Chapter 152 – Raider City Attack (Part 2)
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
Ouyang Shuo stood on the west city tower and looked towards the north sky where 3 signal bullets were shot up, heaving a sigh of relief. Based on a rule in Shanhai Town army, 3 signal bullets meant that they encountered an enemy and smoothly forced them away.
Huoda's mood wasn't as relaxed as Ouyang Shuo’s. The water bandits that escaped didn't dare to really disappear and instead sent people up to the shore to report to their main leader.
When he received the news, it was already 10 AM. At that time, all the sieging weapons were already assembled, and even the floating bridge that was meant as a hoax had been done.
At that time, to suddenly get the news that the water army had lost and that even his brother Huo Liu had been captured as a prisoner, this made him furious and kill the messenger on the spot.
Originally he wanted to coordinate with the water bandits to divert more of Shanhai Town's defences, but who would’ve thought that they were well-prepared and had a proper navy.
There was no point in waiting any longer. Huoda made the decision to launch a full-scale attack on the west gate.
Every side of Shanhai Town was 3 km long, and based on the average of every soldier taking up one meter, in theory it could have a row of 3 thousand men. 6 thousand raiders could only form two rows.
Of course wars weren't fought like that, and Huoda wouldn’t stupidly spread out his attacking forces. Facing a stone wall, the only way to breakthrough was to attack the gate.
3000 basic raiders were placed at the front to waste and use up the defensive resources of Shanhai Town, paving the way for the 2 thousand elite soldiers in the back.
As for the 1000 cavalrymen led by Heiqi, they couldn't play much of a part in attacking the city, and were sent to the wings to protect the forces.
Facing the raiders that charged forwards, the archers on top of the city walls started firing. Unfortunately, they only had 2 bowmen and 2 crossbowmen squadrons, so their numbers were too little and their killing ability too small.
One round of firing could cause at most 200 casualties. After 3 rounds, the raiders had already reached the walls and at that time, the archers amongst the elite raiders started to retaliate.
To make up for the deficit, the raiders assembled a movable arrow tower. The elite raiders stood on top of the tower and fired towards the wall. Hence, archers on both sides fired at each other to get rid of the long range threat from each side.
The 3000 raiders leading the charge obviously weren't empty-handed. The 15 assembled ladders were pushed onto the city walls. Once they were able to hook onto the wall, the raiders hiding below them could quickly climb onto the wall.
General Shi, who was in charge of the defense, upon finding out about the ladders, ordered 800 sword shield soldiers to re-organize their defensive region and arranged 50 men around every ladder. The last 50 were reserves to be prepared to assist any defensive region.
The large amounts of rolling wood and giant stones were thrown down by the soldiers. Each strike would cause many deaths, and this prevented the raiders from being able to climb up the walls.
At the same time, in the back lines of the raiders, 5 catapults were in position and had started to toss stone balls. The giant stone balls smashed into the walls, and the soldiers that were hit instantly became piles of meat paste.
Seeing the brutal scene, Mu Lanyue couldn't handle it, going into the resting room in the tower to take a break.
Seeing the city protection soldiers at a disadvantage, the god machine unit started to show their strength. The two 3 bow 8 cow bed crossbows started to aim at the 5 catapults under Wang Fengyuan's orders. After a round of arrows, the raiders who were using the catapult were shot down.
In less than half an hour, the 5 catapults were completely controlled by the god machine unit, as no one who wasn't afraid of dying dared to use the catapults.
Seeing the god machine unit at work, the group looked in awe towards Ouyang Shuo.
Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "That is the triple-bow acruballistas, and it's the strongest bed crossbow recorded in the Song Dynasty bow and crossbow making manual that I got from the auction. Don't look at me like that. Although it's powerful, it's also hard to make. Since we got the manual, we’ve only been able to make two."
Bai Hua smiled and said, "Wuyi, since Consonance Town is still a period away from upgrading, and since there's still a little time, you must sell two to me."
"Let's talk about this next time." Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to make promises.
"Wuyi, you must be fair, okay?" Feng Qiuhuang added.
"Qiuhuang, you don't need to think about it. Your town is so close to upgrading so there isn't enough time." Ouyang Shuo quickly expressed his feelings.
Only Xunlong Dianxue and Siege Lion kept quiet. Their territories were quite far away from upgrading and they didn't need to worry just yet.
Huoda, who was in the back lines, frowned as he saw his catapults being suppressed. "Who knows what they’re using that have such range?"
One raider walked out and said without confidence, "I heard there was something called a bed crossbow in the military, which was a weapon good for defense, maybe this is it?"
Huoda nodded and said, "I'm 80% sure it is. Seems like the enemy is a tough rock to crack."
"Then what should we do?"
"Send 1000 elites. We must pressure them." Huoda ordered.
"Yes!"
Although they successfully got rid of the threat from the catapults, the dangers still kept coming. Near each ladder was an average of 50 sword shield soldiers. They needed to withstand arrows, defend against enemies climbing the ladders, and also throw down rolling wood and giant stones. These two were very heavy and took a toll on one’s stamina and strength.
At that time, the enemy actually sent another 1000 elites to assist, increasing the danger.
Seeing that the raiders had decided to focus on one gate, Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and informed Ge Hongliang at the north gate to send 3 squadrons of sword shield soldiers to the west gate to defend.
With that, the soldiers at the north gate only numbered 400. These 400 were to face the 1000 elite raiders that hadn't showed themselves. Ouyang Shuo worried that they might attack the north gate through the floating bridge while they were fighting at the west gate.
Before the reinforcements from the north gate could arrive, the west gate was already in danger.
The combat power of the elite raiders was twice that of the basic raiders. The addition of such a big group immediately caused the defending soldiers to be endangered.
Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the 500 civic team members to go up the walls and take over the sword shield soldier's duties to be in charge of throwing down rolling wood and giant stones.
He had no choice but to put the civic team into play. These residents hadn't had any battle experience, and to be thrown into a battle like that, whether they could complete their task was unknown.
When a normal person saw this kind of situation, shivering and being afraid was normal. Where would one get the courage to throw rolling wood and giant stones at his opponents?
Seeing that the situation was getting worse, Ouyang Shuo knew that he needed to raise morale. He grabbed onto his spear and apologized to Bai Hua and the others for leaving them and rushed to the front lines.
The Ouyang Shuo today wasn't like the total noob of yesterday.
Be it the Yang family spearmanship technique or the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique, both had increased his combat power. Facing the raiders, it was more often than not a one shot kill, having a bit of General Shi's splendour.
Seeing their own lord personally fight with them, be it the sword shield infantries or civic team, their morale flew through the roof. The civic team fearlessly moved rolling wood after rolling wood, giant stone after giant stone, throwing them at the raiders that were rushing up.
With the civic team splitting the burden, the sword shield soldiers could finally fight the raiders, causing them to retreat again and again. The first infantry unit in charge of the defense of the west side was thus the most elite infantry unit, able to hold the upper hand even against elite bandits.
With the difference in numbers, it definitely still looked bad for them.
At this most dangerous time, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to order the use of his secret weapon: the alchemical fire oil cabinet. Originally he wanted to keep it to the end as a trump card to seal his victory.
The alchemical fire oil cabinet was really strong, and even the ladders, which had preparations done against fire, were still set ablaze. The huge fire instantly destroyed two ladders. Its only weakness was that it wasn’t easy to move the alchemical fire oil cabinets around.
When the soldiers from the north gate arrived, the city protection troops already had many causalities. Luckily for them the new batch of soldiers arrived, helping to stabilize this battle situation.
Seeing that they couldn’t succeed, and that it was close to noon, Huoda could only helplessly order his troops to retreat.
On the side of Shanhai Town, they made use of the time to treat the wounded. Those heavily injured were carried down the city walls and sent to the hospital. The civic team started to clean up the city defending resources and moved the new batch up to the wall in preparation for use in the afternoon.