Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

It could be said that Qi Kerang had managed to restrain the soldiers, keeping them at Tong Pass without scattering in a rout. It was no small feat.

Qi Kerang eagerly awaited the imperial reinforcements. When he first heard that General Zhang Chengfan was coming with reinforcements, he was slightly pleased.

He had assumed the court would send at least tens of thousands of troops along with a vast supply of arrows, weapons, and provisions.

But upon seeing the forces that Zhang Chengfan brought, Qi Kerang was dumbfounded.

Where was the promised Divine Strategy Army?

And General Zhang Chengfan's query only added to Qi Kerang's confusion.

Just three thousand men, and without any provisions?

Finding themselves in an awkward stare-down, the two realized that the garrison at Tong Pass would have to continue subsisting on tree bark.

"General Zhang, you must have been through many battles. Do you think we can hold Tong Pass?" Qi Kerang asked.

Zhao Haiping was silent.

Whether Zhang Chengfan was experienced in numerous battles, he did not know, but Zhao himself could indeed be considered as such.

He had survived such desperate battles more than once before.

For instance, the trial of the military recruits involved leading elderly veterans in defending a city until reinforcements arrived.

However, Tong Pass was now in a much more difficult situation than those past instances.

Because there was insufficient food and military equipment.

With soldiers starving and even lacking arrows, how were they supposed to fight six hundred thousand rebels?

Of course, Tong Pass, with its natural defensive advantages, was easy to defend but hard to attack. However, history showed that holding strategic locations often depended not on the terrain but on the people.

During the An and Shi Rebellion of the Liang Dynasty, Geshu Han had led two hundred thousand troops in holding Tong Pass. Due to a foolish order from the emperor, he was forced to meet the enemy outside the pass, resulting in the complete collapse of his army and allowing the rebels to seize Tong Pass and advance directly towards Chang'an.

Although this disaster was a result of the emperor's reckless command, it also showed that Tong Pass was not an absolutely invulnerable fortress.

But since things had come to this point, all they could do was try.

Zhao Haiping, now playing the role of Zhang Chengfan as the supreme commander at Tong Pass and holding a higher position than Qi Kerang, instructed Qi to gather all the military officers, both high and low rank, within the city to assign tasks.

He sent a small detachment to nearby villages to search and solicit help from the villagers in transporting stones and water. If there was any food, it was to be requisitioned urgently.

He reassigned the garrison units of different areas of Tong Pass.

He convinced Qi Kerang and all the higher-ranking officers to bring out all their private possessions and distribute them among the soldiers.

Finally, after a brief motivational speech, Zhao Haiping sent a message to the imperial court requesting additional reinforcements and supplies.

After completing all these tasks, Zhao Haiping inspected Tong Pass and reorganized the city's defenses, directing the soldiers to position certain materials and the transported stones in specific locations on the city walls.

In this way, the entire garrison of Tong Pass became busy, preparing to face the large army led by Huang Xianzhi.

...

Dawn gradually broke.

Having just finished organizing the defenses of Tong Pass and wanting to lie down for a brief rest in his armor, Zhao Haiping heard a thunderous war cry.

In the dim morning light, he saw a vast army approaching from afar.

It blanketed the hills and plains, stretching as far as the eye could see!

Huang Xianzhi's forces were said to number six hundred thousand—a scale so immense that it was impossible to judge with the naked eye.

One could only see that outside Tong Pass, there were people everywhere.

The so-called "ant-attach siege" meant that people swarmed up the city walls like dense ants clinging to the entire city.

And now, Zhao Haiping was about to witness such a scene.

He had experienced many sieges previously and knew well the significant advantages a defending side could have by relying on the terrain.

But he had never seen such a disparity in strength before.

In the past during the Return Order Expedition, although players had faced demons far outnumbering them in Linyuan City, back then, they had cannons, giant crossbows, molten metal, and other sieging equipment, along with the empowering force of the Return Order.

But now, Zhao Haiping had nothing.

All he could do was draw his bow and shoot arrows, killing a rebel soldier trying to climb a siege ladder at the forefront.

"Kill!"

Though they had already rallied and distributed personal belongings to the soldiers, this army was at least somewhat motivated despite being in a desperate plight.

In this desperate situation, Zhao Haiping led by example, continuously shooting arrows left and right at the rebels below, while other soldiers also fought bloodily.

...

Time passed quickly in Zhao Haiping's view.

It felt like only about an hour of fighting, yet it was already getting dark.

The battle stretched on for the entire day, from just after dawn until night.

Eventually, the rebels were repelled.

By then, the city walls were piled high with bodies, both of enemies and of their own men.

Many exhausted soldiers lay among the bodies, sipping thin millet soup just cooked in huge pots.

After Zhao Haiping ensured all the soldiers had eaten, he took some time to command them to clear the bodies from the critical locations on the walls before allowing them to rest in their clothes, snatching whatever rest they could.

However, this rest did not last long.

In the early hours of the morning, Huang Xianzhi's forces launched a fierce attack once more.

This time, the fighting stretched from the morning well into the afternoon.

For Zhao Haiping, a more severe issue arose— they had used up all their arrows, and the soldiers were reduced to hurling stones at the rebels.

In the afternoon, after a brief pause, Huang Xianzhi's forces attacked yet again, forcing them to endure another entire night of defense.