Chapter 268 Grenade (Thanks to book friends Mo Shaobao and Zi Feifei for the reward!)
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Without any warning, the sudden explosion threw the charging Khitan cavalry into chaos, with them trampling on each other. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Khitan cavalry were killed.

Looking at the incredible scene before their eyes, He Jingyun, Liang Xuezhang and other generals in the lead all had an expression of disbelief in their eyes. No one could imagine that the Khitan cavalry, who were so arrogant and fierce just a second ago, had turned into such a bear-like state at this moment...
Despite the brilliant victory, Ye Mingsheng remained calm at this time and instructed Guo Zhiping beside him;
"Strike him while he's weak! Guo Zhiping, lead your cavalry to seize the opportunity and kill as many Khitans as possible!"

"But you must remember not to fight too long! If you see the enemy forming a battle array, you must retreat immediately!"

"Yes!" Guo Zhiping, who had been prepared, immediately bowed and took the order.

After assigning the task to Guo Zhiping, Ye Mingsheng turned his gaze back to the still chaotic Khitan army formation in front of him, and shook his head with some regret.

The "hammers" he prepared were actually simplified versions of wooden-handled grenades. In essence, this thing was nothing new and had appeared as early as several hundred years ago in the Northern Song Dynasty.

At that time, it was called "Thunderbolt". The shell was made of cast iron, filled with black gunpowder and equipped with a fuse. After the explosion, the fragments were used to hurt the enemy. Yue Wumu once used it...

It was just that due to the ratio and purity of the black gunpowder at the time, in order to ensure its power, the thunder bomb had to be made very large, which made it difficult to carry and launch.

In addition, it is easily affected by the weather and becomes damp, and its ultimate power is very limited, so it has never developed.

Ye Mingsheng from Earth, based on the experience of later generations, optimized the proportion and purity of black powder to a certain extent, reducing its volume while increasing its power and ease of use.

However, although Ye Mingsheng has a lot of experience from Earth in his mind, his grenades still have many limitations due to the current development of productivity. Whether in terms of power or other aspects, they are far from comparable to grenades of later generations.

It also required the fuse to be ignited, and could not be thrown out by simply pulling a rope like in later generations. Like all firearms of this era, it was greatly affected by the weather, had high requirements for storage, and could not be used in rainy weather.

The most important point is that even if Ye Mingsheng optimized the ratio and purity of black gunpowder, no matter how well it was optimized, black gunpowder was still black gunpowder, and its essence could not be changed, so the power of the explosion was still a little small, and it could only cause damage when thrown near the Khitan cavalry.

In fact, in Ye Mingsheng's opinion, the reason why his grenade is so effective now is largely because it took advantage of a surprise attack and caught the Khitan cavalry off guard.

Although the grenades themselves caused a lot of casualties to the Khitan cavalry, they were not particularly large. Many Khitan cavalry did not die from the grenade attack, but died from the internal trampling after the formation was disrupted.

While Ye Mingsheng was thinking secretly, Yelu Yan on the other side, after recovering from being stunned by Ye Mingsheng's grenade, even though his heart was bleeding, he wished he could chop Ye Mingsheng to pieces.

But as they watched Guo Zhiping lead the cavalry, rushing out of the camp and cutting off the heads of the Khitan warriors one by one with laughter.

Yelu Yan had to put aside his emotions for the time being and started yelling, trying to regroup the Khitan cavalry who had not yet completely recovered from the grenade attack to meet the enemy. "Quick! Form a formation!"

"Xiao Xiu, take your people and stop them first!"

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Yelu Yan acted quickly. With his strong prestige in the army, he quickly controlled the situation. However, Guo Zhiping's cavalry, which had killed hundreds of Khitan cavalry in the chaos, was as slippery as a loach under Ye Mingsheng's command.
Seeing that Yelu Yan had regrouped the chaotic army, Guo Zhiping did not hesitate to lead his men, turned around and left without any hesitation. Without any desire to fight, he moved around behind Ye Mingsheng's camp again. For a moment, the situation seemed to have returned to yesterday afternoon.

However, the camp is still the same camp, and Guo Zhiping's cavalry is still the same cavalry, but the Khitan army under Yelu Yan is no longer as strong as before.

The tragic defeat just now not only made their morale low, but also caused the loss of nearly a thousand people. Now the Khitan army under Yelu Yan has less than 3,000 people...

"Prince, are you still going to fight?" Xiao Xiu, who was covered in dirt, approached Yelu Yan and asked in a low voice:
Yelu Yan looked back and around, and saw the dejected and demoralized Khitan soldiers behind him, and a feeling of sadness gradually rose in his heart.

Didn't the previous looting of Fengzhou go smoothly? Wherever the troops went, no one was left alive? Did they take all the women and property into their pockets?
How could the powerful Khitan warriors have ever been so embarrassed?
With hatred and anger in his eyes, Yelu Yan tightly grasped the scimitar in his hand. He wanted to drop everything and fight to the death with Ye Mingsheng, and use the blood of Ye Mingsheng and all the Zhou troops in the camp to wash away the shame that the Khitan warriors had just suffered.

But despite being extremely angry, Yelu Yan's rationality was not completely eroded by anger...

Yelu Yan gritted his teeth and used all his strength to say the word that he felt extremely ashamed of.

"withdraw!"

After receiving Yelu Yan's order, the soldiers and generals of the Khitan army all felt relieved and fled into Yaowo Fort in disgrace. The stubborn Yelu Yan walked at the end of the team. Although he did not say anything, everyone could read the unwillingness and anger in his expression!
Seeing the Khitans retreating back to Yaowo Fort, deafening cheers suddenly broke out in Ye Mingsheng's camp, and everyone was enjoying the joy of surviving the disaster.

"The general is so powerful!"

No one knew who started shouting first, but soon all the soldiers in the camp raised their arms and shouted to express their admiration for Ye Mingsheng.

Everyone was not a fool and they all understood clearly that if Ye Mingsheng had not come up with a surprising trick, everyone would have been killed by the Khitans. So they shouted with sincerity and without the need for the generals to mobilize them.

He Jingyun and Liang Xuezhang looked at each other, then bowed to Ye Mingsheng at the same time and said with sincere conviction:
"Your Excellency is able to plan and win battles thousands of miles away. We are not capable of doing that! We admire you!"

(End of this chapter)