The battle.

[Admin]

Ka Rin and Kay Damu quickly disembarked their boats following their arrival on the northern coast of Xu Bi. Nobody had yet noticed anything untoward with their arrival, however, as the port began swarming with troops, the alarm went off, the defenders had been well and truely alerted, and now prowess, not speed, would be the key.

Li Damu's forces

Commander: Kay Damu
Ka Rin

Troops
200 archers
100 Yew bow archers
400 lightswordsmen
75 spearmen
25 brigadiers
50 cavalry
100 heavy spearmen
100 swordsmen
1 catapult

[Ling Feng]

Ling Feng was really worried when he saw all of the boats approaching, because there was something not right about them they seemed a little too low in the water just to be carrying sailors.
His fears were realised when highly trained soldiers began to pour off the boats, and Ling Feng noted with dismay that their numbers were far higher than his own it was going to be a hard fight.
Ling Feng ordered his men to blockade the top of the stairs that led up to the town of Xu Bi from the port it was the only entrance from the sea. Meanwhile, he told all of his light spearmen to make a hedgehog formation in front, which nobody could get past because of all the sharp points.

Zhuge Hong's forces

Commander: Ling Feng
Le Fu

Troops
(Zhuge Hong troops)
300 miltia
100 light spearmen
200 horsemen
200 bowmen
(Ling Feng's troops)
300 militia
50 horsemen
200 bowmen
100 light spearmen

[Admin]

(nicely done)

Ka Rin saw what Ling Feng's men were doing, and cursed, no way would his men be able to run all of the way up that staircase before the barricade was finished. More importantly and pressingly was the hedgehog formation of spearmen, which blocked any kind of assault, as they had the high ground and range on any of their men.
Kay Damu also saw this and turned, yelling for the catapult.
"Reassemble it!" That had been another complication, the catapult was too big to fit onto a boat in one piece, instead it had to be dismantled, then pieced back together here at Xu Bi.
Nevertheless, there was something they could do.
"Archers!" roared Kay. "Fire on those spearmen!"
The archers, with both normal bows and yew bows began volleying up at the hedgehog, displaying terrible regard for animal cruelty.

[Ling Feng]

Because the hedgehog formation had the higher ground, the arrows would do not much damage as they would be trying to fire uphill. This pleased Ling Feng as it meant just a little less time to hold out before Li Damu's men ran out of provisions or reinforcements arrived to help. What worried the General was the catapult that they had brought off the boats he feared that they would use it to drive him out of his defensive position. So then Ling Feng ordered his own bowmen to begin firing downhill at Li Damu's men.

[Admin]

Kay Damu shouted at the archers to take cover, but some did not manage it quite quickly enough and were skewered by the shafts raining down from above. Luckily for them, the catapult and the crew working on assembling it were out of range of the bows. Kay stared up at the growing defensive works and the hedgehog formation of spearmen, and shook his head in acknowledgement of the opposing General's prowess. He was not Zhuge Hong's general of the armies for no reason at all.

[Admin]

The battle so far




Losses

Ling Feng loses fifty light spearmen due to bow fire.

Kay Damu loses fifty archers and twenty five yew bow archers from more of the same.

[Ling Feng]

(ouch, there goes a quarter of my hedgehog)

Ling Feng sent half of his militia and lightswordsmen back from the barricade so that they could begin to barricade the streets of the city behind them. Meanwhile the bowmen remained ready to fire incase the archers resurfaced, so they could hit them with another volley. All three of the stairwells were covered by the light spearmen and bowmen, and they kept a watchful eye for the enemy.

[Admin]

(my troops were worth more )

Finally, the engineers finished piecing the catapult back together, loading some solid wood projectiles, specially carved for use of the catapult, they would pick up alternate ammunition as they went along.
They released the guiding rope, the wooden block flying high into the air and drawing a solid line toward the spearmen and their hedgehog formation on the left hand stair.

[Ling Feng]

Ling Feng's soldiers spotted the threat and moved away from the falling projectile which smashed the stairs where they had been.
Well that didn't leave them much choice so Ling Feng shouted at his men to retreat behind their barricade where the catapult would struggle to hit them.

[Admin]

(aw man, how did you work out so quick that it would take me ages to manoveur the catapult up the stairs?)

Kay Damu was not happy at the rapid retreat, as it meant his catapult could cause very little damage, still there was one thing he could do. He told the engineers to move the catapult so it rested in front of the central staircase. He smiled grimly.
"Let's see their barricade hold up against this,"
The catapult's arm swung forward...

[Ling Feng]

(logic heh heh ;D)

Ling Feng looked at the falling block with horror and screamed at his men to abandon the barricade, moments later the block smashed into their hard work seemingly exploding with the power of the strike.

Well even though they had to abandon the barricade and seawall giving the enemy access to the city, they now had further barricades inside and more importantly, it would take ages to manoveur the catapult up the stairs.

Ling Feng kept half his sword troops on the move obviously making even more barricades, currently they had two finished and one half built providing good places to fall back on.

[Admin]

Now that the enemy had retreated, Kay Damu and Ka Rin were free to move their troops up the stairs to the city entrance.
Leaving behind a small number (50) of lightswordsmen to get the catapult up the stairs the rest of the troops came forward, somewhat slowed by the horsemen who struggled with the stairs on the way up.

Once they got there, however, things began to move a lot more quickly. The heavy spearmen and spearmen began to advance as a phalanx, the swordsmen protecting them with shields as they too advanced. Then came the lightswordsmen, who were ready to rush out between the formation in moments. Finally were the dismounted cavalry. All the archers began to fire volleys over the heads of their own men, ceasing as they got too close to the enemy for comfort.

[Ling Feng]

Ling Feng abandoned the barricade without a fight, first setting light to it as they fell back to the next one which was only guarding a very narrow gap between houses, meanwhile, the bowmen went into houses and began to climb onto roofs, shooting down at Kay Damu's men as they approached.

[Admin]

Kay Damu's men began a retreat back to the seawall, preparing for an assault on the next barricade and withdrawing from the attack, looking back Ka Rin saw that the catapult had been hauled about halfway up the stairs, so it was not a factor to be disregarded out of hand any longer. He ordered some men to pick up some buckets or containers and get some water to douse the flames of the barricade.

(losses and map coming presently)

[Admin]

Battle losses

Kay Damu loses 10 Heavy spearmen from bowfire
Kay Damu loses 10 swordsmen from the same
(this is because they have better armour)

50 miltia of Zhuge Hong are slain