A grenade exploded.
By now, the daylight had dimd. The flas bursting from the two exploding grenades glared starkly in the dusky world.
As the fire shot upward, shrapnel and iron fragnts sprayed out in all directions. Instantly, a cluster of people around collapsed to the ground. So fell already dead; others wailed in agony. One man stared in disbelief at the hole gushing blood in his abdon…
“What was that?”
“What kind of freakish thing?”
“Sothing went into my belly! It hurts! Oh, it hurts!”
Two enormous gaps were instantly torn through Wang Zuogua’s spear formation, with n thrashing and writhing on the ground.
Everyone nearby was stunned by the shock.
Zao Ying too was stunned for a fleeting mont: “What happened?”
Then she heard loud laughter erupt from the south: “Old Ghost from Guyuan has arrived! Hahaha! Stop grabbing nothing! The horses here… all belong to !”
Now Zao Ying understood. Black eating black had arrived. Old Ghost from Guyuan – the na alone scread it was the damn border army in Guyuan. Likely a unit that had fled here after the last Guyuan mutiny.
Rushing with pride, she thought: Fantastic! I thought I was dead for sure. Yet here cos black eating black! Amidst this chaos, I might just escape after all.
She raised her saber and roared loudly: “Brothers! Be ready to seize any chance to break out!”
“Wooo!” the mounted bandits behind her roared as one.
Wang Zuogua, observing the battle from a distance, had his attention fixed on Wu Zimian’s official troops. Now, he whipped his head towards Zao Ying’s position: What was that explosion? Why is Feishan Hu and Big Honglang’s troops in chaos?
The two bombs had hit Big Honglang’s forces hardest.
He was in charge of the “southern flank” of Duzhucun village, precisely the direction Cheng Xu and Xing Honglang approached from. Both grenades landed amidst Big Honglang’s subordinates, blowing them into a chorus of pained cries for their mothers.
Big Honglang spun around furiously, bellowing: “Who the hell are you?”
The answer ca as the crack of a flintlock pistol.
A flintlock pistol was convenient to fire; just pull the trigger. No need to light a fuse.
One of Big Honglang’s n scread and collapsed onto his back.
Big Honglang: “Shit? Firearms?”
Next, he saw a large crowd of figures advancing ahead, a dark mass in the deepening gloom. The distance and fading light obscured their precise attire, but he could clearly see the sparking trails of lit match cords in their hands.
“Firearms! Lots of firearms!” Big Honglang hit the dirt with a thud.
But his followers weren’t this sharp. They weren’t elite troops and had little experience handling firearms, having barely encountered even Three-Eyed Divine Firearms before.
With a chaotic volley of “Bang! Bang! Bang!” the Gaojia Village Militia’s muskets and ten Three-Eyed Divine Firearms fired consecutively…
Instantaneously, a swathe of the bandit army fell.
The ten firearm soldiers wielding the Three-Eyed Divine Firearms cheered ecstatically: “Hahahaha! Hit so many! Damn it, I’d just about given up hope in this lousy Three-Eyed Divine Firearm. Didn’t expect it to work quite well slaughtering bandit troops! Hahaha!”
In a heartbeat, the firearm soldiers’ confidence surged again.
“Loading! Loading!” yelled the Captain of the firearm soldiers.
Firearm soldiers were anything but cheerful during the loading phase. They first used a special brush to scrub the residue from previous shots inside their gun barrels. Then they tore open pre-asured gunpowder packets, poured all the contents down the barrel, poked down solidly with the ramrod, dropped in lead balls, and ramd them tight…
This entire process took at least two to three minutes to complete.
Big Honglang scrambled up from the ground and pointed toward the militia. “Damn it! Charge! Slaughter them all before they fire their second shot!”
No sooner had her words faded than two more black spheres plunged from the sky.
Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu were hurling their second volley.
Their grenades required no reloading. So long as they had grenades left and strength in their arms, they could keep throwing.
Two grenades crashed down again: “Kaboom! Kaboom!”
Once more, the bandit army staggered as if struck by a typhoon.
During the first two grenade explosions, they’d been baffled, too stunned to react. But this ti they saw it clearly—those exploding things were thrown by the enemy.
Grenades packed with iron pellets and scrap iron dealt devastating damage to soldiers. Everyone within a wide radius of the blast was either dead or wounded. It was sheer terror.
The enemy had thrown two small bronze-hamr-like objects and killed so many soldiers?
What in blazes was this thing?
This dealt a heavy blow to the bandit army’s morale.
Human beings naturally fear the unknown.
Especially when that unknown can slaughter dozens in an instant.
The terror multiplied intensely.
Bandit troops under Big Honglang wavered.
They were, after all, bandits—not a border army like Guyuan’s, which could push forward despite explosives hurled by militia.
Many trembled so violently they dared not advance further, and so were already fleeing sideways.
As for their spear formation…
Huh? Just a mont ago, it had faced Zao Ying. Now it had completely pivoted toward the militia direction.
By the ti they realized this, it was too late.
Zao Ying, a horse thief who’d fought on horseback all her life, excelled at seizing opportunities.
The mont Big Honglang’s spear formation diverted, Zao Ying’s saber was already pointed that way. “Charge!” she roared.
Taking the lead, she surged forward like a gale, her saber whipping up in an arc. Swish! One blow sent a spear troop’s head soaring skyward. Blood sprayed wildly, painting half her fierce face crimson.
Behind her, one hundred and twenty mounted bandits bellowed as they charged headlong.
Saber blades flashed everywhere. In an instant, screams of agony filled Big Honglang’s unit as they wailed for their parents.
Against cavalry, infantry without a spear formation were a child among children.
Zao Ying cut straight through Big Honglang’s troops almost instantly and broke free.
Erging outside, she genuinely worried the rebel band in Guyuan might strike them too. Unexpectedly, the rebels imdiately retracted their firearms upon seeing her break through.
Zao Ying’s eyes narrowed. “Oh? They didn’t just accidentally rescue us… This was intentional all along.”
A subordinate bellowed beside her, “Boss! Analysis can wait! Get to safety now!”
“Right!”
She thrust her saber toward a distant hill. “To those small slopes!”
Over a hundred riders thundered out of the battlefield in an instant, charging straight toward the flanking hillocks to watch events unfold.
Big Honglang howled with rage. “Fuck! The duck was practically in my mouth, and it flew! Bla those damned Guyuan border troops! Brother Hu! Brother Hu! Reinforce , quick!”
The unit led by Feishan Hu, originally attempting to flank Zao Ying from another angle, instantly pivoted and raced back at top speed.
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