Chapter 23

The second and third volleys of arrows fell in succession, the dense arrows piercing through shields and armor, through skulls, and wounded soldiers rolled and moaned in the crowd. No one paid them any attention; many soldiers bled profusely, struggling to crawl down the mountain, ultimately crawling towards death.

The mountain path became a scene of chaos, with soldiers dodging and shoving each other as they ran. Soldiers were constantly hit by arrows, falling to the ground...

More than a thousand Khitan soldiers sprinted up the slope, advancing quickly. In a short time, they had passed two slopes. On the third-to-last slope, the ground suddenly became slippery. The Song army had poured a large amount of water on the ground, which froze overnight, making the surface extremely smooth. This was less of a problem for the soldiers in cloth shoes, but it was a fatal challenge for those in leather boots.

The soldiers slipped and fell, their shields becoming useless. On the hillside, the Song army's crossbows fired in a barrage, accompanied by huge logs rolling down from above. The logs crushed the Jin soldiers, breaking their bones, and the cries of those hit by arrows and the screams of those falling off the cliff echoed everywhere.

A strong sense of fear gripped the heart of each Jin soldier, and the formation fell into chaos. The will to attack instantly collapsed, and the soldiers scrambled to escape down the mountain.

Xiao Yantuo shouted repeatedly, but to no avail. Although he was a Khitan noble, these Khitan soldiers had no connection to him and ignored him.

With no other choice, Xiao Yantuo had to retreat down the mountain with the soldiers.

...

The first attack, involving two thousand Khitan soldiers, ended in failure, with over six hundred casualties.

Although this was within Wanyan Huonü's expectations, he still found it hard to accept. With over six hundred casualties and not even a single Song soldier touched, he glared at Xiao Yantuo and said, "I'll give you one more chance. If you fail again, I will enforce military law!"

Xiao Yantuo was determined and retorted, "The battalion leader must provide me with resources. Without resources, even ten chances won't help me win."

Wanyan Huonü stared at him for a moment and coldly asked, "What resources do you need?"

"First, give me my five hundred Jurchen soldiers; I need them to hold the rear. Second, the mountain path is too slippery; I need to lay a large amount of dry grass on it. Third, the Khitan soldiers' armor is too thin to withstand the arrows; I need the Jurchen soldiers' iron armor."

"The first two conditions I can grant, but the third one is out of the question. I can't have the soldiers take off their armor. At most, I can give each Khitan soldier a sheepskin."

Wanyan Huonü knew that the arrows shot from such a high mountain could easily pierce a bull, and their force was much greater than those from the city walls. Even sheepskins would be useless, and even ordinary iron lamellar armor couldn't stop them. Only the black lacquered iron armor of the scouting cavalry could withstand them.

In the past, they had used tens of thousands of Liao soldiers to deplete the arrows in the capital city. This time, he planned to do the same. He bet that the Song army wouldn't have many arrows, with a ratio of ten arrows per city defense bow, the Song army would have at most two thousand arrows. He planned to use three thousand Khitan soldiers to deplete them.

He immediately ordered two thousand cavalry to forcibly collect wheat straw from the surrounding villages. Within half an hour, the cavalry collected over ten thousand loads of wheat straw.

With a brief respite, Xiao Yantuo learned from the first failure and formulated a new attack plan.

For the second attack, Xiao Yantuo ordered five hundred Jurchen soldiers to hold the rear, with two thousand four hundred Khitan soldiers in front. He also ordered over a hundred soldiers to lay the wheat straw, carrying it on their shoulders and carefully placing it on the icy ground, segment by segment.

The Khitan soldiers still held their shields high and moved in formation, but Xiao Yantuo made two significant decisions. First, the soldiers should stay close to the mountain wall, reducing the effectiveness of the arrows and rolling logs by half.

Second, he set up twenty scouts. As soon as the enemy arrows were shot, the scouts would shout, and the soldiers would quickly move towards the mountain wall or lie down.

"Arrows are coming!" the scouts shouted in unison.

The soldiers, frightened, rushed towards the mountain wall, huddling together. The arrows whizzed down, deeply embedding themselves in the ground. Most of the arrows that should have hit their shields were avoided, with only a few soldiers unable to dodge, being hit by the arrows, which pierced through their shields and armor, causing dozens to scream and fall.

Although the casualties were much fewer than in the first attack, under the dense and continuous barrage of arrows from the Song army, the Khitan soldiers' casualties gradually increased. Xiao Yantuo could no longer bear it; the soldiers were down to fewer than two thousand.

At this moment, the number of Song army arrows rapidly decreased, and Xiao Yantuo immediately realized that the Song army's arrows were almost depleted.

"Charge!"

Xiao Yantuo shouted, leading the soldiers up the hill. The soldiers laying the straw had reached the second-to-last slope, the real test. Even by the mountain wall, the Song army soldiers were right above them.

The Song army's arrows were exhausted, and Chen Qing coldly ordered, "Use the military crossbows, prepare the rolling logs!"

On the mudbag fortifications above, fifty Song army soldiers fired their crossbows together, and several straw-laying soldiers were hit by the arrows, screaming and falling to the ground.

The decisive moment had arrived. Xiao Yantuo waved his sword and shouted, "The last eighty steps, brothers, charge!"

"Charge!"

The fierce Khitan soldiers, holding shields and spears, charged up the hill. Arrows rained down from above, followed by rolling logs, which crushed the heads of the enemy soldiers, rolling down and smashing into the dense crowd. The Khitan soldiers raised their shields to block, but the impact of the logs was too strong, and many were knocked down.

At this point, the straw was no longer needed; the bodies of the fallen soldiers became stepping stones. The Khitan soldiers, driven by a bloodlust, stepped on the bodies and charged up the hill. Many injured soldiers who couldn't get up were trampled to death.

Eighty steps... sixty steps... forty steps...

The Khitan soldiers attacked fiercely, suffering heavy casualties, but they were getting closer to the first mudbag wall.

Chen Qing, holding a powerful crossbow, aimed at the enemy commander in the middle of the formation. Xiao Yantuo was very cunning, wearing the same armor as the soldiers and frequently dodging towards the mountain wall.

But the war sword in Xiao Yantuo's hand exposed him. Among all the soldiers, only he held a war sword, commanding the soldiers to charge up the hill.

Chen Qing's crossbow finally locked onto the enemy commander. He decisively pulled the trigger, and the crossbow mechanism clicked. An arrow shot out like a bolt of lightning, moving at incredible speed.

Xiao Yantuo felt as if Death had tapped him on the shoulder. He turned his head, and the arrow hit him right between the eyes, piercing through his skull, the tip emerging from the back of his head.

Xiao Yantuo fell to the ground, dead instantly!

With the commander dead, the surrounding soldiers fell into chaos. Their morale and confidence quickly waned, and countless soldiers turned and fled. The soldiers in front and behind were also affected, following them down the hill.

The Song army took advantage of the chaos, firing a barrage of arrows, and hundreds of rolling logs crashed down. The Khitan soldiers screamed in terror, suffering heavy casualties...

But the retreating Khitan soldiers couldn't retreat. They turned a corner, and five hundred Jurchen soldiers, hiding by the mountain wall, charged up with sharp axes, chopping down dozens of the leading Khitan soldiers, forcing them to continue the attack.

The Khitan soldiers were enraged by the brutal Jurchen soldiers. A Khitan commander shouted, "We are not cannon fodder, brothers, charge down!"

The Khitan soldiers charged the Jurchen soldiers with spears, trying to open a bloody path, but the Jurchen soldiers were incredibly fierce, using spears and axes to kill, and in a moment, over a hundred were killed, including the leading Khitan commander, whose head was cut off.

The remaining thousand Khitan soldiers, terrified, had to turn around again and step on the bodies of the fallen soldiers to charge up the hill.

Logs flew, arrows rained, and the mountain path was covered in blood and bodies. The Khitan soldiers had no way to retreat. They shouted and charged with shields and spears, falling and rising, step by step, approaching the last slope, which was blocked by a mudbag wall.

Hundreds of Song army soldiers, holding shields and spears, were ready. In an instant, countless spears clashed, and the two armies finally engaged in close combat.

Wanyan Huonü coldly watched the mountain top. Everything was as he had expected. He had used nearly three thousand Khitan soldiers to pave a bloody path up the mountain, and he could see the hope of capturing the mountain top.

Wanyan Huonü waved his sword, "Charge!"

"Ugh—"

The low, deep sound of the Jurchen soldiers' horns echoed as Wanyan Huonü personally led three thousand Jurchen soldiers up the mountain.

...

At the same time, another three hundred Jin soldiers, led by hunters, climbed up a small path from the northeast corner. The terrain here was extremely treacherous, and the soldiers could only climb one by one.

Especially at the cliff in the middle of the mountain, it was a place where one man could hold off ten thousand. Because of the treacherous terrain, the Song army had only deployed twenty men and five powerful crossbows here.

Under the high mud wall, there were already thirty or so Jin soldier corpses. A fierce battle had taken place here, with all the Jin soldiers attempting to climb being killed by the Song army. However, seven of the twenty Song soldiers had also been killed, mostly by arrows and short spears from the Jin soldiers.

The Jin soldiers were driven back, and soon, they began to reorganize their attack.

A Song soldier aimed at a Jin soldier slowly climbing up and pulled the trigger of the crossbow. The crossbow mechanism clicked, and a powerful arrow shot towards a Jurchen soldier thirty steps away.

The Jurchen soldier, holding a shield, struggled to climb up. The shield was pierced by the arrow, and the arrow shot through his throat. The Jurchen soldier let out a muffled cry and rolled down the hill.

The soldiers behind were too frightened to move. One after another, they were shot down. In just half a day, nearly forty had been killed, and with the two rounds of fierce battles, thirty-five more had died, totaling over seventy Jurchen soldiers.

At this moment, a cavalryman rushed up, holding a command arrow and shouting, "The battalion leader orders to abandon the small path and move to the front!"

The two hundred Jurchen soldiers on the mountain were relieved and descended, moving to the front mountain path.

The fierce battle on the main battlefield had entered the final stage, and there was no need to attack from the rear anymore.