Chapter Seventy-Three: Situation Critical

  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.

  "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, falling down from the top of the city wall.

  The rebel soldier, whose neck had been chopped in half, also released his grip on the cloud ladder, and the horizontal knife in his other hand fell to the ground. His body also fell, landing squarely on a boulder, whereupon his head separated from his torso. The terrified eyes of the severed head were then trampled by several comrades in turn, but no one noticed this.

  The moat has become a "dammed lake" with the bodies of the dead soldiers forming a dam, and the blood from the wounded soldiers' bodies mixed with rainwater flows into the moat. However, the rapid flow of water coming down from higher ground quickly dilutes the thick blood, flowing through the eastern edge of the moat into the mountains or overflowing the "corpse dam" to continue flowing 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 army could jump onto the city wall. Rebel soldiers who managed to climb up the cloud ladder were either eliminated halfway or pushed into the moat along with the cloud 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 cut 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 wall!

  The rebels who started climbing the city wall first were all brave and courageous men.

  Before An Lushan's rebellion, they were the most elite soldiers in the Tang Empire's border armies, extremely brave and experienced in combat.

  Several unlucky Tang soldiers became the first victims under their blades, being beheaded or hacked to pieces. Nearby Tang soldiers were frightened and threw away their weapons, fleeing in panic. The bravery of these rebel soldiers created an opportunity for their comrades to climb up the city wall, and soon more than a dozen soldiers rushed to the top, massacring nearby Tang soldiers.

  This was the defensive area of Wang Silie's department. On the other side, Wang Silie, who was commanding the battle, soon discovered the unusual situation in this place. After a loud shout, he immediately led his personal soldiers to charge over.

  His personal bodyguard, Wang Cunxu, was a robust man about two meters tall, with incredible strength. Under the command of Wang Silie, he charged forward on horseback, swinging his horizontal blade and knocking the war sword out of the hands of the leading rebel army officer. With a swift backhand swing of his blade, he beheaded the rebel officer without any suspense.

  A large head flew out of the city and fell into a pile of rebel soldiers, a column of blood shot up from the headless corpse, splashing Wang Silie, the captain of the imperial guard, all over his body, as well as onto other soldiers. But Wang Cunxue didn't stop there, he continued to wield his sword, chopping off another rebel soldier's head and kicking the headless corpse off the city wall with his foot.

  However, the horizontal knife in Wang Cunxu's hand was already useless. He quickly smashed the horizontal knife that could no longer be used onto another rebel soldier and immediately picked up a strange knife thrown on the ground by someone and continued to charge forward.

  The strange sword in Wang Cunxue's hand revealed extremely great power, and the rebel army was completely unable to withstand its edge.

  Wang Cunxu instantly killed several rebel soldiers and continued to charge forward, such a heroic feat shocked the few rebel soldiers on the city wall, no one dared to fight against him. Several rebel soldiers turned around and ran away when Wang Cunxu charged over, but where could they escape on the city wall? The frightened rebel soldiers panicked and fell off the city wall, coincidentally landing on several comrades who were about to climb up the cloud ladder, all of them rolled down together and fell into the moat.

  Wang Cunxu's bravery not only shocked the rebels but also boosted the morale of his comrades. Those timid soldiers no longer retreated, instead shouting loudly as they charged forward. The rebels who climbed up the city wall via cloud ladders could not quickly bring a large number of troops to the top of the wall. The dozens of soldiers who managed to climb up were soon killed by Wang Cunxu and other Tang soldiers in fierce fighting on the city wall, their bodies thrown down from the wall.

  Seeing this situation, Wang Silie let out a sigh of relief and immediately ordered his soldiers to continue killing the enemy with all their might.

  The situation in the Tien-li-kou sector was similar to that of Wang Szu-li's, where a fairly large number of rebel troops had taken advantage of the defenders' panic and rushed up onto the city wall. In the end it was only after several brave generals had killed a few of them that they were able to eliminate this budding danger.

  The rain subsided a bit, the sky cleared up, but the wind picked up again. The fog wrapped around the peaks of Mount Hua was flowing rapidly, and the fog near the city wall was quickly blown away. As the fog dispersed, the situation in the Jin Gou area became clear as well.

  After seeing the situation in the ditch, Wang Silie took a cold breath.

  The Moat of Heaven's Peril has almost disappeared, and the corpses that have been piled up to form a bridge make it a thoroughfare. More and more rebel soldiers are rushing over these bridges, and there are more and more soldiers preparing to climb the city walls below. The bridges made of corpses are crowded with rebel soldiers, because the space under the city walls is too small, and not many soldiers can be squeezed in, otherwise there would be even more soldiers standing on the west bank of the Moat of Heaven's Peril.

  "Archers, aim at the rebels inside the trench and fire!" Wang Silie commanded in a hurry.

  He knew that if he let things go on like this, the city would eventually be occupied by the rebels.

  The bodies of the rebels can be piled up into a platform for attacking the city, and subsequent rebels can use this platform to increase the intensity of their attack on the city head and concentrate more power to climb the city. Dense arrows can effectively kill them, and Wang Silie immediately orders again to concentrate firepower.

  However, the shooting effect was greatly affected by the strong wind and rain.

  The intense rebel charge also put psychological pressure on the city's garrison troops, and some soldiers' legs were trembling.

  At this time, a burst of arrows shot out from the dense rebel formation in the forbidden ditch, and with the strong wind, they fell on the city troops, shooting down more than ten soldiers. Seeing this situation, the city head soldiers who were afraid of being hit by the rebel arrows again, actually had dozens of people drop their weapons and turn to escape.

  The nearby soldiers were also affected, and many of them stood there in a daze, at a loss for what to do. The city wall suddenly exposed a large blank area of defense, and several ladders on the rebel side took advantage of the opportunity to quickly climb up the city wall, frantically chopping and killing the panicked Tang army soldiers.

  Many things were contagious and more soldiers retreated.

  "Take me there!" Wang Silie roared with rage, personally leading his guards in a charge.

  However, just as Wang Silie personally led his soldiers to kill the city head, dozens of soldiers in Tian Liangqiu's defense area also threw down their weapons and escaped. More rebel soldiers jumped onto the city head, chasing after the fleeing Tang army. Helpless Tian Liangqiu had no choice but to lead his soldiers to rush up and block the rebels' ascent.

  Just as the situation was becoming critical, Wang Silie and Wang Liangqiu led their personal troops to personally go up to the city head to kill the increasingly large number of rebel soldiers who were rushing up. At this time, a shout for killing came from the left side, it turned out that Yang Hui brought a large team to reinforce!

  A shout for killing also came from the right flank direction, and Geshu Han dispatched the last 500 reserve troops to the battlefield as well!