The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Wang Er set up his main camp on an open space about one mile outside the south gate of Yijun. When Huo Tu set off, he beat drums there to cheer him on.

Li Chengye, along with Han Sanhu, Yang Chongwang, and others, stood on a mound on the left side of the central army, where they could clearly see the entire process of Huotu's attack.

Hotu's team completely collapsed.

Of the 1,500 people who set out, fewer than 200 were still able to gather together after leaving the city.

A small portion of them fell directly to the arrows and stones thrown from the city walls, while the majority of the rest got stuck in the moat while trying to escape and never climbed out again.

Many who escaped the moat scattered in a panic, and no matter how Zhong Huaidao, who was in charge of the rear, tried to gather them together, he couldn't manage to reunite these terrified people.

A buzz of discussion arose in the army, and panic and unrest spread like a tide.

Yang Chongwang and his companions were also shocked and stunned on the spot.

Han Sanhu gripped the knife handle tightly, his knuckles turning white.

Li Chengye's heart was also churning with emotions, but he knew he was the leader and couldn't panic. He remained calm on the surface, though his lips unconsciously tightened.

After a long silence, Yang Chongwang spoke:

"Why are there so many arrows on this city wall?"

"Indeed, in theory, a small county government office with a patrol inspector would be considered quite capable if it had ten or so bows, but I see at least thirty bows on this part of the city wall alone."

"Are there government reinforcements?"

During the discussion, Han Sanhu raised a question.

"It doesn't seem like it," Yang Chongwang retorted. "Those archers were clearly novices, just learning how to draw a bow. When they shot, half of their bodies were sticking out of the barricade. No archer who has ever served in the army would do that."

"So, it's just that there are more bows and arrows in the city?"

"I don't know about that."

At this moment, Hotu, with his head hanging low, led the remaining hundred or so people past. Everyone was dejected, and some were even crying because their relatives had died under the city walls.

Li Chengye stepped down from the mound and went to meet him.

"Brother Huo, what's the situation with Yijun City? Could you please enlighten me?"

Li Chengye's tone was sincere.

Huo Tu looked ashen-faced and his eyes were vacant. He seemed to regain some of his senses when he heard Li Chengye's words.

"The gate is blocked from the inside, and the ladders won't stand up; this city can't be taken..."

His voice trembled with emotion as he finished speaking. He then waved his hand, signaling Li Chengye not to ask any more questions, and led his men back to the main camp.

Li Chengye wanted to ask something more, but suddenly he heard the sound of galloping hooves.

A messenger, dressed in the uniform of an old camp officer, galloped from the center of the army and shouted as he pulled on the reins:

"Hotu! The chieftain has ordered: Defeated generals are not to enter the main camp and disrupt our morale! Take your men to the rear camp to assemble and wait. No one may move without orders; disobeying will result in execution!"

Huo Tu was taken aback, but said nothing. He simply led his men toward the rear camp.

Then the thunderous drumbeats began again.

The Black Scorpions have begun their siege.

Wei Mingdao looked at the goose-feather knife in his hand with some heartache; there were several nicks of varying depths on the tip of the blade.

This happened when someone used too much force to cut the ladder head while defending the city, and the knife hit the city wall instead.

This knife was forged by his father at the Lianfeng Crafts Company in the city when he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar.

The weapons forged by Lianfeng were both fast and easy to use, and were famous for miles around. Even officers and soldiers as far away as Suide Town asked people to order them.

His father originally wanted to forge a sword for Wei Mingdao, but Wei Mingdao rolled his eyes.

He said it was already the Tianqi era, not the Hongwu era when the country was founded. Who would carry a sword when going out?

I'd better make a knife. If I don't pass the imperial examination, I might be able to use it if I join the army.

His father scolded him for being a jinx, but still forged this goose-feather sword for him, using snowflake iron that had been refined a hundred times—truly excellent material.

When drawn from its sheath, the blade was as clear as a mirror, like a pool of autumn water.

Perhaps Wei Mingdao's jinx came true, because he failed the provincial examinations four times in the future.

His father was also worried, but he didn't know what to do.

I was just thinking about making more money, so I looked for ways to do it.

In the spring of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, just after the cold had passed, Wei Mingdao's father led his men to Jingyang, intending to produce more tea bricks and make a good profit this year.

It was precisely because Wei Mingdao's father was no longer around that he dared to make the decision to demolish his family's old house to repair the city wall.

Muttering to himself, "Generals are destined to die on the battlefield, and earthenware pots are destined to break at the well," Wei Mingdao propped himself up from the city wall he was leaning against and sheathed his sword.

At this moment, the four or five hundred people on the south gate of Yijun City were resting against the wall in a crooked and twisted manner, just like Wei Mingdao had been earlier.

Wei Mingdao stood up and searched around for a while before finally finding his mentor, Zhou Dezhao, inside the city gate tower.

Zhou Dezhao had some vomit on his left side, which must have been from not long ago.

The hellish scene in the moat outside the city was something no one could remain calm about.

"Master, I saw that apart from a few strong men who accidentally fell on themselves while moving stones, there were no other casualties on the city wall."

"That's good, that's good."

Zhou Dezhao murmured in response to Wei Mingdao's report.

"There's just one problem: we're running low on arrows from the south wall. How about we transfer some arrows from the east and west walls?"

"Isn't it in the armory?"

"Master, the military depot in Yijun City is only a transit depot for goods from Guanzhong to Guyuan Town. What can be kept are mostly old and worn-out weapons. Consumables such as arrows are basically urgently needed items and are generally not kept."

"The arrows we're using now were left behind because they were poorly made and were rejected by the Guyuan garrison. Even so, there aren't many of them."

"Then let's ship some over."

"Yes, my dear teacher."

Just as Wei Mingdao was leading his men to move half of the arrows from the east and west walls to the south gate, he heard the sound of drums again.

The drums thundered, just like last time.

Black Scorpion sat astride a scrambled horse, the scar on his left cheek resembling a centipede, twitching with every grin.

"Did you all see how Hotu's men died?" His voice was hoarse, like sand grinding together. "They were huddled together, just meat cushions for arrows, for rolling logs and boulders!"

His hundred or so long-time thugs laughed, their eyes gleaming with a wolf-like ferocity.

These men were completely different from the gang of fellow villagers under Hotu. Although they also looked malnourished, they had large frames and carried knives and guns instead of kitchen knives or hoes. Some of them even wore tattered leather armor that they had somehow acquired.

He cracked his whip in the air, pointing at the group of trembling refugees: "You are the ditch-filling team!" He then pointed to his old comrades, "We are the city-climbing team, and also the supervisors."

"The rules for the ditch-filling team are simple: spread out, rush towards the south gate moat, throw bundles of firewood, drop sandbags, set up ladders, and fill the ditch to create a few roads! Even if arrows and rolling logs come, you have to hold your ground. Anyone who dares to turn back, I'll kill them!"

He certainly had more discipline than Hotu.

As soon as the drums sounded, the first group of over eight hundred men rushed toward the south gate with shouts. The ladders were carried sparsely, and the men scattered as they ran. Arrows rained down from the city walls, but it was no longer possible to create the devastating scene of a rain of arrows that Huotu had during his siege.

Before setting off, Black Scorpion had already done the screening. He abandoned those who were too weak to run and only took these eight hundred or so relatively strong starving people with him.

The defenders' attention was drawn to the first team, while the second team, personally led by Black Scorpion, quietly approached the east wall.

This section of the city wall was built along the mountainside, with a gentle slope on the outside, and the crenellations have been reduced by half a foot due to years of disrepair.

Black Scorpion also came to scout out the situation last night and chose this spot as the breakthrough point.

Before becoming a bandit, he worked as a stonemason and had a very sharp eye.

"Take the hook!" he hissed.

A dozen or so ruthless bandits untied ropes with iron hooks from behind their waists and swung them around their heads with a whooshing sound.

This was a skill they honed by robbing wealthy people and scaling walls.

"Crack! Crack!" With a few sounds, the iron hook bit into the wall.

These people used both their hands and feet to climb upwards like monkeys, which was several times faster than carrying a ladder.

Panic immediately erupted on the city wall.

"East wall! Thieves are breaching the city wall on the east side!"

Amidst the exclamations, the archers and able-bodied men who had been gathered at the south gate rushed over hastily.

Stones were thrown down, but the bandits nimbly dodged them by kicking off the wall, causing only a dull thud as they hit the city wall.

One of the bandits even reached out mid-air and stabbed the wrist of a defender who was leaning out to push a stone from behind the crenellation with a short knife. Amidst the screams, a stone slipped from his grasp and fell, hitting another bandit who was climbing out of the moat below the city.

Black Scorpion's feint attack, though simple, did cause the defending troops considerable trouble.

When Wei Mingdao led his men to the east wall, three or four bandits had already climbed over the crenellations and were wielding their knives in a chaotic battle with the city's guards.

A yamen runner was chopped down, and blood splattered on half of Wei Mingdao's body.

He gritted his teeth and charged forward, his goose-feather saber blocking a slash, his tiger's mouth trembling from the impact.

These bandits were far stronger than the starving civilians who had participated in the first attack.

"Fire! Use kerosene!" Zhou Dezhao roared the order from afar.

Several cans of vegetable oil mixed with pine resin were lit and thrown down, instantly igniting a burst of flames at the base of the city wall.

Two bandits who were halfway up the mountain fell with screams of agony.

The oil ignited, sending up thick smoke that choked the defenders on the city walls, causing them to cough repeatedly and slowing their offensive.

The black scorpion grinned maliciously, about to take advantage of the chaos to attack again.

"boom!"

A loud, muffled thunderclap came from the direction of the city gate tower.

Everyone looked on in astonishment, only to see that the old cannon from the Hongwu era on the South Gate tower, which had never been used before, was spewing out a large cloud of gunpowder smoke!

Although no one was hit, the first team that launched the feint attack from below the city was so terrified that they retreated in a panic.

Zhou Dezhao seized this opportunity to catch his breath and led a group of men from the south wall to the east wall.

Bricks, boiling water, and arrows poured down like a waterfall, while strong men wielded long spears and thrust them downwards from the crenellations.

No matter how fierce Black Scorpion's men are, they are still flesh and blood.

The seven or eight bandits who climbed onto the city wall were surrounded and killed one after another. Their hooks were cut, and the bundles of firewood used to fill the moat were set ablaze by the torches thrown down by the defenders.

"Brother, we can't hold on any longer! More than thirty of our brothers have fallen!"

A leader, his face covered in soot, staggered over.

Black Scorpion stared at the low rampart on the city wall, his eyes twitching.

He knew the opportunity had been lost.

Once the defenders recovered, emboldened by the old cannon, they knew that if they continued to stalemate, they would lose all their remaining resources.

"withdraw!"

Although he was extremely unwilling, he still managed to squeeze out the word through gritted teeth.

But just then, a deafening commotion suddenly erupted from the north wall of Yijun City.

A yamen runner stumbled up to Zhou Dezhao:

"Your Honor, thieves are climbing up the north wall too!"

(The cannon from the tenth year of the Hongwu reign (1380) had an inner diameter of 21 cm, a length of 100 cm, and an estimated weight of around 440 kg.)