Chapter 450: The Sealed City Gate!

That’s really terrible!

At the same time, thirty li from the border, Gervas recalled today’s intelligence and silently mourned the main army for ten minutes.

Their grain supplies had been burned, forcing them to eat tree bark and grass roots—the kingdom’s army had truly reached its last extremity.

Given the current situation, if the kingdom’s army can hold out for less than a week… no, less than three days, then they’re impressive!

As for the reinforcements the kingdom’s army was waiting for, the system also provided a judgment.

Although the emergency order permitting troop deployment had already been issued from the Wang Gong.

But from the capital all the way to Heilongcheng, then to Hongshicheng, and then the army must march to Lindongcheng—that would take at least ten days.

If the grain had not been burned, the kingdom’s army still had more than enough time.

But under these circumstances, the army has likely already been wiped out by the beastmen, while the reinforcements are still halfway there.

By the time the beastmen finish off the kingdom’s army inside Lindongcheng, they could even ambush the reinforcements in the wilderness and swallow them whole.

If this truly happens, then for a long while, the entire northern frontier will have no force left to resist the beastmen, who can then march straight in and seize the entire northern frontier.

“The beastmen truly have a brilliant plan!”

Gervas now finally understood the Beast King’s original scheme.

Although his own presence had disrupted some of it, the betrayals of Weilade and Suolite had brought things back on track.

Of course, thinking about it didn’t help—Gervas had no way to aid the kingdom’s army right now.

Because he himself was still in uncertain danger.

The latest intelligence given today was the same.

Because the fortress’s fall had caught Moral by surprise, giving him a harsh lesson.

This made Moral no longer dare underestimate Gervas.

So he disregarded the safety of his main army and sent all twenty Bloodbat Riders given to him by the Beast King to Xueyuancheng.

Not only to reinforce Xueyuancheng, but also to inform Xueyuancheng of Gervas’s exact situation.

To prevent Xueyuancheng from suffering the same fate as the fallen fortress.

Twenty Bloodbat Riders were a serious threat to the Storm Legion, which had only five Griffon Riders and ten Swift Eagles.

Thus, the coming battle for Xueyuancheng would likely be dozens of times harder than the assault on the previous fortress.

Of course, no matter how hard it was, to survive, Gervas had to take Xueyuancheng!

…

“My lord, look ahead! A city has appeared—surely that’s our target, Xueyuancheng?”

Several hours later, Migen, who had been scouting ahead, cried out as they rounded a hill and the vast flat plains came into view.

On these flat plains stood a modest earth-walled city.

This earth-walled city was Xueyuancheng.

Due to the lack of stone sources nearby, Xueyuancheng had been built primarily from packed earth.

Even so, its fifteen-meter-high sturdy walls still possessed considerable defensive strength.

At this moment, the banners fluttering atop the walls were those of the beastfolk.

“Correct! That’s Xueyuancheng!”

Ding-dong-dong!

As Gervas and his men spotted Xueyuancheng, the beastmen, already on guard, immediately noticed these unwelcome guests.

Urgent alarm bells rang out sharply, echoing throughout Xueyuancheng.

Within moments, twenty aerial riders rose from within the city.

Without needing to say it, these were clearly Moral’s Bloodbat Riders!

…

“Roar! Human noble, you must be Gervas, whom Moral the Grand Leader spoke of?”

“Correct, green-skin beast. Since you know it’s me, why haven’t you surrendered? If you surrender, I, Gervas, treat prisoners well—I might even grant you a quick death!”

Good heavens! Migen and the others exclaimed inwardly.

Was their lord really trying to persuade them to surrender?

Only a fool inside Xueyuancheng would choose to surrender!

Gervas knew full well the beastmen inside wouldn’t surrender—this was purely meant to provoke them.

True to form, the beastman leader flew into a rage. “Damned two-legged sheep noble! Do you think I don’t know? You’re trying to anger me into leaving the city to fight you!”

“Hmph, I won’t fall for it. The Bloodbat Riders have already told me everything about you!”

“So I’ll hold this city with my six thousand troops and wait for Grand Leader Moral’s arrival!”

“Is that so? I didn’t expect you to see through it!”

Gervas was impressed by the beastman leader’s smug “I’m so clever” expression.

He’d actually guessed Gervas’s “motives.”

So Gervas didn’t bother with further words.

“Ballistae!”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Plop! Plop! Plop!

At Gervas’s command, twenty ballistae fired simultaneously.

This was clearly something the beastman leader hadn’t anticipated.

Although the Bloodbat Riders had informed him of Gervas’s strength, they hadn’t witnessed his assault on the fortress, so the beastman leader had made no preparations.

In an instant, forty to fifty beastmen and conscript soldiers crowding the battlements were impaled by massive bolts, collapsing into pools of blood.

“Damn it!”

The beastman leader roared in fury.

Of course.

Gervas paid him no further attention, turning instead to the artillery squad.

As expected, Gervas intended to replicate the method he’d used to take the previous fortress and seize Xueyuancheng.

After all, even against two thousand beastmen, he hadn’t dared launch a direct assault with ladders—now that the city held fifteen hundred beastmen and four thousand five hundred conscripts, it was even less likely.

“Artillery! Fire!”

In the next instant, three cannons fired in unison.

The shells struck the same targets as before: one aimed at the wall, two at the city gate.

The cannon aimed at the wall quickly succeeded—several beastmen who thought they were safe behind the battlements were blown into bloody pulp.

But the two cannons aimed at the gate encountered an unexpected problem.

It wasn’t that they failed to pierce the gate.

They pierced it—but found the gate’s rear already completely blocked by the beastmen.

Such a situation would have been unthinkable in normal times.

The beastmen’s confidence meant they rarely sealed their gates.

They always prepared to burst out and crush the humans.

Thus, the arrangement of Lindongcheng’s gate was clearly designed specifically to counter Gervas.

The facts confirmed it.

Although Moral hadn’t witnessed Gervas’s capture of the fortress firsthand,

he could see from the shattered, toppled gate that Gervas had breached it to enter.

So, beyond warning the Xueyuancheng commander to treat Gervas with caution, he had ordered the gate to be sealed shut.

To leave Gervas not the slightest chance of breaking into Xueyuancheng.

“Ha! Human, Grand Leader Moral already warned us—you people might use strange magic to destroy the gate!”

“So I had every one of the city’s few stone houses torn down and used to block the gate passage.”

“Now, even if you break the gate, you won’t clear the debris in any short time!”

“Ha! Just wait to die! Grand Leader Moral will arrive in half a day—and then, it’ll be the end of you two-legged sheep!”