Chapter 3: An Unexpected Victory! Part 1!

Compared to Jing Shi Yi of the same age, Sima Tai had complete confidence in Liu Yu. Thinking of the young man’s actions just now, he said without hesitation, “With Sima Tai in Haiyang, that’s great! Let them taste the power of my rapid-fire guns!”

Liu Yu in another timeline was an avid military and history enthusiast. He knew more about the Vietnamese imperial army than people in this era.

Since King Tự Đức ascended the throne thirty years ago, Vietnam had been plagued by constant wars, especially in the north. After the defeat of the Taiping Rebellion over a decade earlier, remnants of various peasant rebel forces active in Guangxi retreated into Northern Vietnam.

These defeated soldiers from China’s civil wars were like frightened birds when they entered Vietnam, but once there, they thrived. Despite having the advantage of fighting on home soil, the Vietnamese imperial army kept losing battles, suffering heavy casualties, and eventually had to ask Guangxi to send troops across the border to help suppress them.

By the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing army was already weak and ineffective, and the military units in Guangxi were the weakest among them. Yet every time they went into battle, they would crush these former opponents. But as soon as the Qing troops returned to China, these scattered rebel groups would regroup and defeat the Vietnamese imperial army once again. At such times, the Vietnamese emperor could only seek help from the governor of Guangxi as a subordinate.

With such a comparison, Liu Yu clearly understood the actual combat strength of the Vietnamese army.

He also remembered a specific detail: like them, the Vietnamese army used 16th-century flintlock guns. According to military regulations, a Vietnamese soldier was allowed only six shots per year for training. If they fired one more shot, all the costs had to be borne by the soldier himself.

Such an army was actually made up of temporarily recruited peasants and had little combat capability—worse even than the Qing Dynasty’s Eight Banners and Green Standard Armies. Even if they offended the Vietnamese authorities, it wasn’t something to worry about.

On his side, although there were only seventeen people, including a few old and weak ones, most of them had experience in actual combat. It would be no problem to deal with dozens of weak opponents. Moreover, there was now Sima Tai’s foreign-made gun: “A magnificent gun! Truly a fine gun made in the West, capable of firing Minié bullets with great range—truly a gun that can pierce targets from a thousand steps away!”

In Liu Yu’s eyes, which had fired thousands of bullets, this gun was nothing special. Even in 1878, it would have been considered obsolete.

By now, the whole world was using breech-loading rifles, yet Sima Tai still carried a front-loading rifle of a model Liu Yu couldn’t identify—though it was still a Minié rifle.

In the second half of the 19th century, rifles were being updated faster than rockets. The latest models from the Crimean War over a decade earlier were now obsolete, practically scrap metal. Western armies had already switched to more advanced breech-loading rifles a decade earlier, and now even more advanced repeating rifles were becoming popular.

But regardless, this Minié rifle was Liu Yu’s greatest asset at the moment. Guns like the one Liu Yu had could barely hit targets from a hundred meters away, and killing someone from 200 meters was considered extremely lucky. But a Minié rifle could reach a range of seven to eight hundred meters.

When Sima Tai heard Liu Yu praising his rifle, he was even happier than if his own fame had been recognized: “Truly, heroes emerge from youth—your keen eye recognizes true quality! My foreign rifle can fire Minié bullets, and no one else can explain why, but you have such insight!”
It was now Jiang Ningxue’s turn to be surprised. She never knew her husband had such knowledge. After examining Sima Tai’s rifle closely, she couldn’t see anything special about it, but still felt delighted and agreed, “It’s indeed a fine rifle!”
Liu Yu thought to himself, “Once I get the chance to acquire some repeating rifles, I’ll show you what a real fine rifle is!”
Sima Tai talked about his rifle at length: “I got this rifle by pulling strings! Oh, and this too…”
With that, he untied the two horns tied around his waist and showed everyone the black powder inside—fine and dense, in granular form, very different from the powdery black powder used by Liu Yu’s camp. The young leader blurted out, “Granular black powder!”
Sima Tai had accomplished many impressive feats using this granular black powder and his fast rifles, but others didn’t recognize these two remarkable weapons, making it seem as though his talents went unnoticed. So now he regarded Liu Yu as a kindred spirit: “This is granular black powder!”
As a military enthusiast, Liu Yu surely understood well the power of this granular black powder.
In the history of black powder, granulation represented a revolutionary leap. After being treated chemically and physically to become granular, both range and power improved significantly.
Experiments were conducted around the Opium Wars: with the same shotgun, switching to granular black powder increased the maximum range from 120 bows (192 meters) to 160 bows (256 meters), a full one-third increase.
In China, granulation of black powder appeared as early as the late Ming Dynasty but never became widespread, eventually disappearing altogether until it was reintroduced from the West after the Opium Wars.
But groups like Liu Yu’s camp, who were in exile abroad, still used the inferior powdery black powder. Thus, Liu Yu was confident: “Good! While the opportunity is ripe, Haiyang has Sima Tai—someone truly special. We must seek justice!”
Since they couldn’t deal with the French forces, seizing some supplies from the Vietnamese army seemed like a good idea.
Liu Yu used his military knowledge from his past life to distribute the granular black powder and gave brief instructions.
Sima Tai was in high spirits and had no objections to Liu Yu’s plans; his two companions always obeyed him without question.
As for the people in Liu Yu’s camp, they should have been the ones to raise objections—their leader was taking a risky gamble, using just twenty men to attack the superior government forces, and this decision affected the camp’s future. Yet everyone, old and young, shared Jiang Ningxue’s mindset: “The key is not to lose face in front of outsiders!”
Jing Shiyi was displeased with the highly impressive Sima Tai, but letting him talk more might only make him even more proud.
After all, since things had already escalated, it was better to target an easier opponent—maybe they could even reap a great profit.

If they happen to encounter the enemy’s main forces, it can only be blamed on bad luck; it’s still better than being surrounded and completely wiped out.
Moreover, everyone felt that Liu Yu had changed a lot and become more mature. His plans were quite good, with a high chance of success.
This time, they were risking everything—even sending the wounded out overnight. But before setting off, Jing Shi Yi said to Jiang Ningxue, “Ayu’s wife, stay behind when the time comes!”