Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 789 - 675: Final Battle 5_1

Chapter 789: Chapter 675: Final Battle 5_1

Li Xuan had chosen to cross the river south of the Baiding Bridge, quite close to the camp of the Transport Army.

He had concentrated the elite troops of the Shenji right and left camp on the right wing and the Central Army facing the north, while the eight thousand untrained Yiwu soldiers were assigned to the left wing by Li Xuan.

——The left wing of the Yiwu Army was not far from the artillery position of the Transport Army, allowing them to receive maximum artillery support during the upcoming battle.

Also, the ten thousand infantry from the Ji State Army would enter the Transport Army camp after crossing the river to reinforce the defense of the artillery positions.

This group of Ji State infantry had a high proportion of long-range firepower. The entire army boasted five thousand well-maintained muskets and three thousand longbows and crossbows.

Li Xuan couldn’t immediately assemble all the forces from the Ji State Army yet, but it wasn’t a problem for him to temporarily draw some muskets and bows.

Among these ten thousand foot soldiers, there were also two thousand heavy shield bearers.

This can be said to be the essence of the Miyun Guard of Jizhou, as almost all of them had a martial strength above the third house level, including two hundred who possessed the cultivation of the fourth house level.

As for the eighteen thousand cavalry, they were arranged by Li Xuan to rest on the bank behind the Baiding Bridge, while watching over the flanks and rear of the whole army.

Once they achieved victory on the west bank, these eighteen thousand cavalrymen could pursue the remaining enemies through the ’Baiding Bridge’ at any time.

When the nearly forty thousand people of the Shenji right and left camp came to the middle section of the Chaobai River in an orderly formation, a ’crackling’ tremor sound emitted from below the ice.

These soldiers of the Shenji Camp panicked for a moment, but when they found that the ice layer beneath them was not only not cracked, but even more stable, they were completely relieved.

They kept marching with neat steps, continuing to head towards the west bank.

At this time, the reeds tied under their feet came into play, allowing the soldiers of the Shenji Camp to walk as if on flat ground on the slippery ice surface.

"Interesting! He’s even disregarding the cavalry? This guy’s arrogance has reached an extent where he’s placed the eighteen-thousand cavalry on the opposite bank——"

Liang Heng stood on a hill on the west bank of the Chaobai River, looking down and overlooking the ’line square formations’ pressing from the other side of the river.

At this time, Liang Heng had finished deploying his troops, with 120,000 people still pressing in the direction of the Transport Army’s camp. The remaining two hundred and fifty thousand troops were all assembled to the south of the ’Baiding Bridge’, which was the section of the river where the Shenji Camp was crossing.

Liang Heng had arranged these two hundred and fifty thousand troops to be deployed four miles across the river bank, occupying almost all advantageous terrain.

From Liang Heng’s perspective, Li Xuan’s initiative to cross the river was undoubtedly stupid, but he was also sharp enough to notice the high morale and decisive actions of the forty thousand men of the Shenji right and left camp. Also, they were thoroughly executing Li Xuan’s military orders.

—— This meant that the soldiers of the Shenji Camp had a great deal of trust and confidence in their commanding officer.

Liang Heng did feel a little puzzled and uneasy in his heart, but soon this was suppressed by him: "What are these spellcasters doing? Can’t they make the ice layer crack open? There are over two hundred of them and they can’t even handle a Zhang Shenye on the other side?"

Minister of Revenue Xiao Ci also frowned. He glanced at the spellcasters at the altar in the direction behind him. He noticed that all the spellcasters were struggling.

At this time, he noticed that about twenty miles upstream of the Chaobai River, a group of three hundred Jizhou army soldiers was continuously dumping ’ice blocks’ onto the river surface.

Xiao Ci suspected that the spellcasters’ failure in their Fa Duel might be related to these ’ice blocks’, but he was not sure why.

He ultimately stood behind with his hands behind his back, shaking his head indifferently: "Looking at them, they should be doing their best. General, you don’t need to blame them. Even if we allow Marquis of Guanjun to successfully cross the river, so what? Now the advantage is ours, which means we are numerically superior. With the General’s use of troops, we should be able to capture them at one stroke!"

Liang Heng thought to himself, if I could drown all these forty thousand men in the river, why would I need to fight them on land?

However, as these spellcasters proved ineffective, he had to abandon this idea.

"Send out orders to the whole army!" Liang Heng’s gaze was cold: "Except for the cavalry, all formations move forward by one mile."

With the issuance of Liang Heng’s command, all twenty-three thousand foot soldiers started moving.

Despite Liang Heng’s disdain for Li Xuan’s full firearm tactics, his preparation for the upcoming battle was very thorough.

He had seen the firepower of those ’Rune Flintlock Rifles’, and as part of the battle preparation, Liang Heng had equipped almost all the foot soldiers with heavy shields. The soldiers positioned at the front of all the formations were also wearing more than two layers of armor.

As these twenty-three thousand foot soldiers moved forward in formation, it was as if a firm iron wall was progressing forward. The shield mountains were like the ocean, and the iron armor was like walls!

Liang Heng, squinting his eyes, kept his gaze on the other side. When he saw that the soldiers of the Shenji right and left camps were less than thirty feet away from the river bank, he issued another command: "All formations, move forward another mile!"

Liang Biao was taken aback when he heard this, "Elder brother, weren’t you planning on striking when they were halfway across? Why did you change your mind? Are you not planning on letting them get ashore?"

Liang Heng gave him a cold side glance: "The key to the art of war is to learn and use it flexibly. Adhering strictly to established rules is the path to death."

The key point of the ’half-crossing and striking’ in military strategy is to annihilate the enemy when they are unstable after crossing the river, their formation is not solid, their ranks are in chaos, and even disjointed.

However, the soldiers of the Shenji right and left camps, who stepped on the ice to cross the river, had largely mitigated the disadvantage of crossing the river.

They were still formed like a wall, orderly and in an organized manner with no signs of disarray.

Liang Heng had no choice but to actively shorten the distance between the two formations. This would allow his foot soldiers to charge the opponent’s firearm formation in the shortest possible time.

The soft mud at the river beach would greatly decrease the speed of the foot soldiers and armored soldiers.

That’s why at this point, the closer the distance between the two sides, the better.

At this point, the most appropriate tactic would be to withdraw several miles with the entire army and confront the enemy on hard ground.

However, Liang Heng had no choice. Firstly, the morale of his troops was not strong, and any retreat order could trigger a large collapse. The Battle of Feishui in the past, where the pre-Qin Devaraja Fu Jian disastrously retreated his entire army, comes to mind.

Secondly, he was worried that once Li Xuan crossed the river bank, he would stop moving forward and directly build fortifications by the river.

This was also unacceptable to Liang Heng. The main force of Ji State Army was constantly rushing from the east at this moment.

Once the other side had a stable stronghold on the west bank of the Chaobai River, the natural barrier of the Chaobai River would no longer suffice.

It would also be a huge blow to the morale of the Jingying Forbidden Army and the army of Weisuo Institute under his command.

Thinking of this, Liang Heng couldn’t help but frown, feeling unusually uncomfortable.

He felt that every move he had made since leading the army out of the capital seemed to be within Li Xuan’s calculations -

Yet in the next instant, Liang Heng discovered a scene that astounded and surprised him.

Instead of continuing to advance, the formation of the Shenji Camp stopped directly on the ice, just about thirty feet from the riverbank.

They began loading ammunition and raised their muskets.

The field smooth-bore cannons also stopped in their tracks, setting up a direct line of fire on the ice surface.

Liang Heng’s pupils constricted slightly: "Order the entire army to accelerate their advance!"

Just as he finished speaking, the artillery position in the direction of the Transport Army fired first.

A total of eighty flanged cannons, and sixty field breechloader cannons, began to roar towards the north!

The flanged cannon is a rear-loading breechloader cannon that has an upper and lower barrel section. However, due to leakage in the middle of the barrel, the flanged cannon’s power, range, and firing speed are all inferior to the Red General Cannon.

Liang Heng was prepared in advance. Among the military formations, there are as many as fifty third-level Wu cultivators fully armed, waiting in strict formation.

Their strength was more than enough to directly counter and intercept the projectiles of the flanged cannons.

What surprised Liang Heng was the sixty field smooth-bore cannons - these field cannons seemed lightweight and movable, but their power was hardly less than that of the Red General Cannons.

The peculiar ’chain shells’ they shot out were surprisingly irresistible. They landed on the ground at a high speed and exploded into a plume of flesh within the larger army formations. Wherever they went, there were shocking strips of bloody, meat-filled grounds.

Even a few third-level Wu cultivators who tried to intercept were instantly shredded by these ’chain shells’!

At this point, Li Xuan, who had come onto the ice surface with the army formation, coldly ordered: "The whole army fire forward, apply obstruction shooting, two-stage firing!"

In an instant, ninety-six line formations on the surface of the ice, nearly twenty thousand people firing simultaneously. The sound of the ’click clack’ gunfire, when combined, was ear-shattering.

Immediately followed by less than half a breath, the second round of coordinated firing began, another twenty thousand rounds of bullets, pouring over like a fierce storm.

This caused all the military formations under Liang Heng’s command to experience a sudden shock just two miles from the riverbank.

They met an invisible wall; the shield bearers at the front all slowed down noticeably, almost halting in their tracks. Deep bullet hollows, several inches deep, appeared on their shields they held in their hands.

Then came the third time, fourth time, fifth time, the unending coordinated shooting of forty thousand soldiers from the Shenji right and left camp, continuously rolling, wave upon wave.

After the seventh round of coordinated shooting, the one hundred field smooth-bore cannon that had advanced with the army also got ready.

"Load all field smooth-bore cannon with live ammunition, aim at the army of Weisuo Institute, fire at will!"

The surface of the river suddenly echoed with a thunderous bang, black projectiles blasted out from those one hundred field smooth-bore cannons, the huge recoil force even slightly cracked the ice beneath them!

However, at this point, they were only about thirty feet from the violent banks. Even if the ice shattered, the water depth wouldn’t exceed their knees.

The tens of thousands of Shenji Camp soldiers were unaffected. They loaded and fired repeatedly with precise, mechanical movements.

At this time, the rebel army formation across the river had been bombed into hundreds of gaps. The cannonball wreckages were scattered everywhere, all the shield bearers, armored soldiers, were blown into bits and pieces.

Liang Heng’s face turned purple, his heart pounding, but not because of these cannonballs.

The power of these ’field smooth-bore cannons’ indeed exceeded his expectations. However, Liang Heng wasn’t unprepared; he had prepared a large number of shield bearers and armored soldiers to fill the formation in advance. His side’s biggest advantage was the sheer number of people.

What shocked Liang Heng was the collapse of the entire river-front formation of the Jingying and Weisuo army under his command.

Under the continuous, simultaneous firing of those muskets, the shield bearers at the front began to bleed from their mouth and nose!

The flintlock muskets from Shenji Camp indeed couldn’t pierce those iron shields, but they subjected the shield bearers to continuous, massive impacts.

The consecutive bullets caused internal injuries, leaving them gradually unable to continue.