Chapter 63 Finally Weathered Through

"Ready—fire!"

Bang, bang, bang!

Leading his personal guard of over two hundred men, Hu Hei unleashed a coordinated volley as they closed in on the charging dwarf soldiers, immediately followed by a barrage of grenades.

Caught completely off guard by this level of firepower resistance during their camp raid, the dwarf soldiers momentarily stalled amidst the continuous explosions and gunfire. By the time they recovered their senses and saw that the enemy ahead wore red uniforms, these outnumbered Song soldiers actually began to fall back!

Having had over a hundred of their comrades knocked down in an instant, the dwarves charged forward once more with bloodcurdling yells. Then, upon Hu Hei's orders, the red-coated soldiers executed a synchronized about-face and delivered yet another round of grenade fire...

Taking grenades directly to the face twice in a row, the dwarf soldiers—fearless though they were—found their brains somewhat scrambled and dazed by the blasts!

Seizing the moment when the enemy formation was thrown into disarray, Hu Hei ordered his men to hurl every single remaining grenade they had!

Amidst wave after wave of gunpowder explosions, fewer than a hundred of the several hundred dwarf soldiers were still able to stand... They had bunched up far too densely for their bayonet charges!

"Fix bayonets! Slaughter the enemy!" Hu Hei drew his saber, let out a furious roar, and lunged forward at the head of his personal guard. The surviving dwarf soldiers were inevitably run through and knocked to the ground; having just weathered the baptism of grenades and heavily diminished in numbers, their resistance was pitifully weak!

By this time, the encampment was already ablaze with fires raging in every direction, glowing as bright as day. The surrounding Blue-coat soldiers—who had been on the verge of total collapse—saw how fiercely their commander fought, single-handedly turning the tables on a dwarf force twice their size right out of the gate, and experienced a massive surge in morale!

Taking advantage of the moment, Hu Hei snatched the military banner from the standard-bearer, waved it high while shouting the attack orders, and led his bodyguards forward, calling out to rally the headless-chicken-like Blue-coat soldiers along the way.

In truth, the vast majority of the Blue-coat soldiers had not suffered any fierce close-quarters attacks from the dwarves. After all, there were only a little over a thousand dwarf soldiers, which made it impossible for them to launch a comprehensive assault—or rather, an effective massacre—across an encampment housing twenty thousand men!

Most of the Blue-coat soldiers had simply been terrified by the exaggerated reports spread by retreating friendly units, falsely believing that their entire force had already been crushed by the dwarf army.

With Hu Hei holding aloft the military banner and projecting the unmistakable aura of a supreme commander, the panicked Blue-coat soldiers quickly calmed down and instinctively gathered around him, experiencing the profound relief of finally finding their backbone.

As the numbers rallying around Hu Hei swelled, General Aimer quickly spotted this organized mass of Song troops and personally led his forces charging straight toward them.

"Crush these cowardly Song men! Dwarf glory endures forever!" General Aimer led a force of several hundred men, plunging directly into the thousand-strong army Hu Hei had gathered. Their morale showed not the slightest dip despite the enemy's numerical superiority!

Bang! Pow!

The moment the two sides met, they spontaneously traded a round of rifle fire. Once their magazines were empty, the dwarf soldiers howled and charged into melee, while Hu Hei led the newly rallied Blue-coat soldiers—anchored by his red-coated bodyguards—to meet them head-on.

Roars, screams, and the sickening sound of bayonets piercing flesh echoed continuously across the battlefield.

A dwarf soldier had just driven his bayonet deep into an enemy's body when a rifle butt swung from an unknown direction staggered him. A massive boot immediately kicked the dwarf down, pinning him to the earth. Ignoring the frantic curses pouring from the fallen dwarf's mouth, the soldier drove his bayonet straight through the exposed throat. Clutching his neck, the dwarf's curses degraded into choked, rattling gasps, and before long, he could produce no further sound at all...

The final sight that registered in the dying dwarf's eyes was a Song soldier in a red uniform withdrawing a blood-stained bayonet from his neck!

With a placid expression, the red-coat pulled his blade free, sprinted toward the nearest dwarf who was in the midst of butchering a Blue-coat soldier, slipped around behind him, and prepared to repeat the execution.

Alas, good fortune did not linger indefinitely with this particular soldier. The moment he lifted his foot, another dwarf soldier—having just dispatched his own opponent—intervenced, and the two men impaled each other simultaneously. Protected by his plate armor, the dwarf successfully and unscathed snuffed out the red-coat's life...

Throughout the Song encampment, Blue-coat soldiers who caught sight of their own banner continuously converged on this focal point. In hand-to-hand combat, the Song soldiers were heavily disadvantaged. Yet, relying on overwhelming numerical superiority—pitting several bayonets against a single dwarf—they still managed to secure victories, even if the casualties paid were utterly disastrous!

Gazing upon the red-coats pinned in the vanguard and watching their comrades drenched in blood, the Blue-coat soldiers cast aside thoughts of flight, ignited a latent ferocity deep within their hearts, and gritted their teeth to press the fight.

Their own commander was risking his life on the front lines; what did they have left to hold back?

While the rest of the camp was subjected to the unilateral slaughter of the dwarf soldiers, Hu Hei and his personal guard firmly anchored the line against General Aimer's forces. As the scale of Hu Hei's engagement expanded, scattered Blue-coat soldiers continuously gravitated toward the fray. Naturally, blood-frenzied dwarf soldiers also joined the melee, but against the vast, overwhelming ocean of Blue-coats, their numbers were practically negligible.

Hu Hei understood all too well that at this juncture, his group served as the ultimate psychological pillar for the entire army. He could not afford to fall; the moment he did, the fiercely resisting Blue-coats would instantly suffer a catastrophic avalanche of morale!

Waving the military banner aloft while barking orders for the pitched battle, Hu Hei himself did not directly engage the dwarf soldiers. His personal guards tightly shielded their commander, functioning quite literally as living meat shields with their very lives!

General Aimer launched multiple charges with his men, only to be repeatedly repelled by those suicidal red-coats. Though the ranks of the red-coated soldiers steadily thinned, the number of Blue-coat soldiers multiplied manifold!

General Aimer realized the tide of the entire battlefield was gradually reversing; his dwarf soldiers were being steadily swallowed by the human sea of Blue-coats!

Killing was exhausting physical labor. As time wore on, these dwarf soldiers—having expended immense energy through excessive slaughter—were left gasping for breath, rendering them increasingly vulnerable and manageable!

When the red-coats surrounding Hu Hei had been reduced to fewer than fifty survivors, General Aimer finally abandoned the notion of decapitating the enemy leadership and capturing their banner. The Blue-coat force had swollen to several thousand men; across the battlefield, the math averaged out to roughly eight enemies for every single dwarf!

Had these dwarf soldiers not possessed a fierce death-wish and a fanatical racial zeal, their lines would have shattered long ago under such pressure.

Yet, even without the dwarf formation breaking, for the Blue-coats—whose morale had been successfully forged and united by Hu Hei—wiping out these remaining hundreds of dwarves was now merely a matter of time...

Watching the shifting tides of the battlefield, Hu Hei let out a long breath of relief inwardly. They had finally held the line!