Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Chapter 188 Unstoppable

However, the Great Xia side did not intend to launch the projectiles onto the city wall at the beginning. Instead, they launched a volley of one hundred phosphorus wax projectiles outside the city wall.

'Bang!' 'Bang!'...

The phosphorus wax projectiles all exploded at the foot of the city wall, bursting into flames and thick smoke. The Wu Heng soldiers on the city wall, seeing that the enemy's projectiles all hit the corner of the wall and looked intimidating, but had not caused them any harm, laughed. They thought that the enemy was afraid of their magic crystal cannons and dared not get too close, so they only dared to waste cannonballs from a distance.

The seemingly powerful cannonballs were actually quite weak; a hundred cannonballs hitting the foot of the city wall didn't even break a single brick. They were less powerful than a single Demon-Slaying Arrow, which would have at least blasted many small craters into the wall.

Just as all the soldiers were gloating and mocking the enemy's cannonballs, they suddenly sensed something was wrong. The flames that had been burning incessantly on the outer wall were unusual; besides burning continuously, they were also releasing thick smoke. This smoke drifted up the wall, over the crenellations in front of it, and reached the top of the wall where they were standing. The thick smoke carried a strong, pungent, and irritating odor, causing them to cough incessantly and their eyes to water uncontrollably.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

Another volley of phosphorus-coated bullets slammed into the wall, filling the entire eastern city wall with an even thicker cloud of acrid smoke. All the soldiers defending the city covered their mouths and coughed incessantly.

'Ahem! '

"Quickly counterattack! Fire the magic crystal cannons!" Wu Heng, standing on the main building, was also coughing from the thick smoke and hurriedly ordered his soldiers to counterattack. However, most of the soldiers were covering their mouths and coughing, and very few of them actually fired the magic crystal cannons.

"Boom!" The magic crystal cannon on the city wall finally fired a shot, shooting out a dazzling white light through the thick smoke. But it hit nothing, leaving only a long trail of scorched earth on the ground. And on this scorched earth, a catapult quickly moved forward ten feet along the trail of scorched earth.

Although the magic crystal cannon is extremely powerful after firing, it has a major drawback: it fires slowly. After each shot, it takes about one to two cups of tea's worth of time to reload the magic crystal projectile and then adjust it properly before it can be fired again.

The gunner of this magic crystal cannon was enduring the smoke and heat, with tears streaming down his face, when he was reloading the magic crystal.

'Bang!' 'Bang!'

Two phosphorus wax bombs struck the side of the cannon in succession. One of them killed the soldier who was loading the magic crystal, and the other hit the cannon body, knocking the heavy magic crystal cannon to the ground. Instantly, the surrounding area within ten feet turned into a sea of ​​fire.

The other soldiers within this area were splattered with phosphorus wax and animal oil, the stench of burning phosphorus and oil causing them to scream in agony. The severely injured ran and clawed wildly, shouting and screaming as they were consumed by the smoke and flames. They were quickly burned to death on the city walls. Those less affected quickly stripped off their robes and armor and fled the inferno.

'boom! ’

Another magic crystal cannon fired blindly. Just a dozen breaths after the bombardment, this magic crystal cannon was hit in the same way. Several phosphorus wax bullets then smashed around the magic crystal cannon, and immediately fire and thick smoke engulfed the area.

Immediately afterwards, more and more phosphorus wax bombs were thrown at these two locations, and the areas they hit became wider and wider. Then, amidst the billowing smoke, one after another, anti-magic arrows shot through the smoke and hit the city walls, blasting the soldiers hiding behind the arrow emplacements into a panic.

Meanwhile, in Zhongyuan City, three hundred Falcon Guards dressed in black split into three teams and rushed towards the other three city gates. Using rooftops, pillars, and tree branches as cover, they secretly shot at the soldiers guarding those three city walls. Wu Heng dispatched 30,000 soldiers to defend the other three city walls besides the east wall.

Ten thousand men defended each side of the city wall. The Falcon Guard's main task was to hunt down soldiers, raid supplies, and create chaos to tie down the forces of these three sides. Sometimes they would fire an arrow in one place and then set a fire in another, keeping the defenders of these three walls constantly on the move.

Less than a quarter of an hour after the war began, the entire Central Plains City was engulfed in smoke and chaos. Wu Heng, who was in charge of the overall situation and sitting in the main building of the East City, was overwhelmed and confused by the news coming from all directions. All the elders and confidants had been dispatched to lead the battle, and at this moment he was anxious, flustered, and his mind was so chaotic that he could not think straight.

The smoke from the phosphorus wax bombs was merely pungent and acrid, not poisonous. The soldiers defending the city walls were simply too hot and humid to fight effectively, and could only run around aimlessly. A quarter of an hour passed, and the dozen or so magic crystal cannons fired only three shots before being completely destroyed by the phosphorus wax bombs launched by the enemy's catapults. Each volley of projectiles carried a hundred bombs, and in just over a quarter of an hour, 1,500 phosphorus wax bombs had been rained down on the city walls. A total of 1,500 phosphorus wax bombs had been hastily produced. The effect was unexpectedly good.

The eastern city wall was already engulfed in flames. Wu Heng's soldiers, leaving behind thousands of corpses, fled to other areas for refuge. Meanwhile, the soldiers on the other three city walls, who had been held back by the Falcon Guard, saw that tens of thousands of soldiers on the eastern wall had crumbled in less than fifteen minutes, and many began to waver. Seeing the eastern city soldiers running towards them, some tried to open the city gates and escape, but they were killed by Wu Heng's trusted men before they could even get away. It was only with great difficulty that the chaotic soldiers were brought back to order.

But in less than a quarter of an hour, all the soldiers guarding the east city wall were either dead or wounded, and they all fled. The entire east city wall was engulfed in flames, making it impossible for anyone to stand. Because the phosphorus wax was difficult to extinguish once it caught fire, even the city gate tower was set ablaze. Wu Heng had no choice but to lead his remaining troops to retreat into the city. The undefended east city gate was breached in less than a quarter of an hour.

The city walls' defenses were rendered useless. The Great Xia soldiers, wielding powerful Xuan Tie weapons, immediately stormed into the city, engaging Wu Heng's troops in close combat and street fighting. Having lost the city walls' protection, Wu Heng attempted to retreat with his soldiers to the city lord's mansion, but the mansion had already been captured.

The disorganized Wuheng soldiers had no will to fight and could only retreat while fighting, heading towards the city gates. The Daxia soldiers, with high morale, pursued the fleeing Wuheng army with unstoppable momentum.

After the Wuheng soldiers retreated out of the city through the west, south, and north gates, less than half of the supposedly 100,000-strong army remained. The Great Xia Empire had already stated that those who laid down their weapons and surrendered would be spared death, so within an hour, 20,000 soldiers had disarmed and surrendered.

However, the Wuheng army, having escaped the city, was blocked by the Xia cavalry who were already waiting ahead. With pursuers behind and ambushes ahead, none of the three Wuheng deserters managed to escape. After a brief battle, the Wuheng soldiers who refused to surrender were all killed. The vast majority of the remaining soldiers disarmed and surrendered, with only a few managing to escape in the chaos. Wuheng and several of his trusted elders were also captured during their escape.

The entire battle lasted less than three hours, with the Great Xia army of 45,000 men suffering fewer than 1,000 casualties, defeating the Wu Heng army of 100,000. In the end, the Wu Heng army was completely annihilated, with 30,000 dead or wounded, 20,000 captured, and 50,000 surrendering.