Chapter 87: The Battlefield Changes in the Blink of an Eye

After Yang Xi finished arranging all the defenses, he paid no heed to Chen Xuanli and the other generals who had just arrived, ascending the gate tower on his own. Feeling snubbed yet unable to voice any complaint, Chen Xuanli and his officers hesitated for a moment but ultimately followed Yang Xi up to the city wall.

With the great battle imminent and the times extraordinary, they dared not utter a word or commit any act against Yang Xi. If they were to oppose him in any way, Yang Xi, wielding the imperial sword of authority, could execute them publicly without incurring the emperor’s displeasure. Already, Huo Ba Guiren and Bian Lingcheng had been beheaded by Yang Xi; none wished to become the third high-ranking officer to suffer such a fate.

As Chen Xuanli and his men climbed the gate tower after Yang Xi, the rebel forces had already reached the eastern edge of the forbidden moat. Countless bamboo and wooden rafts accompanied their charge, at times obscuring the view so thoroughly that it was impossible to discern how many troops advanced behind them. As the rebels approached, carrying clouds of dust to the moat’s eastern bank, the commanders atop the city walls ordered their soldiers to begin a rotating volley of arrow fire.

Yet the effect was far worse than the Tang generals had anticipated. By the time the arrows reached the eastern edge of the moat, their force was nearly spent, much diminished, and as they descended, the bamboo and wooden rafts held aloft by several rebels served as excellent shields—massive ones at that. Many arrows were deflected by these rafts, and the results were far inferior to those achieved the previous day when the rebels first assaulted the city.

Yesterday, the arrow volleys had cut the rebels down like harvesting grain; their attack was arduous and costly. But today, the situation had changed entirely. Only a few rebels were felled by arrow fire, while large numbers surged to the edge of the moat, casting innumerable rafts into it and quickly raising its level. The rebels suffered significant casualties only after throwing down their rafts.

Soon, more soldiers bearing bamboo and wooden rafts charged forward. Their formation was not dense, for their initial purpose was to fill and raise the moat, paving the way for subsequent mass assaults.

Typically, four or five soldiers carried a single bamboo or wooden raft. Reaching the moat, they would throw their rafts in, then retreat or descend into the moat themselves, clearing the path for those following with more rafts.

This method of attack proved highly effective: vast numbers of rafts were thrown into the moat, filling it up, yet the attackers’ losses remained relatively low.

This astonished Chen Xuanli and his companions; they had not anticipated the rebels would use bamboo and wooden rafts from the outset to pave the way and fill the moat.

With the broad rafts filling the moat, everyone knew what would come next. Once the moat was leveled, the ensuing battle would be brutal indeed; beneath the city walls, Tongguan would become a bloody slaughterhouse. How the conflict would ultimately unfold, no one could predict.

Yang Xi, however, remained composed atop the gate tower, showing not the slightest fear or anxiety at the rebels’ tactics. His demeanor was calm and confident, which only deepened Chen Xuanli’s wonder. When had Yang Xi—Yang Guozhong’s seventeen-year-old son—become so cool-headed and resolute, as if he were a seasoned commander of countless campaigns? Even his subordinates, Wang Silie and Pang Zhong, obeyed him without question—astonishing, since not long ago, they had advised Geshu Han to assassinate Yang Guozhong! It was difficult to fathom.

Outside the city, the battle intensified, drawing Chen Xuanli and the others’ attention entirely to the fighting beyond the walls.

More and more bamboo and wooden rafts were thrown into the moat, steadily raising long stretches until they were nearly level with the eastern edge.

Throughout this process, the Tang soldiers on the walls continued their rotating arrow volleys, but their effectiveness remained poor; few rebels were killed or wounded, while thousands of rafts were cast into the moat.

“The cruel bloodbath is about to begin!” Chen Xuanli murmured as he watched the moat being slowly leveled.

He was eager to see what strategy Yang Xi would employ once the rebels launched their largescale assault.

Yet Yang Xi issued no new orders, nor did the arrow fire from the walls intensify, nor did the intervals between volleys shorten.

Cui Qianyou, commanding the siege, was delighted to see the moat filled so easily, though he felt a pang of regret—why had he not used this tactic during yesterday’s assault? Had they acted as they did today, perhaps Tongguan would already have fallen, and the lives of more than ten thousand soldiers might not have been lost in vain.

Upon receiving reports from his men that nearly a mile of the moat had been leveled and soldiers could cross directly to attack the city, Cui Qianyou immediately ordered a full-scale assault.

With his command, nearly twenty thousand soldiers, already arrayed and prepared, surged forward at the urging of the war drums, their thunderous cries shaking the earth as they charged toward the moat. The vanguard still carried bamboo and wooden rafts, which, covering a wide area, shielded them from the Tang archers’ fire, preventing the front ranks from being cut down.

Upon reaching the eastern edge of the moat, the soldiers hurled their rafts onto the pile, smoothing out any uneven spots before advancing with shields, covering each other as they pressed toward the city walls. Behind them, troops bearing scaling ladders quickened their pace, intent on raising the ladders to the ramparts in one swift effort.

Soon, the bamboo and wooden rafts accumulated in the moat were crowded with rebel soldiers, at which point the Tang archers atop the walls intensified their volleys. Tens of thousands of arrows rained down upon the rebels, wave after wave; many fell, struck by arrows, their bodies now providing further footing atop the rafts.

Those fortunate enough to avoid the arrows, along with subsequent waves, pressed forward, trampling over the corpses of their comrades.

Following the dense assault of twenty thousand rebels in the first wave, the next ranks did not pause, but followed close behind, their momentum even greater.

As the rebels swarmed into the moat and began climbing its western edge, preparing to raise their scaling ladders onto the ramparts of Tongguan, Yang Xi, standing atop the gate tower, issued a new command.

With Yang Xi’s order, heaps of dry grass, which had been piled up on the gate tower, were densely thrown down into the moat below with the aid of catapults and the combined strength of the soldiers. Immediately after, boiling oil was hurled out in large quantities. Once sufficient dry grass and hot oil had been cast, countless fire arrows were shot toward the grass landing amidst the rebels.

As the fire arrows struck, the dry grass ignited at once.

More dry grass and boiling oil continued to be flung down, and soon a raging inferno blazed in the moat, quickly engulfing the bamboo and wooden rafts used to fill it. The rebels, massed within the moat, found themselves trapped in a sea of flames almost instantly.

This spectacle left Chen Xuanli and the other generals who had just arrived with reinforcements utterly dumbfounded atop the gate tower.

None had expected the situation on the battlefield to change so dramatically. The moat, which had yesterday been ravaged by floodwaters, had become a “fire moat”; the roaring flames scorched the Tang soldiers atop the walls even as they devoured scores of rebel lives.

As the rebel soldiers at the eastern edge of the moat fell into chaos amid the ever-intensifying blaze, with the situation teetering on the brink of disaster, the drawbridge at the southern gate was swiftly lowered. The long-sealed South Gate of Tongguan swung open, and Wang Silie, leading three thousand elite troops, charged out with a thunderous cry!