Ling Zhi squinted his eyes, gazing into the distance, somewhat surprised that the Song army did not launch a night attack last night. Ling Zhi thought they would rest for a few more days before starting, or perhaps they might attack Yi City.

Yet unexpectedly, they attacked early this morning.

Nonetheless, Ling Zhi wasn’t too worried. With tens of thousands of troops in the city and the sturdy city walls, he was quite confident in holding out for a few days. Once reinforcements arrived, Ling Zhi even believed he could launch a counterattack. Therefore, facing the Song army’s charge, Ling Zhi ordered a solid defense to prevent the Song army from setting up siege ladders.

On the Song army’s side, the war drums thundered, horns blared, and a commanding shout echoed in the front lines. Clad in black armor, wielding shields in both hands, the heavy shield soldiers protected a large number of Song troops advancing step by step.

"Crossbow carriages ready." Ling Zhi waved his hand, and on the city walls appeared crossbow carriages, with crossbow arrows as thick as a child’s arm aimed at the heavy shield soldiers at the forefront, waiting for them to step into the effective killing range of the strong crossbows.

"Are they going to use human lives to fill the gap?" Watching the front line advancing step by step, Chu Ang thought Chen Mo might have a different siege method, but it turned out to be quite similar to traditional methods.

These shields were five centimeters thick, pure iron black shields, painted with a Fire Qilin imagined and drawn by Chen Mo, majestic and filled with killing intent.

"Five hundred paces."

"Four hundred and fifty paces."

...

"Two hundred paces."

On the city wall, Ling Zhi precisely calculated the distance of the Song army. As long as the front line of the Song army advanced two hundred more paces, they would step into the effective killing range of the crossbow carriages.

But just fifty paces away from the effective range, the entire Song army suddenly halted.

Shields clamped to the ground, the cold wind howling.

"What are the Song army doing?"

"Why did they stop?"

"What kind of trick is this?"

The Loulan defenders on the city wall couldn’t understand why the Song army suddenly stopped.

But soon, Ling Zhi understood why.

"Report—"

"General, a large number of Song army troops have been spotted outside the Western Suburbs," a scout reported.

Ling Zhi frowned: "Is it a diversion or a split attack?"

If it was a diversion, Ling Zhi could entirely ignore it.

But better safe than sorry, the Song army currently outnumbered them, and Ling Zhi dared not gamble.

"Ling Yong, take five thousand elite soldiers to reinforce the West Gate. If the Song army launches a strong attack, report immediately," Ling Zhi said to his nephew beside him.

"Understood." Ling Yong cupped his fists, descended the city tower, gathered five thousand elite soldiers, and rushed to the West Gate.

After Ling Yong left, Ling Zhi said to his personal soldiers: "Pass the order, if the Song army attacks the West Gate, immediately let the hidden troops in the mountain pass launch a pincer attack."

"Understood."

...

On the war chariot, Chen Mo’s fingers lightly tapped the sword at his waist. Suddenly, his fingers stopped, and he raised his head sharply, saying: "The time should be about right. Xishan’s side should have already taken action..."

Chen Mo stood up and waved his hand: "Continue advancing."

The sound of drums began again, and the originally halted heavy shield soldiers resumed their march forward.

"Thirty paces."

"Ten paces."

...

"Fire!" Ling Zhi shouted, and the ready crossbow arrows shot out like flashes of light, piercing through the iron shields and killing the Song soldiers behind them.

As the shield-bearing Song troops fell, the Loulan defenders discovered another layer of heavy shields behind the iron shields.

The Song army continued to advance as if the fallen soldiers in the previous line were not related to them.

"Quickly reload." Ling Zhi urged.

It was quite cumbersome to reload the crossbow arrows. By the time they were reloaded, the Song army had moved forward about a hundred paces again.

"Fire!"

"Swoosh!"

"Swoosh!"

"..."

With the sound of wind, the crossbow arrows broke through the heavy shields again, producing tremendous force, even sending the Song soldiers behind the shields flying backward, knocking down several in their path.

At this point, they noticed that there were still many heavy shield soldiers behind.

They continued to advance forward.

It was then that Ling Zhi noticed, behind these shield soldiers, something covered with black cloth.

"Bring the bow." Ling Zhi called out loudly.

His personal soldiers brought a heavy bow and special arrows.

Ling Zhi coated the arrowhead with petroleum, and under the movement of True Qi, the flame ignited.

Waiting for the crossbow arrows to break through the heavy shields, Ling Zhi shot at those unknown things covered with black cloth.

But just as he was about to shoot, he suddenly sensed something and dodged to the left, though he was a bit slow, and a bone arrow pierced through his shoulder.

Thud...

A soldier behind Ling Zhi fell, a bone arrow sticking into his forehead.

"General."

"General..."

The nearby officers turned pale as they saw Ling Zhi being hit, rushing over to check.

"I’m fine. There are divine archers on the other side. Take cover..."

Ling Zhi said this, but in his heart, he felt fear.

If he had been a bit slower, that arrow would have killed him.

Meanwhile, cheers erupted around Chen Mo.

"Great shot."

"Ah, just missed."

"Your skills with the bow are unmatched, sir."

...

Chen Mo raised his eyebrows; that person was not simple. That was a full-strength arrow just now, using the Red Dragon Demon Arm, yet he still detected it and dodged.

Could that person be Ling Zhi?

Sparking this thought, Chen Mo once again bent his bow and nocked an arrow. This time, it was an ordinary arrow, targeting the enemy’s command flag on the city wall.

The Flood Dragon Tendon Bow was drawn to its fullest, an arrow shot out, and after a few breaths, the flagpole on the city wall snapped with a crack, and the command flag fell off the city wall.

As the Song army advanced step by step, the black-cloth-covered objects finally appeared in front of the Loulan defenders.

For them, it was the first time seeing such things. Looking at the long black barrels mounted on modified war chariots, they were puzzled, thinking they were some new devices to ram the city gate.

But compared to conventional siege engines, these seemed too small.

"Archers ready!" Ling Zhi stood up again under the shield soldiers’ cover and gave the order.

At this moment, Gao Zheng shouted: "Fire the cannons!"

Instantly, eight Red Barbarian Cannons boomed in unison, with eight shells shooting out from the barrels, trailing sparks. Six headed for the city gate, and two towards where Ling Zhi stood.

These eight shells were not similar to the solid shots of the early Ming Dynasty, but were enhanced versions of the fragmentation shells from Zhu Di’s era, filled with multiple times the gunpowder and even compressed with True Qi.

With a thunderous explosion, a large hole was blasted in the city gate, and the Loulan soldiers behind the gate, responsible for barricading it, were blown away, and splinters flew everywhere.

The upper part of the watchtower was also reduced to ruins by the blast.

This scene stunned the Loulan defenders.

Even the Song army was amazed.

Li Weiqiu and the others were even left speechless, mouths agape.

The deafening explosion, even Celestial Thunder, is nothing compared to this?