Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1339 - 1332: Defeat the Reinforcements

Chapter 1339: Chapter 1332: Defeat the Reinforcements

Dongsheng’s military forces were obviously well-prepared this time, which was apparent even to the naked eye.

Through his binoculars, Cheng Ziang saw that the Dongsheng soldiers were clad in heavy armor with ferocious metal masks on their faces. They held lightweight metal round shields in their left hands and long knives in their right, clearly not intending to hold their ground.

Sure enough, as soon as the battle began, the Dongsheng forces launched an initial charge. Their heavy infantry’s armor was very heavy, so their charge wasn’t fast—it was more akin to a brisk march rather than a charge.

Facing the enemy’s charge, the Demon Clan’s army quickly showed signs of disarray, but soon stabilized under the commander’s direction. The front line of musketeers lowered their guns, aiming at the advancing Dongsheng soldiers a hundred meters away.

At the same time, the artillery brought by the Demon Clan’s military was actively setting up their cannons, ready to deliver a heavy blow to the approaching foe.

"Fire!" With the commander’s order, the first row of soldiers fired their guns.

Although the distance was over a hundred meters, making their aim quite pitiful, the effect of the volley was still significant. After the first round, at least dozens of Dongsheng heavy infantrymen fell. Indeed, the thick armor they wore could not perfectly protect them.

For every ten meters the Dongsheng troops advanced, they encountered a round of volley fire, and by the time they reached a distance of fifty meters, over two hundred had fallen. Yet, they continued to briskly advance, showing the strict discipline of Dongsheng’s army.

As the Dongsheng heavy cavalry pressed step by step, the Demon Clan’s troops leisurely changed formation and fired, their accuracy and power improving as distance decreased. Initially, a volley would down only dozens, but now each volley saw at least two hundred soldiers collapse.

Clearly, this attempt by the Dongsheng army was also destined to fail. The proactive attack by the heavy infantry was not an effective threat to the Demon Clan’s line infantry; instead, they suffered heavy losses under the simultaneous firepower of the Demon Clan.

But without orders to retreat, the Dongsheng forces continued to advance steadily. Without the existence of muskets, such heavy infantry would have been nearly invincible—perhaps only crossbows could pose a threat, and even light cavalry could not shake these formidable soldiers.

However, there were no such ifs. Faced with the formidable Dongsheng Empire’s military prowess, the Demon Clan’s army inventively developed the musket. By the time the Advance Team arrived, muskets had been in use in war for half a century.

It was indeed because of the musket that the Demon Clan and the High-peak people had a natural synergy. The Demon Clan had already conceived the concept of the musket; all the High-peak people needed to do was teach them how to effectively utilize the musket’s power.

Facing the advancing Dongsheng heavy infantry, the Demon Clan’s soldiers calmly reloaded their bullets and then opened fire in ranks. Each volley resulted in many falling; the path the Dongsheng troops took was littered with fallen bodies and wounded.

When the Dongsheng heavy infantry reached about twenty meters from the line infantry, the Demon Clan’s commander ordered the final shot to be fired, then commanded the ranks to turn and start an orderly retreat.

Seeing the Demon Clan’s army preparing to flee, the Dongsheng heavy infantry visibly suppressed their excitement and sped up their pursuit; their formation, which had maintained integrity despite constant attacks, suddenly became disordered.

However, all this played right into the hands of the Demon Clan’s army—they weren’t really retreating but feigning retreat to lure the Dongsheng forces into pursuit.

The Demon Clan’s troops retreated unhurriedly and finally stopped more than twenty meters behind their cannon positions. It was then that the Dongsheng forces realized the severity of the situation. The Demon Clan had prepared over fifty muzzle-loaded cannons, quietly waiting for their arrival.

At this moment, the Dongsheng heavy infantry was less than twenty meters from the Demon Clan’s cannon position, right within the effective range of the cannons. Following the Demon Clan’s artillery commander’s order, over fifty cannons continuously fired, and everything in front of the cannon muzzles was enveloped by the emitted smoke.

The Demon Clan’s artillery was meticulous about the ammunition they used, for instance, if the first cannon was loaded with solid shot, then the second would be loaded with canister shot, and so forth. However, overall, canister shots, which targeted infantry, were used more frequently.

With more than fifty cannons firing one after another, solid shots and a sky full of canister shots were aimed at Dongsheng’s heavy infantry standing over twenty meters away. Despite being clad in heavy armor, they couldn’t withstand the direct hits from the cannons.

A soldier hit in the waist by a solid shot was cut in half, one struck in the foot had it severed, and a headshot caused the head to explode; their thick armor could not protect them.

Besides, the canister shots inflicted great carnage on these heavy infantry. More than thirty cannons fired canister shots that blanketed the sky like hailstones shooting towards the enemy, and just one sweep across was enough to bring down a line of heavy infantry. The Demon Clan’s artillery played a pivotal role at this moment.

Under the barrage of cannons, Dongsheng’s army formation, already in disarray, quickly collapsed. The battlefield became extremely chaotic in an instant, filled with shouting and screams of agony, accompanied by eerie wails.

After the continuous cannon fire, the Demon Clan’s artillerymen began loading their cannons to prepare for the second round of firing. At the same time, the first rank of the infantry, on the commander’s order, ran in front of the cannons to form a line, and then fired in unison at the enemy.

After three volleys, the Demon Clan’s cannons had mostly finished loading, and then they fired again. This time, the seemingly invincible Dongsheng heavy infantry lost their will to fight and began to retreat in an organized manner.

Once all fifty cannons had fired, under the commander’s order, the Demon Clan’s infantry soldiers began shouting and charged with bayonets at the fleeing Dongsheng troops.

The Dongsheng commander tried to maintain morale, but organizing a disintegrated army was not easy. Even after he executed two fleeing soldiers, he couldn’t restore the army’s morale.

Moreover, running was contagious. When the front ranks started to collapse, the troops at the back initially held their ground for a while, but soon they too joined the retreat. Three thousand reinforcements were routed, running away in complete disarray and abandoning their gear.

The Dongsheng commander watched in dismay as an infantryman from the Demon Clan thrust a dagger into a strong Dongsheng heavy infantryman. Feeling the collapse of his forces was like a crumbling mountain, he had no choice but to accept the fact and flee on horseback.

Thus, the Demon Clan’s army nearly won a bloodless victory, annihilating over three thousand Dongsheng reinforcements and capturing or killing more than eight hundred, securing another great victory.

Meanwhile, Ziye Ning’s Dongsheng garrison finally realized the fact that the Demon Clan had divided their forces and decided to take the initiative to attack.

However, to their despair, despite facing only half of the previous sieging infantry, they were beaten severely, leaving more than five hundred dead as they retreated in disarray back into the city.

Neither fighting nor fleeing was an option for the Dongsheng garrison who could only hunker down in the city and continuously sent requests for reinforcements. However, any Dongsheng troops dispatched that were not cavalry were intercepted and defeated by another Demon Clan army.

In this back-and-forth, not only did Dongsheng’s forces not gain any ground, but they also lost thousands of soldiers. In this situation, the Dongsheng commander finally decided to abandon Ziye Ning, leaving the garrison to fend for themselves.

In Cheng Ziang’s view, abandoning Wufeng City for Ziye Ning seemed to be one of Xuan’s plans; otherwise, why had he not sent cavalry to reinforce them during the siege?

Based on the current battle examples, Dongsheng’s forces sent were almost exclusively infantry, with only a few light cavalry who mainly served as scouts and were not meant for battle.

Indeed, after more than a month of fighting, the Demon Clan’s military capabilities had been fully tested. But the only regret was that they had yet to confront Dongsheng’s cavalry, so they were also eager to see if their nearly invincible infantry could withstand a charge, especially from heavy cavalry.

The Demon Clan soldiers changed color whenever Dongsheng cavalry was mentioned, so Cheng Ziang had reason to believe that Dongsheng’s cavalry must be a formidable force, potentially even a match for the invincible infantry of West Outer Heaven.