The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 382 Who's Coming Next?

Zhang Wei hit the enemy general with one shot, and the vanguard troops on the other side immediately fell into small-scale chaos.

Several guards lifted the enemy general's corpse and howled wildly, which affected those nearby, who couldn't help but turn to look.

Seeing that the leader had died a gruesome death, with a large, bloody hole in the middle of his face, everyone around was horrified.

"How did you die?"

"What kind of strange weapon is this?"

The low-ranking soldiers were quite ignorant and were terrified when they saw this thing.

However, the mid- to high-ranking generals had long heard of the firearms of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Kong Yanzhou had long known that the Northern Song Dynasty had defeated the Jin Dynasty with firearms, but he had only heard about it before. Now that he had seen it with his own eyes, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart: "It's a good thing I didn't lead the first battle. Now I've been reminded that when fighting against the Northern Song Dynasty, generals cannot be too ostentatious and need to be careful to hide themselves."

Just as he was thinking about these things, the battle ahead took another turn.

After the young general was killed, some of his five hundred men temporarily stopped moving forward, turning their heads to look at the general's corpse, their minds seemingly wandering. Others, however, remained oblivious and continued to advance.

Arrows were fired, but they were blocked by the wooden walls of the pass. The half-built fortress also served as a shield against arrows; the Northern Song soldiers, hiding inside, were largely unaffected by the arrows.

The puppet Qi soldiers continued to advance while firing arrows. As they walked, a series of musket shots rang out ahead. This time, it wasn't just Zhang Wei firing; at least fifty smoothbore muskets opened fire, and several soldiers in the front ranks of the puppet Qi army immediately fell.

The hotheads yelled, "I thought they only had one of those weird weapons!"

"So many results?"

"My God!"

With a shout, the soldiers all ran back and retreated.

Thus, the first wave of attack ended!

Kong Yanzhou ordered the flags to be waved, and the central army flag swayed left and right. Then, the retreating troops gathered in his direction.

The military generals gathered together.

Kong Yanzhou said, "As you all just saw, that was the rumored firearms unit of the Northern Song Dynasty."

The faces of the group of mid-level generals were not good.

Kong Yanzhou pointed to their armor: "Your armor is different from that of ordinary soldiers; it's very conspicuous. If you rush forward, the enemy will use firearms on you. Since this armor can't stop their firearms anyway, you might as well not wear it."

The generals understood: "Then we can dress like the ordinary soldiers."

After a flurry of activity, they removed their conspicuous armor, put on the armor worn by ordinary soldiers, and smeared ash on their faces, making them look no different from ordinary soldiers.

Kong Yanzhou nodded: "That solves the problem. Who would dare to attack the second line of defense?"

A general, disguised as a common soldier, stepped forward and said, "This humble general is willing to go."

Kong Yanzhou: "Okay, go ahead!"

The general led five hundred men toward the pass.

Zhang Wei, who was on the wall, was squinting at the army of the pseudo-Qi state. When he saw that several hundred more people had come out, he searched for the general in the enemy formation, but this time he could not find him.

"Huh? The other side doesn't have a general?"

Another straggler crawled up to him and whispered, "Boss, I can't find the enemy's general either."

Zhang Wei: "Damn it, there can't be no general, right? The general must be dressed up as an ordinary soldier."

Another skirmisher whispered, "What do we do then?"

Zhang Wei: "Then let's focus on hitting the corporals and centurions!"

The soldier nodded: "Understood."

A chaotic roar erupted as the puppet Qi army advanced, unleashing a barrage of arrows at the fortified wall. Zhang Wei and his men quickly ducked, dodging the incoming arrows.

The melee soldiers in the Northern Army also took out their bows and arrows to retaliate, throwing a sparse volley of arrows towards the outside of the wall. These arrows did little damage to the puppet Qi army, as they were mostly blocked by their shields.

Now it's time for the musketeers to take action.

Amidst the clatter of gunfire, many more fell on the other side. But this time, the puppet Qi army was mentally prepared. The generals kept encouraging the soldiers, telling them that the Northern Song only had a little over a hundred men in the pass, and that they could win as long as they got close. With such encouragement, they were not so easily defeated.

After the musketeers fired a round of free fire, the puppet Qi army only paused briefly before resuming their advance.

The musketeers loaded their guns at top speed...

At the crucial moment when the puppet Qi army reached the gate wall, they finally completed another round of reloading.

"Bang bang bang!"

The firing range was very close, and thirty or forty members of the puppet Qi army fell in an instant.

This greatly shook morale.

Many people panicked...

The melee soldiers on the wall also poked their heads out, picked up building materials, and started smashing them wildly outside.

The puppet Qi army was thrown into chaos. The general, dressed exactly like a common soldier, couldn't help but shout, "Don't be afraid! We've already reached the wall, what are we afraid of? Ram it! Ram this wooden wall and it'll collapse..."

He hadn't even finished speaking...

Zhang Wei, who was not far away, laughed and said, "Found it!"

"boom!"

A gunshot rang out, and the general fell backward.

With a loud crash, the army of the pseudo-Qi state collapsed once again.

This time, however, Kong Yanzhou's central army did not sound the gong to retreat. Instead, they beat the drums, and with a wave of his hand, another army of five hundred men charged toward the pass.

The routed soldiers, seeing fresh reinforcements arriving from behind, suddenly turned around and charged back towards the fortified wall.

The Northern Song soldiers in the city were also alarmed. One of them couldn't help but ask, "What's going on? Why are these guys so motivated? Is Kong Yanzhou's army really that strong?"

Zhang Wei gritted his teeth: "It's not that they have high morale, it's just that we are too few in number and not deterrent enough."

He was considering whether to abandon the pass and retreat first...

Suddenly, a burst of musket fire rang out from the side of the battlefield, and more than a dozen of the pseudo-Qi soldiers who were charging toward the pass fell instantly.

Zhang Wei looked in the direction of the sound and saw more than a hundred Northern Song soldiers rushing toward the pass.

It turned out that the guards at the nearest pass had come to reinforce us immediately after receiving the message.

There weren't many people; only one hundred.

But their sudden appearance caught the puppet Qi army off guard. They were attacked from the side during the battle, and the soldiers were confused about how many enemies there were. They only heard their comrades shouting, "The Northern Song reinforcements have arrived!"

"Oh no, their reinforcements have arrived."

"It's all over."

Upon hearing this shout, the puppet Qi army instantly collapsed...

Kong Yanzhou was also unsure how many reinforcements the Northern Song had sent, and could not rashly give orders, so he had no choice but to sound the retreat.

Once the puppet Qi army withdrew and the battlefield became clearer, he realized that the enemy had only sent one hundred reinforcements.

"Damn it!" Kong Yanzhou roared, "A hundred reinforcements were completely useless! Let's start over! Who's going to go next?"

(End of this chapter)