Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 591 The Traitor Under the Gun ~ The Karluks

"It's all taken care of."

Sitting on the ammunition box, Lin Dao called to the group of machine gunners around him.

"Release the azimuth and elevation precision aiming devices to disperse the ballistic trajectory, creating a wider kill radius in both the horizontal and vertical directions, which is suitable for striking large groups of targets."

Looking at the white-haired soldiers around him, he was completely bewildered.

Lin Dao also laughed, "To put it simply..."

"Blindly shooting!"

Everyone laughed, and the atmosphere became relaxed.

"It's just visual shooting." Lin Dao pulled back the bolt. "Just shoot wherever you see it, based on your instincts."

"After all, you are all beginners, so this is the best we can do."

It's not that he doesn't want to teach more, it's just that he can't learn it all.

Indirect shooting at an upward angle, which is the kind of shooting where bullets rain down from the sky, requires a long period of training and practice, and you need to fire countless bullets to hone your skills.

The white-haired soldiers couldn't do that.

Only Lin Dao himself truly possessed sufficient skill.

'Waaaaah~~~'

A deep, mournful horn sounded, signaling that the allied forces of various nomadic tribes below the distant mountains were about to launch another attack.

"What a coincidence."

After observing through binoculars for a while, Lin Dao immediately instructed, "Eat quickly, eat and drink your fill, then go and harvest potatoes!"

With his presence providing logistical supplies, the Anxi Beiting Allied Forces enjoyed extremely high food standards.

In the words of the white-haired soldiers, it meant they were eating commemorative banquets every day.

According to the Taibai Yin Jing, at the Tang army's departure banquet, each soldier received two catties of beef, two liters of low-alcohol wine, five he of white rice, two thin pancakes, one steamed bun and one steamed cake, supplemented with beef and mutton head meat, braised mutton liver, and seasonings such as vinegar, ginger and scallions.

This is a feast to reward the troops, and it's the best food the soldiers can eat.

As for daily meals, it consisted of three liters and three measures of millet and mixed grains, cooked into a thick porridge, served with wild vegetables or beans, and then sprinkled with salt.

Hulled millet is called millet, and the main reason it became a staple military ration is its long shelf life.

The storage period can be up to nine years.

When it came time to march, the food became even worse.

Flatbread baked over charcoal with a hole in the center and strung with rope, steamed wheat porridge, and stuffed pancakes introduced from Central Asia were the main military rations.

Originally, the Western Regions were rich in resources, and there would have been additional supplies such as wine, raisins, and nut cakes.

However, with the continuous invasions of the Tibetans and the betrayals of various Hu peoples, the situation changed.

The Anxi Beiting Second Army, which could only defend the city and a small area around it, was facing increasingly dire logistical supply conditions.

We can still get food, but other things are a rare treat.

Especially during military campaigns, unless horses and camels were killed, there was almost no meat to eat.

Over the years, the white-haired soldiers had become accustomed to enduring hardship.

But they ran into Lin Dao.

This self-proclaimed emperor spared no expense in providing supplies to his own people.

Just like now, the food for the white-haired soldiers was Italian field rations.

This item is quite valuable, but Lin Dao is willing to spend the money.

It wasn't because he had earned a lot of money before, but because he admired these elderly people who were steadfast in their beliefs in protecting their country and ultimately sacrificed their lives for it.

In the Middle-earth, martyrdom is always the highest form of respect.

Even Puyi, if he were to draw his knife and stab the Japanese emperor during a meeting...

Then they shouted, "The Qing Dynasty may perish, but China must not perish!"

Needless to say, he himself was not only honored as the deposed Qing emperor, but also as the Qing Lie Emperor.

Even the overall evaluation of the Qing Dynasty would be elevated by at least two levels as a result.

In later time-travel novels, it's not always the case that every time someone travels to the Qing Dynasty, they inevitably rebel—except, of course, for female-oriented novels.

BYD has to come up with a series of clean-up products.

History books also state that 'the emperors of China began with Qin Shi Huang and ended with Emperor Qinglie!'

It gave the feudal dynasty the most dignified exit, and it also allowed him to be compared with the First Emperor.

And that is the true value of dying for one's country.

Those who die for their country deserve the highest honors.

For this reason, Lin Dao paid out of his own pocket to provide the white-haired soldiers with top-quality military rations from the modern world.

The large package contains three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It's lunchtime now, and the white-haired soldiers on shift are carefully taking out sausage pizzas and heating them up with self-heating bags.

The side dish is cherry blueberry sauce and jalapeno cheese.

Start with a light aperitif, then take a big bite of the pizza spread with blueberry sauce and cheese.

After you've eaten your fill, make yourself a cup of chocolate protein powder and drink it.

Finally, wipe your hands and mouth with a wet wipe, and pop a piece of chewing gum into your mouth.

The delightful sensation on the taste buds is indescribable.

This stuff is very expensive, especially since Lin Dao insists on buying genuine products from the original manufacturer.

But he didn't care about the cost, because it was a blessing for these meals to be given to the heroes who died for their country.

It's better than feeding it to the noodle army, who love to surrender the most.

After all, these are military rations, meant for soldiers, not prisoners of war.

After eating and drinking their fill, the machine gunners returned to their posts, chewing gum as they went.

The support frame was reinforced, new canvas spring chains were installed, and various checks and preparations were carried out.

Even if we lack the skills, we can make up for it with bullets.

Boxes of bullets were laid out beside him; in Lin Dao's words, it was like saying, "Go ahead and fire them all if you dare."

The devastating casualties suffered by the miscellaneous Hu tribes had deeply shocked all the Hu people.

It took Dazhalugong considerable effort to calm the morale of the troops.

Now, as they launch another attack, those clearly uneasy and restless barbarian rabble are no longer of any use.

It's understandable that these barbarian tribes are afraid of death.

Because they mostly came from small tribes that didn't even deserve to have names. The entire tribe might only have a hundred or so men capable of fighting.

They all died on the battlefield, and the tribe was wiped out as well.

The only outcome was that they would be swallowed up by other tribes.

The elderly would be killed, the cattle and sheep would be taken away, the women would be scattered into different tents, and their children would be reduced to the lowest level of slaves on the grassland!
Faced with such a real threat, how could they dare to fight to the death?

Knowing this, Dazhalugong simply replaced them with truly capable auxiliary troops.

Karluks!

This is the name of a Turkic tribe, composed of the three surnames: Mouluo, Chisi, and Tashili, hence also known as the Three-Surname Karluks.

After the fall of the Western Turkic Khaganate, they submitted to the Tang Dynasty and established the Yinshan, Damo, and Xuanchi Protectorates.

This tribe is remembered in history books and is known to many people in later generations.

It originated from the Battle of Talas forty years ago.

They defected and attacked Gao Xianzhi's Anxi army, leading to the Anxi army's first and only defeat since the start of the war with the Arab Empire.

What followed was the An Lushan Rebellion, and the power of the Tang Dynasty declined.

Taking advantage of the situation, the Karluks rose to power and even captured Suyab, Li Bai's hometown, as well as Talas, a city that has been recorded in history.

When the Tibetans entered the Western Regions, the Karluk tribe quickly allied with them and fought against the Uyghurs.

In terms of strength, the Karluks are very powerful, far superior to those ragtag bunches.

However, they didn't want to go.

After all, there was that terrifying roar, the light spots that were so fast they were invisible to the naked eye, and the cannon fodder that was almost completely wiped out.

Anyone with eyes can see that this battle will be tough, and nobody wants to go and die.

But there was nothing they could do; the Tibetans' knives were too sharp.

In the eyes of the Tibetans, anyone below the rank of warrior was a slave.

If even our own people are slaves, then outsiders like the Karluks are even worse off than slaves.

Anyone who dares to disobey orders will be immediately slaughtered.

Under duress from the Tibetans, the Karluks had no choice but to send out a force of about two thousand cavalrymen to charge forward.

"Don't worry."

Lin Dao, chewing on a Green Arrow cigarette, picked up his walkie-talkie and instructed the Maxim positions around the area, "Let them get close and fire, don't scare them away."

What he really wanted to see was those barbarian hordes in the distance swarming in like locusts, so that he could fully unleash the power of the machine guns.

Unfortunately, the barbarians were not like the Blacks; they understood strategy and tactics and would never engage in mindless tidal charges.

Now, the only option is to eliminate them in batches.

The hillside was very quiet, and the Karluks who were riding over could even see the movement of the Tang army halfway up the mountain.

There was no thunderous roar like before, not even the sound of powerful bows and crossbows.

This unusual silence sent chills down the spines of the Karluks.

But they had no choice but to keep moving forward.

The difference between them and the other nomadic tribesmen was that the Karluks, upon arriving at the foot of the mountain, chose to dismount and walk uphill.

They soon came across barbed wire.

The same operation was used: wielding weapons to cut the barbed wire.

The barbed wire purchased by Kelin Road was extremely tough and could not be cut at all.

In desperation, some Karluks tried to climb over, but they ended up getting caught in the barbed wire with its inner blades.

In its panic and pain, it struggled, but the more it struggled, the tighter it was held.

At this moment, the position was set up on the flank of the forest road, and the person picked up the walkie-talkie.

"Kill all these traitors!"

A barrage of gunfire erupted.

Ten tongues of fire spewed out from the mountainside and swept towards the Karluks in front of the barbed wire fence.

As expected, the unsuspecting Karluks fell in droves.

Here in the forest, the Maxim alarm that had already been set up went off.

His position was close to the flank, which was the plane near the barbed wire.

Firing from here would be a side shot.

As is well known, side-fire is more lethal than frontal fire.

The Maxim gun spewed fire, and a barrage of bullets rained down like a downpour.

Rain splashes when it hits you, but when a Maxim bullet hits you, it's like flesh and blood flying everywhere, bones breaking and tendons rupturing.

The heavy bullets used in machine guns have strong penetrating power; they can even penetrate several people upon impact.

From Lin Dao's perspective, wherever the gun barrels were pointed, there were indeed rows of people lying dead.

The Karluks fought back desperately, unleashing a barrage of arrows.

Unfortunately, the machine gun positions were all located in locations that had been measured, so they couldn't be hit at all.

As for the white-haired soldiers in front, they all hid in the trenches, raising their shields above their heads, unafraid of any rain of arrows.

The courage of the Karluks was quickly crushed.

They turned and ran, exposing their backs to the gun barrels.

Lin Dao used one hand to suppress the recoil and fired, while picking up the walkie-talkie with the other: "Second team, shoot the horse!"

After saying that, he instructed Su Xin, who was his ammunition handler, to "change the ammunition belt!"

The four machine guns quickly adjusted their muzzles and pointed at the Karluk troops below the mountain.

Horses are timid animals; when startled, they quickly scatter and flee.

The Karluks who came down the mountain were all dumbfounded.

They had no choice but to run on foot.

They were constantly exposed to gunfire, and the outcome was self-evident.

When the last Karluk fell, Dazhalugong broke his own horsewhip.

He gasped angrily, and it took him a long time to calm down.

"Set up camp!"

(End of this chapter)