The soaring and stirring sound of the charge bugle swirled above the battlefield.
The order for a full assault was relayed. The Great Yu Empire soldiers let out angry roars and charged towards Pingzhou City.
At this moment, they forgot about life and death. In their hearts, there was only hatred for the barbarians.
It was they who raised their butcher knives and killed the common people of the Great Yu Empire, making them lose parents, wives, and children.
It was they who plundered the Great Yu Empire every year on horseback, leaving them without enough food to eat!
It was they who took away the land that once belonged to the Great Yu Empire, leaving them with no land to cultivate.
In their eyes, no race in history was more cruel than the barbarians. Under their butcher knives, the Great Yu Empire constantly faced national annihilation and ethnic extinction.
This was a destruction of an advanced civilization by a barbaric one. Now, they would absolutely not let this happen!
The barbarian soldiers watched in terror as the Great Yu Empire soldiers, fearless of death, charged towards them. On the battlefield, what they feared most was the sound of the Great Yu Empire soldiers’ charge bugle.
This bugle seemed to possess a magic power. Once it was blown, the Great Yu Empire soldiers’ morale would soar, and they would become incredibly fierce.
And what they experienced most was fear.
In front of the city, Lu Fei’s heart surged with fervor. He drew the ceremonial sword from his waist and, leading his soldiers, charged into Pingzhou City.
Having fought the barbarians for many years, he had thoroughly understood their nature.
This was a backward and barbaric tribe. It was precisely because of their savagery that they fought fearlessly.
But this did not mean they were not afraid of death.
In fact, just as the strong fear the reckless, and the reckless fear the desperate, once the Great Yu Empire soldiers displayed even greater bloodlust than them, these barbarian soldiers would also collapse.
On the other side, the barbarian cavalry furiously charged the chariot formation protecting their flank.
But under Luo Xin’s command, each charge of these cavalry was repelled. The chariot formation, as usual, became a barrier preventing the cavalry from overrunning them.
The musketeers within the chariot formation formed hollow squares, just like in the Battle of Jizhou last time. They would sometimes fire from outside the chariot formation, and at other times retreat inside.
In less than an hour, many barbarian cavalry corpses had already piled up outside the chariot formation.
After the first ten-thousand-man unit’s charge failed, the unwilling barbarian cavalry again dispatched two units to fiercely attack the chariot formation. A portion of the cavalry dismounted and charged directly towards the chariot formation, attempting to get close and open a breach.
However, the slowly charging barbarian soldiers were the best targets for the musketeers. Unlike the Battle of Jizhou, the Great Yu Empire army was now equipped with rifled muskets.
Both their range and power far surpassed the previous smoothbore guns.
After a cloud of gunpowder smoke dispersed, barbarian soldiers fell one after another. Under the dense firepower, the barbarians were unable to approach the chariot formation.
Compared to Lu Fei and Luo Xin, Lei Ming’s situation was extremely difficult. Wuzhugu had concentrated most of his cavalry, attempting to annihilate them all.
Now, after the initial clash of cavalry, they were locked in a chaotic melee. Barbarians were intertwined with Great Yu Empire soldiers, and Great Yu Empire soldiers with barbarian cavalry.
Sabers flashed, blood splattered. Both sides, in the chaotic melee, fought with bloodshot eyes. Some enraged soldiers directly pounced on barbarian soldiers, rolling on the ground and continuing to fight. Some soldiers, wielding sabers, repeatedly charged and fought.
While dispatching a portion of his cavalry to engage Lei Ming, Wuzhugu also concentrated 30,000 cavalry to launch a death charge against the hollow square formation.
Facing the barbarians, who charged as if they had no fear of death, the first hollow square formation, after unleashing all its firepower, managed to withstand the first impact of the barbarian cavalry through sheer brute force.
But what they faced next were the second and third impacts.
With their numbers at a disadvantage, during the fourth barbarian charge, their hollow square formation was torn apart by the barbarians. Soldiers holding firearms also fell into a melee with the barbarians.
“Retreat, retreat to the rear!”
After the formation was torn apart, the division commander commanding the formation shouted anxiously. Once the formation was disrupted, what followed would be a massacre of infantry by cavalry.
These soldiers were all battle-hardened veterans. They immediately reacted and ran into the gaps between other formations. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚫𝙣𝙚𝙩
The barbarian cavalry pursued relentlessly. At this point, the other formations began to unleash firepower, causing the pursuing barbarians to fall one after another. At this point, another wave of barbarian cavalry charged towards them.
The division commanders in the middle of the hollow square formations all looked grim. They knew very well that if the barbarian cavalry continued to launch death charges, they would quickly be unable to hold out.
But no matter what, they could not retreat now. Because if they retreated, Lu Fei’s army would suffer a massacre by the barbarian cavalry, and the battle for Pingzhou City would end in defeat.
“Hold on! Even if there’s only one of us left, we must hold this position!” A resolute order came from a division commander.
The soldiers gripped their firearms tightly. They looked at the charging barbarian cavalry, gritting their teeth.
No one was fearless of death, but for them, some things were more important than death. This was the reason they persevered here without collapsing.
The fierce fighting continued. The entire Pingzhou City battlefield became a world of blood and fire.
In front of Pingzhou City, Lu Fei’s sword pierced through the chest of a barbarian myriarch. Facing the collapsing barbarian soldiers, he shouted loudly and led his soldiers into Pingzhou City.
“Plant the Great Yu Empire’s dragon flag on the city wall! Hurry!” Lu Fei said to his personal guard beside him as he ran.
Receiving the order, the personal guard immediately took the dragon flag in his hand and climbed to the top of the broken city wall. Then, he stood on the city wall and vigorously waved the dragon flag.
This scene was quickly noticed by both sides on the battlefield.
Luo Xin, seeing the dragon flag on the city wall, laughed loudly, “As expected of Lu Fei; he’s still as brave as ever in battle.”
Then he looked at Lei Ming, whose situation was somewhat unfavorable, and said, “Immediately reinforce the Huben 3rd Army!”
Now that Lu Fei’s army had breached the city, there was no need to protect their flanks, because cavalry could not launch large-scale attacks within the city, posing little threat to Lu Fei.
Wuzhugu also saw the dragon flag on the city wall, just like Lei Ming. Lei Ming, seeing this, immediately felt a surge of morale. He wielded his saber even more fiercely, and the charging barbarian cavalry fell one by one under his saber.
In contrast to Lei Ming’s reaction, Wuzhugu’s heart turned cold. After defending for so long, they ultimately failed to hold Pingzhou City.
“Retreat!” Without the slightest hesitation, Wuzhugu gave the order.
The Great Yu Empire army entering the city meant a complete rout of the army within Pingzhou City. Now, the Great Yu Empire army could fully concentrate all its forces to deal with his cavalry.
If they did not leave now, his losses would be even more severe. Moreover, after this battle, he realized one thing even more clearly: only cavalry could pose a threat to the Great Yu Empire.
Other armies wielding swords and sabers simply could not stop the Great Yu Empire army armed with firearms.
The novel has already been fully translated up to the final chapter. You can access it on my at /c/caleredhair