逐王水千丞 ZhuWang The Blood Crown novel by ShuiQianCheng English translation: Chapter 18

On the day when the Jin approached the city wall, it was gloomy and covered with heavy clouds, which seemed to be able to collapse at any time and crush all living things.

At this time, the army lined up in front of the city. At a glance, the banner and flags covered the sun. The armors were like ink, and the spears were like a forest. The central army consisted of infantry and two-winged cavalry, followed by mechanical troops with quick-firing cannons, catapults, battering rams, and more. Within the central army, there was a big army banner with three colors on one side, fluttering in the cold wind of Liaodong. It was the flag of the commander-in-chief of the three armies, Zhuo Letai.

The fact that the 70,000 strong army was still and silent showed that the commander-in-chief was strict in governing armed forces.

Yuan Mao had already called all the strong men in the city into the army, but the strength of the Jin people was still nearly 20 times that of himself. If they were worried about their rations, they would have been besieged to death with so many people. In a battle with such a disparity in number of people, the weak side would often break down before fighting. To be able to stand upright on top of the city walls to face the heads of the mountains and fields was downright courageous. The two armies have not yet engaged in a battle, but the killing intent was already filling the air between each breath.

Yuan Sikong looked at the great and dense army in the city below and started to shudder from the bottom of his heart, but he was soon driven down by Yuan Mao.

Zhuo Letai’s great army started to beat their drums, and the sound was like thunder, catching up with the rhythm of the heartbeat one by one. The army began to shout with the sound of the drums, which was probably in the Jurchen language. They couldn't understand it, but the short and high rhythm had an extremely powerful magic, which turned into an invisible sword and swept the three armies. The yell was more and more hurried, and the tense atmosphere impacted everyone's veins, making the heart beat unconsciously with the frequency, as if it would burst and die in the next moment!

The frequency of the battle drums and shouts suddenly stopped at the moment when they were on the verge of climax. After a sudden silence, the man under the flag drew out his sword with the tip pointed to Guangning City, and yelled: "RELEASE ARROWS!!!"

The voice was full of noble aspiration and courage!

The archers’ bows were pulled into a full moon shape, and thousands of arrows flew towards Guangning like locusts.

As soon as the arrows left the bowstrings, the infantry of the Jin army skillfully raised their shields above their heads uniformly, protecting the archers and began to move towards the city wall step by step.

Almost at the same time, the guards on the wall also raised their shields to ward off the devouring rain of arrows. In Guangning City, the battle drums beat. Han Zhaoxing hid under his shield and yelled, "Attack!"

Arrows flew towards the Jin army like forests. The dark shield armor was full of bamboo arrows. The arrow feather was still shaking. The archers of the Jin army had already come out of the shields and fired a second wave of arrows.

The arrow rain shuttled back and forth between the enemy and them. Under the city, gaps kept appearing on the shields of the Jin army, and the Sheng army on the city also fell to the ground. For a moment, there was endless wailing.

With archers as the vanguard, Zhuo Letai weakened the attack of the Sheng army, and then sent out a second wave of infantry, still covered by shields, in an attempt to transport the battering rams towards the city wall.

Yuan Mao personally lifted the Fengshen cannon’s red curtain. Under his command, the artillerymen bombarded the troops that were transporting the battering ram.

That Fengshen cannon was a breech-loading cannon, which was much safer and faster to reload than the easy-to-explode muzzle-loading cannon of the past. However, the cost was high. Liaodong got a total of four, and they were all installed in Guangning City.

The two cannons fired at the same time, blowing up the battering rams.

Zhuo Letai no longer let the battering rams advance rashly, but directed the two sides of the catapults, throwing huge chunks of wood and stone towards Guangning City.

When the huge stones hit the city, it's a splash of flesh and blood. When they hit the wall, it cracked and collapsed. The more primitive the power, the more overbearing it is.

"Fire the cannons!" Han Zhaoxing roared, "Archers, prepare!".

"KILL!!!"

The beating drums shook the sky, and the shouts penetrated through the clouds. The Jin army came with boulders, and the Sheng army went with cannon fire. Going back and forth, there were countless deaths and injuries.

The battering rams continued to move forward under the shields towards the city wall’s base. When one group has blown up, another group came again. Finally, they put down the planks, crossed the moat*, and marched towards the main city gate.

The Sheng army smashed the oil bottles onto the shields protecting the battering ram’s troops. They then ignited the fire arrows, shooting at the kerosene splashed out from the broken oil bottles.

The shields burst into flames, and there were shrill howls coming from underneath.

Zhuo Letai's cannons and chariots also advanced slowly. These quick-firing cannons were muzzle-loading cannons that were easy to explode. They were improved from the Red Barbarian cannons*. In terms of mechanical manufacturing, the Barbarians were lagging far behind the Central Plains, but they had as many as eight, so they won in terms of quantity.

Just as the Fengshen cannons were firing everywhere on the earth, Zhuo Letai's cannons burst out and blasted uniformly at the Guangning City wall.

Guangning Wei’s city wall is as thick as 6.66m, plus the ice layer formed by pouring water on it these days, it is nearly 9.99m. It is very strong. Even under the attack of cannons and stones, its foundation had not been damaged.

However, this is only temporary.

After the road was built from wave upon wave of soldiers’ corpses, the Jin's battering rams finally hit the gate of Guangning Wei for the first time. The power of the battering ram did not damage the gate a bit, but it hit every Sheng soldier's heart.

Han Zhaoxing was sweating all over his face in the severe winter, commanding back and forth on the top of the city. Yuan Mao was assisting, but the orders he gave were more effective than Han Zhaoxing's. At this time, the war situation was critical. They tacitly put down their overtly and covertly fights between each other and devoted themselves to guarding the city, but the Jin army was as powerful as a tiger, and Guangning city was in imminent danger.

"REPORT!!! The south corner of the city was destroyed by boulders!"

"Chen Yulong, you lead 300 soldiers to reinforce the south of the city."

"Yes!”

"Liang Huiyong, send 200 more archers to protect the west gate."

"Yes!”

At this time, the war had lasted for nearly 4 hours. Zhuo Letai’s keen spirit did not dwindle, and the Sheng army was also in perfect order. The battering ram hit the city gate several times and was killed back by the garrison on top of the city. Zhuo Letai continued to let the battering ram troops push on while sending infantry to rush to the city wall with siege ladders*.

Countless long ladders mounted the city wall, and fearless soldiers climbed up one after another. The garrison on top of the city welcomed them with bows, arrows, stones, and boiling water, killing one wave and after another. The Jin soldiers kept falling down the long ladder, and there was no end to the howling.

Since ancient times, attacking a city was a bad strategy, and the art of ant-attachment* was the worst strategy to attack a city, but it was also the most common and easy to control tactic. Especially when the enemy was heavily outnumbered. Cannons and battering rams had dispersed most of the Sheng army’s firepower. The siege ladders were constantly broken and attached, and what they fight for was not only military strength, but also perseverance.

Yuan Mao divided the city wall defenders into two groups. One group attacked the Jin soldiers who were climbing the wall, while the other group took a rest. They took turns repeatedly and vowed not to retreat, holding the defense line of the city wall without letting a Jin person climb the wall.

Gradually, no one dared to climb up.

The stubbornness of the Sheng army was beyond Zhuo Letai’s imagination.

From noon to dusk, the Jin army lost thousands of soldiers. They saw loopholes several times and drew back again after charging, yet they could not invade the city.

Zhuo Letai was unreconciled and continued to attack.

Both sides suffered heavy losses. The generals and soldiers were tired until the light disappeared, and twilight came. Zhuo Letai advanced instead of retreating, planning to use the number of people as an advantage to tire Guangning’s defenders to death.

"Chief Soldier, the south of the city can hardly hold on anymore!"

"General Han, I'm afraid the arrows are insufficient."

Han Zhaoxing was in a state of great anxiety, and he still needed to forcefully maintain a calm appearance: "Continue to defend tenaciously, defend tenaciously!"

Yuan Mao's eyes were bloodshot, and his face was pale. He was still commanding the soldiers without stopping for a moment. No one knew if Guangning City could survive this evening, but as long as he was still breathing, he would kill one more Jin dog!

Zhuo Letai’s pressure was no less than that of Yuan Mao’s. The dead bodies under the city had been piled up to the height of two people. No one dared to climb the ladder even if a handsome reward was announced. Moreover, the soldiers were tired and not a drop of water had entered their bodies in a long time. The offense was obviously much slower.

When it was completely dark, Zhuo Letai saw that the morale was low. He was afraid that he would only lose more if he continued to attack. In desperation, he finally ordered to retreat.

Until now, Guangning Wei survived the first night after the war began.

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Red Barbarian cannons*[紅夷大炮]---Yi (夷), or barbarian, is a scornful term used by the Han people to refer to foreigners. Red-haired barbarians (红毛夷) are what they called the Dutch because of their red hair and beards. So Red Barbarian cannons are European-styled cannons

siege ladders*[登城梯]---(refer to picture 1 below)

art of ant-attachment*[蚁附]--- (refer to pic 1 above) Summary: In the era of war, the soldiers at the bottom of the army were as worthless as ants, and the term ant-attachment graphically describes such a way of attacking a city: gathering like ants to climb on an object. However, this method of attacking a city is disastrous for the soldiers on the attacking side when the defending side is well-prepared.

moat*[城壕]----(refer to pic 2 below) or 城池 (city and moat), for visualization purpose: moat is a deep, wide ditch surrounding a castle, fort, city etc. typically filled with water and intended as a defense against attack.