Chapter 94: Hao Zhao Presents His Plan

  One thousand soldiers withstood the arrow rain and quickly rushed to the wall, swiftly setting up wooden ladders and engaging in a fierce battle with Taishi Ci's troops.

  Tai Shi's soldiers occupied the geographical advantage, and their physical strength was still superior, so the casualties were not very large. Basically, they could kill five enemy soldiers before one of their own soldiers retreated from the battlefield. Moreover, as the Jin Yang soldiers' physical strength decreased, the casualty ratio between the two sides continued to increase gradually.

  Xu Gong watched the unfavorable battle situation, his brow furrowed, and after a simple calculation, Xu Gong knew that a hard attack was unlikely to succeed. However, he couldn't think of another way, so he gritted his teeth and shouted: "Yang Chou, you and I will personally take the field, open up a gap, how about it?"

  Yang Ugly eyes rolled around and loudly responded: "Alright, I'll go first."

  Yang Chou jumped off his war horse, grabbed a shield and rushed towards the wall, but Yang Chou chose to go in the west direction of the wall, which was exactly opposite to where Taishi Ci was.

  Weng Gu didn't know Yang Chou's mind, and followed him to jump off the war horse, picked up a shield, and rushed forward, shouting: "Follow me!"

  At this time, the individual's martial arts skills played a huge role. Yang Chou and Sui Guo easily dodged the arrows and rushed to the foot of the wall, jumping up in just a few steps. Yang Chou held back and didn't exert his full strength, instead engaging in a casual fight with four or five approaching soldiers.

  While Taishi Ci was relatively straightforward, he jumped up onto the wooden ladder in a few bounds, and then sprang up onto the wall. The steel knife in his hand flashed repeatedly, cutting down several soldiers in one go, opening up a gap in an instant. The soldiers below the wall swarmed up, throwing Taishi Ci's defense into chaos.

  Tai Shi Zi, standing on the arrow tower, saw it clearly. In a hurry, he didn't even take the stairs and jumped down from the three-zhang-high arrow tower, rolling several times in the snow to dissipate the force of the fall, then grabbed his steel spear and rushed towards the enemy lines.

  Zhu Huan was fighting hard, hoping to expand the gap in the wall, when he suddenly felt a shadow above him. He looked up and saw Taishi Ci jumping into the air, swinging his steel spear down at him. Zhu Huan had not brought any long-range weapons with him for convenience of holding the shield, and only held a ring-headed knife in his hand. Not daring to clash head-on with Taishi Ci's steel spear, fearing that his steel knife would be broken, he could only raise his shield upwards to block it.

  A deafening "boom" sound, on the 500-step defense line, almost everyone heard this explosive sound, and the soldiers of both sides involuntarily turned their heads to watch.

  The sturdy wooden shield shattered with a loud crash, and pieces of wood and fireproof cowhide flew everywhere.

  While he himself was also blown back several steps by this massive force, one foot stepped into the air and crashed head-on onto the surrounding wall.

  Tai Shi Zi would not let go of this opportunity, and with a low growl, he also jumped down from the wall, determined to put Miao Gu in a desperate situation. In the distance, Yang Chou smiled slyly, finally using his full strength, and within a few moves, he injured one soldier and stood firmly on the wall.

  He fell onto the soft snowy ground without getting hurt, rolled on the ground, got up, and just saw Taishi Ci rushing over. He hastily snatched a steel knife from his soldiers' hands, swung two knives, made a strange cry in his mouth, and killed Taishi Ci.

  Two generals unfolded a rare melee in front of the wall. As one of the earliest leaders of the Black Mountain bandits, Zuo Ci had rich experience in close combat. He dodged and weaved on the snowy ground with ease, his movements seemingly effortless. With two knives dancing wildly in his hands, he managed to hold off Taishi Ci's offensive for a time.

  Tai Shi Zi glanced at his own defense line, saw Yang Chou gradually opening up a small section of the array on the wall, and suddenly became anxious. He didn't bother to compare moves with Sui Gong anymore, relying on the length of his spear to make a unreasonable sweep, kicking wildly with his feet, stirring up the accumulated snow on the ground, spreading it everywhere, blocking the two men's line of sight.

  Both Taishi Ci and his opponent had their vision blocked, but the latter took advantage of it. His long-handled halberd and great strength enabled him to strike wildly and at random; in any case, Taishi Ci's short sword was too short to reach his body.

  However, Guan Yu was greatly affected. He originally relied on his small and nimble moves to receive the enemy, but he couldn't see clearly Taishi Ci's gun movement, how could he neutralize it? Carelessly, the steel knife in his hand suddenly clashed with Taishi Ci's steel spear, "Clang..." The steel knife in his hand was instantly smashed into two sections.

  One of the broken knives happened to be stuck in Sui Gu's shoulder, causing him to yell out in pain and hastily retreat several steps before turning around and running away.

  Taishi Ci chased for a few steps, but was desperately blocked by Wei Yan's personal soldiers. Taishi Ci killed several of Wei Yan's guards, feeling that he had no chance to kill Wei Yan, turned around and rushed towards the city wall. When he reached the foot of the city wall, Taishi Ci slightly bent his legs, sprang up, jumped onto the city wall, and rushed towards Yang Yu.

  Yang Fei was greatly frightened and did not wait for Taishi Ci to arrive, he parried the incoming blades, turned around and jumped down from the wall, fleeing back to the main camp in a cloud of smoke.

  "What a close call!" Tai Shi Ci also broke out in a cold sweat. This wasn't because Tai Shi Ci was afraid of being broken through by Miao Fu, as his defense line was long and could be organized to defend against the enemy at any point along its 30-li length, including the Yin Wind Valley. Rather, it was that if they were breached by Miao Fu and others, without any fortifications to rely on, the casualties among the soldiers would skyrocket.

  Just then, a soldier hastily came up to Taishi Ci and said respectfully: "General, I have something to say."

  Tai Shi Zi turned around and saw that the person who spoke was nine feet tall, extremely majestic, with two very long arms that almost reached his knees. His face looked a bit tender, he should not be too old, looking like seventeen or eighteen years old.

  Seeing this person's outstanding appearance, Taishi Ci and Yan Yuqi asked: "Who are you? What brings you to me?"

  "This humble one is a Shi Chang under the General's command, surnamed Hao, named Zhao, and styled Bo Dao. This humble one wishes to remind the General to be cautious of being sabotaged by people like Miao Gu."

  "Hao Zhao!" Taishi Ci nodded and asked: "Since you dare to speak like this, I suppose you have a way to break through the siege? Tell me about it."

  Hao Zhao replied in a low voice, "Report to the general, due to the limitations of our materials, the height of our city wall is limited. If Sui Guo's army orders his soldiers to hold cloth bags filled with snow, trample them tightly, and carry them under the city wall, it will only take a few trips to fill up the city wall, allowing the cavalry to charge up at once. How can we stop them?"

  Hao Zhao was not exaggerating, if Yang Chou arrived at the Valley of Cold Wind and adopted Hao Zhao's plan, disregarding casualties among his soldiers, the high wooden wall built by Taishi Ci would be of no use, it could be filled up in one or two trips, then the Jin army cavalry could... who would win or lose was still uncertain.

  At this time, Sima Yi could also use this method to attack Taishi Ci's defense line, but the number of soldiers consumed by filling the surrounding wall would be several times higher.

  Hao Zhao is no ordinary person. As a city defense expert in the Three Kingdoms, Hao Zhao has studied various siege methods. If you don't know how to attack, how can you know how to defend?

  "Oh!!" Taishi Ci's expression changed dramatically, his eyes gleaming with excitement, and he asked in a deep voice: "Do you have a way to break the siege?"

  Hao Zhao immediately replied: "I think that we can use cavalry to break them. General, you can leave a gap in the wall and when Sui Guo attacks with this method, you can take advantage of the situation and launch a surprise attack, which will surely lead to a great defeat for the enemy."