No one around dared answer.
Fu Shanlie's gaze fell on Hong Ming. In his absence, the adjutant held command authority.
If anything went wrong, Hong Ming bore the blame.
"The troops behind her were disciplined and radiating murderous intent—wholly unlike the Yuheng Army. A force like that cannot be forged without years of slaughter on the battlefield." Seeing the vicious glint in his commander's eyes, Hong Ming scrambled to explain, "If we acted rashly, I feared—I feared ruining the General's plans!"
"Ruining my plans?"
Fu Shanlie suddenly punched him in the shoulder, sending him flying ten feet back. "You have already ruined my plans!"
"Even if she were General Red, those few dozen riders couldn't have flown over the walls!" he barked, suppressing his fury. "Just now, Yuheng City lowered the drawbridge, and you actually let such a golden opportunity slip by?!"
Everyone lowered their heads, not daring to utter a word.
"Useless trash!" Fu Shanlie cursed, pointing right at their noses. "When things are unusual, evil lurks! How could General Red abandon the northwest front and run all the way here in the dead of night, demanding entry?"
The subordinate from earlier stammered, "Perhaps... perhaps Yuheng City called on Panlong City for reinforcements?"
If they could seek help from Jintao, why couldn't Yuheng City ask Panlong City for aid?
After all, weren't the ties between those two cities far closer?
"Reinforcements?" Fu Shanlie smacked him upside the head, savage light flashing in his eyes. "If that bastard He could get General Red to intervene, why wouldn't he be the one guarding the city while General Red led the army to sweep through Longchuan?!"
If General Red came, she would be the top commander, naturally taking charge of the campaign. Why would she stay behind to watch the house for He Lingchuan in Yuheng City?
The blow knocked the subordinate unconscious. The others had a sudden moment of clarity—no wonder something had felt terribly off earlier!
"Besides, what was this 'General Red' doing loitering on the city wall? Wasn't it just so you could see her plain as day?" Fu Shanlie's rage flared even hotter. "Blind in eye and dim in wit—falling for such a simple trick!"
He Lingchuan wasn't even here; what a prime opportunity to attack! And these fools had completely squandered it!
Hong Ming ventured cautiously, "Then what now...?"
Attack now?
Fu Shanlie peered intently toward the South Gate once more, staring at that dark red silhouette atop the wall.
Although he had given his subordinates a vicious dressing-down, was it possible that this General Red was indeed the real person?
It was still possible.
After all, General Red's legs belonged to her; who could dictate where she went?
What if her arrival just happened to be an uncanny coincidence...? Were coincidences so rare in this world?
Even Fu Shanlie's own birth was a sheer coincidence.
In truth, he believed in coincidences more than anyone, but he could wait no longer.
He could already catch the scent of Emperor's Flowing Dew. Once the spiritual dew descended from the heavens, it would not bode well for his side.
"Attack! Signal the assault immediately! Not a moment longer!"
"Yes, General!"
Hong Ming dared not delay. Reaching into his robes, he snatched out the thousandfold knot and snapped it in two.
The general assault had begun!
***
Inside Yuheng City.
Following the explosion at the Zhao estate, the onlookers among the common folk had all returned to their homes to observe the curfew once more.
Order returned to the streets.
Yet just as a patrol squad marched past White Deer Street, more than thirty men suddenly surged out from two inns and an alleyway behind a residence near the East Gate, striding toward the gate. All of them wore the uniforms of the city guard.
The fluorescent spore street lamps shone brightly. Finding these faces unfamiliar and their movements suspicious, the East Gate guards shouted at once, "Halt! All of you, halt! Approach any further and you will be executed without mercy!"
At the warning, however, the figures drew concealed weapons and charged straight for the city gate.
Before they even arrived, dozens of explosive copper talismans were hurled against the wall.
A barrage of bangs echoed as plumes of acrid smoke billowed forth.
Every gate in Yuheng City was protected by outward-facing defensive formations, escape-art prohibition formations, and protective arrays that shielded these grand formations.
Without first sabotaging the formations from within, external enemies would find it nearly impossible to breach the walls.
"Enemy raid!"
Taking the stairs several at a time, the East Gate captain rushed up to the ramparts and looked out. His expression changed drastically:
Countless torches snaked out from the woods as a dense, swarming host converged toward the gate.
Judging by their numbers, there were no fewer than two thousand!
A rain of arrows poured toward the battlements like swarming locusts.
An assault from both inside and outside at once.
The East Gate captain dared not hesitate. While ordering his men to hold off the assault, he fired a red flaming command arrow into the sky and rang the alarm bell.
The blasts at the East Gate and the shrill peals of the alarm bell carried across all of Yuheng City. Yet according to protocol, he still had to loose this command arrow to signal the enemy raid.
As the explosions, the tolling bells, and the flaming command signal flared in sequence, City Defender Zhao Linyang immediately dispatched city guards to reinforce the East Gate.
When He Lingchuan set out to suppress the bandits, he had left eight hundred defenders behind in the city, which should have been more than sufficient under normal circumstances. Setting aside his security duties, He Lingchuan's adjutant Chao Qian dispatched two hundred men to reinforce the East Gate, but Zhao Linyang was dissatisfied: "How can a handful of men like that be enough?"
As they spoke, two more flares rose in succession over the East Gate.
That was the signal indicating the enemy assault had intensified. Chao Qian shook his head. "The remaining troops must guard the South Gate."
The other gates also needed garrisons.
By now, Chao Qian had pieced together the picture: the enemy had dispatched over thirty elites to infiltrate and lie in wait within Yuheng City before dusk. The descent of Emperor's Flowing Dew was their signal to strike.
These thirty-odd infiltrators were formidable. Having scouted the terrain beforehand, they seized a section of the stairway and put up a stubborn resistance, unleashing formations and flying arrows; meanwhile, the army outside assaulted the walls with all their might, coordinating from inside and out to create immense momentum.
With over four hundred defenders and the East Gate bolstered by defensive formations, they had to hold against an assault of more than two thousand men.
Fortunately, Zhao Linyang and Wen Daolun had already arrived on the scene and taken command.
Just then, rain began to fall from the sky. The droplets were fragrant, with a subtle stickiness.
Both sides locked in combat were taken aback:
Emperor's Flowing Dew was falling?
To choose tonight of all nights—what impeccable timing!
Among the soldiers transporting supplies within the city, some could not resist looking up to gulp mouthfuls of the spiritual rain, slackening their pace.
An overseer rushed over and lashed their backs with a whip:
"Move it, move it! Who said you could slack off?"
Originally, only the East Gate of Yuheng City was engulfed in clamor, but the moment Emperor's Flowing Dew descended, the entire city erupted.
The postal stations and private residences near the East Gate had previously been barred shut, but now their doors flew open one after another. Over three hundred traveling merchants and residents burst out, their eyes bloodshot, charging straight for the East Gate!
Men brandished fire pokers, women gripped rolling pins, porters dragged carrying poles, and youths clutched washbasins from home... grabbing whatever makeshift weapons were at hand.
These were all ordinary civilians of Yuheng City.
The guards locked in battle bellowed at them, "What are you doing?! Fall back, it's dangerous here!"
Yet the civilians acted completely deaf to the shouts, their eyes glazed as they joined the fray—
And their target was none other than the East Gate guards!
They were helping the enemy beat their own defenders.
These civilians fought with no form or discipline, but they possessed monstrous strength and felt no pain. One red-eyed youth had his nose smashed by a guard's hilt; blood gushed forth, yet he neither cried out in pain nor flinched. Instead, he threw all his strength into clinging to the guard, baring gleaming white teeth to tear at the man's throat.
Meng Shan rushed forward and sent him crashing into the wall with a single punch.
With a dull thud, the youth was knocked senseless, finally lying still.
The sudden turncoat madness of the civilians threw the East Gate guards into utter disarray.
These were not enemies, but neighboring residents. Some were even old acquaintances of the guards, familiar faces who greeted and chatted with them on ordinary days. How could the city guards bring themselves to strike them down?
Chapter 1035