Chapter 235: Wu Zaixing’s Killing Move
On July 1st, the Xia Prefecture Campaign (Central Route) proceeded simultaneously. This was a large-scale multi-front corps operation no less than the one between Chenzhou and Xiangyang (Lower Route).
The 30,000-strong army led by Zhen Hao sensed that the number of Chong Army troops around them was increasing.
Zhen Hao’s premonition was correct; on the strategic map, a tactical encirclement had formed around his army. Wu Zaixing (30,000) and Wang Feihao (15,000)’s two large corps were lying in wait for him.
From the perspective of Zhen Hao’s corps, the Chong Army directly in front of them seemed to be turning the pincer attack into a semi-encirclement. The Hao Army brigadier generals all expressed that continuing like this would be extremely disadvantageous for their own large army.
Note: Wu Zaixing Group holds the advantage in marching system; two days before Zhenhao Group’s vanguard arrived, they had already reached the decisive battle location in full condition. This full condition means complete heavy weapons such as artillery and war chariots. And they had ample time to gather wood and stone materials to build barriers.
Now in the “Chong-Hao” battle in northern Xia Prefecture, Zhen Hao’s troops are the vanguard cavalry and infantry units that arrived at the battlefield first.
The Hao Army’s follow-up military supplies, such as “Giant Soldier” and “war chariot,” cannot move so quickly; during large corps movement, infantry and cavalry can take three steps at a time, while “Giant Soldier” and “war chariot” can only take one step.
Under ideal conditions, Zhen Hao would wait for the “Giant Soldier” and “war chariot” to arrive together before fighting.
Over these years, Zhen Hao has always fought vassal lords with Zhao Cheng in this manner; with the Hao Army’s large corps mobility, the vassal lord armies gave the Hao Army ample time for mobilization.
But now the Chong Army did not give the Hao Army such an opportunity; after the Hao Army vanguard set up a large camp, they immediately advanced, building barriers forward; the barriers were not only built directly in front but also separately several kilometers away on both sides, cutting off the roads on the left and right flanks.
This semi-encirclement posture! Made the Hao Army very uncomfortable; if the follow-up Giant Soldiers and war chariots arrived, they would face a crisis, because it would turn into positional warfare. As for bypassing the positions? Wu Zaixing’s positions all backed onto complex terrain like hills and rivers.
In the Chong Army’s military drill manual, “Never waste waiting time.”
Thus, after “holding steady” for five days, before the follow-up heavy weapons arrived, the Hao Army hastily launched a decisive battle. Attempting to decisively defeat the Chong Army directly in front and determine the fate under heaven.
At this time, the Hao Army faced pincer attacks from north and south; in this situation, Zhen Hao prioritized attacking north.
Because after the 28th, no more food and grass would be delivered to the Hao Army camp; Zhen Hao’s southern logistics line was cut off; moreover, there was no more food and grass east of Xia Prefecture; and with Zhao Cheng leading troops south, Xia Prefecture was already a strategic dead end; he must break through Wu Zaixing’s main force and open the road north to Sha Prefecture.
However, the Hao Army’s this operation was preemptively learned by Wu Zaixing through “spy” channels before the attack. Thus, adjustments were made before the battle.
On the sand table, Wu Zaixing deployed precious mobile forces on the Northern Front, handing them to Wu Ling to command; while the Southern Front army in Xia Prefecture was led by old general Wang Feihao (Chapter 77), laying down a heaven-and-earth net.
With deployment complete, Wu Zaixing compressed the Hao Army’s escape space as much as possible before the decisive battle.
…Close the net…
At dawn, when the sky was dimly lit, war drums sounded from the south. Groups of Hao soldiers, holding shields, advanced toward the positions amid the clattering sound of armor plates. This force of at least 20,000 troops pressed forward across a five-kilometer front, like the tide of the sea.
Wu Zaixing’s Chong Army brought 115 cannons of various sizes this time; among them, 24 large-caliber city-breach cannons fired first, but sparsely hit the enemy’s vast formation, with bouncing solid projectiles flipping shields and hurling limbs.
The Hao Army, after all, was an iron army forged from years of contending for supremacy under heaven, and did not collapse. The leading non-commissioned officers shouted: “Charge up, and their cannons will be useless.”
But next, the Hao Army gradually felt despair.
After the Hao Army soldiers charged 300 paces, they saw 15 defensive positions composed of trenches and barriers directly ahead.
Each position held around 300 Chong Army troops, with about 1,000 mobile forces on standby behind the positions.
Veteran Hao Army soldiers with faces covered in dust recognized this as defense-counterattack based on positions, but could only grit their teeth and continue charging.
Next, continuous gunfire began on the battlefield. Directly in front of the barriers, firearm trajectories drew thin lines, sweeping like raindrops at the enemy corps surging from multiple directions.
These were all hand cannons firing, with brackets on the gun bodies that fitted perfectly into the pre-set wooden rails on the barriers; they used bolt-action breech design, because front-loading guns required lowering the gun each time to load gunpowder and projectiles from the muzzle.
When the spear shaft could be measured by arm’s length, such loading speed was tolerable; but for two-meter-long hand cannons, it was too cumbersome. To ensure firing rate, no costs were spared on parts machining here.
But aside from that, this firearm was still just a hand cannon; Chong Land’s artisans sacrificed firing precision for sufficient production, with smoothbore gun barrels reinforced by wrought iron hoops and steel rings for strength.
This was limited by machining issues. Speaking of which, if materials and machining levels advanced to produce qualified gun barrels, Wu Fei would add a gas system to this firearm, with qualified springs and lightweight sturdy brackets, putting it on the anti-tank gun track.
Clusters of gunpowder smoke filled the fortress, along with water vapor; yes, the hand cannons firing once every five seconds on average made the gun barrel scorchingly hot after ten shots, requiring wet towels to cool.
And after 20 shots on the gun barrel, even wet towels would scorch; a funnel dripping water over the towel was needed directly.
Soldiers continuously firing from the barriers, in this humid heat, were drenched in sweat, roaring as they operated the firearms to fire.
When the Hao Army reached 200 paces in front of the positions, it was already a meat grinder; batches of Hao Army veterans from battlefield campaigns, their killing intent could still interfere with trajectories; then advancing into 100-pace range, the fall rate increased geometrically, and at this point the Hao Army began the final charge.
But then at 70 paces, the Hao Army discovered “bamboo stakes” protruding from the ground on the straight path to the Chong Army position ahead.
Many Hao soldiers were tripped successively, forced to slow down; and with slowed speed, the probability of being shot increased.
In the final 40-pace range, the Hao Army near the barriers also had to deal with a cross-era nasty thing: short sections of barbed wire wrapped around wooden stakes.
In Earth’s World War I era, such barbed wire was deployed along lines tens of kilometers long; the Chong Army lacked such productivity, deploying only multiple layers of barbed wire across 200 meters directly in front of the barriers, with gaps left for the Hao Army to enter.
As for why not on the flanks? Because melee troops were already on standby on both sides; the flanks were specially reserved for their own melee troops to engage, without blocking the barrier firearms from continuing to output forward.
The Hao Army corps finally bypassed the firearm-swept barrier areas, finding breakthrough points; but here they encountered equally heavily armored, elite Chong Army melee squads.
Though few in number, the Chong Army melee personnel received Grass Returning Pill benefits monthly, with martial qi no less than Hao Army elites.
And tactically compensating for individual experience gaps, they blocked opponents like reefs on the battlefield.
In the central position, Wu Zaixing riding a Winged Tiger watched the two armies’ “waves” fully engaging at the position forefront; there was no relaxation in his eyes. Even though blood flowed like rivers and firearms seemed to hold the upper hand. —Wu Zaixing, seeing the Hao Army still surging from afar, knew he must quickly devour the vanguard military strength.
When competing with Wu Rui, Wu Zaixing was one step behind Wu Rui in “decision cycle” speed. Due to this competition, he felt urgency in every combat step.
And on the barriers, some crossbow soldiers began side-shooting the Hao Army entangled with their own armored soldiers.
These crossbow bolts easily penetrated Hao Army armor; forcing the Hao Army to guard against hidden arrows even before closing in to entangle.
Such entanglement infuriated the Hao Army, so some warriors sprinting forward from the Hao Army formation, clad in exquisite armor with tiger brave soldier emblems on the side armor, clearly from prestigious families; bullets hitting them were deflected. This was former Zhanlu Army equipment, and those wearing it were no small fries, with martial qi cultivation at sixth layer or above, wielding weapons edged with killing intent, cleaving through ranks of bullets.
Facing such elite Hao Army warriors, Wu Zaixing threw a bamboo token.
After the communications camp received the order, flag signals crossed on the positions, followed by groups of 20-man combat squads stepping out.
…This formation was like a mandarin duck…
Chong Army combat squads were mixed units of spear soldiers, large-caliber shotguns, and shield soldiers. Firearms were not for long-range attack but for blasting within 15 paces.
This firearm had a very large caliber, flared like a horn.
A Hao Army elite with bronze “shoulder beast head,” martial qi automatically deflecting crossbow bolts, charged into the open space between two defensive barriers 70 paces apart, preparing to break formation.
Just as he passed the barrier, relieved to have dodged smoothbore bulletheads fired from dozens of paces away; he encountered a Chong Army melee squad. He charged right at them, then felt a surge of killing intent.
For martial qi experts, encountering such a multi-person battle formation normally meant bypassing; then attacking from flank or rear with hidden weapons. But now on the battlefield, with squads advancing alternately, there was no way around.
Hao Army elites began a difficult stalemate. Though martial qi deflected some projectiles, crossbow bolts and bullets still drilled through defensive gaps, slowing body movements.
After one clash, the Hao Army’s senior martial cultivators immediately fell to disadvantage.
Some were pierced by spears, some smashed into sword-and-shield walls, others shot dead by bullets.
If only reading text descriptions, most would find such weapon combinations boosting combat power baffling. Why could these second-rate things combined defeat my 20 years of first-rate divine skill training?
Thus, the Chong Army’s Mandarin Duck Formation should be described with mathematical distribution.
Treat “blade tips,” “spear tips,” and “shotgun” as attack points, understanding them spatially as a cloud of points; the battle formation clusters this “attack point cloud” densely within 10 paces of the origin.
When all soldiers in the Mandarin Duck Formation launch coordinated attacks after an enemy expert closes in; within 10 paces, the distribution range of these damage points reveals a dead zone.
An expert’s moves can kill one at 10 paces, but “strike” frequency within one breath has an upper limit.
The battle formation’s strike frequency within 10 paces can overwhelm any individual.
Notably, every weapon in the Mandarin Duck Formation can breach defenses on hit; and unlike games, in reality, breaching causes damage with negative effects like “agony,” “recoil,” “loss of balance,” etc.
As the saying goes, when army barrages reach a certain density, no martial arts moves matter.
After a clash, the Zhanlu Army’s advanced equipment changed hands, and as elite troops retreated, other Hao Army charging at the barriers withdrew like tide, facing these fleeing Hao troops, Chong Army barriers spat deadly fire tongues again.
…Press the attack…
On July 3rd, Zhen Hao had to abandon Wu Zaixing’s iron barriers; because during his fight, Wang Feihao had approached from the flank.
On the map, Zhen Hao’s troops were fighting north. Wang Feihao was also heading north, positioned not far southwest of Zhen Hao, with his vanguard scout troops even less than five kilometers from Zhen Hao.
At this point, it was not Zhen Hao waiting for follow-up pottery figurine Giant Soldiers to overrun Wu Zaixing’s barriers; if he continued fighting, Wang Feihao would insert into his rear battlefield, seizing the cities where those “Giant Soldiers” were stationed for rest. (Note: these Giant Soldiers had finished resting and left the cities.) Then, sealing the gates would make it like the “Battle of Changping.”
Zhen Hao could only withdraw from the battlefield now, and to leave, he still had to fight Wang Feihao sneaking up from the southwest.
At 3:33 PM on the 3rd, confirming the Hao Army’s movements, in the temporary command post in the trench, Wu Zaixing chuckled smugly. —He had heard Wu Rui lost track of Zhao Cheng over there, only catching Zhao Cheng’s 20,000 abandoned troops left behind.
The Xia Prefecture Campaign here solidly bit into a Hao Army main force unit. This battle pocketed the opponent’s 30,000 main force and drew in the remaining 20,000 corps from Xia Prefecture.
Note: Xia Prefecture’s 50,000 scale is nominal, including city defense garrisons; Xia Prefecture lacked great mobility for 50,000; after the main decisive battle, the surviving defeated remnants would know the times.
“How to award merits after the battle?” Wu Zaixing stroked the beard on his chin, mimicking Xuan Chong’s catchphrase: “So hard to guess.”
Xuan Chong personally praised Wu Rui’s talent as the best, but Wu Zaixing always harbored “hard to say.”
Back when graduating military academy, standing second, he held back words: “Someday, each leading 10,000 troops, see who returns victorious to court, who is all show no substance!”
…Wu Zaixing’s life refreshment drama, tragedy for Zhen Hao…
Originally, after failing to breach barriers, if he marched east without looking back, there was a way out. But choosing southeast to link with other military forces in southern Xia Prefecture, this army truly could not shrink back.
Escaping requires traveling light. Like Zhao Cheng, discarding unnecessary military supplies, along unblocked roads, enduring war chariot and pottery figurine losses, one could cover 100 li in 20 hours, no one catching up.
But Zhen Hao’s army had all roads sealed, still wanting to preserve strength, unwilling to discard even one abandoned unit, so the whole army was “stuck” in the wild battleground?
Of course Zhen Hao lacked ability to discard sons; Zhao Cheng secretly withheld all military orders, so the two abandoned troops got no messages at all; Zhen Hao’s subordinates were all conspiring like a sieve, any stir known to the whole army.
…Thrust…
On July 5th, Zhen Hao army’s vanguard troops clashed again with Wang Feihao Group’s Chong Army Southern Front in a contact skirmish.
Compared to Wu Zaixing’s mobile field troops, Wang Feihao’s troops were an “assault corps.”
By Central Plains standards, Wang Feihao was a rising general; but in Wu Family Army, “new waves push old,” Wang Feihao didn’t seize the “first strike” mission. Thus, in the operations plan, General Staff assigned him to the “second wave” rear attack.
Of course, due to Zhen Hao’s large corps mobilization being relatively slow earlier, his Giant Soldiers, war chariots, and other heavy weapons didn’t arrive frontline timely. Now with Zhen Hao’s vanguard turning rear, Hao Army heavy weapons were just met by Wang Feihao.
This vanguard clash of large armies saw Chong Army’s 8,000 firearm troops relying on positions to resist Hao Army’s 4,000 armored soldiers and Giant Soldiers’ frontal assault.
Hao Army’s fearsome 10-zhang-tall giant figurines unyieldingly served as assault arrowheads, charging toward Wu Family Army firearm positions under dense cannon arrows;
300 paces out, on Chong Army positions, those soldiers with distinct flags and uniforms watched this 10-zhang colossus charging, under officers’ “first wave fire reconnaissance” order, fearfully pulling triggers, bullets crackling like popping beans.
But on the pottery figurine’s armor plates, only sparks flew, with some white glaze chunks falling.
Wang Feihao used a telescope to observe his corps’ strike effects. His artillery projectiles could make the huge pottery figurine pause one or two steps; but more often, when the pottery figurine swung its large guan dao, cannonballs and projectiles were swatted back.
And behind the pottery figurine, ranks of Dragon Guard armored soldiers wrapped head to toe in armor, not even showing faces, advanced rapidly holding halberds. —Many bullets hit these soldiers too, but low-velocity projectiles under 300 m/s initial speed were mostly deflected by soldiers’ true qi driving armor shields; the few breaching blocks hammered off batches of armor plates on heavy armor and lost kinetic energy.
It seemed with pottery figurine Giant Soldiers thundering earth with each step, and follow-up Hao Army armored soldiers rapidly closing, the Chong Army only firing guns and cannons from ground would collapse any moment.
Wang Feihao lowered the telescope and ordered: “Flight group prepare, separate enemy’s armor and infantry; artillery prepare, harvest immediately after enemy armor falls.”
And just as approaching the trench positions, groups of Chong Army gun soldiers crouched in trenches, at whistle sounds binding a “poop scooper”-like thing to spear fronts — on anti-armor, Xuan Chong’s staff officers had always racked brains.
Advanced gun soldier units too expensive, so try technology.
Giant Soldier merit points value 100 to 500, jade lion 100, pottery figurine Giant Soldier 500, shared among all participating troops, frontline gun soldiers taking most.
…World technology status summary…
This was this world’s peculiar tech route: steelmaking tech not ascended, unable to produce high-strength cannon steel, so lightweight anti-tank cannons not issued to squads.
On the other hand, energy tech developed first; large Giant Soldiers deflect projectiles, this addition and subtraction showing: though battlefield firearms and cannons provide fire support, key assaults and counter-assaults all borne by melee groups.
And following current tech patterns, even if steelmaking supports anti-tank cannons.
Materials science would make Giant Soldiers more terrifying, with ceramic steel structures self-equipped “energy explosive reactive armor,” forming scarier melee assault power.
Thus Xuan Chong’s weapons R&D department believed: attaching energy to melee weapons is the only solution.
…Back to current battlefield…
In the trenches, armored spear soldiers hugging spear shafts crouched in small pits, quietly awaiting pottery figurine approach.
As Giant Soldiers neared, trench sides shed grains with rattling sounds.
In the trench, a “veteran Wu Family Army” assured soldiers: “Pensions will arrive, loyal martyrs’ shrine will be built, orphans will be raised. General hasn’t shortchanged us these years, any questions?”
Soldiers shouted: “None!”
Squad leader: “That’s right, no cowards, follow my signal later.”
…Perspective shift…
Perspective to Hao Army side, Hao Army master began acting. He launched a peculiar spell toward Chong Army.
A blue light enveloped an 80-man Chong Army firearm queue; then after firearms fired, projectiles flew forward with blue trajectories; but projectiles hit an invisible rubber band, then bounced back. Chong Army firearm soldiers were instantly repelled by own projectiles, like ammo cook-off in gunpowder smoke.
Wang Feihao watching battlefield from afar locked onto the spell-casting process, spotted Hao Army camp master, immediately ordering artillery to bombard him.
Note: “Arrow Reversal Spell” releases a force field on firearm soldiers; any matter in force field moving faster than one-third sound speed gets vector-reversed by force field.
Xuan Chong once interested in spells, as this principle explained mecha near-infinite fuel.
Though mecha energy is “nuclear power,” how is nozzle matter nearly endless? Later Xuan Chong discovered: ejected matter “swims circles” recycling to sides; wings have magical recovery drawing airflow back, along pre-set wing grooves recycling matter to engine.
Wang Feihao rode Winged Tiger into sky, simultaneously sending flag signals; 50 Dragon Horse Cavalry on standby rear took to air.
This Chong Army air assault troop blinked to frontline; under own guns-and-cannons cover rushed to battlefield, straight at Hao Army charge group; cavalry flew over enemy pottery figurines without entangling, flying past to rear.
These Dragon Horse Cavalry threw groups of noisy bombs. Noisy bombs exploded over Hao Army heads with strong light and caustic soda-laced lime powder, blinding Hao Army eyes for seconds.
Thus, Hao Army infantry regiments coordinating Giant Soldier charges slowed. Unable to timely cover pottery figurines, could only watch them face wind bleak as easy ford, entering Chong Army positions alone.
And at that moment, Chong Army in dirt pits jumped out; pre-battle mobilization instructor led charge, under pottery figurine Giant Soldier’s 3-zhang copper-wrapped guan dao, squad leader’s spear was flung, nearly crippling his own hand.
This squad leader on ground shouted loudly: “Get on him!”
Chong Army 7-8 hook scythes hooked, slowing pottery figurine; blocked by multiple spears, its balance broke, adjusting posture for new combat movement.
Squad leader ignoring split tiger mouth, shouted: “Squad flank!”
Nearby “thrust” squad charged ferociously, leather boots trampling shattered ceramic shards, striding forward, shouting “take care of my xxx” for courage, but soon yells drowned by thrust leader’s blast sound, then on retreat, fear and excitement shouting “save me” “save me”!
Suddenly, as pottery figurine prepared big move to sweep thousands, soldiers with poop scoopers aimed at its butt and lightly thrust; with “concave explosive” ignited, internal metal sheets compressed into jet, then cracks along pottery figurine butt shattered; second group thunder struck. On third hit, lower body cracks widened, mechanism jammed with debris, creaking louder.
Ultimately crashed to squat motionless. On huge pottery figurine vacant face, burning flames seemed angrily flickering, but finally helplessly extinguished.
…Hao side perspective…
Zhen Hao’s vanguard general “Fang Sidao” found his infantry hindered by Dragon Horse Regiment’s blanket blinding lights, angrily ordering crossbow troops to shoot away these Dragon Horse troops.
He could not tolerate his Giant Soldiers smashing firearm teams to bits while follow-up Dragon Guards couldn’t rush into Chong Army positions.
However, just as crossbows readied, his formation’s “pottery spirit master” controlling pottery figurines ran over in panic telling him: “My lord, our pottery figurines all stopped!”
This vanguard general named Fang Sidao, hearing personal soldier’s bad news, immediately used long telescope viewing smoke-dust battlefield ahead. After noisy bomb lights faded, his Giant Soldiers seemed motionless, while Chong Army here stopped shooting pottery figurines, directly greeting rear Hao Army infantry.
On Chong Army positions, firearm firing flashes like stars in starlit night, rows of gunpowder smoke generating like dozens high-power polluting diesel engines igniting.
Under sudden dense firearm shooting, infantry originally shielded by Hao Army armored Giant Soldiers suffered; these elite infantry massively hit. Some Chong Army hand cannons fired too, over 12mm caliber, copper-jacketed lead-core projectiles piercing two Hao soldiers at once.
Ultimately, this vanguard troop, confirming loss of heavy-armor Giant Soldiers and whole army exposed to volley fire, collapsed.
Two hours later, when Fang Sidao’s troops retreated to Zhen Hao main body, defeat panic spread to tens of thousands Hao Army, south road to join other Xia Prefecture Hao Army also sealed.
On July 6th, Zhen Hao had to adjust direction for the third time.
On army battle map, Wu Zaixing now pressed main force, ordering full army pursuit. North-south total 45,000 Chong Army now full line pressed up.
