Nine dragons fight for the throne, I don't want to sit on this throne

In early July in Dongping City, the air was filled with suffocating heat.

Just after the hour of Mao, the sky was just beginning to turn pale, but the Wei army guards on the city wall were already sweating profusely.

Three consecutive days of scorching heat have made the blue bricks hot, and even the wind blowing at night is scorching hot.

The soldiers who had been on duty all night had heavy eyelids. Some of them dozed off while leaning on their spears, while others even curled up against the arrow embrasures, letting their coarse uniforms be soaked with sweat.

"Wang Laosan, wake up!"

Squad leader Li Zhong kicked the soldier who was sleeping at his feet, and his voice was hoarse like sandpaper rubbing against him.

"If the captain sees us, we will all be beaten with a stick."

The soldier who was kicked awake rubbed his bloodshot eyes and was about to complain, but suddenly froze in place.

He squinted his eyes and looked at the wilderness outside the city, which should have been deserted - something was wriggling in the darkness.

At first he thought it was an illusion caused by staying up late, but when he wiped the sweat from the corners of his eyes with his dirty sleeves, the darkness had spread to the edge of the moat.

"Enemy..." He had just squeezed out a word from his throat when the sound of breaking air tore through the dawn.

The first arrow pierced his throat accurately, and the arrowhead with warm blood beads came out from the back of his neck, nailing his unfinished warning in his throat forever.

Then came the second, the third... Thousands of arrows flew across the moat like locusts, drawing arcs of death in the morning light.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" Li Zhong's roar was drowned out by the whistling rain of arrows.

He watched helplessly as three of his brothers were nailed to the city wall. One of them was shot in the eye socket, and the arrow shaft was still trembling.

The shrill horn finally sounded, but it was too late - the first batch of Chu army light infantry had already rushed to the foot of the city wall, and the sound of the ladder's claws hooking onto the battlement was tooth-grinding.

On the slope outside the east gate, Zhao Yu reined in his warhorse.

The white armor shone coldly in the morning light, and the red tassel hanging from the tip of the spear remained motionless.

The Chu general narrowed his eyes and looked at the panicked Wei army on the city wall, with a sneer on his lips.

"Send the message, add three more teams to the advance team."

His voice was eerily calm. "Tell Chen An not to stop the catapults. Smash their arrow towers for me."

Just as the deputy general was about to leave, Zhao Yu added, "We must not give the Wei army any chance to breathe in this battle!"

The battle on the city wall has reached a fever pitch.

The first batch of Chu army suicide squad climbed up the ladders, and the soldier in the front was hit by a rolling log and fell down the ten-foot-high city wall with the ladder. The sound of broken bones could be clearly heard.

But more Chu soldiers rushed forward, and some even jumped onto the parapet without caring about their lives, slashed two Wei soldiers with their swords before being pierced by spears.

"Fire the kerosene!" Xu Fang's loud shout resounded on the city wall.

The Wei general's armor was not fastened, revealing his sweat-soaked undershirt.

He snatched the torch from his personal guard and lit a pot of boiling kerosene himself.

Boiling black oil poured down the city wall, sticking to the three ladders and the climbing Chu soldiers.

Torches followed closely behind, and in an instant a wall of fire ignited on the outer wall of the city. More than a dozen Chu soldiers instantly turned into human torches, falling into the moat with screams and continuing to burn on the water.

Xu Fang wiped the mixture of blood and sweat from his face, turned around and shouted to his deputy general, "Move the crossbow battalion to the west gate! Guan Yun's catapult..."

Before he could finish his words, a stone as big as a millstone came whistling and hit the corner of the city wall. Amidst flying wood chips, the three archers were smashed into meat paste.

Xu Fang staggered to his feet and saw the dust flying outside the west gate. Guan Yun's iconic Green Dragon Crescent Blade flashed coldly in the morning light.

Twenty catapults were firing in turn, and each volley made the city walls tremble.

The situation at the South Gate was even more dire.

The heavy armored infantry led by Ma Chao himself had already broken through the first city gate and were fighting with the Wei army in the corridor.

In the narrow space, long weapons could not be used, and the soldiers on both sides wrestled with each other like wild beasts.

A Chu general was pierced through the abdomen by a spear, but he clung to the legs of a Wei captain tightly, allowing his companions to hack him to death.

Blood flowed down the drainage ditch of the city gate corridor, drawing a winding red stream on the dry loess.

"General! Emergency at the East Gate!"

The messenger stumbled over, half his face scalded and bruised. "Han Xing's vanguard used a battering ram to break open the outer gate!"

Xu Fang's pupils suddenly shrank.

He should have thought of it earlier. If four gates were attacked at the same time, there would be some weaknesses.

Zhao Yu's troops attracted attention from the front, but the real killer move was Han Xing, the old fox.

He grabbed the leader of his personal guards by the collar and said, "Move all the reserve troops to the east gate! And have them block the inner city gate with sandbags!"

At noon, the sun hung overhead like a red-hot discus.

The corpses on the city wall began to stink, and flies swarmed over the broken limbs.

The arrow tower at the east gate had been half collapsed by the catapult, and the defenders had to retreat to the second line of defense.

Zhao Yu's white armor was splattered with blood. He stood behind a pile of Wei army corpses, observing the battle situation calmly.

"General, more than half of the third echelon has suffered casualties." Zhao Yu interrupted the deputy general's report.

"See that old fellow in golden armor?"

Zhao Yu pointed at the tower: "Xu Fang is personally in charge, which means they can't hold on any longer."

He narrowed his eyes and said in a cold voice, "Pass the order down. The first person to reach the city will be rewarded with 100 gold and promoted three levels!"

As the order was passed down, the exhausted Chu army suddenly burst out with amazing fighting power.

A sergeant with blood all over his face bit his steel knife and climbed the ladder with both hands alternately. When he was about to reach the top, he was pierced in the shoulder by a spear.

He grabbed the spear with a grim smile, pulled himself up to the city wall, and chopped down the attacker with a backhanded blow.

Behind him, more and more Chu troops climbed up the city wall and engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the Wei army.

Xu Fang knew that the situation was getting out of control.

He swung his sword and knocked down a Chu soldier who was charging towards him, but the blade got stuck in his collarbone and he had to step on the corpse to pull it out.

Looking around, the defenders were getting fewer and fewer, while the Chu army was still pouring in.

"Send a signal smoke signal!"

He shouted to his personal guards, "Let the reserve troops in the city ascend to the city walls! The elderly and children retreat to the tunnels!"

This is the worst-case scenario, which means that Dongping City may not be able to be defended.

But Xu Fang's hand holding the sword was still as steady as a rock. He pulled off his tattered cloak, revealing the fine chain mail underneath.

"Men of Wei!"

His voice drowned out the shouting and screaming: "Behind us are our parents, wives, and children! Those who died in battle today will live forever! If we retreat, how can we face our ancestors in the afterlife?"

The remaining Wei troops roared like wild beasts.

Someone threw away his broken shield and rushed towards the enemy with a knife in both hands.

The archers had shot all their arrows and picked up stones from the ground and threw them down.

A captain with a broken arm bit off the fuse of the fire bomb with his teeth and jumped into the most densely populated area of the Chu army.

As the sun set, the battle entered its most brutal phase.

The corpses on the city wall were piled up three or four layers high, and the soldiers who came later had to fight by stepping on the bodies of their comrades.

Zhao Yu finally climbed up to the top of the city wall himself, and with his spear as long as a dragon, he challenged seven Wei army generals in a row.

Just as he was about to break through the last line of defense, a long sword blocked the tip of his spear.

"Little Zhao Yu."

Xu Fang was panting heavily, his golden armor covered in knife marks. "Do you dare to fight me to the death?"