With the rise of my family, I can summon the Daoist Soldiers' Nest.

A day later, the Wang family army arrived in Yun County in a grand procession.

The garrison troops in various towns of Yun County had already received the news and kept their gates tightly closed. The city walls were covered with arrows, but not a single arrow was fired.

The Wang family army was disciplined and did not harm any of the cities along the way. They bypassed Yun County, where the army had already assembled, and continued their march towards Xiang County.

On the city wall, Chen Cheng stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the approaching army in the distance.

His gaze swept over the twenty-odd second-rate Dao soldiers and mountain-splitting bulls in the front row. These giant beasts had thick hides and flesh, and when they charged, the earth shook. Just their collision alone would be enough to tear a gap in the city wall of the new Xiang County town.

Moreover, each bull is followed by a second-rate martial artist who has a contract with it, numbering at least a dozen.

"It seems this hurdle with the Lin family will be difficult to overcome," Chen Cheng thought to himself.

The combination of the Mountain-Splitting Rhinoceros and the attacks of second-rate martial artists was an almost overwhelming force in breaching the city.

His only hope was that the Lin family could detect the danger in advance and move away as soon as possible. After all, even if Xiang County was lost, there was still Qinghe County. As long as people were still alive, there was still hope.

Half a day after the Wang family army left, Chen Cheng finally gave the order to personally lead two thousand elite troops to rush to Xiang County as reinforcements.

Almost simultaneously, the armies of the Wei, Su, and Gao families also began to move.

Unlike the Chen family, which only sent reinforcements to Xiang County, these three families all adopted a two-pronged strategy: one group headed to Xiang County, while the other went straight to Qing County, the core territory of the Wang family.

After a day and a half of waiting, the communications soldiers from the three families have successively brought back conclusive information: the Qingyuan Sword Sect has reported to the imperial court that the Wang family is an inside agent.

That's why the three sides dared to divide their forces. The one sent to Xiang County adopted a posture of providing relief.

After all, even if Xiang County falls, the Lin family still has Qinghe County as its base, so they won't be wiped out overnight. Rescue efforts can not only maintain relations with the Lin family, but also ensure a share of morality and benefits after the war.

The other route, heading straight for Qing County, was to both express their stance to the imperial court and simultaneously annihilate the Wang family.

Secondly, they could seize this opportunity to take advantage of the situation. The three counties that the Wang family had managed for a century possessed resources and population that were enough to tempt any lord.

Half a day later, outside the new county town of Xiang County, dust filled the sky.

Lin Yi stood on the city wall, his gaze fixed on the approaching Wang family army, especially the twenty-odd mountain-splitting bulls in the front row.

These second-rate soldiers were enormous, with thick leather armor, and every step they took made the ground tremble.

He knew in his heart that the city gates could not be defended.

The Lin family has now assembled four thousand guards, but without high-level martial artists to oversee them, no matter how many troops they have, they are just flesh and blood to fill the gaps when facing the charge of the Mountain-Splitting Rhinoceros.

Therefore, Lin Yi left only 500 men on the city wall, while the rest had already dispersed to the streets and alleys of the county town, preparing to rely on the familiar terrain to engage in street fighting with the Wang family.

Fortunately, some members of the Lin family have already evacuated from Yandang Lake. It's just a pity that they can't take the nest of the rotten soil ants with them. If Xiang County falls, the nest will surely be destroyed.

Lin Yi, along with the clansmen who remained, guarded the city they had built with their own hands, already prepared to die.

"Soldiers!" Lin Yi raised his voice and shouted from the city wall, "The Wang family has surrendered to the Northern Xiongnu, and the imperial army is on its way. You must stop risking your lives for the Wang family!"

Below the city walls, the Wang family soldiers exchanged bewildered glances. Throughout the march, they had already sensed something amiss.

If the Lin family is truly a puppet of the Northern Xiongnu, why is the Chen family of Yun County, the closest county to Xiang County, holding back their troops? Why are some of the Wang family's officers absent?

In addition, the recent rumors of an "insider in Lulong City" have caused many soldiers to waver.

However, the Wang family has been building up their power and cultivating their troops for a century. How could a few words of encouragement possibly break down their morale?

Especially those second-rate martial artists who had contracted with the Mountain-Splitting Rhinoceros were all loyal to the death; otherwise, they would not have received the Dao soldiers rewarded by the Wang family.

At the command of the Wang family patriarch, these men immediately led the charge, their iron hooves shattering the dust.

As the backbone of the army, the actions of second-rate warriors are orders.

Under his leadership, the Wang family soldiers, with their discipline ingrained in their bones, followed closely behind, surging towards the city gate like a tide.

The ox-like creature at the forefront encountered its first obstacle as it approached the city gate: a deep pit trap dug by the Lin family beforehand outside the gate. The pit was several meters wide and nearly two meters deep, originally intended to hinder the cavalry's charge.

The leading ox didn't have time to retract its hoof; its front leg slipped, and half its body plunged into the pit, its heavy body sending dust flying from the bottom.

It struggled to climb out, but was scratched in the abdomen by the sharp wooden stakes along the edge of the pit. It roared in pain and temporarily lost its ability to charge.

Seeing this, the bull behind did not slow down, but instead leaped up suddenly during its charge, its massive body soaring into the air like a mountain, and actually cleared the deep pit!

Upon landing, its four hooves firmly planted behind the pit, sending pebbles flying, but it didn't stop and continued charging forward.

This is precisely what makes second-rate Taoist soldiers so terrifying; their strength, agility, and endurance far surpass those of ordinary war beasts and cannot be measured by common sense.

Upon seeing this, the Lin family soldiers on the city wall immediately pulled the winch of the mountain-splitting crossbow. Several crossbow bolts as thick as a child's arm shot out of the air with a piercing whistle, heading straight for the herd of rhinoceroses.

Some of the bulls were hit in the shoulder by crossbow bolts from the city wall. Although their leather armor was thick, the piercing spikes of the arrows still embedded themselves deeply in their muscles, and blood gushed out. In pain, their charge veered off course.

Some bulls were shot in the eye by an arrow, screamed and fell to their sides, their limbs twitching, unable to stand up again.

However, the number of the Mountain-Splitting Rhinoceroses was simply too great, and the second-rate Taoist soldiers were extremely resilient. Even though some fell into pits and were wounded by arrows, the remaining nearly twenty still roared and approached the city gate.

Under the command of the contracted warriors, they formed a torrent that rushed straight to the city gate.

The two bulls, side by side, accelerated, their hooves slamming into the ground like drumbeats, kicking up clouds of dust. Without the slightest hesitation, they charged into anything in their path, whether it was a door, iron bars, or reinforced wooden stakes!

"boom--!!!"

The loud noise shook the entire city wall, and the Lin family soldiers on the city wall felt a numbness in their feet and almost lost their footing.

The heavy iron-clad wooden door, under the full force of the Mountain-Splitting Rhinoceros's charge, first made a teeth-grinding sound of wood breaking, then a crisp sound of iron bars snapping, and finally crashed open amidst a pile of wood chips and iron pieces!

The five bulls at the forefront smashed through the door bolt with their foreheads. The immense force caused them to fall down with a mournful cry, but the ones behind them followed closely behind, smashing the already broken door panels away completely, and even pushing the barricades behind the door to their sides.

The dozen or so mountain-splitting bulls behind them did not stop at all, stepping over the broken city gate and rushing into the city as if walking on flat ground.

Their massive bodies pushed aside the guards in the narrow city gate, directly knocking away or even trampling the Lin family soldiers who tried to block them with spears, swords, and shields.

The role of the mountain-splitting bulls was fully demonstrated at this moment; they were the heavy hammers of siege warfare, capable of easily breaking open even the strongest city gates and opening a passage for subsequent infantry.

Their size and strength could instantly break through the city's defensive formation, throwing the defenders into chaos both psychologically and physically.

The city gate of Xiang County has been breached.