Chapter 23: Kasha

  The main battle weapon of the Qing dynasty, Lian Huan Ma, five Yan Yun Jian horses wearing chain armor were connected into a whole with iron chains. Sharp collision horns were installed on the horse's head, and six long spears pointing forward were tied between the horses. The huge impact force of the horses was used to tear through the enemy's defense line. The long spears tied to the horse's body could lift off the enemy, and the horse's body could knock off the enemy. The heavy armor knights on the horse holding the extended curved knife were not vegetarians, but blood-drinking specialists. The knights of Lian Huan Ma and the horses had to be selected from the tall, strong, and robust Manchu warriors with excellent riding skills and outstanding martial arts.

  The knight of the linked horse, whose status is not only higher than that of ordinary infantrymen, but also higher than that of ordinary cavalrymen, belongs to the Imperial Guard of the young emperor of the Qing dynasty. With this iron cavalry, they defeated the border troops of the Ming dynasty several times in a row and expanded the border southward by 100 miles.

  Being able to ride a Lian Huan Ma is the dream of every Qing soldier and every young man in Qing.

  Such a sharp army is almost invincible.

  Although his opponent's slave army was determined to die, the law of mutual restraint between cavalry and infantry could not be violated.

  The iron wall of the cavalry charged into the slave army, and the slaves' long guns at a 45-degree angle had not yet stabbed the horse's body when they were ruthlessly chopped open by the knights' long curved knives. The horses' bodies quickly harvested lives, countless slaves were knocked to the ground, trampled into meat paste by hooves. Countless heads were easily cut off by the knights' long curved knives, spraying blood flying into the air.

  Only a very few people can withstand the psychological impact of a cavalry charge without collapsing, and even those who remain calm can only cut at the legs of the horses when they arrive, but the horse's legs are not easy to cut, if you miss with one blow, then you will be trampled to death.

  The defeat of the slave army, which was inferior in numbers, training, weapons and organization, was a foregone conclusion. It's hard to find anyone to shoulder the blame.

  Only Jamukha and the unrelenting hail of arrows, he rode his horse back and forth, firing in quick succession, the arrows flying straight into the eye slits of the ringed warhorses, whose eyes had to be exposed to observe the enemy, were exploited by the divine archer Jebe. He only shot one horse from each group of ringed horses at a time, making it impossible for the entire group to advance, the maddened wounded warhorse was uncontrollable and threw its rider off, severely enough to knock down other horses at high speed, some daring slaves took advantage of the opportunity to cut the throat of the fallen knight, but were quickly killed by the arriving rear riders.

  Rapidly reducing staff, blood flowing like a river, Liu Ziguang's eyes turned red at the sight of this tragic scene, and he rushed forward bare-handed and empty-fisted to charge into the ring.

  Right in front of him was a group of linked horses, five high-headed big horses wearing iron armor came rushing like lightning, six sharp long guns trembling, the knights on the horse had cold and ruthless light flashing inside their eye masks, two curved knives that were closest to him slashed down at the same time!

  Liu Ziguang sprang up from the ground, swinging two long curved knives in a wide arc. The warhorse felt an unfamiliar sensation under its hooves, as if it hadn't trampled on a human body, and was slightly puzzled. Before the knight could regain his composure, Liu Ziguang had already landed on the horse's back, with one foot on each of the two horses. The knight's vision was obstructed, and he only felt something big falling beside him. Turning his head to look, he saw a handsome figure with swift movements, hastily swinging his knife to chop, but his hand was empty. Liu Ziguang now held two more long curved knives in his hands.

  "Go to hell!" Liu Ziguang fiercely swung the two long knives at the same time, cutting down the two heavily armored knights beside him into two segments, and then cut off the heads of the two horses. Suddenly, a group of linked horses fell to the ground with a loud crash. The cavalry behind could not stop their huge momentum, and had no choice but to trample over both men and horses. The riders of the linked horses thought that it was not just glorious, but also required an awareness of the cruel death that awaited them at the front line.

  Liu Ziguang employed the tactics of Zamūd and only cut one horse, destroying a group of linked horses. With his agile body, he jumped back and forth on the first line of linked horses, cutting off the heads of the horses, and a large number of linked horses fell to the ground under his blade. Because five horses were tied together, it was difficult for them to turn over, and some knights were pressed by the horses and could not move. There were also some who were not pressed by the horses but wore heavy armor and were inconvenient to move, and they were rushed up by the angry slaves and stabbed into their face masks with a knife, dying miserably on the spot.

  The rear team's linked horses were blocked by the front, some of which fell to the ground due to poor coordination, creating a chain reaction. The iron curtain-like formation that was supposed to advance uniformly was actually held back by one person!

  The knight on horseback hung his long curved knife on the victory hook, drew out his bow and arrow to shoot this guy flying all over the sky. How could ordinary bows and arrows have hurt Liu Ziguang in the slightest? The arrows that filled the sky finally didn't know who they hit, anyway Liu Ziguang was still lively in the linked ring horse array, constantly making groups of linked ring horses fall to the ground.

  The advance was slowed down, the slaves retreated to the North Gate, and Anthony and Duncan had just promised to help Liu Ziguang take care of the two young ladies. This brought a few people to protect the two ladies, including Yu Xiaolong, in the middle. Some timid slaves had already jumped into the moat and swam desperately to the other side, the terror brought by the chain mail was really shocking.

  Baby son has become a hostage of the slaves again, Yu Hualong did not dare to order shooting at the slaves, in order to avoid his son being killed under the chain horse, he asked his brother Yu Huatou: "Huatou, is the steam scalded?"

  The leader of the city defense team, Hua Hu, replied: "Big brother, it's already burned enough for launching."

  "Alright! Launch the steam-powered catapult, target: Qing dynasty's linked horses."

  "Alright!" If they didn't strike down the chain of horses, the morale of the city wall's garrison would also be a problem.

  The city wall is still the same, but inside the city wall, it's bustling with activity. The entire north side of the city wall has a hidden room beneath it, and three feet below the battlements, a long line of missing bricks suddenly appears, revealing the tip of a crossbow bolt. One hundred powerful large-scale crossbows are taking aim at the linked horses.

  This large crossbow has a bowstring made of extremely strong steel wire, which cannot be pulled by human force and is very slow even with the use of a pulley. The bolts are made of hard and tough old bamboo from the south, with a long iron spearhead at the front, and the entire arrow is as long as five feet. At the front, there is a small opening that can produce a whistling sound in the wind, and at the back, there are four simple tail wings to ensure stability and range during flight.

  The bowstring uses steam power to draw it back. More than ten sturdy boiler workers quickly add coal to the blazing fire, producing high-temperature and high-pressure steam that drives the piston and crankshaft, pulling the bowstring backward. After hooking it up, the excess steam is released, and the pushrod moves in the opposite direction, driving another set of steam-powered crossbows to draw back their strings. In the arrow groove of this set of crossbows, an arrow has already been automatically placed, but it's more accurate to say that it's a javelin.

  After the bowstring hook is released, the strong elastic steel wire propels the javelin in the arrow groove forward quickly, shooting out rapidly in the direction aimed by the crossbow head.

  The crossbow head can move up and down by 120 degrees, left and right by 90 degrees. Every ten large crossbows form a group, which can be aimed at the direction of enemy gathering under the power of the crossbowmen shaking their arms.

  The crossbowmen were aiming at the tangled mess of linked horses, and the tail-winged javelins had a range more than twice that of ordinary arrows. One hundred steam-powered repeating crossbows fired one hundred bolts into the air, which whistled sharply as they flew. The first batch of bolts hadn't even hit the ground before the second, third, and subsequent batches followed in quick succession.

  The steam piston moves back and forth, constantly cocking, firing, recocking, firing. The manually operated cartridge feeder is simple and reliable. A bundle of labeled cartridges is neatly fed into the feed port, and the cartridge hook driven by the rocking arm accurately places a labeled cartridge in the chamber after each shot.

  The officer holding the monocular telescope on the city wall observed the distance and wave of the linked horses, and the result of the javelin falling to the ground, directing the crossbowmen to adjust the angle of the crossbow head, so that the javelins could hit the subsequent troops of the linked horses.

  The sharp whistling pierced people's eardrums, the power of the steam was terrifying, and in an extremely short period of time, ten rounds were fired. One thousand spears with whistling sounds shot into the formation of linked horses, and the cavalrymen who had already been stirred up by Liu Ziguang were nailed to the ground by the spears falling from the sky. Their heavy armor was torn open like thin paper. The spears penetrated through human bodies and still stuck into the frozen mud, with their tails still trembling.

  The subsequent chain of horses was also covered by the extended-range javelins, and the javelins against the north wind were still so powerful, countless knights were pierced in an instant, countless war horses were frightened by the terrifying whistling sound, for a time, people shouted and horses neighed, wailed continuously, the Qing cavalry with strict military orders did not know how to retreat, and continued to charge forward, under the torrential javelin strikes, suffered heavy losses, plus the trampling of each other, this thousand-man team, lost seven-tenths.

  The clarion call of the Qing state finally sounded, and the remaining linked horses turned a big bend before turning back, while the halberds also stopped firing in time.

  Liu Ziguang, dodging the javelin with a jump, also wiped away the cold sweat on his head, "Damn, it's just like a Kalashnikov!"

  The Qing army was motionless, and even the most powerful crossbow couldn't shoot that far. Under the yellow banner with the word "commander" written on it, a slender, pale-faced young man in a yellow robe said to the middle-aged general beside him: "What's going on with the Military Council? We agreed to take the North Gate, and our army could enter the city directly. Now look at this mess! First, a group of beggars ambushed our vanguard, then a martial arts expert appeared and injured many of my Imperial Guards. And now these powerful giant crossbow arrows are destroying my linked cavalry! You Military Council is really incompetent! Where's Song Qingfeng? Call him to come and explain himself to me!"

  The middle-aged general murmured repeatedly, "It was all due to the ministers' lack of consideration, resulting in the loss of Your Majesty's Imperial Guard. As for Song Qingfeng, he was killed by that barbarian who is the best fighter in the Ming dynasty just now at the front line and cannot come to see Your Majesty."

  The young man in yellow robe was shocked to hear this, and hastily picked up the thousand-mile mirror to gaze at the battlefield. The desolate battlefield was filled with the corpses of linked horses and slave soldiers, as well as spears scattered all over the ground. Where could he still find Song Qingfeng's figure?

  "I'm afraid they've been trampled into minced meat, Your Majesty." The middle-aged general said in a low voice.

  The young man in yellow robes, with a pale face that gradually turned red, said: "Trash, all trash! Song Qingfeng is dead, and the dare-to-die corps of the military machine department that launched a surprise attack on the north gate of Liguojin Factory must have been completely annihilated. Lord Zhang, after I take over the Southern Dynasty, your military minister should also consider stepping down."

  The middle-aged general bowed his head and pleaded guilty: "Your humble servant has failed Your Majesty's heavy trust, I deserve to die ten thousand times!"

  The Qing Emperor snorted, muttering to himself, "Fortunately, I was thorough in my planning and brought the Huihui cannons with me. Otherwise, our southern campaign would have been hindered, how could we face those trusted ministers?"

  "Bring men, relay the order to move the cannons forward, I want to blast down this city!" The young emperor raised his voice and gave the command.

  As the Chain Horse retreated, the defeated slave army and the Iron Guard on the city wall cheered together. Liu Ziguang ran back under the city amidst the cheers, and Zhu Mahe came over to punch him hard: "Good kid, you single-handedly broke through the Chain Horse. Are you possessed by a god or something? You're so fierce all of a sudden!" Liu Ziguang said repeatedly: "It was just luck."

  Everyone was patting Liu Ziguang's shoulder in a friendly manner, the war god of the slave army! Such a fierce general is encountered only once in a thousand years. Even people on the city wall couldn't help but praise him. Liu Ziguang didn't know that after some time, the story of the white-robed young general defeating the linked horses would be compiled into a storytelling book and spread throughout the tea houses and taverns of the Ming Dynasty.

  Liu Ziguang walked through the excited crowd and stood in front of Peng Jingrong, saying quietly: "I'm back." The girl's face still had faint traces of tears, Peng Jingrong nodded gently: "As long as you're back, I've been waiting for you."

  A few words can be more effective than thousands of sentences.