Chapter 57: The City is Breached
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: AntiGod
With a gloomy expression, Lu Chengfeng kicked on a stone beast head placed on top of the tower and crushed it into pieces. Only then did he begin to explain the origin of the Mo Machine.
Mo Machine was a rapid-firing mechanical crossbow created by the Mo Sect of Great Yan Dynasty for the sole purpose of major warfare. From the outside, it looked like a coffin with the size similar to a four-wheeled coach. However, inside this large box was an ingeniously designed rapid-firing mechanical crossbow, which packed quite a powerful punch.
In an actual battle, the Mo Machine provided the options of rapid firing one bolt at a time, or three bolts, six bolts, twelve bolts, or eighteen bolts. At the maximum rate, it could fire one hundred and eight bolts at the same time at a rapid speed. The Mo Machine had a huge capacity, and could carry a huge amount of bolts. As long as a man with strong arm force sat inside of it and kept winding up the bowstring, it was capable of unleashing thirty-six waves of bolts, each wave containing one hundred and eight bolts.
After all the bolts were used up, it only required to remove the emptied bolt cartridge and replace it with a full cartridge. Only that and it would be able to continue shooting. Moreover, the time it took to replace a new cartridge was less than the time it took to drink a pot of tea. Basically, with two Mo Machines placed side by side, one could achieve the goal of shooting out a rain of bolts continuously.
In addition to that, as Mo Machines were large sized weapons, the strength of the spring installed in it was many times stronger than the one found in a Nine Cloud Piercing Strongbow. The custom made three-edged armor piercing bolt shot out from it was capable of piercing through a three-layered heavy armor from a distance of two miles away. And within the distance of two hundred steps, its bolt could penetrate through the body of five soldiers who were clad in heavy armor.
In a battlefield, Mo Machine was totally a machine of mass slaughter. By lining up ten Mo Machines in a row, even if the enemy came with one hundred thousand soldiers, there was no way they could get over this line of defense.
With all the available resources of Lu Kingdom, they could only obtain one hundred Mo Machines from their suzerain, the Great Yan Dynasty, and were all deployed in the capital of Lu Kingdom. They served as the last line of defense for the kingdom. Fifteen years ago, the rival of Lu Kingdom, the Gao Ling Kingdom, launched a surprise invasion, breaching the border of Lu Kingdom and came straight to the capital. However, outside of the Lu Kingdom's capital, all their fifty thousand elite cavalries of heavy armor was slaughtered completely in less than ten minutes by one hundred Mo Machines.
And currently, the Little Meng City was surrounded by eighty Mo Machines.
By using eighty Mo Machines against Little Meng City, who only owned an authorized size of eight thousand city guards, it was like trying to kill an ant with a butcher's knife.
After hearing Lu Chengfeng's explanation, Wu Qi's face turned pale as well. This machine was capable of piercing through a three-layered heavy armor from a distance of two miles, its power could even be compared to the heavy sniper found in Wu Wang's memory. No matter what kind of Xiantian expert one was, when faced with the rapid firing Mo Machine, the only end result would be a riddled body. A total of eighty Mo Machines, it was more than enough to slaughter every single person in Little Meng City.
With an anxious glance, Wu Qi saw all eighty Mo Machines were being pushed and pulled by some men, slowly approaching from all four sides of the city wall. In each direction outside of the city wall, there were twenty Mo Machines lined up in a straight line. Yet, three hundred feet behind these Mo Machines, he saw a group of over one thousand cavalries from Yulin Army, each carrying a Nine Cloud Piercing Strongbow in their hand. Slowly but steadily, all eighty Mo Machines had arrived at a distance of fewer than one thousand feet from Little Meng City's wall.
"Princess Yingchuan! Lord Baishuo! I'll remember you!" Both Wu Qi's palms started to quiver, vaguely; there were a few misty water vapors that shot out from his fingertips. Layer upon layer of water element energy came rushing from all directions, swirling fast around his body and bringing forth a large amount of thin, white fog.
"Young master, can't you just fix up a large scale array and have the entire Little Meng City protected?" Wu Qi took a glance at Lu Chengfeng and asked helplessly.
Lu Chengfeng was almost getting mad. He furiously glared at Wu Qi and said, "Who do you think I am? A legendary immortal on earth who has formed his Gold Core? With my cultivation base of peak Houtian just a few months ago, my maximum limit was controlling three array pillars at the same time."
He snorted a few times coldly, then his face blushed. While letting out a few dry laughs, he said, "Of course, even if I manage to achieve the realm of Gold Core, I still can't put up a large scale array capable of protecting an entire city. It is a profound and miraculous formation, hmph… Perhaps, you can find someone in Great Yan Dynasty who has inherited such knowledge."
The peak of Houtian realm, three array pillars? So this was Lu Chengfeng's limit? Turning his head and staring at those Mo Machines outside of the city, Wu Qi sighed in his mind. If he possessed the cultivation base of Gold Core now and was capable of putting up a formation which covered an area of more than few miles, how good would that be? The pitch-black, non-reflective surface of Mo Machine had given Wu Qi a tremendous pressure.
Sighing under his breath, Wu Qi pulled out a magical storage pouch from the secret pocket located on his chest and handed it over to Lu Chengfeng. "Take this. You can find food, water, medicine, and some gold, silver, and jewelry in it. When you're on the run, bringing it along is more convenient!"
Lu Chengfeng snatched over the magical storage pouch. His face filled with joy as he gazed at Wu Qi. "So, it was you who had done that! I suppose there were a few magical items found in it? Or perhaps some energy stones? Where are they now?"
Wu Qi tiled his head and kept staring at those Mo Machines outside of the city. He was too lazy to entertain Lu Chengfeng. He had risked a great danger only to steal two magical storage pouches,, and he was being generous for giving one to Lu Chengfeng. But, this guy was still asking for the items found in the pouch? It was better not to even think about it!
He brought his hand and touched the other storage pouch placed on his chest, feeling a great relief. All his rewards obtained from Little Meng City were placed in this storage pouch. So, even if they couldn't hold the city anymore and were forced to become a fugitive, with all these items, he would still have the foundation to keep living in this world.
Xiao Hei, Zhang Hu and Hu Wei were in the middle of mobilizing city guards, deploying each battalion to a different defense zone according to the streets. The crossbows used by the enemy was too powerful, and there was no way the worn-out city wall of Little Meng City could hold up against them. Thus, the only option left for them was to put up a defensive warfare by utilizing the civilian townhouses. The first thing these soldiers of the city guard did on entering a townhouse would be to find all available materials, using them to construct a strong defense over their heads.
Blankets and animal leathers soaked with water, wood planks, iron pan, table top, sacks filled with dirt, every single soldier of city guard had started to move at top speed. In particular, those civilian townhouses with the height of at least two floors and above, they had received a great love from all soldiers. Because these soldiers could hide on the ground floor, and pile up countless odds and ends they could find on the floor above them, it would be an effective way to construct a strong enough defense.
Besides, the five thousand elite soldiers of city guards who owned the most complete armor and weapons were stationed in Mayor mansion, which was fully constructed with stones. The rest of the soldiers were dispersed into different townhouses within Little Meng City. Supervised and urged by these soldiers, all the civilians of Little Meng City had prepared for a life-and-death battle. After all, Ma Liang's order of 'slaughter the entire city' was heard loud and clear by every single person in the city. Since he was going to slaughter all of them, then he shouldn’t blame every single one of them in the city to put up a desperate fight.
The soldiers and civilians in the city were busy preparing while the Mo Machines outside of the city were in the middle of detailed calibration. As the sound of gears cranking was heard, the nose of Mo Machines was slowly rising up, aiming at the height of 45º from the ground.
Wu Qi pulled Lu Chengfeng and jumped off from the tower. He brought a group of men and squeezed into a sturdy hiding hole on the city wall. He removed a few pieces of bricks, and through the observation windows on the city wall, he could have a clear vision of any movements of the enemies.
It had taken nearly half an hour before all the Mo Machines had their calibration completed. Luo Kedi sat on top of his Crocotta, raised his sword high up in the air and let out a raging battle cry, "Fire volley, lay siege to the city. Once the city is breached, kill at your will!"
A dead silence reigned both inside and outside the city. A few crystal clear clanging noises of metal suddenly rang through the air. Right after that, one hundred and eight small holes were seen suddenly exposed on the nose of those Mo Machines. Like a swarm of crazy hornets, showers upon showers of bolts were shot out at the same time, piercing through the air and producing a deafening, wind breaking sound.
Wave after wave of bolts were shooting high up into the sky. After streaking heavily through a distance, the shower of bolts drew a beautiful curve in the air and fell forcefully towards the ground. The bolts shot from four different directions converged in the sky above Little Meng City, nearly covering every single blind spot and blanketed the entire city.
The bolts fell down like raindrops. *ding ding ding ding*… *dang dang dang dang*… Nearly in an instant, all the roofs of townhouses in Little Meng City exploded. Countless green roof tiles shattered into million tiny pieces, and a cloud of broken debris and dust soared up a few feet high into the sky. Overlooking from afar, every courtyard in the city was now covered by a thick layer of green dust.
Loud cracking noise kept resounding throughout the city. Peering through the observation window, Wu Qi saw all the townhouses and towers on the east side of the Little Meng City had collapsed. Through the dust flying in the air, he also saw countless figures of people twisting and struggling in the shower of bolts before their bodies turned stiff and fell off to the ground.
Wu Qi's eyes turned bloodshot. Among those figures of people, most of them were ordinary civilians of Little Meng City. He felt nothing about the death of those civilians, as Wu Qi didn't attach much emotion toward them. However, some of them were actually soldiers of city guards, and Wu Qi had poured in a huge effort in training them! He used to be supervising them himself. He personally gave them lectures, and taught them the cultivation of inner energy. He even participated in combat training with some of the soldiers.
"Princess Yingchuan! Lord Baishuo!" Wu Qi slammed his palm forcefully onto the city wall.
"Princess Yingchuan! Lord Puyang!!" Lu Chengfeng had his eyes turned bloodshot as well, like a tiger who went frenzied. He punched his fist on the city wall. "When Lu Chengfeng is above the world, I'll definitely fight you till my last gasp!"
*Boom*, Wu Qi and Lu Chengfeng unleashed their innate energy at the same time. Both innate energies clashed into each other, shaking the other people inside of the hiding hole, nearly making them faint.
A wave of bolts was followed by another wave. Mo Machines kept pouring out bolts like there was no tomorrow, making them blanket the city like a fearsome thunderstorm. Whenever a Mo Machine had its bolt cartridge emptied, those men who operated it would replace it immediately, and continued the endless attack.
Under such overwhelming attack, no one in the city could move a bit. They could only keep watching as those bolts rained down endlessly, and how they injured and killed the civilians and soldiers in the city.
Half of the townhouses in Little Meng City toppled and collapsed under the heavy blast of the bolt shower. At least fifty thousand civilians and soldiers were wounded or killed.
The ground was now fully filled with bolts made of pure steel. At a glance, it was like Little Meng City had turned into a vast weed field.
After replacing two bolt cartridges in a row, the crazy rapid shooting of Mo Machines had finally come to a pause. Luo Kedi raised his sword above his shoulder, facing the coming wind, and cried out loud, "Lay siege to the city! Kill every man and woman you see, I want no survivors! I want every single living being in this city to follow the footstep of little Marquis!"
The Crocottas cavalries of Yulin Army rode and charged forward. While they were a dozen feet away from the city gate, they threw out a couple dozens of explosive talismans.
The massive explosion turned all four city gates of Little Meng City into ashes and dust, together with city wall of a total length of nearly a thousand feet. Over six thousand Crocottas cavalries rode into the city without any resistance.
The city had been breached!
Wu Qi exerted all his innate energy and shouted with a deafening voice, "My brothers, come out and fight this battle of life-and-death! Avenge those brothers who were killed by the enemy! You'll be rewarded with one hundred gold coins by killing one enemy! Anyone who kills Luo Kedi or Ma Liang, the two scumbags, he will be rewarded with one hundred thousand gold coins, one hundred pretty girls, one hundred kilograms of pearls and gemstones, ten kilograms of energy stones, and a book of Xiantian grade cultivation skill!"
Lu Chengfeng was struck dumb. He turned to Wu Qi and cursed under his breath, "Do I have so much of wealth that you just promised them?"
Wu Qi didn't respond to Lu Chengfeng and just kept roaring repeatedly.
The lifeless Little Meng City suddenly started boiling. Countless figures sprinted out from collapsed townhouses and towers, charging toward those cavalries of Yulin Army who came rushing in from all four city gates.