Therefore, artillery... to be precise, artillery that fires solid bullets is a powerful weapon in siege, but it has some shortcomings in combat.
When attacking a city, it almost doesn't have to worry about the slow rate of fire.
After firing a shell, clean the barrel slowly, and you can even wait for a while to let the artillery cool down, then charge, load, and fuse...
But if you are facing an enemy charge on the battlefield, a thousand men manning twenty artillery pieces will certainly not be able to stop a thousand infantrymen charging with spears.
This is one of the reasons why the seemingly advanced artillery of Burgundy in modern times was defeated time and time again by the backward Swiss spearmen and halberdiers.
Of course, there is another factor in this:
The Principality of Burgundy believed that artillery would become the dominant force in future wars, so it focused its soldiers' training time on artillery operation.
So one can imagine what would happen when Burgundy's artillerymen came into close combat with the Swiss who were wearing armor and holding spears and swords at their waists.
Shen Bing calmly directed the artillerymen to fire cannonballs at the city wall row by row, and then watched the shells embed into the city wall with huge kinetic energy.
Some cannonballs will bounce out, perhaps because they happen to hit a cannonball embedded in a wall.
The city wall was "eroded" bit by bit, mainly in the middle and lower parts... This was the result of Shen Bing's order to lower the muzzle of the cannon.
The reason is obvious. The middle and lower parts are the key point of the city wall. As long as the lower part is destroyed, the entire city wall will collapse. On the contrary, if the upper part is destroyed, this will not happen.
The shells came one after another, and the Huns soldiers could only stand on the wall from a distance and watch, helpless, helpless, and more importantly, panic.
Shen Bing could understand this reaction. Human nature is to be afraid of strange and unknown things.
In fact, not to mention the Huns, even the Qin soldiers on both sides of the artillery and the Pu Lei army in the rear had shock in their eyes... Although they had seen artillery during the march, the artillery at that time was wrapped in gun jackets. , they always thought it was supplies.
The one who was particularly shocked was Pu Leijun... Pu Leijun had lived in the Western Regions for a long time and was still in a relatively primitive state, and they could barely understand things like "Thunderbolt Fireball".
However, it took Yao a long time to explain the "Thunderbolt Fireball", and they had seen it before when fighting against the Yuezhi, so they got used to it.
But now this artillery, this kind of artillery that can drive iron balls hundreds of steps away and into the city wall... is completely beyond their imagination.
So much so that Yan even made a special trip to ask Shen Bing:
"General, what is that thing that has such power?"
Shen Bing replied:
"That's artillery, Captain!"
"It has not been shown to the public just because I was worried that the secret would be leaked."
Yan repeated to himself:
"artillery?"
Then he laughed and said:
"My people still say this is witchcraft."
Shen Bing replied:
"Just tell them it's witchcraft."
"As long as they believe that our army is invincible!"
Shen Bing knew that even if it wasn't witchcraft, it would be difficult.
Because even the more educated Qin army found it hard to believe that such a thing existed in the world, let alone the savage-like Pu Lei army.
At this time, after another burst of cannon fire, the city wall collapsed, revealing rows of Hun soldiers holding leather shields waiting in the city.
The Qin army cheered and roared, and their morale was greatly shaken.
It was a different story on the Xiongnu side.
Ersiwei stood on the makeshift command platform at the rear and looked nervously at the Qin army.
At this time, he hoped that the Qin army would launch a charge, so that he could have a good fight with the Qin army, and it would not be like now that only the Qin army would fight and the Xiongnu would have no power to fight back.
However, the Qin army did not charge and still fiddled with the artillery.
The captain looked nervously at Esivi above and shouted:
"Captain Ten Thousands..."
Esiwe gritted his teeth and replied:
"hold fast!"
"The Qin army does not have many iron bullets, and it is difficult to defeat the city wall!"
This certainly seems to be the case.
The city wall did not completely collapse, but only cracked a "V" shaped gap.
If the artillery fired as usual, perhaps less than half of the iron bullets could pass through the gap.
However, Esiwe soon discovered that the Qin army seemed to be adjusting the muzzle of its guns...
Then there was a loud "boom" sound, and the iron ball crossed the city wall and hit Loulan City.
One of the iron bullets also rolled and jumped near Esvi.
Seeing this, Ersiwei secretly breathed a sigh of relief, because it turned out just as he thought, iron bullets were not very lethal when used in combat.
For example, this batch of iron bullets only hit a dozen soldiers.
However, Esvi soon discovered that something was wrong.
Because the iron bullet is not spherical but cylindrical, and there is still smoke coming out from one end...
Just when Ersiwei was wondering, he heard a series of loud bangs, and the shells that were thrown in exploded one after another.
For a moment, smoke and dust billowed and shrapnel flew across.
Before Ersiwe could understand what was going on, he was knocked down by the shock wave and fell to the ground, his ears buzzing.
He climbed up from the ground with difficulty and saw that the Hun soldiers who were originally lined up in neat formation had been blown into pieces and were screaming miserably.
Ersiwe struggled to get up and stabilize his formation.
Ersiwei could only do this because he knew that the Huns in the city had no other way out except resistance.
However……
Before the Hun soldiers could recover, dozens of cannonballs came in after a burst of artillery fire.
The Hun soldiers could no longer suppress the fear in their hearts and retreated like a tide after shouting. No matter how much Esiwe shouted, it was of no avail.
It was not until this time that the Qin army began to attack.
The Qin army did not even charge, but marched forward slowly and steadily step by step, forming a neat formation.
Because they knew that there was no need to charge at this time, and the Huns would definitely be defeated. They were not going to fight, but to harvest lives.
As for the prisoners...
The Qin army had no need to accept Xiongnu prisoners, especially in the Western Region where they were unfamiliar and had no prisons.
Soon, when the Qin army invaded through the gap, the city gate was opened from the inside.
Two thousand Qin army infantry swarmed in, and shouts of killing and screams immediately rang out in Loulan City.
Fierce fighting also started in several other directions at the same time.
To be precise, it was not a fierce battle but a massacre.
Because the Huns were frightened by the power of the artillery, they mounted their horses desperately hoping to break through from other directions... They did not dare to break out from the front, where there were artillery that frightened them.
The most Huns broke out from the west, because that was the opposite direction of the artillery.
But as mentioned before, each city gate has long been blocked by the Qin army.
So batches of crossbow arrows flew over and shot down the Xiongnu in pieces.
Occasionally, a few Xiongnu broke through the rain of arrows and rushed out of the city. What awaited them were rows of anti-horse rifles and horse traps.