A short while later.
Between heaven and earth, only the thunderous fury of galloping warhorses and the powerful, deadly howls of soldiers remained.
On the walls of Dragon City, the soldiers of the two armies who were originally engaged in close combat were also attracted by the sudden sound of hooves and roars that came from afar.
They subconsciously stopped wielding swords and spears and fighting fiercely, and unanimously looked up at the outside of the city.
A tall, golden figure, one with the horse, sped towards the setting sun, emerging from the gaps in the ruined walls of Dragon City.
Following closely behind were tens of thousands of light cavalrymen clad in black armor, all wielding long spears and short swords as they charged forward.
The sunlight shone on the sharp blades of their weapons, creating a new reflection. The gleaming, cold light resembled a phoenix rising from the ashes, spreading its magnificent wings in the setting sun.
"Hahaha!"
Seeing this, Pang Xianchu, the valiant general guarding Longcheng, who stood proudly atop the city gate tower with one hand holding his sword, looked up to the sky and roared with tears in his eyes:
"Heaven has not forsaken my Prince Jin's mansion, Heaven has not forsaken my Broken Army, Heaven has not forsaken my Pang Xianchu!"
"All generals of the Broken Army, heed my command—"
Pang Xianchu pointed his Longquan sword and, standing atop the city gate tower, delivered a commanding address from above:
"Open the city gates, welcome the Prince of Jin, defeat the enemy army, kill the enemy general, accumulate military merits, and receive rewards!"
"Open the city gates, welcome the Prince of Jin, defeat the enemy army, kill the enemy general, accumulate military merits, and receive rewards!"
Along the long, narrow city wall of Longcheng, soldiers of the defending Polu Army, still fighting the enemy, roared in unison. Though only a few hundred men, their roars had the force of a thousand troops.
At this moment, the soldiers of the Polu Army, who had been fighting the enemy for several hours and should have been exhausted, seemed to be given infinite power by some immortal.
Wielding his sword, he slashed and hacked relentlessly, instantly slaughtering the surrounding Yunhui soldiers with overwhelming force, leaving their heads rolling and blood flowing like a river.
Only then did Zhou Wuyang, the deputy commander of the Yunhui Army, suddenly wake up.
He no longer cared about his arrogant shouts of "Capture the Princess of Jin alive and divide the women of the Prince's mansion equally" and hurriedly ordered the entire army to rush down the city wall and defend the city gate to the death, determined not to let the Polu Army's reinforcements climb the city wall.
"All generals, listen to my command! Do not lose your composure! The enemy cavalry is not good at attacking cities. All soldiers, quickly destroy the siege equipment to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the situation to scale the walls!"
"Left and right guards, listen to my command! Follow me and charge down the city walls to defend the city gates to the death! We must not allow enemy reinforcements to enter the city!"
"If we hold the city gates, there is still a glimmer of hope. But if we let enemy reinforcements into the city, all of us generals will be slaughtered!"
"Brothers, the time to fight to the death has come! Kill!"
"Kill them!"
Under Zhou Wuyang's command, the Yunhui Army soldiers, who had been momentarily stunned, finally came to their senses.
Then, they frantically began to destroy the ladders, siege towers, and other climbing equipment that they had painstakingly erected on the city walls, attempting a desperate last stand.
Zhou Wuyang personally led eight hundred heavily armored guards, charging straight along the wide inner city's horse-riding path, their murderous aura palpable as they headed towards the Yongding Gate of Longcheng.
"Open the city gates, welcome the Prince of Jin, defeat the enemy army, kill the enemy general, accumulate military merits, and receive rewards!"
At this moment, the soldiers of the Polu Army who were holding the Yongding Gate of Longcheng were also shouting in unison the orders of Lieutenant General Pang Xianchu.
One after another, they rushed to the city gate, doing their utmost to move the heavy objects placed there to protect the gate from the enemy's battering rams, racing against time to open the gate and welcome Prince Jin and the reinforcements into the city.
However, in order to defend the city gate from being breached by the enemy, the soldiers of the Polu Army guarding the city gate had prepared a large number of heavy objects such as huge stones and huge logs to prop up the gate, which were by no means easy to move.
Furthermore, when the battle on the city wall was at its most intense, Pang Xianchu, who had no more troops to spare, drew another troop from the two squads of soldiers guarding the city gate to join the battle on the city wall.
The remaining team faced an even greater challenge in moving the boulders and logs in a short time to open the city gates and welcome the Prince of Jin and his reinforcements.
"Brothers, give it your all! The enemy's main force is already charging in!"
The commander of the Polu Army guarding the city gate was on the verge of tears.
Right now, half of the heavy objects at the city gate have not yet been moved, and the enemy's main force is less than a thousand paces away from the city gate. They could be upon him in the blink of an eye. How could he not be extremely anxious!
Unfortunately, no matter how anxious the centurion was, he could not change the cruel reality. Instead, he exacerbated the panic among the soldiers guarding the city gate.
Several soldiers who were moving the giant logs slipped due to their distraction and were crushed to the ground by the hundreds of kilograms of logs, spitting out blood on the spot.
Seeing this, Zhou Wuyang, the deputy general of the Yunhui Army who was leading eight hundred personal guards to come quickly, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Yongding Gate could not be opened for the time being, and the scoundrel Chen Huai'an could not enter the city.
This battle is far from over!
Just when Zhou Wuyang thought Yongding Gate was within his grasp, a group of people suddenly rushed out from an alley ahead. The leader was a skinny boy of about thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed in fancy clothes with a pointed mouth and monkey-like face.
The young man pointed at Zhou Wuyang and shouted arrogantly, "Who goes there? State your name!"
Pfft!
Seeing this, Zhou Wuyang almost burst out laughing in anger. He thought to himself, "Where did this stupid, dim-witted son of a landlord come from? His head must have been kicked by a donkey!"
Normally, Zhou Wuyang might have had the leisure to tease this silly boy.
But at this moment, he had no time to waste on this fool.
With just a glance, two heavily armored guards, wielding ring-pommel swords, immediately charged towards the unarmed civilians in front of them.
"Ha, you audacious scoundrel, how dare you disregard this prince! You're asking for a beating!"
The gaunt youth who called himself a prince glared at him angrily, then shouted sternly:
"Guards, bring up my golden hammer!"
Soon, eight servants, in groups of four, laboriously carried a pair of golden hammers to the skinny boy.
Almost simultaneously, two heavily armored guards rushed towards the boy with ring-pommel swords, and without saying a word, they began to slash.
Hey!
"Young man, you have no sportsmanship, you resorted to sneak attack, huh!"
Facing the fierce slashes of two heavily armored guards wielding ring-pommel swords, the skinny youth easily dodged and weaved away from the attacks.
Then, he grabbed a golden hammer with one hand and delivered a muffled hammer blow to the two heavily armored enemy soldiers who charged at him again with their swords.
boom!
boom!
With two crisp, loud sounds, the two heavily armored enemy soldiers were instantly sent flying several feet away by the skinny youth's hammer, before crashing heavily in front of his deputy, Zhou Wuyang.
Both of them bled from all seven orifices and died on the spot without even uttering a sound.
Zhou Wuyang didn't even see how the skinny young man made his move before his two veteran soldiers were killed instantly by the young man's hammer blow.
At this moment, the boy opposite him effortlessly and imposingly carried a pair of golden hammers that would require the combined strength of four adults to lift on his shoulders.
His still-childish face revealed an arrogant and domineering expression as he spoke again, "Hey, who are you? State your name!"
"This prince's golden hammer never strikes down nameless rats!"
puff--
Zhou Wuyang almost coughed up a mouthful of blood, but he no longer dared to underestimate the skinny boy with superhuman strength in front of him.
They also recognized the pair of golden hammers he was wielding; they were clearly the Thunder Drum Golden Hammer, the foremost of the Four Fierce Hammers and Eight Great Hammers.
Zhou Wuyang said, "Boy, I am Zhou Wuyang, the deputy general of the Yunhui Army and the general of the Great Xin Dynasty. Who are you?"
"Zhou Wuyang? Never heard of him!"
The boy scoffed, "My father is the Prince of Jin, and my brother is also the Prince of Jin. Who do you think I am?"
"Chen, Chen Longxiang?"
Zhou Wuyang blurted out, "You are Chen Longxiang, the second son of the Prince of Jin, whose birth was accompanied by an extraordinary phenomenon and who was born with superhuman strength?"
"Weren't you sent to Longhu Mountain to cultivate by Chen Polu?"
Ha ha!
Chen Longxiang burst into laughter and said, "You know quite a lot!"
Then, changing the subject sharply, he said, "But do you know that bad people die from talking too much? Watch out—"
Before he finished speaking, Chen Longxiang appeared out of nowhere, wielding a pair of golden hammers, and charged into the midst of eight hundred heavily armored enemy soldiers.
In an instant, corpses flew everywhere near Yongding Gate in Longcheng, and screams echoed.
Taking advantage of the moment when Chen Longxiang was using his golden hammer to block Zhou Wuyang's eight hundred personal guards from seizing the gate, a group of Polu Army soldiers left to guard Yongding Gate of Longcheng finally moved the huge stones, logs and other heavy objects piled up at the city gate.
Then, the guards of the Polu Army worked together and finally opened the two heavy wooden city gates from the inside.
As the city gates opened wide, Prince Chen Huai'an of Jin, clad in golden armor, wielding a halberd, and riding a yellow horse, stepped onto the drawbridge spanning the moat. He then charged into the city gates alone, charging towards the enemy.
Following closely behind were the eighteen riders of Dragon City, their silver armor gleaming, and twenty thousand light cavalry in black armor.
Ten thousand horses galloped over the city gate, like a tornado passing through, sweeping up a sky full of yellow sand that blotted out the sun and made it impossible to open one's eyes.
The moment Chen Huai'an rode into the city, he saw his younger brother, Chen Longxiang, wielding a pair of golden hammers, hacking away at heavily armored enemy soldiers, one blow at a time.
Chen Huai'an, his face contorted with anger, rebuked, "Long Xiang, who gave you permission to commit this heinous crime?"
Chen Longxiang looked at his elder brother with a wronged expression and whispered, "Brother, they attacked me with knives first!"
Chen Huai'an sighed, then looked at his younger brother Chen Longxiang, who was already showing signs of adulthood, with a doting expression, and said gently:
"Very well, I'll go to Qixia Temple on Fengming Mountain to find that old monk in black and have him perform a ritual to deliver the souls of those who died under your golden hammer and drum!"
"You remember this too, and this is the last time. Never commit murder again!"
Chen Longxiang grinned, revealing a set of neat, white teeth, and replied crisply, "Brother, I understand!"
Afterwards, Chen Huai'an stopped paying attention to his younger brother Chen Longxiang and rode his horse up the walkway of Longcheng City Wall, heading straight for the front line of the battlefield where fierce fighting was still taking place.
When Chen Huai'an led a large contingent of reinforcements onto the city wall, the morale of the Yunhui Army, which had been trying to fight like cornered beasts, instantly collapsed, and countless soldiers fled in all directions.
The former deputy general, Fan Wuji, immediately brandished his sword, raised his arm, and shouted: "Those who submit to the King of Jin will prosper, those who oppose the King of Jin will perish!"
"Those who submit to the Jin king will prosper, those who oppose the Jin king will perish!"
The remaining Dragon City Iron Cavalry soldiers who had climbed the city wall roared in unison.
In an instant, countless Yunhui soldiers dropped their weapons and knelt on the long, narrow city wall strewn with corpses, shouting "Long live the Prince of Jin!"
Chen Huai'an, full of vigor, rode his horse over the corpses of enemy soldiers atop the walls of Longcheng.
Upon reaching Xiguan, a burly man with shattered armor and an obscured face suddenly rose from the pile of corpses.
A pair of bloodied hands firmly lifted the battle flag of the Eighth Regiment of the Po Lu Army, which had been severed by the enemy.
Behind him, the tattered battle flag of the Polu Army was already soaked in blood, but the four-clawed golden dragon on the scarlet flag looked all the more lifelike.
As the sun sets, a four-clawed golden dragon soars in the wind, its sharp eyes seemingly blinking in the afterglow.
Suddenly, a weak, hoarse but resolute voice pierced the city, shaking the heavens and the earth:
"The Eighth Regiment, flag bearer Xiao Po is here!"
"As long as the flag stands, the city stands!"
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