Chapter 422- Di Chen's Magnanimity
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Dong! Dong! Dong!
Along with the beat of the drums, the siege began.
The huge army formation slowly pushed forward. They looked like a huge mountain that directly headed forward. When they reached the city protection river, the formation suddenly constricted, as they used the sandbags on the river to swarm under the city wall.
After crossing the only 'bridge', the army suddenly spread out once again. In an instant, the army covered the entire west city gate; they did not leave a single gap.
The entire process happened like flowing water.
One had to say that Lianpo's commanding ability was really something.
To be able to command a hurriedly assembled army at such a level and order, one had reached the standards of a huge army general. Those generals that could only lead their own men to battles were all just rash men.
The Handan City elites were sandwiched in the huge army. They carried large blocks of wood, as they charged straight toward the city gate.
Ouyang Shuo, who stood on the city wall, let loose a cold laugh when he saw this scene.
He had expected this.
On top of the wall, they had piled large amounts of stone into small mountains. Apart from that, a palace Guard squadron patiently waited. They were assigned to defend the gate.
The moment the enemy got close, they would rain down a flurry of arrows and large amounts of rocks.
The arrow rain was still okay, the shields blocked the majority, so it did not cause any casualties. After all, a squadron of soldiers were too little, and they could not form a collective effect.
The most dangerous part was still the rock pieces that pelted down.
Huge rocks dropped down from above and slammed down. As the rocks struck the shields, it squashed both the men and their shields.
Dang!
The struck soldier immediately spat out blood and could not get up.
The numerous rocks crashed down like rain and created low-pitched hitting noises.
Like playing whack-mole, each rock could take a live. The palace Guard soldiers were not normal commoners, and they had strength in excess. Their control of their power was also really precise.
The stone pieces that they tossed out were vicious and accurate.
The elites of Handan City could be said to have some backbone. None of them let out a scream or a shout.
They braved the giant rocks and tried to initiate their attack on the city gate.
Unfortunately, by the time they reached the city gate, the group had already suffered heavy casualties and they could barely lift up the entire giant wood block. They were unable to form any combined strength and momentum to strike the gate, so the impact was akin to scratching an itch.
The narrow city gate became a meat grinder.
Peng!
Peng!
Peng!
The seemingly endless supply of giant rocks simply made one feel desperate.
Before they could even launch their assault on the city gate, the Handan City elites had already suffered heavy casualties.
Di Chen, who looked on from afar, felt his face cramp. These were the elites that he had spent so much effort to train.
Lianpo was still expressionless. He sent group after group of elites to their 'execution' to replace the already paralyzed and badly hurt group in front of them.
He did not believe that the enemy could prepare that many stone pieces.
During the siege yesterday, Lianpo had noticed that in the latter half of the battle, the city wall did not thrown down any stones, which showed that all their resources were used up.
Unfortunately, he was destined to regret his decision.
No matter how many soldiers he sent up, it was all useless.
Half an hour later, huge rocks completely blocked the front of the city gate. Together, the rocks formed a small mountain. Pincered in between the rocks were the blood and the meat of the Handan City elites.
To attack the city gate, they had to remove the stone pierces.
This was simply an impossible task.
No matter how many elites troops they had, no matter how fearless they were, they could not be sent to die like this.
Lianpo's siege plan had officially failed.
The design of the old city was highly emphasized and a lot of work was put into it. Especially the gate, which was the weakest point.
If they could break the gate so easily, the siege armies would not need to bring ladders.
In siege battles, the sieging side would often just choose to use a trebuchet to blow a hole in the wall instead of directly attacking the gate.
The reason was this.
The defensive force had an exceptional level of defense at the gates. Not only that, even if they broke through, there were defense machineries that could instantly block up the gate.
Lianpo obviously did not know anything about this. According to his calculations, the enemy had limited amounts of defensive resources. Who knew that they would dismantle all the houses?
Facing such a tough opponent, Lianpo felt a headache. Even so, he was not fazed. As a commander, he was as resolute as steel.
Since they could not take down the city gate, Lianpo could only attack the city wall. As long as they did not care about the consequences, they could definitely take it down.
Lianpo had no doubts about this.
Di Chen also had high tolerance. At this moment, he still did not interfere. He knew that at such a moment, if their opinions clashed, it would result in total chaos.
In war time, he could only choose to believe Lianpo.
The Shanhai City army had lost large amounts of troops, so it had grown a lot tougher for them to maintain their defense.
While Di Chen had lost many troops, in a unit sense, the attacking numbers had not decreased. Only the number of rotations of units they could do decreased.
Lianpo was also vicious. He constantly pushed the army, reducing their rest time.
As long as the commander was resolute, the army would not collapse.
Under Lianpo's command, the army was like one body that relentlessly assaulted the city.
Under their relentless assault, it seemed that Anyang City would have to face a tough defensive situation.
However, he did not know that three more fierce generals stood on the city wall.
This intel error was simply fatal.
Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo was the only core of the army.
Now, it was different. Ouyang Shuo, along with Zhou Bo and the others, took a defensive region each. Together, they formed a defensive line.
Four points in a line; it was largely solid.
In a city wall defense, the use of a fierce general could not be underestimated. When Zhou Bo rushed to the front, within five meters, no one could climb onto the wall.
The general's great strength was a huge motivation to the soldiers.
The palace Guards grew stronger as they fought.
Each one of them was a cold slaughterer; they did not even care about the enemy.
The Anyang City wall was like a black hole, swallowing the lives of the soldiers.
Not only that, under the arrangements of Xiao He, they continued to transport huge amounts of stone and wooden resources up the wall.
Xiao He announced some words to the city: With the way the enemy was acting, if they break through, they would kill everyone within. These words scared all the commoners, and they were willing to even give up the coffins they had prepared for themselves.
Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were stunned.
What is called professional? This was professional!
This small change had made the defense work a lot easier than the previous day.
As time moved on, Lianpo could not keep his calm any longer.
Damn it, what kind of army was he facing? How could they be so stubborn?
Di Chen's face was also terrifyingly black.
At this moment, his allies could not look on anymore. Losing two to three thousand soldiers for nothing. In return, they only obtained a pitiful amount of battle contribution points.
This business was such a huge loss!
"Alliance Leader Di. I think we need an explanation."
One lord could not hold it in anymore. He doubted Di Chen. Of the three thousand troops he brought, only a thousand remained.
"That's right. We trusted you and came out with you. Now, what happened? There's no chance of winning."
Facing such doubts, Di Chen was speechless.
Talking about this matter, the alliance members had really held it in. They only brought it up now.
"Guys!" Di Chen said solemnly, "The failure today and its losses, I'll make it up to you after the battle ends."
"This…." the other lords looked at one another.
One had to say that Di Chen was really magnanimous in dealing with such things.
In theory, them coming out with Di Chen was all their own decision. It was war, so there was victory and there was defeat; they could not blame anyone. Even so, Di Chen did not push away the responsibility. It really showed the honor of a son of an aristocratic family.
This hand was really played beautifully.
After calming down his allies, Di Chen arrived by Lianpo's side.
"Lord!"
When he saw Di Chen, Lianpo felt ashamed.
Di Chen waved him off, "You're not to blame. The enemy is too strong."
The expression on his face relaxed slightly. He felt grateful in his heart. He thought that he would definitely be punished for this matter. After all, last night, he had sent out a military order in front of the lord.
He did not expect such a situation to occur.
"Lets back off!"
After saying these words, Di Chen felt a huge stone lifted off from his chest.
Let us just admit defeat and stop struggling.
"Lord?"
Lianpo was shocked.
"Fall back!"
Di Chen said once more; his tone really resolute.
When Lianpo heard this command, he had a complicated expression on his face. He also knew that no matter how they fought, they could not take down Anyang City. Hence, why not just back off earlier and cut down the casualties?
Not everyone had the ability and courage to cut their wrists and fight.
Their defeat in this battle was due to intel.
They did not expect Anyang City to actually have Qin troops stationed, so they did not bring any siege weapons. If not, given their strength, Shanhai would fail to defend Anyang City.
Amongst the rumbling, the Hadan alliance army once again backed down.
Cheers erupted from Anyang City.
At this very moment, the boom of horse hooves resounded from the horizon. When one looked over, they could see a huge, black wave swarm toward Anyang City.
The cheers on the city wall stopped.
Oh my god!
Is that the Anti-Qin Army?
The appearance of another army at such a moment could spell a huge catastrophe for Anyang City.
Even Ouyang Shuo could not help but tremble.
He raised his head and looked toward the sky. It was probably one to two hours till noon. This meant that Wang Li's vanguard force would need at least an hour before they arrived.
With just the current few thousand men, could they block off these new enemies for an hour?
Ouyang Shuo's expression was unprecedentedly solemn.
At the same time, in his heart, he looked forward to the battle.
On the other side, Di Chen and his men were also excited.
Especially Di Chen.
Based on his predictions, if the reinforcements rushed here, they should have already appeared.
"The heavens didn't forsake me!"
Di Chen let out a long sigh. He felt fortunate inside. He felt lucky that he did not act too arrogant and asked for Xiang Yu's help. If not, he would become a huge laughing stock.
The huge army charged forward from afar, heading straight for them.