Smelting and Exploding the Heavens

Chapter 138
However, Fan Zhuoyuan still uses the best ratio formula of the British army.

Although the saltpetre, charcoal, and sulfur in the current black powder have not been purified, according to this formula, the explosive power can be guaranteed to be better than that used by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

During the preparation of gunpowder, Fan Zhuoyuan broke out in a cold sweat.

This is a dangerous job, and open flames must be avoided, so no torches are lit in the entire tent, and no one is allowed nearby.

In addition, the mixing and grinding process is likely to cause friction and fire, so water is also required.

After staying up for half the night, Fan Zhuoyuan finally made all the gunpowder. Immediately, he called soldiers and spread the gunpowder for the five coffins on the wooden floor outside, waiting to dry the next day.

After dawn, after the army had eaten, they immediately arranged to attack the city. The main force of the attack... was naturally the three thousand Liao people who were captured.

The three thousand prisoners did not carry any weapons, only the people on both sides were covered by shields, and the middle part pushed the trench filling truck all the way to the city of Yanjing.

20 people pushed a trench filling truck filled with soil, and a total of 150 trench filling teams were mighty.

The circumference of Yanjing City is 23 miles, with four walls and eight gates, surrounded by a moat.

Now the defenders have destroyed the suspension bridge in order to prevent the city from breaking down, so the moat needs to be filled up to attack the city.

The number of defenders was small, coupled with the flatness outside Yanjing City, and the Song Army had many cavalry wandering around, they did not dare to go out of the city to fight.

Seeing [-] captives approaching with trench-filling carts, they could only shoot arrows from a distance to stop them.

The trench-filling vehicle originally had a protective effect and could block arrows.

Seeing that long-range archery could not be stopped, the Liao people had no other choice. At this time, there were no equipment such as trebuchets or bed crossbows in the city. They could only witness the moat being quickly filled up and the water inside overflowing.

Then the road leading to the bottom of the city wall is flat.

The captives didn't lose much this time, and they ran back one by one, changed teams, and pushed battering rams to attack the city gate.

A team of 40 people, pushing a battering ram!

The Song army surrounded the supervision with cavalry, and the rear supervisors were wearing heavy armor and holding broadswords, and followed closely. Once the city was broken, they would immediately rush into the city to seize the city gate.

If it cannot be breached, it also serves to prevent demoralized prisoners from escaping.

The defenders above saw that it was the Liao people who were pushing the battering ram, and immediately shouted in Khitan to stop them.

The prisoners below wailed and begged the defenders to spare their lives.

Yelu Dashi was very helpless standing on the city wall, so he could only order to shoot arrows to stop it.

There are only 2000 soldiers who can use bows and arrows, and they are scattered on the two walls, which is very rare.

There were about forty people in a battering ram team, and the long-range arrow rain was blocked by their shields, so they couldn't do much damage. Occasionally, some people fell to the ground, and their partners immediately helped them up.

Otherwise, if they stopped at the same place, the heavily armored Song army who followed from behind would cut off their heads with one blow as a deterrent.

The captives had no choice but to walk towards the city gate step by step.

When approaching the city gate, the defenders on the city wall threw stones down together with the people, accompanied by golden juice and kerosene, this time it was no longer shield-resistant, and there were heavy casualties immediately, and all the crying fathers and mothers fled back.

Immediately afterwards, he was beheaded in public by the Song army who followed, and then ordered the next wave of prisoners to continue to attack the city!
The Song army attacked the two city walls in the east and the south, and the four city gates. Anyway, all the prisoners were consumed, and even if they failed, it would not hurt morale.

The defenders killed and killed all their own people. Some prisoners were relatives of the people on the city wall. When they looked up, they were full of despair when they shouted to each other.

The killing of the defenders not only did not boost their morale, but actually made it even lower.

At this time, the tunnel has been dug near the moat, and it needs to be dug deeper into the ground until it is close to the root of the city wall.

Fan Zhuoyuan was at the rear, carefully watching the drying of the gunpowder, while sternly telling the scouts to be alert to the movement of the remaining [-] Liao troops.

Fortunately, it is now July and the sun is scorching hot. The gunpowder is spread out and dried in the shade for half a night. In addition, the climate in the north is dry, and it is exposed to the sun in the morning, so it dries quickly.

Fan Zhuoyuan ordered people to quickly collect the dried gunpowder, put it in a coffin, seal it, and put fireproof facilities on it.

After a morning of fierce fighting, all the gunpowder was finally dried and filled back into the coffin.

At this time, the tunnel had been dug close to the base of the city wall, and the soldiers of the Song Army who were in charge of the soil work came to report to Fan Zhuoyuan.

"General, the tunnel has been dug to the bottom of the wall, but I heard that the other side of the city wall seems to be ready. It is very likely that when the cave enters the city, the opponent will counterattack!"

Fan Zhuoyuan said: "We don't enter from under the wall, we just dig to the bottom of the wall, and leave the rest to these!"

Fan Zhuoyuan didn't want to waste time either, the longer the delay, the [-] mobile troops of the enemy might come to support him at any time.

Therefore, people dragged five sets of coffins into the tunnel, and in order to be sure, he personally drilled into the tunnel, all the way to the base of Yanjing city wall.

The veteran of tunnel operations used to be a miner, so some positions that were prone to collapse were fixed. Although the entire tunnel was excavated in a hurry, it was still stable overall.

When passing through the location of the moat, because the entire moat has been filled, most of the water flow has been overflowed during the filling process.

For the remaining water, the veteran dug a slanted tunnel from the side, first drained the remaining water, and then dug it through the bottom of the moat, with thick wood in the middle to support it.

After arriving at the base of the wall, Fan Zhuoyuan ordered the tunnel to be widened, and five sets of coffins were stuffed in side by side.

During this process, it is obvious that earthworks are also being carried out on the other side of the city wall, obviously to prevent their own side from using cave tactics. They may already know where their own tunnels are dug, so everything must be done quickly!

Fan Zhuoyuan immediately opened the hole left in the middle of the coffin, introduced the lead wire, and pulled it out.

However, the Yanjing wall is thick. In order to prevent Li Zicheng from attacking Kaifeng, he did not blow up the city wall with the bursting method.

Fan Zhuoyuan asked people to fill the coffin with soil and compact it to make a seal, and at the same time dig an upward passage directly to the ground of the city wall.

The rest of the people climbed out along the original passage. After Fan Zhuoyuan opened up the ground, he first hovered and fixed the lead wires around the coffin so that they would not overlap, prolonging the burning time, and then climbed out with the lead wires.

The garrison above immediately spotted him, and a series of powerful arrows were shot at him. While blocking, Fan Zhuoyuan lit a fire pocket at the fuse, and immediately fled back desperately, while gesturing to Wang Bin.

Wang Teng immediately ordered the cavalry to get ready, and looked at Fan Zhuoyuan strangely.

Facing the rain of arrows, he was not afraid at all, he just ran back frantically, his face covered in mud, he was really embarrassed.

At this time, the captives didn't know the situation, and were still forced to rush to the city one after another.

The Liao army above and below the city were all fighting to the death, so no one paid attention to the tranquility here.

After a long time, when Fan Zhuoyuan even thought that the lead wire had been extinguished, there was a sudden earth-shattering explosion!
Starting from the base of the wall, the entire wall was lifted up by a black air wave!
The defenders and civilians above the city, as well as the captives below the city, were blown to pieces and died before they had time to react.

The unlucky ones would fly up to tens of feet high, and then fall down and be smashed to pieces.

Most of them were blown everywhere by the air waves, and there was almost no complete body. Even the prisoners and defenders who were separated a little far away seemed drunk and delirious.

Everyone inside and outside the city saw this thunder-like scene, and they all stood there dumbfounded.

Even the cavalry of the Song Army, who had already prepared, forgot what to do at this time!
Fan Zhuoyuan yelled loudly towards the place where the black smoke had stopped: "The city wall has collapsed! Enter the city quickly!"

Only then did the soldiers wake up with a start, and rushed frantically towards the collapsed city wall that was more than ten feet wide.

Fan Zhuoyuan also mounted his horse and followed the soldiers.

Only then did Wang Ting and Guo Yaoshi come to their senses, and they looked at each other in astonishment, "Yanjing City has been breached?"

(End of this chapter)