Book 51 Chapter 12 – Seeking Survival on the Luo River (1/2)
Book 51 Chapter 12 – Seeking Survival on the Luo River
Translator: Foxs' Wuxia
A noise of the sluice as its chain ound to raise it up just enough for the wooden raft to pass through, Xu Ziling, as in charge of steering the raft, focused his power into the wooden oar, he applied his strength to paddle, a splash boiled out at the tail of the raft, the wooden structure rushed out of the water gate like a speeding horse, riding on the current along the Luo River, into the boundless night outside the city
Both banks and all around were pitch-black, there did not seem to be any enemy around, but the three knew that Li shi+ the city had already laid out layer upon layer of defense on the strategically located and easy to defend places in the surrounding highlands and along the ays No e, it would still be difficult to avoid the eneed to entangle them, Li shi+min would personally lead his martial arttheir strength to fight to the death, there would be no other possibility
The key to success or failure hich side couldthe various rivers intersecting Luoyang, Luo River was the widest river course, which leads directly to the Great River Froh the barrier, this was the e that they could figure out The most ideal was, naturally, if they could reach the Great River and landed on the north shore Even if they were intercepted, they could abandon the raft midway and went ashore, the initiative would still be in their hands, hence their chance of breaking through the siege was quite high
Ahead, the bugle horn was sounded from a distance, followed by the sound of hoof beats froht directions, evidently the enemy was alerted and responded quickly, men and horses frohan stood in the middle of the raft, with three quivers full of powerful arrows, plus three shi+elds, by their feet The night breeze was brushi+ng over, blowing the three ht clothes were fluttering in the breeze
His heart was devoid of any alarth He sio, then so be it – ht sky, the hts, and the weather had not turned to the better
Kou Zhong laughed caluess e encounter first? For exa the river, or perhaps the Tang Navy’s shi+p?”
Ba Fenghan sht rivers meet, the mountain and river’s terrain is couess the route we are going to break the siege, further to leave tonight I dare say that helooked at the splash at the front of the raft as its boas cutting through the surface of the water, inwardly he praised Xu Ziling’s deep and i true qi, which seehan’s re, can underestimate anybody, but I absolutely do not dare to underesti to seal off the river course could be coht set up a dozen or so trebuchets on both sides of the river, plus archers, so that ill be forced to abandon the boat and go ashore”
Fro shouted in low voice, “Watch out for the left bank!”
The raft ht bank On the left bank, the sound of hoof beats shook the sky, nearly a hundred riders chased after the the bank, bent their bows and put on the arrows to shoot at theht bank where the arrows could not reach, the powerful arrows lost theiraway fro speed close to the right bank that its tail dragged a long, long splash of water, as it navigated one river bend after another, in a desperate race against the enemy riders on the left bank The competition was intense
Kou and Ba, twobow at the sahed and said, “Only the left bank has eneht bank none, Li shi+ht bank His Niang’s! Laozi is definitely not going to fall into his trap”
Ba Fenghan nodded and said, “Rather than being forced to abandon the boat and go ashore, it would be better to take one step ahead by abandoning the boat and going ashore; the initiative will still be in our hand”
‘Swish!+ Swish!+’ A the air, powerful arroere shot in rapid succession fro the warhorse at the head of the enehed round Since the front of the line was blocked, ireatthe coast
Xu Ziling’s mind was interlinked with the other two; he quickly ht bank to lean close to the left bank
Ba Fenghan shouted, “Reular battle array, wesaid, “I have another proposal: why not try to break through the gatehere the ene as we lean on one side, it would be difficult for the stone-throwing et through this barrier, it wouldAr said, “Turns out Ziling is the one with the biggest guts”
Letting out a long laughter, Ba Fenghan said, “Makes sense The trebuchets are heavy and cannot beshi+p, they have plenty of power, but to deal with our s Shao, it is definitely clu speedily close to the shore, to the trebuchets, the near ones will be too near, the far ones will be too far Only dealing with a feerful arroe should be able to entleman!”
The wooden raft swiftly turned around a sharp bend, the river course changed to be coh They saw hu ht Farther into the distance, there were even six double- the river course Such battle array indeed carried sealing-the-river-locking-the-waysaid, “Our counting-the-chickens-before-they-are-hatched won’t work!”
Turned out the river course narrowed, the narrowest passage that the ene, it did not e of the enemy’s trebuchets and powerful arrows
He had not even finished speaking, the course ahead was suddenly brightly lit Not only hundreds of torches were lit on both sides, the six battleshi+ps ahead also lit all their lights, illu approximately half a li section of the river course ahead so that it was as bright as daytime, so that even a strand of fine hair was co knew that under such circuh the barrier would be akin to throwing away their life Making prompt decisions, he shouted, “Ashore!” He still carried the oar in his hand
The three jumped off the wooden raft at the same time and threw themselves toward the left bank Before their feet even touched the ground, hundreds of powerful arrows, hiding the sky and covering the earth – were shot toward them This was coht that the enemy would hide archers in a and Kou Zhong unleashed their unique school’s skill; sirabbed Ba Fenghan fro down to sharp rise, hence they barely missed the arrow net, soared across the sky, and cast themselves toward the archers’ troop disposition spread by the shore
While still in the air, the three took a quick glance to see the situation far and near clearly, and they realized Li shi+min’s determination to put them to death at all cost
On both sides of the Luo River, in addition to the stone throwers and archers sealing off the river, there were also ared in for arrows at them were positioned at the front of their for axe-hands, and finally, at the end of the formation was the cavalry Each branch consisted of five hundred h the total to fifteen hundred eneral, the archers, who had not been able to shoot the second round of arrows – put away their long bow, and pulled out the girdle orna, and dispersed to all directions to let the three ht into the trap
Merely this division had enough power to kill the three le them for a short period of tiht directions rushed over, they would be without any luck even ion on the north bank of the Luo River, the trees have been cut down so that it was bare The closest wooded area was the dark shadow at the end of the plain, at least ten li away In fact, with Luoyang as the center, the area within twenty li radius had been cleared up of any tree, only it was not clear whether it was the work of wang shi+chong’s side or Li shi+min’s side, because both sides had reason to do so Only it was greatly disadvantageous for the three ht, because there was nowhere they could hide Other than the dark of the night, there was no favorable condition to flee
Even worse was that in addition to the troop disposition before their eyes and the enemies not-too-far downstream, the other battle formations farther aere intact Various cavalry units of different strength were rushi+ng in their direction Once they fell into heavy siege, it would be difficult even for the Heaven to save them
When it looked like they were about to enter the enehan shouted loudly, both pal the several Tang soldiers nearby that they fell to the east and skewed to the west, and then he borrowed the reaction force to bring Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, whose true qi has been exhausted, while neer has not been generated yet – supporting hi across, and landed safely at the edge of the eneround, the three separated a bit to forhan as the sharp point of the triangle Sword light flashi+ng, two ene on, were already forced back that both the persons and the sabers were thrown to both sides and fell down
Xu Ziling applied his power to his a zhang-and-a-half-long oar to sweep, about a dozenfrom behind to intercept were either shaken that their weapons fell off their hands, or fell to the ground with broken bones and split ’s Moon in the Well chopped down at lightning speed, the saber never et, there was always soround
All of a sudden the three th was rather weak, and rushed out of the encirclement The ene soldiers, ere originally responsible to seal off the ay, abandoned their stone throwing ed toward theo forward, while the ene behind On the vast river plain, there was no longer any place for them to seek shelter and stay alive