Chapter 518: Fierce Battle

"Pull!"

With Zhu Feng's shout, several soldiers yanked the trip ropes in their hands. Three bursts of flame flashed within the square formation. White smoke billowed through the Later Jin ranks, blinding sight. A rain of stones shot up from the ground, spraying out in a fan and scattering into the crowd. The orderly rows of long spears in the center collapsed in an instant, and screams of agony shook the sky.

"Third Company, fire!"

With Zhu Feng's shout, the Dengzhou army's front line fired a volley of muskets. The already shattered Later Jin square formation was dealt another heavy blow. Under the sudden explosions and volley fire, the bondservants, their spirits broken, fled in all directions.

The roar of slaughter surged from behind. Even the bellow of the four-pounder cannon could not drown out the Jianzhou bandits' horns. Seizing the moment when the front was collapsing, Zhu Feng shifted his reserve force to the rear line.

Zhao Xuan, gripping his short musket, headed to the rear line. White smoke hung thick there. Black-armored Jianzhou soldiers had already charged to the formation's edge. Throwing weapons of every kind — flying axes, flying swords, iron maces — flew in from outside the formation, occasionally striking the bright helmets of the Dengzhou soldiers with crisp, ringing clangs. Heads surged along the breastwork. The front-rank musketeers, having fired, now braced captured long spears and thrust wildly outward. Screams rose unceasingly along the battle line.

The Ming soldiers in the rear ranks kept searching for gaps to fire. Amid the deafening roar of battle, officers on both sides lost control of their troops. The Dengzhou garrison had no volley fire to speak of. At face-to-face range, if you could fire, you were certain to kill an enemy.

Zhao Xuan, gripping his short musket, could not get close. Several times he spotted an opening and rushed over, only to find it filled with men again. Through the gaps between bodies, he could see dense, layered ranks of Later Jin soldiers. As soon as one fell, another immediately took his place, maintaining that same density without pause.

Blades of every kind flashed before the line. The two sides thrust spears and hacked broadswords at each other across the breastwork. The Dengzhou soldiers suffered equally heavy losses. Fighting at a disadvantage, attacked from front and rear, their strength was stretched dangerously thin. By now, many Later Jin soldiers had also burst from the woods on both flanks. Where the crowd was less dense, these Later Jin soldiers did not charge directly into melee at the breastwork. Instead, they halted a dozen paces from the line and traded shots with the Dengzhou soldiers behind the breastwork using heavy arrows. Relying on the ease and high rate of fire of their bows, they pinned down the Dengzhou troops' firepower. Flintlock muskets held little advantage in skirmishing warfare.

With firepower on both flanks drawn away, the true Jurchen armored soldiers in the center began to gain the advantage in manpower. Both sides suffered grievous losses. Corpses from both armies lay piled before and behind the breastwork. Countless wounded soldiers wailed and screamed on the ground. Both sides fought with the last reserves of their ferocity.

Thanks to years of propaganda, the Dengzhou soldiers regarded the Jianzhou bandits as wild beasts. According to Dengzhou military law, if you surrendered, your entire family was finished. And no one believed the Jianzhou bandits would accept surrender anyway. Every soldier thought being captured meant an even more horrific death. With no way back, the young Dengzhou soldiers fought with savage desperation. Not a single man retreated along the entire line. Even wounded soldiers, collapsed on the ground, struggled desperately to keep loading.

Zhao Xuan finally found a gap. Ahead of him, several Dengzhou flintlock musketeers were thrusting wildly outward with long spears, howling like wolves from their throats. Several spearheads reached in from outside, scraping along the breastwork as they stabbed inward. Zhao Xuan raised his hand and fired a shot outside. A figure directly in front of him fell at once. Before Zhao Xuan could reload, a Dengzhou soldier in the front rank screamed. A long spear had pierced his left chest. Neither the cotton armor nor the mail could stop the razor-sharp spearhead.

The spearhead withdrew with lightning speed. The young Dengzhou soldier shrieked a piercing howl and struck back furiously at his killer with his own long spear. The Later Jin soldier outside was also stabbed in the chest. The Later Jin soldier was fierce, and trapped in the crowd with nowhere to dodge, though his chest burned with pain, he did not flinch after pulling back his spear. He thrust inward again. The two men stabbed violently at each other across the breastwork several times. Finally, the Later Jin soldier's last thrust struck the young Dengzhou soldier in the throat. The young soldier could hold on no longer. Clutching his neck, he collapsed limply. The Later Jin soldier was also wounded in many places, his entire body stained with blood.

On the battlefield roaring with slaughter, Zhao Xuan could not complete the loading. Twice he tried to seat the prepared cartridges but failed to properly place the priming powder. Now, seeing a gap open before him, he instinctively grabbed the long spear the young soldier had dropped and thrust at the figure outside. Zhao Xuan, who had never even killed a chicken at home, felt his arms go weak. His spear thrust showed not the slightest ferocity.

The Later Jin soldier was utterly exhausted, swaying unsteadily where he stood. Zhao Xuan's clumsy thrust easily struck him. Feeling the resistance of the spearhead, Zhao Xuan suddenly let out a great howl. His arms pulled back with violent force. His hands gripped the spear shaft so hard they turned white. The spearhead stabbed the Later Jin soldier's body again and again. Zhao Xuan's final thrust struck the Later Jin soldier's eye socket. Blood gushed forth like a spring. With a crash, the Later Jin soldier fell to the ground.

Another Later Jin soldier surged forward from the rear. A blade slashed toward Zhao Xuan. But Zhao Xuan had entered a state of hyper-aroused numbness. He paid no heed to the blade, knowing only to keep thrusting his long spear relentlessly.

Amid the frenzied battle, two violent explosions suddenly erupted within the Later Jin ranks. The ground itself shook fiercely. The Later Jin formation was blown to pieces. Several bodies were hurled into the air. Countless shattered armor fragments and blades flew skyward.

The Later Jin ranks fell into chaos. The Later Jin soldier in front of Zhao Xuan happened to be near the blast point. He was knocked staggering by the armored soldiers behind him. A ringing filled Zhao Xuan's ears, and his head swam. This time, the ten-thousand-mine cannon seemed even more violent than usual. The entire battle line was stunned dizzy by the powerful blast. The eardrums of the Later Jin soldiers around the blast point suffered the shock of the explosion, their sense of balance destroyed. Now they reeled and staggered. Those who managed to struggle to their feet stumbled about blindly. The Later Jin soldiers, their casualties catastrophic, teetered on the brink of collapse.

Fragments drifted down from the sky, clattering against the helmets of both sides. Enduring the dizziness and ringing in his ears, Zhao Xuan thrust his spear twice at an armored soldier passing in front of him. The thrusts had no force. The armored soldier fell, crawled a few paces on the ground, then stood up again and stumbled back the way he had come.

Zhao Xuan had no strength to vault the wall and pursue. Gasping, he watched the armored soldier walk away. Suddenly, a broadsword swept through the air. The armored soldier's head flew several paces. From the rear line burst a group of Bayara in silver-white armor. The one at the front, wielding a broadsword, had killed the armored soldier and now lunged fiercely toward the four-pounder cannon's position. A band of Bayara, fierce as demons, closed in on the breastwork with unstoppable momentum.

Zhao Xuan braced himself against the breastwork and grabbed a flintlock musket with a broken bayonet. Just as he was about to load, the four-pounder cannon in the center roared like thunder. The group of Bayara was directly in the cannon's muzzle path. The white smoke belching from the muzzle swallowed them in an instant. Zhao Xuan could see the mighty broadsword of the leading white-armored warrior shatter inch by inch. Shattered bodies, armor, and blades flew apart at the edges of the white smoke. Under the close-range strike of seventy-two one-ounce shot, the Bayara squad's morale-soaring charge vanished like smoke in an instant.

The Later Jin armored soldiers finally broke. No execution squad could stop them. They abandoned all their wounded and fled. Without the main force pinning down the rear, the Later Jin soldiers on the flanks could not withstand volley fire. They too immediately fled back into the woods.

Zhu Feng's shouts rang out. The four-pounder cannon was swiftly turned back toward the front line. Zhu Feng's figure vaulted over the breastwork, leading a group of close-combat soldiers in pursuit of the routing armored soldiers. This threw the Later Jin retreat into even greater chaos, prolonging the time they would need to organize the next wave of attack. The remaining flintlock musketeers, under the direction of nearby non-commissioned officers, continued loading powder, preparing to support the front line with volley fire.

Zhao Xuan, gripping his flintlock musket, was about to rush over when a sharp pain suddenly shot through his chest. With a cry of agony, he slumped back against the breastwork. He dropped his musket and felt his chest. The cold mail was slick and slippery. He pulled his hand away and saw it covered in bright red. The pain grew more intense. Zhao Xuan bit down hard on his lip. In peacetime, when comforting wounded soldiers, he had never understood that kind of hoarse, desperate agony. Now, at last, he understood.

He tried to remove his mail so the medic could staunch his bleeding. The searing pain made it hard to move his limbs. Any simple action became difficult. During battle, facing mortal danger, the surge of adrenaline had massively boosted his body's strength and endurance. The two wounds on Zhao Xuan's left chest were not fatal. He had not felt the pain at the time. Now that the danger had passed, the pain was unbearable.

Zhao Xuan finally began to moan softly, trying to ease that tearing agony. Corpses lay all around him. Other wounded soldiers were howling loudly. Ahead, soldiers who could still move were busy loading. No one paid them any attention. The few medics were frantically tending to the wounded in front of them and had not noticed this indoctrination officer for the moment.

The young soldier who had been stabbed in the throat lay right before Zhao Xuan's eyes. His eyes were wide open. He had been dead for some time. Zhao Xuan clutched his own wound, staring at that young face. He remembered this young soldier was from Henan. His family had entered the garrison farm in the fifth year of Chongzhen. This youth had attended the garrison farm school, then joined the army. There were six or seven people in his family.

"Little brother, it's a pity you never even got to marry." Zhao Xuan murmured. His attention was entirely on that young man. The wound seemed to hurt less. After a while, the crackle of volley fire sounded from the front. Zhao Xuan was jolted awake again. He felt his inner garment soaked. The wound was still bleeding.

Everyone who could move had gone to the front line to trade fire with the Han troops. Zhao Xuan looked at the busy medics and had no choice but to try to help himself. His left arm was nearly impossible to lift. It took him great effort just to prop his left arm against the breastwork. After many attempts, he still could not remove the mail. He had no choice but to use the first-aid method he had learned, pressing desperately on the wound with his right hand.

The sound of gunfire and cannon continued unceasingly ahead. All Zhao Xuan could see before him were the soldiers' backs. They were trading fire with the Han troops on the front line. Wisps of gunpowder smoke drifted back on the wind. The smell was just like firecrackers at New Year.

Every time the four-pounder cannon carriage recoiled violently backward, Zhao Xuan felt a surge of satisfaction. At this moment, nothing was more trustworthy than this cannon. Zhao Xuan even felt that as long as the artillerymen were there, no enemy could ever take this place.

The battle raged on ahead. He did not know how long he waited. A rustling sound of mail came from above his head. He looked up to see Zhu Feng returning with his close-combat soldiers. Zhao Xuan immediately called for help.

Zhu Feng saw it was Zhao Xuan and hurried over to examine his wound. He promptly assigned two soldiers to assist him. Zhu Feng himself went to the front line. After a round of exchanging fire, Zhu Feng gave a great shout and led the remaining close-combat soldiers charging out over the breastwork. They routed the fourth Later Jin square formation and drove them fleeing down the main road. This time, the two Later Jin square formations behind them could not hold. This wave of attack was thoroughly crushed by the Dengzhou soldiers.

The two soldiers had already bandaged Zhao Xuan's wound. The precious honey was reserved for the severely wounded. Zhao Xuan's injury did not yet count as severe. He had no choice but to endure the pain.

When Zhao Xuan stood up, the area around the position was a vision of hell. Inside and outside the small position, corpses lay everywhere. Several large craters blown in the ground still smoked with white fumes. Severed limbs and chunks of flesh were scattered across the ground. Inside the position, along the breastwork, the ground was carpeted with the red-clad bodies of Dengzhou soldiers. Of the four hundred-plus Dengzhou troops, fewer than two hundred remained now, many of them wounded.

For the first time, Zhao Xuan thought they might be completely annihilated. This was a first for the Dengzhou garrison. If the position was overrun, no one would survive.

Zhao Xuan glanced in the direction of Caohekou. "It's been over three watches since the alarm was raised. Zhong Laosi, you dog, still not here." (To be continued.)

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