The white flag of Jiannu was the first contact with the new army. Therefore, in the Battle of Liushakou, they behaved very poorly, and they should treat us as if we were Ming troops.

Although shocked by the fact that the cavalry was beaten like that, the Houjin infantry continued to fight as usual. Most of the Jiannu were lined up under the command of Niu Lu Ezhen, with the sword players in the first row, and spears sticking out of their gaps. An iron spear head was mounted on top of a spear about a zhang long, and it shone with a white cold light in the light of the morning sun. At the front of them, several rows of archers, holding the Yali Bow flat, waited for our troops to approach and began to shoot.

The orderly infantry line approached step by step, and a few soldiers left the line and wandered more than ten meters in front. They were specialized hunters, selected from the entire army with excellent marksmanship, and were responsible for fighting the enemy's skirmishers outside the battle line. Opposite them were the stragglers of the first line of Jiannu, seventy or eighty in all, who had advanced to fifty paces away from them, and some of them had already drawn their arrows.

Unlike the Jiannu skirmishers, these chasseurs were not very scattered like their opponents, but were distributed in groups of three or five under the command of non-commissioned officers, distributed on both flanks of the battle line. At a distance of fifty meters, they first raised their flintlock pistols and fired at the selected target. Seven or eight Jiannu fell in response.

The hunters then slung their rifles on their backs and removed their crossbows. It was an old antique that had been shipped all the way from Australia, probably stored in a warehouse in the last century, and was older than everyone present. If we look at the age of its design, it can even be traced back to the period of the Divine Arm Crossbow (Note 1).

Of course, things like bows and crossbows, three hundred years ago and now, have not changed much.

In front of Jiannu, the hunters stepped on their crossbow arms under their feet, pulled the bowstring together with both hands, and mounted the three-edged arrows and aimed the crossbow at each other. This kind of crossbow shot specifically for the Mongols' cowardly Xue army can penetrate the armor of the iron cavalry within 30 meters, and the cotton armor or chain mail of Jiannu can be effectively penetrated at a distance of 60 meters. In addition to its high cost and difficulty in training shooters, it was not inferior to the flintlock pistol.

The sound of crossbow strings flicking rang out one after another. At the whistle of the non-commissioned officers, the hunters of each group pulled the trigger at the same time. After a gentle sound of breaking the air, the sharp arrow passed through a space of more than thirty meters, making a tooth-aching sound in the body of the Houjin Balladeer.

The powerful crossbow arrows easily pierced the cotton or chain mail of the Houjin soldiers, piercing the skin of the chest and abdomen, and slicing through the tight flesh. If there are exactly a few bones in the path of the crossbow arrow, it can also viciously break Bai Sensen's bones in two. More than a dozen Houjin stragglers screamed and fell to the ground, a few of them were unfortunate enough not to die immediately, but could still feel the wonderful touch of blood gushing down the triangular wound in the last stages of their lives.

The Houjin stragglers also loosened their bowstrings and fired heavy arrows at the hunters. In order to be flexible, the armor worn by the hunters was much lighter than that of the regular battle line soldiers. Faced with heavy arrows shot from more than two dozen paces away, several unlucky hunters were hit in the weak spots of their armor and fell to the ground with a muffled grunt.

The wounded hunters did not have time to scream, they immediately threw away their heavy crossbow arrows and rolled to the sides of the team with all their might. The Medic, with a white armband on his arm, bent over and trotted to them, grabbing the hunter's hands and dragging them away. Only after leaving the infantrymen's advance route did the medics have time to lift the wounded and transport them to the rear to treat their wounds.

This confrontation is undoubtedly a big loss for the Houjin stragglers. According to post-war statistics, about 70 to 75 percent of the hunters did not break through their armor with their bows and arrows. About half of the actually wounded hunters were not fatally wounded.

Ten minutes after the stragglers on both sides fired at each other, Zhu Guobin's infantry and Jiannu brigade were already close to the decisive battle distance of 200 meters. The stragglers on both sides dispersed in good understanding, leaving the battlefield to the approaching infantry.

When the hunters with arrows in their bodies left, all the soldiers could clearly see the Jiannu on the opposite side. At this moment, the Jiannu had already begun to trot, and there were about a hundred archers with swords hanging from their waists in the front, running towards us with bows and arrows in their forearms.

Fang Hai beside me cast a look at me, and I shook my head, signaling that there was no need to request hot air balloon support. In the face of this ordinary Houjin infantry, consuming the only incendiary bombs on the hot air balloon is really worth the loss.

"Get ready to fight! Get out of line! Zhu Guobin issued a loud order. As the trumpeter blew the horn, the company commanders quickly walked to the left side of the group and raised their drawn sabers alof. The infantry, which had been advancing in a column trot, quickly spread out to the flanks, and in less than ten seconds it changed into three horizontal rows.

"Kill!" More than 400 people shouted at the same time. At the roar, the soldiers of the first row knelt down on one knee, the soldiers of the second row bent slightly, and the soldiers of the third row stood upright. More than 400 rifles stretched out from the gap between the people's bodies, and the muzzle of the black hole pointed motionlessly at the Houjin army that was rushing. The platoon commanders held the knives in one hand in front of their chests, and their left hands were tightly attached to the trouser line, waiting for Zhu Guobin's order.

Another flare was fired from the camp at the mouth of the quicksand in the rear of the Houjin army. Soon, the Houjin Soldier Brigade on the opposite side became chaotic. I stood on my horse, crossed the Houjin Brigade and looked behind. There, more than 200 surviving soldiers of the Rock Battalion were rushing out of the dilapidated camp under the leadership of Huang Stone and attacking Jiannu's back.

Now the Jiannu must make a choice: whether to defeat us forward or defeat Huang Stone backwards. In the eyes of our soldiers, a tall Jiannu wearing silver-white armor shouted a few times. Soon, the originally hesitant Jiannu advanced towards our army again. They chose to fight us first, probably because they felt that we were more dangerous and did not dare to give us their backs.

The Jiannu archers in the front row began to shoot. They did not dare to approach our troops, but only dared to use light arrows to throw. In the face of the steel armor, these fluttering arrows were useless, clanging on the armor. After the Jiannu archers had shot more than ten rounds, the armor soldiers in the back row began to advance. More than sixty meters away, the clanging sound of iron armor and armor leaves colliding with each other sounded. The heads of the Jiannu Front were towering, and the dense armor and helmets reflected countless points of light in the early morning sun. Some scattered Houjin soldiers held three-eyed guns and bird guns in their hands, and riskily rushed to a place of more than 30 meters and opened fire. Birds at this distance could already inflict damage on our troops, and several soldiers were pierced through their armor and fell backwards into the arms of their comrades screaming.

But all the warriors remained calm, like three rows of wooden men. The chasseurs on both flanks gathered fire and killed the Houjin soldiers who were too close.

Zhu Guobin motionlessly looked at the Houjin infantry who were getting closer and closer. The nervousness made his adrenaline rush faster, his face turned red, and his right hand gripped the hilt of the knife. Finally, he was convinced that Jiannu had stepped into the forty-meter death line.

"Fire!"

With a roar, the company commanders and Zhu Guobin swung their sabers forward together. Three pale plumes of smoke instantly appeared in front of the infantry. Due to the close proximity, these rich white smoke mixed together, like a white wall that suddenly appeared, separating the two sides from view.

The 13-millimeter-diameter lead bullet flew over a distance of forty meters after a fraction of a second, easily tearing through the cotton armor and chain mail of the rear Jin soldiers, deforming and disintegrating in their bodies, forming a cavity effect, and the blood of the wounded spurted out of the body along those holes, turning into strands of blood arrows. The originally dense Houjin team fell down in an uproar. The sword player standing in front of him fell head-on like a scarecrow in a typhoon, and the fragments of his shield flew up.

This round of blows caused about a hundred people to fall in the Houjin array. There was a continuous scream and wail from the much empty Houjin ranks, and the survivors who had narrowly escaped death let out a mad howl. In a hell of blood and broken limbs, no one can remain calm. Some of the Jiannu broke away from the group, screaming and lunging at us; Most of them stayed where they were, looking like they wanted to run but didn't dare to run.

At this point, my heart was already relaxed. Houjin's long-range firepower has always been average, and the casualties caused by symbolic light arrows and a very small number of bird guns are only in the single digits. Such a terrible casualty ratio is unbearable for Houjin.

The only two tiger cannons roared, spraying more than a hundred buckshot bullets at the rushing Jiannu. In the rain of blood, the infantry in a neat line had already stood up with shouts, strode under the leadership of the officer, and rushed towards the disorganized Jiannu with bayonets.

"Assault of the whole army!"

"Hooray!"

The total collapse of the Houjin infantry began. The thin front could not resist the cluster charge of the bayonet infantry, and Jiannu, who was stunned by the volley, did not have the slightest belief in counterattack. Less than ten percent of the three or four hundred Jiannu dared to resist, and the rest fled backwards in panic like sheep hunted by wolves, discarding their weapons and armor along the way, trying to run faster.

The He Bao swordsmen, who had rested for a while, rushed out from both sides of the infantry phalanx with cheers. The cavalry, with their horses on four legs, quickly left behind the infantry who had slain the stubborn enemy. The cavalrymen in silver-white cuirasses spread out and stood in stirrups, with their buttocks cocked, their upper bodies leaning forward, holding the reins in their left hand and their sabers in their right. When the horses caught up with the fleeing Jiannu from the left rear, the knights smiled and raised their sabers, skimmed over Jiannu's neck with a light sweep, and cut off a head with a pig's tail whip from the neck.