Chapter 45: The Landing Battle (Part I)

Ever since the world entered the age of firearms, at some point, the various types of armor of the past gradually faded from military inventories—referring, of course, to human forces. On battlefields dominated by artillery and muskets, the defensive value of armor, even steel plate armor, plummeted drastically. In the era of cold weapons, heavy infantry clad in iron cans could advance while taking multiple bow and crossbow hits, but facing the iron balls and canister shot of artillery, they were reduced to nothing more than iron coffins.

Armor could indeed offer some protection against smaller-caliber muskets at long distances where steel plate could not be penetrated, which was precisely the origin of the cuirassier.

However, one must remember the appalling accuracy of muskets in this era. Unless a commander was completely out of their mind, every military formation would withhold fire until the enemy was within dozens of paces. At such close range, regardless of plate or steel armor, every shot punched a hole, and a hit practically meant a one-way ticket to the afterlife. Of course, if one was lucky enough to charge into unarmored enemy troops in a full suit of iron to engage in melee combat, the advantage was still immense!

Yet, even the lightest half-plate armor added a heavy burden to ordinary soldiers. Fighting in it might be fine, but if they attempted a running charge... by the time they reached the enemy, they would hardly have any stamina left to kill anyone.

Lacking the stamina to swiftly break through the enemy's firepower net, infantry wearing heavy armor practically vanished from the battlefield, save for elite cavalry mounted on superior warhorses who could launch rapid assaults while continuing to wear cuirasses. The old pikemen who once wore half-armor abandoned it; following the invention of paper-cartridge flintlocks and bayonets, infantry plate armor essentially exited the history books.

This was precisely why the line infantry recruited by Sun Li wore no armor at all! Of course, if the enemy were entirely equipped with bows and crossbows from the cold-weapon era, Sun Li would have been more than delighted to equip all his soldiers with plate armor, even if he had to pay twice the gold coins!

Against an army reliant on cold weapons, plate armor remained exceptionally effective.

However, Hu Hei and the soldiers of his infantry regiment now watched as an entire dwarf army charged forward wearing plate armor and steel helmets!

Could the constitution of these short-legged little fellows really be so monstrous that they could carry tens of pounds of weight through a sprinting charge and still retain sufficient stamina for close-quarters combat?

As it turned out, that was indeed the case. The dwarf race was entirely different from humans—so different that even mating could not produce offspring...

Well, that is beside the point. My meaning is that the dwarf race seemed to embody the adage that the best things come in small packages, and their stamina and explosive strength left humans trailing several blocks behind!

The issue of the heavy plate armor's weight was of no consequence to elite dwarf soldiers, giving rise to the heavy musketeers unique to the Dwarven Empire in the age of firearms.

In truth, these plate armors served little purpose in exchanges of musket fire; their seemingly formidable protection was mostly just psychological comfort. However, when these iron-clad dwarf soldiers closed in for melee bayonet combat, they became terrifyingly formidable!

When soldiers clad in plate armor fought unarmored troops in hand-to-hand combat, leaving aside the factor of stamina, they could essentially overpower and suppress the unarmored enemy!

Naturally, a dwarf's stamina was not infinite either; if the melee dragged on too long, their strength would eventually be exhausted, for tens of pounds of dead weight were no mere decoration.

To escape the naval gunfire of the Song Empire as quickly as possible, the dwarf soldiers before Hu Hei abandoned their disciplined formations, casting aside orderly lines to charge forward in a scattered rush for sheer speed. They apparently had no intention of engaging in a musket duel, opting instead to plunge straight into the brutal phase of bayonet combat!

Judging by this posture, it was far more formidable than the Russian gray cattle charging with bayonets from a hundred paces away back on Earth!

At this moment, even if the Song forces possessed a mere hundred cavalrymen to launch a surprise attack against the scattered charging formation of the dwarves, coordinated with an advancing infantry push, those dwarf soldiers would have been decisively routed!

Well, warhorses were such precious commodities that unloading them onto a contested landing beachhead was no easy feat.

Naturally, with the Song beachhead still unstable, only this single infantry regiment had managed to land.

"Form up, line formation!" Seeing that the dwarf soldiers had broken free of the naval bombardment zone, Hu Hei brandished his command saber and ordered the infantry regiment to deploy into three-rank line formations, using a shallow depth and a broad front to compensate for their numerical disadvantage. Meanwhile, soldiers continuously pouring down the landing ramps reinforced the ranks, making this thin line appear somewhat more substantial.

After leaving behind at least a thousand corpses along the way, several thousand dwarf troops finally approached the Song infantry square.

"For the revival of the Dwarven Empire! Charge! Long live the Dwarven Empire!" shouted the dwarf officer, encouraging his men once more as they rushed into the firing range of the Song soldiers.

"Long live the Dwarven Empire!"

"Long live the Dwarven Empire!"

As the fanatical cries spread, these elite dwarf soldiers lowered their bayoneted flintlocks and charged toward Hu Hei's infantry regiment with grim determination.

"Present arms!"

"Present arms!" echoed the Song infantry, repeating the command down the line to spread it throughout the entire regiment. With no acoustic amplifiers like megaphones on the battlefield, commands could only be transmitted through the synchronized shouting of the soldiers.

Amidst the cries of readiness, a forest of muskets was raised and prepared.

"Ready!"

No sooner had the officer given the order than the soldiers swiftly formed three firing ranks: the first rank knelt, the second half-knelt, and the third stood upright!

Every soldier aimed their musket through the sights at the rapidly approaching dwarf troops, waiting only for the commander's word to pull the trigger.

Though Hu Hei could not fathom why the dwarf soldiers possessed such extraordinary stamina, it did not prevent him from taking sensible countermeasures against the enemy. Watching this flock of fleet-footed little men, he knew his troops would only have time for a single coordinated volley, which meant he naturally had to let them close the distance before letting them have it!

Fifty paces, forty paces, thirty paces!

The dwarf officer leading the charge had expected to face an enemy volley starting from fifty paces, but as they crossed into the thirty-pace mark, the Song soldiers remained as unyielding as statues.

Although the enemy had yet to fire, the terror in the dwarf officer's eyes steadily mounted as the distance closed. As a race born to firearms, the dwarves were painfully aware of the devastating potency of muskets at close range!

And Hu Hei did not disappoint the dwarf soldiers.

"Open fire!"

Bang, bang, bang...

Following the volley delivered at the maximum lethality range within thirty paces, entire ranks of unlucky dwarf soldiers in the vanguard were instantly mown down mid-charge, as if a layer had been sheared off the entire dwarf attacking formation!

However, the massive casualties failed to strike fear into the surviving dwarf soldiers. On the contrary, most of the survivors let out a breath of relief and accelerated to their absolute limit. At this speed, the Song soldiers simply did not have time to execute a second volley!

"Throw grenades!" Seeing the dwarf soldiers maintaining their reckless speed without the slightest reduction, stepping over the corpses of their fallen comrades and rushing forward with unwavering resolve, the officers at all levels immediately issued the order to throw grenades.

Consequently, when the dwarf soldiers were mere dozen paces away, they were completely upended by rows of grenades raining down from the skies!

Even though black-powder grenades fell far short of the destructive power of World War I high explosives, their sheer volume dealt a crippling blow to the dwarf soldiers. Under the explosive shockwaves of the gunpowder, the protective qualities of the plate armor they wore fell far short of its hardened exterior; numerous dwarf soldiers were directly blasted to death or concussed within their iron shells!

The dwarf commander directing the rear watched as the Song soldiers executed three rapid waves of grenade throws, churning through the entire dwarf formation time and again. For the first time, a doubt crept into his mind—perhaps they truly could not drive the Song forces back into the sea this time. The enemy had merely landed a single infantry regiment, yet they already radiated such overwhelming lethality!

Though battered and battered into a sorry state by the grenades, the dwarf soldiers held fast to the conviction of inevitable dwarf victory, forcing their bodies to stand. Under the explosions, the dwarf army could no longer maintain its charging momentum, but these stubborn soldiers still hauled themselves up from the ground. Before their minds had fully cleared from the lingering shockwaves of the blasts, they gripped their weapons tightly, ready to resume combat at any moment. Remarkably, despite being battered wave after wave by a deluge of grenades, the entire dwarf charging column showed no signs of retreat or collapse!

Hu Hei had no intention of squandering this window of weakened combat effectiveness among the dwarf soldiers. Almost as soon as the grenade barrages ceased, Hu Hei brandished his command saber and led his bayonet-fixed soldiers straight into the massive gaps torn through the dwarf ranks!

"Victory to the Song! Long live His Majesty the Emperor!" Roaring slogans to boost morale, Hu Hei took the lead, charging directly toward the foremost dwarf who was just scrambling to his feet. Giving the dazed dwarf soldier no chance to react, Hu Hei swung his command saber with all his might, cleanly severing the dwarf's massive head. Kicking the headless corpse aside, Hu Hei plunged into the slaughter, stained entirely in blood!

In cold-weapon warfare, from time immemorial, everything revolved around one supremely vital concept: formation, formation, and formation!

Only with a disciplined and orderly formation could one secure the advantage and ultimate victory in battle! Well, that referred to infantry, of course—as for cavalry, having powerful momentum alone made them formidable enough!

Orderly formations, diverse formations, and so forth typically meant a force could simply roll right over scattered enemies. However, that was because enemies incapable of maintaining disciplined formations usually lacked discipline and training. What happened, then, if a well-disciplined, well-equipped force of scattered troops encountered tightly ordered ranks?

In the first round of engagement, the Song soldiers formed a thicket of bayonets, skewering those charging dwarf soldiers—even the ones whose minds were not fully clear—into bloody flesh-gourds!

The Song infantry regiment, having just launched its charge, shot and stabbed all the leading dwarf soldiers straight into the dirt!

Yet, the dwarf soldiers were numerous and deep; there were plenty more troops further back who had not been baptized by grenades!

After a few minutes of slaughter, the force led by Hu Hei finally encountered a genuine, hard-fought battle!