Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 346 A Thousand Miles Away (5)

The sudden appearance of the cavalry shocked the Han army guarding the city.Someone muttered: "Can cavalry also attack the city?" There were also voices shouting: "Fill the 'powder', fast, fast, reload the 'powder'!" But at this time, most of the artillery positions have just been fired. After firing, the gun barrel was just backed away. The deputy gunner put the wet cannon brush in regardless of the fact that the barrel was still hot. 'Yao' stood beside him holding the 'medicine' bag in his arms, sweating profusely on his naked upper body, and all the gunners kept urging "Quick-quick--" There was a heavy and rapid breathing sound from every gun position .

Almost all the artillery of the Han army has switched to shotguns, because the shooting range of shotguns is limited. At a distance of four to five hundred steps, the Liao cavalry did not have to dodge the shells at all. Their speed was extremely fast. Lift a ball with a diameter of two feet.Almost instantly, the cavalry met the retreating Liao infantry.The palace tent army did not make any evasive movements at all, and charged straight forward with their horses, hitting those broken soldiers crying for their fathers and mothers and running around to avoid them.Fortunately, within a few breaths, the cavalry had surpassed the rout and caught up with the advancing infantry phalanx.

The palace tent army's riding skills are extremely good. On such a chaotic and rugged battlefield with bullets flying across the battlefield, they can control the horse with only their legs, and swing the balls with both arms, as if they were rounded. Like meteor hammers one by one, they rode their horses towards the city wall.Accompanied by the roaring sound from time to time, cannonballs whizzed and shot from the top of the city. From time to time, cavalrymen were hit by the cannonballs, and they fell down with their horses. Most of the cavalrymen took advantage of most of the artillery. During the filling gap, he rushed within fifty steps from the city wall in the shortest possible time.

"Let it go!" Xiao Ping yelled violently, and threw the lit smoke ball out first.In fact, the minds of most of the cavalry were blank. Their mouths were parched and they could only follow the tactics they had said in advance. Although they didn't hear the officers' shouts, they all threw out the smoke balls that had already 'swinged' at the highest speed. , and then struggled to tighten the reins to slow down the horse in the shortest distance, then turned around and fled backward desperately.

More than a thousand cavalry tent troops retreated as if the tide was receding.Almost at the same moment, the firing density of the artillery at the top of the city suddenly increased, and the sounds of "Boom—" "Boom—" and "Boom—" were heard endlessly, and thousands of shotguns shot from all directions. Flying four 'shoots', turning the area three hundred steps away from the city into a slaughterhouse.After a short period of depression, this round of shelling appeared to be extremely fierce. The shells had no eyes. On this bloody battlefield, there was no distinction between high and low.Under the pursuit of artillery fire, the deputy general Xiao Ping did not rush his horse as hard as other cavalrymen, but he was also like this galloping horse. As he flew by, his mouth was parched, and he didn't care about other things, so he could only lie down tightly on the horse's back, making his goal the smallest.Regardless of the retreating Liao cavalry or the hesitant infantry, countless fell to death in the rain of bullets.

"***!" Zhou Yu cursed viciously, the huge recoil of the cannon caused the cannon body to retreat suddenly, and he stood three inches away from the cannon body, but his expression was troubled, He was wearing thick long gloves, and regardless of the scorching heat of the cannon, he grabbed the muzzle and straightened the cannon carriage slightly, turning around and shouting: "Quick—quick—" Once on the battlefield, this The gunner, who was usually amiable, became disrespectful, and the gunners did not dare to be negligent, and hurriedly sent the wet brush into the barrel, with a sound of "Zi--", in the white mist transpiring, Zhou Yu's smoky The face is like a ghost in hell.

Suddenly, his eyebrows frowned, and he asked in surprise, "Mother, what is it?" All the gunners followed his gaze, and saw puffs of black smoke rising from the bottom of the city wall. What method was used, the black smoke was extremely thick, and it smelled of sulfur and stench, it quickly blocked the line of sight, and when looking out from the embrasures of the enemy tower, only a piece of thick smoke could be seen.The Liao soldiers and horses were looming in the smoke and dust, but it was difficult to distinguish where the stragglers were scattered and where the crowd was concentrated.

"Rush—" "Rush forward—" "Siege—"

"Build the ladder——" "Quick! Quick!" "The ladder is ready, go up, go up for me!"

As the black smoke enveloped the city wall, the officers of the Liao army who were more than a hundred away from the city wall disbanded their formation, and commanded the soldiers to attack the city with a yell.In front of the formation, the commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, and commanders of ten were standing on top of one another. Whoever dared to turn around and retreat would be executed immediately on the spot.Behind the formation, about four or five hundred steps away, there are countless palace tent troops who enforce the military law and are watching.Soldiers of the Liao army rushed to the bottom of the city wall like a 'tide', first put down the soil bags carried on their chests, then gathered under the ladder, propped up their shields above their heads and around them, and climbed up the ladder one by one.Some Liao soldiers continued to light smoking 'medicine' balls under the city wall, making the billowing black smoke thicker and thicker. There were also a group of more than a hundred people holding shields, bending bows and shooting arrows, at a distance of dozens of steps away from the city wall. place arrows pointing upwards.Amidst the smog, clusters of arrows shot towards the city like locusts.

All the artillery positions at the top of the city were filled with smoke and dust, and the gunners covered their mouths and noses with handkerchiefs and handkerchiefs. At this moment, everyone's nerves were stretched to the tightest, and the movement of ammunition loading was also the fastest.However, all the gunners were shouting: "He's 'grandma', 'grandma'!" "I can't see anything clearly!"

"Come on!" "Come on—" Because of the blurred vision, Zhang Ting didn't dare to push him, and repeatedly called the people in the tunnel to come out.At this time, there were already more than a dozen ladders on the battlements.The gunners worked together to lift the fork and push the ladder outward, but they didn't know what the Liao army did under the ladder. A dozen people couldn't push a ladder.Arrows rained down from the top of the city, and even though the musketeers were wearing thick armor, there were always places where they were not well protected, and several of them fell to the ground immediately.Zhang Tie gritted his teeth, rushed to the crenel, and fired the lit firecracker along the ladder. He heard a "boom", as if someone had fallen from the ladder, but he couldn't see it through the thick black smoke. clear.

"What can't be seen clearly, my lord, what should I do?"

The blast holes were not very spacious, and with the thick smoke rising from the city wall, the sight line was extremely poor.For artillerymen, it is no longer possible to aim and shoot.Zhao Xingde took the iron tube of the sound transmission, and ordered in a deep voice: "No need to aim! According to the order in advance, the nearest 'shooting' range, each enemy station fires sequentially!" The general order was transmitted to each enemy station through the sound transmission pipe buried deep in the city wall , the messenger who had been guarding the side repeated loudly: "General Zhao ordered, no need to aim! Stick close to the city wall, and the enemy towers fire in order!" With the issuance of this military order, the gunners did not have to calibrate the artillery in person, but Turn the cannon to the innermost direction of the city wall, fix it, and then stand beside the microphone.

"Zhenyuantai, fire in order!" Tong Yunjie shouted.He commanded one of the six most important enemy towers in Nanshan City. There were twenty heavy-duty iron barrel cannons arranged on the upper and lower floors. Following his order, the twenty iron barrel cannons opened fire one by one. "Ping Liaotai, fire in sequence!" Liu Zhijian said in a deep voice. "Polutai, open fire sequentially at full speed!" Gao Su ordered.Accompanied by the sound of "Boom" and "Boom", countless shotguns flew forward through the smoke.Because when the city was built, the layout of all the gun positions was based on the use of measuring firepower. Therefore, when the gun body was turned to the closest to the city wall, the shells fired were almost parallel to the city wall. The trajectory swept forward, and the shotgun bullets scattered inward even hit the city wall directly. The Liao army who was climbing the ladder was the first to be among them, and they were shot and fell down one after another.In the smoke, the Liao army under the city wall fell down like weeds swept by the autumn wind.

Nanshan City has a total of six enemy towers and six fortresses. In addition, it also set up artillery emplacements on the concave wall to clean the inner artillery emplacements at the top of the city. A emplacement for the central cannon was also reserved for the future.There are more than 300 large and small iron barrel guns in total. The design of these artillery positions is painstaking. If the fire is fired, each section of the city wall will be covered by side fire. More than 300 iron barrel guns fired shotguns one after another, almost equal to nearly ten thousand, or even tens of thousands of crossbowmen firing arrows with all their strength, and the narrow area of ​​the city wall of Nanshan City was filled with shotgun bullets and blood mist.

The smoke and gunfire deliberately released by the Liao Army caused the smoke to fill the air, and only the screams could be heard from time to time in the smoke. The gunners were sweating profusely, and they only cared about loading the ammunition as quickly as possible, and then-fired!

At this time, the commanders of the enemy stations were idle instead. Tong Yunjie stared at the clouds of smoke, remembering a question Zhao De asked at the beginning, "If the artillery positions fire at full speed, how long will it take to kill all the people under the city wall?" People?" Just as he was slightly distracted, there was a sudden "boom", and the huge impact knocked him to the ground, "Damn, the bomb exploded!" Tong Yunjie's head was buzzing, and he stood up with his wooden legs , I saw several gunners fell to the ground covered in blood, and the nearby gunners all looked at them.Tong Yunjie frowned, looked at those people who were in a daze, and shouted viciously: "What are you looking at! If you don't want to die, hurry up and work, and fire in sequence!"

"Cannon No. [-], fire!" The slightly stunned gunners seemed to have been slapped, and the gun positions that were not affected by the bombing seemed to stop for a moment, and then immediately started to run at full speed.Tong Yunjie nodded, pointed at the injured gunners, and waved: "Send it down. Go and push the reserve gun up." Several people hurriedly lifted the wounded, and several people pushed the damaged Tietong gun to the side , and some people went to the ammunition room and pushed another gun carriage out.