Chapter 126: First Ascent

"Thank goodness… Yang Xiong didn't single out my platoon to be the first-ascent death squad…"

The next morning, standing beneath the walls of Waihuang, peering through the thin haze of dust and smoke at the three platoons still ahead of his own, Heifu breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"First ascent" meant being the first to scale the wall during an assault. Though success guaranteed a collective merit, Heifu had done the math in his head: for an ordinary siege, maybe — but in a bitter fight like this, with attackers and defenders nearly equal in number, the vanguard's casualties would be horrific. Total annihilation was entirely possible!

What's more, with a superior as deep and calculating as Yang Xiong, anyone who stuck their neck out would likely end up filling a ditch for him, dying a muddled, senseless death…

So when Yang Xiong's gaze swept over them, Heifu fixed his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, making no rash move to volunteer. Fortunately, the Qin army had no shortage of brash fools thirsting for the merit of first ascent. Two platoon commanders beside Heifu, both from Nanyang, immediately rose to request the assignment, and Yang Xiong gladly approved!

Heifu's platoon, meanwhile, was positioned behind these platoons as the second echelon. They concealed themselves over a hundred paces west of the city wall, inside a hamlet, holding their breath as they awaited the drum signal.

A meticulous mid-ranking officer, Yang Xiong fought the same way he lived — never straightforward, always fond of a little finesse.

He first ordered the convict laborers and garrison conscripts to gather dried dung, straw, leaves, and other fuel, then set fires on both the south and west sides of Waihuang. The flames were smothered with sand and earth, producing thick, rolling smoke that the seasonal south wind carried straight toward Waihuang, shrouding the defenders' view from the battlements.

Next, Yang Xiong ordered several hundred men to march out from the Qin camp south of the city, carrying newly built wooden ladders and raising a great clamor, making a show of a fierce assault on the southern wall. Yang Xiong personally took command there, ensuring his banner was visible from the battlements, while an unbroken roll of drumbeats pounded out…

An unbroken roll — the "gallop drum" — signals the troops to charge and attack at speed. The drumbeats, high-pitched and urgent, surged into the clouds, drawing the bulk of the defenders on Waihuang's walls to that side, where they focused their main efforts on the south.

Yet the western wall, where Heifu and his men waited, was the true intended axis of attack.

A siege naturally required equipment. The Qin army's siege methods, beyond water, fire, and tunneling, essentially boiled down to a few types: tower carts, stone-throwers, battering rams, and cloud ladders.

The tower cart, true to its name, was a highly effective siege engine. As tall as the city wall itself and mounted on wooden wheels, it acted like a bridge when pushed against the ramparts, allowing attackers to leap directly onto the battlements. Heifu had seen one beneath the walls of Daliang, but the contraption was far too cumbersome, difficult to build, and inconvenient to transport — they had none here.

Stone-throwers? They existed in this era, but the army had none of those either. To borrow a phrase from later ages: it's just a small county town — what do you need an Italian cannon for?

The only thing they had was a hastily constructed battering ram: a massive log suspended from a crossbeam, protected by a rawhide-covered wooden roof, mounted on wheels below. A full platoon pushed it, aimed straight at the city gate!

But the battering ram was ponderous and had to be shoved forward; any pothole could easily wreck it, requiring men to fill the ruts along the way. Even if it reached the gate, smashing it open with the log was unrealistic. Not to mention the timber, stones, and arrows raining from above — in such situations, gates were usually barricaded with all manner of debris, making them nearly impossible to breach even if the bolt was destroyed.

So apart from the ram, this Qin force's primary siege tool remained the ladder. Not the more advanced cloud ladder, but bamboo ones — called bamboo flying ladders. Made from a single thick bamboo pole fitted with multiple rungs for hands and feet, the top end had grappling hooks to latch firmly onto the wall…

Seeing that the Wei defenders of Waihuang had largely been drawn to the south side, and under the orders of the other Five Hundred Leader, Cheng Wuyou, runners dashed back and forth among the platoons assigned to assault the western wall, relaying the command to advance!

Upon receiving the order, the hundred-man commanders and platoon commanders moved to the flanks. Following the lighter, measured pace of the march drum, they struck the bamboo sticks and pottery shards in their hands. Just as in training, the Qin soldiers stepped forward one after another, passing through the thin smoke as they advanced on Waihuang's western wall…

The three platoons ahead of Heifu's each had their own task.

The first platoon: half the men carried shields to draw fire from the battlements; the other half lugged door planks and the like to fill in the ditches.

The second platoon: five squads, each hefting a bamboo flying ladder three zhang high. Once the path was leveled, they would sprint forward, braving the arrows from above, to set the ladders against the wall and hold them fast!

The third platoon was the "first ascent." Clad in heavy armor and wielding short weapons, their sole duty was to climb the bamboo ladders, scale the wall, and seize the battlements!

Heifu's platoon followed close behind as the second echelon. If the first-ascent troops ahead were all killed, they would have to take over…

Watching the city wall draw nearer and clearer ahead, Bu Cheng, who marched beside Heifu with his hair now bound in a topknot, swallowed hard and muttered, "I've calculated it. The Day Book says: to sally forth today favors attacking a city; you shall behead the enemy commander and surely win a marquisate or even a kingship!"

He had meant to bolster his own courage and his comrades' morale, but his words only drew a round of dry laughter. Ji Ying even cursed, "You day-diviner, you've miscalculated! It's a shabby little county town — where would any marquis or king be?"

The men laughed a while, and their tension eased a little — but soon, their expressions tightened once more.

They had advanced to within fifty paces of the wall. The smoke could no longer hide their movements; the Wei defenders on the battlements spotted this menacing Qin force and began sounding the alarm bells!

…

The rhythm of the platoon and hundred-man commanders striking their bamboo clappers and pottery shards changed at once — from the slow march drum to the urgent charge drum. The platoons broke into a flat-out sprint, running for their lives!

But they were already within range of the walls. A scattered volley of crossbow bolts flew toward them, and several Qin soldiers carrying planks to fill the ditches suddenly crumpled to the ground, as if struck by a massive fist…

The attackers had their own countermeasures. The two platoons on Heifu's flanks were all crack archers — tall men with long arms. Having advanced to this point, they halted thirty paces from the wall and began steadily nocking arrows and drawing bows, loosing arcing volleys up at the battlements…

The sky-darkening arrow storms of film and television look magnificent, but in reality they are not so easily achieved. Arrows were never that plentiful, nor were archers. They could only briefly blanket the wall. It couldn't inflict many casualties; the main purpose was to provide covering fire, buying the assault troops a sliver of breathing room.

Yet in that fleeting moment, it was enough for the Qin soldiers to carry the bamboo flying ladders across twenty or thirty paces and race to the foot of the wall!

Though some ladder-bearers were struck by arrows and fell along the way, others immediately took their place. Thud, thud, thud — several bamboo flying ladders were planted against the wall without disaster. The first platoon, having rushed to the base, raised their rawhide-covered shields to protect them, holding the ladders fast and preventing the defenders above from shoving them away!

The first-ascent platoon had reached the wall. With several explosive shouts, armored soldiers began climbing toward the battlements along different bamboo ladders, men following immediately behind them.

Heifu's platoon had also reached the wall by now. Raising shields to help shield the ladder-holders from the arrows above, they craned their necks to watch their comrades ascend.

Attacking a wall with bamboo ladders was also called "ant-attachment" — meaning the soldiers clung to the wall and clambered upward like ants.

But that also made them as fragile as black ants. Before Heifu and his men's eyes, boiling water poured down, timbers, stones, and bricks crashed, and crossbow bolts loosed at near point-blank range. Almost every instant, another armored first-ascent soldier was struck and plummeted down.

Even the few heavily armored warriors who braved the arrows and stubbornly climbed to the crenellations were met by two spear and halberd thrusts, losing their lives. Their strength gone, their corpses tumbled from the wall, slamming heavily beside the flying ladders…

Another Qin soldier, just reaching the battlements, had no time to leap over the parapet before a sword pierced his chest. His body pitched sideways off the wall, nearly crashing down onto Heifu…

Just as Heifu had foreseen, the first-ascent platoon suffered devastating casualties and was soon nearly wiped out.

Heifu drew a deep breath of the battlefield's foul, reeking air — a mix of excrement, fresh blood, and the smell of smoke and fire. When no one was looking, he struck his own thigh hard to stop it from trembling.

Because next, it was his platoon's turn to scale the wall!

Fortunately, at that moment, under the Five Hundred Leader's orders, the Qin forces launched their counter-fire. Besides the archers, the more powerful pedal-drawn crossbows were now in position. Fifty crack pedal-crossbow men, using both hands and feet, spanned their weapons, aimed at the Wei defenders who were recklessly standing again and again to hurl bricks and stones, and pulled the trigger mechanisms!

Without the slightest warning, a volley of crossbow bolts streaked up from below and slammed into the Wei defenders on the battlements. The county conscripts heard the shriek of the bolts tearing through the air and instinctively raised their shields. A chaotic clatter of "clang, clang, clang" rang out, interspersed with a few agonized groans. A dozen or so Wei bravos and civilian laborers, lacking effective protection, were killed or wounded by the fierce bolts, collapsing in a swath like wheat flattened by a violent gust of wind. Pained moans rose and fell without end.

The defense on the battlements faltered. Seizing that opening, Heifu bellowed at Dongmen Bao in the front rank!

"A'Bao, take the wall!"

"Aye!"

Dongmen Bao roared in answer. Abandoning even his shield, he led the charge himself, scaling the cloud ladder with his sword clenched in his teeth!

The defenders had been badly mauled by that volley of crossbow bolts and had yet to recover their wits. Dongmen Bao vaulted onto the battlements in just a few strides.

The bastard had been chafing for ages, unable to fight and earn merit. Given the chance now, he bellowed and raged, slashing left and hewing right, striking down foes with his blade. Protected by two layers of thick armor, he took spear and halberd thrusts without fatal injury, instead grabbing the shafts and closing in to kill his attackers.

For a moment, Dongmen Bao swept all before him, fiercely guarding the crenel where the flying ladder was hooked. Seizing that gap, Li Xian and the others also clambered onto the battlements one after another. Together with the dozen or so survivors of the first-ascent platoon, they plunged into a chaotic melee with the Wei defenders.

This was the moment!

Heifu could not simply stand there shouting "Charge!" — the military judge was watching from over by the archers. As platoon commander, if he showed any cowardice or reluctance to advance, he could be held accountable after the fact and executed on the spot!

So Heifu gritted his teeth, picked a bamboo flying ladder, and climbed!

Though the wall was not high — only three zhang — charging up it in one go demanded tremendous courage…

All around him was a maelstrom of howls, screams, blood, and arrows. Heifu shut it all out, as if deaf to it, because he knew: at a moment like this, the more timid and hesitant you were, the faster you died!

He drew on every last bit of his obstacle-course training from the police academy in his past life, climbing with extreme speed!

Soon, after narrowly dodging a brick hurled down at him, Heifu reached the top. He grabbed the edge of the wall, and with the explosive power coiled in his body, he tensed every muscle, using both hands and feet to scramble up onto the rampart!

"Finally up here!"

However, the moment Heifu vaulted onto the battlements, he saw a tall, lightly-armed knight-errant with a fine beard and whiskers standing right in front of him. That face was flecked with spots of blood, and he was panting heavily. At his feet lay a Qin soldier from the First Ascenders, already dead!

Heifu looked at the tall man, and the tall man looked back at him.

Their gazes met in that instant!

……

PS: A bit late. Chapter 3 won't be out until 10 PM.

(End of chapter)