Traveling back to the Northern Song Dynasty: Picking up a princess as my wife

Seeing that the Jin soldiers had already charged forward, Li Zhen ordered the explosives he had planted beforehand to be detonated. Instantly, the explosions drowned out the shouts of battle. Countless Jin soldiers were blown into the air, and limbs and remains littered the ground; the scene was utterly gruesome.

The gates of the stronghold roared open, and the soldiers of Li Family Stronghold charged into the enemy ranks like tigers descending a mountain. The battle cries were thunderous, the swords gleamed coldly, and each swing was accompanied by the screams and falls of the enemy. The swords used by Li Family Stronghold were custom-made by Li Zhen from the factory; they were naturally unsharpened when purchased, but once transported to the Northern Song Dynasty, no one cared, and they were distributed to the soldiers to sharpen themselves.

Not only that, Wang Changdao, Yue Peng, and others were each issued a Longquan sword, whose modern forging technology completely surpassed that of today's famous craftsmen.

The two sides engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat. Although the Jin soldiers were well-equipped, the soldiers of Lijiazhai, relying on their familiarity with the terrain and their tenacious fighting spirit, fought them to the death.

Wearing a stab-proof vest and holding a Longquan sword, Wang Changdao shouted, "Spear team, push forward!"

"Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!..."

More than fifty spearmen held their iron spears, made of rebar, level, and plunged the sharp spearheads deep into the bodies of the Jin soldiers. Although these Jin soldiers wore leather armor, it could only slow down the penetration of the spears, but it did nothing to prevent them from being pierced.

As the first rank of pikemen attacked, a sharp whistle blew, and the second rank of pikemen began to thrust their spears out from the gaps in the first rank.

"Pfft!"

A dozen or so Jin soldiers fell into pools of blood, but several spearmen were also wounded by the enemy's longswords. A gap briefly appeared in the spearmen's attacking formation, but it was quickly filled by the third rank of spearmen.

The explosion just now, combined with the attack from the spearmen and swordsmen, has caused heavy losses to the Jin army, with approximately forty or fifty men killed or wounded.

Jin general Sun Xin coldly watched the fighting on the hillside. He ordered, "The cavalry will outflank and encircle the enemy. The rest of you, push forward!"

Arrows were constantly being hurled at the soldiers on the stockade walls. Li Zhen saw that the Jin army had sent out cavalry, and he hurriedly shouted, "Archers, focus your fire on their cavalry!"

With a "whoosh," almost in the blink of an eye, the bowstring was suddenly released as if by an invisible hand, and a carefully chosen arrow sliced ​​through the air at astonishing speed, leaving an almost invisible silver trail. The arrow spun and accelerated in the air, carrying the archer's precision and determination, heading straight for its target.

The Jin soldier who was shot fell off his horse. Li Zhen had seen it clearly through his binoculars; the arrow had hit the Jin soldier's throat.

Li Zhen was overjoyed and shouted, "Beautiful! Who shot that arrow?"

Qian Dazhuang chuckled and replied, "Chief, I shot it!"

Li Zhen glanced at the sign and saw that it was Qian Dazhuang, a newly joined leader of the refugees. He smiled and said, "Fight like this, and I'll give you a reward after we drive back the Jin soldiers."

The superior performance of the compound bow is on full display at this moment: the eccentric wheel system efficiently converts the archer's draw weight into the arrow's kinetic energy, making the arrow's flight speed far exceed that of traditional bows and crossbows. The adjustable draw weight allows the archer to easily adjust to the optimal shooting state according to their own strength and needs. Furthermore, the ingenious shock-absorbing design on the bow arms greatly reduces vibration and noise during shooting, making each shot as smooth and elegant as a dancer's.

As countless arrows accurately embedded themselves into the bodies of the Jin soldiers, a series of mournful cries echoed through the forest, followed by the archer's satisfied smile and the approving glances of his comrades.

Because the composite bows successfully thwarted the Jin cavalry's encirclement plan, the soldiers of Li Family Village were no longer threatened from both sides. Besides the specially selected soldiers, the villagers of Li Family Village also spontaneously took farm tools or wooden sticks and stood guard under the village walls. Through their time together, they had come to know that their leader was indeed a rare and good man. In this era, they had no way to survive without Li Family Village, so they were determined to defend it to the death.

Seeing the advancing Jin army, Li Zhen grew nervous. His spearmen and swordsmen had already suffered casualties and showed signs of collapse. After all, his soldiers hadn't been training for very long, while the Jin soldiers were all seasoned veterans. This was probably the difference in skill level.

Li Zhen shouted to the soldiers using composite bows, "Use fireworks to bombard the enemy, but be careful not to hurt your own people!"

As the torches lit the fuses, dozens of thunderbolts were launched at the densely packed area of ​​Jin soldiers.

"Tong, Tong, Tong,..."

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

A massive explosion rang out amidst the advancing Jin troops, sending their warhorses bolting in terror and shattering their newly formed formation. While these detonating bombs couldn't kill the Jin soldiers, they certainly wounded them. Some suffered eye injuries, others arm or leg injuries. Sun Xin could only watch helplessly as his men retreated through a cloud of smoke.

Sun Xin cursed, "Damn it, what kind of weapons are these? How can they be so powerful?"

After a day of fighting, the Jin army suffered more than sixty casualties, while the Li family village also lost more than thirty casualties, most of whom were spearmen and swordsmen from outside the city.

Yue Ying's arm was slashed by a Jin soldier. The wound was turned outwards like a child's mouth, and it looked very painful.

Li Zhen quickly ordered his men to bring out the medicines and medical supplies that had been prepared in advance. However, none of them knew how to use these modern medical devices, so Li Zhen had to bandage the wounded himself.

He first injected anesthetic into Yue Ying's arm, then cleaned the wound with medical alcohol, and finally, with trembling hands, stitched the wound up with a suture needle. Li Zhen admired himself for all of this; he had only ever seen such things on television before, and this was the first time he had actually done it himself.

Li Zhen distributed anti-inflammatory medicine to all those with external injuries and assigned someone from the village to take care of them. As for the seriously injured, Li Zhen could only do what he could, after all, he wasn't a doctor, and that was all he could do.

Lunch was prepared by Widow Zhang and the others from the main village and delivered in large buckets. It consisted of rice, steamed buns, and braised pork. Li Zhen had bought a lot of chilled meat from the meat processing plant this time, and since it wouldn't spoil in the space, they could just eat as much as they wanted.

Furthermore, pork in ancient times didn't taste as good as modern pork because modern pigs are castrated during the breeding process, resulting in less of a strong gamey smell. Ancient pigs, however, were not castrated, and not only did they have a less desirable texture, but they also tasted somewhat sour. This is why wealthy and powerful people didn't eat pork.