Chapter 751: First Battle of Ming and Qing

Guangning Forward Station Guard.

Night, the moon is dark.

The torches on the city wall flickered uncertainly in the north wind, casting the elongated shadows of the garrison troops onto the cold stone bricks.

Garrison commander Zhang Yu, wearing armor and hand on his sword, patrolled back and forth on the walltop.

He was a former Yuan dynasty general who surrendered, and Xu Da kept him in Liaoxi for his bravery and skill in defense.

"All of you, perk up!"

He hissed lowly.

"These past few days, the northern Tatar scout cavalry have been active frequently; tonight is also a dark night, making it easiest to launch a surprise attack!"

The garrison troops forced themselves to stay alert, gripping their swords, spears, bows, and crossbows tightly.

Since learning that the enemy might not be ordinary Mongol cavalry but the rumored "Black Armor Demon Soldiers," everyone's nerves were taut.

Just past midnight.

In the pitch-black northern wilderness, a point of eerie blue light suddenly appeared.

Immediately after, two points, three points… dozens of blue lights lit up in succession, drifting slowly closer.

No hoofbeats.

No bugle calls.

Only a low, rustling sound, like countless armor plates scraping together mixed with the wriggle of wet mud, came from far to near.

"Enemy attack——!"

The soldiers on the watchtower shouted hoarsely, then immediately struck the alarm bell.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The walltop instantly erupted.

Zhang Yu lunged to the crenel, straining to look at the drifting blue light.

In the firelight, he saw clearly.

Those were not lanterns.

They were… the cavalry's eyes?

Their mounts were black beasts far larger than ordinary warhorses, resembling bears but covered in bony plate armor, their hooves making no sound on the ground.

The riders were completely encased in fearsome-looking black heavy armor, only the eye slits of their faceplates revealing two points of eerie blue light.

Their formation was terrifyingly neat, as if they were a single person.

Further behind, vague, writhing shadows of distorted shapes loomed.

"Archers and crossbowmen! Fire!"

Zhang Yu suppressed the chill in his heart and barked the order.

A rain of arrows poured down.

Ding-ding-dang!

The vast majority of arrows striking those black-armored cavalry were easily deflected, leaving not even a white mark.

The few that hit the beasts merely made them shudder, emit a low growl, and their speed did not drop.

"Fire oil! Throw!"

Bundles of grass soaked in fire oil were lit and hurled down from the walltop.

Flames exploded among the cavalry formation, temporarily hindering them.

But the black-armored cavalry merely scattered slightly; once the fire weakened, they silently closed ranks again.

They didn't even try to put out the fire.

It was as if the scorching flames were nothing more than a slight breeze.

Zhang Yu's feeling of cold intensified.

"Where are the cannons?! Push the general's cannon forward!"

Two Hongwu Model Field Cannons that had just been urgently transported were pushed into their firing positions.

The gunners nervously loaded and aimed at the eerie cavalry unit that had entered within a hundred paces.

"Fire!"

Boom! Boom!

The muzzle spewed flames, and the iron shot screamed forth.

One struck a black-armored cavalryman at the front of the formation.

Clang——!

A deafening roar.

That rider, man and mount together, merely jerked sharply, slid back a few steps, then steadied.

The iron shot bounced off, leaving a clear dent in the black armor but failing to pierce it.

The other iron shot smashed into the twisted shadows behind, eliciting a grating sound of breaking bone and flesh and a sharp screech.

Effective!

But before Zhang Yu could catch his breath.

The black-armored cavalryman hit by the cannon slowly raised his hand and felt the dent on his chestplate.

Then he lowered his hand, urged his mount forward, and continued onward.

The pace of their steps remained unchanged.

It was as if that blow, which could have smashed a heavy-armored knight into pulp, had merely been a tickle.

"How… how is this possible?!"

The gunner cried out in shock, his voice gone.

Zhang Yu also felt his scalp go numb.

What kind of armor is this?!

At that moment, the black-armored cavalry, about seventy paces from the city wall, suddenly reined in their mounts in unison.

They halted.

Then they simultaneously raised their right arms.

The front of the arm armor split open, revealing not a bow or crossbow, but a series of short, thick tubes that looked as if forged from bone and metal.

Deep within the tube openings, a dim blue light rapidly condensed.

"Dodge—!"

Zhang Yu managed to let out only half a shout.

Dozens of dim blue beams shot silently from those tube openings!

There was no loud bang, only a faint crackling as the air was ionized.

The beams struck the city wall.

There was no explosion.

But the struck bricks and stone instantly turned grayish-white and brittle, as if all vitality had been drained, crumbling into fine powder in the wind.

The parapet shattered.

The crenellations collapsed.

A section of the city wall nearly two zhang wide was, in the blink of an eye, "corroded" into a huge breach!

"Demonic sorcery! This is demonic sorcery!"

The defending troops collapsed.

They could face swords and blades, arrow storms, even cannons.

But the horror of silently turning solid walls into dust utterly shattered their will.

"No retreat! Plug the breach!"

Zhang Yu drew his sword, cut down two fleeing soldiers in succession, and roared hoarsely in anger.

But at the breach, the dim blue dust had not yet settled, and those black-armored cavalrymen had already moved.

Their giant beast mounts leapt, easily clearing the fallen stone, and charged into the city!

Following closely behind were those finally revealed in full: the "twisted shadows".

What a horde of monsters they were.

Some roughly retained a human shape, but with twisted limbs and joints bent backward, crawling like dogs.

Others were grotesque fusions of multiple beasts, oozing slime and uttering meaningless howls.

They surged into the city, pouncing on anyone they saw, tearing wildly with claws, fangs, and any part that could attack.

Worse still, anyone they wounded—even a mere scratch—would see the wound quickly turn black, fester, and spread visibly across the body.

Agonized screams.

Wails.

The sound of flesh being torn.

The sound of bones being crushed.

In just a quarter of an hour, the area near the breach had become a hell on earth.

Zhang Yu's eyes bloodshot, he led his personal troops in a desperate fight, yet was surrounded by three black-armored cavalrymen.

His blade struck the enemy's armor, only throwing up sparks.

The foe didn't even bother to fight back, merely fixing him with an icy blue gaze, then reaching out with a mailed arm to easily seize his blade.

A twist.

The fine steel long sword snapped in response.

The other arm moved to choke his throat.

Zhang Yu strained backward, thrusting the broken sword into a gap in the enemy's armor.

Hiss!

The blade seemed to plunge into something viscous and icy.

The black-armored cavalryman's motion paused.

Zhang Yu seized the moment to roll away, shouting hoarsely.

"Withdraw! Fall back to the second walled enclosure! Open the gate!"

The remaining defenders fought while retreating, fleeing deeper into the city's fortifications.

The heavy iron gate fell with a roar in the winch's sound, temporarily sealing off that death zone.

Zhang Yu leaned against the cold iron gate, gasping violently.

He glanced at the broken sword in his hand.

On the tip clung a speck of dark blue, like cold starch paste, a viscous substance that glowed faintly and sought to spread along the blade.

He hurled the broken sword to the ground and ground it hard into the dirt with his foot.

"General!"

The vice general, face smeared with blood, came running, stumbling.

"The east and south gates also show enemy traces! But it's only a feint—the main force… the main force is all here!"

"Casualties?"

"The brothers at the breach… are all gone. In the follow-up fighting, over three hundred died, and… two hundred were wounded, but anyone who drew blood sees their wound worsening!"

Zhang Yu struck the iron gate with a fist.

"Has the distress signal been sent?"

"Three waves of sortie cavalry rode out the north gate; unknown if they can break the blockade..."

Just as his words fell,

From far outside the city, a sudden, dull throbbing like a giant beast's heartbeat echoed.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Accompanying that sound, the black-armored cavalry and monsters that had stormed the first wall section suddenly ceased their attack.

They silently turned, dragging the corpses of comrades or enemies—whether intact or shattered—swiftly retreating beyond the breach.

They came fast.

They left just as fast.

In the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, aside from the mess and blood on the ground, aside from that eerie wall breach turned to dust, there was no sound outside the city.

It seemed as if everything just now had been merely a nightmare.

But the faint smell of burnt and some sweet‑sour stench in the air, together with the anguished cries of the wounded inside the city, reminded Zhang Yu.

This was not a dream.

"General…… how did they retreat?"

The deputy general's voice trembled.

Zhang Yu stared fixedly at the wilderness that had returned to darkness.

"They…… got what they wanted."

Corpses.

And……

Test data.

He looked at the broken sword he had crushed into the ground.

On the blade, that speck of dark blue slime had vanished.

As if it had never existed.

The next morning.

An eight‑hundred‑li urgent dispatch rushed out of Guangning Front Garrison, heading south.

The battle report contained only a few simple yet shocking lines:

"On the dark night, the enemy attacked Guangning Front Garrison with non‑human cavalry."

"Their armor was unbreakable, artillery hard to wound; they wielded strange devices, instantly corroding walls by several zhang."

"Accompanied by deformed beasts that devour men, wounds fester and spread."

"Our military and civilian casualties exceeded seven hundred; enemy losses unknown; in retreat they carried off all corpses."

"The enemy's tactics are bizarre, not seeking to seize land, seemingly…… testing our strengths and weaknesses."

"Liaoxi is in peril; we plead for aid, we plead for strategy."

This battle report, at the utmost speed, was sent to Ying Tian.

Delivered into the hands of the Hongwu Emperor, who had just grasped part of the "truth".

The true collision.

Has begun.