144: Chapter 0144 The Standardization Army

Before the two could finish their conversation, a series of chaotic shouts erupted from the city gate.

"They're attacking! The Zhenbei Army is attacking the city!!"

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Many commoners who noticed the situation were shouting in panic.

For the people of Lincang Prefecture, with Baishui Prefecture and several border cities holding the line to the north, the last time they were involved in a war was twenty years ago.

Suddenly facing a siege, even if the opponent wasn't a barbarian tribe and was nominally the imperial army, it was enough to make them tremble with fear.

Prefect Wu Yonghe's face tensed as he shouted urgently, "What are you still standing there for!? Go defend the city!!"

Prefect Cai Heng hurriedly complied and turned to rush toward the city gate.

After seeing him leave, Prefect Wu Yonghe immediately summoned the Old Butler.

"Master, are you looking for your armor? I've stored it in the warehouse..."

"What armor! Are you trying to send me to my death!? The enemy has an army of tens of thousands!"

Prefect Wu Yonghe glared and whispered his instructions:

"Go, take all the paintings, calligraphy, and antiques from my study and load them onto the carriage!"

"And the silver in my warehouse, take that out as well!"

The Old Butler was stunned. "Master, are we leaving then?"

"Leave? My entire family is inside the city. Even if we forced our way out through the south gate, could we outrun those cavalrymen?"

"What kind of man is Lin Xiao? Could he not have anticipated that? He'll certainly have sent patrols to watch the south gate!"

Prefect Wu Yonghe said in a low voice, "Have the guard commander, Zheng Chun, take all those riches and send them to the north gate."

"The north gate!?"

The Old Butler said in a panic, "Master, the Zhenbei Army is coming from the north!"

"Stop talking nonsense!! Just go when I tell you to!!"

At that moment, above the Lincang city gate, massive spheres were already crashing down!

Over twenty catapults had been transported to the site overnight via the concrete road.

Improved with Old Yu's exquisite techniques, the controllability and durability of these catapults far exceeded ordinary ones.

Furthermore, they weren't using ordinary stones, but concrete projectiles weighted with iron slag and cast in molds.

Thus, the infantrymen of the Siege Engine Battalion had long since mastered the impact points of these concrete projectiles.

Within three hundred meters, the accuracy error was within two meters!

From equipment to ammunition, everything was standardized, turning the catapults from "random strikes" into "precision coverage"!

"Ready—Fire!!"

With the command, over twenty concrete projectiles traced arcs through the air, uniformly hurtling toward the top of the city walls!

The defenders of Lincang were dumbfounded; the flying spheres heading toward them seemed to have eyes, landing exactly where they were standing!

Amidst waves of wailing, dozens of soldiers were instantly killed or wounded.

"Assistant Minister Cai! Don't go up!! It's too dangerous up there!!"

Old Zhou saw Prefect Cai Heng approaching and hurriedly grabbed him.

Cai Heng saw a large number of wounded soldiers being carried down, some of whom had been directly crushed, and his face was filled with shock.

"What's happening!? It's only just begun, how are there so many casualties!?"

"Their catapults are too accurate! Our soldiers standing on the walls are basically sitting ducks!"

"Catapults!? How could those things be accurate..."

"I don't know either! I've never seen such massive things. They don't break when they fall, they're hard and heavy—it's terrifying!"

Before he could finish, Cai Heng heard the "thud, thud, thud" of impacts!

This earth-shaking sound was so rhythmic, continuously crushing the confidence of the defending soldiers!

Cai Heng gritted his teeth and drew his sword!

"Brothers!! The Prefect has said he will defend the city to the death with us!"

"Don't let the Zhenbei Army look down on us!! As long as the gate isn't broken, it's not over!!"

Saying this, Cai Heng ignored Old Zhou's attempts to stop him and took the lead in charging up.

Inspired by Cai Heng, Old Zhou and some other officers and soldiers climbed back onto the city walls.

Meanwhile, under the heavy cover of the catapults, dozens of scaling ladders rushed to the base of the walls!

Li Xu, now a Commandant and a master archer, led the archers of the Crossbow Battalion, lying in ambush behind the shield-bearers.

As soon as any soldier shot at them, they would perform precision kills.

Relying on composite crossbows, the Zhenbei Army's crossbowmen could pick off enemies from a much greater distance.

As more defenders were shot dead, few dared to show their heads.

The scaling ladders were successfully raised, and the Zhenbei Army's infantry vanguard, clad in finely crafted armor, began to scale the walls with agile movements!

Although they hadn't slept all night, they weren't hungry or cold; they had even eaten some simple hot rations and drunk hot water before launching the attack.

To them, this siege was no different from their daily training!

In fact, if it were a field exercise lasting three days and nights, it would have been much harder than this!

In contrast, the Lincang defenders were cold, hungry, and completely unprepared, making them naturally no match.

The Zhenbei Army soldiers easily reached the top of the walls and immediately began the slaughter.

They had already fought major battles against the Northern Barbarians and were highly experienced.

Coupled with the rewards from the "Golden Scale Ranking," the soldiers fought exceptionally hard, never slacking in their daily training and constantly pushing their limits.

Unknowingly, over the past few months, the individual strength of these soldiers had ascended to a new level!

Through the Eye of God, Lin Xiao discovered that these soldiers had, on average, increased their cultivation by 2 to 3 years.

Even though most of them practiced techniques below the yellow grade, the sheer quantity led to a qualitative change!

Close-quarters combat!

With the "clanging and clashing" of weapons, the Lincang defenders were simply no match and quickly retreated in defeat!

Cai Heng and several commandant officers resisted desperately, but they soon realized that even a random soldier from the Zhenbei Army was terrifyingly brave and skilled in battle!!

Although these officers had the advantage in individual strength, the Zhenbei Army's coordination compensated for any weaknesses.

Furthermore, their armor and weapons were finely crafted.

In the freezing temperatures, some of the defenders' blades and spears snapped after just a few strikes!

Facing the tide of Zhenbei Army soldiers climbing up, Cai Heng felt despair in his heart!

He realized that even if the opponent had only brought three thousand men to besiege the city, they probably wouldn't have been able to stop them.

Bringing ten thousand men was truly giving them a lot of face!

"Don't get bogged down in fighting! Open the city gates!!"

Chen Chuan led his troops onto the wall first, then commanded the soldiers to open the city gates from the inside.

The defenders' morale had long since crumbled; seeing the wolf-like and tiger-like Zhenbei Army, they were too terrified to even attempt to stop them.

Moreover, deep down, many of them were already eager for it all to end.

"Assistant Minister Cai, where is Prefect Wu!?"

"Didn't he say he would defend the city with us!?"

"Assistant Minister Cai... give up! We can't stop them!"

"I'm not fighting anymore! What's the point!?"

Cai Heng watched as the defending officers around him dropped their weapons one by one and knelt in surrender, hot tears streaming from his eyes.

His men had only frustration and exhaustion in their eyes.

Whereas the Zhenbei Army soldiers all had a fiery glow in their eyes!

From the very beginning, they had already lost!

"Sigh!!"

Cai Heng threw down his sword and slumped to the ground.

In truth, he had known from the start that Prefect Wu Yonghe wouldn't come.

He had merely been clinging to an unrealistic dream.

Now... the dream was over!