Chapter 173: One Hundred and Seventy-Four. Severely Inflicted on Huang Chao, Unable to Resist

Shan Mao, one of Huang Chao's four heroes, walked quickly to the top of the tower and looked at the city from afar. His heart was beating fast, and he was holding a broadsword tightly in his hand, feeling uneasy.

Just now, there was a loud noise from the tower, and Shan Mao thought that Li Ye had suddenly rushed to the top of the tower, which caused the top of the tower to be in such a mess. However, he did not really feel the powerful momentum and aura that Li Ye should have, which made him confused and worried.

Shan Mao frowned and jumped onto the city wall as fast as flying. When he looked down, he saw the hot oil with golden juice that was originally prepared to block the attack of Li Ye's army, exploding all over the ground with hot steam. The hot oil was even ignited, and the raging fire was spreading continuously on the earthen city with the flow of the hot oil.

The soldiers whose clothes were set on fire and who were scalded by the boiling gold juice and hot oil wailed one after another on the numerous earthen cities, echoing throughout the city walls of Heze.

Shan Mao, who didn't understand what was going on, just heard a series of explosions, but when he saw this scene, his heart sank and his face looked extremely ugly.

The pungent smell of burnt food produced by the explosion of the Mysterious Silent Thunder mixed with the stinking smell of gold juice rushed into Shan Mao's nose all at once, making him unprepared. His eyes widened immediately, his face changed drastically, and he almost felt like vomiting.

He suppressed his discomfort and looked at the injured soldiers with a frown, then turned his head to look at Li Ye who was sitting on the ladder of the Tang army in the distance.

"What's going on? Did Li Ye and Li Cunxiao just attack the city wall in person?"

"General, it was caused by those unknown siege weapons that Li Ye brought. The crossbow arrows shot over exploded and ignited the boiling hot oil, destroying the fortifications on the top of the city and the frontline blocking positions below... Be careful!"

Just when an officer who was stunned by Li Ye's round of explosive crossbow arrows wanted to step forward and explain the current situation to Shan Mao, he saw that the carriages in Li Ye's army below that could fire explosive crossbow arrows began to draw their bows and arrows and fired another round at him!
He quickly reached out and pulled Shan Mao, who was standing on the city wall, down. But before he could explain, bursts of explosions were heard one after another on the top of the city wall in front of him!

Boom—boom—boom—…

Although he was hiding behind the city wall, Shan Mao could still imagine the tragic scene on the top of the city wall after another round of exploding crossbow arrows through the walls.

He just realized that Li Ye's explosive crossbow arrows actually had little effect on Hell masters like them. At best, they could hurt the undead in the Summoning Realm. Even as long as they were not hit by these crossbow arrows, the damage to the undead in the Summoning Realm would be limited. At most, they would be in a more embarrassed state and their image would be ruined.

But the disgusting thing about this thing is that Li Ye can kill his ordinary soldiers from a long distance. After all, ordinary soldiers are extremely vulnerable under the hell, and it can also destroy his fortifications on the top of the city. It can be said that before the two armies officially start fighting, Li Ye can effectively suppress them.

It's really uncomfortable.

Looking at the direction where Li Ye and the Tang army were sitting, Huang Chao no longer had any hope in his heart and could only rack his brains to find a way to deal with Li Ye's tricky and difficult to deal with bombing.

He only hoped that Li Ye's army did not have such sufficient reserves, and there should not be too many of these explosive crossbows. After thinking about it, Huang Chao came to this conclusion. Looking at Li Ye's actions just now, he should not be planning to attack the city immediately, but to come to the blocking position in Pingtu City.

Then why should I put the things out there for Li Ye to destroy? It’s not like I have nothing to do.

Huang Chao stood on the city wall, his face gloomy, his eyes revealing a firmness and decisiveness. He knew very well that the battle ahead could not afford any mistakes. Now this was basically their last line of defense. Facing Li Ye's inexplicable offensive machine, he had to take decisive action to protect his soldiers.

He looked at Li Ye's army in the distance, his heart filled with anxiety and worry.

After two rounds of attacks from explosive crossbows and catapults, the top of the city had become dilapidated and in a mess. The defensive facilities were basically gone. There were still many corpses lying on the top of the city, which was shocking to the sight. The ground was covered with gold and hot oil, emitting a foul stench.

Huang Chao took a deep breath, and after thinking for a while, he quickly gave the order.

"Soldiers on the city walls, immediately retreat behind your cover and don't show your faces again!"

He knew that Li Ye's indiscriminate bombing was very fierce. If these soldiers who had no inner breath protection continued to stay on the city wall, they would be cannon fodder picked up by Li Ye when he cleared the defense facilities, and their deaths would be meaningless. Therefore, he had to get them to a safe place as soon as possible.

"Yes!"

The soldier who received the order saluted him without hesitation.
Then he turned around and ran back to the top of the city wall to ask other soldiers of Huang Chao's bandit army to carry out his orders. They quickly hid on the steps behind the city wall, nervously waiting for the next instructions.

"Soldiers on the tower, immediately use the small windows to scout the movements of Li Ye's army and report at any time!"

Huang Chao continued to issue orders. He didn't know what arrangements Li Ye had made. Only by understanding his army's movements could he formulate a more effective defense strategy.

Huang Chao, Shan Mao and others have returned to the city wall and stood in front of the map inside the tower. They are at a loss as to what to do in the face of the current situation.

Before anyone could say anything, there were continuous explosions coming from the top of the city wall and the frontline positions outside. Everyone knew that Li Ye had ordered the heavy crossbow on the carriage to shoot explosive crossbow arrows.

However, under the military order that Huang Chao had just quickly issued, after this round of explosions, the casualties on Huang Chao's bandit army side dropped significantly compared to the previous two rounds, and the wailing was not as loud as before.

"What should we do? It's absolutely unrealistic to go out and destroy those mechanical devices now. Let's wait until Li Ye finishes shooting those explosive crossbow arrows."

"If they can make one batch, there will definitely be a second and a third batch. I just don't know how long it will take to make them. I'm afraid they will organize a siege before we can rebuild our fortifications. Our soldiers can only use their bodies to resist, and the casualties will be too high." Shan Sheng listened to Huang Chao's question, sighed, and expressed his thoughts.

"If it really doesn't work, after Li Ye goes back temporarily, we can make some explosive things and shoot them back. If we don't have heavy crossbows, we can just tie up the archers and shoot them back."

Shan Mao said it lightly, but the thing that Li Ye shot with the help of a crossbow arrow, just by looking at the effect after the explosion, it is known that it is not simple. The brilliant thunder roar and the terrifying explosion power are hidden at a glance. It is likely that the descendants of Li Tang or people loyal to Li Tang have studied for many years.

However, this seemingly simple thing caused the Huang Chao bandit army led by Huang Chao and Shan Mao to be defeated and flee in panic on the earthen city. They could only hide behind the earthen city, letting their soldiers hide and escape, without any means of fighting back.

They couldn't really tie gunpowder to the feathers of arrows and shoot them back at Li Ye, right? What could they do with gunpowder tied to the feathers? Could they set off fireworks for Li Ye to celebrate their inability to do anything? This was the situation facing Huang Chao and his men.

Under the attack of Li Ye's unknown thing, Huang Chao and others who were beaten to a pulp had to face this reality. The explosives that Li Ye shot at these earthen cities must have a different formula from gunpowder for siege, and the difference is quite big. After all, spiritual power is involved, and the power is far greater than gunpowder.

In the underworld, gunpowder is only used to make fireworks, which is just an entertainment trick passed down from the human world.

The explosion caused by the fireworks after they were launched into the sky was only a moment of brilliance, showing its momentary splendor to the world, while Li Ye's explosive used for siege was to destroy the city's defense facilities on his side, showing its destructive power that could easily kill ordinary evil spirits.

How can the two be compared?

However, they could not use fireworks as weapons to fight back, so how could they deal with Li Ye's attack? Fireworks were the closest thing they knew to the kind of things that Li Ye fired. Faced with such a dilemma, Huang Chao was also very annoyed. Not only was his ability to command troops completely crushed by Li Ye, but even the city defense facilities that he had thought were very reliable before were as useless as paper under Li Ye's attack.

Is this how the battle should be fought? Completely retreat and build high walls, so that at least the trebuchets can't hit the arrow towers on their side, and then shoot at Li Ye from a high position?

...!
Just as Huang Chao was daydreaming, he was suddenly shocked by his sudden idea!

Is he a genius?

"What do you think? Let's build a higher wall, and then dig windows on the top of the earthen wall, so that the soldiers can fight back against the imperial army outside through the windows. After we build a higher wall, it will be much more difficult for Li Ye's catapults to attack us again. Although we can't defend against those explosive crossbows, at least we can put up a certain resistance."

After pondering the feasibility of this idea in his mind, Huang Chao immediately spoke to the staff and generals around him, with a hint of joy in his tone.

Once Huang Chao's idea was put forward, it was like a stone thrown into a lake, causing ripples in their hearts.

After repeated deliberation, they found that this idea was indeed a good idea. If they could build a high earthen wall, Li Ye would be restricted in all aspects. At the same distance, Li Ye's catapult would definitely not be able to hit the top of the city.

In order to increase the throwing height of the catapult, the range must be reduced. The shortened range means that the archers and defensive measures on our side can more easily attack Li Ye.

The only problem with this idea was how to quickly raise the city walls with Li Ye's intervention, and the new city walls had to be strong enough to withstand Li Ye's attack, otherwise they would collapse under the continuous attacks of the catapults, causing greater losses on their side, and that would be the end of them.

However, whether it is the starting point or the final result, this idea seems to be the optimal solution in the current dire situation.

"Li Ye will definitely not be able to completely clear the frontline barrier today. These two days are also the time he needs to clean up the frontline. Before he officially starts to attack the city, we must at least build a simple and solid defense line to buy time for the subsequent city construction. I will go and prepare the materials now and try to start the construction immediately!"

But things did not develop the way he hoped, and the Tang army continued to attack.

After long-term and indiscriminate bombardment at all costs, under the repeated attacks of the Tang army, all kinds of defensive fortifications around Heze city except the earthen city had been completely wiped out by the Tang army. Deer horns, trenches, arrow towers, and fortresses had been razed to the ground under the fierce offensive of the Tang army. Even the land in front of the earthen city had been flattened and consolidated by Li Ye's army.

Huang Chao's army also lost the determination to hold their positions as they did at the beginning. What was destroyed by the artillery fire was not only their positions and fortifications, but also their morale and determination.

After losing four generals in a row, the army, which was originally inferior to the Tang army in quality and momentum, could only temporarily rely on the solidity of the city and the geographical advantages of the earthen city to resist stubbornly.

The Tang army led by Li Ye was like a hungry tiger, pouncing on the city of Heze with great ferocity, trying to tear the city apart. They launched fierce attacks again and again, with such fierce offensive that they did not give the Huang Chao rebels any chance to breathe.

By now everyone knows that it is only a matter of time before the earthen city is razed to the ground and Heze city falls. Under the fierce stone-throwing attacks of the Thunder Chariot and the terrifying blasting of the Mysterious Thunder of Annihilation of the Armored Chariot, it is only a matter of time before the city walls are blasted open and the city gates are captured.

The sky became slightly cooler and rain began to pour down on the wilderness.

Huang Chao stood on the city wall. The endless rain fell on him. He did not use his spiritual power to keep the rain out of his body. He let the rain wet his clothes and armor, let the rain soak his body, and let the chill penetrate his skin and flesh and chill his heart.

The rain blurred his vision a little, but he could still clearly see that the imperial army under the earthen city had once again launched an attack, with a momentum that had not been seen for a long time, and they shouted and killed towards the earthen city on their side.

The time has come to make a decision!

(End of this chapter)