Chapter 848: Flustered and Flailing

848. Chapter 848: Flustered and Flailing

Meng Zhiqi and Bayin both shouted their assent and ran swiftly back to their respective units. The firearm retainers over there had already begun using ramrods to tamp down the powder in their gun barrels. Upon hearing the order, they quickly formed ranks with their firearms and musket rests, arranging themselves into a loose three-line horizontal formation in front of the main formation, then continued loading ammunition.

There were also men holding sharpened red wooden stakes, striding quickly forward. When they reached roughly seventy paces out, they drove the stakes into the ground.

By this time, everyone could already hear the distant rumble of hoofbeats and see the dust cloud rising to the sky drawing nearer and nearer. After planting the stakes, those men turned and sprinted back.

Faintly, through the swirling dust, they could make out the silhouettes of the government cavalry. They could also feel the enemy's speed increasing, clearly accelerating — it looked like a direct frontal charge.

"Big Brother, you have to command the entire Zhao Character Battalion. You can't stand at the very front. Let me do it. You go to the rear." Hearing the clatter of armor behind him, Ji Xiang, clad in a full suit of armor, came up behind Zhao Jin.

"At a time like this, I need everyone to know that I'm standing at the very front. You go keep the cavalry in check — go, quickly!" Zhao Jin barked. Ji Xiang said nothing more, nodded heavily, and ran swiftly back.

"Pass the order: move the archers behind the firearms, also in a loose horizontal formation!" Zhao Jin shouted. If he did not raise his voice, the men behind could no longer hear him clearly.

Bayin, positioned on the main force's left flank, bellowed orders and led the archer company forward in front of the firearm horizontal formation. The archer company had been retainers from the very beginning, so they were far more familiar with formations than the firearm company, and they swiftly spread out into formation.

The government cavalry were, after all, an elite picked force. By the time the foremost firearm retainers of the Zhao Character Battalion spotted them, their cavalry were already charging forward in formation — a dozen or so riders per line, several lines per unit, several units advancing in succession. The foremost unit was fully armored and carried lances, looking thoroughly imposing. The cavalry formation was orderly, their hoofbeats like thunder, and the very ground seemed to tremble.

"Hold them level! Don't let your hands shake! Keep blowing on the matchcord, don't let it go out! Fire on command! Anyone who fires first — martial law!" Firearm Company Commander Meng Zhiqi and the foreigner Louis were both shouting themselves hoarse. The foreigner Louis's Mandarin was far from standard, full of strange tones and odd inflections.

This commotion made the archers in the archer company behind them unable to suppress their laughter. Compared to the firearm retainers up front facing battle for the first time, they had seen real action and knew that the pike square behind them was utterly reliable.

"All this trouble — how can it compare to us drawing a bow and loosing an arrow, ready to shoot straight off!" someone couldn't resist mocking.

The one who said this was fiercely glared at by Bayin of the archer company and immediately fell silent, though the winking, grinning, and smirking among the men was unavoidable.

Bayin nocked his own arrow to the string and said quietly to Delehei beside him: "How many years did we who use the bow study since childhood? How long have they only been training? Yet now they can already use it..."

The government cavalry also saw the firearm formation arrayed across their front. Seeing this, though their fighting spirit was already at its peak, they still couldn't help laughing. If this sort of thing could stop cavalry, then the Nine Borders would have wiped out the Tartars long ago — why would they have suffered and struggled all the way until now? It looked like a great merit was about to fall into their hands this time.

None of them noticed the red stake driven into the ground, nor could they even be bothered to swerve around it. The horses simply charged past and carried it away.

The thunderous hoofbeats drowned out the cavalry's jeering laughter and also suppressed the crack of firearm discharges from over a hundred paces away. All they saw was one firearm belch white smoke, then a few, then a dozen, then several dozen firearms all began spewing white smoke. For a moment, the gunpowder smoke obscured the faces of the firearm retainers. Sure enough, they had fired prematurely. The government cavalry laughed even louder. With so many firearms in the government forces, how could they not know this habit? When the enemy charged, they'd fire before they were even in range. By the time the enemy came within range, the firearms were either out of ammunition or jammed and useless, and they could only scatter and flee. Besides, bird guns only reached a few dozen paces, and these tubes, which were on the thicker side, had a range of twenty or thirty paces at most...

"Don't fire early! Violators face martial law! Shout it with me!" Meng Zhiqi yelled as he ran along the formation. He was truly frantic. Though they had drilled so many times in peacetime, now that they were on a real battlefield, problems still arose. One man panicked and fired early, and everyone else followed suit. What made Meng Zhiqi even more anxious was that Zhao Jin and the foreigner Louis had both warned him about exactly these problems.

"After firing, pull back and reload! The rear rank fills in! Wait for them to enter range — enter range — then fire!" Meng Zhiqi's voice had already gone hoarse from shouting.

Most of the firearm retainers obeyed the order, though many were already trembling. They could now clearly see the glint on the enemy's armor and weapons. Yet a few had already been scared into collapse. They simply threw down their firearms and musket rests and ran toward the rear without a care for anything else.

This reaction made the scene even more chaotic. Meng Zhiqi was fuming with rage. Because the formation was loose, those few men ran quite fast, heading straight for the rear unit.

"Kill these deserters! Kill them!" Meng Zhiqi shouted. He was shouting at the men of the archer company behind him.

The archers of the archer company did not hesitate. The Zhao Character Battalion's treatment of deserters was very straightforward: those who fled in the face of battle — kill!

The few deserters had just run out of the firearm retainers' formation when they fell with miserable cries, more than a few arrows nailed into their bodies. From the archer ranks, someone couldn't help laughing, a laugh full of contempt. Though the scene was very noisy and though they immediately stifled it, the firearm retainers still heard it clearly.

They all couldn't help glancing back. Seeing their companions, with whom they had spent every day, fall with arrows in them, each man's heart was filled with grief and fear. And the sneer and contempt from the archer company filled every man with shame and fury. Gritting their teeth, they turned back around.

Meng Zhiqi's face was flushed bright red, and the faces of the firearm retainers also bore expressions of shame and anger. Meng Zhiqi glanced at the tight, orderly square formation of the personal guard unit. With the archer company in between, he could not see the expression on Zhao Jin's face. Meng Zhiqi steadied his nerves and continued shouting at the top of his lungs: "Hold steady! Hold steady! Wait until they're in range, then fire!"

On the other side, the foreigner Louis used a more direct method. He held a wooden club in his hand and fiercely beat the firearm retainers to make them steady themselves, to make them hurry up and reload their ammunition.

The government cavalry did not notice that a few of their own comrades had cried out in pain or that some mounts had suddenly lost control. They simply took it as normal bumps and jostles. Every man was brimming with confidence. Great merit was right before their eyes. The heads of these bandits and all the wealth and goods the bandits had gathered and plundered would all belong to them.

As for the bandits' firearm unit up ahead that hadn't yet fallen into chaos — no need to worry about that. Just get a little closer, and they would naturally collapse and scatter.

The red wooden stake planted in the ground was knocked over without the slightest hesitation. The firearm formation ahead was already showing signs of unrest, and some men fired again in a flurry, making the officers and soldiers on horseback roar with laughter.

Yet at this very moment, the hoofbeats were like thunder, firmly drowning out the muffled thuds of the firearm shots. Even the firearm formation itself could barely hear them, so very few men followed suit and fired. The government troops also gradually increased their speed. They were intently focused on the enemy ahead and on controlling their own mounts, and had largely stopped paying attention to their comrades. So even if a comrade died or fell from his horse, they simply did not notice.

"Fire! Fire!" The foremost line of the cavalry was still about fifty paces from the firearm formation. Meng Zhiqi shouted himself hoarse, but at this moment, only those closest to him could hear clearly. Just then, a sharp whistle sounded from the other side of the firearm formation. Meng Zhiqi reacted at once, pulled out his brass whistle, and blew with all his might. The firearms opened fire!

Muffled thuds rang out in succession — bang, bang, bang — like firecrackers during the New Year festival. White gunpowder smoke spread in front of the firearm formation. The thunderous hoofbeats suddenly weakened slightly, and then cries of pain and shrill, agonized whinnies followed.

"Reload, fire! Reload and fire!" Meng Zhiqi shouted.

At this moment, he no longer needed to give the order. Those who had fired first were flustered and flailing as they reloaded their ammunition, and it happened that they fired right at this time. For some inexplicable reason, each man found a good deal more confidence, as if the sound of the firearms had made the fiercely imposing government cavalry seem farther away from them.

Perhaps it was the sudden relaxation after intense tension, but this second volley — or for some firearm retainers, their third shot — was simply too dreadful to behold.

For the first volley, they had ample preparation time. Everyone performed each motion just as they had in training, every movement by the book. But now, with dust and smoke billowing before their eyes and hoofbeats like thunder in their ears, those fiendish, murderous government cavalry were about to charge right into their faces. Even though the distance was still considerable, just thinking of it made most men's hearts pound and hands tremble. They simply could not stay calm.

Someone shoved the ramrod into the firearm and forgot to pull it out, then directly lit the match and fired, shooting the ramrod out as well. Though it could still cause injury, that firearm could no longer be fired.

Someone else overloaded the powder, and when he fired, the barrel burst. His entire face was a bloody mess as he rolled on the ground screaming, even affecting the comrades beside him. Others loaded too little powder, and the shot flew only a short distance. Not to mention those who forgot to load a ball at all and only produced an empty blast.

"~~~Brothers, the bandits only get one volley~~~ We charge through and cut the bastards down~~~~" They could hear someone from the government troops opposite shouting at the top of his lungs. The hoofbeats seemed to draw closer again.

It wasn't that government firearms were completely useless. Things like thunderbolt guns, quick-guns, three-eyed guns, and crouching-tiger cannons — even if loaded with just sand, stones, and pottery shards, if fired within a dozen or twenty-some paces, the flame, smoke, and flying fragments could still wound and kill. Not to mention that bird guns could pierce armor within a few dozen paces. Everyone knew this and had seen it, but they also knew that once cavalry reached them, these bandits with firearms were like pigs and dogs waiting to be slaughtered. Just endure for a moment, charge through, and it would be over. And they could sense it — the follow-up fire wasn't keeping up...

These shouts came through faintly, making the Zhao Character Battalion's firearm retainers even more panicked. When the silhouettes of the government cavalry emerged once more through the smoke and dust, the firearm retainers panicked completely. They knew they had nowhere to run. They knew they had to shoot to kill the enemy. Yet in their flustered, flailing state, only a scattered few firearms went off. Some men threw down their firearms and leveled their musket rests like short spears, ready to resist the cavalry head-on.

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