Chapter 271
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Chapter 271: Reinforcements Arrive
This skirmish was destined not to result in many casualties.
Luo Ji, with his disadvantage in troop numbers, could not sally out to pursue, and the attacking side, with its probing objective, could not afford to lose too many of its troops in a trial attack.
Both commanders understood this, engaging in a tactical back-and-forth.
After two rounds of siege, Shangyuan City’s forces quickly sounded the retreat.
During this period, they didn’t even use the siege towers.
Just as Luo Ji had guessed, Zhou Dongnan pushed out the siege towers more to act as a deterrent.
After all, he had witnessed the power of Luo Ji’s triple-bow crossbows.
There was no need to risk damaging the expensive siege towers in a probing skirmish.
Meanwhile, the news quickly reached Zhou Dongnan.
Looking at the battle report in his hand, Zhou Dongnan secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
At least the situation was stabilized.
Although being overrun in a lightning-fast offensive that captured East Frontier City and Songhe City at the outset was bad enough, fortunately, there was still room for recovery.
Next, according to his plan, he only needed the main army from Shangyuan City to tie down Luo Ji.
Once the reinforcements from the other side bypassed and arrived at Songshan City, they would launch a pincer attack, directly trapping Luo Ji in Songhe City and eliminating him in one swift blow to end the battle!
As he thought about the end, Zhou Dongnan’s eyes gleamed with chilling killing intent.
Days passed one after another.
Since that skirmish, Shangyuan City’s forces had likely set up camp nearby.
Every day, they would run around under Luo Ji’s nose like completing a daily task, occasionally launching sudden attacks on the city, clearly aiming to deplete their energy and draw their attention.
The enemy’s move was an open strategy.
Even though he knew Zhou Dongnan was trying to restrain him, he couldn’t simply ignore the 2,000 strong army outside Songhe City.
Both sides maintained this rhythm of mutual restraint and attrition.
On the 7th day of the full-scale war, with the setting sun, reinforcements from West Plains City successfully entered Songhe City after several days of continuous marching.
Seeing carts full of stones being transported into the city, Zhou Yi, who had walked over with Luo Ji, was a little dumbfounded.
If these stones were rolling stones, they seemed too small.
If they weren’t, he couldn’t think of any use for so many round stones.
“Leader, what are these stones for?”
Displaying his good habit of asking when unsure, Zhou Yi asked with a puzzled expression.
“They are sling bullets.”
Luo Ji said calmly.
“But why transport so many carts of sling bullets? For rolling stones, Songhe City’s walls should have plenty stockpiled, and these are too small.”
“These sling bullets are for slingers.”
“Sling, slingers?”
Zhou Yi’s expression froze for a moment.
After thinking for a long time, he finally reacted, because the term was too ancient and unfamiliar to him.
For them, the word “slinger” basically only existed in the tall tales of the older generation.
Luo Ji, upon understanding this situation, was also slightly surprised.
It seemed that Zhou Dongnan had developed for much longer than he had anticipated.
However, upon second thought, it wasn’t that strange.
In the course of development, even modern people sometimes found it difficult to advance their civilization if they couldn’t find certain special resources.
The most direct example of this was if you couldn’t find copper ore and tin ore, you wouldn’t be able to smelt bronze and thus couldn’t enter the Bronze Age.
Furthermore, before finding copper ore, you’d first need to find coal, or other materials to serve as fuel, because the temperature produced by burning ordinary wood was simply not enough to cast copper.
It was not uncommon for some players to get stuck at a certain stage for several years if they couldn’t find certain resources.
Luo Ji was considered to have developed relatively smoothly in the early stages, but even so, counting the 6-month novice period, he had spent 3 to 4 years in the unranked stage.
The span of the Bronze rank was clearly longer than the unranked stage.
Looking at these cities, Luo Ji estimated that Zhou Dongnan must have developed for decades, right?
Zhou Yi was only in his twenties, so by the time he was born, the slinger as a troop type had probably already been eliminated.
Facing a troop type from his father’s, or even grandfather’s generation, it was understandable that Zhou Yi couldn’t react immediately.
After he did react, his expression was utterly peculiar.
Before this actually happened, he couldn’t have imagined that he would actually see the slinger troop type.
What was even stranger was that he had witnessed over the past few days that Luo Ji’s forces possessed archer units that were in no way inferior to those of the Great Zhou.
Given this, what was the point of retaining an ancient troop type like slingers?
As Zhou Yi was thinking this, a man wearing bronze armor walked toward them.
The man’s appearance caught Zhou Yi’s attention.
In this era, even in the highly developed Great Zhou, those qualified to wear bronze armor were generals.
The man before him was most likely the general responsible for bringing these reinforcements.
This general gave Zhou Yi a very different feeling.
Although he did nothing, he exuded a composed aura, as if there was nothing he couldn’t endure.
His steps were unhurried, as if each stride was equally spaced.
While Zhou Yi’s thoughts raced, the man had already slowly walked to Luo Ji, then knelt on one knee.
“This humble general, Zhao Pan, greets the Chief!”
“Chief…”
Hearing this address, a flicker of thought crossed Zhou Yi’s eyes.
Since that day, he clearly knew that this address carried a special meaning.
Ordinary soldiers and officers would call Luo Ji “Leader,” but he currently only knew two people who called him “Chief,” one was Luo Yong, and the other was clearly this Zhao Pan.
Luo Yong’s bravery in splitting Liu Hu in half with an axe had left a deep impression on him, and this Zhao Pan was clearly no ordinary character either.
As he was thinking this, Luo Ji, standing beside him, had already spoken, his voice tinged with joy and a hint of relief.
“Zhao Pan, you’ve worked hard coming all the way from Iron Wall City.”
“This humble general is not tired. Thank you for your concern, Tribal Chief.”
“Come, let me introduce you. This is Zhou Yi, who just submitted to me a few days ago.”
As he spoke, Luo Ji patted Zhao Pan’s shoulder.
“Zhou Yi, this is Zhao Pan. He is one of my most trusted and beloved confidant generals.”
“With him here, it won’t be easy for Shangyuan City’s 2,000 siege troops to break through Songhe City’s west wall.”
“They might even be beaten back!”
