Chapter 46

Several explosions echoed, followed by several screams from within the walls, and then the wails of two people.

Six people were hit, two of them seriously injured. Fortunately, Wang Ju gave a warning, otherwise the losses would have been even greater.

"Carry them away," Wang Ju ordered.

"Attack," the leader outside seized the opportunity to launch a full-scale assault.

"Prepare to defend," Li Sangou shouted loudly.

Arrows flew densely from the battlements.

Although there were many arrows, this time most of them were ordinary mulberry wood bows, and the arrowheads were the common iron ones used by the villagers before. The later steel arrowheads, though sharp, were too expensive, and the villagers, who were eager to get rich, strongly opposed the forging of hand knives, arrowheads, and spearheads by Yuan Heizi and his team, as it slowed down the production of swords and reduced their profits. It wasn't until the Zhu family sent a message that they stopped forging Xia swords and focused on forging various weapons. Even so, some people still had doubts and showed their dissatisfaction.

Now, many people regretted seeing that their arrowheads couldn't even penetrate leather armor.

However, it wasn't too late to mend. Although there was opposition, with Wang Ju's strong insistence and Wang Quan's support, plus the support of the Zhu family, the village had prepared many weapons.

A flurry of punches can kill an old boxer.

With so many arrows, even ordinary mulberry wood bows and iron arrowheads could be lethal.

Despite the protection of shields, many subordinates were still hit and fell, and the leader was so angry that he kept shouting in Tangut, "Attack, attack."

This time, they were prepared and brought some shields, and finally managed to reach the foot of the wall. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Not good."

As the cry spread, long spears thrust out from the battlements, and many Xia soldiers were impaled and fell at the foot of the wall.

"Avoid the battlements, reaching the wall is victory."

Wang Quan looked at Li Sangou, who looked at Wang Ju. Wang Ju calculated the time and shook his head, saying, "Hold on a bit longer."

"Select some able-bodied men to climb the wall and prepare to defend," Li Sangou gave another order.

Finally, some Xia warriors climbed onto the wall.

"Kill!" Wang Xiaoquan shouted, killing a soldier who had climbed onto the wall with a hand knife, but he himself was also hit.

The Xia people should not be underestimated. Most of them grew up eating meat and lived in the poor Hengshan mountains, making them naturally fierce and individually more combat-effective than ordinary villagers.

Wang Xiaoquan had killed one person, and several more successfully climbed onto the wall.

The village finally saw casualties. These were a group of ruthless people who spared no one, not even women and children. An old woman from the Su family, nearly sixty years old, was beheaded by a Xia soldier.

"Compassion does not command an army," the elder brother thought as he sat in a tree.

He knew most of the village's plans. Even now, Wang Ju had not initiated the second phase, showing the decisiveness and ruthlessness of the young man. "I am not the one to do great things; this little brat will be the one to do great things," the elder brother thought to himself sarcastically.

...

"Wang Er, stop," a decurion panted as he shouted from behind.

Wang Wei stopped with the villagers and turned to look.

"Commander Ye ordered you to return."

"Decurion Gu, didn't we ask Zhong Heizi to report to Commander Ye that our village was attacked?"

"Attacked? Go back."

"Come and see," Wang Wei, angry, grabbed the Song soldier and pulled him to the top of the hill. "Look over there!"

The construction site was not far from Wang's village, less than thirty miles away. This group had been running, and they were only three or four miles from Wang's village. From the top of the hill, they could vaguely see what was happening.

"There really is an attack."

"Building the road is good for our village. The old village chief said that once the road is built, we will build a road to connect with the main road. We are not like the Qiang villages; we are not afraid of hard work. If there is no attack, why should we go back?"

"Yes, yes," Decurion Gu nodded and bowed. He was not afraid of Wang Wei but of the Xia soldiers.

"Enemies are attacking. You two must immediately return and report, and ask the Weilin Village troops to send reinforcements."

"Yes, yes," the two ran back.

This place is dangerous; we can't stay long.

...

"Seeing the sunny side of him recently, and the ruthless side today, which is the true nature of this young man?" the elder brother continued to wonder.

"Brother, are you going to stand by and watch?" Wang Ju shouted at the locust tree.

"I am not your brother," the elder brother shouted angrily but had to jump down and enter the battlefield.

"Brother really didn't call in vain," Wang Ju thought as he watched the big man leap into action and quickly dispatch two strong enemies.

"Da Niu, you command, I will join the battle," Li Sangou said.

There were also skilled warriors among the Xia army. In a blink, over a dozen villagers had been killed, and Li Sangou was getting anxious.

"Good."

Li Sangou and the elder brother entered the battlefield, turning the tide.

Despite being over forty and not having fought for a long time, Li Sangou's combat ability was not inferior to the elder brother's.

Wang Ju watched the sun rise on the eastern mountain.

It wasn't that he was ruthless; time was the key. His uncle and the Guinü clan had not yet arrived, and the ambush had not been set. They had to buy more time.

The battle continued, but time was gradually on their side.

Wang Ju raised a red flag.

This was a signal; the second phase of the plan began.

Seeing the red flag, the dozen or so able-bodied men who were in the huts, some of whom had injured or dead relatives, quickly entered the underground tunnels beneath the huts.

"Initially, if we had listened to Da Niu's advice and prepared a hundred strong bows, it would have been much better," someone thought.

In fact, if it weren't for the Zhu family's additional support of a hundred strong bows, the battle would have been even worse. If they had completely followed Wang Ju's advice and bought a hundred more strong bows, the village's defensive bows would have been half of the real Song Dynasty composite bows, with greater lethality.

There is no medicine for regret in this world.

However, even so, the casualties were not too heavy. The number of enemy soldiers was almost equal to the total number of men, women, and children in the village. But they were all real warriors, and the village now had only a hundred or so able-bodied men, and their equipment was not complete.

But the real counterattack began.

The deadly moat.

There was a moat in front of the village, but it was now gone.

It wasn't gone; it was a trap.

The moat was covered with a layer of wooden boards, studded with many half-foot-long iron or bamboo spikes.

The wooden boards were supported by wooden stakes and covered with mud.

The wooden stakes were not driven into the bottom of the moat but were placed on the wooden boards, which had a mud hole underneath.

No need to burn the wooden stakes, and the enemy was not a massive army.

Just send people to knock the wooden boards off the stakes, and the stakes would immediately collapse into the hole or fall into the moat. With many people standing on top, the enemies would fall into the moat.

Suddenly, dozens of enemy soldiers fell into the moat. A few lucky ones landed on the wooden boards and mud and were not injured, but the rest fell onto the iron or bamboo spikes and were immediately impaled.

"Retreat!" the leader shouted again, struggling.

The enemy soldiers retreated in a line.

But their faces were not good. In just a short time, over a hundred had been killed, and many more were injured.

The leader's face turned green as he looked at the village, silent for a long time, and then said, "Prepare straw bags to fill the moat, and prepare to cut down trees to make battering rams to break through the village gate."

"Understood."

Hundreds of people went to the stream, the only place where there were many trees.

"Yea!" Wang Ju couldn't help but raise his fist in triumph.

Although the village was filled with wails, after the fierce battle, over twenty villagers had died, and many more were injured. But the enemy's every move was within his expectations.

After a furious shout, he raised the flag again, this time two red flags.

"Open the sluice gates," Yuan Heizi ordered.

The three sluice gates of the reservoir were opened simultaneously.

"Too bad we released water twice before; otherwise, the effect would have been better," Yuan Heizi thought.

But it was enough. As the sluice gates were fully opened, the water in the reservoir rushed out in a torrent, flooding the three small streams. The speed was too fast, and the Xia soldiers, who were cutting trees and filling straw bags with mud, were caught off guard, and nearly a hundred were swept away by the flood.

The Xia soldiers were stunned. At that moment, they saw flags rising on the eastern mountain, each bearing a large character: Song!

Needless to say, their worst fear had come true; the Song reinforcements had arrived.