Chapter 145

  The Pingyuan army retreated to the inner city wall, and the defensive equipment was replenished again. When the barbarian soldiers tried to climb up the cloud ladder to the inner city wall, they were met with a hail of arrows from the Pingyuan army. The cloud ladder was narrow, and the arrows flew in, making it impossible for them to dodge. The charging barbarian soldiers fell off the cloud ladder one after another, hit by arrows.

  Seeing the plain army's arrow array was fierce, the barbarian soldiers also started to counterattack. They occupied the outer city wall, with high terrain, and had an advantage in shooting, but the plain army side had prepared defenses, when the barbarian soldiers began to shoot arrows, the soldiers raised the door boards and other objects that had been prepared early, the dense arrow branches of the barbarians did not hit a few people, instead they were all nailed to the door board.

  The barbarian soldiers had a limited number of arrows, and after shooting for a while, they had no more arrows to use. At this time, the plain army lowered the gate board again, took down the arrows nailed on it one by one, and shot back at the barbarian soldiers with their own arrows.

  The commander of the Besa army thought that occupying the city wall was equivalent to declaring victory, but unexpectedly there was another inner city wall inside, and the defending army occupied the inner city wall to resist even more stubbornly.

  At this time, the commander of the Besa army was also furious to the extreme, and he ordered the troops to take down Heng City at all costs before nightfall, regardless of the number of casualties.

  Under the command of Besa, all barbarian troops were mobilized, and even heavily armored cavalry that was not very effective in siege warfare also joined the battle.

  As the outer city wall had been occupied by the barbarian soldiers, the city gate was wide open, and countless barbarian soldiers poured in from outside the city gate like ants. However, as soon as they approached, they were met with a hail of arrows from the inner city wall. The corpses piled up at the city gate, stacked high like a mountain.

  The addition of heavy armored cavalry served as a meat shield, they topped the front, not afraid of arrow shooting at all, and the barbarian soldiers took advantage of their cover to rush to the bottom of the inner city wall, colliding with the gate and climbing the wall, the battle once again entered a stalemate.

  The ferocity of the barbarian army's attack was beyond the defenders' expectations. Xiao Miaoqing had fought against the barbarians for many years, but he had never seen such frenzied barbarian soldiers before. The enemy troops seemed to have gone mad, charging forward without any regard for their lives, as if they would jump into a pit of fire without hesitation, paving the way for the barbarian troops behind them.

  Fighting against such barbarian troops, it's not to say that even if our own numbers are far inferior to the enemy's, even if our numbers are roughly equal to the enemy's, we may still not have the upper hand.

  Xiao Muzheng stood on the city wall with his hand on the hilt of his sword, gazing out at the endless sea of enemy soldiers below, his brow furrowed in silence.

  As the barbarian soldiers approached, their arrows also gradually increased in number. Some were shot from below upwards, while others were shot from above downwards. The arrow rain was dense, and from time to time, arrow shafts whizzed past Xiao Miaoqing's side and headtop. The surrounding guards saw this and rushed forward to protect him, Qiu Zhen also quickly walked to his side and advised in a low voice: "General Xiao, the enemy arrows are dense, let's go down the city wall and avoid them for now!"

  Xiao Muqing turned his head and gave Qiu Zhen a cold glance, expressionless and said in a low voice: "The soldiers are bleeding and sweating on the battlefield, how can I retreat at this critical moment?! With me here, the soldiers can still fight to the death, if I were to retreat out of fear, wouldn't that be suspected of shaking the military's morale?" The implication being that Qiu Zhen's advice was actually shaking the military's morale.

  Qiu Zhen's face turned red with anger and he didn't say anything else, retreating several steps before quickly descending the city wall with his guards.

  If talking about deep strategy and foresight, Xiao Muqing is indeed inferior to Qiu Zhen, but in terms of commanding troops on the battlefield, Qiu Zhen is far from possessing the grandeur of a great general like Xiao Muqing.

  Xiao Muzheng stayed on the city wall, which can indeed play a role in stabilizing the military's morale. Even the commander-in-chief can forget about life and death to stay at the forefront of the battle to command the overall situation. How can the generals below not fight to the death?

  This is what is meant by having a will to die and no desire to live.

  The battle for the inner city wall was more bloody and arduous than that of the outer city wall. The attacking side had received a death order from their commander, only success was allowed, failure was not an option. The defending side had no way to retreat, they could only fight to the end, both sides' soldiers had no choice, the battle was naturally more intense.

  The outer city wall is ten meters high and cannot stop the barbarian army, while the inner city wall is only six meters high. Moreover, the enemy is attacking from both top and bottom, making it even more difficult to block them.

  By dusk, the Pingyuan army was on the verge of collapse.

  After fighting to the present, the plain army has more than tens of thousands of people, and there is no one who does not have a wound on his body. The wounded soldiers simply bandaged their wounds and continued to join the battle. The situation of the barbarian army was not much better, and the number of deaths and injuries could not be counted, only by queue calculation, one team went up, and in the blink of an eye, they were all killed or injured, and then another team filled in.

  At this point, both sides had already fought to the point of exhaustion and collapse.

  However, the barbarian army has one advantage over the plain army - it has more men, and there are still reinforcements that can fill up the front line.

  Just as the barbarian commander thought he could breach the inner walls of Xiangcheng before nightfall, a sudden ** erupted from the rear of the barbarian camp.

  The barbarian general did not know what had happened, and just wanted to let the attendant next to him go and investigate. At this time, a barbarian soldier rushed over on horseback, arrived at the barbarian general's side, did not dismount, but directly fell off the horse. The surrounding guards saw the situation and came forward one after another to support him.

  The commander of the barbarian army looked at that little school and asked: "What's wrong with you being so flustered?"

  "Sir... Commander, it's bad! There are enemy troops sneaking up on our camp from behind!"

  In Bessa, commanders above the army are collectively referred to as commanders. The commander who led the troops to Pingyuan County this time was not simple in name and identity, he was King Bessa's younger brother, Kneiss von Plos, von is a family surname that can be omitted. He was the Duke of Bessa, second only to one person and above all others, if it weren't for the harassment by the Pingyuan army, he wouldn't have led the troops in person this time either.

  Rumors of an enemy raid at the rear camp had also frightened Knie, breaking out in a cold sweat. How did the enemy appear from behind? His first reaction was to quickly gather his troops. The camp is now empty, with no soldiers available for use. If the enemy breaks through their own camp and joins forces with the defenders of Heng City, their situation will be dire.

  "He hastily asked: 'How many enemy troops have come?'"

  That little schoolboy stuttered and foamed at the mouth, stretched out a finger and stammered: "Th-th-there's... someone!"

  "What?" Kneiss leaned forward, wondering if he had misheard. Was there only one person on the other end?

  "There is only one enemy!" Xiao Xiao said firmly.

  Kneiss could hear clearly this time, and his nose almost followed the sound. "Is there only one enemy? What's there to be afraid of?" His face sank, and he said coldly, "Just one enemy, and you're scared like that?"

  "The enemy is extremely powerful, our side cannot withstand..."

  Before he could finish, Kneiss turned his head to the deputy commander beside him and said: "Take some men to capture the enemy, remember to leave them alive, I'll take a look myself at who has the guts to rush into my camp alone!"

  "Yes! Your Excellency, Duke!" The deputy captain of the guard responded with a loud voice, mounted his horse quickly, and then waved his hand to lead away more than 100 guards.

  These guards were not ordinary barbarian soldiers, but the Duke's Guards, the elite among the elite of the barbarian army. The other side had only sent one person, led by the Deputy Captain of the Guard with over a hundred guards, and was supposed to be a sure thing, but what he didn't expect was that these people would disappear without a trace, leaving no news after they left, like a stone sinking into the ocean.

  The chaos in the barbarian army's camp had not subsided, and the sounds of fighting had shifted from the rear to the front. Just as Kneiss was waiting for news, a blood-soaked barbarian soldier rode up on horseback, dismounted hastily, and exclaimed: "All the attendants sent by the commander have been killed by the enemy!"

  "What?!" At the sound of this, Kneiss, who was originally sitting in a chair gazing out at the battlefield of Heng City, suddenly stood up, his eyes wide with shock, and loudly exclaimed: "All killed?" This was an utterly unthinkable thing to him - the other side had only one person, how could they possibly have killed the deputy captain of the guard he had sent, along with a hundred guards?

  He paused for a moment and asked again: "Is there only one person on the other side?"

  "Yes... yes sir, Commander!"

  Only one person... how can he be so formidable?! Kernes was also stunned at this time.

  He was still stunned when suddenly a cavalryman rushed out of the barbarian army's large camp on his east side.

  Because of the distance, Kneiss couldn't see very clearly, but the other side had only one person and was seen.

  This man held a long weapon in his hand and rode a tall horse. Behind him, more than 100 barbarian soldiers were chasing after him.

  They said they were chasing, but in fact they just followed. Those barbarian soldiers didn't dare to get close, and could only watch from a distance behind the knight's back.

  The knight rushed out of the barbarian army's camp and after a brief pause, he rode towards the city gate of Heng City.

  His speed was not fast, but the pursuing soldiers behind him did not dare to get close.

  The barbarian soldiers besieging the city also seemed to have discovered a Wind Tribe warrior approaching, and the barbarians at the rear of the formation immediately charged towards that knight.

  That group of barbarian soldiers, numbering in the hundreds, formed a dense black mass that charged towards the lone knight, as if they could engulf him in an instant.

  Kneiss's mouth corners rose as he gazed into the distance, his fists also subconsciously clenched.

  Just then, the knight's weapon shone with a burst of light and struck out at the many barbarian soldiers who were charging forward from below.

  Buzz!

  Kneiss was so far away from the battlefield, yet in his earwheels he could faintly hear the sound of spiritual energy breaking through the wind.

  Only to see countless spiritual waves flying out with the knight's swinging of his weapon, the number of spiritual waves and the breadth of the attack range are simply overwhelming, hundreds of barbarian soldiers, who were in the front line, were hit by the chaotic spiritual waves. On the field, no one can be seen, only dust is flying everywhere, mixed with blood lights, and the faint sound of soldiers' mournful cries can be heard in the ears.

  Soon, the waves passed, the flying dust scattered, and the dust settled. Looking at the scene again, not a single intact barbarian soldier could be found. These hundreds of people seemed to have fallen into a meat grinder, with their bodies and armor shattered, blood and flesh everywhere, and the ground stained red with fresh blood.

  Seeing this scene, the barbarian soldiers and generals were stunned, the guards and the captain of the guard were stunned, even Kneiss was stunned.

  After a long time, he slowly squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "Ling... Ling is in chaos! Extremely!"