Chapter 90: The City Defense Battle Begins

As Li Hongshen drew near the battlements, he could clearly hear roaring, whimpering, the thud of heavy blows, and the hiss of arrows in flight.

All the sounds mingled into utter chaos, yet together they formed something like a symphony, each with its own peculiar rhythm.

Amid the clamor he could pick out the steadier beat of impacts and bowstrings loosing, and he could also sense the more obvious currents of spiritual energy—clearly the spellcasters were busy bolstering the warriors with enchantments.

Between those bursts of sound came beastly roars and howls, along with the crash of heavy bodies striking the ground.

Li Hongshen slid down from Da Ha’s back, drew the spear from his weapon belt, and with a few leaps along the stairway climbed up onto the wall.

The moment he arrived, he saw Li Li standing before the watchtower with no intention of personally joining the fight.

Compared with the two of them, the spellcasters in the tower were far busier. Li Hongshen could clearly see waves of light flickering within the tower before descending onto the battlements to strengthen the warriors.

The fighters on the wall were divided into two lines, taking turns to fire arrows, while militia members moved along the tracks atop the wall to supply them with shafts.

“How is it?”

When Li Li heard Li Hongshen’s voice from behind, he turned and gave a slight bow of his upper body.

“Report to the clan leader: all is well, about as we expected. This first wave is indeed the grassland jackals we detected earlier. They’re not very large, but they’re quite agile, and some of the tougher ones can even scale the wall.”

“Mm. I never expected to keep these beasts out entirely. As long as they don’t leap up all at once, we can deal with them. Keep recording the information, and see whether there are any promising ones among them.

How many desolate beasts are there among these grassland jackals? Are they probing us?”

“I’m not sure of the exact number. I did see one larger one with orange-red fur, but the moment it noticed I was looking at it, it immediately hid itself. We still haven’t found it.”

Li Hongshen walked to the back of the warriors and rose onto his toes to look outside. After all, his height was somewhat lacking among these men, whose average height was close to two meters.

At a glance, the grassland below seemed entirely covered in a reddish-brown tide. These grassland jackals were not large, standing under three meters at the shoulder and nearly four meters long, with tails that were faintly blackened.

Ordinarily, these grassland jackals were rather intelligent beasts. When they encountered a city, they would normally avoid it on their own. Having survived in the endless wastelands for so long, the danger of a fortified settlement was carved deep into their bones.

But now these beasts, which usually detoured around cities, were under the control of that earlier pulse and had gone as if mad, their eyes burning red as they hurled themselves furiously at the walls.

Now and then one would slam headlong into the sealed city gate, only to split its own skull open and achieve nothing else.

After all, Li Hongshen had personally found a stretch of ironwood forest in the wastelands and, in great luxury, had felled two ironwood tree kings that had already become spiritual plants, turning them into four city gates.

If such gates were truly smashed open by only a handful of grassland jackals, what face would he have left? The prestige of the ironwood tree kings would be completely ruined.

Seeing the warriors busily at work before him, Li Hongshen did not step forward to offer encouragement. Instead, he took out his small notebook and began making notes.

This notebook was for recording information and suggesting improvements to the walls. Just like now, his first city wall was indeed tall enough, but the workmanship of the wall face was not up to standard, leaving the stone bricks somewhat uneven on the surface.

That gave beasts like the grassland jackals, small of build, light of weight, and agile in movement, the chance to use some of the protruding stones as platforms, spring up, and leap onto the wall.

Though they would be killed or knocked down by the warriors guarding the battlements very quickly, they still disrupted the rhythm of the defenders.

“These warriors still need training. They’re still not used to defensive fighting. Look how little it takes—a single jackal getting up here can throw off the rhythm around it. They really don’t trust their comrades enough.

When this is over, remind me to start improving the training system. At the very least, we need a full reorganization of the army.

For now, that’s enough. Keep watch here; I’m going to look at the other defensive lines.”

After hearing Li Hongshen’s words, Li Li’s face flushed slightly. He had seen the warriors’ reactions himself, and they really were, as Li Hongshen said, somewhat lacking.

Because this was an active battle, he had not forcibly required the warriors to change. Now that Li Hongshen had pointed it out, Li Li felt a bit embarrassed himself.

These warriors had all originally come from hunting squads. They were accustomed to the way hunters fought: once attacked, they scattered on their own. Now that they were being made to defend a city, they were inevitably somewhat unaccustomed to it.

Even though they had already gone through several drills and trials before, once real combat began, they still followed bodily instinct. That did not mean they were poor—on the contrary, they were all outstanding wasteland hunters.

But precisely because they were too outstanding, hunting had already become an instinct in their flesh and blood, which made them somewhat ill at ease in this new role.

These were the very things the lord needed to correct and reform. If this group of warriors could not complete the transition, Li Hongshen would cut them away without mercy.

From then on, they would lose their qualification to join the regular army. Li Hongshen set a very high standard for full-time soldiers: they must be able to survive in the wild and become ruthless hunters, and they must also be able to fight in unison with their comrades atop the walls, like a single immovable stone encircling the city.

Thus, the iron law of promoting the capable and dismissing the mediocre prevailed in the Hong tribe. With the exception of Li Hongshen, no one could disobey it. Everyone respected this rule, not only to give newcomers hope, but also to pressure the veterans.

After leaving the north gate, where Li Li was stationed, Li Hongshen took a pushcart along the track. His next stop was the east gate, guarded by Li Zhong.

Li Zhong was now also a second-tier warrior. Not long after Li Li’s advancement, after a conversation between the two, he had smoothly broken through as well.

The east gate under Li Zhong looked relatively relaxed, since only one beast tide had arrived so far, and the main assault was still directed at the north gate. His side was only sharing a small portion of the pressure.

After greeting Li Zhong, Li Hongshen watched the warriors there pick off the grassland jackals with precise shots. They did not seem to relax their vigilance simply because the enemy force was smaller, which pleased him.

Seeing nothing worth adding to his notebook, Li Hongshen exchanged a few brief words with Li Zhong, then continued on the pushcart together with the militia transporting supplies, heading for the south gate.