Author notes: Thank you for reading. I do not own kingdom.
Chapter three
First assault
The Shili unit stood at attention. Compared to other units the Shili unit was disciplined, they were a well molded knife ready to pierce its enemy's ribs. Lia stood in front of his men, all 300 of them stared straight ahead their eyes filled with iron.
"The Chu is launching their first assault!" Lia shouted. "We will defend the southern wall to the last man. We will fight like we always do in a siege attack, one-hundred soldiers will come with me and we will switch off with Sin commanding another one-hundred in two hours. After that she will switch off with Lau and so forth."
"AYE SIR," the ranks of soldiers responded to their commanders words.
"NO MERCY TO THE CHU!"
"HOOAH," the soldiers screamed banging their spears into the ground below them.
Lia couldn't help but smile as he led his men up to the ramparts. The plan was simple once they got up there. Fifty men with their broadswords would engage the enemy as they made it into the ramparts. The other fifty would use spears behind the first fifty men and protect them from a distance. This way the casualty rate would be almost none existed for the Shilia men but the death rate on the other side would be massive.
The Chu came at the walls like a wave of wild dogs. Despite the arrows that fell like rain over their heads they climbed up the siege ladders and came face to face with the men on the ramparts. They cut down the first row in the middle of the wall with eases. They went to create a foothold but were stopped abruptly from the next row that consisted of Lia's men.
Lia deflected a strike to his head. As he did that he ran his double-edge long knife into the soldier's throat. The soldier stumbled back grabbing the wound. Lia gave him a kick in the stomach to send him on his back.
A soldier came at him swinging his sword over his head to take Lia's life. However before he could get into rage a spear pierced his chest sending him to the afterlife. Lia pushed his men forward entail they slaughtered the Chu men that came on the ramparts.
The Chu continued to climb up the walls and engage the Qin in close quarter combat. Many of the pockets of fighting didn't even give enough room to use a sword, instead many soldiers used clubs and knives to drive their enemies back.
Lia however made sure to make enough room to swing a sword. He allowed the Chu enough room to come into the ramparts only to be struck down by swords and spears. When an officer with a glaive came into the ramparts he broke the killing spree of the Shilia unit.
He swung his glaive taking the head of one of Lia's soldiers with one chop.
Lia sheathed his sword and snatched a spear from one of his men. He came at the man spear in hand.
The officer swung his glaive intent on taking Lia's head.
Lia however barely ducked in time, he ran the spear head straight into the man's groin.
The officer screamed in pain but it was short lived. A spear from a second soldier ran straight into his left eye socket killing him outright.
Lia tossed the spear back to the soldier. He bent over the corpse of the officer and picked up his glaive. He swung the weapon at a Chu man who came over the wall screaming like a mad man.
The weapon struck his left side. The blade of the glaive dug through his armor and crunched his ribs. The force from the blow sent the soldier to his side, blood gushing out of his mouth as he tried to regain his feet.
Lia thrusted down ending the soldiers' life, he then swung the glaive once again this time catching the right side of a soldiers head killing him with one strike.
"Not one soldier gets past us!"
"HOOAH," his men responded.
On the east wall Shin swung his glaive taking a soldier's life. He swung the glaive again this time striking a soldier's left leg. He cut through the flesh and bone taking the entire leg from the man. Before the soldier could even fall to the ground he swung up catching the bottom of his right elbow and taking the man's entire right arm as well.
"These guys are pretty strong," Shin breathed, "didn't think they would put up such a fight."
"Somethings happening at the southern wall," Shin over heard a soldier speak.
He wondered what it was. He was given no reports of the Chu overrunning the wall, and it seemed that the enemy was actually losing quite a bit of men over. He wondered who was commanding the troops over there.
Shin however didn't have time to think too deeply on it. He continued to lead the men in the east wall driving back the Chu forces. Through the entire time he was surprised of how disciplined the enemy forces were. But that didn't stop Shin's glaive from cleaving them in two.
The day went by without much gain between the two sides. Shin fought them entail finally at dusk the enemy fell back to their camps taking the dead and wounded with them. Shin however didn't see any indication of lower morale; instead he saw that they clearly didn't lose any morale at all they were exactly the same as when they began the assault.
Shin let one of his men take his glaive to clean and sharpen it for him as he went to meet up with Ten and Kai. He knew that the west wall that Kai was in command of probably slaughtered many Chu. Kai wasn't someone who went easy on the enemy.
Shin found Ten looking over a map while Kai watched the enemy camps.
"So how did it go?" shin asked.
Ten looked up from the map, "so far so good. Each wall held up quite well and didn't let any footholds in their ranks spread. However it seemed that the southern wall actually let footholds open."
"What the hell were they thinking, who was in command?"
"Well it was a thousand men Commander but he retired shortly after being struck by arrow in his thigh he let a three-hundred man commander take the lead. The commander was that creepy guy you were talking about, he used gapes to let distance stretch out along the ramparts. He then put swordsmen in front then spearmen in back to cover them. Quite a simple formation that this Shili unit taught to the reserves but it worked quite affectively. Right now the commander of the Shili unit is teaching all the soldiers in the southern wall the formation."
"He just wants to die doesn't he?"
"Maye he doesn't care about that." Kai suddenly said, "I met him after the battle. He had something in his eyes, a wildness of acid like a stray dog. I wouldn't trust him, they call him Zisha Lia. I don't think he got that name for no reason, he might do something outrages."
"I agree," Ten replied, "but so far he has shown promise. I think will keep him in the southern wall and just keep an eye on him."
The icy water made Lia gasp in shock. He watched as the diluted red water dripped from his body. He wiped himself clean. He hated to smell like blood days on end so whenever he had a chance he would wash the blood and dirt from his body.
"Seems like we had a good fight today," Sin proclaimed, "you don't seem to be in a good mood though."
"That," Lia growled, "was not a fight. It was nothing but a little taste testing, the Chu just tasted out our defensives. Tomorrow they will launch an entire different attack. They will also have siege towers in a week or two, so we can't count on fighting them one by one as they climb over the wall."
Sin grinned at him as he tied his long hair back with a piece of leather. He looked like someone who was processing the next phase in a plan that was going to be chaotic. It was one reason she found Lia interesting, he never stayed long in the box of warfare.
"I want you to keep the men completely out of the fight tomorrow. All help the thousand man commander with the southern wall. I want my force to be in top condition when we set out."
"Set out?"
"You'll see when we do it. I want to give the Chu something to think about, and I might just have something up my sleeve that might seem a bit idiotic."
"I'm glad the entire unit is as crazy as you."
Lia slipped his tunic over his head. He couldn't wait to launch his strike, he was going to show fear to those Chu soldiers. He was going to show them how insane a unit from the Qin could be. He found that a smile appeared on his face, he really could wait entail it was time.
