Chapter 69 Going All Out

"In the name of the God of Light, victory is ours!"

"Victory! Victory!"

Dismounting from their steeds, a troop of Holy Knights let out passionate war cries as they charged forward brandishing steel sabers, completely devoid of artillery cover or volley fire...

It was as if warfare had regressed to the age of cold steel...

In this day and age, only these soldiers of the Holy Order, thoroughly brainwashed by the Church of Light, dared to charge directly at the enemy with naked blades!

"Haha, Wang Chuanqi, look at those aboriginal cavalry, completely out of their minds. They just abandoned their horses and charged with melee weapons, without even a single musket. I'd love to see how many rounds of fire they can withstand!" Xiao Dezhang said with an excited grin.

"Steady now. The captain said we hold fire until the enemy is close. Either we don't shoot, or when we do, we leave the ground littered with their corpses!" Wang Chuanqi spat on the ground, watching the charging enemy.

The entire ten-thousand-strong force of Holy Knights had launched a full-scale charge. The commander of the Holy Order looked down upon these "illustrious" trash of the Blue-shirted Army, while the knights themselves firmly believed that fighting for the God of Light would grant them immediate ascension to heaven...

Legend had it that upon arriving in heaven, everyone was even gifted eighteen beautiful virgins free of charge... The esteemed God of Light surely needn't worry about his believers exhausting their vitality once and dying of exhaustion, only to die of it all over again...

Cough, the believers hadn't thought that far ahead about dying from excessive vigor; they were simply fixated on the immense temptation: dying meant getting girls!

Therefore, although these charging Holy Knights lacked any formation or discipline, needing no officers to restrain them, they rushed forward like rutted bulls, brandishing their blades and roaring at the top of their lungs.

Then, low-frequency explosive shells slammed viciously into the ranks of the charging Holy Knights. Amidst a cacophony of ever-louder explosions, legs, arms, heads, and—oh god—guts and viscera flew in all directions...

Yet... yet these bloodshot-eyed Holy Knights simply didn't care!

Some of them likely even thought with envy: Eighteen beautiful virgins! Let these "lucky bastards" go first. I just hope there are still some left in stock when I die and ascend...

Well, the gap between these Holy Knights and raving madmen had narrowed to almost nothing...

Infantry was certainly convenient; these holy soldiers easily shoved aside the cheval-de-frise, stepped right over the irregular trenches, and—aside from wasting some time, enduring a few more rounds of explosive shrapnel, and watching a few more comrades ascend to heaven—they reached the breastworks completely unhindered!

"What the hell! Why do these native soldiers act just like those red-coated regulars, charging forward unflinchingly even with their intestines spilling out?" Xiao Dezhang swallowed hard as he gazed at the blood-drenched Holy Knights opposite him, muttering to himself. He no longer believed these soldiers were mere cannon fodder sent by the enemy!

Well, at least he didn't think *he* was the cannon fodder...

Thanks to the limited number of artillery pieces along the defense line, despite corpses littering the entire approach, a formidable number of men and horses still managed to charge all the way up!

"Prepare to fire!" When the enemy closed to within about seventy paces, the officers of the Blue-shirted Army issued the order to fire. They were hardly the elite Red-coats, who dared to let the enemy approach within arm's reach before unleashing a volley!

After firing his piece, Xiao Dezhang retreated behind the line, where another sweat-drenched Blue-shirted soldier stepped up to shoot at the crazed troops. Following the initial volley, the officers no longer enforced strict simultaneous firing; instead, they adopted a rolling system where three men per group took turns to maintain continuous, independent fire.

For the moderately disciplined Blue-shirted Army, this undoubtedly inflicted greater damage upon the enemy. After all, originating from civilian backgrounds, the Blue-shirts had widely varying reloading speeds, and insisting on strict volley fire would have drastically reduced their overall firepower!

After getting off his shot, Wang Chuanqi fell back to reload his weapon. Though he kept reassuring himself that the enemy would surely be beaten back, his hand holding the paper cartridge trembled uncontrollably. It took him nearly twice as long as it had during training to reload, whereas his short-statured best friend was far more composed, already firing his second round!

Soldiers like Wang Chuanqi, struck with sudden stage fright by the enemy's blood-soaked charge, were everywhere. The sound of musket fire along the entire Song battle line was completely chaotic; everyone was trying their best to kill the enemy, but the efficiency varied wildly!

"Throw your grenades! Toss every last grenade at those bastards, or I'll throw you lot out instead!"

The captain's timely roar jolted the Blue-shirted soldiers who had been paralyzed by fear into mechanical reloading and firing.

With lightning speed, Xiao Dezhang pulled the pin on a wooden-handled grenade and hurled all three of his standard-issue grenades out in one go. He didn't bother checking his aim; as long as they didn't land in front of his own men, that was enough! These grenades had been provisionally issued to the frontline troops; normal garrison units were not equipped with grenades. On campaign, each soldier was normally issued one, but in active combat, frontline troops were upgraded to the Red-coat standard of three.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The three grenades detonated in rapid succession, completely obliterating the frantic faces that had been about to breach the line amid a shroud of gunpowder smoke. Standing on tiptoe to look at the blown-apart Holy Knights ahead, Xiao Dezhang laughed with wild excitement.

"You want to fight me to the death? Bah, you lunatic savages deserve to be blown to smithereens!"

Xiao Dezhang didn't get to celebrate for long. The moment the first wave of grenades cleared, the densely packed, deep ranks of the Holy Knights immediately surged forward to fill the gap. Then, to his horror, Xiao Dezhang made an awkward discovery: he was completely out of grenades!

He had thrown his too damn fast! He was only supposed to throw one at a time, dammit!

In the nick of time, Xiao Dezhang caught sight of Wang Chuanqi out of the corner of his eye, fumbling tremblingly as he prepared to throw his second grenade. Xiao Dezhang snatched it straight from Wang's belt, tossing over his shoulder, "At the speed you're going, the enemy's blade will pierce your heart before you even finish throwing!"

Xiao Dezhang glanced back at the Holy Knights who were now practically breathing down their necks. Hand-to-hand combat had already broken out in numerous sectors!

"Want to hack me to pieces? I'll blow you straight to heaven!" Shouting these words, Xiao Dezhang hurled the grenade into the corner just outside the breastwork, dropped flat on his stomach behind the wall in a scramble, and ended up getting a mouthful of mud for his trouble...

A few Holy Knights had just crowded up to the breastwork, preparing to vault over...

With a deafening explosion, Xiao Dezhang felt a violent jolt against his back as dirt rained down upon him. In his heart, he thought:

Those savage madmen must be dead by now...