Battle Royale of the Sinners 229 Demoralizing Tactic

Dong Zhuo Camp, north of Luo Yang.

It was already 7 PM, and both sides withdrew their troops.

Dong Zhuo had set up a camp three kilometers north of Luo Yang and close to the Yellow River.

In Dong Zhuo's private tent, the fat tyrant lied on his bed with a pale complexion. Though he survived Diao Chan's mental attack, he had yet to recover from the fright and the torture.

Hua Xiong stood beside the bed, guarding his boss. Unlike rusty Dong Zhuo, Hua Xiong's body was in shape, so he had already recovered from the previous battle.

Li Ru, however, stared at the two with a frown. He had helped to command the troops during the siege, but he did not expect a difficult fight. Furthermore, he was not satisfied by the sudden order of Dong Zhuo and Hua Xiong for signaling the attack without consulting him.

The loss of 20,000 soldiers of 100,000 in the siege was unacceptable to Li Ru.

"I'm going to contact the others in Hongnong. I'll have them send us some reinforcement and pincer Luo Yang's west gate. Hua Xiong, prepare 10,000 troops and have the others rest for the night."

…

10 PM.

North wall of Luo Yang.

A hundred garrison soldiers stood, guarding the wall, which illuminated by thousands of torches. They watched into the darkness in nervousness as they had experienced the siege battle for the first time.

Because of the anxiety, they did their best to stay awake to keep watch. Not a single firefly could escape the garrison soldiers' eyes.

Their fear became a reality as a hundred thousand torches could be seen from the horizon.

*BOOM*
*GONG*
*BOOM*

The sounds of war drums and war gongs alerted everybody in the city. The garrison soldiers who had a hard time trying to sleep widened their eyes as the sounds awoke them. They rushed on top of the gate to prepare to defend.

"WAAAH!"
"SHAAAA!"

The scream and shout came from the other side, which further put the troops on their toes.

Liu Yu also rushed to the top of the gate, resuming his command.

"Prepare fire arrows!"

*GONG*
*GONG*

The garrison forces readied their bows and arrows, aiming forward. Strangely, Dong Zhuo's troops stopped out of the arrow-range, but they still shouted and hit their war drums.

"Fire!"

Liu Yu ordered a fire-volley. Though they might not hit the enemies, he wanted to get a good visual on their troops.

A hundred thousand fire arrows flew through the sky and dropped on the ground, illuminating the battlefield.

Liu Yu managed to catch a glimpse of Dong Zhuo's troops. They formed a shield formation and hid behind their barricaded shields.

'Odd,' Liu Yu thought, 'Is this a fake night attack?'

*WHOOSH*
*BOOM*

A sound of trebuchet launching stones alerted Liu Yu. Because these sounds were memorable, all soldiers shrunk their heads down by instinct as they thought the stones might hit them.

Fortunately, all the stones came up short and landed in front of the wall.

"Stay alert! Keep watching the lines. Ready your bows, shoot on my signal!"

…

On the other side, Li Ru watched the siege with an indifferent expression.

"Fire another barrage," Li Ru ordered.

Ten trebuchets blindly hurled stones at the wall hitting nothing but the ground.

"Shout and sound the gong."

"WAAAHHH!"
*GONG*
*GONG*

Ignoring the chaotic noise, Li Ru yawned as he lazily gazed at the top of the wall.

'The plan succeeded.'

He turned to look at Hua Xiong, who was sleeping amid the noisy battlefield. Li Ru chuckled as he was amazed by the adaptability of this general.

"Good gracious. I wish I can sleep anywhere like you."

Before coming here, Li Ru did not want to siege the city at night, but he faked the siege and played a mind game with the defenders.

Since they had to siege the Capital, it would be unwise for him to divide his troops and attack all walls. Sieging all walls and gates consumed more resources than hitting one wall with everything they had as they had to create extra siege weapons and waste more woods.

Secondly, Li Ru wanted to create a false image that he did not have enough personals to attack other gates. In reality, he had already sent a fast horse to Hongnong, asking his men to dispatch an addition army to Luo Yang.

'There's still an issue with that little girl's identity. She's Wang Yun's adopted daughter in the report, but her emergence as an immortal is unheard of. Is she the same with Zhang Tong?'

An uneasy feeling crept through Li Ru's mind. There were so many reports about the supernatural phenomenon and the rumors about identities of several immortals in various forces. The event this morning was also real as he directly experienced it.

'That earthquake and shattering sky are ominous signs. Something is very wrong with this country, or could it be that the girl will bring the calamity to us all.'

'No matter what she is. We'll capture her and kill her! Everything will be solved once she's dead!'

…
…

December 1st, 182 A.D.

6 AM.

Liu Yu and his men stared at sunrise with blood-shot eyes. They had not slept all night as Li Ru's 10,000 soldiers kept shouting and drumming non-stop. Moreover, the trebuchet barrages kept them on their toes as sometimes the trebuchet stones landed on top of the wall, killing or injuring the garrison soldiers.

However, in the end, Li Ru did not siege the wall during the night.

The 10,000 troops, who had stayed and shouted last night, withdrew. As heaven had bullied them, the other 70,000 soldiers of Dong Zhuo replaced the former army.

It was then that Liu Yu realized that he had been duped.

"This is a ploy! They're tiring us out!"

Siege towers, ladders, and more trebuchets were being pushed forward. As Liu Yu army had not dispatched the troops to defend the front of the wall, these siege weapons had no obstacle to block their path.

"Curse you, Dong Zhuo!"

*GONG*
*GONG*
*BOOM*

The obnoxious war drums and war gongs from Dong Zhuo's side resounded again. Hua Xiong, who had a good night sleep, woke up and led his men forward.

The siege battle continued.

Ten siege ladders and towers were being pushed forward, escorted by shieldsmen and other infantries.

Liu Yu did not have catapults, ballistae, or repeating crossbows as Tong had. His troops used fire-arrows against the incoming siege weapons to destroy the incoming towers. They managed to burn two of the siege ladders down, but the other eight reached the wall and became the foothold for Dong Zhuo's men.

Ten siege towers also got into the position. Archers on the towers began shooting arrows at the defenders on the wall.

Seeing that the siege went well, Hua Xiong turned to Li Ru to ask for his opinion.

"Do you want to finish it today?"

Li Ru shook his head, "No. I want to demoralize their men. I want the empress to surrender, so we can reduce our casualties. We'll still have to deal with other lords after we occupy Luo Yang."

"Hmm, sounds difficult."

"It is difficult. We're going to need all soldiers from the west to gather in the Capital after this."

Li Ru looked back at the stationary siege weapons that they had yet to push to the frontline. Forty siege towers and siege ladders were still there as well as several trebuchets. He fell into deep thought as he simulated battle scenarios.

Hua Xiong, on the other hand, began stretching as if he was warming up before an exercise.

"Since you want to save soldiers, I'm going to exercise for a bit. I'll be back in a minute."

Li Ru rolled his eyes, "Suit yourself."

…

Liu Yu Army was in a tough spot situation. The enemies kept pouring from the siege ladders while the archers from the siege towers kept maiming his archers on top of the wall.

"C-C-Clan head! This is not good. We'll be overrun at this rate. We have to destroy the towers!"

Liu Yu's subordinates were in a panic. As civil officers who had never experienced a massive scale war, they could not handle the pressure.

As for the clan head himself, his complexion was pale, and sweat could be seen everywhere on his skin. He was nervous to the point that he wanted to scream.

"Open the gate and send the troops out! Destroy those towers!"

"Y-Y-Yes, sir! Good idea, sir!"

The gate slowly opened, and a battalion of 5,000 troops rushed out. They immediately destroyed the soldiers in front of them, which cleared a path for the following men.

As the nearby attacking soldiers concentrated on the top of the wall, they were caught off guard and killed before they could react. The counter-troops managed to destroy one siege ladder within a few minutes.

"I-It's working! It's working!"

Liu Yu's subordinates were elated. However, Liu Yu was still nervous.

'There is still that cavalry unit …'

Just as Liu Yu was afraid about the particular cavalry unit, which decimated most of his troops yesterday, Hua Xiong led his 5,000 heavy cavalries and charged at the sortieing soldiers.

"Archers! Aim at the horsemen!"

As he feared, Hua Xiong appeared again. The remaining archers on top of the wall heeded his command and fired their arrows at the oncoming horsemen. They managed to land a few hundred arrows on the armored soldiers, but they could not stop their charge.

*BANG*

The charge connected and both battalions crashed upon each other. Though the number was almost the same, the quality of soldiers and their roles were totally unmatched.

The heavy cavalry unit of Hua Xiong massacred Liu Yu's sortie troops within five minutes, leaving no one alive. To make the garrison soldiers more vexing, Hua Xiong glanced at the garrison soldiers on the wall and made a cut-throat gesture with his thumb.

Hua Xiong ignored the still-wide-open gate and retreated back to the main army. He knew that charging into the city right now was a bad move as there could be ambushes inside the city.

Liu Yu and the other officers could only watch them leaving as they were powerless against these cavalries. Feeling helpless, Liu Yu ordered.

"Close the gate. Concentrate on the defense."

"Y-Yes, sir!"

…

6 PM.

*GONG*

Dong Zhuo Army hit the war gong with a signal to retreat, and all remaining siege towers and ladders were pulled back from the wall. The invading soldiers, who were still on top of the wall, rushed back to the ladders, withdrawing from the fight.

Liu Yu shouted and ordered the pursuit to eliminate all retreating troops on the wall. However, the soldiers had not slept last night, and they had been fighting for the entire day. Some of them had not eaten anything since the morning. They did not have any strength left even to run.

The battered soldiers collapsed and lied on top of the wall, ignoring the dead bodies beside them.

Liu Yu also exhausted from watching over the battlefield and constant issuing orders. He whispered the lieutenants to fetch food for the garrison soldiers.

One hour later, the garrison soldiers managed to catch their breath and had a meal after the long day. After they finished eating, they collapsed on the ground and fell asleep on the open field.

Liu Yu watched them with a bitter smile. He got up from his seat on top of the wall and planned to visit Wang Yun and Diao Chan to check their condition.

*BOOM*
*GONG*

The war drums and war gongs from Dong Zhuo's side resounded again. The 10,000 soldiers from last night reappeared along with siege weapons.

Liu Yu glare at this troops with hatred. Thinking about what had happened last night, Liu Yu groaned.

"The same tactic won't work twice! You think I'll fell for it again?"

Liu Yu ignored the troops in front of him and left the seat, heading back to rest.

However,

*RUMBLE*

The 10,000 soldiers pushed their siege ladders and siege towers forward. Trebuchets also began firing stones to the top of the wall.

They were not feinting an attack this time.

"SHAAA!"
"KILLLL!"

Unhindered by the defending troops, the siege ladders and towers reached their position in no time.

Liu Yu finally realized that he had been duped by Li Ru's stratagem.

In despair, he shouted, "DAMNIT! TO ARMS! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK AGAIN!!"

Chapter end