Golden Turtles (Part 3)

"Golden Turtles (Part 3)" (金龟袋 (其三)) is the nineteenth chapter of the manhua Assassin's Creed: Dynasty written by Xu Xianzhe.
==Plot summary==
It is a complete rout. A lone soldier of the Tang flees in panic across a gulley of fallen comrades. Having lagged behind the others sprinting ahead, he tears off his armor to pick up his pace, neverminding the hail of arrows falling over their heads. He takes a glance back at the Yeluohe cavalry storming behind them, unleashing the unrelenting flurry of death. Though the Tang troops number in the thousands, it is every man for himself. If they can only reach the safety of Tong Pass, they may just survive to fight another day.
Watching the disaster unfold from above is the commander Gao Xianzhi, now the Great General of the Right of Jinwu. He issues the order for the archers and crossbowmen to ready their weapons, but his lieutenant, the jiedushi of Anxi Feng Changqing, protests that their men who have not yet reached the gate would fall within their field of fire. With grim resolve, Xianzhi reminds him of the reality that Tong Pass is the last line of defense for Chang'an and that should it fall, those troops who have managed to withdraw through the gate would be massacred as well—to say nothing of all the civilians between here and the capital.
Tears stream down Changqing's face as he furiously wills himself to give the order. As all the ranged units nock their projectiles, a signaller atop the battlements begin the countdown at "Five hundred steps!" All the while, frantic soldiers continue to stream through the fortress gate. By "Four hundred steps!", the enemy cavalry are now within clear view, surging forward with savage fervour. At "Two hundred steps!", the gates slam shut, leaving all those troops who have yet to pass through trapped between the wall and mortal doom behind. Their frenzied banging against the gates, screaming for them to be reopened, fall on deaf ears.
At "a hundred steps!", the Yeluohe cavalry tramples into the deep, dry moat before the gate, and Xianzhi yells the order to loose arrows, echoed by Changqing right after. Ally and enemy soldiers alike perish en masse within the kill zone as the garrison release volley after volley of bolts and arrows. The carnage does not cease until a second wave of Yeluohe is stopped by its commander just before the moat. A tense respite follows, with Xianzhi and this enemy general staring wordlessly at one another across the ditch overfilling with corpses.
Miraculously, the soldier who had thrown away his armour before has survived the indiscriminate slaughter. Fatigued and shell-shocked, he nonetheless clambers slowly to his feet before the eyes of everyone, only several meters away from the Yeluohe commander. "Crazy fool, don't get up...", Xianzhi mutters under his breath, but whether out of idiocy, panic, or courageous resolve, the survivor refuses to play dead. He trudges alone up the mounds of bodies towards the fort, screaming once more "Open the gate! Open the gate!"
==References==
*Assassin's Creed: Dynasty
Category:Assassin's Creed: Dynasty