After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

"Hiss!"

Flames rose in the tents, horses galloped about, and hooves thundered.

"Forget about the horses! Load the muskets! Three ranks! Green Standard Army soldiers on both flanks, raise your shields! Set up the chevaux-de-frise!"

In the chaotic camp, Amurtu, holding a long spear, let out a long shout.

The thirty Manchu soldiers who rushed out of the tents sneered and shouted as they took out the flintlock muskets that the court had issued to them two months ago.

Even a hundred Green Standard Army soldiers took out about ten muskets.

The Green Standard Army captain, brandishing his sword, roared, "Split to the left and right, one to the south and one to the north, form a chevaux-de-frise!"

"Bang bang bang bang bang!"

Arrows rained down.

Those unlucky enough not to be wearing helmets or whose helmets were lost immediately fell to the ground.

The soldier, his armor disheveled, cried out in pain as the arrows tore open the flesh on his arm.

Bang! Amurtu kicked away the tent fence that had been smashed by the horses.

The firelight flickered inside the tent.

The startled horses were dropping manure, the charred tents and barricades were emitting a burnt smell, and the thunderous sound of hooves came from all directions.

Several arrows that had fallen from the sky were still stuck in his body.

Amurtu simply spat on the ground, his heartbeat remaining normal.

He reorganized the remaining twenty or so Manchu cavalrymen into three platoons of musketeers.

The first row squatted, the second row half-squatted, and the third row stood, all raising their new flintlock muskets and aiming them at the cavalry charging from the front.

He didn't know who this enemy force was. Perhaps they had slipped through the cracks and were discovered by the Jiangpu army's night scouts. The city's garrison sent out a cavalry force to surround them under cover of night.

"Eighty zhang!" Amurtu's eyes were bloodshot, but he remained calm in the face of danger and roared.

After he could barely make out the enemies on three sides, he felt reassured.

With his keen eyesight, he immediately noticed that the cavalry charging from the front, though numerous, were precisely the easiest to defeat.

The first twenty or so riders attacking from this side were considered elite.

The next hundred or so people weren't doing so well.

Although they also rushed over carrying torches, their horsemanship was not very good, and although they were wearing armor, they were clearly not elite soldiers.

"Sixty feet!"

"Bang bang bang bang bang!"

A third volley of arrows has arrived.

"Ouch!" Several cries rang out as more people on their side collapsed.

Amurtu's pupils contracted, and he was startled. What was going on? How could the arrow have been shot so fast?

His eyes remained fixed on the cavalry charging towards him.

The cavalry on both flanks were largely ignored.

Judging from the sound of hooves, the distance must not be close enough. It is already difficult to shoot an arrow from this distance; it must be a powerful bow.

Why did these two cavalrymen not only shoot far, but also draw their bows so quickly?

"Fifty zhang!" he roared, his eyes blazing with fury. Now was not the time to think about such things.

The terrain on both flanks is not flat enough, and it will take time for the cavalry to get through. We need to defeat the cavalry in front first.

The three platoons of musketeers each carried a newly made flintlock musket issued by the imperial court.

In the past, firearms not only exploded, but also became inaccurate when the distance exceeded twenty zhang (approximately 33 meters), no matter how well they were aimed.

The new muskets were different.

Even from thirty feet away, you can hit accurately!

"Forty feet!" he shouted suddenly, his eyes trembling.

Attack when the target is thirty feet away!

Amurtu raised his hand defiantly. As soon as the enemy's horses stepped within thirty feet, they would fire! The enemy would be torn apart, man and horse alike!

Once we take down these twenty riders, the remaining hundred will be easy to handle. We are all elite troops, fully armored; if we seize their horses and launch a full-scale attack, the enemy will surely crumble!

After defeating them, we can then relieve the siege on both flanks!

The seasoned deputy commander made the best tactical arrangements in an instant!

"Bang!"

At that moment, a gunshot rang out unexpectedly.

The two sides were forty feet apart.

Amurtu's head was spinning. His first instinct was that someone had lost control and fired prematurely. But in the same instant, he dismissed that idea.

Because the sound was quite far away, and it came from the front.

My mind is a mess.

The next instant, his pupils opened, and he saw a scene that made his scalp tingle.

"Bang bang bang bang bang!"

The twenty riders charging ahead flashed past a row of bright red, extremely abrupt tongues of fire...

The other side... fired first...

"Bang bang bang!..."

At a distance of forty zhang, first came the sound of gunfire from the enemy, then the sound of bullets piercing flesh from his own side. Amurtu felt a chill run down his spine.

After a few muffled groans, a spray of blood erupted on their side, and a group of people fell to the ground.

"Fire!" he shouted urgently!

Bang bang bang, several shots were fired by our side.

Then, a scene unfolded that chilled him to the bone.

The twenty riders, who had just fired a volley of shots, threw down their guns and then pulled out another gun from their waists, aiming it at them again... and flames shot out!

"kill!"

The battle cries that ripped through the sky surged towards them like a tidal wave.

"Block it!"

The Green Standard Army soldiers shouted and raised their spears, thrusting them at the oncoming cavalry... The cavalry leaders on both sides raised their flags, and the cavalry turned and bypassed them, avoiding the barricades that had been set up...

Gunshots rang out, and both men and horses trembled with fear.

The whistle ripped through the air, and the arrow pierced the leather armor.

The sound of hooves was like a series of war drums, with rapid, tight, and orderly beats.

The Northern Dynasty's deputy commander, clad in blue robes, bulged his veins, drew his sword, and roared:

"Kill them all!"

Clang, clang, clang! The few remaining Eight Banner soldiers, decimated by the three rounds of muskets, drew their sabers and charged toward the oncoming horses.

A large spear pierced through the night, piercing the throat of a Manchu soldier.

The eight-foot-tall general in blue roared, his giant-like arm bulged, and he pulled a cavalryman off his horse. With a slash of his waist sword, blood blossomed, and the man was beheaded in an instant.

The cavalry on both flanks began to circle, their arm strength seemingly limitless. They drew their bows, nocked arrows, and silver rays pierced through the moonlight, shooting directly at the Green Standard Army soldiers on both flanks.

The fire continues to burn...

"dismount!"

When they were still sixty or seventy feet away from the camp, Chen San's face was flushed, and he let out a long howl.

Following someone's instructions, he ordered the Heavenly Principle Sect brothers, whose riding skills were not particularly good, to dismount early and rush towards the camp to fight them on foot, in order to prevent their horses from being stolen.

"Kill!" The men with red strips tied around their arms, wielding weapons of varying lengths and styles, charged toward the camp with surging blood.

The flames were getting closer.

Some brandished knives, some spears, and some axes, and stormed into the camp.

The Green Standard Army soldiers thrust their spears at them!

Clang! Chen San deflected the long spear with a single slash!

"Pull down the barricades!" he roared, brandishing his knife.

Everyone rushed forward.

呲!

A man with red stripes tied around his arms rested his hands on a chevaux-de-frise. A Green Standard Army soldier's spear pierced his abdomen, blood seeping from his teeth as he roared through gritted teeth, "Aaaaaah!!!"

Following the altar master's orders, he tensed his arm muscles, pulled out the chevaux-de-frise, and slammed it over.

"Heh heh..." He lost all strength and fell backward onto the ground, blood flowing from his abdomen to his body.

The man, who had been a member of the Heavenly Principles Sect for seven years, lay sprawled on the ground with his arms outstretched, the spear in his stomach already pulled out by the Green Standard Army soldiers, who had wrapped his intestines around it.

"Damn it..." The man's eyes were unfocused, his face drained of color, and he cursed as he looked at the not-so-round moonlight in the sky.

The rapid hoofbeats grew closer and closer.

"Just crush me..." he thought to himself.

pedal!

The horse reared up, and a dark shadow leaped over his head.

"kill!"

The cavalry's battle cries rang out in the air, and as they passed over the removed barricades, they struck the Green Standard Army soldier on the head with their golden mace.

The Green Standard Army soldier's skull was caved in, blood flowing from his crown, down his brow bone, across his unseeing eyes, and down to his nose. With a thud, he collapsed limply to the ground.

He collapsed next to a member of the Heavenly Principle Sect who had just breathed his last...

"Draw your swords!" After the barricades were removed, the cavalrymen on both flanks drew their swords and leaped into the camp.

The shadows of men on horseback moved from south to north and then from north to south across the camp, as swords flashed and charged back and forth.

The cold wind howled across the land.

Blood kept leaping across the cold blade under the moonlight.

A tiger lies at the foot of the mountain, where a prairie fire rages.

The sounds of fighting grew more intense as the moon rose, and gradually weakened as it descended.

The shouts of battle gradually turned into cheers.

The sound of hooves trampling back and forth in the camp, followed by a young general's command, "Don't let a single one escape," suddenly spread out in all directions, reaping heads of fleeing people across the plains, ravines, and fields.

Before dawn breaks.

The young general, wearing a phoenix-winged helmet, had a cold expression. He took a sharp knife handed to him by his subordinate, and blood splattered on his breastplate. He personally removed Amurtu's head.