Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Beneath the city walls outside Jian'an City, the land was already scorched earth, and the ground was densely covered with fragmented corpses. The blood-soaked soil had turned into black mud that emitted a strong, stench.

The battles continued, but apart from the fiercest initial battle on the first day, the subsequent battles were mostly insignificant wars of attrition.

When the Marquis's army first arrived at the foot of Jian'an City, he immediately ordered all soldiers to form a long, single-file line, with cavalry in front and infantry at the rear. The entire army launched an attack on Jian'an City without reservation, attempting to take it down in one fell swoop with overwhelming superiority.

However, Jian'an City was not as fragile as he had imagined, nor was it protected by only a small number of soldiers as he had guessed. All the soldiers had been taken out by Mo Yuming to ambush his supply train.

In fact, there were as many as 30,000 soldiers in the city ready to fight at any time.

Therefore, before the Marquis's army could even get close to the city walls, they were attacked from a distance by Jian'an City.

More than a dozen catapults hurled stones down from the city walls like windmills, and the dense stones rained down on the king's army like hail.

Although the king's army was protected by defensive formations, the effect of the stone-throwing attack was minimal.

Although it did not cause much damage to the Marquis's soldiers, it disrupted the Marquis's army's attack formation, throwing them into disarray. Their unstoppable momentum vanished instantly, and their rapid advance was halted.

Just as most of the besieging army set up defensive arrays to resist the flying stones, the magic crystal cannons placed on both sides of the city gate fired one shot after another at the cavalry at the front.

This is the machine that harvests lives. A flash of white light, followed by a deafening explosion, blasted countless lives into pieces. Within a radius of ten feet, no life could survive.

When the cavalry charged through these two long-range blockades and arrived at the city walls, they were met with countless arrows fired from powerful bows and crossbows, including demon-slaying arrows, which were deadly weapons!

More lives fell at the foot of the city walls. Although the king's soldiers kept shooting arrows at the walls, they were aimless and random, with only one in ten hitting their targets.

Compared to the Jian'an City soldiers' hit rate of eight or nine out of ten, it was a world of difference.

The battle raged fiercely for an entire day, ultimately ending with thousands of the Marquis's soldiers killed, countless wounded, and nearly ten thousand troops rendered incapable of fighting, forcing them to retreat.

The soldiers of Jian'an City suffered only two hundred dead and three thousand wounded, with only two breaches in the city walls caused by the Demon-Slaying Arrows.

After that battle, the Marquis finally understood that Jian'an City was a tough nut to crack and that it would be very difficult to take it by force.

Over the next few days, the king tried various tactics to launch an attack, but all of them ended in failure.

The city walls of Jian'an, which had been repaired and reinforced by Mo Yuming, were already riddled with holes, yet they still stood majestically there, blocking the way for the Houwang army.

Although several breaches had been blasted in places and the soldiers guarding the city had not yet had time to repair them, the soldiers had already formed ranks to defend the city, and with a few old men patrolling back and forth, the situation was relatively stable.

Although Mo Yuming only had about 30,000 soldiers in Jian'an City, apart from the 3,000 garrison at Wushuang Castle, he could only mobilize about 27,000 troops, less than one-third of the Marquis's army.

However, thanks to their defensive advantages and the strength of the city walls, they repelled countless attacks and annihilated tens of thousands of enemy troops in several days of fighting.

Although they also suffered casualties, it was nothing compared to the Marquis's army.

After seven days of fighting, only a few thousand people were injured, and only three or four hundred died.

The main reason why they were able to achieve such good results in the face of an enemy several times their size was that Mo Yuming had destroyed the Marquis's supply train beforehand.

This deprived the Marquis of his heavy armor equipment specifically for siege warfare, allowing Mo Yuming to maximize the effectiveness of the city walls.

Another reason is that Mo Yuming has several Heavenly Realm experts stationed around him, which makes the few Heavenly Realm experts around the Marquis dare not enter the city to launch a sneak attack and cause trouble.

The two magic crystal cannons and more than a dozen catapults unique to Jian'an City caused the most casualties among the Houwang's soldiers.

The magic crystal cannon is extremely powerful, but it consumes valuable magic crystals. Each shot costs at least several hundred gold coins, which is roughly equivalent to the annual military expenditure of a hundred soldiers.

Ordinary people simply cannot afford such a huge expenditure.

The fact that Jian'an City only had two magic crystal cannons and Shangyuan City only had four shows that magic crystal cannons are simply money-burning machines.

However, Mo Yuming is an exception; he has an unusually large number of magic crystals.

The magic crystal cannon became a machine for reaping the lives of soldiers; one shot would result in a mass of dead and wounded.

Mo Yuming's trebuchet was quite an achievement. Although the soldiers in this world were tough and quick-reacting, making it difficult for ordinary stones to hit people, let alone kill them, they could still injure people, create chaos, and stop the enemy's advance.

Moreover, its biggest advantage is its very low cost of use. When combined with the magic crystal cannon, it perfectly compensates for the magic crystal cannon's high consumption and slow firing speed.

The soldiers wielded the ten catapults like windmills, hurling large stones at the enemy like hailstones, keeping the king's soldiers in a state of chaos.

Many soldiers injured by the magic crystal cannons became the wronged souls under the rocks due to their immobility.

The people of Jian'an City were able to hold out for seven days without being defeated, and they contributed a great deal of effort to the city's defenses.

Thanks to Mo Yuming's pro-people policies, the merchants who made a living here felt a sense of belonging, and during the battle, they spontaneously helped the soldiers with some logistical work in the city.

For example, transporting supplies and treating the wounded greatly reduced the burden on the soldiers defending the city.

Outside the city, the king was already anxious and uneasy.

After seven days, the number of soldiers lost exceeded 10,000, with tens of thousands seriously or lightly wounded. Now, less than half of the soldiers are still capable of fighting.

Although they could still attack cities and fight battles, the lack of heavy siege armor and arrows resulted in little success, and they always returned in defeat.

The chances of inflicting damage on the enemy are getting smaller and smaller.

What made the king most uneasy was that his supply lines had been cut off by the enemy. After a few days, he was almost out of ammunition and food, and had no way to continue.

However, the garrison in Jian'an City was like an unkillable cockroach, and its fighting strength remained undiminished.

From all perspectives, although the enemy soldiers in the city were also at their wits' end, their logistical supplies had not been interrupted, and although they were in dire straits, they were still able to hold on.

If this continues, Jian'an City will surely be victorious in the end.

When the scouts arrived last night with news that Shangyuan City and Luoxia City had been occupied by the enemy and all the logistics troops had been wiped out, the Marquis was furious. Lord Liao was even more pale and completely wilted, like a frostbitten eggplant.

At this moment, the king was in a state of utter confusion, while the soldiers had long lost all will to fight.

However, the king suffered heavy losses in this battle and was unwilling to accept defeat, finding himself in a dilemma.

Just as the king was hesitating, an urgent report came from outside the tent:

"Report! Your Highness, someone has attacked the military camp! Hundreds have been killed or wounded!"

"Quickly! Tell the guest minister to take men and arrest him immediately!"

"Yes!"

……

"Someone, summon all the sergeant majors to see me immediately!"

The king paced back and forth in his tent, waiting for his subordinates to come and receive orders.

Although the Marquis's soldiers have suffered more than half casualties, he still has more than 30,000 troops.

While they lacked siege weapons, making them relatively passive in sieges, they still possessed the strength for close combat. Therefore, when the Marquis heard that someone had launched a surprise attack on the military camp, he was not alarmed at all, but even a little excited.

I feel like I can finally have a fair and square fight.

"Your Highness! Your Highness! Something terrible has happened!"