The city walls began to tremble—this was a sign that a large cavalry force was mobilizing. The range of cavalry bows wasn’t far enough, so the Turks could only ride their horses close to the city walls, circling around and using the momentum of their war horses to launch arrows far into the city. They were very coordinated and practiced at this tactic. The arrows left their bows while the war horses were still galloping, smashing down on the city like raindrops.

“Raise shields!” the captain shouted. Guo Ping quickly raised his large shield, and the new soldier beside him also learned from his example and raised his large shield. But this fellow actually held his shield straight up—with no cover above his head, he was courting death.

Guo Ping kicked the new soldier in the stomach. The fellow’s body dropped lower, and the shield immediately tilted. The dense arrow rain beating on the shield made him not dare to move at all.

Continuous muffled groans came over. There were always some unlucky souls who would be struck in the gaps of their armor by the arrow rain and get injured. Guo Ping looked at the captain moving through the arrow rain with extreme envy. He wore a suit of black armor, which he’d heard was precious armor that Commander Yun had bestowed on his father when serving in Liaodong. Not only was it light, but it was also extremely sturdy. With the face guard lowered and one hand protecting his eyes, he could move through the arrow rain without a scratch.

The captain kept shouting: “Hold up your shields! The Turks don’t have many arrows—they’re all paupers. As long as we endure this wave, it’ll be our turn to show our might. Damn it, competing with us Great Tang in wealth—that’s courting death.”

What the captain said wasn’t important, but at this moment having someone help you straighten a tilted shield in the rain of arrows was enough. Taking advantage of a slight thinning in the arrow rain, Guo Ping carefully looked down through the gap in his shield. He suddenly discovered a bald, burly man riding a large horse approaching the city. The bow and arrow in his hands seemed particularly thick and large. Not good! His target was the captain.

Guo Ping strapped the large shield on his back, forcefully kicked off the city wall and threw himself onto the captain. At the same moment, he felt as if the large shield on his back had been struck by a giant hammer. His throat felt sweet, and a mouthful of blood spurted out.

The captain supported Guo Ping and roared, the powerful crossbow in his hand shooting out like lightning. This time he held nothing back—all three crossbow bolts on the crossbow were shot out by him. Without time to check the results, he shook Guo Ping by the neck asking if he was still alive. The mouthful of blood Guo Ping had just spurted was entirely on his shoulder.

“Captain, stop shaking. If you shake anymore, you’ll shake me to death,” Guo Ping stammered out.

The captain froze for a moment, then hugged Guo Ping and knocked on his shield, making clanging sounds. A black-feathered arrow as thick as a thumb was prominently stuck in the large shield, firmly nailed into it—even pulling hard couldn’t remove it.

“That damned eagle shooter, I’m not finished with him!” Only now did the captain have time to look at the bald, burly man below the city. In this short time, those cavalry had already retreated. A horse lay fallen not far from the city wall, but there was no one on it—that eagle shooter was still alive and had been carried away by other cavalry.

“Fire oil ready! The assault troops are coming up!” Guo Ping roared at his subordinates, then discarded his large shield, picked up a jar of fire oil, and forcefully smashed it down along the city wall. The clay jar broke against the city wall and shattered, fire oil splashing everywhere. At the same time, dozens of such jars simultaneously shattered on top of the city walls. More than ten torches were thrown down, and flames immediately shot into the sky. Piercing screams came from below the city walls as over a hundred living people screamed and struggled in the sea of fire. After a short while, there was silence.

The air above the city seemed to be burning. Guo Ping wanted very much to tear off his pig snout mask and take a few comfortable breaths, but thinking about the thick corpse stench outside mixed with the smell of roasting meat, he no longer had the courage to pull off the pig snout.

A stone projectile smashed into the parapet, shattering the parapet made of red earth to pieces. The damned catapults were coming up again. Pressed tightly against the scorching base of the low wall, Guo Ping felt he was about to be roasted.

The great fire outside still wouldn’t go out. The fire oil should have burned up long ago—what was burning now could only be human fat. Closing his eyes and feeling the city under the bombardment of stone projectiles, he always felt that in the next moment, this section of city wall would collapse.

One shouldn’t close one’s eyes on the battlefield. No matter how dangerous, one couldn’t close one’s eyes. Guo Ping knew this principle, so he quickly opened his eyes. He discovered that many of their own cavalry had gathered at the city gate. They seemed to have fire oil barrels strapped to their bodies. Were they going to burn the Turks’ catapults? They should have done this earlier!

This was a force assembled during the interval when the catapults prepared. In a while, when they started throwing stones, this cavalry force would be completely destroyed. Guo Ping’s worry was obviously excessive. As soon as the city gate opened, these cavalry charged out. They had many crossbow bolts—as soon as they left the city, a sheet of arrow rain flew out. The Turkic cavalry roaming outside the city also quickly moved forward to meet them. When the two cavalry forces met, it was like two colliding waves, splashing countless water drops—though here what splashed out could only be fresh blood.

The cavalry’s speed was very fast. After spearing someone with their long spears, they would casually discard them. At this time, what came into play could only be horizontal blades. The horizontal blades hardly needed to be swung—just holding them horizontally could cut through the Turks’ leather armor, finally leaving an extremely long wound on their bodies.

The Great Tang cavalry all had very good saddles and stirrups, and the length of the stirrups was also very suitable for their legs to leverage, so every time the cavalry collided, those who gained the advantage were always the Great Tang cavalry.

After penetrating the enemy formation, they didn’t linger in battle but began to pursue and kill the Turks operating the catapults, casually smashing fire oil jars on the catapults. After lighting them on fire, they ran quickly—large numbers of Turkic cavalry had already outflanked them.

Their own catapults finally showed their might. Watching the bricks, stones, and rubble flying over his head, Guo Ping’s tears nearly fell. If they had this thing, they should have used it earlier—my subordinates are almost all dead before bringing it out.

The Turks’ catapults were burning fiercely. Now it was the Great Tang catapults’ turn to show their might. The Turkic cavalry could only helplessly watch as the Great Tang cavalry who had succeeded in their surprise attack drilled into the city. They themselves stood outside the range of the catapults, shooting arrows in vain, wanting to leave behind a few more men.

The sun overhead had already reached its zenith. The violent sunlight shone straight down—nowhere to hide, nowhere to conceal oneself. The corpses under the wall were still burning. This was also good—at least after burning, there wouldn’t be that stench.

The wind blew over from the south. Guo Ping removed his pig snout mask and fiercely sucked in two breaths of air. Only then did he feel his lungs aching faintly. Propping the large shield over his head at least provided some shade. Just now he’d counted—his manpower had suffered three more losses: two struck by arrows, one struck by stone. Those struck by arrows had already been carried down for treatment. The one struck by stone was carried away by auxiliary soldiers—probably taken to be burned.

His clothes were soaked through with sweat. While the rice ball was still edible, Guo Ping ate it in two or three bites. The captain wearily crawled in and sat beside Guo Ping, saying: “Damn it, this armor is reliable all right, but it’s just not suitable for wearing here. Feel my body—you could damn well bake flatbread on it.”

Guo Ping pulled out his water pouch and poured it over the captain’s head from above. The captain shook the water from his head, caught his breath and said: “I was originally supposed to serve in the Lingnan Navy, taking over my old man’s position. Who knew I’ve been afraid of water since childhood. My father threw me into a pond wanting me to learn to swim, but I nearly drowned. From then on, the old man gave up the idea of sending me to the Lingnan Navy and sent me to the desert, saying there’s no water here, so maybe I could live longer. My younger brother went to the navy in my place. I heard he’s doing quite well now—in a couple years he’ll be able to become a captain.”

Guo Ping shook his head: “Different people, different fates. My old man is even more ruthless than yours. I’d already been admitted to Yushan Academy and wanted to become a civil official. The old man just wouldn’t let me go—insisted I come to the military. Otherwise, I’d be at Yushan Academy playing with pandas right now.”

The captain rolled up into a sitting position and stared at Guo Ping in amazement: “Did your father’s head get caught in a door?” After saying this, feeling it was inappropriate, he quickly explained: “I mean, what was your father thinking? Yushan Academy isn’t somewhere just anyone can enter. How could you just give it up? Is being a foot soldier so fun?”

Guo Ping shook his head: “The old man says our Guo family has deeply received imperial grace and needs to do our utmost to repay it. He himself rose from being a foot soldier. As a foot soldier’s son, I can only be a foot soldier.”

The captain scratched his head and suddenly asked Guo Ping in a low voice: “Your father wouldn’t happen to be the commander, would he?”

Guo Ping smiled bitterly and said nothing. He thought of his hunger strike protest at home, thought of his mother crying and begging his father to let him attend Yushan Academy, and thought again of his father’s resounding response. His heart filled with bitterness.

“Since our Guo family has already eaten the bowl of rice that is military service, then we’ll eat it generation after generation. There’s no negotiating about this matter!”

Guo Ping unconsciously patted his armor: “He also won’t allow me to go under another commander’s banner. I actually really wanted to go under Commander Yun’s command. I heard he’s currently establishing camel cities—once completed, they’ll be invincible under heaven. I really want to see it. Either way, it’s all killing enemies. What difference is there between killing with weapons or strangling with bare hands? Why don’t we use our strengths to kill the enemy?”

“Our army also has gunpowder—why must we only bring it out at the very end? When everyone’s dead, what use are weapons? I completely agree with one thing Commander Yun said: being able to annihilate the enemy on the horizon is what makes the best general.”

“I’m not saying this because I’m afraid of death. There’s no one in the Guo family who’s afraid of death. I just can’t stand watching the people around me die in battle one by one while I’m powerless to do anything.”

Guo Ping’s eyes reddened. The captain patted his shoulder and said: “The older generation has their way of thinking—we can’t change it. It doesn’t matter. The old men will always grow old and retire. The world is still ours. Let’s work hard. Once we work our way up to where we have the say, even if the old men want to lecture us a bit, they won’t have the authority. Ha ha ha, at that time we’ll accomplish great deeds to show them.”

Guo Ping glanced toward the east and said: “Thirty-five and a half more days, and we’ll be able to see just how invincible the camel city really is.”