Chapter 9: Rear Admiral (Upper)

  Yang Shuangfeng got off the carriage and saw two rows of imperial guards standing at the empty city gate, all using the same rotating butterfly-shaped miao iron curved knife, indicating that they were all from the elite Butterfly Camp. Only a few imperial guards on the upper castle wall held Norfolk rifles without bayonets, watching themselves condescendingly.

  In his incomplete understanding, Yang Shuang knew that the world he was in now was in a period of gradual transition from cold weapons to hot weapons, and firearms were slowly replacing these ancient swords and spears. However, due to technical limitations, firearms could not yet fully exert their power, and therefore could not replace swords and spears as the main force on the battlefield. In the armies of most countries, swords and spears were still the most important weapon equipment, especially in the cavalry units that dominated the battlefield.

  Black cloak, flying horse hooves, raised sabers, forever the most brilliant scenery on all battlefields.

  Just as the Minsk rifle and Norfolk rifle he saw today, they are the most mature firearms of this era. However, the Minsk rifle is a muzzle-loading rifle. Although it has mature technology and low cost, its accuracy is not high, and it must be fired in large-scale formation to achieve good results. It was the main weapon on some battlefields, but for various reasons, it did not receive large-scale promotion and application.

  The Norfolk rifle, on the other hand, was a rifled musket, developed from the muzzle-loading rifle, with greatly improved accuracy. A well-trained marksman could achieve an accuracy of 90% at 100 shots, but its rate of fire was too slow, reloading was troublesome, and the technology was complex and expensive, so it could only be issued to small units or individuals with special needs, and was difficult to apply on a large scale in battle.

  The officer guarding the city gate was just a fruit guard, and when he saw Yang Su's appearance, he seemed very cold at first, but when he saw Yang Su's naval lieutenant general uniform and the sword in his hand, his expression changed immediately. He hurriedly ran over, and when Yang Su showed him the imperial edict, he hastily put down his weapon, stood at attention, saluted, and loudly reported: "Respected Lieutenant General, what are your orders?"

  Yang Shuangfen didn't respond with a gift, she just said lightly: "I'm going out of the city, I'm going to Meiniisi."

  Guo Wei, the Colonel of the Guard, hastily ordered the soldiers to open the city gate and let the carts leave the city.

  Under the joint efforts of sixteen soldiers, the heavy gate creaked and groaned, slowly opening a crack.

  Yang Shuangfeng boarded the horse carriage, Old Zhang raised his whip, but before it fell, he heard a sudden and urgent horseshoe sound behind him. A sharp voice shouted: "The Nine Gate Commander's order, immediately close the city gate and pursue the escaped prisoner!"

  Na Guwei's expression changed and he immediately ordered the city gate to be closed.

  Yang Shuangfeng got off the carriage in shock and said bewilderedly: "What's going on?"

  The adjutant, with a practiced smile, replied respectfully: "Respected General, please come this way and rest for a moment. It will only take up a little of your time."

  Yang Shuangfeng nodded and followed Gu Yizhou to their sentry post.

  This was a simple and solid house, without a roof, the walls around which were made of huge granite stones directly piled up, with several small windows open in each direction. It felt very deep, and there was a strong smell of burning fire that had been lingering for a long time, causing Yang Suofeng to sneeze heavily. With the sharp whistle sound, a group of guardsmen holding Norfolk rifles rushed into the sentry post, occupying the window positions, with their guns pointing outside. Yang Suofeng looked up at the city wall, and with the heavy footsteps, more and more guardsmen occupied the position on the city tower, with the targets of the Parma longbow and Norfolk rifle all under the city gate.

  The atmosphere near the city gate suddenly became tense, as if a barrel of gunpowder filled with explosives was about to explode at any moment.

  A young officer of the Imperial Guard, clad in a golden uniform with red trim and a tall bearskin hat, rode up at full gallop. Even though he held the same rank as the other officers, his status was half a grade higher than that of the Imperial Guard, so the guardsmen near the city gate all belonged to him for command.

  Yang Songfen asked from inside the sentry post: "What's going on?"

  That Wei Wu didn't expect there was a Navy Lieutenant General here, first stunned, but followed by an uncontrollable disdain, finally said: "Just now, an assassin attempted to assassinate the Military Affairs Minister Shangguan Lin, unfortunately, Shangguan Lin was seriously injured. The Nine Gates Commander Yang ordered that the assassin must be captured within the city."

  Yang Shuangfeng thought for a long time and couldn't recall any information about Shangguan Lin. His name was hardly ever mentioned in the newspapers, perhaps he was just a general who did nothing but eat and idle around. There were too many such generals in the Imperial Military Department. The assassin came to kill him probably because of some personal grudge.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, in less than a moment, a team of people rushed to the city gate. They were all wearing black tight-fitting clothes, quietly searching along the edge of the city gate, their movements swift and agile, obviously with strong martial arts skills. The weapons in their hands were different, and many of them had blood on their blades.

  As they rushed to the city gate in a twenty-zhang open space, the sound of Minsk rifles pierced the night sky. More than thirty Minsk rifles fired at the same time, and bullets quickly enveloped that small group of people and horses. However, when the smoke cleared, it seemed that no significant effect had been achieved. Among the thirteen or fourteen enemies, only two were hit and injured, while the rest remained unscathed and continued to rush across the open space towards the city gate.

  The guards on the city wall began to fire, the duller sound of Norfolk rifles rose, accompanied by the twang of Parma's longbow strings, piercing the night sky, and the air was suddenly filled with a pungent smell of gunpowder.

  Yang Shuang looked out of the shooting hole and saw that three enemies were shot by Norfolk rifles, and another five enemies were shot by Palma longbows. The people who were shot were still stumbling forward, but those who were shot by Palma's longbow fell to the ground immediately, with nearly two-foot-long goose feather arrows deeply embedded in their bodies, making them unable to move again. Compared with Palma's longbow, the medium and long-range lethality of Norfolk rifles was undoubtedly far behind.

  Yang Xuan looked at him calmly, his face expressionless.

  The remaining three men in black obviously had excellent martial arts skills and quickly approached the city gate. At this time, the commander of the Imperial Guard waved his hand, and more than a hundred heavily armed guards who had been waiting in ambush immediately swarmed out and surrounded them.

  Blood rain flies, miserable cries one after another.

  The sound of horseshoes echoed again as reinforcements of Imperial Guards soldiers arrived.

  The crowd was dense, the men were packed tightly together, and both the Musketeers of Mons and the Norfolk Archers held their fire, lowering their long guns, while only the Palma Longbowmen remained on high alert.

  Yang Shuangfeng waved his hand to the Imperial Guard soldier beside him, letting him hand over the Minsk rifle. He weighed it lightly, nodded and shook his head, lost in thought for a moment, before handing the rifle back to that inexplicable soldier. In his heart, he silently sighed - this was indeed not an ideal weapon, not even comparable to the most ancient wooden bow. However, training a rifleman was much easier than training an archer. From this point on, he seemed to see a glimmer of hope for the future.

  Under the siege of many Imperial Guards, the three black-clad men were still not at a disadvantage. The valiant captain from the Imperial Forest Army was both angry and anxious, his face turning pale, but he also deeply knew that the martial arts skills of these three people were very good, even if there were more people it would be useless. In an instant, both sides were deadlocked, with Imperial Guards continuously getting injured and falling to the ground, their wounds bleeding black blood, struggling for a while before dying, apparently the weapons of those black-clad men were coated with deadly poison. The people on the side were extremely anxious, but they were crowded out and could only shout from the sidelines.

  Yang Shuangfeng was also getting more and more annoyed, feeling a surge of anger rising in his heart. He looked around, grabbed a Norfolk rifle loaded with ammunition from a soldier, almost instinctively aimed at one of the black-clad men, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. After a dull gunshot, smoke rose, and the body of the black-clad man clearly stumbled, dropping the willow-leaf knife in his hand, and was immediately hacked to pieces by the Imperial Guards who took advantage of the opportunity.

  Everyone in the sentry post stared at Yang Suofeng in surprise, with many people showing a look of surprise and admiration. Yang Suofeng, however, seemed completely unaware, shooting as if it had become his instinct, not even needing to aim. With an expressionless face, he handed the Norfolk rifle to the stunned soldier, saying in a low voice, "Reload." The lieutenant colonel carefully took the rifle, loaded the ammunition, and respectfully handed it back to Yang Suofeng. Yang Suofeng glanced at the battlefield, raised his gun, and another black-clad man's face suddenly exploded with blood, falling to the ground headfirst.

  "Good marksmanship!" A sharp cheer came from afar, but Yang Suofeng didn't know who it was.