Chapter 168: 168
Chapter 168 – Liyang City
September 21st, 182 A . D .
Six thousand soldiers departed from Ye City along with 5,000 logistic reserved troops, drafted from the surrendered nobles' private troops . Among the 60,000 soldiers, five thousand of them was light cavalry, ten thousand heavy cavalries, and the rest were footmen .
Fortunately, they had stolen the warhorses from Bao Xin, so they had to luxury of having more cavalry troops .
Meanwhile, Ju Shou and Zhang He would depart a week later as they had to sneak away from the territory undetected . They had to use Tong and his men as a decoy to divert Huangfu Song and the other's attention first before they could leave the city .
The remaining nobles had 15,000 private troops in the Ye, which Jia Xu planned to use them as a garrison force to deter the merchants and opportunist individuals . He also planned to enlist the unemployed mercenaries from the dead nobles, which Tong had to fork out 300,000 gold from his inventory for the additional city budget .
He still had 1,800,000 taels of gold in his pocket inventory . Julu also profited from the food trade every month, and Hua Shi still had 2,500,000 gold with her . Splurging a bit in Ye City to develop the domestic stability would not hurt .
Tong, who was leading the troops, turned around and gazed at the city wall of Ye one more time .
Jia Xu did not even bother sending them off . He was busy running the city in full steam .
'Will it be 60,000 against 240,000? Or will it be 160,000 against 140,000?'
'Dong Zhuo, you'd better be a backstabbing biatch or I'll kill you instead of Lu Bu!'
'Dammit! Who would have thought that I will have to rely on Dong Zhuo of all people!?'
Tong turned to look at the 60,000 marching men . It was his first-time solo-manding this massive troops . Because of the abrupt departure from Julu, he did not take any other officers with him . Zhang Xiu and Zhang Ji still stationed in Julu, acting as temporary guardians in the case Liu Yan, Yuan Shao, or Sun Jian were to make a move on his home turf .
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September 28th, 182 A . D .
Tong and his troops arrived at Liyang County . With his recent experiences, a two-hour-forced-march order was issued to his army, making them rush one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to hasten the march .
As a result, they managed to move 20km a day, instead of 15 to 17, with all supply convoys tagging along, which covered the distanced of 140km on the seventh day of the march .
They made it to Liyang three days ahead of the schedule!
Tong was elated as he gazed upon the city wall of Liyang Region Capital City in front of him .
'It's all mathematics and the well-planned schedules . '
The smile on Tong's face did not last for long . He hesitated if he should siege on this small city, or should he negotiate with the Prefect of this city . By now, they should have noticed his arrival . The army flags inside the small city kept increasing the longer Tong looked at it .
Tong approached the wall, carrying a white flag and acted as a messenger .
"I am Zhang Tong of Ye Army! Please open the gate and let us in! We have e in peace!"
It did not take long to get his reply from the soldiers on the wall .
"BULLSH*T! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A TRAITOR!"
"ING IN PEACE!? PTUT!"
"SCRAM!"
"GET LOST!"
Several arrows flew and pieced the ground in front of Tong . These people made their stance, declaring themselves as his enemies .
"Wait! I meant no harm! We've brought food for the citizens!"
"WE DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"
"GO HOME!"
"BE GONE!"
Tong gulped as he tried to calm himself . Being chased away like a stray dog was not a pleasant feeling for anyone . Since the situation escalated this far, Tong had no choice . He had to be aggressive and threatening now .
"You have one day to surrender! After the sunset and the gate is still closed, we will siege the city!" Tong shouted .
Instead of getting panic, the well-dressed Prefect of this city stepped forward and shouted back .
"We shall fight to the death! We will not surrender to the rebels!"
With the brave prefect's declaration, his soldiers also roared .
"That's right! We are fighting to the death!"
"Get lost, traitors!"
Seeing their reaction, Tong retreated . Sullen expression showed on his face as he galloped his horse back to his men .
'Liu Ping's edict should have reached this city already . They're brainwashed!'
Persuading people in this era depended on the information manipulating abilities and the credibilities of the manipulator . This time, Liu Ping was faster and more efficient .
'Should I avoid the fight? But his city is the strategic point . '
'If my soldiers can rest behind the tall wall, their morale will be high . '
'What should I do?'
While Tong was pondering and looking back at the wall, his brain activated the overclock mode by accident, causing everything around him to bee a slow-motion movie .
He snapped back to his sense and canceled the spider-sense mode .
'I've forgotten again . I have a new toy, haven't I?'
'Let's test it tonight! My favorite way of doing things . '
'Sometimes I wonder if I was a cop or I was an assassin in my previous life . '
The eyes of Tong turned red again . It happened every time he leaked out his killing intent .
'They will pay for their insolence . '
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Tong's heart shook as if he had a heart attack . His vision darkened for five seconds before he came back to his sense .
In a panic, he touched all over his torso to see if he was still being in control of his body . Realizing that he could still freely move his body, Tong sighed in relief .
'Good gracious . I'm still the owner of my body . '
'That was dangerous . I thought I was a goner . '
'But damn! I have to do something with my [Pride]!'
During his five seconds of the blackout, messages had shown in front of him, but they were deleted by the system goddess . They were the logs of the battles between [Sloth] and [Pride] .
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September 28th, 2 A . M .
Sixty thousand men crept through the night . They stopped at 300m away from the wall while a task force of 100 men rushed under the wall .
The force took a detour and picked the east wall where the guards were lightest as the attention of the city garrisons were on the north gate .
The east gate was lightly guarded by ten men . On the other hand, two hundred men were stationed on the north gate . From the data on Tong's radar map, it was not hard for him to tell where he should strike .
The stone wall surface was uneven and bumpy, which was a perfect footing for climbing . A hundred strongmen carried their swords on their back and climbed the wall .
Within the hundred men, Tong was part of the group, leading the squad .
As Tong and his men were climbing, they made light noises from the stones inside the wall . The sharp patrolling guard walked over with a torch to see what happened . He took a peek down below .
*SOEK*
A knife stabbed into his throat, cutting off his voice and ability to speak . He lost his leg strength in an instant as his nerves were severed .
Tong grabbed the face of the patrolling guard and pulled him over, throwing him off the wall and making him flying toward the ground .
With the noisy pest gone, Tong raised his head to peek .
On his left, it was pitch black . On his right, only a few torches were still on and the three guards on duty were sleeping on the pathway .
Tong rechecked with his radar map again . The left wall did not have any guard and there were only the three soldiers to the right .
The patrolling duty was lax in this city . It seemed they thought that Tong would siege the city tomorrow, so they only left a few patrolling guards while the rest of the soldiers rested .
Tong climbed on top of the wall and signaled his men that the coast was clear . The rest of the hundred men slowly crept onto the top of the wall one by one .
While the squad was securing the position, Tong approached the sleeping guards and sliced their neck, one after another . He did not forget to toss these dead bodies down the wall outside, so no other patrol could notice their traces .
As soon as the one hundred men got on the wall, Tong waved his hand, gesturing them to follow him . His destination was the east gate where the rest of his army was waiting outside in secret .
Under the shelter on top of the gate, four guards sat in a circle as they were drinking and eating on duty while the other two men were soundly asleep .
Tong checked the distance between them and his squad .
"Take everyone downstairs and unlock the gate . Ten of you, load your crossbows . We'll take care of these men . "
Ninety men crept down the stairs toward to lower ground . Tong and his ten men snuck in the shadow . The moment everyone got into the position, Tong waved his hand again .
*SWOOSH*
*SWOOSH*
*SWOOSH*
Ten crossbow arrows pierced the four drinking men . As soon as the arrows touched the men, Tong activated his overclocked sense and rushed in . It was a good time to test it in the real battle .
As his hyper sense was activated, it felt similar to his [Time Stop] skill, but everything was still moving in slow motion . In addition, he had more times to act than the skill .
Within a span of 2 seconds, Tong reached the men and slashed down his sword, aiming at their throat to silence them . It took Tong another two seconds to swing his sword four times to kill them all .
He deactivated his bullet-time, breathing out his tension and stress . In his nose, a small blood vessel busted open and a trail of blood dripped down .
Smelling the iron in his blood, Tong swiped his nose and pondered .
'It doesn't consume my lifespan, but it hurts my brain . I shouldn't use it recklessly or I'll have to waste my daily regen skill before I get the real injury . '
Tong made a mental note to himself and darted his eyes toward the sleeping men .
Ten soldiers watched Tong in action with awe and astonishment . To Tong, the speed was ordinary, but to the normal people, Tong left an afterimage each time he moved or swung his sword . They had a new tale to tell their friends and their families now .
Tong and the ten soldiers did not know, his true ability was halved because [Sloth] was weakened . If he was in a plete condition, his movement speed should have been double .
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