Chapter 704: Deeply Imprinted

"There are Yanzhou soldiers near the flank." Kuki I raised his Telescope.

The soldiers of both sides encountered each other amidst a rice paddy.

At this time of year, the rice in Ryukyu is half a person's height.

They were at a distance of two hundred meters.

Soldiers wearing dark green military uniforms were crouching in the rice paddy, firing at them.

"Two hundred paces!" Kuki I was startled.

The intelligence he had received from the Shogunate was that the effective range of Yanzhou's muskets was about one hundred and fifty paces.

Clearly, this intelligence was outdated.

However, thinking back to how they had defeated the Franks and seized half of Yizhou, his confidence returned.

Their numbers were four times that of the enemy, and every Dongying warrior was fearless in the face of death; this was the foundation of his confidence in victory.

"Bang, bang, bang..." Scattered gunfire rang out continuously on both sides.

Because the effective range of their Smoothbore Flintlock was only one hundred and thirty meters, they could not fight back.

In the line formation, soldiers kept falling.

The Artillerymen distributed on the flanks suffered the highest casualties in particular.

"General, they are attacking our Artillerymen; the Artillerymen cannot set up the Artillery," a Dongying officer riding a pony came to Kuki I's side.

Kuki I frowned; he had naturally noticed the plight of the Artillerymen.

He had never seen this kind of tactic from the Yanzhou Army before, but it made the Dongying officers and soldiers very uncomfortable.

Because the terrain of the battlefield was flat, their Artillery had to be deployed on the two sides of the formation.

Otherwise, due to the obstruction of the soldiers, the Artillery could not fire at the enemy at all.

At this moment, if both sides were to adopt line formations to fire and bombard each other, he naturally would not have to worry about the flank Artillery.

But the Yanzhou Army had specifically sent these scattered soldiers to harass them constantly.

In Line Tactics, the most taboo thing is to change formation before battle.

Naturally, they could not let the formation turn to deal with these scattered soldiers.

But if they ignored them, the Artillery could not operate, and the Dongying soldiers in the ranks would also become nervous before the exchange of fire.

"Send five hundred men to each of the left and right flanks to finish them off," Kuki I ordered.

Under his command, the Dongying soldiers on the left and right flanks broke away from the formation and charged toward the Yanzhou soldiers in the rice paddy.

Seeing this, the skirmishers were neither panicked nor hurried; they immediately assembled from their scattered positions, appearing as a three-rank Large Horizontal Formation of over sixty men, raising their guns to aim at the charging Dongying soldiers.

"Bang, bang, bang..." When the Dongying soldiers entered within one hundred and fifty meters, the Marine soldiers pulled the Trigger.

The first rank of soldiers fired their Bullets and retreated, the second rank moved forward to continue firing, followed by the third rank.

Within one hundred and fifty meters, the Rifled Musket had a sixty percent hit rate against an object two meters high and one meter wide.

The dense formation further increased the probability of hits, and over one hundred and twenty Dongying soldiers on the left flank fell instantly.

Moreover, because the Marine soldiers retreated after firing a shot,

for every step the Dongying soldiers advanced, they retreated one step, keeping the distance between the two sides within one hundred and fifty meters for a short time.

After two more volleys, only about one hundred Dongying soldiers remained.

"Disperse, disperse completely, charge at them and fight them hand-to-hand!" the leading Dongying officer shouted, his face twisted.

To ensure the accuracy of the Smoothbore Flintlock, they had been advancing in a line formation just now.

And this had led to heavy casualties.

Seeing the enemy soldiers once again replacing the front rank with the rear, he could no longer hold back.

Yet, once this order was given, it committed a fatal error.

The reason Yanzhou soldiers could adopt Skirmisher Tactics ultimately lay in the range of the Rifled Musket.

Thus, the skirmishers could use their own advantages to employ a kite-style fighting method against the enemy.

Outside the range of the enemy's muskets, they constantly shot and killed them through flexible formation changes.

But the Dongying soldiers held Smoothbore Flintlocks that could only rely on dense formations and a rain of bullets to kill the enemy.

A single skirmisher, even standing ten meters away, was not necessarily able to hit the opponent.

Therefore, unless they got close to the enemy, the Dongying soldiers holding Smoothbore Guns would pose no threat to the Marine soldiers.

Sure enough, seeing the Dongying soldiers disperse, the Marine soldiers changed formation again, from three small horizontal ranks into one Large Horizontal Formation.

"Fire at will," the Marine officer ordered.

"Bang, bang, bang..." Another burst of gunfire rang out.

Entering within one hundred meters, these Dongying soldiers fell one after another.

Only about thirty Dongying soldiers remained charging.

Seventy meters, sixty meters, fifty meters...

When the Dongying soldiers entered within ten meters, the Marine soldiers had already reloaded with new ammunition.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

At such a close distance, the Marine soldiers did not miss a single shot, and all the Dongying soldiers fell.

Six Dongying soldiers who had not suffered fatal wounds struggled to crawl up from the ground.

"Banzai!" These Dongying soldiers, with red eyes, shouted and lunged at the Marines.

"Squish!"

Their shouts stopped abruptly; several Marine soldiers immediately rushed over and stabbed the Dongying soldiers to death with Bayonets.

"Banzai your mother, ptooey!" A Marine soldier spat at the Dongying soldiers.

Just as he wanted to kick them again, the officer's order rang out, "Continue to finish off their Artillery!"

Acknowledging with a "Yes," the Marine soldiers dispersed once more, each seeking a suitable angle to fire upon the soldiers near the Dongying Cannon.

At the same time, the Marine soldiers on the right flank similarly annihilated the Dongying soldiers who had lunged at them.

In a short span of time, one thousand Dongying soldiers were killed in action, leaving Jiugui Jing dumbfounded.

He was hesitating over whether to send more Dongying soldiers forward when he suddenly heard a rumbling sound.

"Ah..."

The Dongying soldiers in the front row let out shrill screams; some Dongying soldiers had their heads smashed to pieces.

Some Dongying soldiers had half an arm torn off, and others had their legs broken, exposing ghastly white bones.

"Damn it, they are firing Grape Shot at us!" A Dongying general came to Jiugui Jing's side, and although he cursed loudly, his legs were trembling slightly.

Upon hearing this, Jiugui Jing clenched his fists tightly.

Stopping here, his goal had been to have the Dongying soldiers set up the Artillery, then have the soldiers advance in line formation to engage the enemy in a decisive battle.

But their Artillerymen, under the harassment of the opposing soldiers, were completely unable to fire Cannonballs.

As the Artillery roared, Jiugui Jing noticed the Yanzhou soldiers on the opposite side continuously closing in on them.

Gritting his teeth, he decided to let the Dongying soldiers endure the bombardment of the enemy's Artillery and shouted, "Advance! Annihilate them."

Under his command, more than seven thousand Dongying soldiers marched forward.

The Grape Shot from the Marine Artillery blossomed from time to time within the dense ranks of the Dongying soldiers.

A single round of Grape Shot took the lives of over a dozen Dongying soldiers.

"Interesting, they are indeed better trained than the Shizu Army."

On the Marine left flank artillery position, the corners of Pan Zhang's mouth curled up.

Compared to the Shizu Army, the Dongying soldiers seemed more capable of enduring casualties.

However, the Shizu Army routed quickly, allowing the soldiers to save their lives.

But Dongying would lose even more people.

"Kill until they are terrified!" A sentence echoed in Pan Zhang's mind.

This was what Zhou Yi had told him, though it was Yan Wang who had instructed it.

"His Highness is wise; indeed, we must kill until they are terrified!" Pan Zhang thought to himself.

Dongying's intervention in the internal strife of the Great Song had exposed their wolfish ambitions.

Their Army was likely the source of that ambition.

Since that was the case, he would naturally make this first Army engagement with Dongying an unforgettable one for them.