A Battle of Chickens Pecking at Each Other

Two more boulders flew up and once again sailed over the wall.

This time, more people raised their heads to watch the boulders streak through the sky.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

The two huge rocks landed among the bandits again, setting off a chorus of ghostly wails and wolfish howls.

The bandits' charge faltered, and many began thinking of retreat.

At the sight, the villagers' courage surged. Many who had been trembling with fear just moments earlier now found their hands steady and their hearts calm. They threw back their heads and laughed. "Hahaha! That feels good! Smash those dumb bastards to death!"

"Keep going!"

"Li Da, Gao Yiyi, keep going!"

They hardly needed the encouragement. Li Da and Gao Yiyi had already run to the two Stone-Throwers below and raised their sledgehammers again.

The villagers stationed on the wall, along with the White Family's retainers, could not help turning around to watch the two blacksmiths...

Mister Bai flew into a rage. "Where are you looking? Keep your eyes outside the wall! Archers, get ready to shoot!"

Only his shout brought the villagers' attention back. They turned to look outside the wall-and good heavens, a group of the fiercest bandits had charged to within a dozen paces of it.

"Loose! Loose!"

Mister Bai screamed at the top of his lungs.

The White Family's retainers reacted fastest. They drew their bows in an instant, and four or five arrows flew out. Thud, thud, thud-they struck several bandits.

Li Daoxuan said, "A round of applause! Nice shooting."

But he immediately discovered that the bandits hit by arrows had not fallen. They kept charging forward. All those television scenes where someone died the moment an arrow struck were pure nonsense. In reality, "three arrows were no match for one saber cut, and three saber cuts were no match for one spear thrust." The arrows' power was practically a joke.

The villagers' light bows could do little more than put a small bloody hole in a bandit.

Several bandits drew their bows too and returned fire at the wall. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-dozens of feeble arrows rose into the air...

Li Daoxuan had intended to stay on the sidelines, but when he saw the bandits shooting, he could not help himself again. My little villagers barely have any armor yet. How much would it hurt to have a bloody hole shot through them?

His protective instincts flared. Unable to resist, he reached out and held his hand in front of the villagers. The bandits' arrows struck his palm and bounced off his skin, which had become two hundred times thicker...

(PS: A little fact-the skin on human palms and soles is the thickest, reaching 3-4 millimeters. After becoming two hundred times thicker, it would be an incredibly thick 60-80 centimeters.)

Only Gao Yiye could see the giant hand shielding the villagers from arrows. The bandits thought the wall had blocked their shots. They had no idea the villagers had already activated their cheat, latched onto a powerful patron's thick thigh, and were cheating like mad.

Two more boulders sailed overhead...

The bandits farther back were once again smashed into scurrying away like rats with their heads covered, but the fierce bandits at the front had already reached the foot of the wall. Several joined forces to raise a long scaling ladder toward it.

Mister Bai roared, "Throw rocks! Pour boiling oil!"

The White Family's retainers immediately picked up the rocks prepared beforehand and hurled them wildly down at the foot of the wall.

These rocks were far more powerful than arrows. Every head they struck burst like a flower, leaving the fierce bandits below in unspeakable misery.

The village women, already organized in the rear, hunched over as they carried pots full of boiling oil up the wall and handed them to the retainers.

The retainers took the pots and splashed the oil down indiscriminately. Once they had emptied them, they set the pots behind them, and the women hurried to carry them back down... Behind the wall, pots large and small sat over fires, heating oil to a furious boil.

The women returned to the pots, filled another brimming jug, then carried it back up the wall. This was fine rapeseed oil. It pained them deeply to use it for splashing people like this. Every jug they carried up felt like a little knife scraping at their hearts.

After a few exchanges, even the ordinary villagers who had been cowering finally steadied themselves. Battle cries rang out around them, and boulders flew overhead. For some reason, strength slowly returned to their trembling hands and feet.

Gao Chuwu sprang to the edge of the wall, picked up a large rock, and hurled it down with all his might. "Here I come!"

Zheng Daniu said, "Me too!"

Dozens of villagers surged up behind them. "We're here to help too!"

The dozen or so retainers flailing away on their own had clearly lacked striking power, but once the villagers joined in, the situation changed immediately. Big rocks, little rocks, large pots of oil, small pots of oil-they hurled everything madly down at the foot of the wall.

The first wave of fierce bandits to reach the wall was immediately battered into a rout. The team carrying a "battering log" to force the gate open was pounded so badly that they abandoned even the log, dropped it, and scurried off like rats with their heads covered.

But the bandits carrying the scaling ladder were still there. They had not come directly beneath the wall. Instead, they began raising the ladder several meters away. At that distance, the Stone-Throwers could not hit them, falling rocks could not strike them, and boiling oil could not reach them.

They actually managed to raise the ladder, then tilted it forward. With a clatter, the ladder lashed together from thick bamboo poles came to rest against the wall.

Several villagers immediately ran over, intending to push it away.

Mister Bai roared, "Don't try to push it! As if you could move that thing! Those with long spears, get over there and get ready to stab anyone climbing up!"

Before the battle, he had explained countless times what the villagers should do in every possible situation. But once the fighting actually started, they threw it all to the back of their minds. Hardly anyone did as he had instructed, leaving Mister Bai hopping about in fury and cursing nonstop.

Fortunately, the terrain gave them an enormous advantage!

The bandits were equally lacking in organization and discipline, all blundering about at random.

Amid the chaos, one fierce bandit climbed up the ladder, gripping it with one hand while wildly swinging a billhook with the other.

But how long could that billhook possibly be?

A villager raised a long bamboo spear with a sharpened tip and thrust it down at the bandit. The man screamed and fell from a height of twenty feet, landing on his back with a dull thump.

Between the spear wound and the fall, he clearly was not going to live.

But there was something different about the next bandit to climb up. He was built like an ox, big as a horse, and had actually wrapped himself in thick cowhide. A villager raised his bamboo spear and thrust at him, but the man did not even bother dodging.

The sharpened bamboo struck his chest and could not pierce the thick cowhide at all.

The villager lacked strength as well. His thrust failed to knock the man off the ladder. Gripping the ladder with one hand, the bandit swung the long-handled saber in his other hand and chopped the bamboo spear in half with a crack.

The villager jumped in fright and hurriedly retreated.

The man leaped onto the wall and laughed loudly. "They call me One Blade! Remember that name! Today, I'm going to slaughter every last one of you!"

Figures shifted before his eyes as several villagers charged at him.

One Blade was not the least bit intimidated. Wrapped in thick cowhide, he could not be hurt by ordinary weapons and had nothing to fear from a bunch of villagers. During yesterday's attack on White Family Fort, he had cut down five retainers single-handedly. That was how fierce he was.

He swung his saber at the first villager charging straight toward him.

"Clang!"

His blade had clearly struck the man's chest, yet it rang out with the sound of metal clashing against metal.

One Blade was shocked. "Iron armor!"