The Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line had been designed with the placement of cannons and trebuchets in mind from the very beginning of its construction, so its design was entirely different from other city walls.
First, the walls were exceptionally wide, over twenty metres across at the top.
Secondly, there were numerous firing ports built into the walls, not large in area, just enough for a single cannon to retract and elevate.
Moreover, once one scaled the walls, they would discover there was another small layer above. The cannons and trebuchets were all positioned upon that layer.
In other words, even after Zhili’s army charged onto the walls, they still could not stop the cannons and trebuchets from firing. They would first have to eliminate all the Rock Pirate Legion soldiers on the outermost layer before they could charge to the second layer of artillery positions.
But eliminating the Rock Pirate Legion…
At Tianlang Pass, twenty thousand Rock Pirate Legion soldiers had directly fought off enemies nearly three times their number!
The first wave of Zhili soldiers to charge onto the walls numbered several thousand!
The moment they scaled the walls, they discovered these dark-skinned Rock Pirate warriors!
Very ordinary looking, not particularly tall, and rather thin. Most importantly, they were not wearing much armour, just holding two curved blades each.
Moreover, upon seeing the Zhili army climbing onto the walls, these Rock Pirate warriors reacted as if seeing beloved family members. Their gazes were incomparably fervent, strange smiles appearing upon their faces.
The Zhili soldiers thought inwardly, “Such opponents, neither tall nor wearing armour, I can take on three of them myself!”
Immediately after…
“Whoosh!” They only felt a black shadow flash before their eyes, then their bodies went cold, and they knew nothing more, for their necks had been directly slit open.
These Rock Pirate warriors were like yakshas. Although their bodies were small and thin, their muscles were as if cast from steel, their entire bodies filled with tremendous power. Crucially, their movements were incomparably precise.
And in battle, they moved in groups of four, their coordination incomparably skilled, covering and slaughtering with movements that seemed almost instinctive.
They wore no armour because they refused to wear it. Soren had spent an enormous sum to procure armour for every single one of them, yet when the time for battle came, they had all cast it to the ground, fighting bare-chested.
The madness of the Rock Pirate Legion meant they could suppress opponents even when outnumbered one to two, let alone when they had the numerical advantage.
Amidst their strange, piercing screams, soldiers who charged up basically came to die one by one.
The Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line was completely different from Tianlang Pass. The walls at Tianlang Pass were narrow, and the space atop the walls was extremely cramped. Moreover, the cannons were placed directly at the foremost edge of the walls. This meant that a large portion of the soldiers on the walls were cannon operators, lacking true hand-to-hand combat troops.
So when Jian Ze’s army attacked the walls, they immediately engaged the cannon operators in close combat, causing all the cannons to fall instantly silent. And the cannon operators, due to long-term training in artillery fire, had somewhat deteriorated in hand-to-hand combat skills. Combined with the cramped walls of Tianlang Pass, which could not accommodate too many troops, they were directly broken through.
The walls of the Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line were newly designed, so they were completely different.
The walls were long and wide, and the top of the walls was divided into two layers.
The front layer was six metres wide, defended by ten thousand Rock Pirate warriors. The rear layer was three and a half metres higher and a full fifteen metres wide, housing artillery positions and trebuchets.
Most crucially, there were no stairs connecting the upper and lower layers. To reach the upper layer and destroy the artillery positions, one had to pass through the castle, and within the castle were countless soldiers standing guard.
The walls were over ten metres high, while the castle itself was nearly thirty metres high.
Upon the castle, countless archers were positioned, freely able to shoot and kill any enemy troops attempting to charge to the upper layer of artillery positions.
Therefore, in terms of design advancement, the brand new Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line far surpassed the old Tianlang Pass.
…
At this moment, the entire battlefield had fallen into a very strange rhythm.
All of Soren’s firepower remained fully deployed, all of his war machines operating at full capacity!
Every six minutes, several hundred cannons fired one round, striking the Zhili army at eight hundred metres. Because the army was stuck beyond the obstacles, they were simply too densely packed. Each round of cannon fire caused several thousand casualties.
The cannon fire was the first layer of filtration, filtering out several thousand people each time.
Next, they entered the six hundred and fifty metres of stone obstacle groups, which delayed the speed of the Zhili army. Over one hundred giant trebuchets launched several hundred jin primitive cluster bombs every six or seven minutes.
Each time, several hundred thousand shot pellets swept through like a metallic storm, claiming several thousand lives.
This was the second layer of filtration.
After passing through two layers of filtration, the Zhili army charged into the stone obstacle groups, reaching the area one hundred and fifty metres beneath the walls.
Here, Soren’s several hundred scorpion trebuchets launched several hundred primitive cluster bombs every two to three minutes.
Although each gunpowder sphere weighed less than one hundred jin, the quantity was enormous. Hundreds were launched at once, and they were launched every two to three minutes.
In such a narrow environment, each explosion sent several hundred thousand shot pellets bursting and flying in all directions, easily bringing several thousand casualties.
This was the third layer of filtration.
When they charged beneath the walls, barrels of flaming oil continuously rolled out from the ports in the walls, splashing upon the ground below. The fires beneath the walls never ceased burning.
Zhili’s army desperately used mud and fire-extinguishing powder to put out the flames.
But the barrels of flaming oil from within the walls continuously rained down, meaning the fires were just extinguished, or not yet extinguished, before they began burning again.
So in this sea of flames, over one third of the soldiers were filtered out, all burned to death or burned.
This was the fourth layer of filtration!
After passing through these four layers of filtration, within each quarter hour, the number of Zhili troops charging onto the walls was merely a few thousand!
Yet they had to face over ten thousand Rock Pirates!
The Rock Pirates would bully others even when facing double their numbers, let alone half their number!
So the Zhili army was completely delivering themselves to die, as many as came!
Barely half an hour after hand-to-hand combat began, the bodies atop and beneath the walls were already piled like mountains.
Truly countless dead and wounded!
…
Zhili and Turingto had no choice but to mount their griffin and fly into mid-air, overlooking the entire battlefield!
Zhili’s entire body was ice-cold, while Turingto’s heart was bleeding.
Most of the dead were his troops. Of the three hundred thousand Dragon Guard Legion, plus previous battle losses, at least one hundred thousand had been killed or wounded.
Moreover, this number was still increasing rapidly. On today’s battlefield, less than two hours since battle began, casualties had certainly already surpassed one hundred thousand.
Originally according to plan, they would attack the Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line with an all-or-nothing assault like at the Tianlang Pass battlefield. At most enduring two rounds of cannon fire and two rounds of trebuchet bombardment, at most losing several tens of thousands before charging onto the walls, then all of Soren’s cannons and trebuchets would fall silent.
This way, the casualties on the Zhili army’s side would be stemmed, directly entering hand-to-hand combat.
But they had not expected that a mere six hundred plus metres of stone obstacles would divide the battlefield into three parts.
After passing through four layers of filtration, the number of soldiers charging onto the walls each time was less than half the original plan.
And because of these stone obstacles, giant siege towers could not pass through, and even the number of siege ladders placed against the Wind Thunder Fortress walls was half the original plan.
Because gunpowder and cannons were new weapons, completely different from previous cold weapon warfare.
So although Turingto was an old general, this battlefield was unfamiliar to him.
He had not paid much attention to these stone obstacle groups originally, never expecting them to play such a huge role. Although they could not block the army’s passage, they could delay the army’s passage, buying Soren precious time.
And once the time given to Soren exceeded a certain threshold, Soren’s cannons, trebuchets, and Rock Pirate Legion would enter a virtuous cycle, able to operate continuously without any link falling silent.
Turingto keenly sensed that as long as the number of soldiers reaching the walls exceeded a certain point, the entire battlefield situation would change dramatically. They could break through the ten thousand Rock Pirates’ defensive line, charge to the upper layer of artillery positions, and silence all the cannons and trebuchets.
And once Soren’s cannons and trebuchets fell silent, the Zhili army’s casualties would decrease by sixty to seventy percent or more. Then the number of soldiers charging onto the walls would multiply, and Soren would be absolutely doomed!
At this moment, Turingto truly felt that the world had changed, and warfare had changed.
It had become like a complete machine, each link interconnected with the next. As long as one link was destroyed, Soren’s entire war machine would be paralysed!
“Your Highness, how many Dragon Warriors did you bring?” Turingto asked.
“Fifty.” Zhili said. In truth, it was far more, but he could only say this many.
Turingto’s eyes narrowed. This time, the Turingto family’s core warrior elites had all been deployed, plus the core warriors of the Dragon Guard Army, and thirty commanders of ten thousand. There were nearly one hundred Dragon Warriors in total.
“I also brought fifty.” Turingto said.
At this critical moment, both men had held something back.
Turingto said, “Soren’s war machine is divided into four links: cannons, trebuchets, flaming oil barrels, and the Rock Pirate Legion atop the walls! And the stone obstacles upon the battlefield delay and filter our army, allowing all four links to coordinate perfectly, enabling the entire war machine to operate smoothly.”
Zhili nodded. He had also seen this point very clearly.
Turingto said, “Of these four links, as long as we break through one, Soren’s war machine will collapse. And this link is the outermost layer of Rock Pirate Legion atop the walls. You and I together have one hundred Dragon Warriors, enough to break through these Rock Pirates and destroy Soren’s cannons and trebuchets. And once Soren’s cannons and trebuchets fall silent, our casualties will greatly decrease, and the soldiers reaching the walls will multiply threefold, fourfold. Then Soren will certainly lose.”
Zhili’s face twitched. Dragon Warriors relied on Dragon Power, and Dragon Power could be exhausted. Sending one hundred Dragon Warriors to destroy Soren’s trebuchets and cannons would certainly be a one-way trip.
In warfare, Dragon Warriors were rarely sent onto the battlefield to kill enemies, because once Dragon Warriors became embroiled in battle, their Dragon Power would soon be exhausted, and then they would absolutely be torn to pieces.
But now there was no other way.
Although Dragon Warriors were precious, if this battle was lost, Zhili would have no future.
“Very well!” Zhili said through gritted teeth. “We shall use one hundred Dragon Warriors to destroy Soren’s cannon and trebuchet positions!”
Originally, Zhili could also have used his own trebuchets to throw fish oil bombs at the Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line. Although the accuracy was low, it could prevent some of Soren’s cannons and most of his trebuchets from firing, so his own casualties would not be so enormous.
But that hateful Soren had begun placing stone obstacles at eight hundred metres on the battlefield, rendering his trebuchets useless.
Because trebuchets could at most reach less than five hundred metres.
…
Very soon, Turingto, Zhili, and Fu E gathered one hundred and twenty Dragon Warriors. They would use this group of the most elite warriors as cannon fodder to destroy Soren’s cannon and trebuchet positions!
“Warriors, the Kingdom of Nu Lang will remember you forever. Your families, your parents, wives, and daughters, will enjoy a lifetime of wealth and honour!” Zhili’s eyes brimmed with tears as he shared strong drink with the one hundred and twenty Dragon Warriors, then sent them to their deaths!
These one hundred and twenty warriors also had tears brimming in their eyes. After drinking, they smashed their bowls violently.
“Your Highness, Your Grace, we go!”
Then, these one hundred and twenty Dragon Warriors transformed into lightning-fast black shadows, charging towards the Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line.
Zhili prayed inwardly, “You must succeed, you must succeed, or I shall truly be at my wit’s end!”
The situation was now clear. As long as they destroyed Soren’s cannon and trebuchet positions, silencing these two great war machines, Zhili could win this great battle.
Otherwise, he would certainly lose, because the battlefield had completely entered Soren’s rhythm.
…
At the highest point of the castle, Princess Zhiyan suddenly opened her eyes.
She clearly sensed that a dense mass of energy was rapidly charging towards the Wind Thunder Fortress defensive line.
“Husband, Zhili’s trump card has arrived.” Princess Zhiyan said.
Zhili deploying a large number of Dragon Warriors to destroy Soren’s cannon and trebuchet positions was what he had worried about most. Now it had finally happened.
“How many are coming?” Soren also sensed it, but his spiritual cultivation was far inferior to Zhiyan’s, so he could not sense the specific number.
“Approximately, around one hundred and twenty.” Princess Zhiyan said. As long as they entered within several hundred metres of her spiritual radius, she could perceive them clearly.
“One hundred and twenty!” Soren said. “Zhili and Turingto, plus the nineteen feudal lords combined, could muster at least two hundred and fifty Dragon Warriors, yet they only sent one hundred and twenty?”
“Indeed!” Zhiyan smiled. “The other half of the Dragon Warriors are probably reserved to protect their escape.”
Soren breathed a sigh of relief. If Zhili and Turingto had gone all-in, sending all two hundred and fifty Dragon Warriors together, then Soren could probably only watch helplessly as his cannon positions and trebuchet positions were destroyed.
But now, what was coming was one hundred and twenty.
That was a fightable number!
“Everyone, are you prepared?” Soren asked.
“Ready.” Behind him, several dozen people shouted in unison.
Soren had also gathered all his Dragon Warriors, and even many army commanders of ten thousand had left their posts.
Even exhausting everything, plus the warriors of the Shadow Pavilion, plus the Dragon Warriors of the Hai family, he had only mustered fifty-five!
Fifty-five Dragon Warriors against Zhili and Turingto’s one hundred and twenty Dragon Warriors.
They had to win, and also ensure the cannon and trebuchet positions were not destroyed.
“Wife, I am counting on you.” Soren said to Zhiyan.
Princess Zhiyan, rarely playful, said, “Rest assured, I shall take on twenty myself!”