Chapter 372 Zhao Yun VS Budugen - Part 1 (2/2)
”More than half of us were from White Rider, so it's about two thousand, perhaps.”
”That's good enough. Tell those thousand men to rest. We'll raid them at night!”
”S-Sir, but they have over 10,000 soldiers!”
”Night raid doesn't require troop's number but swiftness. Go gather the troops and oil supply.”
”Y-Yes, sir!”
At night,
Zhao Yun led two thousand riders to the camp of Budugen, but he did not attack right away. He told the soldiers to search for the stables of these men first.
It took them an hour to locate a few of them, and they also found the constructed siege ladders.
Without further ado, Zhao Yun commanded them to start tossing oil jars at any random watch towers, tents, wall, or any barricade that they could. Afterward, all of them launched fire arrows into the camp.
The soldiers did not understand why Zhao Yun decided to provoke them after they scouted for the vital facilities, but they followed through his command anyway.
A thousand riders caused chaos as they ignited a fire at the outer area of the camp. This caused panic as all 20,000 soldiers woke up at night to help, extinguishing the fire.
The commotion also alerted Budugen.
Budugen roared, ”Find the raiders and kill them! Don't let them get away!”
Zhao Yun commanded his thousand men to continue shooting fire arrows into the base as they retreated back into the city with their horses.
Budugen's cavalries were late. Those soldiers had to run to their stable, picked a horse, formed a battalion, and then charged at Zhao Yun. By the time they were ready to fight, Zhao Yun and his men already ran back to their city.
They could not pursue either as the guards on the wall shot arrows at the chasers.
The entire fight lasted for less than 30 minutes. 20 Minutes were spent preparing, and the other ten minutes were used to chase the night raiders.
The damages were neglectable as only a few watchtowers and 300 soldiers killed in the raid.
Although frustrated, Budugen told his men to douse the fire and reinforce their defenses. None of them had a proper sleep as they had to prepare for another possible night attack.
However, the night attack did not come again. Budugen and others woke up all night for nothing.
.
May 24th.
Budugen brought the siege towers forward along with the 19,700 soldiers, planning to attack the city today.
His soldiers lacked sleep last night. They blinked and shook their head to stay active, or else they would have dozed off.
Budugen noticed this after he had ordered a deployment. Although he felt bad for the men and it was against his strategy logics, he chose to pressure the city by using a feint attack.
”One battalion, push the siege ladders forward!”
A battalion of one thousand men gathered behind their five siege ladders. They pushed to wheeled ladders forward to the wall.
As the siege ladders moved closer to the wall, the garrison troops lighted their arrows on fire. Soon, a volley of fire arrows rained onto the five siege engines.
The fire caught the wooden siege ladders, but the attackers came prepared. They splashed their prepared water buckets onto the wooden wall of their siege ladder structure, extinguishing the fire.
No fire arrows managed to destroy the siege engines.
Soon, all five ladders got to the range of 50 meters from the wall.
Zhao Yun, who was on top of the wall, bellowed, ”Toss the oil!”
Two jars of lamp oil clashed onto the surface of each siege ladders.
”Fire the arrows at those spots!”
Archers aimed at the doused target and released their bowstrings. As soon as the fire arrows hit the soaked wood, it was set aflame!
All five siege ladders turned into a giant bonfire with several humans inside.
Budugen's soldiers attempted to extinguish the fire. Unfortunately, the water caused the flame to expand and cause the fire to spread further.
Before all siege tower could reach the wall, all soldiers already abandoned the weaponry.
All garrison soldiers cheered as they watched the retreating invaders.
Budugen stared at his defeated battalion with a grimaced face. He turned around and ordered his subordinates.
”Detach five battalions and have them construct more siege ladders. Also, make me ballistae! I want those archers dead!”
He was about to withdraw and let these soldiers standing for the entire day to pressure the defenders. Then, he thought of something.
”Get ten battalions to withdraw from this battle. Allow them to rest to the end of the day. At night, we'll use them in a night assault!”
Meanwhile, Zhao Yun also had a similar idea.
”How many soldiers do we have in the city?”
”About 12,000 soldiers, including us, sir.”
”Separate 5,000 of them. Tell them to rest for today. We'll arrange a shifting rotation duty, so everybody can have a proper rest before their shift.”
The staring contest continued until the sunset.
Budugen had already left the troops to rest since noon. Since he did not get a night of proper sleep last night, he went back to get some rest along with his men.
His remaining troops were 5,000 soldiers, the five battalions of a thousand man each.
Everyone believed that they did not have to fight, and it would be their turn to rest soon. Therefore, everyone's tension was at the lowest.
When the retreating signal sounded from their signal drummers, they cheered and turned around, waiting for their commanders to issue an order.
At that moment,
*CREAK*
The city wall opened, revealing a group of horsemen.
Someone bellowed, ”CHARGE!”
Two thousand horsemen charged out from the city. Their leader was a knight in a white surcoat, Zhao Yun!