Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 152 - 147 Double Pincer Attack

Chapter 152: Chapter 147 Double Pincer Attack

"Don’t underestimate them, those heavy cavalries are tough to deal with, they’re about to scale the walls!" a chiliarch shouted.

Although rolling logs and stones were evidently devastating to the barbarians climbing up with scaling ladders, transport was nevertheless slow. After the first round of rolling logs and stones was expended, there came a brief gap.

The barbarians kept climbing up the scaling ladders, trying to scale the wall in a never-ending stream.

And among these barbarians, the heavy cavalries were particularly troublesome.

Once they reached the base of the wall, they dismounted and tried to scale the wall like infantry.

But they were quite different from the regular infantry.

These heavy cavalries were already the elite among the barbarians, with much better physical condition than the infantry, and with the amplification of demonic powers, their attributes were comprehensively enhanced.

Moreover, wielding shields and clad in heavy armor, ordinary arrows could hardly harm them.

During the gap when no rolling logs and stones were available, these heavy cavalries quickly climbed upwards.

"Let us deal with those barbarians!"

As Li Hongyun shouted, he aimed his matchlock gun at the heavy cavalry climbing up.

"Bang!"

The gunshot echoed, followed by billowing gunsmoke.

The bullet left the barrel at an extremely high speed and hit a heavy cavalryman who was climbing upwards with precision.

The armor, which could defend against arrows, offered no protection against the bullet—it was pierced straight through!

Not only that, but the shattered pieces of the armor also penetrated the body, causing secondary damage.

This heavy cavalryman could no longer hold onto the ladder, and plummeted down.

It wasn’t just Li Hongyun. The other players who had been given matchlock guns and arquebuses also opened fire, letting those heavy armored cavalries trying to scale the wall experience what it meant, "Sir, times have changed."

Although their aim wasn’t as precise as Li Hongyun’s, if they allowed these heavy cavalries to climb a distance further up before firing, the hit rate could be significantly increased.

After the first row of players fired, they immediately retreated to reload, with the second row taking their place, and the third row remaining on standby.

This staggered firing tactic was invented to solve the problem of slow reloading times with firearms, and wherever firearms existed, be it in Sheng Army, Eastern Barbarians, or the Western Continent, a similar strategy was developed.

The players, coming from a modern society, were well familiar with this tactic; nearly all of them understood it without needing an explanation.

Thus, nearly all the first wave of barbarians who tried to scale the wall using ladders were buried at the base of the wall.

First, the players shot at the unarmored barbarians with arrows, then targeted the heavily armored ones with firearms, and finally cleared out the densely packed enemies using rolling logs, stones, and Sky Shattering Bombs.

After a round of confrontation, the demon-controlled barbarians suffered heavy losses, while the players’ casualties were negligible.

Apart from a few unlucky ones who were hit by arrows from below or cut by the barbarians who had managed to scale the wall, most remained unscathed.

But soon, a new wave of attacks arrived.

More barbarians kept coming in a steady stream, stepping over the bodies of their comrades to continue scaling the wall, and not only that, some pushed battering rams to the western gate!

The Northern Barbarians’ battering rams weren’t of the most primitive type but had been modified, equipped not only with hanging frames and battering hammers but also with roofs.

The soldiers could hide under the roofs of the rams, pushing them forward slowly, and even rolling logs and stones could hardly threaten the sturdy roofs.

"These barbarians have quite a few tricks up their sleeves, harder to deal with than the Eastern Barbarian bandits," Zhao Haiping remarked as he shot arrows from atop the wall.

Chu Ge nodded, "Yeah, for the Great Sheng Dynasty, the Northern Barbarians are clearly a tougher enemy.

"Although the Eastern Barbarian bandits disturb the southeast coastline and have caused great losses to the Great Sheng Dynasty, in the end, they are just a minor irritant. In fact, the Great Sheng Dynasty has never truly considered these Eastern Barbarian bandits as worthy opponents.

"But the Northern Barbarians are different.

"Whether it was Beidi or Northern Barbarians, or whether it was Yan, Chu, Wei, Liang, Qi, or Sheng, the northern nomadic tribes have always been the greatest threat. One careless move and it could be the end of the dynasty, like what happened in the final years of Great Qi, with the nation destroyed and the land sunk.

"The Northern Barbarians’ capability to destroy Qi was certainly not to be underestimated.

"The game ’Dark Sand’ is quite merciful, using the first two instances to let us practice on the Eastern Barbarian bandits. If we had to face the Northern Barbarians right away, probably most players would only be masochists."

Zhao Haiping shot dead another barbarian trying to scale the walls and asked, "So, after all that explanation, how exactly do we deal with this battering ram?"

Some players had already tried throwing stones at the battering ram, but to no avail—the stones simply bounced off the ram’s roof, causing no serious damage.

"Just get ready with the rockets," Chu Ge told Zhao Haiping.

Zhao Haiping was taken aback, "Rockets?"

Chu Ge then turned to Li Hongyun, who was gleefully raising his matchlock gun and shooting, "It’s your turn! Bring up the fierce-fire oil!"

Earthenware jars filled with fierce-fire oil and sealed had long been brought up to the battlements, awaiting this moment.

According to historical records, because the Great Sheng Dynasty’s firearms were quite advanced, the use of fierce-fire oil was not as frequent as before. However, this wasn’t real history—it was the Return Order Fortress.

In Return Order Fortress, as long as one was willing to spend money and use construction points, any activated equipment could be exchanged.

The players had exchanged for some fierce-fire oil reserves in advance, preparing for this moment.

Of course, since the relevant tech tree hadn’t been unlocked, technology points such as "fire oil pots" had not been activated. Perhaps they could be activated after clearing some instances from the Great Qi.

But for now, they could only use pottery jars filled with fire oil, hurling them to use, which reduced the lethality.

Li Hongyun joyfully raised the fire oil jar high and hurled it down at the battering ram!

One jar certainly wasn’t enough, so he threw three more in quick succession.

The other players immediately leaned over to watch.

In truth, there wasn’t much expectation for this, after all, the city wall was so high, and looking down, the target of the battering ram wasn’t that big either, how could it possibly land right on top of it?

If the pottery jar was just slightly off, falling beside or beneath the battering ram, it wouldn’t be of much use, because the barbarian soldiers controlled by the demons were fearless in the face of death, and would persist in attacking the city even if they were set aflame.

Only by pouring the fire oil on top of the battering ram and igniting it, causing the entire thing to burn and become ineffective, would it be useful.

However, to everyone’s amazement, the four pottery jars actually traced a strange arc in the air and accurately fell one after another onto the roof of the battering ram!

With a "crack", the jars shattered, and the fire oil flowed down the roof of the ram.

Zhao Haiping seized the opportunity, and shot a rocket onto the roof of the ram.

The other players weren’t idle either, some shooting rockets, some throwing Sky Shattering Bombs, anyway, they ignited the fire oil.

With a whoosh, flames shot up into the sky!

Fierce flames enveloped the battering ram, burning intensely.

The barbarian soldiers had just managed to push the battering ram to the city gate with great difficulty, ready to join forces to strike the gate with the ramming hammer, only to find fire oil flowing down from the top, igniting in an instant.

Before they even managed a few hits, those barbarian soldiers were already buried in the fiery inferno along with the battering ram.

Instead of serving its purpose in the siege, the battering ram now blocked the gate, becoming a blazing barrier that impeded the path of subsequent barbarian soldiers.

Another crisis was averted, and the players heaved a sigh of relief.

Only the reserve team waiting in the city was getting a bit impatient.

During the first Return Order Expedition, these reserves had remained in the city as well, but back then, the small county’s city gate was quickly broken through, and they were able to fight the thieves within the city.

But now, the defense of the Return Order’s fortress was too strong, leaving these reserves waiting in the city somewhat idle.

"Brothers on the city wall, are you tired? How about we switch, we go up and fight for a bit?"

"Yeah, just waiting in the city is boring us to death..."

"Can we be dispatched as a surprise force to attack the enemy from another city gate?"

But no matter how they requested, Chu Ge remained indifferent, with only one response: "Stand by in place!"

Chu Ge understood very well, it was normal for the barbarian soldiers’ initial assault to be thwarted, but that didn’t mean the players had the situation fully under control.

The demons were not stupid; they might use these barbarian soldiers as cannon fodder, but after the attack stalled, they would certainly think of other ways.

That’s when the reserve team’s players would have their chance to shine.

But for now, the time hadn’t come.

If they launched an attack haphazardly because of temporary advantage, it would be akin to feeding the enemy.

No matter that the barbarian soldiers were currently disoriented by the beating, if it came down to the open plains outside, the players—who could only run on two legs—faced heavy cavalry, they would only get battered.

Even strong players like Fan Cun and Zhao Haiping, when facing a cavalry charge en masse, were no match, and all their combat skills would be useless.

Sure enough, before long, the players who were previously assigned to guard the east began to come under attack.

"Report! The thieves have somehow stealthily made it to the east side! They’ve crossed the hills and the dense forest, attempting to attack the eastern gate!"

Chu Ge quickly said, "Detach a reserve team to support the east side! The Chiliarchs of other defense zones should also pay close attention to the enemy’s movements, and report immediately if anything is discovered!

"The terrain on the east is complex, with rolling hills and dense forests. The Chiliarchs can dispatch players through secret passages to ambush the enemy at their discretion, according to the battle situation!"

Relatively speaking, the east side is a succession of hills and dense forests; although the terrain is not as formidable as the north and south sides, it’s essentially impossible for large siege weapons to pass through.

Therefore, the defensive force arranged on the eastern city wall was bound not to be as complete as the west side.

Whether it’s the number of players responsible for defense or the prepared rolling logs and stones, there’s a huge difference compared to the west side.

And the demons apparently realized that it was difficult to break through the western city wall, so they sent the Eastern Barbarian thieves to attempt an attack from the east.

The thieves were agile and had almost no cavalry, scaling mountains and valleys with ease.

If they could take advantage of a lapse in defense and enter the eastern gate, getting inside the city, the city’s defenses would naturally descend into chaos; a pincer attack from east and west would substantially increase the chances of capturing the city.

Unfortunately for them, the players hadn’t made such a rookie mistake.

The players in the reserve team were eager to flex their muscles, and upon arriving at the eastern gate, they found the current defenses more than sufficient, with the thieves having no chance of scaling the walls or breaking through the gate in the short term.

Although there were not many rolling logs or Sky Shattering Bombs at the eastern gate, the thieves also lacked large siege machines, so the situation was something of a stalemate.

Thus, the Chiliarchs of the reserves led their players through secret tunnels previously prepared, sneaking out of the city and hiding in the dense forest, quietly maneuvering towards the rear of the thieves.

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