Chapter 74

The battle drums beat like thunder, and the rebel army's iron armor gleamed with a ferocious, cold light in the firelight. Shield-bearers formed a battle line in the front, their heavy iron-plated wooden shields joining into an iron wall that covered the light infantry carrying scaling ladders as they advanced toward the city wall. The piercing whistles of arrows tearing through the air suddenly intensified. A rain of arrows swept across the sky like a swarm of locusts toward the city wall, sending sparks flying off the green brick battlements. The villagers huddled beneath wooden doors and iron pots, their ears filled with the dull thuds of arrowheads embedding into wood.