Chapter 78: The Army's Morale Fluctuates

  Pang Zhong had led the army to defend against the rebels' attacks countless times when he took turns with other generals to guard Hantangguan City. Many times, large numbers of rebels climbed up onto the city wall using cloud ladders, but were ultimately killed by his soldiers and the city wall was firmly defended. Facing the crisis, he had nothing to fear, especially after experiencing the defeat at Lingbao, he had a feeling of giving it all up, even not "cherishing life".

  In the Battle of Lingbao, the tens of thousands of troops he led as the rear guard escaped with only a few thousand remaining. This made him, who had always been arrogant, want to die to atone for his sins and comfort the spirits of the soldiers who died miserably in the narrow mountain passes between Mount Hua and the Yellow River. Before, he was not afraid of death, and when commanding battles, he would charge forward at the front line. Now, he is even more unafraid of death, and life and death are no longer important to him. His only "requirement" for death is that it be glorious, as long as it's not humiliating.

  At that time when he was directing the battle in Hantang Pass, he held this belief. Now, directing the battle on top of Tongguan Pass is also with this mentality.

  It can be said that he was more brave than anyone else in killing the enemy, and the number of rebels who died under his bow and arrow and war knife is countless. Many were high-ranking rebel soldiers. If someone observes from mid-air to see which general is more courageous in commanding the battle on the city wall, then Pang Zhong would be the first without any dispute. He also felt that the situation was much more critical than before the rain, but he also knew that things had not reached a very difficult point. The rebels only had the opportunity to climb the city wall, and a small number of soldiers had the opportunity to jump onto the city wall. To truly attack the city wall, they would have to pay a huge price.

  In this case, there can be no cowardice or complacency, otherwise once a place is breached by the rebels, subsequent rebel soldiers can continuously rush up from here, and it will take a lot of effort to kill them.

  The best scenario is to prevent the rebels from having a large-scale landing on the city wall. Concentrate all forces and inflict heavy casualties on the rebels in various ways when they land, eliminating the danger below the city wall.

  The defenders on the city wall are no longer the soldiers of the powerful Tang army with high morale a few days ago, but a group of defeated and wounded soldiers who have experienced the defeat at Lingbao. If an insurmountable danger appears, they may quickly become fleeing defeated soldiers.

  The rebels have just appeared on the city wall, aren't there any soldiers who want to escape?

  If such a situation occurs frequently, it is also possible that the defensive line on the city wall will collapse in an instant.

  Pang Zhong would not allow any deserters among his men. If anyone dared to flee, the battle knife in his hand would show no mercy.

  His troops were better than the others, they had regained some confidence in Hantangguan, and when killing enemies, they were much more ruthless than the others.

  The cloud ladder under the city is still being set up, and the rebel soldiers who are attacking the city under the city are dominated by the idea that they will attack the city head no matter how many people are injured or killed. Under the command of the general, they went forward one after another to climb up the city head using the cloud ladder, hoping to destroy the Tang army's defense in this way.

  Several newly erected cloud ladders were directly pushed out by the soldiers on the city wall with horizontal wooden bars, and the cloud ladder fell into the moat along with several climbing soldiers.

  "Ah!" A rebel soldier who had just climbed halfway up the cloud ladder was hit in the head by a large stone thrown from the top of the city wall. After letting out a miserable cry, he released his grip on the ladder and covered his bloody head with his hands before falling straight down, bringing several companions below him crashing down into the moat as well, either dead or injured.

  "Kill!" A Lang general under Pang Zhong's command swung his sword and, after a loud shout, struck with great force at a rebel soldier who was quickly climbing up to the top of the city wall. In a shrill cry of agony, the rebel soldier's head was cut off halfway, and the gushing blood spurted out from the wound, splashing onto several nearby soldiers, but was soon washed away by the rainwater that fell on the city wall.

  The rebel soldier, whose neck had been cut halfway through, also released his grip on the cloud ladder, and the horizontal knife in his other hand fell to the ground below. His body followed suit, landing squarely on a boulder, whereupon his head separated from his torso. The terrified eyes were then trampled by several of his comrades in turn, but no one paid any attention to this.

  The rebel soldiers who attacked the city, they felt no different from trampling on their companions' corpses and trampling on rocks. Sometimes, the soldiers attacking the city would even pull the bodies of dead comrades to use as stepping stones.

  On the battlefield, when fierce fighting is going on, many ethical considerations are ignored. Rebel troops who are desperately attacking the city don't even have time to take care of their wounded comrades. Soldiers who are injured but not dead are left unattended, with no one coming to their aid. Some people who are unable to get up are even trampled to death by their reckless comrades. This is how brutal desperate fighting can be!

  The moat has become a "dammed lake" with sections of corpse dams, the fresh blood on the bodies of the dead and wounded soldiers under the city wall mixed with rainwater, flowing into the moat, but the rapid flow of water from higher elevations quickly dilutes the thick blood, flowing through the eastern edge of the moat to the mountains or overflowing the "corpse dam" and continuing downstream.

  At the beginning of the war, there were enough dead and wounded rebel soldiers in the trench to mix with the Tang army soldiers who had not been burned clean. At that time, it could be said that the trench was filled with blood and the stench of rotting corpses made people want to vomit. However, this heavy rain almost completely eliminated these odors, and there were no longer any unpleasant smells in the air.

  But the Tang army officers on the city wall would rather continue to smell these foul smells than have a heavy rain come down from the sky and keep falling continuously.

  The rain won't stop, we can only fight desperately now.

  Pang Zhong's command was very decisive, and he fought bravely. The other generals were similar, and Li Fude, who had won several victories and climbed to the top of the city wall, was even more so. The soldiers under his command who had not experienced the defeat at Lingbao were almost fearless. The two generals defended the city wall, and basically no rebel soldiers could climb up. Those who managed to climb the cloud ladder were either eliminated halfway or pushed into the moat along with the ladder.

  But in other places, such as the sections commanded by Wang Silie and Tian Liangqiu, the situation was relatively less optimistic. The soldiers who still had lingering fears in their hearts began to feel timid when they saw more and more rebel soldiers using cloud ladders to climb the city walls. Even though Wang Silie and Tian Liangqiu beheaded several soldiers who threw down their weapons and fled, the morale of the army was still wavering as more and more rebels started climbing the walls.

  "Ah...... kill!" A rebel soldier who had climbed to the top of the cloud ladder and jumped onto the city wall, shouted "ah ah" several times and loudly shouted "kill", swung his war knife at the Tang army soldiers below him who were temporarily stunned by his bold action, and actually knocked down several people in an instant. At this time, several rebel soldiers on another cloud ladder took advantage of the situation to jump onto the city head...