Chapter 45: Mecha Breach the City

Before long, Yan Dan, who had been lying on the ground, regained consciousness.

It was precisely because he did not know the true strength of the Northern Army that he had summoned the Grand Master for help! Yet who could have guessed that the old man’s judgment was worse than a dog’s! Clearly, their forces had no power left to resist, and still the Grand Master insisted they all advance together. Now, look at the result—he too had become a captive of the nomads, a prince taken by barbarians! Yan would become the laughingstock of the Seven Kingdoms! He might even lose his position as Crown Prince!

Though Yan Dan was filled with rage and wanted to spit in the Grand Master’s face, he had no choice but to maintain his respectful demeanor.

“Grand Master, what is going on? Where are we being held now?”

You ask me, but who am I to ask? The weakened Black Hero had no wish to speak further. He could only shake his head and mutter a few vague words. “The Yin-Yang School has long been searching for a secret concerning the fate of the Seven Kingdoms—a secret said to grant the power to rule the world.”

“In time, you will understand.”

Yan Dan had not yet gained his approval, so the Six-Fingered Black Hero did not wish to elaborate. Besides, it was merely a legend, and he could not attest to its truth.

Useless, as expected! With a sigh, Yan Dan pressed no further.

“This time, Liaodong is in real danger.”

Upon hearing the Crown Prince’s words, General Wu Yangjing forced a bitter smile and shook his head. “Your Highness, the ten-plus thousand men in Liaodong and Liaoxi can hold out only for a few days. If reinforcements do not arrive and the Northern Army breaches the gates, Liaodong and Liaoxi will be lost for good.”

Thinking of reinforcements, Yan Dan fell silent.

Of Yan’s three hundred thousand soldiers, only two hundred thousand were regularly stationed; the other hundred thousand were local militia, half-farmer, half-soldier. Unless all the elite troops were dispatched, but the King of Yan would never agree. Losing Liaodong and Liaoxi would be a heavy blow, but losing Hebei and the Yan-Yun region would mean the utter destruction of Yan.

Ignoring the small mice that were Yan Dan and his companions, the Northern Army began to move.

Boom, boom, boom—the stirring war drums could lift spirits, but Yan’s soldiers no longer took comfort in that familiar sound.

Forty thousand infantry marched step by step toward the city wall, led by two armored machines and five Black Tigers. At the rear, Lin Shu himself stood atop his carriage, commanding the troops.

The human-shaped armored machines operated by Xuan Zhan and his wife stood nine meters tall—each step sent tremors through the earth, towering even higher than the ten-meter city walls.

The five Black Tigers were not as massive as the armored machines, but compared to the infantry behind them, they were still colossal beasts.

Step by step, forty thousand soldiers advanced, carrying shields and steel blades, their hands gripping either powerful crossbows or longbows.

Boom, boom, boom—

Each step of the armored machines sent a shiver through the ranks; the faces of the Liaodong soldiers were painted with the pallor of death.

Damn it! Mechanical beasts and heavily armored crossbowmen! How could this be possible?

Faced with this battle, General Qing Qin of Liaodong felt not a shred of confidence; the best he could hope for was to hold out two or three days.

Compared to the fate of Liaodong and the safety of Yan, nobody cared any longer about the missing Yan Dan.

Yan Dan had angered the Northern King this time, further sinking morale; the soldiers and officers of Liaodong wished nothing more than for him to die quickly.

“Very well! Fire!”

Dozens of large mechanical crossbows and trebuchets gave Qing Qin a measure of confidence, some of them crafted by the Mohist School.

A blur of shadow whistled forth.

Iron bolts as thick as a man’s arm shot towards the armored machines. The machines did not bother dodging, and at several hundred meters, it was nearly impossible to avoid.

But the armored machines had massive shields; as soon as the shields were raised, the iron bolts shattered like mud, the machines trembling slightly as they pressed forward undeterred.

The agile Black Tigers leapt, dodging most of the iron bolts; so long as their joints were not hit, they remained unscathed.

After the iron bolts, massive stones were hurled down, though their speed was slow. Xuan Zhan paid them no mind, his machine bounding forward to avoid them.

The crossbow bolts rang out, but the stones crashed dully into the ground.

Indeed, these foes were hard to deal with! Regaining his composure, Qing Qin ordered, “Wait until they are within two hundred paces before attacking. Unleash the bronze arrows and fire oil stones at the Iron Giants!”

Fire oil stones, difficult to manufacture, were the trump card of Liaodong’s fortress; Qing Qin could only use them prematurely now.

“Heh, my turn!” Wei Qianqian, the young lady, gave a light laugh, and the fifty-barrel cannon on her machine’s forehead roared to life.

Boom—

Before the sound faded, pointed iron shells flew forth.

The crossbowmen widened their eyes, seeing flashes of fire.

Boom—the fireball exploded, enveloping two crossbows in flames.

“Ah—”

“No—” A few men, ablaze, even bravely leaped from the ten-meter wall.

Likewise, Xuan Zhan and Harong began firing their cannons.

Boom, boom, boom—

Every two or three steps brought another blast; not only were the crossbows destroyed, but most of the trebuchets were as well. The battlements on the wall were breached in many places.

“General, please come down to direct the defense!”

The deputy shouted in panic. If the commander were burned alive, Liaodong would be lost.

Boom, boom—even Yan’s own fireballs exploded, filling the wall with smoke and chaos.

Crouching, Qing Qin shook his head calmly; he could not leave, or else the soldiers would panic further.

“Archers, return fire! Give them everything!”

He knew it was useless, but Qing Qin had no other recourse.

[Commander, the heavy weapons on the wall have been destroyed.]

“Good! All troops, advance!”

The order was instantly transmitted to the minds of all company and battalion leaders.

“At your command.”

With the order given, the infantry four hundred meters away began to run forward.

As the armored machines exchanged fierce gunfire with the soldiers atop the wall, the forty thousand infantry formed six lines, advancing to within two hundred meters of the city.

“Fire arrows.”

“Cover the wall and the ground below.”

The orders spread; the archers began to adjust their aim.

Machine guns fired small iron bullets, killing few and unable to breach the battlements, but the counterattack from Yan’s thousands of archers was equally ineffective.

“No! General! Go! Hurry!”

Looking up, darkness had fallen; the deputy hurriedly pulled Qing Qin away.

The rain of arrows was like a massive black cloud, vast enough to swallow everything.

“Go! Let’s go!” With a heavy heart, Qing Qin jumped down from the wall.

The soldiers saw it too; the brave jumped from the wall, the timid huddled behind wooden shields.

“Advance—”

“Fire—”

“Advance—fire—”

Every twenty meters brought another volley of arrows.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—the dense arrow rain drowned out all other sounds.

Faced with such relentless volleys, Yan’s large wooden shields splintered one after another, forcing the soldiers to fight with their bodies against the arrows.

After six volleys, the ground above and below the wall was covered in arrows.

Most of the soldiers atop the wall had been killed or wounded; many of the injured hid beneath the bodies of the dead.

Even when the arrow rain stopped, none dared stand; the terrified wounded had no energy to cry out.

Compared to the wall, the situation below was somewhat better.

Few soldiers below had shields; after suffering heavy casualties, most fled, but the ground was strewn with corpses pierced by arrows.

Boom—

With one kick, the armored machine shattered the thick wooden gate below the wall, though behind it stood a heavy stone door.

The machine could not reach that depth, so Wei Qianqian controlled her machine to leap up onto the wall.

“Ah—no—”

“Run! Hurry!”

The two armored machines clumsily climbed onto the wall, crushing over a hundred men into bloody pulp, blood spraying as the surrounding soldiers crawled and rolled away in terror.

As the machines slowly stood upright, cracks began to spread across the wall.

Xuan Zhan frowned; clearly, the quality of the wall was poor.

The soldiers atop the wall fled toward the east and west, and the machines began to jump down from the wall.

Boom, boom—the stone door was shattered.

The heavy stone door, forty centimeters thick, could not withstand a round of cannon fire from the five Black Tigers.

“Heh! It’s over! All is lost!”

As the stone door broke, Qing Qin saw the Black Tigers outside the city, and with them, his own despair.

The gateway was four meters high, easily traversed by the Black Tigers.

But Harong and Harley Ming’s Black Tigers leapt directly onto the wall, then down behind Xuan Zhan and his allies.

With the gates breached, no further orders were needed; the troops behind Qing Qin turned to flee, and the Liaodong general had no choice but to run with them.

“Cavalry, pursue them—force as many surrenders as possible.”

As the generals set out to chase the Liaodong army, Lin Shu’s carriage moved aside, clearing the way.

“So quickly it’s over!”

Jingni sighed lightly. So the Yan army was so feeble after all.