Shaozhou City, beneath the blazing sun.
The siege had already lasted an entire morning.
The rebel army surged toward the city walls wave after wave like a tide. Siege ladders were raised one after another, only to be shoved down by the defenders.
Rolling stones and logs poured down from the walls, crashing into the attacking forces as screams rose and fell without end.
The moat had been dyed dark red with blood, its surface littered with severed limbs and shattered fragments of siege ladders.
Yet the rebel army never stopped.
Huang Chao's tactics were simple and brutal: attack in rotations, giving the defenders no chance to catch their breath. Once one unit had been battered into retreat, another immediately took its place.
From dawn until noon, the offensive had never ceased.
On the city walls, Xue Rengui was drenched in blood. His armor was covered in blade marks and arrow holes, his hair disheveled, his face smeared with blood and grime.
Yet he still stood at the highest point of the gate tower, like an iron nail driven into the city wall, utterly unmoving.
"General!" A deputy general ran over, his voice hoarse. "The rebel army is coming up again!"
Xue Rengui said nothing, merely tightening his grip on the saber in his hand.
Below the city, within the rebel ranks.
Huang Chao sat astride the Ink Cloud Colt, gazing at the city dyed red with blood, his brow slightly furrowed.
Shaozhou was harder to capture than he had expected, and Xue Rengui was better at defending it than he had expected.
Eighty thousand defenders had held their ground without retreating. After fighting for an entire morning, the walls remained firmly under the defenders' control.
"Commander." A personal guard rode over and clasped his fists in salute.
"A force