chsdbacks Chapter 105 Night of the Snowstorm and Massacre
Chapter 105 Night of the Snowstorm and Massacre
Chapter 105 A Night of Slaughter in the Snow (Part 7)
From the miners' ranks, large carts loaded with heavy door panels were pushed out. Then, groups of fully armed miners could be seen, hiding behind the carts, pushing them toward the wall.
Zhou Ye and his group gasped in unison. These miners were clearly well-prepared; they were highly trained and truly the elite force of the miners. Unlike the chaotic fighting of the bandits earlier, they now displayed the complete organization of an army.
It's important to understand that an organized army is completely different from a rabble. This is no exaggeration; even if the number or strength of individuals is roughly the same, the difference in combat effectiveness can be greater than that between a human and a chicken.
In fact, Zhou Ye and his group did not know that this team of miners came from outside the county city. They rushed back to the inner city to support the miners who were trapped in the county city.
While outside the city, this group of miners had been raiding the surrounding manors. So, was this some kind of walled siege warfare?
They are very experienced; they've fought countless times.
As the truck drew closer, the atmosphere grew increasingly tense.
Someone inside the wall fired the first arrow, followed by dozens more.
But these arrows were almost entirely in vain, unable to pierce the door panel erected at the front of the carts. They could only watch helplessly as the carts came charging towards them—
At this very moment, Zhou Ye was hiding in a room on the top floor. After stealthily glancing around, he realized he couldn't find any good opportunities at all.
Because of the considerable distance, the iron-pole arrows couldn't penetrate the thick door panels. At most, they might hit a few exposed hands and feet hiding behind the carts. So, they weren't very effective.
Just as they were a few dozen paces from the wall, a line of archers emerged from behind the cart. They began a rapid volley, quickly suppressing the guards on the wall.
And amidst the shouts of the crowd, the carts also sped up, and the miners began their final sprint.
"Stop them!" He Jing, Gu Jiu, and the others shouted.
At this moment, the carts also rushed to the foot of the wall. Many miners in iron armor were seen using the carts to climb over the wall, and soon a fierce battle broke out between them and the guards.
It should be said that He Jing was right about one thing: there are very few truly skilled miners. Only a truly skilled person would be a miner with a screw loose.
The only difference was that during the last rebellion, a large number of martial arts techniques and skills were leaked to the outside world, and the Black Iron Gang, which consisted of these miners, acquired a significant portion of them. Therefore, thanks to the large number of miners, many of them had already mastered the techniques after practicing martial arts.
However, these miners had only been cultivating their internal strength for a very short time, at most a little over a year. In fact, exceptionally talented individuals like Yuan Zhen and Du Juan are extremely rare, so there are very few who have broken through to the Ming Jin stage. Frankly speaking, there aren't many even in the late stages of the internal strength stage.
However, while there weren't many true masters, there were many martial artists at the Entry-Level Strength stage, as well as many strong ordinary people of equivalent strength. When they were fully armed and clad in iron armor, the difference in strength was immediately compensated for.
As a result of the miners' relentless efforts, breaches have been created in many places along the wall. The two sides have surprisingly reached a stalemate?
Seeing this, the miners' reinforcements immediately sprang into action. They were prepared to press their advantage and wipe out the guards in one fell swoop.
Finally, the opportunity presented itself. Zhou Ye drew his bow to its fullest extent and, "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—," he fired five or six arrows in one go. Almost every arrow hit its mark, striking a target.
Of course, whether those targets were killed due to the armor's obstruction is unknown. But in any case, these people would be injured and temporarily incapacitated.
In reality, archery is like that; there aren't any specialized martial arts techniques. As long as you master those very simple, basic archery skills, you'll be given a bow and arrows, and you'll have to practice extensively on your own! In other words, this martial art is taught through arrows.
As for talent in archery? One thing to consider is consistency. Hitting the target with 10 arrows is completely different from hitting the target with 100 arrows. The difference in difficulty is like heaven and earth.
This is actually quite similar to shooting sports in another dimension. For example, there are plenty of sharpshooters in the military who can almost always get a perfect score with 10 bullets. But Olympic athletes have to fire at least 50 bullets and maintain extremely high consistency throughout.
Also, being able to hit the target every time in peacetime doesn't guarantee you'll be able to do it in combat. Everyone's mental fortitude is different; consistency is key!
The other is prediction.
In combat and hunting, archery is generally aimed at moving targets, so it is essential to anticipate the opponent's movements and give them a lead time.
As for Zhou Ye, his archery skills were only third-rate, so his stability and prediction were somewhat lacking. Hitting the target was already quite good; he simply couldn't accurately hit the gaps in the armor.
Therefore, after firing this volley of arrows, Zhou Ye immediately moved to another room. He asked He Da and He Er, "How many arrows are left?"
"Uncle Tian, there are still three bundles left unused. The rest are all here."
Zhou Ye quickly counted them: three bundles made 150 arrows, with only about 20 loose ones. And there were at least 2 to 3000 miners outside?
So Zhou Ye instructed He Da: "Go down there and ask them for arrows; they don't need them anymore. Take as many iron-barreled arrows as possible."
He then turned to He Er: "You must stay close to me. The supply of arrows must not be cut off."
"clear."
After saying that, Zhou Ye leaned out of the window again, "Whoosh whoosh whoosh—"
In this round, Zhou Ye fired more than a dozen arrows in one go. However, this time he changed his target, aiming at the group of miner archers in the back row.
The miners and archers were only wearing one set of leather armor, so their success was astonishing. Under this volley of arrows, a large number of miners and archers fell dead.
Without the cover of the archers in the rear, He Jing and Gu Jiu's pressure immediately eased. After launching a counter-charge, the miners who had rushed into the wall were either killed or escaped by scaling the wall.
But just then, a piercing horn sounded. A group of steel miners charged out from the miners' ranks.
They were dressed in heavy steel armor from head to toe, numbering over a hundred, with the first 30 or so all being martial artists at the Energizing Realm.
Zhou Ye had already changed rooms. He stood up and fired arrows again, only to hear several clanging sounds. The iron-barreled arrows either bounced off the heavy armor or didn't penetrate at all.
Zhou Ye was taken aback. Although those martial arts masters above the Transformation Realm could project their qi and blood outwards, such as sword qi...
It could be something like sword energy, but it couldn't be too far from the body, much less attach blood and qi to the arrow that was shot out.
Therefore, the power of archery mainly depends on the bow. The higher the stone count, the farther the range and the greater the power.
Therefore, an eight-stone bow simply cannot penetrate this kind of heavy steel armor. It would require at least a twelve-stone bow—right?
Just as Zhou Ye was slightly taken aback, a chill suddenly ran down his spine. He sensed a life-or-death crisis, so without hesitation, he rolled to the corner and lay face down on the floor.
Meanwhile, behind the heavily armored miners, squads of crossbowmen appeared. They had a clear division of labor, firing in groups at the guards. Zhou Ye, who was firing the stray arrows, received special attention, with three squads of crossbowmen focusing their fire on him simultaneously.
Then came a series of loud "bangs." The window where Zhou Ye had just shot the arrow was instantly shattered. Arrows flew wildly throughout the room—
Zhou Ye broke out in a cold sweat. Those miners were really cunning, weren't they?
However, seeing the fighting styles and equipment of both sides, it really makes one wonder, who the hell is the regular army?
Hurriedly climbing to the door, Zhou Ye instructed He Er, "Quick! Let's go downstairs. We can't stay on this floor any longer."
"Yes, yes, yes."
"————"
When Zhou Ye appeared on the lower level, more than a dozen heavily armored miners had already rushed up the wall. And through the gap they had breached, the remaining lightly armored and unarmored miners were preparing to swarm in.
Fortunately, there was He Jing, a master of Ming Jin, who, along with Gu Jiu, led a dozen or so martial artists in the mid-to-late stages of the Jin realm. They were like firefighters, plugging the gaps everywhere.
The other guards performed much worse. It often took three or four of them to hold their own against a single heavily armored miner, and they still struggled to penetrate the heavy steel armor.
Fortunately, Zhou Ye suddenly unleashed another surprise attack. "Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" He only fired two or three arrows at a time, targeting the lightly armored and unarmored miners in the rear. The archers didn't even have time to aim before Zhou Ye immediately changed positions.
"Get closer!" the archer leader shouted. "Each team, take over one window. Make sure that bastard is taken out—"
However, before he could finish speaking, Zhou Ye's target shifted to the crossbowmen. After six or seven arrows in quick succession, several crossbowmen, including their leader, were killed on the spot.
In an instant, the archers were thrown into chaos. They fled back and took cover behind a row of heavy shields.
Without the orders of their leader, the archers were at a loss as to what to do.
It's important to understand that the miners weren't actually very wealthy. Their heavy armor and archers were the result of considerable effort and hard work.
Therefore, in previous battles, the miners were unwilling to waste their lives unnecessarily. With other cannon fodder available and no one to command them, the archers were unwilling to continue risking their lives.
But without the archers, Zhou Ye immediately went all out. With just his bow and arrows, he single-handedly held off the miners behind him, completely disrupting the heavily armored miners in front, allowing the guards to concentrate on dealing with these "steel monsters."
"Whoosh—" "Whoosh whoosh—"