Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 156 - 151: The Saber for Slaying Horses

Chapter 156: Chapter 151: The Saber for Slaying Horses

"The true power of heavy cavalry..." Zhao Haiping sighed in reflection.

Previously, the players had all been on top of the city walls, watching as the demons forcibly drove heavy cavalry to lay siege to the city, not feeling threatened by these formidable war machines. In fact, they found the sight of these beasts dismounting to attack rather comical.

But now, facing off against heavy cavalry with their flesh and blood, they truly understood what kind of deadly force they were up against.

In the age of cold weapons, infantry going head-to-head with cavalry was almost the equivalent of modern soldiers squaring off against tanks.

Chuge nodded, "Yes.

"And what we are facing is not the peak of the Northern Barbarian cavalry, but their weakened state.

"After the founding of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the Northern Barbarians were driven back to the Desert North Grassland for the first time since Liang, achieving a powerful control over the North.

"And because they were expelled from the Central Plains and their strength declined, the Northern Barbarian cavalry’s equipment was severely weakened, reverting to a state of iron scarcity, so the quantity and quality of heavy cavalry also diminished.

"The Northern Barbarian cavalry we are facing now is actually the cavalry encountered by General Deng during his defense of the Northern Border. These cavalrymen are relatively poorly equipped and there were even instances during the mid to late Great Sheng era where they invaded simply to rob iron pots."

Zhao Haiping couldn’t help but stare, dumbfounded: "How terrifying were the Northern Barbarian cavalry at their peak? Weren’t they utterly unbeatable?"

Chuge explained, "It’s not that they were completely without counter, the only way is to also form a powerful force of heavy cavalry. For example, in the early days of the Great Sheng Dynasty, they countered the Northern Barbarian cavalry with heavy cavalry while also accomplishing a dimensionality reduction strike with the advantage of firearms.

"However, such a scene will probably only be seen when the instance of the early Great Sheng era opens.

"I wonder when the game will allow the cavalry troop to be unlocked, so players can also organize a mighty cavalry force of their own."

As the two of them spoke, they continued to pay attention to the battle inside the city.

One by one, the front row of martial soldier players fell, but soon after, other martial soldier players from the back took their place.

Players from other areas within the city also began to continuously draw reinforcements, and the size of the spear formations grew larger and larger, with both sides entering a very cruel tug-of-war.

The first wave of Northern Barbarian cavalry to charge had mostly fallen dead on the spot, but the front row of martial soldier players had almost all been killed or wounded. Many of the Barbarian soldiers who fell from their mounts did not die; with their bodies armored and bolstered by demonic energy, they remained formidable fighters, directly swinging their curved swords in combat with the players.

Moreover, after the death of the warhorses, their corpses on the ground also obstructed the battlefield. The subsequent heavy cavalry could no longer exert their powerful charge, and it was also difficult for the players to effectively use standing spears on the ground to cause damage to the Barbarian horsemen.

After the first wave of heavy cavalry charged, a substantial number of light cavalry also joined the battle, either shooting powerful bows at the players on the city walls from outside, or following behind the heavy cavalry to shoot at the martial soldiers inside the city, as well as at the archers and musketeers.

The battlefield became very chaotic.

Suddenly, a Northern Barbarian heavy cavalryman once again showed signs of demonic Qi gathering on his body, drawing the life-force from several nearby light cavalrymen and foot soldiers, causing his size to swell by several folds!

Compared to the giant who had drained several thousand Barbarian soldiers before, he still maintained the size of a normal man, possessing both agility and strength.

He raised the Barbarian curved sword high and actually managed to slash down more than a dozen martial soldiers, breaching the formidable spear formation!

Chuge’s expression changed, "Quick, block the gap!"

Players immediately rushed up to fill the gap in the formation, but the heavy cavalryman who had charged in was somewhat difficult to deal with.

In fact, for players to maintain their formation without breaking was a result that many ancient military commanders could only dream of.

In most cases, once a breach was made in the infantry formation by cavalry, subsequent events were the continued expansion of the breach and, ultimately, a collapse. After all, ordinary soldiers would be afraid and panic, and that fear would spread.

But the players could fill the gaps without hesitation, according to the original plan, completely disregardful of their own survival.

Only this enhanced heavy cavalryman was swinging his curved sword left and right, causing great chaos in the player’s rear, even threatening the lives of the scholars in the back.

Zhao Haiping leaped from on high, "You all spread out, leave it to me!"

The martial soldier players surrounding the heavy cavalryman immediately retreated, cautioning, "Be careful, it takes a lot to bring it down!"

These players had previously attempted to stab with long spears, but to little effect. After being strengthened by demonic energy, the heavy cavalryman’s ability to withstand hits had further increased. Plus, wearing iron armor, even if the spears pierced through gaps in the armor, they could hardly inflict significant damage.

Seeing enemies around him retreat, the Northern Barbarian heavy cavalryman chose to continue his relentless advance.

However, Zhao Haiping charged directly towards him.

The Northern Barbarian cavalryman did not care, merely raising his curved sword high. In his view, the person before him was no different from any other enemy he had encountered, just a few slashes would do the job.

Yet Zhao Haiping stood his ground firmly, with a brand-new weapon appearing in his hand.

No longer the standard long saber he had been using before, but a horse-chopping saber with an extremely long hilt!

This was a horse-chopping saber modified by General Deng in the later period of the Great Sheng Dynasty. It was crafted on the foundation of the traditional horse-chopping saber and also incorporated some advantages of the Yidao. The curve of the blade was slightly less than that of a typical Yidao, but it was over a foot longer, and the hilt reached half the length of the blade, approximately four to five palms long, affording a very comfortable grip for both hands.

Of course, this was the result of Zhao Haiping saving up money for a long time, going so far as to smash the pot to sell iron in order to buy it from the blacksmith.

Seeing the Northern Barbarian Cavalry about to charge towards him, Zhao Haiping took a deep breath and, with both hands, gripped his horse-chopping saber to meet the onslaught.

The sound of slicing air approached as a barbarian soldier’s curved blade hacked toward Zhao Haiping, who accurately gauged the distance and, in a critical moment, dodged to the side.

Then, using the momentum to twist his body, he swung the horse-chopping saber in his hands and violently struck the front legs of the battle horse!

With a "whoosh," the horse’s leg broke cleanly!

It must be said that the power of this horse-chopping saber was indeed great, not in vain given how much Zhao Haiping had spent on it.

This enhanced Northern Barbarian Cavalry instantly lost its footing and toppled to the ground.

If it were an ordinary cavalryman, this fall would have likely resulted in a concussion, but this soldier, having been augmented by demonic forces, quickly stood back up. Ignoring the horse that lay on the ground, he wielded his curved sword and charged at Zhao Haiping once more.

Bolstered by demonic energy, he stood over two meters tall; even dismounted, he still projected an overwhelming sense of pressure.

However, as he had just raised his curved sword, Zhao Haiping’s horse-chopping saber had already struck his right arm with incredible speed.

The right arm, armored as it was, wasn’t severed, but his curved sword swung at nothing.

There was indeed a significant difference in the length of their blades.

Immediately following, Zhao Haiping twisted his body and, with lightning speed, changed his maneuver, decapitating the heavy cavalryman with his horse-chopping saber.

The victory came so easily it left Zhao Haiping himself somewhat unresponsive.

Only when he saw the demonic qi gradually dissipating from the heavy cavalryman’s body did he confirm that this dismounted opponent was indeed so weak.

"My assessment is... they’re inferior to the Eastern Barbarian bandits."

Zhao Haiping felt quite disappointed by the combat skills of this heavy cavalryman.

Clearly, these Northern Barbarian heavy cavalrymen’s training was primarily focused on horseback, their physical strength formidable enough to assault infantry with a dimensional strike.

But once dismounted, their disadvantages were amplified.

On one hand, their full body armor hindered movement and they lacked training in ground combat tactics, their actual combat skills on foot far inferior to those well-trained Eastern Barbarian bandits; on the other hand, because their main weapons, the barbarian and curved swords, were one-handed, they needed to hold the reins with one hand in mounted combat, otherwise, a collision might send them tumbling from their horses.

Regarding their armor, though the Northern Barbarian Cavalry was clad in heavy armor, they were not encased like canned goods, and areas like the neck weren’t well-protected.

Thus, once on the ground, their weapon length and combat skills were at a disadvantage, and even with demonic force enhancement, they could not hold out for long.

In fact, the most dangerous moment for Zhao Haiping had been when he faced the heavy cavalryman’s charge—if he had failed to avoid the cavalryman’s curved sword or cut off the horse’s legs, he might now be the one lying on the ground.

But after so many battles against bandits with exquisite swordsmanship, Zhao Haiping’s own swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds, enabling him to defeat the heavy cavalryman with ease.

He briefly wiped the blood from his horse-chopping saber and continued to aid other players in defending the West City Gate.

...

The battle intensified.

Under the relentless charges of the Northern Barbarian Cavalry, the players’ spear formation was forced to keep retreating.

Fortunately, the West City Gate had been designed with these circumstances in mind, leaving ample buffer space, so although the Northern Barbarian Cavalry broke through, they were unable to expand their formation, and were still confined to a narrow area where they had to grind it out with the players.

The caltrops that Li Weiyi and the players, in collaboration with the craftsmen, had prepared were already in place at the west gate. These sharpened, interlocked wooden frames greatly impeded the movement of the military horses, stabilizing the players’ crumbling defensive line.

The militia players had suffered wave after wave of casualties, but they had finally managed to block the Northern Barbarian Cavalry’s charge.

Demons did not cease attacking the other three directions either; occasional assaults on the south, north, and east gates were all repelled by players lying in wait.

This battle had been ongoing for hours, with heavy losses on both sides.

But it was clear that the demons’ barbarian soldiers suffered greater losses and found them harder to bear!

To continue this way would lead to only one outcome—the players, relying on the advantageous terrain of the Restorer’s fortress, would exhaust all the barbarian troops.

Seeing that a new wave of barbarian attacks was slow to come, Chu Ge hastily directed the players to move the caltrops forward to rebuild the defense.

However, just then, the players upon the city walls noticed a change in the demons’ tactics.

Within the ranks of the Barbarians, copious amounts of demonic qi were being extracted from the soldiers and infused into a select few elites.

Soon, several giants of the same size as the Chiliarch who had busted through the West City Gate emerged in the Northern Barbarian army.

They took heavy steps and advanced towards the direction of the Restorer’s fortress.

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