"Drip!"
The mixture dripped down, splashing up a faint smell of blood.
Cowed by his terrifying presence, the soldiers, frightened to their limits, finally, finally stopped retreating and gritted their teeth as they continued serving up their heads to the Self-Defense Army.
Yet even the defending general's forceful suppression could not prevent the fall of the city he defended.
Corpses lay piled like mountains above and below the walls, all ordinary soldiers of the Cangling Kingdom who had died with their eyes still open. An officer missing an arm stumbled up to the defending general and pleaded, "General, our brothers really can't hold on anymore. Let's retreat!"
The defending general froze, then demanded angrily, "Where else can we retreat to? This is the Shenzhou Kingdom's Primordial City. If we can't even hold this fortress, retreating will only lead to death."
Before the officer could speak, he continued, "Besides, if we fail, the enemy will have cut off our main army's retreat, putting the entire army in danger. When that happens, you and I will become great sinners of the Cangling Kingdom!"
"General, that isn't quite right," the officer said. "We can temporarily withdraw from Primordial City and join General Shangguan's forces. General Shangguan has two hundred thousand troops as well. In just a few days, once we've reorganized our troops and returned, couldn't we simply retake Primordial City?"
Since their two hundred thousand men could not hold a single city, they could use four hundred thousand to surround all of Primordial City, besieging the city while striking at its reinforcements. This would secure the logistical supplies for the main army attacking Shenzhou City while pinning the Self-Defense Army here, preventing it from reinforcing Shenzhou City.
The general's eyes immediately lit up. Rather than expend all his soldiers in Primordial City,