Chapter 244 - Taking over Zhennan Pass Part 3
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
A bright light shone in Li Anbai's cloudy eyes. As if he could see through the heart of the young mountain bandit, he said with his hoarse voice, "Young man don't worry, I've been staying here for 10 years and know everything about this place. There's a hidden room in this courtyard where we can hide."
The young mountain bandit felt as if his thoughts were all crystal clear in front of the old man, forcefully suppressing the awkwardness and laughing, "That's great, can you two move there now?"
"There's something I need to remind you about."
"Old stronghold head, please speak!" The young mountain bandit treated this very seriously.
"I'm very clear about the character and actions of the leader. He's a very smart and careful person. I'm very sure that he would definitely arrange a way out to escape. Zhennan Pass is within the canyon, and one could escape from the southwest. Once things go awry, he might actually just give up the pass and leave." No wonder people said that the one that knows you best is your enemy.
The young mountain bandit's face turned white. If the leader escaped, then he would have failed as a spy. "Thank you for your help!"
Li Anbai blinked as a form of reply. Him reminding the young mountain bandit also had a little bit of selfishness. If the leader escaped, it would be bad for his daughter.
After discussing everything, Li Anbai struggled and fiddled with the edge of the bed, only to hear a cracking sound and the walls suddenly splitting open, revealing a hidden room. It was 4-5 square meters wide and had a bed and a chair. Apart from that, there was nothing else, just a simple room.
As time was of the essence, he didn't dare to waste time and together with Li Feixue, carried Li Anbai onto the bed.
Although once the hidden room was closed one wouldn't be able to spot a difference, the young mountain bandit was still worried. He looked around and touched up the place before carrying the empty lunch box out of the courtyard.
Before leaving, he one again reminded the guards not to let anyone check and also not to leave their post in case others grew suspicious.
Now in his heart, he was pondering about how to stop the escape of the leader.
Outside Zhennan Pass, the bells of war had already sounded.
The first to attack were the 5 three-bow arcuballistas and the archer unit. Their rain of arrows drew an arc in the air as they headed for the city walls.
The arrows from the arcuballistas were fast, like that of a machine gun as they flew out from them one after another, taking away life after life.
As long as the mountain bandits dared to show their faces, they were mercilessly shot down.
"Cover! Cover!" The leader hid under a shield and hollered.
Hearing the order, the mountain bandit archers didn't dare to go against it and stuttered out of the cover of the shields and without aiming, fired out. The arrow rain was like the knife of the god of death, striking from above.
"Raise your shields!" The commander shouted.
"Shua," the men raised their shields and if one looked from above, it was like the ground had a layer of a shield.
Some unlucky souls didn't hold their shields properly and slipped to the left when the arrows hit, so the arrows mercilessly pierced them and claimed their lives.
Taking the chance that both sides were engaging, the 10 scaling ladders were slowly pushed towards the edge of the city wall. Hiding within the scaling ladder was the first unit of the Guards regiment.
At the same time, the arcuballistas changed targets and started to fire step arrows. The huge arrows penetrated the wall and formed a closely lined arrow forest.
The step arrows were a signal as the sword shield soldiers behind braved the arrow rain and started to advance towards the city wall.
The scaling arrow was stopped beside the wall and with a "pa" the stacked secondary ladder was raised and hooked onto the city wall.
The soldiers from the Guards unit started to walk out from the scaling ladder and climbed up. To raise the efficiency, they held the Tang Swords in their mouths and used both their hands to climb.
"Leader, they are climbing up the scaling ladder!" The mountain bandits panicked.
"I'm not blind, I can see that." The leader was furious. "Rush up and push the ladder away, kill them."
The hook on the scaling ladder was specially designed, and it was difficult to push away. The mountain bandits that rushed out weren't trained in the methods of pushing the scaling ladder, and upon seeing the bloodthirst of the soldiers climbing up, they were terrified.
"Throw rocks at them!" The leader realized his tactical mistake and immediately made adjustments.
"Yes!" The mountain bandits raised up stone rocks and threw them down.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
The soldiers were already near to the top and the rocks only hit the ones in front. Those at the back quickly rushed up and made use of the opportunity to climb up.
The held the Tang Swords in their hands and stood on top of the ladder, fighting against the mountain bandits.
The soldiers in the Guards regiment were all very experienced. The first unit were the elites of the elites, each one being at least a rank 10 war elite soldier. Their killing ability were shocking.
10 scaling ladders, 10 killing spots.
Wang Feng led the way and got onto the city wall first.
He shook his spear and shouted, "I am Wang Feng, whoever isn't afraid to die step out!"
"Kill him!" The mountain bandit leader didn't personally step out.
"Kill!" There were many evil men amongst the mountain bandits. They weren't afraid of anything except people saying that they were afraid. Wang Feng's words infuriated them.
"He!" Wang Feng was unfazed. With a sweep, he cleared out a huge area in front of him.
During the battle at Er'Shi Ridge, Wang Feng's breakthrough increased his combat power. Be it sweeping or stabbing, he claimed life after life; no one could get close to him.
He was like an asura, defending the area close to the scaling ladder so no mountain bandit could get close. Taking the chance, the Guards regiment soldiers swiftly followed behind and climbed onto the wall.
Seeing their general show his skill, these bunch of battle crazy men waved their Tang Swords. Not bothering about the number of men, they directly charged forward.
The strength of the Guards regiment terrified the mountain bandits.
When one side was broken, every side was slowly broken.
The soldiers on the other ladders started to climb up and start fighting with the mountain bandits.
It seemed like they wouldn't be able to defend, so the leader pulled back the mountain bandits who were throwing rocks and told them to surround the soldiers.
What they didn't know that the sword-shield soldiers were waiting for the opportunity. Under the leadership of their lieutenants, they either climbed up the scaling ladder or the step arrows to assist their allies.
In a moment, Zhennan Pass became a slaughter, and blood flowed endlessly.
Seeing the sword-shield soldiers successfully climb up the wall, Mu Guiying ordered the heavy armored infantry of Shanhai County to breach the gates.
When Shihu received the order, he hollered, "Brothers, charge!"
"Charge!" The mountain barbarian soldiers raised their shields and pushed the wooden ram and charged towards the city gates.
"Hong!!" As the wooden ram smacked into the gate, an earth-shattering sound resounded which shook the pass.
"Hei!" The soldiers shouted out the signals, pulling the wooden ram back before ramming into the gate again.
Although the city wall was covered in iron, under the striking of the wooden ram, it started to creak and crack.
The mountain barbarians were famous for their strength, and the wooden ram they pushed produced a force of more than 5,000 kilograms.
"Dang!" The first city gate was finally broken.
The Zhennan Pass had 3 city gates. Once the outermost one was broken, there was still one in the middle. Luckily, now the soldiers had the cover of the hole and could charge with ease.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Shout after shout came out from the doorway, following by an earth-shattering blow, making one terrified.
The leader, upon hearing such sounds, frowned. He looked up only to see large amounts of troops had rushed up the wall, and although their numbers were half of theirs, they weren't at a disadvantage.
On the other hand, the mountain bandits were afraid and didn't look like they could hold on.
"Haiz!" The leader let out a long sigh and slowly retreated as per his retreat plan.
At this moment, the 2nd city gate was broken.
At this time, Shihu had two choices. One was to climb up the city wall through a path in the doorway and help the troops. Another was to continue to break through the 3rd city wall and block off their retreat path.
Shihu considered for a short time and thought of a plan. He sent someone to report the situation to the commander. Following which, he left a squadron to breach the last gate while he brought the rest up to the city wall.
Receiving his report, Mu Guiying frowned, not knowing how to choose.
Just at this moment, a signal bullet rose up from within the Zhennan Pass.
Mu Guiying was astonished. She knew this was the signal from the spy, which meant that it was an emergency.
She didn't hesitate, and apart from leaving a cavalry squadron in case, she sent the 4 remaining squadrons through the doorway to the back to cut off the retreat path.
Ouyang Shuo and Mu Lanyue stood at the side and didn't say a word; they trusted her.
The cavalry unit thought that they wouldn't have a part to play in this battle. When they received the order, their blood boiled and rushed out on their horses toward the city gates.
At this moment, the city gate was in a state of chaos, the mountain bandit archers couldn’t shoot outside peacefully and were embroiled in the chaotic battle on the wall. Hence, the cavalry were able to rush to the city gate smoothly.
In this period of time, the 3rd city gate was broken down.
The cavalry unit gave the mountain barbarian warriors a thumbs up as they went past the city gate and continued south to cut off the enemy.