novelraw Chapter 238 - 11: An Unorthodox Siege Strategy
Chapter 238 - 11: An Unorthodox Siege Strategy
Kuge understood at once and barked out the order in a deep voice:
"All Dragon Cavalry!"
"Form up!"
At his words, the Dragon Knights behind him beat their wings in unison. The clang of armor on Dragon Scale thundered through the sky. A palpable pressure, like storm clouds gathering over a city, washed over the entire section of the Great Wall as they prepared to strike.
Meanwhile, Qin Feng himself, riding the Mercenary Winged Dragon—now a Divine Chosen Soldier, completely won over by his charisma—soared past the raging battle above the ramparts. He bypassed the Northern Territory defenders lying in wait and charged straight for the heartland behind the Great Wall.
The Defense Power of the Northern Territory’s Great Wall was terrifying. Its sturdiness was likely comparable to a level 10 wall built by Lord Players.
To put that in perspective, even the top players today could at most build a level 6 wall, even if they poured all their resources into it.
The difference between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
Not to mention, the Northern Territory soldiers had long since utilized the Arrow Towers and Dark Fortresses within the Great Wall to weave an impenetrable web of crossfire.
Crossbowmen lay in wait behind every crenel, arrowheads glinting coldly in the shadows. Deep within every passageway, squads prepared to fight to the death, and the clang of blades on armor could erupt from around any corner.
To eliminate these strongholds within the Great Wall one by one, there were essentially only two paths he could take.
’Either I can have my troops endure the enemy’s Arrow Rain and Magic attacks, blast open the incredibly sturdy walls by force, and let the Divine Chosen Army pour in through multiple breaches. Then, we could leverage our numerical superiority to simply steamroll the various enemy outposts hidden within the Great Wall.’
’Or, I could dispatch a powerful elite squad to scale the walls. But that would require spending an immense amount of time clearing out hidden sentries floor by floor, from top to bottom, until they reached the lowest level. Only then could they open the Great Wall’s gates from the inside to let the waiting Divine Chosen Army through.’
However, both options had serious drawbacks. ’A frontal assault on this mighty fortress—garrisoned by one hundred thousand regular soldiers, supplemented by several hundred Extraordinary Soldiers, and commanded by three Extraordinary Heroes—would mean catastrophic, unbearable losses for my ground forces.’
’And if I rely solely on my one hundred-odd Dragon Knights, even though they could clear the defenders from the walls without a single casualty thanks to Heaven-defying Talent Bonuses like the Evil Aura, it wouldn’t solve the core problem. Completely clearing out the entire Great Wall, especially rooting out the soldiers turtled up inside the ramparts who can fire through arrow slits, would take a dozen days or more.’
’And time,’ he thought, ’is precisely the one thing I can’t afford to waste.’
The Duke of the Northern Territory would certainly dispatch secret armies hidden elsewhere to reinforce them.
Therefore, Qin Feng had to find another path. He would have to use a method that involved great loss, one he was extremely reluctant to employ—he would have the Void Creatures of the Northern Death Zone kill Arthas, then kill the vast Undead Army he had raised, and finally re-summon Arthas near the Great Wall.
Then,
he just needed to have a Winged Dragon drop Arthas onto the Great Wall.
While this wouldn’t be enough to capture the wall in one fell swoop, Arthas’s Undead Magic was naturally suited for crushing weaker foes. That, combined with the additional Undead Army he could summon, would be perfect for drawing the defenders’ full attention, creating an opportunity for the main Divine Chosen Army to breach the wall with minimal losses.
Furthermore,
even if the Duke of the Northern Territory dispatched large reinforcements later on,
the Undead Army deployed on the inner side of the Great Wall could then switch targets. They would act as an iron bulwark, blocking the access tunnels and preventing the Northern Territory’s reinforcements from entering the fortress.
At that point,
without the cover of the Great Wall’s ramparts,
these flightless Northern Territory troops would become sitting ducks out in the open.
Even with only one hundred Extraordinary Dragon Cavalry, their advantage in diving from above would be more than enough to completely annihilate these enemy forces, who lacked the long-range suppressive fire of Elf Archers, sending them scattering in a terrified rout.