Chapter 67: Blood Continued to Flow

That night.

“Damn, don’t they sleep?”

Yang Xin stared out speechlessly. Under the moonlight, countless eerie figures were moving.

The Jiannu’s second wave of attack had begun.

But unlike the first, to defend against the arrows shot from the city wall, these Jiannu were all covered in multiple layers of heavy armor. They kept their heads down, dragging long ladders one after another and quickly advancing toward the base of the wall. They looked like a bunch of crawling turtles.

This tactic was very effective.

The arrows shot from the wall could hardly cause them real harm. The seventy or eighty jin of padded cloth armor on their backs probably couldn’t even be pierced by a Matchlock Gun from a distance. The Yehe Tribe soldiers continuously shot sharp arrows, but although many Jiannu were pinned like hedgehogs, it couldn’t stop them from moving forward. Even though their progress was slow, they were truly closing in on the wall in a large-scale advance. Once they reached the wall, a full-scale fierce assault would begin.

“Bring me my Wolf-tooth Mace!”

Yang Xin roared without hesitation.

Two Yehe Tribe soldiers beside him immediately handed him two Wolf-tooth Maces.

One was no longer enough for him.

“We will hold the wall. You just need to disrupt them!”

Jin Taiji said.

“Understood!”

After saying this, Yang Xin straightforwardly leaped down.

The moment he landed, dozens of sharp arrows shot at him from the opposite side, but they were completely useless against him.

This guy wore two layers of Full Iron Armor. An extra layer was added on top of the original forged iron plates, totaling over seventy jin. Tonight, he had put on an additional set of padded cloth armor, bringing his total protection to no less than a hundred jin. With his iron mask fastened, he was like a moving fortress.

Dense feathers stuck into the padded armor, creating a hedgehog-like effect as well.

He let out a loud roar and charged forward like that.

“Kill this demon man!”

A furious shout came from not far away.

Immediately after, hundreds of Jiannu ahead simultaneously discarded their burdens. Each holding a battle-axe with both hands, they quickly surrounded him.

Clearly, this was aimed at him.

A man around thirty years old, leading them and wielding a similar battle-axe with both hands, rushed to Yang Xin in an instant. Just as the latter smashed a Jiannu away with a Wolf-tooth Mace, the leader swung his axe down at Yang Xin’s head. Yang Xin swung his left Wolf-tooth Mace horizontally to block. But suddenly, another similar Wolf-tooth Mace struck from his other side. This mace’s target wasn’t him, but his own Wolf-tooth Mace. The two maces collided instantly. Even with Yang Xin’s strength, his mace inevitably deflected. The next moment, the large axe descended. He could even see the fierce grin on the Jiannu’s face opposite him.

Yang Xin suddenly accelerated, taking a step straight forward and crashing right into the man’s chest.

The latter’s axe whizzed past the back of Yang Xin’s head, while Yang Xin’s arms struck the man’s shoulders simultaneously. The battle-axe immediately slipped from the man’s grasp and fell behind Yang Xin. The next moment, Yang Xin’s head, wearing a phoenix-wing helmet, smashed hard into the man’s forehead…

The man immediately fell backward.

At the same time, two battle-axes chopped down behind Yang Xin. Yang Xin, with the man in his grasp, instantly turned around. The two battle-axes immediately bit into the man’s back.

The man awoke in agonizing pain, letting out a heart-wrenching scream.

The two men behind hurriedly tried to pull their axes free.

Yang Xin’s chest thrust forward fiercely. This man, with the two battle-axes still embedded, crashed into the two men behind. Before those two could retreat, the Wolf-tooth Mace in Yang Xin’s hand swept horizontally past them…

While he was entangled by these axe-wielders, Jiannu from both sides rushed past him and immediately began their assault on the city wall. Jin Taiji led his soldiers in a desperate resistance. After all, none of them wanted to be conquered by others. Even the ordinary soldiers, though they might have less psychological burden, it was nonsense to say they were willing to be conquered by Wild Boar Skin.

The Jiannu’s attack still turned into a bloody battle.

Especially Yang Xin’s bravery below greatly inspired the Yehe Tribe soldiers. Even a helper was fighting like this; it would be shameful if they shrank back. The two rat-tailed armies engaged in a bloody slaughter on this not-so-high rammed-earth city wall. Dead bodies continuously piled up below the wall, and blood flowed on the wall. Even Yehe Tribe women joined in. Stones thrown by women were no different from those thrown by men. The Jiannu corpses piled up more and more below the wall. In the end, ant-style siege tactics were the most basic method. No matter how fierce the Jiannu were, it couldn’t change the fact they had to suffer heavy casualties.

However…

Yang Xin, drenched in blood, suddenly broke out of the encirclement.

Then his gaze fell on a spot not far below the wall. That was where the Jiannu were focusing their main attack. Some had even breached the wall and were engaged in bloody combat with the Yehe army on top.

But below the wall, some people were digging frantically.

These people had shields above their heads for cover, like mice protected by a turtle shell. Due to the angle, they might not be visible from the wall, but the soil they dug out was constantly thrown outward. Even more people kept diving in to replace those who were exhausted…

Yang Xin charged straight toward them without hesitation.

“They’re going to blow up the wall!”

He shouted up toward the wall.

Almost simultaneously, those axe-wielders bravely surrounded him again.

But Jin Taiji had already heard. Amid the chaotic battle, he just hadn’t noticed. Now, seeing it, he understood the enemy’s intention. Accompanying his anxious roar, the elite led by Qin Chen opened the city gate again and charged out. But the Jiannu cavalry arrayed outside the gate immediately charged forward. Dense arrows from the wall shot toward these cavalry, but their relentless charge quickly blocked Qin Chen. The cavalry from both sides engaged in a bloody battle at the gate. Yang Xin’s two Wolf-tooth Maces also swung wildly as he desperately fought his way toward the Jiannu who were digging the tunnel. But it was then he truly understood that no matter how skilled a single fighter was, it was hard to change much on such a battlefield.

Over two hundred of the Jiannu’s most elite soldiers stubbornly entangled him. No matter how many he killed, the rest still fought to the death without retreating.

This was the Jiannu at their peak.

These barbarians, who grew up in the mountains and forests, who had lived among wild beasts in bitter cold and hunger since childhood, had long turned themselves into beasts. Once they entered combat mode, they became hungry wolves pouncing on prey, only knowing how to tear, bite, and kill, with no fear of death.

These were real barbarians.

He and Jin Taiji watched helplessly as the Jiannu shoved a gunpowder barrel into the base of the city wall.

The Yehe Tribe soldiers on the wall fled in panic to both sides. The Jiannu below the wall also turned and fled in panic. The next moment, flames, like a crimson monster, instantly tore through the rammed-earth wall. Countless fragments, along with fire and smoke, flew out in an earth-shattering explosion, even landing among the retreating Jiannu, including around Yang Xin. With his keen hearing, Yang Xin had to face the fact that such a close-range explosion impacted his ears more than others’, causing him to involuntarily scream from the shock.

But he was also the first to regain his senses.

One barrel of gunpowder couldn’t blast open a city wall, even an ordinary rammed-earth one.

Especially with such a simple blasting method.

In fact, after the smoke cleared, it could be seen that the explosion had only caused a large section of the wall to collapse, creating a slope-like incline. But it was enough for the Jiannu to charge up. The first to recover, Yang Xin swung his Wolf-tooth Mace left and right, knocking down two Jiannu who were still stunned from the blast, and simultaneously sprinted toward this slope.

The Jiannu regained their senses one after another.

Everyone around charged toward this slope.

On the wall, Zhou Yuji was the first to recover. While shouting to urge the Yehe soldiers, he ran toward this deadly gap. Then came Jin Taiji and others…

Fortunately, running was Yang Xin’s strong suit.

Having discarded his two Wolf-tooth Maces, he reached the gap in an instant. A Jiannu arrived almost simultaneously beside him, thrusting a Long Spear at his flank. Yang Xin casually grabbed the spear shaft and struck the man’s head, then leaped onto the slope. Turning around, he thrust the spear, piercing through a Jiannu’s chest. A second Jiannu immediately attacked. Yang Xin’s spear retracted and shot out like lightning, directly piercing the man’s throat. From his high ground position, he completely controlled this gap of just over ten feet wide. The spear, like a cobra attacking its prey, retracted and thrust at high speed. The Jiannu who madly charged up all fell in short order.

At this moment, Zhou Yuji arrived first.

He joined the killing with his Long Spear. Then came more Yehe Tribe soldiers. Their arrival immediately sealed the gap. The attacking Jiannu were blocked below, becoming targets for the archers on the wall. Dead bodies piled up in no time…

An old man around sixty years old in the Jiannu rear turned and left in hatred.

“Recall the troops!”

He said.

“Great Khan, we can’t go on fighting like this!”

An old general of similar age beside him said with a grave expression.

“Bring Dergele. Have him go below the wall to persuade them to surrender. If Jin Taiji surrenders, he will be granted the title of Beile and command a banner. If Jin Taiji does not surrender, kill him!”

Wild Boar Skin said.

“But what if he still refuses to surrender?”

The old general asked cautiously.

“If he doesn’t surrender, continue the attack. Without destroying the Yehe Tribe, we cannot move south!”

Wild Boar Skin said.

“But even if we destroy Yehe, our losses will be great. Since Chahua sent people to help Jin Taiji, the five tribes of Khalkha are very likely to form an alliance and come. The south is also reinforcing troops. It’s said the new Liaodong Military Commissioner Xiong Tingbi is already rushing to Liaoyang. This man is not easy to deal with. In this old servant’s view, our gains this time are already sufficient. At least this winter we won’t be lacking. Why must we take such a risk? Take the grain harvested from Kaiyuan and Tieling, destroy these two cities, withdraw to Hetu Ala, spend the winter, and wait until spring next year to attack Shenyang.”

The old general said.

“Tu Erge just died in battle, didn’t he?”

Wild Boar Skin didn’t answer his question, but asked instead.

“This old servant has over a dozen sons. Each is willing to die for the Great Khan. Not just this old servant’s sons. Everyone in the Niohuru clan is willing to die for the Great Khan!”

The old general said with great solemnity.

“He was my son too. He was killed by that demon man. We must avenge this. Tomorrow, when you take Dergele to persuade them to surrender, say that as long as Jin Taiji delivers the head of that demon man, we will withdraw our army. As for other matters, we can discuss them later. This time, we’ll stop here. Say this below the wall in front of everyone, including that demon man!”

Wild Boar Skin patted his shoulder and said.