Mythical Qin: I, Gao Yao, will never be a eunuch!

Chapter 839: Battle for the city wall, Gao Yao’s personal soldiers!

The ladders that hadn't been completely destroyed by the fire were once again filled with fearless Chu soldiers! Clutching steel blades, they braced themselves against the constant rain of rocks, rolling logs, and even scorching embers, climbing upwards with their hands and feet! The offensive was like a surging tide, one wave after another, madly assaulting the Yangping Pass defenses! Under the Chu army's reckless and relentless onslaught, the defenders on the city walls faced mounting pressure, and casualties began to mount rapidly. Even with Gao Yao personally commanding and deploying troops with skillful dispatch, he could hardly fully offset the massive disadvantage in manpower.

Finally, after five consecutive rounds of fierce attacks like surging waves crashing against the shore, one, two, and finally multiple battlements were breached almost simultaneously by the fierce Chu soldiers! The first Chu soldier successfully leaped onto the city wall, followed by the second, the third... Like black reefs, they stubbornly took root in the defenders' defenses!

"We've entered the city! We've entered the city!"

"Kill! Take Yangping Pass!"

The Chu army supervising the battle below the city erupted in deafening cheers! A hint of ferocious excitement finally appeared on Xiang Yu's tense face! He clenched his fists, his pupils blazing with flames. Military strength! This was the crushing victory brought about by an absolute military advantage! No matter how brave and skilled you are, Gao Yao will be torn apart by the constant onslaught of human waves! He seemed to have seen the dawn of victory!

Xiang Yu's smile didn't last long. He soon noticed a strange phenomenon: more and more Chu soldiers were climbing the city walls, roughly estimating that at least two thousand had already made it. Yet, the cries of killing from the top of the city walls didn't abate, but rather intensified! The anticipated scene of the defenders' defenses collapsing and the flags changing on the city walls had yet to materialize! Those few breaches were like giant grinding wheels, constantly devouring the Chu soldiers who climbed the city walls, yet they were unable to expand their victory!

The battle on the city wall fell into an extremely brutal and stalemate! Every step forward for the Chu army soldiers came at a huge cost, while the defenders were like reefs rooted to the city wall, standing firm despite the waves!

Xiang Yu's expression gradually darkened, his brow furrowed. This wasn't right! This wasn't the way a man with inferior forces should behave!

On the city wall, the truth of blood and fire:

This is the death trap carefully set by Gao Yao!

He knew that in an open battle to defend the city, his 3,000 elite soldiers would face the fierce attack of tens of thousands of Chu troops and their advantage would be seriously diluted. Therefore, he chose the risky tactic of "luring the enemy into a trap and then closing the door to beat the dog"!

On the surface, he stubbornly resisted the Chu army's attempts to climb the city walls, even resorting to fire attacks to slow their advance. But in reality, he was intentionally controlling and allowing the Chu army to ascend the city walls! He didn't devote all his forces to preventing them from ascending. Instead, he deliberately relaxed his control slightly at several designated locations, allowing the Chu army to ascend relatively smoothly. At the same time, he firmly controlled the stairs, corridors, and, most importantly, the gate tower area connecting the city walls to the interior.

Once the Chu soldiers jumped onto the top of the city wall, what was waiting for them was not the defeated defenders, but Gao Yao's personal guard camp that had been ready and formed a tight battle formation!

These personal soldiers were Gao Yao's most formidable force, painstakingly crafted! They were well-equipped, sturdy in armor, and wielded with sharp weapons. More importantly, each had undergone the most brutal training and combat trials, resulting in exceptional martial arts skills, coordinated coordination, and a fearlessness of death! On the relatively narrow terrain of the city walls, large-scale military formations could not be deployed, and the Chu army's numerical advantage was instantly negated!

Gao Yao's personal guards, however, broke up into smaller groups of ten or twenty men, forming small, integrated offensive and defensive "killing formations." With their backs against the city walls or fortified towers, they used halberds, shields, and ring-handled swords to form an ironclad defense along the narrow passageways above the city walls. Though valiant, the Chu soldiers were unable to capitalize on the advantages of a group charge in such a confined space. They could only operate in loose formations, crashing into the hedgehog-like formations of the personal guards in waves.

The individual combat effectiveness of ordinary Chu soldiers was far inferior to that of Gao Yao's elite personal guards. In the confined space of close combat, the personal guards' martial arts, equipment, and coordination were fully utilized! Often, a Chu soldier, upon charging, would be pierced by several halberds, knocked back by a shield, or have his throat slit by a sharp blade.

In addition, the width of the city wall was limited, and the subsequent Chu soldiers were blocked by the ladders and the bodies of their comrades in front, unable to provide effective reinforcements. They could only watch their comrades in front being strangled by the defenders. The defenders could take advantage of the terrain and take turns to fight, thus maintaining their strength.

Gao Yao firmly controlled the passage leading into the city, leaving the Chu soldiers who had reached the top of the city walls as a truly isolated force. Blocked from the front by the fiercely fighting elite, with no constant flow of reinforcements behind, and flanked by walls several feet high, any jump would mean certain death! Trapped in this narrow corridor of death, they were caught in a dilemma and could only passively endure the efficient and ruthless harvest of the personal guards!

It seemed that the Chu army had successfully climbed the city wall and was in high spirits; but in fact, Gao Yao took the initiative to shrink the battlefield to an "arena" that was absolutely advantageous to him, and used his sharpest "dagger" to accurately cut and consume the Chu army's "muscles" that seemed huge but were actually divided and weakened!

This was Gao Yao's true confidence in using the weak to resist the strong, daring to "show weakness to the enemy"! The city wall became his carefully selected slaughterhouse to bury the elite Chu army! What Xiang Yu saw was not the dawn of victory, but a huge wound that was constantly bleeding!

The golden sun set in the west, the setting sun a blood-red. Its orange-red light slanted across the ravaged land before Yangping Pass, tinging the muddy pools of blood, scattered limbs, burned-out wood, and twisted siege equipment with a poignant and tragic hue.

The deafening shouts and cries, the clash of weapons, and the wails of the dying have lasted for nearly an hour, like a never-ending wave, repeatedly hitting this shaky yet extremely tough pass.

Xiang Yu stood atop the command platform, his pupils fixed on the battlefield on the city wall, which resembled a massive wound. The setting sun's rays fell on his dust- and sweat-stained armor, outlining his tense, iron-like profile. His knuckles, gripping the Overlord Halberd tightly, had turned white from the strain, and his knuckles made a soft, crackling sound.

A Meat Grinder of Stalemation: The battle on the city walls remained stalemated! Far from expanding, the anticipated breakthrough points morphed into bottomless black holes, continuously devouring his most elite warriors. Each reinforcement was like dropping a scalding iron into icy water, stirring up only a brief hiss and smoke, but otherwise leaving no significant impact.