บท 57: North Gate Situation
Chapter 57 – North Gate Situation
October 27th. Evening.
Tong rode a horse back to his fort after he successfully made Xin Ping troops into retreat. When he got closed to the fortress, his heart was sunk.
There were white smoke and traces of battles at the direction of the north gate.
He approached the front east gate in a hurry. The guards remembered Tong, afterward, they became frantic as they thought he was captured by the escaped prisoners. Because Tong had only told his plans to Hua Shi and his uncles to control the amount of info leak to the enemy spies, none of the men knew about it.
Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang, and Hua Shi heard that Tong had returned, they rushed to Tong to see his conditions and questioned him about the escape.
Tong told the three about his absurd plan which caused them to cringe. If it were them, they would use Xin Ping troops to attack Guo Dian and Zou Jing Army. Why did Tong allow them to withdraw?
Tong took all of them into his private tent to explain the situation and his plan. Because he required Zhang He to take over the military affair within the Yie City without anyone suspecting his activities and their relationship, he had to be secretive.
Once the time was right, Tong could take over Yie City without losing a single of his soldier. Even if Xin Ping were to return alive, he would not be able to prevent the coup from Zhang He.
…
"What happened to the north gate? I was away for only two days. How come both wings were collapsed like this?"
Tong was baffled by the carnage scenes of the ruined north walls. The V-formation walls were not there anymore but replaced with burned woods and stones. The trenches had tens of thousands of fist-sized stones covering all over the places. White and black smoke also came out of the trench lines as if someone had burned it.
Through the explanation of Zhang Bao and the rest, Zou Jing, who was the commander of Liu Yan forces, used 50 trebuchets to barrage the trench lines for an entire morning. Zhang Bao had the men retreated back from the trench lines.
On the afternoon, they approached further and rained fire barrels and oil on the remaining north wall wings which caused it to catch flame and collapsed.
Now they were left with the inner walls and barely usable trench lines.
The garrisoned troops also suffered some casualties. The Trench Squadrons were hit the hardest and only half of them survived. The Pill Box Squads got lucky because they had roofs and shelters, so all of them were still in full number. The archers on the walls were not as lucky, they were barraged by the enemy arrows and trebuchets stones, so a portion of them was gone.
Although the garrison army was hit hard, Zou Jing and Guo Dian Army were not able to get away unscratched.
During today siege, Hua Shi maneuvered a thousand archers through to trench and ambushed the trebuchets crews and their archers, which killed over three thousand men of Guo Dian men. But because of her reckless action, she got hit by a stray rock from trebuchets as a consequence.
Hua Shi had bandages covering her head, and traces of blood seeped out within the white cloth. She looked at Tong with her puppy teary eyes, begging him to spoil her or pity her.
Tong sighed as he patted the top of her head in consolation. He whispered to her that after the battle was over, he would give her a one-night ticket that she could do anything to him for a night. The offer ignited a desire in her eyes, but they returned to her innocent puppy eyes in a split second.
Hua Shi smiled at Tong and excused herself to rest at her tent. Her modest action was seen by Tong's two uncles, which made them approved of her manner. With her valor and her leadership in the battle today, she was officially respected as their goddess by everybody in the camp.
Unbeknownst to everyone, once she got into her tent, she tap-danced in joy. She started drafting her wishlist in advance while she was drooling. When that day came, she would enjoy Tong's body and his fluid to the fullest.
…
…
Tong, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang remained in the tent and were discussing the next plan.
The casualty report depressed Tong. His 4,800 soldiers went down to 2,500. Moreover, 500 of them were unable to continue fighting as they were crippled for life. It was fortunate that 1,700 of the remaining active 2,000 were the elites of Zhang Liang and Tong that he had trained, while the rest were the recruited bandits.
One of the reasons that the bandit numbers were lost that much was because of Zhang Yan, whom Tong was wary of. During the today siege, Zhang Yan took 1,500 bandits and deserted the fortress with a portion of armors, weapons, crossbows, arrows, and food.
Instead of being angry, Tong was glad that he defected early on. Although his timing caused severe damages to the army, it was better to let him betray him now rather than later on when Tong amassed more troops or occupied a city.
Meanwhile, Zou Jing and Guo Dian troops did not fare well either. They lost over 3,000 men during the battle which were caused by Hua Shi's long-range homing arrows and her trench ambush.
The number of both armies were now 6,000 against 2,000 with Tong Army at disadvantage. Moreover, Wen Chou's 500 men were still lurking around the perimeters.
It would be fine if Tong continued to turtle a few more days. However, another depressing report made them worried.
They were running out of arrows!
Normally, five days of siege battle would even reduce the arrow stocks by only half of what they had prepared. However, the repeating crossbows consumed ten times more arrows because of their high rate of fire.
Although Zhang Liang had his men to go out and collect the recyclable arrows when they went out to clean the battlefield, only one-third of them could be used again.
At this rate, they would run out of arrows in the middle of tomorrow siege!
"That ingrate Zhang Yan! If it wasn't for him, then we would have enough arrows for one more day!" Zhang Bao cursed out.
"Second uncle, one more day or half a day isn't that different. For now, please listen to what I'm about to explain."
"Nephew, you have a plan?" Zhang Bao asked.
"It's now exactly a plan. But I think it's time to reveal a hidden card we have."
"A hidden card?"
Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang were confused. They used up everything they already had, but what was the hidden card Tong was talking about?
Tong smiled at his uncles while glancing at his radar map. A group of 1,000 yellow dots appeared in his map in the north-east of his fortress.
"Not exactly a hidden card. It's just that we're lucky that we're popular."
…
…
October 28th. Wen Chou camp. 6 AM.
A horseman messenger arrived in front of Wen Chou camp and shouted that he had a message from Zhang Tong Army. After Wen Chou heard it, he immediately let the messenger in.
He read the scroll in his hands, and he was delighted. In the scroll, Tong requested for their aid. Which meant that Tong would have to serve the Yuan family once the battle was done.
"How the hell did he find us here?"
"It seems Zhang Tong has a bit of talent. We did our best but we're still being detected."
"Well, that doesn't matter. What does the letter say?"
A wild and burly man who sat on his chair with his feet on the meeting table asked Wen Chou. The man was Yan Liang who was Wen Chou's equal.
Yan Liang and his 500 elite horsemen were sent here by Feng Ji because Wen Chou was evaluated as not efficient enough for pressuring Tong.
"Zhang Tong begged us for our help. We have to go and get him as soon as possible." Wen Chou answered.
"Bah! What's so good about that brat! He's just a braggart! Pfft, what's immortal? An immortal that can't even drive back a bunch of weaklings!"
"I don't think you should look down on him. He defeated me once, you know?"
Yan Liang raised his eyebrows up as he was surprised. Both he and Wen Chou sparred countless times, so he knew how strong Wen Chou was.
"You've gotta be kidding me. You? Lost? Aren't you exaggerating?"
"I'm serious. You can try him yourself when you meet him."
Yan Liang smirked as he stood up. He was looking forward to seeing how strong Tong was.
"Where are we meeting him?" Yan Liang asked again.
"He said 'Help me at noon. North of the Fort'."
"North?"
"Yeah."
"Doesn't Zou Jing and his troops station there?"
"I think it Zhang Tong wanted to break through from the north, and he wanted an escort."
"But why that direction. Isn't the south safer?"
"No, it makes sense if he wants to breakthrough through the north. Zou Jing had only 3,000 men on the north while on the west Guo Dian had 6,000 men. And from the latest news, Xin Ping still has 6,000 men to the east. But Zhang Tong can't break out to the south because there is no ally waiting for them there but Han Fu's territory. He will be boxed in if Xin Ping pursues."
Yan Liang rotated his eyes as he thought and simulated Tong's escape scenarios. After a few minutes, he nodded in agreement with Wen Chou.
"Alright, let's do as you said. To the north of the fort, it is."
Yan Liang and Wen Chou ordered their men to rush west to the direction of the north of the fort.
They did not know that they made a mistake. They were too occupied trying to sneak around without being detected. As a result, their spy networks were slower than usual and all news they had were a day late.
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