light shields in front. Among these, three light shields had different shapes: the center one was a square field-shaped light shield with four equal edges, while the two on the sides were gui field-shaped light shields with three equal edges. Behind them was a normal shield. The four shields protected two soldiers carrying packs on their backs, steadily and swiftly advancing toward both corners of the city wall.

Liu Hong watched as teams of six soldiers rapidly passed by him, somewhat puzzled, not understanding what purpose these soldiers had for carrying shields of such varied shapes.

“Princess Zhenguo, what purpose do these six-man teams serve with those shields?” Liu Hong asked.

“Six men per group, four shields per group. Three of the shields have hidden clasps that connect to form a trinity. General Liu will see you shortly…” Bai Qingyan said.

Soon, the first six-man team reached the base of the city wall.

This city wall was built against cliffs on both sides. The team connected three shields to form a large ji ji-shaped shield, pressing its longest edge firmly against the city wall and angling it overhead to block arrows shot down from the wall for the two men who were driving rivets into the wall.

Seeing that arrows were useless, the Liang army on the tower quickly ordered men to bring stones to smash the shields.

But the shields were interlocked and angled. When stones were hurled down from the city wall, the impact force caused the three men holding the shields to slide downward, but the shield caught firmly on the rolling-pin-thick rivets that had just been embedded in the city wall. The stones instead rolled down along the ji field-shaped slope, only causing the round rings through which the ropes tied to their bodies passed at the ends of the rivets to shake violently.

The three soldiers holding the ji field shields stepped on the rivets and raised their shields upward, with the two soldiers embedding rivets following closely behind. They advanced steadily upward one step at a time, driving one rivet into the city wall with each step…

The one soldier holding a normal defensive shield remained at the base of the city wall, hiding in the corner between the shield and the wall, holding a rope in his hands for some unknown purpose.

Below the city walls of Qingxi Mountain Pass, the Niujiao Mountain soldiers assembled in unison, six men per team with shields interlocked, scaling the city walls.

From a distance, the Niujiao Mountain soldiers looked like vigorous climbing ivy, gradually… gradually climbing toward the top of the city wall, densely packed, unhurried, and steady as they devoured more than half of this wall face.

Occasionally, when a soldier slipped and fell, the soldier crouched in the corner between shield and wall… gripping the rope would immediately pull hard on it…

The soldier who had nearly fallen was pulled up by the rope tied to his body that passed through the rivet’s round ring, and a hand extended from beneath the ji field-shaped shield to pull that soldier back under the shield protection.

Many other Jin army soldiers attacking the city saw this and helped pull the ropes, which visibly accelerated the climbing speed.

As soon as the first team climbed up, rope ladders were thrown down. The first Niujiao Mountain soldiers to reach the city wall drew their swords to guard the ropes, and soon, Jin soldiers climbed up the tower one after another, engaging in bloody close combat with the Liang army!

The obstacles to the Jin army’s wall-scaling became fewer and fewer, and their climbing speed faster and faster.

Soon, the city wall was densely covered with Jin soldiers climbing up rope ladders. Before long, the entire city wall was filled with Jin troops, and dozens of scaling towers were also pushed to the base of the wall – a breathtaking sight.

Qingxi Mountain Pass, known as the world’s foremost stronghold, seemed like paper in front of Bai Qingyan’s soldiers!

Seeing such an awe-inspiring scene, Liu Hong was greatly shaken. He turned to look at Bai Qingyan, whose eyes remained calm and composed in the torrential rain.

Then he looked at the soldiers behind Bai Qingyan, arranged in small teams, their gazes sharp as torches fixed on the city wall, ready at any moment to await Bai Qingyan’s command to become the next wave of warriors charging up the wall.

This… these were the bandit-suppressing troops that Princess Zhenguo had trained in Shuoyang? A ragtag mob?!

Liu Hong seemed to recall hearing someone mention that when Bai Qingyan had accompanied Princess Zhenguo to the battlefield, the reason she was always the vanguard was that Bai Qingyan had a female guard unit under her command that served as a city-breaking weapon in every siege. Could it be… that the former female guard unit had attacked cities in this manner?

Great Liang had always been rainy… and Qingxi Mountain Pass was truly crucial, so when Great Liang originally built the walls of various passes, they hadn’t used earthen walls, fearing that heavy rains would soften earthen walls, and if another Kingdom attacked Qingxi Mountain Pass, they would be caught off guard.

Liang’s technology for building stone walls was already ahead of other countries, but because it required enormous manpower and resources, when building Qingxi Mountain Pass, the builders had borrowed from the cliffs of two treacherous mountains to create an extremely high and difficult-to-climb stone wall!

But it was precisely because Liang built walls of stone that today gave these Niujiao Mountain soldiers their opportunity. If it had been an earth wall, after being washed by rain for so long, even if rivets were embedded, when people stepped on them, the wall’s grip on the rivets wouldn’t be enough, and they would still fall.

But now, with rivets embedded in the stone crevices of the city wall, they could borrow leverage to climb up steadily…

Yet in Bai Qingyan’s eyes, these Niujiao Mountain soldiers were still very green. Their training time was short, and they had never experienced real combat. They needed to undergo true baptism by fire, like the Tiger Eagle Battalion soldiers, to grow into truly useful, brave, and fierce troops.

Seeing the Zhao character banner hanging high on the city wall and the Great Liang military flags falling, Bai Qingyan pulled hard on her reins. Her warhorse stamped its hooves as it turned toward Liu Hong: “General, give the order!”

Liu Hong knew the moment had come. The Jin army had already charged inside the walls, and with the Liang military flags fallen, soldiers had certainly gone to open the gates.

Liu Hong drew his sword and shouted: “Jin army warriors! The Liang military flags have fallen! Liang’s defeat is certain! Attack!”

The Jin army immediately boiled with excitement, charging out with Liu Hong’s war chariot. Jin soldiers roared as they rushed toward the direction of Qingxi Mountain Pass city wall.

Bai Qingyan took the Sun-Shooting Bow from her back, held the reins with one hand, spurred her horse, and charged out.

Inside the heavy gates of Qingxi Mountain Pass, Jin soldiers who had scaled the walls mercilessly cut down those soldiers who had used their bodies to block the gates. Outside, the battering ram, like an iron-armored giant beast, struck the city gates once more, and the last wooden beam barring the two gate doors finally showed cracks.

On the city walls, the Liang army no longer had the strength to stop the Jin forces. All that remained flowing down the city walls was blood!

Jin soldiers pulled the battering ram to its farthest point, while other soldiers busily cleared the bodies and severed limbs of both Liang and Jin troops blocking the ram’s path. They roared as they put all their strength into pushing the battering ram toward the center of the two great doors, knowing that this final strike would certainly break through the city gates.

The ancient, heavy gates of Qingxi Mountain Pass were finally broken open…