Chapter 737

First Volume, Chapter 737: Burning the Fortress

Sand's function is to directly cover and smother flames, or to isolate combustibles—but flames at height cannot be extinguished with sand.

In less than half a Envoy, the fire had already spread to a quarter of the fortress.

Fortunately, Ma Tingyun made the most correct command at once, ordering the garrison to prepare in advance for fire spread, isolating combustibles, thus containing the fire at its origin.

Even with Ma Tingyun's proper command, this fire burned for half a day and an entire night, killing over one hundred soldiers on the spot and injuring no fewer than three hundred.

Most critically, after being burned, this quarter of the area was utterly ruined.

Only at dawn, when the last flame was extinguished, did Ma Tingyun drag his exhausted body, covered in ash and dirt, back to the Shuaifu.

He leaned against the ground and fell into a deep, snoring sleep.

At noon, Ma Tingyun was awakened by the Military Advisor Li Chou.

"General, Qin Feng's catapults have been pushed forward again."

Upon hearing this, Ma Tingyun was overcome with despair; he slowly rose from the ground, his body worn out, his heart filled with unbearable frustration.

Logically, as the defender with an impregnable position, he only needed to wait for Qin Feng to throw more lives into the grinder.

After two or three direct assaults, Qin Feng would retreat due to heavy casualties—in short, Xiongying Ridge held absolute initiative.

But…

By this point, Ma Tingyun despairingly realized that Qin Feng had merely played a small trick, yet already stirred outrage and heavy casualties within the fortress.

Ma Tingyun had never imagined Qin Feng would alternate corpses with fire oil, nor that Qin Feng would transport timber to the Front Line to build catapults on-site—impossible to transport otherwise.

Under this pattern, Qin Feng consumes wealth, while the fortress consumes everything—including "human lives."

Ma Tingyun knew clearly: he could never outlast Qin Feng.

After all, the fortress's materials and supplies dwindled with each use, with no replenishment source; in contrast, Qin Feng, backed by Beixi County, could supply materials endlessly.

"Why haven't the reinforcements arrived yet…" Ma Tingyun wanted to cry but had no tears—he never imagined one day he would crave reinforcements so desperately.

Ah!

Ma Tingyun sighed deeply; though utterly helpless, he rallied himself: "Beidi War Command: cease burning dry grass to remove corpse stench."

"This fire attack already caused catastrophic losses—we cannot endure a second."

Li Chou's face was equally grim; the fire attack had inflicted devastating damage on the fortress, yet without burning dry grass, how could the stench be resolved?

Li Chou racked his brains but found no good solution, so he distributed only a few vats of water.

He ordered the garrison to soak cloth strips in water, cover their mouths and noses, and endure the stench by force.

As Li Chou predicted, today Qin Feng did not hurl fire oil—he switched back to corpses, making the entire fortress smell worse than a latrine.

After days of torment, the entire Xiongying Ridge garrison was mentally and physically shattered.

After enduring eight long days, Ma Tingyun finally exhaled in relief—Qin Feng's stock of corpses had been exhausted.

If they could just hold out a little longer, the stench would dissipate, order would return to the fortress, and they could still firmly hold the fortress, rendering Qin Feng's plan useless.

For this, Li Chou personally climbed the City Wall—only to be so shocked he staggered back two steps, nearly falling off.

"Good heavens…"

During these days of harassment, Qin Feng had not rested at all—he continuously transported timber to the Front Line, ordering Tianji Camp craftsmen to work day and night building catapults.

The newly constructed catapults were rushed forward in one go to the First Line.

A total of thirty, spread across the fortress's front battlefield, positioned roughly two hundred steps from the City Wall.

At this distance, heavy stones and hard bows could barely reach, but arrow force was extremely weak, posing almost no threat.

In contrast, catapults could easily hurl anything into the fortress.

With corpses and fire oil both exhausted, Qin Feng gave the garrison not a single moment to breathe—disturbing and exhausting the enemy naturally meant pressing forward relentlessly, driving them to madness!

"Little Marquis, have you prepared what I asked for?"

Standing at the Vanguard Camp, Qin Feng, hands behind his back, gazed calmly at the distant fortress and asked.

Ning Hu grinned: "You don't trust me?"

"Besides, with Tianji Camp craftsmen working and idle soldiers from the Middle Array Main Camp providing labor, these things were ready quickly."

Qin Feng nodded: "Then what are we waiting for? Let the garrison taste something new."

At Qin Feng's command, dozens of horse-drawn carts carried the newly prepared "projectiles" to the catapults.

These projectiles were simple to make.

Just tie a net of hemp rope, then fill it with stone chunks the size of watermelons.

Before launching, coat the hemp rope with fire oil, ignite it, then cut the rope—the catapult's arm swings, and the flaming net flies toward the fortress.

As it burns and falls under its own weight, halfway through flight, the hemp rope snaps, and all stones scatter like a celestial maiden showering blossoms, raining down into the fortress.

One net can disperse at least ten stones; thirty catapults firing at once means three hundred stones at once.

These watermelon-sized stones, falling from the sky, caused minimal damage to the City Wall, stone houses, and earthen structures.

But everything else had no defense against the impact of these stones.

At first, a few unlucky soldiers were crushed instantly; the rest of the garrison all fled into buildings.

Wooden roofs were easily pierced by stones; many soldiers hiding inside were killed or injured by stones that crashed through roofs or collapsing beams.

Later, the garrison learned—lean against the wall facing the direction from which stones came, avoiding direct impact.

Just over one Envoy later, the initial chaos and screams within the fortress gradually faded into silence.

Qin Feng knew these shattered stones would not inflict major damage on the fortress.

So he launched only an initial dense barrage to inflict both physical and psychological harm, then switched to scattered shots.

Firing, pausing, firing again—eventually, there was no pattern left.

Sometimes an entire Envoy passed without a single stone thrown; sometimes hundreds of stones rained down within one incense stick time.

After hiding all day and confirming silence outside, the garrison emerged to light fires and cook—only to have ten or more soldiers crushed instantly by sudden falling stones.

Every day, casualties occurred within the Fortress; the numbers might not be large, but the effect on Morale was fatal.