Chapter 489: Lord Xiao Zhang’s Masterful Archery!

The shouts of battle from afar could be heard through the cowhide tents, but no one inside dared make the slightest sound, fearing they might anger Arutai, whose face was as dark as iron. Two strong men were using white cloth to wipe the blood from Shini Geng’s chest and back, while the middle-aged military doctor kept giving quiet instructions. Everyone else had faces as pale as death.
When he was brought back, he was barely alive. Though those around him quickly removed the arrow feathers and used a sharp knife to cut through the swollen, rotten flesh around the wound on the battlefield to extract the arrowhead stuck in his flesh, and drained the blood, the blue, triangular shape of the arrowhead still made everyone gasp in horror. With no other choice, the doctor resorted to the best method available at the time. He had someone kill a cow, remove its internal organs, and place his own son inside the cow’s belly. Yet, even after a whole night, this once-effective method proved useless—Shini Geng remained unconscious.
“Weren’t we already given the antidote? Why isn’t he awake yet?”
There’s a saying in the Central Plains: “It takes ten years to sharpen a sword.” Ever since he suffered a crushing defeat under the direct rule of the Ming emperor and barely escaped death, Arutai had endured in silence for ten years, quietly rebuilding his strength. Just as he was about to make his grand move, he never expected to face such a setback here in Xinghe. Not only had one of their siege engines been lost, but his eldest son had also been pierced by a cold arrow and was now on the verge of death. Fuming with rage, he shouted loudly.
“Grand Tutor, this isn’t an ordinary arrowhead, nor is it ordinary poison!” The middle-aged man was the best military doctor in the army. He quickly stood up. “I’ve treated countless arrow and knife wounds, but I’ve never seen such an arrowhead! If the Crown Prince hadn’t been poisoned by an arrow earlier and developed some resistance after taking the antidote, he would likely be dead now! Because it’s a triangular arrowhead—after being hit, although those who brought him back acted quickly, the Crown Prince lost too much blood. I’m afraid…”
“Stop talking!”
Furious, Arutai pushed aside the curtain and rushed out of the tent. Seeing several guards kneeling on the snow, their faces purple with fear, his anger surged even more. He roared, “I chose you out of thousands to follow Shini Geng. Is this how you repay my favor? If you can’t even protect your master, what kind of warriors are you? You’re nothing but a disgrace! Bring them here—behead them, and reduce their families to slavery!”

The guards were frozen to the point of near-death; they could barely speak properly. When a dozen bodyguards stepped forward to carry them away, one of them finally stammered, “Grand Tutor, it’s not that we didn’t try our best! We were at least four hundred paces away from the city walls, and Liru had already shielded the Crown Prince from the arrows. Yet that arrow pierced through him and hit the Crown Prince anyway! If you don’t believe us, there was another arrow that hit both of them!”
“Wait!”
Hearing this, Altan immediately stopped his bodyguards and stepped forward to ask the other guards again. When everyone agreed that a single arrow had indeed pierced both men, his brows furrowed tightly, and his anger gradually turned into suspicion. He had just led an attack on Xinghe not long ago; although he failed to capture the city, he had killed many people. So when he heard that Xinghe now had only six or seven hundred people, he hadn’t doubted it at all.
But something seemed off. First, Selben said they encountered gunfire when they reached the city walls, then the siege engines were destroyed by unknown firearms, and now his most trusted eldest son was seriously injured with an uncertain prognosis… The Mongol army did have powerful bows, but their range was at most 150 to 200 paces. Even the legendary crossbows of the Song Dynasty had a range of around 300 paces. As for the firearms in the Ming Dynasty’s Divine Machine Camp, even with arrows mounted on them, they shouldn’t be able to shoot that far…
Wait, the Divine Machine Camp!
At this possibility, Altan couldn’t care about the guards any longer. He turned and entered his tent. He rushed to Shiniyegan’s side and saw the military doctor sweating profusely yet still unable to revive him. He grabbed the doctor by the collar and asked sternly, “Where are the arrowhead and arrow shaft that were removed earlier?”
The middle-aged doctor quickly opened a box nearby and handed over the arrowhead and shaft that had been forcibly cut off. Altan snatched them and examined them carefully from start to finish. Then he noticed a set of clearly visible small characters on the arrow shaft.
“Tian Character No. 57, made on the 4th day of the 7th month in the 19th year of Yongle.”
Altan still harbored deep resentment over his disastrous defeat in the battle at Kuoluan Sea. Although Zhu Di personally led the cavalry and forced him to flee, if it weren’t for the chaos caused by the Divine Machine Camp, he wouldn’t have lost so quickly. Now, seeing that the arrowhead was newly produced with such a high serial number, he had no doubts left. After a moment of shock, he immediately reverted to his ruthless nature as a warlord.

Although he couldn’t learn everything about the Ming army’s troop movements, he was at least aware of some rumors. At that time, the large-scale troop movements were still within the passes. It seemed that he had indeed been driven crazy by the various clan chiefs back then. If he could provoke Zhu Di into launching an attack in autumn, delaying things a bit longer—perhaps even using heavy snowstorms—to trap and kill that emperor! Even if Xinghe had more than six or seven hundred soldiers, its forces were still limited. If they managed to capture it, he wouldn’t only get food but also the Ming army’s firearms!

He truly missed the good old days when the Mongol Yuan dynasty employed large numbers of craftsmen from the Central Plains. Ever since retreating to the steppes, not only had luxury goods from the Central Plains disappeared, but most firearms were also seized from the Ming army, and craftsmen who knew how to make them were almost extinct. If this situation continued, the noble Mongols would forever remain known as “Tartars” in the eyes of the people of the Central Plains!

Just as Arutai made up his mind, a deafening roar suddenly came from outside, with the words “magnificent archers” faintly audible. Startled, he immediately bent down and stepped out of his tent. He saw that the guards he had sent earlier were still held by his own troops, who were also looking in the direction of Xinghe Fort. Seeing this, he became furious and quickly ordered someone to investigate what was going on.

“Report! Grand Tutor, the magnificent archers in Xinghe Fort are extremely fierce!”

As another wave of attacks hit Xinghe Fort, the wounded soldiers at the west end of the city were struggling to dig large pits to bury their comrades’ bodies. In such bitterly cold weather, the ground was already frozen solid, and with each shovel strike, the recoil would numb one’s wrists. Yet, despite the sounds of fighting around them, none of them complained.

Before the enemy launched another major attack, they managed to do one thing: under the watchful eyes of the sentries on the watchtowers, they found the bodies of those brave soldiers beneath the ruined siege engines. However, due to the immense force of the grenade explosion, no one could identify which one was Wang Huan. At such a time, no one had the heart to leave these unrecognizable bodies exposed, so they could only be buried hastily—perhaps there wouldn’t be time to do more later.

Zhang Yue didn’t have time to observe a moment of silence for Wang Huan. He couldn’t fully understand why this veteran soldier would take such risks personally, but that didn’t stop him from admiring Wang Huan’s courage in such a situation. At first, he thought cavalry attacks on cities were just a joke, and even more so in a snowstorm. But who would have thought that the enemy would actually bring such a formidable siege engine? If not for the powerful firearms and the charges of the elite soldiers, they would likely have seen their city fall and themselves perish immediately—though the outcome now wasn’t much better.

That was because almost all of those charging Mongol soldiers were insane!

Arrows rained down from the west wall like clouds, and the clinking of arrows hitting shields could be heard everywhere. Despite the intense attacks below, there were no large siege engines, and even if there had been ballistae in the grasslands, there were no suitable stones to use. As a result, they could only attack using scaling ladders. Yet, the city also lacked large devices like ballistae. Moreover, all the stored greased lime had been used up during previous attacks, and arrows were nearly exhausted, so firearms became the most effective weapons.

There was enough gunpowder and ammunition, but there weren’t enough people to operate the firearms. Seeing the endless waves of attackers and still having a dozen new hand cannons unused, Zhang Yue remembered how he had frequently visited the Armory Bureau during the period of equipping the imperial guards, even shooting them a few times with the craftsmen’s help. This made him consider taking action himself. He wanted to take up a sword and fight in person, but since Peng Shisan was absent, Xiang Long and Liu Bao kept a close eye on him, as if to prevent him from showing off unless it was truly a life-or-death situation.

So, Zhou Bailing, who was overseeing the battle from the city walls amidst the arrow rain, finally found an opportunity to enter the arrow tower. There, he saw Zhang Yue shooting out through an arrow slit with a hand cannon. Startled, he noticed Xiang Long and Liu Bao carefully loading gunpowder behind him. He thoughtfully stroked his chin before stepping forward after Zhang Yue finished firing a shot.

“Judging from Lord Zhang’s skill, it seems he’s used this thing at the Armory Bureau before?”

“If I had known it would be like this, I should have practiced my aim better back then.”

Zhang Yue’s sense of regret was beyond description. He had thought it would be similar to modern target shooting, but after shooting several times on the military training ground, he was shocked to find that although a pistol’s range was within a hundred paces, hitting a target accurately was extremely difficult. So after a dozen attempts, he stopped spending time on it. Yet now, he found himself having to rely on it.

“Hey, my lord, don’t underestimate yourself. Yesterday’s hit was just luck. There are expert archers in the army, but not a single expert pistol shooter—because these weapons are hard to control. By the way, we don’t even know who that amazing arrow hit yesterday, yet it made those Tartars scream in pain. Since you can use a pistol, why not try the amazing arrow? After all, another chance like yesterday will never come. With the Tartars on guard, it’s unlikely any noble will stand that close again. But an ordinary soldier killing one of them is just another ordinary soldier killed!”

Hearing this, and seeing Zhou Bailing standing nearby drinking from a water bag, Zhang Yue was struck by an idea. He immediately turned to a box nearby and took out the amazing arrow that had shown such power the previous day. He loaded the iron tip and arrow shaft at the front, filled the chamber with gunpowder using a spoon, then brought a wooden fork over the arrow hole and placed the arrow on it. He glanced at a burly man holding a large black flag about two or three hundred paces away. Though he knew the chances of the arrow succeeding were minimal, he squinted and aimed for a while before lighting the fuse.

Bang—

Due to the powerful force of the gunpowder, the arrow flew across the army in an instant, heading straight for the black flag. Yet when the arrow finally hit its target, even Zhang Yue was stunned.

The man holding the flag was unharmed, but the black flag with the white eagle painted on it had been pierced by the arrow!

Zhou Bailing almost choked on his water, then burst into laughter. “Lord Zhang is truly an amazing archer!”