Chapter 31: Not Fated to Die

"Enemy attack!"

Hearing the piercing sound of projectiles slicing through the air, the hair on Chen Ying’s neck stood on end. He roared at the top of his lungs, "Enemy attack!"

It wasn't that Chen Ying feared a surprise assault, but he had never expected the enemy to strike on the morning of the Lunar New Year. Although his personal guard corps was a full regiment, it consisted of only two brigades, and only one was currently with him. Liang Zan, however, was quick to react. As the whistling sound arrived, he immediately snatched up a large shield, shielding Chen Ying tightly.

"Clang! Clatter!" Dense arrows struck the shield, producing a teeth-gritting sound like a blacksmith’s shop in full swing. At that moment, cries of agony rang out one after another.

The garrison soldiers within the gatehouse erupted in panic. Some scrambled for their boots, others fumbled for their weapons, descending into chaos. Fortunately, the gatehouse was well-fortified, rendering the arrows largely ineffective; there were no casualties yet.

The equipment of the Right Guard was exceptional. Even before this, it was top-tier, and when Chen Ying went to reinforce Lingzhou, Crown Prince Li Jiancheng had used his position to requisition a large amount from the armory. Even the lowliest private in the personal guard wore heavy armor typically reserved for heavy infantry.

Even without shields, the arrows caused them very little harm. Chen Ying bellowed, "Who is injured?"

The screams abruptly ceased. Several soldiers gritted their teeth and shouted back, "We’re fine! Just a mosquito bite!"

Apart from the torches on the gatehouse, the area beneath the city walls was pitch black, revealing nothing.

"Extinguish the torches! As long as we keep them lit, we are just targets for the enemy!" Liang Zan roared, "Quick, extinguish them... put them out!"

Several guards moved to douse the torches, but Chen Ying shoved aside the soldiers and the shield pressing down on him. "Extinguish nothing! Throw the torches out and see how many of them there are!"

Following Chen Ying’s command, several soldiers hurled the torches like hand grenades.

Torches were no match for modern illumination, and their light was limited. Yet, as a dozen torches danced through the air, the pitch-black darkness beneath the walls gradually began to reveal its secrets.

There were over a thousand enemy soldiers below, advancing in waves. The enemy commander must have known Lingzhou well, as their path of advance targeted the city's blind spots.

"Damn it, they want to play this game with me!" Chen Ying retreated toward the gatehouse and noticed a dozen barrels of "fierce fire oil" stored inside. The brigade commander guarding the east gatehouse was about to strike the alarm, but Chen Ying stopped him. "Hold off. If we ring the alarm now, the civilians in the city won't know the scale of the attack, and if they start a stampede, the losses will be heavy!"

Chen Ying immediately took out his seal and quickly scribbled several orders.

"Order the Deputy Commanders of the Right Guard, Gao Yunquan and He Yuejing, and the Record Clerk Du Shanguo to take charge of the south, north, and west gates respectively to direct the defense. The Lingzhou Administrator shall remain at the General’s Headquarters to calm the populace!"

Chen Ying issued his commands methodically. The once panicked soldiers calmed down instantly upon seeing him. Though Chen Ying possessed a handsome face lacking the typical ferocity of a warrior, he was the god of war in the eyes of his men.

Chen Ying had led fewer than four thousand soldiers to capture Boguli City in a single battle, beheading nearly a thousand and capturing over thirteen thousand. His second feat was even more staggering: with only nine hundred cavalry, he had engaged over ten thousand Turkic horsemen in open combat, killing five or six thousand and shattering a force of thirty thousand into a disorganized rout.

The military is a place that respects strength, and Chen Ying had proven his prowess and bravery with facts. A strange thought took root in the minds of the Tang soldiers: "Follow Chen Ying, and we will win. No matter how many enemies there are, there is nothing to fear!"

The garrison soldiers acted on Chen Ying's orders; some became temporary messengers, while others hurried to manufacture incendiary bombs.

"Fierce fire oil" was, in fact, crude oil. Yanzhou, not far from Lingzhou, was rich in "stone fat water," or light crude oil. This oil did not burn as effectively as modern gasoline—it was more like diesel, requiring an accelerant to burn, and it produced thick, heavy smoke. Chen Ying took water gourds, filled them with the oil, and plugged them with thin linen wicks to create simple incendiary bombs.

Of course, the destructive power of these bombs was minimal; their primary purpose was to act as flares.

"Archers, ready!"

"Launch the fire oil!"

A dozen incendiary bombs shattered against the snow-covered ground, instantly erupting into large pools of fire, exposing the ambushing enemy soldiers and leaving them nowhere to hide.

Seeing the enemies scrambling up the walls, the guards cheered, "We see them! Fire!"

Now, the enemies in the snow had become the targets. The archers on the walls fired from above with unerring accuracy. The guard archers unleashed a barrage, and screams of agony rose repeatedly from the foot of the wall.

Liu Tong, clad in leather armor studded with iron nails and plates, stared fiercely at the Lingzhou walls with sharp, piercing eyes. Once a powerful local magnate in Lingzhou, he had defected to Liang Shidu. Though Liang Shidu had named him a Left Commander, the Liang state was weak and impoverished, and the rewards were meager. Beyond the title, Liu Tong had gained little.

Seeing the Tang dynasty send reinforcements and Lingzhou remain secure, Liu Tong could no longer sit still. If he could not take Lingzhou and return as its savior, he would be nothing but a laughingstock.

Dissatisfied, he suggested to Liang Shidu that they strike on New Year's Eve, when Lingzhou would be caught off guard. With the Turks having suffered two consecutive defeats at the hands of Lingzhou and losing two Yabghus, if Liang Shidu could take the city, he would gain great prestige before the Shibi Khan. Liang Shidu agreed, scraping together two thousand "elite" troops for him.

In the pitch-black night, Liu Tong could not see the situation clearly, but the constant screams told him the Liang army was losing the upper hand.

Chen Ying used the incendiary bombs as flares to pick off the stragglers. As he counted off the fifth round of arrows, he suddenly ordered: "Ignite!"

This time, it was a massive bonfire. Chen Ying loaded an entire barrel of fierce fire oil onto a trebuchet and launched it. The fifty-pound barrel, wreathed in flames, soared through the air toward the outside of the wall.

With a thunderous "Boom," the barrel shattered, spraying oil and creating a wall of fire ten paces wide, leaving the enemy soldiers within hundreds of paces with nowhere to hide.

The light revealed the surging enemy troops clearly. Chen Ying was shocked to see they were carrying scaling ladders and were currently attempting to climb the walls!

If he hadn't been unable to sleep after his run-in with He Yue’er and had decided to come to the east gate in a fit of pique, the gate would likely have fallen by now. Or perhaps, in his sleep, he would have already been the enemy's prisoner.

Chen Ying shuddered at the thought. Perhaps Heaven did not want him to die; perhaps his time had not yet come.

If the enemy's conspiracy had succeeded, the consequences would have been unimaginable. Fortunately, they were destined to fail. A conspiracy, once seen through, loses all its power.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" The dense sound of arrows filled the air as the Tang troops relentlessly cut down the ambushing Liang soldiers.