Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 195: Fierce Battle at Shahe (Part )
On the mound northwest of the Shahe wooden bridge, the smoke that had just spewed out of the muzzle was blown away by the wind, revealing a group of teenagers.

At a pre-dug gun position, once the artillery had completely stopped retreating due to recoil, a group of half-grown teenage artillerymen immediately pushed the gun carriage back to its original position.

The barrel cleaner who had been waiting for a long time dipped the felt-wrapped barrel cleaning rod in his hand into the bucket of water, and then immediately pushed it into the barrel with water. The remaining burning sparks were immediately extinguished by the water. At the same time, the gunner also covered the fire port at the tail of the gun with his hand to create a vacuum environment in the barrel to prevent any sparks from being extinguished.

The gun cleaner quickly brushed the barrel, and when the rod with the felt was pulled out, a burst of white steam immediately came out of the hot barrel. This is the greatest significance of brushing the barrel with felt dipped in water.

Firstly, it can extinguish the burning sparks to prevent the sparks from igniting the ammunition prematurely and causing accidents during the next reloading. Secondly, water can be used to cool the barrel. There is no need to worry about dipping it in too much water. The hot barrel will quickly evaporate the water stains.

However, according to the gun operation procedure, the barrel cleaner wiped it again with another dry felt brush. The loader immediately brought a standard amount of gunpowder wrapped in oil paper and stuffed the powder bag into the muzzle. The ramrod pusher next to him immediately picked up the ramrod and pushed the powder bag into the breech, followed by another iron ball, and once again pushed the bullet into the chamber.

The gunner was not idle at the back either. After the powder bags were filled, he immediately picked up the vent pin, punctured the powder bags, then took out a fuse from his briefcase and inserted it into the vent.

The deputy gunner then measured the gun's elevation with a gun gauge and roughly aimed in the direction. The gunner raised a red flag beside him and shouted "Ready". All members of the gun crew retreated to both sides of the gun, covered their ears and prepared for the firing. The igniter would then come forward with a ignition fork. When he heard the command "Fire" and saw the red flag in the gunner's hand fall, he would use the ignition fork to ignite the fuse, and then quickly retreat one step at a time to prevent himself from being hit by the recoil of the gun.

There was a hissing sound and a puff of white smoke came out of the firing port. Two seconds later, there was a loud bang and the fourth shell was fired. Then the gun crew began the next round of repetitive operations over and over again.

Lu Xianzong was stunned. He did not expect that the Red Turban Army's fire guns were not only powerful, but also had an incredible range and an incredible rate of fire. In just a short while, they had already fired four rounds in a row, and it seemed that they were quite accurate.
Nonsense, the terrain was measured in advance, the artillery positions were also carefully selected, and we were fighting an army of 10,000 people. As long as we hit the crowd, we would win. If we couldn't hit the target, there would be something wrong.

"Ah! My legs~"

In the Yuan army's formation, there was another commotion at the junction of the left army and the front army. The soldiers who were killed by the direct hit of the artillery shells did not even have the chance to howl. However, the soldiers whose calves were broken by ricochets, after the initial adrenaline effect wore off, began to lie on the ground holding their broken legs and howling loudly.

Such tragic and incredible blows occurred one after another. The elite troops in the front row might be better off, but the militia in the back row who had only been recruited two months ago could not hold on any longer. They all fled to the river in fear. Many people were even more confused and did not know where to run. They could only stand there and stare at the crowds around them who were howling and screaming.

dong dong dong-

The Yuan army sounded another fierce change of command drum. Yesen Timur was shocked and furious under the banner of the central army. He originally thought that the enemy soldiers only had two large muskets, which were specifically used to shoot at the wooden bridge and block the communication between the two sides.

But he had a question just now. If the enemy had such a strange weapon, why didn't they use it to attack the army directly? Feeling uneasy, he immediately ordered Lu Xianzong's cavalry to destroy the bandit's artillery position. However, he didn't expect that just after the order was issued, the bandit's fire guns used to attack the army started to fire.

Moreover, he fired six bullets at a time, and the fighting was endless. The power was extremely terrifying. After four rounds of shooting, his formation had lost more than 200 people.

Although there are more than 10,000 people in this formation, the loss of 200 people already accounts for one-fiftieth of the total. Moreover, the bandits have no intention of stopping. If they are allowed to fight for a few more rounds, thousands of people will die before they even start the battle. How can they fight?

So he ordered the drummers and buglers to send out a signal again, urging Lu Xianzong and others to attack the artillery position.

This time, Lu Xianzong did not dare to hesitate any longer, otherwise, if he was defeated, he might be suspected of becoming a scapegoat. However, just as he was stunned, the fifty cavalrymen led by Lu Jin had disappeared from his sight under the cover of gunpowder smoke.

Just as Lu Xianzong was looking around for Lu Jin and others, suddenly dozens of arrows flew out from the smoke on the right rear side. The fifty cavalrymen led by Lu Jin had already circled around their right rear at some point.

Continue to charge forward and attack the artillery position? Then his right rear side would always be under attack by the Red Scarf Cavalry, so continuing forward would only lead to death. With the Red Scarf Cavalry entangled with them, Lu Xianzong could not attack the artillery position at all.

He looked at the figures around him and found that more than a dozen people had been shot by arrows and fell off their horses. Fortunately, Wu Yuyun was by his side. Guan Bao had just wanted to take the opportunity to go around to the rear of the artillery position to launch an attack, but his one hundred cavalrymen were entangled by more than one hundred cavalrymen of Ye Sheng. The outcome was still undecided. Lu Xianzong still had about one hundred and sixty to seventy people, so he made a decision on the spot.

"Captain Wu, this won't work. We have fewer bandits on our side. I'll take half of the troops to stop the bandits, and you take the other half to capture the mound."

Wu Yuyun was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that Lu Xianzong was so loyal. He was the one who fought desperately with the enemy, but let himself take down the artillery formation. He was deeply moved and just said "OK". He immediately led his men to rush towards the mound.

Lu Xianzong and his men immediately turned their horses around to avoid the pursuit of Lu Jin and others, and then charged towards Lu Jin head-on.

"Commander?"

Jin Cheng, the platoon leader of the fourth platoon of the cavalry company beside him, looked at Lu Jin and shouted, asking about the next tactics, but he only saw Lu Jin shoot another arrow at the opposite side, knocking down an enemy cavalry on the spot, then put down the bow and arrow, picked up the Fang Tian Huaji, and shouted loudly.

"Follow me and kill them to cover the artillery!" Then he took the lead and rushed towards Lu Xianzong.

When the four rows of cavalrymen saw that their commander was so brave, they immediately urged their horses to move forward, shouting and following Lu Jin as they rushed towards the enemy.

The cavalry of both sides soon rushed together. Thanks to Lu Jin's usual care for the cavalry, although the cavalry regiment had not yet received the standard armor produced by themselves, they were still equipped with various captured armors. What's more, this was Ye Sheng's personal guard company, and the level of their armor was actually better than that of the Yuan army on the opposite side.

Moreover, these were the elite soldiers brought by Ye Sheng himself, who had learned the essence of Ye Sheng's horse lance and spear club. The main weapons of this platoon of cavalry were iron spears and horse lances. Even Lu Jin, who was holding the Fang Tian Ji, was considered half of Ye Sheng's apprentice. So there was the following scene, Lu Jin was the first to charge with the Fang Tian Ji in his hand, followed by fifty elite cavalrymen holding long spears and horse lances. The whole platoon of lancers was much stronger than the group of guys on the opposite side who were holding bone-shaped waist knives or bows and spears.

Lu Jin was the first to rush into the enemy camp, with his Fang Tian Hua Ji pointing forward, killing an enemy cavalryman on the spot. He then used the Fang Tian Hua Ji as a double-edged sword, chopping and slashing, and immediately three more enemy soldiers were cut off their horses.

At this time, Lu Xianzong also set his sights on Lu Jin. According to the reports from the soldiers who had escaped before, it was the man in front of him who seriously injured Lu Chonglu. Therefore, he attached great importance to Lu Jin. He waved his hand and ordered his cavalry to surround and kill Lu Jin from the left and right.

The two men, one with a long sword and the other with a spear, saw the opportunity and took the lead, using the advantage of his long weapon. He slightly turned the halberd in his hand, found the direction of the blade, and chopped at the enemy rider with the sword on the left. He didn't care whether he was killed or not. He immediately used a combo, hooking the man's waist with the small branch on the side of the halberd blade, and actually swung the man and the halberd up, and smashed it directly at the enemy rider with the spear on the right, knocking the man off the horse on the spot, and then he was killed by the following friendly forces.

Lu Xianzong followed behind the two men. Seeing that Lu Jin could actually lift a man up with his Fang Tian Ji, he was shocked by his exaggerated strength. However, he would not waste the opportunity that the two soldiers had fought for him. While Lu Jin was swinging the Ji to hit the man and had not yet retracted the weapon, he secretly thrust his spear towards Lu Jin.

"Be careful, Marshal!"

Jin Cheng behind him shouted and also reminded Lu Jin. Lu Jin's eyes swept to the tip of the gun pointing straight at him, and his pupils shrank immediately. He hated these kinds of masters who used spears and halberds the most, because these people's skills were generally very good, far beyond what a useless guy like himself who had just learned martial arts for two months could compare to. So when dealing with this kind of enemy, he could only try his best to make use of the multifunctional attributes of the Fang Tian Ji.

While paying attention to Lu Xianzong's movements, Lu Jin accelerated the recovery of his Fang Tian Ji. Just when the opponent's spear tip was one meter away from him, he finally retracted the halberd. With a clang, the weapons in the hands of the two men collided. Lu Xianzong wanted to continue stabbing forward, but Lu Jin took advantage of this opportunity and suddenly used the halberd to push the opponent's spear to the side. At the same time, he twisted his body to avoid the attack route of the opponent's spear.

After a few exchanges, the two of them had already crossed each other's paths. Lu Jin turned around and saw that the other party was just as he expected. This kind of people just like to use a surprise attack and bully him because he is not familiar with guns and sticks, right?

Lu Xianzong's attack missed, and the two men passed each other by, but he also noticed something. The enemy general holding a halberd seemed to be a little stronger, but his martial arts skills were very average, and he didn't seem to be very proficient in his moves. So he immediately turned sideways and used his usual counter-attack.

The reason why the counterattack has become a classic is that the chance of success is very high after practicing it well, which is why people always mention it.

This counterattack requires speed. The gun turns to the back before the body, leaving the person no time to react. Lu Xianzong was obviously very confident in this move. However, just as he stabbed the gun out and turned around to look back, he heard a loud bang in his ear, and then a cloud of white smoke appeared in front of his eyes, followed by choking gunpowder.

Then his right arm seemed to be hit by an arrow at close range, followed by a scream. The warhorse under his crotch suddenly stumbled and fell headfirst with Lu Xianzong.

Lu Xianzong had no idea what was happening. He was performing a counterattack when the horse he was riding suddenly fell down. Without time to think, he immediately protected his head and rolled over as the horse knelt on the ground to relieve the force, finally landing safely.

Just as he was trying to see what was going on, another Red Turban cavalryman came up in front of him and stabbed at him with his spear. Lu Xianzong was forced to retreat quickly, waving his spear to block. He had just blocked the shot when he was tripped by his dead horse and lay on the ground. It was not until this time that the Red Turban cavalrymen led by Lu Jin broke through the enemy's formation. They did not come back for a second round, but ran straight towards the mound. They wanted to drive away Wu Yuyun's troops who were attacking the artillery formation.

"Master, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, go chase the enemy."

"I will stay and protect you, my Lord."

Lu Xianzong shook his head helplessly, and then he had time to check his injuries. He found that there was a hole as thick as a chopstick on a piece of armor on his right arm guard, and blood was gushing out, but there was no arrow.

He looked back at his mount and found a bloody hole the size of a tea bowl on the side of the horse's neck, and four smaller holes around it that were the same as the ones on his arm. Thinking back to the loud noise and the smoke just now, it seemed like Lu Jin had also used a counterattack, but the one he used was a musket.
On the other side, Lu Jin, who had broken through the enemy's formation, took back the flintlock musket on his waist, and without saying a word, he put the Fang Tian Ji on his back, took out the bow and arrow, and shot at Wu Yuyun again with a few bangs, shooting down two people in succession, and then immediately shouted, "Don't chase too closely!"

The four rows of soldiers around him hadn't understood what meant and why they were suddenly not allowed to chase. However, at this moment, Wu Yuyun, who had already rushed to within a hundred meters of the Tugang artillery position, suddenly heard a loud bang from the front, and then it was as if a rain of iron was sweeping over. The sound of bullets entering the body was heard, and the dozen or so cavalrymen running in the front were immediately shot into sieves, and both the men and their horses fell down.

Before they could react, a roar of artillery fire was heard from the other side in front of them, and now a rain of iron bullets swept over from the left. Dense iron bullets swept across in a fan shape, and more than twenty riders fell. The Yuan cavalry in the front were wiped out on the spot.

The two 14-jin short-barreled howitzers with a range of less than 600 meters, which were loaded with shotgun shells and used to protect the artillery positions, finally fired!
"Kill them! Don't let them run away!"

After the two cannon shots, Lu Jin had no more worries. He didn't want to get too close just now because he was worried that the artillery would accidentally injure friendly forces, or that the artillery would not dare to fire because he was too close. Now that the shotgun shells had run out, he immediately rushed over with the cavalry.

The close-range shotgun fire just now killed Wu Yuyun who was rushing in the front on the spot. The rest of the ordinary soldiers were worried that the artillery still had unfired shells and hesitated whether to continue rushing forward.

At this moment, Lu Jin suddenly attacked from the rear. Ye Sheng finally dealt with Guan Bao's cavalry and came with more than a hundred cavalry to support Lu Jin.

The remaining Yuan cavalry in front of the mound saw Lu Jin and Ye Sheng flanking them from both sides, with the powerful shotgun cannon in front of them, so they dared not stay any longer and turned on the spot to run towards the wooden bridge.

Whoever wants to attack this artillery position can do so. Anyway, they won’t attack again!
Seeing this, Lu Jin had no choice but to reunite with Ye Sheng and lead them to chase the fleeing enemy cavalry again.

Lu Xianzong's right arm was injured and he could not use his spear. He could only lead an ownerless warhorse and circle around with Lu Jin with the remaining soldiers. He did not dare to go back to the Yuan army formation on the wooden bridge before completing the mission. So he just wandered around outside and waited and saw the result.

(End of this chapter)