Chapter 288

Dong Shan hated Fan Ercha's sinister ambition the most. The two had been fighting for many years, so how could he be willing to show weakness in front of the other? He immediately ordered his own cavalry to kill out.

Li Manzhu beside him saw the two of them recklessly sending out troops and shook his head helplessly, muttering somewhat disdainfully: "A bunch of reckless men!"

However, the Great Zhou only had a thousand cavalry, charging in, with no reinforcements, and being weak and isolated, so he didn't take it to heart either.

The Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry launched a charge toward Liu Yongzheng's thousand cavalry from the left and right flanks, and the battlefield situation immediately reversed.

The cavalry led by Liu Yongzheng collided with the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry. Although they rushed left and right and fought with all their might, they soon showed that they were not up to the task.

Liu Yongzheng didn't want to fight either, before the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry completely broke through their cavalry formation.

He led the front of the cavalry to turn into the rear, ran out an arc to the left, and barely escaped the encirclement of the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry, retreating rapidly toward the direction of the Yafu Pass city gate.

On the mountain ridge on the left, Jia Cong saw Liu Yongzheng commanding a thousand cavalry, moving back and forth between the encirclement of the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry, advancing and retreating with rules.

The thousand cavalry were like an arm pointing to the finger under his command, which opened Jia Cong's eyes, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart—so this is what is called a famous general of the world; that's probably what Liu Yongzheng is like.

But Li Manzhu alone was unable to support the situation. At least for the moment, the goals of the Three Guards were consistent, which was why he would join forces with Dong Shan and Fan Ercha.

On the Yafu Pass city tower, Liang Chengzong looked at the Jurchen large formation constantly moving forward, almost half of which had crossed the eight-hundred-pace round stone.

If they could take Yafu Pass, they would tear open a gap in the Liaodong border town of the Great Zhou, and with Yafu Pass as a stronghold, they could even peek at the Liaodong heavy town of Guanning City!

As Liu Yongzheng commanded the thousand-man cavalry team to constantly retreat toward Yafu Pass, the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry followed closely behind to pursue and kill.

Madelun, the artillery instructor, had already ordered the soldiers to load the sub-cannons into the Frankish cannon barrels...

If they could take advantage of the situation to take Yafu Pass, then the grain and materials piled up like mountains in the pass would not only be enough to safely survive the harsh winter, but even allow the various Jurchen tribes to greatly increase their strength.

Although Li Manzhu was more resourceful than the two of them, the cavalry of the two guards occupied a numerical advantage, and the Zhou army couldn't resist, which was also in the normal order of things, so he didn't take it to heart either.

He was more far-sighted than Dong Shan and Fan Ercha, and also had more ambition; his thoughts didn't stop at feeding the tribe.

And Li Manzhu looked at the distant Yafu Pass, his gaze becoming even deeper.

This time they brought thousands of infantry, as well as a thousand auxiliary troops, and a large number of siege ladders and city-breaking hammers.

Time passed second by second, Liu Yongzheng led the thousand-man cavalry team to flee to the city wall, but didn't enter the city, instead turning their horses around and lining up in front of the city gate.

Facing the oncoming Jurchen cavalry, the entire Great Zhou thousand-man cavalry team exuded a high-spirited spirit of being ready to die and moving forward!

And the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry also crossed the four-hundred-pace round stone one after another, and took down cavalry shields from their saddles one after another to prevent the rain of arrows from the city tower.

As the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry constantly pursued and attacked forward, the entire Jurchen Three Guards large formation also moved forward rapidly, people shouting and horses neighing, the sound of hooves like thunder, flags like clouds.

In Li Manzhu's eyes, Dong Shan and Fan Ercha were just short-sighted people who robbed and filled their stomachs. He was old, perhaps he would stop at Guanning City, but he still had descendants; as long as an ambitious talent appeared, one day the Jurchen iron hooves would cover the world!

On the mountain ridge on the left, Jia Cong stared at the green hairband on Through Ai Li's head. The hairband fluttered in the wind, pointing due east—that was the direction of Yafu Pass, the wind direction he hoped for.

The archers densely packed on the city tower had already begun to draw their bowstrings one by one...

And Dong Shan, Fan Ercha, and others saw the Zhou army cavalry so vulnerable, and as soon as they came into contact with the Jurchen Left and Right Guard elite cavalry, they retreated in a rout, and all laughed triumphantly.

In the eyes of Dong Shan, Fan Ercha, and others, victory seemed to be in sight; as long as they annihilated this group of Great Zhou cavalry under the city wall, they would definitely deal a heavy blow to the morale of the Yafu Pass garrison.

And the Jurchen elite cavalry closest to the Great Zhou cavalry were also about to approach the four-hundred-pace round stone...

At the same time, the entire Jurchen large group in the distance had crossed the eight-hundred-pace round stone.

At this critical moment, on the Yafu Pass city tower, Liang Chengzong, the Military Governor of Liaodong, the messenger standing beside him, the artillery instructor Madelun, and others...

Their gazes all looked involuntarily toward the low mountain ridge a thousand paces away.

At this moment, a Gyrfalcon, snow-white with black spots, shot into the sky from that mountain ridge like an arrow, climbed rapidly to the high sky, and emitted a sharp eagle cry!

Everyone on the battlefield could almost see its figure spreading its wings to the nine heavens.

This was the signal Jia Cong and Liang Chengzong had agreed upon in advance!

Liang Chengzong shouted to the messenger behind him: "Start!"

The messenger shouted: "Artillery fire, archers shoot at three hundred paces!"

The Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry who ran within three hundred paces, although they resisted with cavalry shields, were still shot down by a rain of arrows.

And Dong Shan, Fan Ercha, Li Manzhu, and others, who were guarded by personal guards, heard a roar like heaven and earth collapsing from the Yafu Pass city tower.

This seemed even more terrifying than the sound of hundreds of muskets firing in unison.

Successive explosions occurred in the Jurchen large formation. The dense formation made every explosion instantly take away more than a dozen lives, with a considerable number of soldiers being injured by the explosions.

The Jurchen large group of more than six thousand people was suddenly in chaos, and the deafening roar on the city tower continued, firing twenty-four cannonballs in an instant!

Madelun was smoked pitch-black by the smoke of the explosion, but he still commanded the artillery soldiers in a rapid and orderly manner.

Actions such as adding gunpowder, loading the barrel, and firing were carried out with extremely high efficiency under his command.

According to the changes in the Jurchen large formation, Madelun ran back and forth, fine-tuning the artillery angle, letting the lethality of the Frankish cannons be exerted to the extreme.

At this moment, the huge potential of an artillery expert was exerted to the fullest!

Eight Frankish cannons fired densely at the Jurchen large formation under the city wall without stopping, harvesting countless lives.

The Great Zhou cavalry lined up under the city wall began to stir.

The warhorses that had never witnessed the loud noise of artillery all became terrified and uneasy, and the riders on the horses were all trying their best to suppress and soothe them.

And the Jurchen Left and Right Guard cavalry who rushed to three hundred paces, while shooting arrows, heard violent explosions from the rear, those heart-rending screams, and the uncontrollable chaos.

Where would they dare to continue charging? They turned their horses around and began to retreat backward.

Li Manzhu in the large formation was knowledgeable and was the first to wake up, shouting: "This is the Frankish artillery, a hundred times more powerful than muskets. The whole army retreat immediately!"

At this moment, the Frankish cannons on the city tower had completed two rounds of forty-eight shots, and the third round of concentrated fire was beginning...

The entire Jurchen large group was in a mess; soldiers didn't know their generals, and generals didn't know their soldiers. The only things pointing out their direction of escape were the banners representing the leaders of the Three Guards, which were constantly retreating backward.

On the mountain ridge, Through Ai Li looked at the Jurchen large formation below the mountain, where corpses were shattered everywhere, her face turned somewhat pale, and a look of unbearable pity appeared in her eyes.

Jia Cong beside him said: "They are not worthy of sympathy. The Jurchens plunder border villages everywhere, killing thousands of Han people. Only by paying blood for blood can they learn a lesson!"

At this moment, the Jurchen large group below the mountain was retreating rapidly, and it was about to approach the eight-hundred-pace round stone marker.

And the two catapults on the mountain ridge, under Jia Cong's command, threw many round black dots into the air, which landed accurately near the eight-hundred-pace round stone marker.

These black dots exploded violently when they landed or before they landed, scattering a burst of red smoke in the air.

As those black round dots were constantly thrown out by the catapults, a wall of red smoke soon formed near the eight-hundred-pace distance, like an invisible barrier.

As soon as the retreating Jurchen large formation entered that wall of red smoke, the warhorses let out sad cries, jumping wildly like crazy, throwing the riders off their horses and trampling them to death.

And those infantrymen, as soon as they came into contact with the red smoke, couldn't open their eyes, covered their mouths and noses, and emitted violent coughing and screams, and some even fell to the ground in a faint.

Those red smokes seemed to have terrifying magic. Although they were invisible and intangible, they had a powerful force, causing the retreating Jurchen large formation to be in chaos.

The entire Jurchen large formation actually stopped its momentum of retreating. The Jurchens had never seen such strange smoke, and even thought it was a curse cast by the Shaman gods.

Many Jurchen tribal soldiers, terrified by this strange red smoke, retreated toward Yafu Pass again, aggravating the chaos of the Jurchen large formation!

On the Yafu Pass city tower, many people saw the red smoke rising in the distance, and the entire Jurchen large formation strangely stopped its momentum of retreating.

The Frankish cannons on the city tower very tacitly seized the opportunity to continuously pour artillery fire on the Jurchen large group that had stopped retreating.

On the mountain ridge on the left, five hundred musketeers rushed out of the mountain ridge, lined up at the predetermined position, and fired at the Jurchen large group below the ridge.

And another five hundred cavalry, under the leadership of Jia Cong, rushed down the mountain ridge like a tide...

(End of chapter)