The Bad Girl's Quick Transmigration System: Traveling Back and Forth

Chapter 826 The setting sun is like blood, a lonely city is stained with blood (Page 12)

General Liu nodded vigorously and followed closely behind Ma San. With the general around, he felt much more at ease.

The battle raged from dawn until afternoon, the sun gradually setting, turning the sky blood-red. The walls of Black Iron City were riddled with holes, many sections collapsed. The defenders were dwindling in number, suffering heavy casualties; fewer than a thousand remained capable of fighting.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, gunpowder, and sweat, mingled with dust, making it almost impossible to breathe. General Liu's armor was splattered with dark red bloodstains, some dried and blackened, others still fresh, sticky against the cold metal. His hand gripping the spear was numb, the base of his thumb cracked and bleeding from the impact; each swing was accompanied by excruciating pain. But he dared not stop, nor could he stop. Beside him were his comrades, this crumbling Black Iron City; behind him were tens of thousands of unarmed civilians.

Ma San, the garrison commander of Black Iron City, stood beside a relatively intact section of the battlements, his gaze sharp as a hawk's, sweeping over the dense, surging enemy below—the allied forces of the northern barbarian tribes. He wasn't particularly burly, but his mere presence was like an unshakeable mountain, instilling a faint yet resilient strength in his surviving soldiers. His cloak had long been torn in the fierce battle, revealing bulging muscles and a crisscrossing network of scars on his exposed arms—the medals of years of warfare. His longsword, "Mountain Splitter," said to be forged from meteorite iron, still gleamed, its blade stained crimson with the blood of his enemies, dripping slowly down to form a small pool at his feet.

"General! Southwest corner! The southwest corner is about to fall! The barbarian battering rams are coming up again!" A wounded messenger rushed over, his voice hoarse and choked with sobs.

Ma San didn't turn around, but said in a deep voice, "Commander Liu!"

"Your subordinate is here!" General Liu's spirits lifted. Despite being exhausted, hearing Ma San's voice gave him a sense of security.

"Take three hundred men and immediately reinforce the southwest corner! Hold the line! Tell the brothers, the city stands, we stand; the city falls, we die!" Ma San's voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable authority and determination.

"Yes! We stand for the city, we stand for the people!" Lieutenant General Liu roared in response, turning around and shouting, "Personnel Battalion! Pikemen! Follow me! Reinforce the southwest corner!"

Behind him, a group of wounded but still determined soldiers immediately gathered. Three hundred men, who might have been just a vanguard in the early morning, were now the most valuable fighting force Black Iron City could muster. They followed General Liu, treading through blood-stained and broken bricks, rushing towards the deafening sounds of battle in the southwest corner.

The earth trembled with the muffled thud of barbarian battering rams striking the city walls. Each impact was accompanied by the crumbling of bricks and the cries of the defending soldiers. When General Liu arrived, he saw that a section of the city wall, about three zhang wide, had collapsed, revealing a huge breach. Dozens of barbarian soldiers, wielding curved swords, roared as they charged through the breach, while the defending soldiers formed a human wall with their bodies and rudimentary weapons, desperately resisting. The ground was piled high with the corpses of soldiers from both sides, layer upon layer, almost completely blocking the breach.

"Kill!" General Liu's eyes were bloodshot. He saw a familiar centurion being cleaved in the chest by a tall, burly barbarian man with an axe, blood and entrails spilling onto the ground. Just yesterday, that centurion had been laughing and telling him that after this battle, he would go home and marry Xiao Fang from the village entrance.

"Avenge the centurion! Kill!" General Liu roared, thrusting his spear forward and sending a barbarian soldier who had just climbed onto the city wall flying.

"Kill!" Three hundred soldiers charged into the melee at the breach like tigers descending a mountain. A dense forest of spears formed a deadly line, driving back the barbarian soldiers who had just peeked out.

"Push! Push them out!" General Liu personally took to the field, his spear wielding like a bloodthirsty serpent, each thrust taking a life. His left arm was grazed by an arrow, burning with pain, but he felt nothing. He knew that once this place fell, the barbarian army would flood into the city like a tidal wave, and then, everything would be over.

Below the city gate, the massive battering ram, like a ferocious beast, was propelled by dozens of bare-chested, muscular barbarian men, slamming it repeatedly against the remaining city gate and walls. Each impact caused the walls to shake violently, sending debris flying and making the soldiers on the walls tense.

"Archers! Shoot! Shoot those barbarians pushing the hammer!" General Liu roared.

The surviving archers struggled to their feet, drew their bows taut, and fired arrows down at the city walls. The arrows were sparse, and their accuracy waned with exhaustion, yet many barbarian strongmen still fell with screams. However, even more barbarian soldiers immediately surged forward, frantically pushing the battering ram. They were fearless, like a pack of mindless beasts.

"General! We're almost out of arrows!" cried the captain in charge of the archery team.

General Liu's heart sank. Without the suppression of arrows, the battering ram would pose an even greater threat. He glanced at the densely packed barbarian soldiers below the city, then at his pale-faced, exhausted brothers beside him, and a deep sense of powerlessness welled up within him. They had been fighting for a whole day, without food or water, sustained only by sheer willpower.

"Use stones! Use logs! Use anything you can smash! Smash them to death!" General Liu roared, his eyes bloodshot.

The stones and logs already prepared on the city wall, though few in number, became their lifeline. The soldiers used their last ounce of strength to push the heavy stones and burning logs off the wall. The agonizing screams of the barbarian soldiers echoed from below, but the muffled thud of the battering ram striking the wall showed no sign of abating.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Each impact felt like a blow to General Liu's heart. He watched as his soldiers fell one by one, some struck by arrows, some cleaved by barbarian scimitars, and some collapsing to the ground, exhausted and unable to rise again. Three hundred men were reduced to less than two hundred in the blink of an eye.

“General…we…we can’t hold on much longer…” A young soldier leaned against General Liu, a barbarian spear embedded in his chest, barely breathing. “I miss home…I miss my mother’s…dumplings…”

General Liu's nose tingled, and his eyes instantly welled up with tears. He patted the soldier's shoulder and choked out, "Brothers... hold on a little longer... hold on a little longer... General Ma will send reinforcements... We will definitely hold out..."

He said this, but he wasn't sure what to expect. General Ma was probably already strapped for cash. Black Iron City, this formidable pass that had stood in the northern border for hundreds of years—was it really going to be destroyed by their hands today?

Just then, the southwest corner of the city wall shook violently again, accompanied by a deafening roar. A section of the wall, several meters long, finally collapsed under the continuous impact of the battering ram! Smoke and dust filled the air, and debris flew everywhere!

"The city wall has collapsed! The city wall has collapsed!" The barbarian soldiers cheered deafeningly, like sharks smelling blood, and poured in madly through the breach.

"Block the breach! Block them!" General Liu's eyes were bloodshot; he knew the most critical moment had arrived. He threw away his dulled spear, drew his sword, roared, and charged ahead towards the barbarian soldiers at the breach.

"Kill!" The remaining soldiers roared in their final fury, following their general in a desperate charge against the swarming barbarian soldiers.

Swords flashed, blood and flesh flew. This was no longer a battle, but a meat grinder. General Liu, like a madman, wielded his sword with all his might, each strike delivered with desperate force. Several more wounds appeared on his body, blood gushing out and staining his battle robe crimson. His eyes were bloodshot; all he could see were the ferocious faces of the barbarian soldiers and his brothers falling one after another.

Suddenly, an unusually tall barbarian general, wielding a huge spiked club, roared and broke through the soldiers' blockade, heading straight for General Liu. The general was ugly, his face painted with strange paint, and his eyes were fierce; he was clearly a leader of considerable rank among the barbarians.

General Liu felt a chill run down his spine. He knew his physical strength had reached its limit and he might not be a match for the barbarian chieftain. But he did not retreat. Behind him lay Black Iron City and tens of thousands of civilians; he had nowhere to go!

"You barbarian! Prepare to die!" General Liu roared and charged forward to meet the spiked club.

The swords and clubs clashed, producing a piercing metallic clang. General Liu felt a tremendous force, a sharp pain in his arm, and his sword nearly slipped from his grasp. He staggered back several steps, his blood churning, a sweet taste rising in his throat, and he almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

The barbarian chieftain grinned maliciously and swung his spiked club again, the blow powerful and heavy, accompanied by a whistling sound.

A flicker of despair crossed General Liu's eyes. Was he, Liu, destined to die here today? His wife, children, and elderly mother—he feared he would never see them again…

At this critical moment, a bright blade of light, like a startled swan from the sky, struck first and accurately on the barbarian chieftain's spiked club.

"clang!"

With an even louder crash, the barbarian chieftain screamed as his spiked club was sent flying! He looked in horror toward the source of the blade's light and saw a figure appear before General Liu like a ghost.

It's Ma San!

Sometime later, Ma San himself arrived at the southwest corner. He had more wounds on his body, and his left arm also seemed to be injured, hastily bandaged with a strip of cloth, but his eyes were still as sharp as knives.

"General!" General Liu was both surprised and delighted, and almost cried.

Ma San ignored him, staring only at the barbarian chieftain, and said coldly, "How dare you, a mere barbarian, act so presumptuously in my Black Iron City!"

The barbarian chieftain clearly knew how formidable Ma San was; a flicker of fear crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by ferocity. He yelled and drew his curved sword, lunging forward.

Ma San snorted coldly, advancing instead of retreating. His "Mountain-Splitting" blade transformed into a blur of light, moving with lightning speed. Commander Liu only saw the flash of the blade and couldn't see Ma San's movements at all.

"Pfft!"

With a soft thud, the barbarian chieftain froze, his sinister grin vanishing. He looked down at his chest; a deep, bone-revealing wound stretched from his left shoulder to his right abdomen, blood gushing out like a fountain. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but only managed a muffled gurgling sound before collapsing to the ground, his eyes wide open in death.

"General, you are mighty!" The remaining soldiers, seeing this, were greatly encouraged and let out a thunderous cheer.

Ma San kicked aside the barbarian chieftain's corpse and said in a deep voice, "Liu Lieutenant General, you take your men to guard both sides of the breach and clear out the remaining enemies!"

"Yes!" General Liu was greatly encouraged and immediately organized his soldiers to launch a counterattack against the barbarian soldiers pouring through the breach, relying on the remaining ruins of the city wall.

Ma San, carrying the blood-dripping "Mountain-Splitting" knife, strode to the edge of the breach, his eyes blazing as he surveyed the area below the city.

The barbarian coalition below the city saw their leader killed, and their battering rams, out of control, came to a halt, their offensive momentarily halted. But soon, an even denser rain of arrows and more frenzied roars followed; clearly, the barbarian commander had also lost his mind and was determined to break through this breach at all costs.

"Fire!" Ma San ordered in a deep voice.

The archers he brought immediately began to fire arrows. Although their numbers were small, their accuracy was extremely high. Each volley felled a group of barbarian soldiers.

However, the barbarians were simply too numerous. They seemed endless; as soon as one fell, another would trample over the corpses of their comrades and continue charging upwards. At the breach, both sides were once again locked in a fierce tug-of-war.

Ma San himself stood at the forefront of the breach, his "Mountain-Splitting Blade" flashing up and down like the scythe of death, each swing inevitably taking a life. New wounds were constantly added to his body, and blood soaked his clothes, but he was like a tireless war god, firmly rooted there, becoming the last barrier of Black Iron City.