Chapter 76 The Night Eve of the Decisive Battle
When Ouyang Zhong and the others returned to General Wei's council chamber in Zongcheng City, a young girl's figure fiercely grabbed Ouyang Zhong's heart. He was hesitant to slowly walk forward to see the side face; his mouth was gently open, but he could not spit any sound. Fox Xiao Xian was discussing the battle plan with General Wei Kongji. General Wei was surprised and delighted to see the former Linghu Xian standing correctly before his eyes and becoming more agile and confident. He was even more emotional when he learned that the person before him was no longer the former Linghu Xian but Fox Xiao Xian, who had already ascended to immortality. But all in all, no matter the name, as long as he can return well, he is a great joy.
Fox Xiaxia, standing beside Ouyang Zhong, was not as pretentious as him. He slapped his shoulder and said, "What are you looking at? You're not allowed to look!" Then he smiled, rushed over, and picked up his younger sister, Fox Xiao Xian, whom he hadn't seen in a hundred years.
Fox Xiaoxian could feel someone behind her; she was about to turn back when a tall and handsome "strange man" picked up and lifted high while holding the side of the circle happily. Waiting to see the face, only surprised and shouted: "Four ... fourth brother! Fourth brother! You have also cultivated into human form! The fourth brother, you're beautiful! Worthy of being the best bloodline in our family!"
"Little Five, Little Five, brother missed you! Next to the Shan Xiaohu, not dry, pulling the senior brother said, "You a big man crying what crying, let go, let me also hold a little sister."
"Do not give! You still have the nerve to talk about me. Aren't you also crying with snot and tears?" Fox Xiaxia whimpered.
Shan Xiaohu cried and laughed simultaneously, holding his junior siblings tightly in his arms. Once the three little ones had all separately gone through a thousand hardships, all kinds of trials and tribulations, and finally transformed from a beast into a human form and ascended from a goblin to become an Immortal, that kind of pain of peeling off skin, tearing down bones, crushing, and reorganizing was something that mortals couldn't imagine.
Ouyang Zhong looked at their feelings so well; the heart was a little bit not taste. From the beginning, he seemed to be the outsider who stood on the peach blossom tree and the house roof to watch the fun. He walked towards them and coughed, saying, "That, let's not all stand here, let Xian'er, uh ... let's sit down and chat, sit down and chat."
Fox Xiao Xian used her fingers to gently stroke the tears on her face, pulling the hands of her fourth brother and third senior brother. She also echoed, "Yes, let's sit down and talk; it's still imperative that we figure out how to break the enemy's siege situation. Today, General Wei sat down, and we fought a modest battle with Dingling's ministry. Although both sides have suffered damage, what should we do if several enemy armies attack simultaneously?"
The Art of War has the following saying, "The upper armies attack the strategy, the lower armies attack the traffic, and the lower armies attack the city." Siege battles can cause significant casualties for the attacking side. They may even lead to reversing the entire battle situation due to the prolonged attack on a solid city. After in-depth discussions, the people became passive to active so the enemy could take outside action.
Tuoba Xian's last encounter with the vanguard army and the defenders of the vertical city had caused the Dingling division to lose three to four thousand men. Although it wasn't a crushing defeat, his performance made his father, Tuoba Zhe, very unhappy, scolding him severely and threatening to cut his military position and find a way to earn it back when he grew up.
Tuoba Xian knelt on the ground and eagerly said to his father, "Father, please give me another chance! I've taken down many tribes and cities before; I can do it this time, too!"
Tuoba Zhe said coldly, "Those tribes in the past were nothing more than old and weak women and children with no power, and the cities were nothing more than abandoned cities by the Zhong Ming people, so you still have the nerve to claim them as your military achievements? You are a far cry from your elder brother. Even though he died at the hands of the ZhongMing people, the siege for a long time in the north of the city was not taken down. What makes you think that you, a ten-year-old child, can have the ability to win a great victory? How can I trust you?"
"I will be more courageous and fearless than my elder brother. I will be able to open the gates of Zongcheng City and welcome Father King into the city. I will also offer the black gold that Father King wants most. Father, I will become your best son. Please give me another chance!"
"Alright... I will give you this last chance but won't give you more troops. You've already lost nearly a quarter of the 20,000 men you had before. I won't let my Dingling warriors follow you, a fool, and send their heads in vain. As for how else to attack, you figure it out yourself."
This provocation in front of the city gate was because King Tuoba Zhe of Dingling was in charge of the army. General Tuoba Xian, the vanguard general, was so eager to make a show of himself in front of his father that he wanted to carry out a strong attack on the northern gate of the vertical city regardless.
He gathered together the Zhongming civilians who had not escaped that he had captured in the villages of the various cities and towns from the north to the south and put them in the first queue of the attack, each being tied by the hand and then given a rudimentary spear. Regardless of men and women, young and old, strolling next to the guards of the Dingling soldiers with a whip, if you want to escape, you will be brutally killed.
Tuoba Xian used these civilians as human shields and drove them to the entrance of the vertical city, and continued to scream at Wei Kongji: "I heard that General Wei is a good official who loves the people like his own son, but unfortunately, I was not a good person from birth, and I don't even know what goodwill is. I only know that the wolves on the grasslands and the eagles soaring in the sky never show mercy to their prey. Why doesn't General Wei come and teach the young king how to be kind to his people's hands and feet?" He pointed his chin at the captives before him and said, "If you want to return to the city, open the gates and walk in by yourselves."
These hundred or so ZhongMing prisoners cried out, knowing that there was no way out and that whether they went forward or backward, only death awaited them. Such a vicious and cruel attack plan also significantly impacted the Zhongming defenders on the citadel. Some of the soldiers saw that there were even recognized family members and friends at the bottom, and they were initially scared by the momentum ofDingling's vast attack on the city, so they were even more confused at this time.
General Wei was in deep thought while cursing fiercely in his heart. This little brat, his brother Tuoba Cheng, is vicious, but the early twenties are terrible enough; this little beast is only in his early teens and can be so cruel. It is true that what old man gives birth to what kind of seed.
Suppose you open the city gate to rescue these civilians back. In that case, you will risk being drilled by the enemy, not to mention whether enemy troops will attack the city. If a few people are posing as people mixed into the city of spies, the consequences are also unimaginable. But if regardless of these people in the Ming let the enemy army humiliate slaughter, that the city guards and soldiers and even the whole vertical city people can not be accounted for, their people do not go to be saved, then this justice how to come? No matter how to dispose of it, there is a significant risk. General Wei finally closed his eyes; very painful and ruthless for the sake of millions of vertical city people can only suffer more than a hundred people, even if the future compensation to their own head, but also willing.
General Wei opened his eyes and shouted: "All of you in the Ming people, I Wei shame, can not help to save the various in the water and fire, and now can only abandon the car to protect the marshal to the safety of the whole vertical city, Wei Mou kneeling to beg a few people to give up their lives for righteousness, in the future, the whole vertical city people to commemorate the souls of all the heroes, offer martyrs, platoon! On behalf of the entire city's generals and people, Mister Wei thanks you all!" Then he knelt on both knees and solemnly kowtowed three times to the more than a hundred people in front of the city gate, and then, with tears in his eyes, he issued the order, "All the generals listen to the order, the archers get ready to send all of you heroes and avenge their deaths! Release--!"
In unison, the Zhongming defenders on the citadel tore off the white section of their clothes and put it on their heads, then roared together, "Send the heroes! This revenge will be avenged! Kill! Kill! Kill!" Ten thousand arrows were then fired, turning all the hundred or so people into hedgehogs, while arrows from a bit further away also caused some damage and deterrence toDingling's troops. Tuoba Xian did not expect Wei Kongji to come up with such a trick. When he realized something was wrong, he hurriedly spurred his horse and prepared to flee. However, he was still wounded by arrows. He ruthlessly put the arrows on his body and let the vice general help him cut them off; then, he took out the human bone dagger with him, silently recited an incantation, and began to call out to his uncle Dongfang Chang.
After all, Tuoba Xian was a child and had never been able to distinguish whether Dongfang Chang was his uncle, the Demon Monarch, or the Demon Monarch was his uncle. All he knew was that he could only achieve the victory he wanted by relying on a more powerful being.
Dongfang Chang chose to give up his attack on Xi Cheng City and detoured west to meet up with ZhangSun Zhi. But his decision cost him a considerable loss. Once Xi Cheng City lifted the situation of being besieged by the enemy, he tightly organized a Jedi counterattack. In addition to a portion of the generals and defenders protecting their homes and guarding the city, the remaining hundred thousand or so people, including the regular army and the government soldiers, were kept in the mansion. Even some strong and healthy ordinary men joined in the siege of Nandu's military forces and the northward support of Zongcheng.
As for the initially reluctant ZhangSun Zhi, when he was slowly marching from west to east, his son ZhangSun Tai couldn't bear his father's state of not moving forward at this time and hurriedly ran to the bottom of Zongcheng City first to call for battle, and ended up dying.
Dongfang Chang's troops ran a long distance and tried to find ZhangSun Jie's friendly soldiers in front of them, and Xi Cheng City's troops chased after them. They were already feeling fatigued and suffered heavy losses. With an original force of half a million, it was surprising that they had lost as many as 100,000 before the fight officially began.
As a civil official born Dongfang Chang, he was not very good at leading troops to war. He was drowned by hatred, now by the reality of the wild face finally awake at one point; he was really screwed up and even gave birth to the idea of retreating from the army. At this moment, he heard Tuoba Xian's call for help, asking him to hurry to Zongcheng City to help attack. Dongfang Chang was not always under the control of the Demon Monarch, and when he heard such a cry for help, he did not have any compassion, so he wanted to press on and reap the benefits. However, the Demon Monarch needed Tuoba Xian as a feeder for mana cultivation, and the Demon Monarch, regardless of Dongfang Chang's bitter pleas, took advantage of the situation and quickly wrapped Dongfang Chang's physical body and stood in front of Tuoba Xian.
Every time the Demon Monarch executed the heavy method, the possessed mortal Dongfang Chang felt pain that his body and soul would be torn to pieces, but in the face of great power, this pain could also be ignored for the time being. However, the mortal's flesh is too fragile and delicate; people in middle age Dongfang Chang, at this time, already felt physically and mentally exhausted, describes the withered. Tuoba Xian looked at the man in front of him, who was all in black, surrounded by black mist, and whose eyes were sunken like a skeleton, and for a moment, did not recognize that this person was his uncle whom he had not seen in person for many years. The two brothers had been using human bone daggers and paper crows to contact their uncle, and the number of times they had met face to face was only a handful of times.
"You're summoning me?" Demon Lord asked, lending his voice to Dongfang Chang.
"Are you ... you ... Dongfang Chang, my uncle?" Tuoba Xian was hesitant, but there was no time for him to think at the critical moment when the two armies were at war. Then he told the Demon Monarch, "Please, uncle, help me. I will take this city today and offer it to my father. I want my Dingling's army to step on the entire vertical city! I will become my father's proudest son!"
"So, to achieve this goal, you are willing to pay any price?" The Demon Lord asked.
"Right! At all costs!" Tuoba Xian replied without hesitation.
"Then I shall do as you wish! Hahahahahahahahaha!" The Demon Lord quickly tried to pull away from Dongfang Chang's body, and Dongfang Chang cried out in severe pain, "Don't! Don't go, Demon Lord! You haven't helped me reach my goal yet."
The Demon Monarch replied contemptuously, "It's a pity that you can't catch yourself, and your body is too old and worn out. This child before me is in his youth; his flesh and soul are more in my heart."
"Please, don't go! I can help him take over the vertical city myself. After all, I'm the one who's deceased their mother, and I'll help. Please give me a little more time."
The Demon Monarch did not leave Dongfang Chang's body, and Dongfang Chang told Tuoba Xian, "After all, you have already been wounded by an arrow. I will lead Nandu's 400,000 troops to come and help you attack the city, so why don't you retreat and go back to recuperate your wounds, and in ten days, no seven days, I will unite with Yue billet's army in the west and join you to besiege Zongcheng City from the four gates of the city: the east, west, south, north, and south. You be patient and wait a little longer." After saying that, Dongfang Chang turned into a puff of black smoke and disappeared before Tuoba Xian, returning to the tent where Nandu was stationed. Just as he entered the tent, he spat out a mouthful of black blood in a violent spurt. He knew that there was not much time left for him. No matter what, he had to grasp the last chance to realize his grand plan of revenge that he had been hesitating for ten years.
Not two days later, after ZhangSun Zhi learned about the death of his son ZhangSun Tai, as well as Xiao Feifei turning into a devil and Ouyang Zhong transforming into a dragon, he began to laugh wildly, as if he had heard some great joke, and then he laughed as he rambled on and on, "Retribution! Retribution! ..."
Husband and wife killed each other, brother and sister killed each other, once a person under ten thousand people, Nanling Princess family, each other into each other's evil ghosts Shura. ZhangSun no longer fears the delusion of a corner and no longer cares about restoring the ZhangSun clan, the glory of the ancestors. The son is gone. What is there to honor the ancestors? He quickly gathered his men and horses and ran towards Zongcheng City; he wanted to let the whole of Zongcheng City bury his son with him.
Within the city, all the people were united in their hatred and unity. Everyone was busy preparing for the final showdown according to the assigned deployment. Everyone's life, clan and family, friends and relatives, and the future of their children and grandchildren were at stake. There was no longer any distinction between princes, ministers, and commoners, nor were there any barriers between different cities and regions, and there was no longer any distinction between you and me, no matter whether they were human, beast, immortal, or demon, as long as they were guarding Zongcheng City.
Some people are preparing arrows and throwing stones, some are polishing tens of thousands of blades, some are making antler thorns and wolf tooth sticks, and some are boiling kerosene and gunpowder. Everyone has tied a white cloth scarf on their heads for the heroes who have already sacrificed their lives on the battlefield, and for every general who has gone up to meet the enemy, and even more so to keep each other's spirits and fulfill their filial piety, and to break the boat.
Ouyang Zhong was wearing a mourning suit—for his father, Ouyang Ming, and his wife, Xiao Feifei. He had always felt that he wasn't much of an emotionally rich person, and only here at Fox Xiao Xian could he genuinely release his emotions. However, at this moment, he only wanted to be quiet and alone.
It was true that he hadn't loved his wife, Xiao Feifei, but he had also changed from hating her initially to feeling sorry for her now. A young girl in her flower season was initially the best age but frequently encountered extreme changes; in that situation, whoever is afraid can't let go. On Xiao Feifei's deathbed, she cried out "pain," although he could not fully empathize with her, Ouyang Zhong also felt sorry for this poor woman. This time, he finally admitted frankly that she was his wife and his family, and that he felt guilty for not being able to take good care of her, and therefore, was even more obligated to do something for Xiao Feifei so that her spirit could be set free and rest in peace.
Fox Xiao Xian learned why and could understand Ouyang Zhong's feelings. She didn't bother him; instead, Xuan Mo and her senior brothers discussed the plan to deal with the demonic father. Just as several of them were deducing their plans, Ouyang Zhong suddenly appeared and sat beside them silently. Everyone looked at each other and was at a loss as to how to speak when Ouyang Zhong said with a relaxed expression, "Don't worry about me, everyone continues ~ this is not the time to be sad and sad at all, defeating the enemy is the important thing."
After the meeting, when only Ouyang Zhong and Fox Xiao Xian were left, Fox Xiao Xian didn't say any comforting words. She just carried two jugs of wine, flew to the house's roof, sat beside Ouyang Zhong, gently held his hand, and gently blew the peach kernel whistle. On this night before the war, the two were silent but better than countless people on Earth.