Chapter 321: Sir, Times Have Changed
Red Wolf had barely rolled into the bushes when he heard the explosion, followed by several of his squad leaders dropping. He cursed inwardly: *Damn it, it's that strange explosive again. One blast can kill everyone in its vicinity.*
Damn it!
He hadn't expected them to still possess such a weapon.
However, if this thing was so powerful, they surely wouldn't have many. During their last encounter, they had two big iron men, and could only throw two at a time. Actually, if he thought about it, there was nothing truly frightening. He'd wait for one more blast, then immediately lead his troops in a counter-attack...
He had just thought this when explosions erupted throughout the woods.
"Boom!
"Boom, boom, boom!
One after another, then two, then three... ten... twenty...
Screams of agony erupted everywhere in the woods.
A "hero" who had been sleeping against a tree in a pretentious pose, took a barrage of small iron pellets to the chest. His body slumped sideways and he fell, dead beyond recovery.
Some rebels, originally lying in the grass, had a smaller target area and would have been fine. But hearing the explosions not far away, they instinctively grabbed their knives, leapt up with a whoosh, and even roared, "Enemy raid?"
"Boom!
Another blast detonated right beside them, instantly dropping them.
The rebel army immediately suffered devastating casualties.
Red Wolf heard the incessant explosions, saw flashes of fire everywhere, and his face darkened: "So many? How can they have so many of these powerful bombs? Is gunpowder free? What the hell!"
Only then did he realize that the opponent's strength was truly unfathomable.
That fellow called Chuang Jiang might have been right; there was a terrifying force supporting Bai Family Fortress, and he shouldn't have rushed out to confront them so carelessly.
Attacked in their sleep, even elite border troops would crumble under such an attack, let alone undisciplined bandits. After a round of hand grenades, the main rebel force was in utter chaos, completely demoralized, most of them beginning to scatter in the opposite direction.
They would have been safe if they hadn't stood up to run, but once they stood, their target area for projectiles increased.
How could Cheng Xu miss such a golden opportunity? He roared, "Flintlock riflemen, open fire!"
"Bang, bang, bang, bang!
A sweeping volley of flintlock rifles opened fire...
The fleeing rebel soldiers were hit in the back, tumbling forward, and instantly, another large group collapsed.
Apart from the initial ten Three-Eyed Arquebus soldiers who had seen actual combat, all of Gao Family Village's flintlock riflemen were raw recruits. Although they had trained desperately for several months, they were still greenhorns.
After the first volley, the raw recruits frantically began reloading their second shot.
Only then did they realize that reloading in real combat was completely different from training.
During training, reloading ammunition felt steady, and their hands wouldn't shake.
But in real combat, thinking that the enemy was fleeing, and if they reloaded a bit faster, they could fire another shot sooner, and the enemy wouldn't escape...
With that thought, their reloading motions, which had already been perfected through practice, somehow became unfamiliar. Their hands fumbled; one flintlock rifleman poured the gunpowder packet into the barrel, only to spill it all on the ground.
Next to him, another flintlock rifleman, while taking out a gunpowder packet, shook his hand, and the packet dropped. He quickly bent down to pick it up, but his butt stuck out, bumping the teammate behind him, who then fell, knocking over another teammate with a splash.
The flintlock riflemen's formation was in utter chaos.
They cursed inwardly, convinced they would be punished by Instructor He Jiu.
They secretly glanced at Instructor He Jiu, but saw no intention of him thrashing anyone.
Cheng Xu wouldn't scold them. Let alone the complex sequence of loading a flintlock, even simple tasks like drawing a bow and shooting an arrow could be messed up by new recruits on their first battlefield. It was completely normal.
He had seen it countless times.
At that moment, he was secretly congratulating himself, fortunate that these raw recruits' first battle was against an enemy fleeing with their backs turned. Their panic would, at most, let the enemy escape, but not endanger their own lives.
If they had immediately encountered Manchu cavalry charging at them, then those raw recruits would truly have panicked like dogs, their hands shaking so much after firing one shot that they couldn't reload a second for a long time, and most likely would never see tomorrow's sun.
Cheng Xu's spirits lifted, and he laughed loudly, scolding, "What the hell are you panicking about? The enemy is fleeing, what are you scared of? Steady yourselves, you damn fools!"
Hearing the amusement in his voice, the flintlock riflemen's spirits also lifted: Instructor He Jiu wasn't angry. Right, relax, what are we afraid of? We clearly hold the advantage.
Settling their minds, their hand movements became much more efficient.
Reloading within thirty blinks of an eye, they could still do it, as long as they didn't panic... didn't panic...
"Bang, bang, bang, bang!
The flintlock riflemen's second volley came.
The rebel army, which had been fleeing for thirty blinks of an eye, ultimately saw many escape. Only a few slower ones were hit in the back and fell.
Cheng Xu didn't pursue. He loudly ordered, "Alright, spearmen, advance slowly. Shoot the severely wounded to send them to their maker. Capture the lightly wounded and unharmed, and send them to labor reform."
The Gao Family Village militia's spear formation began to advance....
Maintaining their formation, they slowly entered the "bandit camp" that had been blown to smithereens. The camp was a scene of utter devastation, with rebel bodies everywhere. After being ravaged by nearly a hundred hand grenades and then peppered by flintlock rifle fire, how could the scene be anything but horrific?
Even Cheng Xu couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "Firearms are truly formidable!"
As a mere ninth-rank military inspector, he had only witnessed large-scale cold weapon battles before and hadn't truly experienced firearms on such a grand scale. This was an eye-opener for him. Seeing the tragic scene after the rebel army had been "plowed" by firearms, Cheng Xu had to admit: "Sir, times have changed."
The spearmen looked at the scattered bodies on the ground and couldn't help but murmur, "This is too fierce. We didn't even lift a hand, and the rebel soldiers were already beaten like this."
"This... maybe we won't even need to fight in the future?"
"I want to be a flintlock rifleman too! Otherwise, I won't even get a chance to earn merit."
Just as he finished speaking, a "hero" suddenly sprang up from a pile of bodies on the ground, wielding a "guandao." It was merely a saber tied to a wooden pole, a "low-budget guandao."
He swung the guandao at the spearmen.
The spearman who had been speaking was distracted and couldn't react in time, startled. But a figure flashed behind him; Cheng Xu darted forward, ducking low, he cut into the guandao's attack blind spot. The saber in his hand plunged into the "hero's" lower abdomen.
The blade's tip pierced from his side, emerging from his lower back.
The hero screamed, spewing blood, and collapsed to the ground.
Cheng Xu clapped his hands and scolded the spearmen loudly, "Stay alert, all of you! Clearing the battlefield is very dangerous. Don't go losing your lives after winning the battle, damn it!"
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