"Come with me, let's kill these bastards!!"
Ran Min drew his longsword, turned his horse around, and charged toward the attack point.
He believed they had followed him, but never dared to turn back.
Ran Min's troops filed out from the flank. "Wedge formation," he instructed. The assault team formed the spearhead, with him at the tip. Zhao Zhen was on his right.
"Follow me closely!" Ran Min shouted as he kicked his horse to start the journey.
They rode very close together, knee to knee, along the high wall.
The column circled around the base of the fortress, gradually increasing its pace. Arrows rained down from the walls, stones swirled overhead, blindly crashing into the ground and the river, shattering steel and flesh.
Just ahead, enemy troops swarmed forward, forcefully pushing a massive iron-headed black oak battering ram. Archers surrounded them, ready to fire arrows at anyone who appeared near the city gate.
"Prepare your spears," Ran Min commanded, and began his charge.
The ground was wet and slippery, half mud and half blood. His horse tripped over a corpse, its hooves slipping and stirring up the mud, almost causing him to tumble off the saddle before reaching the enemy ranks. Fortunately, the horse and rider managed to maintain their balance.
The enemy troops below the city gate turned around and hurriedly dealt with the sudden attack.
Ran Min raised his battle axe and shouted, "Long live the Great Xia!" The crowd responded loudly.
The spearheads shot out in formation, emitting a long, sharp whistle of steel and silk, while the rolling hooves and sharp sword blades mingled with sparks.
At the last moment, Zhao Zhen leveled his spear and used the banner of the Nine-Clawed Golden Dragon of the Great Xia Dynasty to pierce the chest of an enemy wearing leather armor, lifting the man off the ground. The spear shaft then broke.
Before Ran Min stood a Qiuzi cavalryman, wielding a sharp Qiuzi scimitar.
"He doesn't have a helmet," was Ran Min's first reaction.
So he used all his strength, combined with the momentum of the horse, to swing his longsword and cleave the man's neck in two.
The impact of the collision caused numbness in his shoulder.
"If Xu Chu saw this, he would definitely laugh at me. That guy can split a person in half vertically with one axe." Ran Min thought to himself as he continued riding.
A spear whizzed past his ear.
"That was close!"
Zhao Zhen sped past, his spear slicing down every enemy who passed by.
He vaguely heard cheers from the people on the city walls. The battering ram had been forgotten on the muddy ground; those who had rallied around it had either fled or turned to fight.
Ran Min spurred his horse and knocked down an archer, severing the arm of a Qiuz soldier from shoulder to armpit, before grazing a Dashi soldier's helmet.
Rushing to the battering ram, his large red horse reared up, but Zhao Zhen's black horse leaped past him. Zhao Zhen himself was a skilled warrior; he was like a death knell, and wherever his spear went, men and horses fell!
Ran Min finally spurred his horse to cross the battering ram.
The enemy troops are in retreat.
Suddenly, an arrow struck his armor with a "thud," missing his eye by only an inch.
He was startled and nearly fell off his horse.
"Don't just stand there like an idiot!"
So Ran Min rode his horse and wandered among the scattered corpses.
The wedge formation had fallen apart, with everyone fighting their own battles.
Suddenly, an idea popped into Ran Min's mind.
"The enemy forces number more than that!"
"But why is the resistance so weak?"
"Damn it, we've fallen for their trap!"
Just then, a roar like a tsunami was heard.
A massive enemy force emerged from the forest.
"Form ranks! Form ranks!" Ran Min shouted hurriedly.
The number of troops that could be assembled was very small; the rest were either dead or scattered.
As the enemy drew near, Ran Min realized he could no longer raise his longsword; he was utterly exhausted.
"If you have the guts, then come and kill me!" Ran Min shouted.
They are indeed trying.
Another spearman charged at him. Ran Min circled the attacker, quickly cutting off his spearhead, then his hand and arm. An archer, now without a bow, lunged at him like a dagger, but was kicked in the thigh by the red horse and fell flat on his back. Ran Min laughed heartily.
Suddenly, before Ran Min could react, a figure lunged at him from the side, throwing him off his horse.
With a "plop," Ran Min fell into the moat.
The river water suddenly rushed into his helmet. He quickly ripped it off and swam towards the makeshift "bridge" until the water was only up to his neck.
He had just come to his senses when he heard a loud "smack," like a thunderclap, as the "bridge" beneath him tilted and slid him back into the water.
Therefore, he had no choice but to change direction and swim towards the city gate.
Amidst the hustle and bustle, he could vaguely hear someone calling his name.
Ran Min tried his best to shout back, "Here! Here, I'm here, come and save me!" But his voice became so faint that he could barely hear it himself.
"General, seize me! General Ran!"
Looking up, he saw that the person who had come was Zhao Zhen.
He stood at the foot of the city wall, stretching out one hand.
So he reached out, and only when his fingers touched in the air did he feel a sense of unease...
Zhao Zhen stretched out his left hand, why...?
Was it this thought that made him hesitate? Or was it an instinctive reaction upon seeing the spear?
He didn't know. In the blink of an eye, the spear pierced through, a cold touch followed by excruciating pain.
"I'm sorry, General Ran!" Zhao Zhen said, "I'm sorry for the sake of the people of Xichuan City!"
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