The night was utterly silent, but when dawn broke, the battle came with such swift and brutal ferocity. Countless crossbow bolts rained down upon the city walls like a violent storm. Yun Ye watched as the Goguryeo soldiers fell in the hail of arrows, wailing in agony, only to be pierced through by even more bolts until their bodies bristled with shafts. They had massive shields for protection, but the arrow rain was too dense, and many of the arrows carried fire.

Taking advantage of the arrow barrage, numerous auxiliary soldiers carried sandbags and hurled them into the moat. After a full half-hour of continuous crossbow fire, the auxiliary troops finally succeeded in blocking the stream flowing down from the mountains and redirecting it elsewhere. They had expected the moat’s water level to drop quickly, but to everyone’s surprise, the water in the moat only decreased by forty percent compared to normal.

“General, that moat is fed by numerous small springs. I personally went to inspect it. Although the moat has no external water source replenishing it, spring water bubbles up from the riverbed. It will be very difficult to completely cut off this moat.”

Yang Yueming’s face was pitch black, and he wore ordinary armor. His left arm was covered in bloodstains—he had only gone to look at the moat once, yet had already sustained serious injuries.

“I see now, no wonder that river’s water flows so turbulently. I understand. Order the crossbowmen to retreat, catapults to launch stones, and siege towers to advance.” Faced with such unfavorable circumstances, Liu Fang actually breathed a sigh of relief and issued new orders.

The crossbowmen retreated, but not all of them came back. The ground was littered with bodies lying in disarray. Their deaths were all gruesome—when hundred-pound stones were hurled down from the city walls, that terrifying force was absolutely not something human flesh could withstand. The wounded were all brought back, but for the dead, there was no way to even collect their remains intact.

Yun Ye closed his eyes, striving not to look at the battlefield. If he looked any longer, he would feel an urge to charge forward himself. Old Liu had said that when fear reaches its extreme, it transforms into courage. That statement seemed to be true.

The large baskets of the catapults were filled with bundled grass, wood, and grease. Once ignited, they immediately became enormous fireballs. Countless such fireballs, like meteors, plunged headlong into the city. Loud screams and wails erupted again from within the city. Yun Ye had added large quantities of white phosphorus to his fireballs.

Once lit, they would continue burning even in water. Until the white phosphorus was completely consumed, they would not extinguish. If one was unfortunate enough to be splattered with it, the best method was to use a knife to cut off the burning flesh. Otherwise, it would burrow into the meat.

Suddenly, countless archers emerged from atop the city walls, and rapid hoofbeats sounded from both flanks. The Goguryeo forces still couldn’t restrain themselves and had sent cavalry to destroy the catapults.

The Tang army suddenly seemed to transform into tortoises, with massive shields tightly covering their heads. They simply refused to show themselves, allowing the arrow rain to rage above their heads.

Liu Fang chuckled as he sent orders to both sides. The eight-ox crossbows hidden behind small earthen mounds were already in strict formation, waiting. When the Goguryeo forces shouted and charged out from the smoke, what greeted them were merciless crossbow bolts. Never before had any army been equipped with so many eight-ox crossbows. The thick arrow shafts lined up in rows, sweeping across with a trembling sound. Immediately following, the only thousand cavalry Yun Ye had at his disposal, divided into two groups, plunged into the billowing smoke on the battlefield.

The smoke obscured visibility, making it impossible to see the situation there. Yun Ye could only tell from Ren Xiong’s violent roaring that the Tang cavalry were still fighting.

A Goguryeo cavalryman covered in blood emerged from the smoke, swinging a hooked rope in his hand, trying to lasso it around a catapult to pull it down. Before he could throw the rope, a siege spike pierced through his body, pinning him firmly to the catapult’s shield. The enraged Tang soldiers removed him from the shield, loaded him into the basket, then released the trigger. That Goguryeo cavalryman traced an arc through the air and was thrown back into Daewang Fortress.

When the thick smoke finally cleared, urgent gong sounds rang out from atop the city walls—this was the legendary signal to withdraw troops. No matter how frantically the Goguryeo forces beat the gongs, not a single Goguryeo cavalryman emerged.

A strong wind completely swept away the smoke from the battlefield. The Goguryeo forces atop the city walls were wailing, and Yun Ye below the city was also beating his chest in anguish. On the battlefield, only a sparse hundred or so men could still sit on their horses. The rest all lay on the ground, being nuzzled here and there by their own warhorses…

Yun Ye tried his best to keep his head raised, preventing tears from sliding down. He asked himself over and over: some people fight for land, some fight for women, some fight for wealth, but he was fighting for a pile of bones. To prevent those bones from being stranded in foreign lands, he had no choice but to leave even more bones in this foreign land. What the hell was it all for? Why should he bear the burden of Emperor Yang of Sui’s mistakes? At this moment, Yun Ye utterly despised those generals who had forced him to come to Liaodong.

“General, your subordinate has lived up to expectations. We slaughtered eight hundred Goguryeo cavalry, at the cost of three hundred eighty-eight of our own.” Lai Chuanfeng was covered in blood from head to toe and could barely stand. Yun Ye waved his hand, telling him to go rest.

Yang Yueli was carried over. The Yun Family armor had effectively helped him avoid many disasters, but from the deformed chest plate, one could tell he had taken a heavy blow from a flail. Blood stained the corners of his mouth. This too had been a fight to the death. Of five hundred Tang soldiers, fewer than fifty riders returned.

Yun Ye never blamed others—whatever was his fault, he took responsibility for. Seeing the corpses strewn everywhere, his nameless fury rose high. He glared at Liu Fang with bloodshot eyes, full of malice.

“Marquis Yun, this is war. There is no mercy to be had. We are fortunate to have won—that itself is rare. The Goguryeo forces deployed two thousand cavalry. Our men prevailed against superior numbers—excellent!”

“Liu Fang, I don’t care how many Goguryeo die. I don’t want to see another one of my men die. Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, I will burn the city tonight. If we succeed, we’ll dig up the corpses. If we fail, we turn around and leave immediately without a moment’s delay. I’ll take my soldiers’ remains and go ask Li Jing why! By what right should my men sacrifice themselves in vain for a pile of bones that could be retrieved through negotiation? These are human lives, all my comrades-in-arms! My heart is shattered!” Yun Ye clutched his chest and roared at Liu Fang. If Liu Fang dared to spout any nonsense about life and death being ordinary matters at this moment, Yun Ye would definitely knock out the old man’s teeth.

“Very well. You are the commander-in-chief. If you want to do it this way, I have no objections. But we must first throw all the fireballs and stones we have into the city before proceeding. Now that the water flow is slow and the source is under our control, as soon as it gets dark, we’ll pour oil. We must also conduct a fierce feint attack to divert the enemy’s attention to the city walls. Only then will we have a chance.”

Yun Ye agreed through gritted teeth. As long as no one died, Liu Fang could use whatever equipment he wanted. Even if they had to throw silver with the catapults to kill the enemy, Yun Ye would agree without hesitation.

The duel between catapults was quite boring. Those thick swing arms kept rising and falling. Whatever could be loaded into the baskets was loaded in and then thrown back into Daewang Fortress, including the bodies of fallen Goguryeo cavalry.

“Marquis Yun, perhaps we shouldn’t throw the corpses. After all, we are a great army, not beasts.” Liu Fang approached Yun Ye, who was treating wounded soldiers, and quietly suggested.

“I only respect the living. Dead Goguryeo are just piles of meat to me, no different from stones. What does it matter if we throw them in? Of course, our own fallen brothers must be retrieved. I’ll have them cremated so I can take the ashes back to their families.” At this point, Yun Ye’s tears began flowing freely again.

“Marquis Yun, if you don’t follow the rules with the enemy, the enemy won’t follow the rules with you either. This will bring you tremendous infamy.”

Liu Fang wanted to continue persuading him, but Yun Ye irritably cut him off: “They’re already enemies—we should use every possible means! What sentiment is there to discuss? If it could bring those fallen brothers back to life, I’d kowtow to the Goguryeo!”

Wu She pulled Liu Fang away, who was about to speak again. He could see that Yun Ye had no rationality left at this moment. The fact that he hadn’t completely broken down was already a miracle.

The catapult battle ended in Tang victory. The Goguryeo catapults were severely damaged. By the time darkness fell, they had only a few left that were still usable. The Tang side was different—whenever one was damaged, soldiers immediately replaced the broken parts. If there were no suitable replacement parts, they would dismantle other damaged catapults. At this time, they still ensured that sixty percent of the catapults remained in good working order.

“Ready! Release!” These three monotonous commands continued echoing across the battlefield. The Goguryeo catapults had long since fallen silent, while the Tang catapults continued unhurriedly launching stones into Daewang Fortress. Siege towers also occasionally approached the city walls, and from their tall arrow towers, dense crossbow bolts swept across the enemy atop the walls. The Goguryeo forces ran about trying to avoid the boulders or corpses falling from above. Throughout the outer city’s rooftops, trees, and beams, Goguryeo cavalry corpses hung everywhere, making it look like a human hell.

No one noticed that in a transverse trench, teams of auxiliary soldiers carrying oil jars were drilling into the shadows beneath the siege towers. When the area under the siege towers was covered with ceramic jars, a black oil dragon was clawing its way into the moat. Driven by the spring water, it occasionally reflected a glimmer of light as it silently spread toward Daewang Fortress’s waterways…

By late night, the Tang army had actually deployed forces at all four city gates. Under the powerful crossbow assault, even the heavily armored Goguryeo heavy cavalry could only hide behind the city gates, not daring to emerge.

Where there’s an inlet, there must be an outlet. When Dan Ying saw large quantities of black oil at the outlet, he sent the signal. At the west gate, Lai Chuanfeng, bandaged like a mummy, grinned malevolently as he threw a lit incendiary bomb into the water. At the same time, all those catapults switched to fireballs. At a single command, the fireballs flew into the sky, spinning brilliantly through the pitch-black night as they hurtled toward the city walls.