Chapter 386: Siege (Part 1)

Jinyu City wasn’t considered a big city in Great Xia, but the population was about tens of thousands of people.

At present, it was morning, an early chilly morning in May. Dozens of people were lining up to pay the entrance fee before they were able to enter the city.

There were peasant households who wanted to enter the city with the vegetables they grew, hunters who brought their bounties, and a few intellectual looking scholars who were wearing green shirts and wielded swords.

“Is there an earthquake?!” Some people felt a tremor under their feet and shouted at the top of their lungs.

Everyone was alarmed and wanted to run toward vacant land. As long as the magnitude of the earthquake wasn’t too severe, they would be safe on vacant land. One had to know that there was an earthquake that occurred late at night a decade ago where thousands of people were buried under the collapsed houses.

This memory was still fresh in the minds of the commoners.

“Don’t panic! The horsemen are coming!” A knowledgeable scholar smiled.

“The commoners don’t often get the chance to see troops of horsemen. As such, it’s normal for them to have this misunderstanding.” Another scholar patted him on the shoulder.”I’m nothing compared to you two elder brothers. To be frank, I have never seen troops of horsemen before. If the two of you didn’t speak, I’m afraid that I would have assumed that it was an earthquake too!” A petite scholar cupped his hands in salute.

“Why would the horsemen come here at this time?” The scholar who spoke first was a little suspicious. His name was Li Mengyuan, and he was a famous figure in his hometown. Li Mengyuan’s uncle was also a Rank 5 captain.

“It’s the imperial court’s business. I assume that they are heading to the south!” It was obvious that the petite scholar wasn’t interested at all.

“Zhengyan, don’t put it that way. The nation’s affairs are also the world’s affairs. How can the world’s affairs have nothing to do with me? Next time, we will have to keep an eye on things when we join the imperial court as well,” Li Mengyuan warned.

“What elder brother said is right. I have benefitted from it.” That petite scholar cupped his hands. His name was Yao Zhengyan.

The group of them turned around, and in the distance, they saw a black line on the horizon and a long earth dragon was raised at the rear of it.

With the exception of Li Mengyuan and Yao Zhengyan, there was another scholar called Xu Pingzhi who lamented, “Never did I expect that Wu Shenghou would be defeated.”

“It’s indeed unexpected. The imperial court has prepared for so many years, yet 700,000 soldiers and countless rations have been wasted just like that.” Li Mengyuan shook his head.

“Are those Dayao people exactly like how the legend described?” Yao Zhengyan asked. Now that Great Xia had been defeated by Dayao, news of Dayao being godly was spread throughout the entire city.

From the words of the commoners, the Dayao people wore leather skirts and nothing on their upper body. During fights, they would let out barbaric howls. An Dayao ordinary soldier was about 2.5 meters tall and held rods that weighed a few hundred kilograms in their hands. One movement from these rods could send their enemy flying.

“You heard about it too?” Li Mengyuan laughed because he had heard of this rumor before.

“The rumor I heard wasn’t this exaggerated, but the Dayao soldiers are indeed powerful. An ordinary Dayao soldier is at the very least a Man Wheel expert. Over here, they could even qualify to be a captain. Fortunately, they only have about 100,000 soldiers. On top of that, their officials are rough and not well-versed in military affairs or ordnance. Therefore, they make no attempt to improve themselves,” Li Mengyuan explained.

At present, the methods of transmitting messages were not very developed yet and were mostly based on spreading rumors. Thus, the commoners in Great Xia knew very little about Dayao.

As Li Mengyuan came from a family background of generals and commanders, he knew more about Dayao.

“That’s really awesome.” Yao Zhengyan processed what Li Mengyuan said. At the very least, he knew about the strength of someone at the Man Wheel level. An ordinary Man Wheel practitioner in Great Xia was very much in demand everywhere.

In Great Xia’s military system, 10 soldiers formed one squad and five squads formed one platoon. A captain was in charge of commanding 50 soldiers.

As long as a Man Wheel practitioner entered the military system, he would at the very least be in command of 50 soldiers.

From this, one could see the position of a Man Wheel practitioner in Great Xia.

The fact that Dayao’s commoners were at the Man Wheel level was a little ridiculous.

“Do they eat humans?” Yao Zhengyan asked. Many people in the streets and alleys vowed that those barbarians in the south were cannibals. As such, he had been curious about this fact for a long time.

Do cannibals really exist?

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Even though the Dayao people were uncivilized and backward, they were still humans in the end. After hearing what Yao Zhengyan inquired, Li Mengyuan also frowned and thought out loud, “I don’t know about this, but there’s no smoke without fire.” Just while the three of them were chatting idly, they heard people exclaiming from the top of the city wall, “It’s the Dayao barbarians. Close the gate! Quickly, close the city gate!”

At the same time, the sounds of drums beating at the top of the city wall were transmitted into the city.

“Dayao barbarians?” The three scholars were alarmed. They turned their heads and looked in the direction of the cavalry that was heading toward them. All sorts of doubts emerged in their heads.

This was Great Xia’s hinterland.

What were the forces of Dayao doing here?

Could it be that they conquered the border?

Even if they conquered the border, it was impossible for them to fight their way here so quickly, right? In the vicinity, they could hear people shouting anxiously, “Let us in quickly!”

A moment later, the city gate closed slowly.

Li Mengyuan pulled a guard who was running down from the city wall and asked, “How many people are there? Are we able to defend the city?”

That guard was originally already anxious. After being pulled back twice by someone and yet still unable shake that person off, he realized that the other party was someone strong. Seeing that the other party was just a scholar, he said, “I don’t know. The original soldiers from the barracks have been transferred. Now, there are only 1,000 of us left in the city.”

Upon hearing these words, Li Mengyuan immediately let go of his hands.

“We are done for!” Li Mengyuan was deathly pale.

The two other scholars also heard the guard’s words clearly and became gloomy. “From the dust raised by the horsemen in the distance, there are at least two or three thousand people. Furthermore, the Dayao soldiers are Man Wheel level experts at the very least. As for the elite winged cavalry, only an Earth Wheel expert can qualify to be one. 1,000 of our guards isn’t able to defend the city,” Li Mengyuan muttered under his breath. Previously, when Great Xia attacked south, they transferred the majority of the soldiers out of the local barracks because nothing would generally happen. After all, there were still some soldiers left to defend each city.

Now that Dayao had fought their way here, however, the defensive line formed by these leftover guards was so weak that it was almost broken.

A person who was nearby, scolded harshly, “Who’s spouting nonsense? Try misleading everyone with rumors again, and I’ll behead you!”Li Mengyuan looked up and discovered that the speaker was a captain. He calmed his nerves and immediately apologized, “My apologies. I lost my mind for a bit.”

Although his face was deathly pale, he finally managed to calm himself down with great difficulty.

“What should we do now?” The other two looked at him.

“First, let’s find a place to hide ourselves. It’s chaotic now, so we shouldn’t stay outside.” Li Mengyuan hurriedly pulled the other two scholars and walked into the city.

At present, the city was also in a mess.

Upon hearing that the Dayao barbarians had fought their way over, there were adults impatiently screaming and children crying everywhere. Also, there were soldiers riding on horses and rampaging through the city while shouting out, “Step aside! Step aside!”

“Are we really unable to defend the city?” Xu Pingzhi asked in a deep voice.

“It’ll be difficult!” Li Mengyuan shook his head.

“Still, it’s not as if there isn’t any chance left. There should be quite a few experts from the Great Xia sects. If we gather all of them, perhaps that might be effective.”

Li Mengyuan knew that even if they gathered all the experts from the Great Xia sects, the chances were very slim.

However, this was their only chance left.

If the two armies faced off against each other, then there wouldn’t be any chance at all. However, these sect members would be rather useful if they were deployed to defend the city.

If they were lucky, perhaps the Dayao forces would attack another city after discovering that Jinyu City wasn’t one to be trifled with.

“I doubt that those Dayao troops fought their way from the border. It’s possible that they made a detour at Mount Lianyin before arriving here. In that case, it’s impossible for them to have brought their siege equipment along, so how can they break down the city wall?” Xu Pingzhi asked.”That’s why we still have a glimmer of hope. It’s all up to the practitioners from the Great Xia sects to obstruct the Dayao forces from dashing into the city,” Li Mengyuan clarified.

The current city gate was made from a layer of wood that was as thick as the size of a palm as well as two layers of iron plates. This was to prevent any experts from breaking their city gate.

Since the aboriginals didn’t have siege equipments, there was only one way to destroy the city. In this case, they would have to send their experts to climb over the city wall and open the gate.