Chapter 646: The Disparity

"Let our skirmishers attack to counter them," a Frankish general said.

There were also a small number of rifled musket troops in their army.

Upon receiving his order, three hundred soldiers immediately broke away from the ranks, met them head-on, and dispersed.

However, they did not fire immediately, but kept moving forward, stopping at a distance of two hundred meters from the Yanzhou skirmishers.

Then, they took out round lead bullets and used small hammers and ramrods to laboriously pound the lead bullets into the rifled muskets.

Due to the resistance of the rifling, loading the rifled muskets was very laborious, and the manufacturing cost of the rifled muskets was high.

This resulted in the current Western Lands army not being equipped with rifled muskets on a large scale, having only deployed a small number of rifled musket squads responsible for pre-battle harassment.

Therefore, seeing that the Yanzhou soldiers were also adopting such tactics, the Frankish general was even more surprised.

"Bang, bang, bang..." While the Frankish soldiers were loading, sporadic gunfire rang out continuously on the battlefield.

Unlike the difficult loading of the Frankish soldiers, the Yanzhou conical bullets were very easy to load.

The time it took for a Frankish soldier to fire once was enough for a Wangfu Army soldier to fire two or three times.

After three or four volleys, the remaining Frankish soldiers were shocked to find that few of their companions were left.

Most had fallen into pools of blood.

At this moment, the opposing skirmishers bypassed the advancing ranks and crept toward the artillerymen.

Amidst the gunfire, artillerymen fell from time to time.

This situation made cold sweat soak the Frankish general's back; they realized they had made a foolish mistake.

This Yanzhou army was not at all as weak as they had imagined.

"Must retreat!" the Frankish general thought to himself.

But it was all too late; the distance between the two sides' ranks had shrunk to two hundred meters.

Just then, he noticed the Yanzhou soldiers opposite had stopped and leveled their muskets at them.

Next, he saw a flash of fire and heard a burst of gunfire.

The advancing Frankish soldiers let out a chorus of screams, and thirty percent of the first row of Frankish soldiers immediately fell to the ground.

Out of habit, the second row of Frankish soldiers immediately filled in, reconstructing a complete first row.

But another round of gunfire rang out, and another third of the soldiers fell to the ground.

Then came the third volley.

At the same time, the artillery of both sides roared simultaneously.

But the sound of their own artillery was sparse, clearly affected by the enemy's skirmishers.

A cannonball from a Frankish cannon fell into the ranks of the Yanzhou soldiers, and a group of Yanzhou soldiers fell instantly.

He did not have time to be smug before he saw a dozen black shadows fall into the advancing Frankish army.

The black cannonballs plowed a bloody path; on the bloody path, the Frankish soldiers' flesh and blood flew, and severed limbs littered the ground.

A dozen cannonballs crisscrossed and rampaged, immediately causing them heavy casualties.

At this moment,

He could no longer hold on, and ignoring Steven's orders, he shouted for a retreat.

The confidence the Frankish soldiers had when leaving the city collapsed instantly, and the soldiers swarmed toward Malka City in a chaotic mess, like hens returning to their coop at night.

At this moment, Shi Diwen was completely stunned.

He could not believe the scene before his eyes, and even less could he believe that in Dongtu, there was actually an indigenous army capable of defeating them.

With a face so gloomy it seemed it could drip water, he shouted, "Hold the city wall at all costs."

Once the soldiers who had left the city fled back, he immediately closed the gates of Malka City and ordered the soldiers to aim the artillery at the Yanzhou soldiers, ordering them to fire as soon as they entered range.

Having defeated the Frankish army in one engagement, Pan Zhang did not order the soldiers to pursue the victory, but instead dispersed the army into a skirmish line and crept toward the city wall.

In this way, the enemy's artillery could not cause massive casualties to the marines.

Approaching within three hundred and fifty meters of Malka City, the skirmishers fired at will, suppressing the enemy's artillery gunners.

Outside the city, the sound of guns and cannons was constant, and the artillery roared.

The Frankish soldiers who had fled back were in a state of panic.

In the chaos, several Frankish officers exchanged glances and led their own soldiers away quietly.

Before long, they appeared at the door of Fei Wen's cell.

Knocking out the Frankish soldiers guarding Fei Wen, the officers rescued Fei Wen.

Although Shi Diwen was the commander of Malka City, not everyone under his command obeyed him implicitly.

Many officers were only temporarily submissive due to Shi Diwen's threats.

But now Malka City was in imminent danger, and the Yanzhou soldiers had explicitly demanded they release Fei Wen.

They felt the time to rescue Fei Wen had come.

"Who is attacking Malka City?" Fei Wen asked urgently as soon as he came out.

The officers then told Fei Wen the whole story.

Learning that it was the Yan Wang's soldiers who had come to rescue him, Fei Wen was too surprised to speak for a long time.

He considered himself to have no friendship with the Yan Wang, and for this Yan Wang to pay such a high price to rescue him seemed somewhat inexplicable.

But he had no time to think about this now; Shi Diwen, the traitor, would undoubtedly lead Malka City to destruction.

He could not let the Frankish century of operations in Dongtu be destroyed in one fell swoop.

So he said to the officers, "Shi Diwen colluded with the Eastern Japanese and attempted to provoke a war between us and the Yan Wang. He is a traitor to us Franks. If we want to quell this dispute, we must defeat him and his men."

The Frankish generals drew the swords at their waists one after another.

An officer said, "Governor, we will obey your orders."

The other generals nodded one after another.

Having gathered enough soldiers by his side, Fei Wen was greatly shocked and immediately charged toward Steven.

Bursts of gunfire and sounds of slaughter suddenly erupted within the city of Marka.

After a chaotic battle, Fei Wen cornered Shi Diwen in a nook of the city wall.

Under the threat of the Yanzhou soldiers, the majority of the soldiers stood on his side.

"Fei Wen, you traitor, to think you would collude with the troops of Yan Wang to attack the city of Marka; just wait until you are hanged, hahaha..." Shi Diwen laughed wildly.

Fei Wen's expression was icy; from the moment Steven arrived in the city of Marka, he had not liked Steven for a single day.

Because Steven's arrival was the result of internal conflicts within the Frankish nation.

At this moment, the Frankish nation was on the verge of civil war.

The Conservative Faction and the Progressive Faction within the Frankish nation were fighting irreconcilably.

Among them, he belonged to the Progressive Faction, while Steven belonged to the Conservative Faction.

From the moment Shi Diwen came to the city of Marka, it was destined that they would be like fire and water.

It was only out of maintaining Frankish interests in Dongtu that he had to hold his nose and cooperate with Steven.

But he had not expected that Shi Diwen would actually collude with Dongying to imprison him.

"Seize him and lock him in the Water Prison," Fei Wen said sternly.

Following that, he ordered the soldiers to raise a white flag on the city wall.

Outside the city, seeing the white flag slowly rise, Pan Zhang ordered the soldiers to cease their attack.

Before long, the gates of the city of Marka opened, and Fei Wen led the Frankish soldiers out.

Seeing this, Pan Zhang immediately ordered someone to notify Zhou Yi.

One hour later, Zhou Yi arrived at the city of Marka under the protection of his soldiers.

Seeing Fei Wen, who had just come out of prison and looked extremely disheveled, Zhou Yi smiled, "Governor Fei Wen, you owe us a life."