Chapter 95: Governor Sun's Special Contribution

He Lingchuan felt a secret regret; he had never practiced this, yet this arrow had been remarkably accurate! He had already climbed over the second line of wagon barricades and was firing these arrows from behind a wagon, actually only ten-plus paces away from Meng Shan.

Of course, that was measured according to Meng Shan’s stride.

For the next arrow, he aimed for the opponent’s knee, the same spot Commander Xiao had previously struck.

Unfortunately, the aim was off this time; the crossbow bolt stuck into the opponent’s thick armor without even piercing a plate.

He simply fired another arrow.

Well, it didn't even graze the opponent’s skin.

But Meng Shan was successfully enraged.

More importantly, he remembered that his primary duty was to break the formation! Commander Xiao was hard to kill, so he should finish his mission first.

Therefore, taking advantage of Commander Xiao being beaten back, he turned and charged toward the second line of wagon barricades with long strides! Mud and water splashed, and He Lingchuan even felt the wagon he was lying behind tremble.

"Get out of the way!" the squad leader nearby hurriedly ordered.

The crowd scattered like birds and beasts.

With a crisp sound, the wagon toppled and the crates fell.

With a roar, Meng Shan actually hoisted the wagon over his head and threw it into the river! At this moment, a green light surged violently from his body.

"Holy crap!" Seeing this, He Lingchuan scrambled away, but while running, he didn't forget to fire one last arrow, using up his remaining stock.

He chose a particularly vicious moment, just as Meng Shan was throwing the wagon and both his hands were occupied.

The other Great Wind soldiers thought the same, and arrows rained down at that moment.

Meng Shan immediately tucked his head in.

He was already red-faced and thick-necked; tucking his head made him look like a turtle retracting into its shell, and most of the arrows struck his heavy armor.

But two arrows still found their mark; one hit his neck, and one hit his eye socket.

Meng Shan did not fall; he leaped, followed immediately by a ground shield bash.

Another group of Great Wind soldiers fell.

"Stop jumping." He Lingchuan’s heart was in his throat. This guy wasn't a toad, so why was he so good at hopping? If he jumped a few more times, he would clear the trap!

Fortunately, this move didn't seem to be something he could use at will; Meng Shan switched to a heavy stride, preparing for a charge.

Getting hit by him would not end well; He Lingchuan was a living example.

However, he had only run three steps when a crisp metallic sound suddenly came from the ground, "Click!" Meng Shan felt a tightening on his leg, a pain that pierced his heart, and he couldn't even stand steady, collapsing forward.

When he landed with a pained roar, the ground shook as if unable to bear the weight.

"He’s hit, he’s hit!" Everyone was overjoyed and cheered, and He Lingchuan let out a long sigh:

"Thank you, Governor Sun."

Meng Shan looked down and saw his lower leg firmly clamped by a giant animal trap.

He couldn't figure out for the life of him how such a thing could appear on the battlefield! In fact, this was stock from Governor Sun’s crates; there were four in total, each over three feet in diameter, originally intended for catching bears. Those creatures could grow to over twelve hundred pounds, with thick hides and immense strength, so the traps used to deal with them were the largest size, with super-strong clamping force.

The Great Wind soldiers had specifically buried them in the mud two yards behind the second line of wagon barricades, sprinkling some mud and leaves on top and inserting a grass marker that only their own people could understand. In such pitch-black conditions, who wouldn't fall for it?

This was the underhanded trick He Lingchuan had devised.

No matter how powerful Meng Shan was, he hadn't transcended the category of a human; once clamped by this thing, his leg bone snapped on the spot.

Wearing nearly two hundred pounds of heavy armor, he couldn't stand up at all and could only roll on the ground, howling earth-shakingly.

Seeing this, He Lingchuan finally vented the pent-up malice in his heart.

"Fill the gap!" The squad leader directed the men to move the wagons again to fill the breach in the defensive line. During this time, sporadic enemies rushed over, but they were all dealt with.

Clearly, Meng Shan enjoyed high prestige among the Baling army. As soon as he fell and began to wail, it immediately crushed a large portion of their morale.

The opponents of the Great Wind army suddenly became weaker.

Originally, they had the bonus of the State Decree, making them stronger than individual opponents; now the gap widened further, and they killed with even greater ease.

The front line slowly pushed back, even threatening to push back to the first wagon barricade.

As long as this gap was filled, the Baling army’s previous efforts would go down the drain.

Just then, the archer on the riverbank suddenly pointed and shouted: "Enemy reinforcements, enemy reinforcements have arrived!"

No sooner had the words fallen than the horn of attack sounded from behind the Baling army.

Commander Xiao stabbed an opponent to death with his spear before asking upward: "How many enemies?"

"Eight hundred, no, at least a thousand!"

The enemy reinforcements had arrived first. Commander Xiao’s face was as cold as water; he waved his hand to let the soldiers behind crawl out of the bunkers to clear the enemies within the first wagon barricade first.

The wagons here were nearly smashed to pieces and needed to be rearranged.

Working under enemy fire was too difficult.

He Lingchuan, being injured, remained behind the second wagon barricade and asked another wounded soldier: "Why not release the Heart-Bewitching Insects to help?"

Heart-Bewitching Insects were the Three-Corpse Insects; that’s what everyone called them.

"Huh? What did you say?" The wounded soldier squinted at him, "What is that? Never heard of it."

Uh, did these Great Wind soldiers not know of the existence of the Three-Corpse Insects either?

He Lingchuan couldn't explain, so he could only laugh dryly: "Nothing, nothing, I might have remembered wrong." But he muttered to himself, could it be that Commander Zhong and General Hong treated the Three-Corpse Insects as a secret weapon, unknown even to their own people?

So, in the end, he still had to rely on himself.

The Great Wind army had just finished setting up their defenses when the enemy tide rushed up.

……

Half an hour later.

The hillside by the river was stained with blood; almost not an inch of mud was spared.

Of the three-layered wagon barricade defense, the first two were completely destroyed, leaving only the last one standing firm.

He Lingchuan and the others retreated behind the third defensive line. This was the Great Wind army’s last line of defense and their foundation for survival, so the offensive and defensive battle was exceptionally intense.

The archers on the riverbank had also been cleared out by the opponent; that was now the enemy’s high ground.

The arrows flying down from above caused great interference for the Great Wind army.

Such an isolated and helpless situation was the most despairing.

A man whose lips were cracked and whose face was numb muttered: "Reinforcements, where are our reinforcements?"

The opponent’s reinforcements had arrived, so why were theirs nowhere to be seen?

Commander Xiao was also covered in wounds, with a graze on his face that had torn the skin open. It was a stray arrow shot from above the riverbed that had nearly taken his eye.

"They will come." He said coldly, "Hold your blade tight, ask one more time..."

He didn't finish, because a broken spear flew from behind the wagon and pierced the man’s heart—

This man would never have the chance to ask again.

Hu Min fired an arrow, also shooting back from behind the wagon, avenging the man.

He was too close to the wagon; He Lingchuan lifted him from the ground, moved him a few steps away, and let him lean against a rock.

Hu Min nodded at him: "Thank you, I’ll remember you."

He Lingchuan smiled back, knowing that was impossible.

(End of chapter)