"Are you telling me that within this Xiyi City borderland, there are actually as many as 300,000 troops?" "Such strength, in these chaotic times." "Li Shude already has treacherous intentions, damn it!" "How could he remain dormant?" The Great General of the Shatuo country pushed the scout away angrily, his rationality telling him this was impossible. However, even for the most rational person, hearing this news would breed hesitation and unease in the heart. As intelligence from the scout reports kept coming back, And as this cursed city remained unconquerable, This unease began to ferment in his heart. Such was the case with the main commander, even more so with the rest of the colonels and ordinary soldiers. Slowly, a slight unrest began to rise in the allied forces, though barely controlled. The main commander of the Shatuo country said, "Surround this city!" "Inside this city, there are hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians, their food supply is definitely insufficient. Once their morale declines, there will be trouble." He repeatedly ordered the allied forces to launch fierce attacks, but all were thwarted. Even though he didn’t truly believe the enemy had over a hundred thousand reinforcements, the fear in his heart still drove him to intensify the assault instinctively. He stared stubbornly at the high wall, Full of resentment, drawing his sword and cursing: "Damn Central Plains people!" "If you have the guts, come out and fight us honorably, instead of just building fortifications and using mechanisms made of iron and stone for defense, cowards, cowards!" This text is hosted at novel★fire.net He kept hurling insults and attacking the city. Although he hadn’t succeeded in several days, he had nonetheless caused significant casualties within the city. This time, all parties were gambling their lives against Ying Country. Ying Country, the great country of the Central Plains, once it regains its strength, will surely send a large army. However, given the state of the world, they were unwilling to submit or yield. Thus, they exerted all their might in such a manner. The situation inside Yemen City was equally dire. Outside, the enemy was almost equivalent in number to all the troops and civilians inside, causing chaos in the military’s hearts. And the reinforcements were long overdue, the city’s rations could only last for ten days, while the Central Plains reinforcements, even if they arrived, would take at least two months. The city had even dismantled civilian houses to use as defensive tools. These warriors from various Western Regions were brave and valiant, forming arrays to shower arrows, nearly reaching Li Shude in the furthest distance. He, along with some young members of the Li Family, had never witnessed such a scene of one hundred thousand besieging a city, their faces already pale with fear. Those who previously boasted about their military prowess were now pale-faced, crying day and night with swollen eyes. Yet, Li Shude remained calm, even leisurely donning armor to climb atop a high platform to observe. "Whoa, what a spectacle!" Looking far into the distance, wherever his sight reached, there were allied forces from the Western Regions, all wearing different armors, heavy leather armors made from multilayer hide with strong defenses, lighter than the fully armored heavy armors of the Central Plains. They were everywhere in the mountains and fields. This powerful army had an imposing momentum. A hundred thousand troops, absolute nation-destroying war power in the Western Regions. "The enemy is ferocious to this extent, this time it is indeed dangerous..." "These barbarians, they all hate our Daying." Duke Li deflected the flying arrows with his weapon in hand, feeling some numbness in his wrist. After all, he was a duke of the nation, unsure of which brave archer shot it out. With an abundance of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, he was forcibly propelled to the Sixth Layer Heaven stage, but has reached his limit. Duke Li knew clearly that with his kind of cultivation, his spiritual will and physique weren’t strong enough. In this lifetime, he wouldn’t step into the Grandmaster realm. Next to him, his beloved general Xiahou Duan remained silent before saying, "Lord, why not abandon this city..." Li Shude raised his eyebrows: "Oh?" Xiahou Duan, the grandson of Daying’s Minister of the Left, had little acquaintance with Li Shude. The two had a glorious past together in their younger days, Xiahou Duan being on the Famous General List at seventy-nine. He said, "There is no city that can be defended indefinitely without defeat." "There are 120,000 people in the city, with just ten days of rations, and arrows are running thin." "We’ve already dismantled the houses to make rolling stones, but for how long can this ? Without corresponding bolts, the mechanisms of the Mo School are merely scraps of iron, utterly useless." "The longer it drags, the worse hunger and rest deprivation become. The soldiers’ spirit will gradually decline. It’s better to seize the current peak and gather several thousand Elite Cavalry to break through the siege." "Even if I must stake my life, I will ensure the Lord’s escape." Duke Li tossed the arrows in his hand and said, "Your loyalty and bravery are known to me naturally, but alas, in my youth I could have left with you, but as a duke, I cannot..." "If I abandon this city pass and the army, even if I manage to escape back, my family’s generations of dukedom and marquisate will be tainted by my hand, and should His Majesty pursue, death would be inescapable; better to perish with the city." "If I die, it will be the provocation of the Western Regions, a duke sacrificing for the country." "The righteousness is with us." "This can ensure my children’s lifetime of prosperity." "Living brings disgrace to the ancestors, implicating the kin; dying instead brings posthumous fame and honor in the world, so the choice is naturally clear." Duke Li nocked an arrow and shot it down at the Western Region’s Elite Cavalry, killing one, and said, "In our youth, following His Majesty’s command, we quelled the Longmen uprising, I shot seventy-two consecutive arrows, all hit, the enemy dispersed, we were poor then too." "I even retrieved the arrows from the enemies’ bodies to reuse." "I never imagined it would end ." Duke Li said with a smile: "To die encircled by ten thousand fierce warriors is a gratifying end for a man! It’s just a pity, with the world’s tumultuous times, I can no longer partake."