Chapter 62 Raiding the Camp

"Charge!"

Bang! Clack! Thud!

The soldiers of both sides met for the first time in this narrow breach of the city wall. By now, the Song dynasty's curved-trajectory artillery had already ceased firing; since it was now close-quarters combat, they naturally could not risk hitting friendly forces...

As soon as the opposing soldiers encountered each other, they first discharged the bullets in their flintlocks, and then the front few men of both sides directly lunged and collapsed to the ground. The charging formations of both parties were instantly disrupted, plunging directly into a chaotic melee!

Amidst the fierce scuffle, the occasional explosion of a grenade could be heard. These charging Blue-Shirt soldiers had all been provisioned with grenades by Hu Hei, but this provincial garrison force, unaccustomed to combat and rarely using grenades, had many men completely forget they even held such devices in their hands!

Aside from a few sporadic grenade explosions, the vast majority of the grenades remained intact, still strapped to the waists of the Blue-Shirt soldiers!

Just like that, the high-spirited Blue-Shirt soldiers collided with the death-defying dwarf soldiers.

As a result, in the brutal hand-to-hand combat, the Blue-Shirt soldiers—failing to leverage their firepower advantage—were directly suppressed when faced with these heavily iron-armored, red-eyed dwarf soldiers.

The melee combat proficiency of the Blue-Shirt soldiers was clearly inferior to regular troops possessing systematic combat knowledge. Far from managing to strike the few exposed parts of the dwarf soldiers, many were knocked flat by the battle-hardened dwarf soldiers before they could even exert any force!

The iron-can-like defense, coupled with the fearless fighting style of the dwarf soldiers, heavily shook the courage of the Blue-Shirt soldiers. Amidst the steadily mounting corpses of the Blue-Shirt soldiers, the blue ocean of their battle line was slowly pushed back by the iron forest.

After several vanguard Blue-Shirt officers were skewered to death by dwarf bayonets, the Blue-Shirt soldiers, already pressed entirely outside the city wall, finally collapsed!

A spectacle unfolded on the battlefield that filled Hu Hei with profound shame: a mere three hundred or so dwarf soldiers were actually chasing after more than a thousand Blue-Shirt soldiers!

The panic-stricken Blue-Shirt soldiers had thrown away their weapons and lost their hats, looking utterly wretched like beggars as they wailed and ran back toward their own formation.

With a livid expression, Hu Hei ordered the main force to provide backup, pushing back the small number of dwarf soldiers who had rushed out of the city. He finally managed to retrieve those thousand-odd charging 'warriors'...

Damn it all, what an utter disgrace. When have the Red-Shirt soldiers ever failed to stand their ground firmly against dwarf soldiers superior in number? Yet this second-line force had completely reversed the outcome, running for their lives while being chased from behind by a vastly outnumbered enemy!

Hu Hei realized once again how wise and sagacious His Majesty the Emperor's decision had been not to let these Blue-Shirt soldiers onto the main battlefields!

Very well, hand-to-hand combat clearly seemed hopeless. When a force several times larger than the enemy could be effortlessly pushed back in reverse, Hu Hei's evaluation of the Blue-Shirt soldiers completely hit rock bottom.

No matter what, his force of over twenty thousand men must under no circumstances be defeated by fewer than two thousand dwarves!

Fine. Since you dwarf soldiers excel at melee combat, I will blow up the entire city wall. When the time comes, I will overwhelm you with a sea of bodies all at once. Let's see if you dwarves can continue to maintain your victory when facing an enemy ten times your number!

At Hu Hei's command, the Blue-Shirt soldiers were re-assigned as engineering troops. One by one, they began organizing explosive packs, preparing to launch a large-scale demolition campaign—or perhaps calling the Blue-Shirt soldiers a demolition squad would be more fitting...

For the fully firearms-oriented Song army, gunpowder was extremely abundant. To Hu Hei, blowing the entire Burnia city wall into dozens of miles of breaches was merely a matter of time.

While the Blue-Shirt soldiers were busy playing the role of a demolition crew, General Amer and a circle of his core officers were celebrating the victory of this initial engagement. With a *pop*, a bottle of champagne—a specialty of humanity—was uncorked, its effervescent froth seeming to mirror the joyful mood of the dwarves at that moment. These alcohol-loving dwarves clinked glasses, drank heartily, laughed out loud, and loudly mocked how utterly trashy the Song dynasty's Blue-Shirt soldiers were.

Today, all four city walls of the Song dynasty had been attacked simultaneously, yet without exception, every single assault had been beaten back. This undoubtedly greatly boosted the dwarves' confidence in winning; initially, they had all believed they were certain to die, hoping merely to perish with a shred of nobility...

However, they never expected that these Song troops wearing blue uniforms were vastly inferior to their Red-Shirt counterparts!

A single bayonet charge, and over a thousand men had completely broken!

"Gentlemen, the cowardice of the enemy is now glaringly apparent. We must seize this opportunity to deal them a heavy blow. Tonight, I intend to concentrate all our forces and launch a night raid. Under the cover of darkness, the Song people will be unable to leverage their firepower advantage. Let the brave warriors of the Dwarf Empire teach these Song trash what warfare truly is!" General Amer finished speaking and drained his cup in one go.

"We are willing to die for the General!" the surrounding dwarf officers shouted in unison.

This celebration was merely a very simple light meal, and not much alcohol was consumed. Stimulated by the liquor, the efficiency of the dwarf officers seemed to have improved slightly. Large bodies of dwarf soldiers were concentrated together, completely abandoning the defense of the entire city of Burnia. General Amer personally led the force, taking advantage of the night to silently cross the breach that had been blasted open during the day.

Even if the Blue-Shirt soldiers were incompetent, the movement of over a thousand men could still be detected. Amidst successive cries of alarm, many Blue-Shirt soldiers—who had been locked in battle with the God of Dreams—woke up in annoyance, put on their gear, grabbed their weapons, and rushed to their company's assembly point.

Seeing that the enemy had noticed them, General Amer dropped all pretense. With a single command, all the dwarf soldiers shouted battle cries and charged toward the Blue-Shirt encampment.

The garrisoned Blue-Shirt soldiers managed to fire only a single volley before being crushed by the reckless charge of the fearless dwarf soldiers!

Clearly, having suffered defeat in the daytime hand-to-hand combat against the dwarves, the morale of the Blue-Shirt soldiers had plummeted significantly. When facing the bayonet charge this time, their resistance lasted even shorter.

Excitedly, General Amer led the thousand-strong dwarf army rampaging through the massive Blue-Shirt encampment. No matter how many enemies stood in their way, they were routed at the very first strike by these frenzied dwarf soldiers.

Gradually, most of the Blue-Shirt infantry regiments had their command structures shattered. Many self-preservation-minded Blue-Shirt soldiers, upon seeing the dwarf soldiers charging over, did not even dare to resist and fled directly. For a moment, the entire encampment was on the verge of collapsing under the onslaught of just a thousand dwarf soldiers!

"Red-Shirt soldiers, fall out, follow me!" Seeing that these twenty-odd thousand Blue-Shirt soldiers were about to hand the dwarf soldiers an astonishing victory record, Hu Hei had no choice but to gather his personal guard of over two hundred Red-Shirt soldiers and charge directly toward the densest concentration of dwarf soldiers.

The advantage of the Blue-Shirt soldiers' massive numbers finally began to manifest. In order to break the Blue-Shirt forces more thoroughly, quickly, and efficiently, General Amer had split his dwarf troops into teams of several hundred to launch separate assaults. The Blue-Shirt soldiers, already terrified to their cores by the dwarf bayonet charges, naturally failed to notice the reduction in the number of visible dwarf troops. General Amer's strategy proved unexpectedly effective, further accelerating the collapse of the entire encampment!

Just at this moment, the troops led by Hu Hei rushed forward to meet them!