Does the Imperial Guard Have Reinforcements

Ren Tianye cursed inwardly, but his face remained cold and stern.

Fine, launching a brazen assault on the city, are we?

Let's see if you lot can even put a scratch on Yunji City!

He ordered, "Sun Xiang!"

"Here, sir!"

"Go to the military camp and mobilize three thousand men."

"Yes, sir!"

Sun Xiang acknowledged the order and had someone beat the war drums while he personally went to dispatch the troops as needed.

As soon as he arrived at the camp, the seven thousand soldiers of Yunji City had already rushed out of their barracks. They stood bewildered and fearful, feeling the earth-shattering tremors coming from outside the city from time to time.

"Twenty thousand Imperial Guards are attacking the city. By the order of the Great General, I am now deploying forces."

"City Defense Battalion!"

Countless voices roared in unison, "Here!"

"I order two thousand of you to rush to the city walls immediately!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Reserve Battalion!"

"Here!"

"I order you to draw one thousand men to assist the City Defense Battalion. The rest are to remain on high alert, ready to mount the walls at a moment's notice."

"Yes, sir!"

"Logistics Battalion!"

"Here!"

"Prepare all military equipment and supplies. There must be no shortages."

"Yes, sir!"

Sun Xiang issued the orders one by one, and the men responded with high morale. Finally, Sun Xiang shouted, "Everyone, follow me! Mount the walls and defend Yunji City!"

He led the way, and the troops quickly followed.

The inner camp of Yunji City connected directly to the city walls. Since everyone had already been alerted, they moved with extreme speed, surging up onto the walls.

However, their faces were all filled with anger.

"Her Majesty simply refuses to let us go. It was clearly Zhan Shubai who colluded with the barbarians, yet she wants to slaughter us all."

"Damn it, let's fight the imperial court's men to the death! If we fight, there's a sliver of hope to survive. If we don't, we'll truly die here today."

"Thank goodness General Ren is willing to protect us, otherwise our heads would have rolled by now. Since the imperial court dares to attack our Yunji City, even if I die, I'm taking one of them down with me."

...

The soldiers of Yunji City clearly believed that the imperial army this time had been sent by Empress Xiao Mingzhao to exterminate them.

Already indignant, they now grew even more furious.

Their fighting spirit soared higher.

They quickly reached the top of the city walls, taking up their positions in an orderly manner according to their usual training.

Meanwhile, the twenty thousand Imperial Guards were currently constructing pontoon bridges.

They were clearly ill-prepared.

It could even be said they hadn't anticipated fighting this battle at all. As a result, they didn't even have ready-made pontoon bridges. Relying entirely on their sheer numbers, they chopped down trees and threw the logs into the moat.

They hoped to dam the moat with the submerged timber.

After all, there were plenty of trees nearby, making it easy to gather wood.

But they never imagined that before Ren Tianye, there was a defending general who, in order to win the Empress's favor, had spared no effort to widen and deepen the moat.

He had even dug as many as three moats.

This made their actions seem extremely ridiculous.

The floating logs were all washed away; after struggling for a long time, they achieved nothing.

Left with no choice, they had to rebuild the pontoon bridges.

It took a great deal of effort before they finally managed to construct three pontoon bridges.

The twenty thousand Imperial Guards shouted their charge. Armed with strong bows and stiff crossbows, they fired volley after volley of arrows.

Because Yunji City's walls were so high, even the strong bows used by the Imperial Guards rarely reached the top of the walls, posing little threat.

As for the arrows that hit the wall, it was quite comical.

When the arrows struck the cyan-tinted walls, the tremendous impact didn't cause the slightest damage to the wall; instead, the arrows simply slid off one after another.

If this was already frustrating enough for the Imperial Guards, what made them break down even more were the siege ladders they brought.

They had brought them along with the army just in case.

Having been used in Shanhe City, they hadn't even been fully repaired before being dragged out for service again, but these siege ladders...

Were not tall enough!

They simply weren't tall enough!

When the ladders were leaned against the city wall, they couldn't even reach the battlements.

The battlefield was perilous, and the Imperial Guards were fighting for their lives. Many anxiously climbed up the unsteady ladders. After finally dodging the arrows and reaching the top of the ladder, they discovered...

They were still quite a distance away from the top of the wall!

This left the Imperial Guards deeply aggrieved. They were here to siege a city, not to be a laughingstock!

On the other hand, it was a completely different scene for the soldiers of Yunji City.

Their high morale went without saying.

The city defense equipment had long been thoroughly prepared by Zhan Shubai.

Moreover, they held the geographical advantage.

Facing these Imperial Guards, it was practically an overwhelming slaughter!

Basically, by standing up high and shooting arrows downward, they could hear the continuous screams of the Imperial Guards. Those who had crossed the moat became sitting ducks one by one.

From the very beginning, the battlefield presented a completely one-sided situation.

This also greatly boosted the confidence of the Yunji City soldiers.

One must know that war is all about morale.

An inferior army facing elite troops, even with advantages in numbers, equipment, and terrain, would still be extremely fearful psychologically.

This easily gives elite troops the chance to win with fewer numbers.

But the current situation was too advantageous for the Yunji City soldiers. It built up the troops' confidence in one fell swoop and gradually dispelled their fear of the Imperial Guards on the battlefield.

"Great General, these Imperial Guards are nothing special!" Sun Xiang even had the mood to joke, and then advised, "Great General, why don't you leave things here to me."

"Swords and arrows have no eyes, after all. You can just return to the General's Manor and command from there."

Sun Xiang was also considering Ren Tianye's safety.

After all, the Imperial Guards seemed so weak mainly because they were at a severe disadvantage in equipment and terrain. But these twenty thousand Imperial Guards were not bad; some of them could shoot their arrows up here.

In this past hour, although the Yunji City soldiers held the advantages of timing, terrain, and unity, quite a few had still been hit by stray arrows.

But Ren Tianye shook his head.

He naturally knew that as the commander-in-chief and the absolute core of these seven thousand men, his life was very precious. Under normal circumstances, he should return to the General's Manor to command remotely.

But this was not a normal circumstance.

This was the first time he was fighting side by side with his brothers, so he could not retreat—not even a single step.

Prestige was built in critical moments like this.

Ren Tianye understood this all too well and said, "I am fine."

"I shall stand together with my brothers!"

Ren Tianye shouted word by word, his clear voice spreading across the city walls. This made the morale of the Yunji City soldiers surge again, and their arrows rained down even harder.

Those twenty thousand Imperial Guards had to charge to the base of the wall to siege the city. They couldn't spread out at all and could only employ piecemeal tactics.

In less than an hour, they had already suffered hundreds of casualties, and their morale had plummeted. Now, bombarded by such a furious rain of arrows, they could no longer hold out.

The sound of retreating gongs rang out from the Imperial Guards' camp.

The Imperial Guards retreated one after another.

This farce, which lasted for nearly an hour, came to an end after the Imperial Guards left behind hundreds of corpses.

The soldiers of Yunji City immediately erupted into cheers.

"We won! We won!"

"Hahaha, the Empress still wants to kill us? Dream on!"

"Mighty Great General! The Great General led us to defeat the Imperial Guards' charge."

"We survived!"

...

In the instant sea of joy that was stirred up, a scout stumbled over to Ren Tianye, his face full of panic as he said, "Great General, there is another army of Imperial Guards, numbering as many as fifty thousand."

"They are rapidly marching toward our Yunji City!"

...