Chapter 795 – The Veteran’s Counter-Play (Part Five)
For tonight, not only had Fu Wang made ample preparations, but Jiang Pengji was also armed to the teeth.
Meng Hunyun, leading the troops, brought along plenty of siege equipment, determined to capture the Jiamen Pass in the shortest time possible and end the battle swiftly.
The enemy occupied a strategic advantage at the perilous pass, while Jiang Pengji’s forces totaled around thirty thousand, the majority being Liu Zhi’s troops.
Typically, there wouldn’t be a need for clear distinctions between father and daughter, but the training methods of both armies diverged greatly, and the soldiers lacked cohesion.
Jiang Pengji understood clearly: if she couldn’t seize Jiamen Pass with a thunderous momentum, once the enemy regrouped, even if she achieved victory, it would be a pyrrhic one. A triumph at the cost of heavy losses would, for her, feel like a complete failure.
Wanzhou was vast but sparsely manned; to speak honestly, aside from her wealth, she had little else to rely on.
If she suffered significant losses at Jiamen Pass and returned to Wanzhou, her situation would become exceedingly dire.
Li Yun observed his lord’s reckless enthusiasm and felt both drained and spurred on to prove himself.
The hundred-strong Guards were all elite fighters, highly capable in solo combat. They skillfully formed a small military formation, advancing toward the gates of Jiamen Pass like a slaughter machine. They drew fire from outside, while Meng Hunyun redirected pressure onto them. With internal and external collaboration, the defending soldiers at Jiamen Pass, now without Fu Wang’s command, were thrown into disarray, collapsing like a house of cards.
Due to the nearby narrow alleyways, the enemy couldn’t surround them on a large scale, which was highly advantageous for Jiang Pengji and her crew. She and Li Yun were in a blood frenzy, their weapons drenched in red, their vision obscured by corpses and carnage. The only sounds they could hear were the clashing of armor, cries of agony, the stomping of feet, and the squelching of weapons piercing flesh; other noises were almost nonexistent. She might not have the physique of a brawler, but she wielded incredible strength.
With her spear horizontally positioned, she forcefully shoved away several obstructing foes by a few meters, while Li Yun stayed close, slashing them down.
Li Yun signaled with a warning arrow to inform the outside of their location and set fires for distraction.
However, more and more enemy troops surged toward them; the situation was becoming increasingly grim.
“Lord—there are too many enemies!”
Li Yun’s armor had several rents in it; he wasn’t injured, but he looked as if he had just emerged from a sea of blood, utterly disheveled.
“Press on! Charge through!” With only a little over a hundred of them, if they didn’t leverage their rising momentum to carve out an escape path, they would be overwhelmed by the relentless enemy. Jiang Pengji calmly instructed, “Han Mei, send two more to cover me—”
In terms of combat power, Jiang Pengji could single-handedly dispatch everyone, but despite her prowess, her defense was not as robust.
Using gaming terms, she was akin to a versatile character suited for both melee and ranged combat, but her only weakness was being fragility incarnate.
No matter how strong she was, she was still human; flesh and blood couldn’t withstand blades and weapons.
If she were her former self, the situation would’ve been different—ordinary bullets would feel like mosquito bites against her.
Li Yun didn’t hesitate, quickly selecting two to assist Jiang Pengji’s actions.
Then, he saw his lord’s true nature on the battlefield—like a messenger of slaughter descending upon her foes.
Since their initial charge, barely fifteen minutes had passed, and the high-intensity combat had left Li Yun feeling weary.
In stark contrast, Jiang Pengji thrived; what felt like warm-up exercises before became her rampage, with time only making her fiercer. The heavy armor the enemy relied on felt as flimsy as paper in her eyes, and she struck fear into the enemy, causing them to hesitate.
“Hold shields in formation!”
After a ruthless onslaught, sensing something amiss, she retreated with brute force while simultaneously issuing the command; the other Guards quickly raised their shields to form an ironclad wall, tightly knit, deflecting arrows that rained down like a hailstorm.
“Advance! Crush forward!”
As the audience in the live stream erupted with excitement and the soldiers felt emboldened by her presence, Jiang Pengji remained unnervingly composed. They marched over the bodies of comrades and countless enemies, the audience accustomed to her galloping on horseback but seldom witnessing her brutish land combat style.
When she charged forward on her legs, the audience couldn’t help but be drawn to the bodies of the fallen foes beneath her feet.
Crush, advance, tread!
Beneath her boots wasn’t earth or cobblestones but the warmth of countless corpses.
At that moment, the audience was struck with the realization of Jiang Pengji’s other identity—the butcher.
They relentlessly fired warning arrows to inform Meng Hunyun outside, coordinating their forces to concentrate on that direction.
Internal and external synergy!
It wasn’t just for coordination but to share the burden of enemy firepower and shatter their psychological defenses.
As a tactical genius, Jiang Pengji had Zhang Ping, a disciple of the Mo family, assisting her; their siege weaponry had been upgraded several times over.
Meng Hunyun ordered the arrow towers pushed forward, ensuring they not only set up ladders from the ground but also stabilized bridges from above.
Siege towers and catapults had long been positioned, bombarding the walls fiercely.
Jiamen Pass truly lived up to its reputation as a perilous stronghold—easy to defend, difficult to assault. Despite thorough preparations and Meng Hunyun’s advantage, if the defenders inside grouped together, he wouldn’t gain many benefits. Nonetheless, Meng Hunyun had no retreat; he could only pour all his strength into the assault.
If Jiamen Pass didn’t fall tonight, he could only offer his life as atonement.
Why?
Didn’t they see the arrows soaring above Jiamen Pass?
The lord was still inside the city—if they failed to breach the gates, Jiang Pengji would go down fighting.
Counting the cost, her demise would be due to his inadequacies; how could he still have the face to live?
“Attack!”
In truth, when the defenders within realized they had been tricked and their commander was likely ensnared in a trap, morale plummeted.
The officers left behind had some prestige among the troops, barely managing to hold the line, but Meng Hunyun’s aggressive advance was too overwhelming. After only one exchange, the casualties began to soar, thick clouds of panic descending upon every soldier’s heart.
To add fuel to the fire, outside were fierce tigers, and inside lurked a pack of ravenous wolves.
The warning arrows released by Jiang Pengji not only notified Meng Hunyun but also applied psychological pressure unseen upon the enemy forces.
The greater their stress, the more they struggled to concentrate, their combat effectiveness plummeting below peak performance.
