Mythical Qin: I, Gao Yao, will never be a eunuch!

Chapter 1065 At the critical moment, Gao Yao makes a surprise attack!

"My lord, if we continue to defend like this, we can only hold out for another half a day at most." Yang Tu's arm was wrapped in bandages, and his face was grave. "If it weren't for that black powder today, the south gate would have already been breached."

Xiao He remained silent. He knew Wang Ben was telling the truth. Today, the Chu army was caught off guard; tomorrow, when they were better prepared, the battle would be even more difficult.

"Over there in the palace..." Yang Tu hesitated, then stopped himself from speaking.

“This matter has been arranged.” Xiao He interrupted him, his voice soft but firm. “Our mission is to defend Xianyang. Send down the order that we work in two shifts tonight to repair the city walls as soon as possible. Organize the laborers to move logs and stones.”

"promise!"

Xiao He walked alone to the city wall, gazing into the endless darkness beyond. Gao Yao, where are you? When will your "heroic feat" finally unfold?

The next day, before dawn, the Chu army had already formed ranks.

After a night of adjustments, Xiang Yu changed his tactics. Instead of applying pressure from all sides, he concentrated all his forces on a fierce attack on the south gate—the most direct and brutal way to besiege a city: using overwhelming numerical superiority to attack a single point, regardless of the cost.

Before the morning mist had even dissipated, the war drums of the Chu army had already sounded. This time, they had a way to deal with gunpowder—soldiers charged in a dispersed manner, with shield bearers in front and engineers pushing large battering rams covered with wet cowhide. These modified battering rams could effectively resist flames and explosions.

"Fire arrows!"

Arrows rained down from the city walls, but the Chu army's shield formation was solid, resulting in limited casualties. Gunpowder canisters were fired again, the explosions still terrifying, but far less effective than before—the Chu army no longer charged in concentrated bursts, and each explosion often only killed or wounded a few men.

"Use them sparingly!" Xiao He ordered urgently. "Wait until the enemy is close to the city gate before releasing them!"

The battle entered its most intense phase.

The Chu army surged in wave after wave, with siege ladders covering the city walls and soldiers swarming up like ants. The defenders fought valiantly, pouring down logs, stones, and hot oil, and corpses piled up like mountains beneath the city walls, but the Chu army seemed endless.

Xiang Yu personally supervised the battle, galloping back and forth on the front lines, killing any soldiers who hesitated. Under his imposing presence, the Chu army unleashed astonishing fighting power, with soldiers scaling the city walls several times. Although they were repelled by the defenders in a desperate attempt, breaches were slowly being opened.

Wang Ben, covered in blood and with a nick in his longsword, continued to fight fiercely. His personal guards fell one by one, and the dire consequences of the defenders' limited manpower became fully apparent—a section of the city wall, thirty feet long, was defended by fewer than fifty men, while a single Chu attack could be led by hundreds.

At noon, the worst happened.

Taking advantage of the defenders' unpreparedness, a group of Chu soldiers used grappling hooks to scale the southeast corner tower, breaching a small section of the city wall's defenses. Although Yang Tu personally led a counterattack and recaptured the tower, this process tied down a large number of defenders, leaving the south gate's frontal defenses vulnerable.

Xiang Yu seized this opportunity and launched a general offensive.

"The moment to breach the city is here! Charge in with the entire army!"

All of Chu's reserves were committed to the battle, and the offensive reached its peak. Cracks began to appear in the south gate under the continuous impact of the battering rams, and the bolts groaned under the strain. The defenders on the city walls fought desperately, but the disparity in strength was simply too great—the Chu army had committed more than 10,000 troops to the south gate, while the defenders numbered only 4,000, scattered along the four sides of the city walls.

Xiao He stood on the city wall, watching helplessly as the situation deteriorated. He had run out of cards to play—gunpowder was running out, the defending army had suffered more than half its casualties, and there was no sign of reinforcements. In the distance, Yi Xiaochuan's troops began to exert pressure on the north gate, hindering the garrison's movements.

"Prime Minister! The south gate is about to fall!" A captain covered in blood rushed up the city wall. "Yang Tu requests reinforcements! At least three hundred men are needed!"

Xiao He closed his eyes. Three hundred men? Where could he get three hundred men from? The East Gate and West Gate were both in dire need of reinforcements, and the North Gate, facing pressure from Yi Xiaochuan, was barely holding on.

"Tell Yang Tu," Xiao He opened his eyes, which were bloodshot, "that he should risk his life to hold off the enemy for me!"

The captain hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and saluted: "Yes, sir!"

At 3:45 PM, the south gate was breached.

It wasn't breached, but rather the city gate finally shattered under continuous impact. The iron-clad wooden gate collapsed with a roar, revealing a makeshift barrier made of sandbags and stones. But this barrier could only delay, not stop the attack.

The Chu army erupted in thunderous cheers, surging towards the breach in the city gate like a tidal wave.

Yang Tu led his last two hundred defenders to block the breach, launching a desperate street battle. Every inch of land was fought for with their lives; fighting raged everywhere—in streets, houses, and alleys. The defenders fought and retreated, using barricades to block their advance, but defeat was inevitable.

Xiao He was forcibly dragged off the city wall by his personal guards and forced to retreat towards the palace. Along the way, he witnessed nothing but carnage—soldiers fought to the death, civilians fled in panic, some routed soldiers began looting, and order was crumbling.

"Go to the palace and organize the final defenses," Xiao He said hoarsely. "Send word to the guards at each gate to assemble at the palace. We..."

His words stopped abruptly.

Because the sound of bugles could be heard from afar.

It wasn't the bugle call of the Chu army, nor the Southern Border army—it was a deep, lingering sound, as if it came from the depths of the earth.

When the bugle sounded, Xiang Yu was supervising the battle outside the south gate.

The Chu army had seized control of the city gate area and was advancing deeper into the city. Victory was in sight, yet Xiang Yu felt a growing unease—things were going too smoothly. Was Gao Yao really only capable of this? Had Gao Yao, who had risen from the bottom and repeatedly created miracles, truly died?

"Your Majesty! There's an emergency in the west!" a scout reported on horseback.

Xiang Yu frowned: "Speak!"

"A cavalry force of about a thousand men charged out from the direction of Mount Li and headed straight for our central army camp!"

Xiang Yu's pupils contracted sharply. The central army camp? There were only five thousand defenders there now, mostly supply troops and wounded soldiers; the elite troops were all attacking the city. Gao Yao actually launched a counterattack at this time in this way?

"Who is leading the troops?" he asked urgently.

"Judging from the banner... it's King Gao Yao of Qin himself!"

Before the words were even finished, shouts of battle could be heard from afar.

That wasn't the sound of ordinary battle—it was the sound of slaughter. Screams, the cracking of weapons, and the neighing of warhorses mingled together, approaching at an astonishing speed.

Xiang Yu mounted his horse, rushed to a nearby high platform, and looked westward.

He saw a scene he would never forget.

A cavalry unit in black armor sliced ​​into the rear of the Chu army like a sharp blade. The leader, riding a white horse and wielding a silver spear, was none other than Gao Yao. But the Gao Yao of this moment was completely different from the one Xiang Yu remembered—the man exuded an almost tangible killing intent, and wherever he passed, the Chu soldiers fell like grass.

That wasn't a battle, that was a harvest.

Gao Yao's spear transformed into a silver dragon, each strike accompanied by the sound of air being torn apart. Ordinary soldiers couldn't even see his movements; they only saw a flash of silver light, and several men were killed instantly. He charged at the forefront, with a thousand cavalrymen spreading out in a wedge formation behind him, leaving corpses strewn across the fields and rivers of blood in his wake.