Chapter 165

"Kill!"

The Righteous Army sabre-and-shield soldiers swung the iron hammers in their hands, bringing them down on the shoulder of a Tartar foot soldier in white armor.

With just one strike, the shoulder blade was smashed to pieces.

Amid the sound of shattering bones, the armored foot soldier howled miserably and stumbled to the ground.

The sabre-and-shield soldier pounced, raising his hammer and smashing it down on the foot soldier's face once more.

He had just straightened up when a long-handled great saber, carrying a fierce whistling sound, swept in horizontally and took his head clean off.

The foot soldier clad in White Banner armor withdrew his long-handled great saber, but facing him were three goose-wing armor-piercing long spears, all thrusting forward at once.

He twisted to dodge two of the spears, but the third spear's sharp tip pierced through the thick armor on his body and stabbed into his kidney.

The Righteous Army spearman abruptly twisted the spear shaft, then yanked back with all his might!

Friends who have had kidney stones all know just how unbearable the pain in that place is, making one wish for death.

The White Banner foot soldier whose kidney was completely ruined fainted on the spot from the agony!

He collapsed on the ground, large clots of fresh blood mixed with fragments flowing out.

Pair after pair of heavy boots trampled over his body and continued advancing.

The battle entered its most intense phase, both sides engaging in full-scale close-quarters slaughter.

At this moment it was a contest of equipment, a contest of morale, a contest of courage, a contest of stamina.

"Charge up!"

"Charge!"

The Tartar banner commanders, eyes red with killing frenzy, showed none of their usual enthusiasm toward the Mongol tribes.

Just short of putting knives directly to the various taijis' throats.

The Mongol tribes had no choice; gritting their teeth and steeling themselves, they forced the herdsmen, mainly light cavalry, to charge the formation.

Greeting them were bows and crossbows, firelocks, and ranks upon ranks of long spears like a forest.

Squadrons of Mongol cavalry dared not crash straight in, circling before the long spear formation.

Firelocks roared, bows and crossbows volleyed in unison.

Viewed from the sky above, the Mongol tribes fell in large swathes, men shouting and horses neighing in utter chaos.

The Mongol cavalry's performance greatly disappointed the Tartars, utterly lacking the bearing of centuries past.

Fortunately, not all Mongol tribes were like this.

The Khorchin cavalry displayed a measure of their ancestors' bearing.

Like a long dragon they swiftly swept past the Righteous Army's formation from the flank, raising their riding bows and loosing arrows from afar into the Righteous Army's ranks.

Wave after wave of arrow rain whistled in, clanging against the Righteous Army soldiers' bodies.

This thing called a riding bow is a sharp weapon against unarmored men.

But against soldiers wearing iron armor, it is a joke.

The soldiers only needed to lower their heads and let the arrow rain wash over them.

The Righteous Army did not take the shooting lying down either.

Firelock soldiers returning from the battle line to regroup, together with the archers and crossbowmen, moved forward to return fire at the Khorchin tribe.

All were saturation fire; if one blundered into the kill zone, it came down to pure luck.

If one's ancestors in the underworld kowtowed until their foreheads broke, perhaps they might charge through the hail of spears and bullets.

A certain taiji of the Khorchin tribe flew into a rage.

He actually recklessly threw his light cavalry in a charge against the neat, orderly infantry squares.

Firelock soldiers and archers/crossbowmen quickly fell back and hid within the formation.

Several ranks of spearmen stepped forward, half-crouching on the ground.

They drove the butt ends of their long spears deep into the earth, the spears angled at forty-five degrees pointing forward.

The long spears provided by Lin Dao were all forged in the goose-wing armor-piercing cone pattern, using top-grade modern world alloy steel.

The mechanically machined spearheads were extremely sharp.

Not to mention light cavalry, even fully armored cataphracts could be pierced through.

The Khorchin tribe's light cavalry slammed straight into the spear formation.

In an instant men and horses were overturned, dead and wounded strewn everywhere.

The corpses of men and horses piled up, blocking the path of the following cavalry.

Firelock soldiers advanced with bayonet-fixed firelocks, together with archers/crossbowmen who had drawn their sabers, hacking and slashing at the cavalry.

The Khorchin cavalry on the battlefield suddenly erupted in a great roar.

Many, heedless of everything, lunged toward a certain direction.

After a bout of cruel slaughter, they seized a corpse and left weeping bitterly.

The hotheaded taiji was dead.

"Only the Mongol cavalry are running."

Lin Dao, observing the battlefield through the drone, soon sensed something was wrong.

"The Tartars may rely mainly on heavy infantry, but they also have no small number of cavalry."

"At least ten or twenty thousand cavalry are not here."

Lin Dao recalled the detachment he had sent on a detour to ambush Huang Taiji's rear — "They thought of the same thing?"

The detachment he sent took the route circling along the opposite bank of the canal.

It was headed for Dongchang Fu.

Carrying inflatable kayaks that could be used to cross the Grand Canal.

Huang Taiji's side is missing nearly twenty thousand cavalry; they certainly didn't go to raid Lin Dao's main camp.

Because Huang Taiji isn't stupid; he must understand that Lin Dao's troops' military supplies are all in the fleet, floating on the Grand Canal.

"These twenty thousand cavalry, are they here to pincer attack from front and rear?"

Recalling the Huang Taiji combat data he had read, this is a combat method he very much likes to use.

Ambush, sneak attack, bribery, feigned surrender — he stops at nothing.

"Liu San Dao!"

Lin Dao immediately called over his bodyguards: "Go find a battalion of auxiliary soldiers to come over!"

When the auxiliary soldiers had assembled, Lin Dao had already brought large batches of iron wire net, caltrops, wooden stakes, shovels, hammers, iron spades, pickaxes, and other items.

"From here to here."

Lin Dao reached out to signal: "Lay the iron wire net, fix it with wooden stakes, remember not to pull it too tight."

"Lay a few dozen more layers; don't worry about not having enough length — there's as much iron wire net as you need!"

"Dig horse-trap pits; dig as many as you can."

"Scatter the caltrops on the ground; don't you dare skimp on me — there's plenty!"

With the arrangements finished, the bodyguards naturally led the auxiliary soldiers to do the work.

Returning to the observation platform, Lin Dao summoned the acting commander of the scouting cavalry.

The Righteous Army doesn't have many cavalry, but it still has night patrol scouts.

The necessary reconnaissance hasn't been neglected either; previously, scouts sent twenty li out found no trace of Tartar ambush troops.

"If you can't find them at twenty li, go forty li; if not at forty li, go out eighty li!"

Lin Dao pointed toward the distant opposite side: "So many Tartar cavalry have vanished without a trace — don't you tell me they all got diarrhea and couldn't catch up to the battle!"

The Righteous Army cavalry dispersed and went out to search for traces of the Tartar ambush troops.

In less than half a double-hour, a night patrol scout returned fleeing with injuries.

"Tartar cavalry are coming — lots of cavalry!"

Lin Dao calmed his breath: "As expected, they're here."

His gaze swept across the battlefield, then he instructed: "Raise my great banner high!"

"Now we just see where this cavalry is headed."

If they charge straight into the formation, it will cause heavy losses.

If they come for me, that couldn't be better.

"Grand Beile." Suo Ni rode up: "Shall we charge straight into the formation?"

The Tartar cavalry that had charged from dozens of li away all dismounted from their riding horses and turned to feed water and bean cakes to the warhorses they had led along.

After tending to the warhorses, the Tartars also ate and drank respectively.

Before entering the battlefield, they urgently needed to replenish their stamina.

On the vast battlefield in the distance, gunpowder smoke filled the air and shouting shook the heavens.

Hao Ge on horseback calmed his breath.

His gaze surveyed the battlefield, finally settling on the Righteous Army's rear formation, on that great banner fluttering in the wind.

"Go charge their rear camp's main general!"

Whether charging straight into the battlefield or charging the enemy main general, there's not much difference.

The Tartar nobles all acknowledged Hao Ge's order and mounted up, forming ranks.

"All officers and soldiers~~~"

Hao Ge rode forward with raised saber, shouting loudly before the formation.

"Follow me to kill the enemy~~~"

The Tartar cavalry all raised their sabers and shouted, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The sound shook the four wildernesses; their momentum was awe-inspiring.

Heart racing, face flushed red, Hao Ge rode at the forefront.

Behind him were the armored horsemen from each banner.

The massive cavalry formation advanced, momentum like a collapsing mountain.

Through drone surveillance, seeing a massive cavalry group like mountains and seas charging toward himself.

Lin Dao did not panic; on the contrary, he revealed a smile.

"Well come!"

During this time, they had laid fully several dozen layers of iron wire net, scattered countless caltrops, and dug who knows how many horse-trap pits.

Surviving out here requires technique and requires materiel.

Did you really think courage alone is enough?

The massive cavalry group charged straight at the rear camp where Lin Dao was.

It bore quite a resemblance to the Rohan cavalry charge at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Then

The front-rank cavalry fell to the ground one after another.

Their beloved warhorses stepped into the horse-trap pits, snapped their legs, and horse and rider tumbled down together.

Many didn't even have time to scramble up before being trampled into mud by the hooves of horses galloping past from behind.

Past the horse-trap pits came one layer of iron wire net after another.

The Tartars had never seen such things.

Those with good horsemanship still urged their horses to clear them.

More simply crashed into them, man and horse together.

The barbed iron wire net, the greater the dragging force, the greater the constricting power.

Winding around bodies and tightening, like suffering torture.

Relying on massive numbers and impact kinetic energy, as well as the corpses of forerunners pressing down.

The Tartar cavalry crashed through twenty-odd layers of iron wire net.

But ahead there were still even more iron wire nets.

The furious Hao Ge simply dismounted, greeted the Bodyguards to cross the iron wire nets on foot.

There were even fierce and brave fellows who threw themselves onto the iron wire nets, using their own bodies as springboards for comrades to advance.

"Ah~"

"Ah!"

"My foot!"

Between the iron wire nets, iron dysentery was scattered everywhere.

This made the Bodyguards wearing Pibi weep in pain, everywhere people hugging their feet hopping on one leg, from afar it looked like a large-scale cockfighting competition.

"Despicable! Shameless!"

Hao Ge Anger "Nothing but low-down dirty tricks!"

"If you have guts, come fight fair and square!"

His shout received a response.

Lin Dao's Bodyguards, white feathers on their heads clad in white robes, each man a firelock, wearing boots studded with iron palms, cutting through the iron wire nets advancing.

Facing rows of pitch-black muzzles, Hao Ge felt his teeth ache terribly.

In the past facing the Ming Army's firelocks, he had never feared.

Because he knew, the other side at most fired one or two rounds, then his side could charge up.

But now.

Looking at those iron wire nets, looking at those iron dysentery, Hao Ge regretted.

"Should have charged the formation directly!"

"Bang bang bang~~~"

Dense firelock sounds, one volley after another rang out.

The Bai Yi Bai Jia Bodyguards, continuously advancing, continuously firing.

Identical regulation Armor, identical Color, in the Tartars' eyes very deterrent.

The Bodyguards continuously advanced, passing Tartars entangled in the iron wire nets, would stab twice with gun-swords.

Whether dead or not dead, all stabbed twice.

Behind them, Auxiliary Soldiers followed clearing out a passage over ten zhang wide.

"Rumble~~~"

Amidst the Engine's Hong Liang, Lin Dao's Hundred-Ton King finally appeared.

End of Chapter