Chapter 846
Chapter 846
Shen Lang's army of merely two thousand had to be divided into two. Fifteen hundred garrisoned Mulan City, while five hundred were stationed at the six-li-long (approximately 3,000 meters) pass in the northern mountain valley. However, Mulan City now had five cannons, all of which were mounted on its walls. The six-li pass, where Zhang Chunhua was stationed, had no artillery and only five hundred defenders. With these numbers alone, they had to face Count Austin's grand army of fifty thousand. Five hundred versus fifty thousand—a figure chilling enough to make one's hair stand on end. Two hundred and fifty of her troops were from the Eastern Warrior Corps, and the other two hundred and fifty were from the Roland Knights.
The next day, Count Austin's fifty-thousand-strong army arrived. An endless, dark sea of enemy troops stretched out before them. Within four hours, the fifty thousand soldiers had advanced to the base of the pass. Zhang Chunhua noted that the enemy army had thirty medium-sized trebuchets.
*Are you insane? Fifty thousand of you are attacking a small pass defended by only five hundred, and you bring this many trebuchets?*
Count Austin was dumbfounded when he saw the defenders on the small wall.
*Five hundred? Is this a joke? When have I, Austin, ever fought such a ridiculous battle? Fifty thousand against five hundred? And the one leading them is a mere woman?*
The Priest of the Fire God said.
"My goodness! Their walls are as wretched as their city. This wall before us looks like a worm lying in a valley. The Wrath of our Fire God will easily tear this worm to shreds."
Count Austin checked the position of the sun in the sky and said.
"It's almost noon. I expect this battle to be over within two hours!"
"As you wish!"
Following the Priest of the Fire God's words, several of his subordinate generals shouted loudly.
"As you wish!"
The priest cried out.
"Prepare the trebuchets! Prepare the Wrath of the Fire God! Let these Eastern clowns feel the might of the heavens and the earth, the meaning of annihilation and death! Tear down that Eastern wall before us!"
At the command, Count Austin's army prepared for battle. Four or five men operated each medium trebuchet, straining to pull back the levers before placing a bundle of gunpowder on top. Zhang Chunhua, using a rather crude telescope, watched all of this from the top of the wall.
Using trebuchets was not strange, but the objects being placed in them were. Zhang Chunhua instantly recalled Shen Lang's warning that the Fire God Sect already possessed gunpowder and had previously launched fireworks, so they had to be on guard. Could it be that the enemy was planning to launch bundles of gunpowder instead of stones?
Zhang Chunhua now knew a great deal about gunpowder. If that was black powder, its destructive power against the wall wouldn't be very significant. Black powder only reached its maximum destructive potential when detonated in a confined space.
"Everyone, get down!"
Zhang Chunhua gave the order, and two officers relayed it. Instantly, all five hundred soldiers arrayed along the three-thousand-meter wall dropped to the ground.
"Don't press your hearts to the ground."
Zhang Chunhua commanded again. Her orders were highly professional. In truth, however, she hardly needed to give the command; the warriors of the Eastern Corps and the Roland Knights were extremely experienced.
"Fire! Fire!"
The Priest of the Fire God gave the command.
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.*
Thirty trebuchets launched thirty primitive bundles of gunpowder with great force. Although they were medium trebuchets, the gunpowder bundles were not very heavy, so they only flew a distance of three hundred meters. Several Priests of the Fire God watched with great anticipation. The Wrath of the Fire God was about to descend upon the world. A world-shaking explosion would soon erupt, surely causing the Easterners to collapse in terror, and the Wrath of the Fire God would utterly tear apart the three-thousand-meter wall before them.
The Priest of the Fire God glanced at Count Austin. His meaning was crystal clear.
*Just wait for the miracle, Count Austin.*
The thirty bundles of gunpowder flew three hundred meters in an instant and plummeted to the ground.
*BOOM!*
It was indeed a shocking chain of explosions. A single bundle exploding wasn't that impressive, but with thirty detonating at once, the spectacle was certainly astonishing. The entire ground shook, and in an instant, the six-li wall seemed to vanish, shrouded in thick black smoke. Even the warhorses of Count Austin's cavalry reared and bucked in alarm.
The priest said.
"Your Excellency, did you see that? That is the power of the Wrath of the Fire God. I believe none of the enemy are left alive. Let them repent in hell. That wretched wall has probably been reduced to dust."
Count Austin frowned. The explosion was certainly impressive, but he believed the true romance of the battlefield lay in leading his knights in a charge to slaughter the enemy army. If future wars were fought by simply blowing up the enemy from a distance, what would be the point?
"Your Excellency, once the smoke clears, you will see what a true hellscape looks like. These Easterners have never witnessed such a divine weapon in their lives. They must have been blown to bits and scattered in terror. From this day forward, this fear will be etched deep into their souls, and they will never again dare to set foot in the Western world."
* * *
The smoke from the black powder was too thick, and being in a mountain valley, it took a long time to disperse. When their vision cleared, a bewildering sight greeted Count Austin and his men. The wall was still there, completely intact. Count Austin looked at the Priest of the Fire God.
*What is this? Didn't you put on a grand performance for me before? Didn't a single bundle of gunpowder reduce a house to dust in an instant? This time, thirty Wraths of the Fire God exploded, yet there's not a single crack in the enemy's wall.*
The Priest of the Fire God said.
"Your Excellency, the men on the wall must all be dead. There are different types of the Wrath of the Fire God—some for killing enemy soldiers, others for destroying buildings."
A moment later, another humiliating scene unfolded. As Shen Lang's five hundred soldiers got up from the ground, there were very few casualties among them. Count Austin was stunned.
*Such a terrifying explosion just now, and it couldn't even kill the enemy? How could this be?*
Indeed. Why was the result so meager despite the rather shocking visual effect of the exploding gunpowder bundles they had just launched? There were several reasons. First, the accuracy of the trebuchets was too low. Though the gunpowder was aimed at the wall, most of the bundles rolled to the ground, exploding at the base instead of on the wall itself. This wall wasn't extremely sturdy, but it was still over a meter thick, built with cement and brick. Yet each gunpowder bundle contained at most about twenty catties of black powder. Moreover, since it wasn't a confined environment, the explosive energy dispersed into the air. What kind of power could it possibly exert on a wall over a meter thick? Let's not forget that when Jin Mulan attacked Zhenxi City, she had to use over three thousand catties of black powder in a confined hole in the city gate just to blow half of it apart.
Second, even if four bundles of gunpowder landed on the wall, they didn't explode instantly. As mentioned, three of them fell to the base of the wall; only one actually exploded on the wall itself. A single bundle contained about twenty catties of powder and exploded on the ground. With Shen Lang's soldiers lying prone, how much damage could it really do? It inflicted burns on a dozen or so men, but not a single person was actually killed by the explosion.
Seeing the scene before him, Count Austin said coldly.
"Priest, is this the Wrath of the Fire God you spoke of?"
The priest himself was baffled, unable to comprehend the result, but it wasn't entirely his fault. In the Fire God Sect, the alchemists were responsible for making the gunpowder, while the priests were in charge of weaponizing it. This was the first time the Fire God Sect had used gunpowder in actual combat.
*Why is it like this? The tests showed astonishing power before. Why has it become so pathetic now?*
"Your Excellency, please wait. We have another weapon."
Count Austin said.
"I cannot understand why Paki trusts and values you people so much. However, I will give you one more chance. If you fail again, leave everything to us."
"Please watch closely, Your Excellency."
Soon, the Priest of the Fire God waved his hand, and hundreds of Fire God Sect warriors appeared, pushing hundreds of handcarts. If Shen Lang had seen this, he would have been utterly astonished and shouted.
*What?! How incredible is the Fire God Sect to have created rocket launchers (砲車: a cart with a device for launching things like stones; a piece of combat equipment) so quickly?*
Each handcart was fitted with nine tubes, and each tube held a fire arrow. Of course, these weren't modern fire arrows but ancient ones—large arrows over two meters long, with something like a large firecracker tied to the shaft. Zhang Chunhua couldn't help but be surprised by the sight. This weapon of the Fire God Sect looked immense. She didn't know exactly what it was, but it looked incredibly formidable, like an ancient Katyusha rocket launcher.
"Ignite!"
At the priest's command, an unbelievably astonishing scene unfolded.
*Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh.*
The scene truly resembled the firing of a Katyusha. Arrow after arrow, trailing long flames, shot madly toward the wall hundreds of meters away. With nine arrows per cart, hundreds of carts launched thousands of fire arrows in a single, frenzied volley. It was as if thousands of meteors were raining down all at once. The visual effect was absolutely piss-your-pants spectacular. Not out of fear, but out of sheer awe. On modern Earth, military rocket launcher displays usually only fire about a hundred at a time. But here, thousands of fire arrows were launched at once with a whooshing sound—it was a magnificent sight. Count Austin stared blankly at the spectacle.
*What has war become? Still, isn't this romantic in its own way?*
Like Count Austin, Zhang Chunhua also stared blankly at the scene, with only one thought in her mind.
*That Priest of the Fire God is just as full of hot air as Shen Lang.*
"Everyone, crouch down!"
Zhang Chunhua commanded. In fact, Shen Lang had already experimented with weapons like fire arrows long ago and had quickly abandoned them. They looked impressive, but in terms of combat effectiveness? Using them to attack a dense enemy formation wasn't so bad, but to demolish a wall? What kind of genius came up with that idea?