Dragon's Soul Chapter 34: Invasion

"I shall go ready the men my lord." Xi Ning said as he jumped on to his horse and sped back into the fortress.

The original five thousand men he had were not fully armed so the city lord did not care too much about them. Red Mist city had roughly one hundred thousand active soldiers so five thousand was not much.

However, he would never have guessed that Zhang supplied the village with a vast amount of wealth. Using this amount of money Xi Ning was able to secretly buy weapons off the black market. Red Mist city had many back channels where if one had money they could buy pretty much anything. This was due to the city being too large and a key trading hub for the western edge of the warring states region.

Then came recruiting the bandits. This was a very easy task since most bandits only became bandits because they could not keep themselves fed. So the instant he told them about his employer and showed how much wealth he was given these bandits instantly jumped on board.

Next came the hardest task that Zhang gave him. Zhang had ordered Xi Ning to construct a tunnel that would lead from the outskirts of Red Mist city to the inside of the city. This was a very daunting task.

After lots of searching Xi Ning decided to pick one location that was roughly three miles from the city. The soil here had many small rocks and lots of very large trees that prevented erosion. As an extra precaution he had the inside of the tunnel lined with stone and had support beams set up.

Xi Ning had split his men into teams of one hundred and gave them all different tasks during the construction of the tunnel. Ten teams of men would work around the clock to dig the tunnel and lay the stonework inside of it. While the rest were given tasks regarding the construction of the fortress below the foot of the mountain leading up to the village.

Also as a precaution Xi Ning ordered some of his men to pretend to be farming or hunting in case someone working for the city lord came by. He made it so that the men in under his command was constantly on the more thus making the extra five thousand men nearly invisible.

Zhang led ten thousand cavalry soldiers to the outskirts of Red Mist city. Behind him were eight thousand infantry soldiers armed with swords and pikes. One could say that this many soldiers made up a sizable force however in the Wulin continent there were many billions of people.

And the first rule to sieging a city was to bring five times the number of defenders. So logically Zhang needed five hundred thousand soldiers. This was due to defenders being up on high walls while attackers had to somehow get up.

Some may ask why not sneak into the city dressed as commoners and then attack from the inside. The answer would be those who sneaked in would not have weapons. When entering a city everyone was checked and if they had a weapon it would be recorded down. And of course if too many people appeared with weapons that would be suspicious.

So instead of sieging Red Mist city had sent Xi Ning and two thousand men to use the tunnel to infiltrate the city. Once inside Xi Ning would occupy one of the city gates, open them and signal Zhang to move in.

Beneath Zhang's feet underground two thousand men were crammed into a small tunnel. The tunnel was large enough for two men to stand side by side when standing straight. Thus two lines of a thousand men each was formed.

"I never thought that day I come back to the city I would be using a tunnel such as this." Xi Ning said

But who would think that this time he was coming back and bringing two thousand fully armed soldiers with him. To top that off there were eighteen thousand soldiers waiting above ground for his signal to charge into the city.

A while later Xi Ning had reached the end of the tunnel they were directly under a shack in the slums. Xi Ning had one of his men purchase the shack and stuck a long wooden pole that was painted blue down into the ground. This pole was used by the man digging to know where to stop. The tunnel was relatively straight so as long as they knew what direction to go in they would be fine but they needed to know where to stop.

They had no made an exit hole because they were afraid that it would be discovered before the plan came into play.

Anyone one who saw them would be either dispatched or knocked out and tied up. He did not want to drag innocent people into the battle if he could help it.

There was only one post situated in the slums mainly because the city lord did not care about the poor. Xi Ning and his twenty soldiers silently moved through the night. They had wrapped their armored boots in cloth as to not make too much noise when walking.

"Ha I win again! Pay up!" One of the guards laughed as he yelled at the other four.

"Really? A fortuneteller told me this morning that today a big change will happen in my life! And since then I've been so lucky. I even found a gold coin when walking on the street!" The guard said while laughing.

"Hey you son of a bitch, just because I won a few silvers from you doesn't mean you pull a sword out on me!" The guard yelled angrily.

"KILL!!" A voice rang out behind him.

"Destroy the amplifiers! We don't want anyone using them tonight." Xi Ning ordered.

Xi Ning had ordered his men to break up into teams and move around separately as they headed for one of the gates. If they stayed in a large group and ran into enemy opposition, then all of them would be stalled. However, if they split up into many groups only a few of them would be stalled.

Some soldiers were tasked with different missions than others. Some would roam through the city while pouring lamp oil onto certain places. While others would have dispatched of certain guard posts they may be alerted of the army's movements. Everyone had a job to do.

A man was walking down the street gripping onto and sipping from a wine bottle.

As he watched his men move and was about to move himself a voice rang out.

"Fucker.." Xi Ning cursed in his mind.

"Don't fucken lie to me man I know you have some booze on you!" The drunk man yelled as he walked up and grabbed Xi Ning's arm

"Hey Do you know who I am? I'm the king of the world! Now give me some booze and I'll let you marry a princess." The man said drunkenly.

After tying the man up he made his way toward his troops and continued heading for the gate.

They were the first squad to reach their destination and had to wait for the rest of the soldiers. Once a small force of roughly three hundred soldiers amassed Xi Ning led them to attack the guard's barracks located by the city wall. This guard's barracks was simply a rest station for the guards who guarded the walls so not a lot of soldiers stayed here.

A few hundred soldiers were positioned to guard the gates but after extended periods without any fighting these men had grown dull. Whereas the ex-bandits had lived by the sword to make a live thus making them as sharp as swords.

This entire event happened over a few minutes and no one under Xi King's command was even injured. While outside one thousand and five hundred soldiers who reached the rendezvous point. Once all of them assembled they began the attack on the wall.

Once the flare was seen in the air the ten thousand cavalry soldiers began moving. The eight thousand infantry also moved but they would arrive much later than the cavalry soldiers would.

Within the city when the green flare shot up the various soldiers who had been pouring out lamp oil everywhere began lighting flames. Soon fires sprang up everywhere within the city.

Thoughts? :D  Help me come up with some names for people lol

Chapter end