"The main bandit force is here! They're everywhere! There are so many of them!"
The sentry on Gaojia Village's wall was the first to lose his nerve, his shrill cry sending a fresh ripple of panic through the defenders.
It was hardly surprising. Most villagers had spent their entire lives among a handful of houses, their fields, and the local market. For them, traveling to the next village was practically a major expedition. Now, nearly a thousand armed men were marching toward their home. It was enough to make even a healthy man's knees wonder whether they really needed to keep supporting him.
Li Daoxuan peered through his magnifying glass.
Honestly, he wasn't impressed.
The approaching army reminded him of a high school sports day, with thirty classes gathering for the opening ceremony. Except that even modern teenagers could manage a passable formation when their teachers were watching. These bandits couldn't do even that. They had no proper ranks, no unified commands, and apparently no idea that soldiers were supposed to march together rather than simply rush toward the same destination.
They looked more like a crowd of scruffy men who had heard that someone was giving away free food.
As they passed Li Daoxuan's imaginary review stand, nobody shouted a slogan about academic excellence or the glory of their school. Then again, their main extracurricular activities involved robbery, murder, and the occasional massacre. School spirit was hardly their strongest point.
Their physical condition wasn't much better. This was a year of drought, and many had gone months without a proper meal. Yellow faces, hollow cheeks, protruding bones. Judging by appearances, some of them looked as though a decent bowl of rice might be enough to make them weep with gratitude.
The villagers of Gaojia Village, by contrast, had spent the past two weeks eating rice, noodles, meat, vegetables, and even cooking oil every day. Their bodies had finally recovered some strength after a long period of hardship. Compared with these starving bandits, they were in considerably better shape.
Sadly, war was not a fitness competition. Being better fed did not automatically make someone better at killing.
The bandits possessed something the villagers lacked, and it had nothing to do with muscle.
They had momentum.
These men were predators who had already plundered several villages, slaughtered countless people, and even broken through the renowned Bai Family Fort. They had fought before and, more importantly, they had won. Every victory made the next battle easier to enter, while every helpless victim taught them that violence could solve almost any problem.
They had grown accustomed to bloodshed. A man who had never killed anyone might hesitate before delivering his first fatal blow, but these bandits had long since crossed that threshold. They could hack someone to death without blinking, walk around in blood-soaked clothes without losing their appetites, and commit atrocities without sparing a thought for their victims.
That was the real danger they posed. They were not necessarily stronger than the villagers, but they had already learned to do things that ordinary people could scarcely bring themselves to imagine.
The farmers of Gaojia Village had learned no such lessons.
When nearly a thousand armed men appeared on the horizon, the villagers began trembling. They had spent their lives working the land, not fighting battles. Even Shan Shi'er and Gao Yiye, who kept reminding everyone that Tianzun was protecting them, struggled to calm the crowd.
"Don't be afraid!" Shan Shi'er called. "We have Tianzun on our side!"
"Yes, Tianzun will protect us!" Gao Yiye added.
Their reassurances were perfectly reasonable, at least in theory. Unfortunately, the villagers' teeth continued to chatter. Faith was a fine thing to have, but it did not come with an automatic cure for battlefield nerves.
The bandit army stopped about a hundred meters from the wall.
A burly man strode out from the ranks, waving an enormous ghost-headed saber. His face was so thoroughly villainous that he could have walked into a teahouse and been identified as the troublemaker before ordering his first cup of wine.
He raised his saber and bellowed, "Listen up, you cowards of Gaojia Village! My name is Wushang Mingwang!"
He swept his gaze over the tall wall and sneered.
"So this is what all the fuss is about? You think a wall makes you untouchable? I was going to let your miserable village off for ten shi of grain, but you've wasted your chance. Now I'm taking everything, and I'll kill every last one of you for good measure! When we break through, not a single chicken or dog will survive. You'll all go straight to hell!"
He swung his saber through the air.
A thousand bandits immediately roared in response, repeating their chief's threats until their voices echoed across the fields.
The villagers fell silent.
For a moment, nobody seemed to know what to say. The enemy had just announced that he intended to kill everyone, including their livestock, which was a remarkably efficient way to discourage surrender.
Shan Shi'er swallowed nervously. Even he was beginning to lose his composure, and the trembling in his limbs was becoming difficult to hide.
Master Bai, however, merely snorted.
"What a pack of fools. They haven't even started fighting, yet they're already telling everyone inside that surrender is pointless. All they've accomplished is giving the defenders a reason to fight to the death."
He shook his head, looking more irritated by the enemy's poor strategy than frightened by the approaching army.
"If you want to capture a fortress, you use your head. Offer rewards, promise leniency, and persuade someone inside to open the gate. Why threaten to slaughter everyone before you've even reached the wall? A bandit who doesn't understand psychological warfare is just a thug with delusions of grandeur."
Shan Shi'er glanced at him.
"I suppose shouting has its uses, too. For instance, it's making me rather frightened."
Master Bai turned on him. "Then stop listening to them!"
"I'm a scholar, not a soldier!"
"So am I!" Master Bai retorted. "And I can still tell the difference between a threat and a battle plan. Now stop talking. We have work to do!"
He turned toward the two blacksmiths standing behind the wall.
"Li Da! Gao Yiyi! When I give the signal, hit the mechanisms with your hammers!"
"Understood!" the two men answered.
Master Bai then faced the dozen household guards from the Bai family.
"You men will handle the first wave!"
"Yes, sir!"
The guards responded crisply.
"Gao Chuwu! Zheng Daniu! You two will cover the second wave!"
"Yes, sir!"
The two sturdy young men answered together.
Master Bai surveyed the defenders and raised his voice. "Does everyone know what they're supposed to do?"
"Yes!"
"I think so..."
"Probably!"
The answers arrived in a bewildering mixture of confidence and uncertainty.
Master Bai stared at them.
These were more than a hundred able-bodied men, yet their collective discipline left something to be desired. A few understood their orders perfectly. Others seemed to be operating on the principle that as long as they followed the fellow beside them, everything would probably work out.
The defenders were not exactly a model army themselves.
Still, they had a tall wall, a handful of experienced men, and twenty catapults. Considering their circumstances, Master Bai would have to make do.
Meanwhile, Li Daoxuan had already fetched a small stool and settled himself beside the diorama. He held his bowl of rice in one hand and his magnifying glass in the other, ready to enjoy the spectacle.
Inside the box, the villagers were preparing for a fight that might determine whether they lived or died. Outside it, their divine protector had secured himself a comfortable seat for dinner.
One had to admit that being a god came with some excellent perks.
On the other side of the wall, Wushang Mingwang swept his saber through the air.
"Charge!"
His second-in-command leaned toward him, looking distinctly uneasy.
"Boss, there's a small problem."
"What now?"
"That wall is awfully tall. Where are we supposed to climb it? We can't exactly jump."
Wushang Mingwang glared at him as though he were considering whether to promote him to the position of village idiot.
"Where are the ladders I told you to prepare? Lean them against the wall, climb up, and take the village! Do I have to explain everything to you?"
"Oh! Right!"
The second-in-command hurried away, apparently grateful to have remembered his own responsibilities before his chief remembered how sharp his saber was.
Wushang Mingwang took a breath and shouted after him, "And don't forget the sharpened battering ram! We smash through their wooden gate, rush inside, and the village is ours!"
"Oh! Right!"
The bandit chief shut his eyes briefly, perhaps asking Heaven for patience. Unfortunately, Heaven had already allocated its attention elsewhere.
He raised his saber and addressed the army.
"Listen to me! We've got a thousand men, and they've barely got a hundred! Tell me, how are we supposed to lose? We smashed through Bai Family Fort, didn't we? This little village is nothing by comparison! Get moving! One good push, and the whole place is ours!"
His men roared in approval.
With Wushang Mingwang leading the way, the bandit army surged toward Gaojia Village. Swords and spears rose above the crowd, while men carrying crude ladders scrambled to keep up. Others strained beneath a heavy timber ram, their confidence apparently growing in proportion to the number of people helping them carry it.
The formation was a mess, but their enthusiasm was genuine.
After all, they had a ten-to-one numerical advantage. Their chief had promised them an easy victory, and they had already conquered Bai Family Fort. What could possibly go wrong?
As it turned out, quite a lot.
The sight of nearly a thousand men charging toward the village finally broke through the defenders' remaining composure. The villagers huddled together, clutching their weapons and exchanging frightened glances. Some looked as if they were about to faint, while others seemed to be reconsidering whether farming might have been a more sensible occupation after all.
Even Gao Yiye was frightened.
Standing atop the wall, she could feel her legs shaking beneath her. The roar of the advancing army seemed to grow louder with every step, and she knew perfectly well what would happen if the bandits broke through the defenses.
Then she remembered Mrs. Shan's advice.
The more dignified your bearing, the more people will respect Tianzun.
Gao Yiye clenched her teeth and straightened her back. Her heart was pounding, but she refused to let her fear show. She lifted her chin and tried to look calm, hoping the villagers would draw courage from her composure.
It was a remarkably brave performance from someone whose knees were doing their best to betray her.
Just then, Master Bai's voice thundered across the village.
"Blacksmiths! Strike!"
Li Da and Gao Yiyi raised their hammers.
Fortunately, the wall blocked their view of the charging bandits. They could hear the uproar outside, but they couldn't see a thousand men screaming as they rushed toward the village. Without that terrifying sight before their eyes, the two blacksmiths kept their hands steady.
At Master Bai's command, both men swung their heavy hammers down onto the catapult mechanisms.
THUD!
The catches snapped free.
The two plastic catapults sprang to life, their enormous throwing arms whipping upward and launching a pair of massive boulders into the sky.
The stones shot over the wall with a tremendous whoosh.
Gao Chuwu, Zheng Daniu, and the other defenders looked up as two enormous shadows swept overhead.
Then every eye in the village followed the boulders as they arced past the wall toward the enemy.
The villagers watched them depart, filled with infinite emotion. It was almost like seeing off beloved relatives on a long journey. Except that these particular relatives weighed several hundred pounds apiece and were about to ruin someone's entire afternoon.
Then the boulders struck.
BOOM!
The first stone smashed into the bandit ranks, crushing the men directly in its path. Its momentum carried it onward, rolling through the crowded formation and leaving a bloody trail of destruction behind it.
The second boulder followed, plowing through another section of the army.
Men who had been shouting threats moments earlier disappeared beneath the enormous stones. Others were knocked aside as the boulders rolled through the disorganized ranks, scattering weapons and bodies in every direction.
The bandit army broke.
"Oh, gods!"
"Zhang San was right in front of me! The boulder crushed him! He's been turned into meat paste! AAAAAH!"
"Why is there blood all over my face?!"
"Damn it! What the hell was that?!"
"Where did those boulders come from?!"
A moment ago, the bandits had been marching forward with the confidence of men who believed victory was already theirs. Now they were screaming, stumbling over fallen comrades, and scrambling to get out of the way of the next rolling stone.
Some abandoned their weapons and ran. Others stood frozen, unable to understand how a supposedly insignificant village had suddenly acquired such terrifying firepower.
Their chief had promised an easy victory. A thousand men against a hundred, ladders for the wall, and a battering ram for the gate. By ordinary military calculations, it was a perfectly reasonable plan.
Unfortunately, those calculations had overlooked one rather important detail.
Gaojia Village had divine siege weapons.
And those first two boulders were only the beginning.
Behind the wall, Li Da and Gao Yiyi had already moved to the next pair of catapults. The two blacksmiths raised their hammers again, now with considerably more confidence than before.
There were still eighteen catapults waiting to fire.
The bandits had barely begun to recover from the first attack when the two hammers came crashing down on the next pair of mechanisms.
THUD!