Iron Dynasty Chapter 989
Previously on Iron Dynasty...
“It looks like the Great Yu Empire has brought out some new artillery this time.”
Peering through his binoculars, Pang Duo spotted artillery unlike anything from the Jinzhou battle. The memory of the Great Yu Empire’s firepower in that clash remained vivid in his mind.
Bahe and Wotai glanced toward where Pang Duo indicated, their faces growing increasingly grave.
Regardless of the weapons the Great Yu Empire deployed, withdrawal was impossible now—their tribe’s pastures lay directly behind them.
“Chang Hantian will shield us,” Bahe assured, clapping Pang Duo on the shoulder.
Pang Duo gave a nod, his gaze hardening with resolve. He vowed that, while he drew breath, the Great Yu Empire would never overrun their lands again.
As Pang Duo and his companions surveyed the scene, Niu Ben and Luo Quan had already assessed the battlefield’s layout.
Gazing at the intricate network of trenches encircling the barbarian encampment, Niu Ben and Luo Quan furrowed their brows.
“The barbarians have gotten much shrewder these days. Those trenches they’ve excavated are becoming increasingly precise.”
Niu Ben ran his fingers over his beard. Following the Guandong campaign, trench tactics had spread like wildfire. These days, nearly every faction understood how to employ ditches to counter superior armaments.“Does it matter? It’s merely postponing the inevitable end. Early or late, death awaits them all the same.” Luo Quan shrugged it off. Grenades alone would secure their edge in such close-quarters fights.
Niu Ben agreed with a nod. The sprawling camp ahead wasn’t an impregnable bastion but a bloody mill of human lives. The barbarians likely believed this setup could halt the Great Yu Empire’s forces.
Yet he knew the divide between the two sides was now insurmountable.
During their discussion, a hunter cavalryman galloped up abruptly. Leaping from his mount, he delivered the message breathlessly, “Generals, His Majesty’s command is to hold defensively for now and await the Changping machine gun team before launching the main assault!”
“Changping machine gun team! That young Song Changping invented a machine gun?” Luo Quan exclaimed in delight.
“Excellent news. His Majesty claims this machine gun excels against massed rushes, ideal for smashing the barbarians.” Niu Ben’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
The hunter cavalryman added, “His Majesty also mentioned the machine guns are still being manufactured, with the initial batch due by month’s end, so he urges the generals to endure a bit longer.”
“Understood. Relay to His Majesty that we’ll hold until the machine gun team joins us.” Niu Ben declared firmly.
The cavalryman acknowledged and spurred his horse away, heading back to Qingzhou by steam locomotive.
Once the messenger vanished from sight, Luo Quan remarked, “Let’s hope this machine gun team spares us more casualties. The barbarians’ array screams they’re gearing up for a showdown right here. A single clash could seal a nation’s destiny.”
Niu Ben scoffed, “Dolgor thinks he’s outsmarting us, but he’s only hastening his doom.”
With that, he and Luo Quan wheeled around to rejoin the troops, directing them to start entrenching immediately against the foe. Since the barbarians awaited their incoming cavalry reinforcements, they’d grant them the delay.
The following morning, Pang Duo, Bahe, and the barbarian leaders rose at dawn to ready themselves for combat. Typically, the Great Yu Empire’s forces paused overnight before striking on the next day.
To their astonishment, however, they only witnessed Great Yu soldiers methodically digging more trenches. The enemy army appeared relaxed within their fortified ring, showing zero eagerness for battle.
“What scheme is the Great Yu Empire plotting?” Wotai wondered aloud, puzzled.
Bahe shook his head. “This feels off. Are they biding time for reinforcements?”
Pang Duo pondered deeply, brow creased, yet no answers emerged. After a brief pause, he decided, “It works in our favor. The Golden Tent cavalry reinforcements haven’t shown yet—we could use the breather to await them.”
Zak and Tamu had just reached the camp. Observing the scene, Zak commented, “They’re probably holding for Qi Guangyi’s cavalry to strike our flanks. I fear they’ll push even farther into the steppes.”
Zak had arrived with the last five thousand warriors, somewhat irked, for he believed evading direct confrontation with the Great Yu Empire was prudent until the big push.
Yet Zak disregarded that notion entirely.
“We can’t fret over it now. Defeat here spells total ruin, leaving no tribe able to bar the Great Yu Empire from claiming the grasslands—got it?” Pang Duo snapped in frustration.
Zak bristled with irritation. As a tribal banner head, getting scolded by Pang Duo stung his pride, though Dolgor’s directive bound him to follow orders.
Fuming silently, Zak and Tamu headed into camp. En route, Zak muttered, “They haven’t witnessed Qi Guangyi’s cavalry in action. They’ll rue this choice.”
Pang Duo spared no further thought for the grumbling Zak, convinced the true peril loomed straight ahead.
Days blurred into one another amid the standoff. Over twenty days slipped by swiftly. By month’s close, the inaugural machine gun team rolled into the Great Yu Empire’s camp.
“General, the thirty machine guns are fully deployed.”
In the camp’s central training area, Sun Changce, leader of the machine gun unit, briefed Niu Ben and Luo Quan. All hailing from Qingzhou’s Imperial Guard, they’d finished training at the military factory before hauling the weapons to the front.
Niu Ben and Luo Quan grinned ear to ear. Before them, thirty Changping-pattern machine guns rested steadily on the firm earth.
Each gun mounted on a wheeled carriage, a setup perfect for grassland warfare—troops could maneuver them like cannons, establishing firing points anywhere on the open plains.
“Hurry, demonstrate this machine gun’s might.” Eager for proof, Niu Ben and Luo Quan could hardly contain themselves.
Sun Changce snapped a salute, confirmed, and ordered a gunner to wheel one machine gun to an exposed spot east of camp for a live test.
Once positioned, the loader swiftly inserted the ammunition strip, and the gunner triggered the mechanism. A relentless “bang bang bang” erupted, the unbroken barrage stunning the watching officers.
“Hahaha…” Niu Ben roared with laughter. “Armed with this beast, victory in the showdown is assured. This round, we’ll feed the barbarians a storm of lead.”
Luo Quan chuckled, “Spot on. The wait through this month paid off handsomely. The barbarian reinforcements’ cavalry have all trickled into their camp now. A clash seems inevitable within days. Let’s unleash everything we’ve got.”
Having marveled at the machine gun’s prowess, the pair retreated to the command tent with Sun Changce to plot the guns’ placements.
Presently, 160,000 barbarian horsemen massed together. True to barbarian custom, they’d open hostilities by hurling slave infantry at the vanguard.
From recent scouting, few Great Yu Empire descendants mingled among these slaves; most were captives raided from the Western Regions, since the empire’s own enslaved folk clustered in Guandong and many had been liberated.
No pity was warranted for such unwilling fodder.