Chapter 248: Even If We Lose This Battle, Beneath Gole City...
Beneath the city walls, the dark mass of the Western Mausoleum Army formations suddenly echoed with horn blasts. War drums thundered from the chariots, roaring like a storm.
The originally divided vanguard, center, and rear formations abandoned their structure amid the drumbeats, merging like a raging black deluge in a torrential downpour. They coalesced into a single vast black ocean, surging with colossal waves that crashed toward Gole City’s battlements with overwhelming force.
The defenders on the walls, who had just mustered their morale and repelled the previous fierce assault, turned pale at the sight. Their lips trembled, uncertain how to respond.
Even Mu Youliang, a seasoned veteran who had roamed battlefields for decades, showed a flicker of despair upon witnessing this scene. But he quickly steadied himself and barked, "Crossbowmen, ready!
"Catapults, ready!"
The battlements had just been cleared—the Western Mausoleum soldiers who had scaled the walls via siege ladders were entirely eliminated, and the ladders propped against the parapets were doused in oil and set ablaze.
At Mu Youliang’s command, the soldiers, previously paralyzed by the scene below, snapped back to attention. Those moving supplies frantically resumed their trips down the walls, while the crossbowmen stationed at the crenellations fought through their fear and triggered their mounted crossbows. Instantly, arrows rained down like locusts or nails, arcing densely from the battlements.
Beneath, charging Western Mausoleum foot soldiers fell one after another in the arrow shower, yet the main force behind them pressed forward without slowing.
Trampled corpses were treated as mere blades of grass crushed under the immense army’s march—a chilling sight to behold.
He Yi was making it clear to all: even if it required piling mountains of corpses and rivers of blood, she would leverage her numerical superiority to drive the Western Mausoleum Army to Gole City’s gates!
Wen Yu had used the Dragon Banner to bolster the defenders’ morale, but He Yi was now shattering that morale with this very method.
And her tactic worked. As the archers on the walls continued to loose arrows, their hands shook visibly from terror, their aim growing significantly less accurate.
By now, the Western Mausoleum Army had advanced within bow range. They shielded their rear archers with round shields, and arrows flew like swarming locusts through the gaps between shields, instantly felling a swath of defenders on the battlements.
Amid fluttering banners and a sky filled with arrows, Wen Yu locked eyes with He Yi, who sat steadfastly on her chariot below. The latter made no attempt to conceal the ambition and provocation in her gaze.
Wen Yu’s face was pale and impassive, like a jade statue of a goddess gazing dispassionately upon the mortal realm. Her eyes held a faint trace of compassion, yet also something else—as if tempered in blazing fires, the soot-blackened surface cracking away to reveal only boundless sharpness.
A stray arrow shot straight toward her, but Zhao Bai sliced it in half with his sword. Disheveled hair floated before her eyes as she shouted, "Protect the princess!"
The Azure Guard immediately formed a fan-shaped formation, tightly encircling Wen Yu at the center.
Observing the dire situation at the crenellations, Mu Youliang urgently commanded, "Reinforce the crossbowmen!
"Catapults!"
At his order, over a dozen catapults launched rolling stones across the sky. Where they struck the ground, clouds of dust erupted.
However, the catapults’ accuracy was poor; out of more than ten stones hurled, only two or three hit the small Western Mausoleum units advancing under their round shields.
Holding back an army of 120,000 with such means was truly a daunting task.Beneath the dragon banner, the lead drummer beating the war drum—whether from fear or sheer exhaustion—found his rhythm growing increasingly frantic and disordered, sweat pouring from his forehead like rolling beads.
On the battlefield, drumbeats were military commands. Once the rhythm faltered, the army’s morale wavered as well.
The desert winds were fierce, sweeping past the city walls and causing the iron caltrops hung on the dragon banner to clang incessantly against the flagpole.
In the next moment, a stray arrow pierced the lead drummer’s throat. He spat blood and collapsed.
The drumbeats ceased abruptly. After a brief moment of shock, the remaining drummers, suppressing their fear, resumed beating the war drums. Yet without the lead drummer’s guidance, the rhythm grew increasingly chaotic and hurried.
Below the city walls, the Western Mausoleum Army charged forward relentlessly, their thundering hooves and roaring battle cries invading everyone’s senses like a nightmare, tightening nerves to the breaking point.
Archers at the battlements continued to fall to stray arrows. Though the soldiers fought desperately to defend the city, panic, fueled by the disordered drumbeats, spread like a plague, slipping beyond control.
One by one, the soldiers battling the previous wave of Western Mausoleum troops who had breached the walls were cut down.
Gu Xiyun, her twin spears dancing like swift dragons, still could not hold back the tidal wave of the Western Mausoleum Army’s assault. As she leaned back to evade a spear thrust, a long, diagonal gash opened on her face.
Behind her, the collapsed western wall of the barbican lay unattended. The defenders, faces smeared with blood and sweat, desperately hammered wooden beams into the damaged gate, racing against time to repair the half-destroyed inner gate. Yet the new wave of Western Mausoleum troops, charging through the arrow rain, drew ever closer to the city walls.
“Crossbowmen, keep firing!”
Mu Youliang shouted commands from the ramparts, striving to stabilize the situation, but to little effect.
The tension continued to mount, as though something were about to snap.
“General Mu! The princess has a plan to temporarily repel the enemy!” An Azure Guard pushed through the crowded defenses, making his way to Mu Youliang amidst the chaos to deliver the message.
Boom—
A heavy drumbeat resounded, as if a fatal rhythm had finally been broken. Spirits, stretched to their limits, snapped back into their bodies.
Mu Youliang stared at the Azure Guard, his expression a mix of shock and doubt. The guard spoke only two words: “Fire attack.”
Boom—Boom—
Two more urgent yet powerful drumbeats followed, silencing all other disordered rhythms.
The Azure Guard had already withdrawn. Mu Youliang turned and saw, upon the high platform beneath the black-and-gold dragon banner, the princess of Liang—the one whose slender shoulders bore the fate of two nations—her ceremonial sleeves rolled high, drumsticks in hand, striking the war drum before her, once, and then again, with immense force.
Though clad in voluminous royal robes, her frail form was unmistakable. Yet the drumbeats she produced were steady, vigorous, and majestic.
The wind whipped through Wen Yu’s long hair as she stared fixedly at the drum before her, never glancing aside. With each swing of the drumsticks, the resonant beats carried an aura of deadly intent.
It even gave the illusion that she was beating a challenge to the heavens.
If heaven sought to destroy the Liang and Chen nations, she would fight for that slim chance against fate itself!
Soldiers fighting for their lives on and below the city walls turned at the sound of the drums. When they saw that it was Wen Yu who beat them, every chest trembled with the vibrations of the drumbeats, yet all fell into a stunned silence.
The dragon banner commanded the field; the sovereign beat the war drum.
Even if this battle were lost, only crimson blood and bleached bones would remain beneath Gole City!Gu Xiyun, lying on her horse's back, caught sight of the black and red robes fluttering in the wind atop the city tower. For a moment, her eyes seemed to glisten with moisture, but it was quickly replaced by a fierce, bloodthirsty glare. Ignoring the bloodstains smeared across her face, she flipped upright on her saddle and thrust her spear through a Western Mausoleum soldier charging at her. Her eyes burned with crimson fury as she roared, "Kill—!"
The Liang army soldiers behind her, as if having endured enough of this resentment, echoed with equally savage shouts: "Kill—!"
Below, the Western Mausoleum forces continued their advance. Soldiers transporting defensive equipment hauled sealed barrels of oil up to the city walls, loading them onto the catapults just as the main Western Mausoleum army entered firing range. Mu Youliang decisively commanded, "Catapults! Launch the oil barrels!"
"Fire arrows! Release!"
Amid the soul-shaking war drums, barrels of oil were hurled by the catapults, followed closely by fire arrows. The battlefield instantly erupted with successive deafening explosions, and flames spread rapidly. Countless Western Mausoleum soldiers were scorched by the blistering heat, screaming and rolling on the ground in desperate attempts to extinguish the flames.
Seizing the opportunity, the defenders on the city walls continued to rain down volleys of arrows, hindering the advance of the remaining Western Mausoleum troops.
Witnessing this sudden turn of events, He Yi kicked over a low table in fury, rising from her tiger-skin throne. Her gaze cold and vicious, she stared at the woman beating the war drum on the high platform of the city tower and growled, "Bring me my bow!"
Her guards swiftly fetched He Yi's personal war bow. She drew the bowstring, arrow aimed directly at Wen Yu, its tip glinting coldly: "To die by this princess's arrow, Han Yang, you will not be unjustly slain."
The sharp arrow left the bowstring, leaving only the vibrating string in her grasp.
The whistling wind carried a lethal intent, yet Wen Yu still did not turn her head. The drumsticks were heavy, but fortunately, she had trained her physique regularly, so wielding them was not beyond her strength.
However, the prolonged swinging had numbed her shoulders and arms with needle-like pain, and the force of drumming had split her palms, blood seeping from the wounds.
Yet she showed no intention of stopping. Only sweat trickled down her temples, falling to the bricks beneath her feet in time with the drumbeats.
As long as the battle raged, the war drums would not cease.
The deadly arrow was brutally severed by Zhao Bai's drawn sword, its tip embedding deeply into the city bricks below with undiminished force.
She lifted her head, her gaze cold and ferocious, fixed on the direction of He Yi's war chariot.
He Yi, unconvinced, drew her bow again like a full moon, releasing a flurry of gray-feathered arrows as if plucking strings. Each arrow carried the force to shatter stone.
Zhao Bai unsheathed another long blade from her back with a sharp ring, wielding both sword and blade in unison. She cleaved through every arrow that shot toward her, her movements flowing like a rainbow, weaving an impenetrable steel net. Around her, over a dozen Azure Guard members stood with drawn swords, deflecting stray arrows aimed at Wen Yu.
He Yi soon threw down her great bow in frustration, slamming the railing of her war chariot with a heavy blow. She barked, "Aim the ballistas! I refuse to believe they can block giant ballista arrows!"
She knew full well that Gole City's current morale hinged entirely on Wen Yu.
If Wen Yu fell, the entire city would crumble back into disarray.
She was indeed growing impatient. With an army of 120,000, she should have overrun this dilapidated city wall long ago. To be hindered like this was a profound disgrace!
Seeing the Western Mausoleum army pushing all their ballistas to the front, Mu Youliang understood their intent and immediately shouted, "Catapults! Target their ballistas and fire!"The soldiers on the city wall responsible for calibrating the catapults' accuracy immediately aimed at the ballistae below.
He Yi noticed this, rushed down from the war chariot, pulled aside a soldier adjusting a ballista, and coldly commanded, "Step aside! This princess will handle it herself!"
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