Chapter 51: The Brutal Battle (Part IV)

Sun Li truly had his eyes opened this time. Since coming to this world, it was his first time witnessing the spectacle of heavy infantry marching in step while shouldering flintlocks. He had to admit that the dwarf soldiers, moving like a wall of iron, looked rather intimidating.

Firing muskets from a distance and transforming into elite close-combat heavy infantry in melee, the military aristocracy of the Franconian Empire—who valued honor above life—certainly did not lose unjustly!

As the enemy line infantry advanced, the artillery positions of the Song army naturally shifted their barrels toward these tin cans. Bombarding scattered dwarf artillery pieces was clearly not as satisfying as pounding these dense, closely packed rows of little iron men!

Spreading out dwarf artillery had its advantages, at least preventing the concentrated fire of the Song army from teaching that loose artillery position an unforgettable lesson in a single blow. However, whenever the dwarf army's artillery managed to strike the concentrated Song artillery positions, it generally inflicted decent casualties. This was the exact reason why the dwarf artillery, despite being at an absolute numerical disadvantage, still gritted its teeth and exchanged fire with the Song forces!

Yet, the moment the Minie riflemen forced the dwarf line infantry out into the open, this artillery duel—which looked spectacular but yielded mediocre killing efficiency—came to an end. While the stationary infantry array of the Song army continuously endured the feeble bombardment of the dwarf artillery, the advancing dwarf soldiers were forced to endure the relentless, concentrated crossfire from the Song army's dual artillery positions at every single moment!

Yes, Marshal Aegris finally understood why Sun Li had concentrated the artillery on both flanks!

Facing the advancing dwarf infantry, the Song artillery practically sent cannonballs into the crowds from all angles without a single blind spot, followed by limbs and body parts flying all over the sky. Just two rounds of shellfire were enough to completely render a dwarf infantry company combat-ineffective!

Well, a formation with two huge craters blasted right through its company could basically be considered retired from the combat sequence...

However, these dwarf soldiers displayed a level of discipline superior to that of the human world. A company was blasted to pieces? No problem; disband directly and fill into other formations. Even two companies crippled by explosions would sympathize with one another and merge into a single unit. Completely ignoring the gruesome corpses of their comrades all around them, they pressed forward!

Simple to say, but executing it heavily tested the soldiers' willpower and military competence! Soldiers lacking rigorous military training wouldn't even be able to reorganize a new battle line in a short time, even if they wanted to continue marching to their deaths.

Therefore, quite naturally, the advance of the dwarf line infantry inevitably plunged into slight disorder—well, just slight. So many dead bodies actually proved rather obstructive to an advancing formation...

Though their speed slowed somewhat, their forward pace showed not the slightest sign of altering, merely allowing the Song artillery to deliver another round or two of volley fire, leaving behind thousands of dwarf corpses...

Thus, stepping as if to a symphony of iron and blood, the dwarf line infantry finally entered within a hundred paces of the Song military formation!

Yet, the dwarf soldiers did not halt at seventy or eighty paces to engage in the European-style firing line executions that had recently grown fashionable, as normal musket duels dictated. They seemed to have learned their lesson from the close-range volleys of the Song soldiers earlier, continuing to march with an elegant goose step toward the Song lines!

Then came yet another round of artillery volleys...

Although the destructive power of artillery far surpassed that of muskets, smoothbore cannons and smoothbores shared many similarities, both obeying the rule that the closer the distance, the higher the accuracy.

Consequently, the killing power of the dwarf artillery remained stubbornly consistent, maintaining the same dismal accuracy as at long range. Meanwhile, the Song army's two hundred-plus cannons continuously whipped up more mangled flesh and limbs as the dwarf soldiers drew closer.

Indeed, an army armed with racism was far crazier than one armed with nationalism! Well, racism was a unique product of this world's biological diversity...

"The dwarves are the noblest race in the world! Long live the Dwarf Empire! Dwarves live for honor!" Amidst the closing distance and the geometrically rising casualties, dwarf officers within the ranks began shouting stirring slogans, enabling these dwarf soldiers, battered by immense firepower, to go marching more willingly... to their deaths!

Finally, at a distance of thirty paces from the Song formation, the command to halt and prepare for fire rang out through the dwarf ranks. The surviving dwarf soldiers inwardly breathed a sigh of relief; the days of enduring unilateral slaughter had finally passed!

Meanwhile, the Song soldiers, who had maintained their three-rank volley posture the entire time, were simply waiting for the dwarves to stop. They waited for the moment the enemy battle line reached the closest range, relying on the defensive initiative to leave a profound memory on the opposition!

"Fire!" The Song commander swung his sabre down in a timely manner, and roaring shouts echoed across the entire horizontal array of the Song army.

Bang, bang, bang!

The dwarf soldiers, who were raising their muskets and striking poses, fell in rows like harvested wheat!

"Fire!" Seeing their own side mowed down in droves by the enemy's volley, the dwarf officers shouted the order with reddened eyes.

The Song soldiers, who were currently swapping positions with the rear ranks to prepare for a second volley, suffered their first large-scale casualties! At such close range, with an accuracy rate exceeding sixty percent, surviving was largely a matter of pure luck!

In an instant, small gaps were blasted right through the orderly frontline of the Song army!

"Fix bayonets, charge! Long live the Dwarf Empire!" Having completed their volley, the dwarf officers drew their sabres, took the lead, and charged forward at the head of the fanatic dwarf soldiers. A distance of thirty paces was simply not enough for the Song soldiers—whose rhythm had been disrupted by the volley—to manage a second salvo; the sprinting speed of dwarf soldiers was actually faster than that of humans!

"Throw grenades!" The Song officers reacted accordingly, hurling a cluster of iron-knobbed, wooden-handled grenades from their lines that landed perfectly in the path of the advancing dwarf charge, blowing those tin cans sky-high!

"Keep throwing! Toss out every single grenade! Even if the enemy closes in, detonate every last one of them!" Clearly, these frontline Song soldiers were the cannon fodder arranged by Sun Li!

Only absolutely loyal soldiers recruited by the system could execute commands equivalent to semi-suicide. If it were any other nation, even dwarf soldiers, morale would most likely have collapsed outright.

Hearing the order, these Song soldiers did not hesitate in the slightest. Now they understood why every single one of them had been issued a double load of six grenades each!

By this point, the Song artillery had ceased firing. No matter how high their quality, these cannons—having fired continuously for so long—logically needed to pause and cool down...

And the artillery of the Dwarf Empire had naturally ceased fire a step earlier to cool their barrels. Across the entire battlefield, infantry once again became the dominant force!

"Kill the damned humans!"

"Charge!"

Howling, the dwarf soldiers thrust their bayonets forward and rushed in.

Boom, boom, boom!

This was the second wave of grenade throws!

Then, both sides officially clashed.

Puff, ah!

The moment they collided, the disproportionate casualty ratio on the battlefield reversed instantly. Encased in steel armor, the dwarf soldiers smashed directly into the frontline Song soldiers, running them through and knocking them to the ground in a crushing momentum!

"Victory to Song! Long live His Majesty the Emperor!" Amidst a soaring cry, a Song soldier wrapped in four grenades pulled the igniters and lunged straight into the dense, charging formation of the dwarves.

Boom!

An explosion far louder than a standard grenade erupted. The soldier vanished entirely, leaving only scattered fragments of flesh across the ground to testify to his tragic heroism!

Atop those scattered flesh fragments lay a dozen dwarf tin cans arranged in an irregular ring. Judging from the blood flowing from their armor, these ten-odd dwarves—though their bodies remained intact—were just like the shredded Song soldier, unable to fight for their allegiance any longer...

Seeing this glorious result, the Song soldiers—who had practically been facing a massacre—stopped throwing grenades while fending off enemy bayonets. Instead, they all followed suit, strapping themselves into human bombs and charging into the dense clusters of dwarf soldiers!

With each successive explosion, the casualties inflicted upon the dwarf soldiers were even more horrifying than those from close-range volleys!

Every time a Song soldier detonated as a human bomb, it created a blank zone, and the speed at which the dwarf soldiers filled the gaps clearly could not keep pace with the rate at which the Song soldiers were blowing themselves up to kill the enemy!

Gradually, the frontline dwarf soldiers were decimated, and a small gap actually appeared in the horizontal battle line between the two forces! This empty space was littered with severed limbs and corpses, making it exceptionally arduous for anyone to walk across it.

Under Sun Li's cold gaze and Marshal Aegris's shocked expression, the remaining dwarf soldiers—fewer than twenty thousand strong—grew terrified!

"These humans are absolute lunatics! Every single one of them is throwing their lives away!!!"

"I won't fight these madmen. We can't beat them..."

Under the pressure of the grenade-strapped Song soldiers, the dwarf survivors stepped backward. Looking at the scorched earth filled with explosion craters, the dwarf soldiers utterly lost the will to approach these maniacs!

Of course, the Song officers would not let such a golden opportunity slip away. You refuse to close in on us? Did you really think we would just stand here and watch?

Human bombs were no longer needed; the Song soldiers once again drew the wooden-handled grenades from their bodies and hurled them into the terrified clusters of dwarf soldiers not far away.

In this wave of explosions, the dwarf soldiers—whose morale had long since shattered—finally broke!

"Fix bayonets, charge!" The Song officers issued the charge order, and the tide of the battlefield humorously reversed.

Blood-drenched Song soldiers, gripping flintlocks with fixed bayonets, shouted battle cries as they pursued the fleeing dwarf battle lines! (To be continued.)