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Chapter 739: An Unexpected Guest

Wang Chenggong's forces were thoroughly prepared. Rolling logs and boulders, boiling liquids and molten metal were arrayed, ready for the government troops to launch their assault.

But to their surprise, the government soldiers halted far in the distance, showing no intention of advancing.

"What in the world are these government troops up to?" Wang Chenggong scoffed.

A seasoned fighter under his command stood on tiptoes, peering forward. "It seems... they're waiting for something?"

Wang Chenggong sneered, "What else could they possibly be waiting for?"

Just then, his subordinates let out a series of strange cries. "Cannons! Big cannons!"

"What?" Wang Chenggong jumped, quickly rising onto his tiptoes to peer ahead. Through a gap in the government troops' formation, five large cannons were rolled out. Three of them gleamed with a silvery sheen, made of some unknown, peculiar metal. The other two were dark, the familiar bronze cannons Wang Chenggong had seen before.

The moment he saw them, Wang Chenggong knew trouble was brewing.

"Prepare!"

At the artillery battalion commander's command, five teams of artillerymen sprang into action simultaneously. The drills they had practiced for years were finally put to the test: loading powder, hoisting shells, ramming them into the barrel, inserting the fuse...

"Aim!"

"A little more elevation..."

"Raise it higher."

"Good, just like that."

"A hair to the left."

"Fire!"

With trembling hands, the artillerymen ignited the fuses.

As they watched the sparks trace a fiery path towards the barrels, the excitement surging in their hearts was beyond words.

Luo Xi looked on, utterly bewildered. "Where did these artillerymen come from? They look like clumsy new recruits on their first battlefield!"

Shi Jian replied, "That's right, they *are* new recruits."

Luo Xi was speechless.

"BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!"

The five cannons roared, one after another.

The opening salvo struck the very center of Wangjia Fork Ancient Fortress's gate.

That thick, heavy wooden gate, formidable against battering rams and similar siege engines, was utterly useless against cannon fire.

With a splintering crash, a massive hole appeared in the city gate.

Next, with a resounding thud, a cannonball slammed into the nearby wall. The brick and earthen structure took the hit, sending dust and debris flying, and the entire wall swayed precariously.

Before the wall could even catch its breath, *thump*, another cannonball struck it.

Wangjia Fork Ancient Fortress was no formidable stronghold like Xi'an, Nanjing, or the capital. It was merely a small border town. How could it possibly withstand such a bombardment?

Unable to endure the onslaught, the wall let out a painful groan. With a thunderous rumble, it collapsed, leaving another gaping hole.

The rebels hiding on that section of the wall, poised with rolling stones and logs, suddenly felt the ground give way beneath them. As the wall crumbled, they tumbled down with it.

Dust billowed for a moment, leaving a large group of rebels disheveled and covered in grime.

Wang Chenggong watched the scene, frozen in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me?" he swore. "Where did these government troops get their cannons? Damn it, the soldiers in Northern Shaanxi are destitute; how could they get their hands on something like this?"

His answer came in the jubilant shouts of the distant government troops: "It hit! It hit!"

The artillerymen were the most ecstatic. "My first live fire, and I scored a hit!"

"Haha, with a target that big, it'd be a problem if you *missed*, wouldn't it?"

The artillery battalion commander roared, "Was all your training for nothing? What are you gawking at after one shot? Keep going! Second volley!"

"Huh?"

The artillerymen snapped out of their daze, quickly cleaning the barrels, reloading ammunition, and re-aiming the muzzles...

After a solid minute or two of frantic activity, the second round of shelling was finally ready.

"Fire!"

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!"

The cannons roared once more, sending five more shells screaming towards Wangjia Fork Ancient Fortress.

The unfortunate Wangjia Fork Ancient Fortress hadn't even caught its breath before another five cannonballs came hurtling its way.

With a thunderous crash, two more sections of the wall crumbled.

Wang Chenggong finally understood. The government troops had no intention of assaulting the city at all. Their force of roughly a thousand men simply stood in the distance, gleefully watching their cannons bombard the fortress.

They were probably waiting for the cannons to flatten the fortress before moving in.

Wang Chenggong gritted his teeth. "Pass down the order! We can't linger here. Prepare to charge! Once we get close, those cannons will be worthless. We'll drive off the government troops and seize their artillery!"

Wang Chenggong's forces began preparing for a charge!

The rebels no longer hid on the ramparts but retreated from the walls, regrouping in the open ground behind the main gate, ready to charge.

Meanwhile...

In a mountain gully northeast of Wangjia Fork, a cavalry unit was also preparing to charge.

This cavalry unit belonged to the Mongolian Wushen Tribe.

They were the very perpetrators who had been harassing the Hetao Area for days, causing considerable headaches for Supreme Commander Hong Chengchou and Regional Commander Wang Cheng'en of Yansui.

Mongolian cavalry, swift as the wind, were impossible for infantry to pin down.

Like the rebels, they often bypassed strong cities, slipping past them to raid Han Chinese settlements, burning, killing, and plundering.

To counter their swift, hit-and-run tactics, Zhu Yuanzhang had established countless border fortresses across the Nine Borders, weaving them into a network that barely managed to keep these cavalry raids at bay.

However...

With the collapse of Ming finances in the late dynasty, however, the border armies lacked pay, leading to mass desertions and rebellions. The border fortresses were variously abandoned, some even occupied by rebels, and the network they formed had drastically weakened its ability to defend against Mongolian cavalry.

This Mongolian cavalry unit had been secretly observing the battle from the flanks for quite some time.

They were content to watch the spectacle as the Ming army engaged the rebels. As they watched, they saw the Ming forces deploy their cannons, bombarding the rebels into utter misery.

"Those cannons interest me greatly," the cavalry captain roared. "While the Ming army's attention is on the rebels, we'll charge in, cut down the Ming soldiers, and seize those cannons!"

The Mongolian cavalry howled, "Seize them!"

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!"

Just then, the cannons fired another round.

The cavalry captain cracked his whip. "Charge!"

With a thunderous roar, the large contingent of Mongolian cavalry burst out of the gully.

Mongolian light cavalry, with horsemanship unmatched in the world, charged like a fierce gale. They covered hundreds of meters in an instant, a sharp knife aimed squarely at Shi Jian's unit, slashing fiercely into their flank.

At this moment, Wang Chenggong's rebels were still planning their charge, intending to abandon the fortress.

Just as he was about to give the order to sally forth, he suddenly heard shouts of battle from outside. He turned to see a unit of Mongolian cavalry, having burst forth from seemingly nowhere, charging fiercely towards the government troops.

Wang Chenggong was utterly astonished. "Huh? What in the—Damn it! The Mongolians chose *this* moment to appear! Damn those barbarians, using us to draw the government troops' fire, then charging during the reloading interval after the cannons fired!"

One of the rebels under his command shouted, "Boss, what do we do?"

Wang Chenggong gritted his teeth. "We'll hold back for now and observe. We can't join forces with the Mongolians to fight the government troops. If we're going to strike, it must be when they're not in the picture."