Chapter 496 The Strongest Counterattack (First Update)
Not all soldiers recognized gunpowder; many had never even heard of it, and even those who had never actually seen it.
The Chen soldiers were completely stunned by the explosion!
The once orderly cavalry formation suddenly fell into chaos. The cavalry was led by a general from the Rong family, also surnamed Rong, named Rong Can.
Rong Can was one of the few people who had seen gunpowder. When he accompanied Rong Yao on a visit to the Liang Kingdom, he encountered the Yan people demonstrating their gunpowder. Unfortunately, he was standing far away and could only hear the sound but did not see its actual power.
Rong Yao described it to the Rong family members afterwards, but how could they possibly imagine it?
Therefore, even Rong Can was stunned at this moment.
However, he restrained himself, not letting the soldiers notice anything amiss. He tightened the reins and said sternly, "Don't panic, everyone! It's just a rock! Nothing to worry about—"
Rumble!
Another huge rock rolled down, and Rong Can's words were drowned out by the terrible noise.
Rong Can's understanding of gunpowder was too limited. Of course, it was also possible that this was the first time he had seen such a powerful attack, and he couldn't think of anything else to do for the moment.
To prove to the soldiers that this thing was not scary, he decisively drew his sword and slashed at the rolling rock!
With a deafening roar, Rong Can was blasted away!
To achieve a sufficient deterrent effect, Gu Jiao used all the Black Fire Beads, so there was no way she would have to do it a third time.
This ratio of black powder is powerful enough, but it is still far inferior to the explosives of the previous life. To put it bluntly, its destructive power is secondary; its main purpose is deterrence.
To be honest, Tang Yueshan and his army were also a bit confused. What the hell was this? Firecrackers? It didn't seem like it...
Tang Yueshan was the first to react. The situation on the battlefield can change in an instant, and the rise or fall of morale can sometimes happen in just a moment.
Tang Yueshan didn't care what this thing actually was. He withdrew his gaze, drew his longsword, pointed it forward, and shouted, "The imperial reinforcements have arrived! The Gu family army has arrived! Everyone, kill them!"
Everyone was stunned by the two bursts of gunpowder, completely unable to think about whether Tang Yueshan's words were true or not.
The leaderless Chen cavalry became increasingly disorganized. Seeing this, Tang Yueshan's army's morale soared. Even their bodies, which had been starving for three days and three nights, seemed to be suddenly filled with strength. Everyone raised the tips of their swords and charged into the Chen cavalry with unstoppable momentum!
Although the Zhao Kingdom is weak, not a single son of the Zhao Kingdom is a coward!
Tang Yueshan took the lead and charged ahead!
This time, it was Gu Jiao who cleared the way for him.
Gu Jiao drew her bow and arrow, and wherever he went, Gu Jiao's arrow followed.
He completely entrusted his back to Gu Jiao.
Tang Yueshan discovered that Gu Jiao had an amazing talent for archery. However, she had only been practicing archery for a short time and was not as accurate as Tang Yueshan. Several times she almost hit Tang Yueshan's buttocks.
Tang Yueshan was sweating profusely!
Girl, I suspect you did this on purpose!
Tang Yueshan was caught in a three-way attack and forced to dismount. An arrow flew through the air and whizzed past his crotch!
Tang Yueshan, who was just half an inch away from being shot, was speechless.
The arrow pierced through his leg and struck the foot of a Chen soldier who had ambushed him from behind. The Chen soldier screamed and fell to the ground!
Gu Jiao is bold enough in her use of arrows, a trait that even many excellent archers cannot match.
When facing a Grand Marshal like Tang Yueshan, they worried that their archery skills were not good enough and they might accidentally hurt him, so they were inevitably a little hesitant when shooting arrows.
Gu Jiao, however, did not think that way.
Her decisiveness impressed Tang Yueshan.
How many men in the world could do what she did?
A surge of heat suddenly ran through Tang Yueshan's chest. He couldn't quite describe the feeling, but he fought with even greater courage and fearlessness.
It seems there's someone in the world who understands him.
And he understood that person.
At that moment, he forgot that she was his enemy.
The five thousand cavalrymen were eventually routed by Tang Yueshan and his men's valiant fighting. They fled in disarray with their wounded soldiers to join the fifteen thousand Chen army, which was a dozen miles away.
Tang Yueshan slumped to the ground, panting heavily.
"How many people did we kill?" he asked breathlessly.
"One hundred and sixty-seven people."
A voice rang out from above Tang Yueshan's head.
Tang Yueshan looked up and saw that Gu Jiao and a soldier from Yecheng were coming down the mountain with ropes. It was the soldier who was speaking.
"Greetings, Marshal Tang." Hu Dongqiang bowed.
He carried Gu Jiao's little basket on his back. Tang Yueshan understood that this little basket was very important to Gu Jiao. The fact that he could carry it meant that he had been chosen by Gu Jiao.
They do have a good eye for observation.
Tang Yueshan nodded secretly.
Gu Jiao wasn't wearing a mask, and her face was completely exposed to the sunlight, causing everyone to stare at her in surprise.
The soldiers, who had lived a life of constant danger, weren't particularly interested in the birthmark on her face; rather, it was her age that piqued their curiosity.
They look even smaller than them.
Everyone looked behind Gu Jiao and up the mountain where she had come down, but after a long while they still didn't see a third person come down.
They...really thought the imperial reinforcements had arrived?
So all that commotion just now was caused by this young boy in blue?
His red-tasseled spear is so ugly!
"Is anyone injured?" Gu Jiao asked Tang Yueshan.
Tang Yueshan and Gu Jiao took stock of the wounded in the team. There were several hundred with minor injuries and fifty with serious injuries. Among them, twenty-three people needed on-site treatment, and three were critically wounded.
Gu Jiao said to Tang Yueshan, "Those who are not injured should take those with minor injuries and go back first. Leave fifty people behind, and we will carry the seriously injured and critically injured soldiers back later."
Tang Yueshan nodded, and he took one of the fifty spots for himself.
“General! We’re not leaving!” said one of the archers.
Tang Yueshan said solemnly, "This is a military order!"
The archer gritted his teeth: "...Yes!"
Two of Tang Yueshan's lieutenants died in the line of duty. He selected a lieutenant general named Li from the archers and a lieutenant general named Cen from the infantry, and the two of them led the troops ahead.
Of course, they did not forget to clean up the battlefield and take away the rations, weapons and horses left behind by the Chen soldiers.
“Take off the armor too, melt it down and we can make new ones,” Gu Jiao said.
Tang Yueshan gave Gu Jiao a deep look, then hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.
Xiao Hu climbed up the mountain using a rope, keeping a close eye on the movements of the Chen army.
“I need a stretcher,” Gu Jiao said to Tang Yueshan.
"How much do you want?" Tang Yueshan asked.
“Ten,” Gu Jiao said. “In addition, we also need strips of cloth to untie the belts of those Chen soldiers.”
Tang Yueshan and his men searched everywhere for planks and sticks for Gu Jiao.
Gu Jiao began to resuscitate three critically ill patients.
One of the wounded soldiers had stopped having a heartbeat. Gu Jiao took out adrenaline and injected him with it twice, and his heartbeat was restored.
Tang Yueshan stared at the strange-looking injections, momentarily dumbfounded.
The soldiers who died on the battlefield were not necessarily killed on the spot; many were seriously wounded and died despite medical treatment.
The medical skills of the State of Chen were superior to those of the State of Zhao, so the number of their wounded soldiers who died was much lower than that of the Zhao army.
If they also possessed excellent medical skills, the mortality rate of wounded soldiers would be greatly reduced.
That girl just came back to life, didn't she?
Even the doctors of Chen couldn't do that, could they?
Tang Yueshan's heart began to race again.
I've never been this excited, not even on my wedding night.
Hu Dongqiang shouted down from the mountain: "Sir! You have to hurry! The Chen army is coming! They'll be here after they cross one more mountain!"
Gu Jiao asked, "How long does it take to get to the top of the mountain?"
Hu Dongqiang replied, "Cavalry is fast, taking half an hour, while infantry takes an hour."
Gu Jiao nodded, her movements of slicing open the other man's thigh continuing without pause: "At the pace of infantry." The cavalry had been frightened for a while and were temporarily demoralized to lead the charge.
"The third pair of pliers on the right," Gu Jiao said, as she couldn't free her hands.
Tang Yueshan was stunned for a moment before realizing that she was talking to him. He skillfully found the third one... pliers, which looked more like scissors to him.
"Clamp it here." Gu Jiao gestured to Tang Yueshan with her eyes.
"Are you going to sever his tendons?" Tang Yueshan frowned.
"These are hemostats," Gu Jiao said. "Hurry up."
Tang Yueshan cut it with some skepticism and found that the meridian was not broken and the bleeding at the break point had indeed stopped.
Tang Yueshan was neither afraid of blood nor of these wounds. He watched the whole thing and felt more and more that this girl was not simple.
Gu Jiao stopped the bleeding for the last critically ill patient, took off her gloves, and said, "Alright, put them on the stretcher. These three can go first."
Tang Yueshan selected ten soldiers to take turns carrying three stretchers.
Of the remaining 23 seriously injured patients, only seven required stretchers; the rest could ride horses.
Gu Jiao raced against time to treat the wounded soldier's injuries. There wasn't enough time, so she could only do basic treatment. Even so, time was still slipping away second by second.
Hu Dongqiang said, "Sir! They've come down the mountain! They're less than six miles away. We need to hurry!"
"These two soldiers can be put on stretchers now."
"This soldier, put him on a stretcher."
"Put him on the stretcher!"
...
The wounded soldiers left one after another, and the Chen army gradually approached.
There are two more wounded soldiers.
As Gu Jiao was about to treat one of the injured men, the man suddenly grabbed her hand. He had heard Hu Dongqiang call her "Sir," so he did the same: "Sir, you and Marshal Tang should go first!"
"Shut up." Gu Jiao removed his hand.
Tang Yueshan didn't urge Gu Jiao. He just silently gripped the bow and arrow in his hand, and his quiver was once again full of arrows on his back.
"Archers, prepare," Tang Yueshan said in a deep voice.
The archers took their positions, drew their longbows, and used their bodies as shields to protect Gu Jiao and the wounded soldiers behind them.
"Xiao Hu, come down!" Gu Jiao finished treating the last wounded soldier's injuries.
Hu Dongqiang quickly slid down the rope.
Everyone mounted their horses and galloped out of the canyon just as the Chen army was about to catch up!
I just finished writing about Lao Tang's tetanus shot, and now it's my turn... After trying to hide in the treatment room, I was still ruthlessly pinned down by the nurse.
Ah, I feel your pain, Lao Tang!
(End of this chapter)
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