Iron Dynasty Chapter 990

“What’s that noise?”

Within the barbarian encampment, Pang Duo along with several banner leaders abruptly raised their heads, their eyes locking onto the eastern camp of the Great Yu Empire. Right then, they were strategizing on ways to surround and crush the Great Yu Empire’s mounted forces.

As 160,000 riders, 200,000 enslaved troops, and roughly four to five hundred thousand clansmen arrived, Pang Duo’s assurance grew steadily stronger.

He was convinced that sheer numbers alone would allow him to overrun the Great Yu Empire’s outpost.

“That resembles the Great Yu Empire’s firecrackers,” one banner head remarked. “A trader from the Great Yu Empire once handed me one of these, and the noise matches closely. They typically ignite them only during festivities.”

The faces of the remaining banner heads relaxed, and Pang Duo chuckled, “Sounds more like they’re toasting their impending doom.”

“Hahaha…” The commanders erupted in hearty laughs.

After a brief silence, Pang Duo declared, “With our full cavalry force assembled, we can’t delay further. The Great Yu Empire boasts ample provisions, letting them bide their time, but our herds of cattle and sheep need grazing. Prolonged waiting will leave us famished, so we strike at dawn tomorrow.”

Bahe, Wotai, and the rest of the banner heads agreed with nods. They had herded livestock for sustenance during the journey. With such a massive assembly now, vast quantities of cattle and sheep were required, yet lingering here meant the younger animals would soon devour every blade of grass nearby.

Having settled on initiating the assault, Pang Duo brimmed with bold ambition. Their initial strategy had been to endure for a month awaiting aid, but circumstances had aligned ideally.

Come morning, a full-scale clash with the Great Yu Empire awaited.

Silence enveloped the night.

Dawn broke with the distinctive blare of barbarian horns, prompting Niu Ben to command his troops into the defensive ditches without delay. As anticipated, the barbarians had run out of patience and struck first.

Given the barbarians’ dire logistics issues, Niu Ben felt no rush after forfeiting the early edge and patiently anticipated the machine gun unit’s deployment.

“Same tired tactic, zero improvement,” Luo Quan commented, hands planted on his waist. His stare remained glued to the machine guns positioned along the trench line. These deadly contraptions were set to unleash their horror in combat for the initial occasion.

Niu Ben gave a subtle nod, then signaled toward the battery emplacement.

For this operation, they had transported 150 cannons from the Imperial Guard. Positioned atop a modest rise, these guns overlooked the whole field of engagement.

Following his order, the gunners swiftly accessed the ammo crates beside each piece. One loaded the breech by removing the block, a second inserted a pointed projectile from the rear, while a third added the charge. Once prepared, the first sealed it shut. Then the fourth yanked the cord, and with a resounding “boom,” the round hurtled straight into the packed mass of advancing barbarian slaves.

“Boom boom boom…”

Once the initial shot hit, a barrage followed, slamming into the onrushing throng.

The projectiles detonated on impact, hurling nearby barbarian slave fighters through the air with blast forces, while those at the epicenter were torn apart entirely.

“Boom boom boom…”

The opening salvo claimed over six hundred barbarian slave lives. Ten seconds later, the next volley thundered forth.

Barbarian encampment.

Pang Duo and his banner heads could merely observe in frustration as the slave forces suffered gruesome losses from the barrage. The Great Yu Empire’s gun positions lay within their fortified area, meaning any attempt to neutralize them required breaching the ditches.

Yet, the loss of slave troops stirred no regret in him, for to them, slaves ranked below humanity. Victory justified any sacrifice—what mattered was triumph.

After all, success would yield endless slaves from the Great Yu Empire, ripe for the taking at will.

The other banner heads shared Pang Duo’s mindset. They impassively observed the slaves being herded toward the Great Yu Empire’s lines, yearning for them to deplete enemy ammo and for their fallen bodies to clog the enemy’s fortifications.

“These cannons pack greater punch and fire quicker,” Pang Duo assessed from his watch.

Greed flickered in Bahe’s gaze. “Victory in this fight hands us every one of those guns.”

“Hehe, we’ll divide up these prizes fairly,” Wotai chimed in eagerly. Their riders stood ready, poised for the slaves to bridge the gaps with their remains.

As these thoughts crossed their minds, a rapid “bang bang bang” erupted suddenly, leaving Pang Duo baffled. It echoed the noise from the previous day.

This racket stemmed from the Changping-pattern machine guns.

The gap between the opposing trench lines measured under three hundred meters. Soon, the barbarian slaves surged into effective range.

Confronted by the endless human tide, Great Yu Empire troops unleashed their response. Even battling nonstop for a day wouldn’t eliminate them all. Despite advanced arms, the defenders faced immense strain.

Yet the machine guns’ debut appeared to resolve that. Now, all thirty spat death relentlessly. Steady flames licked out, raking the oncoming barbarian horsemen. Combined with rifle fire from the infantry, slaves toppled in waves. The advance halted against the bullet storm, bodies stacking ever taller at the edge.

Beneath this relentless barrage, terror seeped into the hearts of the assaulting barbarian slaves. No weapon like this had ever crossed their sights—none so ruthlessly lethal.

Despite their desperate pushes, they merely joined the growing heap of lifeless forms felled by it.

As the corpse mound swelled, panic overwhelmed the barbarian slaves at last. “Flee!” a voice cried amid the chaos, and the attackers broke apart in flight.

At this point, death by barbarian hands seemed preferable to perishing in the ceaseless shelling and gunfire.

Niu Ben and Luo Quan watched the spectacle in stunned awe. The thirty machine guns devoured 18,000 rounds each minute. From the charge’s onset to the corpse pile’s formation, they had fired nonstop for sixty minutes. Even at half capacity, that meant over 300,000 bullets expended. Per Sun Changce’s specs, the Maxim could sustain fire for four hours straight.

But four hours proved unnecessary here, as one hour alone littered the plains with at least 60,000 permanent dead. While Falcon rifles played a role, machine guns dominated the toll. After all, not every soldier could man the front-line ditches, capping the foot soldiers’ impact.

A shiver ran through Luo Quan. The barbarians’ antiquated massed rush courted annihilation before the machine gun. Surveying the corpse-strewn field, a cold dread gripped him.

What an appalling beast Song Changping had forged.

Unlike Niu Ben’s group’s astonishment, Pang Duo and the barbarian officers knew only dread. Never before had they witnessed slaves fleeing wildly rearward, turning their fury against their own masters.