Chapter 672
Chapter 672
Soon, the warriors of the Shaman Tribe began to return fire with their bows. They were truly remarkable, able to aim even in this dim light. The Second Nirvana Legion fired down from a high position, while the Shaman warriors had to shoot upward, putting them at a disadvantage. Yet their accuracy was quite good, and they managed to land arrows on Shen Lang’s Second Nirvana Legion.
Unfortunately for them, they used one-stone bows. Fired from that distance up to the top of the wall, their arrows lacked power. In contrast, the equipment worn by the Second Nirvana Legion was far too good. Their torsos were protected by thin but sturdy plates of pure, solid steel, and their arms and legs were covered in chainmail. Though the Shaman Tribe’s archery was fierce, it couldn't penetrate the Nirvana Legion’s armor. Moreover, their arrows were not as sharp as the ones Shen Lang had crafted.
The two armies exchanged volleys, both formidable forces. But the difference in equipment was so vast that it was still a one-sided slaughter. No matter how skilled the individual Shaman warriors were with their bows, they couldn't surpass the Second Nirvana Legion. A magnificent scene unfolded once more, as the god of death appeared among them, reaping their lives. All the while, arrows crisscrossed the sky relentlessly.
*Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.*
*Boom.*
Primitive flares burst continuously in the sky. Mulan was so captivated by the beautiful scene that she stood slightly dazed. She had seen such fireworks before; she was likely the only one here who had. About two years ago, Shen Lang had taken her to a desolate, uninhabited island and set them off. Back then, there were only a dozen or so, but this time, there were hundreds. The brilliant, dazzling light was so beautiful it was almost overwhelming.
***
“Wow, pretty, so pretty! So beautiful! Little one, look. Your daddy set those off for you!”
Shen Mi’s eyes were wide as she gazed at the sky.
‘What is that? Why is it so pretty?’
“Daddy… Daddy…”
Delighted by the fireworks, Shen Mi clapped her small hands enthusiastically. Shen Ye, however, suddenly threw a tantrum and refused to be held, running wildly around the house as if overjoyed and excited. The boy had boundless energy, never sleeping during the day or night. Shen Lang must have regretted giving the boy a name that meant ‘wild,’ for he truly lived up to it.
A child like this was utterly exhausting for his caretakers. Shen Mi was so quiet that Bing’er alone could look after her with energy to spare. In contrast, Shen Ye required three or four people taking turns to manage him. The boy’s one saving grace was that he never cried. Well, he did, but it was the kind of fake crying one did to get attention. Normally, whether he fell or bumped into the corner of a table, Shen Ye never cried. He would just occasionally pick up a rock and smash it against the table corner that had offended him. While a fierce battle raged outside the city, the people on the ramparts were mesmerized by the fireworks.
***
Outside the walls, the slaughter continued. Despite suffering heavy casualties, the warriors of the Shaman Tribe and the Nangu Kingdom kept scaling the walls. These madmen needed no ladders; they used iron grappling hooks to climb. Even with their bellies pierced and their intestines spilling out, they continued to claw their way up the wall, only to fall after a moment.
Jin Zhuo and Mulan watched, dumbfounded.
‘Was there ever such a crazed army in this world? The Nirvana Legion is just as brave, but they are no ordinary army.’
Nangong Ao was also completely stunned. If his army had suffered such staggering casualties, it would have broken long ago. His men would have collapsed to the ground the moment an arrow struck them, unable to move. But these Shaman warriors kept climbing even with their guts hanging out. It was because the Shaman warriors were so savage that they had been so brutally defeated in past battles with the Nangu Kingdom. Unless you shot them in the heart or head for an instant kill, they would continue their mad ascent. If such a vicious army ever made it onto the walls, the consequences would be dire.
Even under the relentless hail of arrows, some of the Shaman warriors were about to reach the top of the wall. Although most fell to their deaths, too many were climbing for the defenders to stop them all. The Shaman warriors drew closer and closer to the parapet.
“Change arrows!”
At Mulan’s command, the Second Nirvana Legion drew special quivers. Inside were custom-made incendiary arrows, their tips coated with white phosphorus and the shafts behind the heads dipped in an arsenic solution. Once the arrows were nocked, another command rang out.
“Fire!”
*Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.*
In an instant, a volley of arrows like a meteor shower rained down, striking the Shaman warriors scaling the wall. It was a spectacular sight, yet also one of utter horror. These incendiary arrows, once they pierced flesh, could not be extinguished. Coated in white phosphorus, they carried their own oxidizer, allowing them to burn even without air. They were arrows Shen Lang had created by pushing science to its limits. Furthermore, the deadly arsenic spread rapidly through their bloodstreams.
“Aaaargh!”
No matter how brave the Shaman warriors were, they could not endure the agony of being burned from the inside out. What followed was a scene more gruesome than any they had witnessed before. The Shaman warriors climbing the walls finally fell, one after another, their insane charge broken at last. The remaining Nangu warriors, though brave, were not as fanatical as the Shaman Tribe, and their combat prowess was slightly lower. Under the relentless storm of arrows, they couldn't even lift their heads.
*Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.*
*Thud, thud, thud, thud.*
The arrow storm madly reaped the lives of the Shaman warriors. Commander Si Yan watched in utter agony. His champions had been on the verge of scaling the walls, but now that chance was completely lost.
“Withdraw the army! Retreat!”
The sharp sound of a gong rang out again. The surviving Nangu warriors immediately turned and fled, frantically escaping the hellish pandemonium. But the surviving Shaman warriors, their eyes bloodshot, still tried to madly scale the walls, showing no fear of death. Commander Si Yan bellowed.
“Warriors of the Shaman Tribe, come back! Come back!”
Hearing their commander’s voice, the Shaman warriors let out a collective roar and retreated, their reluctance palpable. Humiliation, a great humiliation. Never in their history had they fought such a battle. Since the founding of the Great Nan Kingdom, they had never known defeat. To be so utterly crushed was unthinkable.
“Aaaargh!”
A Shaman warrior stood at the base of the wall, screaming madly up at Jin Mulan.
*Swoosh!*
An arrow pierced through his head.
***
They had lost the daytime siege, suffering twelve thousand casualties, and now the night assault had also failed.
“Do we have a count of the casualties?” Commander Si Yan asked. It was impossible to count the dead and wounded, so they would have to count how many had returned.
“Of the five thousand Shaman warriors, fewer than fifteen hundred remain. Of the twenty thousand Nangu warriors, fewer than ten thousand are left.”
Commander Si Yan closed his eyes in pain. The casualties from the night battle were even greater than those from the day, reaching a staggering fourteen thousand. The warriors of the Shaman Tribe and the Nangu Kingdom were clearly stronger and braver than the surrendered Yue soldiers, yet they had suffered more casualties. It seemed the armor and shields of Nangong Ao’s army hadn't been so useless after all.
After the day and night of fighting, the combined forces of Si Yan and Nangong Ao had suffered over twenty-six thousand casualties, leaving them with fewer than thirty thousand troops. And how many casualties had the Jin Clan sustained? It was impossible to know for sure, but the number was certainly extremely low. In this battle, the Jin Clan had achieved a record even more brilliant than that of the English longbowmen at the Battle of Agincourt.
“Nangong Ao, we have lost the ability to attack the Marquis of Xuanwu’s Estate.”
Nangong Ao nodded bitterly at Si Yan's words. They had been defeated in both the day and night battles. Though they still had thirty thousand men, they no longer had the courage to assault the city. The defeat had been too crushing, and Shen Lang’s miraculous archery unit had defended the walls with incredible prowess.
“Continue the siege, and send a report to His Highness at once!”
“Yes, sir!”
At Si Yan's command, a group of cavalry soon departed, galloping south to report the situation to Prince Gong.
“A pity we have no trebuchets!”
As Nangong Ao said, if only they had trebuchets, they wouldn't have been so passively battered. No matter how far Shen Lang's miraculous archers could shoot, they couldn't outrange a trebuchet, nor could their arrows match its power—though the accuracy of a trebuchet was another matter entirely. There was a saying that no trebuchet could land a stone in the same hole twice, so poor was its precision. But at least with trebuchets, they could have bombarded the city walls. As it stood, the Great Nan Kingdom's attack on the Marquis of Xuanwu’s Estate had failed.
***
On the first day of the second month, Gao Douhuan, and of course Shen Lang, were on the verge of going mad. The effects of the drug administered to the Palace Guard were still too potent, making them impossible to control. The ten thousand guardsmen had entered a state of frenzied madness. It would have been one thing if it were just one man, but all ten thousand were in the same condition, their madness feeding off one another. At that moment, Gao Douhuan could only think one thing.
‘Su Nan, hurry up and attack the city. Please, attack now! If you don’t, I don’t think we can hold out.’
As if hearing Gao Douhuan’s prayers, Su Nan was finally preparing to attack.
***
Yangguo City was the final obstacle. If this city fell, the path to the capital of Yue would be wide open. While Prince Gong was not desperate to attack the State of Yue, Su Nan was. He dreamed of succeeding in his rebellion and returning to Tianyue City. Su Nan imagined the thrill of leading a grand army into Tianyue City, destroying the State of Yue, and executing King Ning Yuanxian. How many people in this world could claim the merit of destroying a nation?
Su Nan knew that there were only ten thousand Palace Guards in Yangguo City. And what kind of army was the Palace Guard? A rear-guard unit, the kind used to suppress local ruffians and gangsters. But he did not let his guard down for a moment. Shen Lang was inside that city. Su Nan believed that no amount of caution was excessive when it came to Shen Lang. Even now, he would often wake from nightmares, his face covered in tears, because his grand ambitions and the Su Clan had been destroyed at Shen Lang’s hands.
Of course, he could remarry and have children again. Prince Gong had reminded him several times not to harbor personal grudges. The prince had told him that if he wanted to live as a reckless rogue like Shen Lang, he was free to hate him as much as he wanted. But if he wanted to achieve great deeds and restore the glory of the Su Clan, he had to set aside his personal vendettas for the time being.
If anyone else had said such a thing, he would have thought it was easy for them to say since it wasn't their problem. But coming from Prince Gong, the words carried great weight. Did Prince Gong not bear a tremendous grudge against Ning Yuanxian? The grudge for his father's death, the bitterness of his nation's ruin. Yet, not long ago, Prince Gong had taken the initiative to make peace with the King of Yue, offering terms to cede only five commanderies. It wasn't that he didn't want to destroy the State of Yue, but because it was not in the best interest of the Great Nan Kingdom.