The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 424 My eyes can't take it all in

The Jin soldiers, blessed with incredible luck, are making their final, tragic charge.

Some ridiculous dramas like to portray enemy soldiers as cowardly clowns, but anyone with a normal IQ knows that enemy countries also have patriots. It's just that the country they love is not the same as the country you love, but their spirit of "dying for their country" is no different from yours.

That's exactly the kind of person this Jin soldier is!

He was ready to risk everything. Even if his comrades were blocked, repelled, or killed, leaving him alone, he would still charge forward and kill the artillerymen! Even killing just one would reduce the firepower of the Northern Song army and give the Jin army a slight advantage.

"kill!"

The Jin soldiers let out their final cry...

His shout was quite fierce. The artillerymen could only fire one shot at a time, and there was no time to reload. They could only watch helplessly as the Jin cavalry charged towards them. Several artillerymen were so frightened that they threw their shotguns aside and ran away.

Zhang Yong, the battalion commander of the artillery battalion, was so frightened that he turned and ran away.

But he had only taken two steps when he heard a loud roar from afar: "Useless husband, what the hell are you running for? There's only one soldier on the other side."

Zhang Yong froze: "Huh? Right? There's only one soldier, why should I run?"

In an instant, my courage returned.

Zhang Yong picked up his spear and turned to face the Jin soldier.

When the Jin soldiers saw Zhang Yong's cowardly appearance as he tried to run away, they looked down on him and thought to themselves: "The Han officials, both civil and military, are all cowards who are afraid of death. Fine! Since you dare to bravely turn back to fight, I will kill you. If I can exchange this worthless life for the commander of the enemy's artillery battalion, that would be a huge profit."

"Kill, kill, kill!"

The Jin soldiers roared and charged forward...

Zhang gripped his gun with both hands and charged forward!
He is cowardly, opportunistic, and has all sorts of bad habits, but his martial arts skills are genuine. It makes sense that he practices martial arts so hard because he is afraid of death.

With spear in hand, in the instant before battle, all fear of death was cast aside, and only one thought crossed his mind: "I cannot die, I absolutely cannot die, no one can kill me, I must live!"

The two horses crossed paths. A Jin soldier slashed fiercely with his sword, but Zhang Yong thrust out with his spear. The spear was longer than the sword, so if the thrust was accurate, the sword would be useless.

"puff!"

With a bang, Zhang Yong's spear pierced the Jin soldier's chest, impaling him on the spear. The Jin soldier swung his sword, but it flew out of his hand and disappeared into the distance...

Zhang Yong breathed a sigh of relief: "Luckily, I practice martial arts diligently."

"Then why the hell didn't you run away in the first place?" Yi Zhangqing cursed from a distance.

Zhang Yong: "My wife is right to teach me a lesson."

Yi Zhangqing: "..."

By this time, all the cavalry that had jumped over the breastwork had been killed, while those that had not broken through the breastwork had no choice but to retreat under attack from the reserve forces specifically used to protect the artillery. The Jin army's intention to destroy the Northern Song artillery positions had been completely thwarted.

Once Zhang regained his composure, he immediately resumed command of the artillery battalion in combat.

The booming sound of cannons firing echoed again from the hilltop...

Since the two armies had essentially entered close combat at the front lines, the artillery could no longer fire at the very front, so it was positioned further back to target the rear of the Jin army. For the Jin army, the constant fighting at the front while artillery shells rained down from behind created immense psychological pressure. Even Jin Wuzhu, the commander-in-chief, was starting to lose his focus!
There were so many new things on the battlefield that even he, as the commander, understood less and less.

He looked to his left and saw that one of his own junior officers had suddenly collapsed and died. He didn't know what had killed him, since there were a lot of soldiers in front of him helping to block the blows and bullets. How could he have suddenly died like that?
Looking to the right front, a group of burly men suddenly jumped out from the enemy's formation. With a flick of their wrists, a large number of burning bamboo poles flew into the puppet Qi army's shield wagon formation. The gunpowder sizzled and ignited, and the oil leaked out of the bamboo poles, setting a large number of shield wagons ablaze.

The large wooden planks of the shield cart burned with tremendous force, frightening the puppet Qi soldiers behind them into retreating repeatedly.

Amidst the intense burning, the shield carts collapsed with a deafening roar. As soon as they fell, the musketeers on the opposite side opened fire wildly. Bullets pierced through the smoke from the burning shield carts, felling the puppet Qi soldiers one by one. This exacerbated the soldiers' panic, causing many puppet Qi soldiers to abandon their positions and attempt to escape the battlefield in various ways.

Amidst the chaos, only the elite troops personally led by Li Cheng were able to barely maintain the situation.

Just then, the Northern Song army on the opposite side sounded their war drums, followed by the wailing of their cavalry horns.

The cuirassiers led by Yizhangqing moved...

A large group of gleaming armored soldiers marched towards Li Chengjun's elite main force.

Even before the person arrived, the gleaming armor already made Li Chengjun's heart pound.

Once they reached a certain distance, the cavalrymen with gleaming breastplates suddenly drew their muskets and fired almost directly at Li Chengjun's face. The close-range musket-wielding cavalry attack, with muskets firing right in front of him, was incredibly oppressive.

Li Chengjun's elite troops couldn't withstand the onslaught and were instantly routed.

"Ironclad Cavalry! My lord, deploy the Ironclad Cavalry."

Someone was shouting behind Jin Wuzhu, and Jin Wuzhu was a little confused for a moment. He didn't know what to do. Oh well, the Iron Pagoda is not something to be trifled with. Now that things have come to this, let's not worry about anything else and go for it!
At Jin Wuzhu's command, the Jin army's last remaining force, five hundred Iron Pagoda soldiers, began to advance on horseback.

He decided to use the Ironclad Cavalry to overwhelm the enemy's cuirassiers, and then use even heavier cavalry to wipe out the enemy's heavy cavalry, thus opening up the situation in one fell swoop.

However, after the cuirassiers fired a shot into Li Cheng's face, they had already spread out to the side, preparing to leave the battlefield. The Ironclad Cavalry's charge came up empty-handed.

The Iron Pagoda is far less agile than the Cuirassier. They cannot employ mobile tactics; once they advance, they can only advance. Even if the enemy spreads out laterally, the Iron Pagoda can only move forward.

The Ironclad Cavalry took a step forward, and the barricades behind them followed suit. They couldn't retreat! Keep charging!

They pressed forward with their heads down and soon saw that the Northern Song army in front of them had split up to the sides, with heavy muskets propped up on the ground with forks, waiting for them for a long time.

Jin Wuzhu had only heard of this weapon, but had never seen it!
If Guwei were still alive, he would be in grave danger.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The sound of a heavy musket firing was incredibly dull, much louder than that of an ordinary smoothbore gun.

The Ironclad Cavalry, which was advancing fearlessly, fell one after another.

When Jin Wuzhu saw the Iron Pagoda fall, he finally lost his composure and roared in fury: "How could there be such a heinous weapon? How could there be? Such thick armor! How could it be penetrated?"

What angered him even more was yet to come!

The gate of the Northern Song army was pushed open, and three hundred iron-clad soldiers, their bodies painted red, charged out from the army.

(End of this chapter)