Chapter 242
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Chapter 242: The Flame Without Temperature
That horrifying sight incessantly provoked Luo Ji’s rationality.
The surging rage erupted like an active volcano at this moment!
Liu Meng’s heart jumped upon seeing this.
As a colleague, he too felt a mix of grief and indignation over Sun He’s fate.
However, as a military leader, losing one’s rationality before battle was a major taboo!
Realizing this, he quickly bit the bullet and spoke up to warn.
“Sir, this is the enemy’s ploy!”
“I know.”
Veins bulged exaggeratedly.
At this moment, every facial muscle of Luo Ji was twitching unnaturally, making everyone clearly realize that their leader was desperately forcing himself to calm down.
His seemingly constantly suppressed emotional tone inexplicably sent chills down one’s spine.
Just as Liu Meng said, it was Zhou Dongnan’s ploy.
The enemy was provoking him, hoping he would lose his mind and order the entire army to frantically charge the city, ultimately leading to destruction.
At this moment, he was treading on the edge of destruction and rationality.
The extreme emotional fluctuations did not turn him into a madman but pushed him towards another, more terrifying extreme.
“Begin… the siege!”
Liu Meng’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing this voice.
Luo Ji at this moment made Liu Meng momentarily at a loss for words, until a flash of inspiration brought a peculiar phrase to mind, a flame without any temperature.
Luo Ji at this moment was like a flame without any temperature, he was calm, yet fiercely burning!
Upon hearing the order, the various units began to spread out their formations.
Immediately after, 1 three-bow repeating crossbow after another was pushed out from the military formation.
With the successful smelting of bronze, Ye Xuan, having acquired new materials, also replaced some crucial components and upgraded the three-bow repeating crossbows to a certain extent, granting them greater range and stronger power.
Luo Ji’s movements could not escape Zhou Dongnan’s eyes.
Then, he merely huffed with annoyance.
“He didn’t directly attack the city. This Luo Ji is truly patient.”
While he was speaking, outside West Plains City, 4 three-bow repeating crossbows simultaneously opened fire.
Before Zhou Dongnan, who was standing on the city wall, could react, 4 consecutive loud bangs directly scared him into falling onto the ground.
“Damn it! What’s going on? What just happened?!”
“It’s the enemy’s repeating crossbows, the enemy’s repeating crossbows opened fire!”
Zhou Dongnan was bewildered by his soldiers’ reports.
He couldn’t quite process it.
He estimated the distance, and the enemy’s repeating crossbow unit was still 400 to 500 meters away!
Was this some kind of joke?
However, before he could personally confirm it, the enemy’s repeating crossbow unit had already opened fire again.
This time, he could see it exceptionally clearly.
One heavy crossbow bolt brazenly entered his line of sight, and right before his eyes, it instantly shattered the repeating crossbow, which was only 10 steps away from him!
“Heh, heh, what just happened?”
“The enemy’s repeating crossbows?”
“From 400 to 500 meters away?”
“They blew up the repeating crossbow I had placed on the city wall?”
The impact in that instant was simply too great, leaving Zhou Dongnan’s facial expression somewhat stunned, until the scattered fragments easily grazed his skin, and the stinging sensations pulled him back to reality!
“Damn it! What’s going on?”
“What in the world is this outrageous range and power?!”
The enemy’s objective was obvious, they wanted to destroy all the repeating crossbows he had placed on the city wall for defensive combat, and then attack the city wall!
However, that was no longer important.
The key point was that that cheat outside was attacking him from beyond his effective range!
At this moment, Zhou Dongnan’s mind was a complete mess.
When he had previously captured West Plains City, the three-bow repeating crossbows on West Plains City’s walls had also launched attacks.
But the problem was that, in front of such large siege engines, the soldiers themselves were as fragile as foam boards.
Three-bow repeating crossbows could easily destroy these foam boards, but ordinary repeating crossbows could do that too!
So, at that time, no difference in power could be discerned.
And he, relying on his superior numbers, pushed forward incredibly fast, causing the three-bow repeating crossbows to be moved to the city gate before they could fire many times, making it so he basically didn’t notice anything unusual.
After the city was breached, he had originally intended to confiscate those repeating crossbows as spoils of war, but unexpectedly, the defending general was absolutely ruthless, and he actually ordered someone to burn down both the military equipment warehouse and the repeating crossbows.
This infuriated Zhou Dongnan at the time, leading him to immediately order Sun He to be reduced to a human stick!
At this moment, Zhou Dongnan’s face instantly turned ashen.
He no longer had the luxury to dwell on the power and range of the enemy’s repeating crossbow unit.
His originally planned defensive battle was completely ruined the moment the enemy’s repeating crossbow unit opened fire.
“Everyone off the walls!”
“All infantry units gather behind the city gate!”
“After the enemy repeating crossbows’ next volley ends, immediately open the city gate and engage them outside the city!!”
Zhou Dongnan loudly issued his orders.
A defensive battle was no longer an option, so it was better to simply abandon the walls and engage them outside the city.
In terms of troop strength, he still held a clear advantage.
The open plains outside the city were more suitable for him to deploy his military formation and leverage his numerical superiority.
Once both infantry forces clashed, the enemy’s seemingly overpowered repeating crossbows would no longer be able to fire.
Zhou Dongnan’s decisive action surprised Luo Ji.
The infantry units directly charged out from West Plains City.
The enemy charged very quickly, and to increase their army’s advance speed, he even directly ordered his large shield soldiers to abandon their heavy shields and equip shield-axe soldier gear.
He clearly intended to quickly close the distance and render his three-bow repeating crossbows useless.
A distance of 400 to 500 meters, not close, not far.
Large siege engines like three-bow repeating crossbows were inherently very cumbersome to move.
To be greedy for those few kills and then start adjusting the military formation when the enemy infantry unit was almost upon them would clearly be unwise.
Thinking of this, Luo Ji decisively signaled the repeating crossbow unit to retreat, and while adjusting the infantry unit’s formation, he signaled the archer unit in the rear to begin firing arrows with all their might, suppressing the enemy infantry unit’s advance speed!
Zhou Dongnan was also not to be outdone, ordering his own archer unit to begin firing arrows.
With the intervention of both sides’ ranged units, the battle gradually entered a conventional engagement pattern.
Watching the enemy infantry unit advance, Luo Ji, sitting on horseback, slowly raised the bronze spear in his hand, pointing directly at the enemy formation.
“All troops! Charge!!!”
