Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 5261 Battle for the City Gate
Sheikh, having been appointed "Eastern Envoy" and tasked with guarding the important eastern border town of Mulu, was certainly no incompetent man. Although he couldn't fathom how the Tang army had miraculously stormed the city lord's mansion and captured Yeqide, upon hearing that the Tang army had opened the north gate, he immediately realized the Tang army's strategic intentions—to raid the city lord's mansion, capture or assassinate Yeqide, disrupt Mulu's defenses, and then use a feint to open the north gate...

Sheikh now faces a difficult choice: should he stay here to command the army in an attempt to rescue Yeqide, or should he lead his army straight to the north of the city to block the Tang army from breaking into the city?
Fortunately, this decision could not actually be made.

While Ye Qide is important, his value cannot be compared to the survival of Mulu City. Moreover, since he has already fallen into the hands of the Tang army, the hope of rescuing him is not great. If they cannot break through, there is no way to talk about rescue. If they can break through, there is no reason to release Ye Qide before the Tang army is destroyed; he will only be buried with them.

Comparatively speaking, preventing the Tang army from entering the city and preserving Mulu City was more in his interest as the city lord.

"Leave a detachment to block this place; we must not allow the Tang army to escape! The rest of you, follow me to gather the troops and head to the North Gate to fight the Tang army to the death!"

Sheikh gave the order and then strode away without looking back. The remaining troops, along with Ye Qide's personal guards, continued to surround the mansion, while the rest of the troops withdrew from the city lord's mansion. The order was given to the soldiers to ride to various parts of the city to gather troops and rush to the north gate to block the Tang army.

……

Inside the room, Ye Qide, huddled in the corner, listened to the deafening fighting and thunder outside. He was tense, uneasy, and didn't know whether to pray that the Tang army could hold out or not, or whether his fate would be to be taken prisoner and lose face, or to be killed as a burial offering before the Tang army was destroyed.

In his anxiety, the shouts of battle outside suddenly fell silent, leaving Ye Qide bewildered and at a loss.

That bastard Sheikh actually gave up on rescuing me and instead of launching a direct attack, he adopted a siege strategy?
Yezid was caught in a dilemma, unsure whether the Sheikh should attack or besiege the enemy...

Looking at the young Tang general, who sat there calmly and leisurely boiling water and drinking tea, a thought suddenly arose in his mind: Did the Tang army already know that Xie He would stop his attack?
Was something holding Sheikh back, forcing him to halt the attack, or... had Sheikh already been secretly colluding with the Tang army?

Thinking of the latter possibility, Ye Qide gasped.

If this guess is true, then wasn't he betrayed by Sheikh?
Then consider that this Tang army seemed to have suddenly appeared in the city and launched a strong attack on the city lord's mansion, while the tens of thousands of troops scattered throughout the city seemed to be completely unaware of it... How could such a situation have occurred without the support of the troops inside the city?

Surely the Tang army didn't just fall from the sky!
The more Ye Qide thought about it, the more convinced he became that his guess was true...

This scoundrel actually betrayed himself, a prince of the Abbasid Caliphate, and intends to hand over the city of Mulu to the Tang people?!

Damn it!
Ye Qide, who thought he had guessed the cause of the tremor, was both surprised and furious.

As Wang Xiaojie was drinking tea, he heard the battle outside suddenly stop. Without asking any questions, he knew that news must have come that the Tang army was attacking the north gate. Xie He rushed to intercept them, no longer caring about Ye Qide, who had fallen into enemy hands and whose life was uncertain.

I immediately felt relieved.

The strategy of holding out and waiting for reinforcements clearly worked, and the Tang army's attack from the north gate was perfectly timed...

Turning around, he saw Ye Qide on the ground writhing like a maggot, making "ooh ooh ooh" noises. He then waved to a soldier to pull the rag out of Ye Qide's mouth. After listening to Ye Qide's babbling, although he couldn't understand many of the words, he was able to guess most of what Ye Qide was saying by following the clues.

He was denouncing the Tang army for being treacherous and Sheikh for being vicious. Not only did they join forces to plot against Murghut, but they also caused him, a prince of the Abbasid Caliphate and an Arab warrior, to be captured and taken prisoner. He felt that the Tang army's victory was unfair and wanted to duel with Wang Xiaojie...

"Ah!"

Wang Xiaojie smiled wryly, about to retort, when suddenly a thought popped into his head.

Ye Qide believed that Sheikh colluded with the Tang army and deliberately let the Tang army into the city.

That's interesting...

*****
At the North Gate, a fierce battle was raging.

The hot air balloons took off at the right time, with the two groups half an hour apart. After Wang Xiaojie landed, he launched a fierce attack on the city lord's mansion and captured Ye Qide. At the same time, another group of more than a hundred Tang soldiers took advantage of the night and heavy snow to successfully land inside the north gate. They were extremely lucky and were only a hundred feet away from the city gate. Before the defending army could react, they braved the heavy snow and launched a fierce attack on the city gate.

The Tang army arrived suddenly, and was well-equipped and powerful. The defending troops were caught off guard and were forced to retreat in defeat. They retreated to a small area within a few feet of the city gate and held on desperately, while sending people to the city lord's mansion to report and request reinforcements.

The defending force of several hundred men was suppressed by the Tang army, which outnumbered them by several times. Not only were they unable to fight back or break through, but they were also stripped away layer by layer. The reinforcements were slow to arrive and the city eventually collapsed. The remaining hundred or so defenders threw down their weapons with a shout and either fled in disarray or surrendered on the spot.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the North Gate was captured.

The Tang army, which occupied the north gate, was about to open the city gate when they rushed into the gatehouse and were dumbfounded. The dark and cramped gatehouse was filled with bricks and stones, which blocked it completely.

Meanwhile, reinforcements were arriving from within the city. With the city gates blocked on one side and the enemy army surging in like a tide on the other, the Tang army had no way to advance or retreat. They gritted their teeth and split half of their troops into formation to defend against the enemy, while the other half seized the time to clear the gate openings and open the city gates.

The two sides engaged in fierce fighting inside the city gate.

Although the enemy reinforcements kept arriving, their forces outnumbering the Tang army by a hundred or even a thousand times, the narrow terrain at the city gate made it impossible to launch a large-scale attack. The Tang army formed ranks on the spot and used their sharp swords and crossbows to repel the enemy's repeated charges. In addition, their armor was of excellent quality and almost impervious to swords and spears, so they managed to hold the inner side of the city gate firmly, preventing the enemy from advancing an inch.

By the light of the snow, Xie He watched as the Tang army cleared away the bricks and stones inside the gate. The Tang army outside the city had already gathered a hundred feet below the city, waiting for the city gate to open so they could rush in... In the cold weather with heavy snow falling, Xie He was covered in sweat and felt completely lost.

He dismissed the speculation that someone inside the city was colluding with the Tang army, because if that were the case, there would be no need to capture the city lord's mansion and take Ye Qide, nor would there be any need to capture the north gate; they could simply open one of the city gates and let the Tang army into the city...

Could it be that the Tang army was truly heavenly soldiers, capable of flying with wings and coming against the wind?

Otherwise, why would one force after another suddenly appear in the heavily defended city of Mulu, first raiding the city lord's mansion and then capturing the north gate?
"Charge! Suppress with arrows, launch a cavalry raid, we must annihilate this enemy force!"

Sheikh's eyes were bloodshot, gripped by fear from being unable to track the enemy's movements. He flailing his arms and legs on horseback, his expression ferocious.

Behind them, the defending army numbered several thousand. Upon hearing this, the archers stepped forward, drew their bows, and a volley of arrows soared into the air, piercing through the snow and landing in the Tang army's ranks. However, the inferior iron-smelting technology could not forge sufficiently sharp arrowheads. The arrows struck the Tang army's armor with a series of clanging sounds, and apart from hitting the weakest points in the armor, they failed to cause any casualties to the Tang army.

"Cavalry, charge!"

Hundreds of light cavalry hastily formed ranks, and then, driven by their generals, launched a charge, surging like a tide towards the Tang army's positions inside the north gate.

Faced with the overwhelming momentum of the cavalry charge, the Tang soldiers remained calm and fearless. Their swords had been replaced by long-handled, double-edged Mo Dao (陌刀) swords. They held the swords with both hands, their blades like a forest, and remained as immovable as mountains!
boom!
The Arab cavalry rammed head-on into the Tang army's formation. A forest of blades pressed down, striking the leading horses one after another. The horses reared up and neighed in agony. The longswords fell again, killing both men and horses. Then the Tang army advanced several steps in unison, forming a wall. The Arab cavalry were easily defeated by the swirling longswords.

Such ferocity, brutality, and bloodshed shocked all the soldiers guarding Mulu City, leaving them terrified and speechless.

Although I have often heard that the reason why the Tang army is invincible is due to nothing more than firearms and long-handled swords, I have never faced the Tang army because I have been guarding the rear. I have never personally experienced these two trump cards of the Tang army, and I always thought that they were not as good as they seemed. I thought they were just an excuse for the defeated troops at the front to cover up their own incompetence by exaggerating the strength of the enemy.

But upon seeing the Tang army's "Mo Dao Formation," all the defenders of Mulu City felt a chill run down their spines. Their previously high morale seemed to have been punctured and was now leaking out like water from a punctured water bag, collapsing completely...

The "Mo Dao Formation" of more than fifty men was already so powerful that the most elite cavalry in the Abbasid army collapsed upon contact, with men and horses being crushed. At this moment, tens of thousands of Tang soldiers had gathered outside the city, including not only countless Mo Dao soldiers, but also incomparably powerful musketeers. How could Mulu City defend itself against such a fierce army?
How can we possibly hold onto it?

Once the city falls, the Tang army, having suffered heavy casualties during the siege, will inevitably carry out a massacre to vent their anger. What will become of the defending troops then?
However, Xie He, in a daze, failed to issue the order to adjust his position. His troops had no choice but to continue the attack, and arrows rained down like locusts and cavalry surged like clouds, launching a continuous offensive towards the north gate.

The Tang army, however, remained steadfast like a reef in the face of towering waves.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the area inside the North Gate was already littered with the corpses of Arab soldiers and their warhorses. Hot blood flowed freely, melting the snow on the ground. The Tang soldiers stood tall in the wind and snow like demons descended from the heavens, exuding murderous intent and fighting spirit...

Just then, a loud cheer from the Tang army ranks startled Xie He. Looking closely, he saw that the debris piled up inside the gate had been cleared out, the bolts had been removed, and the huge, thick iron city gate was slowly pushed open with a teeth-grinding creak.