Accompanied by the rumbling sound of shelling, the entire city of Erzinjan was trembling continuously, as if it was being punished by the gods. Countless shells fell like rain into this small city.
Loud noises resounded in every corner of the city. There were broken walls everywhere, corpses strewn everywhere, blood stained every inch of the land here, and limbs blown away by bombs filled every place here.
"Hell on Earth~"
Ibrahim stood up from the ruins, shook off the dust on his body and some broken limbs, and stared at the unfamiliar world in front of him with wide eyes.
This was the first time that the explosive bombs showed their terrifying power. They almost razed the entire city to the ground. There was no longer a decent building. Everywhere you looked, there were ruins. What you heard in your ears were ruins.
Pain, miserable wails, and cannonballs still roaring in the sky.
"What kind of shell is this?"
Ibrahim's head was buzzing.
He has seen all kinds of artillery. He even saw the Ottoman Empire's Urban Cannon. This super cannon is 17 feet long, weighs 17 tons, has a caliber of 30 inches, and can
Fires granite projectiles weighing up to 1,500 pounds (approximately 680 kilograms).
The Ottoman Empire once relied on this terrible cannon to blast away the fortified castles in Europe, but even the Urban cannon could never have such terrible power.
What a terrible thing it is to destroy a city into ruins.
What is even more terrifying is that this kind of bomb will explode when it falls on the ground, causing unprecedented damage to the defenders of the entire city.
Two hundred thousand troops gathered in this city to defend it to the death. Every place in the city of Erzinjan was full of people. It was originally planned to use people to form a steel city wall to block the advance of the Ming army.
But now, when I look up, there are corpses everywhere, both on the city wall and inside the city. Too many people have died.
On the hillside outside the city.
"Haha, with these explosive bombs, at least we will save tens of thousands of people."
Yang Yun is naturally very satisfied with the effect of the flower bomb.
It can be clearly seen through the telescope that the city of Erzinjan has been reduced to ruins. The densely packed defenders on the original city wall have been flattened. There are corpses under the city wall.
of.
As for the city, it was now in ruins, and nothing decent could be seen.
"Can we launch an attack?"
Liao Yuan licked his lips slightly and said.
"Well, it's almost done."
"The explosive bombs sent this time are not very many, so we should use them sparingly. There are still 500,000 Ottoman Empire troops waiting behind us, and they will also attack other cities in the Ottoman Empire."
"Attack!"
Yang Yun thought for a while and nodded slightly.
"Yes~"
When Liao Yuan and Huo Ying heard this, they immediately saluted respectfully, then mounted their horses and quickly commanded the army to attack the city of Erzinjan like a tide.
The rumbling sound of shelling finally stopped, and the world seemed to be quiet. However, for the survivors of Erzinjan City, their heads were always buzzing with the shock caused by the explosion of countless shells.
Before they could recover, there were bursts of killing cries outside the city. Those who survived on the city wall saw that the Ming army had begun to attack the city.
"Defense~"
"Defense~"
Ibrahim shouted hysterically. Many people who heard the sound stood up from the ruins, looked at everything in front of them in confusion, and then walked numbly towards the city wall.
However, there were so many people who died in the city wall that even the road was blocked, so we could only walk up by stepping on the corpses.
"Pah~pah~"
However, they had just arrived on the city wall, and the Ming troops outside the city had already stood up in rows, aiming their muskets at the people on the city wall. As long as anyone showed their head, they would immediately be attacked intensively.
"Boom~"
Soon, there was a terrible loud noise at the city gate, the city wall trembled, and the city gate was blown open by the Ming army with gunpowder packets. Countless Ming troops rushed in immediately.
The rest of the battle was almost without any suspense. They encountered fierce shelling and suffered heavy casualties. The defenders of Erzinjan City were no match for the Ming army at all.
The city of Erzinjan, garrisoned by 200,000 defenders, was breached in just one day. Almost all the defenders were wiped out by the Ming army. Only a few people fled in panic to report to Bayezid II.
.
Yang Yun rode a tall horse into the city of Erzinjan. The road had been cleared. Bodies were piled on both sides of the road. Blood covered the land. As far as he could see, there was ruins.
"Now I finally understand what Liu Gong said."
After pondering for a while, Yang Yun couldn't help but sigh.
"What did Liu Gong say?"
Beside Yang Yun, Huo Ying and Liao Yuan asked with some confusion.
"Yes, when I followed Liu Gong to sweep the Western Regions, Liu Gong once told me that in the future, range will be truth and caliber will be justice!"
"At first I didn't understand this sentence very well, because although the artillery at that time was powerful, because they were all solid bullets, unless it was very unlucky, generally speaking, the damage the artillery could cause was very limited."
"But now, look at the city of Erzinjan. Under the bombardment of explosive bombs, the entire city has been turned into ruins. There are 200,000 defenders here."
"An army of 200,000 people. If they set up a formation in the wild and fight us head-on, even if we can win, we will probably die or injure tens of thousands of people."
"But under the attack of explosive bombs, the entire city was reduced to ruins, and the 200,000-strong army disappeared into thin air. We easily captured the city almost effortlessly and annihilated 200,000 enemy troops."
"You think, what will happen if the power of this artillery becomes more powerful and the range becomes longer?"
Yang Yun asked, pointing to the ruins in front of him.
"I'm afraid future wars will not be head-on battles between people, but will rely more on advanced artillery and muskets."
Huo Ying thought for a while and said.
He has already understood this and has seen the development trend of future wars.
"Yes~"
"So what Liu Gong said is completely correct. Whoever can possess artillery with a longer range and greater power will take the initiative, and will naturally control justice and truth."
"There is no right or wrong in this world, only the weak and the strong."
Yang Yun nodded solemnly.
"What the Duke said is true!"
Huo Ying and Liao Yuan said in unison quickly.
"Haha, this is not what I said, it was also what Liu Gong said."
"Liu Gong once said that the land and resources in this world are limited. We can only occupy as much land and resources as possible while our Ming Dynasty is strong, so that our descendants can have a broader living space."
"And we soldiers must shoulder this historical responsibility!"
Yang Yun immediately smiled and shook his head.
He was also quite happy after taking the city of Erzinjan and then killing the Ottoman Empire's 200,000 troops.
After this battle, the Ottoman Empire was really in turmoil.
The total strength of the entire Ottoman Empire is only about one million. Previously, Huo Ying wiped out 200,000 in the Hezhong area, and now he has wiped out another 200,000. In addition, he has killed about 100,000 scattered all the way.
That is to say, so far, the Ming army has wiped out half of the Ottoman Empire's troops.
Coupled with the 500,000 troops personally led by Bayezid II, the Ottoman Empire has very few troops stationed in other places. The neighbors on all sides will definitely not miss this opportunity.
"Liu Gongnai is a son of an elite, and he has always been far-sighted. His vision is always far-sighted, far beyond the reach of ordinary people like us."
Hearing Yang Yun mention Liu Jin again, Huo Ying couldn't help but sigh.
He knew the lives of Yang Yun and Liu Jin in detail. Yang Yun was originally just a very ordinary frontier soldier. When the military household system was still in place at that time, Yang Yun was a military household and a frontier soldier, and he was very poor.
, so much so that the family didn’t even have enough to eat, and he couldn’t even get a wife.
Later, the little Tatar prince led his army to the south. At that time, the entire Ming Dynasty raised tens of millions of taels of silver to reward the generals who killed the enemy. A Tatar head was worth fifty taels of silver. This greatly stimulated the already poor people at that time.
The military households are dying.
In that battle, the Ming Dynasty won and annihilated the Tatar army that entered the Central Plains. Yang Yun killed the Tatar prince with one shot and was made a marquis. From then on, he started a cheating life.
He successively followed Liu Jin in his expeditions to Japan, Liaodong, Nanyang, the Western Regions, and Hezhong. He made many contributions and was eventually named the Duke of Australia.
This is a very typical example of following the right person, so he was able to rise all the way up, and now he is now a famous Duke of the country in the Ming Dynasty army. He is hereditary and has become the new wealthy nobleman of the Ming Dynasty.
The path that Yang Yun has taken along the way is exactly the path that Ming Dynasty has taken in its continuous external expansion over the years.
They attacked the Tatars in the northern grasslands, the Japanese pirates in the east, and the Jurchens in Liaodong in the north. They also swept through the Southeast Asian countries, and then conquered the Western Regions and Hezhong.
The Ming Dynasty used troops abroad every year, and each time it was able to achieve a complete victory. Not only did it spread its power across the world and conquer all directions, but it also continuously incorporated a large amount of land into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
Grassland Province, Liaodong Province, Nanyang Provinces, Shijian County on the Japanese side, the Western Regions, Hezhong... The Ming Dynasty's territory became wider and wider, and the descendants of Yan and Huang began to spread to every corner of the world.
Massive amounts of wealth continued to flow into the Ming Dynasty, allowing everyone from the emperor, relatives, ministers, and ordinary people to benefit from it and enjoy the dividends of the Ming Dynasty's continued external expansion.
And the core of all this started from Liu Jin's side.