Chapter 460 Hell on Earth
In an instant, everyone's eyes turned red.
The soldiers climbing the ladders screamed and tumbled down the ladders covered in flames. Those below were also caught off guard and were engulfed by the flames that suddenly spewed out from the trench. They screamed and rolled on the ground. Some even lost their footing in their panic and fell into the trench.
The thin layer of soil, branches, and straw that had covered the surface of the trench were burned away, and only then did everyone see that the trench, which was almost half a person deep and half a person wide, was filled with countless pottery jars.
It's filled with tung oil!
No wonder they were ignited by two rockets, which completely halted their offensive.
Those behind watched as the two towering walls of fire completely obscured the entire Fufeng city tower. The siege ladders were swallowed up and burned to ashes in no time, rendering them unusable. Their men dared not approach the city walls and could only watch helplessly as their comrades struggled and cried for help in the flames.
At this moment, Xue Xian was also stunned.
He roamed Longxi and fought countless battles, but he never expected that Fufeng, whom he had pushed to the limit, would have such a move—he had always seen fire used as an attack, but he never expected that someone would use fire as a defense!
The surrounding lieutenants and soldiers panicked and rushed forward, asking, "General, what should we do?"
"If this fire continues, all our siege ladders will be ruined!"
Xue Xian gritted his teeth and said, "Put out the fire!"
The lieutenant asked, "Put out the fire? But where will we get the water?"
Although the Xiaolin River was not far behind them, it was still quite a distance away, and water couldn't just come whenever they wanted; moreover, they were there to attack the city and wage war, and they didn't have anything to carry water with them, so even if they were near water, they couldn't put out a fire nearby.
Moreover, the people on the city wall are waiting for them to cause trouble.
Just as everyone was in a panic, they suddenly turned around and saw more than twenty waterwheels that had long been forgotten in the crowd!
Isn't there water there?
Xue Xian immediately said, "Quickly, use the water there to put out the fire!"
Even before he shouted, the people around the waterwheel had already had the same idea. Everyone worked hard to push the waterwheel back towards the city gate. However, the waterwheel was extremely heavy, and with the battlefield full of people running back and forth, the vehicle could not move. Someone in the crowd shouted, "The terrain on the other side of the city gate is lower, just release the water!"
The person pushing the cart immediately understood.
However, they searched for a long time but couldn't find the valve of the waterwheel. Just when everyone was in a bit of a panic, they suddenly heard a loud shout: "Make way!"
Everyone looked up and saw Xue Xian galloping towards them on horseback, his broadsword flashing in the air like a bright arc of light!
Everyone immediately understood and hurriedly stepped back.
Xue Xian rode over at full speed, and his heavy crescent blade slammed down on the corner of the waterwheel. With a "crack," the waterwheel was cleaved open, splinters flew everywhere, and a stream of cool liquid gushed out, splashing the faces of everyone around.
Immediately afterwards, water gushed out of the waterwheel, and soon flowed into a stream on the ground.
Seeing this, the people around him followed suit, brandishing their swords and hacking at the remaining waterwheels. In an instant, several more waterwheels were broken, and the water inside surged out, gathering together and rushing towards the city gate.
But just then, those whose faces were splashed with water reached up to wipe their faces and suddenly smelled a strange odor.
"This, this is—"
Whether it was them or not, as the water from more than a dozen water carts gathered on the ground and flowed under everyone's feet, more and more people smelled a strange odor.
Standing on horseback, Xue Xian looked at everyone's expressions and suddenly felt a pang of unease.
This smell is just like the smell that wafted from the moat below the city wall!
At that moment, Xue Xian's eyes turned red. He abruptly spurred his horse around, galloping forward while roaring, "Get out of the way! Get out of the way! That's—"
It's tung oil!
Before he could finish speaking, the water gushing from the dozen or so waterwheels had already converged and rushed towards the foot of the city wall in front of him. Just then, a spark flew out from a burning ladder, streaking across the air before gently landing in the surging water.
There was a loud "boom"!
Xue Xian stared wide-eyed, his eyes wide with horror, as a huge ball of flame suddenly exploded beneath the city wall.
Immediately, the flames surged upstream along the water's flow, leaping past the feet of the frantically running Longxi soldiers, like countless golden fire lotuses blooming. Each lotus devoured a person, and instantly countless soldiers were engulfed in flames, running and screaming desperately. Some were even instantly consumed by the flames, reduced to charred remains. But the flames were not satisfied; in the blink of an eye, they had climbed back to the waterwheel, leaping upwards along the gap slashed by the broadswords—
Boom!
Another deafening roar.
The waterwheel transformed into a fireball and exploded with a deafening roar. Countless flames mixed with shards of wood pierced the bodies of those around it. The Longxi soldiers, who had not yet been engulfed by the flames spreading across the ground, were struck by this wave of attacks and cried out in agony. A large number of them fell to the ground instantly.
Xue Xian could hardly believe his eyes.
But all of this—the towering flames, the burning and exploding waterwheels one after another, the soldiers engulfed by the flames and knocked to the ground by the flying wood chips—all of this happened vividly!
Right in front of him!
The flames not only consumed countless lives of the Longxi soldiers, but also consumed his reason.
Xue Xian stared blankly at what was in front of him, and had even forgotten to react.
Compared to the previous two times when he was almost defeated by Yuwen Ye, he never expected that Yuwen Ye would fall ill and that Fufeng City, which he thought was already too weak to be defeated—in fact, it was indeed too weak to be defeated and was almost in his hands—would launch such a desperate counterattack at the last moment.
And with a single, fatal blow!
Xue Xian suddenly raised his head, his blood-red eyes looking at the other side of the flames, at the slender and frail figure standing on the high city tower.
At this moment, those eyes, also reddened by the flames, shone with an unusually calm light as they looked down at the carnage below.
Shang Ruyi took a deep breath.
The flames that had just risen from the trench nearly engulfed her, but fortunately, Shan Tong'er behind her reacted quickly and pulled her away, preventing her from falling into the same hellish state as the people below. Now, her plan had worked in full force; the flames had consumed most of the attacking Longxi army, and those who hadn't had time to retreat were rendered helpless by the burning and exploding waterwheels. Yet, she felt a strange calmness.
She took another step back and said in a deep voice, "Dai Junliang!"
But at that moment, his voice was immediately swallowed up by the cheers that followed. Shang Ruyi turned his head and found that the soldiers around him were all cheering in shock at the scene before them.
The archers around him, who had just been dejected and utterly dejected, were now overjoyed.
"Very good!"
"Hahaha, this is truly a stroke of luck!"
"These Longxi soldiers are doomed!"
Just as everyone was cheering, several trembling figures climbed onto the city wall. They were Ma Xu and Song Yu, who had just fled into the city in a panic and escaped with their lives. The two were in a sorry state, their faces covered with blood and mud. At this moment, they were dumbfounded when they saw the sea of fire below the city and the cheers of the soldiers around them.
Ma Xu muttered, "What? Why is there such a big fire? Weren't we transporting water?"
The scent wafting in the air immediately gave them the answer.
Tung oil.
Although they did fill the car with a lot of river water when they went to the river during the day, half of it was tung oil that would ignite at the slightest touch!
"So much tung oil..."
Song Yu's eyes were bloodshot from the flames, and almost instinctively he said, "No wonder, no wonder we couldn't find tung oil—"
Before he could finish speaking, Shang Ruyi in front of him turned around and glanced at him.
Although he had just felt he was about to die from the general's wife's arrow and didn't know why she had stopped, he didn't even have the strength to go forward and question her before he was pushed aside by a group of people surging up around him. Dai Junliang excitedly rushed forward and said to Shang Ruyi, "Madam, we succeeded!"
His eyes were almost reddened by the flames below, but this time, they were an excited, blood-red, as if the heat of the flames had ignited his passion.
Only then did Shang Ruyi turn her gaze away from Song Yu.
"Don't rush,"
Seeing Shang Junliang's excited expression, Shang Ruyi became even more composed: "It's not time for us to celebrate yet."
Dai Junliang was taken aback: "Then—"
"Take this opportunity and have the archers fire immediately!"
"...!"
Dai Junliang immediately understood.
Now is indeed not the time for them to celebrate their victory. Although Xue Xian's men can no longer attack, everyone knows that the main force of the Longxi army has arrived. He has nearly 300,000 troops, while Fufeng's troops are already insufficient. Previously, he had killed a full 80,000 of them. The two sides are vastly different in strength. If they do not take advantage of this moment to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, and give them some time to recuperate and make a comeback, Fufeng will never have such an opportunity again!
Dai Junliang took a deep breath, and when he looked at Shang Ruyi again, the admiration in his eyes was palpable.
Previously, he was somewhat astonished by the cunning of the general's wife's scheme—based on the two military orders given by Yuwen Ye when he fell ill, namely "close the city gates tightly and dig deep ditches," she ordered him to collect tung oil in the city, bury most of it in the huge ditch dug at the city gate, and then pour the remaining tung oil into these specially made twenty-odd waterwheels.
These waterwheels had an additional layer; the bottom layer was filled with tung oil, while the top layer was used to hold water.
When Xue Xian's siege ladders were engulfed by flames spewing from the trenches, he was naturally eager to use water to put out the fire. The reason he had just sounded the retreat and ordered Song Yu, Ma Xu, and others to abandon the water carts and enter the city was to provide them with "water" to put out the fire.
Water and oil are incompatible. When the water was released, the deadly tung oil also gushed out in the middle and floated on the surface of the water.
Therefore, wherever the water flows, the flames will burn!
Unexpectedly, this dangerous and ruthless plan came from a woman's mouth, and it has been fully realized today, at this moment!
What was even more unexpected was that, faced with the success before her, Shang Ruyi showed no excitement whatsoever. Instead, she became the calmest person among them, and even thought of pressing her advantage to the fullest extent possible to cripple the enemy's fighting strength.
She wanted to fight and cripple Xue Xian!
At this moment, a surge of fighting spirit also welled up in Dai Junliang's heart. He immediately turned his head and shouted, "Archers, prepare!"
The soldiers around them were already invigorated by the sudden turn of events, and upon hearing this, they immediately understood. The archers who had just been there rushed forward, and although the battlements were scorching hot from the flames below and the air was sweltering, they did not care at all. They endured the intense heat and charged forward, aiming their arrows at the Longxi army that had begun to retreat below.
Suddenly, arrows rained down like a storm!
Those soldiers who had just escaped the inferno and hadn't even had time to extinguish the flames burning at their feet and on their bodies were once again struck by a near-devastating blow. In an instant, the sharp whistling of arrows piercing the sky and the screams of agony echoed throughout the entire Fufeng County.
Blood once again stained the sky red.
Seeing this scene, Shang Ruyi's expression and the temperature in her eyes became even colder than before.
Even as the archers who had been wounded and dragged off the city walls surged back up, vying to shoot arrows at the Longxi army below who were beginning to flee the fire, she silently and slowly withdrew from the crowd.
Just as she was quietly watching the crowd, full of vigor, firing arrows at the fleeing Longxi army below the city wall, a gentle, smiling voice rang out behind her.
"Sister-in-law, you really surprised me."
"...!"
Shang Ruyi's heart skipped a beat.
She slowly turned around, and before she knew it, Yuwen Qian had walked back behind her from the other side of the city wall, still holding the bow that had just shot out a wall of fire with an arrow, and there seemed to be a trace of flame still lingering on his body.
However, his eyes were unusually calm.
Those clear, bluish-gray eyes still held a faint, unfathomable smile as they quietly watched Shang Ruyi, as if the killing and struggle ahead were nothing but an illusion to him. He could only see the person in front of him, silently scrutinizing something.
Then, I examined this sentence and came to the fore.
This phrase wasn't entirely unfamiliar to Shang Ruyi. When she and Yuwen Ye were newly married and agreed to be husband and wife in name only, Yuwen Ye had said this to her more than once.
Now, these words came from Yuwen Qian's mouth.
Almost instinctively, Shang Ruyi was about to utter her usual response to this question—
We were strangers to begin with.
But the next moment, she stopped, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Big brother, is it really unexpected?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com