The fleet was drawing closer, cutting through the muddy waves of the Yellow River with aggressive intent.
On the shore, Bai Yuan had finished the grueling process of reloading. He moved behind the massive stainless steel cannon, squinting one eye as he aimed left, then right, meticulously adjusting the elevation of the barrel.
Wang Er, watching the meticulous but somewhat frantic preparations, couldn't help but speak up.
"Are we really just going to start shooting? Shouldn't we say a few words to them first? It seems a bit against the Jianghu code to fire without a formal challenge."
Bai Yuan didn't even look up from his sights.
"Talking requires them to be close. If we let those boats get near the docks just so we can exchange pleasantries, what's the point of having these cannons? We might as well give up Qiaochuan Pier and just let them walk right into town."
Wang Er opened his mouth to argue, then closed it.
"...Fair point."
He was beginning to realize that once heat-based weapons entered the chat, the distance between enemies became a mechanical necessity. The traditional pre-battle shouting matches were a luxury they couldn't afford if they wanted to keep their wooden trial fortress system intact.
It seemed the battlefield was no place for the sentimental rules of the Jianghu. Wang Er went silent, remembering that when Wang Jiayin's relatives tried to shiv him in the back, they certainly hadn't asked for his permission first.
Bai Yuan chuckled and took a torch from Flat Rabbit, touching it to the match cord of the first cannon. The cord began to sizzle and spark.
Immediately, the atmosphere shifted.
Bai Yuan and the Gao Village militia members instinctively scrambled back, covering their ears with both hands. They had seen arquebuses fire before; even a tiny pinch of gunpowder created a deafening crack and impressive power.
This Great Red Barbarian Cannon was over ten feet long with a bore wide enough to swallow a man's head. The solid iron ball inside was in a completely different league than a lead pellet.
How powerful would this thing be? They didn't even want to imagine it.
They retreated further, then further still, pressing their palms against their ears as if their lives depended on it.
Bai Yuan, squinting through the smoke, noticed some of the local Heyang militia standing around with their mouths open, ears completely exposed.
He let out a muffled roar,
"Get back! Cover your ears if you want to keep them!"
The local militiamen snapped out of their daze and scrambled to follow suit.
Then, the fuse reached the end.
BOOM!
The sound was earth-shattering. The air itself seemed to fracture as the stainless steel cannon kicked back violently. A gout of orange flame erupted from the muzzle, propelling the iron ball into the sky.
At the same time, the massive barrel leaped upward, belching a titanic cloud of white smoke. Even the heavy stone platform beneath the cannon was knocked askew by the sheer force of the recoil.
Despite having their ears covered, the vibration traveled through their bones, leaving their heads ringing.
"Such terrifying power!"
"It's a monster!"
The Heyang militia, seeing a cannon fire for the first time, were paralyzed with shock.
Bai Yuan, however, was only interested in the results. He stared out at the river, hoping his meticulous aiming had paid off.
Unfortunately, it hadn't.
A massive pillar of water erupted from the river surface a few yards away from the nearest boat.
A complete miss.
Bai Yuan let out a tragic wail, clutching his head.
"Archery skills... delete, delete from my record!"
However, while the shot didn't hit anything, it sent a ripple of pure panic through Bai Yuzhu's fleet.
Voices began screaming from the decks:
"Crap! They have artillery!"
"How does a tiny place like Heyang have cannons?"
"It can't be the Magistrate's. They must have brought them from Xi'an!"
"Is it the Shaanxi Commander Wang Chengen? No, he's at the capital!"
"Then who is firing at us?"
The bandits were losing their cool.
They had every reason to be afraid; only a few days prior, they had been taught a very painful lesson by the artillery at Hequ County in Shanxi. The memory of being blasted into the water by Commander Wang Guoliang was still fresh, like it happened yesterday.
"Brother Bai, they have cannons! What do we do?"
On the flagship, a group of hardened bandits crowded around Bai Yuzhu, their faces pale.
Bai Yuzhu, a man whose only talent was having no glaring weaknesses, remained relatively calm. He pondered for a few seconds.
"Don't panic. They only fired once. Maybe they only have one gun?"
As if on cue, a second BOOM echoed from the docks.
This time, Bai Yuan didn't necessarily aim better, but his luck was significantly better.
With a violent splash, the second iron ball landed right next to a small fishing skiff.
The Yellow River's current was already a nightmare to navigate. When the ball hit, it created a localized surge that tossed the tiny boat like a toy.
A larger ship might have shrugged it off, but this skiff tilted violently.
Ten bandits and one boatman were on board.
The boatman, having lived his life on the water, kept his balance, but the ten bandits weren't so lucky.
Seven of them were bucked straight into the muddy water.
Being northerners, most of them couldn't swim to save their lives.
They immediately began flailing, swallowing mouthfuls of Yellow River silt while screaming for help.
The boatman reached out with an oar to pull them back, but one of the drowning men grabbed it with a death grip and yanked the boatman into the water with him.
The now-unmanned boat drifted wildly, slamming into a second skiff and causing another three bandits to fall overboard.
The entire center of the fleet devolved into a chaotic rescue operation.
Bai Yuzhu cursed loudly,
"Holy mother of...!"
Back on shore, Bai Yuan was doing a victory dance.
"Hahahaha! A hit! I hit them! Archery skills, add it back to the record!"
Wang Er looked at him dryly.
"It clearly didn't hit. They just panicked and fell over."
Bai Yuan ignored him, pretending to be deaf.
He leaped back toward the cannon.
"Quick! Reload!"
But as he shouted, he realized there was a problem.
After firing, both cannons had shifted significantly. They were no longer pointed at the river, and moving these heavy beasts back into position required a massive group effort.
Flat Rabbit, Zheng Gouzi, and several others rushed forward to help, but as soon as one soldier touched the barrel, he let out a yelp of pain.
"Hot! It's burning hot!"
Bai Yuan realized his mistake instantly.
"There was so much gunpowder in there that the explosion generated massive heat. The barrel is scorching. We need to cool it down! Water! Get the water!"
They had prepared buckets of water for the wooden trial fortress system in case of fire, but now they were being used as coolant.
As the water hit the stainless steel, it hissed and turned into a thick cloud of steam.
"It's cool enough! Get it back in position!" Bai Yuan barked.
"Get the brushes! Clean the residue out of the bore! And get the dry cloth on a rod. We have to dry the inside before we put more powder in, or it won't fire!"
The entire artillery battery was a scene of absolute, sweaty chaos.
"Mr. Bai," Flat Rabbit grunted as he heaved against the stone base.
"Maybe we shouldn't have put the whole bag in? It feels like we're cooking ourselves as much as the enemy."
"Details, Flat Rabbit! Minor details!" Bai Yuan wiped sweat from his eyes with his sleeve.
"Look at them! They're terrified! They think we have an army of giants over here!"
Actually, what the bandits thought was that the Shaanxi Governor had arrived in person with a battalion of professional artillerymen.
On the river, Bai Yuzhu was trying to restore order.
"Ignore the drowning men! If we stop now, we're just sitting ducks! Row! If we reach the shore, their cannons can't hit us!"
His logic was sound.
The minimum range of a fixed cannon meant that once the boats reached the shallows near the pier, they would be in a blind spot.
"They're ignoring the splash!" Wang Er noted, pointing his saber at the fleet.
"They're coming in for a beach landing. Bai Yuan, you won't have time for a third shot."
Bai Yuan looked at the distance and cursed.
"Fine! If they want to play it the hard way, we'll give them the Dao Xuan Tianzun special. Everyone, get behind the wooden trial fortress system! Prepare the archers! And someone tell the kitchen to get the hot oil ready. Actually, we don't have hot oil. Just use more rocks!"
As the lead merchant ships hit the soft silt of the riverbank, the real battle began.
This wasn't a joke anymore.
Hundreds of bandits, fueled by the promise of loot and the fear of the cannons behind them, began leaping into the waist-deep water, holding their sabers high.
"For Wang Jiayin! Take the docks!" Bai Yuzhu roared from his ship.
Bai Yuan stood at the wall, his Gentleman fan finally put away in favor of a sturdy sword.
He looked at the sea of bandits rushing toward them and then at his own ragtag group of two thousand defenders.
"Well," Bai Yuan muttered to Flat Rabbit, who was shaking like a leaf but holding his spear firm.
"I hope you enjoyed the cake yesterday, because today, we have to earn the right to the next one."
"Mr. Bai," Flat Rabbit whispered. "If I die, tell Dao Xuan Tianzun I was the number one expert of Gao Village."
"Shut up and fight, Rabbit!"
The first wave of bandits slammed into the wooden walls.
The beach landing had officially commenced, and the quiet Qiaochuan Pier was about to become a slaughterhouse.