PFC Chapter 82 Acton: The Anglo-French Allied Forces Have Attacked?
Chapter 82 Acton: The Anglo-French Allied Forces Have Attacked?
Chapter 82 Acton: The Anglo-French Allied Forces Have Attacked?
A large group of slave rats, armed with spears, stormed out of the mine. Although their formation was scattered, their sheer numbers gave them a formidable presence.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, the group of Qing soldiers were completely stunned. They had no idea that such a group of armed rats would appear behind them, so much so that when they were attacked, the guys instinctively tried to run away!
Some Qing soldiers who couldn't dodge in time had their chests pierced by spears on the spot. Some Qing soldiers even barely managed to dodge the first round of spear thrusts, but they never expected that the big rat's tail would follow closely behind and swing over, with the sharp blade tied to it severing their throats in an instant.
Skaven are often adept at a three-sword fighting style, as their flexible and powerful tails can function as an arm, allowing them to surprise many enemies.
Theoretically speaking, these slave rats are certainly not worthy of good weapons; for the Skaven, an iron dagger is much more expensive than a slave rat.
But Rock wasn't so stingy as to not even equip the slave rats with this much weaponry, so before that, he found some small knives and all sorts of other slender knives in the bandit camp and gave one to each of the slave rats.
Although it was just a small knife, insignificant and even a bit of junk to Rock, the slave rat was immediately moved to tears of gratitude after receiving such a large reward.
It's important to understand that slave rats are definitely cannon fodder. Under normal circumstances, no ratman would care about them, let alone reward them with anything.
Even Rock's system, because of their cannon fodder status, did not receive any military pay.
That's why they valued the weapon that Rock had given them so much and were so moved by it.
Of course, this may also be due to the effectiveness of the system's loyalty stamp on them. Otherwise, given the evil nature of the Skaven, a warlord who is relatively kind to them might not necessarily receive their gratitude, but might instead be seen as kind and easy to bully.
Perhaps because the short swords that Rock distributed could be considered a temporary bonus in a sense, the morale of these slave rats was high at this moment.
Although their equipment was inferior to that of the Qing soldiers, their high morale contrasted sharply with the Qing soldiers' severe fright caused by the giant rats, which immediately allowed them to defeat the Qing soldiers so decisively that they could not raise their heads.
Upon hearing the commotion, Green Standard Army soldiers in other locations quickly rushed towards the scene.
But when they saw the swarm of rats emerging, the first reaction of these Qing soldiers was not to quickly organize their troops to fight back, but to run away as fast as they could!
In their view, since even the soldiers in front had been defeated, why should they insist on resisting in this area? Wouldn't that be just asking for trouble?
Anyway, even if they run away, there will be a lot of people to cover for them. If they really want to intercept the fleeing soldiers, they are worried that the fleeing soldiers will sweep them away with them!
"Don't run! Stop! Anyone who retreats will be executed!"
Seeing how easily these Green Standard Army soldiers collapsed, even though Akdun was also afraid of the giant rat that suddenly attacked, he still rode his tall horse, brandishing a long sword and blocking the road, his face full of fierce and menacing expressions.
Beside him, Guo Xingye, the commander of the Green Standard Army, kept scolding them, feeling that these guys were really embarrassing him.
Of course, even with the Green Standard Army commander personally coming to reprimand them, these Green Standard Army soldiers failed to organize themselves and still fled when the opportunity arose.
After all, these Green Standard Army soldiers also understood:
If we choose to quickly organize a defense, we might actually be able to stop those giant rats, but what good would it do? How many of them would die in the process?
The imperial court only gave them a meager amount of military pay, and most of it was embezzled by the officers in charge. The remaining amount was not even enough to feed them on a daily basis.
They can't even get enough to eat all day long, how can you expect them to risk their lives for the court?
Not to mention they knew perfectly well that they hadn't come to this gold mine to risk their lives for the imperial court; they were merely working for that Manchu garrison commander.
So now things have gotten really bad. If the two officers hadn't run fast enough, they might have been pulled off their horses by the fleeing Green Standard Army soldiers.
"You bastard, you've really gone too far!"
After quickly spurring his horse to avoid the Green Standard Army soldiers, Akdun rode alongside the group, all the while cursing under his breath.
Just then, a burst of gunfire suddenly rang out in the distance, and several of the slave rats chasing after Aktun fell to the ground on the spot.
Upon seeing this, Acton's eyes lit up. He realized that the militia soldiers who had come with him had also joined the battle.
Don't underestimate these guys just because they're militiamen; they're more powerful than the Green Standard Army soldiers and they have plenty of firearms.
Therefore, when these militiamen began firing on the slave rats' ranks, the slave rats, who had previously been chasing after the braided creatures, suddenly became timid and had no choice but to retreat hastily and then reorganize their formation.
The ground was littered with corpses, some of them ratmen and others of Green Standard Army soldiers. Seeing this, many of the militia soldiers looked quite grim.
If they had known they would actually be facing a tough battle here, they would have been better off not coming at all!
At first, these militia members all thought they were here to help others take advantage of the situation, after all, they had heard the story of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
But who knew there would be so many giant, intelligent rats in this place? Isn't this ridiculous?
Many of the trainees fired their guns while silently praying, fearing that they might inadvertently offend the Grey Fairy.
But there was nothing they could do; military orders were absolute, and besides, those rats didn't seem like they would show them any mercy, so they had no choice but to obediently fire their guns.
Upon seeing that the enemy had guns, the slave rats dared not continue their charge and instead retreated back into the mine.
For the Skaven, these dark mines are the perfect hiding place for their troops, and also the terrain where they can best take advantage of their home field.
No one knows how many rats are lurking in the dark and deep mine. Although the rat people have poor eyesight, their night vision is better than that of humans. Coupled with their extremely keen sense of smell, they guarantee that as many humans as they dare to rush in, they will die!
As expected, when they saw the rats retreat back into the mine, the Qing soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, but they dared not continue to pursue them.
If they rashly chase after them, they will surely perish once they go inside.
But what if we don't go into the mine to chase them?
They're stuck here with the rats, and once they retreat to deal with other things, the rats will immediately launch another sneak attack from behind.
But if they can't seize this gold mine and block the Luo family army's retreat, then aren't they just doing useless work all along?
"Explosives! Does anyone have any explosives? Quickly, gather all the explosives in this mine!"
Suddenly, Akdun's eyes lit up, and he quickly urged the soldiers around him to hurry up.
Rushing straight into the mine is definitely not an option, but what if they used explosives to bury those rats alive inside?
Aktun didn't know if the group of giant rats, once buried, would be able to dig themselves out again, but at least in the short term, they certainly wouldn't be able to get out.
Once they've completely taken control of the gold mine and wiped out the Luo family army, and then joined forces with those bandits, he doesn't believe they can't take down a bunch of armed rats!
Since this is a mining area, there must be plenty of explosives, even if they are just old-fashioned black powder, it would be enough to deal with the current situation.
Before long, several Green Standard Army soldiers hurriedly pushed large barrels over, shouting as they ran, "Sir, we've found explosives!"
After receiving the explosives, the Green Standard Army soldiers were all very excited, but when they were about to use them, they encountered a problem.
The reason is simple: none of them dared to rush up the mountain with explosives!
These days, handling black powder is a technical skill, because it's very easy for it to explode, unlike the relatively stable C4.
Among these people, there wasn't a single one who was proficient in handling explosives. Moreover, they knew that rushing up with explosives in this situation would most likely mean they wouldn't come back.
Those rats certainly wouldn't behave themselves and let them stuff the barrel of explosives into the hole, so they needed a group of people to escort the barrel of explosives and desperately block the rats' counterattack until the explosives were detonated.
Normally, a suicide squad that carries out such a mission must be determined to die. But if these Green Standard Army soldiers were determined to die, how come they were defeated so badly before?
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, seemingly asking him to make the decision, Akdun became annoyed.
"Useless! You're all a bunch of useless trash!"
"This is unbelievable! You guys have this much trouble handling a barrel of explosives? Do you expect me to carry the explosives up there for you?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a group of Green Standard Army soldiers shouted that they dared not, but it was hard to say what they really thought.
It's infuriating! We finally got the explosives, but now no one is rushing in to do it. Isn't this just making things difficult for us?
Thinking this, Akdun said to the other militiamen, "Is there any brave warrior willing to carry a barrel of explosives to blow up those rats? This general promises that whoever is willing to risk their life to charge up will receive a reward of twenty taels of silver!"
They think they can kill them for twenty taels of silver? Are these Tartars crazy?
Upon hearing this, a group of soldiers looked at Akdun with the same disdain one might show to an idiot.
Unlike the Green Standard Army soldiers who had their pay cut every day, these militia soldiers were well-paid by their employers in order to make them guards. They could earn back the two thousand taels of silver in just one trip to Changsha!
Besides, even the poorest Green Standard Army soldiers wouldn't risk their lives for such a small amount of money!
Seeing that not a single warrior dared to step forward after he spoke, Akdun felt utterly humiliated.
In his opinion, the twenty taels of silver he was paying was not a small amount, after all, it was his own money!
All these Han Chinese are nothing but lackeys. Now that their master has spoken, how dare these lackeys treat them so disrespectfully? It's simply outrageous!
How hateful! They didn't bring a single Manchu soldier with them on this mission. If they had Manchu warriors with them, why would he have worried about these lackeys not obeying?
Clearly, this Akdun had no idea how corrupt the Eight Banners soldiers had become in his mind. His impression of the Eight Banners soldiers was probably still stuck at the level when the Qing army entered the pass!
Of course, this could also be because the lama seemed to be refining elixirs to help the Eight Banners soldiers improve their physique, which made him regain confidence in the fighting power of the Eight Banners soldiers.
Just as he was about to say something, suddenly, another shout of killing came from behind him.
"Holy crap, something's really weird today. Who's this bastard who dares to mess with me?"
Hearing the commotion over there, Akdun looked into the distance with a fierce expression. But what he saw made him feel like his soul was about to die!
"My God! Foreigners! The foreigners are attacking!"
Upon seeing the scene in the distance, Akdun was almost scared to death. When he saw the Luo family army soldiers, dressed in blue uniforms, holding bayonets, and slowly approaching in a neat row, he was immediately terrified.
Although he did not personally experience the war when the Anglo-French allied forces entered Beijing, he learned how terrifying the scene was through correspondence with old friends in the capital.
Even Senggelinqin's Mongol cavalry and the Eight Banners elite troops in the capital were no match for the Anglo-French allied forces. The Qing Dynasty's elite troops were slaughtered like chickens and dogs by the Anglo-French allied forces. If it were his own soldiers, how could they resist?
"Quickly, stop them! Push them up there!"
Akdun desperately beckoned to the group of militiamen, urging them fiercely to charge forward with their guns. As for the Green Standard Army soldiers trembling like quails on the other side, he no longer had any hope for them.
Unfortunately, the militia soldiers who had previously been able to show off their prowess against the ratmen dared not make a move against the fully armed Luo family army.
Although they didn't know how capable the Anglo-French forces were, they inevitably came into contact with Russians while doing business abroad, and had a general impression of foreigners. Not to mention that the troops in front of them were neatly dressed and fully armed, and it was clear at a glance that they were a regular army!
They dared not make a move, but the Luo family army that Luo Ke brought back was very daring.
"Shoot them! Take them down!"
When Rock saw that the group that had ambushed his gold mine from the rear was actually a group of Qing soldiers, he was so angry that he laughed. He thought that old man Wanfu didn't have the guts to send troops to his death.
Without hesitation, he drew his saber, pointed it forward, and ordered his soldiers to launch an attack.
Upon hearing this, the youth army soldiers who were advancing stopped one after another, picked up their muskets, and unleashed a fierce volley of fire before roaring and launching a bayonet charge.
More than 700 muskets came raining down on them, and the terrifying firepower instantly felled countless people in front of them. Roughly speaking, there were at least a hundred militia soldiers who fell.
Seeing so many of their brothers fall in the blink of an eye, the remaining militia soldiers lost all courage, threw down their weapons, and began to flee in panic.
The Green Standard Army soldiers performed even worse. When they heard the gunfire, they didn't even look before turning around and running away as smoothly as could be!
They were clearly hiding in the back, but they ended up being among the first to run away!
Upon hearing the dense gunfire outside, the slave rats hiding in the mine knew that their warlord must have brought his main force.
So, led by several grenadier commanders, these slave rats rushed out again, chattering and screaming as they began to beat the drowning dog, cooperating with the Luo family army in front to encircle the Qing soldiers.
A large swarm of rats rushed out and collided violently with the retreating Green Standard Army soldiers, causing countless more soldiers to fall on the spot.
However, they failed to stop all the retreating Green Standard Army soldiers. These guys were quite good at escaping, and many of them managed to escape in the chaos.
Just as the escaped Green Standard Army soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, finally thinking they had successfully escaped to safety, a sudden sound of horses' hooves shattered their sense of relief.
They looked to their side in horror and found that a pair of cavalrymen on tall horses had somehow charged toward them, brandishing long swords!
These cavalrymen rode extremely powerful horses and charged at an astonishing speed. Moreover, all the cavalrymen were arranged in a dense square formation like infantrymen, pressing down like a wall!
Seeing this scene, the panicked Green Standard Army soldiers were almost scared to death on the spot. Many of them knelt down and wanted to surrender, while many more were simply too terrified to speak.
Unfortunately, the Queen's Dragoons, who were flanking them from the side, didn't care whether they surrendered or not, because Rock's previous orders to them were that there was no need to leave any survivors.
He had previously considered whether to keep some prisoners to exchange for ransom or something, but then he thought that these Green Standard Army soldiers could not even get their pay on a regular basis. How could they expect Wanfu to ransom them?
In addition, these guys usually bully men and women, and their opium addiction has ruined their health. It's not even realistic to recruit them into his army, so Rock simply decided not to keep these drug addicts to waste food.
In the midst of a bloody massacre, the Qing army that came to attack the place was completely wiped out, and in the end, none of them escaped alive.
Even the Qing general and the Green Standard Army commander, when they tried to beg for mercy, were ruthlessly beheaded by the charging Empress Dragon Cavalry, and were dead beyond any doubt.
"Ha, this battle is finally over!"
Rock breathed a sigh of relief, wiped his sweat, and laughed, "Brothers, let's chop off the legs of these corpses first, then see if they can turn into zombies. If they do, we'll use them to kill more zombies!"
Hearing Rock's words, the other soldiers, though tired and confused, still went to carry out this strange order.
The greatsword, especially the two-handed greatsword of the greatsword master, is best suited for this kind of slashing work, and chopping off legs is also a piece of cake.