The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 471 Nothing Can Stop Them
When the cannon goes off, there is ten thousand taels of gold!

Zhao Gou was observing the military formations of both armies through his binoculars when he heard the cannon fire. He quickly moved the lens to try and locate the source of the attack. As is well known, finding a target with binoculars is quite difficult, and he searched for a long time without success.

Qin Hui quickly reminded him from the side, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty, put down the telescope first, find the general direction with your naked eye, and then look through the telescope."

Zhao Gou snapped out of his daze and quickly moved the binoculars away.

At that moment, a scene he would never forget appeared.

White smoke billowed from the artillery positions behind the Northern Song army, while the Jin army's ranks were in complete chaos. Cannonballs were tearing through the Jin army's formations, and those neatly arranged and seemingly imposing ranks were thrown into disarray the moment a cannonball landed.

The catapult wanted to retaliate, but it couldn't reach the target, so it could only keep pushing forward.

But as they advanced, the cannonballs continued to fall, and the catapults were reduced to rubble one after another. Then the ballistae also met the same fate.

The Jin army's cavalry flanked the enemy, trying to find an opportunity to attack the artillery positions, but the rapid sounds of musket fire filled the air. As the cavalry ran, they were inexplicably riddled with bullets, horse and rider alike.

One by one, the Jin army and the puppet Qi army fell.

Zhao Gou quickly picked up his binoculars again to examine the details. Through the zoomed-in lens, he could clearly see a Jin soldier's head being struck by a cannonball and instantly shattered. A small, burning iron ball was thrown by the Northern Song army and landed in the ranks of the puppet Qi army. The next instant, with a loud bang, the small black ball exploded, and the surrounding puppet Qi soldiers fell like chrysanthemums blooming.

Blood flew everywhere, and smoke filled the air.

The telescope lens was filled with terrifying mini-dramas of life's end.

Zhao Gou couldn't help but gasp, "Is this... is this how the Northern Song army fights?"

He quickly looked towards the Southern Song army...

What they saw was a scene they could understand: Han Shizhong's army and the puppet Qi army's spear formations were entangled together, fiercely stabbing each other, making for a very lively battle. Meanwhile, the cavalry took the opportunity to flank from both sides, firing shockwave shots. The Song soldiers hit by their shots screamed and slowly sat down, clutching their wounds. Their teammates next to them took out their bows and arrows and desperately returned fire, exchanging shots with the cavalry.

The two sides exchanged arrows, creating a lively battle, and it was impossible to tell who would win in the short term.

Even if Zhao Gou knew nothing about warfare, he could see that Han Shizhong, whom he trusted most, was only on par with the Jin army, and far inferior to the Northern Song army.

"This this……"

"Boom boom boom!"

Zhang Yong's artillery array opened fire again. This time, the elevation angle of the shells was increased. Since the front lines of the two armies had already started fighting, if the elevation angle of the shells was not high enough, they would easily hit their own men. Therefore, he used high-angle firing in this round, with the shells tumbling over the heads of their own men and landing in the enemy's rear.

The main purpose of this was to divide the enemy's formation, so that while the enemy's front line was still charging, the rear line was blocked by artillery fire and dared not reinforce the front line, thus effectively splitting the enemy's formation apart.

This method really works!

The enemy's rear guard was bombarded by artillery fire, causing their morale to collapse and making them hesitant to advance further.

Meanwhile, the puppet Qi soldiers who were already clashing with the Northern Song army turned around and saw that none of their comrades, who were supposed to be following behind them, had come up. How could they possibly maintain their morale?

Chaos erupted in the front row!

"Drum roll!"

At Gong Erniangzi's command, the drums of the military band sounded, and a large group of smoothbore musketeers began to advance in rhythm with the drumbeats.

Approaching!

Approaching!

Approaching!

Thirty meters!
Stand at attention, raise your gun, fire...

The smoothbore musketeers routed the puppet Qi army with a single volley of three shots, leaving them utterly broken and unable to recover. The Jin's cavalry, attempting to flank the enemy, were met with the menacing charge of the Northern Song's cuirassiers.

Zhao Gou, standing atop a distant hill, was immediately drawn to the cuirassiers after just one glance.

After all, that shiny breastplate was just too eye-catching.

Zhao Gou roared, "What kind of soldiers are those? Why is their breastplate so shiny?"

Qin Hui: "I heard that they are called cuirassiers. They only wear a small, shiny breastplate to prevent the heavy armor from affecting the movement of their hands and feet."

Zhao Gou: "Why do we need to make it convenient to move around? Wouldn't it be enough to be able to wield a spear on horseback?"

Qin Hui: "They seem to need more refined movements."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the cuirassiers drew their short guns: "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After firing one round, he put the short pistol back into his belt and pulled out a second one: "Bang bang bang!"

Then he pulled out a third one: "Bang bang bang!"

……

Who can withstand this kind of fighting style?
Zhao Gou was completely stunned: "One person is equipped with four firearms? What kind of bizarre unit is this?"

Even he, a mere spectator, was shouting that ghosts were coming. The Jin soldiers, who were actually there, couldn't stand it any longer. The cavalry were almost instantly driven back. They circled around in the distance and were supposed to come back to fight, but the cavalry, who were always good at regrouping after defeat, hesitated and dared not charge again. They couldn't find a way to win. If they were full of despair, where would they get the courage to charge again?

Commander Nie Erbojin shouted, "Abandon Ye County! Abandon Ye County! Retreat!"

The battle east of Ye County ended quickly.

But the fighting is still going on in the south!
Han Shizhong and the Jin army on the southern route are still locked in a stalemate.

The two sides clashed and fought fiercely, their blood spurting everywhere...

Han Shizhong couldn't help but sigh inwardly at the strength of the Jin army, which was able to fight him so fiercely with only half of its troops.

Just then, shouts, bugle calls, and gongs rang out from afar; Nie Erbojin's order to retreat had arrived.

The Jin army, which was fighting desperately against Han Shizhong, suddenly began to withdraw from the battlefield.

The horse was unstoppable; it could go anywhere in the blink of an eye, and was dozens of meters away.

The puppet Qi army was in deep trouble, pursued relentlessly by Han Shizhong, and suffered heavy casualties.

At this moment, Zhao Gou's attention was not on Han Shizhong's army at all. His telescope was locked on the Northern Song army, and he could not take his eyes off it. He saw with his own eyes that the Northern Song musketeers completed an extremely complicated loading action in a few dozen seconds and then kept raising their guns to fire.

Before the musket, all beings are equal.

Whether you're a heavily armored iron lump, a general in fish-scale armor, or a soldier in leather or paper armor, a single shot from a musket will send you sprawling. Armor is as if it doesn't exist; whoever gets hit dies instantly.

When the Northern Song army advanced, no one could stop them.

Oh, finally something has stopped the Northern Song soldiers—it's a wall, the city wall of Ye County.

But then a large group of Northern Song soldiers, under the cover of their shields, rushed to the foot of the city wall, dug a small pit, buried a huge oil paper package in it (no one knew what it was), and then everyone took off running...

A few dozen seconds later, a deafening explosion shook the heavens and the earth, sending smoke billowing into the sky, and a large hole was blasted in the city wall.

Zhao Gou was so frightened that he dropped the telescope in his hand.

(End of this chapter)