Chapter 190 Challenge From Huang Zhong (1/2)

Chapter 190 – Challenge From Huang Zhong

Tong sat on a chair under the shelter on top of the gate, watching the retreating Imperial army. He was not happy about this battle.

'I was indecisive. I could have done it better.'

This fight had pros and cons.

Thanked to this fight, Tong had a reason to officially promote Xu Huang into a general of the army because he demonstrated his abilities to all soldiers.

Xu Huang wanted to protest, but his friends and comrades who fought alongside with him approved it. Thus, he accepted this promotion. However, he planned to share his income with his friends as he still thought that he did not deserve it.

However, the cons were also nasty.

Tong Army also suffered heavy casualties. Five thousand soldiers from the west gate died, 2,000 permanently crippled, and over 10,000 injured from Liu Biao's assault. Xu Huang's east gate had minimal damage, one thousand killed-in-action and 2,000 slightly injured. The south gate fared well as there was 2,000 death, and 3,000 soldiers were wounded as they faced the main force.

Overall, 47,000 soldiers survived the fight. Forty-five thousands of them could continue to fight, but over 17,000 of them would take scares of war back home.

Because he did not have a suitable assistance general in his army, Tong suffered a significant loss. Had he brought Zhang Xiu or Zhang Ji with him, the west gate would not have experienced so many casualties.

Moreover, Tong also had regrets and hesitation.

Tong could have spammed crude oil all over the place and lit it up. However, he was afraid of the boil over of the crude oil, which was deadlier than Zhu Jun's army. The temperature from the crude oil could reach much higher than grease oil as they had mixed liquid, gas, and sensitive substances that could burn well in higher temperature. The would not be able to extinguish the fire once that were to happen.

In the battle today, several siege ladders were burnt by the crude oil, and the garrison soldiers could not extinguish the fire. The black smoke clouded all walls, and his men were coughing and suffered from the burn. Fortunately, Tong had warned them, and all of them had wet clothes wrapped around their face. However, their eyes were still blood-shotted and sored as they felt the burn to their eyes.

The south wall where Tong accidentally fell on the ground below was in a terrible condition. On the field, the small fire was everywhere as Tong splashed boiling oil here. The flame continued to burn the boiling fat as they already reached the boiling point already.

Thankfully, Tong also told his men not to throw water down the wall, or the fire would have gotten worse. Right now, the fire was burning away the oil slowly, but they would explode had Tong left them be.

'I can summon nitrogen liquid with my [Create Food] to douse the fire right now. However, I think it will freeze my men to death instead of just extinguishing the fire. I'll leave them on for tonight. It will warm the city.'

Despite the thought, Tong decided to douse the fire outside of the city wall with his nitrogen liquid as the boil over of the crude oil was getting out of hand. Furthermore, Tong could not stand the corpses burning smell outside the wall.

”Tell all units, get down from the wall. All of you can rest tonight. I'll take care of the watch as the usual.”

Tong ordered his men as he did not need to sleep. He planned to use his regen skill after midnight.

…

7 PM. The same day.

The Imperial troops returned to the camp on the other side of the river. They carried the crippled soldiers back to the supply camp on the back while the injured and the able men remained in the main camp.

The atmosphere in the camp was gloomy and depressing. Everyone was exhausted from the battle, and their morale was low.

Liu Biao and Huang Zhong also returned here with the other general, Huang Zu.

All lieutenants counted the survivors in their perspective platoons and reported it Zhu Jun, who lied down in his bed.

”Report to the general! We have concluded the result of our first assault.” The lieutenant attempted to pass Zhu Jun a scroll.

”I can't read it. You read it for me.” Zhu Jun spoke with weak and dried voice.

”We've lost all of our siege ladders and almost all of our siege towers. Only five towers managed to return. The west troops came back with 27,000 men, the east came back with 23,000 men, and the south had 20,000 men remaining.”

”What happened in the battle?” Zhu Jun asked.

”The enemies at the east gate and the south gate were prepared, general. They destroyed all of our siege ladders before we can get a foothold on the wall. General Liu Biao from the west managed to get the advantage of the first half of the battle, but the reinforcements from the other side reached the west gate. They reclaimed the advantage on the latter half of the day and destroyed the siege ladders.”

*Cough*

Zhu Jun coughed as he tried to sit up. He did not like the report.

He did not know that 20% of his men were ill. They went to the war with high fever and sluggish bodies. As a result, they were either killed into a melee fight on the wall or were shot by Tong's repeated crossbows.

”What happened at the south gate? Why is our soldier casualty the highest there?”

”Report to the general. There was an incident at the south gate … The enemy general fell from the wall, and he cast fire magic on us. We estimated that more than three thousand men died from the enemy general.”

The heart of Zhu Jun shook. His condition worsened again because of the bad news. He believed that if this sickness went on, he would die soon.

”Get Liu Biao here …”

The lieutenant bowed and left. A few minutes later, Liu Biao arrived.

”I'm Liu Biao, reporting to the general.” Liu Biao bowed.