Chapter 523 I can’t hold on any longer

Arrows were flying and large clouds of gray-white smoke were rising. The wind was too weak to blow it away, and those deadly weapons were roaring furiously in the smoke like wild beasts.

Brother Zhang held the city wall with his bloody palm, blood was still dripping from the corner of his pale face. He raised his tired eyes and looked at Xiao Hu, moving his lips and was about to speak, but was stopped by Xiao Hu's sudden shout.

"Brother Zhang! What's wrong with you? What's going on?"

Looking at Brother Zhang's bloody appearance, Xiao Hu finally recovered from his shock, but the intense grief that swept over him made his voice lose its original tone.

"What's going on! How did you become like this?!" Xiao Hu panicked. He dropped the bow and arrow in his hand and held Brother Zhang, trying to check his injuries.

But as soon as his hand touched his body, Xiao Hu's pupils shrank, and he dared not move his hand at all while holding Brother Zhang's left abdomen.

He suddenly woke up. Earlier on the Sheep and Horse Wall, although Brother Zhang was holding a shield, he was hit by a cannonball. The powerful impact of the cannonball even blew him onto the city wall.

It was a cannonball! Even though it came from far away and had lost a lot of its power by the time it reached the city wall, it was still a solid cannonball.

Brother Zhang, who was hit by that shell, probably had his internal organs ruptured by the impact. He endured the severe pain and brought himself to the corner tower.

His thoughts came to an abrupt halt here, and Brother Zhang's faint voice reached Xiao Hu's ears.

"I'm afraid...I can't hold on any longer."

As soon as the weak voice fell, Xiao Hu shouted: "No, no!"

"I'll take you to see a military doctor, Brother Zhang, I'll take you there!" Xiao Hu's face was pale and his palms were cold, but he still helped Brother Zhang up.

"You are such a fool..."

Brother Zhang leaned against Xiao Hu, a bleak smile on his pale face. "When I said I couldn't hold on, I didn't mean me..."

"I mean, we won't be able to hold on here for long." He looked up at Xiao Hu's sad face and continued, "A new soldier like you shouldn't have come to a battlefield like this."

Xiao Hu loosened his lips that had been bitten so hard that they turned pale, shook his head and choked, "Don't say anything, Brother Zhang."

"I'll take you down."

Brother Zhang smiled and waved his hand, then he grabbed Xiao Hu's shoulder with his other hand. He lowered his head and looked directly into Xiao Hu's red eyes. After taking a deep breath, he said in a deep voice:

"Boy, let's go."

"This is not the battlefield you should come to..." He swallowed the blood that was rising in his throat, but blood slowly seeped out of his nasal cavity.

Xiao Hu looked at him stiffly. The sounds of artillery fire, arrow shooting, and thousands of roars and shouts around him seemed to fade away in an instant, leaving only the murmurs of the people in front of him.

“It now looks like this is a battle that is destined to be difficult to win.”

"It's almost over, Nanze...Daqian...I really can't hold on any longer..." Brother Zhang panted twice and slowly turned around.

Tears welled up in Xiao Hu's eyes, but he kept shaking his head:

“No…No…!”

"Nanze will not be conquered, and I will not be a deserter. I will hold my ground... I will defend this place to the death!"

Brother Zhang, with his back to Xiao Hu, walked slowly toward the city road, muttering only:

"is it?"

"But..."

"Why...why did we come to this point..."

"We've gotten through all the hard times in the past, so why did we decline so quickly after entering our heyday..." He walked forward slowly, step by step, leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind him.

"Brother Zhang, where are you going?" Xiao Hu looked at the trembling back and knew that the injury could no longer be saved. From the moment he was hit by the shell, he was already heading towards death.

Brother Zhang paused, and when he turned around, his face was surprisingly calm, just a little pale.

"Like you, I'm here to stay."

"If you don't want to leave, then continue doing what you want to do." Brother Zhang said with a smile, waved his hand as usual, then moved his steps again and staggered forward.

Xiao Hu did not speak again. He looked at the figure in silence for two or three breaths, then turned around and ran to Brother Zhang's arrow window, picked up the blood-stained bow and arrow, and then pulled out the arrow from the quiver left on the ground by Brother Zhang.

Just like before, Xiao Hu quickly pulled out an arrow from the quiver and put it on the bowstring.

He pursed his lips and began to pull the bowstring, and his face was as tense as the bowstring that was gradually being stretched to its limit.

The string was finally pulled to its full length, but the arrow didn't know where to go. After all, everything in front of him was blurry and he couldn't see anything clearly.

The roar of the enemy, the shouts of his own side, the rumble of the chariots rolling over the ground, the violent collision sound of the artillery hitting the carts, the complex and chaotic sounds flowed into Xiao Hu's ears like a tide, and the words that Brother Zhang said before he left were also lingering in his mind.

The smell of sweat, the smell of blood under his feet, and the smell of gunpowder in the air were so strong that they seemed tangible. Xiao Hu felt that he had been blinded, his ears blocked, and his nose blocked by this war.

"Ahhhhh!!"

The tense expression suddenly collapsed, Xiao Hu's facial features were distorted at this moment, and he opened his mouth and wailed in pain.

The anger, grief, confusion and helplessness in my heart mixed together, and along with this wailing that no one cared about, there was a "bang" sound!

The bowstring was suddenly released, and the arrow without a target flew towards the foggy and smoky battlefield.

"Oh!"

"Bang bang bang!"

First there was one shot, then two and three shots, and the cannons taken out from the carts by the Yan soldiers finally fired shells at the outer city tower.

-

Four quarters past midnight.

If it were at this time in normal times, Jin Fengluan would have already gone to bed, but tonight she was sitting upright in the Military Affairs Room.

The battle against the rebels was a battle plan that she personally participated in and formulated. Jin Fengluan attached great importance to this war and she couldn't wait to hear good news from the front line.

Every previous battle with the rebels ended in a disastrous defeat, but now with her participation, the entire tactical plan was not perfect, but it was well-paced. As long as the frontline soldiers fought according to the plan, she believed that they would never repeat the same mistake and suffer a horrible defeat.

At this moment, news of the battle finally arrived.

Jin Fengluan looked up and saw that Xiong Yong, who had come to report the military situation, had already bowed and entered the hall under the guidance of the imperial eunuch.

"What's the situation on the front line?" Jin Fengluan asked before Xiong Yong could speak.