Lord of the Desert

Chapter 349 Siege
Tang Shaoyou and Duan Tiannan have been rivals for several years.

Therefore, he had a premonition before nightfall and came to the city to wait for this inevitable battle.

The sword formation flew into the sky like a dragon, and scattered like stars, surrounding and suppressing one person.

Then it was blasted away by the golden palm force.

There was a commotion in the military camp.

Many soldiers came out of their tents. Once they saw the battle group in the distance, they couldn't help but stop and keep silent.

From so far away, even if Hong Fan closed his eyes, he could feel the spiritual energy of heaven and earth rising and falling like a tide.

Like a small fish caught in the eddy where two giant whales collide.

Neither Duan Tiannan nor Tang Shaoyou were cold-blooded murderers.

They knew very well that the fundamental purpose of this battle was to reduce the uncertainty of the war and reduce possible casualties.

Therefore, the battle group quickly gained ground and moved away from the city at a speed of hundreds of kilometers per hour.

The camp was silent for two quarters of an hour.

Then, when Duan Tiannan came back dragging red silk under the moonlight, there was a burst of relaxed cheers.

Outside the camp gate, Hong Fan and Qiu Yuankui approached him and saw Duan Tiannan wearing a ragged coat and two wounds from flying swords on his body.

One on the forearm and one on the side rib.

The wound was one inch wide, slightly red and swollen, and the bleeding had stopped.

"How's the injury?"

Hong Fan's jawline tightened slightly and he expressed concern.

"Not light."

Duan Tiannan replied nonchalantly.

"Almost [-]-[-]% of the combat strength has been lost. It will take a few days to recover."

"Treacherous Tang is even worse. He hit me with a palm on the shoulder and shattered more than a hundred iron scales. It will take dozens of hours to repair the mark."

He said and looked at Qiu Yuankui again.

"Lao Qiu, Gu brother plus you can already hold a stalemate with him now. If there are more middle-level innates, we may even have a chance of winning."

"This battle is a lose-lose battle."

"But Mr. Tang is not as good as me in age and physique, and his recovery from injuries is far slower than mine!"

Duan Tiannan said proudly.

Qiu Yuankui's expression softened a lot when he heard this.

In his mind, those five or six hundred iron scales were a more terrifying city defense than the high wall in the distance.

Without tonight's battle, he would not have dared to send his soldiers down to Duanli City.

······
The next day, the seventh day of September.

Outside Duanli City, the sun rises high.

At Yin Shizheng (six o'clock in the morning), Bai Shengjun started cooking.

Smoke and steam rose into low clouds.

Half an hour later, the whole army started eating on time.

After eating hot food, the soldiers put on armor and filed out of the camp under the orders of the officers at the bottom.

At noon, the sun shines brightly.

Separated by hundreds of steps, the two armies faced each other.

There was a crack of the whip.

Xu Yuntao rode out of the battle, walking two hundred steps forward through the desolate smoke.

"The Chief of the March of the Yum Victory Army informed Duanli Tang and the soldiers of Tianfeng."

"Don't kill those who surrender, don't pursue those who abandon the city, and don't massacre those who capture the city."

He shouted loudly, his voice carried against the wind and struck the city head like thunder.

Tang Shengwang mocked back.

"A mere traitorous general has suffered two defeats in front of me, yet he dares to speak so arrogantly?"

He stepped onto the battlement and pointed with his hand.

The city burst into laughter.

Xu Yuntao looked cold and did not make any rebuttal, but just invited a fight.

"Does a man named Tang dare to go to the city to fight against the general?"

"Why don't you dare?"

Tang Shengwang will return soon.

"Okay, it's a deal!"

Xu Yuntao rode back to the formation, as if he were going back to change weapons.

Tang Shengwang jumped down with the double-headed star shuttle flying sword suspended beside him.

Then, he stood in the middle and saw the army formation on the opposite side parting.

The person who walked out was not Xu Yuntao, but a young gunman wearing gray clothes.

It has an unattractive appearance and looks easy to deal with.

Tang Shengwang's heart skipped a beat.

Having fought against each other in two siege battles, how could he not recognize Gu Yixin?
"Substitute on the spot, Xu Yuntao, are you really a rat?!" Tang Shengwang yelled angrily.

But the new pace of ancient ideas has not stopped.

When the two sides were about a hundred steps apart, Tang Shengwang finally couldn't stand it anymore, turned around and fled back to the city, leaving Gu Yixin standing alone in the loess.

"Tang Shengwang, I just said he was a fighting general, but I didn't say who he was."

Xu Yuntao's words floated over.

Tang Shengwang was about to retort when he heard Gu Yixin's question.

"Senior Tang, don't you dare to fight me?"

Calm and serious.

[Are you talking nonsense? 】

Tang Shengwang thought.

Of course he wasn't stupid enough to say it.

But no matter what, scaring the enemy coach so much that he ran away has greatly boosted the morale of the Yum Victory Army.

Now that the spear leader is at the gate of the city, the battle will naturally come to an end.

Tang Shengwang then arranged for several specially selected soldiers to go to the top of the city to yell and curse.

Xu Yuntao was well prepared, and with a single order several soldiers with loud voices and rich vocabulary came out into battle.

The two sides exchanged words for a while, which made Hong Fan's ears open.

Although the scolding war continued, Bai Shengjun did not stop moving.

Not long after, eight shield carts rolled out from the rear. There were four-wheeled, half-foot-high leather hardwood shields underneath. The shields were also smeared with wet mud.

"Pan Rui, let your men come in and peel off this outer layer of skin for me first!"

Xu Yuntao ordered.

The war drums are playing.

There were 2000 people in the first batch, with a ratio of one soldier to three auxiliaries.

The former wears iron armor and carries a big axe, while the latter carries a diabolo basket.

All the shield chariots moved forward in a line, approaching within [-] steps of the city.

The auxiliary soldiers dispersed as ordered, carrying bamboo baskets to pick up caltrops.

At this time, the distance was still far, and there were only a few snipers in the city trying to fire arrows, occasionally pinning one or two people to the ground, and the drums were mixed with thin miserable howls.

Then some military princes shouted orders and sent shieldmen forward to retrieve the wounded.

As the array moved forward, the caltrops were quickly cleared.

At Xu time ([-] o'clock in the morning), the shield chariot advanced a hundred steps below the city.

The soldiers in heavy armor carried large axes and slashed horizontally and vertically, crushing the horses and deer antlers into pieces to clear the way for the subsequent large-scale siege equipment.

At this time, they had entered the effective killing range of the crossbow.

A steady stream of arrows were coming over the city, and they were nailed into the armor.

And once a strong person who has penetrated the realm of completeness releases the string, an especially shrill howl of arrows will sound.

In this formation, Hong Fan enjoys a seat based on his reputation on the makeshift general stage.

From here he could clearly see everything on the front line.

A heavy armored soldier who was about to strike with an ax was driven into the left chest by a heavy four-edged arrow and fell down without saying a word.

Glancing at the left side, he knew there was no help, lowered his head and continued to do his own thing.

The one on the right was frightened, looked back at the formation, took out the pills with trembling hands and took it.

In just a few breaths, the man's eyes were as deep as a pool of water, and he turned around and slashed mechanically with arrows.

On the general stage, Hong Fan stood up several times, but Qiu Yuankui persuaded him to stop. He felt that time passed extremely slowly.

Xu Yuntao is the busiest one, repeatedly sending people to confirm the progress of equipment construction and earth moving.

At noon, the whole army has a meal.

The lunch of high-ranking generals is the same as that of soldiers, which is only two pieces of bread.

The difference is that Hong Fan and the others have an extra bowl of steaming mutton soup.

By late afternoon ([-] p.m.), most of the roadblocks had been cleared.

The cost was over five hundred casualties.

In the afternoon, under the direct sunlight of the high autumn sun, the Hundred Victory Army began to deal with the trapped horse trenches.

Baskets of soil were transported to the front line by civilian workers.

The shield car stood like a castle in front of the trench and was used as a transit point.

The tower shield is a moving low wall that covers the auxiliary soldiers filling the pit with soil.

Although the arrow rain was sparse, it did not stop for a moment.

With luck, I went back and forth a few times without incident.

Unlucky enough, he was pierced by a heavy arrow and fell into the trench with his bag of dirt, which was considered to be an overfulfillment of the task.

At this time, Xu Yuntao issued another military order.

Finally, Hong Fan was able to go into battle accompanied by Gu Yixin.

(End of this chapter)