Frontier Army Warrior

Chapter 1249 Desperate War Riders

Only three words remained in his mind: It's all over.

With a deafening roar, the Zhenxi Army's warships crashed into the city wall.

Toyotomi Saburo felt a sudden tremor beneath his feet, and the broken hull, along with the huge waves it created, splashed everywhere, sending debris flying everywhere.

The impact of the warships was too great, and their speed was too fast. The city walls, submerged in water, simply could not withstand such an impact.

In an instant, a huge breach was created, and as the warship disintegrated, the floodwaters found an outlet.

Such a huge breach was impossible to close; all they could do was watch helplessly as the floodwaters poured into the city.

The water level in the city rose rapidly again.

As if things weren't bad enough, the city wall was violently shaken by the impact, and the two city gates, which could not withstand the immense pressure, also gave up and swayed.

Toyotomi Saburo watched as the water level outside the city walls receded, but he felt no joy whatsoever.

That's because the floodwaters found an outlet and poured into the city.

He turned to look into the city, and in just a dozen breaths, many rooftops had disappeared, while a few scattered pavilions still stubbornly stood on the water.

Toyotomi Saburo had no experience dealing with such a flood, but as things unfolded, he came to his senses.

"Someone, quickly open the other three city gates, quick!"

He wanted to open the downstream city gates so that the floodwaters entering the city could flow out through the gates, thus relieving the pressure on the city more quickly.

However, given the current situation, with the soldiers submerged in the floodwaters, it will take time to carry out this order.

Even if they wanted to open the city gate, the gate panels, squeezed down by the water pressure, couldn't be opened as easily as they thought.

There were no boats in the city, so all the soldiers had to swim to move around.

Fortunately, they were all good swimmers, so unless there was an accident, they rarely drowned.

Despite being good at water, they couldn't live indefinitely in the water. The city walls were crowded with soldiers, and the buildings inside the city that were above the water level were also squeezed out of space.

The warhorses, having nowhere else to go, were swept away by the flood.

After a night, the sky brightened.

The water flow slowed down.

The city was in complete disarray. Although the water level had dropped somewhat, it was still higher than the rooftops, and more than 30,000 soldiers could only huddle on the city walls.

Everyone was waiting for the general's orders. In the chaos of the night, no one knew where the supplies had been washed away.

The flood was not the most terrifying thing in their eyes.

The most terrifying thing is that we have no food.

With no idea where their next meal would come from, all they felt was panic and dread.

Toyotomi Saburo sat alone in the castle tower, surrounded by guards who drove away the soldiers who were crowding around him, so that the general could quietly think of a way out.

The water flow outside the city slowed down, and the calm surface reflected a dazzling light.

Everything seemed to quiet down for a while.

Just then, a loud explosion suddenly rang out in the distance.

With a loud bang, a thick column of water erupted less than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) from the city wall.

The scattered water jets soaked the soldiers on the city wall.

Before anyone could react, a second explosion followed.

This time, the explosion didn't happen in the water, but landed on the city wall battlements, sending rocks flying and soldiers screaming in agony.

The pirate soldiers crammed onto the city wall were thrown into chaos, and some even jumped into the water.

Faced with the artillery bombardment from the Zhenxi Army, Toyotomi Saburo went mad and laughed bitterly.

Surrounded by vast bodies of water, what could he do even if he were bombarded by artillery?

This was the most helpless defeat Toyotomi Saburo had ever suffered since he took command of the army; there was nowhere to hide and no way to escape.

The most basic thing to do when facing artillery fire is to spread out the formation, but where should the troops spread out now?

The Zhenxi Army's first cannon shot was a test firing, used for adjusting the distance. The subsequent cannonballs accurately hit the city walls and the crowd of pirate soldiers.

More soldiers jumped into the water. Even in places not under artillery fire, the pirate soldiers felt uneasy and preferred to run into the water to avoid the shells, which was safer and more worry-free.

The shells, one after another, scattered a swarm of flies, and after a moment of chaos, they all jumped into the water.

Toyotomi Saburo didn't move, as if he had accepted his fate. "Go ahead and blow it up if you dare. I'm not going to dodge."

As the general leading the army of the entire clan, he certainly possesses a fearless spirit, even in the face of death.

The siege lasted for half an hour before the Zhenxi Army's warships slowly departed.

They weren't in a hurry to attack; the pirates had already been cornered, and defeat was only a matter of time.

The terrain of Danzhou City was indeed low. After three days, although most of the houses in the city were exposed, the water level stopped dropping.

Looking out from the city wall, all around was still a vast expanse of water, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The pirate soldiers on the city wall had been starving for three days, and their eyes were turning green.

During these three days, the Zhenxi Army's warships would occasionally come over and fire a couple of shots, causing them some panic.

On the third day, despite the Zhenxi Army's cannons firing, the soldiers crouching on the city wall remained completely unmoved.

That fearless spirit of facing death is just like that of Toyotomi Saburo.

They have become numb.

Of the more than 30,000 people, more than 10,000 have already died.

Those pirate soldiers, relying on their good swimming skills, secretly jumped out of the city and drifted downstream.

Rather than starve to death on the city wall, it's better to take a gamble and maybe manage to reach the shore.

On the fifth day, the soldiers on the city wall, who were originally a crowded group, became a sparse crowd.

The remaining meager grain was taken to the city gate tower and first supplied to Toyotomi Saburo, and then to the other high-ranking generals and guards.

Finally... there is none left.

On the seventh day, the water level in Danzhou City dropped to its lowest point, and in some places the land was already visible.

This is the engineering battalion of the Zhenxi Army. They have already blocked the upstream breach, filled the hole in the river channel, and restored the Qingxi River to its normal course.

All the pirate soldiers came down from the city wall and searched for food throughout the city. Some soldiers were too weak to walk and leaned against the city wall, waiting for death.

On the tenth day, Danzhou City returned to its original state. Most of the land had dried up, but some areas still had puddles and mud.

Toyotomi Saburo gathered the soldiers who were still able to move and began to retreat eastward from the city.

The ranks inside the city dwindled to less than five thousand men.

This battle was a very crushing defeat.

They emerged from the east gate of the city, trudging through the mud, and headed east.

There was no interception as I had imagined, and the surroundings were very quiet.

This gave the pirates a glimmer of hope for survival, and their steps became a little lighter.

When they had traveled more than 30 li, they saw the Zhenxi Army's cavalry in the distance.

Toyotomi Saburo was filled with despair. If the troops were at their peak, they could have put up a fight, but now these soldiers were all starved to death and had no fighting power left.

Isn't this just waiting for people to rush up and reap lives at will?

Even more desperate than him were the pirate soldiers, most of whom chose to stop advancing and simply sit down to await their deaths.

Toyotomi Saburo persevered until now, but finally his mental state collapsed.

With no hope of survival, even if he manages to escape alive, he will likely meet the same fate as Mizukawa Hide.

Let's just stop here.