Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1824 - 1817: Invincible

Chapter 1824: Chapter 1817: Invincible

A dense barrage of fire shot toward the ground, the grass crackling incessantly, while the archers caught in the barrage fell collectively like a wave of wheat.

Although the precision of a single cannon was moving, the advantage lay in having many cannons, firing fragmentation grenades, causing a large group of harassing archers to drop at once from the kunzhou in line, leaving the rest to scramble away from cannon range in a panic.

Jiuyun Shuang clearly anticipated the possibility of encountering the archers’ long-range kiting tactics, so he deliberately brought kunzhou equipped with artillery to form a support fleet to counteract the enemy’s advantage.

The situation is now clear, and the cornering and poking tactics certainly won’t work anymore, as the range of bows and arrows is nowhere near matching the cannons hovering in mid-air.

For Toto, now it’s either to rely on numerical superiority to charge or to steer clear of this dangerous army.

Though they were outnumbered, their five concentric circle banner formations showed no signs of any breakthrough vulnerability, meaning a frontal charge from any direction.

The concentric circle banner formation is the result of Jiuyun Shuang’s meticulous training, making it so that as long as they are coordinated, the enemy approaching from any direction would be met with a severe counterattack. And as long as there are no mishaps, they don’t need to worry about being hit by their own side.

Thus, after wandering around for over an hour, Toto decided to make the first charge, needing to determine whether such a formation was worth his thorough study or if a single hit would break it.

"The enemy is charging toward the main formation north flag!" f|re(e)web.n\ovel. (c)o.m

Watching the enemy’s movement, a military officer hurriedly reported to Jiuyun Shuang beside him.

"Order the main formation north flag, fire formation north flag, northeast flag, wind formation north flag, Northwest Flag to prepare to intercept!"

Hearing the officer’s report, Jiuyun Shuang unhesitatingly gave the command.

The positionings of these formations are only approximate, not particularly accurate, somewhat similar to the clock directions commonly used by the advance team. Dongsheng army would preset rough flag formation directions before battle and establish other flag formations accordingly.

The main formation located at the center of the four formations can simultaneously fire in the east, west, south, and north directions.

The four auxiliary formations are mainly distributed at the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest directions of the main formation, capable of firing in five directions simultaneously, and can even form crossfire with neighboring formations.

"All flag formations, prepare to fire!"

With Jiuyun Shuang’s command, the main formation began issuing orders for crossfire with auxiliary formations, as the flag bearers kept waving their flags, complemented by exhilarating drumbeats and horn sounds from drummers and buglers.

"Main formation north flag ready to fire!"

"Wind formation north flag, Northwest Flag ready to fire!"

"Fire formation north flag, northeast flag ready to fire!"

The orders were systematically relayed to the ranks, and the soldiers receiving them lowered their guns, aiming at the approaching Yipa cavalry from afar.

The Yipa cavalry skilled in mounted archery did not forget to shoot arrows at the enemy even during the charge; although not everyone was shooting, the sheer numbers made the sky look formidable with arrows.

Numerous arrows shot into the flag formations, causing many soldiers to fall with exclamations, hit by stray arrows.

Although the airborne artillery fired again, it could not stop the Yipa cavalry’s momentum, and they soon entered the firearms’ range, quickly charging toward the long-prepared circular formation.

"Fire!"

Seeing the enemy within range, Jiuyun Shuang took a deep breath and coldly issued the firing order.

"Fire!!"

First, the commander of the main formation shouted angrily, followed by simultaneous shouts from commanders of two other formations.

Firearms burst with flames and thunderous noises, igniting continuously, engulfing the battlefield in white smoke instantly.

The long-range Yipa cavalry encountered the first round of simultaneous volleys, knocking them off their horses and into chaos, creating a scene of utter disarray.

But the simultaneous volleys could not alter the charge momentum of the Yipa cavalry; after soothing their frightened horses, the surviving Yipa cavalry continued their assault.

A round of volleys merely scraped their surface, a loss acceptable given their numerical advantage.

Soon, the Yipa cavalry broke the death line, crashing into the long-prepared spears and shields. free\we,bnovel.c o(m)

Facing the brightly gleaming spearheads, the foremost Yipa cavalry had no chance to avoid maneuvering, forced by their comrades behind to crash into the spearheads, pierced through.

The Yipa cavalry’s equipment primarily consisted of leather armor, supplemented by a small amount of iron armor.

This is understandable, as the steppes lack iron; how could everyone have a suit of iron armor?

And even the leather armor isn’t affordable for everyone, depending on the tribe’s economic situation.

Consequently, many Yipa cavalry were even in unarmored statuses, relying solely on high mobility to effectively exert combat strength.

But for these Yipa cavalry, facing the Dongsheng army, which was mostly unarmored too; the bad news was, they had firearms and artillery.

How could flesh break through a barrier of shields and spears? The Yipa cavalry charge quickly ground to a halt.

The bodies of impaled or injured cavalrymen and horses piled up before the formation, forming natural barricades, hindering the advance of subsequent cavalry.

For the Dongsheng troops, as long as they withstand the first wave of the Yipa cavalry charge, the challenges diminish significantly.

What they needed to do next was constantly use spears to topple over those Yipa cavalry already losing momentum, along with their mounts.

"Maintain formation, do not scatter, and absolutely refrain from launching offensives!" Jiuyun Shuang calmly ordered.

Under his command, the Dongsheng troops earnestly maintained the concentric circle banner formation; shield bearers on the outermost blocked the cavalry charge while spearmen took the opportunity to dismount the Yipa cavalry.

Innermost riflemen reloaded and fired in an orderly fashion, granted free-fire orders, without having to wait for commanders’ orders to open fire. .com

Death lurked amid the white smoke.

The Dongsheng troops cooperatively maintained the concentric circle banner formation and alignment with adjacent formations, ensuring allies remained out of their firing lines.

The crossfire formed by the wind and fire formations severely damaged the Yipa cavalry charging the main formation frontally. Within less than half an hour of combat, the Yipa cavalry suffered over seven hundred casualties.

The kunzhou hovering in the sky fired again, cutting off the reinforcement road for this Yipa cavalry, making them utterly isolated in their charge.

Toto watched all of this trembling in fear, refraining from dispatching additional force to rescue the cavalry in the trap, nor did he order surrounding cavalry to swarm forward.

He realized Jiuyun Shuang’s concentric circle banner formation nearly provided omnidirectional firepower advantage, possibly even forming crossfire at the main formation’s east, west, south, and north directions.

Such a formation suggested that charging from another side wouldn’t rescue the cavalry here; it would only squander his already precious military strength.

After pondering briefly and appearing grim, he shakily raised his hand and weakly commanded his subordinates: "Order them to retreat, break contact."

"Should we send someone to assist and rescue those trapped inside?" an anxious subordinate asked.

"Do you want more people to die in there?" Toto snapped at him irritably.

Accompanied by wailing horns, the Yipa cavalry began disengaging from contact with the Dongsheng troops. Those trapped Yipa cavalry fled frantically, many abandoning their horses, sprinting back on foot.

In the first charge, the Yipa cavalry evidently suffered great losses, inflicting only minimal casualties on the enemy.

Toto’s proud Yipa cavalry utterly failed to break the enemy formation, almost being deeply trapped within it.

But gradually cooling down from grief, Toto seemed to recognize the limitations of this formation.

He thought that the concentric circle banner formation was obviously just a passive defensive formation.

His disadvantage arose from proactively attacking. Therefore, if he adopted a defensive posture and let the Dongsheng army initiate the assault, they certainly couldn’t maintain such formation.