Chapter 478: Battle of the Eastern Gate!

Boom boom boom!

One muffled thud after another came, accompanied by the war-horses' mournful, long-drawn whinnies.

The ground outside the city gate, which had been perfectly level, had actually been trampled into a great trench.

The trench was five meters wide, five meters deep, and not very long—less than thirty meters.

Yet across those thirty meters, it had been "drawn" into a half-arc, perfectly encircling the southern gate.

The front several rows of kingdom light cavalry, caught completely off guard, tumbled straight down into it.

The cavalry behind them started in horror and frantically hauled on their reins to slow down.

Only by the skin of their teeth did they avoid pitching in after them.

Gazing at the pit—nearly as tall as a two-story stone house—and at the sharpened wooden stakes bristling inside it, every cavalryman felt a chill run down his spine.

"Hahaha! Roar, you stupid two-legged sheep! Our great Beast King Your Majesty long knew you lot would try to break out and run, so he sent the servant army to dig this deep trench in secret long ago!"

"How about it, surprised, aren't you? Haha, don't even think about escaping—you're all going to die right here!"

Wanton jeers came from beyond the walls and from atop the battlements.

It turned out that even though he already held the upper hand, the Beast King—to leave nothing to chance—had secretly ordered this trap dug outside the southern gate.

And, to keep the humans from noticing, the digging was done every night, then carefully concealed again by day.

And so, with the kingdom's army inside Winterhold Castle none the wiser, the deep trench had appeared.

"Damn it, what's going on?"

The Grand Commander and the great nobles hurried forward.

The moment they saw the trench outside the gate, every face changed color.

Under normal circumstances, a trench like this wouldn't take long—tens of thousands of troops could fill it in quickly.

But this was no normal situation; it was a breakout where every second counted.

Moreover, to lighten the load, the army had brought no useless tools, so actually filling the trench would certainly cost a great deal of time.

"What do we do? We don't have a single tool to fill it, and even if we did, the rest of the beastman army is probably almost here by now!"

The great nobles' faces all showed anxious expressions.

"Head for the eastern gate at once—there were still beastmen going in and out there this morning, it should be fine!" Duke Hernand was the first to propose.

"It has to be that way! Quick, everyone, move to the eastern gate immediately!" The Grand Commander knew too that charging out of Winterhold City as fast as possible was a far better choice than waiting here to fill the trench.

And so the kingdom's legions immediately set off for the eastern gate.

Along the way, quite a few beastmen had finished mustering and began to block them.

But every man in the kingdom army knew this was a fight-to-the-death moment, so even the lesser nobles burned their boats and fought with blood and fury.

Another half hour later, the kingdom army finally reached the eastern gate.

The beastmen defending here were fewer—only a few hundred.

The Grand Commander and great nobles were overjoyed. "Quick, charge through, open the gate!"

Under the Grand Commander's and great nobles' orders, the light cavalry and guards immediately launched their assault on the eastern gate.

This time, it took only a little over ten minutes to rout the beastmen holding the eastern gate.

Spirits soaring, the commanders dared not delay. "Open the gate at once!"

Creak! Creak!

Under everyone's hopeful gaze, the gate slowly swung open.

But as the gate opened wider and wider, the smiles on the Grand Commander's and great nobles' faces gradually vanished.

Because, looking out through the gate-tunnel, what awaited them was not open wilderness.

It was a dense mass of beastman soldiers, with the Beast King himself at the head of the beastman army.

"Haha! I've finally been waiting for you to open this eastern gate! How about it, Grand Commander, and you noble lords of mankind—are you surprised?"

Clearly, the Beast King had long anticipated their next move and had arrived at the eastern gate ahead of them to wait.

"Beast King, don't get cocky—our human army will break out!" The nobles gnashed their teeth.

The Grand Commander knew they could not wait.

Otherwise, the longer they delayed, the more the soldiers' stamina drained. So he raised his longsword once more. "Brave warriors of the Griffin Kingdom, this is the moment of life and death. Break out and we all return safely to the kingdom! Charge with me!"

"Kill!"

"Haha! Then give it a try!" The Beast King's face twisted with mockery at the sight.

The next instant, the kingdom army charged.

The light cavalry burst from the city gate first, followed by the guards.

This time, the eastern gate had no trap.

Wooooo!

The beastmen's side immediately stirred into action.

Tens of thousands of servant soldiers surged out from the beastman ranks and threw themselves in front of the beastman army.

Clearly, they meant to use the servant soldiers to absorb the light cavalry's charge.

And so it proved—a moment later, the light cavalry had reached the servant soldiers.

Then, like a flood sweeping through, they bowled over and trampled vast swathes of the servant soldiers.

But the Beast King and his chieftains cared nothing for this; instead they watched it all with amused smiles.

Only when the three thousand light cavalry, now deep among the servant soldiers, began to tire and their speed started to flag, did the Beast King act again!

"Send out the Wolf Riders! These human light cavalry are humanity's only hope today—destroy them, and these humans will never have a chance to turn the tables!"

"Yes, Beast King Your Majesty!"

Wooooo!

Roar! Roar! Roar!

At the sound of the horn, a large contingent of Wolf Riders burst out of the camp, bellowing as they charged toward the light cavalry.

"Careful—it's Wolf Riders!" The light cavalry spotted these Wolf Riders at once.

They immediately abandoned their entanglement with the vassal troops and turned instead to meet the Wolf Riders.

Because if these Wolf Riders were not blocked, the kingdom's great army would likely be smashed apart on the spot by this force of a thousand Wolf Riders.

Still, even though the light cavalry fought so bravely, the gap in strength between the two sides foreshadowed that the light cavalry could not possibly gain the upper hand.

"Damn it—over a thousand Wolf Riders, three thousand light cavalry simply aren't enough to oppose them. Duke Lieshi, please send out your house cavalry to support us!" The Grand Commander looked anxiously toward Duke Lieshi.

Because within the kingdom's great army at present, apart from these three thousand light cavalry, only Duke Lieshi still had over a thousand light cavalry under his command..

"Grand Commander, my thousand light cavalry can be used to break through the beastmen's defenses. If all of them are spent tangling with the Wolf Riders, then we won't be able to charge our way out!"

Only, what the Grand Commander had not expected was that Duke Lieshi actually refused outright.

"Duke Lieshi! You…" The Grand Commander's face changed.

Duke Lieshi spoke in lofty, noble-sounding words, but anyone with sense knew he simply could not bear to send his light cavalry to fight the Wolf Riders.

Perhaps he still wanted to keep a shred of face, knowing it would not pass muster to hold back at this moment, so Duke Lieshi immediately gave the order: "Lieshi light cavalry, to the very front of the column—find a breach for the kingdom's great army!"

"Yes, my lord!"

And so, the Lieshi house light cavalry were also sent to the very front, taking over the task the kingdom's light cavalry had held before.

Of course, the Lieshi light cavalry did indeed move out!

But whether they could truly open a breach for the great army was, clearly, still unknown.