World-Ending Demon Emperor
Chapter 322 - 183: Zhi Ning is captured, Turing Duo is captured!_2

Chapter 322: 183: Zhi Ning is captured, Turing Duo is captured!_2

"Bang..."

Then, the thick city gates were violently burst open.

Outside, thousands of soldiers from the Silver Wolf Legion surged in.

...

The Silver Wolf Legion formally joined forces with the Tianshui City Guard, a total of twelve thousand elites flooded into Tianlang Pass.

The Black Cloth Army, the Linhai Army, and high-ranking rebel lords melted away like snow in the sun, one after another falling to their deaths beneath the blade.

Watching their own troops continuously retreat, dying one by one.

Everything in front of her perfectly illustrated the meaning of an army collapsing like a mountain crumbling.

Zhi Ning felt an excruciating pain in her heart, but she seemed to have fallen into a state of numbness as well.

Nurdan stepped forward and said, "Commandery Princess, we must immediately order the troops to retreat within the castle, otherwise our entire army will be annihilated."

Princess Zhining’s beautiful brows twitched slightly as she coldly commanded, "Retreat to the castle."

Immediately, the surviving Zhi Ning Allied Forces began retreating to their last bastion.

...

Tianlang Castle was situated within Tianlang Pass, built right up against the cliffs of the Tianshui Mountain Range, its back against a thousand-meter cliff that served as one of its walls.

The whole castle was made of massive stone blocks, incredibly sturdy. Moreover, the castle was covered with loopholes and battlements for archers.

Princess Zhining, Turing Duo, Nurdan, Gui Qinqu, and others had been directing the battle from within this castle.

Now, this castle became their last line of defense. The surviving troops desperately retreated inside it.

Suo Lun and Yan Yan’s forces pressed on, slaughtering their way forward.

Half an hour later, the entire Tianlang Pass had fallen completely into Suo Lun’s hands.

The surviving few thousand soldiers of the Zhi Ning Allied Forces all retreated into the massive Tianlang Castle, ready for a final, desperate fight.

Behind the castle was a thousand-meter cliff, leaving them no way out.

In front of the castle, Suo Lun’s army of more than ten thousand completely surrounded it, not leaving any gaps.

...

In front of Tianlang Castle was a vast drill ground where the garrison troops of Tianlang Pass would always assemble and muster.

At this moment, Suo Lun’s army of more than ten thousand were arrayed on this drill ground, with thousands of archers and hundreds of ballistas aiming at the castle’s only gate and all its exposed terraces and rooftops.

The castle gates were tightly shut.

Zhi Ning and the other three, along with several thousand remaining troops, were all inside the castle, engaged in their last stand.

Yan Yan stepped forward, looked at the huge castle, and asked, "Can we break open this turtle shell?"

Suo Lun shook his head and said, "Even the thinnest part of this castle’s walls are nearly two feet thick; currently, there isn’t a weapon that can break it open."

Unless they used a modern world’s cannon, and furthermore, it would have to be large-caliber ammunition.

One Tianlang Pass, one Barbaric Gorge, both passes were fortified with such massive castles. The Suo Family had employed tens of thousands of workers and spent over a decade to build these two fortresses.

Once these two fortresses were completed, the days when the Barbarian Tribes could easily penetrate deep into Tian Shui City to plunder were gone forever.

For two hundred years, these two fortresses had never fallen.

It so happened that Tianlang Pass had fallen for the first time in a hundred years. Of course, it fell into the hands of Suo Lun’s own army.

Suo Lun said, "Moreover, whether it’s Tianlang Pass or the Barbaric Gorge, both were fortresses I, the Suo, built with countless efforts; I do not wish to destroy them with my own hands."

Yan Yan asked, "How much food is there inside the castle?"

Suo Lun replied, "A lot, enough to last a few thousand people for several months. Plus, there are several deep wells underground, so there is no shortage of water."

Yan Yan said, "Your ancestors really thought of everything. But this way, with the Zhi Ning Allied Forces hiding inside this turtle shell castle, it really leaves us without an easy solution."

Tu An asked from the side, "Is it possible to force our way in?"

Yan Yan said, "The castle’s interior doesn’t allow for deployment; if we force our way in, we would instead fall into the enemy’s encirclement."

This indeed was a fight of the cornered beasts.

Zhi Ning’s few thousand troops hid inside the castle without coming out, and Suo Lun couldn’t break in from the outside, so they just had to surround it and wait until the food inside ran out?

Suo Lun’s smile suddenly turned somewhat sinister, and then he said, "Bring the stuff up."

Immediately, Suo’s samurai carefully carried several boxes up.

These items, which he had bought from magicians at great cost, were finally going to be put to use.

...

In the conference room of Tianlang Castle, Zhi Ning, Turing Duo, Nurdan, Gui Qinqu, all had pale faces, and the room was eerily silent.

Defeat had come too quickly.

Just two hours ago, they had been infinitely close to victory, almost defeating the final assault of Yan Yan’s Army.

Had Yan Yan retreated, all their elites would have immediately charged out and wiped out Yan Yan’s forces entirely.

But unexpectedly, Yan Yan led hundreds of middle and high-ranking samurai officers to charge personally, their unstoppable momentum carrying them straight onto the ramparts.

Then, the tide of battle turned instantaneously.

"If Suo Lun hadn’t returned in time, would we have lost?" Zhi Ning asked.

After thinking for a moment, Turing Duo nodded and said, "We would have lost, but it would have taken longer, and we wouldn’t have been defeated so swiftly."

Gui Qinqu said, "After our soldiers repelled the last assault of Yan Yan’s Army, they were exhausted and their will had slackened. When Yan Yan led the officers of the Silver Wolf Legion up to the ramparts, our troops’ morale had already crumbled. When it came to close combat, the fighting power of the Silver Wolf Legion was still far superior to ours."

Whether it was the Black Cloth Army or the Linhai Army, they were already elite enough, but they had not truly been battle-hardened, unlike the mercenaries under the Silver Wolf Legion who were fighting on the edge of a knife almost every day.