Chapter 21: Not Crossing the River as a Fierce Dragon (Part 1)

  Diliret's third crossing took less time than the first two, despite carrying a much heavier load. When Diliret had transported all the equipment to the north bank, he looked at his waterproof luminous watch and found that exactly one minute had passed.

  Yang Zhechong moved the tightly wrapped thunderbolt bombs and explosive packages towards the shore, shaking his head and muttering: "What's the use of these 'thunder fireballs'? In the past, our Western Army also had this stuff, but it could only be used when defending a city. After igniting them and throwing them down, they're like a big firework, the shrapnel inside can't even hurt armored soldiers, and can only occasionally hit those with exposed faces and palms. In my opinion, with the divine artifact in your hands, Leader, it's enough to take care of these Golden people. From a hundred paces away, you can kill them without being seen, just like the storyteller said about the immortal flying sword, taking someone's head from a thousand miles away is like reaching into a bag and grabbing something..."

  Di Lie sat on the riverbank, pouring out the water from his boots, putting them back on, and then shouldering the explosive pack. He gave Yang Zhe a white-eyed glance and said in an ill-tempered tone: "You mentioned the immortal's flying sword? I want one of those too. We call that thing an intercontinental missile back home. If I'd brought something like that with me, would I still need to be running around like a porter, crossing the river back and forth? I could just sit on Mount Fangren, sipping tea while pressing the button, and directly blow up the Jin army's camp!"

  Yang Zhechong's eyes lit up: "So the book master wasn't cheating me, there really is such a good treasure! Then, leader, can you still go back and get it, is it still possible?"

  Di Lie was both angry and amused: "Do you know what's too late to ask? I'll tell you - it's too late! I want to go back more than anyone else, who the hell doesn't want to go back to living a peaceful life, but instead stays in this chaotic world where people die all day, whoever that is, isn't human!" Di Lie said with increasing emotion towards the end, almost bellowing.

  Yang Zhechong didn't know where Di Lie's huge anger came from, and thought that it must be because of what he said that made him unhappy. It makes sense, whoever it is, if they can never return to their hometown, how could they not feel sad and indignant?

  Yang Zhechong didn't dare to speak again, but saw Di Lie take out several fist-sized thunderbolt bombs from a wooden box wrapped in layers of oil bags and hand them over: "Since you've used this thing before, bring a few with you, who knows when they might come in handy."

  Yang Zhechong was afraid of offending Di Lie, so he didn't dare not to accept it. His reluctant expression fell into Di Lie's eyes, making him very unhappy: "The power of this thunderbolt bullet, you saw it yesterday when we ambushed the Jin army patrol squad in Xingzi Forest. Such a big and powerful Jin army elite scout was blown up with just one shot, and another was stunned and captured. Such a good thing, others want me to give it to them, but you're holding onto it reluctantly."

  Yang Zhechong muttered in discontent: "I can achieve the same effect with a crossbow, unlike this detonator, which requires precise timing..."

  Di Lie rushed towards Ye Die'er, who was running towards them, waving his hand and tossing the thunderbolt in his hand. He said calmly, "You're right, this primitive fuse is indeed not perfect yet. But firearms will eventually replace bows and crossbows, hot weapons will eventually replace cold ones - that's the trend of the times. And tonight, you'll see the most brilliant 'fireworks' of this era!"

  "Here they come!" Ye Die'er, who had taken over the lookout duty from Yang Zhe on a high earth slope, panted as she ran and shouted: "A group of Jin soldiers with torches are coming this way."

  Di Lie chose this river crossing point, which was different from the daytime river section. It was neither a shallow and narrow river that was easy to cross, nor a difficult-to-cross place with rapid currents. There were many such river sections along the Wan River, and they were also the most difficult to defend. However, in the eyes of the Jurchen people who were hiding in the mountains and forests, even if it was an ordinary river section like this one, without a raft, it would take at least half an hour to swim across, otherwise, forget about crossing over.

  Jin soldiers measured others by their own standards, and during segmented patrols, they took one minute as the inspection time. Di Lie's three-person river-crossing action took about half an hour. Coincidentally, a group of Jin soldiers passed by on patrol at that moment, and Yang Zhe was still struggling forward in the water. For safety reasons, Di Lie first set up an ambush, using a lasso to take out one person, then used a homemade small crossbow to shoot and kill another person, followed by flying knives, and finally pounced out personally. Fortunately, they cleaned up four Jin soldiers on patrol without making a big commotion. Calculating the time, the disappearance of this small group of Jin soldier patrols indeed raised suspicions among their comrades.

  There is a small earth slope about 100 meters ahead of this crossing point, which just blocks the line of sight of the Jin army's patrol. From this point on, it is beneficial for sneaking across. However, the disadvantages of the terrain are also very obvious: within 100 zhangs nearby, except for dense weeds, there isn't even a small tree to provide cover. The Jin army patrol rushes down from the earth slope with great impact force.

  This terrain is most favorable for cavalry charges, one cavalryman can deal with three infantrymen, and ten cavalrymen can launch a charge against one hundred infantrymen.

  It's okay, you have cavalry, I have a "divine device"! Yang Zhechong looked at the gun case on Di Lie's back with a hot and eager gaze, his heart was very determined. If it weren't for having such an extraordinary killing tool to rely on, he would have fled as far as possible, even if it meant diving headfirst into the river - drifting with the current still had an uncertain outcome, but backing up against the riverbank and confronting a group of cavalry, that would be certain death.

  Yang Zhe's eyes stared fixedly at the black gun case, his heart continuously shouting: "Hurry up and open it! Hurry up and assemble it, aim at the top of the slope, and shoot him down as soon as he shows his head!"

  Di Lie seemed to have not heard his voice and asked Ye Die'er in a low tone: "How many people - or rather, how many torches?"

  Ye Die'er tilted her head and thought for a moment before saying very confidently: "Six people, I saw six torches."

  "Alright, the Jin army's patrol is not many, just relying on over a hundred people to think of sealing off such a long river? Hmph, really thinking too much." Di Lie clenched his fist and said decisively, "Take out these six patrollers, adding to the previous four, making it a total of ten patrollers. The Jin army's outer defense will reveal a not small gap, before the next batch of rotating Jin army patrol troops discover and block this gap, we would have already successfully broken into the Jin army camp. If luck is on our side, who knows, maybe we can even kill our way out again."

  "Ah, that's what I call satisfying!" Yang Zhe couldn't help but take a step forward, his eyes still hot with excitement, and stammered, "I-I mean... Leader, c-can I also try my hand?"

  "Want to try your hand?" Di Lie was taken aback, and followed his gaze to the gun case behind him, forcing a laugh. "Alright, you want to try your hand? Well, there are several horses over there, pick one at random, and choose a long-handled weapon that suits you. Go intercept those six Jin army scouts. You'll get credit for however many you can catch, and I'll take responsibility for the ones you miss. If you do well, I'll let you try out a gun."

  Yang Zhe's face flushed with excitement as he clenched his fists. Alright! To get what I want, I'll give it my all!

  When the six teams of horses with misty halos, reflecting the six suits of armor covered in black lacquer, appeared at the top of the slope with an air of death, like a dream. More than ten cold and emotionless fierce lights swept across, under the pale moonlight, on the desolate riverbank, there was a chill silence, except for the faint sound of flowing water, all sounds were extinguished, as if this scene had been here since ancient times.

  The robust horses occasionally emitted a snorting sound from their nostrils, and the iron hooves restlessly pounded the solid earth. The riders on horseback frequently came back to patrol around, looking around with suspicion and uncertainty. Indeed, it was too quiet here; when one looked around from the slope, there wasn't a single sentry in sight within a five-mile radius - this was abnormal.

  At this moment, a spark suddenly flashed on the riverbank in the dark night. The spark was very weak and far away from dozens of feet, and it was covered by weeds, which made it not easy to be discovered. But don't forget that it's now in the dark night, even a fleeting spark is so dazzling, let alone a continuous sparkling fire.

  With a wave of his whip, the lead knight pointed forward, and twenty-four iron hooves thundered down the earth slope, shattering the quiet moonlit night.

  Within thirty yards, the horses thundered down the slope in less than ten seconds. When six riders rushed to the firelight, one of them speared the burning object with a long lance. The leading rider saw this round thing flying in mid-air, with sparks coming out from behind like a mouse tail, and seemed to remember something, shouting urgent orders, whipping his horse to run.

  Boom! The thunderbolt exploded in mid-air at the right time, and a huge fireball burst open on the dark riverbank.

  Due to concerns about the noise being too loud and attracting more Jin soldiers, Di Lie used the smallest type of thunderbolt bomb, with less than three catties of gunpowder. If it were the three-catty black gunpowder of later generations, exploding in mid-air like this would have been enough for six Jin scouts to drink a pot of wine. Unfortunately, the various gunpowder materials of this era had many impurities and were not refined purely, so their power was discounted. Moreover, except for the Jin soldier who was shot by the thunderbolt bomb at close range, the other Jin scouts were all more than five steps away.

  A powerful shockwave turned the hard shell-like fragments into something akin to gravel, which although didn't cause much harm to the Golden Soldiers clad in armor, would rip open their skin if it hit their face, and even more unfortunate was getting hit in the eyes...

  That Jin soldier who was hit by a grenade had such bad luck, he threw away the gun in his hand, covered one eye and let out a loud cry of pain.

  The rest of the Jin army, although they were far away and did not suffer obvious damage, their warhorses were greatly frightened. Warhorses in the Cold Arms era, which had not been trained to withstand cannon fire, were easily startled by the massive explosion sounds at close range.

  After the explosion, the six war horses were jumping and whinnying, kicking their hooves restlessly. The six golden soldiers knew that there was an enemy hiding in a dark place nearby, but they had to temporarily put down their curved knives and long bows, constantly comforting the war horses, trying to calm them down as soon as possible and restore their combat effectiveness.

  It is obvious that the enemy will not let go of this rare good opportunity.

  After a loud whistle, the urgent sound of horseshoes came from the weeds on one side of the slope, and in the dark night, a huge black shadow flew over.

  With Di Lie's promise, more importantly, with his unwavering confidence in the "Divine Artifact". Yang Zhechong was fearless and full of confidence as he picked up the golden long spear, put on the golden armor, mounted the golden warhorse, and waited for an opportunity to strike. After the explosion, seeing the Jin army's scouts in disarray, he seized the chance and charged out on horseback.

  Persimmons should be chosen by pinching the soft ones, this principle Yang Zhechong also understands, so his first target of attack is that Jinbing who was injured by the explosion.

  Yang Jue's long spear in his hand was a kind of cavalry lance, which was not originally the weapon of the Jin army. These nomadic cavalrymen preferred to use heavy weapons such as curved knives, bone knives and large axes that were not easy to break.

  This type of cavalry gun is called a ring gun, with a rope ring on the handle to prevent it from falling off during high-speed charging. The gun handle is made of Zelkova wood, which is tough and elastic. In fact, this was the standard cavalry gun of the Song Dynasty. However, after the Jin army captured Bianjing, the Song Dynasty's arsenal also changed its surname to Jin. Therefore, the Jin army also had many sets of such cavalry guns, although they were not very handy, but during charging, they could be used as disposable items, right?

  Yang Zhe's spear was pressed tightly against his right rib, his right hand gripping the gunstock neither too tightly nor too loosely. Taking advantage of the powerful horse's speed, the spearhead aimed at the bleeding eye on that side, while also trying to comfort the warhorse's golden back, and then thrust forward.

  When Yang Zuo was less than ten steps away, the Jin soldier turned his head around, and a fierce flame of anger shot out from his single eye. It was clear that in his current state, he couldn't withstand the opponent's long-planned charging strike. As one of the Jin army's most elite scouts, he also couldn't just sit there waiting to be killed. He actually dodged off his horse and rolled onto the ground when the spearhead was less than a foot away from his back, narrowly avoiding the opponent's fatal blow.

  Yang Zhechong's first strike missed, although he was not reconciled in his heart, it was also impossible to turn the horse's head and add another shot, and could only rely on the horse's momentum to continue stabbing towards the next target.

  This time, he will never miss again!