Struggle for Ti Fing

[Admin]

(I'll be doing losses in a tick, meanwhile...)

Kay Damu's men hurtled up the ladders stationed on the south walls, the attackers now being attacked from behind fighting as they were, there was not a great deal that Tae Ling's men could do.

*****

Ka Rin went east, his troops crept around the edge of the wall and came to stand in front of the east gate, the archers began to snipe at the horsemen whilst the swordsmen set up a defensive shieldwall.

*****

Li Damu himself arrived at the west to survey the carnage. It was not pretty, the archers and light swordsmen had been slaughtered by the numerically superior forces of Ling Feng, Li Damu's Yew Bow archers went to who knows where, the bowmen and swordsmen stuck together and advanced towards the rear of Ling Feng's formation.

*****

Xai Tay's wallbound men aided Kashou Lin as best they could with bowfire, but it became clear that his men were in a beleagured state, the numbers and speed of the horsemen whittling them down fast. Xai Tay found himself feeling for a man he thought a coward, and a steely resolve emerged.
"We sally forth!" The commander bellowed. "Come, let us save our ally!"

[Emperor Ce]

Nao Di lay there on the hard ground, enemy feet all around him, the corpses of his troops lying silent and mauled everywhere.
His vision was a grey haze, his breaths barely came now, and the giant knew he was dead.
With his last, dying breath he gasped out a curse, a curse which he hoped would orevent the city from falling, one last act of defiance.

Nao Di's head fell to one side as the darkness claimed him...

[Zhuge Hong]

Zhuge Zen's soldiery could not believe their luck, seeing Li Damu advance into the city they began firing down from the wall as the rest of the troops sprinted down the stairs. Zen led them, eager for revenge, his wound still throbbing and tender from the last time round.

Those at the north and south turned and desperately tried to push the foe from the walls, their numbers matching their foes, the outcome uncertain.

Finally, Zhuge Hong's own troops continued to battle the light swordsmen and archers on foot, attempting to recapture the five explosive barrells.

[Tae Ling]

Tae ling's mounted troops tore into the men manhandling the five barrells back to their city. The troops were falling fast, and it would prove difficult to get those explosives safely back.

[Admin]

Li Damu roared for his men to get into a shield wall formation, ensuring the enemy would be only able to fight them man for man, rather than outnumbering and overwhelming, only one man could come at each Swordsman, giving the Damu an advantage.

Slowly, the wall began moving in towards the city and Ling Feng, headed inexorably for one destination. The Palace.

Xai Tay's 200 light swordsmen charged out of the gate, smashing into the horsemen harrassing the couriers, those were theirs now, no way would they let them be taken back!!

[Zhuge Hong]

The Zhuge troops added their weight to the enemies trying to steal the explosives whilst their commander fought.
Meanwhile Zhuge Zen's soldiery fired into the mass of troops gathered on the inside of the shield wall, surely causing casualties to the unprotected men on the inside.

[Tae Ling]

Nao Ling cut down one of those attacking him from behind.
This was seriously derailing their battle plan, and it was all they could do just to keep their foothold on the wall. Then again, the west wall had fallen already, maybe it wouldn't be long before somebody relieved the pressure on them.
"Kay Damu!" he cried, seeing the brother of Li Damu. "I challenge you, for honour and glory!"

[Zhuge Hong]

(Dom has been around at some point, he sent me and e-mail, with the following post. I will add my own afterward)

Linge Feng's soldiers were outmatched by Li Damu's because of his clever formation.
But he had archers too and they all began to fire on the men inside of the shield wall which would damage them greatly.

Le Fu ran forward from his place and shouted out to Li Damu.
"Li Damu! Prepare to die!" he charged forward with his spear in hand.

****
Zhuge Zen made his way quickly down the stairs to the floor of the castle. Revenge would be sweet, and upon seeing Le Fu challenge Li Damu, decided it would be in his best interests to join in.
Zen came to stand besides Le Fu.
"I will aid him!"

(I added my part because Zen would probably challenge Li in retaliation. Plus I know how much Speedy likes his duels )

[Admin]

(you know me too well )

The swordsmen at the centre of the shieldwall put their shields up, preventing the arrow storm doing any further damage than it already had. The action had not come quite quickly enough though, and some fifty of them lay dead or injured, bad for the small number of swordsmen that Li Damu could bring to bear here.

Li Damu came escorted by four or five of his best swordsmen. Fau Lai stood worriedly alongside him, fearing for his safety.
Li gave her a reasurring smile, a quick kiss on the cheek, then moved forward from the circle, the ways parting to allow him into a clear area of the town.

Li faced Le Fu and Zhuge Zen, both spearmen, on foot, with only his wits and weapons for protection.
As usual then. He thought wryly.
"Bring it on," Li murmured, a small smile beginning to creep onto his face.

[Alain Lavenstine]

Alain and his soldiers arrived at Ti Fing from the south.
They were quite tired, because they had been marching hard all the way here, and it was exhausting.
After all, Ti Fing was the other side of the country from Lao Shu.
Nevertheless, they were here now and ready for action.

It appeared that the battle was most strongly contested at the east wall. If Alain threw his small force in there then surely it would tip the scales...

Alain's men went on a wide circle, and ended up behind the archers Ling Feng had at the west wall.
As they were so focused on the combat going on on the wall itself, they would not even see Alain's troops...
Immediately Kinneth, all of the horsemen and 200 men-at-arms launched an assault on the rear of the masisve formation.
Meanwhile, the bowmen fired volleys over the tops of their men into the mass of troops at the centre.
The remaining men-at-arms and the light spearmen skirted this new conflict and headed for Tae Ling's catupult, the aim to destroy or even capture it.

[Ling Feng]

(The new guy got skills...)

The archers were caught off guard by the attack. They obviously weren't expecting an attack from that particular direction.
Being up close and personal put the archers in a dangerous position but those at the front quickly turned and began volleying back, some aiming for the horsemen and men-at-arms, some aiming for the bowmen. They didn't even care if they hit their own troops.

The siege ram was slowly pushed through the gates, and the soldiers quickly stripped the wooden armour from the ram itself leaving only the metal armour.
They quickly made a ramp of kinds and manhandled the ram onto it...

[Admin]

Immediately after the attack, Zao Cheng and his yew-bow archers popped up, seemingly from out of nowhere.
In truth they had been hidden in the long grass surrounding the city and as they launched themselves out of hiding they opened fire on Ling Feng's archers with deadly accuracy.

Kay Damu looked up from his fight and shouted back to Nao Ling.
"I will gladly fight you, but beware! For you look at death!"

Li Damu's own yewbow archers and bowmen emerged from hiding and unleashed a lethal volley upon the archers that Zhuge Zen commanded.

[Tae Ling]

(argh! stop stealing my stuff!!)

tae ling's soldiers continued their battle on the walltops, but they were too far away to aid their chief strategist.
Tae Ling cursed. He had been well and truely outmatched here.
He had 150 light spearmen and 100 horsemen, whilst his opponent had around 100 militia and the same number of light spearmen. a cavalry charge was out of the question, and the light spearmen would be destroyed in direct combat, the catapult was too unwieldy to be moved fast enough.
A conumdrum to be sure.

[Alain Lavenstine]

(lol, sorry)

Alain's soldiers continued their attack; weathering the arrow storm with amazement. They were firing on their own men, what could they possibly be thinking?

Alain cut a man down from the back of his horse. He was ploughing through the enemy horsemen and his own light spearmen were giving them some serious trouble.
Things were going well.
Alain spotted a man, also on horseback, who looked important.
"Are there any among you with the guts to fight me? Or are you all grovelling dogs with no backbone?"

[Zhuge Hong]

Zhuge Hong's men continued harassing those on foot with the explosives, but it appeared that reinforcements were arriving.
Zhuge Hong made a snap decision, and he called for Tae Ling to intiate a series of orders, this fight was still going, but Hong was planning to end it in cataclysmic fashion.