Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1403 Siege
At the turn of spring and summer in the northern part of the Great Wall, there is always windy and sandy weather. A few days earlier or later, it is always this time. Whether the northern part of the Great Wall is raging with war or passing through this season peacefully, the weather will never change due to the footsteps of the people.

Therefore, when we wake up in another morning and the light coming through the window is dim, everyone in the northern frontier knows that the windy and sandy season has arrived again.

Fighting in this season is very difficult. It is not so bad in the mountains and forests, but once you go to the wilderness, the visibility will be so low that only shadows can be seen ten feet away, and people and animals cannot be distinguished twenty feet away. This is still good weather during the windy and sandy season. If a sandstorm comes, you can't see anything even if it is right in front of you.

The northern frontier army has always liked to attack at this time. Firstly, the turn of spring and summer is a good time to send troops. Secondly, the people in the northern frontier do not have much agricultural production and do not need to consider the issues of spring planting and summer harvest. They take this opportunity to catch Wei off guard, and if they are lucky, they can even grab a wave of summer harvest food and take it back.

Today, the Wei army has long been accustomed to the weather changes in the northern border, and no scattered northern border troops dare to come and rob.

But now the enemy is at the gates.

With Lu Ning's permission, Lou Lingzhu had brought all the old and young people who were unable to fight from some of her acquaintances' homes to the courtyard for protection. She traveled all over the country to record all kinds of strange stories, and she knew a little about the weather in the northern part of the Great Wall. However, it was a bit ominous that the sandstorm had arrived at this moment.

Unfortunately, she has no fighting ability. Although she has a lot of small protective props, they cannot be used on the battlefield.

Opening the Yin Shuai map that Lu Ning gave her, Lou Lingzhu began to do things within her ability, such as writing "Fengdu Chapter". She knew that this was not something she could accomplish alone, so she also called Jinbao, Yinbao and other smart children to come over and teach them while writing books.

The forests in the northern part of the Great Wall were not very good at preventing sand from spreading. Even though the ice formation around Lu Ning could filter out some of the sand so that she wouldn't have to swallow a mouthful of sand, it was still not very comfortable to breathe. On the contrary, except for Xuan Yangzi and his group, the others had all lived in the northern part of the Great Wall for several years and had long since adapted to the climate.

This was already the last day before the beginning of summer, and the demon's offensive gradually weakened. After all, it was just a test, and by this time, the test was probably over. Lu Ning knew that both sides must have some tricks that they hadn't used yet, and maybe even more than just some.

Master Qin only had the Ten Absolute Formations? The demons only had these small harassment troops? She had seen the battles in Fengdu. Although Saibei did not have that much time to accumulate, it had a demon star who was better at organizing the army in a human way.

"General..."

Xuan Yangzi and the other five flag officers gathered as usual. They shared some of the command responsibilities, and the scope of their responsibilities was more comprehensive. After each battle, Lu Ning would explain some of the problems they encountered during the battle. After all, it would take a lot of time for them to comprehend the ice formation.

"Today it's actually a human."

However, what we want to discuss this time is not a command issue, because the opponent this time is too weak. It is not difficult for them to kill this scout team. Wearing the same clothes, this team is actually composed entirely of humans.

There were actually some people in the Saibei army who had not all turned into minions, which made Lu Ning feel a little strange. It was not that she felt it was strange that the demon star spared these people's lives, but that these people could have achieved the state of immortality of the new law by turning into minions and then returning to the law, but they still went to the battlefield to die.

If it was a sacrifice, there was no need to run to the side of Gou Chen. After all, there were three decisive formations here, and three sacrifices were fighting for resources. Even if there were new sacrifices, it would be difficult to fight for them.

Xuan Yangzi and others have obviously noticed this problem, and it should not be ignored.

"It is very unusual for demons to use humans as sacrifices," Lu Ning said.

Using prisoners and human shields is a despicable act that only humans would do. Demons would fight for their lives and run away when they were at a disadvantage, but they basically didn't have the brains to play some conspiracies and tricks... That was in the past.

After getting rid of the anomaly Huang Kui, Lu Ning didn't know whether this experience was still useful, but she intuitively felt that the demons would still not do things that they didn't understand, and that this behavior had other purposes.

Since she had this idea, Lu Ning planned to talk about it at the officers' meeting tonight, so as to avoid any unknown information delaying the entire battle. At least as the person who had the greatest achievements in the past few days, no one would ignore her ideas.

However, she didn't know that the demon king she killed came to this battlefield again after many twists and turns.

Yu Lei sat in front of the central army tent, with the ancient door opening behind him. Han Zhang walked out of the door with resentment and a brand new body, but no one greeted him. It's not that weapons do not accept losers, but he was killed in one encounter, and by an unknown commander at that. This was enough for those guys to laugh at him for a long time.

"The door won't stay open forever." Yu Lei, who was sitting in front of the door, suddenly spoke up. "The fifteenth day is the deadline I promised Huang Kui. After that, if you accidentally die on the battlefield again, you can run over here from the ice lake."

"Yes... yes." Han Zhang didn't dare to speak casually in front of this person. He bowed quickly and then hurried to the camp.

"...mediocre, the only way he could become the demon king was by learning from others instead of understanding on his own." Yu Lei muttered in a low voice.

"But Li Ji still has three disciples who have walked out of their own paths."

The demon king, dressed in gorgeous clothes, came over, smiled, and threw a white bead to Yu Lei. Yu Lei reached out and grabbed it, put it into his mouth and swallowed it.

"Jingchun, have you made any progress in your dream writing?"

"No, it's just that the old-time ghosts have been stirring more and more frequently in recent days. I don't even have to deal with them everywhere. I can collect a large number of them."

Yu Lei was also a little surprised when he heard this: "So soon? I thought it would take at least a year."

“One year isn’t that slow.”

"You and Ba are distracted to deal with those things, so you won't participate in the battlefield?"

"It's difficult. Let Shuhua, Tianyi and other demon kings go. Although they are not as good as Li Ji, at least one of them is useful. The rest can barely serve as pawns."

"Kong Xuan... I have never really liked your style, but thank you for what you have done for the demon race."

"I want to leave my reputation behind, unlike you who are indifferent to fame and fortune. But... continue to open the door, Yu Lei, our Master Yaoxing still needs your strong support. After all, in order to seek the perfect regular cycle, he is no longer here."

"That's what he considered his most important duty. We all agreed."

"Ah, you're right. But as always, no matter what his ending is, I should start looking for the next person to teach. Goodbye, Yu Lei... I'm afraid it's hard for perfect laws to be born in this world." "Really..."

The demon kings passed each other and stopped talking.

The subordinates mentioned by the Demon King have already begun to assemble.

At this time, Juque had already gathered in the tent outside Gou Chen with the army that had officially assembled here, and the people who set up this camp were the "craftsmen" in the support position and the logistics troops they led.

If anyone saw the army in this camp, he would probably be very shocked, because although this camp was arranged according to human habits, it has been completely replanned according to the habits of demons, and the definition of each type of soldiers is different here.

Juque found the leader of the "craftsmen" here, Rivet.

The demon had not yet shed its powerful body and turned into a human form. A large number of metal chains were wrapped around its brown, scorched skin, binding a blazing forge behind its body. The only eye on its rivet head was gleaming with a flame-like luster. Its four legs were propped up on the ground, and its hands were opening a blueprint.

"Juque... A demon king like you, there is no need to come to me at this time..."

"Attack plan." Juque stated his purpose.

"You already know, right? According to the previous plan, after a round of bombardment, use—"

"Rivet, let's not have this meaningless conversation." Juque stared at the other party and said, "After all, the real commander of the Gou Chen side is not you and me. We are on the same level, so it is normal for you to hide something. But it is wrong to fool me."

Rivet was silent for a moment, then rolled up the drawing and put it aside.

"Juque, what are you worried about?"

"I'm worried about some conspiracy. Every time I learn about people, I can feel the darkness and evil of this group's thoughts. When we learn about them, have we also learned these things?"

"I can't give you an answer to this. You should ask your teacher, Li Ji." Rivet laughed, "Juque, if learning from humans only makes you more and more cautious, then it would be better for you to be a demon."

"Really? So back to the question just now, what exactly do you need to do? Rivet, the team we sent out last was just a group of people. I don't doubt their loyalty, but I don't understand the significance of this approach."

"Then you are probably worrying too much. The death of those people is probably just a prerequisite for Fei Lian to activate his ability. You know that the abilities of these named demon kings are mysterious, and even we don't know the full strength of the teachers."

"Aren't you worried?"

"I'm not yet a man, Juque." Rivet Monster laughed. "Just follow my orders."

As a demon who had gone through this stage, Juque knew that no matter how much he asked, he would not be able to get more information from Rivet.

"Worry" is an emotion that demons basically don't have. Just like Rivet now, he only needs to obey orders and act according to his nature. No matter how much he learns, no matter how powerful he is, he can't understand Juque.

He wanted to ask his teacher for advice, but Li Ji was not there. She had no interest in siege warfare.

=
Siege warfare is a difficult problem for the army of this era. If Saibei could rely on the secret help of demons to capture a few ordinary cities before, then the three cities standing in Lingzhou now are absolutely specialized defensive cities against demons.

Even without mentioning the city protected by the absolute formation, the thickness of the city wall alone was such that even the demon king would not be able to break through it easily. The stones of the outer city wall were more than 20 meters thick. Not to mention standing people on the wall, even chariots could be pushed up. And this was only the outer city wall. Gou Chen built a city wall, which was even more heavily defended than the outer city wall. At least from what Lu Ning knew, anyone who dared to break into the city wall without reason would be immediately wiped out by the wind roar formation. Even the demon king would be beaten to a pulp.

The weapons and equipment in the city are also very sufficient. For Lu Ning, who mastered the ice array, the rations are still small. As long as the regular army leaves the city, they will bring all kinds of weapons to hunt monsters until they can't carry them anymore. After all, they have been fighting monsters for so long here, and they have obtained a lot of materials. The "cursed blood" crossbows that the monster-suppressing officials once equipped can almost be used as regular crossbows here. In addition, there are also sufficient stocks of leather armor, monster weapons, and spell fire bombs. With these things, as long as the ordinary army is well-trained, they can also have the strength to fight against the ordinary monster army.

The attack by the demon king in the mountains and forests before was really a bit beyond the norm. However, after the first day, the fighting between the two sides became much more cautious, and there were no large-scale casualties. The frequency of the activation of the flame array also decreased a lot.

And today is the beginning of summer.

Dust and dark clouds covered the sky, casting shadows on the earth. In the dark distance, black appeared. Across the mountains covered by the maze, the demon army began to appear. Although it was just a shadow whose outline could not be distinguished, the pressure of advancing neatly across the horizon still gave the defenders of Gou Chen City.

"Are they crazy?"

Lu Ning, Qin Shu, and another Wind Howl Formation Commander were on the city wall. Looking at the approaching enemy, Qin Shu murmured, "At this distance, even if the power is a little weaker, it is enough for the Fiery Flame Formation to explode."

As mentioned before, the plain formation marching method had long been abandoned in formal combat, but now the demon army has actually used this antique formation again, which must be something wrong with their brains.

"Be alert." Lu Ning narrowed his eyes, and with the vision granted by the Drowned Shadow Demon Eyes, he looked at the dark army in the distance as best as he could.

Then, she saw it—neatly arranged, spaced, and sparse demonic auras.

It's like a chessboard that should be densely packed with chess pieces, but there's actually a distance of five points between each piece.

What is a shadow without evil spirit?
The moment Lu Ning reacted, she felt the ground shaking slightly. In the distance, where she could just barely see it, the "army" stopped. Then, a black mass broke away from the army and flew towards Gou Chen in a parabola.

In ancient times, there was no such thing as a wall of arrows that could be fired in unison at a command, after all, the strength of the archers and the materials of the bows varied greatly. But - what about cannons?
Stone cannons, in this era when more powerful explosives technology had not yet appeared, were mass-produced by the craftsmen of the demon army with the precision brought by their talents and the large number of laborers of the minions. And using the huge power of the demons to drag them, they could completely avoid the disadvantage of the cannon body being clumsy and difficult to transport.

The rain curtain formed by each huge rock weighing thousands of kilograms announced the start of the siege on Gou Chen.