The battle began!
Commander Wolf's eight hundred men and Ghost Commander's five hundred formed two opposing squares southeast of the city, ready to clash.
Everyone in the city scrambled onto the city walls, settling into spectator mode.
Flat Rabbit wasn't happy just watching. He whispered to Zheng Gouzi beside him, "This is terrible! Such an important battle, and this Rabbit Master can't even participate."
Zheng Gouzi said, "Protecting the Saintess is an even more important mission."
Flat Rabbit knew that, of course. The Saintess's safety was far more crucial than this seemingly absurd fight. He could only glance down at his longsword and sigh.
The rest of the city was also buzzing with discussion.
"They're going to fight! They're going to fight!"
"Border troops against border troops!Must be spectacular!"
"Shut up about'spectacular'! We should be preparing to go out and help! The Ghost Commander is here for us!"
Inside the city, it was noisy and chaotic. Outside, the tension was palpable.
Commander Wolf was the attacker—after all, he was here to rob, so he had to attack. At his order, the eight hundred Guyuan rebels began advancing slowly.
An experienced army doesn't just scream and charge recklessly. Soldiers wearing dozens of jin of armor would waste their stamina just "closing the distance" if they charged wildly.
Border troops didn't waste energy lightly. They moved forward slowly, deliberately, each step steady, their formation barely shifting, maintaining their ranks and files as neatly as possible.
Cheng Xu's heart was in his throat. He cursed inwardly: Truly border troops. Just this simple act of advancing puts immense pressure on me.
Li Daoxuan: Cameras! Groups one, two, three! High-definition cameras! Close-up lenses! All systems go!
Cheng Xu shouted, "Mind the distance! Don't fire arrows prematurely!"
The five squad leaders echoed, "Mind the distance!"
The leaders of the ten-man teams also shouted,"Don't fire early!"
Orders cascaded down the chain,ensuring that no matter how spread out the formation, everyone heard Cheng Xu's command.
The wind carried a scent of grim resolve...
The two armies continued their slow approach...
Suddenly, without any order from Northern Water Wolf, a soldier among the Guyuan rebels drew his bow, leaned back at a sharp angle, and swished—loosed an arrow...
At the same moment, several other border soldiers also fired.
Cheng Xu: "Huh? Are we in range already?"
Li Daoxuan was also puzzled:Commander Wolf didn't give the order, did he?
A cold smile played on Commander Wolf's lips. A seasoned archer doesn't need his superior to order the shot. When the enemy enters range, a true archer knows to shoot on his own.
It's like a novelist's keyboard—a mature keyboard types by itself, no need for the author to interfere.
These archers used a high-arcing volley, with a much longer range than flat shots. From a remarkably far distance, arrows began raining down on the militia.
The militia soldiers panicked, shielding their faces or other areas not protected by their padded armor. A series of thuds echoed as many were struck, though none were seriously injured.
Some immediately raised their crossbows to return fire.
Cheng Xu roared, "Don't fire wildly! We're not in range yet!"
The range of crossbows was inferior to bows!
But the militia couldn't use bows, only crossbows.
Training an archer required immense time and effort. The militia was still young, incapable of producing skilled archers. Li Daoxuan also had no interest in forming an archery unit, as he planned to equip the militia with firearms eventually.
Having militia soldiers practice archery now would be a waste of their training time. Better to use crossbows as a stopgap.
But now the crossbow's weakness was exposed.
They were taking free shots without being able to retaliate.
Commander Wolf sneered inwardly: This lot is nothing like border troops. Just well-equipped. What border army uses only crossbows? They're imposters, no doubt. I'll crush them in one wave.
The formations kept advancing. A second volley of arrows fell, causing another wave of minor chaos among the militia.
But now the crossbows were finally in range. At Cheng Xu's order, a cloud of militia bolts flew towards the border troops.
The border troops also experienced a moment of minor disorder, soldiers using various methods to protect their eyes...
After the bolt volley, the distance closed further.
Cheng Xu bellowed, "Light the fuses!"
Ten firearm soldiers immediately prepared to ignite their three-eyed muskets.
Suddenly, Cheng Xu had a flash of cunning. "Light only three."
The ten soldiers paused, confused, but orders were orders. Only three lit their matches, the others holding their muskets inactive.
The moment these lit up, sparks flew. Both sides had to take cover.
The border troops immediately roared, "Three-eyed muskets! Damn it, they have those?!"
As Guyuan border troops themselves, they currently had no usable firearms. After rebelling, they lost their supply chain for gunpowder, matchcord, and lead shot. Though they had bird-guns, they couldn't use them.
"Get down! Get down!"
The border troops immediately dropped flat.
On his side, Cheng Xu grinned like a sly fox. He turned to Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu. "Light those things Xu Dafu gave you. Throw them out."
Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu obeyed, pulling out the bombs.
They borrowed fire from the soldiers who had just lit the three-eyed muskets, igniting the fuses on their bombs. The bomb fuses burned alongside the musket matchcord.
The two sides were still about twenty meters apart. At this distance, seeing a burning fuse was easy, but discerning whether it was attached to a three-eyed musket or something else was difficult.
The border troops saw burning fuses on the other side but didn't expect they were attached to something strange mixed in with the muskets.
The fuses had just been lit when Gao Chuwu cried out, "Oh no! Daniu, I forgot how long the fuse should burn before we throw it!"
Zheng Daniu: "Now that you mention it, I think I forgot too!"
"What do we do?"
The two simpletons stood there dumbfounded.
Cheng Xu was horrified. "Shit! It's half burnt! Throw them! Throw them now! Do you want to blow yourselves up?"
The Big Fool and Second Fool snapped back to reality. They both took a giant stride forward and hurled their arms forward. Two large, black spheres flew towards the border troops.
Just as they threw the spheres, enemy arrows shot towards them—ting-ting-tang-tang—all deflected by the absurdly thick plate armor the two men wore.
"What's flying over?"
"That thing...it has a burning fuse?"
The border troops shouted in confusion for a few seconds before the objects landed.The two simpletons possessed monstrous strength. Their throw sent both spheres right into the center of the border troop formation.
The fuses burned out at that exact moment.
BOOM! BOOM!
Two bombs exploded simultaneously.