Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

"Roar--"

"Oooooooo-"

The mournful roars and screams soared straight into the sky above Rangzhou City.

When the elderly, women, and children in the city heard the monster's shriek, they were so frightened that they huddled in the corners of their houses, too afraid to utter a sound.

At the first line of defense on the outskirts of the city, three thousand Taiji Kingdom soldiers, armed with bows and crossbows, stood on a two-zhang-high earthen wall, aiming at the approaching horde of corpses.

"Don't panic, warriors of the Taiji Kingdom. They are just a bunch of puppets without self-awareness."

"As long as we fire our arrows, we can definitely withstand this attack."

Li Shunlong personally inspected the city walls, loudly reassuring the soldiers not to panic and to calm their minds.

At this time, the zombie horde was still two miles away from reaching the first line of defense.

However, the howitzers in the rear artillery positions had already begun uninterrupted salvo firing.

Boom boom boom——

A deafening thunderous roar erupted amidst the horde of corpses.

The Taiji soldiers behind the first line of defense witnessed swathes of black dots rising into the air and then falling back down like pieces of a broken piece.

"Warriors of the Taiji Kingdom, prepare for battle!!!"

Li Shunlong roared, and the catapults on the flat ground behind him immediately began loading stone projectiles.

"Hold your ground! Listen to my command! Don't move!"

The soldiers operating the catapults looked tense, and many of them were trembling.

Compared to the Goryeo soldiers who faced the monsters directly from the city walls, they felt even more uneasy.

That's human nature; we're filled with both curiosity and fear when it comes to the unknown.

People say they're afraid of ghosts, but that's because they've never seen one. If you actually see one, you'll be scared for a while at first, but then you'll get used to it.

Fortunately, Li Shunlong was a famous general of the Taiji Kingdom. Although he was not good at fighting, he did have some leadership skills.

He kept reassuring his soldiers, telling them not to be nervous and to wait until the horde of corpses was within two hundred paces before attacking.

Seeing that the horde of zombies continued to rampage unabated despite the barrage of artillery fire, Li Shunlong's expression grew serious.

"put!"

Boom boom boom——

Just as the horde of corpses closed to within two hundred paces, Li Shunlong roared.

The next moment, thirty catapults hurled stones directly at the horde of corpses.

"Ouch."

With a strange scream, a mutated soldier (hereinafter referred to as a zombie) was smashed in the forehead by a stone projectile weighing thirty pounds. Brain matter splattered everywhere, and a pool of pus was left on his body.

After the stone bullet killed a zombie, its momentum continued as it landed, rolling directly through the horde of zombies and carving a bloody path.

The leg bones of six or seven zombies were crushed, slamming them directly to the ground.

However, even with their legs broken, it only slowed their movement; their bodies continued to writhe frantically forward on the ground.

"Archer!"

With the zombies less than a hundred paces from the city wall, Li Shunlong gave another order.

The next moment, thousands of crossbows were fired simultaneously, their cold arrowheads aimed at the zombies.

"shooting!"

Swoosh swoosh swoosh—

At the command once more, the archers of the Taiji Kingdom simultaneously released their bows, and a dense rain of cold arrows hurtled toward the zombies like a dense shuttle.

*Pfft, pfft, pfft*

"Roar--"

The arrows pierced the zombies' stiff bodies. Apart from a few being hit in the knees, which slowed their movement, they did not stop their attack frequency. Instead, they further fueled their ferocity.

"Keep firing! Don't stop! Find their weaknesses!"

"Catapults, fire freely! Don't let the large groups of monsters get close to the defensive line!"

Li Shunlong loudly directed the battle from the earthen slope defense line.

A dense rain of arrows, accompanied by catapults firing stones and artillery support from the rear, formed a tight defensive network, preventing the horde of zombies from ever getting within thirty paces of the first line of defense.

However, as the war progressed, some people noticed that something was wrong.

"General Li, look, to the left!"

A sentry observing the battle suddenly ran up to Li Shunlong and pointed to a group of zombies in one direction.

Li Shunlong hurriedly followed the gaze and saw that the zombies that had been crawling on the ground to the left suddenly had a faint blue light emanating from their bodies.

The next moment, the zombie, whose arms and legs had been severed, miraculously recovered and stood up again.

"This is impossible to kill!"

This scene made Li Shunlong's heart sink.

If zombies can't be killed, then wouldn't that mean...?

Just as he was considering whether to desert, he keenly noticed that although the zombies had the ability to heal their own injuries, their numbers were significantly fewer than at the beginning.

This shows that zombies can be eliminated; we just haven't found their weaknesses yet.

"Ow—"

Just as Li Shunlong was deep in thought, a zombie suddenly leaped into the air and onto the earthen city wall, rushing straight at him.

"Ashiba, seumida".

Li Shunlong was so frightened he almost peed himself, and instinctively slashed at the zombie's head with all his might.

The heavy blade cleaved the zombie's forehead open on the spot.

The next moment, the zombie roared and turned into a pool of foul-smelling pus.

"Oh my god, I was so scared I almost lost my soul."

Looking at the zombie he had just dealt with, Li Shunlong wiped his forehead; his legs were still trembling uncontrollably.

"Ok?"

After the initial tension subsided, the pungent stench suddenly brought Li Shunlong to his senses.

"Just now?"

He began to recall how he had just killed the zombie.

"Could it be that……"

Thinking of this, he immediately snatched a bow from an archer, nocked an arrow, and aimed it at the forehead of a zombie ten paces away.

blow--

puff-

"Ouch——"

An arrow pierced the zombie's forehead, and after a scream, the zombie instantly turned into pus.

"Clerk, write this down: the monster's weak point is its head!"

"Everyone, aim for the monster's head!"

The clerk immediately recorded this astonishing discovery and promptly handed the notebook to Li Shunlong.

But just then, a zombie bit the clerk's neck.

"Ah~~"

Amidst screams, the clerk was bitten to death.

Li Shunlong immediately stepped forward and slashed the zombie's head with his sword.

After suffering a severe head injury, the zombie turned into pus.

Just as he was about to continue commanding the army to resist, he saw hordes of zombies rushing up the earthen wall and swarming and killing the Taiji Kingdom soldiers guarding the front lines.

Soon, the piercing cries and the monster's chewing roars mingled together.

Li Shunlong scanned the entire scene, smelling the pervasive stench of blood, and suddenly spat out a mouthful of acidic liquid.

The first line of defense has been breached; he must retreat.

But the collapse of the first line of defense was not in vain; at least the zombies' weakness was found.

"Retreat! To the second line of defense! Retreat quickly!"

Seeing that the horde of zombies was about to fill the entire earthen slope, Li Shunlong took the lead and started running backwards.

As for the remaining soldiers, he really couldn't care less; he'd rather let one go than not.

At this very moment, the Taiji Kingdom soldiers who had died also began to mutate and join the ranks of the living dead, rushing towards Rangzhou City at breakneck speed.

"Quickly, open the city gates!"

When Li Shunlong arrived at the gate of Rangzhou City, he was exhausted, both physically and mentally.

Yue Fei frowned, raised his binoculars to look into the distance, and shook his head: "The first line of defense has been breached in just over an hour. It seems this time things are really getting tricky."