Chapter 336 Catapults

"Sir, those are scouts from Great Xia." Ren Baqian was half a day away from Liao City and had spotted the mounted scouts of Great Xia observing them from a distance from time to time. However, when they were about five to six hundred meters away, they would turn their horses away.
"Be alert at all times," Ren Baqian said as he stroked the machine gun mounted on the back of the fork-horned cow.
"Wake up that person who is still sleeping and untie her ropes."
Currently, Ren Baqian began to wonder whether it was Lin Qiaole protecting him or if he was the one protecting Lin Qiaole.
During the entire journey, Lin Qiaole had been asleep and bound by ropes to the back of a cow. This seemed to be the most important and enjoyable thing for her.
Following this, everyone raised their vigilance to prevent the Great Xia troops from suddenly charging and surrounding them.
Ren Baqian could see the city gate being opened when he was a few kilometers away from Liao City, and goat riders were prancing out from the city to welcome the team of Ren Baqian.
At present, Ren Baqian could see from afar the Great Xia barracks which were located outside the eastern gate of Liao City.
The reinforcement soldiers of Great Xia arrived yesterday, and as expected by Ren Baqian, they amounted to only 100,000 troops and merged with the 70,000 soldiers who were already there. Once again, they surrounded the north, east, and west gates of Liao City. They didn't care about people going south and seemed to be trying to separate Tiesuo Pass and Shun City from Dayao, but it was hard to figure out what they were trying to achieve by doing this.
"How's the situation in the city?" Ren Baqian asked a winged cavalry warrior.
"Everything is normal." The winged cavalry warrior didn't look solemn. Even if 170,000 Great Xia soldiers were outside the city, he still would not be nervous.
Ren Baqian nodded his head before raising his head to look eagerly into the distance at a red dot on one of the towers of the city wall.
Before arriving at the city, they heard the sound of a cannon firing from far away. Soon after, overwhelming battle noises could be heard.
"Are they attacking the city?" Ren Baqian immediately asked.
When he contacted the empress via the radio station in the morning, he didn't hear any news about the Great Xia army attacking the city. Now, it seemed like the Great Xia army was ready to do so.
"Enter the city." Ren Baqian looked up and saw that the figure on the city wall had disappeared.
Everyone made their horned cows run wild and beside them were a group of goat riders on their prancing sheep.
Although he had seen it many times and heard the battle cries from afar, Ren Baqian couldn't resist laughing in such a situation. Damn it, it was just too comical.
He reckoned that those making a movie wouldn't dare to write such a movie script. It was like a group of well-built experts coming out of a sheep village and sitting on happy, lazy, and beautiful sheep…
The austere atmosphere died down quickly.
The city gates hadn't been closed from beginning to end, and no one had stopped either Ren Baqian or the others. The city gate only closed gradually after everyone had entered.
Although three sides of the city were being attacked, the commoners inside the city didn't panic at all.
It was just that many people walked to the street outside their houses and looked in the direction of the faraway battle noises with ferocious expressions.
A few days before the empress arrived, the defenders of the city had inspired the innate spirit of the commoners to blossom. Now that the empress was in the city, these commoners would gladly set off instantly to kill the enemies.
Seeing Ren Baqian and his team coming in, they took more than a few glances and gazed at Ren Baqian to judge the man that the empress had selected as her husband.
The party of people arrived at the city commander's residence.
The city commander was responsible for governing the city as well as the surrounding strongholds.
Dayao was considered sparsely populated. It had 175 towns and cities. Among these 175 towns and cities, 93 of them were located in the south and were where the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation lived.
The towns and cities where the aboriginals lived only consisted of the remaining 82. Many of the aboriginals living in the plains lived around the strongholds.
Ren Baqian jumped down from the fork-horned cow and hurried inside. When he reached the main hall, he saw the empress seated in a chair with Qing Yuan and Hong Luan standing behind her. There were also some commanders who were wearing leather armor standing further down.
"Your Majesty!" Ren Baqian moved forward to pay his respects.
She replied with a "hmm" sound from her nose.
"Everyone, get busy with your own matters. Li Qianqiu, follow me to the city wall to take a look," the empress said coolly. Everyone glanced at Ren Baqian before filing out.
Ren Baqian raised his head to look at the remaining person. He was two meters tall, a fierce looking hunk, had a bronze complexion, and gave off a forbidding expression.
"Come along with me too." The empress pointed at Ren Baqian.
"Yes!"
This wasn't the reunion Ren Baqian had expected after such a long separation between the newly wedded couple. They greeted each other before he followed her to the city wall.
"Principal Ren." Li Qianqiu grinned at Ren Baqian, revealing an intimidating smile that far exceeded a show of goodwill.
Since the outbreak of the war, Ren Baqian had done many things, including the provision of the radio stations as a group chat for the military leaders. This was the first time that such a means of interaction was possible, and it was a treasure they appreciated.
There were also the issues of iron, salt, weapons production, the strategy of fortifications as well as the clearing of the fields, and the formation of the militia. As a result, Ren Baqian's importance had risen sharply in the eyes of the court officials.
As soon as they met , Li Qianqiu showed his goodwill.
"Greetings, Sir Li!" Ren Baqian clasped his hands in salute and smiled broadly.
They had yet to reach the city wall when, all of sudden, a whistling sound was heard in the air. This was followed by the sounds of heavy objects hitting the city wall.
Standing on the city wall and looking out, they saw a few catapults positioned 200 meters away. Wooden boards on both sides of each catapult were used to block the incoming arrows as rows of soldiers placed huge rocks on the catapults.
From time to time, a few bone arrows were fired across to the other side and some people were heard groaning miserably as they fell down.
Although the cannons of Great Xia had a long range, they weren't powerful enough to do much damage to the fortified city. On the other hand, their catapults had a shorter range, but caused more damage to the city walls.
Ren Baqian saw the empress looking into the distance, so he handed the binoculars hanging from his neck to her and got an appreciative look in return. By the time he turned his head, he saw Li Qianqiu using binoculars from an unknown source to look into the distance. Only Ren Baqian was left empty-handed.
A moment later, he took the binoculars from the empress to peer far away.
Behind those catapults were rows of stern and murderous looking soldiers. While the first row of soldiers carried silver shields, each soldier in the second row had a big box by their side. The soldiers in the next three rows were armed with bows and arrows. Further back, there were soldiers brandishing their spears like a dense forest in the air.
In the distance, there was an unbroken row of barracks with barely visible boundary. Rows of fences were also erected outside the barracks.
Soon after putting down his binoculars, he took a deep breath. He had seen military troops previously, but he had never felt such pressure before.
Sure enough, it was a quantitative change causing a qualitative change, and there were at least 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers out there.
When using the binoculars earlier, he saw the other side assembling a huge amount of armaments, which it implied that the catapults were just the beginning.
After seeing the situation, Li Qianqiu told the empress respectfully, "Your Majesty, they are waiting for us to go out and destroy the equipment. The soldiers in the second row of the battle formation are from the Shenjiying. Behind them are the archers. If we want to destroy their catapults, we may have to suffer many casualties."
(Shenjiying: one of the elite military divisions)
While they were talking, the catapults kept on launching stones, with some of them weighing half a ton. These stones hit the city walls one after another. The entire city wall vibrated from the shockwaves, and it felt as if the walls would collapse at any time.
In addition, there were two shots that went over the city wall and landed in the city center, causing those houses near the city walls to get crushed into fragments.
Fortunately, the residents there had left earlier and didn't suffer any injuries.
The empress raised her hands. "Bring me the bow."
Someone immediately brought the longbow to her. She was seen drawing the bow and shooting the arrows. Immediately, the wooden boards protecting the catapults were smashed. However, many soldiers quickly used logs to repair the boards.
"Your Majesty, you must destroy at least half of them. Otherwise, they will be able to repair them too quickly," Li Qianqiu said.
Next, they took a look at the other two directions from the city wall, and the situation was about the same.
Only the direction toward the south had yet to be attacked.
However, the Great Xia army from both the east and west laid down many caltrops across a large area near the south gate. There was also a row of soldiers from the Shenjiying who were armed with crossbows to prevent Dayao from making a sudden attack from the south gate.
"What do you think about those catapults?" the empress asked casually while standing on the city wall.
"This is a simple matter, Your Majesty. I will let them have a taste of their own medicine," Ren Baqian instantly answered.
The empress nodded her head.
Although Ren Baqian was not omnipotent, most of the time, he was able to give the answers that she wanted to hear.