Chapter 259: Long-Range Troops

Sending troops to Pengcheng Jun was decided in just a few words.

This time, the Commander leading the troops to Pengcheng is Zang Ba; he was a veteran, and it was he who brought it up this time.

Of course, for the Deputy General, Su Fan gave him Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, and others.

The reason for taking Huang Zhong along was also to test the newly emerged Firearm Battalion.

Huang Zhong excels at archery; he is the strongest in terms of martial power in the entire Donghai Ling, but at the same time, his archery is also the strongest, and even Taishi Ci, who excels at archery, cannot compare to Huang Zhong.

Ever since Huang Zhong came under Su Fan's rule, Su Fan specifically established a Longbow Battalion, with a full eight thousand men.

Su Fan's command originally only had a Crossbow Battalion; after all, with the Mohist craftsmen and Su Fan's guidance, the crossbows forged in Donghai Ling are quite sharp.

Of course, even if the crossbows of Donghai Ling are extremely sharp, when it comes to range, they still cannot compare to archers in any case.

The crossbows of Donghai Ling can reach one hundred zhang, which is considered extremely powerful in history, not shorter than archers.

But in this fantasy era, the range of archers is at least one hundred and fifty zhang, and some elites can even reach over two hundred zhang; their long-range strike power is also very formidable.

It is just that the training of archers is not simple.

There is nothing to crossbowmen; they only need to train their string-loading speed.

But archers are different; the most important thing is strong arm strength. If the arm strength is not strong, they cannot pull it at all. Nowadays, archers generally use three-shi bows.

In history, Huang Zhong pulled a three-shi bow, but in the present, that is just a small soldier. Those with truly astonishing arm strength can pull five or six shi, and Huang Zhong can now pull a ten-shi bow, with a range reaching two kilometers.

Of course, the lethality is also around one kilometer; beyond this range, the naked eye cannot see, and it can only rely entirely on feeling.

However, even so, within one kilometer, if Huang Zhong launches a sneak attack, it is very difficult for martial generals below the Lian Gang Fourth Layer to survive.

This is the terrifying aspect of Huang Zhong.

To put him at ease, Su Fan also specially built the Longbow Battalion and handed it over to him for training, because Su Fan's Donghai Ling does not lack supplies, especially in the army, where various meat is provided, making everyone's physical fitness extremely strong and their strength very great.

It can be said that they are all excellent seedlings for archers.

It is no wonder that once Huang Zhong entered the military camp, he never came out again.

Every day, he trains this Longbow Battalion in the military camp.

This Longbow Battalion has been trained for nearly two years. Not only the Longbow Battalion, but Su Fan also handed the thirty thousand Crossbow Battalion and the five thousand Firearm Battalion to Huang Zhong to command.

This time, Huang Zhong took away five thousand longbowmen, ten thousand crossbowmen, and three thousand firearm soldiers, also to see the effect.

Especially the Firearm Battalion; this is a weapon that the Armament Department of the Ministry of Works has spent a lot of effort to build over the past few years. If the performance on the battlefield is not ideal, then the Armament Department will immediately change its path.

It is a pity that the Artillery Battalion cannot be formed yet, otherwise, Su Fan would also want to let the Artillery Battalion go out and show itself.

Besides this, Zang Ba also took ten thousand Heavy Infantry and five thousand Cavalry.

Heavy Infantry is the greatest feature of the Donghai Ling army, because there is no shortage of steel, so there is naturally no shortage of armor.

Over these years, the Armament Department has accumulated an unknown amount of Iron Armor; the great army of Donghai Ling is armored, and the Heavy Infantry is even clad in three layers of thick armor.

Heavy Infantry is just like Heavy Infantry, the tanks among infantry.

It is also the trump card of the infantry. The selection itself is extremely harsh; the first requirement for the initial selection is that the body must be strong, with a minimum height of one point eight five meters.

Being able to carry five hundred jin is also the foundation; otherwise, the three layers of thick armor would weigh nearly one hundred jin, and they would not be able to carry it at all.

The weapon is the Mo Dao, weighing eighty jin.

Those who can become Heavy Infantry are all strong men.

Donghai Ling now only has fifty thousand Heavy Infantry, but their combat power definitely exceeds an army of five hundred thousand. This Heavy Infantry can be said to be the most powerful force in Donghai Ling, a killing machine on the battlefield.

Since he wants to kill the chicken to warn the monkey, he naturally has to show that powerful strength, so that he can deter them.

Su Fan cannot kill the aristocratic families of this world at will, and the power of the aristocratic families today is even stronger than the previous Datang.

In the Datang World, the world was powerful, which was nothing more than the right to speak and the control of knowledge, but the aristocratic families in this world truly have personal strength.

Literati also have terrifying combat power.

Su Fan does not want to suppress them just because he wants to.

Of course, if the aristocratic families are really stubborn and insist on fighting him to the death, then there is nothing to say about him taking action. However, generally speaking, as long as the aristocratic families see your strength, they rarely fight to the death, even if they lose part of their interests.

Su Fan naturally understands the character of those aristocratic families, especially those in Xuzhou, so this time, he intends to show some of the power in his hands, so that those people can weigh it and not always jump around repeatedly.

Eighty thousand troops, marching to Pengcheng Jun, eight Lian Gang martial generals, especially with Huang Zhong, this top-tier divine general, Su Fan sat in the Donghai Ling government office waiting for news.

Two months later, Zang Ba did not disappoint Su Fan.

After more than half a month of marching, in the remaining month, he captured six cities in Pengcheng Jun, beheaded forty thousand, and captured an army of three hundred thousand.

Afterwards, the entire Pengcheng Jun surrendered. Those aristocratic clans who originally relied on Yuan Shu surrendered one after another. What else could they do if they didn't surrender?

The army of Donghai Ling really takes action.

When two armies fight, if I behead your clan, no one will say anything; everyone serves their own master.

So before Yuan Shu's reinforcements arrived, Pengcheng Jun was the first to be unable to hold on.

"Haha! Xuangao is good, General Hansheng is even more courageous than the three armies, with unparalleled archery, killing two Lian Gang martial generals with one arrow!"

The detailed battle report has already been sent to Su Fan's hands.

Seeing the detailed battle situation of the past month or so above, Su Fan is quite satisfied.

Marching to Pengcheng Jun, he naturally never thought he would fail. The army of Pengcheng Jun is a mob, the private soldiers of the aristocratic families; a small number might be elites, but once they are really put on the battlefield, it is a joke.

The killing on the battlefield and the fighting in the Jianghu are completely different.

Most of the guards and private soldiers of the aristocratic families pay more attention to bravery, and their individual strength is quite formidable.

Just like the Gao clan of Su Fan, the family has some private soldiers who all train their own martial power, and there are no requirements for battle formations at all.

If it is just a small-scale fight, or dealing with some mountain bandits and outlaws, that is fine, but if they really encounter a great army, I am afraid that after one charge, they will be finished.

Naturally, the combat effectiveness of the army in Pengcheng Jun is also very fragmented.

Zang Ba led an army of eighty thousand, and there were no major casualties at all. The total casualties were less than three thousand, and after some treatment, the actual number of deaths was less than eight hundred.

This number is quite formidable.

Of course, the key is that the new recruits have seen blood, and the Longbow Battalion and the Firearm Battalion also showed impressive combat power; this is what Su Fan is most happy about.