The Qu Zhao soldiers were pushing the battering ram, about to strike the city gate, when suddenly, the heavy gate slowly opened.
The Qu Zhao soldiers pushing the ram nearly stumbled and fell. Wait, what was going on?
Their battering ram hadn't even touched the gate yet, so why did it open?
Their forward momentum stalled, unsure if they should continue. Having fought for so many years, they had never seen anything like this. It felt like a trap.
Qu Xiang's eyes widened, and he exclaimed in disbelief, "The gate opened?!"
Qu Chou stared intently at the wide-open gate of Gefeng City, his eyes flashing with uncertainty.
He had been inside Gefeng City before and even lived there for a while; there was nothing special inside.
Could it be that the enemy had surrendered?
He quickly dismissed the thought. His side had suffered heavy casualties, while the enemy...
He looked at the sparse but tightly defended turtle-shell-like formations on the city wall.
By his estimation, the Gefeng soldiers defending the city shouldn't have suffered many casualties.
On the other side, the bloodshot-eyed Qu Zhao general looked at the open city gate. He was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.
"Everyone charge with me! The Hans have chickened out, the Hans have surrendered! Follow me and kill your way in! How dare they occupy our city! Kill them! Kill, kill, kill!"
He was the first to charge in.
The soldiers all followed suit, charging in and shouting, "Kill, kill, kill!"
The soldiers pushing the battering ram were bewildered. Just as they hesitated about whether to enter, they were swept into the city by the crazed soldiers.
The gate was already open, what was the point of pushing the ram?
It was better to go in together and kill the enemy.
Even the soldiers on the left and right who had set up scaling ladders to climb the walls dropped them and detoured to attack through the city gate.
Everyone knew that climbing the ladders was almost certain death, especially for those at the very front who were mere cannon fodder. How could that compare to entering directly through the city gate?
Qu Xiang felt uneasy, sensing that something was wrong. "General, shouldn't we stop them?"
Qu Chou's eyes turned sinister. "No, I want to see what's inside the city."
Passing through the long gate tunnel into the inner city, they found it completely different inside.
Directly in front were three small gate tunnels. Each could only allow a few people to pass through at a time; any more and they couldn't squeeze in.
He was astonished. Was this a barbican? Gefeng had been occupied for less than a month, and they had already built a barbican?
Hah, he wanted to see what kind of barbican could be built in such a short time.
He no longer hesitated and led the soldiers through the small gate tunnel. The tunnel wasn't long, only about three or four meters.
Passing through the tunnel, they entered a courtyard-like space.
The general looked up and burst into laughter. "I told you, what kind of barbican could the Hans build in a month? They think this can trap us?"
The barbican inside was less than half-finished. The walls were probably not even three meters high, and there were clay lumps and a few red bricks on the ground, showing how hastily the craftsmen had fled.
There wasn't a single Han soldier on the walls. Normally, after they entered the barbican, the enemy should be attacking them with arrows or fire.
Now he was even more certain that the Hans were scared, had run away, and surrendered!
He aggressively led the soldiers into the second set of small gate tunnels, afraid that if he ran too slowly, all the credit would be snatched away.
Passing through the second set of tunnels, they entered another large courtyard just like the first.
The general couldn't help but frown. He continued through the third set of tunnels, and it was yet another courtyard.
But this time, there were no tunnels to go through in the courtyard. No, wait, there were tunnels, but the portcullises had been lowered.
As he stopped, more and more soldiers poured in from behind. Soon, the courtyard was densely packed with Qu Zhao soldiers.
Because the third courtyard was too crowded, the number of soldiers in the second and first courtyards also grew rapidly.
The general shouted loudly, "The gates are hard to break through! Everyone work together to climb the walls! Hurry! As long as we get on the walls, enter the city, and kill all the Hans, the top merit will be ours!"
The Qu Zhao soldiers were pumped up like they had been injected with chicken blood, and they started pairing up.
But before they could make a move, a muffled humming sound came from beneath their feet, and the ground seemed to vibrate.
The Qu Zhao soldiers were shocked and all froze, not understanding what was happening.
After a series of clicking sounds, the ground suddenly slid apart to both sides, and the soldiers standing on it fell down like dumplings dropping into a pot.
"Ah!" Screams rang out, accompanied by agonizing howls.
In just an instant, more than half the soldiers in the courtyard were gone.
The soldiers still standing in the courtyard looked at the suddenly exposed deep pit, their faces filled with terror.
The pit was about six or seven meters deep, filled with hard wooden stakes of varying lengths, sharpened to an incredible point. The soldiers who had fallen in were almost all skewered like meat on a stick!
Only the blood-stained sharp wooden stakes remained, gleaming with a cold light.
The impaled soldiers were mostly not completely dead yet. Spitting blood, reaching out their hands, and twisting their bodies, they looked at their comrades above: "Save... save... help... save me..."
The soldiers above were frightened out of their wits. Just as they were about to retreat out of the city, the ground vibrated again.
The exposed opening suddenly closed with a loud bang, slamming heavily into the hearts of the Qu Zhao soldiers.
Click, click, click, the muffled sounds echoed again. The ground they were standing on opened up like the gaping maw of a ferocious beast, swallowing them all whole.
Jiang Jin stood on the inner city tower and waved the flag in her hand.
The soldiers standing on the horse track immediately relayed the order down.
Bang, the ground closed once more, sealing all the agonizing screams underground.
Not a single drop of blood splashed onto the ground. It looked clean and completely ordinary, leaving behind only the thick stench of blood.
Zhou Sui turned to look at Jiang Jin, once again marveling at her ingenious ideas. Without losing a single soldier, she had trapped and killed several hundred Qu Zhao soldiers, and the Qu Zhao army hadn't even had a chance to fight back.
This was only three barbican sections. Jiang Jin's goal was five, but the latter ones hadn't been built yet. Actually, even the first three weren't fully completed, but their 'pitfall' function was operational.
Precisely because they weren't finished, the three-meter-high walls could be easily scaled. Seeing that the Qu Zhao army was about to climb the walls, they had to act before the area was completely full, which resulted in 'trapping' fewer soldiers.
According to Jiang Jin's plan, the barbican walls were supposed to be over five meters high, making it very difficult to climb up using pure manpower without auxiliary tools.
Moreover, when the time came, soldiers could hide on the barbican walls to shoot the people trapped in the 'urn,' which would wipe out even more enemies.
Her design was actually very simple. The mechanism was located beneath the city walls, using heavy wooden planks fitted with rollers. It only took a few dozen strong young men pushing them from the inside to execute the 'pitfall' trap.
The lucky ones standing in the barbican gate tunnels were dumbfounded with terror. Seeing the ground close, they couldn't care less about anything else and turned to run outside.
They shouted, "It's a trap, inside there's..."
Just as they ran out of the tunnels, they were shot dead by Zhou Sui and the others standing on the inner city tower.
Meanwhile, at the main city gate, Qu Zhao soldiers were still constantly charging in. Although they heard screams from inside, they merely thought their forces had engaged the Hans and were even more eager to get inside to help.
Qu Chou watched the endless stream of people entering the city. Not a single one came out, and no one attacked the city tower. The distance was too great for him to hear any commotion from within.
He felt a vague sense of unease and immediately ordered, "Have them fall back!"
The retreat horn sounded, echoing throughout Gefeng City.
Jiang Jin ordered, "Close the gates!"
