A strong smell of blood wafted from the top of the city wall, and Xia He walked across the defense line on the sticky blood plasma.
When he saw Erpang leaning against the arrow stack and gasping for breath, his tense shoulders and neck finally relaxed a little.
Erpang was the first person to follow him. At the beginning, he just wanted to be lazy when practicing martial arts. Now, there is still half of a barbarian's bone chain stuck on the blade of his saber.
"Brother He!"
Erpang used his knife to support himself and tried to stand up, but Xia He pushed him back to his original position.
"It's okay, just recover your strength first."
"Where's Ming San?"
"Bandage it under the arrow tower."
Erpang pointed to the west,
"The stubborn old man is not willing to take the blame for the new soldier."
Xia He looked in the direction he was looking and saw Ming San pouring wine on his shoulder while biting a sackcloth.
The barbed arrow was still stuck in the flesh, and the military doctor's hands were shaking as he held the pliers.
At this moment, the ground suddenly shook, and Niu Ben came out of the smoke carrying half of the city gate panel.
This iron tower-like man was covered in pieces of flesh, and the edge of the hundred-pound axe in his hand was completely bent.
"Xia Tou'er!"
He opened his mouth full of blood foam,
"There's still half a pot of broth left in the kitchen. When will we have dinner? I'm so hungry..."
Xia He looked at the trail of blood left behind Niu Ben and suddenly remembered the vision when this idiot broke through his blood refining three days ago.
Although the bear-bull body is not as good as Senior Sister Shan's sword spirit body, after breaking through the blood refining, the vigor of her blood is at least three or four times that of an ordinary person.
"Save your energy."
Xia He threw a skin bag over,
"Tuoba Lie's personal wolf riders haven't moved yet, so we still have to be careful next time."
The barbarians came like a tide for the whole afternoon. The first wave was slave soldiers covered in animal skins, who were smashed to pieces by rolling stones.
The second wave replaced the shield array with iron sheets, and Niu Ben swung the gate board and smashed three square arrays.
When the sun set, Tuoba Lie's wolf-head banner suddenly appeared in the smoke and dust rising from the end of the horizon.
"Tuoba Lie is here!"
"Set off the kerosene!"
Shan Xiong jumped onto the top of the wall and growled disdainfully.
However, Tuoba Lie came with great force, and the arc of light drawn by the scimitar in his hand actually split the falling rain of fire in half!
As soon as Niu Ben raised the axe halfway into the air, his palm was cracked by the shock.
At the critical moment, Shan Xiong's silver spear pierced the sun like a rainbow.
"I'll do it!"
The moment the two energies collided, all the soldiers within a ten-foot radius were knocked over.
Xia He saw with his own eyes that Tuoba Lie's ferocious pupils shrank into vertical lines, and the scimitar that had drunk countless blood was actually pierced by the tip of the gun and had spider-web-like cracks.
"Who are you? Get out of here! I'm looking for that guy named Xia!"
Tuoba Lie was extremely angry, but he didn't want to waste his energy fighting Shan Xiong. In the end, he was beaten back by everyone and had to retreat.
When dusk swallowed up the last ray of daylight, a mountain of corpses two men high had piled up at the gap in the city wall.
Xia He counted the casualties: there were seventeen child soldiers in the recruit camp, and only three could still stand and bandage their wounds.
Captain Wang, the leader of the team, was shot through the throat by a stray arrow, and he was still clutching a half-broken flag when he died;
"Two hundred and forty-seven killed, one hundred and thirty seriously injured..."
This is the cruelty of war!
The quartermaster's trembling voice echoed beneath the Great Wall.
The knuckles of Shan Ling's fingers turned white as she held the red brush, and the candlelight on the desk made the dark shadows under her eyes even darker.
"Send the wounded to the beacon tower and remove the door panels of the arrow tower on the east wall to make stretchers."
She suddenly stopped writing.
"How much old rice is left in the granary? Cook it all into thick porridge and distribute it to the injured soldiers."
In today's battle, although they managed to repel the barbarians' attack, they lost more than two hundred of the two thousand defenders in one day, and the subsequent attacks will become more and more fierce. At this rate of consumption, they will not last more than five days.
"Master Xia, General Shan wants you to come and discuss matters."
Xia He nodded, turned and walked towards the central military tent.
Inside the tent, the candlelight flickered, illuminating Shan Ling's stern face.
Hundreds of soldiers from each camp arrived one after another. Some of them were still wrapped in blood-stained bandages, and some looked pale, obviously not yet recovered from the fighting during the day.
Shan Ling sat in the main seat and glanced at everyone.
"Report casualties." Her voice was calm and firm.
Each centurion reported one by one, the numbers were cold and cruel. When the last centurion finished reporting, there was a dead silence in the tent.
There was a depressing atmosphere in the air, as if even breathing had become heavy.
After Shan Ling heard this, he issued orders one by one in an orderly manner, including treating the wounded, repairing fortifications, and providing post-war comfort and food and drink.
"General, we can't hold on at this rate."
A centurion suddenly spoke up, his voice trembling.
"Reinforcements are not coming yet, why should we wait here to die? We should retreat. It is not our responsibility if the city is lost anyway."
Before he could finish his words, Shan Xiong jumped up and slapped the hundred households hard in the face.
With a crisp "pa" sound, Bai Hu was knocked back, blood oozing from the corner of his mouth, and a tooth fell to the ground.
"It is a soldier's duty to protect his country!"
Shan Xiong's eyes widened with anger, his voice was like thunder,
"If you run away, what will happen to the people? Where will they flee to?"
The centurion covered his face, lowered his head and said nothing, but a trace of resentment flashed in his eyes.
Xia He watched coldly and sighed inwardly. He was too familiar with this look - fear and selfishness were enough to corrupt anyone's will.
Shan Ling raised her hand to stop Shan Xiong's anger, her tone calm but unquestionable:
"Everyone, I will not let you stay here and die. The Ministry of War will send two urgent letters every day within 800 miles. Reinforcements will arrive soon."
Her voice was steady and powerful, like a shot of adrenaline, calming everyone's emotions a little.
After the meeting, Shan Ling left Xia He alone.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com