The soldiers from the Beijing camp lined up below the city were all stunned.
In just two rounds of shelling, all the crenellations of the southern city wall were knocked out. The city wall was completely exposed to the firepower of the Beijing camp. In addition, the bricks built on the outside of the city collapsed in many places, exposing the rammed earth.
It was also the first time they realized that heavy artillery was so powerful.
However, Yang Fan knew that heavy artillery was very effective in breaking and cracking hard city bricks. However, it was not very effective against rammed earth because rammed earth was elastic.
This is where Chinese city walls differ from European city walls. European city walls are two-layered stone walls with a wall thickness of fifty to one hundred centimeters. There is a room-like hollow in the middle. It is just like the city wall in the game Empire Age.
However, China's city walls are all made of rammed earth and covered with bricks. The shells of heavy artillery will get stuck in the rammed earth. The rammed earth will absorb the kinetic energy and disperse the kinetic energy. Therefore, China has never developed European-style heavy siege artillery.
, because of the maritime ban, there was no such thing as the European coastal defense guns of the same era that could weigh hundreds of pounds.
Bombarding rammed earth with artillery consumes too much gunpowder and is not worth it.
Yang Fan decided to use the trebuchet to do this job instead. After all, stone bullets were very cheap. To power the trebuchet, only two Shire horses were needed. Only a certain amount of horse feed was consumed in a day.
After the artillery fell silent, the Mongolian soldiers on the city wall immediately took action. They carried a lot of wood from the city and quickly nailed it together with large iron nails to repair the gaps and prevent the subsequent flood of people from climbing on the city.
However, they soon discovered that the Ming army did not seem to have any intention of stopping them. You can repair it as you like. The Ming army did not shoot arrows from the archery tower, nor did it fire cannons. The heavy artillery under the city also stopped firing.
This left them a little confused.
Soon they discovered that their efforts were in vain.
The trebuchet was quickly powered up and started firing with a roar.
Heavy stone balls weighing 150 kilograms each flew towards the city wall. The only difference from last night was that they did not hold the straw bags and light them on fire.
Ogier was seriously injured and had been carried off. At this time, Aoden was in charge of the command. When he saw the trebuchet starting to launch, he quickly shouted: "Get back, get back."
At this time, he already understood that there was no point in using wood to repair the stone bullets last night. A stone bullet fell into the city and penetrated ten feet into the ground.
If ricochet formed wherever the stone bullets passed, houses would collapse along the way, and people and animals would be crushed into pulp.
The Mongols swarmed back and fired. Before they could even run down the city wall, stone bullets were already whizzing towards them.
The accuracy of trebuchets cannot be compared with artillery. Artillery is very accurate within three hundred meters. But the accuracy of trebuchets is very poor.
In this round, three of the thirteen stone bullets hit the city wall. Five of them fell into the city. The rest fell outside the city.
At this time, the Mongolian soldiers in the city and on the city walls were all frightened. They didn't know where these big stones would fall. Everyone relied on destiny. Since last night, a large number of stone bullets have fallen into the city and burned it down.
and destroyed many houses.
More than a dozen people were setting up a large pot in the open space behind the city to boil golden juice. They were preparing to use buckets to lift it to the city wall and dump it when the Ming army began to climb the city. Now there was no room for anyone to stand on the city wall.
At this time, a stone bullet flew over, grazing the cauldron and falling to the ground. Then it jumped up and flew into a neighborhood of houses.
The cauldron flew up, and a large cauldron of boiling golden juice was thrown all over the sky. It fell on the surrounding Mongolian soldiers.
ah!
There was a scream. The gold juice was very hot and severely burned the Mongolian in an instant.
This kind of stuff is very scary. It is mixed with sheep fat to raise the temperature. If it falls on the skin, it will directly burn the skin and peel it off. These things will quickly cause skin ulcers and inflammation. There is basically no solution in this era. Because of burns
If the area is too large, it cannot be treated.
People in the city were running around to avoid stone bullets falling from the sky. In a small city with a length and width of only three hundred meters, there were not many places to hide.
As long as Yang Fan is willing, he can use the trebuchet to raze the whole city to the ground.
"Let the trebuchets hit until dark, and then withdraw the troops. I estimate that after practicing this afternoon, my level will be greatly improved." Yang Fan said.
The trebuchet fired one round every ten minutes unhurriedly until dark. Hundreds of stone bullets were fired. More than fifty of them hit the city wall.
When the troops retreated at night, a large area of the southern city wall had collapsed. The collapsed walls formed slopes. Infantry and even cavalry could rush up the city wall through the slopes.
The southern city wall was severely damaged. There were about ten slopes formed both inside and outside. At this time, both the Mongols and the Ming army understood that the small city could no longer be defended.
The next day, early in the morning, the army came out of camp again.
Yesterday, we observed a day of artillery bombardment and trebuchet attacks. Today it is the turn of these infantrymen. Today's project is very important. That is street fighting.
"Give the order, and the arrow towers will suppress the city wall. As soon as the enemy troops gather, they will open fire and use steel crossbows and small cannons to clear them. Twenty infantry regiments will attack in turn." Yang Fan issued this order.
Last night, the Mongols also gave up on repairing the gap. They also saw clearly that these Ming troops were just playing tricks on the cat. There was a chance to board the city after every shelling, but the infantry of the Ming army stood under the city and watched for a whole day.
.
They already understood at this time that the Ming army was using them for training. This was a drill for attacking the strong city of Guihua City.
Aoden and Bridge were sitting in a miserable state in the cave where soldiers were hiding. There was firewood burning in the fire pit in the middle, leaning on a lamb. Ao Dong had lost one of his ears. Bridge's head was covered with the same swelling as Mu Nayin.
"Do you want to continue fighting? It has only been one day and one night, and half of the three thousand people have been killed or injured. The Ming army is using us to train troops." Ao Deng took a sip of strong wine and said.
Bridge said in despair: "I didn't want to fight for a long time. Half of my thousand-man team died in one day."
Aoden said: "Sir Yin Liqi will definitely not surrender. Why don't we send someone to contact the Ming army. We are willing to surrender."
Bridge sighed and said: "If we fight another day tomorrow, we will be completely ruined. I also agree to contact you."
The 80,000-strong operation will rush in from the south city wall tomorrow morning. This small town will be submerged immediately.
Yang Fan and Zhang Shize were speechless as they looked at the Mongolian envoy kneeling on the ground.
"What do you think? Do you agree or not?" Yang Fan turned to Zhang Shize and asked.
Zhang Shize said depressedly: "Today we only practiced artillery and trebuchets. The infantry has not practiced street fighting yet. If we accept their surrender, where can we go to train our troops?"
When the Mongolian envoy who was kneeling on the ground heard this, ten thousand grass and mud horses galloped past in his heart. Your uncle's feelings are yours, so let's practice them. We can't even surrender.
