Chapter 73: Zhou Tai's Desperate Fight at the Yin Guan (Seeking Bookmarks!)
Since morning they had been attacking the city, and by afternoon Li Chong counted nearly a thousand casualties. He was extremely angry in his heart but did not make any move, just sitting there deep in thought.
After a while, Zhou Tai could no longer bear it, jumped off his war horse, found a large shield, wore three layers of heavy armor, and rushed straight to the city gate. Li Zhong was so anxious that he shouted loudly, but Zhou Tai didn't listen, and Li Zhong was so angry that he scolded loudly, immediately ordering the whole army to attack the city, without leaving any reserve troops, in order to cover up Zhou Tai's actions.
Zhou Tai did not ignore Li Chong's shout, but the generals of that era were all roughly the same, extremely confident in their own bravery and highly competitive. At least Zhou Tai thought his martial arts skills were no worse than those of Taishi Ci, and now as a bodyguard, he had no outstanding achievements to show for it, so how could he lead troops into battle on his own in the future?
At this time, the battlefield was like a boiling pot. Li Zhong's 4,000 troops rushed towards the city wall like madmen. There was no way out, and Li Zhong's order "behead the entire army" was too terrifying, not allowing anyone to take military orders lightly.
Zhou Tai wore heavy armor, using a shield to protect his head, and climbed up the cloud ladder amidst a hail of arrows. "Boom..." A thunderstone weighing dozens of kilograms came crashing down, Zhou Tai let out a loud shout, raised his shield and knocked it outward, and immediately heard a "thud" sound, as the thunderstone rolled away from Zhou Tai's side and smashed into the ground with a tremor.
Zhou Tai was originally wearing dozens of kilograms of heavy armor, and with his body weight added to it, the massive impact force from Lei Shi's blow caused the cloud ladder under his feet to snap "crack" and break apart. Zhou Tai's body sank down, almost falling to the ground.
Li Chong watched from a distance, not very clearly, and when Zhou Tai was about to fall off the cloud ladder, he clenched his fists in anxiety, but seeing Zhou Tai steady himself, he hastily ordered: Taishi Ci and Jiang Qin quickly use bows and arrows to support Zhou Tai.
Seeing the messenger hurry away, Li Chong silently cursed himself for being an idiot. How could he have forgotten to make a telescope? Didn't they have glass or crystal?
Zhou Tai had just steadied himself when he was targeted by a group of archers. No surprise, really - anyone who could withstand Lei Shi's fierce attack was bound to stand out, and it would have been strange if they hadn't been shot at by a hail of arrows.
More than ten strong arrows aimed at Zhou Tai, Zhou Tai relied on the thick armor on his body, and was not afraid of it. He didn't even make a defensive posture, but instead continued to climb up, allowing the more than ten strong arrows to shoot onto his body. The three layers of heavy armor were not something that ordinary bows and arrows could penetrate.
After a burst of "ding-dong", only two strong arrows were inserted in the gap between the helmet and armor, while the rest of the arrows fell to the ground.
Seeing that arrows were ineffective, an officer immediately ordered the use of fire oil and thunderstones against Zhou Tai.
Lei Shi was a bit better off, Zhou Tai could withstand it with brute force, but the fire oil was useless no matter how high your martial arts were. This thing burns up and doesn't recognize six relatives, if it gets on your body you won't die but you'll lose a layer of skin.
As soon as Zhou Tai was about to jump down the cloud ladder to avoid the fire oil, Taishi Ci and Jiang Qin rushed over together, and two strong arrows shot up to the city head in a cross.
Zhou Tai was overjoyed, relying on Taishi Ci and Jiang Qin's archery skills to sweep away the defending soldiers above his head. That was boasting, but specifically shooting and killing the soldiers who threw fire oil and thunderstones was no problem at all.
With no more worries, Zhou Tai made a few leaps and arrived at the city gate, using his shield to deflect the incoming blades. With a loud shout, Zhou Tai jumped onto the city gate, swinging his sword and cutting down over ten soldiers in an instant.
Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai had a very good relationship. Seeing Zhou Tai rush to the top of the city wall, he shouted at Taishi Ci: "Zi Yi, you help me observe the enemy, I'll go up on the city wall to help Young Ping."
Tai Shi Zi nodded in agreement, and Jiang Qin also changed into a suit of armor and climbed up onto the city wall.
Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin were like lanterns in the dark night, the defenders on the city wall were like moths, surrounding them. Zhou Tai gritted his teeth, the steel knife in his hand danced into a light curtain, protecting the distance of three or four meters around him, so that the soldiers attacking the city could have a foothold.
Jiang Qin also showed no weakness, picking up a long spear and stabbing randomly in all directions, helping Zhou Tai to share the pressure.
As a result, the rest of the attacking soldiers were greatly relieved, and soon more than ten battle groups appeared on the city wall, and the Yin Mansion was already in danger.
"With a 'clang' sound, Zhou Tai's steel knife finally could not withstand the continuous impact and broke into several sections. Zhou Tai gritted his teeth, used his shield to protect himself, and suddenly charged forward. After a series of dull thuds, several soldiers were knocked down by Zhou Tai, their bones broken and tendons torn, spitting blood as they died."
Zhou Tai took advantage of the momentum to throw away his shield, rolled on the ground several times, and rushed into the crowd. He picked up a steel knife from the ground, spun around suddenly, and in an instant, there were three or four soldiers chopped in two beside Zhou Tai. Fresh blood splattered all over the ground, internal organs flew everywhere, sticking to people's bodies and couldn't be wiped off, making one feel nauseous.
The soldiers who were cut in half could not die for a while, wailing miserably on the ground, desperately crawling towards their comrades, leaving a long trail of blood on the city wall.
Zhou Tai's image was even more terrifying, his whole body covered in blood, with a section of intestine hanging from his knife, the other end still inside the belly of a soldier who had been cut in half at the waist. The soldier, who had been cut in half, picked up his own internal organs from the ground and stuffed them back into his abdominal cavity, regardless of whether they were his own or not.
Zhou Tai could not bear it anymore, his body moved back slightly, just in time to pull out the intestines of this soldier, and the internal organs that had just been stuffed into the abdominal cavity flowed out with a gurgling sound.
The surrounding soldiers were stunned for a moment, and finally couldn't suppress the fear in their hearts, shouting and fleeing in all directions. The escape was contagious, and when the soldiers on this side ran, the soldiers elsewhere also followed suit, running down the city wall without being able to help themselves. The officers on the city wall were completely at a loss, and could only follow the defeated troops in running down the city wall.
The army besieging the city immediately swarmed in, and the Yin Mansion was thoroughly breached.
Yang Chou saw that all was lost and could no longer care for his family, so he led dozens of his personal soldiers in opening the western gate and fleeing in disarray to surrender to Zhang Yang at Jinyang.
Yang Chou fled, and the Yin Guan immediately fell into a state of leaderlessness. As Li Zhong's large army entered the city, the defenders of Yin Guan laid down their arms and surrendered.
After the list was announced and the people were pacified, Li Chong immediately counted the losses. In this battle, more than 300 soldiers died, over 100 were seriously injured, and countless others were lightly wounded. This is the price of a fierce battle. Li Chong had experienced over ten battles before and after, but the casualties added up did not match the severity of this loss.
Seeing the soldiers' morale was somewhat low, Li Chong immediately assembled the whole army for a pep talk.
"This time you've lost many comrades in arms, haven't you? You're heartbroken, and I'm heartbroken too." Li Chong looked at the soldiers in front of him, pounding his chest as he shouted.
"As a soldier, it is your duty to fight on the battlefield, and there is no battle without casualties. As your lord, I will also fulfill my responsibilities as a lord... Chen Lin!" Li Zhong shouted loudly.
"Yes, Your Excellency!" Chen Lin immediately came to Li Chong's side and replied.
Li pointed at the soldier in front of him and said: "You immediately investigate the soldiers who died in battle, continue to provide military pay for their families. For those with children, the military pay will be provided until the youngest child comes of age. For those without children, the military pay will be provided to the wife. If the wife remarries, a one-time payment of ten years' worth of military pay will be made."
"Seriously injured persons will receive their pay as usual."
After a pause, Li Zhong continued: "If the soldiers who died in battle are only children, their parents will be supported by the government! If there is any deduction of military pay for the dead soldiers, they will be executed immediately!"
Chen Lin immediately replied: "Yes!"
As soon as Li Chong's voice fell, the soldiers immediately cheered up. Li Chong's words dispelled their only concern. In this chaotic world, these soldiers were not afraid of death, but they were worried about what would happen to their wives and children, parents after they died.
Without these worries, these soldiers are not afraid of fighting to the death.