Iron Dynasty Chapter 991

“The era of nomadic invasions of the Central Plains is over!”

From atop the hill, Niu Ben looked at the barbarian slave soldiers who were scattering like a tide and sighed. No matter how the barbarian cavalry tried to drive them, these slave soldiers refused to return to the battlefield.

Instead, these slave soldiers became frantic due to fear. They began to fight with the barbarian cavalry who were trying to stop them from escaping, and the entire barbarian camp was impacted in reverse by the slave soldiers.

Luo Quan showed a relieved smile. Like Niu Ben, he also understood the significance of the appearance of the machine gun. “It’s time to counterattack!” he finally said after a long silence.

Niu Ben nodded. He then signaled to the bugler, and immediately the bugle call for a general attack resounded across the sky.

To the sound of the bugle, the infantry orderly marched out of the camp. The Hussite wagons, which had appeared in the Battle of Jizhou, were once again deployed by Niu Ben onto the battlefield.

These wagons, pulled by horses, quickly formed hollow wagon formations on the flat grassland.

Soldiers carrying Han-style rifles entered the middle of the wagon formations. As the wagon formations outflanked the barbarian camp from both sides, there were also cavalry in the middle of the wagon formations, ready to charge at any time.

In addition to the infantry and cavalry, the artillery hitched their cannons to horses and also quickly entered the wagon formations to find their positions. During the month in Raozhou, they had repeatedly practiced this tactic that had previously brought a great victory against the barbarian cavalry, and now they were using it skillfully on the battlefield.

A fixed camp instantly turned into ten mobile fortresses. These fortresses quickly formed a pocket shape and surrounded the barbarians.

As the Great Yu Empire launched its counterattack, the barbarians fell into trouble. The slave soldiers lost control due to despair, and the barbarian cavalry became entangled in fighting with the slave soldiers. Some slave soldiers even rushed into the camp and slaughtered barbarian herders.

The anger born of fear made them vent their rage on their enslavers, and the entire barbarian camp descended into chaos.

Pang Duo had already mounted his horse. Raising his scimitar, he slashed left and right. If he could not control the rebellion of the slave soldiers, they would be in great trouble.

What alarmed him even more was that while they were fighting, the Great Yu Empire’s army was gradually forming an encirclement around them. Even if they managed to control the barbarian slaves, they would still be forced into a death struggle.

At this moment, Pang Duo’s confidence completely collapsed. They were unconvinced after the first defeat, and still unconvinced after the second defeat, but after the third, he finally felt afraid.

“Pang Duo, we must retreat,” Bahe shouted anxiously. Once the Great Yu Empire’s encirclement was complete, they would be unable to break out.

Wotai cursed, “Bahe, you coward! Our pasture is right here, and our tribesmen are here too. Where else can we flee? I won’t leave. I want to kill every single person from the Great Yu Empire.”

Pang Duo closed his eyes in despair. The Great Yu Empire’s army was steadily completing its encirclement, and if they didn’t leave now, it would truly be too late.

He glanced at his tribesmen in the camp, then at the Great Yu Empire’s army, and said, “Retreat! No matter what, our tribesmen cannot escape. For the Khanate, we must save the remaining cavalry.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a rumble of hooves suddenly came from the west. Everyone looked and saw a cavalry force coming from the west, completely blocking their retreat.

Zak shouted at this moment, “That’s Qi Guangyi’s cavalry!”

The hearts of all the banner heads immediately sank. This sudden cavalry force blocked their only escape route, leaving them with no way to flee.

And they were all still shaken by Zak’s terrifying description of this cavalry. If, as Zak said, this cavalry could completely deal with forty or fifty thousand cavalry, then in their current chaotic state, they would not be able to break through this cavalry’s blockade.

Qi Guangyi’s arrival was like the last straw that broke the barbarians’ will to resist. At this moment, the banner heads of the barbarian tribes who had come to reinforce them chose to flee.

Their tribes were not here, and facing such a desperate situation, there was no need for them to sacrifice their lives here. Most importantly, they had lost their courage; in their hearts, they had begun to fear the Great Yu Empire.

Zak was the first to flee, followed by the second and third. The more than one hundred thousand reinforcing cavalry fled in a chaotic mass, without any strategy or order.

Now, the only thing they wanted was to survive.

Qi Guangyi looked at the barbarian cavalry fleeing in a desperate rush, a cold smile appearing on his lips. These barbarians thought he would continue deeper into the grassland, but he did the opposite.

In his opinion, harassing those tribes now was far less meaningful than annihilating the barbarian tribes. Without the protection of cavalry, those tribes would be like fish on a chopping block. If he let these cavalry escape, their enemies would return to fight another day.

“Form ranks!”

The generals among the rifle cavalry immediately issued orders. Like the last side of a pocket, they sealed off the pocket formation. At the same time, the soldiers raised their carbines. Their goal was to prevent the barbarian cavalry from escaping and ultimately annihilate them, thereby greatly depleting the barbarians’ military strength.

“Bang bang bang…”

The fleeing barbarian cavalry entered the firing range, and the rifle cavalry immediately opened fire. Immediately, the barbarians in the front rows fell to the ground, and the scattered barbarian ranks became even more chaotic.

At the same time, Niu Ben and Luo Quan ordered all the cavalry in the hollow square formation to charge, cooperating with Qi Guangyi to block the barbarians’ escape route.

The wagon formations, meanwhile, accelerated to complete the encirclement of the barbarian camp.

More than fifty thousand cuirassiers charged out of the wagon formations, sweeping through the flanks like two silver torrents. Horses collided, sabers flashed, and the barbarian cavalry’s retreat became increasingly difficult.

In the midst of the chaotic fighting, the wagon formations gradually completed their encirclement. At this point, the infantry revealed their ferocious claws, and at the same time, each wagon formation deployed its own machine guns.

The dense “thump-thump-thump” of gunfire sounded again.

Under the sweeping fire of Han-style rifles and machine guns, blood mist bloomed from the barbarian cavalry and their mounts as bullets struck them. Large swathes of barbarian cavalry fell in pools of blood.

The artillery was not idle either. Shells slammed into the densely packed barbarian cavalry, each explosion taking dozens of lives.

Because under the four-sided encirclement, over one hundred thousand barbarian cavalry were herded together like sheep. In the densely packed cavalry, there was no room to maneuver, only people crammed against people, and horses pressed against horses.

In such a state, the barbarian cavalry’s combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. On the contrary, firearms exerted a greater advantage.

“Thump-thump-thump…”

The machine guns continuously swept across the battlefield. Boxes and boxes of bullets were consumed. From dawn until dusk, when the afterglow of the setting sun covered the grassland, Niu Ben could no longer distinguish whether the red on the grassland was from the sunset or from the blood of the barbarian cavalry.