Starting with a Wei Wu soldier

Chapter 106 Tempering in Blood and Fire

West Third District Wall Section.

Two heavy, iron-clad ladders, like two ugly, venomous snakes, gripped the edge of the battlements. Below, more than a dozen fierce Black Mountain soldiers were scrambling upwards, steel knives in their mouths, their eyes gleaming with a desperate ferocity. The defenders on this section of the wall, due to the brief chaos caused by the earlier firebomb attack, had failed to push the ladders away or completely destroy them in time. They were now engaged in fierce combat with the first two enemy soldiers to emerge, swords flashing, blood splattering, and the situation extremely precarious.

"Get out of my way!" A thunderous roar rang out. Chen Wei, like a demon descending to earth, led dozens of his personal guards and armored soldiers, charging in like a whirlwind. These guards were all veterans handpicked from the best, clad in the finest lamellar armor of Starfire Fortress, wielding thickened and lengthened ring-pommel swords, moving with the speed of a leopard, and coordinating their movements perfectly.

Chen Wei took the lead, his longsword flashing like a bolt of lightning, slashing straight at a Black Mountain Army soldier who had just scaled the ramparts and was about to hack at the defenders. The soldier raised his sword to parry, but with a sharp, piercing clang, Chen Wei's powerful strike cleaved his inferior steel blade in two! The momentum of the blow continued, slashing diagonally down the soldier's shoulder and neck, blood gushing out as his body fell backward, knocking over another soldier who had just appeared behind him.

"Push the ladder! Pour the molten gold!" Chen Wei ordered sternly without even looking at the result.

Several guards immediately rushed to the crenellations, two by two, using specially made long forks to brace the top of the ladder and push it outwards. Other soldiers picked up spare buckets of still-warm molten gold and poured it over the enemy soldiers climbing the ladder from the middle and below.

"Ah—!" A heart-wrenching scream rang out as the Black Mountain soldiers, drenched in scalding filth, tumbled from the ladder like dumplings being dropped into a pot. Their skin instantly festered and blistered, and they writhed in agony on the ground. The ladder was pushed outwards and teetered on the verge of collapse.

"Fire arrows! Suppress the area below!" Chen Wei continued to command. The crossbowmen in the cover behind the wall immediately stepped forward and fired intensively at the Black Mountain Army soldiers who were gathering below the ladder, attempting to climb again or rescue their comrades, felling another group.

Under the strong intervention of Chen Wei and his personal guard, the crisis in the Western Third District was quickly resolved. One of the two siege ladders was pushed over, and the other was overturned by the combined efforts of the defenders, falling down along with several enemy soldiers hanging on it, causing chaos below. The few fierce soldiers who had climbed onto the city wall were also quickly killed.

However, the pressure on other sections of the city wall did not ease. After a brief reloading, the Black Mountain army's catapults began firing again, this time a mixture of fireballs and stones, continuously bombarding the city wall and its top, suppressing the defenders, and covering the wave after wave of their infantry as they rushed up to fill the trenches, erect ladders, and even began to attempt to use makeshift battering rams to assault the city gate.

The battle entered its most brutal phase of attrition. The Xinghuo Fortress defenders, leveraging the advantage of the city walls and their relatively superior training and equipment, inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers. The corpses of the Black Mountain Army piled up like mountains beneath the walls, and a section of the moat was almost completely filled in. However, the defenders also paid a price: arrows were being used up rapidly, and the logs and stones were visibly decreasing; soldiers were constantly being wounded by catapult-launched stones and fireballs, or by stray arrows fired from below, screaming as they were dragged off the walls by their comrades and taken to the makeshift first-aid station set up by Wang Jian; the prolonged, intense fighting and the psychological pressure of witnessing the horrific scene began to show fatigue and fear on the faces of some of the new recruits.

On the watchtower on the north wall, Chen Xing calmly observed the entire situation. Murong Mingyue gripped her sword hilt, her face icy, her gaze frequently sweeping over the swaggering Black Mountain cavalry outside the city, especially the large black banner of the central army.

"Zhang Kuang is forcing us to fight a war of attrition," Chen Xing said slowly. "Our arrows, defensive equipment, and even the physical and mental strength of our soldiers are all limited. He, on the other hand, has the advantage of numbers and can launch repeated attacks without regard for casualties."

"Should we send out cavalry to harass their flanks and rear?" Murong Mingyue volunteered, "At least it can tie down some of their forces and relieve pressure on the city walls."

Chen Xing shook his head: "It's not the right time yet. Although the arrogant cavalry is disorganized, there are quite a few of them, and their flanks are still well-defended. If we attack now, we'll easily get bogged down, and if we lose them, the mobile forces inside the fortress will be depleted. Let's wait a bit longer."

He looked at the ever-approaching, ever-repelling waves of the Black Mountain army outside the wall, his eyes flashing with cold light: "He's wearing us down, but aren't we wearing him down too? Every extra moment we hold out, his soldiers grow more exhausted, their morale drops, and their supplies dwindle. Order: Each section of the garrison can take turns defending the wall in three shifts, each shift holding for one hour, ensuring the soldiers have a chance to catch their breath! The laborers must hurry and move arrows and equipment, and Wang Jian's medical station must do everything in its power to treat the wounded!"

The orders were relayed, and the defenses on the city walls became more layered and resilient. Exhausted defenders were rotated out to rest temporarily in hiding places or behind the walls, drinking water, eating some dry rations, and bandaging their wounds. The newly arrived reinforcements were in relatively high spirits, and their defenses were even more effective. Although the pressure remained immense, the defensive line remained unbroken.

The battle raged from dawn until noon, and then until the sun began to set. The Black Mountain Army launched no fewer than ten attacks of varying scales, and the catapults roared intermittently for several hours. The northern wall of Xinghuo Fortress was already scorched by smoke and fire, with many crenellations damaged and the wall surface covered with dents from pelts and charred burn marks. Below the wall, the blood of the dead and wounded from both sides soaked the soil, and the air was filled with a nauseating stench of blood, burnt flesh, and excrement.

In the Black Mountain Army's central command, Zhang Kuang's face grew increasingly grim. He had originally anticipated that, with their numerical superiority and siege equipment, even if they couldn't capture the city in one fell swoop, they could at least inflict heavy casualties on the Starfire Fortress defenders, and perhaps even create a breach. However, after a day of fierce fighting, aside from the pile of probably over two thousand corpses beneath the walls and the depletion of a large number of enemy arrows, they had made no substantial progress! The walls of Starfire Fortress still stood firm, and the defenders' resistance remained stubborn and orderly.

"Useless! A bunch of useless trash!" Zhang Kuang kicked over the personal guard beside him, furious. "We've been fighting all day, so many people have died, and we haven't even managed to gnaw a single piece of the city wall! What use are you to me?!"

The strategist, Goatbeck, stepped forward and whispered, "General, please calm down. The defenses of Starfire Fortress are indeed more formidable than we expected, and their weaponry is far superior. In particular, their crossbows seem quite sharp, and they have a good supply of arrows. A direct assault would not be the best course of action."

"Then what do you suggest we do? Are we just going to slink away like this? Where would I put my face then?!" Zhang Kuang roared.

"No," the strategist said, his eyes darting around. "A daytime attack would be futile; firstly, they would be well-rested and ready, and secondly, their city walls are high and thick, difficult to breach. Perhaps... a night attack would be better?"

"A night raid?" Zhang Kuang frowned. "Starfire Fortress must be heavily fortified."

"A fierce attack during the day will surely exhaust the enemy. Our army can feign a retreat, regroup, and appear ready to camp and rest, preparing for another battle the next day. Then, when the night is deep and the enemy defenders are most relaxed and weary, we can select a few brave men, equipped with grappling hooks, to bypass their heavily fortified frontal defenses and find weak or poorly maintained sections of the wall to quietly scale. Simultaneously, a small force can launch a feigned attack from the front, drawing their attention. If we succeed in breaching one point, creating an opening, our main force can then swarm in!"

Zhang Kuang pondered for a moment, then his eyes flashed with a fierce light: "Good! Let's go with this plan! Order a retreat! Have the men retreat five miles to set up camp, cook, and get some rest! Also, give me five hundred... no, eight hundred fearless men! The fiercest and most ruthless! Double the bounty! Tell them that if they can breach the city tonight, the first to reach it will have priority in choosing the city's wealth and women!"

As the Black Mountain Army's central command sounded the retreat gong, the soldiers who had surged in like a tide slowly withdrew, leaving behind a scene of devastation and piles of corpses. Seeing this, many of the Starfire Fortress defenders on the city wall breathed a long sigh of relief, almost collapsing to the ground. They were then immediately ordered by their officers to remain vigilant, clear the battlefield, repair fortifications, and aid the wounded.

Chen Xing watched the retreating enemy troops, but his face showed no joy. He knew that given Zhang's arrogant nature and the current battle situation, it was impossible for them to give up so easily.

"Have the laborers and medical personnel hurry to transport the wounded, replenish arrows and equipment, and repair the damaged fortifications. The garrison should take turns coming down from the walls to rest and eat, but vigilance must not be relaxed, especially at night!" Chen Xing ordered in a deep voice. "Mingyue, your cavalry will advance ten miles to patrol and monitor, guarding against enemy flanking maneuvers or night attacks. Chen Wei, take stock of the losses, boost morale, and let the soldiers know they fought well! But more importantly, tell them that the real battle is yet to come!"

Night slowly fell, amidst the heavy stench of blood and faint wails. Inside and outside Starfire Fortress, the lights were much sparser than usual, yet the atmosphere was even more somber. The fortress, having endured the fierce battle of the day, was like a wounded giant, silently licking its wounds in the darkness, gathering its strength, and awaiting the next, even more brutal battle.

Meanwhile, at the Black Mountain Army camp five miles away, campfires flickered, creating the illusion of rest and reorganization. But deep within the camp, eight hundred selected outlaws were silently polishing their weapons and inspecting their grappling hooks, their eyes gleaming with greed and madness. Further away, several light cavalry squads were quietly slipping away from the camp, disappearing into the deep night, stealthily making their way towards the flank of Starfire Fortress.

The long and bloody day has ended, but the crisis is far from over. The second night at Starfire Fortress is destined to be spent in tension and danger.