Chapter 186 Battle of Liyang - Part 16

Chapter 186 – Battle of Liyang - Part 16

Tong watched the incoming troops from the top of the wall. The moment the attackers reached the line of 400 meters from the wall, Tong also gave his order.

"Catapult and ballista units, fire at will!"

All catapults and ballistae on the wall launched their stones, which scattered in mid-air and crashed onto the incoming shield bearers on the frontline.

The stones kill hundreds of shield soldiers in an instant as they crushed their skulls and other parts of their bodies. The hail of stones did not stop the soldiers from moving forward.

They pushed the wagons of soil forward and reached the moat line. Without waiting for an order, they dump the soil into the moat to fill it up. A hundred wagons lined up and made a path for their siege ladders and towers.

Tong watched their actions and took notes of their way of fighting in siege warfare.

'A shallow line of moat won't cut it. The trenches in Anping County were much better.'

He allowed Zhu Jun's soldiers to move forward although he could have flooded the boiling oil in the moat and ignite it again like he used to. Tong wanted to crush them here instead of buying times, so he required Zhu Jun forces to move forward into his range.

With the moat partly covered enough for the siege towers and siege ladders to pass through, Zhu Jun ordered the shieldsmen to move forward to get rid of the spike barricades.

At this point, they were already 300 meters from the wall.

"Switch the stones to oil barrels!" Tong ordered the catapult crews.

Within a minute, the crews' strong men loaded a 50-liter-barrel onto each catapult spoon.

"Fire at will."

Hundreds of barrels flew into the sky and landed on the ground, splattering the content inside the containers.

Slimy and sticky black liquid revealed itself in front of Zhu Jun's soldiers.

"Lamb oil!" One of the soldiers shouted.

"Careful! Stay away from it!"

The shieldsmen of Zhu Jun avoided these black liquid like the plague as they knew what they were. In their knowledge, they were lamb oil which was commonly used in daily lives, and they knew that this oil could catch fire with a simple ignition or a spark.

This lamb oil was a luxurious item that only nobles and military commanders used because they were a rare commodity. In this era, the Chineses had already found these black oil from digging over 200 meters into the ground. Because they did not have the scientific knowledge, they could only use it as lamp oil.

However, in Tong's terms and his previous life knowledge, they were not just lamb oil.

They were the crude oil!

Tong used his [Create Food] by thinking of a food ingredient which was made by using petroleum products. Instead of creating the artificial food dyes which synthesized from the petroleum products, Tong created its original source, the crude oil.

The crude oil Tong threw at the Imperial soldiers contained many mixed substances, which was easily flammable.

In the modern world, petroleum products, which derived from crude oil, were everywhere in the people's daily life. Aside from fuel, diesel, wax, and gas, there were products that could shock every citizen of the 21st century if they knew about it.

Plastics, aspirin, vitamin capsules, lipsticks, artificial food color dyes, trash bags, paints, and over thousands of products were the byproducts of petroleum.

Tong remembered that when he was a child, there was an uproar about the ban of several colors of artificial food dye as some of them could potentially cause cancer. The researchers revealed that these products were harmful to human bodies as they had substances from crude oil. He also remembered that he ate a few sugar snacks which were dyed with one of those petroleum byproducts.

'At least, I didn't die from cancer.' Tong thought.

…

Zhu Jun observed Tong's tactic from the top of his watchtower. His facial expression turned ugly once he saw the crude oil.

'Their general is playing with fire again! My siege weapons are vulnerable against these things.'

'I heard he's a sorcerer. In the end, it's just a petty trick!'

"Cover the oil with the dirt and sand! Keep moving forward!"

Zhu Jun roared to give morale to the frontline troops.

Unfortunately, he coughed and staggered from the dizziness after the shout. His breathing was fast and rough as he could not get enough air to his lung. The fever did not go away. It returned to hamper his health, and it gave him a severe head pain. His felt everything was so cold that he was frozen despite having warm animal fur clothes wrapping around him. The stomach also twisted and turned as if he had a stomach ulcer. Zhu Jun felt like dying at any moment.

"General!"

The aides and the officers supported him in frantic. They thought that Zhu Jun was still sick.

*Cough*

Zhu Jun's condition worsened. His cough did not stop for a whole minute. When he stopped coughing, his face was already as paled as a white sheet, yet rashes of red dots still appeared on his face and skin.

"General!"

The old general sighed. Because the unknown sickness was tormenting him, he mustered his strength to his men another order.

"Don't charge in recklessly. Slowly move in and clear the paths for the siege weapons. You don't have to clear all the barricades. Make a few paths for the siege engines so that we can get on top of the wall."

The soldiers were the verge of tears. They thought that this was Zhu Jun's final will.

The reality was also as the lieutenants thought. Zhu Jun was suffering from sepsis, and his condition was critical.

"We promise you, general! We will kill the rebels!"

"We'll kill the rebels for you and Lord Huangfu Song!"

Zhu Jun nodded and smiled. He was escorted back to the main camp on the other side of the river to get a good rest. He left the command tokens to his aides and lieutenants to complete his unfinished tasks.

The main camp was thrown into an uproar the moment they realized the general was taken back to the camp. However, the officers aroused their men.

"The general gave his last will! Clear the paths for the siege weapons and kill the rebels!"

The heart of Zhu Jun's soldiers shook. Some panicked, some angered. They panicked because they lost both of their supreme commanders. They angered as they respect the two generals like they were their fathers.

The 43,000 main army troops shouted a warcry. The officers then decided to be aggressive.

"Ignore the lamb oil! Push the siege weapons forward!"

…

Tong watched the reaction of Zhu Jun's troops with a deep frown.

There was a commotion happening for ten minutes inside Zhu Jun's main camp. Tong could not see what had happened in there, but it looked very chaotic.

'Something is not right. This tactic is not Zhu Jun's style.'

He intentionally revealed his card to intimidate Zhu Jun and force him to approach the wall slowly. He thought that once Zhu Jun knew he had the crude oil, he would have avoided pushing the siege weapons into the catapult range in today's siege. Then, he would have sent cannon fodders to clear out the barricades first.

If such a scenario happened, Tong could wither down the Imperial force's number by picking off the cannon fodders.

However, the reality was cruel. The Imperial soldiers ignored Tong's warning and pushed the siege weapons forward.

'I don't know if they are dumb, or they are impatience.'

'It doesn't matter. They will die either way.'

Tong turned to look at his officers beside him.

"Aim the catapults and ballistae at those siege ladders and archer towers. For the towers of archers, use the stones to break their foundation. Use the black oil at the siege ladders. Get a squad of archers to shoot fire arrows at the oiled location. Destroy all of them!"

"Yes, sir!"

The officers relayed Tong's orders with flags. In a minute, all catapults began shooting barrels of crude oil and stones at the incoming siege towers and siege ladders.

On each archer tower, a hundred of Zhu Jun's archers stationed on top of it. All tower was 7 meters tall, which was higher than the Liyang City wall. They looked at the wall of Liyang in nervousness as they were afraid of the catapults and the stones.

It did not take long for a barrage of stones to fly at one of them. The rocks did not hit the soldiers on top of the tower. They slammed into the wooden pillars and cracked the foundation. The tower collapsed along with the archers on top of it, killing everyone with the gravity of earth.

The siege ladders did not fare so well either. The square walls that protected the soldiers inside were hit by barrels of crude oil, and several fire arrows hit the protective walls later. The combination of crude oil and fire set the siege ladder aflame in a second, roasting the hundreds of soldiers inside the ladder platforms.

The shield bearers on the frontlines began to push harder. They used the corpses of their friends as shields to cover themselves. Once they got to the spike barricades, they destroyed them and made a path for the siege engines. The moment they let go of their hands off their shields and dealt with the obstacles, a dozen arrows from the wall flew pierced them as if they were waiting for the chance.

Despite the attempt to rush to the wall and clear the path, more obstacles kept piling up for the Imperial soldiers as the corpses and the remains of the broken siege engines eventually got on the way.

Everything was going to Tong's favor, which made Tong tiled his head in doubt.

"Is it supposed to be this easy?"

Thirty minutes later, Tong's jinx became super effective. Ten of fifty archer towers got to their range. The archers on top of the towers started firing and Tong's men.

"Catapults! Forget the siege ladders and aim at those towers!" Tong shouted again.

His order was a bit late. The Imperial soldiers managed to fire a volley at the soldiers on top of the wall, killing several hundreds of Tong's archers.

Fortunately, there were only ten towers and one thousand enemy archers. Or else, Tong's 15,000 men would have been in trouble. It took two more sets of catapult barrages to destroy the towers.

However, Tong still could not be at ease. Five of the one hundred siege ladders managed to slip through the heavy barrages of fire arrows and crude oil attacks. They got into 50 meters range of the wall, and they were too close for the catapults to toss oil barrels at them.

The archers attempted to light the siege engines with their fire arrows. They managed to make them catch fire, but the flame was weak, and it did not stop their advancement.

Tong turned to look at the approaching siege ladders. Two of the siege ladders was the far left and three were on the far right.

"I'll help the right wall. Everyone else with free hands, defend the left!"

As soon as Tong finished his words, he overclocked his brain and rushed toward the three incoming towers. Tong jumped on top of one of the archers and started running by stepping on the helmets of his soldiers as the top of the wall was crowded with his men without a place to run.

By the time Tong reached the first incoming siege engine's destination, all siege ladders had latched the wooden bridges on top of the wall.

Imperial soldiers finally got their opportunity to strike back. A wave of dozens Zhu Jun's men leaped on the wall and killed the garrison soldiers.