In the eyes of the Chun Nan generals, Xue Jingze was clearly somewhat deranged. He left about three thousand men to guard the night, and another five thousand men prepared various siege weapons overnight, repaired the damaged ballistae, and fortified the camp. Everyone thought that the hurried offensive of the entire day had come to an end, but unexpectedly, after Xue Jingze and the rest of the soldiers slept for more than three shichen (approximately three hours), he woke up, immediately ordered the food to be prepared quietly, woke up the soldiers, and after eating their fill and resting briefly, actually launched another attack in the middle of the night.

This time, the defenders of Da Nan Pass were caught off guard again, especially the batch of Xue Jingze's personal soldiers who took the lead in scaling the city walls, nearly seizing the right side of the city tower. Although they were later desperately retaken by several Chun Nan generals leading their elite personal soldiers, Chun Nan was completely caught off guard in the night offensive, suffering repeated setbacks and extremely heavy losses.

What the Chun Nan generals didn't expect even more was that Xi Ling actually had ultra-heavy ballistae with a very long range. Some of the Chun Nan generals had seen this kind of thing in the Ye Clan workshops in Yun Province. Because of their large size, they were inconvenient to march with, and generally only a few were installed on the city walls. Even in Gangduo, it seemed that only a few ultra-heavy ballistae were installed in total. But this time, Xi Ling had obviously put in a lot of effort, and actually transported two ultra-heavy ballistae to the front of Da Nan Pass and installed them.

Xi Ling's overall manufacturing technology was far inferior to that of Dongping, and even somewhat inferior to that of Chun Nan. Although Dongping had always maintained tight control over the outflow of technology, especially high-precision tools and devices, which were absolutely forbidden to be sold, in reality, those things produced only by the Ye Clan workshops' precision instrument workshops were not sold to outsiders at all. However, after all, they were allies, so they couldn't restrict the flow of personnel too strictly.

Under Chun Nan's efforts to poach talent, in recent years, quite a few craftsmen had joined the ranks of those large families in Chun Nan. People have their own ambitions, Ye Tao also said, and he never interfered with those reasonable competitions and means of attracting talent by improving treatment. Even if the poaching reached the Ye Clan workshops, as long as it wasn't those confidential departments, they were generally sent off with joy, and told to contact the Dongping officers and envoys stationed in Chun Nan at any time if they had any problems. They were in a foreign land, but they were still Dongping people. This kind of thoughtfulness made the unity of the Ye Clan workshops even higher.

The Chun Nan technology system developed under these circumstances. The various families poached people from Dongping, and then the Ministry of Works poached people from the various families. Now Chun Nan also had an institution that integrated the engineering and technical forces of the various families—the Zhu Bo Workshop. But the Zhu Bo Workshop had not been able to successfully imitate the ultra-heavy ballistae. When multiple kerosene bombs tied in a rope net smashed onto the central city tower, knocking off a corner of the tower's eaves and causing a raging fire in the center of the city wall, the Chun Nan officers and soldiers were extremely depressed and shocked.

In this overnight attack, Xue Jingze rotated and invested a total of nearly 30,000 troops. By dawn, the Xi Ling side had another 1,700 killed and 3,900 wounded, but they caused almost twice as many casualties to the defenders in this night battle. Considering the terrain of Da Nan Pass, this result was simply incredible.

But even more terrible things were coming. Xue Jingze, relying on his superior strength, actually started rotating battles. For the next two days, although the number of soldiers in Xue Jingze's hands became less and less, they were always attacking in rotation. The battered troops were replaced, mixed with other troops, and pushed up again. More and more officers ran to Xue Jingze to plead, but he ignored them all, but everyone had no other choice, because Xue Jingze held the iron sword bestowed by the emperor, and had the power to make on-the-spot decisions. In addition, Xue Jingze did not cherish his personal soldiers. On the contrary, Xue Jingze's five-hundred-man personal soldier team was the most courageous and willing to sacrifice. Looking at that small, quiet camp around the commander's flag, which was filled with incomparable killing intent, everyone could only bite the bullet and go.

When Liang Xudao returned to Da Nan Pass, he saw a scene that he couldn't believe. In less than three days, the newly repaired Da Nan Pass had been beaten into this state. The city wall facing Xi Ling was originally the weak side of Da Nan Pass, but after Chun Nan captured it, a lot of effort was put into it, and now the defensive strength was even stronger than the side facing Chun Nan. Just the large warehouses in the city walls that stored the defending materials, and the ramps leading from the warehouses to the top of the city, cost as much as 260,000 taels in total. The main project of the city wall cost more than 500,000 taels, and the three city towers were worth 140,000 taels. Although not all the troops were placed in Da Nan Pass, and a part was dispersed in several villages and newly built camps behind Da Nan Pass, so that the water supply and space reserves of Da Nan Pass itself could be used in a balanced way, in any case, more than 30,000 troops were enough to defend Da Nan Pass.

However, when Liang Xudao led the first batch of reinforcements into Da Nan Pass, what he saw was a city wall that had been burned black and had several small damages. These damages were still being attacked by Xi Ling, and there was no chance to repair them. The traces of battle on the city wall had almost extended to the mouths of the two ramps. Although the ramp entrances were guarded by iron gates with barbs, the fact that they could attack this place already showed how difficult the situation was. Everyone had always had mixed feelings about these two ramps. When they had the advantage, these two ramps could facilitate the transportation of ballistae and various equipment, greatly enhancing the attack power of the city top on the city below. However, once there was a slight mistake, if the enemy threw even one kerosene bomb into the ramp, the huge amount of various equipment stored inside could turn the entire city wall into a huge teppanyaki...

"Actually... actually fought to here. Zhang Chen, are they really that powerful?" Liang Xudao stammered.

Zhang Chen was the commander of the entire city defense when Liang Xudao was away these days. He said with a wry smile, "General, it's more than that. Someone has already been ordered to throw kerosene bombs inside. If it wasn't for Liu Erwa, who was guarding the warehouse, hugging that kerosene bomb, his whole body was set on fire, and he still rushed out of the ramp step by step and jumped off the city wall, I wouldn't be able to see you now, General."

Liang Xudao said solemnly, "This must be heavily compensated. Such a warrior... such a warrior is too rare..."

Zhang Chen was almost in tears. He tried to calm himself down and said, "General, it's not just Liu Erwa these days. The lads are really good, hugging the enemy and jumping off the city wall, being stabbed several times and still pulling the enemy as a cushion, being shot like a hedgehog and still fighting desperately until the blood ran out... The lads are speechless, they are all good. General, I look at it... I can't bear it!"

Liang Xudao patted Zhang Chen on the shoulder and said, "I know. Don't worry, I won't let the lads down. Defend Da Nan Pass, I'll take care of the rest. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will mediate for us, and everyone will be treated well."

Zhang Chen turned his head, squeezed out his tears, and said to Liang Xudao, "General, let the reinforcements come up. With a little more manpower to rotate, it won't be so miserable. Don't look at how quiet it is now. They haven't stopped. It won't be a quarter of an hour before the next wave of attack. If we keep tensing up like this, the lads will collapse at any time."

Liang Xudao said, "Don't worry about this. This time I brought 10,000 people, and they will immediately replace the city wall. You let a part of the soldiers rest first, leaving at least half of the veterans who have fought on the city. After today, it will be easier. All the troops in my hands have arrived. General Huo Da has also prepared his troops and can support us at any time."

Zhang Chen breathed a sigh of relief, cheered up, and said, "Yes, General. I'll go arrange it now."

However, while Zhang Chen breathed a sigh of relief, Xue Jingze laughed wildly with joy. What he now held in his hands was not only the three battalions of troops that had also been battered, but also the first batch of reinforcements who had arrived in advance, covered in dust, and the number of these reinforcements was as high as 110,000. Tong Bingwen would soon arrive in front of Da Nan Pass. But at this moment, Xue Jingze, who was laughing wildly, didn't want to wait until Tong Bingwen came before launching an attack, because he had actually seen the loosening on Da Nan Pass. He had seen that Liang Xudao's commander's flag had already been erected on the city. This Da Nan Pass garrison had taken his place, and naturally, the first batch of reinforcements from the other side had also arrived.

However, after several days of brutal fighting on the city wall, the soldiers had undergone many changes. Injecting new forces could certainly change the weakness in strength and the lack of overall physical strength of the soldiers, but there would inevitably be a moment of uncoordinated cooperation between the soldiers who had just been put into battle and the veterans. This was Xue Jingze's opportunity. The soldiers who were bombarded off the city wall also conveyed a message, that the two ramps that made Da Nan Pass's defense so strong were also huge hidden dangers. It was just that until now, except for one accidental opportunity, the total number of soldiers who had climbed the city wall had never reached the point where they could threaten those two ramps.

After thinking carefully, Xue Jingze instructed the officers behind him, "Everyone has some strong soldiers in their hands, right? Let's gather them together and form a suicide squad. Last time we almost didn't even get on the city wall, this time it won't work. The Heng'an and Henglong battalions will attack the left city tower. Rui'an battalion, it's been three days, why can't that broken city gate be opened? You attack the middle, and try to break through the city gate. Rui Jia battalion, Hengchang battalion, you are responsible for rotating the Heng'an and Henglong battalions. Xie Zi battalion, you are the first family soldiers to be invested in Da Nan Pass, I don't know how strong you are, but since you are here, don't let people look down on you. You will mainly attack the right city tower. Ruifeng battalion, you will rotate the Xie Zi battalion. The general attack will begin in a quarter of an hour. Before I order to stop, each unit must not stop attacking. As for how to rotate and how to hand over, you discuss it first. From this moment on, I will not stop until I take Da Nan Pass. Even if I have to drag it out, I will drag Da Nan Pass down."

"Yes, General!" A neat response came from the camp.