The legend of the king of crossing

Chapter 559 Prince

The artillery fired in salvo, and rounds of shells flew towards the gate of Dadu City and the city walls on both sides like lightning with the whistling sound of "Boom, Boom".The two red-clothed cannons are particularly eye-catching, and their sound is like thunder. Every time a cannon is fired, it will win involuntary collective applause from the soldiers of the Song Army.

For the soldiers of the Central Route Army of the Yuan Dynasty, they were used to this kind of scene, but for the other teams who saw the artillery firing for the first time, it felt like the end of the world was coming.

Soon, the area around the south gate of the metropolitan city was shrouded in smoke, and the Yuan army guarding the city could only retreat to the bunker at the root of the city wall. Hit by artillery.

Although the entire shelling lasted only for more than an hour, the Yuan army and the people in the city generally felt panicked. In their view, the sound of the shelling was like the wrath of heaven.

Gongsun Xiaochen saw Wanyan Tianlei, the commander of the artillery battalion, play the semaphore, and immediately said to me: "Your Majesty, the artillery has reached its firing limit."

I nodded and said: "Okay, pass on the order. After the imperial forest army and cavalry army are finished, prepare to throw bombs to prevent the Yuan army from attacking. The rest of the army will retreat as planned."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

When the army retreated slowly, Kublai Khan, under the protection of Yin Tianya, Ashu and others, came out from the bunker under the city wall, quickly climbed up the city wall, and looked south.

Namuhan, who was relieved from the artillery fire, said: "Father, let my son lead ten thousand fine horses to attack."

Kublai shook his head and said, "No, Namuhan, you don't know how powerful the Southern Dynasty was in throwing bombs, and our cavalry were completely restrained by it."

Back in the palace, Kublai Khan left Prince Zhenjin and General Boyan alone.

"Zhenjin, General Boyan, I have recently discussed with the Supreme Talent Enjiya, and I plan to let the two of you lead [-] of the most elite guards in the Qixue army to leave Dadu the day after tomorrow and go to Shangdu (in today's Inner Mongolia) ), and at the same time took away all the craftsmen who were involved in the production of guns in the Weapons Supervision and all the craftsmen above the upper division level in Chao Nei. After arriving in Shangdu, the garrison and officials there were all controlled by real gold, and immediately began to develop a new generation of firearms. Like cannons, fireballs."

"emperor."

"Father."

After hearing this, the two of them felt their hearts sink. It was clearly as if they were explaining the funeral. Although Kublai Khan's face was calm, the two of them knew very well that most of them might not be able to hold on anymore, but they had no choice but to There is no reason to persuade Kublai Khan, after all, no one is capable of defeating the firearms of the Southern Dynasty.

Kublai Khan interrupted: "I know what you want to say, but you don't need to say anything, just do it like this. General Boyan, Zhenjin is young and lacks experience and experience. You need to be by his side all the time." Make a point."

Boyan said solemnly: "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Well, you have to remember that although we are the eagles of the desert and have incomparable advantages to the southerners, we also need to learn from each other's strengths and make up for our weaknesses, and try our best to develop the 'technology' that Zhao Yu of the Southern Dynasty called. Only when our dynasty's firearms are better than those of the southern dynasty will it be time for us to go south again." Having said this, Kublai Khan sighed and said, "It's a pity that I understand it too late. On this point, I am not as good as Zhao Xuan."

In fact, Kublai Khan was able to understand the importance of technology in a short period of time, which is commendable.However, Kublai Khan would not know that technology is only an important factor in the rise and fall of a country. As Guo Kan and I said, the root cause of Song Shengyuan's defeat is the ideology that is one step ahead.

The next day, after the bombardment by the Song army, Kublai Khan officially announced at the court meeting that Li Zhenjin was the crown prince and confirmed the successor of the Yuan Dynasty.

After accepting the congratulations from all the officials, Kublai Khan continued: "Dear dear friends, General Boyan is both civil and military, loyal and courageous, and I specially appointed General Boyan as the crown prince and Taifu, and he will return to Shangdu with the crown prince Zhenjin."

Boyan came out and said: "Yes, I obey the order."

According to the customs of the Mongolian people, the successors selected by the Mongolian Great Khan need to return to Shangdu to pay homage to their ancestors and accept the congratulations of the major tribes.

"Okay, go down and get ready. Tomorrow is an auspicious day, so you start tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Father."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After the Zhenjin two left, Kublai Khan said: "Wu Liang joined forces, have you made a plan for the street fighting in Dadu?"

"Return to the emperor, the formulation has been completed, and the armies have been deploying defenses in their respective areas since yesterday."

"Well, Zhao Yu, Zhao Yu, I want you to come in and not get out. Send an order to close the south gate from today onwards."

Wu Liang joined the platform and said, "Yes, Your Majesty."

In the next month, as long as the weather is good, I will lead the army to the city of Dadu every day to carry out shelling.On November [-], the Gunpowder Supervisor sent the last batch of firearms before the war, including [-] ordinary projectiles, [-] enhanced projectiles, [-] rounds of musket ammunition, and ten cannons.

The two subordinate factories of Lin'an Gunpowder Supervision started working day and night, and the workers were divided into three shifts to produce and assemble non-stop, so that the monthly output of throwing bombs could reach more than 6000.In the past two months, for the battle of Dadu, I asked Lu Xiufu of the Military Affairs Council to distribute [-]% of the projectiles to the Northern Expeditionary Army on the Central Route. .

Regarding the damaged city wall, Kublai Khan did not order repairs. Kublai Khan knew very well that this could only be a futile work that wasted money and people.At the beginning of the bombardment, everyone in the Yuan army felt that it was a kind of suffering. Later, this kind of suffering was gradually replaced by numbness.Many soldiers even thought to themselves, hoping that the city walls of Dadu would be destroyed by the Song army's artillery as soon as possible, so that they could fight the Song army to the death in the city.

On November 50th, the city gate of Dadu was finally blasted with a big hole. At the same time, the city walls within [-] to [-] meters on the left and right sides of the city gate were also blown into broken rocks, and no one could stand on it. foothold.

The soldiers on both sides have already understood that the decisive battle will start tomorrow.

After a few days of sunny weather, the weather suddenly became extremely cold.As if infected by the war, on November [-]th, the weather became more desolate and quiet.The cold wind blowing from time to time made people feel a kind of heart-piercing cold. Although most of the soldiers of the Song Army came from the south and rarely experienced this kind of coldness, they did not pay attention to it because of the heat and tension in their hearts.

"Winter is coming, can spring be far behind?"

Before issuing the general attack, I said to myself.I said this sentence very loudly, and all the generals around me heard it.

Following Lu Wenhuan's order, 52 cannons fired their final roar at the city wall to the south of Dadu.

Amidst the bursts of artillery, the vanguard of the Zhongshun Army and a regiment of the Yulin Army rushed to the city gate first.The large weapons such as crossbows and trebuchets of the Yuan army on the city wall were basically destroyed by artillery, so they did not encounter any obstacles when they rushed to the city gate.When they rushed to the front, the six hundred soldiers of the Zhongshun Army abandoned their horses and walked in unison, and threw the bombs into the hole that was blown up. After the explosion sounded, they rushed into the city without hesitation.

After entering the city, a second batch of projectiles was thrown forward at the culvert of the city gate, and then scattered in the thick smoke, while moving forward slowly, a third round of projectiles was thrown.When this round of throwing bombs exploded, the soldiers of the first regiment of the Royal Forest Army also rushed into the capital city one after another.

After the more than 1000 Song troops entered the city, they did not move forward quickly, but scattered to the left and right along the city wall in units of companies or cities. Once they found Yuan troops in front of them, they threw bombs.The first batch of 7000 Song soldiers who entered the city each carried five throwing bombs. When more than [-] to [-] throwing bombs exploded one after another, the first line of defense built by the Yuan army near the city wall was destroyed. Exhausted.

At the same time, the artillery stopped firing, and the subsequent Song army rushed into the city one by one, and scattered forward, left, and right under the command of their respective superiors.

In the early days of entering the city, it was the first time that so many throwing bombs were consumed. This is because I learned the lesson from the battle of Mingzhou. Secondly, I was worried that Kublai Khan would ambush a large number of bows and arrows inside the city gate. The soldiers and musketeers stopped our army in front of the city gate culvert, and then attacked with arrow rain.

It is very time-consuming for tens of thousands of troops to enter the city through a gap. At the same time, it is also necessary to prevent the front-line Yuan army from counterattacking. Therefore, after entering the city, the soldiers of the Song army threw bombs almost without interruption, and they were able to gradually attack the city. forward.Even so, it took nearly three hours, and it was not until around four o'clock in the afternoon that more than 5 troops poured in one after another.

Generally speaking, in ancient siege battles, people close to the city walls would be moved to a safe place to avoid being accidentally injured by long-range weapons such as arrows and trebuchets.The same is true for most of the city. The people near the city wall have all been removed, but unlike Mingzhou City, after arduous street fighting, when the front troops of the Song Army advanced about 30 meters, they found many houses. There are still common people, and the bad thing is that there are also Yuan troops hidden in these houses.

In a bunker next to the city gate, Lu Wenhuan, Yin Yinglei, and Zhao Huai, who were in command of the battle, decided to suspend the speed of the advance and sent someone to report the situation to me.

After receiving the news, under the protection of thousands of pro-guards, I entered the metropolis from the rubble.At this time, the sky gradually turned dark, and the area around the South Gate was filled with gunpowder smoke, and visibility dropped sharply.At the same time, the sound of gunfire and shouts of killing in the city gradually faded away, and the target in front of them could not be seen clearly, so no one dared to act rashly.

Lu Wenhuan said: "Your Majesty, in the house 30 meters ahead, soldiers from the Yuan army and civilians from Dadu are mixed together. Our army's projectiles can easily injure innocent people, but it is difficult to quickly break through the line of defense without using projectiles. Go forward and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy."