Chapter 94: with translation of chapter title

The whole army prepares for battle, roll out logs, thunderstones, fire oil, and ready the trebuchets.

Upon reaching the city wall, Shen Tianxing immediately issued the order; the five advanced trebuchets stored on the wall sprang into action.

"An advanced trebuchet needs only fifteen men to hurl a giant stone, with a maximum range of up to one hundred zhang, and the distance can be freely adjusted according to the markings on the trebuchet."

The advanced trebuchet comes with a special skill, Blast Stone: after hurling the giant stone, it explodes on impact, turning into fist-sized fragments that shoot out and strike all enemies within a 50‑meter radius, dealing damage equivalent to a full‑force blow from a Fourth‑Rank Warrior.

Shen Tianxing was very pleased with the advanced trebuchet, knowing that even ordinary small trebuchets require a dozen or so men to operate, while larger ones need dozens.

However, such trebuchets are relatively rare in the Great Zhou, mainly because their manufacture and maintenance are comparatively complex, and the required cost and manpower are excessive.

Only in these major frontier cities will one find trebuchets; other prefectural cities basically have none, and even if they do, they are old and outdated.

"Fire the trebuchet, precisely target ten zhang out."

Shen Tianxing merely glanced and already locked onto the optimal spot ten zhang out for a full‑force shot; thus five trebuchets launched five giant stones that tore through the air and smashed hard into the besieging troops, inflicting massive damage.

Upon landing, the stones crushed a wave of men, then suddenly exploded, the shrapnel piercing one soldier after another; the prompt tones in Shen Tianxing's ears kept sounding, indicating that the Killing Value was continuously rising.

The main operators of these trebuchets are the Veteran Soldiers recruited by Shen Tianxing; to gain Killing Value through them, their loyalty must be raised to 90%.

As for now, the non‑system soldiers under Shen Tianxing's command have a maximum loyalty of only 80%, and the minimum can be as low as 60%.

This brings up the special item obtained earlier, Loyalty Biscuits, which can raise a soldier's loyalty to 100% with just one piece.

"Loyalty Biscuits: one piece is enough to raise the loyalty of your non‑system troops to 100%, lasting for one month; after that the loyalty will remain at 100%, but it may drop due to various circumstances."

Shen Tianxing currently has 1,000 boxes, each containing 10 large packs, each large pack containing 10 small packs, each small pack holding two pieces, which equals 200,000 Loyalty Biscuits available for the soldiers, though they have not yet been distributed.

Five consecutive explosions rang out, instantly eliminating hundreds of men, causing the commanders leading the assault from Leigang City and Leiyun City to tremble all over.

These two commanders had brought all the troops they could mobilize from Leigang City and Leiyun City, a total of fifty thousand, and a single salvo from the trebuchet could dispose of five or six hundred men.

Although it's impossible to keep firing the trebuchet a hundred times, even twenty or thirty shots would inflict heavy losses, and with wave after wave of arrow rain from the archers, they simply cannot reach the city gate!

"All troops, disperse and charge toward the gate; on the siege vehicles, let the sword‑and‑shield troops take the front for cover."

The order was given by the commander of Leigang City; upon hearing it, the commander of Leiyun City issued the same command.

Faced with these two commanders' countermeasures, Shen Tianxing merely smiled, paying it no mind, thinking that scattering the soldiers seemed like the best way to deal with the trebuchet problem.

But in reality it is extremely foolish; one only needs to lower part of the garrison from the wall with ropes, block the scattered groups of soldiers rushing forward at the gate, and they can be easily crushed.

If they gather again, immediately use bows and trebuchets; this will surely leave them unable to advance or retreat.

"Tianxing, there really is someone attacking the city—where did they come from? Could it be Leifu City? How is the situation now?"

Yang Tieqiang ascended the city wall, his expression unusually anxious; on this wedding day, such an incident made him so angry he blew his beard and glared.

Shen Tianxing smiled and waved his hand, speaking in an extremely calm tone:

"Old man, rest assured—I have already sent troops to take Leifu City; the attackers now are from Leigang City and Leiyun City, though there isn't much familiarity with defending it, but today the wedding probably can't go ahead; we'll have to postpone the celebration until tomorrow."

Yang Tieqiang nodded, his eyes full of surprise; he never expected Shen Tianxing to have already captured Leifu City on the wedding day. Facing the large armies sent by the other two cities, he showed no panic at all.

"That's fine, but why not go out and meet them directly? With Leiming City's current forces, we absolutely need not fear their siege; we could even easily wipe them out."

"Better to be safe anyway; after all, they can't even get up here, and besides, most of the people in the city are inexperienced new soldiers; to go out and meet them, we would at least need some veteran soldiers to lead."

But now the veteran soldiers have all been sent out by me; most of the Veteran Soldiers and Assault Troops are still in Leiming City, and the ten‑thousand‑strong garrison from Leiming City that I previously brought under my command is currently waiting near Leigang City and Leiyun City for my orders.

After the troops from Leifu City return, we will open the gate and fight them in a decisive battle; a pincer move from front and rear will annihilate them completely. Once settled, we will lead our forces to seize Leigang City and Leiyun City, and then Leizhou will be ours.

Yang Tieqiang couldn't help but give a thumbs up; Shen Tianxing's arrangements were truly superb, and it seemed he had long anticipated the enemy's moves, preparing everything in advance.

"Young Shen, you must have already made all your plans, right? This way, Old Yue Yunyang probably won't even be able to avoid surrender."

"Old man, that's natural; this past month I haven't just been developing Leiming City, I've also been recruiting and training troops, doing many other things as well."

"After today's battle ends, we'll see what General Yue thinks; if he's willing to join us, it'll be a happy ending for all; if not, we can only meet on the battlefield."

Yang Tieqiang stroked his beard, his face full of relieved satisfaction.

"Then you carry on; I'll go inform Hongyue and the others, and let the city's populace know as well—but don't worry, I'll try my best to stop Hongyue from bringing people to cause you trouble; of course I can't guarantee I'll succeed."

Having said that, Yang Tieqiang turned and ran; his swift, flying steps were exactly what an Eighth‑Rank Expert should possess.

"At this time it's also fitting to let the cannon fodder appear; System, use the Super First‑Tier Troop Summoning Token to summon ten thousand swordsmen."

"Congratulations, Host, for successfully using the Super First‑Tier Troop Summoning Token; ten thousand swordsmen will arrive on the battlefield in a quarter of an hour."

The system prompt sounded; Shen Tianxing gazed into the distance, roughly seeing that ten thousand swordsmen were being rapidly generated, and would soon come here at top speed.

Hong Yi's voice also rang out at that moment.

"You really are good at calculating; this way they can't withdraw, only keep attacking, and we can also greatly consume their troops. After holding out for three hours, we'll lead our forces out to counter‑attack—basically it's a case of resting to await exhaustion, easy and effortless."