bookrandom Chapter 2161 Falling into the trap
Chapter 2161 Falling into the trap
Arrows rained down on Ran Ming like locusts.
But he neither dodged nor flinched; he simply half-hid his body behind the battering ram and continued to push forward with all his might.
Arrows clanged against the metal of the battering ram, and occasionally a few flew past the shield, grazing his bare shoulders and back, leaving streaks of blood, but he seemed oblivious.
"General! You're wounded!" a young soldier shouted.
"A superficial wound!" Ran Ming didn't even turn his head: "Keep pushing! The city gate is just ahead!"
Eighty steps, seventy steps, sixty steps...
They were getting closer and closer to the east gate. The Tang soldiers on the city wall began to hurl logs and stones. The heavy stones hit the roof of the battering ram with a dull thud, and wood chips flew everywhere.
A millstone-sized rock grazed Ran Ming's shoulder and crashed to the ground, the flying shards leaving several bloody gashes on his face.
"General!"
"Shut up! Push!"
Ran Ming's eyes were fixed on the iron-clad city gate in front of him.
Thirty steps, twenty steps, ten steps...
Finally, the battering ram reached the city gate!
"Lift the battering ram!"
Ran Ming let go of his hand, turned around and grabbed the rope wrapped with iron and wood.
A dozen soldiers rushed forward to help, and together they pulled the heavy battering ram back to its limit.
"put!"
boom--!
The battering ram slammed into the city gate, shaking the entire gate tower.
The city gate groaned in pain, its iron sheets twisted and splinters of wood flew, but it did not break open.
"Again!" Ran Ming roared.
The group pulled the battering ram back in.
This time, Ran Ming personally stood at the very front, holding the iron ring at the end of the battering ram with both hands.
"On my command—three, two, one! Fire!"
boom--!
The second strike was more powerful than the first.
The city gate shook violently, and the sound of wood breaking came from the bolt.
The Tang soldiers on the city wall began pouring oil in an attempt to burn the battering rams.
"Shield! Block the oil!" Ran Ming roared, while simultaneously pulling the battering ram for the third time.
The kerosene was poured onto the roof of the rocket launcher and immediately ignited by the rocket.
The flames spread rapidly, billowing thick smoke. The soldiers pushing the carts were blinded by the smoke and began to panic.
"No retreat!"
Ran Ming kicked away a soldier who was trying to retreat, his bald head covered in sweat and blood in the firelight.
"The city gate is about to fall! Give it your all!"
He took a deep breath, his arm muscles tensed like steel cables, and managed to pull the battering ram to its maximum extent all by himself.
"All of you, give it your all—push harder!"
With a roar, the battering ram slammed into the city gate for the third time.
Boom——!
This time, accompanied by a deafening roar, a huge crack appeared in the center of the city gate.
The bolt broke, and the city gate caved inward, revealing the terrified faces of the Tang soldiers behind it.
"It's broken! The city gate has been breached!" The Chu army erupted in a joyous shout.
But Ran Ming knew that this was just the beginning.
Although the city gate was breached, there was still a barbican behind it, a second gate, and countless guards.
He wiped the blood from his face, picked up the spear from the ground, and roared at the Chu army vanguard surging behind him like a tidal wave:
"The city gates have fallen! My men—follow me and charge in!"
"kill--!"
The 50,000 vanguard troops responded in unison, like a flood bursting its banks, surging towards the city gate that had finally been breached.
Ran Ming, the bald and fierce general covered in blood, was still at the forefront.
His figure amidst the flames and smoke resembled a war god rising from hell.
The first line of defense of Jianghuai City was breached by his reckless charge.
The bloody battle has only just begun.
The moment the city gate shattered, Ran Ming was the first to rush in.
But what he rushed into was not the city streets and alleys he had expected, but a barbican with a radius of 100 feet.
This is the defensive design of the east gate of Jianghuai City—the outer city gate does not lead directly into the city, but to a urn-shaped plaza with high walls on all four sides.
Once an intruder enters, they will find themselves in a desperate situation, surrounded by enemies on all sides.
At this moment, behind the crenellations on three sides of the barbican, Tang archers stood densely packed, their arrowheads gleaming with a deathly cold light in the morning sun.
In the center of the barbican, a force of 3,000 Tang heavy cavalrymen had already formed ranks.
Armored men and horses, with spears like a forest, were the most elite Xuanjia cavalry of the Tang Dynasty—although there were only three thousand of them, they were enough to form an impregnable defensive line in this confined space.
"Fell into a trap!"
Ran Ming's heart skipped a beat, but there was no turning back now.
Behind him, the vanguard soldiers were surging into the barbican like a tide. If they retreated now, they would inevitably trample each other and the entire army would collapse.
"Form ranks! Shield wall forward!" Ran Ming roared, swinging his spear to deflect two incoming arrows.
The well-trained vanguard battalion reacted swiftly.
The soldiers at the front row raised their giant shields, forming an arc-shaped shield wall that protected Ran Ming, who was charging at the forefront, in the middle.
But as soon as the shield wall was completed, a rain of arrows poured down from the city walls.
These are no ordinary arrows, but triangular armor-piercing arrows specifically designed to penetrate heavy armor.
Arrows rained down like locusts, striking the shield with a dense, muffled thud, like raindrops.
Shields were being pierced repeatedly, soldiers fell screaming as gaps appeared in the shield wall.
"Finish it! No refunds allowed!"
Ran Ming kicked aside a fallen soldier, picked up the blood-stained giant shield himself, and held it at the forefront.
His bald head appeared and disappeared between the gaps in the shield, making him a prime target for the Tang army's archers.
But an even more deadly threat comes from ahead.
"Tang Cavalry—Charge!"
In the center of the barbican, three thousand cavalrymen began to slowly accelerate.
Although the distance was only a hundred paces or so, which was not enough to reach the full speed of a charge on a plain, the impact of heavily armored cavalry in a confined space was still terrifying.
The sound of horses' hooves pounding the ground was like muffled thunder, causing the ground of the barbican to tremble slightly.
"Spearmen! Advance!" Ran Ming roared.
Behind the shield wall, three rows of spearmen stepped forward, their twelve-foot-long spears protruding from the gaps in the shields, pointing diagonally forward, forming a thicket of steel thorns.
This is the standard formation for infantry to fight against cavalry, but at this moment they are facing the most elite heavy cavalry of the Tang Dynasty, and in a desperate situation where they are being attacked by arrows from all sides.
Fifty steps, thirty steps, ten steps—
"Hold on!" Ran Ming's eyes were bloodshot as he pressed all his strength onto the shield.
boom--!
The cavalry surge crashed violently against the shield wall.
The first row of shield bearers were sent flying, shields and all, the sound of bones shattering clearly audible.
Spears pierced the horses of the front ranks, but more cavalrymen continued their charge, trampling over the corpses of their comrades.
The second shield wall also began to collapse, and the soldiers were trampled like straw by the iron hooves.
"General! We can't hold on any longer!" a captain shouted hoarsely.
Ran Ming was also knocked back three steps, his chest felt tight, and a mouthful of blood welled up in his throat but he swallowed it back down.
He looked up and saw that the shield wall had been torn open in several places, and Tang cavalry were pouring in through the gaps, indiscriminately slaughtering the Chu infantry who had lost their formation protection.
Even more terrifying was that the rain of arrows from the city walls never stopped.
Without the protection of the shield wall, the soldiers fell in droves under the double attack of arrows and cavalry.
The ground of the barbican was quickly stained red with blood, and the piles of corpses gradually formed an obstacle preventing the subsequent troops from entering.