In the distance, several black whirlpools had merged into a boundless black cloud. On Lei Fengs side, everyone swallowed hard and turned pale, their heavy breathing rising and falling in succession, with many peoples hands trembling as they grasped their guns.
Liu Ce gripped his long spear tightly, trying to calm himself down. According to the bandits way of fighting, the first to attack would definitely be the unarmed refugees. These untrained refugees were only holding on by a thread, and as soon as their momentum was broken, they would immediately lose morale and scatter in all directions. The next few waves would be the bandit soldiers who had experienced several battles, wielding various types of weapons, mainly short spears and copper knives. In terms of combat effectiveness, they were only slightly better than the refugees and were also relatively easy to defeat. However, there were too many of them, and after several rounds of fighting, even if he didnt die at their hands, he would still suffer a huge loss of physical strength, and might even be exhausted to death. Finally, there were the elite bandits, some of whom wore iron armor. Although they were not numerous, each one was a seasoned veteran who had survived many battles, with combat effectiveness far surpassing that of the provincial local soldiers, and possibly only differing from the Thunderbolt Armys direct military units in terms of equipment. His own army camp was just a subordinate unit under the Thunderbolt Army, and although they flew the Thunderbolt Army flag, their equipment supplies and ration distribution were vastly different from those of the direct military units, and might not even be as good as some provincial local armies. What would happen if he encountered these elite bandits was unknown, because in his multiple battles with the bandits, he had rarely had the opportunity to encounter such elite bandit soldiers, and had only occasionally heard local soldiers and direct military unit soldiers mention them.
Liu Ce estimated that within three hours, his troops would either be eaten away or collapse even if they were not consumed by the tens of thousands of bandits. In its current form, Gaoyang City was impossible to defend, and he had to find a way to retreat and survive.
A dark cloud of troops advanced slowly and disorderly, Liu Ce estimated that the vanguard was still five or six miles away from their main camp. Judging by this number, its estimated to be over 300,000 people, a vast and endless expanse that seemed to suffocate, bringing an aura of despair.
After a little more than half an hour, about 2 li away from the two armies, the dark clouds slowly stopped, and soon three fast horses rushed out of the bandit army, flying white flags to the front of the array, shouting at the Thunderbolt Army: "People inside, listen! You quickly surrender, dont make unnecessary resistance, no need to sacrifice for that dog emperor, my righteous army follows the heavenly way, as long as you surrender, I will ensure your safety!"
After persuading them to surrender three or four times, there was no reaction in the formation, or it could be said that they were numb. Many people vaguely remembered examples of certain places where soldiers who surrendered due to lack of food were made into "dried meat" to fill military rations by the righteous army. Although withholding military pay had become a common practice in their own army, not having been paid for several months was nothing out of the ordinary, but being able to barely eat half full every day was still possible. Eating people was something that had never happened before in the military, so even in this situation, many soldiers would rather die in battle than become food for refugees.
After several persuasions to surrender were in vain, the three cavalrymen of the bandits had no choice but to return to their formation. Before long, a large number of refugees with tattered clothes and carrying wooden sticks, flat baskets, bamboo knives, and bamboo spears lined up in front of the formation, numbering over 20,000 people. Under the flogging and whipping of the bandit commander behind them, they shouted and charged towards this side.
"Here they come." Liu Zhan was in the third row of riflemen, clearly seeing the approaching refugees or famine victims with a look of madness on their faces. This scene had been experienced countless times over the past month, and all he had to do was poke holes in the starving people who rushed forward and send them to hell.
Within a distance of about 1000 meters, the starving people rushed to the front line and were already panting, but still collided with the first row of riflemen and shield-bearing soldiers behind the earth wall. For a moment, blood splattered everywhere, and the starving people had not yet climbed over the earth wall when they were nailed to death by rows of long-handled spears outside the earth wall. The starving people behind trampled on their companions bodies and climbed up the earth wall again, only to be stabbed to death and fall off the earth wall. Hundreds of people lost their lives in an instant.
At this time, a starving man holding a bamboo knife jumped over the earth wall and was instantly stabbed to death by the long spearman in front of Liu Ces column. The starving mans eyes gradually lost their breath. But before the long spearman could pull out his spearhead, another bandit holding a short hammer jumped down from the earth wall and heavily smashed it on the helmet of the long spearman. The inferior iron helmet suddenly cracked, and the fragments were also embedded in the soldiers head, instantly bloody and vomiting blood, which was quickly swallowed by the darkness...
That bandit dodged the second row of soldiers and quickly filled up, with a long spear thrusting towards that bandit. The bandit rolled on the ground to avoid the fatal shot, which immediately hit the soldiers palm with a hammer. For a moment, the long spearman let out a loud groan, but before he could groan for long, the bandit got up and hammered his face again. In an instant, the soldiers facial features changed dramatically, deeply sunken in, even his eyeballs were hanging on his cheeks. When the bandit kicked over the soldiers body with a short hammer, he suddenly felt a chill in his neck, unbelievably retreating to the corner of the wall, covering his throat tightly with both hands as blood flowed non-stop. Only then did Liu Ce appear, holding a waist knife and staring at him coldly. Afterwards, he too was swallowed by darkness, becoming another corpse.
Liu Ce killed the bandit decisively and quickly sheathed his sword, grabbed a long spear, and with one swift thrust, pinned a starving civilian who had just climbed over the wall to the ground. He then kicked the wall, pulled out the spearhead, and with a flying sweep of his arm, sent three or four more civilians on the wall tumbling down. With another thrust, he knocked off a civilian who had just climbed up the wall on his left side. After that, he drew his waist knife again, turned around, and chopped down a civilian who was trying to sneak up behind him. Having done all this, Liu Ce squeezed into the gap in the armys formation, conserving his strength for escape.
"It seems that the bandits are different this time." Liu Ce discovered that the bandits had changed their tactics, and the refugees and soldiers were mixed together. The refugee who had just killed two long-gunners with an iron hammer couldnt have joined the bandits and possessed such combat strength. Looking at the increasing number of refugees and bandits holding various iron instruments on the nearby earth wall, Liu Ce felt a bad premonition.
