stonecrandall Chapter 830 Gao Yao arrives and temporarily repels the Chu army!
Chapter 830 Gao Yao arrives and temporarily repels the Chu army!
Every dull thud of arrows piercing the wood was accompanied by the screams of fallen shieldmen. The battering ram, wrapped in soaked cowhide, was pushed by dozens of shirtless men. Their muscles were tangled, their necks bulging with veins, and they uttered primitive and wild chants as they drove the battering ram, time and again, with the force of shaking mountains, into the crumbling city gate!
"boom--!!!"
"boom--!!!"
Each impact was like a sledgehammer striking the defenders in the heart. The city gate trembled violently under the immense impact, the bolt groaning under the weight, and spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly across the door panels, sending down not only dust but also splintered wood chips. The entire city wall shook, and the dust filled the air, as if doomsday had arrived.
On top of the city wall, it was already hell on earth.
Ma Chang no longer resembled a general. His black armor was tattered, stained with blood and dust, its original color unrecognizable. A deep arrow wound pierced his left arm, the flesh turned inside out, and blood soaked half his battle robe. His throat was hoarse from screaming excessively, and every breath carried the scent of blood, like a worn bellows. Only his bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the boundless, surging Chu army below the city, burning with a last vestige of unyielding determination.
"Smash it! Smash it down for me!" He used all his strength to swing the sword with a broken blade and stained with sticky blood, his voice as hoarse as the howling of a ghost.
The defenders had long since grown numb, fighting on instinct and the last ounce of their blood. The remaining soldiers, using their last remaining strength, pushed the massive rolling logs and rocks off the battlements, hurling them down upon the scrambling Chu army with dull roars and desperate curses.
The screams were instantly drowned out by an even more violent wave of shouts and cries. The boiling, nauseatingly foul-smelling golden liquid was poured down in huge ladles, and the Chu soldiers who were drenched let out heart-wrenching, inhuman howls. Their flesh instantly charred and peeled off, and like flayed demons, they tumbled from the ladders. The crossbowmen's fingers had long been lacerated by the bowstrings, and blood was dripping, yet they mechanically repeated the movements of drawing the bow, nocking the arrow, and firing. Every time their numb arms were raised, they felt a piercing pain. Arrows, like a swarm of death locusts, poured down on the city walls without a moment's delay.
The Chu army's offensive surged, wave after wave, unwavering! The fearless Chu soldiers, relying on their astonishing bravery, had repeatedly torn cracks in the city walls, driving their weapons in like nails! Although each time the defenders desperately pushed down the walls with their flesh and blood, their teeth, and any weapons they could find, each time they climbed the city walls, they left behind a glaring scarlet and broken limbs on the city walls.
Beneath the walls, corpses piled up layer upon layer, forming a horrifying mound. Sticky blood gathered into dark red streams, flowing freely across the charred earth. The suffocating smell of blood, the smell of scorched flesh, and the stench of gold mixed together to form a stench of death that enveloped the entire battlefield.
"Hold on! Your Majesty's reinforcements...are arriving soon!" Ma Chang's voice was filled with tears and a determination on the verge of collapse. He knew that of the three thousand defenders, less than half were now gone!
Arrows were running out, logs and rocks were dwindling. Most fatal of all, the city gate, symbolizing the final barrier! Under the relentless, death-knelling bombardment of the ramming carts, its groans grew increasingly shrill, cracks spreading and expanding like venomous snakes, as if it would completely collapse in an instant! Despair, a bone-chilling despair, like venom, began to erode the defenses of every defender. The resistance on the city walls visibly weakened and slackened, and the shadow of death loomed.
Just when the gate of hell was about to be completely knocked open!
Behind Yangping Pass, on the narrow mountain road leading to the heart of Hanzhong, a sudden, dense, rain-like clatter of horse hooves erupted like thunder from the plains! The sound, coming from far away and rapidly gaining strength, carried the power to tear apart despair, like rolling thunder across the battlefield!
Immediately afterwards, a huge flag with the Chinese character "Gao" written in gold on a black background, like a sharp sword piercing the haze, was the first to break through the dense smoke and dust, and danced wildly in the howling wind!
Reinforcements?! The remaining defenders on the city walls could hardly believe their ears and eyes! Many even thought they were hallucinations before death!
Amidst the smoke and dust, Gao Yao led the charge, galloping out at full speed! His face remained as cold and hard as a thousand years of ice, but within those narrow eyes, a light now gleamed colder and sharper than a venomous snake, his gaze fixed fixed on the surging Chu army below the city! Behind him, thousands of elite infantry and cavalry surged out like a broken dam! Their armor still reflected a cold gleam in the smoke and dust, their swords and spears like a forest, their morale high as a burning flame, forming a stark contrast between heaven and hell and the blood-soaked, exhausted, and nearly exhausted defenders on the city walls!
"Gao Yao is here! Chu thieves - prepare to die!" Gao Yao's voice was sharp and piercing, like the scraping of metal, but it was like a scalding shot of cardiac stimulant, piercing the dying heart of the defenders!
"Reinforcements! It's reinforcements! Kill them!!!" A roar like a tsunami erupted from the top of the city walls! The voices were filled with the ecstasy of surviving a catastrophe and the fury of a desperate counterattack! Like a beast at the end of its rope, the remaining defenders erupted with incredible strength, using their flesh and blood, their swords and spears, and their teeth to frantically tear and push the elite Chu soldiers who had just climbed onto the battlements, slamming them down from the city wall!
Gao Yao's reinforcements did not hesitate at all, and instantly split into two groups, deploying like a sophisticated war machine.
Elite infantrymen surged up the city walls like a black tide, replacing the crumbling defenses. Archers quickly took up advantageous positions, drawing their powerful bows and crossbows. In an instant, a rain of arrows, several times more powerful than before, poured down like a storm of steel, instantly suppressing the subsequent climbing echelons of the Chu army below the city, and shooting the Chu soldiers on the ladders into hedgehogs!
Gao Yao himself led the most powerful elite cavalry! This fresh force was like a sharp knife just pulled out of a furnace, burning red. With the momentum of the cavalry, they rushed directly to the top of the city wall with the force of thunder. At this time, the Chu army and the Southern Border Army were fighting for control on the city wall.
This sudden appearance of well-equipped and highly motivated new force, with its incredibly swift charge, completely disrupted the rhythm of the Chu army's siege!
The Chu army's vanguard was charging at full speed, completely unprepared for Gao Yao and his men, who had stormed the walls. Chaos ensued! Gao Yao's cavalry galloped freely through the chaotic Chu army formation, their swords flashing and their horses trampling. Wherever they passed, men and horses fell, blood and flesh flew everywhere! The Chu army's previously unstoppable offensive suddenly faltered, as if it had hit an invisible iron wall!