Chapter 180 - Indulgence 3 days
The war began once again. The morning sun rose as if to greet the scene of slaughter. Unfortunately for Wan Cheng City, the rising sun represents the beginning of death.
“All forces, charge!” With a wave of Sun Ce’s spear, the war drums started beating again. Around ten thousand soldiers encircled the siege towers and slowly advanced forward. The tall Wan Cheng City has now become short.
“Liu Mang! Come out front and show me how you intend to destroy my siege towers!” Sun Ce was showing a face of excitement. Siege towers. This is truly siege towers. Sun Ce has also read historical records before. The records have shown the prowess of siege towers but the method of construction was not written down. Siege towers were not a siege weapon. The siege weapon technology is too low. A ram with a large tree trunk is enough already.
Siege towers are several hundred feet tall. It belongs in the high-altitude operations category. If the design of the siege tower is not good or the wood used is wrong, lives will be lost. When the siege tower is unable to support the weight of the soldiers, it would not be one but thousands of soldiers that fall to their death. Even if Sun Ce is the Prince of Jiangdong, he is not able to play with this kind of thing.
After that, Lu Su, who was recommended by Zhou Yu, took out a siege tower. Having this kind of mechanism to helps make siege operations easier. Sun Ce thinks that he already won Wan Cheng City. This is because Lu Bu is trapped in Lujiang, he immediately sent troops to Jiangxia. With siege towers, capturing the whole of Jingzhou would not be a problem. For example, Xiangyang City in comparison to Wan Cheng City is much bigger and the city defenses is also much stronger. After all, when Liu Biao has been in control for so many years and there was barely any conflict in that region. This is why Xiangyang’s defense is amazing. Sun Ce has also started to think about how to capture Xiangyang.
To capture Xiangyang, without a doubt, tens of thousands of corpses would need to be piled up first.
With siege towers, the situation will be different. Jingzhou’s Liu Biao has a lot of troops and horses. However, are they formidable? Each and every one of them are like chickens and dogs to Sun Ce. Fortunately, he only hides in his city. The moment he walks out of his city he would be gone forever.
Liu Biao not being able to leave his city is similar to Liu Mang at the moment and they would be unable to harm the siege tower. In that case, their fate would be to become a corpse under the might of the siege tower. To surrender or to die, either one is fine with Sun Ce. He is only interested in the outcome, not the process.
“Milord, requesting the destruction of these weapons after the end of this war!” Lu Su requested with dark circles in his eyes as he bowed to Sun Ce. In Lu Su’s opinion, the siege tower is a complete killing weapon. Its appearance is too wicked. The deaths of thousands on both sides is normal. The most terrible thing is that those under the rain of arrows have no survivors.
It is only because the attack against Wan Cheng City was hopeless which is why the siege tower was used. If the Sun Ce Army continued their attack that night, they will only be routed. Lu Su provided Sun Ce with the siege towers because he is unable to watch passively as Sun Ce loses.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Sun Ce quickly agreed but Lu Su can only sigh. He knows whatever he said to Sun Ce would be seen as nonsense. Sun Ce may actually destroy the siege tower after the battle is over but he has already seen and study the structure. As long as there is wood, he could assemble another siege tower anywhere.
Lu Su has regretted a little but regretting is no use. He can only take things step by step. Lu Su has already planned to retire from the army after this expedition as Sun Ce is not the lord he wants to serve.
“All units forward, break through Wan Cheng City. Large merits for those to manage to breach into the city including 3 days of undisciplined indulgence!” The siege has gone on for 2 days. Sun Ce knows that the soldiers and horses are all extremely tired and scared even if they did not say it. As today is the last day for the siege, to stimulate their morale and to prevent accidents, Sun Ce has prepared large rewards.
What is undisciplined indulgence for 3 days? That is, when Wan Cheng City is captured, they would be allowed to plunder the city freely for 3 days. Wan Cheng may belong to Sun Ce but right now it is captured by Lu Bu. Liu Mang has also slaughtered all the ruling nobles in Wan Cheng City. If the nobles were still alive then Sun Ce may not have dared to promise such a reward. But now there are no such complications. If you want to kill then just kill! Wan Cheng City is already exhausted and will need to recuperate.
Were the problems of the land the reason that the Shan Yue people did not fight with the local Hans? The Hans knew how to identify fertile lands and occupied most of them while giving the Shan Yue people dry lands. The Shan Yue people were unable to identify fertile land until they harvest their crops in autumn. Both the Hans and the Shan Yue people worked equally hard but the Hans reaped double the profit. The Hans were able to eat until they are warm and full but the Shan Yue people sometimes starve to death. How can the Shan Yue people receive peace of mind?
Especially when Sun Ce reoccupied Jiangdong, there were not much flames of war. The Han family was breeding well. As the Han population increase, it further aggravates the Shan Yue people’s hatred of the Hans. With so many people robbing each other’s means of livelihood, now even more people question whether they should let others live.
The Shanyue people places importance on mountains. They revere the mountains as if it was their mother or their god. The Hans have no concept about mountain god. They only know that by burning the mountain, fertile land will be able to be cultivated. Under the leadership of Han noblemen, many Shan Yue people and the trees on the mountain were cut down. Establishing a farmland at the mountains, the food goes into the mouth of the Han nobleman. The more they eat, the bigger their mouth became. On the other hand, the continuous expansion reduces the living space of the Shan Yue people and they became smaller.
With this kind of circumstances, the Shan Yue people became unable to tolerate it. In the end they revolted and took back their home. They take anything from the mountains to survive and are very fierce in fighting. Although fearsome, they initially did not scare Sun Ce. Merely 5,000 troops will be enough to suppress the Shan Yue people. But the Shan Yue people are sitting on the neighboring mountains. They revolt from time to time until Sun Ce’s Army chased them off to a remote mountain. The Shan Yue people were also no stupid. When they know that they are unable to take down big cities, they pillage small villages. Thousands came down the mountains to pillage and made Sun Ce miserable. And so, Jiangdong and Sun Ce’s biggest problem is the Shan Yue people.
After he is finished slaughtering Wan Cheng, he can give the Shan Yue people a portion of the city to migrate to and solve the dispute.
“3 days of indulgence!” Lu Su was struck with terror. This is Wan Cheng. At the end of the day, it is still Sun Ce’s city. Even if it is currently occupied by Lu Bu, it was not by the choice of the people.
“3 days of indulgence!?” Sun Ce’s roar was also heard by the Lu Bu’s Army. Is Sun Ce mad? Does he want to massacre the whole city?
Liu Mang dared to kill those tens of thousands of people because they have participated in the tragedy that night at Wan Cheng City. They murdered, plundered and did all sorts of evil acts. These people were all slaughtered by Liu Mang to cleanse the city. Now Sun Ce wants to slaughter the entire city just to raise the morale of his soldiers!
“3 days of indulgence!? General Sun Ce said that when the city is captured there will be 3 days of indulgence!?” The residents of Wan Cheng city that helped Liu Mang with preparing the food also heard the announcement and panicked. The General Sun Ce that was respected by the residents as an honorable man unexpectedly spoke such words. Without General Sun Ce, Wan Cheng City would never have experienced peace. They had hoped that when General Sun Ce returns, he would allow them to continue ploughing their fields but unexpectedly General Sun Ce had said those words.
It’s a massacre! They are afraid. Few days ago, many families were already slaughtered. At that time the culprit was only the nobility. Now Sun Ce has brought an entire army. The whole city would be slaughtered in a single day.
As the people rush about to inform others, fear spread through the whole city!