Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 150 - 145: The Siege War Is About to Erupt

Chapter 150: Chapter 145: The Siege War Is About to Erupt

"Quick, everyone follow the previously arranged groupings, Chiliarchs lead your respective thousand-men teams to your assigned defense sectors!"

"Given that the enemy’s strength remains unclear, everyone should focus on defense at the outset—do not rush to attack!"

Under Chu Ge’s and the various Chiliarchs’ commands, the players sprang into action, seizing the strategically planned defense points.

The city walls were now packed with players, with defenses set up in different directions—especially the west side, which was expected to be the focal point of the demon attack, where two thousand-men teams were guarding.

Before Chu Ge and other players entered the ultimate trial, they had actually planned their strategy for this Return Order Expedition.

Armed with experience from the last expedition, they had prepared for each aspect of the mission in advance, with everything proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Teams were still formed based on the previous approach, with the largest battle unit being the thousand-men team, but due to the player count almost doubling since the closed beta, these teams were reorganized.

The original thousand-men teams were split in half, with each incorporating five hundred new players to form new thousand-men teams, and players who had performed well were now the new Chiliarchs.

This approach—from the team down to the squads—had newcomers led by veterans, ensuring to the greatest extent that these new players wouldn’t run around aimlessly, disrupting the overall battle plan.

Just as before, the players’ field of view included the formation interface and the City Defense Map, which allowed them to assess the current battle situation through the glowing points on the display and communicate swiftly within their group or team via various channels.

In addition to the players directly engaged in combat on the city walls, there were also reserve forces on standby within the city, and many others were busy transporting all sorts of supplies to the city walls.

For example: rolling logs and stones, and other such defensive items.

Most of these materials were by-products from the construction of the city walls.

In the hilly terrain near the Return Order Fortress, there were many forests and mines, usually worked by NPCs, that is, the native phantoms, responsible for cutting wood, mining ore, and transporting stone.

Once players spent construction points, they could accelerate the extraction of these materials and use NPC craftsmen to turn them into towering, sturdy city walls and various other structures.

However, the output of stone and wood was already slightly higher than the speed at which players earned construction points, and many players chose to do menial tasks to earn money faster, so these materials were relatively surplus.

And now was the perfect time to use them for city defense.

Just then, someone in the team chat exclaimed, "Hey? It looks like there’s a batch of new supplies in the armory! There are items like Sky Shattering Bombs and matchlock guns in there!"

At this announcement, the players were all invigorated.

There were firearms too?

The players near the armory and the blacksmith shop immediately gathered to find that indeed, there was a new batch of equipment.

There were Sky Shattering Bombs packed in wooden boxes and a variety of matchlock guns and other firearms.

The quantity of these supplies was limited, but they were free for the taking.

Chu Ge hurriedly said, "Don’t touch them yet! Each Chiliarch send someone to collect them, divide them evenly among the front-line thousand-men teams, no snatching! Those who know how to use matchlock guns, bird guns, and Sky Shattering Bombs should apply with the Chiliarch, who will allocate as seems fit."

There wasn’t enough supply for every player—it was unrealistic—so they could only be distributed to a select few.

Some players had used matchlock guns in the regular instance trials, while others hadn’t.

Those who hadn’t should stay out of it; getting their hands on these precious firearms would be a waste of resources, and not knowing how to use a Sky Shattering Bomb could be dangerous, even harmful to themselves.

Chu Ge couldn’t vet each player for their proficiency, so he had to trust the players to be responsible.

Fortunately, at least the players within each squad generally knew each other, and most should possess such self-awareness.

If someone hoarded supplies without knowing how to use them, they would certainly be discovered by their squadmates and face scorn later on.

After all, in "Dark Sand," team distribution was more akin to fixed groups rather than disposable, one-off parties, so players had to be mindful of their reputation.

Soon, Chiliarchs dispatched members to the armory to claim their share of the supplies.

The frontline players were already rubbing their hands with eagerness, having not participated in such large-scale national wars with multiple players since the last Return Order Expedition, they were itching to fight, especially now that their equipment had been fully upgraded!

Apart from the newly issued firearms from the armory, the players’ basic equipment had also been upgraded.

The blacksmith shop had been selling advanced weapons like rattan shields, waist knives, spears, and armor; after toiling away, most players had upgraded to the new gear.

This equipment couldn’t be brought into regular trials, and the number of demons that had strayed into the Return Order Fortress was so low that it was not easy to find a good opportunity for a real fight.

Now, at last, they could engage in a major battle!

Chu Ge, looking at these brand new firearms, began to speculate on the future developments of the Return Order Fortress.

"Previously, the armory only had standard equipment like rattan shields, waist knives, and such—versions unmodified by General Deng.

"But now, not only do we have new versions of waist knives and rattan shields, Wolf Whiskers, T-grips, but also a variety of firearms.

"Does this mean that with each conquered historical fragment, the Return Order Fortress will update with a new set of equipment?"

"The equipment in the armory seems like it was given away for free just to deal with this Return Order Expedition, and it’s very likely that the blacksmith shop will update these pieces of equipment in the future, allowing players to freely spend money to purchase them.

"Moreover, as long as we win this Return Order Expedition, this large new slice of history should also be completely within our grasp, right?

"That being said, as long as we all keep working hard to conquer these historical fragments, the number of players, their combat power, and the scale of the Return Order fortress will continue to expand.

"There is so much that can be done, so much indeed!"

Chu Ge couldn’t help but feel full of anticipation for the future.

Imagine, as the players conquer one historical fragment after another, starting from the Great Sheng Dynasty, advancing step by step towards Ancient Times, and new cities rise one after another within the Return Order fortress, supporting each other in a joint defense, making the entire historical fragment as impregnable as a fortress of gold...

And then, to have a final, exhilarating battle with those ancient gods and demons, how thrilling that would be!

There is just one uncertain factor: according to historical reality, weapons and equipment must have undergone upgrades over time. For example, the Great Sheng Dynasty’s later matchlock guns and bird guns, if taken to earlier dynasties such as Yan or Chu, wouldn’t that be outright overpowering?

It couldn’t possibly be that simple.

Those earlier dynasties, being closer to Ancient Times, would inevitably have stronger demonic forces, so there’s also the possibility that these barbarian soldiers are significantly enhanced by the demons.

At that time, the style of the game may develop in a relatively more fantastical direction...

In any case, "Dark Sand" has probably only completed about 20% of its progress so far, and there’s still plenty of room for expansion in the future.

While Chu Ge was indulging in fantasies of the future, the Eastern Barbarian bandits and Northern Barbarian cavalry, controlled by demons, began to attack!

The Eastern Barbarian bandits were not very numerous, only more than ten thousand; but the number of Northern Barbarian cavalry was a bit frightening, with a rough sweep revealing at least seventy to eighty thousand.

Together, that was more than a hundred thousand!

And the players all counted together only numbered over thirty thousand, not yet reaching forty thousand, with a large portion of them tasked with the heavy responsibility of transporting supplies and not participating in combat at the beginning.

With such numbers, every player would have to take down at least four enemies for there to be any hope of winning this battle.

It must be said, even though the players held the advantageous terrain and had one chance to resurrect, it was still a very challenging mission.

"Prepare for battle!

"Our West City Gate will inevitably be the focus of the demons’ attack. Everyone must be alert, and we must not retreat even half a step!"

The two Chiliarchs at the West City Gate were shouting to the players, trying to boost their morale.

In ancient armies, elites always stood at the forefront. The reason was simple: with the elite at the front, the troops wouldn’t flee.

Of course, ancient armies also gave enough rewards to these brave warriors who dared to charge at the front, as the saying goes, "with heavy rewards, come brave warriors."

It was the same for the players. The two groups of a thousand players each mostly consisted of courageous and skilled fighters, and their professional distribution was reasonable. Each squad had a scholar player to give buffs to everyone at any time.

Even the combativeness of the players surpassed those ancient vanguards.

The reason was simple: players had a chance to resurrect, and even if they died, they would be resurrected. Even if they used up their resurrection chances, they would merely enter spectator mode and not truly die.

With that in mind, of course charging to the front lines to kill the enemy was the most thrilling.

"Thud!

"Thud! Thud!

"Woo-woo..."

The sound of the war drums and horns of the Northern Barbarian cavalry rose, and the cavalry troops, like dark clouds, had arrived at the city’s base.

The Eastern Barbarian bandits didn’t rush forward immediately but lingered to the side, watching and waiting.

This was probably because the Eastern Barbarians didn’t have much siege equipment. After all, they were marauders who moved from place to place, and even if there were many former officials among them acting as Wandering Warriors, they were ultimately not suitable for large-scale siege battles.

With just a few of their ladders, trying to breach the Return Order fortress was clearly a pipe dream.

So, the demons wisely didn’t make the Eastern Barbarians go forward to die but instead had the soldiers from the Northern side attack the city.

The Northern soldiers, besides heavy and light cavalry, also had many siege weapons such as catapults, large ladders, battering rams, and so on, because relying solely on cavalry, the once mighty Northern Barbarians would not have been able to conquer so many strongholds.

The leader of the Northern Barbarian cavalry, riding a warhorse and holding a curved saber, pointed towards the Return Order fortress.

Indeed, they had chosen the relatively flat terrain of the West Gate as their main direction of attack.

Following the leader’s command, the catapults began to throw rocks and barrels of oil at the Return Order fortress, while the barbarian soldiers, with the protection and coordination of the cavalry, began to attack the fortress with ladders!

If this were reality, a cavalry siege would seem foolish.

On one hand, cavalry is too precious; on the other, cavalry realistically cannot cross high walls. Even if they made it to the city gates, they could only dismount as infantry to engage in combat.

But at this moment, all the barbarian soldiers were under the control of demons, so the demons didn’t care whether the warhorses were precious or about the lives of the barbarian soldiers, their only goal being to breach the city gates as quickly as possible, allowing the main forces to enter swiftly and slaughter everyone inside!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.