The wall gave no warning—just a low groan, like a giant exhaling its final breath.
It began with a tremor. Not loud, but deep. The kind that settled into the soles of the feet before reaching the ears. Dust fell in soft streams from mortar joints and carved reliefs, cascading down like pale snow. Cracks, once hairline, began to widen—spiderwebbing through the limestone as if time itself had accelerated in a single breath.
Outside, the bombardment did not stop. Cannons belched fire from their positions, their thunder echoing off the mounds, rolling through the valley like a god beating a war drum. The shots were no longer random; they were focused, timed, and measured. Each one struck the same section of the wall—a place weathered by centuries and now softened by days of unrelenting fire.
Another impact. A deeper crack. A section of crenellation shuddered, then collapsed outward in a shower of stone and smoke. Soldiers nearby reeled as fragments sliced through the air. Then it came.
With a sudden, sickening lurch, the wall split wide. A groaning crack rose through the stones, sharp and final. The bastion shifted, wobbled, and began to fall—not in a slow, cinematic tumble, but as a thunderous collapse, a massive slab of civilisation crashing down into its own rubble. Stone struck stone. Mortar burst like dry thunder. The plume of dust that followed surged upward, blotting out the sun, turning the day into dusk.
When the dust cleared enough to see, the breach yawned wide and jagged—no longer a wall, but a wound. Smoke coiled from the broken edges. Beyond the breach, down the slope, banners fluttered and enemy soldiers rallied.
There was not only one breach in the wall. The Luxenberg cannons had ravaged the capital city's walls, creating 3 massive openings through which they could enter the city. Their constant bombardment had paid off. With a massive breach on each of the three fronts, Victor and his army could stretch the garrison thin and overwhelm them with their numerical advantage.
Soldiers of the Luxenberg Army cheered as they watched the walls collapse. Their cries of joy reverberated throughout the area, causing those in Xiangyang to fear what was to come. With the infantry all lined up in formation, they merely awaited the order to charge. Before giving the order, Victor rode out in front of the infantry and delivered a rousing speech.
"My soldiers! You stand at the forefront of history! There has never been a kingdom that has spanned over two continents, but soon we shall change that. If we capture this city and its ruler, the war is effectively over."
"The men guarding this city are but a fraction of what we have faced. They do not possess the skill or the experience you have. They were not there when we repelled them from Osterbon! They were not there when their princes died on our shores! And they were not there when we took and defended Hunyuan."
"Now go forth, my soldiers! Take this city in my name!"
All of the infantry cried out passionately after Victor finished his speech. He had succeeded in bolstering their already high morale. Divisions of infantry began to advance, undergoing a three-pronged assault.
On the western side of the city, General Lasalle led the advance towards Xiangyang. From the eastern side of the city, General Rapp rallied his men and rode at the head of their advance. In the southern part of the city, which was where Victor and the main officers were, Marshal Lefebvre marched alongside the infantry as they began their advance through the breach.
The initial assault groups were comprised of 70,000 infantrymen, with plenty of cavalry and additional infantrymen in reserve. Each assault group marched in a column formation that was 70 men wide. They made sure not to charge in aimlessly like the Gu soldiers had done at Osterbon. Instead, they would coordinate with each other and sweep the streets in unison.
The first hurdle for the assault groups was creating a toehold near the breaches. Gu soldiers lay in wait for them, and they would make entering the city a hard task. Using the limited width of the breach to their advantage, the Gu soldiers were quick to form a staunch defensive position that could cause major problems for attackers early on.
The garrison was comprised of 50,000 militia infantrymen and 3,000 Veiled Soldiers. Apart from the Veiled Soldiers, the rest of the garrison lacked any real military experience. None of them had been in a battle before, and they had never fired a musket while they were being shot at. The odds were not stacked in their favour, yet their defensive positioning could help even the odds out a little bit. Battles had been won with heavier odds.
The first shot of the assault was fired on the western side of the city. General Lasalle was overly eager to breach the city, so he made his men quick march to the breach. Scores of infantrymen climbed the piles of rubble until they were met with musketfire.
Their bodies dropped suddenly and rolled down the pile of rubble. Each group had to overcome a challenging entrance into Xiangyang. The garrison troops were not overly accurate, but given how tightly bunched the Luxenberg soldiers were, it was hard to miss. Hundreds of Luxenberg infantrymen were perishing while inflicting minimal casualties on the defenders.
The heavily bolstered morale of the Luxenberg soldiers was slightly wavering; in a sense, they were walking into their own graves. Action needed to be taken, so General Lasalle on the western front decided to storm through the breach himself.
Similar to his charge at Hunyuan, the Hussar General rallied his men to follow him into the jaws of death. He was fearless, potentially stupid, but fearless nonetheless. His men blindly followed him as they stormed the defensive position. It was reckless, and the General was lucky to only sustain minor scratches, but the charge cost him a couple of hundred men.
General Lasalle's breakthrough had caused the entire western breach to be overrun with Luxenberg soldiers. Once one side had fallen, the other two gradually took their time to fall. It may have cost the Luxenberg Army thousands of men, but they were now in the capital city.