The enemy's arrows rained down incessantly, and the Iron Man Army's footsteps on the ground were getting closer and closer, and even the sound of their heavy breathing could be faintly felt in a trance, which made the deputy battalion commander of the Thunderbolt Army who was commanding suddenly confused. Just as he was about to give the order to open full fire, a voice suddenly sounded next to him: "Don't panic, everyone, the enemy will open fire when he gets closer." The deputy battalion commander turned his head and saw that the speaker was a newly promoted company commander who had just returned from training at the Military Academy. When he came back to report for duty, the company commander had said at a dinner that Ouyang Xuan mentioned in a lecture at the Military Academy that a new type of musket ammunition was currently being developed, because he believed that the current black powder was not powerful enough, and if the musket was too far away, it would not be enough to break through the enemy's iron armor. To deal with an enemy equipped with iron armor, you need to shoot at close range or increase the amount of gunpowder.

Although the Iron Man was heavily armoured, the distance of fifty meters was not far for the charging soldiers, and after a few breaths, they rushed to more than ten meters in front of the Thunderbolt formation. At this time, the deputy battalion commander of the Thunderbolt Army had regained his composure, and under his command, a dense burst of gunfire rang out, and dozens of grenades flew into the new annex formation. In the smoke of gunpowder, a large number of soldiers of the new annex army fell, but most of the fallen were light infantry in leather armor or not armored, and only more than 20 people fell in the front of the Iron Man Army. The fallen Iron Men were all wounded by muskets fired at close range, and only a few were hit by grenade fragments in weak areas such as armpits, crotch, and joints. The current grenades of the Thunderbolts are not powerful enough to penetrate the iron armor, and although the muskets fired at close range can be penetrated, there are only eighty due to the low hit rate. At half the hit rate, a salvo could only hit about forty people, including many light infantry.

From the point of view of defense alone, these Iron Man troops are even stronger than the armored cavalry. Because considering the carrying capacity and mobility of horses, the heavy cavalry iron armor is lighter and thinner than the iron army. In order to minimize the impact of armor on mobility, the lower legs of the war horse are not equipped with iron armor but leather armor, and the four hooves and legs of the horse are the "Achilles heels" of the heavy cavalry, which is easy to be injured by grenade fragments and even cold weapons such as triangle iron and falls. The Iron Man Army's formation-breaking heavy infantry is covered with iron armor all over the body, and even the shoes are made of iron, except for the gaps in the eyes and nostrils. When the Song army dealt with the iron-clad gold soldiers and the Mongol army, they often selected archers to shoot them in the eyes with small arrows, or after pulling them to the ground with the help of large numbers, they stabbed them through the gap in the neck with their swords. The premise of the former method of cracking is that there are a large number of archers who are good at shooting, and the essence of the latter is to fill it with human lives. The hoplites, though inflexible, do not wait to be pulled up, and they also have support units by their side.

The forward of the reinforcements was only two hundred light infantry, and it was clear that it did not have the conditions to defeat these Iron Man armies. The number of people was secondary, most importantly the grenade was greatly reduced, and the musket only had time to fire one round before the Iron Man could charge. The Thunderbolts, armed with spears and shields, and muskets with bayonets, were clearly unable to withstand the onslaught of the Iron Man. "One armor tops three crossbows, and three armor enters the underworld", various dynasties do not ban knives and guns, but crossbows and armor are weapons strictly controlled by the government, because the combat effectiveness of soldiers with and without armor is not at the same level at all. The spears of the Thunderbolts are of high quality and extremely sharp, but they cannot pierce the armor of the Iron Man, while the spears of the Iron Man Army can easily pierce the Thunderbolts' iron-clad wooden shields and rattan armor. The spear is a piece of equipment that attacks the strong and defends the weak, and there is a saying of "one spear, three knives and eight arrows" in terms of lethality, which means that the damage of being stabbed by a spear is quite three times and eight arrows are shot. Equipped with iron armor and spears, the Iron Man Army has achieved both offensive and defensive capabilities, which can be called the pinnacle of infantry combat power.

The deputy battalion commander, who had calmed down, knew that it would be difficult to resist and that it would be difficult to retreat with all his body, and immediately ordered the spearmen and sword and shield men to cover the retreat of the musketeers. Eighty Thunderbolt soldiers were left behind to take on the task of blocking the attack, and although they fought bravely, stabbed with spears, and threw grenades incessantly, they had little effect on the approaching Iron Man. Most of the spears pierced on the iron armor were slid away, and even if they were pierced in the center, they only slightly deformed the iron armor pieces, causing the Iron Man soldiers in the middle of the spears to retreat again and again. The grenade was also ineffective, and due to the close proximity, the number of Iron Man soldiers killed and wounded was even lower than the number of allies accidentally wounded. In less than a quarter of an hour, the eighty Thunderbolt soldiers who were ordered to block the attack were killed in many battles, only to slow down the Iron Man's advance. Under their desperate resistance, only a few of the Thunderbolts were killed by the trailing feathered arrows, and most escaped.

After defeating the Thunderbolts, the Iron Man soldiers did not continue the pursuit, but stopped to rest, they were out of breath and sweating in the middle of winter in the fierce charge and battle just now. The rest of the new recruits were not idle, mending to the wounded Thunderbolts who were lying on the ground wailing, while forming a formation to protect the two flanks of the Iron Man array. Right behind them, Yang Wen'an was driving the soldiers of the new annex army to attack the fortress. Yang Wen'an was extremely annoyed by the repeated unfavorable attacks, and he killed two colonels and five deserters in a row, which allowed the tragic offensive to continue. The Thunderbolt cavalry in the fortress desperately resisted the attack with grenades, short muskets and even stones, and in just a quarter of an hour a quarter of the battle was killed, leaving only about thirty men. Yang Wenan saw that the Iron Man Army was facing the direction of Mianzhu, and the reinforcements of the Thunderbolt Army of the brigade were hurrying over, and the dust raised covered the official road behind the queue, and he was also anxious.

The reinforcements of the Thunderbolt Army stopped a mile in front of the Iron Man Army, and it was the brigade commander Zhou Jianshen who led the team. The officer who was ordered to evacuate the battlefield with the musketeers told Zhou Jianshen about the situation on the battlefield, and wept and told him that the deputy battalion commander had died, and that only this little was left of the two hundred brothers. Zhou Jianshen was taken aback after hearing the situation, and self-blame and regret suddenly came to his heart. He immediately ordered the whole army to stop advancing and begin to form a formation. The 1st Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Division had 1,500 people, and in addition to the personnel guarding the ferry and important strongholds, Zhou Jianshen brought all the soldiers and horses under his command who could move this time. Although the fortress ahead is fighting fiercely, it is necessary to solve the obstacles in front of you first. Although the vanguard under his command is only 200 people and lightly armed, the new annex army can break through the resistance in one round, and the combat power is really terrifying. Not to mention that Zhou Jianshen had never encountered such a strong enemy infantry, nor had any other generals of the Thunderbolt Army, he was an unprecedented opponent since the formation of the army.

Zhou Jianshen didn't dare to slack off, and immediately ordered to form a defensive formation. Although the march stopped, the thick dust continued to fill the way. Taking advantage of the smoke and dust, the Perak soldiers began to get busy, and some of them were building artillery positions with all hands and feet. Due to the capacity of artillery, the first brigade after the expansion was mostly equipped with light guns, with only a few heavy guns. This time, Zhou Jianshen left the heavy artillery that was difficult to transport in Mianzhu, and only brought light field artillery. These light guns had iron gun carriages on wheels and were hauled by mules and horses, which could keep up with the speed of the march and take less time to get into firing condition. While constructing artillery positions, the Thunderbolt soldiers also planted mines in front of the array and scattered a large number of triangular nails, which was standard practice against cavalry charges. The result of the encounter just now made Zhou Jianshen really dare not be careless.