When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 794: Trenches and Fences under Xialu City
What does it feel like to stab someone to death?
When the tip of the spear passed through the gap in the armor, the first thing that came to his hand was a soft but firm resistance.

As the short spear continued to push in, the resistance became greater and greater, until at a certain moment, the force on the spear shaft suddenly decreased.

You will feel an inexplicable warm sensation on your face and body, and a smell of rust and oil will come from your nose.

That is a feeling that is hard to experience when piercing the wooden man on the parade ground.

If the soldier is an experienced soldier, he should withdraw his hand quickly at this time to prevent the spear from being inserted too deeply and unable to be pulled out.

Just like Kaler is now.

He did not frantically pull it back with force like the newly recruited militiamen.

Instead, he held one end of the short spear and shook it lightly. Without pulling the spear back greatly, the Leia soldier on the opposite side fell backwards.

The soldier's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, as if he was cursing something, but he couldn't hear it.

During this period, he lost count of how many people he stabbed to death or injured, until his clumsy stabbing became as smooth as flowing water.

The heavy body stirred up a lot of snow and water, and the bright red blood was so dazzling among the blackened snow piles at the edges.

Under the eight-sided pointed helmet, a desperate and hideous face seemed to be crying.

Before his tears could flow, a crossbow arrow as long as his forearm fell from the sky and nailed his head heavily to the ground.

At this moment, all the noisy sounds returned to Kaler's world.

There were howlings, footsteps, bombardment, gasps, and the clanging of chain mail, making a crisp sound.

"The east is coming again, hurry up and fill the position!"

"Help me, someone help me!"

"Kaler, there's a gap over there, the militia has been slaughtered."

After assisting a kill, Kaler didn't even have time to rest before running to the other side.

With three or four soldiers from his own unit following behind him, Kaler made his way through the fighting crowd.

Nearly a hundred soldiers stood on both sides of the fence, sabers and daggers clashed, and dozens of spears stabbed each other through the bars of the fence.

Every time he looked up, he saw a soldier fall down and then be dragged away by friendly forces.

The sound of bowstrings snapping and arrows flying through the air could be heard above and in front of one's head, and there were always people wailing while covering their wounds.

The fireball crossbow that was eliminated by Horn appeared on the outer wall of Xialu City. From time to time, more than a dozen poison smoke bombs fell into the trenches.

In less than half a minute, you could see the purple-faced Leia soldiers voluntarily climbing out of the trenches, exposing themselves to arrows and lead bullets.

"The militia has collapsed! The Leia people have turned over! Kaler!" Holding the Leia people's spear shaft in one hand and stabbing the short spear with the other hand, old Lav also shouted a warning to Kaler.

Old Laffer's roar seemed to ring in Kaler's ears.

"I'm chasing, I'm hurrying! I...your mother!" After throwing away the short spear that was in the way, Kaler, who usually didn't like to speak loudly, became as rough as old Laffer.

By the time he rushed to the gap, three or five Leia soldiers were jumping over the wall.

Kaler kicked the Leia soldier who was not standing steadily in the back, and then stabbed him in the back of the neck with his saber.

A strong wind blew from behind him, and Kaler immediately turned his head to avoid it, and the leaf hammer slid past his boat-shaped helmet.

Turning around, Kaler, who had been trained by his father since childhood, slipped directly into the arms of the Naleiya soldier.

The iron helmet hit the chest of the Leia soldier, and the two men fell down in each other's arms.

"Die, die!"

The soldier with the sledgehammer growled and bit Kaler's arm.

Kaler endured the pain, pulled out the dagger from his waist, and stabbed it into the Leia's neck.

In less than two seconds, he felt the teeth biting his arm leave the skin.

One of his subordinates grabbed his hand and pulled him up.

Only then did Kaler realize that the other two Leia soldiers were quickly killed by the Thousand Valley soldiers armed with spears because they did not carry long weapons.

It's a bit too humorous to fight two against four and still want to defeat them alone.

Seeing this, the other Leia soldiers who were originally rushing towards this side had to return to their original positions.

With his hands on his knees, Kaler felt like his lungs were burning in a furnace.

Every breath of icy air that the throat took was like swallowing a cold dagger into the stomach, fanning the dying fire.

While using breathing techniques to restore his strength, Kaler raised his head and looked at the entire battle line.

Through the fences and spiked wooden stakes in front of me, the earthen walls made of rattan baskets about 20 to 30 meters away blocked my view like a dam.

Behind the earth wall are trenches that meander like snakes and spread out like a spider web.

The twenty or thirty meters of flat ground between the trenches and the fences was the bloodiest killing field.

Groups of Leia soldiers, dressed in colorful robes, crossed the trenches.

They wore eight-sided or disc-shaped helmets on their heads, brandished short spears and long swords, and charged towards the fence and breastwork in front of Kaler and others.

Without instruction, they learned to divide themselves into small teams and charge in dispersed groups to avoid the rows of flying lead bullets and crossbow arrows from the city walls.

But in the face of the rain of arrows and the rows of gunners firing their guns, they continued to fall down wailing.

Only small groups of soldiers could rush to the fence or breastwork and stab inside with short spears or short swords.

This attack lasted for ten days, from January 1th to the present.

They had indeed been attacked by Leia's soldiers before, but most of the time only small groups of knights were able to maintain their morale under artillery bombardment, holy winds, and feather arrows.

The soldiers wanted to survive, but the knights would not charge, so the knights would go on strike. Then there would be a truce of at least three to five days, and then the process would repeat.

Attack for one day, rest for three to five days.

Currently, what are rushing through the trenches are large numbers of ordinary Leia soldiers, and this happens every day.

By using the trenches, they were able to maintain their morale under the bombardment and advance to at least thirty to fifty meters from the city wall.

This led to the most familiar and traditional small-area hand-to-hand combat for the Leia people.

The Leia people's advantage in military strength gradually became apparent. If it weren't for the lead bullets and clockwork cannons, the breastwork and fence would have changed hands long ago.

“Kale!” The captain shouted his name, “Go to the breastwork. Several holy lancers have run out of holy power and fainted. Hold on with your bow and arrows for a few minutes!”

"Yes!"

…………

The golden-red sun shone on the dazzling snow, and blood and sweat turned the original snow into black slush.

The soldiers on both sides tacitly gathered the bodies of their friendly soldiers within ten meters of the fence/trench, maintaining a ten-meter buffer zone.

As for the wounded in the middle, they either had to try to crawl over or wait to be burned every few days.

The wooden spikes of the iron fence glowed dark red in the sunset light, and seventeen corpses hung on the spikes like rag dolls.

Sitting by the five-meter-wide moat, Kaler washed the dried blood from his face and hands.

Across the wooden bridge, the wounded soldiers' camp was filled with the strong smell of herbs and garlic.

Feeling someone kicking him, Kaler looked up and saw it was old Laffer.

Old Laffer handed a wine jug to Kaler: "Want a sip?"

Kaler picked up the wine bag and took a big gulp of wine with a normal expression.

He was already familiar with the feeling of alcohol.

Sitting next to Kaler, old Laffer also used the cold river water to wash his face and hands until they turned red.

Wiping his face with a handkerchief, Old Laffer said to the water: "Do you feel that it is becoming increasingly difficult to deal with the enemy?"

Kaler said nothing.

"Why? Are you homesick?"

"Kind of."

"Isn't Hotham County your hometown?"

Kaler shook his head and looked around, feeling that this was a strange place.

Houses were bulldozed, farmland was burned, and crows landed on the ground to gnaw on the rotting corpses.

"I miss home, too." Old Laffer raised his head and looked at the starry sky. "I miss my son, Little Laffer. He is three or four years younger than you, but he should call you uncle.

I miss my wife, my cow, my shabby house, my old brother…

But war is always like this, it will never end.

The master told us to kill, so we killed. What else do we want to do?"

"Are we fighting for the master?" Kaler looked at the blood that could not be washed off from between his fingernails.

"What else?" Old Laffer patted Kaler on the shoulder. "You are educated people, so you are so entangled. I can't read a single word, so I don't have so many ideas."

"You really must be literate."

"Learn to read? Why am I, a wild boar wearing glasses, pretending to be a college student? I won't learn." Old Laffer touched his belly with emotion, and only occasionally when he touched the ring hanging around his neck would he see a few traces of tenderness in his rough eyes.

Kaler wanted to say something else, but he heard a few soldiers talking nearby.

"Do you feel it? Our defense is becoming increasingly difficult."

"The inner city hasn't sent any support since the New Year. I heard that hundreds of mountain knights have been infected with the plague."

"These damn Leia people, if you have the guts, just attack openly."

"When will Sheng Sun's reinforcements arrive?"

The brief moment of ease that Laffer Sr. and Kahler had had was wiped out.

Yes, there was a plague in the city, and except for the timely supply of food and weapons, soldiers were no longer allowed to enter or leave.

Until now, they still don't know what the situation is in the inner city.

If a plague really breaks out, don't stay in Xialu City, let alone the area within 20 miles around Xialu City.

Normally, monks who have reached the ordained level are able to preside over large-scale blessings to dispel the plague.

But the problem is that there is no cultivator of this level in the Thousand River Valley so far.

"Kale? Kale?! Where have you been?" Captain Bai walked around in front of Kale and asked, "Are you from Hotam County?"

"Yes."

"Can you ride a horse?"

Kaler stood up immediately: "Yes."

"Come on, I have a mission for you."

(End of this chapter)