Bringing the Railway to Daming

Of Charolais's more than 13,000 troops, apart from the 1,000 Snow Lion Knights borrowed from the Grand Duke of Burgundy, the second strongest fighting force consisted of his own 1,000 Griffin Cavalry Regiment and 3,000 Squire Cavalry.

These five thousand cavalrymen were Count Salolay's greatest asset.

In addition, there was a 1,000-strong elite archer regiment.

As for the remaining seven thousand or so soldiers, they were all soldiers of minor nobles in the Earl of Salolay's territory, mainly militia temporarily conscripted, and were just a rabble.

Even setting aside the seven thousand-plus rabble, in modern France, five thousand cavalry and one thousand longbowmen would be considered a formidable army.

But times have changed.

The arrival of the Ming army will make the French and even the people of other European countries realize that the era of cold weapons is over and that firearms are now king!

The Leyne River is not very wide or deep to begin with, and it is currently the dry season, so although the two sides are separated by the river, it is practically the same as if there is no river separating them.

Count Salolay believed he held the initiative in the war and was not afraid of being attacked by his opponent while they were crossing the river.

He rode a very conspicuous white horse, galloping back and forth in front of the battle lines. After giving a few loud speeches, he issued the order to attack.

“Uh-huh!”

Earl Salolai's thousand griffin riders, leading three thousand squire cavalry, charged directly into the Four Kings' mercenary positions.

Salolai had also heard that this mercenary group from the southern coast of the Mediterranean possessed a strange weapon that could fire like a crossbow, but with greater power.

In Salolai's view, the solution to this weapon was simply to send cavalry in as quickly as possible to hack and slash at will—just like dealing with those elite longbowmen.

However, as these French cavalry charged toward the Four Kings' mercenary positions, they saw a weapon they had never seen before.

There were as many as four hundred short, thick metal pipes, each with a support frame, arranged in two rows in front of the position!
When the French cavalry charged to within two hundred paces, the officer in charge of the Tiger Crouching Artillery gave the order to fire.

Bang bang bang...

A series of crisp cannon shots rang out, and one after another, Gongsun bullets (a type of shotgun) connected to form a net of death, enveloping the Griffin Cavalry Regiment charging at the forefront.

What kind of weapon is this?
Many griffin riders had barely thought this when they were blasted to the ground, horse and rider alike. Only a few died on the spot; most were severely wounded, lying on the ground howling in agony.

The cavalry behind were shocked by what they saw, but they couldn't stop in time, and many of them crashed into the cavalry.

At this moment, the soldiers of the Four Kings mercenary army ran forward a few dozen steps with the second row of tiger crouching cannons and fired again!
So, amidst a series of crisp cannon shots, the cavalrymen who had slowed down or stopped altogether were subjected to another round of fierce artillery fire!

In just one encounter, the cavalry, who were the spearhead of Count Salolay's army, suffered a heavy defeat, with nearly a third of them killed or wounded. The remaining cavalry were terrified and fled by detour.

Count Saloley watched from behind, completely stunned.

He was also pondering a question: What weapons did this mercenary group use? Weren't their weapons supposed to resemble crossbows? Why do they look more like catapults now?

At this moment, Robert, the commander of the thousand Snow Lion Knights who were planned to hold the line, said, "Your Excellency, I'm afraid this battle is doomed to failure. To avoid a major defeat, please order a retreat."

Count Salore snapped out of his daze and said with red eyes, "No! I haven't lost yet! You haven't even made a move yet, have you? Now, charge into Navel's position and drive them toward that mercenary's position."

"As long as we can break through that mercenary's position, we can still win this war!"

Robert said coldly, "Are you trying to kill off all of our Snow Lion Knights? Do you know how many gold francs it takes to train one Snow Lion Knight?"

With a ferocious expression, Salola shouted, "Robert, I am the commander of this army. You only need to obey orders!"

While the two were still arguing, a new development occurred on the battlefield.

The Four Kings' mercenaries were all composed of guards from the Ming Dynasty's princes, and were basically elite troops capable of both mounted and foot combat.

Therefore, only three thousand men were used as infantry, while the remaining three thousand were on horseback waiting for the right opportunity.

Seeing that Count Salolay's cavalry were being bombarded by the Tiger Crouching Cannon Battalion and fleeing in defeat, Li Daqi immediately realized that this was a good opportunity to directly crush the enemy, and immediately ordered the cavalry to charge.

So, three thousand elite cavalrymen went out and chased after Count Salore's cavalrymen towards the enemy lines. Seeing this, Count Navel also sent his five hundred elite cavalrymen and one thousand squire cavalrymen to follow and charge.

The remaining several thousand infantrymen, under the command of their respective commanders, also moved towards the enemy lines...

"Kill!"

“Uh-huh!”

The battlefield was filled with shouts of battle in Chinese and French. Count Salore's side suffered heavy losses due to the defeat of its elite troops. The thousand Snow Lion Knights who were in charge of the rear guard did not obey orders, and the rest of the troops could not react in time. They were directly charged into the formation by the three thousand elite cavalry of the Four Kings' mercenaries and were killed and fled in all directions!
Robert stopped arguing with Count Salore and led a thousand Snow Lion Knights to retreat.

Despite his resentment, Count Salore knew he had suffered a crushing defeat and could only flee the battlefield in a sorry state, escorted by a few dozen servants.

Only a portion of the cavalry were able to escape the entire battlefield, as the banks of the Leyne River were all plains, and the infantry had almost no chance of escaping.

The battle finally ended after about two hours. The Four Kings mercenaries quickly conducted a post-battle assessment.

"In this battle, our army suffered 23 dead and 115 wounded. Together with Earl Navel's army, we killed more than 3,700 enemy soldiers and captured 6,452!"

"In addition, 1,872 horses were captured, and other armor, weapons, provisions and supplies are difficult to calculate at the moment."

After listening, Li Daqi nodded and then said, "Send someone to inform Earl Navel that after we clean up the battlefield, we will enter Earl Salore's territory this afternoon."

"If he also wants to send troops, then send out a portion of his elite forces, but they should no longer march with us."

The Four Kings' mercenaries entered the territory of Earl Salore, and their actions were not merely plundering; they also recruited soldiers.

Li Daqi certainly didn't want Earl Neville to get in his way.

···
···
half a month later.

Philip II, the Grand Duke of Burgundy, who was staying in Paris, the capital of the Kingdom of France, received a letter. After reading it, he frowned.

This letter was another account of the mercenaries from the southern coast of the Mediterranean.

According to the various pieces of information he had received over the past two months, the mercenaries of the Archduke of Bourbon and the Earl of Naville, though called by different names, were actually related to the Ming Empire in the distant East.

The Grand Duke of Bourbon's mercenaries came from a kingdom called "Jin," which was a vassal state of the Ming Empire, much like the Duchy of Burgundy was to the Kingdom of France.

The other mercenary force was said to be composed of the armies of four princes of the Ming Dynasty.

Over the past month, the pro-war lords, aided by these two mercenary groups, have consistently achieved victories against their own faction. These mercenaries from the Ming Empire have even breached numerous castles and beheaded their lords.

In several letters describing these mercenaries, two new weapons were mentioned: one called "bird gun" (phonetic translation) and the other called "tiger crouching cannon".

The arquebus resembles a crossbow, but is more powerful and can pierce through fine armor.

The Tiger Crouching Cannon was like a catapult, and its power was greater than that of the previous catapults. In battle, even heavy cavalry would likely suffer the same fate, with both men and horses being annihilated.

The Jin Kingdom on the southern coast of the Mediterranean was already a very powerful country, having successively destroyed the Mamluk and Hafs kingdoms in the past two years.

When the State of Jin destroyed the Kingdom of Hafs, he also organized an army to go to the rescue at the invitation of the King of Hafs.

Ultimately, this army lost control before the Jin army arrived, turning into bandits and scattering in all directions, with only a small portion returning to France.

Therefore, as the Grand Duke Regent of France, Philip II was somewhat aware of how powerful the Kingdom of Jin was.

Now, some lords have witnessed the power of those two mercenary armies and are worried that the Kingdom of Jin will cross the Mediterranean to encroach on French lands, and even destroy France in the same way it destroyed the Kingdom of Hafs.

Philip II felt that this was indeed a possibility.

But what could he do?
Currently, both armies are participating in the war between French lords under the guise of mercenaries. Unless he steps forward and declares the Grand Duke of Bourbon, the Count of Naville, and other pro-war figures traitors, thus launching a large-scale civil war, it is impossible for him to send a large army to deal with those two mercenaries.

Moreover, the English in the north are still restless—one of the reasons he presided over the signing of a peace treaty with England is that both England and France are embroiled in internal strife and have little time to deal with their own internal problems.

However, if England discovers that France has more internal problems, it might suppress the internal turmoil and take the opportunity to send troops to invade France again.

He was indeed a peacemaker, but that doesn't mean he wanted to give all of France's land to England.

After putting down the letter, Philip II sighed inwardly: It seems that the only option is to send a delegation to the Kingdom of Jin to see if he can negotiate with the King of Jin to have these two mercenary groups recalled.

But the Prince of Jin will most likely take the opportunity to bring up those previous conditions.

For a time, Philip II felt the affairs of state were so difficult that he almost didn't want to continue his rule...

···
Several months have passed in the blink of an eye.

The year was the second year of the Wenlong era (1396 AD), on the third day of the first month.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang and his concubines were brought to the capital by Zhu Biao to celebrate the New Year. The plan was to hold a movie-watching banquet on the second day of the New Year, but Zhu Yuanzhang felt sad when he thought of the time he spent watching music videos with Empress Ma in the past. So Zhu Biao informed Liu Kuan that the movie-watching banquet was changed to the third day of the New Year.

That morning, when Liu Kuan brought his family to the Dashan Hall, he found that almost all of the four generations of the Zhu family who were in the capital had arrived.

However, this time no one was sitting on the dragon throne.

Zhu Biao had several large round tables arranged in the Great Benevolence Hall, and the Zhu family sat separately according to the categories of adults, children, men, and women.

Upon seeing Liu Kuan enter the hall, before he could even bow, Zhu Yuanzhang beckoned and said, "Liu Kuan, come to our table." (End of Chapter)