Chapter 504: Attack on the Fort and Initial Clash

Wu ………………

As the horn blast ended, the eight-thousand-strong Da Xia army, fully prepared, had all exited the camp boundaries.

With eight thousand men walking together, their steps were naturally not perfectly synchronized.

But every single soldier wore forged-steel battle armor, complete with full weaponry, with total equipment weight exceeding thirty thousand jin.

Even an ordinary thirty-thousand-jin object moving would create an astonishing spectacle; fortunately, the icy abyss environment prevented it—otherwise, the high ridge where the Zhongyang camp stood would have been crushed under the weight of eight thousand fully armed Xia soldiers.

Clang clang clang…………

Whether their steps were synchronized was now secondary; even just walking normally, the clashing of eight thousand sets of armor alone was enough to shake the soul, let alone that every soldier now held their longbows fully drawn, advancing step by step.

Zhongyang had no city walls, so there was no such thing as a city gate—but calling it merely a village would be inaccurate; the most accurate description would be a massive encampment built atop a hill over a hundred meters high.

On the southern, western, and northern sides, the encampment was surrounded by iron stakes, all extending to the cliff face, standing about twenty meters tall, each stake bristling with countless sharp spikes, clearly designed to repel frontal assaults.

The only entrance to the entire encampment was on the east side—a gate forged entirely from iron, eight meters high and five meters wide, its surface densely covered with silver forging patterns; a rough estimate revealed no fewer than ten thousand such patterns.

Gulp…………

Above the gate, an armored soldier, watching the approaching Da Xia army from the east, was clearly witnessing such a massive scene for the first time; overcome with shock, he involuntarily swallowed hard, drawing the attention of many nearby soldiers.

“We’re defending from rest—this is just holding a position. What’s there to panic about? Look at how many lives the Xia army will lose here! Frontline, raise shields! Middle and rear, ready your bows!”

In midair, Yang Qin furrowed his brows, shot a glare at the soldier, then turned to face the troops and shouted loudly.

Clang…………

At his command, the two thousand frontline soldiers raised their iron shields with a clang, while the three thousand in the middle and the one thousand in the rear, like the Xia army, drew their powerful bows fully and aimed them skyward.

For those below the Xianyang cultivation level, maintaining arrow power typically requires staying within two hundred meters—unless you’re hunting in the wild.

In battlefield confrontation, it’s an entirely different scenario: when thousands of arrows fly simultaneously, accuracy becomes meaningless; the priority is simply to launch the arrows and ensure they land within the enemy formation.

Zhongyang’s gate was only five meters wide and about three meters thick; it could never accommodate all two thousand frontline soldiers. At least eighty percent of them were stationed behind the iron stakes on either side of the gate.

The middle and rear units were even farther away—over a hundred meters from the gate.

“Stop!”

As the army neared the two-hundred-meter range of the gate, Mu Longhe suddenly raised his hand from midair to halt them, then condensed his qi into his throat and spoke sternly toward the western gate: “Yang Qin, I’ll call you nephew—surrender and abandon this gate! Your ten thousand rabble cannot possibly stand against the might of the Da Xia army—it’s a fool’s dream.”

“If it were Xia Chuan himself here to challenge me, I might show him some respect. But you, Mu Longhe, a runaway dog who betrayed your master—how dare you call yourself my uncle?”

Yang Qin sneered, unafraid that Mu Longhe, two hundred meters away, couldn’t see his expression; his eyes brimmed with contempt as he continued: “Old man, playing at power with borrowed authority—if you’ve got guts, then…”

“Fire!”

“Can’t even hold your composure? Hmph… Fire!”

Yang Qin hadn’t expected Mu Longhe, despite his age, to have such poor self-control; upon hearing the order to fire, he reacted swiftly and immediately gave his own command.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh………………

Simultaneously, both armies unleashed volleys of arrows like horizontal rain, flooding toward each other.

Thud thud thud…………

In direct confrontation, the first exchange is always an arrow volley—this is unquestionable. But to look deeper, it’s really a comparison of the two regions’ resources and forging capabilities.

Like Yang Qin, Mu Longhe had already ordered his front line to raise shields; the dense rain of arrows couldn’t even penetrate the shields, let alone shake the frontline formation.

Pfft… pfft… thud…

In contrast, Zhongyang’s frontline of two thousand shield-bearers, though they blocked most arrows, began slowly retreating after barely three volleys; some soldiers with weaker strength even began falling backward—had the formation not been tightly packed and soldiers behind not rushed to support them, several would have been dragged down in a chain reaction.

Shhh…………

At the start of the arrow storm, Yang Qin didn’t hover in midair—he landed atop the gate. As he watched the arrows, he suddenly noticed something, his brow flickered, he swiftly reached out, snatched a stray arrow, examined it closely, and his face turned pale as he spun around and roared:

“Lower your bows, raise shields! Defend only—don’t return fire!”

Both armies consisted of Yuhán-level troops, so their iron arrows were all forged-grade; the arrowheads were small, densely covered with hundreds of silver forging patterns, appearing identical to pure silver.

When the arrow volleys began, Yang Qin naturally assumed the Xia army used the same forged-iron arrows as his own.

Only after three volleys, seeing the chaos among his frontline troops and hearing the unnatural sound of Xia arrows piercing the air, did he realize his mistake and grab one to inspect.

That inspection revealed the truth.

“Not everyone, but roughly half of the Yuhán-level soldiers are equipped with ten-forged silver arrows—has Da Xia become this wealthy?”

Once he understood the issue, Yang Qin’s perception of the incoming arrow storm changed; after a quick glance, he immediately assessed the situation, his gaze darkening.

Pfft…………

Yang Qin halted his own archers because the Xia army had already deduced the positions of Zhongyang’s archers from the direction of the incoming arrows; they slightly raised their bows, causing the arrows to arc over the shield wall and strike the troops behind the gate.

Casualties had already begun appearing among the troops behind the gate.

Since they couldn’t match the Xia army in archery, there was no point continuing the exchange—after all, the Xia army would inevitably assault the gate.

As he’d said earlier: defend from rest!

Yet Yang Qin had still been overly naive…

“Advance at full speed! Huangjia and Chiyang reconnaissance units, lay the bridges! Everyone else, keep firing—don’t stop until your quivers are empty!”

As soon as Yang Qin finished speaking, Mu Longhe issued his second order.

Even while firing, the Xia army had never halted its advance; after more than a dozen volleys, they were now only a hundred meters from the gate. Yang Qin’s decision to cease archery had made their progress even smoother. Upon receiving Mu Longhe’s command, the four thousand frontline soldiers from Huangjia and Chiyang—those bearing shields—immediately surged forward.

The other four thousand in the rear advanced slightly slower, but most still kept firing; only the thousand in the center, escorting ten iron-wheeled carts, moved rapidly alongside the formation.

“They’ve brought out the Divine Crossbows—Da Xia means business!”

Seeing the ten iron-wheeled carts, Yang Qin’s pupils contracted; he had been present at the Hongmen Battle four years ago, when he was only at Yuhán level—he remembered those weapons, capable of threatening Xianyang cultivators, with crystal clarity.

“Fire!”

Boom…………

Just over a dozen breaths later, the front-line Xia troops reached the edge of the wide ditch before the gate; on both flanks, five squads of over twenty men each surged forward, each carrying a massive iron plate three meters wide and twenty meters long.

When the lead man of each squad reached the edge, he shouted, and the twenty men pushed with all their strength—the long iron plates flew through the air, landing directly across the ditch before the gate.

“Light the fire! Yang Ying, come with me!”

Seeing the Xia army lay their bridges, Yang Qin could no longer stay put; he drew his waist sword, gave the order, shouted to his cousin Yang Ying, and the two Xianyang-level warriors ignored the incoming storm of arrows, charging straight toward the landing point of the floating bridge—their intent obvious.

Whoosh………… Shhh…………

Unfortunately, before they could land near the gate, each was forced back by a long staff and a great blade.

To say “forced back” might be too mild.

Boom!

Mu Longhe’s strength vastly surpassed Yang Qin’s; as he brought his staff down, before Yang Qin could retreat, he followed with a sweeping strike that slammed directly into Yang Qin’s shoulder.

“At least eighteen jin—how could he be this strong!”