Chapter 860
After her bath, Duchess Dyphas donned her golden armor and mounted her warhorse. She soon descended from the mountaintop citadel and arrived at the northern wall. In some ways, the walls of the West were even more exaggerated than those of the East. Golden Wall City was blessed with an exceptional location, with one side facing the sea. As long as its navy was strong, enemies couldn't attack from the water. The rear of the city was nestled between two mountains, their hundred-meter-high peaks and cliffs forming a natural barrier. The reason an unprecedentedly massive wall had been built between these two mountains was that this was the only direction from which an enemy could reasonably break through.
This wall stretched for a total of five miles. Its lowest point was about nine meters high, and its highest was fifteen meters. The variation in height was due to the uneven terrain. What was truly astonishing wasn't the height of the wall, but its thickness—a full twelve meters. This was why Count Austin had scoffed when he saw the walls of Shen Lang's Mulan City, which were merely a meter thick.
What did a twelve-meter-thick wall feel like?
The top of the wall was as wide as a four-lane road, broad enough for six horses to ride abreast. Moreover, a wall this thick was impossible to breach with conventional weapons. It wouldn't be possible even if Shen Lang had incredibly powerful explosives. One would have to dig a large pit beneath the wall, plant hundreds of pounds of TNT, and hope the explosion created a crack. Alternatively, one could try dropping a modern, thousand-pound bomb from Earth inside the wall and then detonating it.
But in front of this wall of Golden Wall City was a moat-like river, thirty-five meters wide and about seven meters deep. This formidable fortress was over five hundred years old. To conquer it through normal means, one would need an army of at least a million just to have a sliver of hope.
The first Duke of the Russo Clan had chosen this location with great care. And for several hundred years, Golden Wall City had never truly been conquered. During the height of the Witch Empire's power, they possessed an incredible fleet, so to avoid their wrath, the Russo Clan, like other city-states, flew the Witch Empire's banner, responded to Queen Medusa's call, and freed their slaves. But the Witch Empire had never truly set foot inside Golden Wall City.
***
Duchess Dyphas stood atop the wall, gazing out at the northern wilderness. At last, Shen Lang's army came into view. The number was truly insulting. A mere five thousand. She recalled her time with Shen Lang.
‘Is this man truly so mad? A million men couldn't take Golden Wall City, yet he comes with only five thousand? Even if five thousand Amazon warriors attacked this city, it would be a laughably small number. Besides, this wall has countless defensive measures. We have hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish oil alone. We have a hundred large trebuchets that can hurl projectiles five hundred meters. The Fire God Sect even provided twenty thousand gunpowder packs. No matter how valiant the Amazon warriors are, can they not be blown to bits if we bombard them with a continuous barrage of gunpowder packs?’
***
Shen Lang, positioned about six hundred meters from Golden Wall City, stared at the northern wall and was deeply shocked. The wall was as tall as a five-story building, and its thickness was impossible to gauge from this distance. A fortress this formidable would render even cannons useless. In a conventional siege, just standing before this wall would be a nightmare. Without an army of hundreds of thousands, it was truly impossible to conquer.
Shen Lang narrowed his eyes and looked closer, seeing countless trebuchets and large crossbows packed tightly atop the wall. The advantage of a thick wall was that you could place any weapon you wanted on it.
Let’s imagine for a moment. Shen Lang orders the attack, and five thousand Amazon warriors charge forward, fearless of death. Then, the hundred large trebuchets on the wall begin to madly hurl countless gunpowder packs, which explode one after another. No matter how strong the Amazon warriors were, they could not possibly withstand that many explosives. This place was a completely and impenetrably armed city. Shen Lang had brought almost no siege equipment this time, and even if he had, it would have been meaningless.
***
“I want to give it a try. Isn’t that the most formidable city in the outer world? I want to see if I can bring it down.”
Princess Dora’s sudden words made Shen Lang pause. To be honest, he was not keen on the idea. There would undoubtedly be casualties.
“When you return to the Eastern world, are you going to rely on capturing the enemy commander in every city? Do you intend to never fight a proper siege?”
Her words hit their mark. That was completely impossible.
“It’s natural to value a strong army, but what’s the point if you’re too afraid to use it? No matter how strong this city is, I have to try attacking it.”
Shen Lang felt a chill in the air he breathed. Since they had come this far, they had to at least make a show of attacking.
“Very well. But you must remember, the lives of the Amazon warriors are the absolute priority. This is only a feigned attack.”
Princess Dora nodded. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing such a massive city and not attacking; she wanted to make an attempt at conquest.
Once the decision was made, the warriors all dismounted, leaving only a few hundred behind to protect Shen Lang. Taking a deep breath, Princess Dora gave a powerful command.
“Charge, attack the city!”
At her command, the five thousand or so Amazon warriors suddenly scattered, their long legs carrying them in a charge toward the massive wall.
“Charge! Charge!”
***
Everyone on the walls of Golden Wall City was completely dumbfounded.
‘Are those Amazon warriors insane? They dare to attack the city with less than five thousand troops? Is this not utter madness?’
Viewed from the sky, the scene looked particularly fantastical, like Don Quixote’s charge. Outside the northern wall was a plain stretching for miles, and the five thousand Amazon warriors were spread out in a wide formation. Their charging speed exceeded fifteen meters per second, faster than that of wolves or leopards.
“They are nothing but a pack of beasts. Beasts born from the seed of our West’s strongest men. And now, those beasts have betrayed the Western world.”
The commander of this battle was not Duchess Dyphas but Count Vytin. He was a vassal of the Russo Clan, the finest swordsman in Bipa Province, and the mentor of both Count Austin and Duchess Dyphas.
“Fire the trebuchets!”
*Thwump, thwump, thwump, thwump, thwump.*
At his command, a hundred trebuchets began to frantically launch gunpowder packs. Each pack contained about fifty pounds of relatively primitive black powder, but they would still possess astonishing power.
The gunpowder packs traced long arcs through the air before plummeting to the ground.
*BOOM!*
A world-shaking series of explosions erupted as a hundred massive fireballs blossomed across the ground. Endless thick smoke completely engulfed the five thousand Amazon warriors. In an instant, the battlefield was shrouded in dense smoke, making it impossible to see how many casualties there were. The spectacle of a hundred gunpowder packs exploding was truly astounding.
However, contrary to the enemy's expectations, the Amazon warriors were perfectly fine. Princess Dora had wanted to experience the power of the exploding gunpowder firsthand. Besides, the flight speed of the packs was too slow; while they were still in the air, predicting their landing points was all too easy. The Amazon warriors were able to quickly move away before the packs exploded, resulting in not a single casualty.
Of course, anyone else would not have been able to evade them. But their movement speed was simply astonishing, so escaping the blast zones was not a problem. Had the explosions been a denser carpet bombing, or had the blasts been more powerful, they too would not have been able to escape.
The people on the wall were waiting to see the results of the explosions. But soon, they saw five thousand Amazon warriors burst out from the thick smoke. Looking closely, their numbers seemed not to have diminished at all. In an instant, they had closed to within two hundred meters. However, the trebuchets needed time to reload, so it was already too late.
“Archers, fire! Fire!”
Count Vytin commanded, and another incredibly spectacular scene unfolded.
*Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip.*
It was truly a volley of arrows that blotted out the sky. With over ten thousand men firing at once, the arrow storm resembled a swarm of locusts, or a sky covered by dark clouds. When the arrows finally landed, they were as dense as a torrential downpour. Such a volley should have caused massive casualties, but it did not. The arrows were not aimed with their targets' future positions in mind. With their incredible speed, the Amazon warriors simply outran the rain of arrows.
“Fire! Fire!”
Count Vytin repeatedly gave the order, and volley after volley of arrows was unleashed like a carpet bombing. A second later, the five thousand Amazon warriors suddenly dove into the river in front of the city and vanished from sight, but the rain of arrows continued unabated.
*Thwip, thwip, thwip.*
Countless volleys of arrows densely filled the air and poured into the river. But as everyone knows, the resistance in air and the resistance in water are completely different. Even a bullet, when fired into water, will generally lose its lethality. The scenes often depicted in movies, where a person dives into the water and bullets still zip through to kill them, are all fake.
If you fire a pistol underwater at a wooden plank 0.9 meters away, it will only leave a small mark, demonstrating no destructive power. This is because the resistance in water is eight hundred times that of air. To fight underwater, one needs a special underwater pistol, and even then, its effective range is only about thirty meters. Of course, due to their unique shape, arrows have slightly better underwater lethality than bullets, but at this range, they were useless. So still, not a single Amazon warrior was injured.
*Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip.*
The volleys of arrows continued ceaselessly, and eventually, the surface of the river was covered with a countless number of floating arrows. But the five thousand Amazon warriors seemed to have vanished, not a single hair to be seen. The river was thirty-five meters wide, and from the bank to the city wall, there was still a distance of about twenty meters.
“Launch the fish oil!”
Count Vytin commanded, and smaller catapults swung into action, launching barrel after barrel of fish oil onto the river's surface.
*Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh.*
Dozens, then hundreds, and soon a thousand barrels were launched. In a moment, twenty to thirty thousand pounds of fish oil had been poured onto the water's surface. As the barrels burst, a massive amount of fish oil spread across the water. Count Vytin lit a fire arrow and drew his bow with all his might.
*WHOOSH!*
A ferocious inferno erupted from the river, soaring toward the sky. The entire river, thirty-five meters wide and stretching for miles, had turned into a sea of fire.