Chapter 269: Throw Them Out
The battle had begun!
The Wolf Centurion’s eight hundred men and the Ghost Centurion’s five hundred men deployed in two square formations at the city’s southeast corner, poised for engagement.
Everyone in the city scrambled onto the walls, settling into full spectator mode.
Padi Tu, however, was not content with merely watching. He muttered to Zheng Gouzi beside him, “Blast it, a battle this important, and your rabbit here can’t even join!”
Zheng Gouzi replied, “Protecting the Saintess is an even more crucial mission.”
Padi Tu, of course, knew this. The Saintess’s safety far outweighed this baffling conflict. He could only cast a resigned glance at his longsword and sigh.
The rest of the city dwellers were equally abuzz with chatter.
“They’re going to fight, they’re really going to fight!”
“Border army against border army—it’s bound to be spectacular.”
Inside the city, commotion reigned. Outside, tension hung on the brink of eruption.
The Wolf Centurion’s forces were the aggressors, naturally. After all, he was there to seize resources. With a sharp command, his eight hundred Guyuan rebels began to advance, slowly but steadily.
Experienced troops didn’t charge forward with wild shouts before an attack. Soldiers wearing dozens of pounds of armor would only exhaust themselves prematurely if they rushed. The border veterans wouldn’t squander their strength so carelessly. They advanced slowly, deliberately, their formation stable and unbroken, maintaining their horizontal and vertical lines as meticulously as possible.
A knot of dread tightened in Cheng Xu’s chest, and he cursed inwardly: *As expected of border troops. Even such a simple act of marching forward puts immense pressure on us.*
Li Daoxuan, from his vantage point, mentally commanded: *Cameras! Group One, Group Two, Group Three, all high-definition, close-up, open them all!*
Cheng Xu bellowed, “Mind your distance! Don’t fire arrows prematurely!”
Five squad leaders echoed his cry: “Mind your distance!”
The ten-man team leaders followed suit: “Don’t fire arrows prematurely!”
The orders cascaded down through the ranks, ensuring that no matter how dispersed the formation, everyone could hear the ominous chill carried on the wind...
The two armies continued their slow approach...
Suddenly, without any command from the Wolf Centurion, a rebel soldier from the Guyuan forces nocked an arrow, rose, and with a graceful arc, *swish*, released a shaft... Simultaneously, several other border army soldiers loosed their arrows.
Cheng Xu frowned, “Huh? Have they entered range?”
Li Daoxuan, too, felt a flicker of surprise: *The Wolf Centurion hasn’t given the order, has he?*
A seasoned archer, once the enemy was in range, knew to fire without instruction.
The Wolf Centurion’s lips curled into a cold sneer. A seasoned archer, he mused, didn’t need orders from a superior; it was like a veteran web novelist’s keyboard, capable of typing on its own without the author’s intervention.
These archers used lofted shots, which flew further than direct fire. From a considerable distance, their arrows rained down on the militia.
The militia erupted in a brief flurry of panic, hastily shielding their faces or exposed areas not covered by their Cotton Armor. A series of dull thuds sounded, and many were struck, but none were seriously injured.
Someone immediately reached for a hand crossbow to retaliate.
Cheng Xu roared, “Don’t shoot wildly! You’re not in range yet!”
Crossbows simply couldn’t match the range of bows!
But the militia couldn’t use bows, only crossbows.
Training an archer took an immense amount of time and effort. The militia was still young; it was impossible to produce such skilled archers. Li Daoxuan also had no intention of forming an archer corps, knowing that the militia would eventually be armed with muskets.
Training militia soldiers in archery now would be a complete waste of their training time; using crossbows as an interim solution was far more practical.
Yet, the crossbow’s drawback was now glaringly obvious.
They were being shot at, unable to return fire.
*They’re fakes, no doubt,* the Wolf Centurion thought with a cold smirk. *I’ll crush them in one wave. These guys are nothing like proper border troops. They just have good gear. What border army relies solely on crossbows?*
The formation continued to advance, and the archers loosed their second volley.
Another shower of arrows descended, causing another minor ripple of confusion within the militia.
But now the hand crossbows could finally retaliate. At Cheng Xu’s command, a volley of crossbow bolts arced through the air, a thick cloud of shafts soaring towards the border army.
The border army experienced a slight disarray of their own, soldiers scrambling to protect their eyes and faces...
As the crossbow bolts passed, the distance between the two sides narrowed further.
Cheng Xu yelled, “Light them!”
Ten arquebusiers immediately prepared to ignite their Three-Eyed Arquebuses.
Suddenly, Cheng Xu had an idea: “Only light three!”
The ten arquebusiers paused, confused, but a command was a command. They complied, and only three men lit their matchcords, the others holding their Three-Eyed Arquebuses motionless.
Once ignited, sparks leaped, forcing both friend and foe to dodge.
The border army immediately shouted, “Three-Eyed Arquebuses! Damn it, they actually have these?”
As Guyuan border soldiers, they themselves had no muskets to use at the moment.
After rebelling, they had lost their supply lines for gunpowder, matchcords, and lead shot. Though they possessed some muskets, they couldn’t use them.
“Get down! Get down!”
The border soldiers instantly dropped to the ground.
Cheng Xu, on the other hand, chuckled slyly. He turned to Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu, saying, “Light up those things Xu Dafu gave you, and throw them out.”
Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu immediately complied, pulling out bombs.
The soldiers who had just lit their arquebuses were nearby. Borrowing a flame, they lit the bomb fuses, which began to burn alongside the arquebus matchcords.
The two sides were still about twenty meters apart. At this distance, it was easy to see the fuses burning, but difficult to discern whether what was attached to the fuse was a Three-Eyed Arquebus or something else entirely.
The border soldiers only saw fuses burning, completely unaware that, alongside the arquebus fuses, other peculiar objects were also lit.
Just as the fuses ignited, Gao Chuwu let out a surprised "Ah!" “Oh no, Daniu, I forgot when the best time to throw the fuse was.”
Zheng Daniu nodded, “Now that you mention it, I think I forgot too.”
“What do we do then?”
The two simpletons looked at each other, utterly bewildered.
Cheng Xu gasped, “Damn it, you two! They’re halfway burned! Throw them, quick, unless you want to blow yourselves up!”
The two simpletons snapped to attention. They took a large stride forward, then simultaneously flung their arms. Two dark, ominous spheres flew towards the border army.
As they threw the spheres, arrows from the enemy flew towards them, but they clanged and clattered harmlessly off the absurdly thick iron armor worn by the two.
“What’s flying over?”
“That thing’s still burning a fuse?”
The border soldiers cried out in confusion, their voices a cacophony, but the objects had already landed. The two simpletons possessed prodigious strength; with a single throw, both spheres landed directly in the middle of the border army’s formation.
The fuses burned out at that exact moment!
“Boom! Boom!”
The two bombs exploded simultaneously.
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