[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-127":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220744,1614,"Chapter 127: Section Eleven: Battle","stealing-ming-chapter-127",127,"\u003Cp>The Ming marksmen loosed one final volley of arrows, then vanished behind the spear wall one after another; the Ming formation rippled slightly, then tightened into a dense block. From the opposite side, a long horn blast rang out, and the Later Jin soldiers swiftly assembled their battle array.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another horn blast followed. The Later Jin troops roared in unison, their blades and shields clashing as they pressed forward. The Ming troops opposite them had no axes or sabers — once it came to close quarters, they were confident they could shatter the Ming in the blink of an eye. Seeing the dense formation the Ming had deployed, the Later Jin commander wondered whether his opponent was an idiot: packed shoulder to shoulder like that, the moment a melee broke out, those long spears would instantly become useless ornaments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Right, half —” The Firefighting Battalion officers began the order in the same steady tone they used during training, a command they had issued hundreds of times in drill.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Later Jin soldiers surging forward with roars fixed their eyes on the Ming soldiers before them, baring savage grins at those unfamiliar, icy faces. They braced their round shields in front of their bodies, then focused their entire attention on the spear points aimed at them. With every step they took forward, every muscle in their bodies was taut, ready at any instant to execute the swiftest parry and slash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“— turn.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the Firefighting Battalion officer’s shouted command, every Later Jin soldier saw the Ming soldier in front of him turn half a body’s width, heedless of anything else, presenting his flank. Many of the Later Jin soldiers who had been staring intently at the spear points found their gazes dragged to the left side of their bodies by the shifting target.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Kill!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Firefighting Battalion soldiers roared in unison, exactly as they had in countless drills. Every man thrust his long spear with full force; a hundred and more spears shot out simultaneously like lightning. Most drove deep into the enemy soldiers’ weakly defended right ribs, where they held their blades; the few Later Jin warriors who held their shields in their right hands took the spears straight through the cheek or the eye socket…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Howls of agony instantly resounded across the land. Under He Baodao’s patient guidance, the Ming soldiers almost simultaneously gave the spear shafts a practiced twist, then wrenched them out with explosive force. Countless streams of blood shot forth in pursuit of the cruel weapons, bursting in the air into a myriad of blood-drops in every shape, some splattering feebly onto the ground, some spraying the killers’ faces and bodies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not a single Ming soldier dared wipe it away. Just as in training, they held their long spears level without making a sound, every man resuming the thrusting stance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nearly a hundred wounded Later Jin soldiers had either had their internal organs mangled or their heads pierced through. Many were dead before they even hit the ground; more merely writhed on the earth a few times and then died. Only a scattered few could still roll about; some among them kicked their legs with all their might but could not produce the slightest sound — clearly the pain had reached its absolute limit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ming soldiers gazed ahead as if blind to it all. In every past training session, anyone who dared move a muscle or glance even slightly left or right would be met with a savage flogging, so they all stood obediently, awaiting the next order.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Mu and the two Embroidered Uniform Guard officers, exactly like Jin Qiude the first time he had seen the spear wall, all gaped at this slaughter passing for an engagement. There was no clangor of blade meeting blade, only the muffled thud of metal spearheads sinking into flesh; no shouts of hot-blooded combat, only the butchery of chickens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi saw that although the Later Jin rear ranks were all stunned, they had only pressed backward slightly, without a full-line retreat. It seemed the moment to charge had not yet come: “The Jianzhou slaves really are fierce and brave — even a thunderclap blow like this can’t shatter their morale completely.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three men beside him had their eyeballs bulging so far they nearly popped from their sockets, their jaws practically hitting the ground. They showed no reaction whatsoever to Huang Shi’s sigh; perhaps they had not yet recovered from the shock and had not even heard the words spoken beside their ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not until the last Later Jin soldier had choked out his final breath in agony did the horn sound again from the Later Jin side. The scattered, dulled eyes of the Later Jin troops regained their animation only after the horn had sounded several times in succession; they clamored and let out roar after roar to rally themselves, then cautiously began shifting forward once more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the Ming long spears were all pointed toward the right-hand side, apart from a tiny number of left-handers, the Later Jin soldiers found it extremely difficult to cover their right ribs with their round shields. They swayed their bodies left and right in acute discomfort: the Ming soldiers directly ahead horizontally were the closest, yet the main threat came from beside the hand that held the blade. Huang Shi saw some Later Jin soldiers switch the hand that gripped their shields, but after a couple of swings, many switched them back to the right hand again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This, too, had been part of Huang Shi’s calculations; in this way, the advantage of the long spears could be fully exploited. The Ming soldiers still maintained their motionless posture, and under this influence, the Later Jin soldiers gradually shifted their formation as well, meeting the cold stares of the Ming soldiers, hunching their backs and slowly advancing in small steps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Tough, truly tough — it really is a case of a cornered rat biting the cat.” Huang Shi watched as the Later Jin soldiers, even after taking such a blow, still twisted their bodies into bizarre postures one after another, attempting to lunge forward into hand-to-hand combat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this time, the Later Jin ranks were no longer as dense and orderly as before. The foremost few dozen men began to protrude, and they walked with the firmest steps, while the men behind them were slower, their eyes more hesitant. Huang Shi unconsciously ground his teeth into a savage grin: “The bravest die first.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Firefighting Battalion officers watched the Later Jin soldiers’ footsteps, calculating the distance between the two armies, and once again drew out the final syllable of the command…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Left —”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In past training, Huang Shi had used hemp sacks tied to trees to simulate the enemy. When the sacks swung over together, every soldier had to turn according to the command and attack the sack beside him. In the spear wall, the safety of any single soldier was entrusted to his comrades, and every soldier likewise had to eliminate danger for his comrades.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first, the human instinct for self-preservation was hard to overcome, but merciless flogging eventually conditioned the soldiers into a reflex. Once that hurdle was crossed, everything went more and more smoothly. He Baodao had imparted many techniques, making the soldiers’ spear thrusts ever more powerful and ever more accurate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whenever a soldier in training was struck by a swinging sack, the man responsible for his safety would be punished. As time passed, the soldiers trusted their comrades more and more, and the conditioned reflex of obeying orders became more and more firmly fixed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“— turn.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the instant the Later Jin soldiers raised their blades against the Ming troops, the Ming soldiers once again ignored the enemy before their eyes and, as one body, executed a crisp ninety-degree turn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Kill.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As fluid and effortless as the previous thrust, the Later Jin soldiers watched in stunned disbelief as the foes who had just been facing them turned away and drove their long spears from the flank and rear into the bodies of their utterly unprepared comrades; then a searing pain shot through their own left sides…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The muffled sound of shattering bone sinking into flesh and the shrieks of agony merged once again into one unbroken chorus…\u003C\u002Fp>",1383,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","55d6bcbf503458c03c43df2d4d67426cbc6c30c0a94dc8fcd51417e2574ed014","stealing-ming-chapter-128","stealing-ming-chapter-126",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]