Chapter 525: - All Troops, Attack!

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The siege towers were pushed over.

As they tipped forward, their tops slammed down over the battlements and became the sturdiest ladders imaginable.

At the same moment, Gou Moli thrust the King’s Banner in his hand forward.

“The Stars are waiting for us ahead! Go, warriors protected by the Stars!”

The Savages in rattan armor roared and charged with sabers in hand.

Gongsun Zhi raised his long saber.

“The world curses me for betraying trust. The world mocks me because the tea went cold the moment the man left. But there is one thing no one beneath Heaven can insult: we all came from the Zhenbei Army! Sons of the Zhenbei Army, follow me and kill the Chu dogs!”

Under Gongsun Zhi’s lead, his armored personal guards surged forward.

Fan Li rolled his shoulders.

His joints cracked loudly.

He pointed his axe toward the wall.

“Ura!”

“Uraaaaa!”

These were the first troops sent to scale the walls.

The first wave had to possess two qualities.

First, they had to fear death as little as possible.

Second, they had to be elite.

They were the key to breaking the deadlock.

Siege warfare was unlike field battle.

There was almost no room for either side to maneuver.

Once every advantage outside the wall had been pushed as far as possible, what remained was the most primitive kind of killing.

It was like holding a grand ritual inside a snail shell, except all the grace and delicacy had been stripped away, leaving only direct brutality.

Under Liang Cheng’s arrangement, the Savage force attacked the center of the wall.

Gongsun Zhi’s troops and Fan Li’s attacked the two ends.

The Savages in the middle had to advance in a manner almost indistinguishable from suicide.

Their purpose was to seize most of the Chu defenders’ attention and relieve pressure on both wings, allowing the elites there to rip open room for a breakthrough.

The top of a wall was only so wide.

East Mountain Fort was a military fort, not an imperial capital.

There was no broad avenue atop the wall wide enough for several carriages to travel abreast.

So the number of soldiers the attacking side could actually feed into the fighting at one time had a fixed limit.

If the defenders endured long enough, the battle below naturally degenerated into feeding troops into a grinder one batch at a time.

But the same principle worked in reverse.

The number of defenders who could be placed on that same wall was fixed too.

Only so many men could physically stand there.

You could pack them shoulder to shoulder until there was no room left between them, but then how were they supposed to move or swing weapons?

Even if you truly crammed the wall solid, the number remained finite.

That was why defenders usually built additional works behind a wall once a siege began.

A sophisticated position might raise another “gate tower,” essentially another level of wall behind the first.

A more compact arrangement used arrow towers.

The purpose was always the same: on a narrow point of contact, increase the number of soldiers and arrows you could bring to bear, creating local superiority in manpower and missile fire.

The Chu had designed East Mountain Fort according to exactly that logic.

Unfortunately for them, Snow Sea Pass had been suppressing its appetite for siege-engine construction for far too long.

Under saturated bombardment from the Yan trebuchets, the main wall itself remained largely intact, but the towers and raised works built behind it had been almost completely destroyed.

Count Pingye stood on the command carriage with both hands behind his back.

To say he was not nervous would be impossible.

Gongsun Zhi’s and Gong Wang’s forces had joined him.

The Savage King had also stirred up an entire body of Savage death-fighters.

Even so, Zheng Fan did not want this place to become a prolonged meat grinder.

That was a commander’s most basic instinct.

It had nothing to do with deliberately preserving an enemy so one could justify one’s own importance.

No matter how one looked at it, the best result for Snow Sea Pass’s strategic security was for the entire campaign against Chu to proceed smoothly, one tile after another flipping in sequence until the effect became like falling dominoes: military camp after military fort taken, and finally even Zhennan Pass collapsing with them.

Compared with that, Count Pingye genuinely did not care much about the military merit of taking East Mountain Fort in one battle.

His military achievements were already saturated.

The Blind Man had once analyzed with him that the growth of a warlord could be reduced to two sides.

One was reputation.

The other was actual strength.

Reputation without strength was an embroidered pillow: attractive to look at and useless in practice.

Strength without reputation could not command men’s submission.

Zheng Fan’s reputation, because of his military achievements and the princess affair, had already overflowed.

What he lacked was time for that immense prestige to produce real returns.

Prestige had to be monetized.

So the sooner this war ended, at least on the front currently in his hands, the better for Zheng Fan.

First, rapid progress would push the larger strategic situation forward.

Second, the pressure on Snow Sea Pass would ease.

That would give him room to keep eating wartime allocations from the court while beginning to absorb and integrate Gongsun Zhi’s and Gong Wang’s forces.

The two men had already come this far and practically offered themselves to his pillow.

Count Pingye had no intention of pretending to be Liu Xiahui.

And most directly of all, watching soldiers under his command, and soldiers nominally under his command, charge forward one after another and fall from the wall like dumplings was never going to feel good to the man commanding them.

Count Pingye drew a deep breath and slowly released it.

He lowered his eyes toward Gongsun Zan beside him, who was holding out the Barbarian saber.

Then he looked toward A’Ming.

“Pass the word. Prepare the command banner and the great drum.”

“Yes, Master.”

The Sword Saint asked curiously:

“You plan to press forward personally at the critical moment?”

The command carriage served two purposes.

One was to stabilize morale.

It stood high, carried obvious decorations, and could be seen by soldiers even amid battlefield chaos.

The other was that, at the most critical moment, whether the command carriage advanced or withdrew became the physical expression of the supreme commander’s will.

“If we truly come down to that final kick through the door, I’m willing to gamble once.”

The Sword Saint nodded.

“Not easy.”

The meaning was obvious.

For a man this afraid of death to reach even that point truly was not easy.

Then the Sword Saint seemed to think of something.

He pointed at the war drum the guards had just carried onto the command carriage.

“I beat the drum?”

“That feels a little wasteful,” Count Pingye said with a smile.

The Sword Saint did not care.

“I’ve slaughtered pigs before. I’d actually like to try beating a war drum.”

“Couldn’t you simply fly up there and smash open one route yourself?”

There were now plenty of siege towers leaning against the wall.

Wherever the Sword Saint went, directly reversing the entire battle would be impossible, but at the very least that section of the wall would become much sharper.

“I only protect you.” The Sword Saint paused, then added, “If you go up, I go up.”

“Don’t provoke me.”

“I’m not.”

“I fought with my life to reach where I stand today too,” Zheng Fan said.

“Hahahaha! Any man who occupies a high position in this world either gambled his own life when he was young or had ancestors who once did. You dared gamble with your life before. That does not mean you still dare now.”

“But I still feel like I’m the same youth I was back then.”

“My teeth hurt a little.”

“Pity,” Zheng Fan sighed.

“What is?”

“This is a war between Yan and Chu, a war for supremacy. There isn’t really any noble, high-sounding reason I can use to fool you into risking your life for me.”

“Thank you for your honesty.”

“No, wait. There still is one.”

Count Pingye stamped the sole of his boot against the command carriage.

“This is eastern Jin.”

The Sword Saint lowered his eyelids slightly.

He already knew what the man beside him intended to say.

“Once, this region connected Snow Sea in the north and Zhennan Pass in the south. Merchant caravans from Jin, the snowfields, and Chu traveled constantly through here. It could hardly be called some fertile paradise beyond the frontier, but ordinary people still lived reasonably well. Unfortunately, war came again and again until nine houses out of ten stood empty. Forget saying the people cannot live. You barely see any people at all now. I’m thinking that if this war ends sooner, I’ll probably gain control of this region. Refugees can return home. This place can become like Snow Sea Pass, reclaiming farmland, building houses, developing workshops. The Jin lands have suffered. The people of Jin have suffered.”

After finishing his lament, Count Pingye looked toward the Sword Saint beside him.

The Sword Saint remained completely unmoved.

He even looked a little as though he wanted to laugh.

Then

Count Pingye himself started laughing.

Gongsun Zan, standing nearby, looked at the two men in confusion.

One was Count Pingye, a man his own father respected and feared deeply.

The other, his father had told him, was the legendary Sword Saint of the Jin lands.

Gongsun Zan had only just arrived.

Naturally, he did everything cautiously and tried his best to read every expression around him.

But right now he genuinely could not understand.

They had been speaking about miserable suffering among the common people.

Yet both men were laughing freely.

Count Pingye sighed.

“People change.”

“Not change. Once you’ve experienced enough, you simply grow used to things.”

Count Pingye nodded.

“I’ve thought about that question too. I discovered I was becoming increasingly cold-blooded. You should know that in my early years I once served as a laborer. At the time, the Commandery Princess of the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence used our laborer column as bait. But now, when I look at them, I increasingly feel something similar. In my eyes, they are slowly becoming blurred. They stop being individual living people and become playing cards in my hand. I can throw them out without hesitation, play them in all sorts of patterns, all for the sake of winning the final pot.”

The Sword Saint stood beside him without speaking.

Zheng Fan continued:

“I’ve actually spent a lot of time thinking about this lately. Many people around me have been thinking about it with me, because I can see different lines of thought in them.”

“I’ve heard that the scholars of Qian and the great nobles of Chu both enjoy pure conversation.”

“That’s because they’ve eaten too much and have nothing better to do. They like the artistic mood of it. What I want is a conclusion that can soothe my own heart. At the very least, a system. Think of the word system as a complete set of sword forms in your swordsmanship.”

“I understand.”

Count Pingye licked his lips.

“I saw a great many things in Gou Moli. I saw many things in my own commanders too. But the one who finally let me see clearly, the one who gave me the greatest inspiration, was actually you, Yu Huaping.”

“So in the end you still dragged this back onto me.”

The Sword Saint smiled as though he had expected it.

Count Pingye shook his head.

“No. If war is excluded and we count only people killed personally with a weapon, you have unquestionably killed far more people than I have.”

“Yes.”

“When people do something that carries guilt enough times, we all grow numb. Slowly, it becomes ordinary. The first time an ordinary person watches his parents kill a chicken or gut a fish, he may feel fear and pity. Not long afterward, he can probably do it cleanly himself, simply because the whole family is waiting for dinner.”

“So what exactly is Count Pingye trying to say?”

“What I mean is, if this life, this rhythm, this structure is destined to make me increasingly numb toward certain things, then let it make me numb. A person’s lower limit usually sinks lower and lower anyway. Along the East Sea of Qian, there is a group of people who spend almost their entire lives in the water and are forbidden to live ashore. Officials and wealthy households use them to gather pearls from the East Sea. They’re called pearl divers. The older the diver, the deeper he can descend. But at the same time, the more he likes lying on reefs and basking in the sun. So if some things have to be done, then do them. As long as I can still preserve something beautiful inside me for the beautiful things that remain, that is enough.”

The Sword Saint nodded.

“Your thoughts about the state of mind often give me inspiration.”

“You flatter me.”

“Truly. Many things you say do not match your present martial realm at all.”

“Some great literary masters can’t even restrain a chicken, yet they still produce profound sayings.”

“That is true.”

The Sword Saint agreed.

“So that is what I understood from you. People in this world toil for a few scraps of silver. Yet those few scraps of silver can solve ten thousand kinds of sorrow. Neither you nor I has to worry about making a living. We can step outside the busyness of survival. Naturally, the things we think about differ from those of ordinary people.”

“I now feel that I am only an ordinary man. An ordinary man living at Snow Sea Pass,” the Sword Saint said.

“You are returning to simplicity. That road is right for you, but not for me. I can learn from it. I cannot walk it exactly.”

“Then what is your road?”

“Looking at scenery. Looking at more scenery. Back in Tiger Head City, when I sat on the balcony of my inn, I was looking at scenery. When I marched south into Qian and stood below Shangjing, I was looking at scenery too. Now I stand atop this command carriage while soldiers risk death assaulting a wall before me. This, in truth, is also scenery. It is like climbing a mountain. Stand at a different height and the view becomes different. If you want to see landscapes you’ve never seen, you can only keep climbing one step at a time. One day, I will stand upon the highest peak, and all the lesser mountains will lie small beneath my gaze. Perhaps I won’t truly like the scenery at the summit. But if I never go up there even once, if I never see the sunrise from that height, I’ll always feel this life was somehow incomplete.”

The Sword Saint slowly closed his eyes and gave the faintest shake of his head.

“What is it?” Zheng Fan asked.

“I am suppressing the feeling of enlightenment. This is not the time to sit cross-legged and comprehend the Dao.”

Count Pingye opened his mouth.

He licked his lips.

“Beast.”

“Hahahaha.”

The Sword Saint laughed.

“Continue. Suppose you truly reach the summit one day and discover you do not love the scenery there. What then? Do you jump from the cliff and end everything, or descend the mountain again? You have already seen every view on the way down. There would be nothing new.”

Count Pingye shook his head.

“The state of mind when climbing differs from the state of mind when descending. When the heart changes, the scenery changes with it. When I see mountains, they are mountains. When I see water, it is water. Then mountains are no longer mountains, and water is no longer water.”

Longyuan began to hum.

The sword revealed the instability in the Sword Saint’s state of mind.

Count Pingye said helplessly:

“You can’t hold it in?”

The Sword Saint shook his head.

“Not to that extent. What you said earlier merely reminded me of the Second Grade realm. That is the scenery at the mountain summit. You look once, then you can only come down. Perhaps, exactly as you said, there is no need for despair after descending. Once you have stood on the summit, the scenery below tastes different when you look back at it. Everyone beneath Heaven takes pride in opening a new realm. Those capable of opening the Second Grade are fewer still. But I am certain the Second Grade realm cannot be sustained for long, not even by a Martial Artist’s body. The fellow beside the Commandery Princess spent his entire life cultivating a single Second Grade sword strike. It looked ferocious, but in truth it was uselessly narrow. I do not know whether he ever regretted it, but from where I stand now, even if I never open the Second Grade in my entire life, it would not be a great loss. Since the Second Grade cannot last, becoming invincible within the Third Grade is already enough.”

“You make an excellent argument. But I still think you’re worried that if you open the Second Grade again, your body won’t withstand it and you’ll drop dead. You can’t bear to leave your wife, child, and warm bed.”

The Sword Saint frowned.

Thought about it.

Then nodded.

“Yes.”

“They are part of your scenery too?”

“No. They are the people climbing the mountain with me,” the Sword Saint corrected.

“Then what am I?”

The Sword Saint raised one hand.

“A lantern.”

“What a terrible metaphor.”

Behind them, Gongsun Zan held the Barbarian saber and looked up at A’Ming beside him in confusion.

A’Ming lowered his head.

“Understand any of that?”

Gongsun Zan honestly shook his head.

He had tried very hard to listen.

He still had not understood.

A’Ming nodded.

“Good. You’re not supposed to.”

Gongsun Zan gathered his courage.

“Why?”

“Because the two of them aren’t speaking human language.”

Gongsun Zan did not dare agree.

And over at the wall, the first assault had already entered its bloodiest stage.

Once the siege towers tipped forward, they became the strongest “ladders” imaginable.

Soldiers roared as they rushed across them.

Nor were siege towers the only machines being used.

Skyway Bridges, Cloud-Scaling Ladders, Flying-Tower Ramps, and other engines were being pushed forward from the rear.

The simple ladders seen in films and television of later ages, where men just leaned them against a wall and climbed, were genuinely a way to send people to their deaths.

Real siege ladders worth using had wooden wheels underneath.

Their bulk and mass were deliberately preserved.

Once fixed against the battlements, three or five defenders could never simply shove them away.

The Savage assault was the most aggressive.

Their rattan armor could not give them much protection in brutal close combat like this.

Rattan simply could not compare with iron.

For the Savages themselves, however, even that was already enough.

What Gou Moli excelled at most was injecting chicken blood into people.

He used religion to construct an atmosphere.

Then he added “wine, meat, women” and hopes for the future until the Savages became blind and temporarily forgot life and death.

Only temporarily.

But that was enough.

For most Savages storming the wall, their remaining lives were temporary anyway.

Just as when they assaulted Central Mountain Camp a few days earlier, the Savages now charged without fear of death.

The first Chu line on the wall consisted of their finest sabermen and axemen.

Behind them stood archers and crossbowmen.

On the outer edges were spearmen and halberdiers carrying long weapons.

From close to far, three layers of defense.

Like a hedgehog.

Many Savages rushed up only to be cut down, pierced, or shot.

The “ladder” created by a fallen siege tower was broad and sturdy.

But the actual contact point with the wall remained only so wide.

Yet the brutality at the very beginning failed to frighten the Savages.

Instead, it drew out the savage cruelty buried in their bones.

They possessed little coordinated skill.

Faced with the situation before them, they chose the most direct method.

Throw yourself forward.

Grab the Chu soldier in front of you.

Drag him with you off the wall.

Some Savages had already been pierced through their rattan armor when they lunged in.

They still gritted their teeth.

Using their arms, their grip, even the weight of their dying bodies, they insisted on taking someone with them.

That wild-dog style of fighting made the Chu defenders unconsciously begin giving ground.

Bit by bit, space opened.

The Savages forced their way onto the wall.

Below, Guo Dong stood with shield raised, protecting the archers behind him while they fired upward.

He could not help smacking his lips.

“Motherfucker. Do these Savages truly not give a damn about their own lives?”

Xu An nodded.

He too had been shocked by the way the Savages fought.

This was not merely throwing one’s life away.

It was fighting as though one’s own life had almost no value to begin with.

Guo Dong continued:

“If the Savages are this fierce and Count Pingye still beat them flat, how terrifying must Count Pingye be?”

Quite a few people found themselves thinking the same thing.

It returned to an old theme.

Savages with a Savage King and Savages without a Savage King were effectively two different... creatures.

The Blind Man stood beside Liang Cheng, helping analyze and summarize reports from the front.

This scene naturally fell within his “sight” as well.

Last night, Gou Moli had told him that people were different.

Yan people, Savages, Jin people.

They were all people first, but below that level there were further divisions.

And now Gou Moli had indeed proven it.

The Savages charging the center used exactly this method to place enormous pressure on the Chu defenders.

A fair number had already reached the wall and begun fighting on level ground.

The Blind Man sighed.

“Heh. Good thing the Savages ran into the Zhenbei Army and Jingnan Army back then, and Tian Wujing besides. And good thing they weren’t united internally.”

Liang Cheng shook his head.

“Temporary blood courage. It works once. Not twice. Forget three times. This has always been the Savage weakness and the hallmark of a mob. Peasant rebel armies are the same. They roar themselves forward in one burst. Blunt that edge, and their momentum collapses.”

Then Liang Cheng ordered:

“Pass the command. Send up the second wave. Move the discipline squads forward, especially behind the Savage section.”

He was worried that once the Savages’ momentum faded, they would simply turn around and run without hesitation.

The Blind Man smiled.

“So the real key to this battle still depends on A’Li and Gongsun Zhi?”

Liang Cheng pointed toward Gongsun Zhi’s section.

“Gongsun Zhi is clearly bogged down. He still hasn’t chewed open a gap. Right now, A’Li’s side is the one we can place more hope in.”

“In the end, our own people are still more reliable.”

Liang Cheng shook his head.

“You cannot put it that way. We’re standing below the wall and cannot see the situation above clearly. Gongsun Zhi may have run directly into the finest Chu defenders, which is why he still hasn’t broken through. That is what matching pieces means. Someone eventually has to meet the enemy’s strongest piece so the others gain a chance to open a breach elsewhere.”

As he spoke, Liang Cheng glanced backward.

The Blind Man asked:

“What? You think even Master may have to be used?”

“If the command carriage advances at the critical moment, it can pull morale upward. Master should understand that principle. Master fears death, certainly, but at the key moment he can still stake himself.”

“That’s rather interesting. Command carriage forward, morale surges. Quite entertaining.”

As the Blind Man spoke, he unconsciously pulled an orange from his pocket.

He hesitated.

Eating snacks at his present position felt somewhat inappropriate.

So he put it away again.

Liang Cheng suddenly said:

“A’Li’s side seems to have opened a gap.”

...

“Uraaaaa!”

Fan Li’s section truly had opened a breach.

In an age of cold weapons, a man with Fan Li’s physique would have been the kind of ferocious general called a “match for ten thousand men.”

During the assault on Central Mountain Camp, Fan Li had ended up doing almost nothing.

He had sweated inside his iron can while barely getting any blood on his axes.

This time, he finally caught his chance.

When the first charge stalled, Fan Li did not hesitate.

He threw his entire body forward.

Literally.

He used himself like a boulder launched from a trebuchet.

After a running start, he leapt.

The siege-tower ladder beneath his feet shuddered violently.

His entire body rose into the air and crashed into the tightly packed Chu troops ahead.

Boom!

One impact flattened an entire patch.

The iron can around Fan Li’s body had originally been designed by Xue San personally.

No one cared about lightness.

No one cared about flexibility.

The only thing that mattered was protection.

In Xue San’s view, Fan Li only needed to lower his head, raise his axe, go full Musou, and bulldoze straight ahead.

That armor now produced miraculous results.

When Fan Li crashed down, multiple Chu halberds and spears braced against his body.

They snapped almost instantly.

Then Fan Li landed with the weight of Mount Tai and knocked over a whole mass of soldiers beneath him.

Fan Li wriggled.

Turned himself over.

Then rolled through them like a harvesting machine mowing wheat.

This brutally simple method created an absurd amount of space for the Snow Sea armored soldiers following behind.

In moments, more than a hundred armored troops reached the wall.

They immediately began expanding outward.

What they needed now was simply to hold this patch, create room, and allow a constant stream of comrades to follow.

Bang!

Fan Li’s fist crushed the skull of a Chu officer beneath him.

He stood.

Grabbed his axe.

Then began sweeping forward like an autumn wind stripping leaves.

Because of his earlier impact, only one axe remained.

That did not matter.

The right hand swung the axe.

The left hand simply grabbed whatever enemy weapon came thrusting toward him.

Then Fan Li yanked and threw the owner from the wall.

Snow Sea armored soldiers immediately clustered around him and helped divide the pressure.

For a time, they actually drove a long distance along the battlements.

That section of the Chu defense began showing clear signs of impending collapse.

At that moment, a body of Chu soldiers in azure armor charged over.

Their equipment was finer.

They were far more practiced at fighting in formation.

For the first time since breaking in, Fan Li was actually caught by an enemy halberd.

If he had not activated his Barbarian bloodline and forcefully torn his body loose, the Chu axeman following behind might have chopped directly into his neck.

Even so, Fan Li’s giant iron shell was now dented and gouged everywhere.

Blood seeped from several places.

This was an age of cold weapons.

But it was also an age with Martial Artists and swordsmen.

Armies, especially, never lacked highly skilled fighters.

On the other side, a young general in silver armor led a body of soldiers wearing the same silver armor and came slaughtering forward.

They pressed against the Snow Sea troops from the opposite direction and began forcing Fan Li’s men back.

The young officer wielded a long spear.

The weapon moved with roaring force.

Its point darted like a dragon.

Flowers of blood bloomed wherever it touched.

The Chu troops behind him were equally fearless of death.

They desperately tried to seal the gap that had just appeared.

At last, the silver-armored young general spotted Fan Li not far ahead.

Truthfully, he had noticed Fan Li much earlier from beside the East Mountain Fort commander below the wall.

It was precisely because that Yan tiger-general had appeared that the situation atop the wall had abruptly become critical.

A thousand-li dike destroyed by one ant hole was a perfect description of siege warfare too.

“Enemy general, state your name! This spear does not kill nameless men!”

The silver-armored young general shouted arrogantly toward Fan Li in the distance.

At the same time, his spear moved like thunder.

One thrust killed one nameless man.

One sweeping blow smashed another nameless man from the wall.

Fan Li, who had just been forced backward by the Chu troops before him, turned his head toward the silver-armored young general.

He did not have time to answer.

An arrow came shooting toward Fan Li’s face.

The shot carried tremendous force.

But because Fan Li had turned to look toward the shouting young officer, the arrow missed him.

At that exact moment, the silver-armored young general had just driven his spear through the chest of a Snow Sea soldier.

He kicked the dying man away.

And the arrow arrived.

Pfft!

It buried itself directly in the young general’s face.

His body froze.

The fletching on the shaft bore the standard markings of the Chu army.

The arrow that killed him had been fired by his own side.

Thud.

The silver-armored young general toppled to the ground.

Dead.

This was a battlefield.

A battlefield of thousands and tens of thousands.

The real battlefield.

Here, even Fan Li wrapped in a mountain of iron had nearly lost his head.

Here, even Count Pingye constantly encountered stray arrows and impossibly accurate trebuchet stones.

There was nothing strange about the silver-armored young general dying this way.

But his death did teach later generations one lesson.

The next time you wanted to shout, “Who are you? Dare you leave your name?” it would be wiser to begin with:

“I am...”

At least then you could say your own name before dying.

You would not die quite so miserably anonymous.

Fan Li personally watched the silver-armored young general take an arrow through the face.

His emotions barely moved.

In Fan Li’s opinion, wearing armor that bright while shouting challenges in the middle of a battlefield was the behavior of a complete dumbass.

His own Master would never do anything that stupid.

Then

Fan Li raised his axe again.

“Kill!”

...

The orange in the Blind Man’s pocket came out.

Went back in.

Came out again.

Went back in again.

The battle atop the wall was see-sawing.

So was the orange here.

At that moment, Gou Moli arrived beside Liang Cheng.

Count Pingye’s command carriage still stood in the rear.

Liang Cheng’s position was the true nerve center issuing battlefield orders.

“General Liang, my troops are about to lose heart. Use arrows and trebuchets to clear the way first, then send up the second wave.”

“Clear the way” meant ordering the archers and trebuchets to strike the center section of the wall.

The Savages were still locked in close combat with Chu troops there.

Gou Moli’s meaning was simple.

Clear them away together.

Then let the second wave charge.

He spoke calmly.

As though the men about to die were not his own people.

Because he understood perfectly well how long the blood-courage he had injected into those Savages could last.

Quite a few Savages in the rear were already hesitating and hanging back.

Clearly, they had begun waking up.

The Savage King did not care.

And Liang Cheng, progenitor of cold-blooded calculation, naturally cared even less.

He immediately ordered archers and trebuchets to strike the center of the wall.

The second assault wave was already roaring as it pressed forward.

And this time, Gong Wang personally led the charge with his own son.

The two Chief Commanders who had only recently thrown themselves under Count Pingye’s banner truly were showing sincerity and staking real blood.

Gongsun Zhi was still fighting atop the wall.

Now Gong Wang was heading up too.

Everyone understood that taking East Mountain Fort in a single battle remained unlikely.

But everyone also understood that if they failed to produce a breakthrough today, they would face another long period of agony while rebuilding all these siege engines.

If a chance existed to solve everything once and for all, who would not gamble for it?

Besides, two Chief Commanders personally leading troops onto the wall was respect enough for the Chu defenders of East Mountain Fort.

Arrows began blanketing the battlements.

At the same time, the trebuchets launched another round.

This volley carried burning fire-oil projectiles.

Because trebuchets could never be perfectly precise, the crews deliberately set the range slightly long.

Most shots landed inside the fort.

Only a smaller number struck the wall itself.

They could not be greedy.

Aim too precisely and there was a good chance they would smash their own assault troops.

Once the bombardment ended, Gong Wang and his son personally led their soldiers forward, replacing the Savages in the center.

The timing was excellent.

The Chu troops there were exhausted, badly depleted, and their replacement formations had not yet filled the gaps.

The effect was immediate.

Several breaches were torn open along the wall.

And taking advantage of the Chu’s weakening momentum, Gongsun Zhi’s troops, who had been grinding in brutal combat until now, finally broke through as well and established a foothold.

The entire situation suddenly opened!

Boom!

At that moment, the Yan battering ram smashed open the city gate.

The Blind Man immediately pulled out his orange.

The greater situation had been decided.

Liang Cheng, however, said at once:

“Yesterday, I deliberately ordered that low wall left standing because I wanted the Chu to retain a sliver of hope and luck, so they would not block the gate. But in truth, our battering ram has been pounding there for quite a while without breaking through. That proves the Chu did not take the bait. They blocked the gate from inside.”

The Blind Man stood there holding his orange, neither eating it nor putting it away.

“So what exactly does this mean?”

“The Chu inside deliberately moved away the obstacles blocking the gate. They opened it themselves.”

The Blind Man hesitated.

Then he put the orange away again.

He did not understand military affairs.

In truth, every Demon King had a specialty.

When it came to warfare, the only one whose level could compare with Master’s, after Tian Wujing had personally trained Master for years, was Liang Cheng.

But the Blind Man understood one thing.

The Chu were not opening the gate to surrender.

Sure enough, bright horns sounded from inside East Mountain Fort.

Then column after column of Chu cavalry charged fearlessly through the gate.

Large bodies of Chu infantry followed directly behind.

Liang Cheng actually smiled when he saw it.

“I always felt the Chu commander inside this fort was competent. Looking at this now, he truly is. Instead of continuing to feed troops into the wall one batch at a time until the position gradually disintegrates beyond recovery, he has chosen to open a second battlefield and strike outward. So long as they clear the ground before the wall, even if our troops hold sections of the battlements, it becomes meaningless. Not every commander has the courage to make this choice.”

“A’Cheng. Mind which side your ass is sitting on.”

“Mm.”

“You can say this hero-appreciating-hero stuff to me. Remember not to say it to Master. Master likes enemy heroes dead. He does not like them breathing.”

Below the wall, the Chu poured out in force.

The fire of battle spread from the battlements down to the ground.

They formed ranks.

They coordinated.

They were well trained.

Very quickly, they cleared a large area before the gate.

If they pushed outward only a little farther, they could completely sever the Yan troops who had already reached the wall from the main force behind them.

At the same time, among the Chu troops outside the fort, a golden banner rose.

A fire phoenix was embroidered beneath it.

“Imperial clan?” Liang Cheng asked in surprise.

This entered the Blind Man’s field of expertise.

“There is actually a Pillar of State inside East Mountain Fort.”

Great Chu had originally possessed four Pillars of State.

After Qu Tiannan took his own life below Yupan City, his son Qu Peiluo had not yet inherited the Pillar of State title.

So at present, Great Chu had only three remaining Pillars of State.

And now, one of them was actually inside East Mountain Fort.

The Secret Intelligence Department and Snow Sea Pass’s own spies had known absolutely nothing about it.

“Report! East Mountain Fort’s eastern gate is open! Chu troops are coming out!”

“Report! The western gate is open! Chu troops are coming out!”

“Report...!”

The Chu had opened their gates deliberately.

Armies were surging outward.

And the armor worn by these troops immediately felt different from everything seen before.

This side of the fort was the true main assault.

The other sides were feints.

Both armies understood that perfectly well.

Yet at this moment, the Chu had overturned the table completely.

And they looked extraordinarily confident while doing it.

That confidence could not possibly come from the hidden Pillar of State alone.

The Blind Man looked at the battlefield ahead.

Then he looked beside him at Liang Cheng.

“A’Cheng, don’t tell me you miscalculated.”

Seven Demon Kings plus one Master.

Eight people in total.

The one best at warfare was you.

If even you played this battle into a collapse, how the hell were the rest of us supposed to keep playing?

War was not as simple as Fan Li shouting “Ura!” and charging straight forward with his men.

The others did not possess Liang Cheng’s ability to gather up this mess.

Liang Cheng nodded.

“The troops inside this fort are not noble private armies at all. They are Imperial Clan Guards of Chu.”

At almost the same moment, Gong Wang, who had already fought his way onto the wall beside his son, shouted the same thing.

“These are Imperial Clan Guards of Chu! Imperial Clan Guards of Chu!”

Earlier, when nearly a million troops had built the stage and Count Pingye led his force against Central Mountain Camp, General-in-Chief Nian Yao had arranged his pocket by sending two forces of fifty thousand Imperial Clan Guards each to hide near East Mountain Fort and West Mountain Fort.

Later, because the Prince of Jingnan successfully countered Nian Yao’s move, and because Count Pingye struck Central Mountain Camp with astonishing speed, the fifty thousand Imperial Clan Guards supposedly stationed at East Mountain Fort had marched out to reinforce it.

Gong Wang’s force then clung to them.

In the end, not only did they fail to reach Central Mountain Camp in time, Gong Wang prevented them from returning to East Mountain Fort afterward.

That move had won enormous favor from Count Pingye.

Sacrifice the greater household for the benefit of the small household.

Excellent spirit.

Worthy of encouragement.

But the root of today’s problem had been buried exactly there.

The force that marched out to reinforce Central Mountain Camp, judging from what they saw now, had not been Imperial Clan Guards at all.

They had been the Chu noble private troops originally stationed inside East Mountain Fort.

Which meant the defenders the Yan had attacked for two consecutive days inside East Mountain Fort were actually Great Chu’s strongest Imperial Clan Guards.

That was why one of Chu’s Pillars of State was here.

That was why the Chu dared open their gates now and launch a counterattack.

They possessed both the confidence and the strength.

Liang Cheng picked up his saber.

He spoke to the Blind Man beside him, whose orange was now squeezed wrinkled in his hand.

“I hate to say it, but turning a siege into a counterattack where the defenders charge out of the fort really is embarrassing.”

The Blind Man shook his head.

“I don’t think this is the time for self-criticism.”

“Correct. So get to the rear quickly. I’ll organize the withdrawal. Tell Master to retreat first. We still have three military camps behind us. Even if the Chu win this battle, they cannot rout us completely. Gather ourselves, reorganize, and the larger situation will still remain in our hands.”

“The situation is truly this serious?”

The Blind Man still found it difficult to believe.

Liang Cheng nodded.

“It is.”

Then

Liang Cheng smiled again.

“As expected of a war between states. A true contest among the finest dragons and phoenixes of two nations. We use overwhelming momentum. They wait for the correct moment to move. Genuinely satisfying. Genuinely brilliant. If our siege pressure had not been so fierce and forced the Pillar of State inside to reveal himself early, I suspect he would have preferred to wait until after a much longer grind before making this move. Then he might truly have routed us in one stroke. Now, at most, he can win the moment. Win this one battle.”

“Stop looking like that. You really deserve a beating.”

...

On the command carriage, A’Ming looked toward Zheng Fan beside him.

“Master, A’Cheng is signaling. He wants the central army to withdraw first.”

“I can see it.”

“Yes.”

A’Ming moved to the side of the command carriage, preparing to give orders to the surrounding guards.

The sudden Chu counterattack had instantly thrown the situation into passivity.

The Sword Saint shook his head.

He continued their earlier conversation.

“A pity. Today’s scenery does not seem especially pleasant.”

Count Pingye smiled.

He opened one hand.

Gongsun Zan immediately offered the waterskin tied at his waist.

Count Pingye threw it straight onto the ground and rapped him on the head.

Then he drew the Barbarian saber from Gongsun Zan’s arms and stabbed it backward into the command carriage.

Count Pingye took two steps back.

Clad in golden armor, he sat directly in the commander’s seat.

The Sword Saint looked at him.

“Angry?”

Count Pingye nodded.

“I won’t hide it from you. Just yesterday, I was talking with the Blind Man. Both of us agreed that my military achievements were enough and my reputation was enough. Looking at things now, they truly are enough.”

“Then why?”

The Sword Saint did not understand military affairs.

But even he could read the present situation.

The Chu counterattack had arrived with terrifying momentum.

If the Yan withdrew now, they would certainly suffer one temporary setback, but they would still retain overall initiative across the battlefield.

It would only be one defeat.

If Zheng Fan ignored everything and simply slammed forward now, then if the push failed, the entire eastern front could collapse.

Count Pingye crossed one leg over the other.

Both arms draped loosely across the armrests.

His body tilted slightly to one side.

The posture had nothing dignified about it.

Yet a natural air of contempt and domination flowed from him.

“Military merit and reputation are enough. I could even generously throw both to other people and let them share. But I just realized something. Whether they are enough or not does not actually matter. What matters is this.”

Count Pingye rolled his neck.

“I don’t like losing.”

He pointed toward the battlefield.

“This Count wants those Chu to understand something. This Count came here to beat them. If you are the one getting beaten, then stand there properly and take it. Pass this Count’s order. Use my command carriage as the banner. Central army, advance across the entire line!”

[End of Chapter 525]