Chapter Seventy: Fierce Battle in the Rain

  In the midst of thunder and lightning, heavy rain poured down, and the entire world seemed to be a vast white veil of rain.

  At this time, the wind had subsided. Without wind, although it wouldn't blow off the arrow that was shot out, the heavy rain affected archery more than before. The bowstring got wet and became even harder to draw back than usual. Even if one could manage to draw back the string and shoot the arrow out, the impact force generated by the crazy rain would eliminate a lot of the arrow's kinetic energy and also change its direction, still severely affecting the shooting effect.

  Moreover, heavy rain would blind people's eyes and make it impossible to see the scenery. Those divine archers who specialized in shooting and killing rebel officers also lost their targets.

  Chui Qianyou, who was attacking the city, knew that heaven had created an opportunity for him. Overjoyed, he ordered his men to press on with all their might. Under his personal command, several deputy generals led their troops in a continuous charge into the Jin Gou, using the height gained from the piled-up corpses, helping each other or using cloud ladders to climb up the western bank of the Jin Gou and then set up cloud ladders again to start climbing the city walls.

  The Tang army's arrows and rocks fell in great numbers, many of the rebel soldiers abandoned their shields and began to climb the city walls in the rain.

  Many cloud ladders were set up under the dense arrow shooting of them, and the Tang army on the city head began to defend with rolling stones and wooden logs.

  A large log was thrown down from the city head by several Tang army soldiers, just hitting a cloud ladder that had just been erected. Under the action of huge kinetic energy, several soldiers who had just started climbing the cloud ladder were hit by the log and fell down with a scream. One soldier was crushed to death on the spot, while two other soldiers were thrown into the moat below and fell among the piles of corpses.

  Fortunately, the pile of corpses had a buffering effect and did not let them lose their lives, but they were also seriously injured and could no longer charge forward.

  A stone weighing over 100 catties was also thrown down from the city wall, smashing a cloud ladder on the spot and hitting a soldier climbing the cloud ladder after smashing the cloud ladder. The rebel soldier who was hit in the head had his skull burst open, and the red and white brain matter flowed out of the wound and was washed away by the rainwater immediately. This soldier's fate was to die on the spot, and two soldiers behind him were also injured and fell to the ground.

  Those two unlucky soldiers were struck by a falling tree trunk and one of them died.

  The arrows shot in the rain are not completely harmless and can still injure or even kill those climbing the city wall at close range.

  At first, the cloud ladders erected were not many, and these cloud ladders were soon pushed open by the Tang army on the city head, along with those soldiers who were still stubbornly climbing, all fell into the moat.

  Soldiers who were hit by arrows or struck down by rolling logs and wooden beams fell from the cloud ladders, along with the ladders themselves, which toppled into the moat behind them. The dead bodies immediately became fill material in the moat, serving as stepping stones for the subsequent rebel troops attacking the city. Those wounded soldiers who lacked the strength to get up or escape could not avoid a similar fate.

  "Pass the order, prepare more rolling stones and logs!" Wang Silie, who had already been drenched to the bone, loudly commanded his nearby bodyguards.

  "Yes, General!" The orderly immediately went to transmit the order.

  Inside Tongguan City, whether it was arrows or rolling stones and logs, many were prepared. However, Wang Silie knew that during the heavy rain, rolling stones and logs would be the main weapons of battle. These weapons were larger in size, and it was impossible to pile up a large number on the city wall, which would definitely not be enough for later use. He could only order his men to gather materials nearby and prepare more rolling stones and logs, so as to prevent them from being used up and having nothing to take.

  The wind has stopped, but the rain is coming down very heavily. Objects a dozen or so steps away are not visible, and from the top of the city wall, one can only vaguely see the situation below. It's impossible to observe how many rebel troops are attacking the city, how subsequent rebel troops will advance, coordinate, cross the moat, and climb the walls. Commander Wang Silie is unable to make effective adjustments based on the rebels' attack formation.

  A cloud ladder quickly approached in front of Wang Silie, and surprisingly, a rebel soldier had already climbed to the top of the cloud ladder. As the cloud ladder approached quickly, this rebel soldier suddenly jumped up and directly jumped onto the city wall. Wang Silie, who was shocked, reacted very quickly, and before other soldiers could react, he swung his horizontal knife and chopped it towards the head of this jumping rebel soldier.

  This was a rebel's daredevil, who climbed up the cloud ladder first, taking advantage of the rain-shrouded weather that the Tang army on the city wall could not observe clearly. As he approached the cloud ladder, he jumped over directly, wanting to catch the Tang army soldiers off guard and gain time and opportunity for the follow-up troops. However, he was unlucky, jumping right in front of Wang Silie, who swung his horizontal knife with great force, chopping it onto his neck. The miserable cry only managed to emit half before stopping abruptly, a head flying out, and the headless corpse fell straight down from the city wall.

  The blood spouting out mixed with the raindrops, sprinkled on Wang Silie and other soldiers' bodies.

  "Beware of the rebels' jump attack!" Wang Silie roared again, warning his soldiers to beware of the rebel soldiers' daring act of jumping directly onto the city wall!

  Although Wang Silie reminded them, there were still soldiers who were caught off guard and were hacked to death or injured by the rebel soldiers who jumped over, but the number of such dead soldiers was not large. Even if they managed to get lucky and kill a few people, they would immediately be killed by the swarming Tang army soldiers, their bodies thrown down from the city as weapons.

  But the rebels kept coming with more and more cloud ladders, while the soldiers on the city wall used horizontal wooden beams to push away the approaching cloud ladders, a large number of rolling stones and logs were thrown down from the top of the city by the soldiers, hitting the heads of the rebel soldiers climbing the city.

  At this time, the soldiers on the twelve connected cities played a huge role. The arrows they shot could effectively hit the rebel soldiers climbing in the forbidden ditch and could also transmit the observed attack situation of the rebels back to the city, so that the generals inside the city knew. Geshu Han, Wang Silie, Peng Zhong and other generals made adjustments to the deployment of troops based on the information transmitted by the soldiers stationed on several city walls of the twelve connected cities.

  A cloud ladder rose under Pang Zhong's eyelids, and a soldier who had already climbed to the top of the cloud ladder took advantage of the opportunity to pounce on Pang Zhong as he approached. Pang Zhong let out a loud shout, but instead of swinging his sword, he stretched out his foot and kicked the rebel soldier with great force. The rebel soldier, who had hoped to succeed in one blow, was kicked squarely by Pang Zhong and let out a miserable cry before flying directly out of the city without even landing on the city wall.

  Pang Zhong couldn't see where the rebel soldier who was kicked by him fell, but he could guess that being kicked with such great force and falling into the deep moat of nearly ten zhang high, even if he didn't die, he would be seriously injured.

  But as more cloud ladders were set up, more and more rebel soldiers emerged from the rain and fog, appearing in the field of vision of the city's defenders.

  However, whether it was Pang Zhong, Li Fude, or Wang Silie, they all knew that the rebel army's attacks were getting fiercer and fiercer, the number of cloud ladders erected would increase, the number of soldiers climbing up to the city wall would also increase, and the pressure they faced would become greater and greater.

  The rain suddenly subsided, the sky seemed to clear up a bit, and the fog was blown away by a strong gust of wind. The view became clearer, and dense rebel soldiers could be seen climbing over the western edge of the moat and heading towards the city wall.

  A section of the western part of the trench had been almost filled with corpses, and the heavy rain caused water to accumulate, washing over some scattered bodies and adding to the height of the pile, so that the rebels did not need to use ladders but could climb up by hand.

  This situation is shocking!