Chapter 737-Fighting for a Tomorrow
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
9th month 21st day, White Stone City.
The orange red sun rose up from the east, slowly climbing up the mountains and over the mountain peak, shining rays of light over White Stone City, making the green olden city look golden.
Yuan Ping and the others stood on the south city wall and solemnly looked on at the Alliance Army walking out of the east, west, and south gates. Their expressions were exceedingly serious.
"Shanhai City does not want us to see a tomorrow, so we will fight for one!" Yuan Ping said.
The three armies were like three giant dragons gathering on the plains outside of the south city wall. The color of black covered all the grass – there was no other color in sight.
Even so, there were still troops gathering within the city. The vast plains were not large enough to hold the entire Alliance Army.
The ones at the front were the six thousand Huadong County soldiers.
The Lord was tortured to death last night, but his army still remained. As they had not obtained any intel, Yuan Ping and the others did not dare to put the Huadong County Army by their side.
The best method was to push them up to the front lines.
Weren't these six thousand the best death squad? Additionally, Yuan Ping and the others arranged a full 10 thousand troops to keep their actions in check.
The moment they made any weird movements, the six thousand of them would be shot with arrows till they looked like porcupines.
...
Fan Lihua's legion camp.
The abnormally in White Stone City had alerted Fan Lihua's legion.
Last night, Fan Lihua had already received the spy message from within White Stone City and knew that Number 32 had succeeded and broken the enemy teleportation formation.
Whilst she heaved a sigh of relief, her heart also felt a chill.
She was extremely clear that tomorrow would be the toughest day for her legion.
Shi Wanshui, Er'Lai and Sun Bin's legions had already obtained the orders and were rushing over to White Stone City. Shi Wanshui's legion was the closest, but they could only arrive in the afternoon.
The furthest Sun Bin legion would need to wait till the afternoon of the 22nd.
Whether or not they could defend against the all out attacks of the Alliance Army and last till that crucial day would be the toughest test since this legion was built.
It was also a key battle for Fan Lihua.
She needed to prove to the armies of Shanhai City that she was worthy of the Monarch's trust.
"Send my orders, the divisions must defend their formations and stick to the defense plan, pushing each line of defense to its max. Whoever loses their formation will be punished by military law."
"Yes general!"
After a full night of constructing this fortress, it was like a ferocious beast waiting for the enemy to take the bait.
During the military meeting last night, Fan Lihua had said, "If the enemy crosses the defensive line of the 3rd legion and manages to break out, I'll tell the Monarch that I'll resign. But before I do that, I'll sack all of you Major Generals and colonels."
Her eyes lacked any killing intent, but it made everyone shiver in fear.
One of the Major General's recollection of the event described the scene extremely accurately, "Being swept like that, the blood in my body that was boiling instantly became cold. My heart felt cold like an invincible sword aura was held at my necks. If we make a mistake, our heads would roll."
"We are thinking that we would rather die on the battlefield than lose the defensive line."
Her prestige in the 3rd legion was truly exceptional.
...
The war horns sounded.
The 250 thousand Alliance Army moved into their battle formation and headed toward the enemy along with the beat of the drum. Before they even got close, they already emitted a suppressive and invincible aura.
The camp opposite them was extremely quiet without any noise; the silence was terrifying. Within the fortress, all the soldiers were focused and ready to claim the lives of the enemy at any moment.
The moment the Alliance Army got into range, a rain of arrows pelted down at them.
Many black arrows formed layer upon layer; these closely packed arrows formed an iron flood and rained down from above, massacring the Alliance Army.
The arrow rain left not a single living body in its wake.
Insta kill!
As the arrow rain was too closely packed, the soldiers had no way to avoid it. The sword-shield soldiers were better off and had shields to block. If they were lucky, they could survive. On the other hand, the archers just died under the arrow rain before they could retaliate.
Of the six thousand Huadong County troops, only a few remained after this initial blow.
"Charge!"
The commander was not afraid of death and ordered the troops to speed up.
Since they were attacking a fortress, the calvary forces of the Alliance Army were not useful and were hence assigned to the wings. The main attacking force was more than 100 thousand sword-shield soldiers.
They braved the arrow rain and launched their strongest assault.
The army was like a black flood, drowning the camp instantly.
After paying a heavy price, many sword-shield soldiers stepped onto simple scaling ladders and climbed onto the wooden walls, engaging in battle with the Fan Lihua legion troops defending the walls.
Right at the start, the two sides entered an intense and cruel close combat battle.
A camp fortress was just a camp fortress after all.
Even though they were well prepared, they did not have stone, wood, alchemical fire oil, cannons, etc. They only had arcuballistas at most.
Under the wooden walls, there were hundreds of trebuchets.
Be it the arcuballistas or the trebuchets, they were originally prepared to let the 3rd legion siege White Stone City. However, they were now used to defend, so one could imagine how much damage they caused the enemy.
In the battlefield covered with killing cries and shouts, wave after wave of Alliance Army soldiers charged fearlessly at the wooden walls. The corpses were like rain, falling to the bottom of the wall.
In the blink of an eye, a huge pile of corpses piled up.
And just as they were sieging, the trebuchets and arrow rain killed their backline. As the Alliance Army was too close together, the fireballs the trebuchets threw could cause a massive wave of damage.
A single fireball would often cause an area of death.
A full hour had passed and the camp fortress was still as stable as a mountain. Moreover, a total of 20 thousand Alliance Army troops had died; the brutality of the situation exceeded all expectations.
The 1st division guarding the wooden walls was originally the Leizhou Garrison Division; they were the strongest division out of all Garrison Divisions.
During the Battle of Zhaoqing, they showed their strength and impressed even Baiqi.
After moving into the 3rd legion, the division had undergone a change, becoming even stronger; they could be considered a flag of this legion.
Hence, Fan Lihua gave the toughest mission to the 1st division. The performance of the 1st division was truly worthy of all the praise.
...
The first battle not going well for them caused the Alliance Army to feel some pent up frustration.
Thinking about the various Lords watching the battle from the city walls, the commander did not dare to take this matter lightly
"Send down my order, let the assault regiment attack!"
The alliance commander was ready to throw in their most elite assault regiment to force the attack.
"Yes commander!"
A total of three assault regiments received the orders and immediately charged up; they were like a trident as they stabbed into the crucial areas of the wooden walls.
The strength of the assault regiment was quickly revealed.
These opponents stood on the same level as the 1st division. Under the help of numerous Alliance Army soldiers, they suppressed the 1st division that had already suffered many loses.
Now, they had a chance to break through the first line of defense.
"Great, follow up!"
The commander grew more and more excited, and soldiers were sent to the front lines like they were free.
This made the fight even more arduous for the 1st division.
At this moment, the number of casualties of the 1st division started to increase exponentially.
...
Inner circle tent, within one of the towers.
"General, let the 1st division back off; they cannot hold on any longer!" The deputy officer reminded Fan Lihua.
Fan Lihua looked at the situation at hand with a determined expression, "Wait a little longer!" The time the first defense line managed to hold on was half an hour away from her expectations.
"General, the 1st division is being crushed, let some of them live!"
"Even if all of them die in the end, they have to hold on."
Fan Lihua's expression did not change. She was not stone-hearted, but the fate of the entire legion and even the entire Battle of Lingnan was on her shoulders, and she could not afford to be soft hearted.
The 1st division had to hold on!
...
Wooden walls.
The massacre continued. Every moment, every second people fell down.
The 1st division made use of their incredible mental strength and discipline to stay strong under the attacks of the Alliance Army.
However, such perseverance could not last for long.
The key to this battle was still the numbers of both sides, and it was not something that morale and strength could change.
From the start of the battle till now, each soldier of the 1st division was pretty much covered in blood.
"Boss, the general asks us to last for half an hour more." A messenger ran over.
Major General Zhao Yan was similarly covered in blood; he looked at his comrades around him, "Fellows, you heard that? The General does not seem too pleased with us. F*** their mother, even if we die, we cannot drag down the prestige of the 1st division!"
"Boss, it's your prestige you're worried about, right? Are you afraid that the general will teach you a lesson if you do not complete your mission? Haha." The colonels around him did not bother with his words and did not give this boss any face.
Zhao Yan also knew how his men acted, so he said seriously, "Let's cut the crap, it is not just fighting with our lives, we are not afraid of that. We cannot let the other division kids laugh at us, much less the enemy. If we cannot last this half an hour, I'll die together with you guys."
"Boss, you are not a beauty, who wants to die with you!"
"...."
Zhao Yan stepped on their feet. He raised his blade and headed forward; this time, they were truly going all in with their lives!