The hour of zi, midnight!
Ning Chen tested the wind and couldn't keep a smile off his face.
"Heaven really is on my side!"
The wind was blowing out of the south.
If it had been blowing the wrong way, he'd have had to send his men to blast the gate open under the enemy's arrows.
"Go!"
At Ning Chen's command, twenty thousand troops bore down on Yangzhou City.
Ten thousand archers, ten thousand shield troops!
Behind them, the Ning'an Army under Yuan Long and the other eighty thousand stood gathered and ready.
The Nanyue soldiers on the walls saw them coming.
They reacted at once, nocking arrows to their bows.
But just then, dozens of hot-air balloons rose into the air.
"Loose!"
At the Nanyue officer's command, a storm of arrows flew at the balloons.
Countless arrows struck the bamboo baskets beneath the balloons, throwing off sparks.
The baskets were sheathed in iron.
"Loose! Keep loosing..."
The Nanyue officer was bellowing.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!!!
Thousands upon thousands of arrows flew at the balloons.
But the balloons were already rising slowly, and all the arrows could hit were the baskets underneath.
The balloons floated on toward the top of the wall.
Just then, Ning Chen's army began its attack.
At the order, a hail of arrows flew at the top of the wall.
In an instant, shrill screams split the night.
On the wall, the Nanyue officer saw what was happening and ordered his men to stop shooting at the balloons and shoot down at the men below instead.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!!!
The sharp whistle of arrows filled the night.
The two sides began to trade volleys.
Volley after volley rained down, and both sides took casualties.
Ning Chen's archers had shield troops protecting them, but not every arrow in a sky full of them could be blocked, and they still took heavy losses.
Mounted on Diaochan, Ning Chen kept his eyes fixed on the balloons overhead.
Only when the balloons had drifted out over the wall did a smile come over his face... Now the real attack could begin.
Satchel charges and bundled…
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