Great Ming Dynasty! I am Zhu Biao's invincible second brother!

Zhu Mu flicked his wrist, drawing his spear and instantly flinging away the drop of blood at its tip.

Without even glancing at the corpses, he thrust his spear forward like a dragon, charging directly into the fray of the enemy soldiers who were about to reach the top of the city wall.

Sweep through the enemy ranks!

Combining the power of Zhou Cang's model with the exquisite spear techniques personally taught by Xu Da, Zhu Mu wielded his spear with wide, sweeping movements, creating a massive vortex of death.

The gun barrel swept out with tremendous force, snapping three enemy soldiers in half at the waist. The cracking sound of bones breaking was clearly audible!

A surprise attack!

He flicked his wrist, and the butt of his gun struck a soldier who was attacking from the side precisely in the chest. The immense force shattered the soldier's heart meridian.

In the blink of an eye, he single-handedly killed seven or eight enemy soldiers who had rushed up this section of the city wall!

"The Second Young Master is mighty!"

"Kill! Follow the Second Young Master and kill!"

The soldiers guarding the city nearby witnessed this incredible scene, and their morale soared, their blood boiling with excitement.

They roared, brandishing their swords and spears, and fearlessly charged at every enemy who tried to climb the city wall.

Zhu Mu was not indulging in personal slaughter. While clearing away the enemies rushing up the city wall with his spear, he calmly surveyed the entire battle line.

When he saw that a section of the city wall in the distance was under immense pressure and that the enemy was about to break through, he immediately planted his spear in the ground and picked up the large bow on his back.

Draw the bow, nock the arrow, and release the string like a full moon!

"Buzz!"

The bowstring twanged, and a wolf-tooth arrow flew out like a meteor, covering a distance of dozens of feet, and accurately pierced the eye socket of an enemy centurion who was climbing!

He kept drawing his bow, firing arrows in rapid succession, each one aimed at a minor commander or an exceptionally brave soldier in the enemy army.

Thanks to his precise strike, the section of the city wall that was on the verge of collapse miraculously stabilized.

After repelling wave after wave of attacks, Zhu Mu's soft armor was soaked in blood, making it impossible to tell whether it was the enemy's or his own.

He leaned on his spear, his chest heaving violently, but his eyes grew ever brighter.

His soldiers, all wounded, did not flinch.

With their own flesh and blood, they built an insurmountable Great Wall of Steel on the walls of Hongdu!

……

The baptism of blood and fire, day after day.

Hongdu City, once a prosperous pearl on the Gan River, has now been transformed into a giant grinding mill of flesh and blood.

The city walls were blackened by smoke, and the cracks between the bricks were soaked with congealed blood plasma. The air was always filled with a nauseating smell of blood and acrid burning.

Day 28.

There are only three days left until the one-month deadline for the first phase of the mission.

Chen Youliang's offensive not only did not weaken, but became even more frantic.

He seemed to have gambled all his anger and pride on this small city of Hongdu, driving his soldiers to charge the city walls wave after wave without regard for casualties.

On the city wall, Zhu Mu leaned on his long spear, which had been replaced several times, and breathed heavily with exhaustion.

His face and body were covered with wounds of all sizes, and blood seeped from the gaps in his armor, mixing with the mud and dust to form hard scabs.

After days of intense combat, even with the robust physique bestowed upon him by the Zhou Cang template, he felt waves of exhaustion that penetrated to his very bones.

However, what worried him more than his physical exhaustion was the increasingly dire situation in the city.

The battle was not just about fighting on the city walls.

As evening fell and the day's bloody battle came to a temporary end, Zhu Wenzheng dragged his heavy steps to find Zhu Mu.

His face was darker than the bottom of a pot, and he reported to his superior in a hoarse voice:

"My lord, the arrows in the city... will only last for three days. The rolling stones and logs have also been used up to almost nothing. The brothers are working through the night to demolish some abandoned houses in the city, but it's just a drop in the ocean."

Zhu Mu's heart sank.

He followed Zhu Wenzheng down the city wall and arrived at the wounded soldiers' camp temporarily set up in the government office.

As soon as you get close, a strong smell of blood and herbs hits you, mixed with the painful groans of the wounded soldiers.

The makeshift barracks were packed with wounded soldiers.

Many soldiers were missing limbs and lay on dirty straw mats, their wounds simply bandaged with strips of cloth. Many of them had already begun to fester and smell, and they had persistent high fevers.

There is a severe shortage of doctors in the city, and medicines are in extremely short supply.

When an old soldier saw Zhu Mu, he struggled to get up and salute, but the movement aggravated his chest wound, causing him to cough violently.

Zhu Mu quickly stepped forward and pressed him down. Looking at his infected, festering wound, a deep sense of helplessness welled up in his heart.

He could lead from the front, using spears and bows to kill enemies ten times his size, and his very existence could ignite the morale of the entire city's soldiers and civilians.

However, he was helpless in the face of these logistical and medical problems.

These are all areas where his knowledge is lacking.

He had studied history and knew that Hongdu had been defended.

However, he did not know how Zhu Wenzheng in history solved these problems. Moreover, Zhu Wenzheng in history may have had capable people under his command, but at this moment in Hongdu City, most of the remaining officers and soldiers were ordinary officers and soldiers, and no one could take on the responsibility of logistics coordination.

They could only rely on the most primitive methods—

I persevered through sheer willpower.

When the soldiers were hungry, they would eat dry, hard military rations.

When they ran out of arrows, they risked their lives to retrieve them from under the city wall.

If you get injured, just use some folk remedies to treat it casually, relying entirely on your own body to tough it out.

However, willpower is ultimately limited.

When hunger, pain, and despair gnaw at the soldiers' bodies and spirits like maggots, even the highest morale will be worn down.

Zhu Mu could already sense that the taut string in the army was about to snap.

If this continues, Hongdu will collapse from within before Chen Youliang even breaches the city walls.

Zhu Mu returned to his temporary residence and felt immense pressure for the first time.

He looked at the task that was about to be completed on the system panel, feeling anxious and uneasy.

"What should I do? What should I do?"

He didn't sleep all night, constantly thinking of a solution, but he couldn't find a clue.

Time, amidst the agonizing passage of time, has reached the thirtieth day.

On this day, Chen Youliang's offensive reached its peak.

As if to prove that his boast of "conquering the city in ten days" had come to nothing, he still wanted to save face on the last day of the month.

Zhu Mu once again donned his armor and went into battle, temporarily putting aside all his worries and anxieties, and focusing all his attention on the bloody battle before him.

He was like a tireless war god, his spear flashing like a dragon and his arrows like shooting stars, firmly securing the north gate section he was guarding.

From dawn till dusk, as the last rays of the setting sun fell upon the city walls, Chen Youliang's army finally sounded the retreat, leaving behind yet another thick layer of corpses.

On the city wall, the surviving defenders could no longer hold on, and many collapsed to the ground, too weak to even move a finger.

Zhu Mu leaned on his spear, watching the retreating enemy troops outside the city, his chest heaving violently like a broken bellows.

He won; they held on for another day.

Just then, the long-awaited, heavenly voice echoed in his mind.

【Ding! 】

[Template Task: Defend Hongdu City for one month (1/3), Completed!]

[Task Reward: One random character template draw.]

[Template extraction in progress... Extraction complete!]

A golden light shone in Zhu Mu's consciousness, and a brand new template slowly emerged.