Chapter 77 - The Final Battle (I)
A giant blood-colored full moon climbed up the branches, just like the night of the ZhongMing Palace Night Banquet, just like that night. This day was the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th of August, which was initially a good day for family reunions; however, no matter for everyone inside and outside of Zongcheng, today would be an essential day to determine the survival of life and death.
According to the previously discussed deployment, everyone took their positions and defended the city to the death.
North city gate is the main battlefield by the Hussar General Wei Kongji town, Ouyang Zhong as the vanguard general led five thousand elite soldiers, holding a long lance to meet the enemy head on; South city gate is still Shan Xiaohu guard, carrying a hundred pounds of spears behind the back of the back of his purple and gold tomahawk, the eyes of the deterrent Yue Pi army and some of the Nandu army; East city gate facing the cliffs of the rift valley, but do not dare to have any laxity, Fox Xiaxia stood in the highest place, holding both hands of his Qingfeng The East City Gate is facing the cliffs and moats, but it doesn't dare to be slack, Fox Xiaxia is standing at the highest, holding his Qingfeng sword with both hands and keenly scrutinizing all the birds and beasts in the sky and on the ground; the West City Gate is guarded by Xuanmo as the principal general of the city, not only because of his high force and magical powers, but more importantly, he has always believed that there is something fishy in Dingling's desire to compete for the black gold in Zongyu Mountain outside the West City Gate, so he has to be here at any time to observe and send a letter to reach the Heavenly Court in a timely manner, if there is really a demonic evil, we will definitely do justice for the Heavenly Father.
Fox Xiaoxian, this time, is not the city's general but a reserve force to maneuver and protect the city's women and children. After all, if vectors and arrows fall into the town, or someone must clear the hidden danger in time, fight with swords and knives.
Before the war, fox Xia Xia and fox Xiao Xian, as a fox love hole bloodline is no longer repressed, cheerfully led the people in the vertical city several gates near several holes in the ground, and these holes in the ground with a dark road connected, which is also connected to the secret room in the Imperial City. In front of the gates, many trenches and traps were arranged, and several fortifications were set up so that if the enemy's soldiers and horses rushed to the city, they could still block one or two of them.
In this battle, everyone was involved, and even the young four-year-old emperor Xiao Qing tried his best to play the role he could. He was not yet able to do the dirty and heavy work, so he followed the military doctor Fox Xiaxia to learn how to make bandages and distribute medicines, pouring bottles of gold sores into tiny bottles to prepare the generals and soldiers on the battlefield for medical care. The hearts and minds of the entire vertical city's soldiers and civilians were united and full of morale, and this was already half the battle won.
It was a different scene than the several enemy armies outside the city.
The army of ZhangSun Zhi from Yue Pi was seriously divided. Part of the vanguard army that followed ZhangSun Tai before, basically all of them already want to turn to belong to Zongcheng City and submit to Ouyang Zhong, while the army that ZhangSun Zhi personally led to chase after he swore to destroy Zongcheng City and make Ouyang Zhong pay for the life of the dead ZhangSun Tai. Therefore, even before ZhangSun Jie attacked Zongcheng City, he first carried out a big purge in his army, and anyone who had second thoughts and spread the word that Ouyang Zhong was the true son of the dragon was punished by military justice. He has not yet hurt the enemy half a point on the first self-injury of 10,000 troops; this ZhangSun Zhi because of the pain of the loss of the son into insanity; the person has not sober.
Dongfang Chang, who came from Nandu, rushed his troops to Zongcheng. He needed to follow the original plan to join forces with ZhangSun Zhi. In his opinion, ZhangSun Zhi has already messed up, and, fortunately, he did not drag his feet, and he is unable to use him in the critical moment. So he gathered in the west, intending to attack the west city gate. The long-running battle had exhausted all the Nandu troops, including Dongfang Chang himself, physically and mentally. However, after a short rest for two days, Dongfang Chang stood at the foot of Zongcheng and looked up at the place where he had once contributed all his youthful years, an old place he had not visited in ten years, and he looked at it for a long time.
Dongfang Chang carefully selected more than a thousand dead soldiers, bypassing the Zong Yu Mountain north of Zongcheng, by the previous agreement to assist Tuoba Xian in attacking the northern city gate. It was true that Tuoba Xian was short of soldiers because his father, Tuoba Zhe, did not want to give him any more troops to waste. Therefore, when his uncle Dongfang Chang sent more than a thousand dead soldiers, he was very disappointed, feeling that these so-called uncle's troops were just a drop in the bucket, simply fooling him. Tuoba Xian would have preferred to have the powerful and strange dark power of Dongfang Chang. In his opinion, as long as he had that magic power, he would be invincible and unbeatable. However, his petty uncle didn't fulfill his desire, and Tuoba Xian didn't have an excellent face to give to the thousands of dead soldiers. He leisurely said to these dead soldiers, "Since you are called dead soldiers, then stand in the first row when you start a battle! You'll all have to die anyway, so let's let you all die as you should." After saying this, he sent these people to live in the worst tents and wait for their assignments.
Tuoba Xian thought his judgment was correct, so he didn't think that this casual dismissal of his had just hit Dongfang Chang's scheme.
Dongfang Chang wanted to attack Zongcheng City and had an even more critical wish to fulfill. These 1,000 dead soldiers of his were, in the open, a tactical alliance of the two armies, combining their efforts to attack Zongcheng together. Secretly, the fundamental mission of these people was to assassinate Tuoba Zhe and avenge Dongfang Chang's cousin Zhao Qian'er's past shame and hatred. Dongfang Chang only hated his lack of time and had to command the battle at the critical moment or assassination of Tuoba Zhe; he did not want to fake others. Only to personally kill the enemy to solve his backlog of more than twenty years of heart hate.
As the leader of the Dingling tribe, Dingling King Tuoba Zhe is not a loser. In this weak grassland, many tribes compete for resources; wars are frequent, and he can not do more and more, pulling together and conquering dozens of tribes of all sizes around so that the once weak Dingling is more muscular and more robust.
The sinister and cunning Tuoba Zhe had already agreed with the Demon Lord when he found Zhao Qian'er's difference. When Zhao Qian'er recommended Yu Sun to him when Yu Sun showed extraordinary magical power, Tuoba Zhe knew there must be a more significant force behind it. So, after Zhao Qian'er died in childbirth, he carried Zhao Qian'er's corpse to the depths of the grassland alone, summoned the Demon Lord, and offered the corpse of this woman who had given birth to two sons for him as a sacrifice, as long as the Demon Lord granted him magical powers to help him accomplish his grand hegemony, as an exchange for which he would willingly become the Demon Lord's slave and offer up his life and soul. In this kind of surefire deal, the Demon Lord has no reason to refuse and even hopes that more is better. Thus, Tuoba Zhe could cultivate demonic mana, whether manipulating bloodthirsty crows or secretly signaling Yu Sun to summon the Demon Monarch to destroy the heavens and the earth. It was all his Tuoba Zhe's masterpiece.
Only a few people knew of his ability, including his sons and even the once-greater Yu Sun, who hid it so well that Yu Sun always thought he was getting stronger and stronger, so he didn't put anyone in his eyes. Unbeknownst to him, Tuoba Zhe had only been practicing for a few short years, and his magical power had already surpassed that of a thousand-year-old spider spirit.
Dingling's vanguard army tent was less than a hundred meters away from Tuoba Zhe's chariot. Under the cover of the night, a few of Dongfang Chang's dead soldiers quickly sneaked into Tuoba Zhe's giant chariot and waited for the opportunity to take action.
The blood-colored full moon set, the White Tiger's seven constellations ascended to the sky, and a solemn and murderous aura filled the air. At this time, the brightest star in the sky, Yu Heng star, in the blue night sky, as if in an early warning to the people on earth that there will be a huge disaster to come.
On the 16th of August, the first ray of the morning sun broke through the sky, sprinkling the entire Zong Yu Mountain valley. Under the sunrise, Zong Cheng City was like a city embedded with gold, splendor, glory, and wealth that made anyone salivate. The atmosphere inside and outside Zong Cheng City was solemn and tense, waiting many days for the war to start soon.
The first to order the attack was ZhangSun Zhi. He couldn't wait a minute; he looked at the city and hated it with gnashing teeth. The honor and disgrace of his life were closely related to this city and the Zhongming Dynasty inside. To him, even if this city were razed to the ground, it would not be able to wipe out the resentment in his heart. "Attack! Those who disobey the order will be executed! Those who take the heads of the enemy generals will be rewarded with a hundred taels of gold!"
The heavy reward will be courage, which is the grace and mercy of the YuePi army and all the rules and regulations. To compete for the reward of 100 taels of gold, the soldiers shouted to cheer themselves up while frantically running towards the south city gate. Standing on the city tower, Shan Xiaohu suddenly felt that these running people were so small and even so stupid as to be ridiculous and pitiful. Only at this time, what he thought was not necessary, guarding the south city gate, was the most significant responsibility. He raised his hand in a gesture; he was calculating the right time in his mind: wait, wait, wait. He reached the vicinity of the pit for the ambush, so he shouted, "Archers, get ready, release!"
Yue Pi's army at the forefront of the people at first fell into the thorns, thorns and bamboo swords covered in the pit dead; the back of the people felt wrong, wanted to slow down the pace, but the back of the people pushing and shoving also fell into it, the third set of people found out that the front of the ambush after the intention to turn around turn to escape, the result of the wall above the 10,000 arrows fired through the armor. But at tea time, from the south city gate fifty meters around the trench has been densely piled up with corpses, a rough estimate of nearly 10,000 people have not started to fight has been fed head.
This caused ZhangSun Zhi and Yue Pi's army to suffer a slight blow. However, ZhangSun Zhi still constantly gave orders to demand a strong attack, and his men began to hesitate, refusing to be so unclear about a madman's wrong decision to cut off their lives. ZhangSun Zhi was furiously jumping on his chariot, cursing the defenders of Zongcheng for being despicable and shameless. At the same time, he cursed his team for being a bunch of cowardly people who were afraid of death. However, even with this endless tirade of curses, the lieutenants under his command refused to advance a single point. They only thought of someone who could fight to lead them forward, not this angry straw man.
The defenders at the south city gate were happy to see the enemy so stupid, and their morale was high! But as the principal general of the Shan Xiaohu, a little bit can, not that he is a young man, not easy to be complacent, but once as a beast and goblin he, when I was a child, I always listen to the elders said, human beings hate them, afraid of them, think that the beast is cruel, ferocious, bloody existence. But what was all this in front of him? Life in the war is like grass and mustard, which is generally insignificant; human beings kill each other; this is not cruel, ferocious, or bloody.
Shan Xiaohu sighed sadly, raised his spirit, and ordered, "All generals, listen to the order, do not take it lightly, and hold on to your positions!"
And the Dingling division at the north city gate began to wage a full-scale war. Tuoba Xian still can't hold his breath. He orders his troops to help each other in pairs. One lies down and fixes the crossbow with his legs, while the other is responsible for loading arrows and aiming to draw the bow, firing it towards the city tower at the north gate of Zongcheng City. Dingling, this time, used thistles-style arrows. The arrows are sharp and heavy, the range is not far, but the power is enormous, and the killing power is increased by ten times compared to the general arrows. Because the range is relatively short, the Dining Tribe of these shooters can only desperately run to less than fifty meters from the main gate, which is also within the effective range of the city tower shooters. As a result, the battlefield of the northern city gate at this time became a spectacular scene of arrows flying.
Many of Dingling's archers were shot into hedgehogs by the flying arrows from the city wall without firing a few times. The dead ones were placed in front as human shields while the living ones continued to go up and shoot. The city wall is also not good; thistles rushed over, dodge a few people will be an arrow skewered sugar gourd; even if they do not die at that time, the arrow can not be pulled out, and after a long time, will bleed to death. Therefore, the North Wall defenders experienced psychological and physical pressure. Ouyang Zhong streaked up and down, helping the generals around him to block the flying arrows. General Wei looked at the situation and ordered a stone-throwing attack.
After lighting the fuse, a boulder shell with kerosene or gunpowder inside quickly flew toward the enemy troops. When it landed, it exploded, blowing everything around it into pieces. Tuoba Xian's eyes, watching his troops getting fewer and fewer people, finally began to panic; he yelled at Dongfang Chang's one thousand dead soldiers to rush to the front line. However, he shouted for half a day but only saw one thousand people who came to him the day before. Then, he fast-tracked his horse to seek help from the King of Dingling's support, and he saw another battlefield being fought in the rear of Dingling.
Just as his army was about to be wiped out, chaos began to break out within the Dingzui army. The 1,000 dead soldiers surrounded Tuoba Zhe's chariot and fought bravely. Tuoba Zhe's guards surrounded Tuoba Zhe's chariot like an iron pass to keep out the assassins sent by Dongfang Chang, while more ofDingling's army surrounded these dead soldiers.
Knowing that the only way out was to die in battle, Dongfang Chang's assassins fought with all their might against Dingling's troops. As more and more of their companions died, one of them fired a rattling arrow into the sky. As the fireworks were alone in the air for a moment of splendor, a few core generals ignited the gunpowder at their waists with their fire folders. They sacrificed their lives heroically while taking their surrounding enemies with them to the netherworld. The explosions and flying sparks ignited Tuoba Zhe's chariot, and the gunpowder secretly buried inside the chariot the night before was also ignited. The explosions spread inside the Dingling Ministry, and pieces of the chariot flew everywhere, while there was no Tuoba Zhe himself inside. It was only a body double that had been blown to pieces.
Standing on the city wall, General Wei and Ouyang Zhong were too shocked to speak for a moment. The vertical city did not send these thousand dead soldiers, so was this an enemy or a friend? They were all without a clue.
The real Tuoba Zhe had long since realized something was wrong, and he had been hiding in another place, waiting for an opportunity to move. Seeing the chariot destroyed, angry, he began to summon bloodthirsty crows, a crow army like a large black cloud, quickly towards the remaining dead soldiers and launched a fierce attack. A portion also flew into the sky above the vertical city.
It was only then that Tuoba Xian suddenly realized that his father and his so-called uncle possessed the same magical power. His body trembled violently, not knowing whether it was fear or excitement. Without waiting for him to react, the bloodthirsty crows flew towards him.
Tuoba Xian turned his horse's head and ran away without a goal, crying loudly, "Father! I am your son! Father, forgive me!"
The raven made Tuoba Zhe's voice: "You are a stupid waste. I don't have a son like you who is a traitor! Come! Your last use is to become food for the Demon Lord and sacrifice your soul to the most powerful king!" Immediately after that, the vast, bloodthirsty crow opened its bloody mouth and swallowed Tuoba Xian, who was desperately escaping, in one gulp without hesitation.
Standing at the city gate, Ouyang Zhong finally realized that the original Demon Lord controlled more people than he could ever imagine. The Demon Lord would compel everyone who had evil thoughts in their hearts and was filled with greed and hatred to take over their bodies and minds. Tuoba Cheng, ZhangSun Zhi, and even Xiao Feifei are actually manipulating these crows, Tuoba Zhe. However, this was not thought of before, and at this time, understanding the truth is not unexpected.
Ouyang Zhong Thousand Mile Voice Transmission, with several partners stationed at different city gates, to inform the latest battle situation with everyone promptly.
After Xuan Mo knew about it, he informed everyone, "It's no longer an ordinary human war; our real enemy is the Demon Lord. The other party has already used their mana in violation of the Heavenly Laws, so we don't need to continue to hold back anymore. Everyone, show your respective skills! Fight with the same enemy and do justice to the heavens!"
"Finally, I've waited for these words from you!" Fox Xiaxia cracked up with joy, then used his mana to transform himself into a giant golden eagle. His and Shan Xiaohu's mana had long been lifted from their confinement by their master, and at this time, they could finally utilize their respective best powers. Fox Xiaxia was speed and change techniques, and Shan Xiaohu was strong and controlling the weather. In this battlefield of human and demon wars, the real protagonists would finally chalk up a victory.