"Raomu..." Captain Li shouted.
Huge logs were pushed down from the city wall, rolling down the ramp built by the Turks. Five or six Turks were knocked to the ground by the logs; although they didn't die, broken limbs were inevitable.
More soldiers rushed up. Braving the sparse arrows, rolling stones, and even logs, they forced sandbags up the slope.
Lieutenant Li desperately wanted to destroy the ramp the enemy had built. However, he was helpless; any soldier who showed his face would be spotted by the enemy's sharpshooters. Two volleys of rolling stones felled four soldiers on the city wall. While the number of deaths seemed small, for a defender force of less than forty men, this represented a tenth of their casualties.
The remaining soldiers didn't even dare to raise their heads. The Turks' speed had clearly increased. Left with no other choice, Captain Li had to mount his horse himself.
"Use kerosene."
He laboriously turned a mechanical device on the city wall, and extended a large barrel of kerosene, which was hanging in mid-air, to the outside of the city wall.
"Torch..." he shouted, then swung his knife and cut the rope. A hundred pounds of oil rained down from the sky. Rachel, in turn, threw out a torch that she had prepared beforehand.
Flames engulfed the area below the city walls.
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Chapter Eighteen Bloodbath
The brief respite came quickly. Large numbers of Turkic soldiers used yellow sand to extinguish the oil slicks beneath the city walls. Then they continued filling the siege tunnels.
Half an hour into the battle, the Turkic soldiers' spears were already reaching the soldiers on the city walls. Close combat had begun. The Turkic arrows also slowed down, as the leading Turkic warrior had already leaped onto the city wall. Although he was quickly hacked to death, it greatly boosted the morale of the Turkic soldiers.
More Turkic soldiers charged fearlessly towards the city walls. Wielding shields and using their bodies as weapons, they leaped and hurled them at the defending soldiers. It must be admitted that the fighting spirit of these Turkic soldiers far surpassed that of the Tang army. Their fearless fighting style even made Lieutenant Li feel somewhat terrified.
The good news was that the passage was somewhat narrow, allowing only a maximum of three soldiers to jump in at a time. So, they could barely hold out. However, when the Turks brought in another siege ladder and began constructing it not far from the breach, Lieutenant Li panicked. This kind of battle was truly devoid of strategy. Everyone had laid out all available resources. It was a head-on clash: I attack, you defend. Whoever couldn't hold out first was finished.
The Turks had very few engineering tools, and this was probably their last siege ladder. But it still became the final straw that broke the camel's back.
"Send a squad to hold that side." Lieutenant Li had no choice but to withdraw some soldiers to deal with the siege ladder. Without hesitation, Lai Xi led four soldiers over. By this time, only a dozen or so soldiers remained on the front. Don't doubt it, those Turkic soldiers who charged forward were determined to die; many of them successfully took a Tang soldier with them.
In less than a quarter of an hour of close combat, more than a dozen of the thirty-two soldiers had fallen. Lai Xi took four more with him. Lieutenant Li was left with only twelve soldiers. Moreover, most of these defenders were old, weak, sick, or disabled, their fighting strength questionable. It was only through Lieutenant Li's desperate fighting that they barely managed to hold back the breach.
"Is there any kerosene left?"
He shouted at the soldiers around him.
"And there's more, in the back."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Two soldiers ran to the back to move the oil. However, the hoisting ropes and pulleys had been destroyed by the Turks, so they couldn't use the throwing device to throw the oil over the city wall.
"Hurry..." Lieutenant Li, unaware of what was happening, could only shout blindly. Four or five Turkic soldiers jumped up in front of him. They were Turkic wolf guards clad in black armor. These heavily armored Turkic elites immediately pressed down on Lieutenant Li and his men, pushing the battle line forward several meters. More Turkic soldiers rushed up from behind, suppressing the Tang army.
The two soldiers carrying the oil exchanged a glance. Almost simultaneously, they exerted their strength, lifting the nearly 100-pound barrel of oil and charging towards the Turkic soldiers.
As the two sprinted at full speed, the short distance of about ten meters generated astonishing force. Several Turkic soldiers were caught off guard and knocked down. With a thud, the two, carrying oil barrels, crashed into two Turkic wolf guards. The guards staggered, but their strong bodies prevented them from falling. With a swift movement, they swung their scimitars, aiming for one of the soldiers' necks.
The two men exerted their strength almost simultaneously, lifting the oil barrel and holding it to their faces. The curved blade sliced through the barrel, and the oil splattered out, immediately igniting a torch that had been prepared nearby.
In an instant, the two Tang soldiers, along with the surrounding Turkic wolf guards, were all turned into flames.
"I am a soldier of the Great Tang..." Amidst the flames, a shout rang out. Then, a group of burning figures tumbled down the city wall, rolling down the Turkic ramp. Explosions, flames, screams—all shot into the sky. An eerie silence fell over the entire battlefield. The next second, the sounds of battle resumed.
"Brothers, kill them all..." Captain Li roared in a hoarse voice, charging towards the few remaining Turkic soldiers on the city wall. The remaining Tang soldiers, seemingly emboldened, swung their spears and swords with ferocious abandon. Those Turkic soldiers, who had been so aggressive just moments before, now wore expressions of unprecedented panic. In less than a round, they were hacked to pieces.
A mournful sound came from outside the city: the bugle call signaling the retreat.
Inside the Turkic tent, a man who appeared to be a deputy general was puzzled.
"General, why withdraw our troops? We can take this city in one fell swoop and complete the mission entrusted to us by the Great Khan."
"The casualties are too great. And didn't you notice? It was the Tang people who pressed their advantage, not us. Taking them down is not a problem, but trying to take them down when the Tang people's morale is high will come at a great cost. These Turkic warriors should not have died in this war of attrition."
The so-called "momentum" is both magical and illusory. It can unleash tremendous fighting power in exhausted soldiers. However, it is also ephemeral, as it often lasts only a very short time. The saying "one effort, then decline, then exhaustion" illustrates this principle.
We don't need to fight head-on; we just need to wait a little while. Their newly gathered momentum will dissipate on its own. Then, we can take the city effortlessly and get what we want. Alright, let the warriors rest.”
On the city wall, the survivors continued their work. No one dared to look up, for the Turkic archers were still watching the wall. They dared not peer out and knock down the ramp. They could only lift the Turkic corpses with their hands and push them down the wall.
Even Wenzhu rushed to the city wall to help bandage the wounded.
"Take a headcount!" Captain Li shouted. The headcount was quickly tallied.
Not a single one was unharmed. Including him, there were fourteen others with minor injuries who could still fight. Eight were seriously injured, and the rest were dead.
"Where's Lu Xuan?" Captain Li called out again after looking around. Not seeing Lu Xuan, his heart tightened suddenly.
"Here it is."
As he spoke, he walked over from the other side. However, he didn't look too well. His armor and clothes were completely soaked in blood. He had nearly ten wounds on his waist, shoulders, chest, and back.
"Two groups of Turkic soldiers tried to climb up the walls using ladders from other sections. We encountered some trouble when trying to stop the second group. We arrived too late, and many of them had already charged up. I had no choice but to kill them all before I could destroy the ladders."
"......"
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Chapter Nineteen: The City Falls
A group of people leaned against the city wall, drinking water and eating some flatbread.
"How long do you think it will take for the Turks to launch their next offensive?"
"I don't know, but I'll definitely come again before dark."
Are you confident next time?
"No problem. They've run out of other siege equipment, so they can only attack from the front. The city walls aren't that big; we'll cut them down one by one. What can't we defend?"