Chapter 50 – Battle of Anping – Day Two
October 24th, Morning.
Yesterday, Guo Dian Army did not lay siege but held a staring contest with the defending garrisons. However today, twenty trebuchets were being constructed.
Having learned from Pan Feng's defeat, they chose not to approach to gate directly. Guo Dian aimed to destroy the wooden walls with stones or range attacks from the safe distances.
However, the walls of the fortress were in strange shapes, and there were trenches surrounding the outer edges of the walls. They could not move the trebuchets into the right range unless they crossed the trenches or moved into the V-Formation.
Hence, Guo Dian ordered his men to cross the trench fields to approach both corner edges.
Zhou Cang and Zhang Liang who had been overseeing the west walls reported the movements of Guo Dian back to Tong.
…
South Gate.
"They are planning to move trebuchets to the wings of the west walls. Lord Zhou Cang and Lord Zhang Liang had requested advice from the great immortal. What should we do?"
The messenger cupped his hands as he reported the messages. Meanwhile, Tong was sitting on a chair, observing the movements in his radar map.
The southern troops of Pan Feng Army detached a unit eastward to surround his fort, while Guo Dian Army separated into two units and was approaching the corner-end of the two walls.
"Tell both of them to prepare the ballistae and aim at those trebuchets. Also, have the Trench Squadrons standby at the third lines."
"As you commanded, great immortal."
"Haven't I taught you what you should address me?"
"Y-Yes, sir!! Aye aye, sir!!"
The messenger bowed and scrammed away in a hurry.
Seeing the unsightly action of his subordinate, Tong sighed.
His men stopped using "SIR" with him but started calling him "Great Immortal" because Tong had displayed too many miracles recently. He had already become a deity in the eyes of his men.
"Second Uncle. Pan Feng probably won't attack us today. I'm going to the west gate to help the third uncle, so please take care of this gate for me."
"Huh? Okay. But how did you know that they won't attack the south?" Zhang Bao questioned back.
"Pan Feng has just detached his force and it is moving to the east side. So the bad news is, he's going to surround us. But the good news is, they lack troops to lay a proper siege so they won't attack us for a while."
"They want to surround us? What can they achieve from that? Starve us?"
"Most likely. Perhaps they are thinking we are short on provisions and didn't know that I've just resupplied our stocks."
Zhang Bao paused and fell into deep thought for a while, then he chuckled.
"Well, let's pretending that we are short on provisions then." Zhang Bao said in a mocking tone while he was holding his laugh.
Tong smiled and left his uncle with the troops, after which he dragged Hua Shi along with him to the west gate.
"What's your range now, zombie?"
"250 meters."
"Have you maxed out your skill or what? I remember it was 150 yesterday."
"It's at LV.4 right now. It increases by 50 for each level up."
"Okay, then. I'm going to put you on the other side. Now, here's the plan …"
…
West Gate.
Guo Dian trebuchets squads moved in closer to the edges of the walls. These trebuchets had the range of 200 to 300 meters while the walls were 500 meters away, so they had to get a bit closer.
These toys were not the standard medieval counterweight trebuchets, but ancient manned traction trebuchets that required at least six strong men to operate inside, and over a hundred men to shove a single of these siege engines forward. If one of the crew was missing inside, then the trebuchet firing range would fall short.
In front of them, the infantry that was escorting the trebuchets were busy laying planks and trying to cover the trenches to make paths.
Everything was going as planned. However, a thunderous sound came from the wall in front of them.
*BANG*
The infantry below was shocked by the sound, afterward one of the eyes of their squad leader exploded then he fell down, lying dead.
At first, they thought he was hit by an arrow, but …
*BANG*
*BANG*
Another two lighting sound was heard and two of their commanding officers dropped on the ground. When they inspected their bodies, they couldn't find any arrow, but they found a hole on the head of the dead bodies.
*BANG*
*BANG*
The gunfire sound continued. One of their 100-man commanders fell each time they heard the sound. It was like the sound of a grim reaper coming to take their lives.
The soldiers of the leaderless teams became panic. They stopped pushing the trebuchets forward and ran away.
Then …
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
Giant arrows were launched from both on top of the wall and the mysterious bunkers behind the trenches. These thick arrows flew and penetrated any man that stood in their paths, which caused gory and horror scenes.
Despite getting barraged by ballista arrows and Tong's sniping, the trebuchets teams with the surviving squad leaders continued to move forward and put the planks on top of the trenches.
The trebuchets reached their ideal range and the crews were preparing to launch the stone and fire assaults immediately. Then they saw something was moving within the trenches.
Hua Shi and Tong's soldiers were moving within the trenches in small squads. They sneaked in and got close to the trebuchets without them realizing it.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
A drum signals came from within the fortress. The squadrons within the trenches raised their heads and their repeated crossbows up, then they fired their arrows. The wall of arrows turned the men in front of them into porcupines and fell.
Then a dozen bright arrows were shot to the sky from one of the trenches. The arrows curved in midair and left glowing trails behind. The arrows flew as if they had eyes as they swooped down and piece through the heads of trebuchets crews.
*BOOM*
One of the ballistae giant arrows hit a trebuchet and destroyed it upon the impact. Then more giant arrows hit the rest of the trebuchets.
Similar events also took place on the other edge of the wall. Although they did not have a sniper and the homing arrows, Zhang Liang soldiers in the trenches could still get the job done by destroying all trebuchets and its crews.
…
…
Guo Dian who was observing the battlefield on his watchtower was astonished and shocked. The fortress in front of him was definitely designed by a talent.
'Such complex stratagems. If I attack the gate, then men on the walls will kill me. If I attack the side walls, then I'll be ambushed by the soldiers below.'
Guo Dian face turned ugly. This probing attack was costly and humiliating, but he learned something from these sacrifices.
"Order the frontline to retreat."
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Guo Dian Army hit the retreating drums and the remaining troops on the front rushed back from the death traps.
"Is there any updates on the reinforcements from the imperial capital?" Guo Dian asked his officers.
The officers didn't speak. The news hadn't arrived yet or there was no news, so none of them dared to speak up.
Guo Dian clicked his tongue, thinking that his men were all corrupted and incompetence. When the situation required them to be brave or when he needed them to help him, all of them would turtle themselves and never dared to express their opinions.
However, when it was the time to splitting the profits of the taxes, they always competed with each other to speak as if it was the last day of their life.
Guo Dian closed his eyes to calm himself to rethink of a plan.
'The spies said Pan Feng spread their troops to surround the fortress in the east. That means they change their tactics. Are they trying to starve Zhang Tong?'
"Give me a report. What's the last report about Zhang Tong's current grain provisions?"
"My lord, they have less than a hundred tons in the fortress."
Guo Dian's eyes brightened up. He understood Pan Feng's intention now.
"Send messages to Julu County and ask them to dispatch more provision for us. We will prepare for a prolonged war."
After sending down his order, Guo Dian looked at the fortress in front of him with determined eyes. He had confidence that he could take it down within two months.
…
After Tong heard the retreating drums of Guo Dian Army, he also sounded his retreating drums.
In addition, he ordered his troops to make shifts and rested immediately as they could potentially get raided by night attacks.
Tong clicked his tongue in frustration. He was planning to use the chaos to sneak closer to Guo Dian main troops and snipe Guo Dian down from his watchtower. However, they were almost a kilometer away, which Tong did not have enough confidence to kill Guo Dian within 1-2 shots from this distance. He did not want to spook Guo Dian that he could be sniped.
Tong turned around and found that Hua Shi had come back from the frontline. He then told her.
"Zombie, go and rest. I'll need you again tonight!"
"OH!! Are we dual-cultivating again?"
The eyes of Hua Shi sparkled while her drools dripped down from the corner of her mouth.
Black lines appeared on Tong's face. He had thought that this girl had learned her lessons, but it seemed she was looking forward to it instead.
"No. I will put you on a night raiding team."
"Aww, what a pity. Today is my safe day."
"…"