Chapter 449: Straight Line

At this moment in Yongping City, those outside the walls wanted to get in, and those inside wanted to get out — separated by the city wall and the moat, everyone was nervously making preparations.

The Transmigrators changed horses, drank water, gnawed on compressed biscuits, checked their firearms, and formulated plans.

The Later Jin troops donned armor, readied horses, and assembled. At the last moment, the Great Lords under the Banner still didn't forget to bring along two bundles of valuables looted from Yongping City.

At this moment, a small interlude occurred: dust rose on the official road behind the Transmigrators — Mei Fuxi's 50-man reinforcement-interception squad had caught up.

At the same time, from the southeast of Yongping City, another cavalry force had similarly rounded its way over: the messenger dispatched from Luanzhou.

These cavalrymen had probably spotted the Transmigrators' troops from afar and deliberately made a detour, which was why they hadn't encountered the messenger who had just set out from Yongping.

After rounding their way over, this group slipped through a side gate on the east side, saw Amin, and once again burst into wails and howls: the Great Niru Namutai had been blown into chicken feed — no, into fine dust — by an iron box; the 400 men who had left the city had suffered near-total annihilation, and so on.

Comrade Grand Beile had already learned of a bizarre battle that had occurred at Qian'an County before this, and had made certain mental preparations. So now, upon hearing that Namutai's entire force had been blown apart by a single box of gunpowder, he was not particularly surprised. He simply told these men: change horses, pack up, and prepare to leave with the main army; someone has already been sent to notify Luanzhou; everyone, see you in Shenyang.

Thus, Amin, his resolve to leave now even firmer, immediately ordered an acceleration of the preparations. Then, in less than a single hour, all 1,400 cavalrymen in the city had packed their gear and began assembling in succession at the two city gates.

However, the Later Jin army had forgotten one thing: there was cargo overhead. Or rather, the Later Jin army still lacked understanding of those two black dots overhead, assuming they were just some mechanism like a sparrowhawk kite, probably put up to scare people.

A real trained hawk, if released, would have no problem catching a rabbit. But to train a bird whose brain capacity is smaller than a chicken's egg to observe enemy troop movements and deployments and then express them... that's just laughable — all poisoned by wuxia novels.

Although the Later Jin troops in the city had never read wuxia novels, no one took the DJI drone seriously either.

After staring at the footage transmitted back by the drone for a while, Qian Tieshan nodded: "His Lordship the Beile wants to run. Looks like he's not planning to go head-to-head with us."

On the screen before Qian Tieshan, the movement trajectories of the Later Jin cavalry within the city were clear at a glance. These men were broadly divided into two groups: roughly one thousand were assembling at the North Gate, while the remaining four hundred had gone to the East Gate.

These Bordered Blue Banner cavalrymen likewise had two horses per man. Not only were they armored, but they also carried heavy shields in their hands. Most importantly, many of them had bundles hanging from their horses' rumps...

The Transmigrators had attacked from the upper-left corner of Yongping City — that is, from the northwest — so the main force of the Green Jacket Army was now halted outside the West Gate.

The Later Jin army's positions within the city had exposed their strategic intent: if they intended to fight the Transmigrators, their main force should have assembled behind the West Gate.

Now, with the main force assembling at the North Gate and a flanking force assembling at the East Gate — the opposite side from the West Gate — it was plainly obvious they were about to flee. Setting out from the North Gate, heading due north for 50 li would bring them to the main ridge of the Yan Mountains and the Changcheng. Once in the mountains, the Tartar cavalry could pick a nearby pass and exit beyond the wall.

Most importantly, the Transmigrators had also spotted the bundles on many of the horses.

They'd never seen anyone heading into a fight while carrying their household belongings, so His Lordship the Beile definitely wanted to run.

"How many boom-boxes are left?"

Once he'd figured out the Beile's intentions, Qian Tieshan immediately asked about the TNT boxes.

"Only three in total — how many were you hoping for?" Du Dewei, who was responsible for training the Demolition Specialists at the side, smiled. "One was left at Santunying, another was used to blast the Tartars over at Luanzhou this morning. Now there's only the last one left. It was originally meant for the Yongping reinforcements, but well, they went back into the city, so it wasn't used."

"If there's only one left..." Qian Tieshan rubbed the now long and dark stubble on his chin, thought for a moment, and then began issuing orders: "First Company, move immediately to the North Gate to set up a defensive position. Use of reserve weapons is authorized."

"Flying Tiger Battalion will defend the other three gates, with 100 men per gate. Explosives are allocated to the East Gate. The primary objective is to prevent the enemy from leaving the city."

"Second Company will serve as the reserve force."

Since the enemy was intent on fleeing rather than forming ranks for battle, once these Tartar cavalrymen got out of the city gates, they would inevitably scatter and flee in all directions. The Transmigrators, with their sparse numbers, would be unable to stop them. Therefore, the enemy had to be trapped inside the city and destroyed.

When the Transmigrators had set out from Santunying yesterday, their total number was 650. Among them were 50 Special Operations Team members, 200 regular Soldiers, and 400 Flying Tiger Battalion troops (100 of whom had previously gone to escort prisoners).

With this deployment by Qian Tieshan, it was equivalent to completely breaking up the force, leaving only 200 men as a mobile unit.

But that didn't matter. A unit possessing the divine tool of the walkie-talkie could receive real-time feedback in terms of scheduling, utterly unimpeded by environmental factors, including city walls.

The next moment, the thunderous sound of hoofbeats arose as one hundred Guard Army cavalrymen set out from the West Gate, moving clockwise to round their way toward the North Gate.

At the same moment, two other teams of Flying Tiger Battalion cavalry began moving counterclockwise. After leaving one hundred men at the South Gate, where the Tartars had not assembled, one team — including Mei Fuxi — ultimately docked at outside the East Gate.

And the 200-man reserve force led by Qian Tieshan remained dismounted and at rest at the West Gate, ready to reinforce any position at any time.

The chess game was now set.

"Grand Beile, the Ming Army has split its forces." A Later Jin Niru pointed at the mounted column running beneath the city walls and said. One point worth noting was that this Niru's choice of words was "Ming Army" and not "Ming dogs."

Amin, who had already changed into a suit of Zhajia Armor Armor Armor and was still standing atop the West Gate ramparts, staring back at Qian Tieshan and his men, nodded upon hearing this: "Mm, I see it."

Not long after, news came from the other three city gates as well: a hundred-man squad was blocking each entrance.

"Heh heh, even if their firearms are sharp, to think they could block the gates with a mere hundred men — aren't these Ming troops being far too arrogant?"

Upon learning this news, Amin's face showed a smile for the first time that day.

Baduli, standing beside Amin, looked at the Ming army below, whose numbers had halved, and analyzed in a deep voice: "These Ming troops don't know we intend to leave from the North Gate, yet they can't just leave those three gates empty either. They had no choice but to do this."

At this point, Baduli couldn't help but entertain an idea: "Why not shift the troops over and charge them once?"

"Not advisable." Amin shook his head upon hearing this. "Daring to be so arrogant as to guard the gates with this few men, they must have something to rely on. Those Flower-Clothes Soldiers are said to be armed with repeating muskets — not easy to charge head-on."

At this, the Grand Beile tightened his bracers and finally made up his mind: "We'll still leave from the North Gate. Send the heavy-armor cavalry to charge first. If these men turn out to be mediocre, then we gentlemen can always wheel back around — it won't be too late!"

"Aye!"

As the Niru and Great Niru (Jalan Ejen) beside him responded in unison, these Later Jin Nobility standing atop the West Gate ramparts all turned around, descended from the wall, mounted their horses, and hurried toward the North Gate.

At the same time, Qian Tieshan, watching the ground station screen, also turned his head and said: "The Tartars are about to leave the city. Notify the North Gate and West Gate — be prepared!"

Not long after Qian Tieshan's side had sent out the notification, the drawbridges at the North Gate and East Gate of Yongping Prefecture, under the direction of a string of signal flags hoisted upward, slowly descended simultaneously.

Immediately after, the city gates swung wide open. The next moment, at the North Gate where the Tartar heavy cavalry was massed, two Knights riding abreast charged out.

Since Yongping Prefecture was a prefectural seat, its scale naturally exceeded that of an ordinary county seat. Not only was the city area large, but the moat outside the city was equally broad. The moat water diverted from the Luan River reached a width of eight meters. Consequently, the matching drawbridge was not narrow either — wide enough for two fully armed Knights to gallop across it side by side.

These two Knights, armed to the teeth, were renowned White Armor Warriors within the Bordered Blue Banner.

The two warriors currently charging were bulging all over. Not only were they clad in leather armor and Zhajia Armor Armor Armor, but they had also additionally hung iron armor plates over their chests and abdomens — aside from the plates not being ceramic ballistic inserts, the Later Jin cavalry had, without any teacher, cosplayed the plug-and-play body armor mode of later generations' American troops!

Heavy armor alone was naturally not enough. The two Knights' hands also tightly gripped a thick, heavy great shield, protecting their own fronts and the upper bodies of their horses.

Since the distance was very short — they only needed to cover roughly one hundred meters from the city gate to outside the moat to engage the enemy — the charging Knights spared no concern for their horses' stamina.

Moreover, the fronts of the horses galloping at full speed were likewise hung with additional iron armor plates... though not reactive armor, these were already bona fide human tanks.

And the matter did not end there.

Fifty groups of charging armored cavalry, identically equipped as the two Knights, were now formed into a two-column file, closely following as they surged out from behind the city gate, intent on smashing through the thin, hundred-man Ming Army formation opposite them.

All the Knights held up their thick, heavy great shields — these men only needed to disrupt the enemy formation to achieve victory. As for the killing, that would be left to the large numbers of light-armor cavalry that would charge out afterward.

In this moment, the Later Jin cavalry, having gathered intelligence on their opponent, had made targeted adjustments, elevating the element of bulletproofing to the highest priority. They fully demonstrated the adaptability and tactical execution capability of an army on the rise.

Hoofbeats thundered. On the slightly trembling surface of the drawbridge, pair after pair of Knights used their superb riding skills to maintain their charging posture, like a tight chain-drive machine — fierce in momentum, their killing intent surging skyward.

At a position directly opposite the drawbridge, a mere one hundred meters away, the Guard Army cavalry formation, composed of two horizontal rows of cavalry, faced the increasingly close heavy cavalry without the slightest ripple of disturbance. Every cavalryman controlled his horse with one hand while resting his lance obliquely against his shoulder with the other, maintaining a posture ready to raise and aim at any moment.

The next moment, the pair of charging Knights at the very front, their horses had already reached the end of Liu Bridge and were about to set foot on the land outside the city.

At the same instant, the opposing green-coated Cavalry formation, which had been completely still, parted from its exact center to open a narrow gap.

This gap was very tight, only as wide as a single horse.

But that was enough.

Because the gap faced the Drawbridge directly, forming a single straight line with the city gate.

This straight line was very useful, because the shooter no longer needed to swing the gun muzzle left or right; he only needed to squeeze his right hand, close the sear at the gun's tail, and he could send the 12.7mm Bullets for the M2 Machine Gun firing out along that straight line.